January 2010 - main

Encrypted PDF with odd password
by Dan Hatton 21 Apr '10

21 Apr '10

Dear All, I have an encrypted PDF file that I can open just fine in Adobe Reader under Windows. But I'd really prefer to read it in Xpdf (or any open source tool). Unfortunately, Xpdf needs the password supplied on the command line, and the password contains characters that are special to the shell. (Actually, I don't think I need to be coy about this. It contains a percent sign, an ampersand, and a pound sign.) I've tried escaping the special characters with backslashes, enclosing the password in various types of quotes, and putting the password in an environment variable, but all of these result in "Incorrect password" errors and failure to open the document. Any ideas, please? -- Thanks, Dan

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Hot swap sata drives
by Barry Samuels 15 Feb '10

15 Feb '10

Can anyone tell me how I can get a command to run whenever a sata hard drive is connected? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Blogs and such...
by James Elsey 10 Feb '10

10 Feb '10

When you come across an interesting article, or figure out how to do something with a new technology your messing around with, do you document it? This is a bit of a generalised question, just trying to find out what you guys do. I've gone for "Blogger", is there anything exciting Wordpress offers that could tempt me over? I'm using the web interface at the moment, its a bit clumsy, are there any good linux desktop applications that make it easier to type up and organise posts? If anyone has a tech blog, feel free to link me up, would be interested to see what others are doing Cheers! James Elsey

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ipv6 (with Virgin Media)
by Jon Dye 10 Feb '10

10 Feb '10

Hi, I would like to try settings up ipv6 at home in preperation for the global meltdown when we run out of ipv4 addresses. I currently have an internet connection with Virgin Media who I don't believe do native ipv6. I therefore would like to set up a tunnel to a provider. I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for particular providers (brokers?), software or general tips (or specific tips relating to Virgin Media). I have several PCs (Windows and Linux) on a LAN which then goes through a router that doesn't have ipv6 capability. One of the linux machines on the LAN is a server that's on 24/7 so I was thinking of using that to do the tunnelling. I don't have a static IP on the router but it hardly ever changes (I think it's only changed when I've unplugged the router for more than a few hours). Suggestions? JD

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BT Broadband linux compatability?
by Mark Wilson 01 Feb '10

01 Feb '10

Hi, I was just wondering does anyone know if it's possible to use BT Broadband on a linux system? I've heard there are problems, something to do with a modem they supply (BT voyager?) and driver issues. Any info would be most appreciated! Mark Wilson

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Why doesn't my IMG float? (trivial HTML question)
by Chris G 30 Jan '10

30 Jan '10

In the following snippet I was expecting the text to appear beside the image but it obstinately stays above it:- <p>Zelma has to be back at work tomorrow so we went down to Chateauneuf and Zelma and Ben left us there to return home. Maxine and I then pottered downstream to Cheffes and back, all very scenic, with supper back at Chateauneuf.</p> <div align="left" class="figure"> <img alt="http://home.isbd.net/boat/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/DSCF2320.jpg" src="http://home.isbd.net/boat/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/DSCF2320.jpg" style="height: 50px;" /> <p class="caption">View of the moorings at Chateaneuf-sur-Sarthe</p> </div> Can anyone suggest what the problem might be? Yes, I know there are possibly other bits around that might affect it but I can't see anything relevant. The code is generated by docutils by the way so don't complain about my style, I didn't do it! I'm viewing in Firefox 3.5.7, has it decided that as div align="left" is deprecated it can ignore it? I've just tried IE as well, same result. -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] BT Broadband linux compatability?
by Anthony Anson 30 Jan '10

30 Jan '10

Ken Hamer wrote: > On 29/01/2010 23:51, Anthony Anson wrote: >> They still haven't mended it. > So are you saying that you don't have a working phone line (including > voice)? Yes, that's what the situation is. I seldom used the phone anyway, and typically, my bill would be around ten quid, which would include (say) tw calls. So, I have a PAYG elderly phobile and this internet dongle. It's only inconvenient on badly-constructed websites, or if I want to access audio or video files. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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[OOPS!!] Dud keyboard solved! Thanks.
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 30 Jan '10

30 Jan '10

Apologies for the loss of time! I had failed to check the systemn clock after rebooting this morning. As a result the following was sent "two days ago". Now back to real time. -----FW: <XFMail.100128085753.Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk>----- Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:57:53 -0000 (GMT) Sender: main-bounces(a)lists.alug.org.uk From: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk Subject: [ALUG] Dud keyboard solved! Thanks. Apologies for not responding earlier -- I was in Cambridge most of yesterday, and did not have time to deal with people's replies until today. Many thanks to all who responded. I do seem to have raised a lot of dust in attics! Since I was in Cambridge, I followed up Ken's suggestion, so popped into Maplin's and bought an L90BT (PS2 female to DIN male adaptor). As Wayne indicated, it wasn't cheap (£7.99), but is nicely made and solid. Since Maplins had a few "on the hook" in the shop, there was no issue about being "lucky to find one in a hurry"! Anyway, back at home, this morning I used the adaptor to connect a PS2 keyboard to the DIN socket on the box. Worked perfectly, and I fscked the filesystem (Statutory Declaration: I have not made a typo). I am now back to emailing normally from that machine! The following may be of interest (and a possible useful warning). I dismantled the old DIN keyboard to try to diagnose the problem. The heart of its mechanism is two plastic sheets with "printed circuitry" on them: on the underside of the upper sheet, and on the upper side of the bottom sheet. These lie below the keys, and when a key is pressed it presses the upper sheet down onto the lower sheet, and makes a contact. I suspect that this may be the source of the problem. Because the computer in question is mainly accessed remotely, its keyboard is hardly ever used (except occasionally when rebooting); so, to keep the keyboard out of the way, I have had it standing upright on its edge (the edge that would be nearest to you when laid flat for use). Undoubtedly, at least when putting it back on its edge after use and probably often when just shifting stuff around, the keyboard has been tapped onto the tabletop when in the upright position. This may have caused the plastic sheets to shift inside the keyboard, either getting it out of alignment with the pegs on the keys (that press down on the sheets) or moving it out of touch with the contacts in the keyboard case that connect the sheets with the little chip that feeds the cable. Whether that is the explanation or not, the end effect has been that pressing a key produced no result (and the effect had been intermittent until yesterday, when it had apparently become permanent). So beware! (Another warning: dismantling a keyboard should not be done lightly. There are lots of loose bits inside. Reassembling and getting everything back in line is not trivial. Indeed, I recall, from years ago, taking the bottom off a keyboard only to discover that it had spring-loaded insides. It took ages to pick all the little bits up from the floor ... ). I shall be in touch privately with the people who have kindly invaded their attics on my behalf, once I have brought that machine properly up-to-date again. Meanwhile, thanks again and best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 28-Jan-10 Time: 08:57:50 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 30-Jan-10 Time: 10:19:52 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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FOSDEM upcoming
by Sam Tuke 30 Jan '10

30 Jan '10

6-7th Feb, Brussels. See http://www.fosdem.org/2010/ Is anyone thinking of going to FOSDEM? I'm sure that it'll be a fantastic experience to meet amazing people, learn about new technologies and exciting projects. Also it's good to represent Britain with the largest turnout possible (remind Europe that we aren't all backward numbskulls when it comes to technology - it's just our government). Transport and accommodation may be easier/cheaper if people travel as a group. So, any takers?

