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10372 discussions

Re: [Alug] Bit of fun: Your first Linux distro
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 16 Feb '02

16 Feb '02

My first installation was RdHat6.2 on a laptop, I then built a computer from old cast-off bits from work and put RedHat6.2 on that. That was in autumn 2000. Late 2001 saw me installing debian on another old unwanted box at work, I then installed it on the box at home, and then the laptop. As I type I am installing a more recent version of debian onto a brand new box fresh in from the shop. When I installed on the box I built myself with old cronky hardware, it took me months to get anything going. This install here it is all "just working". Still, it is good to learn the hard way. I'm also running experiments on a hacked-about kernel running on an ipaq http://www.toby-churchill.org Jen.

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Kernel compile/W00t! was RE:NVIDIA/X
by Ricardo Campos 16 Feb '02

16 Feb '02

ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou! Just compiled my first kernel from source (2.4.17), and- wow! That was scarily easy! THEN I compiled the NVIDIA kernel& GLX from source. Weeeeeeeeeeee! Hurrah for openGL! Any other newbies out there- follow the instructions in the HOWTO's and voila (helps if you use LILO as most docs are on that)! Anyways, only two probs: 1 module won't load, I'll see to that when it becomes a problem. The second one, though, is that it won't automatically mount hda8 (I can do it from BASH), because it says I have too many filesystems. Checking /etc/fstab I appear to have 2 swap files (oops, I mean *partitions*) mounted??????? Eh??? I didn't put that there! Any idea how it might have got there? I'm removing it, so only the correct one is present. Just bugs me how it got there. Ricardo _______________________________________________ "There are several codes, and I know several of them." -Mr. Precise. http://www.rscampos.net Check my online diary out: http://www.rscampos.net/blog.html -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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SFPack & Soundfonts in Linux
by Edenyard 15 Feb '02

15 Feb '02

Here's a tricky one! I've managed to get ALSA and Timidity working quite nicely on my Linux box, despite its being only an ex-skip P166. Now I want to load a particular set of sound fonts. I've already got the usual GUS and Midia sets and now I've downloaded two sets that I particularly want. They're both packed in some format called SFPack, which seems to be a windoze type of format. I've searched around on Google but I haven't located anything that seems to come remotely close to SFPack that runs on Linux. Since I don't have windoze, I'm stuck. This is highly frustrating. Please does anyone have any ideas? Gerald.

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Re: [Alug] NVIDIA/ X
by MJ Ray 15 Feb '02

15 Feb '02

Adam wrote: > I think the driver is closed source though as lots of their technology is > in there so they don't want other gfx card manufacturers to steal it from > them. Oh, I thought it was because they had entered into various patent licensing agreements that cover software used in the accelerated drivers. Insert your own comment about how good software patents are here. -- MJR

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Re:Multiple NICS
by tom potts 15 Feb '02

15 Feb '02

RedHat have a thing called HAS - High Accessability Server which allows you to connect as many machines as you like together and they play as one! Apparently you can take out alll but one node without the system collapsing. Havent tried it yet but it sounds promising. 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

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pcmcia and laptop issue
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 15 Feb '02

15 Feb '02

Hello All, just a thanks to all who have helped with my laptop and the pc card not working thing. A brief history for those not at the last meeting: This laptop originally had on RH6.2, the pc card (buffalo) wouldn't work at all. Then I installed debian with a 2.2.18pre21 kernel, and it half worked, but the interrupts kept being dropped and it was very humpty. At the last meeting we installed a new kernel (2.2.4 I think but not having the laptop here I can't check, or was it 2.4 something? I really ought to know these things but life is too short to know *everything*!) but then discovered this particular kernel handles pcmcia differently and it has to be loaded as a separate module. So last night I downloaded pcmcia.cs latest version onto a floppy, copied to laptop, configured and ran make, and hey presto! it works beautifully. Cheers, Jenny.

