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10369 discussions

Re: Why Linux?
by John Seago 06 Jul '06

06 Jul '06

On Thursday 06 July 2006 10:58 am, Ian bell <ianbell(a)ukfsn.org> wrote: <snip> > However, for me, the core of Linux is seriously disparate - endless > kernel revisions, each distro with its own patches, file layout, start > up scripts, endless dependency issues and so on. So I was very pleased > to find this is not the case with the various BSD flavours. In fact I > have just installed NetBSD on an old PC. It has a single source code > tree that compiles on 57 different platforms which says a lot about > the quality of the code. Its pkgsrc app is what gentoo is modeled on > apparently and there are over 5000 apps to choose from (nearly as many > as Debian). Is 5000 "nearly as many as Debian", which has over 15490 packages? It would seem to be over 10490 short of "nearly". > I am seriously tempted to roll it out across my other PCs. That is the main advantage of *free* software, everyone has the freedom to choose. One is not 'locked' into any particular software. the whole gamut as laid out here: http://www.freeos.com/ and probably several other URL's as well, HURD is one which comes to mind and I'm sure there are others, the 'Tunes' project for instance. All provide variety and *choice*. -- John Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments

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escaping a "!" in a bash shell
by Jenny Hopkins 06 Jul '06

06 Jul '06

Hullo there, I'm trying to echo a command to a serial port that happens to require a "!". In order to send the command I need to escape the ! with a backslash. However, I'm finding that at the other end, the backslash stays there rather than being stripped off, so the received command is also escaped and therefore doesn't work. Emulated on a terminal: I send jenny@phaedrus:~$ echo "\!tts MALE" > /dev/ttyp2 and receive \!tts MALE But I need to receive !tts MALE Any hints on how to acheive this? Thanks, Jenny

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NeXT computers seek loving home
by Richard Lewis 06 Jul '06

06 Jul '06

Hello ALUG, We've been having a bit of a clear-out and my boss was about to throw out a pair of NeXT computers. Luckily, one of the post grads and I managed to get to them in time. We've had a look over them and this is the inventory: NeXTcube N1000 [1] ================== CPU: MC68040 25 MHz RAM 16MB (4 x 4MB SIMMs) notes: * This machine would not boot properly. It sounds the like HDD may be corrupt. * The back panel is split at the top NeXTstation N1100 [2] ===================== CPU: MC68040 25 MHz ? RAM: ??MB (8 x ??MB SIMMs) notes: * The power supply [3] from this machine apparently broke some time ago and is missing. * Therefore, this machine is untested. NeXT MegaPixelDisplay monitor N4000 =================================== NeXT MegaPixelDisplay monitor N4000A ==================================== 2 x NeXT keyboard ABQ ===================== Part No. 2230 2 x NeXT mouse AFF ================== So, in summary, its a complete NeXTcube and a complete NeXTstation neither of which we've been able to boot. The cube was willing to boot from its network card but we decided not to try to install Debian or NetBSD[4] or anything as doing that may be part of the attraction of owning the machine for someone. Also, someone interested in NeXT hardware may be able to recover the NeXTstep OS. Possibly. The machines were given to the studio director at the UEA Music School some time ago because, apparently, they have a collection of IRCAM[5] software on. If anyone is interested in these machines then let me know within a week or so and you can come a take them away for nothing. We decided that we'd rather they were given away to a good home that just dumped. If there's no interest then we'll try selling them on eBay but we'd like to avoid the hassle if possible (the cube is extremely heavy; built from some magnesium alloy[6]!). Let me know! Cheers, Richard PS. Tim Berners-Lee developed Web and HTTP on a NeXTcube! [1] http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/nextcube.htm [2] http://old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=555 [3] http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~heller/NeXT/power_supply_repair.html [4] http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/network/netboot/intro.next68k.html [5] http://www.ircam.fr/?L=1 [6] http://photo.simson.net/hacks/cubefire.html -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis Sonic Arts Research Archive http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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Barcode reader error with Belkin KVM
by Jenny Hopkins 04 Jul '06

04 Jul '06

Hullo there, I fixed a problem that has introduced another problem. I admin a bank of 8 computers running debian stable, kernel 2.6.1, which were connected to a Belkin KVM via PS2. From there we have an ordinary PS2 mouse, and a PS2 keyboard with splitter to a barcode reader. We started getting problems with the mouse going completely bananas. I googled the problem being a known one with Belkin KVM switches and 2.6 kernels, and Belkin then suggested we tried using a USB connection between PC and KVM to stop the problem. This has stopped the mad mouse kernel problems, but now I find that the barcode reader isn't working properly - either no string at all or only half the code is appearing when I bleep. I can't find any errors reported ithe logs, so it seems that the information maybe isn't even getting past the KVM. The keyboard seems to be working correctly. Has anyone any idea of what could be going on? Thanks, Jenny

