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Inserting env vars or other data into config files
by Mark Rogers 09 May '12

09 May '12

I'm using ssmtp to provide simple mail services on a Linux box. I want the configuration to be as simple as possible to migrate between different boxes, but using different users and passwords for different boxes. So for example I might decide to use the device's MAC address as the username, and derive a password from that somehow. That way, I can install a filesystem image onto a device and it will self-configure. (It may be that the device will call a web service with it's MAC address and retreive settings that way, but once the script knows what the user and password details are I still need a method to "insert" them into the configuration files.) So, my question is how best to "insert" these details into a config file (in this case /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf but I'm looking for a general solution). One option would be to simply recreate these files on startup inserting relevant details - or, better, to use sed (or maybe awk) to replace the relevant parts of the config. Is that the "right" way to do it? Obviously I'd need to restart any relevant services after this is done (or better, make sure it happens before they start). Is there a general way to insert an environment variable or other value into a configuration file? Mark -- 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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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 10th May
by Viperfang 07 May '12

07 May '12

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 10th May at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- 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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Browser trouble
by Bev Nicolson 06 May '12

06 May '12

My connection is fine (I've rung my ISP) but I'm having trouble loading pages. It doesn't always happen. Sometimes, like now for example, it'll be slow, then when I go back to it, it springs into life. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox (not gone away) and Chrome's at it now too. Anyone got any ideas? Bev. (Ubuntu 11.04)

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ATD Hogging the processor
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 04 May '12

04 May '12

Hi folks, I've got a problem with my laptop that's recently occurred. The processor usage gets stuck at 100%, and I can't work out why. If I look at processes with top or htop, atd is the biggest user of the processor, with about 20%. Adding up all the processes gives a rough total of 30%. No idea of where the other 70% is going, yet the total at the top is 100%. Issuing the command sudo service stop atd almost immediately brings the total processor usage down to 2-18%. Then issuing sudo service start atd takes it right back up to 100% Any idea what atd is up to? How can I find out? I did get a disk space warning the other day, but have freed up a load of space since. Ubuntu 11.04, fully patched. No recent changes AFAIK apart from installing patches regularly. Any ideas? Steve

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Are there any DLNA/UPnP streaming *clients* for Linux?
by Chris Green 03 May '12

03 May '12

Maybe my multimedia naivete is showing through but I can't find any *clients* for DLNA/UPnP media streaming. I.e. I want to be able to use a laptop (or a desktop) to play music etc. stored on a media server using media server software rather than the file system. -- Chris Green

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FWD: Re: [Sheflug] UK Open Standards: Time to act
by Ted.Harding＠wlandres.net 02 May '12

02 May '12

Greetings All! In case you may not be aware, I'm passing on this message from the Sheffield LUG. The original message (from Richard Ibbotson) gives the URL for on-line participation in the consultation. Gary Stimson's reply gives a link to a very interesting announcement from the Government Digital Service/Digital Cabinet Office. Feel free to pass this on to any other groups you think would be interested! Best wishes to all, Ted. -----Fwd: <4FA18654.2060800(a)stimson.org.uk>----- Date: Wed, 02 May 2012 20:09:08 +0100 Sender: sheflug-bounces(a)sheflug.org.uk From: Gary Stimson <bulk(a)stimson.org.uk> To: sheflug(a)sheflug.org.uk Subject: Re: [Sheflug] UK Open Standards: Time to act On 28/04/12 11:48, Richard Ibbotson wrote: > HI > > For those of you who have an interest in this.... > > http://fsfe.org/projects/os/uk-standards-consultation.html > > " The Cabinet Office is currently conducting an important consultation > on Open Standards The question is whether companies offering Free > Software will in future have the opportunity to sell their services to > the British government. Whether or not British money will continue to > be spent on supporting proprietary standards which lock in public > bodies, currently hangs in the balance. Thanks Richard. I strongly encourage everyone to respond to this Cabinet Office consultation. Our responses will have much greater impact than signing petitions etc. The consultation is very long but you don't need to respond to all of it. If you prefer, you can send some free text instead of answering the questions in turn. If the government wants to demonstrate support then they will count the responses, so yours does matter. If they want detailed analysis they have responses from FSFE, Open Source Consortium and more. If they want to ignore the consultation... they will. The deadline has been extended by a month (to 4th June) following an astonishing conflict of interest by a Microsoft advisor. http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/04/26/open-standards-consultation-… tant-update/ Again, please do take action on this. Gary _______________________________________________ Sheffield Linux User's Group http://sheflug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/sheflug_sheflug.org.uk FAQ at: http://www.sheflug.org.uk/mailfaq.html GNU - The Choice of a Complete Generation --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)wlandres.net> Date: 02-May-2012 Time: 22:33:08 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 4th May.
by Viperfang 01 May '12

01 May '12

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Forum access--browser problem?
by James Freer 24 Apr '12

24 Apr '12

[xubuntu 10.04..... just two days until 12.04!] I'm hoping someone can advise on what to look for with what seems to be a forum access problem. I belong to a classic car forum which has recently decided to change server and forum software. They claimed the vBulletin was having problems. This i question as the Ubuntu forum as many of you probably use is also vBulletin with 1.8 million members and doesn't seem to have problems. The car group are now using Xenforo - anyone any experience of it? I'm using the Chrome browser which i've found fast and without problems so far. I regularly use forums which have the phpBB, SMF and Invision software without problems and fast as well. The problems; difficulty logging in and logging out (like 3-4 attempts), navigating round the forum is very slow if in fact i can enter a particular thread (when i can another 3-4 attempts are required). Going into Settings then activated a window with a message saying a server problem. It would seem to me [not that much IT expertise!] that there is server problem rather than a browser problem. Emailing the Administrator revealed that he uses linux Mint with Firefox - i thought most likely a problem with linux when other folk are using windows. Could there be a problem with Xubuntu? Chrome problems... well i tried a few of the other browsers earlier today and little difference - so Chrome doesn't seem likely. If Xubuntu what could be the problem because i want to sort it before putting 12.04 on - wrong setting somewhere... he's able to use Mint ok! I know this seems vague but i'd be very grateful if someone could give some pointers to investigate. thanks james

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Re: [ALUG] Acer Aspire One can't keep up with audio streaming
by Srdjan Todorovic 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

On 23 April 2012 22:47, Chris Green <chris(a)isbd.co.uk> wrote: > I've just put it into exaile, it played for a few seconds then just said > "Buffering 0%..." and virtually completely stopped. Even producing no > sound at all virtually exaile is using 30% or more of the CPU. Seems like network or software issue. >> Please... no iPlayer / BBC links. Do you have any other links? >> > There are virtually no other usable links for BBC radio, since most of > the point of this exercise is to listen to the BBC I'm a bit stuck! Not everyone has, or wants, a license. Don't know what codecs they use. If they use dirac, I thought that was very experimental a few years ago. Regards, Srdjan

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Acer Aspire One can't keep up with audio streaming
by Chris Green 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

I have an Acer Aspire One 751h which has a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU. It seems unable to decode radio streams that run at 128k, all BBC radio streams stutter hopelessly whether I use a dedicated application (radiotray) or try listening using iPlayer in Firefox. Running top shows radiotray using around 60% of the CPU with pulseaudio using 10% or so, that doesn't leave much to spare! Do I really need a faster computer to listen to radio on line? I'm pretty sure it's not a bandwidth problem, the on-line BBC iPlayer bandwidth check tells me I have enough bandwidth to play HD television. Are there any audio/radio apps out there which specifically aim at using as little CPU as possible? -- Chris Green

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