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NVIDIA/ X
by Ricardo Campos 15 Feb '02

15 Feb '02

> Why would you want to play Q3 anyway? ;-) Rune and Tux Racer, actually! :-P, the driver provided by X is WELL below par (in fact unusable) for openGL games. HOWEVER, I now want it back, at least it damn well worked! :'( > No, the problem is that when they fry the system, you can't debug it. The > cause is that they are needlessly restricted. I get Mark's point, though. It would be a much better idea if NVIDIA left it open for the XFree86/kernel hackers to work on, cos they seem to have a better idea of what they're doing. Sorry to selfishly steer towards my problem. I still have a seriously fscked X configuration (i.e. it don't work), with no NVdriver module anywhere. So... this module- part of X or part of the kernel? Does the kernel load this module, which is provided by X, or vice versa? I think I'm getting confuZed here. Am I gonna have to install a kernel from source whether I like it or not now, to get the module back? OR X? How could I find the headers for my existing kernel, if they're not where they're meant to be, so I can rebuild the NVIDIA kernel patch from source? TIA Ricardo -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [Alug] recovery from disaster/rebuilding kernel
by MJ Ray 14 Feb '02

14 Feb '02

Adam wrote: > But the NVdriver *is* the proprietary Nvidia one [...] Yes, sorry, it seems that I was mislead by the OP saying they came with X. Why would you want to play Q3 anyway? ;-) > [...] the only problem is though that they are not open source =( No, the problem is that when they fry the system, you can't debug it. The cause is that they are needlessly restricted. -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] Multiple NICs
by Ricardo Campos 14 Feb '02

14 Feb '02

> Well, you can use round-robin DNS which means that for the hostname you'll > assign two IP addresses. You just assign multiple A records for the > hostname. Sometimes the answer is so simple you just don't see it! Would this *just* provide fault tolerance (if one card goes down, it gives the next IP)? i.e. not load balance. Or does it alternate which IP it gives out to the client issuing the request? TIA Ricardo (PS Martyn- my RH system is now bang up-to-date- no probs whatsoever with the kernel upgrades!) -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [Alug] recovery from disaster/rebuilding kernel
by MJ Ray 14 Feb '02

14 Feb '02

Adam wrote: > No just build a new kernel, when you reboot your machine XDM and X will > not work, just grab the NVIDIA drivers from http://www.nvidia.com and make > sure you have them in /usr/src before you do all this. [...] Ahem, he said the NV driver that came with X, not the POS ones from nvidia.com. As long as AGP isn't disabled, it should work fine. I have an entirely healthy bias against the nvidia.com drivers from past experiences. -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] recovery from disaster/rebuilding kernel
by Ricardo Campos 14 Feb '02

14 Feb '02

> No just build a new kernel, when you reboot your machine XDM and X will > not work, just grab the NVIDIA drivers from http://www.nvidia.com and make > sure you have them in /usr/src before you do all this. OK. So I decided to test this.... I used the 'which package to use' program from Nvidia. Backed up XF86Config and XF86Config-4. I downloaded the .rpms, and installed them as root in runlevel 4 (5 starts up X). I got an error with the kernel rpm: modprobe can't find NVdriver. find / | grep NVdriver can't find it either. Where did it go? :'( I rebooted to runlevel 4 again just incase. (5 starts x it's a RH7.2 machine). I run startx . Well, all I can say is... thank fsck for ext3! I fiddled with my XF86Config-4 file and managed to get it so it doesn't lock up, but it exits saying it can't find the NVdriver module still. So I downloaded the source tars. I run a make on the kernel modules. It can't find the headers! I boot into my trusty MDK8.0 system, get online, look up every FAQ I can find and some NVIDIA walkthroughs on linuxnewbie.I need to add (apparently) SYSINCLUDE=/lib/modules/2.4.9-21/build/include Only.... there's no such path. It stops at /lib/modules/2.4.9-21/ and the contents DOES have something called BUILD in it, that is flashing for some reason. I *did* recently update the kernel due to the myriad of security errata, but I made sure I downloaded the kernel-headers package too. erm.... *eep*! >all you have to do when you rebuild the > machine is make sure your new user account has the same UID no. or you can > use the chown command as root to get access back to the files when you > have rebuilt the machine. Of course! root always has a UID of 0! I can CHOWN the files to the new user acct. groovy. REMINDER TO SELF= Put a sticker on my monitor saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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recovery from disaster/rebuilding kernel
by Ricardo Campos 14 Feb '02

