- main - earth.li

Re: [Alug] drive seek error....
by Ricardo Campos 22 Jul '02

22 Jul '02

> Eventually I started getting BIOS boot memory errors. > New RAM module fixed it. Does anyone know of software to test physical memory? I have 2 RAM modules, 1 new, 1 older. I guess 1 might be giving problems. I've borrowed some RAM from work to see if that fixes it. -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

1 0

Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 22 Jul '02

22 Jul '02

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.openprojects.net in the #alug channel, you can take a look at www.openprojects.net to get more info on the openprojects network. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server uk.openprojects.net" or "/server eu.openprojects.net" 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!)

3 2

Re: [Alug] DVD Playing
by Ricardo Campos 22 Jul '02

22 Jul '02

> I remember a discussion at the last meet about playing DVDs and someone > recommending Xine as a player. I have had a go at setting this up and it > complains saying it won't play encrypted DVDs even with libdvdcss > installed. > > Has anyone else got this working? If so what did you have do do? I found xine hokey, personally. I found OGLE to be far more reliable in it's support for DVD's, menus, etc. But then again it doesn't play mpegs or avi's. Maybe try an older version of libdvdcss- for some reason the newest one doesn't work for me, but the old one does! Also, your DVD might need to be set rw, I can't play encrypted DVD's without it being rw for the user in question. Hope that helps. Ricardo -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

7 7

DMA and Bus Hogging?
by Steve Fosdick 22 Jul '02

22 Jul '02

Thanks for the info on DVD playing. I now have another issue for people to ponder... I have a SCSI CD-Writer and if I run digital audio extraction on that at the same time as trying to do something with the hard disk, programs trying to use the hard disk seem to be made to wait for the CD Writer, i.e wait until the end of the track being extracted, and in syslog I get a series of messages like this: Jul 21 23:04:29 pelvoux kernel: hdb: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy } Jul 21 23:04:34 pelvoux kernel: ide0: reset: success My initial guess as to what is happening is that the SCSI card is hogging the PCI bus and preventing any commucication withe IDE controller. This is the second time I have come accross problems with things getting in each other's way - the other one was with video capture. In that case I thought turning on DMA so hard disk writes would be faster wold improve vide capture but actually resulted in many more lost frames than driving the hard disk in PIO mode. So, can anyone confirm from the little information I have here that this indeed a PCI bus sharing problem or suggest what it might be instead. Either way can anyone think of a software solution to it? Steve.

1 0

Re: [Alug] DVD Playing
by Ricardo Campos 21 Jul '02

21 Jul '02

> So in your opinion ogle is a better alternative? Or are there other players I > should be looking at? For DVD playing, I think Ogle is best. I personally use xine, but just for divx, avi and mpeg. (you could also check out mplayer too) -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

1 0

Re: [Alug] DVD Playing
by Ricardo Campos 21 Jul '02

21 Jul '02

> I have had a go at setting this up and it > complains saying it won't play encrypted DVDs even with libdvdcss > installed. Just been looking at my notes- I found that although the make install went 'OK' it HADN'T copied the files to /usr/lib/ (on Debian). Perhaps check that. If not, run xine from the terminal and give us some error messages! --in fact, I'm just rebuilding my machine after my HD crash. I need to add dvd support... --back! I needed to: 1.download libdvdcss-0.0.3-ogle3 from: http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/~jcm/skyblade/XINE-0.9.06/source.TAR.B… 2.apt-get install ogle-mmx ogle-gui 3.bunzip2 libdvdcss; tar -xvf libdvdcss ; ./configure ; make ; make install 4. cd libdvdcss/lib/ 5. cp * /usr/lib 6. chmod 666 /dev/hdc 7. mount /cdrom 8. open ogle, open /cdrom and watch Crounching Tiger. Unfortunately, xine still doesn't play them. Maybe you need to put the .so 's elsewhere. -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

1 0

DVD Playing
by Steve Fosdick 21 Jul '02

21 Jul '02

I remember a discussion at the last meet about playing DVDs and someone recommending Xine as a player. I have had a go at setting this up and it complains saying it won't play encrypted DVDs even with libdvdcss installed. Has anyone else got this working? If so what did you have do do? Steve.

