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10372 discussions

Any experience with Brother printers here?
by Chris Green 13 Jan '05

13 Jan '05

I'm thinking of buying an 'all-in-one' printer to save space in our home office and some of the Brother models seem to offer all we want at a reasonable price. In particular we're interested in the MFC3345CN and the MFC5840CN. I've not had particularly good experience with Brother printers, we had an HL1060 laser for quite a while and it was never really quite as good as it should have been. The HP1150 laser we replaced it with is much better and more trouble-free. However the MFC3345CN and MFC5840CN. are inkjets so are rather different. Does anyone have any experience with these two (or similar) Brother printers? They both offer:- 20ppm B&W, 15ppm colour inkjet printing (take the speeds with a pinch of salt, isn't really important). Fax Scanner (MFC3345CN sheet feed, MFC5840CN flat bed) Photo printing with photo card readers Copier function Automatic Document Feeder What I'm particularly interested in is:- Paper handling reliability and space used by paper in and out. Quality of printing (compared with HP 840C for example) Linux compatibility -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Where has everyone gone?
by Chris Green 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Where's everyone gone? It's been very quiet here for the past few days. Or has something gone wrong with my E-Mail (I'm seeing my own messages though). I'm still wondering about printers for our SoHo system, I'm not so sure that the Brother all-in-one is the right way to go now. What we have at present is:- Old Brother thermal paper fax machine HP840C inkjet Epson 1650 photo scanner HP1150 laser printer I'd really like to take less space for all these facilities which was why I was looking at the Brother, it would replace the fax machine and the HP840C and give standalone copying as well. To bring Linux into the equation whatever printer(s) I get have to work for Linux as well as for Win2k. Currently the HP840C and 1150 are on a print server and there are reasonable Linux drivers for both these printers. It gets more complicated with newer printers though as many only have USB and that means I'd probably have to have them connected to the Linux box and make them available using Samba. Some printers have built in networking (like the Brothers) and that adds a further grey area in that I don't know if the networking they provide is compatible with Linux. One thing I'd really like is a duplex (i.e. double sided) printer which would replace the HP1150 as the workhorse printer. Many of the latest generation of colour lasers have reasonably cheap duplex add-ons (or have it built in) so this could well be one way to go, though it doesn't save any space. Again does anyone know if any of the cheap colour laser printers work well with Linux? (e.g. Samsung CLP500/CLP550, Epson C900, C1100, Minolta 2300). -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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ALUG site hosting and Library things
by Wayne Stallwood 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Who is responsible for the hosting of the ALUG site, does anybody know if it has the facilities I would need to host the ALUG Library there ? Primarily I need MySQL and PHP, although shell access would also be nice. I really don't mind hosting it in some free webspace I got from my ISP (where it is now) we could link to it from the main ALUG site and all would be well.....except for a few tiny things. Plusnet's CGI and MySQL servers are a bit slow sometimes. It's just not as tidy when a link for an ALUG facility takes you to a third parties domain for what is supposed to be part of the LUG. But mainly there are a couple of things I would like to add down the road that really aren't going to be that easy with it where it is right now. One is that I would (eventually) like to create (or convince some kind soul to contribute) some php hack that lists book reviews on a page on the ALUG site outside of the library login. As pointed out by Ashley this may help us get more books donated in the future by publishers. Another thing I thought of is tying the library registration into the list subscription mechanism, so as soon as you join the list you get an email with a username and random password from the library. Unfortunately both of these things really need access to the library database from outside my hosting provider's domain (something I don't think plusnet provide)

