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FTGH: Various computer bits
by Jonathan McDowell 03 Sep '07

03 Sep '07

I'm having a clearout and as a result have a fair few random bits and pieces of computer stuff that need new homes. I thought I'd mention it here before I let Freecycle loose on the list, which is at: http://the.earth.li/~noodles/clearout.html In particular I have too many SCSI cables and too many power cables. Surely they must be of use to someone rather than me having to throw them out? J. -- No thanks, I'm already having one. This .sig brought to you by the letter E and the number 28 Product of the Republic of HuggieTag

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Any alternatives to htmlhelp.com?
by Chris G 03 Sep '07

03 Sep '07

The WDG site at htmlhelp.com appears to be down at the moment, can anyone recommend any similar sites which document the basics of HTML, CSS etc. on line? Or are the htmlhelp.com pages available from anywhere else? -- Chris Green

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/ unexpectedly remounted as read only
by Wayne Stallwood 29 Aug '07

29 Aug '07

One of our servers did a strange thing today. Suddenly at about half 11 this morning it remounted / as read only, I have seen filesystems do this on boot when fsck was unable to repair something automatically but this happened with an uptime of 80 days. Nothing useful was written to the logs (presumably because they are on the same mount point and hence also read only) Seeing as it was in a ro state anyway I ran fsck on the ext3 filesystem and it came back with a large number (100's) of errors, some of which needed manual confirmation before they could be fixed. However / being ro had made a mess of some of the processes that machine runs so I gave it a reboot and everything came back as expected and with an empty lost+found. I ran smartctl on all 4 disks of the Raid 5 array and no errors have been logged and disks look healthy. The mdadm shows all 4 disks as being in normal mode and the array as being healthy. I am going to run extended offline smart tests of the disks over the weekend when the machine is less busy, but in the meantime can somebody confirm that damaged filesystems remounting themselves as ro is normal behaviour and if so what detects and schedules this ? Also any ideas as to what (apart from faulty RAM which again I am going to have to wait until the weekend to test) might have caused such widespread corruption in the first place ?

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Re: [ALUG] Open University and software
by Bev Nicolson 29 Aug '07

29 Aug '07

It was the way OU said this on their web site that concerned me, Wayne. There is, as you suggest, always the possibility that the software will 'just work' but I felt it wise to check. Another thing. Linux friendly *external* DVD players? Any recommendations? Or can you plug and play with most? Thanks again. Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wayne Stallwood" <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> > To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Open University and software > Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:53:01 +0100 > > > On Tue, 2007-08-28 at 18:22 +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote: > > I'm hoping to do some studying with the OU but looking at their > > web site it basically says that they can't support Linux. I > > thought I'd ask whether folk on this list have had any problems > > with software incompatibility (which is for Windows but can, they > > say, be used on Macs) and Ubuntu. Thanks. > > > > Bev. > > Not supported can often just mean "not tested on" if their site works on > both Windows and Mac (and therefore presumably more than one browser) > then there is a very good chance it will work on firefox on ubuntu. > > If software resources are made available for your your course outside > the scope of the website then it may be that only Windows and Mac > binaries are made available. Then your choice is to either experiment > with Wine by following the recent thread on the main list or install > Windows in a virtual machine (the virtual machine can be operated for > free but you will need a Windows licence) and this being an option I > would strongly recommend that you attend the next iplug meet as samwise > is performing a demonstration. > > If the site just wont play in firefox on linux then a last resort may be > http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page, but that resource is > intended more for site development than actually using a browser in > anger. > > > _______________________________________________ > 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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Open University and software
by Bev Nicolson 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

I'm hoping to do some studying with the OU but looking at their web site it basically says that they can't support Linux. I thought I'd ask whether folk on this list have had any problems with software incompatibility (which is for Windows but can, they say, be used on Macs) and Ubuntu. Thanks. Bev. -- _______________________________________________ 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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WINE
by Yvonne Everett 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Hello Does anyone have a particular good reference guide/notes perhaps on how to get WINE running? I've tried this before to allow me to use MS Money through Linux but have had several problems. So now I have a completely clean install of Kubuntu 7.04 and am ready to try WINE again for MS Money. Any suggestions before I make a start would be much appreciated. Rgds -- Yvonne Everett Email: ye103910(a)googlemail.com

