February 2003 - main

Best way to play .MOV files under GNU/Linux
by Keith Watson 05 Feb '03

05 Feb '03

Any trekkies out there might be interested to know about a bunch of Minnesota fans who have made their own Star Trek look-alike episode using the original Star Trek look and feel, see <http://www.StarshipExeter.com> The episode is offered as a series of QuickTime .mov files, can anyone suggest the best way I can view these on a Debian Woody based system? Keith ____________ The saddest thing in the world is someone who has sight but no vision. - Helen Keller

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RE:Co-lo Server Advice Needed
by tom potts 05 Feb '03

05 Feb '03

I would have thought anywhere was cheaper than London - you could probably fly one round in a helicopter and save money - and it would be more accessible than London on slightly snowy day. Price yourself out of the market - move to London and knacker your staff! Computers and computer staff should never be in London! Tom __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

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nfs connection - CD umount problem/ WMs /Booting CDs
by Glen Tyler 04 Feb '03

04 Feb '03

Now that I have a working crossover connection between two computers everything is great, the client can see the CDRom and Home directory of the server and install etc works fine. The only difficulty that I seem to have is getting the CDRom to unmount from the server. I boot the server and mount the cd, then mount the nfs directory on the client, transfer required files and unmount the nfs. If I want to change CD then I have to umount it to open the draw, but unmount always replies with 'device is busy'. The man page suggest 'a lazy unmount - "umount -l /mnt/cdrom" gets round this, but it still doesn't allow me to open the draw. Forcing it causes complaints. I had a look at Top to see what is running but cant find the cultprit there - anyone know what is likely to cause this problem and how to fix it? Also did anyone get the WindowManagers to compile from this months LXF cover CD? I have tried fluxbox and IceWm, but neither got through make - fluxbox with a 'memory exhausted' message and IceWm with a huge list of warnings and errors about the taskbar etc. I was only looking for a lighter manager than XFce..... On the subject of bootable CD linux's I was impressed with the Knoppix based Freeduc one - it is in French by default but press F2 on boot and you can choose anyone of about 10 languages - including English. Shouldn't give the CS students too much difficulty. Glen .....from Britains most remote inhabited island......

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Co-lo Server Advice Needed
by James Green 04 Feb '03

04 Feb '03

Hi all, Long time since I've posted here - long time since I've actually been subscribed for one reason or another... Anyway, the company I work for is investigating the purchase of floorspace in a facility in London. We have a quote for space in Level3, which we look to be taking up. I am told that part of the setup fee includes the installation of a 42U cabinet with various shelves. Into this we are struggling to identify hardware. We are already in webserving and voice applications, and we are looking to expand by having our own hardware. Now - does anyone have any experience in identifying kit and what gotchers we can expect along the way. We've been advised that the sort of requirements we have are pretty rare and thus expertise may have to be gained from multiple sources, fingers crossed that they happen to work together. Can anyone provide some advice (I know specifics would be helpful here) or perhaps phone numbers of contacts that would be used (we could be willing to pay for consultancy at this level). I'm probably the most technical at the company and thus am dealing with this matter, but I'm out of my depth here. Help! Advice! Shine a torch and let me see with at least moderate clue! We're looking at: * RAS box with E1 terminating into it supporting traditional PC plus mobile phone connections * WAP Gateway server * 2x Webservers * 1x WAP content platform * 1x dialup billing system * 1x possible IVR with E1 terminating into it. Sadly some of the products we're bringing in as ASP/MSSQL based, and thus the hardware costs x, the Microsoft licensing costs x more :(. The servers that will host our company created bits will be *nix though. Many thanks in advance, James

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A belated hello world!
by Andrew Keedle 04 Feb '03

04 Feb '03

As always, I've got ahead of myself. Posting to a mailing list before introducing myself... Sorry ;-) Anyway, I'm allegedly an IT professional (hehe), mainly dealing in enterprise java developments. I've had an interest in GNU/Linux mainly Debian for a couple of years, and have installed and run it on many different boxes. i386 (SMP), laptops, powerpc, sparc, sparc64. I've mainly used it as a personal OS, not much server related stuff apart from the usual home network with the usual diald, nfs, samba, apache, php, python etc...... I have a passing interest in the BSD's (sorry) and am getting to know OpenBSD at the moment. Not sure if I can be of much help to many people, but I'll stick my oar in when I can. Looking forward to contributing... (hopefully) Andrew

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Live Linux CD's?
by NuTTeR -- Not Entered -- 04 Feb '03

