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10372 discussions

Re: main Digest, Vol 8, Issue 12
by John Seago 09 Feb '06

09 Feb '06

On Thursday 09 Feb 2006 12:00, Colin Rothwell <colin.rothwell(a)frambroadband.com> wrote: > Why do I like Linux? I think it mainly comes down to the fact that > it's free. I don't see why I should pay through the teeth for an > expensive micro$oft product when I can have one that is just as good > for free (i.e. Open Office org and Linux). There is however a slight problem with this consumer side outlook, those that build and make available the distribution/s your are downloading, are depending on other consumers, such as I, (I have a subscription to Slackware), to fund the development, their hardware, web sites and mirrors. The principle is, after all, ``Free software'' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ``free'' as in ``free speech,'' not as in ``free beer.'' See: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html If you want to take something, you have a responsibility to give something back. -- John Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 http://www.affs.org.uk/ HTML Mail Rejected

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Why I like Linux
by Colin Rothwell 08 Feb '06

08 Feb '06

Hello Everybody, Why do I like Linux? I think it mainly comes down to the fact that it's free. I don't see why I should pay through the teeth for an expensive micro$oft product when I can have one that is just as good for free (i.e. Open Office org and Linux). I also like having package management programs (portage, mainly) which allows me to do a search for a certain program and just have it installed. I also like not having to worry about viruses and spyware. Colin

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2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

[I did originally send this to announce@ yesterday, but as it seems to have been deleted without trace I'll just send it to main@] The monthly "Second Thursday" ALUG Norwich Pub Meet is this Thursday, 9th February. It's at the Reindeer pub on the Dereham Road, just opposite the City Gate. People will be there from 8pm-ish, though there may be a few people there earlier. Topics for discussion will no doubt be as varied as ever. The Reindeer has a reasonable selection of beer as well as decent coffee (with biscuits, if you're lucky). Directions to the Reindeer can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html Pictures of some of the regulars, and irregulars, and, well, just some pictures of people that might or might not turn up are available from: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2005-01-ALUG-Xmas/ http://the.earth.li/~noodles/stilvoid-alug/mp20050811/ (I'll bring my camera this week to try and get more up-to-date photos.) Which should hopefully aid those of you wondering who to look out for. We're /normally/ just to the left of the main entrance, though the last few times we've ended up at the far end of the pub beside the pool table, as there are comfy seats at that end. J. -- ] http://www.earth.li/~noodles/ [] Reality is for people with no [ ] PGP/GPG Key @ the.earth.li [] grasp of fantasy. [ ] via keyserver, web or email. [] [ ] RSA: 4DC4E7FD / DSA: 5B430367 [] [

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Corporate Mail servers
by David Fairey 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

I'm looking to replace our aging Windows email server at work. I'd prefer to use Linux for it's flexibility and no licensing issues, but looking around there's a bewildering number of packages. Does anyone here run a Linux mail server for their business? What packages did you end up with? Thanks David.

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Re: [ALUG] A little advice
by Ricky Bruce 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

