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Can one force apt-get to download rather than use CD?
by Chris G 23 Apr '08

23 Apr '08

I'm finding my way slowly with Ubuntu Server, now I have a minor problem with apt-get. It wants me to put the Ubuntu Server CD into the machine which, since it's in the garage, is a bit of a pain. Can I force it *not* to use the CD but to always got to the internet to download packages I want to install? If so, how? -- Chris Green

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MSI Titan 700 via based system
by Chris G 22 Apr '08

22 Apr '08

Well the MSI Titan system I was talking about arrived yesterday, it's certainly very compact, but with all the 'bits' you could want. I have installed Ubuntu Server 7.10 on it, it installed without a hitch, not a single problem except that I somehow mis-typed my password during installation and couldn't log in when the system booted. Oops! However running 'rescue system' from the CD allowed me to run as root and modify the password file. It runs from a little 60 watt external power supply which is just luke warm after being on overnight so around 20 watts or so consumption seems about right. It's not incredibly quiet, the fan is quite noticeable with it sat on my desk, that's not an issue for me as it's going to be in the garage but it might be for some people. I've got an external disk drive sat on top of it at the moment so it may be a bit warmer than it should, the fan is CPU controlled. I've already got the external USB drive working with it, I haven't dared try and re-format it yet though (any answers on that front?). All in all I'm very pleased with it, exactly what I want at not too bad a price. -- Chris Green

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Lenovo Thinkcentre A61e USFF
by Tim Green 22 Apr '08

22 Apr '08

After Wayne's recommendation I bought one of those Lenovo Thinkcentre A61e USFF thingies. He's not kidding about expansion options - no PCI slots! I think there is a mico-PCI slot free next to the (laptop) memory slot, so WiFi is possible. On the back there are 3 audio ports, 4 USB, 1 Ethernet, one VGA and the DC power socket. That low price of £195.73 + VAT (=£229.98) also includes a sturdy keyboard, a very lightweight optical mouse, and an XP licence, but no CDs and no monitor. The concept is not far off a MacMini, but about three times larger, and black. I'll be installing Hardly Heroin when it's released at the end of the week, and I'll let you know how it goes. Regards, Tim Green.

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Tools to clean "empty space" on disks
by Mark Rogers 22 Apr '08

22 Apr '08

Are there any tools around that can clean empty space on disks? I'm not too worried about doing this for secure deletion purposes, I just want to get a good result from a compressed image of the disk. NB: I tend to use: dd if=/dev/hdb | gzip > hdb.dd.gz .. but there's probably a much better way to do this. Usually it's an NTFS disk but in this particular case it is ext3. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Firefox toolbars - help!
by Chris G 21 Apr '08

21 Apr '08

I've been playing with Firefox themes and have been customising the toolbars. A while ago I added a new toolbar, basically as a separator for the theme I was using but now I need it no more. So, how do you *remove* a toolbar you've added? You can turn view off for the toolbar but I couldn't make that 'stick', every time I restarted Firefox the toolbar was visible again and I had to turn view off again. So I clicked on "Restore Default Set" in the toolbar customisation window. That got rid of my added toolbar permanently which is something, but now I have loads of icons in the Navigation Toolbar that I don't want. It says "You can add or remove items by dragging to or from the toolbars", no I can't! I can add items by dragging them too the toolbar but I can't remove them by dragging them from the toolbar. How on earth does one remove items? -- Chris Green

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[Fwd: Re: [ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Milestone, Woodbridge Road]
by Dave Crisp 20 Apr '08

20 Apr '08

It looks like I'm actually going to be at this one. I'm scared..... On Wed, 2008-04-16 at 11:49 +0100, Tracy Dickerson wrote: > Hello, Guys and Gals, > > Rick and I will try and be there this month. Sorry for our absence, I > hope all is well. > > Tracy x > > On 15/04/2008, samwise <samwise(a)bagshot-row.org> wrote: > > 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 back next > > week (Monday 21 April 2008) at 20:00: > > > > > > The Milestone Beer House > > 5 Woodbridge Road > > IPSWICH > > IP4 2EA > > > > Tel: 01473 252425 > > Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA > > > > The Milestone pub is in the centre of Ipswich, near the now-defunct > > Odeon cinema and not far from The Regent Theatre. > > > > There is more information on the venue, including car parking info, on > > the ALUG wiki: > > > > http://www.alug.org.uk/wiki/moin.cgi/Meetings > > > > All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Hopefully, it > > shouldn't be too hard to find the pack, look for those huddled around > > a laptop! > > > > Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. > > > > > > Hope to see you there, > > > > 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 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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! > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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! >

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Free to a Good home
by Wayne Stallwood 19 Apr '08