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Faulty USB ports?
by Nick Daniels 03 Jul '06

03 Jul '06

Hi I have my sisters computer, dual boot Suse/windows. Both Linux and widows indicate that the USB ports are configured, but no USB devices are configured or found when plugging in. Not even the "light" comes on with a USB mouse or USB external drive etc. Have tried Knoppix with same results. Is it possible that all the USB ports have failed? Have checked on Google and only found reference to this with one specific MSI motherboard, this is an Asus Is there anything else I can try or have overlooked? Kind Regards

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 03 Jul '06

03 Jul '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Belkin switch dodgy?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 02 Jul '06

02 Jul '06

Hi Folks, I recently bought a Belkin 10/100 5-port ethernet switch (product number F5D5131-5). It works for a few minutes (less than 5) and then the LEDs for the ports that cables are plugged into go out, after which it is useless. If I pull out the power supply plug, wait a few seconds, then plug it back, it starts up again OK, but again goes belly-up after a few minutes. Does anyone recognise this behaviour on the part of Belkin switches? (I'm not really looking for a cure, since I reckon the unit is duff, though if anyone has cured such a thing then it would be good to know; there's a possible overheating issue since despite being well aired it feels pretty warm when running). What I'm really concerned about is whether one can expect this sort of thing from a Belkin, since if so I shall be avoiding it when I replace it. (The fly in the ointment is that I bought it from PC World, but seem to have lost the b****y receipt!) With thanks, and 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: 30-Jun-06 Time: 20:21:14 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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New wireless router problem
by Ian bell 27 Jun '06

27 Jun '06

I just upgraded my wireless router becuase the old one kept dropping the line now I have an ADSL MAX connection. Glad to say the new one holds up much better. However, it connects via wireless no problem to the two Windows PCs in the network but I have had a lot of trouble connecting my Slackware laptop to it. The laptop has a Cisco Aeronet PCMCIA wireless card theat is 802.11b - one of a pair I got off an ALUG member. It has worked fine until now. I am running Slackware current. During boot the PCMCIA module finds the card as usual and sets it off. However, as soon as hotplug strarts it gets turned off again. ifconfig does not show it but iwconfig does - presumably showing the PCMCIA setup. no amount of command line jiggerry pokery will get it going for n=anything more than a few seconds. So I disabled hotplug during boot and sure enough the card stays on but is not connected. A quick ifconfig eth0 up followed by dhcpcd eth0 gets it going. So as a temporary measure I can place these commands in rc.local - must do that as soon as I have sent this - but what I need to know is what is hotplug doing to upset things? The strange thing is that it all worked fine with the old modem. Any ideas? Ian

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Amarok Context Browser
by Wayne Stallwood 27 Jun '06

27 Jun '06

In previous versions of Amarok I had a pane in the context browser that offered tracks I might like to listen to based on whatever the current track was. I have a huge diverse collection and this feature was actually quite good at highlighting music I might like to play next (in fact the killer feature it was missing was the ability to feed the current playlist so that I got unattended non-stop but relevant music from my collection). In the version installed by Dapper (1.3.9) this feature seems to have vanished (or at least it is off by default and I can't work out how to turn it on) Anyone know if it can still be enabled ?

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ALUG annual dinner
by sfr 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

I know, it's a bit late for the Christmas dinner. St Peters' Brewery has bookings available on Fridays in July - 14th, 21st, 28th. Information is at http://www.stpetersbrewery.co.uk/hall/restaurant.htm. The menu is reckoned by locals to be absolutely fantastic. Volunteers to eat, please take one email forward. And state your preference for date. -- Elisabeth

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 26 Jun '06

26 Jun '06

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List weirdness
by Wayne Stallwood 25 Jun '06

25 Jun '06

Just got a bounce from the main list. But the subject it mentions I haven't sent an email with since the end of May and that message did show on the list...I did cause a bounce on the Amarok message because I accidentally sent it from the wrong account at 1.51PM..I got the bounce for that and resent it from the right account. But this bounce turned up at 5:06 PM today. Can one of the list admins tell me what happened ? Your mail to 'main' with the subject Bletchley Park Is being held until the list moderator can review it for approval. The reason it is being held: Message has a suspicious header Either the message will get posted to the list, or you will receive notification of the moderator's decision. If you would like to cancel this posting, please visit the following URL:

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Laptops, desktops, and UPS
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 23 Jun '06

