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10369 discussions

introduction
by Ian Porter 13 Jan '10

13 Jan '10

Hi all.. My name is Ian Porter and I have been using linux for about 10 years now.. and cannot say that I am resetting that choice :).. I would class myself as a developer (c++/c#/java/php/sql etc ) and also server person. I did join before xmas and think that I posted my introduction then.. but allot has happened since then, Scotland and back in snow etc.. which is always fun sliding around on for 400 miles.. :) Anyway, just thought that I would say hi since I have seen a couple come though. Catch up with you all sometime. Ian Mysite: http://www.codingfriends.com

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Software patents, and a petition
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi Folks, ComputerWorldUK have an article describing the resurrection of the European Software Patents issue: http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open- source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2721&blogid=14 There is a link therein to a petition, which you may wish to consider signing. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 09-Jan-10 Time: 07:19:28 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Programs that use dbus appear not to work as remote X clients
by Chris G 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

I have been trying to use Gnome Planner running as an X remote client application running on another computer on the LAN. I.e. I am logging into another computer using ssh from a terminal window on my desktop (using 'ssh -X <remote> so X is allowed and DISPLAY is set) and then entering 'planner' at the command prompt. It's totally broken as far as I can see, planner tries to connect to a local (i.e. on the remote system) dbus which isn't there because the X session it needs to talk to is on my desktop computer. The symptoms in planner are a huge delay starting up, a failure to find saved data and a wierd pop-up error box when it finally appears on the screen. I also tried running yelp as a remote X client and it too failed miserably with a load of similar dbus errors:- (yelp:2860): Yelp-WARNING **: Cannot find dbus bus GConf Error: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to get connection to session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-nrMIzFk9Y7: Connection refused) GConf Error: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to get connection to session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-JTLaNQBBPo: Connection refused) (yelp:2860): Yelp-WARNING **: Failed to load config file: No such file or directory ** (yelp:2860): CRITICAL **: atk_object_set_name: assertion `name != NULL' failed ** (yelp:2860): CRITICAL **: atk_object_set_name: assertion `name != NULL' failed (yelp:2860): Yelp-WARNING **: An error occurred getting the gconf value /apps/yelp/use_system_fonts: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to get connection to session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-4gA9VDJgu5: Connection refused) (yelp:2860): Yelp-WARNING **: An error occurred getting the gconf value '/apps/yelp/variable_font' ... plus loads more in similar vein. Other remote X client applications (which, presumably don't attempt to use dbus) work perfectly OK. I even have synaptic installed on the (headless) remote system and run it on my desktop to do upgrades to the remote system (I usually use apt-get but sometimes synaptic is easier). So am I missing something or is the whole dbus thing completely broken if you're trying to use X in the classic way with remote applications? I've done a few Google searches and didn't find anything very obvious about this so *maybe* there is something vital I'm missing, or maybe no one now uses remote X (at least not with Gnome). -- Chris Green

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New list member
by Mark Wilson 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi all, Just thought I'd introduce myself. I've been subscribed to this list quite a while but this is my first post. I'm a Norwich resident who has been using Linux for probably 3-4 years now. I'm into programming (C++, Java) as an amateur hobbyist. Mark Wilson

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Re: [ALUG] MP4 To MP3 Converter Ubuntu
by Srdjan Todorovic 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi, 2010/1/12 Simon Royal <simonroyal(a)live.co.uk>: > Hi > Tried the command you said. First I had to sudo apt-get mplayer, which all > went fine. > However when I run the line you gave me (replacing the filename of course), > I get: > Unknown option on the command line: -aoc > Error parsing option on the command line: -aoc > Any ideas? Yes I think my memory is at fault (though I think mplayer devs changed the syntax of the command line options lately). It should have been -ao pcm:file=somefile.wav Srdjan > --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal > > > >> Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:56:41 +0000 >> From: todorovic.s(a)googlemail.com >> To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk >> Subject: Re: [ALUG] MP4 To MP3 Converter Ubuntu >> >> On 12/01/2010, Simon Royal <simonroyal(a)live.co.uk> wrote: >> >> > Can anyone recommend a program that will extra audio from an MP4 video >> > file >> > and either convert it to MP3 straight or at least extract to AIFF or >> > WAV? >> > Im running 9.10. >> >> Off the top of my head, something like this should work: >> >> mplayer cool_video.mp4 -vo null -vc dummy -aoc pcm:file=myoutput.wav >> >> You could also use -aoc mp3lame or -aoc lavc to encode straight to mp3 >> but I can't remember the syntax for it right now. >> >> Srdjan >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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! > > ________________________________ > Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now

