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RE: [ALUG] dual boot - problems?
by Jenny Hopkins 05 Nov '03

05 Nov '03

Keith Watson wrote: > What boot-loader do you use? I used to use LILO but have > found GRUB to be easier to configure. > LILO. I've never looked at GRUB. > If it is software related I would check out the particular > combination of motherboard/BIOS/chip set you have. However > last time I had a problem like this it turned out to be a > slowly dying power supply where the voltages where drifting > away from the required 5v or 12v and causing odd things to > happen like video/sound card lock-up, keyboard or mouse > problems, etc). > Coo. That sounds exactly like the problems I've been having. Do you have to be moderately good at hardware to check for this? Thanks, Jenny /me prepares to whisk new hard drive out of wrapper....

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GKrellm
by Keith Watson 05 Nov '03

05 Nov '03

I feel I must remonstrate with the members of this list (I'm lead to understand that they can't touch you for it :o) ). To date no-one on this list has mentioned that most excellent piece of Gnome eye-candy - GKrellm. For shame and even tsk tsk, ALUG ;o) I had to rely on a mention on Slashdot to draw my attention to this and downloaded a copy last night. In the vernacular of my younger colleagues - wicked! Keith :o)

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HOWTO meet an ALUG
by MJ Ray 04 Nov '03

04 Nov '03

Finally, the document that you've all been waiting for is available! Now you too can organise your very own ALUG meeting in the comfort of your own city for maximum LUGging, minimum effort! Astound your friends! Amaze your relatives! Be the envy of your peers! Point your web browser at http://www.alug.org.uk/articles/2003/howtomeet.html and follow the simple 10-point plan! [SANITY WARNING: may cause overuse of exclamation marks if ingested.] Seriously, I think that page is accurate and will replace a couple of older pages on the site. If anyone has suggestions for improvements, please drop me an email off-list and I'll see to it. I hope current and future meeting organisers find it useful. -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef(a)jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/

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Saturday meetings?
by Dennis Dryden 04 Nov '03

04 Nov '03

Hello, I know that all ALUG meetings I've ever known about have been on a Sunday but would a Saturday meeting be out of the question? specifically a Saturday meeting in Norwich(UEA)? - Dennis Dryden

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dual boot - problems?
by Jenny Hopkins 04 Nov '03

04 Nov '03

Hi all, I set up a dual boot win2k and debian computer at home last year, each OS on its own hard drive. All was well for ages. Recently I have started having "odd" problems with it though, - first the onboard sound seemed to die and lock up either system. I disabled it in BIOS/changed jumper link, and stuffed in a sound card, and this cured the problem. However now I am having problems getting either systems to print, they can't contact the parallel port. This was working ok so settings are fine. My question is: could it be because each OS is using different settings for memory etc, that different bits of hardware are getting confused in between boots? The reason I am asking it is because I've got a 2nd hard drive to put in my computer at work here so I can have a linux desktop and only boot into the win when I need the occasional use of it. However I don't want to screw up my work box. Many thanks, Any comments or experience on this welcome. Jenny

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Promotional Artwork Page
by Keith Watson 04 Nov '03

04 Nov '03

Feedback please on the revised promotional artwork page at <http://www.kpwatson.ukfsn.org/alug/promoart/promoart.html>. If everyone's happy with it then I'll ask Mark to link it into the ALUG site. Keith

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Fenland coordinator?
by MJ Ray 03 Nov '03

03 Nov '03

Now that the Ely meetings seem to have got going, who should I list on the web site as the contact for fenland? Suggestions? -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef(a)jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/

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More X4.3.0 keyboard troubles
by MJ Ray 03 Nov '03

