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[ALUG Announce]Reminder: next meeting Thursday 9 December at the City Gate, 8pm
by Brett Parker 07 Dec '04

07 Dec '04

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hi all! As is usual on the second Thursday of the month, this Thursday (9th December) we'll be congregating in the City Gate from around 8pm. We should have a penguin in attendance so you know who we are, sometimes we lurk at the far end of the building in the restaurant area. If you want to do gpg keysigning then at least a few of us should be there with sigs and id. Full details can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/2004/all-NorThu.html Directions at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/citygate.html Pictures from August of people so you know who to look out for: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ (Thanks to Kirsten for this e-mail) -- Brett Parker http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ (the obligatory boring website) iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk (jabber and email!) ----- 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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Personal branding article
by kpwatson＠pop3.ukfsn.org 07 Dec '04

07 Dec '04

<http://www.itmanagersjournal.com/article.pl?sid=04/12/07/0057206> :o) Keith

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Reminder - next meeting Thursday 9 December at the City Gate, 8pm
by Kirsten Naylor 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

Hi all! As is usual on the second Thursday of the month, this Thursday (9th December) we'll be congregating in the City Gate from around 8pm. We should have a penguin in attendance so you know who we are, sometimes we lurk at the far end of the building in the restaurant area. If you want to do gpg keysigning then at least a few of us should be there with sigs and id. Full details can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/2004/all-NorThu.html Directions at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/citygate.html Pictures from August of people so you know who to look out for: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ /Kirsten

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. 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 tkirc, bitchx, xchat 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://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Printing a book
by Ian Douglas 05 Dec '04

05 Dec '04

Hi Folks, I have been asked by a friend to print a book of his for Christmas. The book will have 40 A5 size pages. I have created a text file from his had-written manuscript and now want to print about 5 copies to pass to friends for proof reading and suggestions. My problem is that I would like to find a Linux Desk Top Publishing (or Word Processing) program into which I can import the text file and print it out on landscape orientation A4 sheets with the first sheet automatically having A5 page 40 on it's left half and A5 page 1 on it's right half, the second sheet having page 2 on it's left half and page 39 on it's right, the third sheet having page 38 on it's left and page 3 on it's right etc (those of you who have printed booklets will hopefully know the problem I am trying to explain)... Have any ALUG members had any experience of printing books like this, and if so what DTP package did you use? Ian.

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Linux: Watching satellite TV when from home via DSL on the laptop (fwd)
by MJ Ray 04 Dec '04

04 Dec '04

I know a couple of ALUGgers have DVB cards now, so I'm forwarding the following from alt.tv.satellite.europe - I assume this will work for cable connections and both satellite and DTT. I'd love to hear of success stories and maybe a demo if we're ever somewhere with fast enough internet access. Might have potential for home distribution too, if you're not in the room with your MythTV system. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 2004-12-03 19:01:16 +0000 From: Jan Panteltje <pNaonStpealmtje(a)yahoo.com> Subject: Linux: Watching satellite TV when from home via DSL on the laptop If you have a DVB card, a fast DSL connection, and run Linux, then it is possible to watch on a remote PC. For example you are far away for your work, and want to watch some TV station live (maybe game or anything). This is possible, with reasonable quality, I have put some scripts and an explanation on my site http://panteltje.com/panteltje/dvd/ just below the penguin picture. Basically the system (in real time) converts mpeg2 to mpeg4, reduces bitrate, and sends the compressed stream as TCP packets to where ever you are. It is a one to one secure link, with full control from you. Experiment, this was just the result of a few hours tinkering. JP -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and not of any group I know Creative copyleft computing - http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ Unsolicited attachments to the pipex address deleted Will HLF fund tree-killings? http://www.thewalks.co.uk/

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RAM search
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 04 Dec '04

04 Dec '04

Hi Folks and Junkhoarders, To upgrade an old m/board, I'm looking for: Three 128MB DIMMS 66MHz 3.3v RAM sticks either non-ECC (64-bit) or ECC (72-bit) but all the same. (M/bd is Intel AL440LX). If anyone has any going spare, I'd be happy to contribute a few quid, and collect. Thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!] Date: 04-Dec-04 Time: 17:27:01 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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RE: [ALUG] Ubuntu
by Keith Watson 04 Dec '04

04 Dec '04

I've installed it twice on my spare box, from the CDs I picked up on Sunday, using various combinations of other OSs and it's loaded perfectly and set up a working multi-boot configuration each time. I like the fact that it gives the option of using grub. A colleague tried to install it on his WinXP laptop and it loaded perfectly and ran ok but WinXP objected. But we now think that was a grub + hardware issue and nothing to do with ubuntu. Regards, Keith ____________ CLAIRVOYANT, n. - Persons who have the power of seeing that which is invisible to their patrons, namely, that they are fools. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary > From: Elisabeth Sent: 02 December 2004 22:47 > > bjsamuels(a)beenthere-donethat.org.uk writ: > > > > Looking on usenet I see that some people have managed to install it. > > It's living happily on my pc. > > e

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Apologies
by John Seago 03 Dec '04

03 Dec '04

I do apologise for not making the subject specific to the question. -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org) AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

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Re: main digest, Vol 3 #373 - 13 msgs
by John Seago 03 Dec '04

03 Dec '04

On Friday 03 Dec 2004 18:06, main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk wrote: > Have any ALUG members had any experience of printing books like this, > and if so what DTP package did you use? Disclaimer, I was a compositor/Graphic Designer in the days when we used to set lead type by hand, the printers were that long established we had five cases of swastika border, which for some reason didn't seem to be as popular as it was in 1920's when they bought it. As I understand it you want to print an 80 page (A5) book using 40 sheets of (A4) the formula for working out which sheets go together is each pair must add up to 1 more than the number of pages, 1-40 2-39 and so on and always an odd with an even alternating, middle pages will be 20-21. Also bear in mind that 1and 40 will need more space in the gutter, (the margin between the pages) = twice the margin at the outside edges plus an allowance for the fact that there will be 38 other sheets of paper between them, in my day that would have been about one > one and half leads. (Don't take this as gospel, I joined the Fire Service in 1974 and my memory is not what it was). I've still got my type scale some where if you need it, but, a lead was 3 points and a point was approximately one seventy-second of an inch, but not exactly one seventy-second. but I would have thought if you add half a mm to the gutter for every eight or so pages working out from the middle it will end up looking right. Of course Scribus or something similar may do that automatically for you. -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org) AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

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Ubuntu
by John Seago 03 Dec '04

03 Dec '04

For those unable to take up the offer of free Ubuntu CD's at next Sunday's, (28th) meeting, today I was given a two disk set at Ottakar's in Norwich, presumably they are available at all branches. From the Computer books dept. one to a customer. -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org) AFFS (http://www.affs.org.uk/)

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RE: [ALUG] Printing a book
by Keith Watson 03 Dec '04

03 Dec '04

> From: Ian Douglas Sent: 03 December 2004 14:25 > > I have been asked by a friend to print a book of his for Christmas. The > book will have 40 A5 size pages. I have created a text file from his > had-written manuscript and now want to print about 5 copies to pass to > friends for proof reading and suggestions. > > My problem is that I would like to find a Linux Desk Top Publishing (or Word > Processing) program into which I can import the text file and print it out > on landscape orientation A4 sheets with the first sheet automatically having > A5 page 40 on it's left half and A5 page 1 on it's right half, the second > sheet having page 2 on it's left half and page 39 on it's right, the third > sheet having page 38 on it's left and page 3 on it's right etc (those of you > who have printed booklets will hopefully know the problem I am trying to > explain)... > > Have any ALUG members had any experience of printing books like this, and if > so what DTP package did you use? > Ian, I haven't had to do this under Lunix but I would think the latest version of OpenOffice worth a look. Scribus <http://www.scribus.org.uk/> might be a better match for what you need. Again haven't used it myself but from what I've read it sounds the sort of thing you're after. Keith ____________ Each of us must journey through the dots, - beyond the dots, and to the truth, alone. - Russell Hoban

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RE: [ALUG] Ubuntu
by Elisabeth 03 Dec '04

03 Dec '04

bjsamuels(a)beenthere-donethat.org.uk writ: > > Looking on usenet I see that some people have managed to install it. It's living happily on my pc. e

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Photo organiser and DVD authoring program
by Graham 01 Dec '04

01 Dec '04

For the past 12 months or so I've been working on a skunkworks project to organise my photographs, both digital and scanned from paper. Although far from complete it's now fairly stable and I've recently added a module to author DVD videos, having sampled a few other authoring programs and not been very impressed. I would welcome feedback from anyone able and willing to give it a try. Here's a brief feature list: 1 Photo organiser with 3-level assignable categories (to be extended to multi-way, multi-level categories). 2 Create captioned HTML slideshows from any selection of images, with optimal image sizing for Web use. 3 Screen capture module creates slideshows directly. 4 DVD authoring module acts as a front end to spumux, dvdauthor, etc. 5 Full GUI interface with Linux and Windows compatibility. 6 Built-in help documentation. 7 Open Source license - source available on request. Development assistance would be most welcome. And here's the URL: http://www.eclecity.net/mediacity.html Please bear in mind that the software has only so far been used by three people, so don't expect commercial-standard robustness if you do unexpected things with it. Contact me with any questions, particularly if it won't run for you. -- GT

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Re: [ALUG] "Phone fraud"
by tom potts 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

Is it just me? Surely if someone steals money from my bank account by fraud the bank would not insist I pay it and their associated profits? If someone puts a dialler on my machine without my permission they're attempting to steal my money. Therefore BT are an associate to the fact if they try and make you cough up? They should be helping to prevent theft - or is this some leftover attitude problem from their monopoly days? ___________________________________________________________ Win a castle for NYE with your mates and Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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"Phone fraud"
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

