June 2008 - main - earth.li

GNOME/X problems
by Greg Thomas 08 Jun '08

08 Jun '08

I'm running Ubuntu 8.04, which 95% of the time works just great. The other 5% if the time, the screen will just go grey when in use [It may actually be black, but with nothing else on the LCD to contrast it against it looks grey], and I'm unable to do anything (*). Ctrl-Alt-Backspace will rattle the disk, and I can hear the Ubuntu drumbeat that happens when GNOME starts, but nothing actually changes on screen. Ctrl-Alt-F1 will drop me to a command line; restarting gdm from here doesn't do anything other than re-present me with a back/grey screen. So any ideas from the readers as to the best way to restart my windowing environment without restarting the whole box? Thanks, Greg (*) Someone is bound to ask; If I look in syslog it has the following ... Jun 1 13:15:20 greg-server gdm[5655]: WARNING: gdm_slave_xioerror_handler: Fatal X error - Restarting :0 Jun 1 13:16:18 greg-server gdm[5652]: WARNING: main daemon: Got SIGABRT. Something went very wrong. Going down! Jun 1 13:16:18 greg-server gdm[5652]: GLib-CRITICAL: g_hash_table_lookup_extended: assertion `hash_table != NULL' failed Jun 1 13:16:18 greg-server gdm[5652]: WARNING: Request for invalid configuration key xdmcp/Enable=false Jun 1 13:16:18 greg-server gdm[8494]: WARNING: Didn't understand `' (expected true or false) Googling suggests to me that this is a fairly recent, err, feature, of the current packages ...

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Local Feed Aggregation in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS?
by Steven Rose 08 Jun '08

08 Jun '08

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 I have use of a Google Reader account, but am looking for something lightweight to use locally on my laptop. Any suggestions ALUG? - -- Regards, Steven Rose www.stevey.eu -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFISqn9OZpkWR2o6LERAj9yAKCbErSEzk1LYkjN1WtFlkqgHy62cQCfZV9c t2JoBjjBnJU9JraaJIBe2Ho= =dZrZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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eeePC
by Ruth Bygrave 08 Jun '08

08 Jun '08

Great fun, small & cute. Think it runs Xandros. How do I get a shell prompt on it, also perl? Regards, Ruth

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Perl
by Ruth Bygrave 08 Jun '08

08 Jun '08

...cannot get 'make' to work on either the Mac or the eeePC. Possibly I should have a /usr/bin/make but there's no sign of it. Oops. I get up to "Checking if your kit is complete. Looks good" and then I get: Writing Makefile for [whatever] -- NOT OK Running make test. Can't test without successful make. Running make install make had returned bad status, install seems impossible How do I get perl modules to do anything? Regards, Ruth

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[ALUG Announce] Fw: LUG Radio Live 2008 19th/20th July Wolverhampton
by MJ Ray 08 Jun '08

08 Jun '08

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- I'm forwarding this on request of Tony Whitmore:- LUG Radio Live UK 2008 will be happening on the 19th and 20th July at the Lighthouse Media Centre in Wolverhampton. This self-styled "rock conference" is always a-buzz with interesting ideas and is renowned for its laid-back social atmosphere combined with a diverse range of speakers and exhibitors. Speakers and Exhibitors confirmed so far include: Chris DiBona (Google) Max Spevack - The Fedora Project James Hooker Kevin Sandom Barbie Daniel James - The Indamixx project Emma Jane Hogbin Bruno Bord Ben Thorp Rufus Pollock Sam Birchall John Carr Christian Schaller Edward Hervey William J Giddings Rob McQueen Agostino Russo Steve Lamb - Microsoft Robert Collins Benjamin Otte Matthew Garrett William Anderson Matthew Walster Bytemark Icculus Ubuntu UK Open Rights Group www.tinker.it KDE Linux Outlaws 64 Studio Linux Emporium Find out more about the venue, schedule, hotels etc. at http://lugradio.org/live Tony Whitmore ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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iptables - old rules?
by Barry Samuels 05 Jun '08

05 Jun '08

Debian Testing (uptodate) - kernel 2.6.24 If I list my Iptables rules they include rules which contain the domain names of two of my previous ISPs but I can't find what is generating these rules. I use Firestarter at present and previously used Guarddog. I think that it was Guarddog which generated these rules but I have long ago uninstalled (purged) that package and nothing of it remains. If I use Firestarter to stop the firewall all I'm left with is: Chain INPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination Chain OUTPUT (policy ACCEPT) target prot opt source destination If I then restart the firewall all those old rules re-appear even though there is nothing in the Firestarter configuration to generate them. I find the iptables syntax a complete mystery which is why I use packages like Guarddog and Firestarter. Where can I look to try and find where these rules are coming from? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Any Evolution+Compiz users out there
by Wayne Stallwood 04 Jun '08

