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10369 discussions

MP3 Plays Only In Command Line
by Simon Royal 18 May '10

18 May '10

Hi I am still battling with sound on my ThinkPad 600 running Xubuntu. I have managed to get some sound and even play MP3 via command line - mpg123 and mplayer. But I cannot get any program to play it. It either doesnt play at all or plays so crackly you cant even hear the music. Is this a hardware limitation or am I doing something wrong? Please help, I am a fairly new Linux user. When using mplayer via command line I noticed that it said 'pulse' is this the audio output engine/settings it is using as under Mixer there is also a mention of Pulse under one of the Output options - along sine OSS and Alsa. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad 600 running Xubuntu 10.04 & Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4. _________________________________________________________________ http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/197222280/direct/01/ We want to hear all your funny, exciting and crazy Hotmail stories. Tell us now

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Re: [ALUG] C beginner question
by Phil Ashby 17 May '10

17 May '10

On 16/05/10 02:04, Ian wrote: > > Incidentally, this is such a common requirement ISTR there are some > library functions that do these tests for you but I cannot for the > life of me remember where they are! getopt is the 'normal' way of parsing command line options in C, although I rarely use it for less than 4 options (too much pain just to avoid a few extra lines, and not posix): http://refspecs.freestandards.org/LSB_1.2.0/gLSB/libutil-getopt-3.html I typically write: #include <string.h> // For strncmp() etc. ... main (int argc, char **argv) { int arg; char *str_arg = "default"; ... for (arg=1; argc; arg++) { if (strncmp(argv[arg], "-h", 2)==0) { // They need help :) return usage(); } else if (strncmp(argv[arg], "-o", 2)==0) { str_arg = argv[++arg]; } else if (strncmp(argv[arg], "-x", 2)==0) { ... } else { return usage(); } } ... } Using strncmp() instead of strcmp() means this supporta shorter options identified by their unique prefix parts (eg: -o[ption] -x[tend] etc.) HTH, Phil.

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 17 May '10

17 May '10

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back tonight, Monday 17th May, at 20:00: P J McGinty & Sons 15 Northgate Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 3BY Tel: 01473 251 515 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP1+3BY WWW: http://www.pjmcgintys.co.uk/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. We're usually to be found in the lowest section of the bar, near the library entrance to the pub. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Peter. ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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C beginner question
by James Bensley 16 May '10

16 May '10

Hey List, I have what is hopefully a beginners C question which will be easily answered (this following little app is for converting watts, amps and volts); I have the following code: http://pastebin.com/m30x4G17 The problem I have is although the code works, it is because I have used the strncmp function to compare the first pasted argument and a string value such as "-watts", "-volts" or "-amps" because without it I was getting errors about comparing integers and pointers but I am confused as to why C thinks this. Using if(argv[1]=="-watts") produces no errors but the if statements are never hit, as in the if statement is never met and the code is never run. How should I be coding this to make these comparisons? -- Regards, James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/

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Web Dev Job
by Sam Tuke 14 May '10

14 May '10

I'm moving to Berlin in July to work for the Free Software Foundation Europe. As a result, my primary client is looking for a new developer to telecommute and work on their website www.donttravelempty.com . Those interested please email me directly at sam(a)donttravelempty.com. The site uses lots of FOSS (see http://www.donttravelempty.co.uk/about-site.php ), and you'll need good PHP, MySQL and communication skills. Number and spread of hours + pay are negotiable. Sam.

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Pub Meet Suggestion
by Steve Engledow 13 May '10

13 May '10

Hi all, Following the recent heads-up about the impending football mob, I'm suggesting we move to the Cider Shed on Sprowston Road. It's too far out of the city to be mobbed, there's good beer and cider (Fat Cat beers!) and there's a car park. So, any takers? Steve

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Norwich Pub meet heads up
by Montmorency 13 May '10

13 May '10

Just letting everybody know... there's some kind of football parade going on in the city this evening, on account of Norwich City winning something or other. I heard a crowd of 30,000 is expected. I imagine parking around the Coach and Horses is going to be non-existent. Furthermore, the C&H is a bit of a football pub, on home-game days. So I imagine it'll be packed out - standing room only. Sixteen stone men with beer guts, wearing replica football shirts intended for 12 stone profession athletes, are definitely not a pretty sight. So I'm going to skip it this evening. katsmeat

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Xubuntu, Sound, mplayer. Help!
by Simon Royal 13 May '10