2 1

RE: [Alug] Networking Problem
by Jonathan Dye 21 Jul '02

21 Jul '02

Looks like my first email never made it so i'll try again. > Hi folks, > > I got a new PC today and have been busy beavering away > installing Linux on > its hard disk and setting it up to dual boot. Everything > seems to have gone > smoothly apart from my ethernet connection (Realtek RTL8139). I had lots of problems with my RTL8139 based board under kernels 2.4.3 to about 2.4.16. It all seems to be fine now I'm running 2.4.18. > Jul 13 22:15:16 chocchip kernel: 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.24 > Jul 13 22:15:16 chocchip kernel: eth0: RealTek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet at > 0xd4a16000, 00:10:dc:1f:95:78, IRQ 18 > Jul 13 22:15:16 chocchip kernel: eth0: Identified 8139 chip type > 'RTL-8139B' > Jul 13 22:15:16 chocchip kernel: eth0: Setting half-duplex based on > auto-negotiated partner ability 0000. I get this too even thought my card works fine. I got something slightly different with the broken drivers in the earlier kernels. Doing a diff between the earlier drivers and the one I have now shows that some code changed around this and the changelog says something about some cards being broken. JD _____________________________________________________________________ This message has been checked for all known viruses by the MessageLabs Virus Scanning Service

5 4

AHA!
by Kelly Ash 20 Jul '02

20 Jul '02

I am sending this from within LINUX!! Woooohoooo!! *bg* I had gone into the BIOS and made the first "boot-from" CD (It previously was floppy) in order to install from the CD's. When I couldn't get it to boot at all after the install (and it asked me to insert a non-existent floppy) I went back into the BIOS and changed to to boot first from the IDE and I am. Don't know if it was the right thing to do or not, hope someone tells me, but it worked and I'm now a happy camper 'cuz I can fiddle around with Linux the rest of this afternoon! I also had put the first CD back in before that and chose "Help" then picked re-install boot loader. But no, Steve, I don't know which one it uses (I'm guessing there's probably a way I can find out) it just goes along on it's own. In my reference book it says the two you mentioned, LILO and Grub but then tells me not to concern myself with it if I'm doing a 'recommended' install, which I did. Just off the bat, is there a way I can get another email address to use for Linux? I don't want to get my current mail here right at this point because of no HTML. Will get around to changing all that later. Steve- I'm in Caister (near Yarmouth)..... is there a "member" page on the ALUG site that I've missed where you could fill in this sort of info? I'm off to poke around **soo excited** and start my list of questions! Kelly

2 1

Heeeelp!
by Kelly Ash 20 Jul '02

20 Jul '02

Anybody out there?? Hope so! It's me..Kelly...using an old hotmail addy for the moment. Did my install this morning, went smooth as far as I could tell. Got to the very end and I clicked "OK" to reboot. Supposedly I was supposed to get a choice of either Windows or Linux (If I haven't wiped out my Windows hd that is *g*). But all I get is a black screen with: MBR Error 3 MBR Error 3 MBR Error 1 Press any key to boot from floppy. As it zipped through the steps during the install it didn't ask me once to insert a floppy! If I click any key after the last bit up there I just get: 'MBR Error 2-Press any key to boot from floppy. I've got a number here somewhere that someone (would be nice if I could remember a name!) gave me in case of problems but will check back in email a couple times first even if I DO find it, lol. The cc's are to the only addy's I could find right now for ALUG, and ones I THINK I know. We'll see how close I get *g* Thanks! Kelly _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com

2 1

Meeting Report for 14 July 2002
by MJ Ray 19 Jul '02

19 Jul '02

ALUG met on Sunday 14th July at the North Lynn Discovery Centre in King's Lynn. Attendees included John Woodard, Jen Hopkins, johnboy(!?), Keith Watson, Dave Griffiths, Dennis Dryden, MJ Ray, Brett Parker, James Taylor & Karen Maltby. Kit Debugging --------------------- USB mice - can anyone help get a wireless Logitech iTouch black mouse working? Alug promo - what should we do different? --------------------- * Announce meetings to local papers * List more in linux mags * More themed meetings * Future meetings: - Bbq@Syleham - Edu or dev?@Elmswell: ask Rob - Install@uea: ask James or David * New venue? Watch this space Printing info --------------------- * MJR gave a short talk off the top of his head: details to be added to the web site contrib area. Ipaq speech synth demo --------------------- * Thanks to Jen for bringing the ipaq, and Dennis for use of his laptop Adjourned to a local(ish) beer garden for drink and chat =========================

