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SATA CD/DVD has solved most of my installation problems
by cl＠isbd.net 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

Well, just to report success, the SATA CD/DVD drive I bought in the hope that it would overcome my installation problems on my Abit AB9 Pro motherboard has done just that. I can now successfully install any current relase of Linux (well at least the ones I have tried so far, Ubuntu, Suse, Mandriva and Slackware). It needs a reasonably up to date kernel to work but not the latest, latest, latest version. You have to turn on AHCI in the BIOS (for some distributions, Suse seems to manage without this somehow) and, of course, connect the SATA CD drive to the main (Intel chipset) SATA interface which the hard drives use as well. You also can't then boot from "SATA CD" you have to boot from the actual CD drive detected by the BIOS, presumably a consequence of turning AHCI on. >From there on it's plain sailing, installations run with the nowadays expected smoothness. Strangely I found that the sata.i kernel (2.4.33) in Slackware didn't work but the 2.6.xx alternatives were fine. Other distributions I tried were all 2.6.xx kernels I think, you don't get a choice. I guess only the newer kernels have the Intel SATA chipset support. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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how to buy a SATA power adapter cheaply?
by cl＠isbd.net 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

I need a SATA power adapter, one of those things to connect a standard (Molex) 4-pin power connector to a SATA drive. They're about a quid each or less (best I've found is 68 pence for a two-way one) but carriage charges make that irrelevant. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I could get one at a reasonable price in the Ipswich area and/or a company that sells them that will stick one in a jiffy bag and send by Royal Mail for a pound or so? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Help with grub
by cl＠isbd.net 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

I have what would appear to be a very simple grub question but I can't find the answer in the grub info or the grub-install info. How do I remove a partition/OS from grub? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Gnome "calendar" is incorrect!
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 08 Oct '06

08 Oct '06

Hi folks, A distraction from this weekend's ADSL woes. Specifically: The "calendar"/"clock" application in the Gnome panel is incorrect for the year 1752 (and therefore for all preceding years). It is described as the "Clock Applet", and its Help only describes its time functions. However, when you left-click on it a calendar comes up, which is what I'm referring to. This is not described anywhere that I can find. Nor can I locate what program is executed for the "Clock Applet". Any thoughts? [trivial question of course...] Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 08-Oct-06 Time: 15:58:22 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Wierd routing/DNS problem
by cl＠isbd.net 06 Oct '06

06 Oct '06

I'm playing with a Suse 10.2 installation on my new hardware. It's all basically working locally but routing/DNS is broken. I can traceroute to anywhere, I can ping anywhere but I can't actually communicate with anywhere - i.e. I can't connect Firefox to any web sites and I can't ssh to anywhere. So what's set up wrong? /etc/resolv.conf has the right things in it (same as my other system anyway) and the default gateway is the same as my other system. I'm stumped. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Re: [ALUG] Re: Re: Re: TCP Problem *NOT* routing (was: Wierd routing/DNS problem)
by Nick Daniels 06 Oct '06

06 Oct '06

Hi Bit of topic, but I installed, the latest Kororaa yesterday and it has (a version) Kernel 2.6.18, always used the previous edition, when i had problems with "odd hardware",....." 2.6.18 CK patchset based kernel, KDE 3.5.4, Gnome 2.14, updated installer" Regards - Nick Daniels

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Ubuntu 6.10 server beta works!
by cl＠isbd.net 05 Oct '06

05 Oct '06

The saga of my Abit AB9 Pro motherboard continues. The Ubuntu 6.10 server beta installation CD recognises the CD drive on the JMicron SATA/PATA interface - hurrah! However it didn't initially recognise the hard disks on the Intel ICH8R SATA interface, turning on AHCI in the BIOS fixed this though. (Strangely the Suse installation recognised the hard disks without AHCI turned on). So now I'm installing Ubuntu 6.10 beta, I'll probably upgrade to the proper 6.10 when it arrives but the beta will allow me to play for a while at least. A couple of questions:- Is there any peformance penalty using the AHCI BIOS? Why doesn't Ubuntu Desktop 6.10 beta work in the same system? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Someone interested in some PHP/mySQL work in the next few months?
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 04 Oct '06

