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Humour: Introducing Monday
by Keith Watson 02 Jul '02

02 Jul '02

PriceWaterhouseCoopers consultancy have re-launched themselves as Monday and have setup the web site www.introducingmonday.com, unfortunately they forgot to register www.introducingmonday.co.uk - as you will see if you take a look!! ____________ EGOTIST, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me. Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary --- This message has been scanned for computer viruses and none have been detected. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com) Version: 6.0.370 / Virus Database: 205 - Release Date: 05/06/2002

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Newbie installing Mandrake
by Kelly Ash 02 Jul '02

02 Jul '02

I am a total newbie to Linux and will be installing Mandrake 8.2 soon. Within all of the reference material I have, it suggests that you install Linux on it's own hard drive whenever possible, and that's what I intend to do. BUT, as I read on, it doesn't refer to a separate drive only how you may need to partition when running Windows on the same machine. I'm confused! I have 2 hard drives and am running Windows 98se on one, the other drive is empty and NOT partitioned, awaiting Mandrake's arrival. First off, does the Linux drive need to be partitioned in any way before the install? And secondly, when I am going through the install for Mandrake will it give me the choice to install on this (second) empty drive? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give for my questions above, and I'd appreciate any 'pointers' anyone could give that will help me prepare and get through this install! Kelly

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cpu leak on sound apps
by Ricardo Campos 02 Jul '02

02 Jul '02

I'm getting a massive CPU leak on 2 related apps. First is GLAME, the other is SWEEP. They both 'do the same thing', that is, they are both progs for processing .wav files. They both produce 100% cpu usage when I open a .wav in them. I suspect it's not the app itself (2 massively broken apps- I doubt it), but perhaps my audio setup? They both use /dev/dsp, and use audio_in and audio_out for i/p and o/p. I used the same version of these apps with the same kernel on my Redhat installation on the same box, and don't get the same problem. I can't think what gets? -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [Alug] cpu leak on sound apps
by Ricardo Campos 02 Jul '02

02 Jul '02

Steve Fosdick <fozzy(a)pelvoux.demon.co.uk> wrote: > One technique you may find useful for this kind of thing is to look at the > proportion of CPU time spend in the kernel (sys cpu time) and in user code > (user cpu time). I'll have a look tonight. what I have done was run top behind the app, to see exactly when the leak occurs, and what exactly happens. Both apps display a wave, you select the wave to cut it up or apply effects. I noticed then when you try to apply an effect, the app goes up to 40-50% CPU usage, and X takes up another 40-50%, giving a nice 99% no-I'm-not-going-to-do-anything-for-a-bit-sonny-jim. So I figure that maybe it's having problems redrawing the wave or something. I dunno. However, I have run this app, same version, with same version of X, same kernel, on the same computer, but with Redhat. So I was thinking, why is it now buggering X? (that's the technical term, you understand). EXCEPT that on this one I have patched it with the NVIDIA drivers. So I recompiled my kernel last night during IRC, and will boot into that tonight, to see if it makes a difference. If it does, then it's bugreport time. If not, then I'll have to start tracking down the libraries that the apps use (it happens on 2 of them, Sweep and GLAME). The CPU time and User CPU time may help in this too, I guess. But since all installing a new kernel is is dpkg -i newkernel.deb, I'll try that anyway. Ricardo -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [Alug] Suggestions: newsletter, IRC and name changes?
by Kelly Ash 01 Jul '02

01 Jul '02

Umm...meeting? IRC what? Could we (am I the ONLY one?) "total newbies" have our own section of the newsletter where people speak slowly and have diagrams at the ready should they be necessary? lol Does ALUG have a website? I've found a couple links to one but can never get it to load. Also, I've got some sort of OS selector on here, should I keep it or ditch it before installing Mandrake? *getting nervous now!* Kelly

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Media/LUG Contact
by Martyn Drake 01 Jul '02