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make (newbie)
by Richard Lewis 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Hello ALUGers, I'm embarrsed to admit that I'm just trying to use make for the first time! I'm trying to get it to automate some XSLT transformations for me and I've got this so far: ======================================== SAXON=saxon8 FOP=fop BUILD_DIR=www TEXT_ONLY_BUILD_DIR=www/text $(BUILD_DIR)/index.html: index.xml meta-data.xml $(SAXON) -o $(BUILD_DIR)/index.html index.xml\ static-site/jounral-front-page2default.xsl ======================================== but it keeps telling me that there's "No rule to make target 'index.xml'". I thought that it was supposed to go like this: target: source command and that, in this case, 'source' would be 'index.xml meta-data.xml' and it would make the target if the source files had changed. Can someone put me right? Cheers, Richard

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 10 Jan '05

10 Jan '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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reminder, Christmas dinner Friday 14th and City Gate Thursday 13th
by adam＠thebowery.co.uk 08 Jan '05

08 Jan '05

There should be several of us at the City Gate on Thursday next week, details here http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/norwich.html Also next Friday is the Alug xmas dinner, this will be at the Buckinghamshire Arms which is in Blickling near Aylsham North Norfolk. http://www.buckinghamshirearms-norfolk.co.uk/ so far 10 people have confirmed, if you would also like to come to this dinner let me know via email as they would like to know the numbers in advance. The Bucks is a nice pub, sitting just outside Blickling Hall, they always have a few good Norfolk cask ales on, and every time I have eaten there the food has been fantastic. They also don't have things like fruit machines and jukeboxes (which imho is an advantage) to make noise at you and get in the way of conversation. Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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Anyone interested in DDS-2 tape drives?
by Chris Green 08 Jan '05

08 Jan '05

Before I try selling them elsewhere (on Ebay?) is anyone here interested in buying an HP C1553A DDS-2 tape drive? I have two of them and about 30 tapes. They can read/write 60, 90 and 120 metre tapes, up to 8Gb a 120 metre tape. They have a SCSI interface and I may be able to find a SCSI card to go with them if necessary. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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RE: [ALUG] Syleham Meet on 28th November
by Keith Watson 06 Jan '05

06 Jan '05

I shall definitely be going along to this (acts of God excepted!) so anyone in the Norwich area who wants a lift let me know ASAP. :) (work email keith.watson at kewill.com or private email kpwatson at ukfsn.org). Who else is coming? Anybody interested in me doing a demo of converting a Windows only box into a dual boot Windows+GNU/Linux (Debian) system using Knoppix? Let me know via the list otherwise I'll assume it's of no interest to anyone. Incidentally I've been testing this out and a basic Windows (2000) install takes just over an hour and the conversion takes 45 mins. And the Debian install has all the functionality of Knoppix (as opposed to the very basic Windows set-up). Here's what I propose; 1) boot box with Knoppix and run the install script (includes using QTParted to repartition the disk) which sets up a 2.4 and 2.6 Linux kernel based system and uses LILO as the boot loader. [and, if we have a web feed...] 2) set up a Debian sources list and use synaptic to update the software to latest versions 3) show how easy it is to maintain the GNU/Linux software on a Debian set-up by using synaptic. As there'll be some time spent waiting for things to load off CD or from the net we can talk around some of the issues. I haven't a spare printer ATM so if anyone's interested and wants to bring one along we can also have a go at setting up a printer. If there's time I'd also like to have a chat about making backups using gnu/tar as I'm playing around with putting a script together to do this and need all the help I can get :) Regards, Keith ____________ ARMOR, n. - The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is a blacksmith. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Review of Linux Server Hacks in ALUG library now on ALUG website
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 05 Jan '05

05 Jan '05

After finishing O'Reilly's Linux Server Hacks book (which is part of the ALUG library), I have written a small review: http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?Read%20LSH%20Review I recommend anyone who has borrowed a book from the library in the past to write a review. After talking to Adam about the library a few weeks ago, he informed me that this is one of the reasons that O'Reilly supplied the books to us to begin with. So, write your reviews and we may get more books :) -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com "Some people see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not?" - Robert F. Kennedy (originally George Bernard Shaw)

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Linux, TV cards and DVD recording
by Barry Samuels 03 Jan '05