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Graphics Card Recommendations
by James Bensley 29 Jan '10

29 Jan '10

Hey List, Can anyone recommend a graphics card that can definitely play full 1080p video under Ubuntu. Currently I have a Palit GT 240 which can play 1080i at 20Mbps OK but above that and it struggles. However 1080p at 16Mbps isn't watchable. I get a better result out of mPlayer than VLC when user VDPAU with X11 but its still not watchable. The machine is dual boot with WinXP Pro x64 SP3 and has the same results? Recommendations are welcome. -- Regards, James ;) Samuel Goldwyn - "I'm willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong." - http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/samuel_goldwyn.html

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URGENT! Ancient keyboard/adaptor needed!
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 29 Jan '10

29 Jan '10

Hi Folks, One for the attic-hoarders amongst you! I need a replacement for one of those old keyboards with the fat (pre-PS2) connector (I forget what their proper name is). Alternatively, if there's an adaptor that would allow a PS2 keyboard to be plugged in to the ancient socket in the back of the case, then that might do the job. Reason: the keyboard on one of my machines (dating back to the 90s) has failed, and I can no longer re-boot it (it needs a manual fsck following a power failure). Any offers/advice/suggestions most welcome! Thanks, Ted. ---------------------------------- E-Mail: Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk Date: 29-Jan-2010 Time: 08:10:00 This message was sent by XFMail ----------------------------------

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Hello!
by Martin A. Brooks 28 Jan '10

28 Jan '10

Hello ALUG, I thought I might try and find a LUG which is a little closer to my home than my usual haunt (GLLUG), and didn't fancy taking on the responsibility of restarting Essex LUG. So, err, hello! Hope you guys are friendly.... :) Mart.

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Dud keyboard solved! Thanks.
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 28 Jan '10

28 Jan '10

Apologies for not responding earlier -- I was in Cambridge most of yesterday, and did not have time to deal with people's replies until today. Many thanks to all who responded. I do seem to have raised a lot of dust in attics! Since I was in Cambridge, I followed up Ken's suggestion, so popped into Maplin's and bought an L90BT (PS2 female to DIN male adaptor). As Wayne indicated, it wasn't cheap (£7.99), but is nicely made and solid. Since Maplins had a few "on the hook" in the shop, there was no issue about being "lucky to find one in a hurry"! Anyway, back at home, this morning I used the adaptor to connect a PS2 keyboard to the DIN socket on the box. Worked perfectly, and I fscked the filesystem (Statutory Declaration: I have not made a typo). I am now back to emailing normally from that machine! The following may be of interest (and a possible useful warning). I dismantled the old DIN keyboard to try to diagnose the problem. The heart of its mechanism is two plastic sheets with "printed circuitry" on them: on the underside of the upper sheet, and on the upper side of the bottom sheet. These lie below the keys, and when a key is pressed it presses the upper sheet down onto the lower sheet, and makes a contact. I suspect that this may be the source of the problem. Because the computer in question is mainly accessed remotely, its keyboard is hardly ever used (except occasionally when rebooting); so, to keep the keyboard out of the way, I have had it standing upright on its edge (the edge that would be nearest to you when laid flat for use). Undoubtedly, at least when putting it back on its edge after use and probably often when just shifting stuff around, the keyboard has been tapped onto the tabletop when in the upright position. This may have caused the plastic sheets to shift inside the keyboard, either getting it out of alignment with the pegs on the keys (that press down on the sheets) or moving it out of touch with the contacts in the keyboard case that connect the sheets with the little chip that feeds the cable. Whether that is the explanation or not, the end effect has been that pressing a key produced no result (and the effect had been intermittent until yesterday, when it had apparently become permanent). So beware! (Another warning: dismantling a keyboard should not be done lightly. There are lots of loose bits inside. Reassembling and getting everything back in line is not trivial. Indeed, I recall, from years ago, taking the bottom off a keyboard only to discover that it had spring-loaded insides. It took ages to pick all the little bits up from the floor ... ). I shall be in touch privately with the people who have kindly invaded their attics on my behalf, once I have brought that machine properly up-to-date again. Meanwhile, thanks again and best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 28-Jan-10 Time: 08:57:50 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Re: [ALUG] ISP issue, some sites I'm completely unable to access..
by Anthony Anson 27 Jan '10

27 Jan '10

Ken Hamer wrote: > On 26/01/2010 22:38, Anthony Anson wrote: >> Not sure where their exchange is - might even be Bunwell... >> </thinks> > Depends what is meant by Tibenham. Some parts of it are on the New > Buckenham exchange - unlucky ones on Tivetshall through cables made of paper. Or wet string? >> If I want a reasonable connection I have to take the little box into >> Norwich, where the dongle will play nicely. >> Afraid you are not alone. But fear not! Mr. Brown is trying to get >> you 2Mbps! This will happen Real Soon Now. Not a lot of good - Mr. Brown will have to explain to BT that their bit of beryllium between their pole and their junction box is broken, and suggest to them that since I've been telling them this for around five years, a bit of (an?) expedition might not go amiss - which is why my connection is via Vogonfone. Mind you, since I don't try to access video streaming, music and the like, the PAYG dongle only costs me - has only cost me up to now £2½ per month. >> Can't get the wi-thingy to work with the Fat Cat's wireless router >> thobut. > That will be thick walls, long reach, incorrect encryption key, broken > adapter or broken router. Maybe all five. All routine. Try HomePlug > devices. Devolo ones work. Of course your router needs to be getting > a connection. Does it? I haven't got a router connected - I take the Eee into the Fat Cat, and so does Neville of this (ALUG) parish. We get the magic screed from the bar, and key it in. Neville's flaptop connects straight away, mine just sits there, claiming that it's connecting. This happens every time. Wireless connection works in my brother's house, at my sister's, in other pubs, friends' houses, but not at the Fat Cat. It doesn't reject the attempt, it just sits there smugly and pretends it's doing something. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Re: [ALUG] Is there a calendar/appointments program that will show?me a list of the next n appointments?
by Peter Alcibiades 26 Jan '10