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MP4 To MP3 Converter Ubuntu
by Simon Royal 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi. Im fairly new to Ubuntu, been running it for a few weeks now solid and loving it. Can anyone recommend a program that will extra audio from an MP4 video file and either convert it to MP3 straight or at least extract to AIFF or WAV? Im running 9.10. Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ We want to hear all your funny, exciting and crazy Hotmail stories. Tell us now http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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Forwarding Desktop Ports
by Paul Grenyer 11 Jan '10

11 Jan '10

Hi all I've VritualBox running a Win 2003 Server on my 64bit Ubuntu 9.10 desktop installation. And that in turn is running Microsoft SQL Server. I can access SQL server from my ubuntu desktop as http://win2003server:1433. But I want to be able to access it is http://localhost:1433, as if it was actually running on ubuntu. So what I want to know is, is there a way to forward all localhost:1433 traffic automatically to win2003server:1433? Is there a better solution? -- Thanks Paul Paul Grenyer e: paul.grenyer(a)gmail.com b: paulgrenyer.blogspot.com

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AVI & WMV from Linux don't play on Windows
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 11 Jan '10

11 Jan '10

Hi Folks, I'd be most grateful for help with the foloowing puzzle. Background: I VHS-taped an item from yesterday evening's BBC1 "Look East", since it is of interest to people I know. I then copied this onto a "scratch" DVD, to have it readable on my Debian laptop (OK, I know it can probably be done with a cable, but I'm not up to that). I wanted to put it up on my Zen web-site so that others can view it from there (and they will mostly be using WIndows). So I first created an AVI file usingmencoder as follows (following an example in 'man mplayer'): mencoder dvd://1 \ -o denvermilllookeast2010.01.05.avi \ -oac copy \ -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4 The resulting .avi file plays fine using totem. I then ftp'd it to my website, and tried playing it from there using IE on Windows Vista. It failed, saying a codec was missing. However, the file on the website still plays fine on Debian with totem. So I then created a WMV file using "wmv2" format with: mencoder dvd://1 \ -o Denver.wmv \ -oac copy \ -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=wmv2 Then I uploaded this one as well. Once again, this played fine in totem both from the file on the Debian laptop and from the copy on the web-site. This time, when I try IE from Vista on the web-site copy, I get the video OK, but no sound. So I'm wondering what the problem is, and how to solve it! In the past, I've had no problems with playing AVI files created by my digital camera using IE (video and sound both OK), though I haven't tried WMV before. So presumably there's some mysterious mismatch between the AVI created by mencoder as above, and AVI as Windows MediaPlayer expects to see it; ditto with WMV. The files in question can be found at http://www.zen89632.zen.co.uk/DenverMill AVI: denvermilllookeast2010.01.05.avi WMV: Denver.wmv and an example of a working AVI (both in totem and IE) at http://www.zen89632.zen.co.uk/Earith/Earith_Crab_2009.10.25.avi As well as the video, there is background noise from the water falling over the sluice, and from passing traffic, which comes through quite clearly both in totem and in IE. For anyone interested: this is probably a Mitten Crab which has found its way some 30 miles upstream from the sea, spotted by me when I was strolling over the bridge above the sluice-gate on the Old Bedford River at Earith, in the shallow water above the concrete sill below the sluice-gate. A still photo is at http://www.zen89632.zen.co.uk/Earith/Earith_Crab_2009.10.25cropped.jpg The location of the photo is marked "A" on: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=52.353953,0.038109& daddr=&hl=en&geocode=&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=15&sll=52.353901,0.038023& sspn=0.011586,0.034719&ie=UTF8&z=15 [equivalent: http://tinyurl.com/yb57epr ] Any comments on the problem would be most welcome! With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 06-Jan-10 Time: 21:38:51 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Wanted, sort of Journal/Blog/Calendar/ToDo all in one, probably web based
by Chris G 10 Jan '10

