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10372 discussions

New Member Intro
by Gareth Porteous 20 Mar '05

20 Mar '05

Hey guys, I should really introduce myself properly. My name's Gareth (but my friends call me Gari) and I've been lurking around on the irc server from time to time as flux. Some of you will know me as the guy who came along to the City Gate on the 10th and sat in the corner talking to Kirsten for most of it. Forgive me for doing that and not introducing myself, I was feeling kinda shy as I wasn't expecting there to be so many peeps turning up. I enjoyed it all nevertheless, and it was nice to meet some like-minded people, good fun too listening to lots of different stories and of course various rants about floating point math... well maybe I dosed off a bit at that point! ;-) Anyway I'm basically a 23 year old mac-head whose been in touch with *nix for quite a while now. My first experience was way back in the 90's when I attempted to install something called MKLinux on an old powerpc. I didn't get very far at all but it lit a spark and since then I've had experience with shell accounts and a small amount of programming. I guess my current *nix experience comes from, dare I mention it - MacOSX!.. Tho recently I've been spending most of my time jostling with Debain getting it installed and working on some old world machines to give me something new to play with. As far as my job is concerned I've just been doing a spot of work for a guy who runs Computek, a macintosh repair place based in Norwich, and also working as a digital assistant photographer. Technically I'm freelance so I get to work from home most of the time, but that can be a curse too, especially when u don't get paid on quiet days to geek out. I'm hoping to come along to the kit meet on Sunday 20th. It'll be cool to meet some of u guys again and checkout the general vibe a bit more. Should be up for a good few drinks after too!! I may also bring my brother Graeme along as he's back on study leave from Aberystwyth university. He's doing maths there and is more of a geek than I am in many ways. We've both been very interested in Linux and the Open Source community for quite a while and really want to extend our experience in that direction. With the hope that one day soon we can pledge our allegiance to that big giant penguin... :-) Look forward to meeting you all! Take care -Gareth

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By car to the Kit Meet
by Elisabeth 20 Mar '05

20 Mar '05

Constable Terrace is next to the Central Car Park (which is not the Main Car Park). At the main entrance to UEA, take the right lane and turn right onto the campus. Go down the hill, following signs for Central Car Park. It's a left turn. Parking costs £1. e/sunflowerinrain

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RAM-disk[?] on USB mem-stick?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 19 Mar '05

19 Mar '05

Hi Folks, I've had a 256MB USB memory stick for a few weeks -- very useful for transferring files etc. Now -- this is twice the RAM (128MB) on my laptop. It would often be useful to have more RAM! Is there a way to extend RAM using such a device? (Something like a RAM-disk appended to hardware RAM). 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: 17-Mar-05 Time: 22:39:05 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Re: Kit Meet - 20th March @ UEA (Rob Grant)
by Robert Grant (DEV) 18 Mar '05

18 Mar '05

I am coming to say hello and as I'd love to see what Linux is supposed to look like. My first install (Woody) is still at the black screen CLI only stage. With the end of UEA teaching today I hope for more time to play with this now. I'll be coming with full-on T cake and the T22. By the time lectures start in September could I really be using Impress? Rob ps. apologies to MJ Ray that I have not yet stopped UEA mail from referring to me as a number despite his/her? kind advice. Rob Grant Tutor in Economics School of Development Studies University of East Anglia NR4 7TJ +44(0)1603592324 r.grant(a)uea.ac.uk

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Kit Meet - Sunday 20 March - Thoughts.
by Brett Parker 16 Mar '05

16 Mar '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi all, Right, it has come to my attention that we haven't actually figured out where 'beer' is being consumed post the Sunday meeting, it could be that we go to the Union Bar, but as it will be Easter hols, it's not garanteed that will be open. Also, some people have shown an interest in finding food, so it might be worth finding somewhere that we can eat, drink and be merry (or whatever). So, thoughts on locations for the post meet part of Sunday? Cheers, - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCOIp7Eh8oWxevnjQRAsSNAJ9oQ38MvqLui9228iGuL7oVwTHvgQCfZEPb gZC1GsVBnBG+O2wVSZw/ZVQ= =ldIt -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: [ALUG] Unable to edit meta info (solved)
by Wayne Stallwood 15 Mar '05

15 Mar '05

On Sunday 13 March 2005 2:55 pm, Chris Walker wrote: > Have you tried, or asking a.n.other to try, editing those files on a > Windows box to see if it's a problem with the file itself? Thanks all who responded but I have now solved this problem. In a perfect example of not checking the bleeding obvious, it was because some of the files were set to read only (this makes sense as for a while all of my mp3's were held on CD's and I think when you copy files from a CD in windows the Read only attribute stays set) To be honest in my defence I didn't even know ext3 had a read only file attribute, the existence of which seems a little redundant anyway. The behaviour seems a little erratic in Linux (remember that I was able to delete the file using konqueror, but not change the meta info) and it has been completely erratic in Windows except when in the DOS (s)hell for ages

