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Isn't the default way that 'locate' works rather useless?
by Chris G 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

I like the *idea* of the locate command but find that the way it works by default is pretty useless. When I say 'locate filexyz' I want to find a file (or maybe a directory) called filexyz, I don't want to see every file which has filexyz as part of its name, nor do I want to see every file in the hierarchy below a directory called filexyz. Surely it would be more useful if the default was to do something similar to 'find' which will only find exact matches unless you specify otherwise. It would also be useful to be able to limit the search to a specified directory hierarchy but I don't think locate can do that at all (whereas find does it by default). As locate works by default one almost inevitably gets about ten thousand lines of useless 'hits' which completely hide anything useful. It's only if you happen to want to find a really oddly named file (or directory) that you get a sane number of hits. I know that one *can* make locate more selective but it's hardly intuitive to say:- locate -b `\filexyz' to get an exact match. Sorry, this is just a rant really after having my screen once again filled up with thousands of unwanted/useless hits. If anyone can offer a way of getting the same result as:- find . -name filexyz but with the speed of using locate's database then I'd live to hear of it. (OK, the find syntax is hardly user friendly but I'm more used to it) -- Chris Green

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Recommended dynamic DNS services - and how to configure them?
by Chris G 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

I want to make it easy to find my eeePc server that I'm going to leave running on my boat in Belgium, it's connecting using a 3-G router which offers four possible DDNS services:- dyndns.org freedns.afraid.org www.zoneedit.com www.no-ip.com Does anyone have any experience of using any of these services, any recommendations? Next - I've tried to set up with freedns.afraid.org and I don't really unbderstand what I'm doing! I've created an account there and have entered the details of that account into the 3-G router configuration. What I don't understand is the last parameter it asks for which is DDNS. Presumably DDNS is the domain name tat you select as the one to access the dynamic IP server - however I don't understand where I get that from at freedns.afraid.org. -- Chris Green

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openvpn - beginners guide wanted
by Chris G 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Since Brett recommended openvpn as a way to handle communications with my difficult to access eeePC I have decided to give it a try. I have installed the Ubuntu openvpn distribution on the eeePC and haven't run out of space which is a good start! :-) Now I'm a bit lost, presumably I need to install openvpn on my server at home too, that's easy enough, but what next? I can't find any simple 'how to' guides that tell me how to enable communication between the two systems. My basic need is to have the eeePC out in Belgium start up the connection but then to be able to access that eeePC from the server at home. I've looked at the documentation at openvpn.net but it's a bit overwhelming. Any ideas or reecommendations for 'gentler' ways in would be very welcome. -- Chris Green

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Adding routes
by James Bensley 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Evening all, I posted this on another mailing list but I think there are a couple here that might be able to help. I am struggling to get the syntax right to add an equal-cost multi-path route under BSD and wondered if anyone out there could correct my mistake? I'm running FreeBSD 8.1 (actually its pfSense 2.0 Beta 4!). I have a virtual sand box on the go, I'm trying for something along the lines of: route add -net 0.0.0.0/32 equalize nexthop via 192.168.0.1 nexthop via 192.168.0.2 With the intention of balancing per-packet across each of these gateways except I get this error instead: route: writing to routing socket: Network is unreachable add net 0.0.0.0: gateway equalize: Network is unreachable I'm rather tired, this stupid box has no man pages, so I stabbed again with: route add -net 0.0.0.0/32 via 192.168.0.1 via 192.168.0.2 equalize route: bad address: via Clearly my syntax is way out, but I'm tired and stuck for ideas. Anyone have clue to spare? -- Regards, James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/ There are 10 kinds of people in the world; Those who understand Vigesimal, and J others...?