03 Jan '05

I am thinking of getting a digital TV card for my computer so that I can record programmes for viewing later on my television using a DVD player. I already have a DVD R/W drive on my computer ( 2 x 1.3 MHz CPUs ). I'm using a 2.4 kernel and don't propose moving to 2.6 in the near future. I'm planning to use what I believe is called Terrestrial digital broadcasting and NOT satallite broadcasts. I've borrowed someone's set top box for a short time and was able to get BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and Channel 5. This was using an ordinary pre-channel 5 aerial so I'm hoping that a proper digital aerial will give more channels. According to freeview.co.uk I can't get any digital channels for my postcode, BBC tells me that I can get only BBC channels and dtg.org tells me I can get all of them. Ain't the web wonderful? This raises lots of questions and the more research I do the longer the list of questions seems to grow. I'm thinking of an Hauppauge WinTV-Nova-T PCI as I understand it works with Linux. Is it going to be difficult to set up? Any suggestions/ recommendations for other PCI cards? The specification for this says that it accepts UHF input only but what I want to know is can I plug my tv aerial lead into it and expect it to work? What Linux software is available/needed? I don't understand a lot of the terminology and don't know what to search for. I run Debian Sarge/ Testing. How easy/difficult is it to create DVD discs with, for example, 2 hours of recording? What about file sizes greater than 2 GB? Do I need to take the different DVD formats ( DVD-R DVD+R ) into account when using a DVD player for playback? Watching the only DVD disc I have (Life on Earth - BBC), which came with a packet of cornflakes, I see that moving objects are noticeably blurred. Is this a function of my video setup Matrox Millenium AGP. Any comments and advice would be appreciated at this stage. I feel like someone who's learning to fly for the very first time in dense fog! Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 03 Jan '05

03 Jan '05

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Transcode tips
by Wayne Stallwood 02 Jan '05

02 Jan '05

Maybe I am not even using the right tool here...but I have a DVD (or actually a set of DVD's) to which my client holds full rights, they are unencumbered by any CSS copy control system. We have a solid state media playback system that we want to play back the DVD content from a memory card. From what I can tell from the Engrish manual that came with the media player the video format needs to be VCD (which I gather is mpeg1) Try as I might I can't get transcode to do anything but come up with cryptic error messages, first it was complaining that- [transcode] warning : (encoder.c) audio codec not supported by export module That was using the following command transcode -i vts_01_1.vob -o /home/wayne/wayne.mpg -x mpeg2 -y mpeg2enc -F vcd Now I am not bothered about audio for this task....so I tried transcode -i vts_01_1.vob -o /home/wayne/wayne.mpg -x mpeg2,null -y mpeg2enc,null -F vcd Which gives me the following output at the bottom of this message. Anybody able to point me at a readable howto or tell me what I am doing wrong..I am sure it shouldn't be this hard. transcode v0.6.12 (C) 2001-2003 Thomas Oestreich, 2003-2004 T. Bitterberg [transcode] (probe) suggested AV correction -D 0 (0 ms) | AV 0 ms | 0 ms [transcode] auto-probing source vts_01_1.vob (ok) [transcode] V: import format | MPEG-2 (V=mpeg2|A=null) [transcode] V: AV demux/sync | (1) sync AV at initial MPEG sequence [transcode] V: import frame | 720x576 1.25:1 encoded @ 4:3 [transcode] V: bits/pixel | 0.174 [transcode] V: decoding fps,frc | 25.000,3 [transcode] A: import format | 0x10001 LPCM [48000,16,2] 1536 kbps [transcode] A: export | disabled [transcode] V: encoding fps,frc | 25.000,3 [transcode] A: bytes per frame | 7680 (7680.000000) [transcode] A: adjustment | 0@1000 [transcode] V: video buffer | 10 @ 720x576 [import_null.so] v0.2.0 (2002-01-19) (video) null | (audio) null [import_mpeg2.so] v0.4.0 (2003-10-02) (video) MPEG2 [export_null.so] v0.1.2 (2001-08-17) (video) null | (audio) null [export_mpeg2enc.so] v1.1.10 (2003-10-30) (video) MPEG 1/2 [import_mpeg2.so] tcextract -x mpeg2 -i "vts_01_1.vob" -d 0 | tcdecode -x mpeg2-d 0 [export_mpeg2enc.so] *** init-v *** ! [export_mpeg2enc.so] cmd=mpeg2enc -v 0 -I 0 -q 3 -f 0 -4 2 -2 3 -b 1800 -F 3 -np -a 2 -o "/home/wayne/wayne.mpg.m1v" sh: line 1: mpeg2enc: command not found wayne@linux:/media/dvd/video_ts>