03 Nov '03

As you may remember, I'm trying to modify my keyboard to produce the ccircumflex and other characters used by esperanto. I'd like to do this with Xkb rather than xmodmap if possible. I've made a file "eo" in /usr/lib/X11/xkb/symbols which contains the key (re)definitions. After finding a bug that breaks XkbSymbols options and similar in XF86-Config, I edited the gb keymap instead. In /System/Settings/X11/xkb/keymap/xfree86, I now have: xkb_keymap "gb" { xkb_keycodes { include "xfree86" }; xkb_types { include "default" }; xkb_compatibility { include "default" }; xkb_symbols { include "en_US(pc105)+gb+eo" }; xkb_geometry { include "pc(pc102)" }; }; ...and XF86Config points to that layout, I think. It seems not to work, though. I get german double s on AltGr s instead of scircumflex. Running the command: setxkbmap -symbols 'en_US(pc105)+gb+eo' ...makes it work, so I'm sure that's the right symbols string. What mistake am I making? If anyone wants to test this, I'll send the eo file to them on request. -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef(a)jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/

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Announce digest, Vol 2 #22 - 1 msg
by announce-request＠lists.alug.org.uk 03 Nov '03

03 Nov '03

Send Announce mailing list submissions to announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to announce-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk You can reach the person managing the list at announce-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Announce digest..." --------------.--------------------------------------------.------------ alug-announce | Newsletter of the Anglian Linux User Group | Weekly(ish) --------------'--------------------------------------------'------------ ** Please send articles for this letter to announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk ** *** Please send replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk, not announce... *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Today's Topics: 1. Mini Cambridge-Meet next weekend (Daniel Silverstone) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: Daniel Silverstone <dsilvers(a)digital-scurf.org> To: ALUG Announcements <announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk>, ALUG Main List <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Organization: Digital-Scurf Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2003 13:22:48 +0000 Subject: [Alug Announce]Mini Cambridge-Meet next weekend Hi, Debian-UK often have mini debian-meets in the Cambridgeshire area. The meets tend to be informal geekery centered around pubs and bookshops (and sometimes coffee). There is a plan to have a mini-meet in Cambridge on Saturday the 8th. The plan (as ever) is to meet at 12:00 in the Regal (wetherspoon pub under the arts cinema) and then dither for several hours. If you're interested in Debian, or just fancy a chat with a bunch of geeks (although conversation does tend to be centered around Debian) then feel free to come along and introduce yourselves. See you there. D. -- Daniel Silverstone <dsilvers(a)digital-scurf.org> Digital-Scurf --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce End of Announce Digest

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 03 Nov '03

03 Nov '03

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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Mini Cambridge-Meet next weekend
by Daniel Silverstone 02 Nov '03

02 Nov '03

Hi, Debian-UK often have mini debian-meets in the Cambridgeshire area. The meets tend to be informal geekery centered around pubs and bookshops (and sometimes coffee). There is a plan to have a mini-meet in Cambridge on Saturday the 8th. The plan (as ever) is to meet at 12:00 in the Regal (wetherspoon pub under the arts cinema) and then dither for several hours. If you're interested in Debian, or just fancy a chat with a bunch of geeks (although conversation does tend to be centered around Debian) then feel free to come along and introduce yourselves. See you there. D. -- Daniel Silverstone <dsilvers(a)digital-scurf.org> Digital-Scurf

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Paging Console Output During Startup
by Keith Watson 02 Nov '03

02 Nov '03

When Mark gave his excellent talk at the Billy Blueboy about system start-up, it was mentioned that there are some Ctrl+ key combinations that allow you to page back and forth through the start up messages. Can anyone remind me what that are? Keith

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Norwich Spectrum and SAM Show (ORSAM 2003)
by Tarquin Mills 02 Nov '03

