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FW: [Alug]software for sunday meeting.
by Jamie French 26 Apr '03

26 Apr '03

I'll send it correctly next time :) -----Original Message----- From: Jamie French [mailto:jamie.french@talk21.com] Sent: 26 April 2003 08:53 To: 'main-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk' Subject: RE: [Alug]software for sunday meeting. I am hoping to attend, wife permitting :) I would like to bring my Zaurus and discuss with other Zaurus users how to get OZ 3.2 into a stable and working state. Take Care Jamie -----Original Message----- From: main-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk [mailto:main-admin@lists.alug.org.uk]On Behalf Of Adam Bower Sent: 25 April 2003 23:07 To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk Subject: Re: [Alug]software for sunday meeting. On Fri, Apr 25, 2003 at 09:42:15PM -0000, MJ Ray wrote: > Adam Bower <abower(a)thebowery.co.uk> wrote: > > Also who is coming along? and what kit are you bringing? does anyone want help > > with anything or want to discuss anything? > > I'll be there, but with minimal kit. I'll bring the updated chording > keyboard and some sort of palmtop device with me. I'll have my GLLUG > talk notes with me, about "The Free Software Story", if there's interest > in that, or I am always available for interrogation ;*) I will have my zaurus running open zaurus 3.2, and my vaio picturebook. I will perhaps also bring a Sun Ultra 30 and debianise it at the meeting. Although it may have a hardware fault (possibly just needs SCSI disks reseated) so I will have a quick look tomorrow to see if this is viable. Other things I have been playing with (or planning to play with) are bluetooth on linux with a usb dongle and a sony ericsson t68i and gpsdrive on the vaio. Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem _______________________________________________ main(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://www.alug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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[Alug]Announce digest, Vol 2 #5 - 1 msg
by announce-request＠lists.alug.org.uk 26 Apr '03

26 Apr '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. LOCAL: ALUG at Elmswell, Suffolk, UK, 2pm, Sun 27 Apr 2003 (MJ Ray) --__--__-- Message: 1 From: MJ Ray <markj(a)cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> To: announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 01:49:32 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Alug Announce]LOCAL: ALUG at Elmswell, Suffolk, UK, 2pm, Sun 27 Apr 2003 [1]ALUG [2]Map Meeting 2003.4 : AT Vetinerary Systems, Elmswell, Suffolk Sunday 27 April 2003 Plan for the meeting Roughly, as follows: The meeting is scheduled for 2pm-6pm. There will be one or two short talks, the normal hacking of systems and discussions, with veterans on hand to ask for advice and help. The librarians will tell us the current state of the library and MJR will finally return his library book. How to get there For directions, please see [3]the venue information page. People at the meeting So far, Adam, Kirsty, MJR and Rob are definites. If you are planning to come, please say so on the mailing list. If you will also be coming to this meeting, please try to say so on the mailing list, so we can be prepared for the numbers! Equipment Equipment is brought at your own risk. We strongly suggest that you tag or label your kit. No known thefts have occurred at our meetings, but there is ample scope for going home with the wrong cables, etc. Be sure to bring all appropriate power cables etc. An extra extension lead will also be a good idea. So far, for this meeting, we know of: Adam I will bring a zaurus and maybe a laptop running gpsdrive. I may bring my sparc and try to make it work with debian. I was hoping to have my linux pvr working for this meet but not yet. I can burn and bring CDs, if you ask me for them now. MJR A short talk on a Free Software movement in the UK. A chording keyboard that works with Linux. Rob Keys and a Building? Discussion If you want to discuss this meeting, please [4]use the mailing list. [5]Back to the meetings index * Destinations 1. [6]Join ALUG 2. [7]FAQ 3. [8]Meetings * Local LUGs 1. [9]Peterborough 2. [10]Cambridge * Recent Donors 1. [11]PHP4Hosting 2. [12]Black Cat Networks 3. [13]Martyn Drake 4. [14]Turo Technology LLP You may think I'm a dreamer... but I'm not the only one [15]UK LUGs References 1. http://www.alug.org.uk/ 2. http://www.alug.org.uk/ 3. http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/elmswell.html 4. http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main 5. http://www.alug.org.uk/meetings/ 6. http://www.alug.org.uk/background/contacts.html 7. http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?AlugFaq 8. http://www.alug.org.uk/contrib/?AlugMeetings 9. http://www.peterboro.lug.org.uk/ 10. http://www.cam-lug.org.uk/ 11. http://www.php4hosting.co.uk/ 12. http://www.blackcatnetworks.co.uk/ 13. http://www.drake.org.uk/ 14. http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ 15. http://www.lug.org.uk/ --__--__-- _______________________________________________ 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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[Alug]software for sunday meeting.
by Adam Bower 26 Apr '03

