September 2011 - main

How to enable WiFi from cammand line on eeePc?
by Chris G 03 Oct '11

03 Oct '11

I have an Asus eeePc 701 running Ubuntu 10.04, no GUI just the base installation plus a few bits I needed. We now have WiFi available on the boat (where the eeePc is) and so I want to use it from the eeePc - does anyone know how to do it? The eeePC sees the Wifi as an ifconfig returns some information about it, what command line tools etc. do I need to configure it? The WiFi is pretty standard with "WPA & WPA2 Personal" security. -- Chris Green

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Need some router/WiFi/routing help and advice
by Chris G 26 Sep '11

26 Sep '11

I need to 'rearrange' the internet connection on our boat. We used to have a connection via a 3G router with a Mobistar (Belgian) SIM in it and everything on the boat (two PCs, printer, VOIP base station) just plugged into the router. It was flakey at times because we didn't have a good signal, but it worked. However we are now permanently in France and our long term mooring has WiFi available (whoopee!) This rather spoils my nice simple setup and I need some advice to work out how to rejig things. The trouble is that neither the printer nor the VOIP base station can do WiFi so I need to have a switch at least to interconnect things. However even that isn't straightforward (at least not to me!). What's needed is:- Local (i.e. LAN) connection between PCs and printer, can be provided by a switch or router but needs to be routed correctly so PCs use the WiFi for everythng except the printer. At present I have to disconnect WiFi and connect wired LAN to print and then vice versa to use the internet. I need to connect the VOIP base station (wired ethernet only) to the WiFi somehow so we can use the phone. The ideal solution would be if I can persuade the 3G router (which does have wireless) to connect to the WiFi here and then provide hard wired services to PCs, printer and VOIP. Is this a normal sort of thing to be able to do? The router does have something about WiFi relay in 'Lazy', 'Bridged' and another mode, should I be looking at these? -- Chris Green

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usb to parallel printer converter
by Peter Alcibiades 24 Sep '11

24 Sep '11

Does anyone have any idea for this? I have a star receipt printer with a parallel interface and no linux drivers. So I am printing to it using lp and just sending raw text to the device itself. The command in question, which works just fine, is: lp -d star temprint.txt In the same way, I send the hex characters to make it cut the receipt and also to open the cash drawer. I say it works fine, it has one slight issue which we can live with, that being that if the printer goes offline, all the print requests queue up and print out in a batch when it comes back. However this being an industrial strength receipt printer, its something we can live with, it hardly ever happens. Leaving that aside.... I set up the printer in CUPS with the name of star, and addressed as parallel:/dev/lp0 Now comes the problem. Parellel interfaces having gone the way of the dodo, the new computer I'm seeking to use only has a usb port. So I got a usb to parallel converter cable. I have played with this by stopping cups, then editing the /etc/cups/printers.conf file. I can't get it to work. Supposedly from the gentoo wiki, which is usually very helpful, you should address it as parallel:/dev/usb/lp0 On the grounds that linux still thinks its dealing with a parallel port. Makes no sense to me, but I tried it, and no luck. The cable itself is recognised and visible if you do lsusb. Also, I know it works fine as cable because I can connect another printer with a parallel port for which I do have drivers, and successfully print a test page on it over that cable. I must be doing something obvious wrong, but what? How do you address the usb port directly and just send it a stream of text, as in my present setup? Is there a way? Peter

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Restarting Firefox from the commandline
by Mark Rogers 23 Sep '11

23 Sep '11

I have an Ubuntu box which I can access remotely via SSH. It is primarily a server but has a GUI with Firefox running on it for people on site to access the web interface that the server provides. Firefox, being Firefox, sucks up memory the longer it's running. So I'd like a way to force it to restart via my SSH connection, and assuming I'm happy with the results probably via a cron-job every night. I can obviously "kill" it, but I'm not sure how I then restart it given that I'm not running from within the GUI environment myself; also, I don't want it to start up offering to restore tabs from a crashed session, I just want it to go to it's configured home page. Suggestions? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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Partitioning Laptop
by Richard Parsons 20 Sep '11

20 Sep '11

Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. It currently has Windows 7 installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu. Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four partitions. The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. If I begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, then I'm told that it is "unuseable". I believe that the extra partitions are for recovery etc. So what can I do? Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup? Thanks in advance Richard