02 Nov '03

[Posted and mailed] *** Press release about a local event *** The first major Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Sam Coupé Computer Show (ORSAM 2003) in 5 years in the UK, is taking place next Saturday, 1st November, in Norwich. The venue will be at the Alec Bussey Scout Centre off Rowington Road, near Grove Road and the Norwich Bus Station. Open from 10am to 4pm. Entry free. Refreshments available. Free car parking. There is a map available (under 'travel') on the show website http://homepage.ntlworld.com/speccyverse/orsam.htm A variety of traders will be present. Visitors from as far away as Germany and Cornwall have said they will be attending. The show will opened by Councillor Steve Land, of the Green Party. There will be a raffle, and a bring and buy stall. While ORSAM 2003 officially only supports the Spectrum and SAM range, Z88 and ZX81 will be there unofficially. If next show happens, it may widen to officially include all Sinclair (and related) 8-bit formats. QL users will be able to get taste of what the March Norwich Quanta Workshop will be like. -- Tarquin Mills ACCUS (Anglia Classic Computer Users Society) http://www.planet14.sonow4u.co.uk/comp/accus/

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New member Martin
by Martin Collins 01 Nov '03

01 Nov '03

Hi everyone and thanks for the Norwich area meeting info Syd - appreciate it. I first stumbled onto Linux with a SuSE 7.2 box set from a book shop a couple of years ago. Installed it on my 300MHz Celeron IBM Thinkpad 240 laptop but a buggy version of XFree (so I found out later) and my inexperience resulted in me giving up on Linux for another 6 months. Since then I've experimented a lot, installing various distros including MDK8.2, 9.0, RH8.0, Lycoris, Slackware & a partial Debian install (I gave up half way as I became confused & bored with all the questions). After dual booting on my self-built 1.4GHz Athlon desktop for a while with Windows, I became fed up with MS OS problems, freeze ups, crashes, expensive software, etc. and so finally settled and went 100% over to Linux with SuSE 8.2 Pro - no probs since. SuSE is still on my desktop now but last night couldn't help myself but to install MDK9.2 on my laptop - just to have a look. Mmm its OK'ish on first glance. Noticed a couple of glitches but never have got on very well with MDK on that laptop. But I will carry on with it for a while. My Wife, who isn't particularly good or interested in computers, made the switch from Windows to Linux with only about 15 mins training from me, and happily e-mails, surfs and writes letters with no problems. I also became fed up of fixing my Mother's MS Windows problems and she now also runs SuSE 8.2 (Personal) and I hardly ever get called out to fix problems anymore - thank goodness. I've always wanted to program and Linux sure does give me the freedom to learn and play in this respect. I am currently learning C++ together with QT. I am a deck officer (navigator) in the merchant navy so my first and current project is a navigation/passage planning program. Haven't actually seen any similar software for Linux but if anyone knows of any links please let me know. Also reading (but not coding yet) books on PHP & MYSQL/Postgre. Anyway that's all the guff about me out of the way. Will try and contribute something more interesting in future but am enjoying the mailing list digest very much indeed. Thanks all. Martin

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Multiple monitors
by Louise J M Worthington 31 Oct '03

31 Oct '03

It's a long shot, but does anyone know if its possible when using two monitors to have X running on only one of them a console on the other? Thanks Louise

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Quick intro from a new member
by Dave Briggs 31 Oct '03

31 Oct '03

Hello all I just thought I would send a quick email round, I only joined the list yesterday. I currently live in Ely, but as of this weekend will be moving to King's Lynn - well into the heart of ALUG territory! I work at the University in Cambridge, which is going to be a long haul every day but who cares when the rent is as cheap as it is in Lynn! I run Mandrake 9.1 on a dual boot with Windows at home. I am hardly technically proficient, but I just like the idea of open source software. My main interest lies in web site creation, and I run a book discussion website called Palimpsest - http://www.palimpsest.org.uk . I am still having some teething troubles with Linux, my soundcard seems to refuse to work and I haven't got round to buying a proper modem yet, so any internetting has to be done through Windows or at work :-( Anyhow, that's enough from me. Dave

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Re: [ALUG] DOSemu - serial help needed
by Edenyard 31 Oct '03

31 Oct '03

Thanks for that, Owen! I've just sent a message to the DOSemu list as you recommend - will be interesting to see what comes back! Cheers, Gerald. On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 17:41:49 +0000, owen.churchcowley <owen.churchcowley(a)ntlworld.com> wrote: > Have you tried mailing the DosEmu list, its a good product and unlikely someone > who is on it has not hit this problem before, failing that they may know where > the bug is, have a patch or at the least know the location of thier bug track > location.

