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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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Re: [ALUG] nokia n800 etc
by mbm 04 Jan '08

04 Jan '08

MJ Ray <mjr(a)phonecoop.coop> wrote: >Are Asus and Nokia equally bad at supporting software patents? >My impression is that Nokia are worse, but I don't know Asus much. I'm not sure what this means. Surely no Free/OSS advocate would wish to see software patents enforced? And unlike some other large corporations (BT is a good (bad) example) Nokia at least respects the GPL and other Free/OSS licences and refers to that fact in the documentation for the n800. See www.maemo.org. Mick

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Re: [ALUG] Creative Zen
by mbm 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Chris G <cl(a)isbd.net> wrote: >What do the panel recommend to use with a Creative Zen MP3 player. >Main requirement is to be able to download MP3s and put them onto the >Zen, it's not a requirement to be able to play them on the computer. >Podcast synchronisation would be a plus but lets try walking before we >run. Doing this on windows has turned into a disatrous mess. If all you want to do is synchronise then I'd recommend Gnomad2. I have also used Neutrino, but that can be flakey in my experience. However, I've stopped using the Zen because it doesn't support ogg vorbis. Picky, I know. Mick

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Recommendations for software to use with Creative Zen MP3 player
by Chris G 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

What do the panel recommend to use with a Creative Zen MP3 player. Main requirement is to be able to download MP3s and put them onto the Zen, it's not a requirement to be able to play them on the computer. Podcast synchronisation would be a plus but lets try walking before we run. Doing this on windows has turned into a disatrous mess. -- Chris Green

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Modems and online backups: recommendations?
by Matthew 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Hi all, Apologies for mixing topics but I have two questions that don't really warrant separate mails. I'm having terrible trouble finding an ADSL ethernet modem. I currently have a regular home-office modem/router forwarding all traffic (with NAT) to the external interface of a Debian box with a soft firewall/router, but there's some SIP testing I need to do that would rather I had only one layer of NAT. Reviews at online suppliers generally seem to consider the Netgear DM111P and the D-Link DSL300-T to be troublesome, while the Draytek Vigor 100 is so expensive that it's something of a last resort. What is everyone else using to connect Linux firewall/routers to ADSL? Can I even rely on a modem to maintain a connection suitable for remote access? I'd prefer a PPPoA-PPPoE bridge to a USB modem, although I do have a Sagem F@st kicking around that I might try. Alternatively, if anyone has had any success getting a UK Speedtouch 530v4 into a bridging mode I could try that. I've found a lot about it on the forums of Australian ISPs but the UK version of the firmware doesn't seem to support it. The second one: Can anyone recommend an online backup/storage provider that supports sensible (non-proprietary) backup protocols (e.g. rsync over ssh)? Thanks, Matthew

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Migrating RH9 legacy system to VM
by Mark Rogers 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

I have an old (but still in use) RH9 system I want to migrate to a virtual machine. One of the main reasons for doing this will be performance: a database query on an internal website which is used regularly is taking 15s on the old hardware, where the same query on the same database on a virtual machine takes well under a second... The server is only used internally but all the same I want to minimise downtime. The "normal" method I'd use would be to shut down the hardware, take an image of the drive, restore it into a virtual machine, boot it, fix any problems (eg driver issues) as necessary. Depending how long that last step takes this could mean the system is offline for quite a while. I could create an empty VM, boot it to a live CD, and rsync the whole OS data from the old system to the new one, but I'm not sure which rsync options I'd need to use to make sure the user permissions copied across correctly (I assume that since /etc/passwd will be copied across it doesn't matter that the users don't exist initially), then make the VM's disk bootable, and take it from there; all of that I could do with the other system online and then fix the problems in the VM with the old system still online, ready to re-rsync later to catch up with any changes after shutting down all services like the database etc. But (a) I'm not sure how to make the VM boot and (b) I'm not sure what else would go wrong. Any suggestions? -- 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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new member statement
by paul 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Hi Linux users I'm fairly new to Linux. Previously I have installed and used Ubuntu on my main P4 computer, dual booting it with XP Pro. That system became unbootable and I ended up reformating and re-installing XP Pro. I'm now looking at other distros to find better ones to use on an old Celeron 3 computer for surfing and multimedia. I like the idea of community based free software and want to get into system tweaking. I live in Norwich Best wishes Paul --------------------------------- Sent from Yahoo! - a smarter inbox.

