February 2009 - main

How to execute something when I log out from X?
by Chris G 24 Feb '09

24 Feb '09

I run xubuntu 8.10 and I want to shut down my VirtualBox guest machine when I log out. That is I want to shut it down automatically, I usually remember to do it before I logout but sometimes I forget and it is then shut down 'ungracefully' with risk to its contents. One would have thought that there would be 'hooks' for running stuff at shutdown but I can't find any at all. Does anyone have any suggestions? -- Chris Green

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lenny and virtual box
by Peter Alcibiades 24 Feb '09

24 Feb '09

I run VB under Lenny, W2K, for a specialist CAD program. Works perfectly. Would probably work better with more memory, the rest of the system does slow down a bit. Only have 1G of which 512 is allocated to the VM. I can't get shared folders to work, which is tiresome, so I email files back and forth - once they are exported in dxf they can be worked on in QCAD. Peter

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Email editing with TB - you can use any editor!
by James Freer 22 Feb '09

22 Feb '09

Recently i had wanted to use a text editor to speed up answering emails and considered Mutt and Emacs. I had used Thunderbird for sometime and liked the app but editing emails takes too long. Setting up Mutt was ok but still involved quite a bit of work. Yesterday i came across a Thunderbird addon Muttador (still beta stage - vi editor) and today came across a non-mozilla TB addon called Exteditor... just what i've wanted and didn't think it existed! http://globs.org/articles.php?lng=en&pg=2 Some v.kind person has developed an external editor addon instead of the TB editor. It allows emacs, vi, joe, gedit or whatever to compose emails. Should be of interest to anyone who wants to increase their productivity and say goodbye to the mouse while editing emails. james

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Symchronization, nearly have what I want now
by Chris G 21 Feb '09

21 Feb '09

I've been niggling away at my Nokia E71 synchrnozation problem ever since I posted here about it. I think I now have a workable solution, it's not perfect but it's good enough for the present. The downside is that it involves a web 'out there' intermediary, I am using ScheduleWorld (http://www.scheduleworld.com) I have my Nokia E71 synchronizing via my local wifi to ScheduleWorld and I have installed the SyncEvolution plugin for Evolution that synchronizes with ScheduleWorld too. It's *slightly* clumsy in that I have to do two separate synchronizes, one each for the E71 and Evolution but it does, I suppose, give me web access to my contacts and calendar. There are plugins/conduits for most devices and software for ScheduleWorld so I could move to Thunderbird/Lightning if I decide to do so. I'd really prefer a lightweight syncMl server for my home machine, the syncEvolution site does mutter about such a thing being on the way so we can but hope. -- Chris Green

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Problems with Monitor in standby
by Alex Scotton 21 Feb '09

21 Feb '09

Hi All, As a result of not being able to define in a google-able way whats wrong with my setup at the moment, I have resorted to mailing you guys... As I have seen hundred of problems solved by you guys.. My problem is a simple, yet annoying one... Whenever my system (Ubuntu 8.10 | Kernel 2.7.11) is IDLE for long enough to turn the monitor "off", the monitor goes into standby fine (green light turns to orange light) but every so often the monitor will boot up again, and flash up on the screen "No Signal" and go back to standby mode... there seems to be no consistency to it, it is very random.. However as I dual boot with windows, I was able to identify that the monitor works fine in windows, and I haven't had these problems before.. Further Specs if required are available but you may have to tell me where to find those stats (as am still learning the basics) However I can tell you that it is a ViewSonic VP191b on a Nvidia geforce 6150SE using the proprietary drivers! Any help will be much appreciated, and to all readers the wishes of a good day! Peace! Alex

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Wireless Access Points
by steveydoteu 20 Feb '09

20 Feb '09

ALUG, I am looking into a purchase, nothing to high end, just as a means of discarding a number of cables in my room. The problem arises when I have no experience or knowledge of using WAPs before. My current setup is as follows: BTHomeHub (2nd gen I believe) is connected into powerline adaptors one of which is used as an outlet in this room. I have then connected a LAN switch to the adaptor, which is then cabled to all machines that require access. With this in mind all current devices can actually be used via Wifi, if it was not for the HomeHub wifi being utter crap. So I am looking for advice or suggestions for a WAP that is around ~£50 that will cope with a main desktop, media server, and various consoles. Cheers, Steve www.stevey.eu

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Re: [ALUG] Netbook?
by Tim Green 19 Feb '09

19 Feb '09

2009/2/18 mbm <mbm(a)rlogin.net>: > Could you let us have your views on the HP please? I guess I'm not > alone in considering purchasing a netbook now and I'd like to know why > you chose the HP over one of the others (Eee, Aspire One etc). And of > course, if any others on the list have views or preferences I'd > appreciate hearing. One of my colleagues has an early Eee, and likes its simplicity. Runs Linux, not sure which distro. Another of my colleagues has just bought a Samsung NC10, and loves its long battery life. Runs XP. Hope that helps! Tim.

