- main - earth.li

[ALUG Announce][ALUG] Reminder: Norwich City Gate meeting Thursday 10th November!
by Brett Parker 11 Nov '04

11 Nov '04

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- As per usual, this Thursday (11th November) we'll be congregating in the City Gate from around 8pm. Adam, Brett, Kirsten and Jonathan should be there, and Eli might also make it. We should have a penguin in attendance so you know who we are, if not look for the Linux Magazines on the tables, sometimes we lurk at the far end of the building in the restaurant area. If you want to do gpg keysigning then at least a few of us should be there with sigs and id. Full details can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/2004/all-NorThu.html Directions at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/citygate.html Pictures from August of people so you know who to look out for: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ -- Brett Parker web: http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ email: iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

1 0

Re: [ALUG] Skype is pretty good
by Wayne Stallwood 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

On Tuesday 09 November 2004 12:08 pm, you wrote: > On Mon, 2004-11-08 at 23:58 +0100, Wayne Stallwood wrote: > > But my headset is evil, it digs into my ears and the sound quality is > > terrible. > > I've ordered a Sennheiser PC 155 USB today. > I'll post my experiences to the list... > > -- Martijn oooh Sennheiser, I like their kit. Got a lovely pair of their headphones plugged into my Hi-Fi downstairs, fantastic things. Didn't realise that they made computer headsets though, I'll have to check out their stuff. Let us know what happens with the PC155's when you get them. Following on from the Plantronics post I mailed their customer support, I give them 3 points for responding in a day and 2 points for even knowing what Linux is. "Wayne, Currently Plantronics has no active driver development plan for Linux. The DSP headsets have been found to work as an audio input and output device under Linux if the kernel version is 2.4.2 or higher compiled with USB support. The inline volume controls and mute switch will not work however, since these would require a compatible HID driver for Linux." I have since mailed them back asking if they would ever consider opening up the device specs so that the community can sort out Linux support for them. I am guessing that I'll either get no response or "no" but hey it's worth a shot. What with skype seeming to get some sort market penetration and having Linux support surely the momentum for things such as this to be supported must be there now.

2 1

Online calender - any suggestions?
by Dave Briggs 10 Nov '04

10 Nov '04

I am looking for an online calender for a website, largely so that I can access it from any computer wherever I am. Has anyone had a happy experience of using any such system on their sites? Google and Sourceforge reveal there are quite a few about so I thought I would fish for some recommendations before going through them all myself. While I am just after a calendering system at the moment, anythingt that offers more features than that wouldn't be a problem. I have PHP and a MySQL database to spare, so that's no problem. Thanks Dave -- Dave Briggs http://www.palimpsest.org.uk - The Home of Informed Debate on the Web

3 3

Mandrake Community is not intended to be stable...
by syd 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

Brief reminder/warning/explanation re Mandrake Community editions: the 'community' editions are an ongoing beta-testing exercise by the mandrake community. This is s/w that is very likely to be broken. It is not going to give an stable mandrake install. Unless you really want to be part of a beta-testing exercise - including frequent large updates- don't use the Community edition - use the major 'Official' releases. Syd

7 6

Primary keys in mysql databases
by Chris Green 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

Lots of the GUI front ends for mysql that I have been looking at are very insistent that the tables one uses have a unique primary key to guarantee uniqueness. I don't quite understand why this is so necessary but this isn't particularly important at the moment as the database tables I've imported have unique rows. However neither mySql nor the front-ends seem to know about unique keys made up of more than one column, is this because such a thing is regarded as a rather advanced approach or because it's actually not possible in mySql? My unique key is the combination of date (the date of the transaction) and the transaction description. This means that there can be the same transaction on different dates, e.g. if I buy some stamps on two different dates the description can be 'Stamps' for both of them. The advantage is that I am protected against entering the same transaction twice by mistake as this will transgress the unique key requirement. If I really *did* buy stamps twice on the same day then I just put 'Stamps again' or some such. The oft recommended 'Auto' column seems a bad way to do things because it doesn't prevent duplicate entries, you could inadvertently put 'Fred Bloggs' into your address book lots of times, each with a different value in the auto 'ID' column. It really seems to me that the auto column approach is a quick and dirty bodge which loses some (most?) of the advantages of a unique key and wastes space as well. Joins between tables can just as easily be done on the 'real' values as on an articifial unique key. My transaction types are held in a separate table and the join to the transactions table (when needed) is simply done with the transaction type code. This again guarantess what one wants which is that one can't enter a non-existent transaction type in the transactions table. I can see no advantage at all in having an additional, numeric, ID column in the transaction types table. Have I missed something here or is it just that the documentation I'm looking at is trying to make things 'simple' and using an auto column is the 'simple' way to do it? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

