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Re: [Alug] Locked directories - Sympathy
by Edenyard 25 Oct '01

25 Oct '01

Sorry - sent this to the wrong place first time around! For what it's worth (probably not a lot...), I ended up with Slackware 8.0 and Mandrake Freq on one machine for comparison. Speaking as a complete non-Linux-expert, I found the only saving grace of Mdk was that it worked my borrowed USB camera, whereas Slack wouldn't. Some of Mdk's MORE frustrating habits included secretly writing to my OKI LED printer and re-arranging settings that I perfected years ago and then claiming that it was something it wasn't, and also inviting me to select what packages I'd like installed and then not bothering to install them. Slack, on the other hand, went in, got on, and generally did its bit. Thanks to John Seago's timely intervention, I discovered that early problems I was having were due to duff disks from Crazy Penguin. Linux Emporium did me much better!! I elected to install KDE on Slackware but soon began to hate its bloat. Then I discovered ICEWM and there was no looking back. Partly due to the very good documentation on how to configure ICEWM files, even I was able to get it to work and add my own favourite functions. If I can, anyone can. And ICEWM is FAST, even on an ex-skip P166! So Slack+ICEWM gets my vote (speaking as a beginner, remember). One or two people are gradually trying to steer me down the path of recompiling a kernel to get USB to work with Slack. I lay awake at night worrying about that, but at least I've got a Linux that works, enables me to run Netscape, Acrobat, Xv and things and start the learning process. Oh, yes - and ALWAYS have MC installed. Darned useful for poking about to see how Linux works. Hope this helps someone! Please delete it if it doesn't.... Gerald.

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Re: [Alug] Locked directories - Sympathy
by MJ Ray 25 Oct '01

25 Oct '01

Adam Bower: > I've just had it pointed out that I have now indeed completely lost the > plot. That should read "luser attitude readjustment tool" never mind, the > correct authoritys have been informed that I am now completely mad. Or drunk amazingly early in the afternoon? ;-) Anyway, for more definitions, try http://www.foldoc.org/ (I think... offline just now, so haven't verified http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/ for sure?) MJR

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Re: [Alug] ALUG Meeting.. problem..
by MJ Ray 25 Oct '01

25 Oct '01

Simon Parkes: > But I have a cunning plan, we can use the Cinema at my parent place in > Cheveley (5 mins down the road), all organised if everyone is ok with > that... Bonus, in true Linux tradition, it's free (and there's a sauna and > pool available if anyone wants to refresh themselves)... Anyway over to you > guys. Sounds like a bonus to me. Can we have new directions, etc, please? Now, you see, I hadn't updated the ALUG web site because I knew something like this was going to happen... honest! MJR, lying through his teef.

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Re: [Alug] Locked directories - Sympathy
by Ricardo Campos 25 Oct '01

25 Oct '01

> I am using Mandrake 8.0 .I thought it might have >something to do with the auto mounting facility >(supermount) but can't find anything Well, I'm trying on MDKexpert, but I'm not holding my breath. I've seen more probs with MDK on e-lists and forums than any other distro, but then I spose it *does* attract newbies. >I am literally at the point of changing back to Suse At the moment in other browser windows, I am looking at Slackware and Debian on Cheeplinux.com . If you want something done properly, do it yourself. (stop sniggering you lot- at least I'll LEARN how to do it properly) >(you're right, I don't have any patience) My reasoning for Deb or Slackware is that the more you're hand is held along the way, the less able you are to fix it when it goes wrong. >(read- I'm afraid of making myself > look a pratt!)!!!!!!!!!!! :<)) I already have! :) But then I have no shame, and besides, that's the only way I learn. It makes the experts look good too! ;) Luckily there have been some people on-list who have given me some excellent pointers- not just RTFM, but "this is how to find the manual, and this is how to read it". So... thanks y'all for your patience!!! Linux is a minefield of distro's, each with their own peculiarities, and I have found almost guaranteed that things are never where they are meant to be- even in distro-specific documentation. (although my experience is only RH6.1 and MDK8.0) > I'd be grateful to know if you do 'sort' the problem. I'll try disabling supermount, and mount manually. Other than that.... ?????????????? :) "There are several codes, and I know several of them." -Mr. Precise. http://www.rscampos.net -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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ISP HOSTING
by tom potts 25 Oct '01

25 Oct '01

HTTP://WWW.PHP4HOSTING.CO.UK will get you MYSQL and PHP4,ftp for certain. Tom ____________________________________________________________ Nokia Game is on again. Go to http://uk.yahoo.com/nokiagame/ and join the new all media adventure before November 3rd.