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Reverse ssh set-up and/or alternatives
by Chris G 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

So I don't seem to be able to make connections *to* my eeePc that's sitting connected to a 3-G router, so the alternative is to get it to connect 'outwards' using ssh and to tunnel through that ssh connection from outside to enable me to connect to the eeePc and do anything necessary remotely. I really only need command line access. Are there any alternative ways of doing this or is ssh port-mapping the best way to do it? The other issue is somehow to restart the connection if/when it goes down (which it does fairly frequently, this is a somewhat flakey area for 3-G) - any clever ideas? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Dual Boot & Partition For Files
by Simon Royal 13 Dec '10

13 Dec '10

Simon I am intending on using Ubuntu as my main, but would like the option to switch distros if I fancied it, and would prefer not to have my files tied in with my os partition. Would like to try Mint and Mint LXDE on it too. Also I used the mac-fuse 3g drives for ntfs and it is very ropey and unstable in osx. Out of the box, native reading sounds good to me. I am not a fan of ntfs. I can see the plus side on large drives, but I am only using a 60gb drive. Simon ----- Original Message ----- From:Simon Elliott To:Anglian Linux User Group Subject:Re: [ALUG] Dual Boot & Partition For Files On 13 December 2010 10:24, Simon Royal <mrsimonroyal(a)gmail.com> wrote: > [snip snip] > > Am I correct in thinking to have read/write from both Ubuntu and XP the 'files' partition would need to be FAT32 and not NTFS? This was the case a few years back but Ubuntu supports read/write to NTFS with the 3G fuse drivers. sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g will sort that out. Similarly, there's a freebie app for Windows that allows it to read ext3. http://www.fs-driver.org/faq.html#acc_ext3 http://www.fs-driver.org/download.html If you're going the whole hog, using the Ubuntu install as your "main" OS on the laptop, I'd go for a small partition for XP, leave the rest of the space to Ubuntu and access the files in /home/user on Windows using the above app. Cheers, Simon _______________________________________________ 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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Dual Boot & Partition For Files
by Simon Royal 13 Dec '10

13 Dec '10

Hi I am awaiting the arrival of my ThinkPad and when it arrives I have some RAM and internal wireless card and a 60GB hard drive to slap in it. Im intending on running Ubuntu and XP Home on it. Ive dual booted before no problems. What I would like to do is have a small 10GB partition for each OS to install on and the rest for a place to save files so I can access it from both OSes. Am I correct in thinking to have read/write from both Ubuntu and XP the 'files' partition would need to be FAT32 and not NTFS? Simon

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Back With A ThinkPad
by Simon Royal 13 Dec '10

13 Dec '10

Hi After some searching I picked up a cheap ThinkPad R31. Hopefully it will be here before Christmas. Then I can be back on the linux route. It will run Ubuntu or Mint alongside XP. Simon

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Laptop wanted preferably Thinkpad.
by Simon Royal 12 Dec '10

12 Dec '10

Hi Does anyone have a laptop for sale. I am looking for one about the 1Ghz mark, preferably a ThinkPad but will consider anything. I'll be using it for Ubuntu or Mint. I have cash waiting or swap for an iBook G3. Simon

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Re: [ALUG] Linux printing and Laserjet 1000
by Phil Wade 12 Dec '10

12 Dec '10

On 11 Dec 2010 18:22 Wayne Stallwood wrote: <snip> > Wait....are you telling me you have a LaserJet 1000 that still works ? > > :) > Yep. It was given to me a few years ago by a customer when the toner ran out. It sounds like changing the car when the ashtray is full, but she wanted a colour printer... I've re-filled it a couple of times, and it still works fine - with Windoze. >> > Has anyone, ever, been able to get on of these Laserjet 1000 things to >> > work with any flavour of Linux? If so I'd be very grateful to learn the >> > secret. > I think I am right in saying that series of printers needs a firmware > file shooting up it's USB port before it will run. Try looking at the > foo2zjs driver, you'll probably find that you already have it but you > need to do some magic to download a firmware image and shoot it up to > the printer as it initialises. > > Sorry I can't help more Thanks for that though. I have the foo2zjs downloaded and installed. With all my failed attempts, I can get the firmware to load each time the computer boots (the printer acknowledges with LEDs flashing and the usual grindy noise) and Linux (usually Ubuntu) can see the printer and thinks it's printing to it - but then nothing. Not even a failure notice or a stalled print queue. I seem to remember others with the same problem when I was Googling, but no-one had a better answer than "try it again". With laser printers so cheap now, maybe I should just give up and get one that I know works with Linux. But, I hate discarding something that works - especially when it was free!

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