13 May '10

Hi I am still trying to fathom out MP3 playback on my ThinkPad 600. Sorry if I seem to ignore peoples suggestions, but I'm not. I must have just missed the reply. Anyway. I trying installing mplayer from Synaptic, and it appears to me to be Movie Player, which is already installed in Xubuntu. Correct me if I am wrong. Now I am back to getting no sound at all. I still get the crackling of the speakers on boot - like it is initialising them. However, it will not play any type of audio file. I have tried MP3, MID and WAV in both Movie Player and Exaile and no sound at all. I tried playing with Aumix and it looks like it is set ok, I also raised all the levels in Mixer for all instances. I also tried playing an audio CD, to no avail. You see the timers going but no sound comes out. Any help please? Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad 600 running Xubuntu 10.04 & Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4. _________________________________________________________________ http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/197222280/direct/01/ Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now

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Re: [ALUG] Xubuntu ThinkPad Audio Oddness
by Simon Royal 12 May '10

12 May '10

Marcus Before I was getting no audio, now it is just MP3s. i want to know if it can be fixed or if it is an outdated hardware problem. Simon --- http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - http://www.tinyurl.com/macspectrum (sent using Sony Ericsson P990i)

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Xubuntu ThinkPad Audio Oddness
by Simon Royal 11 May '10

11 May '10

Hi. For the past few weeks I have been trying to get audio working on my ThinkPad 600 under Xubuntu 9.10 and now 10.04. I followed some instructions I found online for manually editing modprobes etc... and I still couldnt get MP3 to work and assumed it was all audio not working. However, a few days ago I got a 'blip' sound while FaceBook chatting and today I played a YouTube video and it played the sound, however I cannot get an MP3 to play. Is it my machine is too old? All I get is crackling. I have tried Amarok, Exaile and Movie Player. Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad 600 running Xubuntu 10.04 & Apple iBook G3 running OSX 10.4. _________________________________________________________________ http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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Copy Evolution contacts, appointments, etc. - how?
by Chris G 10 May '10

10 May '10

I want to copy Evolution contacts, calendars, tasks and memos from one user to another and can find no remotely sensible way of doing it. I tried copying the whole .evolution hierarchy but that seemed to do nothing at all - I suspect possibly because of Evolution background processes hanging on to things. Copying addressbook.db apparently doesn't work according to what I can surmise from a bit of googling. Is there really no way to do this? -- Chris Green

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1/6/10, Cornhill, Ipswich: dorkbot anglia
by samwise 10 May '10

10 May '10

Hi, For anyone interested in cool things to do with techy stuff, dorkbot is coming to East Anglia. It's first announced date is at the Cornhill in Ipswich. Press release cut and pasted below. Go to the main website to see it with links etc. Peter. http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotanglia/ dorkbot anglia Thursday 1st July 2010, 8-10pm, Free Entry Town Hall Galleries, Cornhill, Ipswich, UK. IP1 1DH We are delighted to announce the inaugural meeting of dorkbot anglia, an evening of talks and conversations with "people doing strange things with electricity" in the East Anglian area. The event is part of the ip-art festival and kindly hosted by the Town Hall Galleries. David Chatting, cofounder of the Curiosity Collective, introduces: * Pixelh8 / Matthew C. Applegate makes music from reprogramming old and rare computers. http://pixelh8.co.uk/ * Tim Hunkin, engineer, cartoonist and maker of TV’s The Secret Life of Machines describes his humorous slot machines, automata and simulator rides on Southwold Pier. http://timhunkin.com * John Bowers, musician, sound artist, hardware hacker and academic discusses some of his most recent work. http://onoma.co.uk/ * Plus, "OpenDork" a short ad-hoc slot for anyone to talk about their work - the floor is yours! dorkbot encourages grassroots meetings of artists, engineers, designers, scientists, inventors and anyone else working under the very broad umbrella of electronic art. Started by Douglas Repetto at Columbia University in 2000, dorkbot is now global in almost 100 cities; dorkbot anglia is the newest. Our intention is for dorkbot anglia to run every two or three months in a different town in the region. If you would like to participate or could offer a venue, please get in touch - Please join the mailing-lists: the announce list for our monthly announcements and a blabber list for open discussion. Follow our tweets via twitter and find the event on facebook.