alot of these channels are encrypted but the great thing about thedreambox is that because its hard drive based its able to emulate alotof the protection mechanisms.doesnt work for sky (yet, and even if it did youd be putting your headon the legal chopping board if you tried it) although it is possibleto use your legit sky card in the dreambox thus freeing yourself fromthe unreliable digibox. theres a very active coding scene which means you are able to replacethe very nice but slightly boring original firmware with flashydistros (or images as they are often called.) im presently using plidiamond image from the plinux team. heres the release notes:The Diamond Images featuring:- 1.09 kernel (2.6.9)- 1.09 enigma (19-12-2005)- Squashfs 2.2-r2 withLZMA-compression- Front Processor version 1.06- New PMT Interface: anew interface between Enigma and an Emu/Softcam - Softcam / CardserverSetup incl. Sticky SoftCams using new PMT interface - Private EPG forPremiere - Manual (Un)Install of plugins/addons etc- Enable/Disableautomatic download of software menu index - Dreambox Tools: CheckCronjobs & Free Space; ECM-, Memory-, Mgcamd-Info, NetStat, Processlist - Tuxtxt v1.94 - Settings to control infobar on zap and OK -Skin: The name of the current running emu (e.g. 'camxng') - Skin: Thevideo format of the current service (e.g. '704x576 4:3 25 fps') -Skin: Caid types supported in the current stream - Skin: Frequency,FEC, Polarisation, Symbol rate - Language Setup- Var to USB/HDD- DebugSettings- Create your own script control panel under the Blue Setupbutton- Firewall ready- Crond ready- OSD supports: Yellow Button -Addons/Plugins, Blue Button - PLi Setup- Password change allowed byuser to any password- Games ready- CIFS enabled- New filenaming ofyour Recorded Movies,- It will be shown as ---- Full Media Highway EPGsupport for ALL Media Highway EPG providers- Menu Language selectionin your own native language- No SoftCams onboard ALL to be downloaded and there website http://pli.dreamvcr.com/diamond/releasenote/ lastly heres some satellite related websites which have tonnes moreinfo for those so inclined. http://www.i-have-a-dreambox.com/wbb2/index.phphttp://67.43.4.157:81/index.…

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Good advice from windows dialog
by Stuart Bailey 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

-- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) Linux Specialist (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ----------------------------------------

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RE: [ALUG] FW: [SLL] OT: The End of the Internet?
by Keith Watson 07 Feb '06

07 Feb '06

> From: Ted Harding Sent: 05 February 2006 23:33 > > Hi Folks, > I just read this. Somewhat glunly. Now come on Ted, no need to be glun! ;-) Regards, Keith ____________ Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '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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FW: [SLL] OT: The End of the Internet?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 06 Feb '06

06 Feb '06

Hi Folks, I just read this. Somewhat glunly. Best wishes, while it lasts. Ted. -----FW: <440cb5840602051308r5e63322j74fada433cdf1872(a)mail.gmail.com>----- Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2006 13:08:36 -0800 Sender: linux-list-bounces(a)ssc.com From: Abha Harting <abhaha(a)gmail.com> To: linux-list(a)ssc.com Subject: [SLL] OT: The End of the Internet? I suppose this is getting a bit political, but I think everyone interested in open access needs to know about this as it will effect us ALL: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/chester Abha --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 05-Feb-06 Time: 23:33:10 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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a little advice
by Robert 05 Feb '06

05 Feb '06

Now that i'm a member of ALUG i could do with a bit of advice.Firstly i'm trying to build a media centre pc via Linux and wondered if there was any pitfalls i should steer clear of as far as tv card etc are concerned, and secondly what's the best game to get on Linux and why. Robert

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Password (and other data) storage - ideas wanted
by Chris Green 04 Feb '06

04 Feb '06

I find I am needing to store more and more 'sensitive' data safely. When I needed to save just PINs and such I kept them in my PDA in a neat little application called ReadThis! which encrypted data kept in the normal databases, so I just encrypted the necessary bits of Address Book (for Bank stuff mostly) and had some Memos for storing other stuff. However this became impractical as I needed access on-line more often (for online banking etc.) so I currently use the KeyRing plugin for JPilot. This gives me easier access as I can run JPilot remotely but I'm beginning to find this is a bit limiting as well now. What do others here use for this sort of 'sensitive data' storage? I have all sorts of data, PINs, passwords, Web site logins and so on and so forth. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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A little advice
by Robert 04 Feb '06

04 Feb '06

Now that i'm on the mailing list i wonder if anyone could help me.I'm looking to build a media centre pc around Linux and was wondering whether there was anything i should look out for e.g.tv cards etc?Also i would like to know what the in game on Linux is at the moment and why? Robert

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Thanks
by Robert 04 Feb '06

04 Feb '06

Thanks Chris and Jonathan for your help though you basically said the same thing.There is one other thing though and that is on my xine player i come up with no MRL and as i don't have a Linux dictionary to hand i wondered what it meant as i would prefer to use that audio/video player than Kaffeine. Thanks Robert