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Toppy software for netbook?
by Ruth Bygrave 18 Feb '09

18 Feb '09

The Toppy (Topfield TF5800) is a PVR roughly comparable to the Humax. It has a USB port that can be accessed by a PC or Mac. Have now got a netbook (HP Mini-Note 2133). Since this is slightly more portable than my main machine (it doesn't have a slew of wires and a USB hub connected to it) is there a way I can set it up to talk to the Toppy? Can make nothing of the descriptions on this webpage: http://toppy.org.uk/downloads/linux.php The netbook runs SUSE Enterprise Edition 10, or that's what it says on the sticky label. I have an entire series of Heroes that I haven't watched yet, for example, so if I could move it I could format it for iPod and save it on a DVD, which would allow me to get all that space back. Regards, Ruth

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Re: [ALUG] Odd networking issue; losing packets?
by lists＠glover.uk.net 18 Feb '09

18 Feb '09

> I have a Windows XP box and a Ubuntu 8.10 box plugged in to the same > router. > FWIW, it's a BT HomeHub 2 that I'm currently trialling. > > Both work, although for some reason the Ubuntu box has an odd tracert: > > $ sudo tracert 216.239.59.147 > traceroute to 216.239.59.147 (216.239.59.147), 30 hops max, 40 byte > packets > 1 BThomehub.home (192.168.1.254) 55.623 ms 55.417 ms 55.174 ms > 2 217.47.200.58 (217.47.200.58) 33.711 ms * * > 3 * * * > 4 * * * > 5 * * * > 6 * 217.41.170.65 (217.41.170.65) 41.333 ms * > 7 * 217.41.170.122 (217.41.170.122) 31.084 ms 33.988 ms > 8 * * * > 9 * * * > 10 * * * > 11 * * * > 12 * * 195.99.125.82 (195.99.125.82) 33.735 ms > 13 * * * > 14 * * * > 15 * * * > 16 * * * > 17 gv-in-f147.google.com (216.239.59.147) 45.999 ms * * > > Compare that with the Windows box; > C:\>tracert www.google.com > > Tracing route to www.l.google.com [216.239.59.147] > over a maximum of 30 hops: > > 1 43 ms 100 ms 99 ms BThomehub.home [192.168.1.254] > 2 476 ms 395 ms 435 ms 217.47.200.58 > 3 179 ms 184 ms 187 ms 217.47.250.161 > 4 191 ms 32 ms 62 ms 217.47.200.10 > 5 63 ms 63 ms 153 ms 217.41.170.21 > 6 82 ms 62 ms 97 ms 217.41.170.65 > 7 234 ms 215 ms 122 ms 217.41.170.122 > 8 206 ms 183 ms 183 ms 217.41.170.50 > 9 230 ms 244 ms 245 ms 217.47.200.241 > 10 470 ms 320 ms 307 ms > core1-pos0-0-0-5.ilford.ukcore.bt.net[194.72.20.113] > 11 370 ms 367 ms 369 ms > core1-pos14-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net[195.99.125.225] > 12 423 ms 490 ms 453 ms 195.99.125.82 > 13 422 ms 423 ms 409 ms 209.85.255.175 > 14 45 ms 67 ms 93 ms 209.85.250.216 > 15 101 ms 151 ms 123 ms 66.249.95.164 > 16 203 ms 184 ms 185 ms 216.239.49.114 > 17 249 ms 249 ms 242 ms gv-in-f147.google.com [216.239.59.147] > > Trace complete. > > It seems to me that the Linux box is losing lots of packets. Many get > through, but many do not. Or am I just worrying about nothing, given that > it > seems to work OK. On the bright side, those packets that do get through do > so a lot quicker than those on Windows, but that may be just because my > Linux box is less archaic. > > Any ideas? > > Thanks, > Hi Greg, Linux traceroute and WIndows traceroute work in different ways. Linux uses UDP packets, and WIndows uses ICMP. From your Linux machine try traceroute -I www.google.co.uk and then try without the -I. THe -I forces the Linux traceroute to behave like the Windows one. Some routers block excessive UDP traffic, as they see it as an attack. My Draytek router blocks UDP pings, I always have to use -I on traces. Hope that helps Chris

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GMail plain text
by Richard Lewis 17 Feb '09

17 Feb '09

Hello ALUG, Just a note for GMail Web UI users: The GMail Web interface defaults to sending multipart HTML emails. The ALUG lists bawk on HTML emails and block them for manual moderation. In order to get your messages to the list straight away you need to make sure you're sending plain text emails. When composing a message, you can click the 'Plain text' option near the formatting options to switch to plain text editing. I'm sure you used to be able to configure the GMail Web interface to default to sending plain text email to certain contacts. I can't work out how to do this now, though. If anyone works it out then do let us know! Best, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis ISMS, Computing Goldsmiths, University of London Tel: +44 (0)20 7078 5134 Skype: richardjlewis JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +-------------------------------------------------------+ |Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.| |http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html | +-------------------------------------------------------+

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