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Locked directories - Sympathy
by KEV＠hartmann.dk 25 Oct '01

25 Oct '01

Hi Ricardo, I can't help you but I can offer sympathy. I have almost precisely the same problem as you and have hunted hi and low for a resolution without success. I am using Mandrake 8.0 and have even gone so far as to reload the whole system but still with the same problem. I thought it might have something to do with the auto mounting facility (supermount) but can't find anything that supports that theory either. I am interested to note Adam's comments and will have a look this evening to see if I can change the owner of my devices. I am literally at the point of changing back to Suse (you're right, I don't have any patience) as I know I can at least use that without fundamental problems like this. I wonder how many other people experienced the same problem. Mandrakes web site doesn't seem to make any mention of it or even tell you what a locked directory is! I suppose I may have changed something inadvertently but as a 'newbie' I tend to be very careful when 'tinkering' as I know I won't be able to rectify the result if I do screw up. I am saving my requests for help from the list until I really can't get my head round something (read- I'm afraid of making myself look a pratt!)!!!!!!!!!!! :<)) I'd be grateful to know if you do 'sort' the problem. Cheers Kevvy

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Re: [Alug] locked directories -please help!
by Ricardo Campos 25 Oct '01

25 Oct '01

> what distro are you using ?? > If Mandrake try : supermount disable > > and mount manually That I will, back to the man pages! :) <mini-rant> MDK8.0 is a pile of poo :P . </mini-rant> Ricardo "There are several codes, and I know several of them." -Mr. Precise. http://www.rscampos.net -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [Alug] locked directories -please help!
by Ricardo Campos 25 Oct '01

25 Oct '01

> Try the 'dmesg' command after trying to access one of these > device as check the output of lsmod. If these don't give you > the answer then please post the output here so we can take a gander. Ok... (brace yourself!) - these are just the hdc entries, there were none for fd0. lsmod gave 'command not found'. hdc: TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M1222, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive hdc: ATAPI 32X DVD-ROM drive, 256kB Cache, UDMA(33) hdc: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } hdc: command error: error=0x51 end_request: I/O error, dev 16:00 (hdc), sector 64 isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=16:00, iso_blknum=16, block=32 Any help? (full o/p on request) -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [Alug] locked directories -please help!
by MJ Ray 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

> Ok... (brace yourself!) - these are just the hdc > entries, there were none for fd0. lsmod gave > 'command not found'. > hdc: command error: status=0x51 { DriveReady > SeekComplete Error } > hdc: command error: error=0x51 > end_request: I/O error, dev 16:00 (hdc), sector 64 > isofs_read_super: bread failed, dev=16:00, > iso_blknum=16, block=32 Oh dear oh dear oh dear. The last time I saw that, the back of the drive had burnt out. Sorry. MJR

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default window manager
by Ricardo Campos 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

I'm trying to get X up and running on my 20MB RAM, (512kb video RAM) laptop, and thinking of maybe using blackbox as a WM (although I suspect most of my work will be done in console mode). It's a RedHat 6.1 box, and currently defaults into Gnome for it's GUI. I want to ditch that in favour of a more lightweight GUI. Where is the file that determines the default GUI when you log into X? Ricardo "There are several codes, and I know several of them." -Mr.Precise. http://www.rscampos.net -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: ISP's
by MJ Ray 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

John Seago: > Thanks for that, unfortunately I tried Freeserve and whilst the 1616 number > downloaded into my Windows partition, i was told, (by the call centre > operator), to delete it as it was being withdrawn, [...] Don't believe them! Energis Squared techs have said (in freeserve.help.anytime) that the 1616 number will be switched on until BT have cured *all* the 0808 exchange problems. If it works for you, then you have Internet access. That Freeserve tech support operation is a joke. There appears to be some sort of information flow blockage between Energis Squared (who provide the services) and Freeserve's customer services (who are supposed to help people use the service). MJR

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Greetings from the land of Kiwi
by Martyn Drake 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