ALUGgers who watched this evening's "Look East" will have seen that dialup phone fraud is in the news again -- people getting phone bills for hundreds of pounds for internet calls to Vanuatu, Chile, etc. on premium rates. Some Linux-users may have seen it too! What I'd like to ask knowledgeable folk is: how does it in fact work? I've never seen more than a vague description of it, on the lines that when one is on line "the call is diverted to a premium rate number", apparently through some subversion of Internet Explorer. Well, just how does that happen? Does it disconnect and then immediately dial out to a new number, unnoiticed by the user? Does it change the dialup settings as originally stored in some system file and use these thereafter? By what mechanisms are these activities mediated? This is not really a question about IE, though I'm sure that some "feature" of IE has a lot to do with it. I'm also interested in the question of how "generalisable" this mechanism might be: is it a transferrable skill, so that what can be done to IE today could be done to Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, ... , tomorrow? (I find it reassuring that kppp throws up a window during the dialup process in which the dialog with the modem is shown, so that one can actually see what number is being dialled.) Thanks in advance for informed replies! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!] Date: 25-Nov-04 Time: 19:11:57 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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SCO Site Cracked?
by Keith Watson 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

take a look at www.sco.com , if they haven't fixed it by now. Regards, Keith ____________ Since it is no part of the words we unthinkingly use, it leaves no trace in the things we say. - Dogen

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RE: [ALUG] Ubuntu Gotcha
by Keith Watson 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

Just checked Ubuntu Bugzilla and it has been reported by others. Regards, Keith ____________ CONSERVATIVE, n. - A statesman who is enamoured of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary > -----Original Message----- > From: main-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk > [mailto:main-admin@lists.alug.org.uk]On Behalf Of Keith Watson > Sent: 29 November 2004 15:52 > To: ALUG Main (E-mail) > Subject: [ALUG] Ubuntu Gotcha > > > passed a copy of Ubuntu onto a work colleague who fell upon > it with glee and installed it on his Toshiba Tecra S2 laptop. > He wanted dual boot with Windows XP. All went well until he > found that on selecting Windows XP from the Grub menu he got > "NTLDR not found". > > After checking the grub menu.lst file on my system (I dual > boot between windows XP and Linux quite happily) and making > sure that they were the same, a quick google brought up this > little gem on the Fedora bug list; > > Bug 115980 - will not boot to windows partition using grub > menu > <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/long_list.cgi?buglist=115980> > > Reading through the text it seems that this has more to do > with the BIOS settings rather than the distro used. > > Regards, > > Keith > ____________ > A bend in the road is not the end of the road... - unless > you fail to make the turn. > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >

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Ubuntu Gotcha
by Keith Watson 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

passed a copy of Ubuntu onto a work colleague who fell upon it with glee and installed it on his Toshiba Tecra S2 laptop. He wanted dual boot with Windows XP. All went well until he found that on selecting Windows XP from the Grub menu he got "NTLDR not found". After checking the grub menu.lst file on my system (I dual boot between windows XP and Linux quite happily) and making sure that they were the same, a quick google brought up this little gem on the Fedora bug list; Bug 115980 - will not boot to windows partition using grub menu <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/long_list.cgi?buglist=115980> Reading through the text it seems that this has more to do with the BIOS settings rather than the distro used. Regards, Keith ____________ A bend in the road is not the end of the road... - unless you fail to make the turn.

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RE: [ALUG] SCO Site Cracked?
by Keith Watson 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

> From: Martyn Drake Sent: 29 November 2004 14:24 > > Keith Watson wrote on 29 November 2004 13:54: > > > take a look at www.sco.com , if they haven't fixed it by now. > > Love it! "SCO - We own your code - pay us all your money", > and it's been > cleverly integrated into the site design too. I think it's > an inside job, > that or they've suddenly got a sense of humour :) Or maybe it isn't a crack? Maybe the people in charge have decided that honesty is the best policy ;-) Keith ____________ 'Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less travelled by, - and that has made all the difference.' - - Robert Frost

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RE: [ALUG] SCO Site Cracked?
by Keith Watson 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

> From: Craig Sent: 29 November 2004 14:14 > On 29 Nov 2004, at 13:54, Keith Watson wrote: > > > take a look at www.sco.com , if they haven't fixed it by now. > > They had something else on there last week and still they got > cracked. > Amusing. Makes you wonder if there's an insider involved?

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. 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 tkirc, bitchx, xchat 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://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Session managers - driving me mad!
by Chris Green 28 Nov '04

28 Nov '04

This is beginning to drive me crazy, I can't get *any* of xdm, kdm or gdm to work sensibly for me. Of the three at the moment gdm is closest, it's fairly easy to configure to allow remote connections and to disable local ones. The only thing it lacks at the moment is that I can't make it default to xfce (as per my previous messages). kdm is the most frustrating program invented. It's effectively impossible (without arcane knowledge) to get it configured so that it allows remote connections. Since remote connections are just about the only point of running XDMCP this seems a bit silly. The KDE control centre configuration window for KDM allows all sorts of cosmetic changes but nothing useful. xdm used to work but for some odd reason the version that comes with slackware 10 is built for IPV6 and just falls over when run on my current slackware 10 system. (OK, rant over, I'll go away and cry for a while) -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Re: [ALUG] SSH secure login problem
by C Neil Bauers 28 Nov '04

28 Nov '04

>> I have been lurking here for a while wondering what this group is all >> about and suddenly I've got a problem where you might be able to help. >> >> I am trying to do passive ftp file transfers tunelled over an SSH >> secure login. > >Have you thought about scp? Secure copy. There is a windows app called >winscp (its on freshmeat.net) > >John winscp - That works really well and I didn't know about it. So I am up and running. Great. Thanks for the suggestion. Really useful. I'd still like to get dreamweaver working over ssh beacuse the files would upload automatically on saving. Neil.

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Printers problem
by Nick Daniels 27 Nov '04

27 Nov '04

On Friday 26 November 2004 10:13, Keith Watson wrote: > > From: Nick Daniels Sent: 25 November 2004 20:13 > > > > Hi > > I have a Canon BJC1000 running under Suse 9.1, > > this printer has worked O.K. on all Suse distros since > > Suse 7.0 (and other distros) However on Suse 9.1 > > the pages are being printed in "half width" A4. > > Have I overlooked anything obvious? > > Regards > > Nick Daniels > > I had something like this when I installed my Canon S600. IIRC I resolved > it by playing around with the dpi resolution in the printer config page in > CUPS. Which may or may not apply in your case but.... > > Regards, > > Keith Many thanks I got half way last night by playing with the dpi resolution, so it seems that is where the problem is. This morning I was offered an Epson someone was discarding and that works fine. Best Regards Nick Daniels

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Still confused about my printer fonts
by Chris Green 27 Nov '04

27 Nov '04

I'm still very lost on the printer fonts front. I've been playing with different applications under KDE and Kword for example can print in a number of fonts. In particular it gives me a series of Bitstream Vera fonts and Luxi fonts to choose from. Plus it gives me Serif and Sans Serif which are actually just aliases for the Bitstream Vera ones. However the application I want to use, knoda, which is a KDE applicatioa,n only presents me with five fonts and in reality four out of the five actually print Courier and the fifth (Serif) is the only one which prints anything presentable. Can anyone suggest what might be going on here? By the way I have rebuilt knoda from the source and it behaves exactly the same as the Slackware .tgz package that I originally installed. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Re: main digest, Vol 3 #362 - 16 msgs
by John Seago 27 Nov '04

27 Nov '04

On Thursday 25 Nov 2004 21:27, Adam wrote: > I am, so is Kirsty we are already giving lifts so have no room left in > the car. I will be bringing some nice shiny Ubuntu CD sets for people > who want them. If I and others remember to bring the bits needed there > will be the facilities for a gpg keysigning. I will also be bringing > along some junk^H^H^H^Hwonderful hardware that I want to get rid of. Can you put me down for one of the Ubuntu CD sets please? Having discovered that Ottakar's are giving them away, I neglected to get one for my son-in-law. -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org) AFFS (http://www.affs.org.uk/)

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SSH secure login problem
by C Neil Bauers 26 Nov '04

26 Nov '04

I have been lurking here for a while wondering what this group is all about and suddenly I've got a problem where you might be able to help. I am trying to do passive ftp file transfers tunelled over an SSH secure login. I am running vsftpd on a SuSE 8.1 box. I can do ssh logins to this box. Normal ftp works fine. OpenSSH appears to be installed and running. I can do sftp to localhost if logged into the console or via an SSH connection. I am using Macromedia MX on Windoze to create the files I want to transfer. I have read the manual and followed their instructions to install putty.exe and plink.exe. Things seem to be nearly working but I am clearly missing a step or two. When I try to upload a file, I'm prompted to do the ssh login. After that the ftp transfer fails. I think the SuSE box is misconfigured but I have failed to google up a solution. I suspect I'm failing to understand something deep so I'm searching google for the wrong stuff. Any ideas? Neil.

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Printers problem
by Nick Daniels 26 Nov '04

26 Nov '04

Hi I have a Canon BJC1000 running under Suse 9.1, this printer has worked O.K. on all Suse distros since Suse 7.0 (and other distros) However on Suse 9.1 the pages are being printed in "half width" A4. Have I overlooked anything obvious? Regards Nick Daniels

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Re: My Xorg video setup
by John Seago 26 Nov '04

26 Nov '04

This may be a rather silly question, but have you run xorgconfig, or did you just use the setting of xorg which arises at the end of the install? -- John Seago Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org) AFFS http://www.affs.org.uk/

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RE: [ALUG] Another printer problem
by Keith Watson 26 Nov '04

26 Nov '04

> From: Hyperbit Sent: 26 November 2004 16:43 > Finally, Linux will be hardware friendly ah, but when will hardware be Linux friendly? :o) Keith ____________ What you think you own, owns you. - Zen Saying

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RE: [ALUG] Printers problem
by Keith Watson 26 Nov '04

26 Nov '04

> From: Nick Daniels Sent: 25 November 2004 20:13 > > Hi > I have a Canon BJC1000 running under Suse 9.1, > this printer has worked O.K. on all Suse distros since > Suse 7.0 (and other distros) However on Suse 9.1 > the pages are being printed in "half width" A4. > Have I overlooked anything obvious? > Regards > Nick Daniels > I had something like this when I installed my Canon S600. IIRC I resolved it by playing around with the dpi resolution in the printer config page in CUPS. Which may or may not apply in your case but.... Regards, Keith ____________ The beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right names. - Chinese Proverb

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My Xorg video setup
by Chris Green 26 Nov '04