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Nokia n800
by mbm 02 Jan '08

02 Jan '08

Guys Those of you who were interested in the Asus EEE PC may like to know that Play.com have the linux based nokia n800 internet tablet in stock at 129.99 - an astonishing price. Mick

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Where to put HTML etc.?
by Chris G 31 Dec '07

31 Dec '07

I've been changing my mind and messing about with this for years and *still* haven't really come to a sensible final conclusion. It's not even that it matters all that much but I wish there was an obvious answer. Where do you put all your HTML stuff on a home Linux server? There are two basic alternatives, each with advantages and disadvantages:- 1 - In your home directory Permissions are easy to deal with, no need to become root to edit web pages. But it means that, if the outside world has access, you have to be *very* careful with apache set up if you want to be sure only the right bits are visible to the outside world. You either have to use the ~<user> in the URL or you have to add symbolic links from apache's DocumentRoot. If there's more than one user (not in my case) /home makes more sense. Backing up is easy as the HTML gets backed up with your home directory (though there might be bits in DocumentRoot you want to back up anyway). 2 - In apache's DocumentRoot (/var/www/html in my case) Messier with permissions if you want to edit HTML without becoming root all the time. Also not so convenient for editing even with permissions set up OK as it's not in your home directory. Easier to make sure that any outside access can only see what you want to be seen. Cleaner/easier URLs without the need for symbolic links. Not really practical for multi-user but this doesn't apply for me. Need to back up separately from /home (though I suppose you could make /var/html a link across to the /home partition) I keep a lot of quite dynamic (i.e. frequently changing) files as HTML, or at least their content is web browsable, so the above issues are important for me. Does anyone have any comments, ideas, solutions? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] In response to Microsoft ...
by Alex Scotton 30 Dec '07

30 Dec '07

Hope this circulates, not quite sure what email address I have to email! For anyone that is interested the letter is at http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-05-06-012-26-OS-SM-LL .. Can't vouch for it's integrity! but it really wouldn't surprise me if MS put a stop to the original location @ http://www.pimientolinux.com/ ... Anyways Alex On 27-Dec-07 22:19:26, Wayne Stallwood wrote: > > > > On Thu, 2007-12-27 at 18:59 +0000, Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk wrote: > >> >> Hi Folks (and apologies to anyone who receives this >> >> via more than one route), >> >> >> >> I have just enjoyed reading a letter, described as >> >> being sent from Peruvian Congressman David Villanueva >> >> NuÃ±ez to Microsoft Peru, in response tgo Microsoft's >> >> objections to a Peruvian Govt Bill mandating open-source >> >> software for all public bureaux. >> >> >> > > Interesting although am I the only person that is slightly alarmed by > > the authenticity of this given that the original sources seem to have > > vanished ? (the link in the story 404's and the frontpage of the same > > domain seems to be a standard cluster of random sponsored links) > > > > Wouldn't be the first time the reg have failed to check their sources > > :) > No, you're not! (Note that I wrote "described as ... "). The Register web page itself said "purportedly from Peruvian Congressman ... ". Nonetheless, if it was not written by a Peruvian Congressman to MicroSoft Peru, then I wish it had been! Just contemplating that possibility gives me a glow! Cheers, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 27-Dec-07 Time: 22:53:16 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ 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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OSS to Alsa migration for AC'97 soundcard
by Dan Hatton 29 Dec '07

29 Dec '07

Dear All, I have an Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 soundcard. In kernel 2.6.20.6, it works just fine, with the OSS sound_ich driver. However, by kernel 2.6.23.9, this has been obsoleted in favour of the ALSA snd_intel8x0 driver, and I can't get a peep out of the soundcard - for example, when I issue the command mplayer -ao alsa <ASF file that makes a sound in the old kernel> I get the sequence of error messages alsa-init: using device default alsa-lib: pcm_hw.c:1099:(snd_pcm_hw_open) open /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p failed: No such file or directory alsa-init: playback open error: No such file or directory Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound. Audio: no sound If I try and chase the way ALSA has numbered the card with mplayer -ao alsa:device=1.0 <ASF file that makes a sound in the old kernel> I get the subtly different alsa-lib: pcm.c:2145:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM 1,0 alsa-init: playback open error: No such file or directory Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound. Audio: no sound In both cases, there's just silence. The test facility in system-config-soundcard gives me nothing but silence, and a log that says aplay: main:546: audio open error: No such file or directory cat: /proc/asound/modules: No such file or directory Incidentally, all this is the same regardless of whether snd_intel8x0 is compiled directly into the kernel or as a module. Any ideas how to succeed in this OSS->ALSA migration, please? -- Thanks, Dan

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Re: [ALUG] Firefox
by Bev Nicolson 28 Dec '07