26 Jan '10

On Tuesday 26 January 2010 09:45:15 Chris G wrote: >.... I was rather trying to get away from displaying in a terminal > window. > Must have a look at railender. But my guys don't see a console window, they would have zero tolerance for that. All they see is a desktop icon, which is labelled 'print calendar'. Double click it, and a little dialogue box comes up looking pretty, and asking 'you want to print?' They click the OK button in this window, and the next thing they know, they are looking at an open office word document with a list and the secretary reformats and prints from that. I generate 365 days looking forward. Don't know exactly what you can limit the konsolekalendar output to. But I'm anyway filtering and reformating the raw output, so it would be possible to just get everything using konsolekalendar, and then select in the filtering scripts. They find kontact quite nice to use otherwise, multiple address books, to do lists, the integration of kjots now, stickies. The format of the list was the only thing they didn't like, so it seemed worth going to a bit of trouble to fix it. It would be nice to have a usable todo out of the box. But kontact is so convenient for them with all the parts in the left pane. Peter

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Is there a calendar/appointments program that will show me a list of the next n appointments?
by Chris G 26 Jan '10

26 Jan '10

Well, having just about sorted out my events/appointments *recording* I now want a 'screen friendly' way of displaying them that will alert me to upcoming appointments without taking up too much screen real estate. My appointments/events will be in an iCalendar file (or at an iCal server) so most programs can see them, however I can't find anything to show them to me as a list of events. So far I have looked at:- Sunbird - no list mode at all, only week, month, next n weeks, not to mention that you can't have just the one pane showing. Evolution - does have a list view but you can't close down all the other panes so only the list is showing. Orage - no list view Osmo - no list view I guess it's not all that difficult to DIY, I already have a little python utility for showing upcoming reminders in the xfce panel. I could adapt this to do something similar in a small terminal window but if there's something out there that can do what I want already I might as well use it. I just want a utility to display the next x events (maybe limited to the next y days) in a simple list - date/event/description - so I can run it as a sticky window visible on all my worktops. -- Chris Green

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ISP issue, some sites I'm completely unable to access..
by James Elsey 26 Jan '10

26 Jan '10

Hey Guys, I'm experiencing rather odd behaviour with my internet connection at home recently, and I'm hoping some of the BT / Telecoms guys out there may have some pointers. I have a terrible connection anyway, around 0.2-0.5Mb at the best of times (was I refered to as the "pauper" or "peasent" of the connection ladder?) Over the past few weeks I'm completely unable to access particular websites, most notably Paypal, national-lotter.co.uk, LinkedIn, and pretty much 50% of any search results in google I want to go to. This is happening across all machines on my network, linux and windows alike, wired and wireless, and also my iphone(unless I put it on 3g) I have a netgear DG834T router, about 6-7 years old. There are no blocked sites and as far as I know the configuration hasn't be altered in some time, so no reason for it to suddenly alter. I am on(...dont laugh)..AOL.. Traceroutes below, as you can see google is fine, but paypal and linkedin are no-goes. any suggestions? [james@nevada ~]$ traceroute www.google.com traceroute to www.google.com (209.85.227.99), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.701 ms 0.993 ms 1.276 ms 2 host-92-4-32-1.as43234.net (92.4.32.1) 17.593 ms 21.644 ms 26.533 ms 3 92.31.251.12 (92.31.251.12) 88.683 ms 89.057 ms 89.980 ms 4 xe-10-3-0-scr001.loh.as13285.net (78.144.2.7) 47.956 ms 50.310 ms 55.938 ms 5 xe-11-0-0-scr010.sov.as13285.net (78.144.0.226) 59.461 ms 63.296 ms 67.303 ms 6 google-pp-sov.as13285.net (78.144.5.6) 72.963 ms 18.244 ms 19.564 ms 7 209.85.255.175 (209.85.255.175) 24.930 ms 209.85.252.76 (209.85.252.76) 27.816 ms 32.202 ms 8 66.249.95.170 (66.249.95.170) 45.845 ms 72.14.232.134 (72.14.232.134) 47.719 ms 169.276 ms 9 209.85.252.83 (209.85.252.83) 57.386 ms 209.85.251.231 (209.85.251.231) 61.225 ms 65.619 ms 10 209.85.243.97 (209.85.243.97) 72.739 ms 209.85.243.101 (209.85.243.101) 74.667 ms 209.85.243.93 (209.85.243.93) 31.873 ms 11 wy-in-f99.1e100.net (209.85.227.99) 29.866 ms 34.736 ms 38.122 ms [james@nevada ~]$ traceroute www.linkedin.com traceroute to www.linkedin.com (64.74.98.80), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.594 ms 0.874 ms 1.527 ms 2 host-92-4-32-1.as43234.net (92.4.32.1) 17.691 ms 22.002 ms 26.405 ms 3 92.31.251.12 (92.31.251.12) 30.564 ms 52.454 ms 52.924 ms 4 xe-10-3-0-scr001.loh.as13285.net (78.144.2.7) 46.274 ms 50.407 ms 54.782 ms 5 host-78-144-0-253.as13285.net (78.144.0.253) 64.163 ms 64.884 ms 67.766 ms 6 xe-10-2-0-scr010.thn.as13285.net (78.144.1.2) 138.286 ms xe-11-0-0-scr010.thn.as13285.net (78.144.1.0) 19.790 ms 19.498 ms 7 limelight-pp-thn.as13285.net (78.144.3.6) 31.326 ms 31.705 ms 33.123 ms 8 tge11-1.fr4.lga.llnw.net (69.28.172.149) 116.711 ms 117.578 ms 118.541 ms 9 tge8-4.fr3.ord.llnw.net (69.28.172.198) 147.721 ms 150.073 ms 154.725 ms 10 linkedin.tge3-4.fr3.ord.llnw.net (208.111.156.70) 160.655 ms 163.514 ms 168.470 ms 11 * * * 12 * * * 13 * * * 14 * * * 15 * * * 16 * * * 17 * * * 18 * * * 19 * * * 20 * * * 21 * *^C [james@nevada ~]$ traceroute www.paypal.co.uk traceroute to www.paypal.co.uk (66.211.168.114), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 0.746 ms 1.037 ms 1.352 ms 2 host-92-4-32-1.as43234.net (92.4.32.1) 18.230 ms 22.547 ms 27.719 ms 3 92.31.250.44 (92.31.250.44) 30.698 ms 35.535 ms 39.924 ms 4 xe-9-3-0-scr001.log.as13285.net (78.144.2.133) 45.724 ms 56.942 ms 57.867 ms 5 Opal-ge-2.2.0.mpr1.lhr2.above.net (213.161.78.209) 60.632 ms 64.985 ms 68.887 ms 6 abv-l3-pni.London1.Level3.net (208.185.188.186) 73.356 ms 29.552 ms 48.372 ms 7 ae-34-52.ebr2.London1.Level3.net (4.69.139.97) 54.120 ms 57.921 ms 62.327 ms 8 ae-41-41.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.137.66) 136.767 ms ae-43-43.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.137.74) 140.902 ms ae-42-42.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.137.70) 144.830 ms 9 ae-3-3.ebr4.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.132.93) 168.750 ms 169.572 ms 170.063 ms 10 ae-64-64.csw1.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.134.178) 171.559 ms ae-74-74.csw2.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.134.182) 194.713 ms ae-64-64.csw1.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.134.178) 187.984 ms 11 ae-62-62.ebr2.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.134.145) 182.185 ms ae-92-92.ebr2.Washington1.Level3.net (4.69.134.157) 186.082 ms 190.084 ms 12 ae-2-2.ebr2.Chicago2.Level3.net (4.69.132.69) 172.932 ms 148.265 ms 148.700 ms 13 ae-1-100.ebr1.Chicago2.Level3.net (4.69.132.113) 150.208 ms 115.825 ms 110.926 ms 14 * ae-3.ebr2.Denver1.Level3.net (4.69.132.61) 144.893 ms * 15 ae-21-52.car1.Denver1.Level3.net (4.68.107.38) 164.332 ms 368.666 ms ae-21-54.car1.Denver1.Level3.net (4.68.107.102) 165.221 ms 16 EBAY-INC.car1.Denver1.Level3.net (4.53.1.58) 171.416 ms 175.255 ms 178.668 ms 17 * * * 18 * * * 19 * * * 20 * * * 21 * * * 22 * * * 23 * * * 24 * * * 25 * * * 26 * * *^C James Elsey