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Re: [ALUG] ssh assistance please
by mick 09 May '10

09 May '10

On Sun, 9 May 2010 15:29:18 +0100 "Martin A. Brooks" <martin(a)hinterlands.org> allegedly wrote: > You might have better luck using a regular VPN such as OpenVPN. > Here's a HOWTO: > > http://hinterlands.org/wiki/index.php/OpenVPNQuickstart > Martin/Brett Thanks - but unless I'm missing something obvious, the VPN solution won't work easily in my scenario. Bear in mind that I want 90% (or so) of my web browsing to go out normally (unproxied). I only want my tor traffic (from separately configured browsers on various clients) to go via the proxy to the external VPS. And I want a simple configuration which means I point to a local proxy. If I set up a VPN from my local proxy (say 192.168.1.20) to my VPS (say 195.195.195.195) that will give me a route to the VPS which is independent of the normal default route to the outside. That would mean that I would need to reconfigure my clients to add a new static route to the VPS via the tunnel on the local proxy. That adds a complication I don't want. Of course, if I could set up a VPN from my external router that would make it slightly easier, but I'm pretty sure my cisco wont run openvpn. So autossh looks like the way to go (thanks Brett). But I'd still like to know why the tunnel dies. Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- The text file for RFC 854 contains exactly 854 lines. Do you think there is any cosmic significance in this? Douglas E Comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume 1 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc854.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [ALUG] ssh assistance please
by Martin A. Brooks 09 May '10

09 May '10

On Sun, May 9, 2010 13:01, mick wrote: > I have a problem with ssh tunneling that is puzzling me. > > I run tor on a VPS. My tor node also runs privoxy (chained to tor) so that I may use the VPS for my own tor browsing. > > When I want to use tor myself, I have for some time simply set up a tunnel to my VPS as so: > > ssh -N -C -l mick -f -L 2000:127.0.0.1:8118 tornode > > (so I am listening locally on 2000 and forwarding to privoxy on the tor node.) You might have better luck using a regular VPN such as OpenVPN. Here's a HOWTO: http://hinterlands.org/wiki/index.php/OpenVPNQuickstart

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ssh assistance please
by mick 09 May '10

09 May '10

I have a problem with ssh tunneling that is puzzling me. I run tor on a VPS. My tor node also runs privoxy (chained to tor) so that I may use the VPS for my own tor browsing. When I want to use tor myself, I have for some time simply set up a tunnel to my VPS as so: ssh -N -C -l mick -f -L 2000:127.0.0.1:8118 tornode (so I am listening locally on 2000 and forwarding to privoxy on the tor node.) Locally I use a completely separate browser (opera, suitably locked down) set to proxy through localhost:2000. This all works fine and I connect through tor as I would expect. But, I have several different client machines around (including one used by my wife). Rather than have the same setup on each machine (and possibly cause my wife difficulty she does not want) I have recently been experimenting with using one of my small debian devices (a sheevaplug) as a proxy so that all I have to do is set up the browser on each client machine. On the proxy machine I used: ssh -N -C -g -l mick -f -L 192.168.1.20:8000:127.0.0.1:8118 tornode (so I am now listening on 192.168.1.20 port 8000 and forwarding to privoxy on the tornode. The -g switch lets other hosts connect.) Again, this all works fine. The proxy has a listener on port 8000, it forwards correctly and my modified client browsers can successfully connect through tor. But here's the rub. The listener dies after some (as yet to be determined, but > 30 mins) period of inactivity. This means I cannot rely on the proxy being up when I (or more importantly, my wife) want it. I have searched for obvious timeout configuration options, but I confess I don't know enough about ssh to know what I should be looking for (ClientAliveCountMax, ClientAliveInterval server side? or ServerAliveCountMax, ServerAliveInterval client side? ) Any ideas anyone? Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- The text file for RFC 854 contains exactly 854 lines. Do you think there is any cosmic significance in this? Douglas E Comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume 1 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc854.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Large box of computer crud
by Martin A. Brooks 09 May '10

09 May '10

Hello I have finally got round to sorting out my office a bit and I have compiled a box full of stuff that's of no use to me but might be to you. This box contains (at least): * Dust * A 56k modem (ooooh!) * A USB TV tuner (ahhhh!) * A 128Mb pen drive (gasp!) * A USB ethernet adaptor * A CD-ROM drive * A boxed usb internet phone * A PCI TV tuner A many many more cables, fans, adaptors, convertors, screws, nuts, bolts, thermal paste, weird backing plates etc etc. Claiming this wonderful prize is easy. Please be the first person to say "I can come and collect this from your house -today-, I know you live at approximately RM3 7EG." The amount of money I would like for this is £0.00. I will even throw in an antibodyMX tshirt (please indicate your size M, L or XL).

