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10369 discussions

Combining a collection of images into an animation file
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 21 May '05

21 May '05

I have a collection of image files that I would like to combine into an animation file, e.g. an MPEG. I have been playing around with the ImageMagick toolkit and mpeg2encode. They work, but the quality is not very good. Let me explain that - my images have some fine detail in them I need to preserve in the final animation, and mpeg2encode does not seem to provide any options for encoding quality. Can anyone recommend a better mpeg encoder for linux, which will allow me to control the quality of the final animation? Alternatively, if there is someone on the mailing list who does this sort of activity of a semi-regular basis, could you share the best way to do what I am attempting? -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com/ "I remember the very things I do not wish to; I cannot forget the things I wish to forget." - Cicero

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Where does PHP get it's host name information from?
by Chris Green 20 May '05

20 May '05

I'm trying to get PHP5.02 and Apache2 working again having upgraded my slackware from 10 to 10.1. I've got Apache going OK but PHP is acting a bit odd. The essential problem is that I've got my DNS a little bit awry (this may sound unrelated to PHP but we'll get there). Before we had broadband my system had no name as there was never a need to access it from the outside world. Now we have broadband I've got a sub-domain pointing at the system:- home.isbd.net 84.51.144.229 I have a router which is what the outside world sees when it connects to home.isbd.net and the NAT and firewall are set up to send packets to the appropriate systems on the LAN side. Within the LAN I the systems have names such as fred.isbd.co.uk (I own the isbd.co.uk domain) which only exist within the LAN and, on the Linux box, are set up in /etc/hosts. Thus there are entries such as:- 192.168.13.5 fred.isbd.co.uk fred These are very convenient as one can use the short form 'fred' to connect to that machine. However there are now some oddities occurring and I'm thinking I may have to change some/all of my hosts file. Firstly PHP keeps using the Linux server box's full name (server.isbd.co.uk) to try and do things and is failing miserably. Secondly for some reason the DNS on the LAN can't find home.isbd.net whereas everyone else in the world can find it and DNS on the LAN works for all other addresses. In general what do others here do about naming machines on a small SoHo LAN behind a router? Is there some accepted way of doing it? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Risks (or otherwise) of passwordless ssh use
by Chris Green 20 May '05

20 May '05

I currently use ssh for various logins from home and from work. I have set up the logins so that they work without me entering a password or key phrase at all, i.e. I *think* when asked for a key to generate the encrypted string used for authorisation I entered nothing. I know this creates some security holes but I'm not at all clear what they are really, can anyone elucidate? I realise that anyone with access to my work machine or my home machine will be able to login to these remote systems without knowing the password but that's not a big problem really, there is far more important and sensitive information on my desktop machines than there is on the places where I remotely login. Is this the only risk or is the encryption inherently weaker if I didn't enter a key? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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How to find out what mysql databases I have?
by Chris Green 20 May '05

20 May '05

I always have this problem when I come back to using mysql. How do I find out what mysql databases I have set up? The mysql daemon (mysqld) is running, I can run 'mysql' and I get the 'mysql>' prompt but that's it, there seems ot be no simple way of finding out what databases there are there to use. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Apache + modssl + mount -o ro = segfault
by MJ Ray 19 May '05

19 May '05

Here's one I've not met before: I have an Apache (1.3.x) server doing SSL. The server has a read-only root partition and then read-write partitions for things like /home, /var, /tmp and so on. If Apache is started, all the https sites fail, return no data and say in the log "[notice] child pid 563 exit signal Segmentation fault (11)" or similar. If / is mounted read-write, Apache started, then / is remounted read-only, it works. I can't see any read-only directory being used in the httpd.conf - what's going on at startup that I'm missing? -- Thanks for any tips, MJR/slef http://mjr.towers.org.uk/

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ADSL Router configuration question
by Chris Green 19 May '05

19 May '05

This isn't really a Linux question but it is network/computer related so it's not that far off topic. We've just got ADSL and I'm now up and running with a Zyxel 660H router/switch. I would like to be able to configure the Zyxel remotely using the web interface but I would also like to make a Web server on one of the machines in our home network visible to the outside world. Is it possible to do both of these things at the same time? The Zyxel has a specific menu for setting up access to the management interface, you can enable/disable the telnet and HTTP interfaces for LAN or WAN or LAN & WAN. You can also set the port number associated with these. In the NAT configuration you can set up services on the LAN which you wish to be visible to the outside world. However I don't see how one can have a web server visible to the outside world at the same time as making the management interface visible as they will both appear as the same port number and IP address. I tried changing the port number for the managment interface access from the default 80 to 8080 but that just stopped it working completely because the firewall at the other end wouldn't pass traffic on port 8080. Is there any clever redirection I can do on the LAN to make it possible to connect to the Web server on the LAN and then to the Zyxel router from the LAN side? I could configure using telnet, I'm quite happy to do that, but it's hardly secure over the internet. I suppose I can set it so that it's only accessible from specific IP addresses which might be OK. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Can one create 'per user' host name aliases?
by Chris Green 18 May '05