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USB Playstation adaptor controllers no longer working
by samwise 26 Jan '10

26 Jan '10

Hi, all. Got a new hardware issue that I'm not really sure where to start debugging. I run Debian AMD64 Testing and, when Lenny was Testing, I had a great setup for playing with emulators. I have four PSX pads which I could use via two USB adaptors - each adaptor supporting two of the pads. However after upgrading to Squeeze (kernel version 2.6.30-2), which involved several kernel upgrades and an upgrade from KDE 3 to 4 plus swapping out the motherboard and graphics card at around the same time (I know, I know - I just didn't test absolutely everything between upgrades), I've come back and discovered the USB adaptors are no longer recognised, though they do have power lights etc. when plugged into the computer. I've tried both in a Windows PC and they work, so it's not a hardware fault. Also, I have a new PC USB joystick which /does/ work with the new KDE 4 setup, and is automatically recognised in the KDE 4 Control Center. I've done some googling but haven't found anything which looks particularly relevant. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to start debugging this? I think I was spoilt first time round - the adaptor didn't require any special drivers or config tools. Last time, it was one of the few things that "just worked" when I built my Lenny computer. It just showed up as two joypads in the general KDE 3 System Settings - plus the correct joypads devices were automatically built and placed in /dev. :( This is as far as I've got debugging it on my own - I can see it being recognised by lsusb and dmesg, but no idea what the next step is to getting it to auto-populate the right devices in /dev. Something to do with HAL, maybe? I tried ensuring the joydev kernel module was loaded manually, but it made no difference. I can supply more info, as required. Cheers, Peter. # lsusb Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:c504 Logitech, Inc. Cordless Mouse+Keyboard Receiver Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0b9a:016a Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0424:20fc Standard Microsystems Corp. 6-in-1 Card Reader Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0409:0058 NEC Corp. HighSpeed Hub Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub where the joypad adapter shows up as "Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0b9a:016a". $ dmesg <SNIP> [279764.908007] usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 4 [279765.111875] usb 2-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0b9a, idProduct=016a [279765.111878] usb 2-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0 [279765.111946] usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

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Damn pidgeon
by James Freer 24 Jan '10

24 Jan '10

Anyone into animation? The animation on this is superb! http://www..youtube.com:80/watch_popup?v=jEjUAnPc2VA james

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Re: [ALUG] Damn pidgeon
by Ian Porter 24 Jan '10

24 Jan '10

That was well funny :) cheers soz to James and Alex, I have been playing with my iPhone and it was sending from the wrong email address Ian www : www.codingfriends.com On 23 Jan 2010, at 11:57, Alex Scotton <alex.scotton(a)gmail.com> wrote: Absolutely awesome little animation, loving the faces the pigeon pulled... cheers for that, love a little bit of humour in the morning haha On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 8:11 PM, James Freer <jessejazza(a)googlemail.com> wrote: Anyone into animation? The animation on this is superb! http://www..Pigeon: Impossible <http://youtube.com:80/watch_popup?v=jEjUAnPc2VA> james _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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Todo/Task 'links', does any program do this already?
by Chris G 24 Jan '10

24 Jan '10

As you know (probably bored to tears by now) I've been looking for a TaskList/Todo type program for a while. I've just recently realised what would really suit me - a way to add links to a web page which would pop up specific Tasks/Todos or, if it was a new task, would pop up the New Task entry box. This is surely possible, fairly easy even, a PHP link (or even some JavaScript) could easily fire off some code to search for an event in an ICS file or on a Caldav server and pop up the required window. If there's nothing out there that does this it's so "exactly what I want" I'll put my coding hat on and do it myself. Does anyone know of anything that does this or that might provide some of the tools/hooks etc that I'd need to do it myself? -- Chris Green

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extra function keys
by John Woodard 24 Jan '10

24 Jan '10

My laptop has 3 extra function keys, one brings up the default email client, Evolution on this Ubuntu box the other two are marked for the default web browser and default media player, however they do nothing at present. I expect these would launch Outlook, IE and WMP in Windows. What I would like is that they are remapped to volume up/down and mute. What is the best way to do this? Ubuntu 9.10 Gnome with pretty much everything set at defaults, no compiz or any such trickery. Cheers, BJ