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Re: [ALUG] Re: [Alug]OT: Standard of IT in schools across the country
by Ben Norcutt 31 Oct '03

31 Oct '03

>The d/l was blocked by the security s/w and I was told by the >network manager that it was blocked by the LEA provider not the >school. Glad to hear that it's not the case everywhere in Norfolk >though. Ah ok well we all go through the county proxy farm at bt which runs on symantec igear but they are always making changes and tweaking stuff. If it wasn't an igear ddr access denied page then it was blocked by county but they do block a lot of stupid stuff. Then again there's always around it :) Cheers, Ben

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DOSemu - serial help needed
by Edenyard 30 Oct '03

30 Oct '03

Please could someone help me with this DOSemu problem: I've installed DOSemu V1.9.99 (a.k.a. 1.2.0) and have got it running quite nicely on Slackware 9.1 (2.4.22 kernel). It recognises the DOS partition on the HDD and will run programmes like Xtree and Wordstar without any problems. However, I have a programme written in Turbo Basic that accesses the serial port (COM1) and I'm having trouble getting it to talk to the port properly under DOSemu. This is the error message I get as DOSemu is coming up: ERROR: PORT: conflicting devices: COM1 & std port io The programme appears to be able to send out of the port but cannot get any data coming back in. I've set /etc/dosemu/dosemu.conf to deal with the COM1 port like this: $_com1 = "/dev/ttyS0 irq 4" $_ports = " device /dev/ttyS0 fast range 0x3f8,0x3ff" $_irqpassing = "4" but I can't stop the 'conflict' message or get any data from the port into my programme. The remainder of the programme appears to work properly, even printing to what it thinks is LPT1. I've an idea that I need to tell Linux to ignore COM1 (ttyS0) so that the DOS programme can have it, but I don't know how to do this. Is there a parameter to give to a module or the kernel at boot time, or something like that? I've tried DOSemu V1.0.2 and get the same problem, so I'm sure it's something I'm doing that's messing it up, rather than a DOSemu bug. Any ideas, please, anyone? Gerald.

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Re: Welcome to the "main" mailing list
by Tim Green 30 Oct '03

30 Oct '03

On Wed, Oct 29, 2003 at 09:01:01PM +0000, main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk wrote: > We welcome new members and we'd especially like you to send a short > description of why you're interested in Linux to the mailing list. Hello! I was invited to this evening's Ely social in The Fountain, but without enough warning! So here I am at home *clickerty-click* subscribing to the mailing lists. I have been using Linux since 1993 when I discovered I could re- partition my university's public PCs and dual boot between DOS and a unix. SLS Linux needed quite a few floppies! I now run Debian on half my PCs, and I gave up dual booting because I like to be able to run both Linux apps and Win32 apps at the same time. Maybe I'll try one of those emulator-y things like VMWare one day. I like using Linux because I feel I have much more control over my computers. I can choose to share files and other resources, and I can choose not to. And its free! If only I had a bit more free time to take advantage of the free speech aspect of Linux ... Tim.