10 Jan '10

Yes, I know that's a bit of a broad requirement! :-) I'm after an application of some sort that will help me keep track of what I suppose is a project (buying a boat in France). I'm open to any sort of idea really as, at the moment, I'm a bit lost as to how to do it. Straightforward calendar applications don't quite cut it as I want it to be a bit more 'textful' than that, I also want easy ways to link to web pages and other information. I might be persuaded that something like Sunbird/Lightning or evolution is the way to go though. Can one put links into sunbird entries? A blog *might* do what I want but I need easy ways to search and/or browse through entries by date and a way to remind myself to do things. I don't think blogs usually allow one to create future entries and or planning sections do they? I suppose a project planning utility might be what I'm after but they often seem a bit too much oriented towards large multi-person projects. I will go and do some looking on this front though as it isn't a way I've thought of going before. -- Chris Green

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Error writing to /sys
by Richard Lewis 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

Hi ALUG, I'm just trying to replace acerfand <http://www.electronpusher.org/~rachel/acerfand> with acerhdf <http://www.piie.net/index.php?section=acerhdf> on my Acer Aspire One. The module comes with my kernel (Debian 2.6.31-1-686), is loaded, and reports the current temperature correctly. However, I can't enable the automatic fan control because, when I try and write "enabled" to /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode it says "Permission denied": $ sudo echo "enabled" -n >/sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode bash: /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode: Permission denied Or, # echo "enabled" -n > /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument I even tried switching to runlevel 1 and I still get the "Invalid argument" error. Any ideas why I can't write to this file? Or how to make it work? Best, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis ISMS, Computing Goldsmiths, University of London Tel: +44 (0)20 7078 5134 Skype: richardjlewis JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +----------------------------------------------+ | Support open access to scholarship | | http://freeculture.org/ http://www.doaj.org/ | +----------------------------------------------+

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Re: [ALUG] Weird rendering of website!
by Anthony Anson 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

Anthony Anson wrote: > Chris G wrote: >> On Fri, Jan 08, 2010 at 01:28:11PM -0000, Ted Harding wrote: >>> Hi Folks, >>> Still following up one of my current side-interests, I visited the >>> website >>> >>> http://www.denvermill.co.uk >>> >>> using Iceweasel on Debian Etch. Hopeless rendering of text (massive >>> vertical expansion), much of the page simply missing, and hardly >>> any of the links apparently active and none of them working. >>> >>> On the other hand, if I view it in Windows Internet Explorer then >>> it all seems to work perfectly. >>> >>> What might be the explanation for this difference? >>> >> Looking at the source:- >> >> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 6.0"> >> >> This, plus a total lack of testing, would explain a lot! :-) >> >> Not to mention how does a fairly simple page require such a *huge* >> amount of junk to generate it? Very good question - and I have to wonder what it sends back to M$... Seems to work (FSVO work) OK in Firefox, though. Site written by a complete bloat-happy numpty: all those graphics on the main page... -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Weird rendering of website!
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

Hi Folks, Still following up one of my current side-interests, I visited the website http://www.denvermill.co.uk using Iceweasel on Debian Etch. Hopeless rendering of text (massive vertical expansion), much of the page simply missing, and hardly any of the links apparently active and none of them working. On the other hand, if I view it in Windows Internet Explorer then it all seems to work perfectly. What might be the explanation for this difference? Best wishes, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 08-Jan-10 Time: 13:28:07 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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UPS + LAN Switches that don't blow up after a power cut!
by stevey.eu 07 Jan '10

