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Apache configuration test on Ubuntu
by Mark Rogers 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

In recent Ubuntu versions (no idea if this is inherited from Debian or not), the apache user is set in /etc/apache2/envvars, which is processed when Apache is [re]started via /etc/init.d/apache2 [re]start. However, running apache outside that script will then cause errors. So for example, apache2 -t .. which should test the configuration without restarting, instead generates errors "bad user name" errors because the environment variable relied upon in apache2.conf is not being set. So, is there a "correct" way to test the configuration? (The solution I always end up with is editing apache2.conf to set User/Group to www-data directly.) As an aside, is there any way to make logrotate not kill Apache if there's an error in the apache configuration file? -- 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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Xubuntu... On 300Mhz... Not Bad
by Simon Royal 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

Hi Well, yet another day and a different distro. This poor little ThinkPad is being put under a lot of work, I have tried about 8 distros on this thing. I was running Puppy Linux and while it was nice and fast, it was a bit basic. I tried Fluxbuntu last night and after getting past the dodgy screen res, I just didn't get on with it. It might be Ubuntu based but it is still quite ropey. So I downloaded the Xubuntu 9.10 alternative installer - as the standard Xubuntu disc wouldn't install - and started the install last night. It took about 90 minutes which was ok. I must say I am quite impressed. It gives the ease of use of Ubuntu and all the software packages it comes with and are available for it. I know a couple of people said not to install it because it would run quite badly, but it isn't too bad. Booting is a little slow - although quicker than I thought it would be and there isn't too much lag navigating around the system. I only use this machine for surfing and writing, so nothing too intense. With only 160MB of RAM it isn't going to do anything too processor intensive, but with a little more in it could be quite a capable machine under Xubuntu. I have just installed Google Chrome browser and it is whizzing along surfing pages. Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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CSS question, paragraph margins/padding etc.
by Chris G 26 Feb '10

26 Feb '10

I have some generated HTML which is as follows:- <div class=level1> <p> This is the playground </p> <p><a class="folder" href="#folded_1"> Test</a></p> <div class="folded hidden" id="folded_1">This is the text that is hidden or shown</div> <p><a class="folder" href="#folded_2"> Test1</a></p> <div class="folded hidden" id="folded_2">This is some more hidden text</div> <p><a class="folder" href="#folded_3"> Test2</a></p> <div class="folded hidden" id="folded_3">And this is still more</div></div> <span id="folded_reveal" style="display:none;"></span> <span id="folded_hide" style="display:none;"></span> I want to pack the "Test", "Test1" and "Test2" closer together vertically and I'm having little success. I was expecting that setting the following would do it:- .folder { margin-top: 0; padding-top: 0; font-weight: bolder; border-width: thin; border-color: blue; background-color: cyan; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 9px; background: url(closed.gif) no-repeat right center; } The font-weight CSS is having its effect, changing it does change the font weight, but the colours (e.g. the background colour) have no effect at all, and nor do the margin/padding/border settings. What am I doing wrong? Is there some 'outer' CSS that has priority over these settings? If so how can I override it? -- Chris Green

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Network Monitoring Tools
by John Herd 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Dear all, I've got some linux experience and thus far have managed to get a credible helpdesk/auditing setup with GLPI and OCS-NG. I like both of these as tools because they're pretty light on admin and very recoverable should a problem occur. Now I'm looking for a good network monitoring tool that would enable me to graph bandwidth use on switches, disk use on servers etc. I've got a mix of Windows servers and a pile of Cisco kit. There's a profusion of network monitoring tools out there, so I'm after advice on what kind of setups folks in ALUG have experience of, and actually like, rather than a best of breed run down. I should add that the "some linux experience" extends to Ubuntu server and a reasonable knowledge of apt-get, so go carefully with me here. :-) Regards John Herd

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Of the website, backups and the mailing list...
by Brett Parker 25 Feb '10

25 Feb '10

Hi, I've just plonked a few more scripts about on my vps and added some useful hostnames to it... so, here's what I've got backup wise: * A read only copy of our wiki, updated daily from Noodle's backup: http://wiki.alug.itshall.be/ * A different interface to the mailing list archive (searchable) http://alug.itshall.be/ (Updated rougly hourly) (I've also got the normal pipermail archive sitting on disk, that's what I feed to lurker). So, the only thing that I'm missing, basically, is the users/subscribers for the wiki/mailing list... but this should put us in fairly good stead. Thanks, -- Brett Parker

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New Alug wiki/website
by Adam Bower 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Hi people, Due to the unfortunate disappearance of our old wiki and inability to contact anyone at the old hosting provider Noodles has very kindly changed over the DNS and pointed it at a new wiki hosted on his server. (thanks Noodles!) A side effect of this is that we have lost all the old wiki content so please visit the new wiki, create an account and get rebuilding! You can find the new wiki at http://www.alug.org.uk/ for those that didn't know. Thanks Adam -- New signature required, suggestions on a post card please.

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Nagios
by Mark Rogers 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

Does anyone here know if Nagios is something I need to install on every server I wish to monitor? Can I combine the results of multiple sites into single reports or do I just need to have multiple reports? -- 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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Spreadsheet (Gnumeric or other) - how to insert a page break in printout?
by Chris G 21 Feb '10

21 Feb '10

This is a stupidly trivial question but I can't find out how to do it. I have a wide spreadsheet (currently in Gnumeric) and I simply want to tell it where (i.e. at which column) to start printing on a new page. I can't find *anywhere* that even seems to think that's something you'd want to do, let alone how to do it. If I could simply insert a fromfeed character into the first row cell in that column it would do but I can't even do that. Help!!! -- Chris Green

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What 'conversion' changes those = and =E9 in text to the proper characters?
by Chris G 21 Feb '10

21 Feb '10

I have some text which has lots of '= ' and '=E9' strings in it which should be just spaces and è. What would convert this text to properly readable text? Mutt seems to manage it OK (it's a mail message) but I want to do it myself to display it elsewhere and it doesn't seem to be just a simple iconv() conversion as what seems to be in the message are actual '=E9' strings not iso-8859-1 characters with more than 7 bits. Presumably it's encoded to fit in strict 7-bit ASCII but how do I unencode it? -- Chris Green

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Puppy Linux... Wow!
by Simon Royal 20 Feb '10

20 Feb '10

Hi. I tried the Puppy Linux live cd yesterday and I was impressed but I couldn't get wireless to work even though the Puppy forum said my devices should work out of the box. Well, I decided to install it to see how well it ran and whether the wireless would work. I am pleased to say it absolutely screams along even on a P2 300Mhz with 160MB RAM. It is amazing to watch. No other distro I have tried performs anywhere near as well. Also, my wireless devices work and after a bit of configuring - more of a way Puppy configures rather than how difficult it was to sort - I am pleased to say I am writing this email within Puppy running a Buffalo WLI-CB-G54A wireless PCMCIA card. I think I have found the best distro for such a low spec machine. It is amazingly fast and blows Windows 2000/XP out of the water. Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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