4 5

Re: [ALUG] Primary keys in mysql databases
by Richard Lewis 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

On Tue, 9 Nov 2004 13:04:49 +0000, "Chris Green" <chris(a)areti.co.uk> said: > Lots of the GUI front ends for mysql that I have been looking at are > very insistent that the tables one uses have a unique primary key to > guarantee uniqueness. > > I don't quite understand why this is so necessary but this isn't > particularly important at the moment as the database tables I've imported > have unique rows. > > However neither mySql nor the front-ends seem to know about unique > keys made up of more than one column, is this because such a thing is > regarded as a rather advanced approach or because it's actually not > possible in mySql? > > My unique key is the combination of date (the date of the > transaction) and the transaction description. This means that there > can be the same transaction on different dates, e.g. if I buy some > stamps on two different dates the description can be 'Stamps' for both > of them. The advantage is that I am protected against entering the > same transaction twice by mistake as this will transgress the unique > key requirement. If I really *did* buy stamps twice on the same day > then I just put 'Stamps again' or some such. > You can do this: CREATE TABLE transactions (date DATE, description TEXT, ...) PRIMARY KEY(date, description) but this will still be true: SELECT date, description FROM transactions WHERE (date=...) AND (description=...) and as for updates, well you handle them using your wrapper code: e.g. in PHP $result = mysql_query("SELECT trans_id FROM transactions WHERE date=" . $_GET['date'] . " AND description LIKE " . $_GET['description'] . " LIMIT 1"); if mysql_num_rows($result) = 0 { mysql_query("INSERT transactions (date, description) VALUES (\"" . $_GET['date'] . "\", \"" . . $_GET['description'] . "\""); } else { echo "<p class=\"error\">Transaction not unique!</p>\n"; } > The oft recommended 'Auto' column seems a bad way to do things because > it doesn't prevent duplicate entries, you could inadvertently put 'Fred > Bloggs' into your address book lots of times, each with a different > value in the auto 'ID' column. It really seems to me that the auto > column approach is a quick and dirty bodge which loses some (most?) of > the advantages of a unique key and wastes space as well. > I think the point of having a field like: CREATE TABLE table (id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY auto_increment, ...) is for when the other fields of your table are not necessarily going to be unique. Like an address book: none of the fields name, address, postcode, telephone etc. *have* to be unique, so an automatic unique, key column is useful, even though the value in it is unrelated to the data itself. It allows you to say things like: SELECT date, subject FROM messages, address_book WHERE (name LIKE "%smith%") AND (messages.from_id=address_book.record_id) > Joins between tables can just as easily be done on the 'real' values > as on an articifial unique key. My transaction types are held in a > separate table and the join to the transactions table (when needed) is > simply done with the transaction type code. This again guarantess what > one wants which is that one can't enter a non-existent transaction type > in the transactions table. I can see no advantage at all in having an > additional, numeric, ID column in the transaction types table. > Yes, if you can guarantee uniqueness in some meaningful field then you don't use an auto_increment field as primary key. > Have I missed something here or is it just that the documentation I'm > looking at is trying to make things 'simple' and using an auto column > is the 'simple' way to do it? > Richard -- Richard Lewis richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk

1 0

Re: Firefox editor
by tom potts 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

I've just updated to Firefox ve 1 releas and http://cuneaform.mozdev.org/editor/index.htm no longer works with it! ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

1 0

test
by syd 09 Nov '04

09 Nov '04

apologies

1 0

Skype is pretty good
by Wayne Stallwood 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