04 Oct '06

Hi, I run my own small software/web development company and we may have the need in the next couple of months to sub-contract / out-source some PHP/mySQL work. Please can interested people email me off-list at work(a)ashleyhowes.com. Please indicate in your email whether you have professional indemnity insurance, whether you use a particular development methodology / approach, and your approx. rates. -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com/ "May your spirit be renewed in earth's solitary places." - Native American Indian Blessing

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Suse 10.1 has installed but ....
by cl＠isbd.net 04 Oct '06

04 Oct '06

Well I'm back from my rather busy week-end (totally away from computers) and, after a few more clicks, the Suse 10.1 installation on my new hardware has completed. However it does have on little oddity, when booted/rebooted it doesn't show anything on the display. It is working though as I assumed there was a login prompt and was able to login 'blind' as root and shut the system down. All the dmesg stuff appears it's just after that the display goes. If I boot in Suse's "safe mode" the normal login: prompt appears and, in addition, I can log in and run startx to get X windows up. So, it's all working pretty well really except for the default console mode. Does anyone have any ideas how to remedy that? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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How soon will 2.6.18 kernel appear in stable releases?
by cl＠isbd.net 03 Oct '06

03 Oct '06

As per the title - how soon do the 'main' distributions tend to offer ready made upgrades to the latest (currently 2.6.18) kernel? ... and having asked that which of Mandriva, Ubuntu and Suse is likely to offer it first? Being lazy I'd prefer not to have to compile my own kernel though I have done it before. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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RE: [ALUG] Re: Trackball for Linux?
by Keith Watson 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

> From: Chris Green Sent: 29 September 2006 13:27 > .... > Question: can you program one of the Marble Mouse buttons to > do a double click? Well if you can for other trackballs I suppose you can for the Marble Mouse (under Windows is comes with it's own utilities which do all sorts of wonderful things but I've only used it fully configured with GNU/Linux). The guarded answer is, yes, if by double click you have a specific operation in mind. E.g. with a scroll mouse under Ubuntu the standard setting for the wheel click button is paste (ctrl+v) but with the Marble Mouse there's no direct equivalent. So I've set the left-hand small (upper) button act the same as a wheel button click (which works quite well for me because I can highlight something by holding down the lower (bigger) left-hand button and moving the track ball and then spin to where I want to paste and click the upper button on the same side). Regards, Keith ____________ APPEAL, v.t. In law, to put the dice into the box for another throw. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Anyone used Linux Emporium recently?
by cl＠isbd.net 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

I sent an order to The Linux Emporium a couple of weeks ago and apart from an acknowledgement nothing has happened at all. They used to be very good, even after the original owner moved on. Has anyone else used them recently or heard any adverse comments? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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RE: [ALUG] Trackball for Linux?
by Keith Watson 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

> From: Chris Green Sent: 29 September 2006 12:43 > > Does anyone here use a trackball? I've been using a Logitech Marble Mouse (http://www.euroffice.co.uk/itm_show.asp?G7544=Logitech-Marble-Mouse&AFF =GG00006373 for example, but if you shop around you can get them cheaper) for a while now and I'm quite pleased with it. (I'm left handed so all these so called ergonomic shapes are a complete waste of time for me :o) ) I'm running Ubuntu Dapper and needed to do a bit of web searching for information on setting up the buttons as I'd like, but an evenings work sufficed to get it set up as I wanted. > > I've been using a Kensington Expert Mouse (which is a > trackball) for many years and would like something similar > that will work well with Linux. > > Requirements are pretty simple:- > Must be a trackball > Must have at least three buttons, preferably four. > Should be able to program buttons (e.g. my button four does double > click of button one). Marble Mouse has four buttons. >From what I've remember my research suggested that all trackballs seems to have a fairly standard mouselike interface so, unless it's some weird and wonderful h/w, the main considerations for setting it up are in the Xorg.conf settings. Fortunately the Marble Mouse seem pretty standard. Regards, Keith ____________ If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a hyacinth - Persian Proverb