04 Jun '08

On my last machine and to an even greater extent on my new one I have a strange cursor artifact problem with the compose message box in evolution. (both machines are using a nvidia card and the non-free drivers) an 8800GT and Quadro FX500 respectively. I think it started to occur when I started using Compiz, on my old machine it only appeared after gnome had been up for some time..on the new one it appears most of the time. The effect is that copies of (or copies of portions of) the cursor get "stuck" in the message window. This happens most frequently when cutting or pasting text or moving the cursor position with the arrow keys but it can also happen when typing in which case the bottom few pixels of the cursor remain in previous positions within the text..also sometimes when a line wraps a copy of the cursor remains at the end. Moving the window will remove the existing ones, so I was thinking it was a graphics/windowmanager glitch but it only seems to happen in Evolution. It also appears in any screenshots I take as below. http://digimatic.plus.com/evolution.jpg Anyone here experienced the same problem ?

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Re: [ALUG] Anyone of the Ipswich inclination happen to have a PS2 keyboard I could borrow for a day or so?
by Adam Reid 03 Jun '08

03 Jun '08

Cheers - this is for the new tower though, not the laptop ... and that'd be a bit much to lug to and fro (as I don't drive, unsure if you recall). :) Hopefully the adaptor will cut the Ubuntu mustard, but as I need to wait until next *week* for CCL to send me RAM that doesn't have faults (just sent the dicky stuff back today), it'll be a while before we find out. :\ Thanks for the offer though, ~Adam > Bit late now, but I have a USB -> PS/2 converter you can borrow. My > wireless USB keyboard has a PS/2 dongle which you could also try - but > as it's my main keyboard, I can't lend it for an extended period of > time - you're welcome to bring your machine round here, tho. > > Let me know if you're other options don't pan out. > > Sam.

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Re: [ALUG] Anyone of the Ipswich inclination happen to have a PS2 keyboard I could borrow for a day or so? (Martin Collins)
by Adam Reid 03 Jun '08

03 Jun '08

Allo, and no worries. The option is on by default - I've tried it on and off, with and without USB2 support. It's fine in the BIOS and the original stages, but as soon as the second prompt to choose language appears ... pff. not a sausage. Google says I'm not the only person who's hit this issue, but none of the suggested fixes are working / possible (ie they involve changing BIOS options I don't have). Someone here has rather generously offered a keyboard, but somebody else (from elsewhere) has already posted an adaptor - which was unexpected, as I was just asking them for advice on the matter. So will wait until that arrives, on the off chance that does the trick. :) Cheers, ~Adam > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 02:57:52 +0100 > From: "Martin Collins" <mobile.sea(a)googlemail.com> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Anyone of the Ipswich inclination happen to have a > PS2 keyboard I could borrow for a day or so? > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Message-ID: > <ef2346e00806021857o194d12bfyc798e992e74704db(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Not wanting to tell someone who has just built their PC how to suck > eggs, but just checking to see if turning legacy usb support on in the > bios fixes this?? Never used a usb keyboard before so this is not the > voice of experience!! > > Rgds, > > Martin > > On 02/06/2008, Adam Reid <thesilverhornet(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> to start the Ubuntu-ing process... but my USB keyboard is magically >> forgotten about as soon as I enter the install process proper (I'm using >> the alternate installer). >>

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Waves. (And the Eee PC)
by Anthony Anson 03 Jun '08

03 Jun '08

After a very long absence I've a huge number of ALUG items to look through, so now I'm back online (c/o a Vodafone broadbean dongle) I'll be going through the backlog of more than two years and maybe asking questions which have been covered before if they come up before I get to their discussion. The first of these questions is, has anyone written a script to drop into Linux of any flavour to allow it and the aforementioned Vodafone dongle to talk to each other? I have an Asus Eee, and am not overly chuffed with their dumbed-down version of Linux - 'My Network Places', 'My Computer', 'My this, that and the other'. Yeeuch! And MSN? I ask you! And the book of destructions states that 'Removing the pre-installed software is not allowed' Hmmm. We shall see about _THAT_! I shall be investigating the specially developed version of Ubantu, and a script that will mate that with Vodafone would be most useful innit. -- Tony http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

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