3 4

Re: [Alug] Meeting Report for 14 July 2002
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 19 Jul '02

19 Jul '02

MJRay wrote: >ALUG met on Sunday 14th July at the North Lynn Discovery Centre in King's >Lynn. Attendees included John Woodard, Jen Hopkins, johnboy(!?), Keith >Watson, Dave Griffiths, Dennis Dryden, MJ Ray, Brett Parker, James Taylor & >Karen Maltby. Also Steve Fosdick valiantly appearing from the other side of the globe in time for the pub. Jen.

2 1

Poloshirts & Sweatshirts
by Keith Watson 19 Jul '02

19 Jul '02

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate list or should go on the social list, sorry if it's wrong. At work we've recently been in contact with a company in Dereham that does promotional logos on sweatshirts etc. Just out of curiosity I asked how much they would charge to put Tux and the words "ALUG Anglian Linux User Group"** on a garment. Assuming no copyright restrictions in using Tux, for embroidered artwork, they quoted £14 for poloshirts and £15 for sweatshirts with a minimum order of 10 garments, mixture's are possible (e.g. sizes and polo/s + sweat/s). Any interest? Keith ____________ The natural order of things includes us, and its laws are our laws. We are an endless moving stream in an endless moving stream. Jisho Warner ** I suppose that should really be AGLUG - Anglian GNU/Linux User Group!! :o)

4 5

GIMP Print Anyone?
by Keith Watson 19 Jul '02

19 Jul '02

1st thanks for the advice on how to get my Canon S400 up and running at the last meeting. Lots of useful ideas. I still haven't quite got beyond the printer, whenever I print something, going through a couple of head cleaning cycles and then going back to sleep but I have uninstalled CUPS, installed a 'proper' copy of Ghostscript, and also PDQ and Magicfilter. I like PDQ, especially xpdq. I not sure that mf is giving me anything at the moment but I'm keeping it by, just in case :o). At present reading up on how fonts are handled within X, Gnome, Ghostscript, etc. because I'm pretty sure they aren't set up correctly. OK, to get the point at last. While browsing around the printing projects on SourceForge I came across Gimp-Print <http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/index.php3> which seems to be one of the few that supports the S400 directly instead of as a BJC600. I've got hold of a copy and I'm going to give it a try. Anyone else ever used it? Incidentally there's an article on LinuxPlanet that mentions it <http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/3689/1/> Regards, Keith ____________ 'If there is a better solution...find it.' - Thomas Edison

4 3

Networking Problem
by Ian Douglas 18 Jul '02

18 Jul '02

Hi folks, I got a new PC today and have been busy beavering away installing Linux on its hard disk and setting it up to dual boot. Everything seems to have gone smoothly apart from my ethernet connection (Realtek RTL8139). My routing table is as follows: Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 192.168.0.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 0.0.0.0 192.168.0.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 If I try and ping any other hosts I get "Destination Unreachable" errors: PING suzy.suseland.net (192.168.3.61) from 192.168.3.70 : 56(84) bytes of data.

9 15

Warchalking!!
by Keith Watson 18 Jul '02

18 Jul '02

Following on from the discussions about wireless devices at the last meeting, here's some Computing articles that may be of interest; Chalk symbols expose London's wireless points <http://www.networknews.co.uk/News/1133055> WLAN hackers chalk up attacks <http://www.itweek.co.uk/ITWeekopinion/1133308> Keith ____________ Stand still. The trees ahead and the bush beside you are not lost. Albert Einstein

1 0

Isdn anyone?
by tom potts 17 Jul '02

17 Jul '02

I've got ISDN at home which I normally access through my NT box as I've never managed to get it to work under RH7.2/Mandrake/Suse or others. My NT box self destructed last nite (well its 9 year old harddrive did) so I wish to get up on ISDN. I've hunted high and low for FAQ's etc but the only two I've found dont seem to work. Better still does Freesco have support for ISDN? Or maybe ADSL cos I might upgrade so I Consume theneighbourhood Cheers Tom __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com

