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Laptop networking problem
by Barry Samuels 14 Jan '08

14 Jan '08

My brother has been given a Dell Inspiron laptop on which he has installed SUSE 10. He has 2 USB wireless adapters both of which are recognised by SUSE but he cannot get access to either his local network or the Internet. The laptop does gets an IP address from the wireless router via DHCP and he can traceroute to the router and his desktop. He cannot ping either the router or his desktop - there are no replies. He can, however, ping the laptop from his desktop and get replies. He cannot connect to any sites on the network using a browser. The router address is given as the default gateway on the laptop for wlan0 which is the wireless interface. SUSE is also using Network Manager to run things and complains about commands such as ifup or ifdown and ignores them. Configuration files on SUSE are not where I'd expect to see them on Debian so I'm at a bit of a loss and I've run out of ideas. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Re: [ALUG] Givernment consultation
by Christopher Dawkins 12 Jan '08

12 Jan '08

The Government would like your views on how children should be provided with IT. The e-consultation questionnaire at http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/conDetails.cfm?consultationId=1522 has a comment box at the end where you might care to suggest which operating systems might be most suitable for them. -- Christopher Dawkins Garnetts Corner, Braintree Road, Felsted, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3DS cchd(a)pjcd.org 07816 821659 01371 821076

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Re: [ALUG] main Digest, Vol 31, Issue 12
by mbm 11 Jan '08

11 Jan '08

Barry main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk wrote: > The laptop does gets an IP address from the wireless router via DHCP > and he can traceroute to the router and his desktop. He cannot ping > either the router or his desktop - there are no replies. He can, > however, ping the laptop from his desktop and get replies. He cannot > connect to any sites on the network using a browser. If the laptop gets an address and can then reach locally connected devices, then networking is obviously up and running. The ICMP failure sounds to me like it could be a firewall issue. Try disabling the SUSE default firewall in YAST (SUSE's configuration tool) as a first step. Also fire up ethereal/wireshark and take a look at what is going where. And are you sure that the router and desktop are configured to respond to ICMP echo requests anyway? The ICMP behaviour may be a symptom of configuration elsewhere. Can he ping an external address (google) from 1) the desktop, 2) the laptop? Can the browser connect to a known web server's IP address (DNS issues?) > > The router address is given as the default gateway on the laptop for > wlan0 which is the wireless interface. SUSE is also using Network > Manager to run things and complains about commands such as ifup or > ifdown and ignores them. That confirms that the DHCP server is correctly dishing out the necessary routing details and the laptop is responding appropriately. SUSE offers two ways of handling networking setup: the traditional ifup/ifdown method, or user controlled with network manager. It looks as if you have the latter configured so SUSE /will/ ignore ifup/ifdown directives and will complain with something like "network interface is managed from network manager" if you try otherwise. > > Configuration files on SUSE are not where I'd expect to see them on > Debian so I'm at a bit of a loss and I've run out of ideas. Configuration files can be found in /etc/sysconfig/network. But I'd advise against manual edits because SUSE expects YAST to configure these (and other /etc/sysconfig files). Which version of SUSE 10 are you running? I used to use SUSE regularly up until about 9.3. When 10.0 came out, Novell managed to completely cock up what had been a good configuration tool (YAST) and I stopped using it. I still have copies of 10.0, openSUSE 10.1 10.2 and 10.3 which I can fire up and play with if necessary. and you get back to me with further details. Mick -- This is a Microsoft free zone. Please do not send me Microsoft Word Documents. For some reasons, see: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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How to make 'dynamic' web pages update when changed?
by Chris G 07 Jan '08

07 Jan '08

I'm sure there must be a very simple answer to this question but I can't see it at the moment. I have a number of web pages that are generated 'on the fly' by a python script which is basically a wrapper for rst2html.py with a few goodies of my own added in. I have added index.rst to the DirectoryIndex directive in my apache configuration file so that the index.rst file (if present) is automatically converted to HTML and displayed when you give the URL for a directory. However this means (at present anyway) that if I change the index.rst file apache doesn't refresh the display when you click on refresh, it only sees the change if you force update by holding shift down when clicking on refresh. Is there any way around this problem where the displayed file is 'virtual' and the originating file name is not in the URL? -- Chris Green

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Cambridge and East Anglian Python Users Group
by Richard Lewis 07 Jan '08

07 Jan '08

Dear ALUG, The Cambridge and East Anglian Python Users group will hold its third "first Tuesday" social meeting on Tuesday 8th January at the Carlton Arms (Carlton Way, Cambridge, CB4 2BY). Social meetings will be held on first Tuesdays from now on, but we decided to re-schedule January's meeting from New Year's Day to this week! People intend to arrive from around 20:00 and I will be going from Norwich by train if anyone would like to join me. Please feel free to contact me on- or off-list regarding this if you like. Cheers, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis - UEA, MUS PG http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thurs Pub Meet 10th Jan
by Richard Lewis 07 Jan '08