26 Apr '03

Hi everyone. Does anyone want any debian CDs for sundays meeting? I have some sarge images available (about a week old) also I have the linux conf australia CDs available which fozzy mentioned the other week. Also who is coming along? and what kit are you bringing? does anyone want help with anything or want to discuss anything? Thanks Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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RE: [Alug]AMD Opteron
by Adam Bower 25 Apr '03

25 Apr '03

> From: Martyn Drake [mailto:martyn@drake.org.uk] > Is there any Linux distribution out there that can support > the 64-bitness of > the Opteron out of the box? I know SuSE has made some noise > about this, but > I'm not sure what the others are doing. Yes, I know it's > early days... Mandrake, http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/press/pr?n=/pr/products/2418&wslang=en apparently costs real $$$. BTW I have heard from a few people I know who have been developing on the Opteron (people who develop on many other 64bit platforms), apparently its stupidly fast, and I want one :) Adam

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[Alug]Debian: does 'sarge' use Gnome 1 or 2?
by Keith Watson 25 Apr '03

25 Apr '03

As above. Keith ____________ It's not what the eye sees, but that which makes the eye see. The Upanishads

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RE: [Alug]RH9 Opinions?
by Adam Bower 25 Apr '03

25 Apr '03

> From: Alexis Lee [mailto:lxs@sdf-eu.org] > > Come to that, shouldn't we be having another release? I thought they > wanted releases every year or so? Pixar will have to get busy... You know, its funny that a Free Software distribution takes its names from a movie that was created on (very) non-free (and incredibly expensive in money terms too) software... Adam

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[Alug]AMD Opteron
by Martyn Drake 25 Apr '03

25 Apr '03

Is there any Linux distribution out there that can support the 64-bitness of the Opteron out of the box? I know SuSE has made some noise about this, but I'm not sure what the others are doing. Yes, I know it's early days... Regards, Martyn

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[Alug]RH9 Opinions?
by Ian Bell 25 Apr '03

25 Apr '03

Just upgraded from RH7.3 to RH9.0 and I am not a particularly happy bunny. OK it has some nice eye candy and up to date KDE, Open Office, gtk+ and Mozilla. However kpackage and gnorpm have not only gone but have been deleted despite doing an upgrade rather than an install. The RH rpm installer is a joke. I have no idea where an rpm's files go so its very hard to make a desktop link or find the docs. I have downloaded both binary rpms and source tarballs for both progs but they have a whole bunch of dependency problems. It seems as though RH is deliberately trying to obstruct users from managing their own rpms. Fortunately I have been able to download and install apt and synaptic so all is not lost but I had to use the command line rpm to do it. AND I just discovered the kde menu editor is gone too!! I have debian 3 on DVD and if it were not for the significant backup task associated with a clean install I would be installing it now. Ian

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RE: [Alug]Fwd: How small could you get GnuStep? Squeeze into a Sh arp Zaurus?
by Adam Bower 25 Apr '03

25 Apr '03

> From: MJ Ray [mailto:markj@cloaked.freeserve.co.uk] > Sent: 25 April 2003 03:38 > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [Alug]Fwd: How small could you get GnuStep? > Squeeze into a > Sharp Zaurus? > > > Adam Bower <abower(a)thebowery.co.uk> wrote: > > More like X11 is too large... > > That's silly talk, eg > http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT9006921228.html and > http://alllinuxdevices.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-08-02-007 -03-IN-LF-HH Maybe but I have yet to see anyone actually port X to the Zaurus and make it, not slow and not big and as featured as opie/qpe. I think talk of porting GnuStep is still a bit premature right now. Adam

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[Alug]Fwd: How small could you get GnuStep? Squeeze into a Sharp Zaurus?
by mjr＠cloaked.freeserve.co.uk 25 Apr '03