01 Jul '02

Hi folks, These days I'm just too busy to deal with any incoming mail from my details appearing in the Linux magazines and on the main www.lug.org.uk web site. Would anybody mind taking over from me on these duties for welcoming and pointing new members in the right direction? I'll update the info for Lug.org.uk, Linux Format and Linux Magazine when we've got the new contact arranged. Thanks, Martyn -- Martyn Drake | Email : martyn-d(a)moving-picture.com Systems Administrator | Web : http://www.moving-picture.com The Moving Picture Company | Phone : +44 (0)20 7494 7853

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 01 Jul '02

01 Jul '02

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.openprojects.net in the #alug channel, you can take a look at www.openprojects.net to get more info on the openprojects network. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server uk.openprojects.net" or "/server eu.openprojects.net" 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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Free to a good home
by Paul 01 Jul '02

01 Jul '02

Hi Folks One ATX motherboard to take a Slot 1 Pentium (233MHz-500MHz), free to a good home. No CPU, memory or warranty. Regards, Paul.

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Today's cool toy -- distcc
by MJ Ray 01 Jul '02

01 Jul '02

Describing itself as "napster for C programmers", this handy little tool from Martin Pool allows you to use the CPU power of all the compatible hosts on your local network. Unlike some similar tools, it doesn't require them all to have the same filesystems or configuration. distcc works by running a small daemon called distccd that listens on port 4200 of each host. You probably want to be careful with that because it allows anyone with a client to run any command. I strongly suggest that you run it as a totally unprivileged user that owns no files (eg make a new normal user called "distcc"), only run it when you're actually going to use it, restrict it to hosts that you control with iptables and so on. Generally, be a bit paranoid about it. The reason to use it is performance. On small compiles, it only shows itself marginally. Using distcc to build itself across two hosts here shows an improvement from 42.24 seconds to 24.78 seconds. Of course, there's normally a lot more than a straight compile to building a package. Building a simple debian package of distcc, including running configure and making the archive, shows only a slight improvement from 50.54 seconds to 45.37 seconds[1]. Still, it'll be worth having on larger projects. Apart from security, the other drawbacks (besides security) are that the network usage can go through the roof for large compiles (so, as for security, you probably don't want to do this on public systems on a public network) and that usage is currently restricted to gcc. It is a fairly young program, though, so who knows where this might go? Getting started with distcc is fairly easy. You just download the code from http://distcc.samba.org/ and compile it. It's not a very big compile, which is fortunate, because you can't use it to compile itself before you've compiled it for the first time... after that, you might find yourself wanting to use it for every compile! [1] -- No, that doesn't make sense. I don't understand either. OK, the above is uploaded as http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?DistCc under the TipsTripsAndWorkarounds category, so feel free to improve it. If you want to ask me more questions, post to the list. -- MJR ,---------------------------------------------------- | Q. Do you need a net-based application developing, | or advice and training about web technology? | A. I suggest you try http://www.luminas.co.uk/

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Suggestions: newsletter, IRC and name changes?
by MJ Ray 30 Jun '02

30 Jun '02

OK, this is actually a companion email to one going out in tonight's ALUG announce about the hosting changes, but here it is first, thanks to the way these things are scheduled. Newsletter: Please write or forward more interesting announcements to the newsletter address announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk because I'd like to put out more editions than one every week or so. IRC meetings: OPN is currently having even more problems than before. In addition to the netsplits, the most powerful of its IRC operators sending spam global notices at least twice daily now to raise money for himself. Despite a crushingly bad financial situation, he seems determined to hold onto complete control and incorporate the network as a Texas company. I've said before that I'd like us to move to a UK network, possibly either irc.underground.org.uk or irc.blitzed.org, but other suggestions (eg good chat servers) are welcomed. Name changes: A fully working non-Linux-kernel GNU is supposed to be released in the next six months. Should ALUG change its name (Anglian Local Users of Gnu -- ALUG?) to reflect this? We've always discussed other free software than just Linux anyway, IIRC, but I think 99% of members use GNU software. -- MJR ,---------------------------------------------------- | Q. Do you need a net-based application developing, | or advice and training about web technology? | A. I suggest you try http://www.luminas.co.uk/

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