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Kit Meet - 20th March @ UEA
by Elisabeth 15 Mar '05

15 Mar '05

Sunday 20 March Constable Terrace Room A Start at 14:00 Bring software, laptops, pcs, monitors, pdas, peripherals, cables, bits and pieces... Share and enjoy. e

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RE: [ALUG] Kit Meet - 20th March @ UEA
by Keith Watson 15 Mar '05

15 Mar '05

From: Mike Morton Sent: 15 March 2005 13:36 > > I've got my home machine, which has fristrated me by being > apparently un-Linuxable. What is most galling is that 98 > works fine. I'd love to bring it along if anybody feels like > a challenge. > It's no fun being 'fristrated' - really makes your eyes water :o) Have you tried booting from a live linux CD (e.g. knoppix. gnoppix, etc)? > I've also got a coffee machine in my office I could bring if a > supply of free tasty caffeinated beverage would be appreciated. We in ALUG can resist anything, apart from temptation! :o) 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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Request for mousemats
by Elisabeth 14 Mar '05

14 Mar '05

Please does anyone have spare mousemats to donate to my electro-acoustic composition project? And if so can they bring them to the Kit Meet (20th March, UEA)? e/sunflowerinrain

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Reminder - Kit Meet - Sunday 20th March 2pm - 6pm @ UEA
by Kirsten Naylor 14 Mar '05

14 Mar '05

Hi all! This is to remind everyone that there will be a meeting at UEA (Constable Terrace Room A) on Sunday 20th March, starting at 2pm and carrying on until about 6pm, after which there is a possibility of some of us wandering off for a few pints together. As Eli said in her announcement post, bring software, laptops, pcs, monitors, pdas, peripherals, cables, bits and pieces. (However there is no obligation to bring anything!) Bring multi-way adaptors, too, so we can plug everything in. There'll be plenty of space to set things up, and if anyone has a problem they'd like help solving or has a bit of kit they'd like to show off, there'd be plenty of interest all round. Information about finding the venue and where to park is at http://www.uea.ac.uk/how_to_find.html Hope to see everyone there who came to the City Gate on Thursday, and plenty more besides! /Kirsten

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Thursday Social Meeting Report Thingummy, sortof.
by Brett Parker 14 Mar '05

14 Mar '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi all, Just a quick thankyou to all that turned up to the social meet in the city gate on thursday last week, it was good to see you all, and I hope to see you all again at future events. As usual a very varied set of topics was covered, not least of all the sausages from the market, Jonathan's funky new toy, Java stuff (sorry Peter, I didn't mean to go off on one on how much I hate that language, again ;), Beer, and the shifting away from the now beer devoid city gate to the reindeer for the next social meeting. So, next month we will be holding the social meeting on Thursday, 14th April, in the Reindeer (which reminds me, I should get something done about making a directions page to that), if you don't know where the Reindeer is, but do know where the City Gate is, then it's very easy to find... Stand outside the City Gate facing the road, turn your head to the right slightly, it's the pub just over there, with the sign outside that says "The Reindeer". It's an Elgoods pub, and has very nice beer on all of the time, including ~ 4 or 5 guests. Again, thank you all for turning up, I hope that you all enjoyed the evening, and that we'll see you all again. I expect that we'll see some of you at UEA on Sunday, 20th March, or this coming Sunday, if you prefer. Thanks, - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCNfijEh8oWxevnjQRAty+AJ0YeCGJ8hgWJWpVtRalVL0HMU65QgCgx6WO RF+nsvX+NI73K7Xt7EBpuDE= =csCm -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Unable to edit meta info
by Wayne Stallwood 13 Mar '05

13 Mar '05

Since getting my Mp3 player downstairs (which relies heavily on the ID3 tags for it's indexing) it has become apparent that some of the Meta info on files in my collection heeds a serious overhaul. However whole sections of my collection seem to have ID3 tags that I am unable to edit for some reason. A right click in Konqueror to access the Meta Info tab allows me to view the existing tag fields and type in new contents, but silently fails to write the results back. Using Amarok to edit the tags causes the following error "TagLib claims this file is not writable" I have checked and double checked the permissions and can in fact from Amarok delete files happily (even one of the files I am having the problems with) So it's not a read only permissions thing. Is there a way I don't know about to write protect the ID3 tags ? and if so how do I unset it ? The files in my collection have been ripped over a variety of platforms and using different encoders, the ones lacking meta info were probably ripped on Windows using some plug in for Winamp or something like that. It's only a couple of groups of files in my collection that have this problem (but that means about 1000 files) but the fact that they are in groups suggests that they were all ripped using the same (now forgotten) method. Once I have fixed this all I need to to is recompile Amarok to enable Musicbrainz and I can get all my files nicely indexed.