19 Apr '08

Alphaserver 800 5/333, in a rack case, 512MB of RAM, 3 4.2GB hotplug disks with a carrier for a 4th, DAT drive (untested), CD ROM. I have OpenVMS installation media (it's up to the buyer to obtain a free hobbyist licence) it had BSD on it I think but one of the disks has failed. The remaining two disks go through block test diags fine however. As a system it probably still has ebay value, I just can't be bothered to deal with listing it, packing it for postage etc Also Last call for my original media server, headless 833Mhz PIII with 128MB RAM, no disks installed, small form factor case. You need to be able to do a serial console installation or attach a pci gfx card and usb ports to do a local console one. Also HP PA-RISC machine, series 9000 model C110. I took this from Noodles before he moved on behalf of another ALUG member who then didn't want it after all. I know nothing about it other that it boots and it is now officially in my way. All of the above need to be collected either as a whole or in part, however you might be able to convince me to attend a meet with some/all in my car boot :)

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What I've decided to buy as a low power system
by Chris G 19 Apr '08

19 Apr '08

I've found this MSI Titan 700 system:- http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=21448 I've not actually bought it from CCL because they're out of stock at the moment, I bought it from Lambdatek (slightly cheaper too). Low power VIA processor, all ready put together for me, Gigabit LAN, what more could I want? Hardly any more expensive than a NAS and much more capable. -- Chris Green

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How to talk to something configured for a different subnet?
by Chris G 18 Apr '08

18 Apr '08

What's the easiest way to 'talk' (i.e. connect) to a device that's set up for a different subnet from the one that your local subnet is using? This is a common recurring problem in two situations:- You have a subnet that's *not* 192.168.1.x and you want to use a router (or whatever) that comes with its default address set to 192.168.1.1. You have set a router (or something) to a different subnet for some reason and want to 'get it back'. I have done it a few times by editing /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 to the new subnet and then rebooting, doing what I need to do and then changing ifcfg-eth0 and rebooting again but this seems a little laborious. Is there an easier way? Could I just run ifconfig from the command line to do what I did above, but rather more quickly and easily? Are there any other ways to do this? -- Chris Green

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PHP+MySql bod required
by Steve 17 Apr '08

17 Apr '08

Arternoon list, My boss' other company is looking for a PHP and MySql guru to take over and maintain a number of systems. The website is at http://www.thefeedbackcompany.com/ If anyone's interested, let me know and I'll pass details on. Cheers, Steve

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Low[ish] power PC building
by Chris G 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

I'm coming to the conclusion that the most sensible approach for my 'garage server' will be to build it myself. A Mini-ITX system would be ideal but the prices are still silly compared with boring old ATX and ATX related systems. In addition I have an ATX case that I can use. Size isn't an issue, I have two huge garages. Noise isn't an issue, I don't sleep in the garage or watch TV there. :-) So it would seem that a motherboard with an AMD BE series processor would give me a start for a low power system. Is there any way to decide how power hungry motherboards are? I'm open to alternative recommendations for the processor but Googling about suggests that an AMD BE-2400 or something like it is probably the best low-power/price compromise, so I'm looking for an AM2 motherboard with video and ethernet on board with low power consumption. -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Milestone, Woodbridge Road
by samwise 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '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 ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back next week (Monday 21 April 2008) at 20:00: The Milestone Beer House 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 252425 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA The Milestone pub is in the centre of Ipswich, near the now-defunct Odeon cinema and not far from The Regent Theatre. There is more information on the venue, including car parking info, on the ALUG wiki: http://www.alug.org.uk/wiki/moin.cgi/Meetings All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Hopefully, it shouldn't be too hard to find the pack, look for those huddled around a laptop! Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Hope to see you there, 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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Hello
by John Herd 14 Apr '08

14 Apr '08

Hello Alug... I didn't think that there was a Linux users group in Suffolk until I stumbled across your web page. Hopefully the group is alive and well. I see that you have meetings at the Milestone Beer House - when is your next meet? I'm guessing the 21st from your web page. Anyway I could ramble on forever about what I use Linux for but it boils down to this: my missus uses Ubuntu Gutsy because she it does what she wants it to do (and the BBC finally got a beta out the door for iPlayer). I use Linux because it's easier to work with (haha, but seriously it's getting easier to work with) although I hanker after games. I randomly nuke my machine and put a new distro on there, run virtual machines and then remember I didn't back up all my data to that spare disk under my feet. Favourite distro: Ubuntu. Least favourite: Gentoo, although friends of mine swear by it I swear at it. If there's anyone out there - please give me a shout back. John.