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FTGH: Various computer junk.
by Jonathan McDowell 03 Feb '06

03 Feb '06

I hate throwing out working (in all but one case below) kit, so all of this is free to the first person who wants to come and get each item. Otherwise it's getting skipped. Priority will be given to whoever can collect stuff first - I'm off the Drayton Road in Norwich itself. I'm prepared to bring the smaller items to the meet next Thursday. The list will be sent to Freecycle as well. Complete Cyrix 6x86 PR200+ machine: VXPro+ chipset, 32MB RAM (in a single DIMM), 2 roughly 300MB HDs, Realtek 8139C network card, Trident ISA video card. No keyboard/monitor. An ancient machine, with Debian on it and the 2 HDs in a RAID1 configuration. Might do as a play about box I guess; it's too noisy to be an always on server. Axil Ultima 1 (Sun Ultra 1 clone): This is a faulty Ultra 1 clone; I believe the specs are 167MHz UltraSparc 1 processor, 128MB RAM, 4GB HD. It powers on, but just gives some gibberish to the serial port and although my monitor registers a signal it remains blank. Could be something simple, could be toast. Might be of use for parts if you've got old Sparc kit? Advansys PCI SCSI card; Iwill SIDE-2930U+ PCI SCSI card, works fine with Linux. Internal 50 pin header, external high density 50 pin connector. Has boot rom. Apple 14" monitor. Suitable for old Macs; has the low density 15pin D connector. Sun Type 4 keyboard. I have a couple of these. No cable to connect them to the machine, but I think they're fine aside from that. Celeron 400MHz - Socket 370 processor. Just the CPU; no heatsink/fan etc. J. -- If love is blind, lingerie makes great braille.

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Use it or lose it
by Paul 03 Feb '06

03 Feb '06

Just returned from the library in the Forum after a fruitless attemp to borrow two volumes on network programming by Richard Stevens - The titles in question had been on the shelfs for a number of years, yet do not appear in the catalogue. A casual comment to one of the staff revealed that the books had been withdrawn.. After giving the head librarian a stern Padington Bear lecture, it would appear that even "standard texts" such as the Stevens titles are removed from circulation if they have not been taken out for some unspecified time. The range of popular titiles from the "Dummies guide to..." will be expanded (probably) at the expense of *nix related books. A short sighted policy in my opinion... In order to preserve the stock of books in our public libraries, I would urge everyone to borrow at least one Linux/Unix book on a regular basis lest we lose yet more. Regards, Paul. -- From the Klingon book of C: Klingon function calls do not have 'parameters' - they have 'arguments' - and they ALWAYS WIN THEM.

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Re: Welcome to the "main" mailing list
by robert 03 Feb '06

03 Feb '06

Dear Sir, Thanks for the email you ask why i chose Linux,it boils down to three things. 1.I run a dual boot system and as my other OS happens to be Windows98,Linux is a little newer. 2.Linux seems to be more compatible with my new upgraded system. 3.As an alternative to spending £170(what it cost a friend)on Windows XP. So it seems a worthwhile trade off to have access to the internet and learn how to use a command line. Yours Sincerely RJohnson ----- Original Message ----- From: <main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk> To: <robertj35(a)tiscali.co.uk> Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2006 10:02 PM Subject: Welcome to the "main" mailing list > Welcome to the main(a)lists.alug.org.uk mailing list! Welcome to ALUG! > > We welcome new members and we'd especially like you to send a short > description of why you're interested in Linux to the mailing list. > This is so that we can get some idea of how to cater for new members, > as they're the most important ones! Some general info should follow... > > To post to this list, send your email to: > > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > General information about the mailing list is at: > > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > > If you ever want to unsubscribe or change your options (eg, switch to > or from digest mode, change your password, etc.), visit your > subscription page at: > > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/options/main/robertj35%40tiscali.co.uk > > > You can also make such adjustments via email by sending a message to: > > main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > with the word `help' in the subject or body (don't include the > quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions. > > You must know your password to change your options (including changing > the password, itself) or to unsubscribe. It is: > > Mandrake > > Normally, Mailman will remind you of your lists.alug.org.uk mailing > list passwords once every month, although you can disable this if you > prefer. This reminder will also include instructions on how to > unsubscribe or change your account options. There is also a button on > your options page that will email your current password to you.