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 16 Sep '11

16 Sep '11

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 next week, Monday 19th September, 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://www.pjmcgintys.co.uk/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. We're usually to be found in the lowest section of the bar, near the library entrance to the pub. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. I'll be there, so if any one new wants to drop in, look for the guy in the corner with the latest copy of LXF ... ;) 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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Running CUPS as normal user
by Dan 16 Sep '11

16 Sep '11

Dear All, On my Gentoo system, /usr/sbin/cupsd has permissions -r-x------ i.e. it can't be run (nor even read) as a normal user. Does anyone know why, please? Is it safe just to chmod the file then run it as a normal user? (Background: my new printer, an Epson SX525WD, needs proprietary drivers - and I like to run proprietary software only as a special, low-privileged user.) Thanks -- Regards, Dan

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GIMP frustration
by Bev Nicolson 09 Sep '11

09 Sep '11

I half expect someone to say how easy this is but I'm trying to join three photos together to form one jpg file. Easy to do in OO. In GIMP, I have no idea and the tutorial page doesn't seem to say anything on the topic. Help. Bev.

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Re: [ALUG] main Digest, Vol 75, Issue 8
by Bradley Simpson 07 Sep '11

07 Sep '11

Just Delete a Partion. Hello this is the first time i have ever replyed so i am sorry iff i am a bit crap. I had the same problem with a HP i have got so i figured out which partion was useless and deleted it using GParted and the resized the HD with GPated again pretty simple, Hope that helps. On 7 September 2011 15:26, <main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk> wrote: > Send main mailing list submissions to > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > You can reach the person managing the list at > main-owner(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of main digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Partitioning Laptop (Richard Parsons) > 2. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Tim Green) > 3. Re: Partitioning Laptop (steve-ALUG(a)hst.me.uk) > 4. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Brett Parker) > 5. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Richard Parsons) > 6. Re: Partitioning Laptop (samwise) > 7. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Richard Parsons) > 8. Re: Partitioning Laptop (Stuart Bailey) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 13:16:36 +0100 > From: Richard Parsons <richard.lee.parsons(a)gmail.com> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop > Message-ID: <20110907121636.GA7728(a)myfreesolicitor.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. It currently has Windows 7 > installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu. > > Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four > partitions. The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. If I > begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, > then I'm told that it is "unuseable". I believe that the extra partitions > are for recovery etc. > > So what can I do? Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without > disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup? > > Thanks in advance > Richard > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 14:05:28 +0100 > From: Tim Green <timothy.j.green(a)gmail.com> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop > Message-ID: > <CAE-w7J+rNTsE+pe1WNRxRAhC+oLKAOk0i0HGx9n46rq8W=YVdg(a)mail.gmail.com > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > On 7 September 2011 13:16, Richard Parsons > <richard.lee.parsons(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. ?It currently has Windows 7 > installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu. > > > > Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four > partitions. ?The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. ?If I > begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, > then I'm told that it is "unuseable". ?I believe that the extra partitions > are for recovery etc. > > The partition is probably tagged and formatted with NTFS - delete it > from within Windows to be sure it is the right (empty!) one. When you > start the Ubuntu installer again it should see the hole. > > Good luck, > Tim. > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:33:29 +0100 > From: steve-ALUG(a)hst.me.uk > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop > Message-ID: <4E6772A9.3070709(a)hst.me.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > I'm no expert, but I believe that a HDD set up with a partition table > can handle at most 4 "primary" partitions. That sounds like how your > laptop has been set up. > > If you change one of the "Primary" partitions to an "extended" > partition, then you can add extra "logical" partitions within the > extended partition. > > I doubt that it is possible to change a partition from Primary to > Extended c/w logical partitions without destroying the data on it. That > would imply having to backup, repartition, then restore. > Also, I don't know how Windows would cope with the new logical > partitions. In my previous experience, it can be quite fussy about > drive letters etc. > > I would also be quite dubious about the "recovery" partitions still > working if you change the partition structure that they're expecting to > see. > > I suppose it depends what's on the 2nd partition. Is it just for data? > Is Windows on partition 1? If that's the case you might get away with > it. e.g. > 1) Backup partition 2 (whatever drive letter it is). > 2) Delete partition 2. > 3) Recreate Partition 2 as an Extended Partion using all the free space. > 4) Create a Logical partition to restore the windows data onto. > 5) Create as many logical partitions as you need to need to install > linux. e.g. 2 / (root) and swap > 6) Restore the windows data onto the relevant partition. > 7) Install linux... > > Good luck! > And backup ***EVERYTHING*** before you start!!! > Steve > > On 07/09/11 13:16, Richard Parsons wrote: > > Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. It currently has Windows 7 > installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu. > > > > Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four > partitions. The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. If I > begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, > then I'm told that it is "unuseable". I believe that the extra partitions > are for recovery etc. > > > > So what can I do? Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without > disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup? > > > > Thanks in advance > > Richard > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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! > > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 14:41:28 +0100 > From: Brett Parker <iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop > Message-ID: <20110907134128.GA29936@miranda> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > On 07 Sep 13:16, Richard Parsons wrote: > > Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. It currently has Windows 7 > installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu. > > > > Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four > partitions. The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. If I > begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, > then I'm told that it is "unuseable". I believe that the extra partitions > are for recovery etc. > > > > So what can I do? Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without > disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup? > > You're basically screwed - you can only have 4 primary partitions, > usually when wanting to go over this you make on of those 4 an extended > partition and new partitions get created in that. > > I'd take a diskimage of the disk in current state, using something like > clonezilla, then rejig the disk to remove any partitions that you don't > need, (you'll probably want a couple of partitions for linux), and go > from there. > > The reason for using something like clonezilla to take an image first > should be reasonably obvious, means that if you need to get back to that > state you can :) > > Cheers, > Brett. > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 5 > Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 14:43:13 +0100 > From: Richard Parsons <richard.lee.parsons(a)gmail.com> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop > Message-ID: <20110907134312.GA7897(a)myfreesolicitor.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 > > On Wed, Sep 07, 2011 at 02:05:28PM +0100, Tim Green wrote: > > On 7 September 2011 13:16, Richard Parsons > > <richard.lee.parsons(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. ?It currently has Windows 7 > installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu. > > > > > > Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four > partitions. ?The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. ?If I > begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, > then I'm told that it is "unuseable". ?I believe that the extra partitions > are for recovery etc. > > > > The partition is probably tagged and formatted with NTFS - delete it > > from within Windows to be sure it is the right (empty!) one. When you > > start the Ubuntu installer again it should see the hole. > > Thank you for that tip. I'm hoping to keep the windows partition though. > My idea is to reduce the windows partition to say 80GB, to free up > approximately 400GB for the Ubuntu installation. If I delete the second > partition won't the windows installation be lost? > > > Good luck, > > I think I'm going to need it! I'm wondering whether what I want to do is > even possible. Perhaps I need to be looking at a tool like Ghost? > > Richard > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 6 > Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 14:28:09 +0100 > From: samwise <samwise(a)bagshot-row.org> > To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop > Message-ID: > <CAEW9pC43xiSRGcWObteijh7+oMyyin0f1XNQC8DGv-2FaY7taw(a)mail.gmail.com > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > > Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. ?It currently has Windows 7 > installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu. > > > > Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four > partitions. ?The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. ?If I > begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free space, > then I'm told that it is "unuseable". ?I believe that the extra partitions > are for recovery etc. > > > > So what can I do? ?Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without > disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup? > > > > Thanks in advance > > Richard > > Richard. > > The problem is that there can only be a maximum of four primary partitions > on a > disk, and your laptop ships with all four of them already in use. Simply > resizing one of the existing partitions won't help, because you won't > be permitted to create a fifth primary partition in the freed up > space. > > The easiest option is to just delete the two recovery partitions (you > should already have made some recovery DVDs from Windows, before doing > anything at all). That will allow you to resize the Windows partition > and create a new one for Linux. This approach means that if you ever > need to restore Windows on your laptop from scratch, you will be > wholly reliant on the recovery DVDs you made. > > The more complicated option is to backup the two existing recovery > partitions to files, and make a note of their partition information. > Then you can delete them both and create a new extended partition in > their place. This extended partition can contain multiple logical > partitions with it - so you can recreate the recovery partitions from > the files you backed them up to, within the new extended partition. > This approach will allow you to then create a new additional Linux > partition, either as a primary partition or within the extended > partition. If you ever need to reinstall Windows again, this way you > will have the choice of rebuilding the laptop from either the recovery > partitions on the disk or from the recovery DVDs you made instead. > > When I bought my HP laptop last year, I used GParted Live > [http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php] implement an extended > partition. The recovery partitions were fairly small in relation to > the total size of the disk so I figured it wouldn't hurt to leave them > intact. > > Peter. > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 7 > Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 15:04:15 +0100 > From: Richard Parsons <richard.lee.parsons(a)gmail.com> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop > Message-ID: <20110907140414.GA7947(a)myfreesolicitor.