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Hardware Issues (Display / X11 and Mouse)
by Jan T. Kim 26 May '08

26 May '08

Hi All, I've got two issues mainly concerning hardware: (1) I've recently bought an Asus W202S display (1680x1050) and connected that to my laptop (Asus X51, ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics, running the closed-source ATI X server). Things basically work, but it takes some sort of "warm-up time" before the picture stably settles in -- initially, areas with a checkerboard raster (e.g. scroll bars of xterm and other Athena GUI applications, also the default meshwork pattern shown by X11 upon startup) are quite blurred. I can fix this by adjusting the "Phase" setting in the display's on-screen menu system, but the phase will drift, resulting in gradual build-up of blur, and it stabilises only after 20 minutes or so. I wonder whether there might be some Modeline hack or similar to generate a video signal that the display can lock on to reliably, regardless of some drift. In text (console) mode the display doesn't work ideally either, the display "sees" 1024 x 768 while the laptop's display shows 1280 x 800 (and presumably also sends that through the external monitor interface), so some amount of stuff is cut away from the margins. I've tried everything with the on-screen menus of the display (there isn't very much), to no avail -- so is there anything on the Linux side of this that I could try? (2) On a completely different topic, I have an optical mouse which seems to have a sensor problem, the mouse pointer is jumping and dancing wildly, with some trend (towards the lower left, I think). Some mice I had used to do something similar when slightly lifted from the surface. Is there any more or less known fix for such malfunctions? Best regards & thanks in advance for any comments, Jan -- +- Jan T. Kim -------------------------------------------------------+ | email: jtk(a)cmp.uea.ac.uk | | WWW: http://www.cmp.uea.ac.uk/people/jtk | *-----=< hierarchical systems are for files, not for humans >=-----*

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Kubuntu 7.04 updates make firefox crash
by Srdjan Todorovic 24 May '08

24 May '08

Hi, Got this annoying issue. If I do any kind of updates on this Kubuntu 7.04 box, using Adept Manager, and then start firefox, it crashes with a segfault. The dump isn't very informative, the only reference seems to be something to do with a syscall AFAIR. I put a bugreport on launchpad ages ago about it but it has been closed [in part due to my stupidness]. Essentially the advice was "reboot computer after an update". This seems silly and very Windows-y. Firefox segfaults even on updates that would have nothing to do with any component firefox uses or depends on. Firefox crashes invariably after any adept update. Have not tried using plain apt-get on command line. This machine ran memtest for 15 hours, no problems. CPU model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 4300 @ 1.80GHz RAM: 2GB lspci: 00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.5 PIC: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 I/O APIC Interrupt Controller 00:00.6 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Security Device 00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge 00:02.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller 00:03.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller 00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A SATA 2-Port Controller (rev 80) 00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 07) 00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0) 00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0) 00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0) 00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0) 00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86) 00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to ISA Bridge 00:11.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8251 Ultra VLINK Controller 00:13.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A Host Bridge 00:13.1 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to PCI Bridge 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GT] (rev a1) 04:05.0 Ethernet controller: ADMtek NC100 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/100 (rev 11) 04:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10) 80:01.0 Audio device: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA High Definition Audio Controller (rev 10) Linux ubuntu 2.6.20-16-generic #2 SMP Tue Feb 12 05:41:34 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux Any suggestions? Thanks, -Srdjan

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Server to server backups
by Mark Rogers 24 May '08

24 May '08

If I have two (virtual) servers online (ie out in the real world, not on my LAN or behind ADSL connections) and I want one to be used to backup the other, what method would anyone suggest? I'm thinking of data backups rather than disk images. I'd like (a) to have rolling backups so I can roll back to before any specific **** up, (b) to have a sensible way to backup MySQL databases I can't think of any other specific requirements. Bandwidth between the two servers isn't a major issue but not something I want to ignore completely. Similarly disk space isn't a problem, but wasting it by having multiple copies of unchanged files would still be a bit silly. On the other hand, both servers will have public IPs and therefore I need to consider the security implications of opening up the live server so that the backup server can access it, and (to a lesser extent) vice versa. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Cheap server machine spotted
by Chris G 23 May '08

23 May '08

If anyone is looking for a cheap server machine to stick in a cupboard somewhere the HP ProLiant ML115 is being offered at knock down prices at the moment for some reason. The cheapest I could find with a quick search is:- http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=40254&source=froogle £105 for a machine with 1Gb memory, 160Gb hard disk, gigabit ethernet and space for expansion seems pretty good to me. -- Chris Green

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cheap desktops - with ubuntu?
by James Freer 22 May '08

22 May '08

As my desktop video card seems to be 'ill' - i thought i'd take a look at current prices of desktops. Looking on ebuyer i was surprised how cheap they were - #144828. For just a plain desktop i was wondering if they were worth considering? http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144979 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144828 Alternatively [as i have a couple of cases] what would folk recommend for a ubuntu motherboard & cpu -- after all there are 000's. thanks james

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[Somewhat OT] a Google question
by Chris G 21 May '08