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Re: [Alug]OT: Standard of IT in schools across the country
by Ben Norcutt 30 Oct '03

30 Oct '03

>And, in Norfolk schools at least, can't d/l ISOs either which is a >disappointment. Syd, I don't know why you came up with that statement which is blatently untrue as I download lots of iso's from different sources all the time. We can send smtp mail using the country mail relay, ssl sites are fine, pinging web servers works, irc doesn't. As far as the best sites being filtered etc... well there are always ways Cheers, Ben

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Re: [ALUG] Ely meeting report
by Simon.Turner＠LDS.spx.com 30 Oct '03

30 Oct '03

Kirsten Naylor wrote: >> A pleasant meeting in the Fountain, attended by Rob, Daniel, Simon, Ted, >> Kirsty and Adam. Daniel Silverstone wrote: > It was nice to meet Simon and Ted at last. The conversation was indeed > nice and geeky, I think adding the deck of cards to the mix helped to > fill any awkward silences a bunch of geeks often end up generating, > albeit not trying to do so ;-) Many thanks to you all for making me welcome! Interesting that three of us were from the same village. If you can persuade Tim to attend next time then there would be four! I enjoyed the cards - would be more than interested in bringing a laptop to a suitable venue in the future ... > I'm all for making this a more regular thing for the Ely/Nr-Ely crowd. > Perhaps every two or three weeks would be good. Admittedly it'd be nice > if we could get a venue to have a talk etc, but just making sure there's > face2face socialising within the LUG is a good thing. Agreed - I guess somewhere with some bandwidth would be good :-), although not always easy in the Fens. See you next time ... Simon -- Simon Turner

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Ely meeting report
by Kirsten Naylor 30 Oct '03

30 Oct '03

A pleasant meeting in the Fountain, attended by Rob, Daniel, Simon, Ted, Kirsty and Adam. A penguin was present, as was lots of very interesting conversation about wireless internet, open source hardware etc etc (over a game of cards :). We met at 7pm (well, a bit after 7 for most of us - sorry Rob and Daniel!) and did not adjourn till after 10.30pm so it was a good night out! /Kirsten

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Re: [Alug]Suse 8.1 Live Eval CD problem
by Syd Hancock 30 Oct '03

30 Oct '03

On Sunday 26 Oct 2003 8:54 pm, IanBell wrote: > On Sunday 26 Oct 2003 5:12 pm, Syd Hancock wrote: > > This is a question I've been meaning to ask for a while. When I > > first got my T23 Think[ad a couple of months ago I tried a Suse > > 8.1 Live Evaluation disk in it and what happened when it went > > past the opening screen was really scary. [...] > It doesn't, by any chance, have an LG CDRW drive does it?? I > have heard of problems with this drive and distros which have > packet writing enabled (like Suse 8.1 and Mandrake 9.2 but not > Mandrake 9.1). No I don't think it's the CDrom - it's an IBM drive (may be badged I suppose). The current problem with the LG drive and mdk9.2 is because the drive firmware uses a command which is intended to flush the buffers to flash the rom instead... hence dead CD drives while trying to instal mdk9.2 - nasty. LG's response is that their drives 'don't support linux'. Hmm. These LG drives are used in the Dell Optiplex BTW if anyone out there needs to know. I have a couple of them, they are a very nice machine, solidly made and an easy install (with mandrake 9.1 and knoppix at least) so I will not be using mdk 9.2 (which so far does not look as if it is going to be one of Mandrake's better distros unfortunately - many bugs have appeared within days of release. mdk9.1 is pretty solid though). Syd

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[Alug]OT: Standard of IT in schools across the country
by Ashley 29 Oct '03

29 Oct '03

Sorry to be off-topic, but I was hoping someone may be able to point me in the right direction (if I remember correctly, some of the people on the list have experience with educational institutions). I have recently got involved in the creation of a CDROM presentation to be placed inside schools (high schools and sixth form). In order to do this, I need to get a grasp on the specs for the machines I am deploying on. I discussed this with Norfolk County Council and was told the following was recommended locally: * Windows 98 or XP * 1.7Ghz / 80Gb / 256 Ram * All students had Internet access on their desktops This only covers Norfolk of course and is only a recommendation I was wondering if a national minimum standard of computer technology exists, or whether each school sets their own standard? Please email me onlist, or directly if you can help. Ashley

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