07 Jan '10

Having only just got back on after 24hours, I have no end of issues, so am thinking a UPS is in order. That and my LAN switch no longer works. Any suggestions for suitable replacements would be handy right now. Cheers, Steve

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Which way of using rsync will be faster?
by Chris G 07 Jan '10

07 Jan '10

I'm using rsync to copy some files across my LAN. There are various ways I can do this and I'd like to know which is likely to be fastest. The (most obvious) ways I can see of doing it are:- 1 - Run rxvt in conventional fashion across the network to the remote system, e.g. with syntax like:- rxvt -a /thisDir/ thatSystem:/thatDir/ 2 - Use the (already mounted) NFS mount of the remote system and, from rxvt's point of view copy locally:- rxvt -a /thisDir/ /mnt/thatDir/ 3 - sshfs? Doesn't really seem a very sensible candidate. My *guess* is that probably option 1 is best but I'm not really sure. The object is more to minimise system load (and network load) than to get the absolute best speed. The copies (backups) will likely run when I'm using the system so I want them not to overload things too much. -- Chris Green

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Ipswich ALUG Christmas Meal
by samwise 05 Jan '10

05 Jan '10

Final reminder for Adam R, Steve F, David D, Peter T, Keith J and Sean M - the Ipswich ALUG Christmas Meal is tonight. Meet in McGinty's at 19:30 or at the restaurant at 20:00 this evening. Mr Wing 7 St. Helens Street Ipswich IP4 1HE Tel: 01473 212885 WWW: http://www.misterwing.co.uk/ Map URL: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=mr.+wings+ipswich Cheers, Peter.

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Cannot empty trash
by Mark Rogers 05 Jan '10

05 Jan '10

On my Ubuntu 9.10 desktop, I have the trash applet in my Gnome taskbar and it says I have 2 items in trash if I hover my mouse over it. If I open the trash, there's nothing there. If I select the "empty deleted items folder" option it has no effect. There is nothing in ~/.local/share/Trash/(files|info|expunged) I'm guessing that something has been deleted on an external or other mounted drive that has since been removed without emptying the trash properly, but I can't see how to clear the trash so that it appears to be empty. Googling just sends me to endless pointers to ~/.local/share/Trash and/or the trash-cli package, neither of which have helped. -- 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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Online command line info pages?
by Anthony Anson 04 Jan '10

04 Jan '10

I'd be grateful if someone could point me at a page/pages which give the scripts for commands I can type into a 'terminal', so I can make things happen in this awful Kenvironment. Too hurriedly, I bought 'Command Line & Shell Scripting' - at huge expense, only to disover that a) because what the author really meant by the title was 'Shell Scripting in a ommand Line Environment', b) I can't haggle with Borders about exchanging it, -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Here I Am
by Simon Royal 03 Jan '10

03 Jan '10

Hi. Well I have just joined the ALUG and I thought I would share a little about myself. I've been into computing for over 17 years, firstly on Windows. I have spent the last 10 years as a hardcore Mac fan, until a few weeks ago when I decided to give Linux a proper try. It has always been something I have played with on and off. I have a Samsung A10 laptop, it is a 1.1Ghz Duron with 1GB RAM dual booting Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows XP Home. I use Ubuntu 99% of the time and only use Windows as a backup just incase. Ubuntu runs like a dream on it and this latest version has the best hardware support I have ever found, it was easier to set up some of my hardware under Ubuntu than it was Mac OSX. Well that is me. I'm not too experienced in Linux but I am learning on a daily basis and loving everything I find. Regards Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ Have more than one Hotmail account? Link them together to easily access both http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/186394591/direct/01/

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How to find what this /dev/sdc is - I don't have a third disk
by Chris G 03 Jan '10