21 May '08

Has anyone else been annoyed/frustrated by Google asking "Did you mean: " and then, whether you like it or not, searching for what it thinks you meant rather than what you actually typed? I'm sure it didn't used to do this, it quite reasonably asked the "Did you mean: " but then actually searched for what you entered. -- Chris Green

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Do I need anti-virus & spyware with Xubuntu desktop?
by paul 21 May '08

21 May '08

Hi all I'm using Xubuntu as a desktop for web surfing and emails etc. I'm connected to the Net with a wired router (with hardware firewall) and using FireStarter software firewall. Should I be using anti-virus & spyware for Linux as well? The comp is dual booting machine with XP Pro with AVG and Zonealarm. It's a P4 2GHz 512mb RAM with onboard graphics so could handle some realtime monitoring without harming performance. Cheers Paul --------------------------------- Sent from Yahoo! Mail. A Smarter Email.

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Re: [ALUG] MythTV - recording TV
by James Elsey 20 May '08

20 May '08

Hi James, 2008/5/20 James Elsey <james.elsey(a)serengeti-systems.com>: > Has anyone setup MythTV to record TV shows? I've been using Myth for the past 4 or 5 years with version of Linux and a few different cards. I've used the Nova-T cards for recording from freeview. They were good because they output into an MPEG2 stream directly (using hardware encoding) and therefore I could use a less powerful PC for my TV box. Myth also pulls the program guide from them directly so you don't even need a 'net connection but if you don't do that it will use XMLTV to pull listings from RadioTimes. Is it possible to not record the advert breaks, or even to record multiple simultaneous channels? I'm currently using a Hauppauge PVR-150 to record from my cable box (s-video) to MPEG2 (using hardware encoding) and I've previously used a normal TV card with the software encoding. I've used Mini-ITX boards with hardware based MPEG2 decoding to get even lower CPU usage but none of that is necessary. How much am I likely to pay for a freeview TV card? If you have good freeview signal I'd recommend getting a Nova-T card (maybe one of the dual encoder versions so you can record two channels at once. The Myth wiki and the dvb linuxtv.org website are the best sources of information on compatible cards. Ah, one slight problem, I don't particulary get a good signal in my area, sometimes its ok, but for it to work I'd need to hook it up to a larger area that my TV uses, is that possible? In general, my PCs seem to suffer most from the database load (although I am using low power machines) and the commercial detection has varied in quality over the years. I suspect it's best at US TV :-) What sort of size would a 1 hour TV show take on disc? I'm guessing this could in turn be run thru a converter to reduce the filesize? Thanks

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Re: [ALUG] MythTV - recording TV
by Mark Ridley 20 May '08

20 May '08

On Tue, 20 May, 2008 11:20 am, James Elsey wrote: > Has anyone setup MythTV to record TV shows? > > I've been experimenting with MythTV for a few weeks with various media > formats, but I'm quite intrigued to see how TV recording works. > > Most of the tutorials I've found are based on US TV, apart from myth, are > there any other apps that are good for recording from TV / Freeview? > > If anyone has this setup, can you let me know what TV card/apps are best? I have a Myth setup, originally I used Fedora and installed by hand, but recently tried MythBuntu, wow! I didn't really have to do anything but wait for it to install, it detected my hardware and configured it automatically. As for channels, I answered all the questions from the installer, and it just worked. I have two cards, I use a Nova-T PCI for terrestrial TV, and a Nova-S for satellite, although I have not set this one up yet. As a side note, the MythGames plugin works a treat with sdlmame, and I have an X-Arcade dual joystick, which makes 42" Defender heavenly! :) Cheers. -Mark ----------------------------------------------------------- This message may contain confidential and/or privileged information. This information is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any review, disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete or destroy any copy of this message.

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Re: [ALUG] [ubuntu] /home backups
by James Freer 20 May '08

20 May '08

Keith Zak provides me with rabbit and hare in quantity - wouldn't fit in a hot dog. james 2008/5/20 <keith.jamieson(a)bt.com>: > James > > ahhh ... nice doggy ... ARGHHHHHHH > > And you cant outrun these ! > > ... fills the hot dog buns nicely though ;) > > > > Keith > > > > > > ________________________________ > > From: James Freer [mailto:jessejazza@googlemail.com] > Sent: Mon 19/05/2008 11:04 PM > To: Keith > Subject: Re: [ALUG] [ubuntu] /home backups > > > > 2008/5/19 <keith.jamieson(a)bt.com>: >>>2008/5/19 Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk>: >>>> On Mon, 2008-05-19 at 16:34 +0100, James Elsey wrote: >>>> >>>> BTW anyone now thinking of breaking into my shed to get a 500GB drive >>>> full of music and videos and all my email...I have to warn you I have >>>> guard cats ! >>> >>>I better pop round with my Greyhound and Lurcher! >>>"Guard cats" may last a second. >> >> lol ... lion, tiger ? Cheater ;) >> >> I was after one of these, it keeps the door-to-door sellers away ! >> >> Keith >> > > Zak also provides some keep! > http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l59/jessejazza/suzie/?action=view&current… > http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l59/jessejazza/suzie/?action=view&current… > > james > > >

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