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gnome-terminal not starting - how to diagnose?
by Chris G 13 Apr '08

13 Apr '08

I suddenly have a problem on my fedora 8 system at home, running gnome-terminal doesn't work, it just hangs. This started happening after I rebooted the system when trying to diagnose something else. I have an fvwm configuration that automatically starts up about six gnome-terminals on different pages. It now doesn't start up all of the gnome-terminals, only two or three appear (it's not even consistent) and I can't start up any more gnome-terminals, if I enter "gnome-terminal" on the command line it just hangs, no message or anything. Some other gnome applications seem to be affected too, I can't start gnome-panel for example. Other terminal applications work fine, e.g. xterm and others. Any ideas what may be wrong anyone? ... and/or how can I can diagnose it? -- Chris Green

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Getting FTP to work through a NAT router - or not
by Chris G 11 Apr '08

11 Apr '08

I have just changed my ADSL router from the Speedtouch 716WL that I have been using for a year or two back to a Zyxel 660H that I had used for a while. The reason is that I no longer need the VOIP ports on the Speedtouch and its firewall is difficult to configure, Web configuration is limited and CLI configuration is arcane! The Zyxel 660H has all the facilities I need now and the Web configuration of the firewall is comprehensive enough for my needs. After a bit of head scratching I have got just about everything working as I want, all the machines on the LAN can see the outside world 'transparently' and some bits of the outside world can see into the LAN as follows:- Any IP address can get to my apache server on port 80 A (very) limited number of IP addresses can connect to my ssh server on port 22 One outside address can get to the router's web configuration which I have moved from the default port 80 to 50080. Very useful for fixing things from work! However I can't get FTP into my NAS to work at all, all I get is a stony silence. I appreciate that there are several oddities about getting FTP to work and it *may* be that it just isn't possible with this router but it would be nice if I could get it to work. What I have done so far is:- Ports 20 and 21 are forwarded from "any outside IP" to the NAS which has the FTP server on it. The firewall allows ports 20 and 21 through. I have disabled the FTP access to the router completely (i.e. as I understand it I have turned the router's FTP server off, it's for Firmware updates etc.) No joy at all. Looking at the router's logs all I see when I try and connect is an incoming packet from the outside system which gets to the NAS and that's it. However I'm not really sure that the logging is showing me everything. By default the FTP clients are using passive mode so, as I see it, everything should be started from the client end. Any ideas anyone as to what I might try next? Even someone saying "it isn't possible" would save me some time! -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Getting FTP to work through a NAT router - or not
by cl＠isbd.net 10 Apr '08

10 Apr '08

On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 02:28:13PM +0100, Dennis Dryden wrote: > Only thing i can think of is that the NAS ftp is broken or not liking > your client. I take it you can connect to the NAS in the same way on > your local network? > Yes, I can ftp to the NAS without problems from within the LAN. -- Chris Green

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John Atkinson RIP (Ancient John)
by John Woodard 08 Apr '08

08 Apr '08

I have some sad news. Those of you who have attended the Syleham Kit Meets might like to know that Ancient John has passed away aged 84. He was the old fellow who always brought his wife's home made biscuits to the meetings and always seemed to be the first one to turn up. A Linux stalwart, he used it to do good things for his deaf/blind grandchildren giving them the ability to read and write. His widow Evelyn told me that he suffered a severe stroke which impaired him totally so he chose to refuse hospital treatment to prolong his sad state. He had his wishes granted so was able to pass away with dignity in his own home with his family around him. She told me he died very happy and asked me to pass this on to all of the Aluggers who have helped him in the past. BJ

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

08 Apr '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 April * 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 http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +-------------------------------------------------------+ |Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.| |http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html | +-------------------------------------------------------+ ----- 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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[OT?] Finding a spamming virus
by Mark Rogers 07 Apr '08

07 Apr '08

One of our customers has managed to install a virus (Windows, of-course) which is sending spam. My job is to try to track it down. Virus scans haven't found the problem. Although they have MS Exchange on-site, I am sure that the virus will not be sending through it (unless the virus is on the exchange box itself), so in theory it should be fairly easy to find out which PC is initiating lots of outbound SMTP connections. That's why I don't think this is OT - I reckon my best tools for the job will be Linux ones? Either way any suggestions welcomed, particularly ones I can work on via a VPN connection rather than going to site. NB: I've played with programs like Ethereal/Wireshark in the past, and I'm sure that's what I should be looking at, but I've always found myself looking at too much information and unable to see the wood for the trees. So pointers to tutorials gratefully received! -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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8GB Eee PC
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 06 Apr '08

