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Horribly off-topc, sorry - uk telecoms groups/mailing lists/forums?
by Mark Rogers 14 Jul '20

14 Jul '20

I know this is off topic but I think there may be people here in the know and I've come up blank everywhere else I've tried. Back in the day there was a thriving community on uk.telecom* newsgroups but unless I'm missing something that has all gone. Does anyone know where such people can be found these days? Public forums, mailing lists, etc? Admin: feel free to delete if you'd rather I didn't ask here, Mark

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 9th July
by Viperfang 06 Jul '20

06 Jul '20

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 9th July at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Re: [ALUG] Sound problem
by Bev Nicolson 05 Jul '20

05 Jul '20

Sent this in error, just to Chris so re-sending to the list. Have just tried it unplugged and while it isn't perfect, it is better. Bev On 04/07/2020 17:36, Bev Nicolson wrote: > <snip> > > > Also, is there anything else plugged in to the laptop, USB > devices or whatever, if so try disconnecting them as well. > > > > > By the way - by 'hum' you do mean mains hum do you? I.e. a very low > > frequency hum of fixed frequency. > > > > Hopefully this short audio clip will explain the hum. I don't hear it as > I record anything, but only on play back. > > https://sndup.net/72c6 > > I have headphones and a mouse plugged in, to answer your other query, > but if anything it's worse without the headphones. > > > Bev

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Sound problem
by Bev Nicolson 04 Jul '20

04 Jul '20

I'm not sure if this is off topic or not but I could do with some help here. How do I reduce or remove the hum from my laptop? I use Mint and the sound gui doesn't offer much detail. (There's only one plug socket for headphones, btw.) Thanks. Bev.

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How to extend a bash built-in but still use it within the new function?
by Chris Green 02 Jul '20

02 Jul '20

I want to extend the 'cd' command slightly so that I can execute some specific actions when entering (and leaving) a particular directory hierarchy. So I need to create a bash function called 'cd' to do this, but I still need to call the underlying bash built-in cd. Is there any way of doing this? -- Chris Green

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PC Sales Recommendations?
by Steve Mynott 02 Jul '20

02 Jul '20

So my hardware is usually years ago laptops and slow due to me being a cheapskate but I'm finding the new Ryzens quite tempting. I was wondering about a new linux desktop PC with 16Gb Ryzen (with in-built GPU) and a 1Tb M2 but in a medium to small case (due to lack of space in office) maybe for about 500quid. Can anyone recommend a more exact spec or recommend a website pc dealer? Back in the day I used to favour smaller local PC shops and I was wondering if there was anyone in East Anglia (who is linux friendly maybe) able to ship via delivery? -- Steve Mynott <steve.mynott(a)gmail.com> cv25519/ECF8B611205B447E091246AF959E3D6197190DD5

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using xrandr to set scale of monitor
by peter.northerly＠gmail.com 01 Jul '20

01 Jul '20

Can anyone help with how to do this? The problem is that my new monitor is 2K, so it has a native resolution of 2560x1440. My onboard graphics seems only to support 2048 x 1280, so that's what I am using it at. Yes, I do plan on getting a proper graphics card soon! However, even with it running at 2048 x 1280, the result is that the fonts and layout is a lot too small for comfort. Taking the resolution down does work, but it defeats the object of having bought a 2K monitor in the first place, and it apparently lowers quality, particularly of text, so I don't want to do that as a permanent solution . Apparently the correct solution is to use xrandr to set the scale factor to a whole number, in this case probably 2, and to use panning in some way so that the desktop display, being smaller than the display as configured, acts as a sort of moveable window into it. I have read the man pages on xrandr, and think I know what to do, but the problem is, it seems that if you get this wrong, your monitor becomes unusable. Maybe this is just alarm over nothing? Don't know. Has anyone actually done this successfully? Or have you found any other solution to the high DPI problem? Here is what my xrandr looks like in case that helps $ xrandr -q Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2048 x 1280, maximum 8192 x 8192 VGA-1 disconnected primary (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-2 connected 2048x1280+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 597mm x 336mm 2560x1080 60.00 59.94 59.98 2048x1280 59.99* 1920x1200 59.95 ..... and so on...... 2560 x 1080 isn't satisfactory because it elongates everything. I suppose a proper graphics card will enable 2560 x 1440. But that will only make the problem worse unless 'scale' and 'panning' can be used to fix it. I'm using fluxbox on Debian by the way so I don't have the Gnome or KDE GUI tools. Peter

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 3rd July.
by Viperfang 30 Jun '20

30 Jun '20

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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ePub reader, is there really not one in Ubuntu/Debian?
by Chris Green 27 Jun '20

27 Jun '20

I want to read (well, 'use', it's a programming manual) that's in ePub format. There seems to be no default, or even available, ePub reader in Ubuntu. There are dozens of programs for creating ePub format but nothing for simply reading it. Am I missing something obvious somewhere? -- Chris Green

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Ensuring that a systemd unit starts *before* any networking
by Mark Rogers 25 Jun '20

25 Jun '20

Not sure if there are any systemd experts here, but I'll ask on the off-chance; I've already posted on Stack Overflow [1] if anyone knows the answer and wants credit for answering it there. How do I ensure a systemd unit runs to completion before any network tasks start? It sounds like a simple task but I've been banging my head on this for ages and every time I think it's working it turns out I was just lucky with timing. I have some code which generates dhcpcd.conf and wpa_supplicant.conf from settings in a database so obviously that needs to happen before any of those network tools start. But whatever magic I try in my unit configuration seems to have no impact on the start order of the unit. My current attempt is: [Unit] Description=Config generation from DB Before=networking.service [Service] Type=oneshot ExecStart=/home/mark/bin/db2config.py [Install] RequiredBy=network.target Any ideas? [1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62574482/ensuring-that-a-systemd-unit-s… -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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