26 Nov '04

I've taken a look at my Xorg.0.log file and, among other things, it has:- (--) GLINT(0): FIFO Size is 256 DWORDS (==) GLINT(0): Min pixel clock is 16 MHz (--) GLINT(0): Max pixel clock is 110 MHz (II) GLINT(0): LGFlatron: Using hsync range of 30.00-107.00 kHz (II) GLINT(0): LGFlatron: Using vrefresh range of 50.00-200.00 Hz (II) GLINT(0): Clock range: 16.25 to 110.00 MHz (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "320x175" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "320x200" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "360x200" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "320x240" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "320x240" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "320x240" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "320x240" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "400x300" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "400x300" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) ... ... ... (II) GLINT(0): Not using default mode "1600x1200" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan) ... ... ... (II) GLINT(0): Not using mode "1600x1200" (no mode of this name) ... ... ... (--) GLINT(0): Virtual size is 1280x1024 (pitch 1280) (**) GLINT(0): *Default mode "1280x1024": 108.0 MHz, 64.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz (II) GLINT(0): Modeline "1280x1024" 108.00 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync (**) GLINT(0): *Default mode "1024x768": 94.5 MHz, 68.7 kHz, 85.0 Hz (II) GLINT(0): Modeline "1024x768" 94.50 1024 1072 1168 1376 768 769 772 808 +hsync +vsync (**) GLINT(0): Default mode "1280x960": 108.0 MHz, 60.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz (II) GLINT(0): Modeline "1280x960" 108.00 1280 1376 1488 1800 960 961 964 1000 +hsync +vsync (**) GLINT(0): Default mode "1152x864": 108.0 MHz, 67.5 kHz, 75.0 Hz (II) GLINT(0): Modeline "1152x864" 108.00 1152 1216 1344 1600 864 865 868 900 +hsync +vsync (**) GLINT(0): Default mode "1152x768": 65.0 MHz, 44.2 kHz, 54.8 Hz The 1280x1024 line is the highest resolution one that appears with that "Modeline" start, does that mean that it's the highest resolution that Xorg thinks is possible? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Reminder: Meeting Sunday@Syleham
by John Woodard 25 Nov '04

25 Nov '04

Memory Jog Meeting this Sunday at Syleham Village Hall 2:00 - 6:00pm bring kit if you want. The bar will be open. Details on http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings. Cheers, BJ -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.289 / Virus Database: 265.4.2 - Release Date: 24/11/2004

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Further video info/questions
by Chris Green 25 Nov '04

25 Nov '04

Further to my lat post my Xorg.0.log file also has the following lines:- (II) GLINT(0): Manufacturer's mask: 10 (II) GLINT(0): Supported Future Video Modes: (II) GLINT(0): #0: hsize: 640 vsize 480 refresh: 60 vid: 16433 (II) GLINT(0): #1: hsize: 800 vsize 600 refresh: 85 vid: 22853 (II) GLINT(0): #2: hsize: 1024 vsize 768 refresh: 85 vid: 22881 (II) GLINT(0): #3: hsize: 1280 vsize 1024 refresh: 75 vid: 36737 (II) GLINT(0): #4: hsize: 1280 vsize 1024 refresh: 85 vid: 39297 (II) GLINT(0): #5: hsize: 1600 vsize 1200 refresh: 75 vid: 20393 (II) GLINT(0): #6: hsize: 1600 vsize 1200 refresh: 85 vid: 22953 (II) GLINT(0): #7: hsize: 1152 vsize 864 refresh: 75 vid: 20337 Does this mean it thinks I *can* have a 1600x1200 setup? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

1 0

xorgconfig, video resolution, xdm and gdm - queries and tips
by Chris Green 25 Nov '04

25 Nov '04

This is as much a story of my upgrade as anything but there are some tips and questions embedded in it as well. As I said the Slackware 9.1 to 10 upgrade went pretty smoothly, all the really vital things like the networking started up with no problems at all after the upgrade. The two things that needed some work were the xfree -> xorg move and xdm. After finding xorgconfig (thank you whoever it was) the basics of video configuration were quite easy. Just copying my xfree config file to xorg.conf worked reasonably well and I then ran xorgconfig to check it as much as to change it. The next issue was that xdm didn't work, since I use a Win2k system to display my Linux desktop (via the Cygwin/X server) this was rather vital to me. I found that 'startx' would bring my xfce desktop up OK on the local display but xdm gave an error in its log file saying that XDMCP failed to open a socket with errno 97. A bit of investigation (Google search) suggested that this might be that the xdm I had was expecting IPV6. So I sidestepped the problem by trying gdm instead, this works perfectly and looks a bit prettier too so I'm happy. I did have a bit of a problem initially when trying to login on my Win2k machine but that turned out to be because I was typing away on the wrong keyboard! The one remaining video issue is that I can't get the native video resolution that I want, the card supports the 1600x1200 that I want and so does the display but I can't get it to actually do it. The remote desktop via gdm is at 1600x1200 but when I fire up a local desktop I get only 1024x768. I've put the 1600x1200 resolutions as my first choice in the xorg.conf file, what is limiting it to less? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Printer fonts
by Chris Green 25 Nov '04

25 Nov '04

What decides the fonts available for printers? I want to make a few more fonts available when printing from knoda (a KDE application) as there isn't a decent sans-serif font at the moment. How do I add a printer font for use in a specific application? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

2 2

Fonts (well typefaces actually) and printers in Linux
by Chris Green 24 Nov '04

24 Nov '04

My upgrade to Slackware 10 went fairly smoothly last night and I seem to have most of the system back to normal - with the intended bonus that I now have a set of compatible and reasonably up to date libraries to build against. The next task in my migration of an Access 97 application to Linux is to make more fonts available for printing from a couple of KDE applications. I can't at the moment get my mind round where the fonts on the system come from as each application I run seems to have a different view of what's available. However the particular requirement at the moment is to get a decent looking sans-serif font for knoda to print with. Many applications (and most of KDE) seem to have the Bitstream Vera font family available as screen and print fonts. However knoda doesn't show these as available, all it shows is an odd collection (from memory):- Courier Utopia Cursor Monospace a.n.other (Dingbats?) In reality when I print anything in size 10 from knoda it looks like Courier to me. I installed knoda using a Slackware package (i.e. it was pre-compiled in a .tgz file), could this be the problem? I.e. whoever built knoda and packaged it had a different set of fonts which don't match what I have? If so it's not a problem to build it myself. As a more generic question it would be useful to know how applications decide what printer fonts are available. All the FAQs and HOWTOs I've looked at don't seem to address the issue of printer fonts at all, they seem to assume that once you can see the font on screen everything is done. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

1 1

xdm error
by Chris Green 23 Nov '04

23 Nov '04

OK, now I have the xorg.conf file on the run I'm left with the xdm error. There is an error in the xdm.log file:- xdm error (pid 7439): XDMCP socket creation failed, errno 97 A Google search hasn't brought up much but the one thing that's possible is that xdm is expecting IPV6 and I don't have IPV6, this seems odd as I've installed a well debugged distribution. Any ideas anyone? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

2 1

X problems after upgrade
by Chris Green 23 Nov '04

23 Nov '04

I have just upgraded my Slackware system from 9.1 to 10. It's all gone pretty smoothly really (I'm here for starters, I still have a network, comms., etc.!). However X, or at least the display side of it seems to have gone a bit wonky and I cant find any useful configuration files, FAQs or HOWTOs at the moment. The issue probably has quite a lot to do with the move from Xfree to Xorg. X is actually up and running and my xfce desktop is working locally (I'm using it now). What I'm missing is:- I can't find any documentation for the xorg.conf file. I just copied my old xf86config file over the top of it and it works but I don't know how to tune it or change it. Apart from anything else the refresh rate is horrible at the moment! xdm isn't working. The win2k system can 'see' the Slackware box and the Slackware box can see the Win2k box but xdm has stopped working. I can't find *any* video/screen setup documentation, where is it? Is there a replacement for the xf86 configuration program? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

2 3

Who wants a quad Xeon server?
by Hyperbit 23 Nov '04

23 Nov '04

Greetings, This is my first visit to the list for a few years. I got bogged down with wife and children duties. Brief info : Im John Freeman, 31, from Bury St Edmunds, working in Cambridge as a software engineer. Been using Linux full time for 7 years now (both admin and development). I use Gentoo as my distro of choice. Second reason for post: I have an HP Netserver LH4R for sale. 4 * PIII Xeon (500mhz) 2.5 Gig of Ram RAID 4 * 9.1 GB Hot swap SCSI disks I only want £100 for this baby, my wife is making me sell it as she needs the space back :( I want £100 so I can buy an accoustic guitar, will swap for a decent accoustic guitar. Replies to hyperbit(a)gmail.com please

1 1

SUSE NETWORKING NIGHTMARE!
by RICHARD FLETCHER 23 Nov '04

23 Nov '04

Ok I'm getting all confused now! Just asked around the place and there is no WINS server on our network. Should there be? I think I need to lie down. I did as recomended and set up my smb.conf with the share details. I think I stopped and then restarted smb but I'm not sure. (GOD I'M RAW AT ALL THIS) going to call it a night and get back on the horse tomorrow with a fresher brain. thanks for the help whine at you all later Fletch the moomin! ___________________________________________________________ Win a castle for NYE with your mates and Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

1 0

SUSE 9.1 SAMBA NETWORK ERROR
by RICHARD FLETCHER 23 Nov '04

23 Nov '04

Annoying Newbie, back again. After looking around the smb.conf in SUSE 9.1 I finally descovered the problem behind the error "Network unreachable" when trying to browse the LAN in konquorer. After the workgroup name is changed from "TUX-NET" to the one that the rest of the LAN uses "MSHOME" (in YAST samba server setup) the problem occurs. When the name is changed back to "TUX-NET" browsing in konquorer is ok again. Although I have found this out I am still no closer than I was to sorting out my network. I think that I have been asking the wrong questions. What I am trying to achieve is this; I am running SUSE 9.1 on a peer to peer network along with seven WINXP machines. I want to share one folder called "My network share" and its sub folders and files. Allow others on the network to see it and read/write to it. "My network share" is in /home. I still want to be able to browse the network with my Linux box and read/write to the WINXP shares. This should be as simple as setting things up in YAST2 but as I said above, every time I change the workgroup in YAST or smb.conf I loose my ability to browse the network. Please somebody put me out of my misery one way or another as I'm still the laughing stock of this WINXP crowd. Is this a samba problem or is it KDE or SUSE or just ME?! Where am I going wrong? What am I missing? Why is this not simple? Hope someone can help. I had better go now, they mostly come at night......mostly:-) ___________________________________________________________ Moving house? Beach bar in Thailand? New Wardrobe? Win £10k with Yahoo! Mail to make your dream a reality. Get Yahoo! Mail www.yahoo.co.uk/10k