25 Apr '03

This appeared on the gnustep-discuss list. I know we have some Zaurus users here. Would some of you like to help with this? Basic information on GNUstep can be found at http://www.gnustep.org/ From: hns(a)dsitri.de (HNS) Subject: How small could you get GnuStep? Squeeze into a Sharp Zaurus? Date: 24 Apr 2003 05:29:52 -0700 About a year ago (18th - 21th march 02), there was a discussion thread on that issue. Answers were: * GNUstep is too large * GNUstep needs X11 * NextStep interface is too heavy for a PDA screen What I recently found out is that there *IS* a X11 server (hosted on sourceforge, called Zaurus Xfree86) for Zaurus. With that on a Compact Flash (not in the kernel of course), it should be possible to compile and run GNUstep on a Zaurus. The benefits could be * alternate (to Qt) GUI development kit * a lot of additional applications * easy to learn framework (supporting full unicode) and application kit (supporting sophisticated graphics) * porting of some MacOS X applications seems feasible * a GUI looking like MacOS X seems feasible Any ideas, comments, results, any sleeves rolled up? hns http://www.dsitri.de/php/projects/index.php?project=myPDA

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Fwd: Re: [Alug]Debian: does 'sarge' use Gnome 1 or 2? [fozzy@pelvoux.nildram.co.uk]
by Steve Fosdick 25 Apr '03

25 Apr '03

On 2003.04.24 13:51, Barry Samuels wrote: > On 2003.04.24 12:20 Keith Watson wrote: > >> As above. > > If I'm right in that Debian 'Sarge' is the same as 'Testing' > then it appears to use Gnome 1.4. Yes, I believe 'sarge' is 'testing' and as far as I can see the version of GNOME is a mix between 1.4, 2.0 and 2.2 but worst of all it is broken. There is some stange problem between nautilus and bonobo which results in nautilus windows appearing repeatedly with no user intervention until all memory is exhuasted, or you type Ctrl-Alt-Backspace in desparation. Unstable seems to have mostly GNOME 2.2 in it so hopefully that will make it's way into sarge before it is released. Steve.

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[Alug]OT: What to do when your ex-employer..
by Martyn Drake 24 Apr '03

24 Apr '03

.. takes a photograph from your personal web site and then proceeds to use it for a national ad campaign in .net without any regards for your copyright or permission? This is precisely what has happened. For anybody that has (or is going to buy) .net May 2003, there is a full page advert on page 34 from NDO with the headline, "Break away from the pack". The background is a photograph of tropical fish, which Jennifer (my missus) took during our honeymoon to Bora Bora. For whatever reason, the photo is mirrored from the original, but it is quite clearly our photo. It was originally placed in our online photo album which didn't have any copyright labels on it. I don't mind people downloading the photos for their own personal use, but to use it for profit without even asking for permission is simply downright unprofessional. I would have expected a lot better from these people. What options do I have? I'm considering legal action, but is it going to be worth it? Regards, Martyn

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RE: [Alug]OT: What to do when your ex-employer..
by Adam Bower 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '03

> From: Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk > You may well have a case, since there is implicit copyright on any > "original work". However, the fact that you made it available without > explicit restriction on your website could (but by no means > necessarily) > weaken your claim: basically, naively but unwisely, you left it up > for grabs. Copyright normally extends also to "electronic" duplication > these days. For the legal aspects of this, you need proper advice, > however, since it's a can of worms. I spoke to a photographer friend of mine about this a few minutes after Martyn sent it to the list (the guy takes photos for advertising, exactly the area that this covers), basically he has a claim for copyright infringement but he will have to pursue it directly with them. I also replied to Martyn offlist as putting information into a public forum about this may prejudice any action Martyn takes. One other point is that the proper forum for this would be alug-social (unless the photo was of some linux computers in the original photo ;)) Adam

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RE: [Alug]RH9 Opinions?
by Adam Bower 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '03

> -----Original Message----- > From: Ian Bell [mailto:ian@redtommo.com] > If I start with stable is it relatively straightforward to go > to testing and > unstable? I have the Debian DVD from last years Linux thingy > in London so > presumably this has them all on it? I don't have broadband so large > downloads are out of the question. Its really simple to upgrade with Debian, although you will want lots of bandwidth or patietence to do it over dialup. Or you can take advantage of me offering cheap Debian CDs to Alug (well anyone really) people (using works bandwidth http://www.drakken.com ). I can get CD sets for stable, testing or unstable (or whatever Debian offer via jigdo) and I think this means any architecture also. I suppose I could also download other .iso images for people but this of course does mean it takes me more time to do, contact me if you perhaps want this. Anyhow I will do it for cost, contact me via private mail if you want things, and please make sure you Cc: things to both my work and home address. Thanks Adam

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[Alug]A Holiday Entertainment
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '03

