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General advice on broadband / WLAN wanted
by Jan T. Kim 14 Sep '05

14 Sep '05

Dear ALUG folks, I have moved from Germany to Norwich a couple of months ago and now I consider getting a broadband Internet connection for use with Linux (evidently on this list, I guess...). Looking at the offers by BT and NTL, I have not been quite able to determine what hardware is provided with the packages offered. For example, the most basic package from BT is advertised as "Not Mac compatible", but I've not been able to figure out what causes this incompatibility. Certainly, some of you on this list have a broadband connection? I'd be interested if you could share your experience and tell me how you managed (or failed) to use a broadband package. I'm most interested in the basic ones -- having Internet access at work (UEA), I don't need huge download capacity, web space or other add-on features. The computer(s) to be connected are laptops (running Debian), if that makes any difference. As a next step, I'd also look into getting wireless, so I'd be interested in comments on that too. Thanks in advance and best regards, Jan -- +- Jan T. Kim -------------------------------------------------------+ | *NEW* email: jtk(a)cmp.uea.ac.uk | | *NEW* WWW: http://www.cmp.uea.ac.uk/people/jtk | *-----=< hierarchical systems are for files, not for humans >=-----*

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Simply setting serial port parameters
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 14 Sep '05

14 Sep '05

Hi Folks, Advice on an ancient ritual please ... Suppose I want to set the serial port parameters of /dev/ttyS0, e.g. Speed = 4800 baud, 7 data bits, Space parity, 1 stop bit aka "4800 7S1". I don't seem to find a Linux utility wich will do this simply. I've been doing it by starting up minicom, going into its "config" mode via "^A-Z", doing each of these bitty things separately, and then quitting. However, this is manifestly overkill! (Not to say clumsy, time-consuming, and not suited for incorporation in a script). Of course, once done once, one can save the resulting config to a minirc.* file and then run 'minicom minirc.whatever', which does the business but still leaves minicom running so it has to be killed (since it's stealing data from the serial port), and there's no option I can see to minicom which tells it to "run setup and quit". What I'm really after is a simple utility on the lines of serialpars -s 4800 -b 7 -p S -s 1 /dev/ttyS0 to set up "4800 7S1", but I can't find such a thing. (setserial doesn't seem to do this -- while it's in principle possible to set the baud rate in a roundabout way, I don't see any provision for data bits, parity, stop bits.) Any ideas? Thanks, best wishes, and good morning! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 14-Sep-05 Time: 10:26:27 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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USB -> Serial adapter
by Barry Samuels 12 Sep '05

12 Sep '05

I have just discovered that my shiny new Thinkpad R51 doesn't have a serial port !!!!! I want to be able to connect my GPS which requires a 9-pin serial connector. I see that there are USB to Serial cable adapters available including an IBM one for £50.00 (No thank you). There are many available on ebay for £3 upwards (including postage) so can anyone tell me if these things are likely to require any special software to make them work. The reason I ask is that they all specify Windows or Mac compatibility - no mention of Linux of course. Any information gratefully recieved. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 12 Sep '05

12 Sep '05

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Switch Mode
by Bob Dove 11 Sep '05

11 Sep '05

Hi Folks, Switch Mode - mmmm? In days gone by I worked on a switch mode device for studio flash. The idea was to run studio flash equipment from car battery - 12v DC to 230v AC at a fairly high amperage. The switch mode converter cost more than the studio flash which in itself was expensive! It was almost as large too! I have no recollection of anyone doing this in reverse - far too expensive. However, in the flash market I have specified many an external power supply (transformer pack) to run DC 6v, 9v and 12v devices from 230/240v AC. Currently most of these come from China and cost (according to quantity of course) pence! You can now buy relatively inexpensive switch mode devices - I presume largely to obviate miles of extended cable when you want to strim the back end of your garden (you should be so lucky)! Cheers, BD.