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > On Wed, Sep 07, 2011 at 02:33:29PM +0100, steve-ALUG(a)hst.me.uk wrote: > > I'm no expert, but I believe that a HDD set up with a partition > > table can handle at most 4 "primary" partitions. That sounds like > > how your laptop has been set up. > > Yes, I'm pretty sure that's how it it. > > > If you change one of the "Primary" partitions to an "extended" > > partition, then you can add extra "logical" partitions within the > > extended partition. > > > > I doubt that it is possible to change a partition from Primary to > > Extended c/w logical partitions without destroying the data on it. > > That would imply having to backup, repartition, then restore. > > Also, I don't know how Windows would cope with the new logical > > partitions. In my previous experience, it can be quite fussy about > > drive letters etc. > > Yes, and sorry, I now realise that I'm asking about Windows, which is > hardly fair for a Linux mailing list! > > > I would also be quite dubious about the "recovery" partitions still > > working if you change the partition structure that they're expecting > > to see. > > Yes, good point. > > > I suppose it depends what's on the 2nd partition. Is it just for > > data? Is Windows on partition 1? If that's the case you might get > > away with it. e.g. > > I believe that Windows is installed on the second partition, but now I'm > even unsure about that. I find it hard to understand why Windows would > require four partitions. > > > 1) Backup partition 2 (whatever drive letter it is). > > 2) Delete partition 2. > > 3) Recreate Partition 2 as an Extended Partion using all the free space. > > 4) Create a Logical partition to restore the windows data onto. > > 5) Create as many logical partitions as you need to need to install > > linux. e.g. 2 / (root) and swap > > 6) Restore the windows data onto the relevant partition. > > 7) Install linux... > > > > Good luck! > > Thanks > > > And backup ***EVERYTHING*** before you start!!! > > Good advice. > > Do laptops ever have room for putting in a second hard drive? That would > be a better option. I suspect they don't though... > > Richard > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 8 > Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 15:26:15 +0100 > From: Stuart Bailey <stuart(a)linusoft.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Partitioning Laptop > Message-ID: <201109071526.18015.stuart(a)linusoft.co.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > On Wednesday 07 September 2011 13:16:36 Richard Parsons wrote: > > Hi, I've recently bought a Compaq laptop. It currently has Windows 7 > > installed and I want to dual boot with Ubuntu. > > > > Unfortunately, Compaq have already partitioned the hard disk into four > > partitions. The largest partition, which is 480GB is the second. If I > > begin the installer, and resize the second partition to create free > space, > > then I'm told that it is "unuseable". I believe that the extra > partitions > > are for recovery etc. > > > > So what can I do? Is there a way of getting Ubuntu installed without > > disturbing the contents of the partitions already setup? > > > > Thanks in advance > > Richard > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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! > > Hi Richard, > Why don't you make an image of the windows partition using dd, then > repartition > as you like. dd the image back to the disk (same partition size of course), > then > install Ubuntu with dual boot. You won't need to worry about NTLDR in the > MBR, > since you will be using GRUB to boot either. > > This way also gives you a backup of Windows should things go wrong. > > Stuart > > > > Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS > LinuSoft (Managing Director) > Linux Specialist & Software Developer > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Phone: (0845) 658 3563 > Direct: +44 (0) 1953 878162 > Fax: +44 (0) 1603 858583 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > http://www.linusoft.co.uk > > > __________ Information from ESET Mail Security, version of virus signature > database 6444 (20110907) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET Mail Security. > http://www.eset.com > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > > > End of main Digest, Vol 75, Issue 8 > *********************************** >

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Re: [ALUG] cheap windows box
by Peter Alcibiades 07 Sep '11

07 Sep '11

On Wednesday 07 September 2011 18:58:15 you wrote: > Wow.. That website is absolutely amazing!! That's for posting it to > the ALUG list! Seriously tempted by the Optiplex 755 base units > they've got on there. Only £90 what a bargain!! > > -Simon > > > On 4 September 2011 22:31, Peter Alcibiades > > <palcibiades-first(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: > > www.speedie.co.uk > > > > Peter > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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! Yes, they are not bad. I have bought from them in the past, and their stuff arrives promply, properly packed, and the price is reasonable. The available stock fluctuates wildly as you would expect. I bought a laptop for a charity a few years back, we put Mandriva on it, and its going strong today. I see they have quite a stock of laptops now. Peter

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