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RE: [ALUG] Christmas Meal
by Elisabeth 02 Jan '05

02 Jan '05

>===== Original Message From Anthony Anson <tony.anson(a)zetnet.co.uk> ===== >from Brett Parker: > >> Of course, the other thing that now needs organizing (not one of alugs >> strong points at the moment ;) is how the hell we all get there, but >> that's not such a big problem :) > >That's reassuring - I thought it was. And getting home again an even >bigger one. Only if you can't stagger to one of the cars. e

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Debian and large hard drives
by tom potts 31 Dec '04

31 Dec '04

It sounds as if you've got a version with an old 137G disk limit. At a rough guess I would suggest you partition and possibly (minimum) install of mandrake so you can check for any usefull settings. You should then be able to install debian in its place and then re-compile the kernel with >137G support - check its available first. Then the NTFS partition should become visible and mountable (readonly) under Linux. If you wish to 'communicate' Linux<->XP you may wish to consider a smaller Win32 type partition which can be mounted under Debian and XP then you could just partition the hard drive and then stick debian on it and ignore the fact it cant read 137G+ of bug ridden code which sounds like a blessing to me! Happy new day counter overflow error! ___________________________________________________________ ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

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Re: [ALUG] Debian and large hard drives
by adam＠thebowery.co.uk 31 Dec '04

31 Dec '04

On Fri, Dec 31, 2004 at 11:52:58AM +0000, Chris Walker wrote: > On Fri 31 Dec, tom potts wrote: > > > > It sounds as if you've got a version with an old 137G > > disk limit. > > But it's virtually the latest version on the site. We found a patched kernel > which somebody had posted but my son wasn't keen on using that as it would > have been out of step with everything else. I just had another thought, you are trying to install using a 2.4 series kernel and not a 2.2 series kernel? (I /think/ that the default for 3.0 was still a 2.2 kernel and you needed to tell it at boot time to use a 2.4 series kernel) Oh, and after a bit more digging, are you installing Windows XP SP1 (or SP2) as they both support disks larger than 137 Gigs, plain old Windows XP doesn't support 137GB disks until you apply a service pack. Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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Re: [ALUG] Debian and large hard drives
by adam＠thebowery.co.uk 31 Dec '04

31 Dec '04

On Fri, Dec 31, 2004 at 12:54:18PM +0000, Chris Walker wrote: > > It could be that the BIOS on the machine doesn't know about large disks > > (i.e. greater than 137G) try looking for a BIOS update for the machine, > > as if the Debian installer is going by the size reported by the BIOS > > then you will see a problem. I would expect once you have the machine > > installed it will work fine as the kernel will talk direct to the IDE > > controller rather than look at geometry via the BIOS. > > But Windows sees the large capacity now as does NetBSD. So why doesn't > Debian? As a guess, the Debian installer/partitioner is going by the size reported by the BIOS, NetBSD and Windows are going by what the disk and controller say. I could be wrong as I havn't bothered to google it up, its just a suggestion :) Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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Re: [ALUG] Debian and large hard drives
by adam＠thebowery.co.uk 31 Dec '04