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Trackball for Linux?
by cl＠isbd.net 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

Does anyone here use a trackball? I've been using a Kensington Expert Mouse (which is a trackball) for many years and would like something similar that will work well with Linux. Requirements are pretty simple:- Must be a trackball Must have at least three buttons, preferably four. Should be able to program buttons (e.g. my button four does double click of button one). -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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[chris@isbd.co.uk: Re: I'm getting nearer, network install help wanted]
by cl＠isbd.net 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

> > However I have one big problem, I can't find anywhere that tells me > what directory of the FTP site I need to point it at. I can't find > anyhwhere on the www.opensuse.org site that tells me where to get the > files from when doing a network install. > > It tells you how to do a *really* difficult install when you have no > CD at all but doesn't tell you what to do when you've booted from the > mini-iso CD. > > So, can anyone tell me where I should point it and/or point me at some > documentation? > .... it's OK, I got there in the end, it's hardly easy/intuitive though! I'm now installing Suse 10.1 from the Internet, it'll take a while so I'm off to bed now! .... and now I'm back at work in the morning, much of the install has completed but it needs some more manual input before completing. I'm away for the week-end (shouts of joy from the list) so the rest will have to wait for next week. However I now seem to have a reasonably easy/reliable route for installing Suse at least. I have to say that the instructions (or total lack of them) were crap, for it to work you have to know:- The IP address of the system itself, i.e. it has at least to be on the local subnet. The IP address of the gateway. The IP address of your DNS server. What protocol you're going to use to get the files (there's about five or six offered). The IP address (not the name) of the server you're going to use. The full path of the directory where the files are, this was the one I had problems with, firstly there's no clue as to what files it wants so how do I know what directory it is, secondly it's about ten miles long and is typed into a 20 character or so wide window. OK, it's do'able but you really need another system working to be able to get all the information you need. It would be well nigh impossible if you only had one computer. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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I'm getting nearer, network install help wanted
by cl＠isbd.net 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

Well I'm making (slow!) progress. The Ubuntu Edgy CD didn't do any better than the Ubuntu 6.06 one so I decided to try a network install. I have put an RTL8139 based network card into the system and it's recognised by my Suse 10.1 mini-iso, hurrah! After a few minor hiccoughs I have it configured and it can see the outside world. I have ven got as far as pointing it at an FTP site. However I have one big problem, I can't find anywhere that tells me what directory of the FTP site I need to point it at. I can't find anyhwhere on the www.opensuse.org site that tells me where to get the files from when doing a network install. It tells you how to do a *really* difficult install when you have no CD at all but doesn't tell you what to do when you've booted from the mini-iso CD. So, can anyone tell me where I should point it and/or point me at some documentation? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Progress (or lack of it) on my new system
by cl＠isbd.net 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