3 2

Samba Printing
by Matt Parker 23 Nov '04

23 Nov '04

I'm currently working onsite at a client and I need to be able to connect my Linux laptop to their printer. Unfortunately it's a Windows share and the printer name contains spaces - which Samba absolutely refuses to connect to. I've Googled around on this but can't find a workaround. Changing the printer name is absolutely out of the question. Are there any experts here who have any tips to try in this situation? Matt

2 1

RE: [ALUG] Running total from a database table - how?
by Keith Watson 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

> From: Chris Green Sent: 22 November 2004 13:40 > > I'm steadily progressing with my conversion of my Access accounting > system to a Linux based system. > > I've moved from using mysql to postgresql which has made a few things > easier by having VIEWs in the database. > > Rekall seems to have most of what I need on the forms and reports > front except for one thing - I can't see how to implement a 'running > total' column. > > The Access97 report tool has a specific 'running total' column type > which does exactly what I need. Rekall doesn't have anything like > this (that I can see). > > Has anyone got any bright ideas of how I can do this, it's rather > vital on things like a Bank Reconciliation report to enable me to > check my accounts against the bank statement. > > -- > Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) > can you give a specific example as 'running total' covers a lot of ground :o) Regards, Keith ____________ Whatever thou sayest of God is untrue. - Meister Eckhart

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RE: [ALUG] Re: Running total from a database table - how?
by Keith Watson 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

Works for me! :o) Regards, Keith ____________ Sometimes the highest form of action is inaction. - Jerry Brown > -----Original Message----- > From: main-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk > [mailto:main-admin@lists.alug.org.uk]On Behalf Of Brett Parker > Sent: 22 November 2004 16:48 > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Re: Running total from a database table - how? > > > On Mon, Nov 22, 2004 at 04:17:56PM +0000, Chris Green wrote: > > Yes, of course, I want a report that looks like:- > > > > Date Description Amount Balance > > 01/09/04 Initial balance +1000.00 1000.00 > > 03/09/04 Stamps -14.58 985.42 > > 06/09/04 Network Card -9.99 975.43 > > 12/09/04 Interest +0.10 975.53 > > date | description | amount | balance > ----------------------------+------------------+---------+--------- > 2004-11-22 16:39:52.046068 | Starting Balance | 1000.00 | 1000.00 > 2004-11-22 16:40:11.58727 | Booze | -50.00 | 950.00 > 2004-11-22 16:40:30.539512 | Poker Winnings | 50.00 | 1000.00 > 2004-11-22 16:40:59.067902 | CD | -10.99 | 989.01 > > > > It's a little more complicated than the above but that shows the > > essentials. (I don't guarantee my arithmetic is correct) > > > The Date, Description and Amount columns are directly from > a database > > table. The Balance column needs to ba calculated as the report is > > created. > > Yup, that's how that's done... Here's the *MAGIC* ;) > > create view testwithrunningtotal as select > date,description,amount,(select sum(amount) from test as > test2 where test2.date <= test.date) as balance from test > order by date; > > select * from testwithrunningtotal; > > > OK - so it's not pretty, but it does appear to work ;) > Obviously, if you're not > really using timestamps, like I was, and you can *assume* > that your IDs are in > the right order, then sort by those for the subselect. > > If you need to be able to 'mess' with this, then you'll also > need to set up > some insert and delete rules on the view, probably ;) > > Cheers, > -- > Brett Parker > web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ > email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >

1 0

Running total from a database table - how?
by Chris Green 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

I'm steadily progressing with my conversion of my Access accounting system to a Linux based system. I've moved from using mysql to postgresql which has made a few things easier by having VIEWs in the database. Rekall seems to have most of what I need on the forms and reports front except for one thing - I can't see how to implement a 'running total' column. The Access97 report tool has a specific 'running total' column type which does exactly what I need. Rekall doesn't have anything like this (that I can see). Has anyone got any bright ideas of how I can do this, it's rather vital on things like a Bank Reconciliation report to enable me to check my accounts against the bank statement. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

1 0

RE SUSE Network problem
by RICHARD FLETCHER 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

Thanks for the replies helping me to sort out this problem. few answers to questions asked. While the reinstall goes on! ( going to look at the SAMBA config files before i start the samba server this time. see if anything changes in there. slow way of doing things but i'm learning all the time! when i tried to find other computers with smb://IP, konquorer just sat there and did nothing for a while and then came back with the same message. (network unreachable) (found the "internet server" though with its static IP) my apologies to not getting back Laurie: >Check DNS, dhcp and WINS. >Do smbclient and/or smbmount work? If not, what are the synptoms? being the floundering newbie that i said i was this made my head pop! i did have a look in the control centre and alas "play with" (not check) dchp, DNS and wins. For some reason this killed konquorer and my ability to browse anything including email :-( hence the reinstall (getting really good at that now!). smbclient/smb mount will take some more investigation by me as i dont know what to do with them (I assume they are console commands). might be up and running this afternoon with a fresh beast to slaughter. I somehow think that i'll be back with other symptoms later. thankyou all for now i'll be in touch..... Fletch. ___________________________________________________________ Moving house? Beach bar in Thailand? New Wardrobe? Win £10k with Yahoo! Mail to make your dream a reality. Get Yahoo! Mail www.yahoo.co.uk/10k

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SUSE 9.1 SAMBA NETWORK ERROR.
by RICHARD FLETCHER 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

This is probably a really simple one but as a floundering newbie, I is really stuck now. I'm was running SUSE 9.1 after a fresh install and all was OK. The install included ALL available packages that came with SUSE 9.1. My Linux box was the only one in a sea of Win XP machines on our network but I was able to see them and browse their shares with confidence using konqueror. I did ALL of the on-line updates with YAST and all was still OK. I then Enabled the SAMBA Server/client in YAST so the they could browse my shares and it went all pear shaped. I am now unable to browse the network using konqueror as I used to be able to do. After clicking on the "windows network" icon as I always have i get the following message. "Internal Error Please send a full bug report at http://bugs.kde.org Unknown error condition in stat: Network is unreachable" It is reachable though. Our proxy server has a fixed IP and I am able to browse its files if I put "smb://IP ADDRESS" in the address bar. The other WIN XP boxes in the network are using DHCP and I'm unable to find them. The thing is that after an extensive google search for the answer and finding several different "definate causes" for the problem, none of them work and I am still no nearer to stopping all the WIN XP moomins from laughing at my sorry attempts at running a different OS. It seems like there are a lot of people out there with the same problem but no-one knows how to sort this. I feel thick. I hope someone can help me.... my brain hurts :-( Fletch ___________________________________________________________ Moving house? Beach bar in Thailand? New Wardrobe? Win £10k with Yahoo! Mail to make your dream a reality. Get Yahoo! Mail www.yahoo.co.uk/10k

3 2

Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. 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 tkirc, bitchx, xchat 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://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

1 0

Linux
by Jeremy Dales 18 Nov '04

18 Nov '04

As requested, I'll try and outline why I am interested in Linux, along with a few first impressions, although I am certainly not a technical person, so I am more interested in what it does rather than how it does it. I like the idea of Linux being open source - in fact I would say it is something I believe in quite strongly, and I used several open source applications while I was running Windows. I was also fed up with the numerous security flaws I encountered in every version of Windows I used, and despite the best protection around, was still plagued with spam, spyware, trojans and viruses. It seems that Linux, for whatever reason, has largely avoided this. If I have a concern about using Linux, it is less to do with it as an operating system and more to do with my inability to comprehend it. While I suspect that this is not uncommon in the first week of use, I have to say that it has seemed fiendishly complicated to do even very basic things like install applications or get the hardware configured - this has necessitated ploughing through long lines of unfathomable code of the kind I usually try to avoid. I am hoping that I will either become used to it, or more likely, that having got the system set up the way I like it, I can have as little to do with opening the terminal window as possible. In short, I'm looking for a smooth and reliable graphical interface that is simple to use, relatively secure, and has the additional benefit of being open source. Jeremy

5 11

mysql users question
by Chris Green 18 Nov '04

18 Nov '04

How do I delete a mysql user? ... and how do I stop a mysql user requiring a password? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

3 5

SuSE 9.1 and flash cards
by Wayne Stallwood 18 Nov '04

18 Nov '04

I am sure this topic has come up before, but I can't find a solution in the archives. Running SuSE 9.1 I would like the same automount functionality for my multi format card reader as SuSE/KDE provides for CD/DVD drives. I have a "My Computer" icon on my desktop, inside that I have an icon for each removable drive on my system. If I insert a CD/DVD with data content then it is mounted and a konq file browser window appears on the desktop. Is it possible to get the same functionality for a USB card reader (each card type appears as a different device) I can mount various card types at will using the mount command, but I have to tail /var/log/messages to check what device that card is assigned to and then manually mount/unmount it. After I have that bit working I would really like it to detect a card insertion without me having to detach/reattach the reader from the USB ports. But I am not even sure if that last bit is possible. Anyone fixed this ? Wayne

1 2

Fonts without X
by Richard Lewis 15 Nov '04

15 Nov '04

Hello ALUG, I'm just working on adding a PDF 'data sheet' function to one of my databases. (Served using PHP and the FPDF class <http://www.fpdf.org/>). At the moment it doesn't work because it can't find any fonts (even with names like "Times") and, of course, the obvious answer is to install some. The Debian package for FPDF suggests installing 'ttf2pt1'. This package depends on a whole load (~20MB, OK not that much) of packages from X which I'm slightly reluctant to install because the machine is supposed to be a web/database server, not an X server. It doesn't, of course, need an X server and maybe (suggestions?) I'm being silly by not wanting to install 'xfree86-common', 'xlibs', etc. (I just don't like the idea of X clutter everywhere). So, can anyone suggest a way of installing a nice selection of fonts without any X packages or will someone reassure me that installing X packages (not server) is not something to worry about? ;-) Cheers, Richard -- Richard Lewis richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk

2 1

[ALUG Announce]Debian Bug squashing in Cambridge, November 27th to 28th
by MJ Ray 15 Nov '04

15 Nov '04

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Maybe we can discuss this at Syleham on the 28th too? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 2004-11-11 16:53:05 +0000 From: Steve McIntyre <steve(a)einval.com> Subject: [Debian-uk] Bug squashing in Cambridge, November 27th to 28th Guys, we can't let the Germans and Australians have all the fun! Let's get together in Cambridge and show them how to close those bugs. If we all pull together, we can get the RC bugs killed and help make sarge a great (if late) release. Everyone's welcome to join us in person, and we'll be active on irc.oftc.net, #debian-uk too if you want to help but can't make it physically. If you want to come either day, please let me know. There's even (limited) crash space available. See the wiki page at http://wiki.earth.li/DebianBugSquashPartyNov2004 Location: 87 Kendal Way, Cambridge CB4 1LP (aka my house, as usual) Equipment: We have wired and wireless networking, a full local mirror and several architectures. Bring a laptop, power cables and ethernet cables if you need them. I hope to see you there... -- Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. steve(a)einval.com "It's actually quite entertaining to watch ag129 prop his foot up on the desk so he can get a better aim." [ seen in ucam.chat ] -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and not of any group I know Creative copyleft computing - http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ Unsolicited attachments to the pipex address deleted Will HLF fund tree-killings? http://www.thewalks.co.uk/ ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

1 0

Syleham Meet on 28th November
by Keith Watson 15 Nov '04

15 Nov '04

If anyone needs a lift let me know. I live in Cringleford near the UEA but I'm happy to pick people up from Norwich rail station (or anywhere else in Norwich for that matter) or anywhere along the route between Norwich and Syleham. As it's getting near the festive season (<GRUMPY_OLD_MAN> which all the local and national retailers seem to think started back in September!</GRUMPY_OLD_MAN>) I'll be bringing along a small selection of comestibles (mince pies etc.) I thought it might be useful if I brought along my old PC from the back of the cupboard and demo'd a Debian install using the Knoppix or Gnoppix live CDS. (John - do you have an internet feed at Syleham?). Anyone be interested in that? In my opinion the combination of these live CDS and Debian makes a Linux install as easy (easier) then Windows if you just want a usable PC system and are not particularly interested in becoming an expert in the nuts and bolts. So if there's anyone on the list who's new to Linux and can make it then you can see how really really easy installation of the OS with Knoppix/Gnoppix and how easy it is adding (and removing) new software with Debian (forget that tarball, configure, make crap and learn apt-get! or even drive it all with a GUI like synaptic :o) ) Regards, Keith -------------- Not one, not two; not both, not neither. - Zen saying

4 3

Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 15 Nov '04

15 Nov '04

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. 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 tkirc, bitchx, xchat 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://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

1 0

Converting DVD to audio
by Graham 14 Nov '04

14 Nov '04

Having replaced my video with a DVD recorder, I record radio programs from Sky then take the DVD to my computer and convert it to WAV for editing and writing to CD. The script I use is below. As you can see it goes round the houses, creating a VCD image first then stripping out the sound. Can anyone suggest a simpler approach (that doesn't involve physically moving equipment)? Note: I don't want to go via MP3 or OGG. The DVD audio format is AC3, BTW. -- GT ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #!/bin/sh if [ $# .eq 0 ] then echo "Usage: dvd2wav <output filename>" exit fi mencoder dvd://1 -o dvd2wav_temp.mpg -ovc \ lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg1video -oac pcm transcode -i dvd2wav_temp.mpg -y null,wav -o "$1".tmp resample -to 44100 "$1".tmp "$1" >/dev/null rm -f dvd2wav_temp.mpg "$1".tmp exit

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[ALUG Announce]ChelmerLUG: FireFox 1.0 Party / Meeting
by Matthew Saunders 13 Nov '04

13 Nov '04

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hi, I would like to invite you to a ChelmerLUG FireFox 1.0 Party. It will be taking place on 19th November 2004 from 5.30pm onwards. The location is at the Writtle College Student Bar, Lordship Road, Chelmsford. It would be great to meet people from the area, share ideas, and with the student bar's prices - it won't break the bank either! ChelmerLUG is starting up in Chelmsford and open to anyone who has an interest in computing. Our aim to to promote Linux, and Open Source software on any platform. FireFox 1.0 is a fast, secure and safe web browser - even on Windows! FireFox can be downloaded from http://getfirefox.com. Any comments / questions? Just send me an email. Kind Regards Matthew Saunders ChelmerLUG http://chelmer.lug.org.uk http://spreadfirefox.com ----- 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

MMC card woes
by Wayne Stallwood 13 Nov '04

13 Nov '04

Is there any way to bypass a write protected disk when dealing with MMC cards ? I have a really odd problem with one of my cards (nicked from my camera to put some music on to my phone for a long tube journey in a couple of days) The card works fine in my camera, I can delete/format/take pictures all fine. Put into the card reader on my SuSE 9.1 box I issue a mount -rw /dev/sdd1 /home/wayne/media I can then see the current contents of the card by looking at /home/wayne/media Deleting anything causes no error, but the deletion is only temporary if I come out of and go back into the directory the files have reappeared. Unmounting it and doing a mkfs -t vfat /dev/sdd1 again results in no error, but after either mounting it or doing a fsck I can see that the original files are still there. If I use the camera to format it and then try and copy files to it (I now have an empty disk according to df) I get an error telling me it is read only. After a while I gave up and tried it in a Win2000 box downstairs. Copy to, Delete and format all give me a "disk is write protected" error. Yet the camera can still write to it. There are no write protect tabs on either the card or the reader, and I have tried other cards in the same reader on the same machines with no issues. However all my other cards are SD (which have little write lock switches on them) Is it possible that my camera is setting the write protect tab on this card when it formats it. and if so how do I use the card in anything else. What I am wanting to do is force a format regardless, is this possible ?

3 4

PostgrSQL row ID column
by Chris Green 12 Nov '04

12 Nov '04

Re: my comment earlier today about PostgrSQL databases and row indentification, here's the section of the Rekall manual I remembered:- For some databases, this is always possible. For instance, in PostgreSQL every row has associated with it a unique indeitifier called the oid, which can be retrieved along with the row data; after a new row is inserted, the oid of that row can be ascertained. Similarly, Oracle has a rownum. (... and that indeitifier typo isn't mine!) -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Reminder: Norwich City Gate meeting Thursday 10th November!
by adam＠thebowery.co.uk 11 Nov '04

11 Nov '04

Begin boilerplate meeting reminder txt. ------------------------------------------------- As per usual, this Thursday (10th November) we'll be congregating in the City Gate from around 8pm. Adam, Brett, Kirsten and Jonathan should be there, and Eli might also make it. We should have a penguin in attendance so you know who we are, if not look for the Linux Magazines on the tables, sometimes we lurk at the far end of the building in the restaurant area. If you want to do gpg keysigning then at least a few of us should be there with sigs and id. Full details can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/2004/all-NorThu.html Directions at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/citygate.html Pictures from August of people so you know who to look out for: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ ------------------------------------------------ Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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Adding an auto column to an existing database
by Chris Green 11 Nov '04

11 Nov '04

If I add an 'auto' column to an existing database to provide a unique key (I don't believe this should really be necessary, see below) will it get automatically populated with a sequence of integers as required? Access can manage without a unique key so why can't any of the mysql front ends do without it? I had a look at my Access database and, although the rows as a whole are unique it turns out that I *don't* have a multi-column primary key to give a unique key. However the database copes quite happily with multiple purchases of stamps with identical descriptions and with pension payments of the same amount every month. It certainly works and I can delete one pension payment without affecting the others for example. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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[ALUG Announce][ALUG] Reminder: Norwich City Gate meeting Thursday 10th November!
by Brett Parker 11 Nov '04

11 Nov '04

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- As per usual, this Thursday (11th November) we'll be congregating in the City Gate from around 8pm. Adam, Brett, Kirsten and Jonathan should be there, and Eli might also make it. We should have a penguin in attendance so you know who we are, if not look for the Linux Magazines on the tables, sometimes we lurk at the far end of the building in the restaurant area. If you want to do gpg keysigning then at least a few of us should be there with sigs and id. Full details can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/2004/all-NorThu.html Directions at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/citygate.html Pictures from August of people so you know who to look out for: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Re: [ALUG] Skype is pretty good
by Wayne Stallwood 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

On Tuesday 09 November 2004 12:08 pm, you wrote: > On Mon, 2004-11-08 at 23:58 +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote: > > But my headset is evil, it digs into my ears and the sound quality is > > terrible. > > I've ordered a Sennheiser PC 155 USB today. > I'll post my experiences to the list... > > -- Martijn oooh Sennheiser, I like their kit. Got a lovely pair of their headphones plugged into my Hi-Fi downstairs, fantastic things. Didn't realise that they made computer headsets though, I'll have to check out their stuff. Let us know what happens with the PC155's when you get them. Following on from the Plantronics post I mailed their customer support, I give them 3 points for responding in a day and 2 points for even knowing what Linux is. "Wayne, Currently Plantronics has no active driver development plan for Linux. The DSP headsets have been found to work as an audio input and output device under Linux if the kernel version is 2.4.2 or higher compiled with USB support. The inline volume controls and mute switch will not work however, since these would require a compatible HID driver for Linux." I have since mailed them back asking if they would ever consider opening up the device specs so that the community can sort out Linux support for them. I am guessing that I'll either get no response or "no" but hey it's worth a shot. What with skype seeming to get some sort market penetration and having Linux support surely the momentum for things such as this to be supported must be there now.