31 Dec '04

On Thu, Dec 30, 2004 at 09:27:14PM +0000, Chris Walker wrote: > I think he'd still like Debian though and on the large drive. He's currently > contemplating installing it on a smaller i.e. less than 137 GB drive which is > also in the machine but currently used. > > What does he need to do to an install on the large drive? He doesn't live in > this part of the world and isn't an ALUG subscriber so I'll have to be the go > between. It could be that the BIOS on the machine doesn't know about large disks (i.e. greater than 137G) try looking for a BIOS update for the machine, as if the Debian installer is going by the size reported by the BIOS then you will see a problem. I would expect once you have the machine installed it will work fine as the kernel will talk direct to the IDE controller rather than look at geometry via the BIOS. Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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Christmas Meal
by Wayne Stallwood 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

Have we got a firm date for the Christmas meal yet ? I remember there being some discussion about the 7th or the 14th of Jan and I think we have established Buckinghamshire Arms as the venue (or was that just a suggestion that has stuck in my mind) My head is still clearing after the Seasonal Event of Overconsumption and I want to get my social calendar in shape before the Predicted Post New Year's Eve Blackout (currently scheduled to last until at least Jan the 5th)

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'locate', does anyone find it useful?
by Chris Green 29 Dec '04

29 Dec '04

I tend always to use find when looking for files but recently discovered 'locate'. However the 'locate' way of doing things strikes me a not very useful as it searches for the string you give it in every part of the filename which, in general, gives far too many hits. E.g. if I do "locate organ" in the hope of finding some file containing organ music I get thousands of hits with 'Korganizer' etc. in. I also tried "locate -r '^organ" but that found nothing (which is also wrong). "find / -name 'organ*'" does what I want (if slowly), is there any way of doing the same search with locate? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 27 Dec '04

27 Dec '04

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Regular expressions
by Nick Daniels 26 Dec '04

26 Dec '04

Hi I use mailfilter for deleting spam on server Since I never get spam sent to above address, but xyzzy(a)danielsn.freeserve.co.uk etc. can anybody tell me a regular expression for "If not above address deny". This is the type of term used in Mailfilter: DENY=^To:.*nigel DENY=^Subject:.*spam Regards - Nick Daniels

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Modem/Router recommendation
by Nick Daniels 24 Dec '04

24 Dec '04

Hi I seem to be getting an ever increasing number of requests for Linux details from people.usually ordinary home /office users The people concerned are able to install it themselves, but the main problem is they are using the supplied modem - Speedtouch USB Can anyboy recommend a cheap Modem/Router which will work straight out of the box for Linux? Most of the users quickly give up when they find they cannot get straight onto the internet, those who do usually stay converted Regards Nick Daniels Many thanks for your help during the year

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Linux Virgins Reviewed
by kpwatson＠pop3.ukfsn.org 24 Dec '04

24 Dec '04

Now I don't want to raise the hopes of any of our unattached and footloose members but you might be interested in this site <www.linuxvirgins.com> For the PC inclined amongst us, have a joyful solstice festival and best wishes for the coming year , for the non-PC, A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year. :o) Keith

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.mime_types or .mime.types?
by Chris Green 24 Dec '04

24 Dec '04

Should a MIME types file be called .mime.types or .mime_types? I have both on this Solaris box and want to know which one to get rid of! -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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Can one turn off Firefox's "guess what you're going to type"?
by Chris Green 23 Dec '04

23 Dec '04

Firefox's "guessing" is getting on my nerves and I'd really like to turn it off but I can't see anywhere in Preferences that would do it. The way it works in the address box is just about OK, there you can hit Tab to select the first "guess". However elsewhere this facility doesn't seem to be available so you have to move to the mouse to do anything useful. The real nuisance is that the "guess" often obscures useful and relevant information. Does anyone else find this 'feature' annoying and distracting? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

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