But my headset is evil, it digs into my ears and the sound quality is terrible. Does anybody know if any of the Plantronics USB headsets can be made to work with Linux. At the moment I have the annoying situation where I have a headset plugged into the front panel of my PC, this mutes the speakers (I could solve that but then if I left the headset plugged in I would get an annoying "tish tish tish" comming from the headphones when the music is turned up) So I have to leave the headset unplugged until a call comes in (or I want to make one) and then fumble around to get the Headphone and Mic socket in (or as with the other day, round the wrong way) So I really like the idea of a USB device that (presumably) acts as another sound device, however the Plantronics headsets are not very cheap and I don't want to waste my money if they don't play on Linux

2 2

Further database progress migrating from Access
by Chris Green 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Well I decided that knoda isn't what I need for forms design etc., it's simply not powerful enough, no calulated fields in forms, no triggers, etc. So I was getting a bit despondent really but decided to look and see if the postgresSql site had any useful links, I;m not stuck on mysql, postgresql is just as possible. Well, after a few blind alleys, I came across Rekall and, so far, it looks as if it's just what I want. It works with mysql as well as with other databases so no problems there. It's a KDE application but I just downloaded the source tarball, did a .configure and make and the thing built flawlessly. It took a *long* time though, it's a big application. It seems to have the forms capability that I want. It has macros (rather like access) but also has more (for me) understandable scripts written in python. I'm just exploring at thehme moment but I think I have what I want. It's remarkably well hidden for such a comprehensive application. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

1 0

Speaking of firefox ....
by Chris Green 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Does anyone else find the 'download manager' in Firefox really annoying? You have to actively clean up the old entries if you want it to stay sensibly small instead of occupying a huge chunk of screen. What use is the download manager anyway? I really can't see any use for a history of past downloads. I'd really much prefer the old download system whereby one got a little window popped up for each download which disappears for ever when completed (with the option of keeping it until you dismiss it yourself). By default it produces little screen clutter but it can cope with multiple, simultaneous downloads quite happily. The new system is just a nuisance. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

5 10

Firefox editor
by tom potts 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Someone couldnt finds the editor: http://cuneaform.mozdev.org/editor/index.htm however http://www.fckeditor.net/ can be used 'over the web' so can be made part of a documentation system.... ___________________________________________________________ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun! http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com

3 2

mysql 'forms' data entry designer
by Chris Green 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

My migration of my Access databases to mysql has started. I've got mysql, PHP and apache up and running and I've imported the data from my Access database. I can see it all in phpMyAdmin, most impressive! Now I need to be able to design/build replacements for the Access data input forms and the Access reports. Starting at the input end (seems reasonable!), has anyone got any recommendations for designing input forms for mysql databases? Searching Google isn't very helpful because as soon as you enter 'mysql forms PHP' (with or without the 'PHP' actually) you get zillions of hits on HTML forms for entering data via PHP into a mysql database. The problem is that this gives a rather backwards approach which assumes a 'typical' HTML form and that's not what I want really. For data entry it doesn't really even have to be a web form. What I'm after is essentially a view of my table with some calculations/filters between data entry and the database. I.e. when the 'form' is opened it loads up the whole database table and presents it on screen in tabular fashion. I can edit existing entries simply by moving to them and changing them, I can add entries at the end. Most fields simply get inserted unchanged in the database as I type them but some fields are automatically calculated and inserted when I enter/change other fields in the same row. This is what I've done in Access and I want to do something similar for the mysql database if I can, preferably with some sort of tool to help me! It's the sort of thing Oracle Forms does too. Surely someone must be doing it for mysql. The phpMyAdmin 'Browse' window looks somewhat like what I'm after but I need to be able to edit the data in place (I.e. move to the field and change it), add rows at the end and have 'auto calculated' values. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