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Thanks for the response
by Robert 02 Feb '06

02 Feb '06

Hi there, thanks for the feedback but i didn't buy my computer off the shelf at your local PCWorld.I built my first computer 5 years ago and been upgrading ever since.As for what Linux OS i use i've actually got 12,but only two happen to work on my upgraded pc Mandriva 2006 and Suse 9.2. Robert

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Hibernate a desktop
by Wayne Stallwood 01 Feb '06

01 Feb '06

What do I need to have in order to get suspend to disk to work on a Desktop machine. On my laptop (R40 Thinkpad) Ubuntu will suspend or hibernate perfectly. One suspends to disk and shuts down,the other suspends to ram and then puts the machine into a low power standby state. I always get the two mixed up. I understand that I need some power management in my hardware to do the 2nd one but surely suspending to disk is purely a software thing ? My Desktop is the most power hungry of the two machines I have running at home. I have now decided that rising energy costs and the environment outweigh my concerns of thermal cycling my hardware. However I would like to avoid full boots all the time because I tend to have a lot of stuff open on various virtual desktops, have virtual machines running in the background etc etc I tried selecting hibernate from the Ubuntu/Gnome log off menu. The following things happened. There was a brief flurry of disk activity I lost my (ethernet) network connection My keyboard (usb) stopped working but when I brought focus to a console using the (usb) mouse I found that the p key was repeating at the prompt. >From this state there was nothing I could do to cleanly bring the system down. Even the front panel button (that usually starts halt on this machine) failed. In the end I had to prod reset. Question 2 Assuming I can get this all to work, is there an easy way to produce a magic packet for "wake up on lan" from my other Linux box (that will be remaining switched on) to wake up the desktop from afar if I need it.

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Modprobe error
by Barry Samuels 01 Feb '06

01 Feb '06

Although I can now boot from my external drive and everything appears to be working, including X, I have a little cleaning up to do. Whilst the system is booting I see a message from modprobe, repeated around 10 times - difficult to judge as they flash past, along the lines of 'cannot load /lib/modules/2.6.8/modules.dep - no such file or directory'. This is rather strange because the path/file does exist, is correct and is on the root partition. In spite of that the whole system *appears* to be working. Can anyone suggest a reason for this message. Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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RE: [ALUG] Transferring Linux to another hard drive
by Keith Watson 01 Feb '06

01 Feb '06

> From: David Fairey Sent: 29 January 2006 11:21 > > Hi guys, > > I'm looking to transfer one of my linux boxes from it's 3Gb > drive to a bigger drive (40Gb). > > What's the easiest method to transfer a partition including > the boot manager to another drive? when I upgraded from a 20Gb HD to an 80Gb HD recently I used the free edition of HDClone <http://www.miray.de/products/sat.hdclone.html#free>. (as I had a dual boot WinXP / Ubuntu setup it got round all the irritating XP idiosyncrasies). > How can the root partition be resize afterwards? Or would it > make sense to start using a separate /var, /usr partitions? I used the SystemRescueCD <http://www.sysresccd.org/> and the QTParted and partimage utilise it offers to shuffle my Linux partitions around (but be careful about the partition orders and names I inadvertently moved my root partition from /dev/hda5 to /dev/hda7 and Ubuntu got really snotty about it :-) ). Personally I always have separate partitions for /usr, /var, /home, /tmp, /home/[my home dir] and /[my mail dir] because; a) I can keep better track of how and where the space is being used b) it makes backing up easier, I just back up the entire partition to a CD-RW Actually when I did the HD upgrade I also put in a DVD writer, so I now back up the partitions to a DVD+RW, but the principle's the same except I now have a 5Gb max partition size (which I can easily get on a single DVD) rather than 2Gb (which would sometimes go on to 2 CDs even with compression). I use partimage to do this now, but I used to use tar. Regards, Keith ____________ The little things in life are as interesting as the big ones. - Henry David Thoreau

