November 2015 - main

Satnav updates
by James Freer 07 Mar '16

07 Mar '16

Just wondering what folk use. One can use the Garmin/Express updates on windows but I was thinking of a way in Linux. I gather one can use a VM but then also have a windows version after Vista in order to do so. The only way I have found is to use maps from Openstreetmap.nl and copy to a mini SD card. Seems ok but not as good as Garmin/Express - is there a better way using linux. james

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PC slow to boot prt 2
by Bev Nicolson 06 Dec '15

06 Dec '15

I asked about my slow to boot (and sometimes slow to shut down) pc a while back now and have htop installed. I should have asked this then but which bit of the info it gives me do I need to give you lot in order to diagnose the problem? Bev.

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New Server recomendations
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 25 Nov '15

25 Nov '15

Hi folks. I'm going to have to replace an ancient Pentium (2?) with 2gb ram that's run as a file server with software raid (twin disks), media server, print server, web server. None of these are high use and the web server is only internal. Anyone got any recommendations for a low-ish power, small-ish form factor machine that will run linux that I could use? Existing machine is running Ubuntu, and I'd probably continue with that, or Lubuntu, or possibly debian. Also is there any easy way to migrate from the existing machine to the new one? Presumably I can't simply move the disks from the old machine to the new one? (This bit's a bit off topic- sorry) Also probably got to get sprog a Windows machine. It's a long time since I've delved into the wacky world of windows. Schoolwork and games like train simulator and minecraft would probably be it. Can't decide for sure, but probably a laptop. Any good deals or recommendations? TIA Steve

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MP3 detected but not opened
by Bev Nicolson 24 Nov '15

24 Nov '15

Now, given my last few questions I may regret asking this but here goes anyway. I've got an MP3 player. (Philips GoGear, if that's any help.) It used to be opened automatically when I plugged it into my computer but it doesn't now, though it is recognised. (14.04LTS.) It's just a problem with this device. (A bit of me is wondering if it's like the sound problem I had briefly. All I had to do was find Sound in a menu and un-mute.) Bev.

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Font config ?
by Bev Nicolson 20 Nov '15

20 Nov '15

When everyone's exhausted the mice jokes (pesky meeces) can you apply your minds to this. I have googled and see it's a common problem but didn't understand the solution. While I was upgrading to 14.04, a message came up to say 'font config out of memory lines 14, 23 and 32.' It now says this when I switch the computer off. So, what does it mean and how do I fix it? Bev.

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Mouse trouble
by Bev Nicolson 20 Nov '15

20 Nov '15

Not sure what's up with my mouse. I asked someone in a reputable computer shop recently about the fact that my mouse exhibits odd behaviour. It'll crash if I have two browsers open and playing a video, for example. He suggested upgrading to Ubuntu 14.04LTS. Which I have done and it's worse. Switching off and on again is the only thing that works. New mouse? Bev

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Simple CCTV app
by Mark Rogers 18 Nov '15

18 Nov '15

I have a couple of Wifi IP cameras that I'd like to record output from. I can either capture an image or (I think) an RTSP stream. I just want to store them somewhere I can refer back to them in future if needed. Ideally making efficient use of storage. Any suggestions? At the moment I have ZoneMinder installed but it's quite big and heavy, I frequently find it isn't running (eg after a system update) and it stores all the images as JPEGs rather than as a movie, where I would have thought that the latter would be rather more efficient. It crossed my mind I could probably script something that captured images at a regular frame rate and then turned batches of them into videos later, but there's probably a way to avoid reinventing the wheel. Note: The camera is constantly seeing motion (it's view is through a tree apart from anything else) so motion detection isn't much use unless it can be quite intelligent. -- 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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Case insensitive scripting
by Chris Walker 15 Nov '15

15 Nov '15

Hopefully somebody can point out my error with a script. This is it =================== #! /bin/bash # Script to extract thumbnails from .ts files for use on a Humax machine set -e # set -x # shopt -s nocasematch for FILE in *.ts do bname=$(basename "$FILE") dir=$(dirname "$FILE") # extension="${bname##*.}" filenamewoext="${bname%.*}" imagefile="${dir}/""${filenamewoext}.png" ffmpeg -i "$FILE" -vframes 1 -ss 00:01:00 -f image2 "$imagefile" done =================== My problem is that I can sometimes have .ts files and others .TS files so how do I persuade bash to search for both case types? As you can see, I've tried setting 'nocasematch' but it's commented out as that doesn't seem to work for me. Searching online produced the 'tr' command but how do I apply that, if indeed it is the correct solution? Any help appreciated. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:alug_cdw@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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Has anyone used or know anything about FibreWiFi Limited?
by Chris Green 15 Nov '15

15 Nov '15

While searching around recently for good broadband deals I came across FibreWiFi Limited. They offer direct WiFi (as in microwave based) internet connections. The prices seem quite reasonable, see:- http://www.fibrewifi.com It looks like we should be covered looking at their coverage map. So I'm very interested. Does anyone know anything about them? -- Chris Green

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Mount issues
by Chris Walker 07 Nov '15

07 Nov '15

Hello, Can somebody point me in the right direction please? I'm trying to mount another linux box and although it mounts, I can't write to it which is my desired aim. The box in question is a Humax Freeview machine and I can telnet into it and run commands from the command line and having installed ntfs-3g on it, I can now delete files from an attached usb drive using the screen menu on the device. The files are iPlayer programs which I download here, on my Magiea 5 machine. Before I installed ntfs-3g, the contents of the fstab on the Humaxc looked like this :- /dev/sda1 on /media/drive1 type ntfs (ro,uid=0,gid=0,fmask=0177,dmask=077,nls=utf8,errors=continue,mft_zone_multiplier=1) Afterwards, and after a reboot, it now looks like this :- /dev/sda1 on /media/usb-drive1 type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other) As I said, it mounts here but all the files are owned by root and of course I can't copy new files to the USB drive. I can FTP files to the box using humxftp as the user and a password of 0000 so my question is, what should I have in the fstab file on my machine to allow me to read from and write to the usb drive on the Humax? In case you're curious, the relevant line from my fstab is currently this :- //Hummy/media /home/chris/Humax_Fox_HDR/ cifs nosetuids,uid=0,gid=0,credentials=/etc/samba/auth.hummy.humaxftp,sec=ntlm,_netdev 0 0 and the credentials file has two entries for user and password as in the FTP command. Any help appreciated. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:alug_cdw@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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