2 7

mysql users, I still seem to be a bit confused
by Chris Green 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Well I have just about everything working now. I've managed to install apache2 and PHP5 (I don't quite understand what I did wrong the first time but going back to PHP4 and then to PHP5 again got it working). I've also installed phpMyAdmin and that's working fine too. However I still can't get ordinary users to work the way I expect. I'm using phpMyAdmin to do all this now. I deleted all the entries for user 'chris' and then added a new user 'chris' with host set to 'Any host', with password set to 'No password' and with all privileges set. This appears to work OK, phpMyadmin says I have a user as follows:- chris % No ALL PRIVILEGES Yes Edit (No is 'Password' and Yes is 'Grant') However if I then say 'mysql -uchris' and try 'use fred' I still get:- ERROR 1044: Access denied for user: '@localhost' to database 'fred' If, on the other hand, I do exactly as above except I set host to 'Local' then user chris works as expected. Something is certainly awry somewhere, it may be my understanding but at the very least things are not quite how one would expect from what one is being told. Is there some security thing that refuses to allow an 'Any host' user to have lots of privileges? No, I've tried creating a user with few privileges and 'Any Host' and they get the 'Access denied...' error too. It seems to me that the 'Any Host' doesn't work. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

4 5

Anyone got a spare monitor / swap shop wiki page
by Joe Button 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

Hi. Does anyone else think it might be worth making a wiki page with a list of kit people have available? If people think it's a good idea I'll start one. Which is my way of introducting the cheeky question: Does anyone have a spare monitor they could sell me cheap? Mine died a while ago and I'd rather not buy a brand new one due to a combination of environmental concern and meanness. They seem to go pretty cheaply on ebay but I'd like to avoid the postage cost if possible. Also, can anyone recommend something to do with my old one? As far as I can tell no-one wants to repair it. Cheers, Joe

4 3

Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 08 Nov '04

08 Nov '04

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!)

1 0

mdk 10.1 Off. and nvidia
by Syd Hancock 07 Nov '04

07 Nov '04

Never forget - google is your friend :-) Especially groups.google.com From alt.os.linux.mandrake: >Exactly the same problems here. Then I used the rpm on the December >Linux Format DVD version (media/drivers/) subdirectory. > > nvidia-kernel-2.6.8.1-10mdk-6111-1mdk.i586.rpm >instant success. >There is one dependency. Can't rember whether it was >dkms-nvidia-6111-1mdk.i586.rpm >or >nvidia-6111-3mdk.i586.rpm >either way both are in the /media/drivers/subdirectory >so urpmi nvidia-kernel-2.6.8.1-10mdk-6111-1mdk.i586.rpm >will sort it HTH Syd

2 1

lastlog puzzle
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 07 Nov '04

07 Nov '04

Hi Folks, On one (A) of my 3 running machines, I noticed that 'ls -ls' on /var/log shows: A: 44 -r-------- 1 root root 19136220 Oct 30 10:52 lastlog which is inconsistent: 44K according to $1, but 19136220 bytes (19MB) according to $6. The latter is enormous! However, it seems that it has some validity, since # cat lastlog | wc -c 19136220 gives the same result, here obtained by byte-counting the output of 'cat'. This first got me wondering if the lastlog file or its inode contents were corrupted. (For reference below: I don't have a file /var/log/faillog on this particular machine, A). Interestingly, however, when I look at 'ls -ls' for my two other machines (B & C), I get B: 3 -rw------- 1 root root 12216 Nov 6 15:32 faillog 3 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16128 Nov 6 15:32 lastlog C: 8 -rw------- 1 root root 12072 Nov 4 13:17 faillog 16 -rw-r--r-- 1 root tty 146876 Nov 4 13:17 lastlog and for both machines, and also for both 'faillog' and 'lastlog', I see the same sort of discrepancy between $1 (size in KB) and $6 (size in bytes), the latter being distinctly too big compared with the former. I do not see this discrepancy for any other files in /var/log, on any of the three machines. This suggests that there's something a bit weird about 'lastlog' and 'faillog' as files, and that this is deliberate! And I'm wondering how on earth a 19MB lastlog file could arise (this machine, A, has been in use for a shorter time (about 1 year) than C (about 3.5 years) and much shorter than B (about 7 years); yet the sizes of 'lastlog' are in the reverse order!) The output of the 'lastlog' *command* in all cases is just a few dozen lines; but, again interestingly, doing it on machine (A) (the one with the 19MB lastlog) induces semi-paralysis and much swapping for a while. I'm puzzled! Comments welcome. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 [NB: New number!] Date: 07-Nov-04 Time: 11:15:56 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