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Re: Transferring Linux to another hard drive (Wayne Stallwood)
by Peter 31 Jan '06

31 Jan '06

So pleased to find people writing about this. I am bringing up a very small local web server - it will only be accessed by two or three machines on the same local ethernet. Scratching my head about how to set up the partitions, and in the end went for / and a separate /home partition only. Is the consensus that this is fairly sensible? While asking, would you all use Apache, or is it sensible to use one of the mini servers - boa or thttpd? Peter > > I usually run a separate /home but that's about it. >

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Quick 'n' dirty warning email if disk usage low
by Mark Rogers 31 Jan '06

31 Jan '06

If I want to run a script on my externally hosted server to mark me if my disk space is getting low, what's the simplest way to do it? Say I want a report if "df" reports more than 90% used, I want the script to run regularly but not send an email every time it runs if the problem hasn't worsend, and want to include the output from 'du -h' in the email? Then, once I have that sorted, what's the "best" way to do this kind of thing? Oh, and what's the best way to work out *why* I only have 1% left on my server? -- Mark Rogers More Solutions Ltd :: 0845 45 89 555

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 30 Jan '06

30 Jan '06

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Transferring Linux to another hard drive
by David Fairey 29 Jan '06

29 Jan '06

Hi guys, I'm looking to transfer one of my linux boxes from it's 3Gb drive to a bigger drive (40Gb). What's the easiest method to transfer a partition including the boot manager to another drive? How can the root parition be resize afterwards? Or would it make sense to start using a separate /var, /usr partitions? Mounted devices are /dev/hda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro) proc on /proc type proc (rw) devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620) tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw) usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw) Cheers David

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Boot problem with external drive
by Barry Samuels 29 Jan '06

29 Jan '06

In the event that something goes wrong with my desktop, other than a problem with the hard drive, I want to be able to boot from the hard drive that normally resides in my desktop but with it connected as an external hard drive to my laptop. My laptop is a Thinkpad R51. In the BIOS there is an option to boot from: -USB Hard Drive. I don't know what the '-' in front of the USB is for - none of the other USB boot options has a dash in front of it. I've compiled a 2.6.8 kernel, on the (external) hard drive, to suit the Thinkpad and the Thinkpad will start to boot from that drive after I select the special kernel but stops with a kernel panic: VFS: Cannot open root device "30e" or unknown-block(3,14) Please append a correct "root=" boot option Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,14) The Linux root partition on that disk is partition 14. When I've had this sort of problem before it's been because I've had and IDE opion either unset or set as a module instead of being compiled in but I've checked and rechecked and cannot see what is wrong. The relevant IDE kernel settings are: # # IDE chipset support/bugfixes # CONFIG_IDE_GENERIC=y CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD640=y # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD640_ENHANCED is not set CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ=y # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_OFFBOARD is not set CONFIG_BLK_DEV_GENERIC=y # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_OPTI621 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RZ1000 is not set CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_FORCED is not set CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y # CONFIG_IDEDMA_ONLYDISK is not set CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ADMA=y # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_AEC62XX is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ALI15X3 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_AMD74XX is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATIIXP is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CMD64X is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_TRIFLEX is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CY82C693 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CS5520 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_CS5530 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HPT34X is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HPT366 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SC1200 is not set CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PIIX=y # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NS87415 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PDC202XX_OLD is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PDC202XX_NEW is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SVWKS is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SIIMAGE is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SIS5513 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SLC90E66 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_TRM290 is not set # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_VIA82CXXX is not set # CONFIG_IDE_ARM is not set # CONFIG_IDE_CHIPSETS is not set CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y # CONFIG_IDEDMA_IVB is not set CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y # CONFIG_BLK_DEV_HD is not set I copied the kernel config from the laptop initially and changed the IDE settings to suit the hard drive on the desktop. Can anyone suggest anything I have missed? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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