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Linux Media Server
by Wayne Stallwood 12 Mar '05

12 Mar '05

I am looking for a (preferably open source) UPnP media server. I have found TwonkyVision (http://www.twonkyvision.de/UPnP/) which does what I want (serve mp3 files to a wireless media appliance) and there is even a free (but not open) version that has just enough functionality to get me by. But I would far prefer to use an Open Source alternative (if one exists) Anyone out there played with this stuff before ? Also in the installation instructions for TwonkyVision it says "Make sure that you have a multicast route set for the server by issuing a "route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0 dev eth0"." Not knowing much about multicast I thought I would pass this through the ALUG sanity filter. Is there a specific subnet reserved for multicast traffic that I must use (as defined in the above route statement) ? What happens if my local subnet is different ?

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RE: [ALUG] Linux Media Server
by Karl Foley 11 Mar '05

11 Mar '05

> Anyone out there played with this stuff before ? No, not really. The only opensource media stuff I have played with was VideoLan for multicasting DVD video over a wireless network. http://www.videolan.org/ > Also in the installation instructions for TwonkyVision it says > "Make sure that you have a multicast route set for the server by issuing a > "route add -net 224.0.0.0 netmask 240.0.0.0 dev eth0"." > > Not knowing much about multicast I thought I would pass this through the > ALUG > sanity filter. Is there a specific subnet reserved for multicast traffic > that > I must use (as defined in the above route statement) ? What happens if my > local subnet is different ? It's not a subnet, it's a whole new class off addresses. You've probably heard of class A, B and C ip addresses right? Multicast uses class D addresses. Multicast addresses range from 224.0.0.0 right up to 239.255.255.255. Think of each multicast address as a channel on which servers can send info that can be received by clients tuned to the same channel/multicast address. It differs from broadcast in that broadcast goes to all hosts (if allowed by the routers) whereas multicast only goes to "tuned in" hosts. Clients tell their routers they're interested using a protocol called IGMP (Internet Group Messaging Protocol). Network stuff uses it to communicate with all the time. Now it's common to see streaming media using it. The BBC are even transmitting on it experimentally. http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/streams.html

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Its enough to make you become a t e r r o r i st!
by tom potts 11 Mar '05

11 Mar '05

http://www.theregister.com/2005/03/11/ms_specialist_schools_deal/ whatever happened to democracy and the rule of law? Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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ALUG Social Meeting, 10th March @ the City Gate, Norwich
by Brett Parker 10 Mar '05

10 Mar '05

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, As is customary for the second thursday of the month, there will be an ALUG social meeting held in the City Gate, Norwich this Thursday evening (Thursday 10th March, 2005). We start at 8pm, and generally will natter about anything and everything... Top on my list this week is the nightmares I'm having with my laptop... For those of you that haven't attended the social in the City Gate, the basic way this works is: people turn up, people talk to each other, people exchange knowledge, feelings, and general chatter. We all leave the pub thinking "that was nice". Directions to the city gate can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/citygate.html I hope to see some of you there. Thanks, - -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFCLH2dEh8oWxevnjQRAlkLAKCZCYd6TZCYHw8u4H9+Xu81vazDegCfYYM1 2vFkd08HHMCnOLOWCVAV+2Y= =5el7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Giant swap file
by Jenny Hopkins 10 Mar '05

10 Mar '05

Hi List, I appear to have turned my 120G backup server into a giant swap file. I typed mkswap -v1 /dev/hda (may have been hda1) instead of /dev/hda5. I've been battling for a day and am not much further down the line. I'm currently booted into knoppix. I'm trying: root@0[sda5]# mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1/ -t ext3 mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/hda1, or too many mounted file systems root@0[sda5]# dumpe2fs -h /dev/hda1 dumpe2fs 1.35 (28-Feb-2004) dumpe2fs: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/hda1 Couldn't find valid filesystem superblock. cfdisk reports my partitions as they should be with the filesystem as linux. Is there any hope? Thanks. Jenny

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net-snmp, snmp, confused about libraries
by Chris Green 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

I have a utility which says it requires net-snmp, OK, that's a normal sort of statement. However the ./configure script actually asks for 'lsnmp', i.e. it's looking for linsnmp.so when it builds. I have installed lib-snmp but it doesn't provide a libsnmp.so and there really doesn't seem to be such a thing as just an snmp library. Can anyone throw any light on this confusion? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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epia via motherboards & frame buffer
by J Taylor 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

Ok, I've got several of these boards and have installed a couple of different linux's on each one, but can't seem to get frame buffer to work under any distribution, which is a pain because they all seem to install that by default, and it is something that I would like to have installed. Has anyone else had problems with these? I can currently boot fine by saying things like linux video=vga16:off at lilo and know i can disable it in otherways, so my question isnt how to disable it, its how to make it work. I get really garbled screens once the frame buffering module kicks in. I have a M class mboard with Nemiah 1gig proccies.. suggestions / proposals / jokes or insults welcome...