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Stream media to xbox
by James Elsey 23 Jan '10

23 Jan '10

Hey guys, Does anyone here stream media across their network to an xbox 360? I've got a load of media on my fedora desktop, mostly AVI / mkvs, I want to watch them via my 360 but I really don't want to have to burn DVDs each time, and then there is the added problem of whether the 360 will read copied DVDs or not. I know there is some application that will act as a media server, to host video to the PS3, but I can't seem to find anything for the 360. I could try MythTV, but last time I tried that (about a year ago) is was effort to configure, and also was a pain having to run to the desktop to turn the video on then run back and forth to change shows/volume etc I've got telnet/vnc on iphone, maybe I could use that as a remote? Any ideas? I've got 3 seasons of stargate atlantis that are begging to be watched... James Elsey

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How to stop KDE4 automounting an external (USB) drive?
by Barry Samuels 22 Jan '10

22 Jan '10

My wife's machine is running KDE4 and when a USB (IDE) drive is plugged into it it tries to automount the partitions which are not user mountable (root only) and pops up 9 windows saying that they couldn't be mounted. I'd like to stop those popups or stop KDE4 from trying to mount that drive. Telling HAL to ignore the drive makes no difference. Help much appreciated. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Well I'm slowly homing in on what I think I'm looking for
by Chris G 21 Jan '10

21 Jan '10

Just to keep you all well bored, here is where my search for a Wiki/Blog/CMS is now taking me. (I'm not really trying to be boring, comments, suggestions and such would be very welcome) I *think* what I'm basically after is an easy to use (i.e. easy to enter text) web page creation system which is somewhere between a blog and a wiki. The fly in the ointment is that I want to be able to put 'events' into the text somehow and I can't find any Wiki/Blog/CMS that really seems to be able to do this. Oh, I also want to be able to handle a hierarchy of pages. So, to try and give an example of what I want to do, bring out the old boat buying 'project'. This will have chunks of information (i.e. web pages) laid out as follows:- Boat purchase Searching for boat Types of boat Insurance Engineer survey ... ... Then the page about Insurance would basically be a sort of blog:- 28-Dec-2009 Asked for a quote from DBA insurers 05-Jan-2009 DBA quoted £387, seems reasonable 12-Jan-2010 Asked for quote at the Boat Show ... bla ... bla <EVENT> 01-Apr-2010 - boat insurance required I want that <EVENT> entry to somehow be a link to a calendar application of some sort which will actually have the event set up so I get a reminder or, even better, I want the blog/wiki to know that <EVENT> means it's got to remind me. My existing web info management system (cobbled together by me using reStructuredText and a small python script to automatically run it when .rst pages are browsed) does quite a bit of what I want. It provides a hierarchical set of web pages with 'crumb' links and (very) easy creation and editing using reStructuredText. However it doesn't really have any bloglike time/sequence awareness and neither does it have any ability to embed alarms/events. It may be that I could add what I need to my existing system but it feels like someone somewhere should surely have something like this already. It looks like TextPattern *might* provide quite a bit of what I want, I may install it and have a play. -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] preventing shutdown with remote working going on
by Peter Alcibiades 20 Jan '10

20 Jan '10

Thanks, this is brilliant. I have to make sure it catches XDCMP sessions as well as SSH ones, but it seems bound to. Brilliant! Yes, the answer might well be a server and all remote logins, from a technical point of view. Agreed. They have talked about that. But how they would manage to maintain it themselves, if something happened to me? This is doing our best to keep it as simple as possible, and to make sure that if it falls over, it will be no more than inconvenient. Or if I fall over. Peter > Assuming a debian-like system, what about molly-guard? > > http://www.ubuntugeek.com/molly-guard-protects-machines-from-accidental- > shutdownsreboots.html > http://packages.debian.org/unstable/admin/molly-guard > > Cheers, > > David >

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DNS queries
by Mark Rogers 19 Jan '10

19 Jan '10

I have a list of addresses I need to perform a DNS lookup for. What I need to know is the authoritative server for the domain, and the result of the lookup (A record with IP or CNAME with host). I tried: dig www.google.co.uk .. and it's not showing me the authoritative servers. So I tried: dig www.google.co.uk +nssearch .. and got a blank response. Suggestions? Background: I have a webserver which will shortly be changing it's IP address. It has a local DNS which will be updated as part of the migration so anything which uses that server for authoritative DNS will be updated automatically. However anything on an external DNS may need updating, depending on whether it references the server by CNAME or A record (and if CNAME I need to check that whatever that is gets updated too). So I need to know which addresses still point at the server, and of those which are not in the local DNS and of those which need updating (and where). -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Which Netbook For Ubuntu?
by Simon Royal 19 Jan '10

19 Jan '10

Hi I have been using Ubuntu solidly for a few weeks now and loving it. A Mac fan prior to that for 10 years, I got given an old Samsung A10 laptop, installed Ubuntu and the rest is history. The Samsung is a little beaten up but works fine. Now I have gotten comfortable with Ubuntu and sold my Apple PowerBook I am on the look out for something a bit better and would really like a small netbook. I don't do anything to intense. I only write, email, surf (including games in FaceBook), the odd image editing in GIMP and a bit of Skype. First of all, does anyone have any recommendations as to which netbook to look at? Does anyone have one for sale? I don't really want anything with a 7" screen. I need one to run Ubuntu 9.10. My current Samsung is a 1.1Ghz Duron, so something with a little more oomph would be nice, although Ubuntu runs very smoothly on it with 1GB RAM. Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ We want to hear all your funny, exciting and crazy Hotmail stories. Tell us now http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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Re: [ALUG] Laptop Adapter
by Simon Royal 19 Jan '10

19 Jan '10

James Picture is attached. Sorry for the poor quality but I only have my mobile for communication. Under the laptop it says 19v 4.2a max. On the adapter it says 19v 3.79a. The adapter was a cheap 2-power one not a genuine Samsung one. Simon --- Catch me on Twitter http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype me: Simon-Royal - original message - Subject: Re: [ALUG] Laptop Adapter From: James Taylor <jt(a)imen.org.uk> Date: 18/01/2010 23:03 Can you read the underside of your laptop and tell us the voltage and power that you require, then if possible take a pic of the socket? Maybe a camera phone pic would suffice? JT On 18 Jan 2010, at 20:25, Simon Royal wrote: > Hi all. > > Can anyone help in my hour of need. I have a Samsung A10 laptop, which I have been running Ubuntu on and loving it. > > The adapter has just blown. The light doesnt come on and I am stuck without a computer or access to my files. > > You dont happen to have a spare one or a generic one? > > Simon > > --- Catch me on Twitter http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype me: Simon-Royal > > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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Laptop Adapter
by Simon Royal 19 Jan '10