18 May '05

I've just got broadband (small village in Suffolk) and have a static IP address, however the host name is impossibly long, it is 84-51-144-229.isbdlt032.adsl.metronet.co.uk So, is there any way for me to provide my own personal alias for this name so I can (for example) say "ssh -l username home" where 'home' will be expanded to the full host name? This is on systems where I don't (mostly) have root access, two Linux systems where I have shell access and Solaris systems at work. What I really want is a sort of local copy of the /etc/hosts file which a user can add to. I know I could set a shell/environment variable but this requires prefixing with $ to use it and I'd like something cleaner if possible. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Cleaning a filesystem for compression
by Stuart Bailey 17 May '05

17 May '05

I have a CF card with two partitions - one ext2 and the other ext3. I want to create an image for the card but since it's about 1Gb in size, the image requires compressing before it can be ftp'd. Is there a way to zero out any unused areas in the FS in order to optimise the compression? Many thanks, Stuart. -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) Linux Specialist (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

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"All for the best"
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 17 May '05

17 May '05

Hi Folks, Browsing the Guardian "Online" section this morning I came across an interesting story from last Thursday's edition which I have not seen discussed elsewhere: http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1481272,00.html "All for the best "Linus Torvalds, who developed the Linux operating system, once more inspires a community of coders to make his open source software even better. Glyn Moody reports Thursday May 12, 2005 The Guardian You may not have noticed, but the open source community had one of its inner-circle virtual punch-ups recently. What is interesting about the spat - aside from the sight of Linus Torvalds and other top hackers swapping e-insults - is that its resolution helps to explain why Linux is so good, and why it will get even better." [now read on] 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: 17-May-05 Time: 08:43:27 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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RE:Samba Fileserver and vpn, etc.
by tom potts 17 May '05

17 May '05

If your looking for a low powered machine (and can wait) this might be what you need... http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23271 ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger - want a free and easy way to contact your friends online? http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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re: [ALUG] Samba Fileserver and vpn, etc.
by David Noble 16 May '05

16 May '05

Considering the school's connection runs at 2 megabit via fibre, and my home ADSL connection has an upstream connection of 160 kb or something like that, the connection speed should be close to what I get at a school terminal anyway. Dad's a bit concerned about the power usage of running a pc 24 hours a day, so I think i'll put something fanless and energy saving together- possibly a mini-ITX box or something, and run this. Dad also only seems to use the connection for internet banking, e-mail and other stuff, so it's a bit overkill anyway, and he shouldn't mind the bandwidth usage too much :) Cheers to all that have replied- I shall keep you posted on how it goes with all. Dave.

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 16 May '05

16 May '05

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. 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 tkirc, bitchx, xchat 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://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Samba Fileserver
by David Noble 14 May '05

14 May '05

Hi I'm kind of new to this LUG- I've been subscribed for a while, and am just trying to learn more about Linux. At the moment I only have a dual boot Linux/XP box, connected to my dormmate's laptop via a switched 10/100 connection, and to a few other computers in other dorms via a wireless access point. (I am at boarding school at a STRICTLY CLASSIFIED location) However, next year, I would like to get or put together some sort of server that is almost silent (so I can leave it on 24 hours per day), run Samba fileserving, run a vpn to a second computer at home, through the school firewall, and run a downstream proxy so people can get unrestricted internet access (from my home adsl connection) My eye is currently on getting two school computers (they are getting rid of these for about £10 or so), stuffing my copy of SuSE 9.1 on them, using remote desktop to control the one at home. I believe the spec is something like Pentium 3, 400mHz, 64 or 128 megs of RAM, 10/100 NIC, 10GB hd. I plan to upgrade one of them with a wireless card (to connect to the unsecured access point via the cantenna), and to put a 300 gig hard drive in the same one. This one would be used at school. The other one, I would leave 'as is', and use it at home, but this would have to have some sort of remote desktop connection, as my dad knows nothing about computers in general. The school is currently running an old version of Novell or something, and people have managed to use HTTPort and worms through it before. The rest of the unofficial wireless network runs Windows XP (bar one which runs Mac OSX). Is this possible? Do any of you have any suggestions?