Well I haven't made a lot of Linuxish progress on my new system. The essential problems which make it difficult to install any Linux on it are:- The JMicron PATA controller isn't recognised by install versions of the Linux kernel. There is (I believe) support for it in the latest 2.6.18 kernel but the problem is how to get that kernel built on the system. The Realtek Gigabit RTL 8168 NIC interface isn't supported in current kernels. A driver is available but needs to be, yes you've guessed it, compiled into a new kernel. I have currently got Windows XP64 Professional installed in a partition on the new system, that was moderately easy though one has to feed it several floppys during the install and it's a bit of a guessing game which ones should be used at times. So, anyway, I have at least proved the system works and can copy stuff to and fro even if only in Window'ish formats. I need to come up with a strategy for getting a basic system onto my new box that will then allow me to compile a new kernel with the required bits in it. One question this raises is one that I originally asked - what Linux version should I choose? The original answers here were along the lines of "try them all" but I really don't fancy having to recompile kernels for all of them (and I don't believe one recompiled kernel will work for all, each distribution will almost inevitably have its own tweaks I believe). I think the three choices are Suse, Ubuntu or Mandriva. Suse 10.1 seems to have the fullest support for Vmware Server so, if nothing else seems to point elswhere, I may go for Suse. So, how do I get a system loaded? The options would seem to be:- Get the distribution files onto the disk using Windows XP and install from there. Question - can Linux installers read Windows file systems? Add a "well known" NIC to the system (I have spare PCI slots) and do a network install, this I think may be the simplest approach. Do a USB drive install (I'm not sure I have a big enough USB memory thingy). Any comments or ideas? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Problem installing on an all SATA system
by cl＠isbd.net 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

I am trying to install ubuntu 6.06 server on my new hardware. The system is intel core 2 duo based with all SATA drives (including the CD/DVD drive). The installation CD boots OK (presumably because at this stage it's using the BIOS to access the drives) but after starting the Linux kernel and setting the language I get a message "No common CD-ROM detected" (or something like that anyway). I.e. there aren't drivers for a SATA CD/DVD drive. It then asks me to either select one of the old non-IDE drivers for the CD-ROM or to install a floppy with the drivers on it. So, how do I get this to actually install? I guess that the floppies with the SATA drivers for windows aren't going to help much, or will the ubuntu install recognise windows drivers? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Hosting issues for not-for-profit image site
by Mark Rogers 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

I've been in contact with a website which hosts a large range of images (www.bioimages.org.uk) The images are "a large selection of pictures of Natural History objects, mostly British in origin", which currently amount to around 400M of HTML (autogenerated from a database) on IIS, and 3-4GB of photographs hosted separately. The site is currently offline due to attempted site rips causing load and bandwidth problems. I've offered to help look at the problem, but due to the capacity required I don't think I'm in a position to help with the hosting, although I may be able to help technically. Several issues comes to mind which I'd like advice on. I think there are Apache modules which can help to control the abuse aspect, but I'm not sure where to start - any suggestions? There are options like scripting the site (eg using PHP) and limiting the number of downloads per session. I could probably come up with a solution but its not something I have experience in managing. If anyone has suggestions for a generous host that would be useful too. What he's currently looking for is hosting for the HTML but not the image library, but cites bandwidth as the biggest problem. I need to work out why that is - I'd be surprised if the bandwidth fotr the HTML itself is a huge problem (although I think the way the pages are generated means that they are static pages with new timestamps after each generation, so search engine traffic alone could be massive). I have no direct connection with the site; its a friend who manages a site which makes reference to the images that brought the problem to my attention. I am inclined to help because I think this sort of thing is what the web should be about (ie decent libraries of decent information). -- Mark Rogers More Solutions Ltd :: 0845 45 89 555

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Putting Exchange out of business?
by Christopher Dawkins 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

>> Or you could install an imap or pop server on the machine and point your >> mail client at it, can be especially useful if the machine breaks for >> some reason and can't send mail as you notice that you either can't >> connect to it any more or that you at least get the messages (or notice >> a lack of them). > > That sounds like a challenge. If it worked, I could put Exchange on > their win servers out of business :-) It does work. Of course it works. It's been working on my servers for over a decade now, with sendmail and postfix and pop and imap, humming away with 100% reliability and no problems (apart from some caused by clients running a system I believe is called "Windows"). It's been working reliably since long before this thing you call "Exchange" was thought of. Yet, for inexplicable reasons, some places use this thing you call "Exchange", and despite problems with things I believe are called "viruses" (my experience is limited: these have never troubled the machines I use) they have continued to use this thing you call "Exchange". The whole business is quite incredible to a rational being, but it happens. Basically, there's no point in an alternative that is undoubtedly both more reliable and more economical. They'll stick to this thing you call "Exchange". I suppose we are lucky that it remains technically and legally possible for us to choose the better alternatives. There are already many ways in which we become digitally deprived if we do not conform to the herd mentality (flock? sheep? what is the collective noun for lemmings?). Our freedoms hang on a very narrow thread. -- Christopher Dawkins Garnetts Corner, Braintree Road, Felsted, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3DS cchd(a)pjcd.org 07816 821659 01371 821076