19 Jan '10

Hi all. Can anyone help in my hour of need. I have a Samsung A10 laptop, which I have been running Ubuntu on and loving it. The adapter has just blown. The light doesnt come on and I am stuck without a computer or access to my files. You dont happen to have a spare one or a generic one? Simon --- Catch me on Twitter http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype me: Simon-Royal

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Large load average when running dd to a CF card
by Srdjan Todorovic 19 Jan '10

19 Jan '10

Hi all, Any ideas why I get large average loads (8.82, 4.20, 1.80) when running dd that copies 2GB of data to a compact disk flash card using a USB disk reader in Fiesty (or whatever it is called)? If I kill dd, the load drops to more sane levels. It just hit 9.9 :( Thanks, Srdjan

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preventing shutdown with remote working going on
by Peter Alcibiades 18 Jan '10

18 Jan '10

How do you stop users from shutting down the system if there are other people connected, but allow them to shut it down if there are not? Here's the background, I have machines A and B in different locations. Machine A is sometimes going to be used by just anyone, on account X, and sometimes by the main secretary on account Y. Sometimes, to allow the others to work on Machine A, the secretary will decamp to another room, and continue to work on account Y on machine A, but will be phyically located at machine B. Now it occurs to one, life being what it is, that from time to time some other user sitting at machine A, not used to the concept of multiple logins, will just try and turn off the machine while the secretary is working and logged in on it on the different account. How do I stop this? Hopefully by sending a message to the effect, you cannnot shut down this machine because there are other people connected? On the other hand, I don't want to stop all user shutdowns, because often there is not going to be any remote connection. I'm proposing to just use XDCMP by the way, for the remote working, since we are behind a firewall router. This is safe enough in that case, isn't it? Peter

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Re: [ALUG] How to diagnose heavy system load at power up?
by phil.ashby＠bt.com 18 Jan '10

18 Jan '10

Give bootchart a go (usually available in your distro as a standard package). http://www.bootchart.org/ You should get a nice picture of where all your CPU and memory is going at startup. Phil. ________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:57:44 +0000 From: Chris G <cl(a)isbd.net> Subject: [ALUG] How to diagnose heavy system load at power up? To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk Message-ID: <20100115165744.GB4223@chris> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii I recently noticed that if I log in to my xfce GUI straight after powering up my computer it takes an inordinately long time. Like it takes four or five minutes from when I enter my name and password to when the desktop appears completely. After suspecting that there was something awry with my X startup (such that it was doing something odd the first time it was run) I realised that it was simply that the system was very heavily loaded by something during/after boot. Watching the load average during the X startup it went over 8 whereas if I login to X after the system has been running for some hours the load average reaches the giddy heights of 0.14. With a load average of 8 things almost grind to a halt, some processes retry starting (I get more than one xfdesktop for example) and update-notifier times out trying to access repositories which it has no problems at all with if I log in later. Another symptom is that some nfs mounts haven't completed before the terminal windows appear on the desktop so when I run mutt (mail program) which uses one of the NFS mounts it fails to see its mail directories. That's seriously wierd. I've tried to analyse what's going on by running top (and 'w' and ps) in a console window while the system starts up but I really can't see anything obvious that's hogging any resource. One noticeable thing apart from the load average being so high is that my 8Gb of memory gets eaten up too, but there seem to be no particular processes using either lots of CPU or lots of memory. Can anyone suggest further ways of trying to diagnose this? -- Chris Green

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For Sale: ATi Radeon 4870 1GB PCIE
by Richard 17 Jan '10

17 Jan '10

Hey all, as title suggest I am selling a graphics card. I don't use it anymore. Needs a new home. ATi Radeon 4870 1GB PCIE - £80 ONO Please email directly or call me. Cheers, Richard -- Richard Bensley - 07540878285

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How to diagnose heavy system load at power up?
by Chris G 16 Jan '10

16 Jan '10

I recently noticed that if I log in to my xfce GUI straight after powering up my computer it takes an inordinately long time. Like it takes four or five minutes from when I enter my name and password to when the desktop appears completely. After suspecting that there was something awry with my X startup (such that it was doing something odd the first time it was run) I realised that it was simply that the system was very heavily loaded by something during/after boot. Watching the load average during the X startup it went over 8 whereas if I login to X after the system has been running for some hours the load average reaches the giddy heights of 0.14. With a load average of 8 things almost grind to a halt, some processes retry starting (I get more than one xfdesktop for example) and update-notifier times out trying to access repositories which it has no problems at all with if I log in later. Another symptom is that some nfs mounts haven't completed before the terminal windows appear on the desktop so when I run mutt (mail program) which uses one of the NFS mounts it fails to see its mail directories. That's seriously wierd. I've tried to analyse what's going on by running top (and 'w' and ps) in a console window while the system starts up but I really can't see anything obvious that's hogging any resource. One noticeable thing apart from the load average being so high is that my 8Gb of memory gets eaten up too, but there seem to be no particular processes using either lots of CPU or lots of memory. Can anyone suggest further ways of trying to diagnose this? -- Chris Green

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Problem with anacron and cron *never* running jobs
by Chris G 15 Jan '10

15 Jan '10

I have a backup job that (should) be run daily. There is a script called 'backup' that is in /etc/cron.daily. If the computer is shutdown regularly then anacron does its job and runs backup a few minutes after the computer is powered up again. If, on the other hand, the computer is on all the time then cron runs the job at 07:30. However, and this is the problem, if the computer is Suspend[ed] and isn't running at 07:30 then the jobs in /etc/cron.daily never get run. Is there any way around this? -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 14 Jan '10

14 Jan '10

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back this Monday 18th January, at 20:00: P J McGinty & Sons 15 Northgate Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 3BY Tel: 01473 251 515 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP1+3BY WWW: http://pjmcginty.moonfruit.com/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich, not far from our old haunt - The Milestone. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. After the successful Christmas meal we had earlier in the month, we resume with our first traditional meet of the new year. We didn't get any volunteers for a tutorial this month (surprise!), so we'll see what can be knocked up last minute. We've been doing well attendance-wise for the last couple of meets, so let's continue with a strong start to the new year. :D Remember to call (mail me in advance for my mobile no.) or email me, if you're arriving later and want to ensure I don't wander off, which might happen if the turn-out hits rock-bottom ... Hope to see you there, Peter. ----- 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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[ALUG Announce] Norwich Thursday Pub Meet
by Wayne Stallwood 14 Jan '10

