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King's Lynn meeting
by MJ Ray 10 Nov '03

10 Nov '03

OK, a few emails have been thrown around off-list and I'm thinking of calling an informal ALUG meeting in KL on Wednesday 19 November. In the town centre, probably 7 or 8pm, with exact time and venue to be confirmed later. Who will be there? -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef(a)jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 10 Nov '03

10 Nov '03

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. 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 tkirc, bitchx, xchat 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://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Shutting down by non-root
by Edenyard 09 Nov '03

09 Nov '03

For once, a non-hardware question from me! What is the correct way of making 'ordinary' users (i.e., not root) able to shut the PC off at the end of the session? I find that (at least, on Slackware) an ordinary user can't use '/sbin/halt' or '/sbin/shutdown' because an error message is returned, saying something along the lines of "You must be root do do that". I've checked the permissions of /sbin/halt and /sbin/shutdown and they're both rwxr-xr-x, so I don't think that's the problem. I know that ordinary users can use Ctrl+Alt+Del and that works well here, turning off the power at the end of the shutdown procedure, but it would be nice to be able to make the 'shutdown' command in the IceWM menu work for ordinary users, too. Thanks for any clues on this one! Cheers, Gerald.

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Re: [ALUG] Telling Linux to ignore hardware
by Edenyard 08 Nov '03

08 Nov '03

MJR wrote: > > 1. don't compile the serial driver into the kernel and don't load it. > Adam wrote: > > Just out of interest, why do you want to not have a ttyS0 ? What are you trying: > to achieve? if we know that perhaps we can come up with another plan :) > Ted wrote: > > Anyway, as Adam says, it would help to know why you want Linux not > to know about /dev/ttys0 > I still need /dev/ttyS1 to work, since that's where my modem is connected, so disabling serial support altogether isn't really an option. > > has it got a dark secret? Crossed the > floor of the House to Windows, has it? > Crumbs, NO! If it had strayed to that extent, I would have personally drilled it out of the chassis and incinerated it by now.... The real problem is something of a convoluted story: I started off wanting to run a particular DOS programme using DOSemu. This DOS thing uses a serial port but has to be able to wiggle the RTS line properly. The reason for that is that it gets connected to an RS485 half-duplex system that uses RTS to switch between send and receive. The programme (which was written in Turbo/Power BASIC), when running on a proper DOS PC, writes to, and reads from, the UART's control registers to achieve the correct timing of RTS with respect to the transmitted data. That has all been working nicely for about 8 years on a variety of boxes fitted up with various flavours of DOS. In trying to make this work on a Linux box, I discovered that the emulation of the serial port by DOSemu is less than perfect. It doesn't faithfully report back the state of the UART's registers, so that, when looking for the transmit shifter to empty in order to know when to switch RTS off, the programme gets the wrong information. Also, there's a problem with the timing relationship between when the transmitted data emanates from the hole on the back of the PC and when the RTS line toggles; I imagine that this is due to latency in Linux's emulation of the port to DOS programmes. All in all, DOSemu hasn't come up with the goods for this DOS programme of mine, which I HAVE to get working for a client. The DOSemu list has, so far, seen fit not to afford me any help either: when I posted a query there, the response I got was, "What's RTS?", which doesn't exactly fill one with lots of confidence... This brings me to the query I posted to the ALUG list. I thought that, maybe if I could persuade Linux that what my DOS programme looks on as COM1 (/dev/ttyS0) didn't actually exist, then it wouldn't emulate it; I could then set the relevant things in the DOSemu config file to allow my programme to have direct unhindered access to the UART. Until I can persuade Linux that the port isn't there, I can't do that. If I do, I get an error when DOSemu starts, reporting a conflict between COM1 and standard i/o port. Hence the question: how do I get Linux to ignore a serial port? I hope that goes some way towards explaining the origin of my question. Sorry it's gone on a bit! Thanks for your input, chaps! Cheers, Gerald.

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Announce digest, Vol 2 #23 - 2 msgs
by announce-request＠lists.alug.org.uk 08 Nov '03