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X between Xorg and X11R6
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Hi Folks, A new question! (All this up-to-date Linux stuff is finding the gaps in my obsolete knowledge ...). I'm currently trying (rather, wanting to try) running X apps remotely on one of my machines, with Gentoo running off the Live CD on the new laptop. So: A = new laptop, latest Gentoo off live CD X is Xorg B = old laptop, Red Hat 9 from 2003. X is X11R6 Normally, when I want remote X apps to display locally, I enter xhost + locally, and get "connection is allowed from any host". And it then works. On A, I again enter "xhost +" and still get "connection is allowed from any host". So far so good, it would seem. However, A has no telnet client, and rlogin won't work, soI have to use ssh to log in from A to B. This seems to work: I log in, I can tour directories, etc. B knows where I'm coming from: B:$ who am i ted ..... (192.168.1.8) which is fine. But it hasn't attributed an X DISPLAY: echo $DISPLAY returns null. So on B I set export DISPLAY=192.168.1.8:0.0 which is what I'd normally do. But now, when logged in to B, I issue xterm There is a delay, and then the message xterm Xt error: Can't open display: 192.168.1.8:0.0 Does this have something to do with Xorg doing things differently from X11R6? The process I went through above would have worked between any of my X11R6 machines. Or might it have somthing to do with my logging in using ssh rather than telnet (Machine B is set up to be friendly to anything on my LAN 192.168.1.*). Any suggestions appreciated! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 27-Aug-07 Time: 18:00:54 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Backing Vista into a corner
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Hi Again, with repeat apologies! The laptop on which I propose to install Linux has Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed. There is one hard drive: 120GB. Partition info according to Vista is: Vista (C:) 91.2GB free, 104GB total System (S:) 1.41GB free, 1.46GB total Gentoo finds the HD at /dev/sda, and fdisk gives: /dev/sda1 Start=1 End=702 Blocks=5,632,000 ID=27 Type=Unknown /dev/sda2 Start=702 End=893 Blocks=1,536,000 ID=7 Type=HP/NTFS /dev/sda3 Start=893 End=14894 Blocks=110,050,304 ID=7 Type=HP/NTFS Presumably (matching on partition size) /dev/sda2 is the 1.4GB "System" partition which Vista identified (dunno what that's for, though; but at least it's a known filesystem type). And of course /dev/sda3 is the Big One, which Vista has all to itself. And Vista does not see /dev/sda1 at all. This may be something to do with machine boot-up, BIOS config, diagnostics, or the like. Anyway, my real question is to do with backing Vista into a much smaller corner of /dev/sda3. Perhaps I'll be benign and let it have as much as 40GB to run around in, maybe less, however. So this means resizing the /dev/sda3 partition, and adding new partiitions in the space released. There shouldn't be problems with the latter, once the former has been done. But this is the first time I've been anywhere near an NTFS filesystem. While I've done this often enough for DOS/VFAT systems, I don't really know what sort of animal NTFS is, and how kindly it would take to being "downsized". Still less do I know what tool I should use for the resizing, what dangers to watch out for (I don't really want to zap Vista, since it sould come in handy sometime), nor whether the Linux bootloader )e.g. GRuB) will work smoothly with this setup. Also, will the fact that the partitions do not begin and end on cylinder boundaries (see above fdisk info) matter? So I'd welcome experienced advice about these and any related issues that need taking care of when installing Linux alongside Vista. With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 26-Aug-07 Time: 20:51:22 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Ubuntu vs Gentoo [vs etc.]?
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Hi Folks, Apologies to any who receive cross-postings! I'm poised to install Linux on a newly acquired laptop. I've tried out the latest Ubuntu amd Gentoo live CDs, and both work nicely. (Indeed, with their common GNOME interface, there's isn't superificially much difference between them). However, I've formed a slightly happier impression of Gentoo (for reasons which I can't quite put my finger on -- its more of a "comfort" impression; also, the Gentoo live CD seems to have more stuff to try out than the Ubuntu one does). I'd be grateful for any guidance from folks who have experiance of both, as to which may be the better one for long-term use. I'm also planning to give PCLinuxOS a whirl, and maybe also Zenwalk, if anyone has comments. Also feel free to advocate anything else! Essential are good support for Intel 945GM Integrated Graphics Controller (works with i810 driver), Synaptics touchpad with USB mouse as alternative (I hate touchpads, but this machine has no external PS/2 port ... ). With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 26-Aug-07 Time: 20:27:47 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Why does mozilla/firefox/netscape make this so difficult?
by Chris G 25 Aug '07

25 Aug '07

Why are web browsers (well, Netscape and its descendents) so different from all other programs? All I want to do is run Firefox on another system on my (three machine) network and it's very difficult! My 'main' machine runs Slackware Linux and is in the house in my office, it's on all the time so I can advertise the occasional web page etc. It's the machine that appears on the web (at least as web pages) as home.isbd.net. I have set up another machine in the garage using tatty old hardware so when I want to get some information (thread sizes for bolts, spare parts for tools, wall plug sizes, etc.) I can do it there rather than having to go back into the house requiring cleanness etc. As I want access to the same home directory when I'm out there I have used NFS to export my home and when I log in on the garage system I have all the same files that I have on my office system. Everything works fine *except* Firefox (well everything I've tried so far that is). Firefox won't start on the garage system because it sees the office system's Firefox lock file and says that Firefox is running already and I can't have another one. I can think of various ways around this issue (separate profile, don't use NFS but copy some files across, etc.) but really why should I have to? Just about every other program would run up a second instance without any bother at all, why does Firefox do different? Netscape was the same, it's "ancestral"! :-) Other programs that create a lock file like this or a file with the PID in it are server type programs where it makes sense (like mySql), there having only one copy makes sense and I could use it from both my garage and office systems at the same time without hassle. With firefox though it's just a nuisance and I can't really come up with a neat solution. To describe the problem more completely:- I have /home/chris is the *same* file system on both office and garage computers, it's a local file system on the office computer and an NFS export to the garage computer. I have a few files that are different for the garage computer kept in /home/chris/.garage, these are such things as my window manager configuration because the garage computer has a lower resolution display than the office computer. I want office and garage computer firefox to share their installation and configuration so that bookmarks and other things are the same. I just want to run firefox in the garage, but I can't! Possible solutions seem to be:- Run firefox in the garage with a separate profile, but I'm not sure if this works completely and it means that I have to choose a profile every time I start firefox. It also means that bookmarks etc. are *not* shared so I have to do something about that. Shut down firefox on the office system every time I leave it, not really a sensible approach, I'll forget! I can't think of any other ways to do it! Oh, yes, there is another approach. Have an independent /home/chris on the garage system and have symbolic links from there to all the important directories in /home/chris on the office system. Thus firefox has a local (and thus independent) configuration/installation and I can just link bookmarks.html to the office system one to get the same bookmarks. This also has the advantage that the garage system will be more able to work without the office system being there. It's probably the approach I will take though I'm not quite sure how to keep the symbolic links up to date. -- Chris Green

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