04 Feb '03

Im just wondering what my opptions are for live linux cd's(Bootable Linux with no install required). I know about knoppix and SuSe(is there a redistribution problem with the lissesnce of this one?) but are there others? I know alot of people who wana try Linux but dont want to install, and they call themselfs C.S. students, pa! ;) Oh thers also one dedicated to playing frozzen bubble allthogh its abit poo. Do u need a WM(like IceWM) to play a fullscreen X windows game? Dennis Dryden -- _______________________________________________ Get your free email from http://www.graffiti.net Powered by Outblaze

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Journalling Filesystems
by Keith Watson 04 Feb '03

04 Feb '03

when I installed Debian Woody I set up my root partition as ext3. I've been running with it for several months now and it seems to work well. 1) does anyone else use ext3 and, if so, what do you think of it? 2) are there any caveats regarding the use of ext3? (apart from making sure that ext3 support is in the kernel) 3) I'm thinking of converting my existing ext2 partitions to ext3, are there any circumstances where is isn't worth doing this? 4) what about other journalling fs's (ReiserFS or XFS for example), are they any better? and how hard is it to convert from ext2 to one of them? Regards, Keith ____________ "allugThey couldn't hit an elephant at this dista..." - General John Sedgwick (American Civil War)

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Wheel Mices
by Keith Watson 03 Feb '03

03 Feb '03

My old faithful wheel mouse gave out last weekend so I had to get a new one. The old one cost me all of GBP 1.50 at a local computer fair 3 years ago so it didn't owe me anything. I decided to be a bit less of a cheapskate this time and bought a 'more reputable' brand (wonder how long this one will last :o) ). Main problem is this one is so sensitive to the slightest movement compared to my old one. I've found out how to adjust this with the Gnome Control Centre but there doesn't seem to be anything relating to the sensitivity of the wheel. So instead of scrolling one or two lines my displays jump half a page or so at the slightest movement. Anyone know of any generic way to adjust this or do I have to review the key bindings for each app? Keith

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kernel compile via rescue disk?
by Ricardo Santos Campos 03 Feb '03

03 Feb '03

At the moment I have a Debian installation on a disk that is going to be moved onto a new motherboard, which has an entirely new chipset. This chipset is supported in 2.4.20, but not in 2.4.18 which is what I am running currently. The 2.4.20 sources are in /usr/src, but the need to be unpacked and recompiled. Sadly, the pc (for whatever reason) won't stay working for long enough for a compile and make-kpkg. Would it be possible for me to use a rescue disk, chroot into the existing installation (by mounting the / , /usr and /home partitions, /swap is on a different hd which I am also moving to the new mobo), run the compile from there, use dpkg to install, reset LILO, then exit? I have a feeling it *should* be possible, but I have sneaky suspicions there will be odd problems... I expect to do the following (partition names aren't exact, but you get the idea- & commans cribbed from gentoo install docs): # Mounting swap swapon /dev/hdb5 # Make directories to mount existing partitions onto mkdir /mnt/debian mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/debian mkdir /mnt/debian/usr mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/debian/usr mkdir /mnt/debian/home mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/debian/home cd /mnt/debian # Not sure why I should do this.... mount -o bind /proc /mnt/debian/proc #Actually chroot into it.... chroot /mnt/debian /bin/bash The problem I can see is whether I will be able to find the paths to gcc, dpkg, make-kpkg etc... Can anyone suggest anything I may have missed? TIA

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Announce digest, Vol 2 #2 - 1 msg
by announce-request＠lists.alug.org.uk 03 Feb '03

03 Feb '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. Fwd: Re: [Alug] Meeting Sunday (2-Feb) UEA - Nelson Court or Union House? (MJ Ray) --__--__-- Message: 1 To: announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk From: MJ Ray <markj(a)cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> Date: Sun, 02 Feb 2003 11:31:27 +0000 Subject: [Alug Announce] Fwd: Re: [Alug] Meeting Sunday (2-Feb) UEA - Nelson Court or Union House? Subject: Re: [Alug] Meeting Sunday (2-Feb) UEA - Nelson Court or Union House? Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 20:04:49 GMT The following is the current plan. Meet in the downstairs bar at UEA at 2pm on 2nd Feb and wait for a while, have a drink, etc, then we can move upstairs (rooms 1.35 and 1.33 are most likely) if anyone needs help fixing machines, etc. Snow permitting, I'll bring a penguin for the bar table, although I suspect tsw have their own toys they could use. This meeting will include an Open Forum, discussing some future talks for ALUG and probably other things too. --__--__-- _______________________________________________ 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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