14 Jan '10

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- This months second Thursday social meeting of ALUG will take place on 14th January 2010 at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA http://www.thecoachthorperoad.co.uk/ ) There should be people there from 8pm, If you are unsure you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or via IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. ----- 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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Another Lunx vs Win issue!
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 14 Jan '10

14 Jan '10

Greetings Folks! A friend recently sent me the following URL: http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal What *should* happen (and happens when I open it in Win IE) is that the main box (with the panel of boxes below it) should show a face (female in the first instance) which is animated (e.g. if you move the mouse-pointer over that window the eyes will follow it); and, when you enter some text in the "Enter Text:" box then click "Say It", the mouth-parts move and you will hear that text spoken. (The other boxes below the main window let you choose the regional accent and speaker, etc.). However, on my Debian Linux (Etch or Lenny) with Firefox there is no face in the window, and when I click on "Say It" all I get is a pop-up which says "It is not ready yet". Does any of you succeed in getting this to work as described in Linux? If not, I wonder why not. I wo9nder whether I have sufficient resources of Java or PHP installed, but not having hit such a problem before I'm not sure whdether that is a good direction to be hunting in. Any comments or advice welcome! With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 13-Jan-10 Time: 20:27:40 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Re: [ALUG] Programs that use dbus appear not to work as remote X clients
by phil.ashby＠bt.com 13 Jan '10

13 Jan '10

> From: Chris G <cl(a)isbd.net> > On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 05:08:16PM +0000, Chris G wrote: > [snip tale of woe] >> >> So am I missing something or is the whole dbus thing completely broken >> if you're trying to use X in the classic way with remote applications? >> I've done a few Google searches and didn't find anything very obvious >> about this so *maybe* there is something vital I'm missing, or maybe >> no one now uses remote X (at least not with Gnome). >> > Further Google searching has revealed the answer, simple but decidedly > not obvious. I need to enter 'dbus-launch planner' at the remote > prompt, this apparently tells the remote system that the dbus it needs > to talk to is on my desktop. > > Anyway, it works now. According to 'man dbus-launch' this doesn't connect said program to the dbus session bus on your desktop, but starts a fresh session bus on the remote machine - thus your application config (in the case of Yelp) and other dbus connected services are stored on the remote machine. Said man page also indicates that a dbus session should be started automatically by the libdbus client if there isn't one running however this seems to fail in your case. P

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introduction
by Ian Porter 13 Jan '10

13 Jan '10

Hi all.. My name is Ian Porter and I have been using linux for about 10 years now.. and cannot say that I am resetting that choice :).. I would class myself as a developer (c++/c#/java/php/sql etc ) and also server person. I did join before xmas and think that I posted my introduction then.. but allot has happened since then, Scotland and back in snow etc.. which is always fun sliding around on for 400 miles.. :) Anyway, just thought that I would say hi since I have seen a couple come though. Catch up with you all sometime. Ian Mysite: http://www.codingfriends.com

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Software patents, and a petition
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi Folks, ComputerWorldUK have an article describing the resurrection of the European Software Patents issue: http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open- source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=2721&blogid=14 There is a link therein to a petition, which you may wish to consider signing. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 09-Jan-10 Time: 07:19:28 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Programs that use dbus appear not to work as remote X clients
by Chris G 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

I have been trying to use Gnome Planner running as an X remote client application running on another computer on the LAN. I.e. I am logging into another computer using ssh from a terminal window on my desktop (using 'ssh -X <remote> so X is allowed and DISPLAY is set) and then entering 'planner' at the command prompt. It's totally broken as far as I can see, planner tries to connect to a local (i.e. on the remote system) dbus which isn't there because the X session it needs to talk to is on my desktop computer. The symptoms in planner are a huge delay starting up, a failure to find saved data and a wierd pop-up error box when it finally appears on the screen. I also tried running yelp as a remote X client and it too failed miserably with a load of similar dbus errors:- (yelp:2860): Yelp-WARNING **: Cannot find dbus bus GConf Error: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to get connection to session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-nrMIzFk9Y7: Connection refused) GConf Error: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to get connection to session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-JTLaNQBBPo: Connection refused) (yelp:2860): Yelp-WARNING **: Failed to load config file: No such file or directory ** (yelp:2860): CRITICAL **: atk_object_set_name: assertion `name != NULL' failed ** (yelp:2860): CRITICAL **: atk_object_set_name: assertion `name != NULL' failed (yelp:2860): Yelp-WARNING **: An error occurred getting the gconf value /apps/yelp/use_system_fonts: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to get connection to session: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-4gA9VDJgu5: Connection refused) (yelp:2860): Yelp-WARNING **: An error occurred getting the gconf value '/apps/yelp/variable_font' ... plus loads more in similar vein. Other remote X client applications (which, presumably don't attempt to use dbus) work perfectly OK. I even have synaptic installed on the (headless) remote system and run it on my desktop to do upgrades to the remote system (I usually use apt-get but sometimes synaptic is easier). So am I missing something or is the whole dbus thing completely broken if you're trying to use X in the classic way with remote applications? I've done a few Google searches and didn't find anything very obvious about this so *maybe* there is something vital I'm missing, or maybe no one now uses remote X (at least not with Gnome). -- Chris Green

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New list member
by Mark Wilson 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi all, Just thought I'd introduce myself. I've been subscribed to this list quite a while but this is my first post. I'm a Norwich resident who has been using Linux for probably 3-4 years now. I'm into programming (C++, Java) as an amateur hobbyist. Mark Wilson

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Re: [ALUG] MP4 To MP3 Converter Ubuntu
by Srdjan Todorovic 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi, 2010/1/12 Simon Royal <simonroyal(a)live.co.uk>: > Hi > Tried the command you said. First I had to sudo apt-get mplayer, which all > went fine. > However when I run the line you gave me (replacing the filename of course), > I get: > Unknown option on the command line: -aoc > Error parsing option on the command line: -aoc > Any ideas? Yes I think my memory is at fault (though I think mplayer devs changed the syntax of the command line options lately). It should have been -ao pcm:file=somefile.wav Srdjan > --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal > > > >> Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:56:41 +0000 >> From: todorovic.s(a)googlemail.com >> To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk >> Subject: Re: [ALUG] MP4 To MP3 Converter Ubuntu >> >> On 12/01/2010, Simon Royal <simonroyal(a)live.co.uk> wrote: >> >> > Can anyone recommend a program that will extra audio from an MP4 video >> > file >> > and either convert it to MP3 straight or at least extract to AIFF or >> > WAV? >> > Im running 9.10. >> >> Off the top of my head, something like this should work: >> >> mplayer cool_video.mp4 -vo null -vc dummy -aoc pcm:file=myoutput.wav >> >> You could also use -aoc mp3lame or -aoc lavc to encode straight to mp3 >> but I can't remember the syntax for it right now. >> >> Srdjan >> >> _______________________________________________ >> main(a)lists.alug.org.uk >> http://www.alug.org.uk/ >> http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main >> Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! > > ________________________________ > Do you have a story that started on Hotmail? Tell us now