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Online calender - any suggestions?
by Dave Briggs 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

I am looking for an online calender for a website, largely so that I can access it from any computer wherever I am. Has anyone had a happy experience of using any such system on their sites? Google and Sourceforge reveal there are quite a few about so I thought I would fish for some recommendations before going through them all myself. While I am just after a calendering system at the moment, anythingt that offers more features than that wouldn't be a problem. I have PHP and a MySQL database to spare, so that's no problem. Thanks Dave -- Dave Briggs http://www.palimpsest.org.uk - The Home of Informed Debate on the Web

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Mandrake Community is not intended to be stable...
by syd 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

Brief reminder/warning/explanation re Mandrake Community editions: the 'community' editions are an ongoing beta-testing exercise by the mandrake community. This is s/w that is very likely to be broken. It is not going to give an stable mandrake install. Unless you really want to be part of a beta-testing exercise - including frequent large updates- don't use the Community edition - use the major 'Official' releases. Syd

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Primary keys in mysql databases
by Chris Green 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

Lots of the GUI front ends for mysql that I have been looking at are very insistent that the tables one uses have a unique primary key to guarantee uniqueness. I don't quite understand why this is so necessary but this isn't particularly important at the moment as the database tables I've imported have unique rows. However neither mySql nor the front-ends seem to know about unique keys made up of more than one column, is this because such a thing is regarded as a rather advanced approach or because it's actually not possible in mySql? My unique key is the combination of date (the date of the transaction) and the transaction description. This means that there can be the same transaction on different dates, e.g. if I buy some stamps on two different dates the description can be 'Stamps' for both of them. The advantage is that I am protected against entering the same transaction twice by mistake as this will transgress the unique key requirement. If I really *did* buy stamps twice on the same day then I just put 'Stamps again' or some such. The oft recommended 'Auto' column seems a bad way to do things because it doesn't prevent duplicate entries, you could inadvertently put 'Fred Bloggs' into your address book lots of times, each with a different value in the auto 'ID' column. It really seems to me that the auto column approach is a quick and dirty bodge which loses some (most?) of the advantages of a unique key and wastes space as well. Joins between tables can just as easily be done on the 'real' values as on an articifial unique key. My transaction types are held in a separate table and the join to the transactions table (when needed) is simply done with the transaction type code. This again guarantess what one wants which is that one can't enter a non-existent transaction type in the transactions table. I can see no advantage at all in having an additional, numeric, ID column in the transaction types table. Have I missed something here or is it just that the documentation I'm looking at is trying to make things 'simple' and using an auto column is the 'simple' way to do it? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Re: [ALUG] Primary keys in mysql databases
by Richard Lewis 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 13:04:49 +0000, "Chris Green" <chris(a)areti.co.uk> said: > Lots of the GUI front ends for mysql that I have been looking at are > very insistent that the tables one uses have a unique primary key to > guarantee uniqueness. > > I don't quite understand why this is so necessary but this isn't > particularly important at the moment as the database tables I've imported > have unique rows. > > However neither mySql nor the front-ends seem to know about unique > keys made up of more than one column, is this because such a thing is > regarded as a rather advanced approach or because it's actually not > possible in mySql? > > My unique key is the combination of date (the date of the > transaction) and the transaction description. This means that there > can be the same transaction on different dates, e.g. if I buy some > stamps on two different dates the description can be 'Stamps' for both > of them. The advantage is that I am protected against entering the > same transaction twice by mistake as this will transgress the unique > key requirement. If I really *did* buy stamps twice on the same day > then I just put 'Stamps again' or some such. > You can do this: CREATE TABLE transactions (date DATE, description TEXT, ...) PRIMARY KEY(date, description) but this will still be true: SELECT date, description FROM transactions WHERE (date=...) AND (description=...) and as for updates, well you handle them using your wrapper code: e.g. in PHP $result = mysql_query("SELECT trans_id FROM transactions WHERE date=" . $_GET['date'] . " AND description LIKE " . $_GET['description'] . " LIMIT 1"); if mysql_num_rows($result) = 0 { mysql_query("INSERT transactions (date, description) VALUES (\"" . $_GET['date'] . "\", \"" . . $_GET['description'] . "\""); } else { echo "<p class=\"error\">Transaction not unique!</p>\n"; } > The oft recommended 'Auto' column seems a bad way to do things because > it doesn't prevent duplicate entries, you could inadvertently put 'Fred > Bloggs' into your address book lots of times, each with a different > value in the auto 'ID' column. It really seems to me that the auto > column approach is a quick and dirty bodge which loses some (most?) of > the advantages of a unique key and wastes space as well. > I think the point of having a field like: CREATE TABLE table (id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY auto_increment, ...) is for when the other fields of your table are not necessarily going to be unique. Like an address book: none of the fields name, address, postcode, telephone etc. *have* to be unique, so an automatic unique, key column is useful, even though the value in it is unrelated to the data itself. It allows you to say things like: SELECT date, subject FROM messages, address_book WHERE (name LIKE "%smith%") AND (messages.from_id=address_book.record_id) > Joins between tables can just as easily be done on the 'real' values > as on an articifial unique key. My transaction types are held in a > separate table and the join to the transactions table (when needed) is > simply done with the transaction type code. This again guarantess what > one wants which is that one can't enter a non-existent transaction type > in the transactions table. I can see no advantage at all in having an > additional, numeric, ID column in the transaction types table. > Yes, if you can guarantee uniqueness in some meaningful field then you don't use an auto_increment field as primary key. > Have I missed something here or is it just that the documentation I'm > looking at is trying to make things 'simple' and using an auto column > is the 'simple' way to do it? > Richard -- Richard Lewis richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk

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Re: Firefox editor
by tom potts 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

I've just updated to Firefox ve 1 releas and http://cuneaform.mozdev.org/editor/index.htm no longer works with it! ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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test
by syd 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

apologies

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Skype is pretty good
by Wayne Stallwood 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

But my headset is evil, it digs into my ears and the sound quality is terrible. Does anybody know if any of the Plantronics USB headsets can be made to work with Linux. At the moment I have the annoying situation where I have a headset plugged into the front panel of my PC, this mutes the speakers (I could solve that but then if I left the headset plugged in I would get an annoying "tish tish tish" comming from the headphones when the music is turned up) So I have to leave the headset unplugged until a call comes in (or I want to make one) and then fumble around to get the Headphone and Mic socket in (or as with the other day, round the wrong way) So I really like the idea of a USB device that (presumably) acts as another sound device, however the Plantronics headsets are not very cheap and I don't want to waste my money if they don't play on Linux

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Further database progress migrating from Access
by Chris Green 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Well I decided that knoda isn't what I need for forms design etc., it's simply not powerful enough, no calulated fields in forms, no triggers, etc. So I was getting a bit despondent really but decided to look and see if the postgresSql site had any useful links, I;m not stuck on mysql, postgresql is just as possible. Well, after a few blind alleys, I came across Rekall and, so far, it looks as if it's just what I want. It works with mysql as well as with other databases so no problems there. It's a KDE application but I just downloaded the source tarball, did a .configure and make and the thing built flawlessly. It took a *long* time though, it's a big application. It seems to have the forms capability that I want. It has macros (rather like access) but also has more (for me) understandable scripts written in python. I'm just exploring at thehme moment but I think I have what I want. It's remarkably well hidden for such a comprehensive application. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Speaking of firefox ....
by Chris Green 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Does anyone else find the 'download manager' in Firefox really annoying? You have to actively clean up the old entries if you want it to stay sensibly small instead of occupying a huge chunk of screen. What use is the download manager anyway? I really can't see any use for a history of past downloads. I'd really much prefer the old download system whereby one got a little window popped up for each download which disappears for ever when completed (with the option of keeping it until you dismiss it yourself). By default it produces little screen clutter but it can cope with multiple, simultaneous downloads quite happily. The new system is just a nuisance. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Firefox editor
by tom potts 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Someone couldnt finds the editor: http://cuneaform.mozdev.org/editor/index.htm however http://www.fckeditor.net/ can be used 'over the web' so can be made part of a documentation system.... ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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mysql 'forms' data entry designer
by Chris Green 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

My migration of my Access databases to mysql has started. I've got mysql, PHP and apache up and running and I've imported the data from my Access database. I can see it all in phpMyAdmin, most impressive! Now I need to be able to design/build replacements for the Access data input forms and the Access reports. Starting at the input end (seems reasonable!), has anyone got any recommendations for designing input forms for mysql databases? Searching Google isn't very helpful because as soon as you enter 'mysql forms PHP' (with or without the 'PHP' actually) you get zillions of hits on HTML forms for entering data via PHP into a mysql database. The problem is that this gives a rather backwards approach which assumes a 'typical' HTML form and that's not what I want really. For data entry it doesn't really even have to be a web form. What I'm after is essentially a view of my table with some calculations/filters between data entry and the database. I.e. when the 'form' is opened it loads up the whole database table and presents it on screen in tabular fashion. I can edit existing entries simply by moving to them and changing them, I can add entries at the end. Most fields simply get inserted unchanged in the database as I type them but some fields are automatically calculated and inserted when I enter/change other fields in the same row. This is what I've done in Access and I want to do something similar for the mysql database if I can, preferably with some sort of tool to help me! It's the sort of thing Oracle Forms does too. Surely someone must be doing it for mysql. The phpMyAdmin 'Browse' window looks somewhat like what I'm after but I need to be able to edit the data in place (I.e. move to the field and change it), add rows at the end and have 'auto calculated' values. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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mysql users, I still seem to be a bit confused
by Chris Green 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Well I have just about everything working now. I've managed to install apache2 and PHP5 (I don't quite understand what I did wrong the first time but going back to PHP4 and then to PHP5 again got it working). I've also installed phpMyAdmin and that's working fine too. However I still can't get ordinary users to work the way I expect. I'm using phpMyAdmin to do all this now. I deleted all the entries for user 'chris' and then added a new user 'chris' with host set to 'Any host', with password set to 'No password' and with all privileges set. This appears to work OK, phpMyadmin says I have a user as follows:- chris % No ALL PRIVILEGES Yes Edit (No is 'Password' and Yes is 'Grant') However if I then say 'mysql -uchris' and try 'use fred' I still get:- ERROR 1044: Access denied for user: '@localhost' to database 'fred' If, on the other hand, I do exactly as above except I set host to 'Local' then user chris works as expected. Something is certainly awry somewhere, it may be my understanding but at the very least things are not quite how one would expect from what one is being told. Is there some security thing that refuses to allow an 'Any host' user to have lots of privileges? No, I've tried creating a user with few privileges and 'Any Host' and they get the 'Access denied...' error too. It seems to me that the 'Any Host' doesn't work. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Anyone got a spare monitor / swap shop wiki page
by Joe Button 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Hi. Does anyone else think it might be worth making a wiki page with a list of kit people have available? If people think it's a good idea I'll start one. Which is my way of introducting the cheeky question: Does anyone have a spare monitor they could sell me cheap? Mine died a while ago and I'd rather not buy a brand new one due to a combination of environmental concern and meanness. They seem to go pretty cheaply on ebay but I'd like to avoid the postage cost if possible. Also, can anyone recommend something to do with my old one? As far as I can tell no-one wants to repair it. Cheers, Joe

