November 2005 - main

RE: [ALUG] Installing Debian
by Keith Watson 06 Nov '05

06 Nov '05

> From: Anthony Anson > > I've just had an attempt at installing Woody, but fell at, if > not the first hurdle, the next one. > I'd strongly advise installing a Ubuntu distro (latest is 5.10 Breezy Badger) if you want to try out Debian. I'm a dedicated Debianite and also a total convert to Ubuntu after setting up a dial-up PC for a non PC literate friend a couple of months back (Quote: "Wow this is as good as Windows!!"** :-> ) I'm sure someone on the list has some of the latest Ubuntu Live+Install CD packs (I've got some of the previous 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog packs). IMO the install is a dream. Regards, Keith ____________ Though the forest is dense, yet water flows through it freely. - Zen Saying ** recent quote after another acquaintance was bemoaning getting assorted viruses and rogue diallers over the past year, "Oh!, I don't get those, I run Linux" (accompanied by a superior grin) [however I did enable their firewall]

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Installing Debian
by Peter 05 Nov '05

05 Nov '05

I would get Mepis. Assuming you don't mind KDE. Installation is very simple indeed, and after 45 minutes, there you have it, a working Debian based installation with most of what you'll need, and Synaptic for the rest. And you get to try it out from the CD first, to make sure you like it, before going to the trouble of installing. I did try Ubuntu, an earlier version, and didn't like it one bit. It may have improved, but the one I tried, last Christmas, was an utter dog. So at least if you try Ubuntu, make sure its the latest version. I also failed, a long time ago, to get Woody in, no longer recall exactly why, but the latest version is pretty straightforward. Though not as simple as Mepis. Peter

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Installing Debian
by Anthony Anson 05 Nov '05

05 Nov '05

I've just had an attempt at installing Woody, but fell at, if not the first hurdle, the next one. With 640 MB of memory I didn't think a swap partition was necessary so I skipped that. (Anyone disagree?) Formatting the drive was not what you would call intuitive, though. I 'deleted' [1] all the existing partitions on hda, couldn't print the 'help' menu [2], found that using the command letters didn't do anything except return me to the formatting page, and I could find no way of implementing the changes I had made. I understand that the latest version is a lot more user-friendly. [1] altered the hda1 FAT32; hda2 FAT16; hda3 Fat16 to a single unformatted partition awaiting the command to format. [2] the line at the bottom which said 'print help' or something similar had a cursor at the end of it, but I couldn't find any way of moving it or highlighting the lot, or getting it to work. So I removed the CD and shut down. I have a feeling that this is going to be a long job... -- Tony http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

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RE: [ALUG] ACPI on ThinkPad
by Keith Watson 04 Nov '05

04 Nov '05

> From: Dan Hatton Sent: 04 November 2005 00:39 > > I'm trying to set up ACPI power management, but I can't get > my system to resume from suspend-to-RAM; does anyone have any > idea how to proceed, please? > > The details: the system is Fedora core 4, on an IBM ThinkPad, > with a home-compiled 2.6.14 kernel (but the result is much > the same with a Fedora stock 2.6.13 kernel.) > > After I suspend with a (bash) script (cobbled together from > bits of advice and scripts on the WWW,) run in an xterm, > whose functional part > is: > > rmmod uhci_hcd > rmmod ehci_hcd > echo `fgconsole` > /var/cache/acpi/vt > chvt 8 > echo -n "auto_disable" > /proc/acpi/ibm/video echo -n "mem" > > /sys/power/state echo -n "auto_enable" > /proc/acpi/ibm/video > chvt `cat /var/cache/acpi/vt` rm -f /var/cache/acpi/vt > modprobe uhci_hcd modprobe ehci_hcd > > then resume by pressing the power button, the system comes > back, and shows me my xsession, but then hangs when trying to > run any commands. > > When I run the script from the console, then resume by > pressing the power button, the system dies (after a long-ish > pause) with various error messages, in which there are > references to "spinlock recursion," "spinlock lockup," and > repeatedly to "ATA Timeout." > Dan, something of an oblique answer I'm afraid but it might point you in the direction of some useful resources. I've recently been setting up my work HP nx9105 as a dual boot WinXP / Ubuntu system. My main problem was USB not working. This turned out to be ACPI related because of a BIOS bug. (Fix was to turn off ACPI and all my USB devices snapped into use :o) ) My point is that the Ubuntu Wiki and forums have a lot of discussion related to laptops and all things ACPI which may provide some ideas about ways you can figure out a solution. Regards, Keith ____________ COMMERCE, n. - A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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ACPI on ThinkPad
by Dan Hatton 04 Nov '05