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MP4 To MP3 Converter Ubuntu
by Simon Royal 12 Jan '10

12 Jan '10

Hi. Im fairly new to Ubuntu, been running it for a few weeks now solid and loving it. Can anyone recommend a program that will extra audio from an MP4 video file and either convert it to MP3 straight or at least extract to AIFF or WAV? Im running 9.10. Simon Royal --- Catch me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal or Skype: Simon-Royal _________________________________________________________________ We want to hear all your funny, exciting and crazy Hotmail stories. Tell us now http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/195013117/direct/01/

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Forwarding Desktop Ports
by Paul Grenyer 11 Jan '10

11 Jan '10

Hi all I've VritualBox running a Win 2003 Server on my 64bit Ubuntu 9.10 desktop installation. And that in turn is running Microsoft SQL Server. I can access SQL server from my ubuntu desktop as http://win2003server:1433. But I want to be able to access it is http://localhost:1433, as if it was actually running on ubuntu. So what I want to know is, is there a way to forward all localhost:1433 traffic automatically to win2003server:1433? Is there a better solution? -- Thanks Paul Paul Grenyer e: paul.grenyer(a)gmail.com b: paulgrenyer.blogspot.com

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AVI & WMV from Linux don't play on Windows
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 11 Jan '10

11 Jan '10

Hi Folks, I'd be most grateful for help with the foloowing puzzle. Background: I VHS-taped an item from yesterday evening's BBC1 "Look East", since it is of interest to people I know. I then copied this onto a "scratch" DVD, to have it readable on my Debian laptop (OK, I know it can probably be done with a cable, but I'm not up to that). I wanted to put it up on my Zen web-site so that others can view it from there (and they will mostly be using WIndows). So I first created an AVI file usingmencoder as follows (following an example in 'man mplayer'): mencoder dvd://1 \ -o denvermilllookeast2010.01.05.avi \ -oac copy \ -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4 The resulting .avi file plays fine using totem. I then ftp'd it to my website, and tried playing it from there using IE on Windows Vista. It failed, saying a codec was missing. However, the file on the website still plays fine on Debian with totem. So I then created a WMV file using "wmv2" format with: mencoder dvd://1 \ -o Denver.wmv \ -oac copy \ -ovc lavc \ -lavcopts vcodec=wmv2 Then I uploaded this one as well. Once again, this played fine in totem both from the file on the Debian laptop and from the copy on the web-site. This time, when I try IE from Vista on the web-site copy, I get the video OK, but no sound. So I'm wondering what the problem is, and how to solve it! In the past, I've had no problems with playing AVI files created by my digital camera using IE (video and sound both OK), though I haven't tried WMV before. So presumably there's some mysterious mismatch between the AVI created by mencoder as above, and AVI as Windows MediaPlayer expects to see it; ditto with WMV. The files in question can be found at http://www.zen89632.zen.co.uk/DenverMill AVI: denvermilllookeast2010.01.05.avi WMV: Denver.wmv and an example of a working AVI (both in totem and IE) at http://www.zen89632.zen.co.uk/Earith/Earith_Crab_2009.10.25.avi As well as the video, there is background noise from the water falling over the sluice, and from passing traffic, which comes through quite clearly both in totem and in IE. For anyone interested: this is probably a Mitten Crab which has found its way some 30 miles upstream from the sea, spotted by me when I was strolling over the bridge above the sluice-gate on the Old Bedford River at Earith, in the shallow water above the concrete sill below the sluice-gate. A still photo is at http://www.zen89632.zen.co.uk/Earith/Earith_Crab_2009.10.25cropped.jpg The location of the photo is marked "A" on: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=52.353953,0.038109& daddr=&hl=en&geocode=&mra=mi&mrsp=0&sz=15&sll=52.353901,0.038023& sspn=0.011586,0.034719&ie=UTF8&z=15 [equivalent: http://tinyurl.com/yb57epr ] Any comments on the problem would be most welcome! With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 06-Jan-10 Time: 21:38:51 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Wanted, sort of Journal/Blog/Calendar/ToDo all in one, probably web based
by Chris G 10 Jan '10

10 Jan '10

Yes, I know that's a bit of a broad requirement! :-) I'm after an application of some sort that will help me keep track of what I suppose is a project (buying a boat in France). I'm open to any sort of idea really as, at the moment, I'm a bit lost as to how to do it. Straightforward calendar applications don't quite cut it as I want it to be a bit more 'textful' than that, I also want easy ways to link to web pages and other information. I might be persuaded that something like Sunbird/Lightning or evolution is the way to go though. Can one put links into sunbird entries? A blog *might* do what I want but I need easy ways to search and/or browse through entries by date and a way to remind myself to do things. I don't think blogs usually allow one to create future entries and or planning sections do they? I suppose a project planning utility might be what I'm after but they often seem a bit too much oriented towards large multi-person projects. I will go and do some looking on this front though as it isn't a way I've thought of going before. -- Chris Green

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Error writing to /sys
by Richard Lewis 09 Jan '10

09 Jan '10

Hi ALUG, I'm just trying to replace acerfand <http://www.electronpusher.org/~rachel/acerfand> with acerhdf <http://www.piie.net/index.php?section=acerhdf> on my Acer Aspire One. The module comes with my kernel (Debian 2.6.31-1-686), is loaded, and reports the current temperature correctly. However, I can't enable the automatic fan control because, when I try and write "enabled" to /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode it says "Permission denied": $ sudo echo "enabled" -n >/sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode bash: /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode: Permission denied Or, # echo "enabled" -n > /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode bash: echo: write error: Invalid argument I even tried switching to runlevel 1 and I still get the "Invalid argument" error. Any ideas why I can't write to this file? Or how to make it work? 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/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +----------------------------------------------+ | Support open access to scholarship | | http://freeculture.org/ http://www.doaj.org/ | +----------------------------------------------+

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