23 Jun '06

Hi Folks, I thought I'd push out for comment a thoguht which I've been pondering from time to time. A laptop is pretty nearly immune to mains supply failure, since its battery provides a backup and modern laptops can shutdown on low battery. Desktops, on the other hand, need an external UPS to guard it against mains failure; and of course a UPS can be configured to signal the computer to shut down if the power cut lasts more than a certain time. But it has occurred to me that there's no obvious reason why a desktop can't have its own internal battery like a laptop, and I'm wonderign why they don't. Of course, laptop batteries are notorious for not having a very long useful life -- you can be lucky, in some cases, if you get 5 years out of one. And they're even more notorious for being horrendously expensive to replace, if indeed you can still find one by the time yours fails. But I'd have thought that the space available in a desktop would offer scope for a more robust and cheaper solution. (In passing -- I have an ancient laptop whose battery has been shot for years, which however works well if you plug 12v DC into its PS socket; so I've happily been using it in "away from the mains" situations by attaching it to a motorcycle battery which weighs less than 4 pounds -- 1.7kgm -- so is within my definition of "portable"). So a robust lead-acid battery of the appropriate voltage could be installed into a desktop, if the appropriate circuitry were present in the box's PSU, and would presumably last longer, be easier to replace if necessary, and cost much less. Does anyone know of desktop boxes which do this? Thanks, and 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: 23-Jun-06 Time: 15:18:44 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Crazy question
by Peter 23 Jun '06

23 Jun '06

In a shop run by a friend, and he said his machine was behaving oddly. To his surprise, he had a 120G drive, but from the windows disk utility, there was only 30 in a partion, Drive C, and the rest as unallocated space. He did not know how this had happened or when, but was fairly sure it had not been bought set up like this. He is also getting notices on the screen that memory dumps are happening. He is firewalled and anti virused and updated. But he doesn't have specific anti spyware. Question: have you ever heard of anything like this happening as the result of an infection? Is it a reasonable investigative first step to boot from a live Linux CD and find out if it shows up as unallocated space in that too? And what would you then advise using to see if the space really is unallocated and with nothing in it? I have system rescue CD, and could get any of the other security oriented distros, but this isn't really my area.... Peter

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How to check for packet loss over a long[ish] period?
by chrisisbd＠leary.csoft.net 22 Jun '06

22 Jun '06

I want to run some checks on my ADSL connection to see what sort of level (if any) of packet loss I am getting. In particular I want to run some checks in the small hours of the morning because I'm getting some rsync errors which might be due to packet loss. What tools are available for checking packet loss? Is there anything better than 'ping' and/or what is a civilised repeat rate to use with ping to avoid it being seen as a DoS attack? The system I'm rsync'ing with does respond to 'ping' so that's a start. -- Chris Green (chrisisbd(a)leary.csoft.net)

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Strange hardware problem
by Wayne Stallwood 21 Jun '06

21 Jun '06

We have a server at a clients that has been showing random signs of instability (random reboots and a couple of panics) Suspecting hardware problems I brought it down and ran memtest86 on it. Then something odd happened. Memtest shows plenty of memory errors, spreading over pretty much the whole of the installed 512MB. When I stopped the tests halfway through the first pass there were two pages, the lowest error was at about 50MB the highest was at circa 430 But the really strange thing is that the error bits are 00000000 i.e the test data and "bad" data match perfectly. There is no ECC on this machine so how can the data I put in the memory and the data I take out be the same yet there be a memory error. Memtest clearly shows the "good" and "bad" column with matching data but still flags these as errors. I have ordered replacement RAM anyway, but I was just interested in what other type of memory error I am seeing here ?

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Linux 2006, Brighton, Sat 1st July: Introductory Session
by MJ Ray 21 Jun '06

21 Jun '06

Forwarded from lugmaster.mailman.lug.org.uk: > I have now placed the timetable for this event onto the website. [...] > If you're thinking of attending but haven't placed your booking yet, please > would you do so ASAP? We have to finalise numbers with the venue rather > early this year - first thing on Thursday this week (June 15th) - so > later bookings may miss out on food and accommodation:-( > > Also, if you know of any people who might be interested in the free > introductory talks on Saturday (see below), please consider inviting > them - perhaps by forwarding this message to them. > [...] > Introductory talks: Saturday 1st July > ------------------------------------- > This section of the conference is aimed at people who are relatively new to > linux and is free of charge. Lunch is included if you register on the > website before Thursday 15th June. Programme: > > * An introduction to Networking - Antony Stone > * Getting Started with Apache - Jim Kissel (OSM Ltd.) > * Securing Linux - Nils Magnus > * What are all these distributions and how should I choose one? > - Stuart Yeates (OSS Watch) > * Creating DVD videos on Linux and Unix systems - Ben Hutchings > > * The politics of Linux - Andrew Nicolson (Southampton Institute) > * Towards an All-Party Parliamentary Open Source Group - Leslie Fletcher > * OpenOffice.org beyond 2.0... - Michael Meeks (Novell) > * Kubuntu Dapper and KDE 4: The GNU/Linux Desktop > - Jonathan Riddell (Canonical) > > Venue: University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton. > > http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2006/saturdayfree/ > http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2006/programme/timetable_saturday.shtml > > Email: office(a)ukuug.org > Tel: +44 1763 273 475 > > Event sponsored by Novell, The Positive Internet Company and IBM