Folks, For your amusement during this brief holiday, I offer you the following teaser: Which country has the highest density (i.e. numbers per million of population) of Linux users? And, for seconds: Which country is number 2? (I'll post my answers later. If yours differ from mine, I'd like to know why). Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 167 1972 Date: 21-Apr-03 Time: 14:07:50 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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[Alug]Announce digest, Vol 2 #4 - 2 msgs
by announce-request＠lists.alug.org.uk 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '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. Fwd: [Alug]Elmswell meeting on the 27th of this month (MJ Ray) 2. Fwd: Re: [Alug]newbie desktop distros (MJ Ray) --__--__-- Message: 1 To: announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 16:01:11 +0100 (BST) From: mjr(a)cloaked.freeserve.co.uk (MJ Ray) Subject: [Alug Announce] Fwd: [Alug]Elmswell meeting on the 27th of this month From: Adam Bower <abower(a)thebowery.co.uk> Subject: [Alug]Elmswell meeting on the 27th of this month Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 22:40:28 +0100 Hi all, Just a confirmation that this meeting *is* going to happen. I will update the webpage when I get a chance. The venue is near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk IIRC. The other meetings at Syleham (also Suffolk) are also still arranged for the same dates as before (Sun May 18th, Sun Aug 17th and Sun 23rd Nov.) Norwich dates are still to be confirmed, I will let everyone know more later. Adam --__--__-- Message: 2 To: announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 16:47:51 +0100 (BST) From: mjr(a)cloaked.freeserve.co.uk (MJ Ray) Subject: [Alug Announce] Fwd: Re: [Alug]newbie desktop distros Subject: Re: [Alug]newbie desktop distros From: jmb(a)paston.co.uk (John Billings) Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 13:46:15 +0100 Greetings, On Wed, Apr 16, 2003 at 06:59:23AM +0100, Syd Hancock wrote: > Has anyone used xandros, lindows or any similar distro? Yes - See below. > Very interested in any comments/experiences. > > I do realise all the disadvantages etc for the more knowledgable > user - so pardon the heresy :-) Heh. My mum and dad both now use free-er software than they did when using Microsoft based systems, and both are happy with the increased reliablility. Dad is reasonably eager to learn more about the unlying system - mum cares as little about the under lying system as she did when using windows. Either way i'd score it as a win for Free Software, or at least a scoredraw. I've installed/used Desktop/LX (www.lycoris.com) which is RedHat based, and also the Debian based Xandros (www.xandros.com) Desktop/LX - Downloaded a CD image and burnt it. - Installer: Pretty reasonable. Has auto detected everything on all but one machine i've installed it on - it screwed up on a fairly new and very poor embedded graphics card to the point where i went and got Xandros, of which more later. Partioning was easy enough. IIRC you could choose your user level, and the sorts of things you were likely to want, from which it chose to install various utils and environments. A nice touch is the game of solitare it gives you to play while you wait for the installer to finish. Better than looking at endlessly looping billboards anyway. Desktop: KDE based, with a different icon set - a fancy looking windows XP-alike one. The familiar (to existing users) cogwheel of the KDE 'start' menu is replaced by a flower, and there's a 'My Linux System' type icon on the desktop, which gives access to drives and other bits and pieces. The Kontrol Center has had a new interface added, to make it more XP-ish, grouping the settings panels into wider catagories. Quite friendly if you don't know exactly what you're looking for. By default I think you get 4 desktops, each of which can obviously have different proggies running on them. The default web browser is Mozilla, and the KOffice suite is also provided, IIRC. Updates: Via a graphical interface, but you need to pay to play it seems. I did, and it didn't - this may be because of my downloaded version of the software tho. Novice (linux) User Comments: Dad: "Comfortable looking - obvious where things are." Mum: "Looks like what i used to use." Housemate: "I managed to install it in 40 mins - woah" Windows: If you're interested in windows compatibility, it's not bad - you can easily mount samba shares, and talk to samba printers - you can also run some windows proggies with the supplied version of wine, but in order to get a couple of bits of my dad's software installed I had to download and install a new RPM with the latest version in. License: IIRC, it's entirely Free, but I could be wrong. Xandros - Bought from a UK supplier, who's name i've now forgotten. - Installer: Fantastic - Have yet to trip it up, even on my dodgy new Toys-R-Us laptop everything was detected. Looks slick, and on a blank system with an express install only asks 5 questions before installing the system. An expert install allows more control over partitioning and software to install. One note on partitioning is that the installer does not (yet) allow the resizing of windows partitions, which is contrary to what is said on the box and on the website. Either that or i'm missing something. Which is possible. No game of solitare here either. Desktop: Another KDE clone, this time with a 'Launch' button with the xandros 'X' symbol on it - fairly familiar layout of icons, including a 'My Computer' clone, and a 'network neighborhood' clone. The Xandros File Manager (XFM) is quite cool as graphical file managers go - windows users will be quite at home with it. One interface can be used to copy files between CDs, floppys, HDs, Samba and NFS shares and FTP sites. I also merrily recognised and displayed my Fuji Camera, which acts as a standard USB Mass storage device. You can also do such wonderful things as right clicking on folders in XFM and go to properties, in order to update permissions and share things as samba shares. Internet dialup was easy, once we gave up on an internal winmodem, alltho I have to say that the support we got in trying to get this to work was fantastic. There are 4 desktops set by default, each with a different colouration to let you know where you are easily. Mozilla is the default for web and mail. Koffice and abiword are supplied, and OpenOffice can be easily downloaded from the Xandros Archive, or from a standard Debian repositry. Updates: From xandros or debian apt archives, via a very usable graphical apt tool. Could do with a little bit of interface tweaking to make it a bit more intuitive, but it was worked out fairly quickly. Novice (linux) User Comments: Dad: "Fantastic - very professional looking - wouldn't be out of place in a corporate workplace" Mum: See above Housemate: "no solitare on this installer. that sucks" Windows: Xandros is available in it's more expensive form with Crossover Office, which pretty flawlessly runs a given set of normally windows based software. Once we'd installed a version of wine from deb unstable (which wasn't as hard as it sounds, using the graphical tool) we also managed to run a plethora of dad's accounting and office manager type software. License: This is the sticker - it's not all Free, specifically the Crossover Office and XFM bits. In terms of installation you're allowed to install it on any number of home PCs, and 1 business PC. Hope this helps. Cheers, John -- This space intentionally left blank --__--__-- _______________________________________________ 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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RE: [Alug]Netbox
by Adam Bower 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