2 1

blackbox automatic startup
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 17 Jul '02

17 Jul '02

Hi All, I want blackbox to start automatically when i run startx. I tried putting exec blackbox in various .xsession and .xinitrc files to no avail. So then I found myself trawling about places like /etc/X11/Xsession.d (in debian) looking at how variables are called, all very entertaining but I'm sure there is an easier way. Like "bbconf", except that didn't do anything either. Creating a file called .xsession in my home directory and putting exec blackbox in doesn't help. Help! Nothing helps! Any ideas? Thanks, Jenny.

3 2

Re: [Alug] blackbox automatic startup
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 17 Jul '02

17 Jul '02

Adam Bower wrote: >X is evil :) it is not meant to be understood. Anyhow create the file .xinitrc >and add the one line exec blackbox and then change the permissions on the file >to read and execute for just you and then try startx. That did the job just beautifully, thanks Adam! I hereby nominate you as the phone support for the group (/me runs). Jenny.

1 0

RE: [Alug] blackbox automatic startup
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 17 Jul '02

17 Jul '02

Keith Watson wrote: >> I want blackbox to start automatically when i run startx. I tried putting >> exec blackbox in various .xsession and .xinitrc files to no avail. > >Are you using Gnome or KDE? (or just the basic XFree86?) and, if so, are you >using something like Enlightenment or Sawfish on top of that? I *think* wmaker. I don't fully understand x and xservers, having been pretty much a cli luddite till now. Endeavouring to learn. Thanks, Jen.

2 1

RE: [Alug] blackbox automatic startup
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 17 Jul '02

17 Jul '02

Ricardo wrote: >If you wanted to boot directly into X, then I would say >install GDM, but I guess that's not what you want? No, just for blackbox to start when I type startx. I think it is just to do with putting "exec blackbox" in the right file, but the one the helpful goole doc suggested isn't there (.xinitrc in home directory type stuff). At the moment when I startx I get a grey background with an xterm window, nothing else, until I type the appropriate window manager in the xterm. When I said earlier "I don't fully understand x..", by the way, I meant "I have absolutely no idea how x works" ;-) Jen.

2 1

Re: [Alug] A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing
by Kelly Ash 17 Jul '02

17 Jul '02

Installing should not be too scary or such a big problem, especially as you have a new drive to put linux onto, there is very very little chance of dataloss etc. what OS are you going to dual boot Linux with? Windows NT/2000/9x? >>>Win98se Also if you do find it scary can you not make one of the Alug meetings where somebody will quite happily install (well try ;)) linux for you... If not where in the world are you as somebody could perhaps come and help you in person. (btw i just had a thought, could we not offer some kind of telephone helpline to people who are stuck 50% of the way through an install?) >>>Appreciate the thought, don't feel quite so nervous now. Was mainly worried about doing something wrong and then not having ANY puter to work with until I'd figured it out. And, btw, I'm near Yarmouth :-)

1 0

Boot Loaders
by Keith Watson 17 Jul '02

17 Jul '02

As I'm booting from 2 disks hda=Windows and hdb=GNU/Linux, can I solicit views on what boot loaders are out there and which are suitable for this sort of configuration? Keith ____________ COMMERCE, n. A commercial pursuit. A commercial pursuit is one in which the thing pursued is money. Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary --- This message has been scanned for computer viruses and none have been detected. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com) Version: 6.0.375 / Virus Database: 210 - Release Date: 10/07/2002

5 6

Dual Booting Win2K and Linux
by Kelly Ash 17 Jul '02

17 Jul '02

That would be great, thanks!

1 0

Dual booting Win2K and Linux
by Keith Watson 17 Jul '02

17 Jul '02

Kelly, I have a PDF entitled as above that may be of help to you as it uses Mandrake in the examples. As it is just under 1Mb if you'd like a copy I'll send it directly to you (and anyone else who's interested). Is there an area on the ALUG site I could post it? Keith ____________ AIR, n. A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Providence for the fattening of the poor. Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary --- This message has been scanned for computer viruses and none have been detected. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com) Version: 6.0.375 / Virus Database: 210 - Release Date: 10/07/2002

3 2