Kia Ora folks, (and no - it's not a tasty orange fruit drink, but rather the Maori greeting) Just wanted to drop a quick hello all the way from New Zealand. We're currently in Kaikoura at a cyber cafe having been thwarted by the weather while trying to go whale watching off the coast :( Anyway, Linux over here doesn't appear to have been welcomed with too many open arms, although I'm sure that New Zealand has a growing army of Linux fans somewhere. Firstly of all the cyber cafes we've been too, none of them had the initiative to use Linux for their terminals. Everything Windows 98 over here (and a lot of them are used by teenagers to play network games - Wellington is stuff full of such cafes). There are a few north island companies that distribute the ISO images of various distributions, but haven't found anywhere that actually sells the official box sets. Anyway, having heard that Red Hat 7.2 has been officially released, that's something I look forward to trying out when I get back to the UK next week. BTW, New Zealand is probably the most beautiful country on the face of this planet and highly recommend it to anybody. Kia Ora (also serves as a goodbye) Martyn _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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ISP's
by John Seago 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

Thanks for that, unfortunately I tried Freeserve and whilst the 1616 number downloaded into my Windows partition, i was told, (by the call centre operator), to delete it as it was being withdrawn, and woe, woe, its not just BT that's affected by their exchange, Freeserve doesn't work either! Unless 25 attempts to connect, (auto dialed continuously at 35sec. intervals), wasn't a fair trial. John Seago

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locked directories -please help!
by Ricardo Campos 23 Oct '01

23 Oct '01

I can't access my cd-rom or floppy drive. In konqueror it says "you do not have enough permissions to read file:/mnt/cdrom. In the terminal I get: [ricardo@Azathoth /mnt]$ cd cdrom/ bash: cd: cdrom/: Input/output error and even as root: [root@Azothoth /mnt]# cd cdrom/ bash: cd: cdrom/: Input/output error In Konqueror, it is also described as a "locked directory". (It even has a big lock icon, just so you know!). [ricardo@Azathoth /mnt]$ ls -al total 32 drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Oct 23 22:21 ./ drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 Sep 17 18:30 ../ drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 23 22:23 cdrom/ drwxrwxr-x 2 root root 4096 Oct 23 22:22 disk/ drwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct 23 22:23 floppy/ drwxrwxrwx 11 root root 8192 Dec 31 1969 win_c/ drwxrwxrwx 27 root root 12288 Dec 31 1969 win_d/ here's my fstab file: /dev/hda6 / ext2 defaults 1 1 none /dev/pts devpts mode=0620 0 0 /mnt/cdrom /mnt/cdrom supermount =iso9660,dev=/dev/cdrom 0 0 /mnt/floppy /mnt/floppy supermount fs=vfat,dev=/dev/fd0 0 0 /dev/hda1 /mnt/win_c vfat user,exec,umask=0,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0 /dev/hda8 /mnt/win_d vfat user,exec,umask=0,codepage=850,iocharset=iso8859-1 0 0 none /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/hda7 swap swap defaults 0 0 In /dev/ I have these permissions: [root@Azothoth /dev]# ls -l cdrom lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 3 Sep 10 16:09 cdrom -> hdc [root@Azothoth /dev]# ls -l hdc brw------- 1 ricardo cdrom 22, 0 Apr 14 2001 hdc [root@Azothoth /dev]# ls -l fd0 brw-rw---- 1 ricardo floppy 2, 0 Apr 14 2001 fd0 It does not allow root to change the permissions on hdc, fd0, /mnt/cdrom or /mnt/floppy. I'm stumped. They work in Windows (i.e. the hardware's OK), and I haven't changed anything (doing all the changes on my RH laptop- IceWM rules, btw, Owen ;-). What's going on? The same problem occurs in KDE, Gnome, Afterstep, Icewm and Blackbox. (Didn't try in Enlightenment, but somehow I doubt it is WM-specific!!!). Please help! :( Apologies for such a long e-mail, but I wanted to give as much info as possible. PS I think Mozilla did something weird with the formatting... "There are several codes, and I know several of them." -Mr. Precise. http://www.rscampos.net -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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ISP's
by John Seago 23 Oct '01

23 Oct '01

Does anyone on the list know of a reliable ISP providing unmetered access still using an 0800 dial in number? I ask as BT have changed me over from 08005879089 to 08089933004, despite knowing since May that the exchange I connect through will not connect the 08089933XXX number sets as it has not been modernised to do so. The 0800 ISP I had used since the number change, Nutshell, went belly up and ceased operating, I am therefore limited to pay-as-you-go through the mutual.net. Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions. John seago

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Re: [Alug] backing up whole directories/ X4.1.0
by markj＠cloaked.freeserve.co.uk 22 Oct '01