03 Jan '10

I have been looking at reducing my system's boot-up time and noticed that it seemed to spend quite a lot of time detecting a device called /dev/sdc. I only have two real hard disks on the system, they're /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. However in dmesg I see:- [ 7.681894] usb-storage: device scan complete [ 7.690995] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic Ultra HS-SD/MMC 1.82 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 [ 7.691402] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0 [ 7.707729] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk What is this? I don't have any removable disks that I know about and /dev/sdc doesn't seem to be in any way a usable device. The only USB devices (well, external ones anyway) are a mouse and a scanner. I don't think it's the CD drive either as that seems to be a distinct device:- brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 32 2010-01-02 17:39 /dev/sdc brw-rw----+ 1 root cdrom 11, 0 2010-01-02 17:39 /dev/sr0 So who/what/where is /dev/sdc coming from and can I get rid of it somehow so it doesn't wast boot time? -- Chris Green

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VMWare 2.0.2 on Ubuntu 9.10
by Paul Grenyer 02 Jan '10

02 Jan '10

Hi All Thanks for the FTP help. Here's question number 2! I'm trying to install VMWare 2.0.2 on Ubuntu 9.10. I've downloaded and unzipped VMware-server-2.0.2-203138.x86_64.tar.gz and followed the instructions: sudo ./wmware-install.pl I accepted the defaults and the licence and it ran through to the vmware-config.pl bit. Then it fails with: ... /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c: In function ‘LinuxDriverSyncCallOnEachCPU’: /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1423: error: too many arguments to function ‘smp_call_function’ /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c: In function ‘LinuxDriver_Ioctl’: /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1987: error: ‘struct task_struct’ has no member named ‘euid’ /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1987: error: ‘struct task_struct’ has no member named ‘uid’ /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1988: error: ‘struct task_struct’ has no member named ‘fsuid’ /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1988: error: ‘struct task_struct’ has no member named ‘uid’ /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1989: error: ‘struct task_struct’ has no member named ‘egid’ /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1989: error: ‘struct task_struct’ has no member named ‘gid’ /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1990: error: ‘struct task_struct’ has no member named ‘fsgid’ /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:1990: error: ‘struct task_struct’ has no member named ‘gid’ /tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:2007: error: too many arguments to function ‘smp_call_function’ make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.31-16-generic' make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2 make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only' Unable to build the vmmon module. For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please visit our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/go/unsup-linux-products" and "http://www.vmware.com/go/unsup-linux-tools". Execution aborted. I've checked the vmware website and googled, but none of the suggested solutions I've tried have worked. I'm hoping someone else on this list is running VMWare and can help me out, please? -- Thanks Paul Paul Grenyer e: paul.grenyer(a)gmail.com b: paulgrenyer.blogspot.com

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iwl3945 Wi-Fi broken in Kubuntu 9.10 ?
by Srdjan Todorovic 02 Jan '10

02 Jan '10

Happy New Year everyone! I've got a strange problem where my dad's laptop will sometimes associate with the wifi AP (but never ever get a DHCP response from it) when the laptop's running Kubuntu 9.04 or 9.10. A temporary install of Slackware 13 on the same machine showed that the laptop will associate with the AP and get an IP address very fast and with no problems. My laptop with a wifi device that uses the same driver works perfectly in Slackware 13... Has anyone come across this problem? I've been on the #kubuntu channel today with not much useful help coming from there (understandable as it's New Years). There might be an issue with NetworkManager - that's now been uninstalled and replaced with wicd which seems to help a bit. I was getting lots of "disassociating by local choice reason=3" in dmesg output which is output from the ieee80211 support layer in the kernel. The Kubuntu kernel that was tried also included 2.6.29.6 - which is the kernel that Slackware had. I suspect some weird ubuntu-ism or PEBKAC is at fault, but I'm running out of time to fix this. The commands to reproduce: ifconfig wlan0 up iwconfig wlan0 essid myssid iwconfig wlan0 key s:mykey (yes the real key was correct but I'm not printing here) iwconfig wlan0 ap aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff dhclient wlan0 Somewhere after iwconfig key or ap, the wiconfig output lost all the ssid and key and ap settings (if they showed any beforehand). dhclient just sat there broadcasting for a response. Wicd actually helped in the sense that once the GUI was told to connect, the iwconfig settings were set for essid/key/ap and the problem was that the interface could not get a DHCP response. The hardware RFKill switch was set to off (RF allowed). Any ideas please? Thanks, Srdjan