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Console messages
by Stuart Bailey 12 May '05

12 May '05

Does anyone know how to disable console messages? I have a small embedded Linux system running a graphical app which uses QT to access the frame buffer directly. However, when the app is running, I get console messages printed on the screen, thus corrupting it. The sort of message I get are eg notification of eth0 up or down, etc. Many thanks, Stuart. -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) Linux Specialist (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

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Apache rewriterule
by Richard Lewis 10 May '05

10 May '05

Hey ALUG, I've been fiddling with this RewriteRule in Apache for ages (I did ask an Apache forum but no one answered). I wonder if anyone knows anything about these things? I want to make old fashioned URLs like: http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/search_from_listings.php?artist_id=13 redirect to the new ones: http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/?artist&id=13 I've tried this rewrite rule (and about a million permutations of it): RewriteRule ^/search_from_listings.php?artist_id=([0-9]+)$ http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/?artist&id=$1 I've tried escaping all the characters and I've tried all sorts of combinations of flags but it never works. For some reason this: RewriteRule ^/search_from_listings.php?(.*)$ http://www.sara.uea.ac.uk/$1 matches (though it doesn't do anything useful). Any ideas? Cheers, Richard

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 09 May '05

09 May '05

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Internet shop in Ely area
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 08 May '05

08 May '05

MJR has suggested I let the list know about this. As of very recent date (about 2 weeks ago) there is now an internet cafe in Soham. MJR tells me that there is (or used to be) one in King's Lynn, though doesn't know about Downham Market.. Elians will know that there is none in Ely. The Soham people tell me they're "the only place this side of Cambridge and Newmarket", which I can well believe. I forget what the Soham shop calls itself, but finding it is very simple. Once in Soham, find the Budgens car park. From there, take the footpath with the signpost "High Street". As you emerge from this, the Internet cafe is facing you on the opposite side of the High St. I found the proprietor (who runs it as a sideline to an insurance business) very friendly and helpful. 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: 29-Apr-05 Time: 00:30:27 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Humongous computing with Windows XP 64bit Edition
by Tatsuhiko Maegawa 08 May '05

08 May '05

Hello from Japan. I love using Linux, and I've installed AMD64 version of Gentoo Linux. It has some hitches with Japanese stuff, so I am still obliged to use Windows for sake of typing stuff in Japanese. When I visited Tokyo Akihabara, I've seen Windows XP 64bit Edition on sale. Interested, looked up, and found out that I need 1 Gigabyte RAM in order to install it. Since many visiters out there searches for humongous computer (but they are geeks, not pimps) they make no surprise about it - but me. Though I am not interested in using Windows XP 64 bit Edition, it crosses my mind as to whether I need 1Gigabyte of RAM for my Linux machine. At the moment, I see no reason why I bundle up further, as my machine seems running well. I know I need little further up on developing stuff with Java, since Eclipse kindly asks 758Mb of RAM for ease. Tatsuhiko Maegawa tatsuhiko(a)jazzman.jp http://blog.jazzman.jp == This is private mail ==

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Norwich "Second Thursday" Social Meeting - The Reindeer - 20:00 Thursday 12 May
by Brett Parker 07 May '05

07 May '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi guys, Just a quick reminder that this coming Thursday (12 May) is the regular Norwich "Second Thursday" alug social meeting. Generally meetings start around 8pm and go on till either we all have to go home or we get kicked out of the pub. The meeting will be held in The Reindeer pub, which is just across the road from the City Gate where we used to hold meetings. Directions to The Reindeer can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html I should warn anyone that's come before that I'm, erm, very much less hairy, so might not stick out quite as well as previously. I *imagine* that there will be at least myself and Noodles present, quinophex is hoping to come but he's not been well recently, neither has wildduck, so he may not be there. I'm not quite sure if paul_c will even be back in the country by then, I don't think he will... Anyways - hope to see lots of you there, - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCfSagEh8oWxevnjQRAnfsAJ9ovJq5Z6nVVl326SS+h3P9jS3EtwCgrFkn GJRptcF1HEhdILJd65Yja6w= =w2Ll -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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matrox G450 driver
by Jenny Hopkins 07 May '05

07 May '05

Hi, Has anyone had a Matrox G450 working using the mga linux driver? I'm trying to avoid having to build the Matrox driver, but things aren't looking good. Thanks, Jenny