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RE: [ALUG] epia via motherboards & frame buffer
by Keith Watson 08 Mar '05

08 Mar '05

> From: Edward Taylor Sent: 05 March 2005 13:01 > > I'm not planning on running X at all (yet) but would like to get framebuffer > to work. Have tried 2.20 and 2.24, but don't really know much > about "how" frame buffer works or what and why. What is strange is that > noone else I know with one of these boards has registered any trouble with > installing. Have you tried booting with a live CD like knoppix? (although I'm not sure if that uses frambuffers by default) It's helped my in the past when I wasn't sure if a problem was hardware related or not. Regards, Keith ____________ Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer? - Shalt thou be saved and hear the whole world cry? - HP Blavatsky

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IRC meeting reminder
by Adam Bower 07 Mar '05

07 Mar '05

Hi people, It appears that the irc meeting reminder has gone MIA. If you follow this link you can read it http://lists.blackcatnetworks.co.uk/main/2005-January/020548.html Um, and irc meetings don't tend to have as much momentum as in the past as there is pretty much always people hanging around on irc talking loads of nonsense (but we do try and help newbies out if they have problems etc.). Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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Gallery
by Jenny Hopkins 07 Mar '05

07 Mar '05

I've just installed Gallery on Debian testing - a web-based photo album run on php. It's really excellent: I've got three years worth of completely unmanaged photos on my computer that I've been meaning to sort out and name and print. The one odd thing I notice so far is that not all the text appears until the mouse rolls over it. Anyone else tried Gallery? Jenny

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Introducing myself
by mike.banahan＠cutterproject.co.uk 06 Mar '05

06 Mar '05

Hi folks - Ted Harding persuaded me to join the list, I should have done so ages ago. For those who don't know me, for the last ten years I have run GBdirect in Leeds, a mostly open-source oriented consultancy. I'm a committee member of UKUUG and The Open Source Consortium (OSC) as well as being CTO of OpenForumEurope and involved with the universities OSS Watch group. A relatively new venture is this Cutter Project thing about using thin-client Linux in schools. Nowadays I live in Ely. Apart from Open Source stuff the main interest is drinking - so who's coming to the Ely CAMRA Beer festival next Saturday? See you there? How about a PGP key-signing session while we can still stand? Mike -- Mike Banahan Cutter Project - desktop Linux systems for schools and offices 0870 350 1694

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FW: BBC Working Lunch, Orwell High School
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 06 Mar '05

06 Mar '05

Hi Folks, Mike Banahan (of UKUUG) dropped a couple of us a line having come across our recent exchanges on ALUG about the "Working Lunch" program. I'm forwarding an extract (below) which points to the Cutter Project website (which was the topic of the BBC program). I'm very impressed by the way the project is written up and presented on the website, and if any of you can think of places where it might be taken up, this could only be for the greater good of all! Best wishes, Ted. -----FW: <20050305191408.GA25899(a)lager.gbdirect.co.uk>----- Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2005 19:14:08 +0000 From: mike.banahan(a)cutterproject.co.uk To: Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk, karl(a)thefoleyhouse.co.uk Subject: BBC Working Lunch, Orwell High School Hi guys - I saw your posting to the ALUG archives. [...] The case study is on The Cutter Project website, see http://www.cutterproject.co.uk Cheers, Mike Banahan --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 06-Mar-05 Time: 09:19:04 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Re: [ALUG] Travel Towards Debian
by John Seago 06 Mar '05

06 Mar '05

On Sunday 06 Mar 2005 06:26, Tim Green <timothy.j.green(a)gmail.com> wrote: > ... only download the first CD and install any missing packages from > the Internet, especially as you'll want to do an apt-get -u > dist-upgrade when Sarge is properly released, and probably a few more > times inbetween now and then. Sorry, that was an illustration of the difference between the two, I don't think I actually use more than 10% of what's on the Slackware disks. Whilst I bought the whole set, ('Sage'), from Steve McIntyre in order to pay for what I was gettitng, what I'm using is a downloaded version of the new 'Sarge' disk one and an ftp install of the rest of the system. I'm still having problems getting it to go into a text login and then using <startx>, I've commented out the <gdm> line, but I then get the text login and startx on both root and user, but then end up with a Gnome GUI. But I'm Googling away and keep finding helpful bits and I will get there this time. -- John Seago GNU/Linux User #219566 (http://counter.li.org) AFFS (http://www.affs.org.uk/)

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