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Wierd DNS problem
by chrisisbd＠leary.csoft.net 20 Jun '06

20 Jun '06

We have a wierd DNS problem at work, it's almost certainly something to do with low level DNS setup and/or the firewall but we're a bit lost as to where to look. >From our Solaris boxes issuing an 'nslookup xxx.yyy.zzz' gives the correct IP address for the domain xxx.yyy.zzz. However every application lookup of domain name xxx.yyy.zzz gives the wrong result. The wron result is always that of a domain at Network Solutions, a US name registration business. DNS works OK from PCs on the network. So it looks like something adrift on our name lookup machine but we really cannot see what at the moment. When an application asks for a name resolution what is the normal order of things happening? -- Chris Green (chrisisbd(a)leary.csoft.net)

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The Pink Local Directory
by MJ Ray 20 Jun '06

20 Jun '06

Could someone from West Norfolk email rachel at pinklocaldirectory.co.uk with their telephone number to become the contact for ALUG in that fine upstanding publication, please? My telephone number is changing, so I cannot do it this year. Thanks, -- MJ Ray - personal email, see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Work: http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ irc.oftc.net/slef Jabber/SIP ask

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Disk usage
by Wayne Stallwood 19 Jun '06

19 Jun '06

I think this question may have come up on the list before, but I can't find an answer in the archives. /dev/sda3 111G 102G 3.1G 98% /home Why is my free space only shown as 3.1G if I have used 102G out of 111 ? BTW Windows Vista is a disk space hog, a clean installation into a virtual machine took 8GB (minus 840MB for virtual memory) That's before you add any apps (and office 12 is Huge)

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 19 Jun '06

19 Jun '06

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Dual boot woes
by Simon Jude 15 Jun '06

15 Jun '06

Hello, Please can I pick peoples brains?! I've managed to kill off my MBR during a linux install on a machine with XP on it. I initially installed Fedora and got Grub error 17 messages on bootup. I've since installed Suse10 on it but get the same problem (error 18 this time). Evidently I should be able to install lilo from suse but this gives errors. I've also tried the XP recovery disk to fix the mbr but it doesn't recognise my password (a normal user with admin privilages). Can anybody possibly suggest a fix to this?! Thanks Simon

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Lifetime of CD/DVDs?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 15 Jun '06

15 Jun '06

Hi Folks, I often to use CDs to back up archival files. No problems so far. However, I've heard tell that CDs can degrade over time and that times of the order of 4 years might be the point where they start to get dodgy. Is this the case? If so, does it vary with the brand/type of CD? And does something similar apply to DVDs? Thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 09-Jun-06 Time: 19:30:10 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Re:Permission Denied DVD
by Nick Daniels 14 Jun '06

14 Jun '06

On Wednesday 14 June 2006 17:47, you wrote: > OK, I'll soon be out of my depth (hardware has never appealed to me much, I > wish computers didn't have it...) > I notice in your fstab options for the drive you don't have 'user'. This > may be because all the other options you have (most of which I don't > understand) do the same thing. > > Have you tried mounting a disc manually? > > In case you're not sure about this: > > Insert the disc and cancel KDE's automount message. > > type: > $ mount /dev/hdc Hi Richard Many Thanks nick@linux-nxe0:~> mount /dev/hdc mount: only root can mount /dev/hdc on /media/dvdrecorder nick@linux-nxe0:~> su Password: linux-nxe0:/home/nick # mount /dev/hdc mount: unknown filesystem type 'subfs' With Data DVD inserted, likewise with audio CD inserted, but audio CD Plays! I think I might reinstall, now they have fixed a lot of the package management problems and updater. As an avid Suse user of 8 or so years. I do not consider this the "best" of their distributions Many thanks for help. Kind Regards -Nick Daniels

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Permission Denied DVD
by Nick Daniels 14 Jun '06

14 Jun '06

Hi I have been transferring data files from my DVD rewriter, however yesterday morning I suddenly got message "permission denied" to DVD, as user, and as root. I can play an audio CD from it, also play a video DVD System Suse 10.1x64 Copy of fstab: /dev/hdb1 / reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 1 /dev/hdb3 /home reiserfs acl,user_xattr 1 2 /dev/hdb5 swap swap defaults 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0 debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0 usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0 /dev/hdc /media/dvdrecorder subfs noauto,fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0 I have installed Vector on a spare Harddrive in same system and all is O.K. Kind Regards - Nick Daniels

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