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HTML
by Bob Dove 06 May '05

06 May '05

Hi Folks, <centre> * </centre> won't do anything 'cos it's spelt proper like, you have to use MS-English <center> * </center> to 'center text or w.h.y. (Did the cousins invent html, or was it writ in MS? Cheers, BD. Incidentally, I use HTML Kit in Win, it might be worth looking at their site to see if there is a Linux version available. www.Chami.com Cheers, BD. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.10.4 - Release Date: 27/04/2005

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Microsoft offering support of Linux?
by Stuart Bailey 04 May '05

04 May '05

Just found this and thought it might be of some interest: http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,39129739,00.htm Maybe Microsoft are beginning to warm to Linux ;-) -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Proprietor) (01953) 601294 (07778) 383739 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- ********************************************************************** This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, please email postmaster(a)linusoft.co.uk immediately. You should not copy or use this email or attachments for any purpose nor disclose their contents to any other person. NO BINDING CONTRACT WILL RESULT FROM THIS E-MAIL UNTIL SUCH TIME AS A WRITTEN DOCUMENT IS SIGNED ON BEHALF OF LinuSoft. LinuSoft cannot accept any responsibility for the completeness or accuracy of this message as it has been transmitted over public networks. *************************************************************************

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URGENT: SMTP Authenitcation in Linux
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 04 May '05

04 May '05

Hi Folks, I've just received the following from my ISP (BT-yahoo.com): Subject: Warning: Possible misuse of email address Dear Sir or Madam, Your email address has been used to send unauthenticated email through BT mail servers. If you are a BT Yahoo! Internet customer, you must take action by 6.00am on 27th April 2005 if you wish to continue to use BT mail servers. If you are BT Yahoo! Internet customer Please make a simple change: switch on 'SMTP authentication'. This is usually done by ticking a box called 'My server requires authentication' in your email program settings. [...] This particular message was sent to my "efh(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk" email address (which is a genuine account on nessie). I guess this arises because I have my home sendmail configured to masquerade as "nessie.mcc.ac.uk" when sending by SMTP, and "efh" is the user on the home machine from which mail is sent out. (I've been using this setup for years with no problems so far, in order to reconcile (a) being able to mail between my different home machines, and (b) being recognisable to the outside world as a mail originator (since my home LAN is not recognisable outside my LAN). I.e. the following is the start of a typical SMTP dialogue when initiating sending of a mail: 220 smtp807.mail.ukl.yahoo.com ESMTP >>> EHLO nessie.mc.ac.uk 250-smtp807.mail.ukl.yahoo.com 250-AUTH LOGIN PLAIN XYMCOOKIE 250-PIPELINING 250 8BITMIME >>> MAIL From:<efh(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> 250 ok >>> RCPT To:<someone(a)somewhere.on.the.net> 250 ok ETC The "EHLO nessie.mc.ac.uk" and "MAIL From:<efh(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk>" are composed by sendmail, which is configured to masquerade in this way (for the reasons above). This has, as I say, worked without a hitch for years. Now, as you can see, I have been given less than 48 hours to activate "SMTP authentication", after which presumably BT's SMTP servers will no longer accept SMTP from me and I would be unable to use this connection to send email any more. the version of sendmail on the machine whicj looks after my email with the outside world is sendmail-8.8.5 from January 1997 and as far as I can see has no provision for anything resembling SMTP authentication. I've been browsing the web a bit on this topic, and it seems to me that setting it up in Linux is, even now, not straightforward, nor -- depending on your email setup -- even possible. I would be very grateful for good advice about how to grasp this nettle, while there is still time! (Clearly, the advice given in BT's message above is out of the question for me!) Also: Is there anywhere I can read what the details of the "SMTP authnetication" protocol are? 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: 25-Apr-05 Time: 15:59:32 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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kernel questions
by Richard Lewis 03 May '05

03 May '05

Hello ALUG, I've just installed my first home compiled kernel! I used the kernel-source-2.6.11 package from Debian unstable (not my normal version, I just got the deb from a mirror). I got caught out by the bug which stops console VGA mode from working (and, annoyingly, compiled twice thinking I'd done something wrong!). Anyway, I was just wondering what people think about the Debian version of the kernel. I don't really know much about it. How does it differ from the standard version? Is is better? Worse? I understand they add some patches and remove some non-free firmware; is this a good/bad thing? I noticed the current stable, standard version is called '2.6.11.7', does that mean its a later version than the Debian one? Richard.

1 1

TT Fonts
by Leon Stedman 02 May '05

02 May '05

Hello All, Can anyone outline the steps needed to add a character, specifically a pound sterling sign, to a true type font. What software would I need, and what information would I need about the font itself. Thanks. Leon Stedman

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