28 Dec '07

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

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Re: [ALUG] Firefox
by Bev Nicolson 28 Dec '07

28 Dec '07

It is just Firefox that freezes/stops responding. (I'm not too sure exactly what X is but nothing else appears to be affected.) As to the version of ubuntu I use, well it is the long term support version and I don't fancy the hassle of changing to something newer just yet. And why not? :¬) Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Brett Parker" <iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox > Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:06:10 +0000 > > > On 22 Dec 12:33, Bev Nicolson wrote: > > I'm opening myself up to many people who will say 'well use this > > browser instead' but hey.:¬) I use Firefox version 1.5.0.13pre (and > > Ubuntu 6.06 LTS) and when I have a webmail application open a bit too > > long (an hour or so say - I've not timed it) it will freeze when I try > > to sign out. I have looked for information that is specific to this > > version but while 2.0 is covered this one isn't it seems. Has anyone > > found a work around that works? > > Well, the obvious immediate question would be "why are you using a > version of Ubuntu that's over a year old". > > The second obviousy question would be: what plugins/extensions have you > got installed in firefox? Have you tried disabling them all? Does that > make a difference? > > And when you say "freeze", is it just firefox that freezes or does it > take out X while it's at it? Glancing around it appears that the issue > might have been fixed in 6.10, but being a debian user (and mostly > unstable on my own machines and etch on the workstations at work), I > haven't got an ubuntu machine to test on (or, infact, a gmail account... > why would I want my e-mail indexed by a large company that already > indexes the things that I want public anyways?). > > Thanks, > -- > Brett Parker > > _______________________________________________ > 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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RealPlayer for Linux
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 27 Dec '07

27 Dec '07

While I'm doing this sort of stuff ... I've tried this evening to download RealPlayer for Linux. You start at http://www.real.com and you find, of course, that the standard version of RealPlayer 11 is for Windows, so you have to click on the link for "Other versions / languages". This then takes you to a page where you can select among various language versions of RealPlayer 10 for Linux. Selecting "English" has always worked in the past for me. But, this time (and repeatedly) after a mere second or so I get a blank page and "Done" in the status bar, with apparently nothing downloaded. I'm wondering what this means for RealPlayer for Linux. I just hope they're upgrading it to RealPlayer 11,and this is just the out-time over Christmas/New Year while the transition takes place! It may just be a server glitch. But I really hope it's not a symptom that RealPlayer for Linux is being discontinued! You get the same blank result for all the other language versions of RealPlayer for Linux. But if you go to any of the Mac OS-X versions, you get a positive result. Ditto Windows. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 27-Dec-07 Time: 23:08:16 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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In response to Microsoft ...
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 27 Dec '07

27 Dec '07

Hi Folks (and apologies to anyone who receives this via more than one route), I have just enjoyed reading a letter, described as being sent from Peruvian Congressman David Villanueva Nuñez to Microsoft Peru, in response tgo Microsoft's objections to a Peruvian Govt Bill mandating open-source software for all public bureaux. It is at: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/05/19/ ms_in_peruvian_opensource_nightmare (all one line; also at: http://tinyurl.com/3abgv ) In view of assorted difficulties with proprietary software recently experienced by our own august Lords and Masters,[1] perhaps it may be enjoyable reading for them too. Enjoy. Best wishes to all, Ted. [1] For example, the recent HMRC fiasco in which sensitive personal data of about 27,000,000 people were "lost in the post" owed much of its impact to the fact that HMRC staff were unable to extract only the data they needed from their database, unless they paid thousands (about £5,000 I think) to EDS so that EDS could provide them with a different data-selection template to what they had already. So they decided to use what they already had, which pulled out far more data than they should have pulled out. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 27-Dec-07 Time: 18:59:19 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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apache/CGI sort of ish question
by Chris G 27 Dec '07

27 Dec '07

I'm fishing around for knowledge and ideas about things that I'm not very knowledgeable about here so be gentle! :-) I'm looking for a simple direct way of dynamically converting reStructured text to HTML. I.e. I want to create text files in rst format (so they're reasonably readable "as is") and point my web browser at them and see them in HTML. I can already do this using pyBlosxom and one of its plugins but it's a rather roundabout way of achieving something simple and all the blog type extras are a nuisance. The pyBlosxom plugin uses Docutils' /usr/bin/rst2html to translate the reStructured Text to HTML, what I'm looking for is some way to tell apache that when it sees a file xxxxx.rst it should run it through /usr/bin/rst2html and display the resulting HTML. Is there a standard apache way of doing things like this? Or am I talking CGI? Or what? -- Chris Green

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