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[Fwd: Re: [ALUG] server mail forwarding]
by Wayne Stallwood 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

Sounds like you need to edit /etc/aliases (depending on your server setup, should work for most machines) and change the line that looks something like root: jenny to root: jenny@ordinary-email-address Isn't it better to create a .forward file in Jenny's home dir, the contents of which (on the first line) are the external address. Can't think why it is better that way (apart from the user not needing to be su to change the address later) but it's the way I've always done this in the past.

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Evolution
by Wayne Stallwood 20 Sep '06

20 Sep '06

As some of you may have noticed, wordwrap in my copy of evolution seems to have become broken. If I just simply type a reply then it stays on a single line to a seemingly unlimited width. But only it seems when I reply to a message. Googled about and looked in all the preferences I can find, but I can't see anything that sets a fixed column width in the composer. It was fine until tonight and I haven't applied any updates or deliberately changed anything for a number of weeks now. Any ideas ?

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server mail forwarding
by Jenny Hopkins 20 Sep '06

20 Sep '06

Hullo there, All mail for root, admin, postgres etc on my server are aliased to jenny, so it gets sent to jenny@localhost. How can I request it is sent to jenny@ordinary-email-address instead? I never remember to go and read mail on the server. Thanks, Jenny

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Possibility of work
by David Reynolds 15 Sep '06

15 Sep '06

Hi, I have been asked if I know anyone who would be interested in doing some work for a customer of ours. I figured I'd post it here and see if anyone was interested. There is some system administration tasks along with a bit of Perl hackery, from what I can tell. Here are the details: > What I need is as follows. > > 1. Some ftp accounts that have been setup in a GUI interface called > plesk > need to have additional accounts set up for ftp. The problem is the > default > setting in plesk allow for only one account and it can see the cgi- > bin which > we don't want. > > 2. I need form mail setting up for use by 4 web sites. However the > version > of form mail needs to generate the following exactly as the data is > then > parsed to a outlook object and then into an access database where > the data > after the : is stripped out. > > Below is an example of the form that is currently generated. If you > know > anyone who is interested in this and some other Linux based admin > please ask > them to get in touch. They need to be 100% honest and reliable. > > Title: Mr > > requiredFirst Name: REMOVED > > requiredLast Name: IN > > Interest4: THE > > requiredTelephone (Evening): NAME > > requiredAddress: OF > > City or Town: PRIVACY > > County: > > requiredPostcode: > > Email: > > howFound: Google > > previous_purchase: No > > Data Protection: Please do not give my details to other companies > > SUBMIT: Submit Request Pretty basic sounding stuff. If anyone is interested, you can ask me for further details of contact the guy directly, here: xxxx xxxxxxxxxx Tel: xxxxx xxxxxx E-mail: xxxxxxx(a)xxxxxxx.co.uk Cheers, Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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Which of the following distributions will I dislike least?
by cl＠isbd.net 14 Sep '06

14 Sep '06

Another facet of my new system...... I want to install Vmware server on the system and so it would seem to make sense to use one of the Vmware supported distributions. I will still probably run my existin Slackware setup as a guest system. So the choice lies between:- Mandriva Suse RedHat Ubuntu Which will I find least different from Slackware? I have previously run Mandriva (when it was Mandrake) and Suse but I found both rather too GUIfied for comfort which is why I went to Slackware. I suspect there's not much to choose between them all really, I have a (very) slight leaning towards Ubuntu but I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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