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Grub Menu Editing Xubuntu
by Simon Royal 09 May '10

09 May '10

Hi. How do you edit the list in the grub menu in Xubuntu. Since installing 9.10 and upgrading to 10.04 I have been informed of updates to 'linux headers' and it keeps adding to entries. How do you delete older versions from the list? Simon --- http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - http://www.tinyurl.com/macspectrum (sent using Sony Ericsson P990i)

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Deleting directories which only contain old files
by Mark Rogers 08 May '10

08 May '10

Starting in a directory on my server, I need to delete all directories below it which only contain files older than a certain age. To be clear, I don't just want to delete old files; if a directory has any new files in it then I don't want to delete the older files that might also be in there. Background: I run dspam on a server, and it creates a directory for each mail address it scans, containing a log and a quarantine mailbox, amongst other things. I have many many directories that were created automatically for non-existent users and haven't seen any changes in months or even years, but "active" directories do have old files in them (preferences files, etc). So I want to find directories that haven't had any of their contents change in (say) 6 months, and then delete the whole directory. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Bluetooth - help!
by Chris G 07 May '10

07 May '10

I'm trying to get my desktop Linux box to talk Bluetooth and I'm *very* lost. I've plugged in a USB Bluetooth 'dongle' and it's sitting there happily flashing its blue LED. So now what do I do? :-) If I run bluetooth-wizard it loses me completely, I don't really know which 'end' it's asking for information about. The other end I'm trying to communicate with is a Nokia E71 phone. Can someone describe in simple terms what I should be doing to pair my computer with the phone? (Note: I have successfully paired other Bluetooth devices before now, in particular a SatNav and a bluetooth equipped crash helmet) -- Chris Green

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concatenate two jpeg images
by Ian Thompson-Bell 07 May '10

07 May '10

I have two jpeg images that I can arrange to have the same height. I want to combine then into a single image of the two, side by side. I cannot seem to find a way to do this in GIMP. Any ideas? Cheers Ian

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Thunderbird 3 Smart Folders
by Wayne Stallwood 06 May '10

06 May '10

Ok after an initial "ugh" when Thunderbird got updated to version 3 as part of my upgrade to Ubuntu 10.04 I have sort of adjusted and it *is* better. But one thing that I can't get is adding smart folders properly...has anyone done this and how ? At the top of the folder tree I have an "Inbox" smart folder which is a combination of my local (pop collected) inbox and an imap work one I want to add another smart folder that only shows unread items in the same way just under this. I can change the filter on the existing "Inbox" smart folder so that messages are only shown if status-isn't-read and that works fine (although annoyingly it only updates if you leave it and navigate back) but what I can't seem to do is add an additional folder that behaves like this. I worked out that the easy way to add new smart folders is to perform a search and then in the search options click "save search as virtual folder" but this only allows me to add the virtual folder as a subfolder to one of my existing accounts...not put it at the top with the other smart folders.

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Keyboard is king?
by Anthony Anson 06 May '10

06 May '10

Can anyone suggest why, occasionally, I turn on the Eee (t's still running Tellytubbies Xandros) and no keyboard function works. Right arrow, left arrow, tab, nuffin. Order is restored when the mouse is tweaked. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Re: [ALUG] Any raid experts among us?
by Adam Reid 05 May '10

05 May '10

Righty... the situation's changed a bit now, as Brett outlined. Raid is now repaired, but won't start on boot, for reasons not known. Syncing doesn't cause lockups, or that's not proven, but something does cause a USB devices to stop responding, eg keyboard & mouse. this happened on the live cd as well, although the PC was working normally otherwise. Basically, as it stands now, I have a working raid, in the live cd mdadm --assemble --scan /dev/md0 works perfectly, but something has changed that stops it being loaded at boot time; the kernel gives up waiting for the root device to be ready & drops me at busybox. I could make a backup of the array and reinstall the whole system, but I'd prefer to solve the problem if possible. I'm making a full backup tomorrow anyway, whatever happens.

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Any raid experts among us?
by Adam Reid 05 May '10

05 May '10

Allo all, I've run into a spot of bother (understatement of the year) while upgrading Ubuntu to 10.4. More specifically, after upgrading, the device names of my drives seem to have shuffled around a bit, and raid5 (softraid) broke. I'm unable to rebuild the array, as it seems to value the old device names more highly than the uuid's, and errors out. Pastebin of the current drive situation is at http://www.pastebin.com/2AT9fQYF . The drives used to be sda, sdb and sdc, but somehow the dvd drive took over sdb post-upgrade. You can see my attempts to sort the situation here, and the results: http://www.pastebin.com/t8wPxZHu . I can get to busybox on the PC, and am using a liveCD to try to repair it. I'm wondering whether shuffling the cables around to realign the drive letters is a sane idea ... or whether that'll make the problem worse. Any insight much appreciated.

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Geekbench In Xubuntu
by Simon Royal 03 May '10

03 May '10

Hi I am interested in getting Geekbench in Xubuntu. I have downloaded the file from the website, unpacked it and went to Execute it, but it doesn't do anything. I'm dual booting XP and Xubuntu on my ThinkPad 600 and have benched XP and would like to see if there is an diference under Xubuntu. Simon Royal --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. _________________________________________________________________ http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/197222280/direct/01/ Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now

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