14 Feb '02

I am going to attempt to rebuild my kernel (gulp). Now, if I TOTALLY screw it up (likely), I want to know if it is possible for me to preserve my /home partition, and my X configuration: 1. Will the new kernel build impact on my X configuration? I know that my kernel has the NVdriver module installed (the one that came with X 4.1.0), but I'm concerned as to whether if I rebuild the kernel from source, it will require a new installation of X? 2. I have a separate /home partition, on a separate drive (hdb) to where / resides (hda). I did this incase hda fails.However, as I understand it, even if I make a user with the same name and password and mount /home to the old /home partition, I will still not be able to access any of the files due to permissions- am I right? If so, would there be a way to save the user info on floppy/CD whatever so that if I did fsck it all up, I could just start an install from scratch and use those files to get access to the old /home? (an install from scratch being far quicker!) Could I possibly ask any more questions in one e-mail? ;) TIA Ricardo -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Multiple NICs
by Ricardo Campos 14 Feb '02

14 Feb '02

OK, I'm wondering if this is possible in Linux: One server, thebeast.mydomain.com , has 2 NICS. 1 has an IP of 10.0.0.1, the other of 10.0.0.2 . It is connected to a switch (which has a few other servers attached), and the switch to the rest of the LAN. It's a pretty critical server, under quite heavy load. Is there any way that a client could connect to thebeast.mydomain.com and sometimes connect to one IP, sometimes to another? I'm looking for fault tolerance as well as load balancing between the network cards. I know that Intel Server adapters do this on NT and Novell. Anyone have any ideas? Would it involve DNS jiiggerypokery? i.e. DNS server sending requests to 1 IP then another. Or maybe a switch that could do it? Ricardo PS please don't say "buy another server and cluster it" or somesuch. an additional NIC is FAR cheaper than another high-end server. -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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RHN users-advice
by Ricardo Campos 12 Feb '02

12 Feb '02

Just a quick question for RedHatNetwork Users- anyone had any probs updating the kernel via rhnsd? I'm usiong the latest version of that... my only outdated packages are the kernel and XFree86.... (Yes, I'm scared it may fsck up, I only have a dial-up!) Ricardo _______________________________________________ "There are several codes, and I know several of them." -Mr. Precise. http://www.rscampos.net Check my online diary out: http://www.rscampos.net/blog.html -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [Alug] port forwarding
by Ricardo Campos 12 Feb '02

12 Feb '02

>If you firewall out SMTP into the network except for the > gateway then that should help you avoid doing a Demon and getting your > outgoing mail relay listed in an RBL even though it's actually a > customer's fault. What's an RBL? I use Demon as an ISP, and with a paid e-mail account I was only able to use demon's SMTP server, rather than the one I paid for... is this due to relaying? Would this also affect me if I had an MTA on my box at home? Ricardo -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [Alug] "Reverse" VNC
by Laurie Brown 12 Feb '02

12 Feb '02

Eric Sellin wrote: > Hi Laurie, > > If you want to gain control over a remote computer but you can't connect to > it (because of NAT, firewall or God knows what), you can start the VNC > viewer in Listen mode on your own computer. > > Then, on the remote computer, get your customer to:- > - start the VNC server > - right-click on the VNC icon in the icon tray > - choose the "Add New Client" option > - supply your own IP address > > Of course, there has to be somebody in front of the remote computer to > initiate the reverse connection, which I understand is not ideal. Thanks, Eric, that worked a treat. I'm a shade embarrassed I didn't spot that functionality myself! One thing I did have to do was to open port 550x (where x = display number) on my firewall to incoming traffic. Cheers, Laurie. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------- Laurie Brown laurie(a)brownowl.com PGP key at http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: [Alug] port forwarding
by MJ Ray 12 Feb '02

12 Feb '02

Jonathan McDowell wrote: > presumably redirecting to a machine that expects to relay for the > network anyway, so that bit isn't a problem either. It'll Just Work, Can you tell where they originally came from, or will the smtp server assume it's all from the machine doing the redirect? Relay Hell potential. -- MJR

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Debain transition
by Mike Lincoln 12 Feb '02

12 Feb '02

Hi all, I've recently tried out Debian (woody) and was very impressed. I'm new to debian, but not Linux/GNU. I've lived with various distributions in the past, Slakware, Redhat, then SuSE. I found myself with a few problems under debian, for example getting my usb keyboard and mouse working. I know how to hack them into submission, but I'm sure it's not done it the "Debian way". I'm missing /dev entires for most usb devices, I get the impression there must be a .deb for this ? keybdev also needs to be modprobed (so I added it to /etc/modules). (I'm running kernel 2.4.x) I have many other little niggles, so I guess I should RTM. Anyway, my question is: Is there a good website/book that is aimed at experienced users who wish to migrate from other distributions to Debian? Thanks, Mike