3 4

linux laptops
by Syd Hancock 07 Nov '04

07 Nov '04

(Sorry it's not threaded but only reading via online archives at present). The HP offering was disappointing. Very half-hearted effort especially not having the wi-fi configured. One suggestion: get an IBM Thinkpad from ebay and install a mainstream distro. The T series is good (I use a T23) and I have heard good things about the more recent X series as well. Good build quality. Thinkpads are sturdy. Three year warranty so it is easy to get one with a long warranty period remaining - mine came with 2.5 years remaining. Good support under linux with all mainstream distros - I use Mandrake 10.0 Official (although there is a gotcha with the X-windows config that you need to know about before installing). A linux-thinkpads mailing list and plenty of support and advice can be found via google etc. Lots of support for on IBM websites including linux-specific info. Did I say good build quality? :-) I added a wi-fi card and a second battery which swaps with the DVD/CD-R. It is an excellent general-purpose machine. ACPI is apparently problematic with recent 2.6.x kernels. I use APM instead and it works well. HTH Syd

4 4

Trying to install apache2 and PHP5 on slackware9.1
by Chris Green 07 Nov '04

07 Nov '04

I'm trying (as per the subject line) to install apache2 and PHP5 on slackware 9.1. I've uninstalled PHP4 and apache1.3. I've installed the apache2 and PHP5 .tgz packages. I've installed the extra library dependencies that apache2 needs. Now I get the following error when I try and start apache:- Syntax error on line 8 of /etc/apache2/mod_php.conf: Invalid command 'AddType', perhaps mis-spelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration All seems in order to me. There is a line above the line 8 of mod_php.conf which loads the PHP5 library, i.e.:- LoadModule php5_module lib/apache2/libphp5.so No errors are reported for this line. All the lines were produced by script so typos are unlikely. Are there any old libraries in slackware 9.1 that may need updating to get apache2 to work? (I.e. libraries that aren't missing but are too old). Any other ideas? -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

2 1

Mozilla vs Firefox + Thunderbird
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

Hi Folks, Some questions about Mozilla vs Firefox & Thunderbird. Mozilla is an integrated web software suite: browser, mail client, Web page (HTML) editor. Firefox is a web browser (supposed to have HTML editor as well but I couldn't find one in the firefox I recently downloaded). Thunderbird is an email client. Details of all three at http://www.mozilla.org/products For Firefox and Thunderbird, the above website emphasizes enhanced security available in each. Security is not mentioned in the description of Mozilla. It also recommends that, rather than go for Mozilla, one should go for Firefox + Thunderbird. It is stated that Mozilla is not a combination of Firefox + Thunderbird. This leaves me somewhat pondering what the pros and cons may be. There's some advantage, in princple, in having it all rolled into one (as in Mozilla). On the other hand, if there's a distinct security advantage in FF + TB, then that's very tempting. But I have some concern that I couldn't find a Web Page editor in Firefox: as a browser, it seems to have less in it than Mozilla does. It also seems that the download size of Mozilla (12MB) is much less than Firefox (8MB) + Thunderbird (10MB). So if space were an issue, then Moz might be prefereable to FF + TB. On the other hand, the extra space may represent extra and valuable functionality. Any comments? 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 [NB: New number!] Date: 06-Nov-04 Time: 20:43:06 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

3 2

Wireless network problem
by bjsamuels＠beenthere-donethat.org.uk 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