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SiI Raid Card
by David Noble 10 Sep '05

10 Sep '05

Hi I've recently installed a Silicon Image ATA 133 card, and a new Seagate 120 gig hard drive (configured as slave, plugged into the primary channel of the ATA card)- it seems to work fine under Windows, but now when starting up Linux (SuSE 9.1), I get a Kernel Panic when doing something like mounting /root or something(/dev/hdb3). My other hard drives (an 80 gig containing the Linux partitions, and a 60 gig containing the Windows partitions) are connected to the Realtek ATA chip on my motherboard, and they get past the loading stage no probs. HELP!!! what can I do? Are my videos, multitrack audio and everything else hopelessly lost?!?! Please help Dave

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Power & Heat in Laptops
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 10 Sep '05

10 Sep '05

Hi Folks, An off-topic question, but you hardware experts may help! On some laptops, the external mains supply passes through an external transformer and it is the reduced voltage which is plugged in to the laptop. On others, the mains lead is plugged directly into the laptop, and the voltage reduction is done internally. In the former case, heat generated in the reduction is dissipated externally, while in the latter it has to escape from the interior of the laptop. So, other things being equal, one would expect the latter kind to run hotter than the former. This certainly seems to correspond to my experience. I have had 4 (ancient) laptops, 3 still working. One of these has the mains plugged in directly, the others all have an external transformer. I have never had heating concerns with the ones which have external transformers, while the "internal" one does run pretty warm, and periodically exhibits screen-flashing/breakup (especially when running "graphics heavy", as in X with lots of re-draw). Since this can often be cured by switching to a console and pressing a tiny button, which blanks the screen, for a few seconds, and also seems more prevalent in warm weather,I wonder if this is associated with overheating of the graphics chip. (There is an internal fan, which cuts in occasionally, but it seems to be a sleepy bugger and doesn't often wake up ... ) Any comments welcome, and will be read with interest! Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 09-Sep-05 Time: 08:17:31 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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KDE Konqueror Problem
by Ben Whyte 09 Sep '05

09 Sep '05

Hi I have an interesting problem that I wondered if people could help with. I am running Debian testing and kde and konqueror has developed an odd problem, when you open it up to do file management, it will display the contents of a directory, but if you click on a directory it says it doesn't no what to do and what would you like to open the file using. So I have had a look at the file associations and it doesn't have any applications in the file associations. If I add a simple konqueror it recursively opens konqueror windows but shows no files in these windows. Any and all suggestions welcome. Ben Whyte

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Problem: Emacs + ssh X forwarding = BadWindow
by MJ Ray 09 Sep '05

09 Sep '05

Today I was using Emacs and used File->"New Frame on Display..." to put an emacs frame (a window) onto localhost:10 which was forwarded off over ssh to another display. Oddly, with this machine combination that I've not tried before, keyboard input wasn't recognised by Emacs and while using the mouse to try to see what the problem was, the connection was lost with some BadWindow message displayed on the original Emacs frame's minibuffer (vanished before I could copy it). I'm using Emacs 21.3, OpenSSH 4.0p1 and x.org 6.8.1 - has anyone seen similar problems or know what causes them? (By the way, if you've never used "New Frame on Display..." or its predecessors to create collaborative editing sessions, you've been missing out on a useful tool. Give it a go!) Thanks in advance for any clue, -- MJ Ray (slef), K. Lynn, England, email see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/

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FTGH: Epson Stylus 480
by Jonathan McDowell 08 Sep '05

08 Sep '05

1 (one) Epson Stylus 480 colour inkjet printer. About 5 years old, but extremely rarely used (hence getting rid of it in a spree of clearing out junk). Didn't work that well under Linux when I bought it, but I believe it's supported ok these days. Parallel port interface. Boxed. I even seem to have a manual. Free To Good Home. Must collect from Norwich (off Drayton Road). J. -- "Why 'maybe' for everything?" "I'm using fluffy logic." [ Black Cat Networks ] [ 0845 PAYG dialup ] [ ADSL from £20+VAT/month ] [ http://www.blackcatnetworks.co.uk/ ]

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