> From: Wayne Stallwood [mailto:wayne.stallwood@btinternet.com] > Hacking it is not going to be so easy. > > A Nmap scan shows no ports within the ones that nmap scans, > trying to telnet > to the box results in a connection refused. > Does anybody know of a way to scan all 65535 ports on a host > (yes I know this > is going to take hours) But I am wondering if there is a > useful service > running on a non standard port (thinks of the Zaurus running > it's ftp server > on a strange port) nmap -sU -sS -p 0-65535 -O -v -oN logfile.log netbox.ip.address should give you an udp scan (-sU) and tcp scan (-sS) on all ports (-p 0-65535) with os fingerprinting (-O although you know its linux already) and verbose reporting (-v) and log to a file logfile.log (-oN logfile.log) Should be what you are looking for, note udp scanning against linux could take a very very long time :) Adam

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RE: [Alug]A file system puzzle
by Adam Bower 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

> From: Barry Samuels [mailto:barry@beenthere-donethat.org.uk] > > > I want to replace one of the modules (98k) within the file > > > system with > > > one of my own (68k) but always end up with a compressed > file system > > > that is larger than the original and won't fit on the disc. > > > > > > Could someone please explain, to a 'bear of little brain', > > > what I must > > > be doing wrong? > > > > Sounds like the "smaller" module is making the archive less > > compressable. > > That doesn't explain why deleting a file and not replacing it > makes the > resultant compressed file system larger. <stabbing at clues in the dark> Hmmm, ok what could be happening is that the file is being deleted from the directory indices but the space on disk is never overwritten with blank data but still has the original file there just no longer referenced by the filesystem. This change in the indices etc. causes the compression algorithm to make a bigger file as there is still data at the same point on the disk. You could perhaps try creating a new "empty" loopback filesystem and then copying the data between the two and trying to compress that to see what happens. In short thats a guess, apart from that I don't know you could always try asking on a compression newsgroup :) > > Try gzip -9 for the best compression (and slowest) and see if that > > helps it > > fit. > > I've been using -9 all along. Ummmm, try -8 ;) actually you could try all of them to see if the archives to get smaller with greater levels of compression. ISTR that in some cases using a "greater" compression ratio can cause a file to end up bigger than using a lesser one. Adam Adam

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[Alug]Norwich evening meeting announcement.
by Syd Hancock 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