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. 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 tkirc, bitchx, xchat 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://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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mdk 10.1 Off. and nvidia
by Syd Hancock 07 Nov '04

07 Nov '04

Never forget - google is your friend :-) Especially groups.google.com From alt.os.linux.mandrake: >Exactly the same problems here. Then I used the rpm on the December >Linux Format DVD version (media/drivers/) subdirectory. > > nvidia-kernel-2.6.8.1-10mdk-6111-1mdk.i586.rpm >instant success. >There is one dependency. Can't rember whether it was >dkms-nvidia-6111-1mdk.i586.rpm >or >nvidia-6111-3mdk.i586.rpm >either way both are in the /media/drivers/subdirectory >so urpmi nvidia-kernel-2.6.8.1-10mdk-6111-1mdk.i586.rpm >will sort it HTH Syd

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lastlog puzzle
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 07 Nov '04

07 Nov '04

Hi Folks, On one (A) of my 3 running machines, I noticed that 'ls -ls' on /var/log shows: A: 44 -r-------- 1 root root 19136220 Oct 30 10:52 lastlog which is inconsistent: 44K according to $1, but 19136220 bytes (19MB) according to $6. The latter is enormous! However, it seems that it has some validity, since # cat lastlog | wc -c 19136220 gives the same result, here obtained by byte-counting the output of 'cat'. This first got me wondering if the lastlog file or its inode contents were corrupted. (For reference below: I don't have a file /var/log/faillog on this particular machine, A). Interestingly, however, when I look at 'ls -ls' for my two other machines (B & C), I get B: 3 -rw------- 1 root root 12216 Nov 6 15:32 faillog 3 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16128 Nov 6 15:32 lastlog C: 8 -rw------- 1 root root 12072 Nov 4 13:17 faillog 16 -rw-r--r-- 1 root tty 146876 Nov 4 13:17 lastlog and for both machines, and also for both 'faillog' and 'lastlog', I see the same sort of discrepancy between $1 (size in KB) and $6 (size in bytes), the latter being distinctly too big compared with the former. I do not see this discrepancy for any other files in /var/log, on any of the three machines. This suggests that there's something a bit weird about 'lastlog' and 'faillog' as files, and that this is deliberate! And I'm wondering how on earth a 19MB lastlog file could arise (this machine, A, has been in use for a shorter time (about 1 year) than C (about 3.5 years) and much shorter than B (about 7 years); yet the sizes of 'lastlog' are in the reverse order!) The output of the 'lastlog' *command* in all cases is just a few dozen lines; but, again interestingly, doing it on machine (A) (the one with the 19MB lastlog) induces semi-paralysis and much swapping for a while. I'm puzzled! Comments welcome. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!] Date: 07-Nov-04 Time: 11:15:56 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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linux laptops
by Syd Hancock 07 Nov '04

07 Nov '04

(Sorry it's not threaded but only reading via online archives at present). The HP offering was disappointing. Very half-hearted effort especially not having the wi-fi configured. One suggestion: get an IBM Thinkpad from ebay and install a mainstream distro. The T series is good (I use a T23) and I have heard good things about the more recent X series as well. Good build quality. Thinkpads are sturdy. Three year warranty so it is easy to get one with a long warranty period remaining - mine came with 2.5 years remaining. Good support under linux with all mainstream distros - I use Mandrake 10.0 Official (although there is a gotcha with the X-windows config that you need to know about before installing). A linux-thinkpads mailing list and plenty of support and advice can be found via google etc. Lots of support for on IBM websites including linux-specific info. Did I say good build quality? :-) I added a wi-fi card and a second battery which swaps with the DVD/CD-R. It is an excellent general-purpose machine. ACPI is apparently problematic with recent 2.6.x kernels. I use APM instead and it works well. HTH Syd

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Trying to install apache2 and PHP5 on slackware9.1
by Chris Green 07 Nov '04

07 Nov '04

I'm trying (as per the subject line) to install apache2 and PHP5 on slackware 9.1. I've uninstalled PHP4 and apache1.3. I've installed the apache2 and PHP5 .tgz packages. I've installed the extra library dependencies that apache2 needs. Now I get the following error when I try and start apache:- Syntax error on line 8 of /etc/apache2/mod_php.conf: Invalid command 'AddType', perhaps mis-spelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration All seems in order to me. There is a line above the line 8 of mod_php.conf which loads the PHP5 library, i.e.:- LoadModule php5_module lib/apache2/libphp5.so No errors are reported for this line. All the lines were produced by script so typos are unlikely. Are there any old libraries in slackware 9.1 that may need updating to get apache2 to work? (I.e. libraries that aren't missing but are too old). Any other ideas? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

2 1

Mozilla vs Firefox + Thunderbird
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

Hi Folks, Some questions about Mozilla vs Firefox & Thunderbird. Mozilla is an integrated web software suite: browser, mail client, Web page (HTML) editor. Firefox is a web browser (supposed to have HTML editor as well but I couldn't find one in the firefox I recently downloaded). Thunderbird is an email client. Details of all three at http://www.mozilla.org/products For Firefox and Thunderbird, the above website emphasizes enhanced security available in each. Security is not mentioned in the description of Mozilla. It also recommends that, rather than go for Mozilla, one should go for Firefox + Thunderbird. It is stated that Mozilla is not a combination of Firefox + Thunderbird. This leaves me somewhat pondering what the pros and cons may be. There's some advantage, in princple, in having it all rolled into one (as in Mozilla). On the other hand, if there's a distinct security advantage in FF + TB, then that's very tempting. But I have some concern that I couldn't find a Web Page editor in Firefox: as a browser, it seems to have less in it than Mozilla does. It also seems that the download size of Mozilla (12MB) is much less than Firefox (8MB) + Thunderbird (10MB). So if space were an issue, then Moz might be prefereable to FF + TB. On the other hand, the extra space may represent extra and valuable functionality. Any comments? Thanks, and best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!] Date: 06-Nov-04 Time: 20:43:06 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Wireless network problem
by bjsamuels＠beenthere-donethat.org.uk 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

I am having some problems with my very small wireless network. I have ADSL via a 4-port Netgear DG834 router to which is connected my floor-standing machine running Debian Sarge (up to date). Connected to the router is a Netgear WG602 wireless access point. I also have a Dell Latitude (fairly old at 400 MHz) and a Netgear WG511 PCMCIA wireless network card. I bought the WG511 because I'd seen on the web that it worked well with Linux using the Prism54 drivers. I discovered shortly after the purchase that there were two versions of the card - one made in Taiwan and one made in China. The Chinese one didn't have the Prism chipset and would not work with the current Linux drivers. I, of course, ended up with the Chinese version. I then discovered 'ndiswrappers'. This Linux software acts as a translation layer between the Windows XP drivers, on the CD that came with the card, and Linux. I installed that and have a working card. That's where the problems start. I can connect to the Internet and get data transfer speeds which are the same as I'd expect with the eth0 PCMCIA network card in the laptop connected to the router by cable - about 60kb download. If I try to mount a directory on the floor-standing machine everything slows down. It takes around 7 seconds to mount the directory compared with instantaneous over the cable network, the 'ls' command takes 2 secs and 'ls -l' takes 50 seconds. During that 50 seconds the data transfer light on the WG511 flickers slowly and intermittently - the time when there is no data transfer is much greater overall than the time when data is being transferred. There is no great CPU activity either. Connecting from the floor-standing machine to the laptop is just as slow. Trying the same with X running makes it even slower. Screen repaints are also very slow under X. I just tried copying a small file from one machine to the other and typing and screen painting was very slow but the actual copy was almost instantaneous. It appears that just mounting something on the remote machine slows the laptop down and, once disconnected, every thing goes back to normal. This all makes communication between the two computers via wireless virtually unusable. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. I'm out of ideas (I never had many in the first place). Output of iwconfig: wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"mynet" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:08:5B:67:03:8D Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:32 dBm RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B Encryption key:off Power Management:off Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-38 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Anyone want Mandrake 10.1 CDs?
by Joe Button 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

Hi. I downloaded Mandrake 10.1 a few days ago - I'm posting this from it. Would anyone like a copy? It's four CDs, and so far it all seems to work pretty well. I'm in Norwich if you'd like to collect them, or I could probably make it to the next meeting (Thursday at the City Gate?) if people would like me to bring them. Joe x

3 5

Mandrake 10.1
by Syd Hancock 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

> Later, and as a Mandrakeclub standard member, I downloaded and > installed the 4 x CD 10.1 Official, and was a bit cheesed off. > There's no NVIDIA driver supplied as default, no flash player, no > acrobat reader, no Sun Java runtime or SDK - in fact none of the > "commercial" apps. That is probably because (AFAIK) it is the free download version, 100% Free and free software, available to anyone. "Standard" membership gives access to some extra support forums, ftp servers and early access to new versions a few weeks before they go public but not to licenced non-freebeer software. AFAIK you have to pay a little more for the so-called "Silver" level or above to get access to the "Powerpack" edition which includes the fifth CD containing the commercial apps and via mandrake Club. They are then installed automatically during normal install - 10.0 Official worked fine for me and included all the apps you mention (apart from nvidi which I didn't need). An alternative way to get the non-free stuff is to purchase a boxed edition. HTH Syd

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Very basic mysql problem
by Chris Green 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

I'm having trouble getting started with mysql. I had a bit of a problem getting it installed but I've got through that now, I downloaded the latest Slackware package file and replaced my existing (screwed up) installation and the basics seem to be working. I have installed mysql version 4.0.22 and the mysqld daemon is up and running OK. The root mysql user works OK and I can create databases etc. etc. However I seem quite unable to create any more users that actually work, whatever I do I get permission errors. E.g. I have created a user 'chris' with 'GRANT ALL ON *.* TO chris' and if I run mysql as chris and try and create a database I get:- ERROR 1044: Access denied for user: '@localhost' to database 'chrisdb' Similarly if chris tries to use an already existing database:- ERROR 1044: Access denied for user: '@localhost' to database 'fred' The entries in the mysql database look OK:- +-----------+-------+------------------+-------------+ | host | user | password | create_priv | +-----------+-------+------------------+-------------+ | localhost | root | 035974c000be6930 | Y | | server | root | | Y | | localhost | | | N | | server | | | N | | % | chris | | Y | | % | lucy | | Y | +-----------+-------+------------------+-------------+ So what's wrong? I'm stuck. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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RE: [ALUG] Christmas meal?
by Elisabeth 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