I am having some problems with my very small wireless network. I have ADSL via a 4-port Netgear DG834 router to which is connected my floor-standing machine running Debian Sarge (up to date). Connected to the router is a Netgear WG602 wireless access point. I also have a Dell Latitude (fairly old at 400 MHz) and a Netgear WG511 PCMCIA wireless network card. I bought the WG511 because I'd seen on the web that it worked well with Linux using the Prism54 drivers. I discovered shortly after the purchase that there were two versions of the card - one made in Taiwan and one made in China. The Chinese one didn't have the Prism chipset and would not work with the current Linux drivers. I, of course, ended up with the Chinese version. I then discovered 'ndiswrappers'. This Linux software acts as a translation layer between the Windows XP drivers, on the CD that came with the card, and Linux. I installed that and have a working card. That's where the problems start. I can connect to the Internet and get data transfer speeds which are the same as I'd expect with the eth0 PCMCIA network card in the laptop connected to the router by cable - about 60kb download. If I try to mount a directory on the floor-standing machine everything slows down. It takes around 7 seconds to mount the directory compared with instantaneous over the cable network, the 'ls' command takes 2 secs and 'ls -l' takes 50 seconds. During that 50 seconds the data transfer light on the WG511 flickers slowly and intermittently - the time when there is no data transfer is much greater overall than the time when data is being transferred. There is no great CPU activity either. Connecting from the floor-standing machine to the laptop is just as slow. Trying the same with X running makes it even slower. Screen repaints are also very slow under X. I just tried copying a small file from one machine to the other and typing and screen painting was very slow but the actual copy was almost instantaneous. It appears that just mounting something on the remote machine slows the laptop down and, once disconnected, every thing goes back to normal. This all makes communication between the two computers via wireless virtually unusable. Any suggestions would be gratefully received. I'm out of ideas (I never had many in the first place). Output of iwconfig: wlan0 IEEE 802.11g ESSID:"mynet" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:08:5B:67:03:8D Bit Rate:54 Mb/s Tx-Power:32 dBm RTS thr:2347 B Fragment thr:2346 B Encryption key:off Power Management:off Link Quality:100/100 Signal level:-38 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

1 0

Anyone want Mandrake 10.1 CDs?
by Joe Button 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

Hi. I downloaded Mandrake 10.1 a few days ago - I'm posting this from it. Would anyone like a copy? It's four CDs, and so far it all seems to work pretty well. I'm in Norwich if you'd like to collect them, or I could probably make it to the next meeting (Thursday at the City Gate?) if people would like me to bring them. Joe x

3 5

Mandrake 10.1
by Syd Hancock 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

> Later, and as a Mandrakeclub standard member, I downloaded and > installed the 4 x CD 10.1 Official, and was a bit cheesed off. > There's no NVIDIA driver supplied as default, no flash player, no > acrobat reader, no Sun Java runtime or SDK - in fact none of the > "commercial" apps. That is probably because (AFAIK) it is the free download version, 100% Free and free software, available to anyone. "Standard" membership gives access to some extra support forums, ftp servers and early access to new versions a few weeks before they go public but not to licenced non-freebeer software. AFAIK you have to pay a little more for the so-called "Silver" level or above to get access to the "Powerpack" edition which includes the fifth CD containing the commercial apps and via mandrake Club. They are then installed automatically during normal install - 10.0 Official worked fine for me and included all the apps you mention (apart from nvidi which I didn't need). An alternative way to get the non-free stuff is to purchase a boxed edition. HTH Syd

1 0

Very basic mysql problem
by Chris Green 06 Nov '04

06 Nov '04

I'm having trouble getting started with mysql. I had a bit of a problem getting it installed but I've got through that now, I downloaded the latest Slackware package file and replaced my existing (screwed up) installation and the basics seem to be working. I have installed mysql version 4.0.22 and the mysqld daemon is up and running OK. The root mysql user works OK and I can create databases etc. etc. However I seem quite unable to create any more users that actually work, whatever I do I get permission errors. E.g. I have created a user 'chris' with 'GRANT ALL ON *.* TO chris' and if I run mysql as chris and try and create a database I get:- ERROR 1044: Access denied for user: '@localhost' to database 'chrisdb' Similarly if chris tries to use an already existing database:- ERROR 1044: Access denied for user: '@localhost' to database 'fred' The entries in the mysql database look OK:- +-----------+-------+------------------+-------------+ | host | user | password | create_priv | +-----------+-------+------------------+-------------+ | localhost | root | 035974c000be6930 | Y | | server | root | | Y | | localhost | | | N | | server | | | N | | % | chris | | Y | | % | lucy | | Y | +-----------+-------+------------------+-------------+ So what's wrong? I'm stuck. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk) "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

4 4