First Norwich evening meeting will be held on thursday 1st May in the Forum coffee bar from 8pm. Everyone welcome of course. Don't worry if you're not a techie, neither am I. No particular theme, just an opportunity for linux users in the area to begin to connect face to face. Hopefully this will become a regular monthly occurrence although day and venue may well change over the next few months. If you are intending to be there, please would you contact me off-list to give some idea of numbers? I think my kids have a toy penguin somewhere to act as a rallying point - if they'll let me borrow it of course :-) Syd

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RE: [Alug]A file system puzzle
by Adam Bower 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

> From: Barry Samuels [mailto:barry@beenthere-donethat.org.uk] > If I delete a file when the file system is mounted then unmount and > re-gzip I end up with something that is larger than the > origianl which > doesn't seem to make sense to me. > > I want to replace one of the modules (98k) within the file > system with > one of my own (68k) but always end up with a compressed file system > that is larger than the original and won't fit on the disc. > > Could someone please explain, to a 'bear of little brain', > what I must > be doing wrong? Sounds like the "smaller" module is making the archive less compressable. Try gzip -9 for the best compression (and slowest) and see if that helps it fit. Adam

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RE: [Alug]RH9 Opinions?
by Adam Bower 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

> From: Martyn Drake [mailto:martyn@drake.org.uk] > In my industry we have little choice over what distros we can > use, simply > because when you purchase expensive things like Maya or > Pixar's Renderman, > you're tied to what they support and both these products will > only support > Red Hat 7.2 and 7.3 at the time of writing. People have > tried Debian with > RenderMan only to have been told that it's not supported in > any way shape or > form. Of course, it's not just the industry that I work in > that has this > problem. I'm sure that most commercial Linux software Not supported doesn't mean it won't work though :) The Matrix was rendered with renderman (and other bits) running on FreeBSD through the Linux compatability system. What I found with the movie industry was that people were unwilling to try things which were "unsupported" as they equated it with "not working". Adam

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[Alug]A file system puzzle
by Barry Samuels 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

I am trying to change the contents of a bootable floppy to include a specific module. On the floppy is a file 'miniroot.gz' which I have copied to my hard drive. I can gunzip the file and mount the resultant file system 'miniroot' using mount -o loop. If I unmount, without changing anything, and re-gzip the file the result is the same as the original. If I delete a file when the file system is mounted then unmount and re-gzip I end up with something that is larger than the origianl which doesn't seem to make sense to me. I want to replace one of the modules (98k) within the file system with one of my own (68k) but always end up with a compressed file system that is larger than the original and won't fit on the disc. Could someone please explain, to a 'bear of little brain', what I must be doing wrong? Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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[Alug]booting Gentoo install
by Glen Tyler 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

wanting to try a new configurable linux I have been sent a gentoo x86 1.4 rc3 CD. At the top level there is one file livecd.cloop and two directories gentoo - (containing the three level tarballs) and isolinux (with initrd and gentoo.lss files in it among others). I'm guessing that the livecd.cloop file should be a boot.img or something like it as I don't think that gentoo can be installed unless you can boot from the CD. Normally (i.e. never before) I have no problem booting from CD's. Can anyone give any pointers? Glen

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[Alug]Netbox
by Wayne Stallwood 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

I was at an Auction in Ipswich today and I spotted two boxed Netgem Netbox's (A Web/eMail Set Top Box thingy) Nearly walked past them but then a Penguin on the box caught my eye (They run Linux 2.2.something) Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that they were an unsold lot from a previous auction waiting for collection by the seller. Anyway a quick chat with the Auctioneer afterwards had me getting them for reserve (£15 each) One is missing it's Smart Card (and they seem to need this in some way) but the other is booting fine. I have no interest in STB's but given that these have Linux, an ethernet interface, sound, TV out and a remote keyboard. I figure that as a toy to hack around with they may fill a rainy night (not that we seem to be getting those at the moment) I am away for the weekend so can't play until sometime next week, but would the list be interested in me posting details of what I find ?

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[Alug]Spell checking greyed-out in Sylpheed-Claws
by Ian Douglas 21 Apr '03

21 Apr '03

Hi folks, I have just installed sylpheed-claws 0.8.11 on my PC but the "spelling" option is greyed out in the compose window. If I type "which aspell" (or ispell) my system confirms that they are installed in /usr/bin so I am not sure why the spell checking function is not available within Sylpheed. Does anyone have any ideas about what I need to tweak in order to get this function working? Ian.

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