08 Nov '03

Send Announce mailing list submissions to announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to announce-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk You can reach the person managing the list at announce-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Announce digest..." --------------.--------------------------------------------.------------ alug-announce | Newsletter of the Anglian Linux User Group | Weekly(ish) --------------'--------------------------------------------'------------ ** Please send articles for this letter to announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk ** *** Please send replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk, not announce... *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today's Topics: 1. Web site updates (MJ Ray) 2. LOCAL: GNU/Linux/ALUG/Norwich Thu 13 Nov (MJ Ray) --__--__-- Message: 1 Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 01:06:34 +0000 From: MJ Ray <mjr(a)dsl.pipex.com> To: announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Organization: Very poor Subject: [Alug Announce]Web site updates Some changes have been made to the ALUG web site. Most importantly, http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/2003/ now contains Norwich meeting details until January 2004, thanks to Syd. I have also gone back through the list archives and added links to missing meeting announcements or reports. If you can find one I've missed, please email me. If you'd like to add a page to the web site, please email me about that too. -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef(a)jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ --__--__-- Message: 2 From: MJ Ray <mjr(a)dsl.pipex.com> To: announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2003 17:14:14 +0000 Subject: [Alug Announce]LOCAL: GNU/Linux/ALUG/Norwich Thu 13 Nov [1]ALUG [2]Map Meeting 2003.16: Norwich: The Forum bar Thursday 13 November 2003 Plan for the meeting Roughly, as follows: We will meet up from 8pm onwards for an informal evening get-together for anyone interested in GNU/Linux. How to get there For directions, please see [3]the venue information page. Use [4]the meeting transport page if you want to share your journey. People at the meeting If you will be coming to this meeting, please try to say so on the mailing list, so we can be prepared for the numbers! Equipment Equipment is brought at your own risk. NB: This venue is not suitable for anything more than portable equipment (laptops, palmtops, etc). As always, we strongly suggest that you tag or label your kit. No known thefts have occurred at our meetings, but there is ample scope for going home with the wrong cables, etc. Discussion If you want to discuss this meeting, please [5]use the mailing list. [6]Back to the meetings index * Destinations 1. [7]Join ALUG 2. [8]FAQ 3. [9]Meetings * Local LUGs 1. [10]Peterborough 2. [11]Cambridge * Recent Donors 1. [12]PHP4Hosting 2. [13]Black Cat Networks 3. [14]Martyn Drake 4. [15]Turo Technology LLP 5. [16]O'Reilly UK You may think I'm a dreamer... but I'm not the only one [17]UK LUGs References 1. http://www.alug.org.uk/ 2. http://www.alug.org.uk/ 3. http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/forum.html 4. http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?MeetingTransport 5. http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main 6. http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/ 7. http://www.alug.org.uk/background/contacts.html 8. http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?AlugFaq 9. http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/2003/ 10. http://www.peterboro.lug.org.uk/ 11. http://www.cambridge-lug.org/ 12. http://www.php4hosting.co.uk/ 13. http://www.blackcatnetworks.co.uk/ 14. http://www.drake.org.uk/ 15. http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ 16. http://www.oreilly.co.uk/ 17. http://www.lug.org.uk/ --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce End of Announce Digest

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rpm to apt
by BenEBoy 07 Nov '03

07 Nov '03

Evening all, Can I ask you knowlegable lot whether alien is still the preferred way of getting RPM's onto debian or is there a better way and I should be shot for even mentioning alien here? thanks BenE

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Re: [ALUG] Telling Linux to ignore hardware
by Edenyard 07 Nov '03

07 Nov '03

On Fri, 07 Nov 2003 06:25:08 +0000, Graham Trott wrote: > > Do you have a getty process running on ttys0? If so, it's defined in > /etc/inittab. My distribution (SuSE8.x) has the following line: > #S0:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 9600 ttys0 vt102 > which as you see is commented out. The port is free for whatever use is > required of it. > I have the line, but it's already commented out. But Linux still knows about /dev/ttyS0 and I'd really like it not to. Gerald.

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RE: [ALUG] dual boot - problems?
by Jenny Hopkins 07 Nov '03

07 Nov '03

MJRay wrote: > it didn't sound as though it would be over-reliable for msaccess > > I thought Microsoft Access was one of the normal test applications > used for WINE? The comments on http://appdb.winehq.com/ don't seem > promising, though. By the way, I hear rumours of a multi-platform GUI > database client coming soon. > It's been hard enough trying to learn web programming and php, groan, I wonder what code this one will need to be learnt? Syd Hancock wrote: >(Disclaimer: I haven't used it but..) You might want to look at >Crossover Office - gets good reviews for stability etc. I *think* >it supports Access. Thanks, I'll do this install next week and give these all a go then. I can simply keep the windows hard drive in my desk drawer for should I need to plug it in and get a bit of software from it then, and do away with the dual booting :-) Jen

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RE: [ALUG] dual boot - problems?
by Jenny Hopkins 07 Nov '03

07 Nov '03

Wayne Stallwood wrote: > > On Tuesday 04 November 2003 09:53, Jenny Hopkins wrote: > > > Coo. That sounds exactly like the problems I've been > having. Do you > > have to be moderately good at hardware to check for this? > > > > Thanks, > > Jenny > > /me prepares to whisk new hard drive out of wrapper.... > > It may be Power Supply, to be honest unless you have a > reasonably accurate > Multimeter laying around, Substitution will probably be > cheaper than getting > the equipment to test such things. > > Worse than that it could be ripple or power on spikes on one > of the lines, in > which case you are going to need even more expensive > equipment to check it. > > Just a thought though, Did you plug that Serial modem into > either/both of > these machines (remember the time you mistakenly plugged the > serial port of > your modem into your laptop's parallel port) did you try it > on these machines > as well. If so have you had the parallel ports working since then ? > > Regards > > Wayne > > PS, You should try and convince work to pay for VMware, why > ruin the uptime of > a perfectly good Linux system by starting windows :o) > I'll try replacing the power supply then. Re. serial modem - no, that was a moment of laptop idiocy that fortunately seemed to leave no damage done (good memory you have!). This is my main desktop pc. I did have the printer printing over the parallel port from both OS until recently, as I did the sound. I'm racking my brains to think of any hardware changes I suddenly made (plugging in zip drives instead of printers to parallel ports etc) but can't think of any. I might bring the box along to Syleham meeting and invite speculation, if the psu change doesn't work. VMware - what an excellent idea. I was thinking of looking into WINE, but it didn't sound as though it would be over-reliable for msaccess, and I have to maintain a db for work in this (although I've just ported the back end over to postgresql on the linux server :-)). I'll go off and look at costs and spec. Thanks, Jenny

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Telling Linux to ignore hardware
by Edenyard 07 Nov '03

07 Nov '03

Please can anyone explain the magic invocation that's needed to tell Linux to ignore a serial port? I want my Slack installation (kernel 2.4.22) to ignore /dev/ttyS0 and pretend that it doesn't exist. I'm sure that I've seen it written down somewhere - but that might have been to do with ignoring parallel ports? I've tried 'setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none', which the man page suggests might do the trick, but it doesn't. Any ideas, please, anyone? Gerald.

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