>===== Original Message From adam(a)thebowery.co.uk ===== > adam(a)thebowery.co.uk wrote: [snip] >> Do we want to have the Christmas meal in November or >> January to avoid the big Christmas rush? Anyone able to suggest good >> places to eat and have a few drinks? also anyone able to give a good >> price range for what we poor Aluggers can afford? > >No more Aluggers interested? I'm interested, as long as it is not in the first 2 weeks of December (the time of the 4-deadline panic), nor on a Monday. If it's Tuesday - Thursday I prefer in Norwich because then I don't have to take a day off work. Will drive, and offer lifts. I don't know many places in the north of the area; I've mainly been to the extremes of very expensive or studenty cheapo, neither of which are likely to be suitable. Very cheap would be ok for me. Eli/sunflowerinrain

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2 free computers and other hardware and bits
by adam＠thebowery.co.uk 05 Nov '04

05 Nov '04

Hi all, As I said the other week I have a couple of machines kicking around that have been gathering dust. What follows is a list of all the things I have to get rid of, checkout this page to see what is still available before bombarding me with email ta http://www.thebowery.co.uk/hardware All replies (if you want anything) offlist please, I'm currently in Aylsham (North Norfolk) and can deliver things locally if you pay me petrol costs, if not I will be at Syleham at the end of the month or at the City Gate meeting in Norwich next Thursday evening. Beer or beer tokens would be appreciated if you want any of this lot, but isn't essential. * 2 copies of LinuxUser & Developer magazine, the most recent issue with Mandrake 10.1 on the coverdisc. * AMD K6-2 300Mhz, 16MB Nvidia AGP TNT GFX card, 4GB harddisk (the disk is possibly/probably faulty), 32Megs Ram, Realtek Network card, CD-rom drive, ATX case 300W PSU. * Celeron 433Mhz, 64Megs RAM, 6GB harddisk, ATI AGP gfx card, Realtek Network card, CD-rom, ATX Case/psu. Both of the machines have given sterling service, but they probably have non-working parallel and serial ports due to them both being involved in a lightning strike which killed a couple of modems! (both machines should work perfectly, and have been used for some time since they were struck by lightning but have been gathering dust for the past 2 years, I have booted them in the past week and played with them a bit and they seem ok, with the exception of the harddisk in the AMD system) (I would prefer to give these to people who will use them and run Linux (or other Free Software) on them, you can have them for free if you have no money, would like to be given beer for them if you can afford it, also would rather not give them both away to the same person, unless you are passing them onto others or going to use them for some community group etc.) * Amiga 4000/030, 8 meg fast ram, 2meg chip, 120 Meg (ish) hard disk. Rev 11 Buster. Needs new realtime clock battery (so a bit of soldering involved), 14" Microvitec multisync monitor. Mouse, Joysticks, Games software, Blitz Basic, AMOS pro. Magazines etc. and Amiga 1200 in the deal. It can run Linux but would need an accelerator card with some kind of MMU included and you would probably want some kind of network card bigger hard disk etc. The machine boots and runs workbench and I have played games on it so I think it is ok, but it is more than 10 years old now and hasn't been used much for at least the past 6 years, also free Amiga 1200 included! I want £100 for this lot as it seems to be a more than fair rate compared with what they go for on ebay (or haggle, just let me know if you are interested) Free bits. (again when I say free, all beer gladly accepted) If nobody wants them they will probably go in the bin in the next couple of weeks. * Conexant PCI Winmodem, no cables, perhaps works with Linux perhaps not. Free. * Realtek 10 Meg pci ethernet card with 10base2 connector and RJ45 connector. Free. * 2 port USB header for MSI motherboard, fits into pci backplace slot. Free. * handful of 10base2 T piece adaptors. Free. * Heatsink fan combo, most likely suitable for socket A cpus (but don't quote me on that) probably noisy and not very good. Free. * 4 Floppy disk drive cables * 5 (noisy) 80mm case fans. Free. * AT to PS2 keyboard convertor Thanks Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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Re: Linux
by Jeremy Dales 05 Nov '04

05 Nov '04

Many thanks for the welcome. I'm afraid I'm still trying to work out the format here, so I hope I've replied to the right place. I should have mentioned I'm using Fedora Core 2. As you can probably tell from my post yesterday, I'd spent a very frustrating day trying to work out how to install applications - anyway, my first success was late last night when I managed to install Firefox by untarring it, cd to the download directory and typing rpm. -i firefox.rpm (or thereabouts). Things are starting to make a bit more sense.

1 0

Alternatives to lynx
by Chris Green 05 Nov '04

05 Nov '04

I'm looking for an alternative text browser to use instead of lynx. The one major facility I want is to be able to interpret javascript. I've tried links (the Twibright labs links(2)) and although it looks good and builds very easily I can't get it to run javascript either. When I get to a javascript link it just says "javascript::" and won't actually do anything. Are there any other possibilities? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Linux Laptop
by tom potts 05 Nov '04

05 Nov '04

Anyone know where I might be able to purchase a new laptop/notebook with Linux installed so M$ get none of my money? Preferably from this little backwater of a country but EU would do at a push Tom ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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Re:Linux Laptops
by tom potts 05 Nov '04

05 Nov '04

The FreeDos Dell option is probably a last resort - I'm not sure I want to buy from a company that refuses to supply AMD based machines - though I have sent them an e-mail asking if they could! And at my last company their so called service was dire! ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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Kit Swap meet?
by Jonathan McDowell 04 Nov '04

04 Nov '04

Another meeting suggestion: How about a kit swap meet? Everyone brings their old junk they want to get rid of for free and we bring some install CDs too perhaps and either we just swap junk or we combine it up to build full machines that we can then give to charity or people can take away? Possibly January, after Christmas when people have got shiny new kit and have old stuff cluttering up the place? J. -- ] http://www.earth.li/~noodles/ [] God is REAL. (unless declared [ ] PGP/GPG Key @ the.earth.li [] integer) [ ] via keyserver, web or email. [] [ ] RSA: 4DC4E7FD / DSA: 5B430367 [] [

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LiveJournal breaks Planet ALUG
by Ben Francis 04 Nov '04

04 Nov '04

Thanks slef for the page on Syndication Tools in the ALUG Wiki.¹ I was just wondering, why is it that certain HTML produced by LiveJournal² (especially images) breaks Planet ALUG/Mabloss³? I'm assuming it's because LiveJournal produces bad code in the RSS feed. Is this the case? What's the best approach to fix this? 1) Syndication Tools - http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?SyndicationTools 2) LiveJournal - http://www.livejournal.com 3) MaBloss - http://mjr.towers.org.uk/mabloss.html -- Ben "tola" Francis http://hippygeek.co.uk ---------------------------------------------------- COMPUTER SUPPORT for small businesses and home users http://tolatech.co.uk ----------------------------------------------------

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Problem with /dev/tty with kernel 2.6.9
by Alan Williams 04 Nov '04

04 Nov '04

Hiya folks I just upgraded to kernel 2.6.9 on my home machine. I tend to keep the latest, partly to test things out and partly as a learning exercise. I have had occasional problems in the past, but several important programs die under this kernel, in particular less and rxvt which I use all the time. Using strace, I can see the problem happens on trying to open '/dev/tty', which used to be a device pointing at the current terminal and is now a directory containing devices 's','s0',..,'s9'. The application dies with 'EISDIR'. The documentation on this change is obscure (nothing new), though presumably this is soumething to do with the setup of udev. So any info you have on these points would be useful. 1. Why has this particular change happened? 2. What is the alias of the current terminal supposed to be now? 3. Is there any workround you can think of that will enable these programs to work properly without changing the source and recompiling? I suppose I could revert back to 2.4.x but I would rather use the latest stable kernel if I can. Any suggestions gratefully received. The distribution is Slackware 10.0. Alan -- Alan Williams phone 01603 460800 15 Albury Walk NORWICH NR4 6JE alan(a)bearsden.demon.co.uk

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unicode, sqlite and C
by MJ Ray 04 Nov '04

04 Nov '04

This is a typical slippery slope... I start off from a general issue that affects most users, through a specific application, to a specific programming question. Are you holding tight? Is there a C doctor in the house? Some of you may have "enjoyed" the change of character set from ISO-8859-1 (an 8-bit character code, so 256 possible characters)) to utf-8 (a large character set which is converted into 8-bit codes, pairs of 8-bit codes and so on). Basically, 8859-1 only lets you display western European text, while utf-8 lets you have southern or eastern European languages, or greek or cyrillic or whatever, all at once without doing anything unusual with character sets. FAQ at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html The SQLite database seems to use UTF-16 as a basic datatype. I was having a browse after it was suggested that I try writing a Scheme interface to it. When reading http://www.sqlite.org/capi3.html, the following caught my eye: "There is no agreement on what the C datatype for a UTF-16 string should be." Is there really such disagreement on this basic datatype? The FAQ makes it look clearcut on wchar_t. What types do C programmers really use? For my part, Scheme's character and string datatypes seem to cope with unicode in theory, but the implementation details (such as what character set) are still being thrashed out. -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and not of any group I know Creative copyleft computing - http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ Unsolicited attachments to the pipex address deleted Will HLF fund tree-killings? http://www.thewalks.co.uk/

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Apache2 processes
by Jenny Hopkins 04 Nov '04

04 Nov '04

Hi, I've recently installed apache2. I notice that it spawns processes like fury but doesn't kill them when the corresponding web page is closed? Is this due to me misconfiguring a config file, perhaps? Thanks, Jen

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What does this do
by Wayne Stallwood 04 Nov '04

04 Nov '04

When typed into a bash prompt :(){ :|:&};: I have been told it does bad things so don't try it, is it folklore or does it really do something nasty ?

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