07 Jan '08

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Dear ALUG, The monthly second Thursday social meeting of ALUG will take place on * Thursday 10th January * at The Reindeer (10 Dereham Road, Norwich, NR2 4AY; tel. 01603 762223). It's very near the junction of Dereham Road and the Norwich inner ring road (Grapes Hill) and serves a selection of real ales, nice pub food (if you fancy going early to eat) and coffee. I intend to be there from about 20:00. Others may be there earlier. We should have a table reserved at the back of the pub just to the left of the bar. We look forward to seeing you there. Cheers, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis - UEA, MUS PG http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ----- 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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Re: [ALUG] Firefox
by Bev Nicolson 06 Jan '08

06 Jan '08

What happens now is that it crashes if I play a Youtube clip. Somewhere else it's suggested that you kill the application (is that the right term?) but how do I do that? (Seems a better idea than waiting for ages till it decides that Firefox is not responding and lets me know... sigh.) Thanks. Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Bev Nicolson" <bnicolson(a)operamail.com> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox > Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:54:31 +0100 > > > Well if this is so I'll hang on and upgrade. I do hope so - it will > make it all much easier/less painful! Thanks, Mark. > Bev. > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Mark Rogers" <mark(a)quarella.co.uk> > > To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox > > Date: Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:21:14 +0000 > > > > > > Wayne Stallwood wrote: > > > The main problem you have now is your upgrade path is pretty complicated > > > because the supported path would be Dapper>Edgy>Feisty>Gutsy which is a > > > lot of effort (in reality it may be possible to skip some of those but > > > the official upgrade instructions are pretty clear in stating that only > > > an upgrade from the previous version is supported). I am hoping that > > > there will be a direct upgrade path between LTS versions so you would be > > > able to do Dapper>Hardy next April..But I wouldn't hold your breath on > > > that being the case. > > > > > > > My understanding is that this is indeed the case - 6.06LTS -> 8.04LTS > > will be supported in a single step. > > > > I couldn't find anything "official" in a quick Google but this is a start: > > http://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-server@lists.ubuntu.com/msg00756.html > > > > "Hardy will be a special release in this respect since we'll be > > support upgrading from both 7.10 and 6.06. It is not trivial, but it's a > > high priority for us." > > > > -- > > Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 > > Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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! > > > > > > -- > _______________________________________________ > Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: > Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com > > Powered by Outblaze > > _______________________________________________ > 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! > -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

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Installing VYM version 1.10.0 |installing a .deb for the first time
by James Freer 05 Jan '08

05 Jan '08

Running ubuntu 7.04 - wishing to install vym-1.10.0 (came out sept 2007). I can only assume that it wasn't early enough to be included in gutsy... had a look in the archives and was hoping i could install gutsy. As it seems a number of folk have had problems with gutsy i thought i would just stay with feisty [which has been fine with no problems so far]! I'd be grateful if someone could check that i'm doing the correct procedure! http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=127802&package_id=139… downloaded to desktop the file vym-1.10.0-18.i586.rpm [or should i use vym-1.10.0tar.bz2 and not convert to debian?] installed alien in terminal type $alien -c vym-1.10.0-18.i586.rpm # -c tells it to remove any installation or removal scripts [Should then have a .deb package?] $sudo dpkg vym-1.10.0-18.i586.deb [it can't be that easy - i wanted to check before i mess up somehow! What about other dependencies] thanks james

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apache security
by Chris G 04 Jan '08

04 Jan '08

I am trying to tighten up my apache security a bit. Looking at the "Security Tips" page in the apache documentation doesn't help a *lot* because it's mostly talking about a multi-user system where you are trying to make apache secure against the local users. My situation (like a lot of other Linux users I suspect) is that I am the only user of the system so, apart from my stupidity, local users are not a serious risk. The only local user knows the root password anyway! :-) What I'm after is making it so that the outside world (my router allows access for http requests) can only see the web pages that I want them to see. I also want it to be arranged so that I'm unlikely to mess up this security inadvertently. The one thing that the apache Security Tips suggests that does seem relevant to my situation is to do:- <Directory /> Order Deny,Allow Deny from all </Directory> instead of the default:- <Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None </Directory> Which means that if I point a symlink somewhere stupid by mistake the outside world might access almost anything. Have I understood the above right? It certainly seems to me that what I should do is set things up so that apache can get at nothing and then open up specific directories. One other thing I want is to allow local access only to most of my web pages which is easy enough with something like:- <Directory /var/www/html/maxine> AllowOverride None Order Deny,Allow Deny from all Allow from 192.168.1 193.128.168.194 </Directory> and I'll open up (say) /var/www/html/public to allow 'all' access. Is it worth being this careful/paranoid? Is apache's security good enough for the above to be effective? -- Chris Green

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Gnomad2 is working with the Zen 4Gb
by Chris G 04 Jan '08

04 Jan '08

Well I've got Gnomad2 working with the Zen now. I found that the latest Gnomad2 and the libraries required to support the Zen's MTP were in the Fedora updates-testing repository so all I had to to was add that to yum's repositories temporarily and it all installed without problems. Gnomad2 can now see the Zen and transfer MP3 files to it. It's a bit crude and simple but one huge amount easier to understand than the heap of rubbish that got installed on Windows. -- Chris Green

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