06 Apr '08

It seems the 8GB Eee PC (with 2GB RAM) is now available, even in the UK: http://eeepc.asus.com/uk/product.htm (Not available in Lush Pink/Sky Blue/Lush Grseen, though. in case you're fussy about such things :)) However, browsing around, I can't seem to find anywhere that has them in stock. PC World only list the 2GB and 4GB models, and Toys R Us are (as always) "out of stock" on any version! Any suggestions? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 06-Apr-08 Time: 13:17:43 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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FW: [man-lug] [Fwd: [Fsuk-manchester] ODF Petition]
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 05 Apr '08

05 Apr '08

Folks: You may be interested in this! Best wishes to all, Ted. -----FW: <47F7B788.9010406(a)army.com>----- Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:31:52 +0100 Sender: man-lug-admin(a)lists.manchester.ac.uk From: Tim Dobson <personalwebsite(a)army.com> To: man-lug(a)lists.manchester.ac.uk, sheflug(a)sheflug.org.uk, linux-users(a)lists.manchester.ac.uk Subject: [man-lug] [Fwd: [Fsuk-manchester] ODF Petition] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Fsuk-manchester] ODF Petition Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:32:00 +0100 From: Mac <Ammonius.Grammaticus(a)googlemail.com> To: fsuk-manchester(a)nongnu.org You may already know of the petition for the National Archive to use ODF and not M$ OOXML as planned. If not, here's the URL: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ODFinNA/ Mac _______________________________________________ Fsuk-manchester mailing list Fsuk-manchester(a)nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsuk-manchester -- www.tdobson.net ---- If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us still has one object. If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now has two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw ---------------------------------------------- http://lists.manchester.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/man-lug ManLUG WWW Pages: http://www.manlug.mcc.ac.uk/ --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 05-Apr-08 Time: 19:12:37 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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How to use tee to pipe stdin to two scripts?
by Chris G 02 Apr '08

02 Apr '08

I want to send standard input to two places, both of which are shell (well, actually python and perl) scripts. I assume I need to use tee but it's not obvious how to do it. My actual requirement is for .forward to send incoming mail messages to an (old) perl script and a (new, replacement) python script while I write and debug the new python script. The existing .forward file is:- | /home/isbd/bin/filter.pl How do I change this so it sends its standard input to both /home/isbd/bin/filter.pl *and* /home/isbd/bin/filter.py? -- Chris Green

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HTML Mail / Asus EEE PC for £186.70 at Marshall Wards
by Martin Collins 01 Apr '08

01 Apr '08

Guilty. But I was unaware that I was doing it as I was using the web interface of GMail rather than KMail as I've temporarily lost access to my laptop. It's not glaringly obvious how to send plain text via the GMail web interface but when composing a message, there's a line just above the message-text entry box that has Bold and Italic and Underline symbols...on the end is a blue link that says << Plain text - Doh! I suppose the Bold, Italic and Underline symbols should have told me something!! Guilty, guilty, guilty. The original message was this but unsure now whether it's still active. Hi, thought some of you might be interested in this. Got this info from http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/163077/asus-eee-pc-4gb-blk-or-white-186-70/ If you goto Marshall Wards site and (register) order an 4GB Black or White Asus EEE PC and enter the code XX214 you'll get 20% off, bringing the price down to £186.70. In stock delivery in 7 days. A Linux bargain! Rgds, Martin

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blocking net but not lan on one pc
by Peter Alcibiades 30 Mar '08

30 Mar '08

Thanks guys for all the helpful suggestions. The easiest and most manageable for the people who have the system is probably to just do fixed IP address for this particular station and to not have a default route. I should have thought of that myself. I guess you could do the same thing and just not have DNS server defined, which would be good enough in this environment. Then if they want to turn it back on again, they just go back to DHCP, which is a one click change and easy to explain. The router is a netgear wired 5 port router/modem, but it doesn't seem to have blocking of access by MAC address. Yes, that would otherwise have been almost as simple. There are only three machines in this little network, the only real reason they are on a network is to print, and the one in question is in a public part of the building. Tts not accessible by the public, but whatever is on screen is visible to visitors, its a reception desk machine with displays that vary in response to what the staff do, and that the visitors do need to see. I'm not quite sure why they don't want it to have outside access, its more at the level of a general feeling than anything else. But its their decision. Of the other two machines, one is not on public view and is only used by a couple of specialists, and they are not bothered about it, the other does all the office admin, email and so on, and that one they obviously need to have full access. But it is in an office and so not available to all the staff, and not visible to the public. Thanks again! Peter

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blocking net but not lan on one pc
by Peter Alcibiades 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

What is the simplest way to prevent one of the accounts on one of PCs on the lan from accessing the net? It does not have to be super secure, just require a modicum of knowledge to bypass, which the users will not have. Famous last words. The account should have access to the LAN however for network printers. If its more convenient, it would also be OK to block all accounts. Is this something best done through groups? Al

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