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Re: [Alug] Debain transition
by MJ Ray 12 Feb '02

12 Feb '02

Mike Lincoln wrote: > [...] I'm missing /dev entires for most usb devices, I get the impression > there must be a deb for this ? I have the fstab line none /proc/bus/usb usbdevfs defaults 0 0 Maybe that helps you? It's not devfs (yet), so the devices are in /proc/bus/usb I guess. > Is there a good website/book that is aimed at experienced users who wish > to migrate from other distributions to Debian? You've seen the produce of the "Debian Documentation Project"? Another handy site for keeping up to date is http://www.debianplanet.org/ Other than that and the usual mailing lists etc, I'm not sure what to suggest. -- MJR

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VNC problems
by tom potts 12 Feb '02

12 Feb '02

I would imagine the problem here is due to the firewalls. Can you VNC on to machines outside your firewall? If so your firewall is configured to map the VNC connections correctly. If not you'll have to configure your firewall to do that before you arrange for the clients to be configured - if they'll allow it cos its a bit of a security hole apparently. It shouldnt be difficult - if you/they can browse then there will be mappings for port 80 so they just need to be copied for whatever vnc uses. If you're doing work fro them I would recommend at the very least that VNC is not run as an autostart service but when you need to connect they start the listening service and the service is terminated when you have done to prevent any unwarranted intrusion. Ideally you should get them to disable the VNC access through the firewall when its not required just in case someone 'clocks the wrong button' and leaves someone else in charge on a PDC! 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

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 12 Feb '02

12 Feb '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!)

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Long-range wireless LAN
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 11 Feb '02

11 Feb '02

Come to think of it, ALUG should be a damn good place to ask this question ... A friend of mine, much knowledgeable, tells me that with directional antennae a line-of sight range of 10-15 miles should be attainable for wireless LAN. But it's equally a question of finding hospitality at the far end. Well, out here in the midst of optically flat nowhere, line of sight to almost anywhere is no problem. Problem is, almost everywhere is uninhabited. Nearest place which might have an accommodating college or such is Ely (10 miles, but on a nice mountain which boosts line-of-sight visibility). So there you are. I'm groping. But there must be some of you who've at least thought about this in similar terrain; so if anyone has any comments or suggestions I'd be most interested to hear! It might lead to an improvement on my current 33.6k bit rate ... and, come to think of it, converting Ely Cathedral to a LAN hub is a tempting notion. 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: 11-Feb-02 Time: 20:08:30 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Hardware problem?
by Ian Thompson-Bell 11 Feb '02

11 Feb '02

I am experiencing an intermittent problem with my linux box. It has started to occur over the last few days while I was adding a USB zip drive to my system. At one point, as I was having problems with unmounting the zip drive, I thought I would switch to windoze, load the drivers and just check the problem was not with the drive itself. Well after a whole bunch of blue screens of death I gave up on windows and decided to reboot linux and delete windoze entirely. That;s when the first problems occurred. I seemed to have a corrupt file system. I ran the RedHat 7.2 CD in rescue mode, fixed things with e2fsck and I thought all was OK. Then this afternoon, playing around with rc.local and modules.conf to get USB up, running and mounted automatically, I started experiencing problems. I rebooted to try a new configuration and suddenly got lots of errors during booting and a freeze. Even the RH rescue CD crashed - it kept getting SIG 11 and shutting down and when it occasionally did run, e2fsck would seg fault. Now, a couple of hours later, it boots up perfectly first time and I am happily typing the email. So, what do you think the problem is most likely to be? Ian

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RE: Debian install from parallel CD-Rom
by Ricardo Campos 11 Feb '02

11 Feb '02

*oops* I meant that I CAN'T find any documentation!(Before you RTFM me) Ricardo -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Debian install from Parallel CD-ROM
by Ricardo Campos 11 Feb '02

11 Feb '02

I'm trying to load Debian from a parallel CD-Rom, but cannot find an appropriate image for a boot floppy. The Installation CD-Rom seems to have a rescue.bin, but I'm not sure if this'll work or in fact how to make a boot floppy from this. I can find any documentation on this! :( Erm... help! Ricardo -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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