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Eee bah gum
by Anthony Anson 01 Jan '10

01 Jan '10

Have an Eee using Xandros, and a Vodafone mobile internet dongle. If I connect to the internet (3G or GPRS) whatever else I plug into a USB port isn't found in the file system. OTOH, if I plug any other devie in, such as memory stick, SD card, external HDD or CD/DVD drive, any of those will be found, however many there are, even filling a (powered hub), but if I then plug in the dongle, this isn't found. Not being able to transfer files etc onto a memory stick is to say the least, inconvenient. Any suggestions welcomed. (Yes, I'd probably load Ubantu, but without the dongle working, I'm not sure that the driver I've downloaded will work - given I can find the command line string to install it. (See other thread!) -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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command line book and a couple other things
by Peter Alcibiades 01 Jan '10

01 Jan '10

Two things, first, Scott Grannenman's book 'Linux Phrasebook' is a really great introduction to command line, a bit less forbidding and shorter than Linux in a Nutshell, and more pedagogically oriented, lots of examples and when and how to use stuff. Second, I would really like to reply in threads, I realize its very irritating when people do not do this, but how do you do it when receiving only the digest? Is there a nabble or similar page for main as there is for one or two other lists? I've not beein able to find it for this one. Or do I simply have to start getting the messages as they come in and segregate them in the client? Which is kmail, by the way. Incidentally, the printer, which people were kind enough to help with earlier, well, it works! Amazing. It prints out the receipts, and then as if by magic, it operates the cutter, and then equally magically, it opens the cash drawer! The last trick I had to overcome was that ghex for some reason didn't seem to want to make a text file with only hex 7 in it, so I used the far superior bless. And there turned out to be a trick to passing an echo string with quotes in it to the shell from my programming language, you have to do some fairly convoluted things to manage to escape the quotes in the string you want to pass. But hey, it works now, and you will all know that nice feeling you get when, bingo, the bell rings and the drawer opens, just as it should. So thanks. Peter

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USB disk drives
by nev young 01 Jan '10

01 Jan '10

Hi all, Hope every one has had a merry xmas. Does any one know if this[1] 1.5Tb USB disk from Maplins will work on an ubuntu 9.10 machine? If not how could I make it work? I bought a similar one last year and it was not recognised by the PC so I ended up removing the HDD and installing it as an internal drive. Now they're about £30 cheaper than last year and I still need a decent size external drive for backup. I've been to the shop to ask - they don't know and they won't let me try it and return if it doesn't work. I've emailed Maplins tech help - no reply. I've emailed Verbaitum's tech help - no reply. So I thought I'd ask here before I lay out my cash on something else that may not work as intended. TIA Nev [1] http://buy.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=323559

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Introducing Myself
by Paul Grenyer 31 Dec '09

31 Dec '09

Hi All I am Head of Software Engineering at validus (http://www.validus-ivc.co.uk) in Norwich. I recently switched from Windows Vista to Ubuntu 9.10 desktop as more and more of the applications I am running on Windows will run anywhere and I wanted something faster and more stable and also wanted to add a new string to my bow. I've tried to switch to Linux on a number of occasions over the years, but this is the only time I've stuck with it. In fact going back to Windows, as I will have to when I return to work in a week, feels horrible and slow now. I am also moving my hosted webserver to my own webserver at home running Ubuntu 9.10 server. I joined the LUG primarily to try and get some help with some issues I'm having, but I will put those into separate emails. For those of you interested, you can read my blog here: http://paulgrenyer.blogspot.com. -- Thanks Paul Paul Grenyer e: paul.grenyer(a)gmail.com b: paulgrenyer.blogspot.com

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