04 Nov '05

I'm trying to set up ACPI power management, but I can't get my system to resume from suspend-to-RAM; does anyone have any idea how to proceed, please? The details: the system is Fedora core 4, on an IBM ThinkPad, with a home-compiled 2.6.14 kernel (but the result is much the same with a Fedora stock 2.6.13 kernel.) After I suspend with a (bash) script (cobbled together from bits of advice and scripts on the WWW,) run in an xterm, whose functional part is: rmmod uhci_hcd rmmod ehci_hcd echo `fgconsole` > /var/cache/acpi/vt chvt 8 echo -n "auto_disable" > /proc/acpi/ibm/video echo -n "mem" > /sys/power/state echo -n "auto_enable" > /proc/acpi/ibm/video chvt `cat /var/cache/acpi/vt` rm -f /var/cache/acpi/vt modprobe uhci_hcd modprobe ehci_hcd then resume by pressing the power button, the system comes back, and shows me my xsession, but then hangs when trying to run any commands. When I run the script from the console, then resume by pressing the power button, the system dies (after a long-ish pause) with various error messages, in which there are references to "spinlock recursion," "spinlock lockup," and repeatedly to "ATA Timeout." -- Thanks, Dan Hatton <http://www.bib.hatton.btinternet.co.uk/dan/>

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Little wild card/scripting problem
by Chris Green 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Can anyone come up with an easy solution for the following? I can invent all sorts of multi-line ways of doing it but I can't think of a simple one-liner. I have (lots of) directories with files with names like the following in them:- 1130938547.25791_1.server:2,RS 1130938547.25791_3.server:2,RS 1130938547.25791_5.server:2,RS 1130940325.30327_1.server:2,RS 1130940325.30327_3.server:2,RS 1130940325.30327_5.server:2,RS 1130945401.24201_1.halkidiki:2,RS 1130945401.24201_3.halkidiki:2,RS 1130945401.24201_5.halkidiki:2,RS I want to run a shell script for loop on the files in these directories, it's easy enough to use find to recursively run through all the directories, the issue occurs when I do:- for i in * do # lots of clever (?) things done The 'for i in *' means that the files are processed in the order shown above with the 'server' files before the 'halkidiki' ones. I want to *guarantee* that the 'halkidiki' ones come first, can anyone come up with a way of doing this? for i in *halkidiki* *server* Doesn't work because not all the directories have both server and halkidiki files. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Cups printing
by Andy Trevor 03 Nov '05

03 Nov '05

Is there anyone out and about that really understands Cups network printing ? If so please contact me on or off list Thanks in advance -- Regards Andy Trevor Technical Director Cutter Project Limited 07840988311 http:www.cutterproject.co.uk

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Linux/OSS conference at UEA
by Karamoon 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

Is anyone interested in a Linux/OSS conference at UEA? It should be in term time so we can get some students involved. It would essentially be a day of talks and possibly some workshops aimed at people who are new to linux and oss. A talk on installing and using Ubuntu would be great as I got 100 Ubuntu packs this morning. Positive comments and suggestions our welcome. Matthew __________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - Make it your home page! http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

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UEA ALUG society
by Karamoon 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

At the recent kitmeet several people(5) expressed interest in starting an ALUG society at Norwich UEA. Starting a UEA society involves getting 30 people to pay £3 each. The society would then be given a grantEli has suggested the name "ALUG/U" for the group. If anyone would be interested in a UEA ALUG society, or has any comments/suggestions, I would be grateful if they could let me know. Thanks for your time and consideration, Matthew(Karamoon) __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com

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Job specs to make you smile
by Guy Eastwood 02 Nov '05

02 Nov '05

Here's the result of a jobspec work asked me for a while back. I didn't give the print guys the final copy so the typo's aren't mine yet.. the wording... well, see what you think ;o) We got two really good members of staff added to tech dept as a result too! http://surefyre.com/surefyreold/surefyre_images/nomcse.png (No the position isn't open still) I've since come across people all over the place that have seen/heard of this ad LOL! Is weird reading the ad again, the jobspec is so much more demanding now. G

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