22 Oct '01

> Obviously > cp /etc/X11/ /etc/Xll.bak/ > doesn't work- there must be a simple way on the command line- anyone know it? Have you tried giving cp the -R flag? I usually use -Rpd (recurse, preserve, dereference) when making backups like that. See the man page for sure. MJR

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Re: [Alug] backing up whole directories/ X4.1.0
by Ricardo Campos 22 Oct '01

22 Oct '01

I ranted:- >Obviously > cp /etc/X11/ /etc/Xll.bak/ > doesn't work- there must be a simple way on the >command line- anyone know it? Oh, of course, use tar and gzip:- tar cvfp - /usr/X11R6|gzip -9 > X11R6.backup.tar.gz (posted cos I thought it might not be obvious to other newbies on the list- and so others don't have to reply to that part of the previous post- unless you think I'm wrong) Ricardo "There are several codes, and I know several of them." -Mr. Precise. http://www.rscampos.net -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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backing up whole directories/ X4.1.0
by Ricardo Campos 22 Oct '01

22 Oct '01

I got Xine working (at last), but the performance is terrible for a system with 750 Mhz processor, 256MB RAM, 32MB Geforce2 card- well, terrible compared to Vidoelan on Win2k. I'm running it off X3.3.6, so I'm thinking that maybe an upgrade to 4.1.0 would improve performance? I *have* got the nvidia drivers installed. In the install notes, it says to backup your existing X installation. Which folders would these be, I can think of: /usr/X11R6/ /etc/X11/ But I'm sure there are some libraries too. Does anyone know where they are?(This is on my Mdk8.0 box) The other problem is how can you back up a whole directory. Obviously cp /etc/X11/ /etc/Xll.bak/ doesn't work- there must be a simple way on the command line- anyone know it? Can anyone see any pitfalls? Like, would I have to reinstall Xine, or the nvidia drivers? That would be a pain, it took me long enough to get Xine working in the first place. Ricardo "There are several codes, and I know several of them." -Mr. Precise. http://www.rscampos.net -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 22 Oct '01

22 Oct '01

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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Re: [Alug] pcmcia/eth0
by Ricardo Campos 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

> > *DOES* shut down as well, using: > > shutdown -h now > > Erm, what command were you using? shutdown -h now The problem's solved. I issue that command, it kills the TERM signal, it says "Going into maintenance mode", then hangs for a bit (well, it *IS* only a 486) and then shuts down. I personally created an alias for the command (I couldn't find any other aliases), so it's all OK. Of course, I can't actually use the laptop for squat until I get my PCMCIA card working, but then I have a stack of HOWTO's (PCMCIA, Net, some other misc stuff) next to me to keep me going. If I fail with that, then it maybe another e-mail to you guys, failing that M$ windows is going back on. :( No use having a computer that is no use! :-/ -- Get your free email from www.linuxmail.org Powered by Outblaze

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Re: [Alug] OHP or some kind
by MJ Ray 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

oms101(a)freeuk.com writes: > thanks for having a look maybe I shall just do hand outs then We should ask the Union if theirs (which has been free when I've used it in the past, with a deposit required) can be taken out of their building. -- MJR Do you need advice about the Internet or particular net services? Why not talk to my employers? See http://www.luminas.co.uk/ for details.

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Red Lodge
by John Woodard 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

Do we have a confirmation of the date and time for the Red Lodge meeting yet? Cheers, BJ

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Re: [Alug] Fwd: Re: The Penguin danced this evening-
by MJ Ray 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

Paul <paul.corner(a)tesco.net> writes: > Thought a few of you might enjoy the fruits of some correspondance I've been > indulging in. Just wish I could think of a suitable reply. Why? He's right. Debian is the only simple avoidance tactic ;-) -- MJR

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Fwd: Re: The Penguin danced this evening-
by Paul 21 Oct '01

21 Oct '01

Hi Folks Thought a few of you might enjoy the fruits of some correspondance I've been indulging in. Just wish I could think of a suitable reply. Regards, Paul. ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Mandrake, Caldera, et al test your skill when it 's time to install -with each new Edition you blow the partition and wind up with nothing at all! Cordially, G. Crum Paul wrote: > 'scuse the cringe, but I had to reply in kind. > I'm afraid I'm out of practise with the five line stanzas. > Please remember, there is no such thing as a stupid question. > Just silly anzers.

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OHP or some kind
by oms101＠freeuk.com 20 Oct '01

20 Oct '01

I am probably going to do a short talk on ipc in linux and the array of options you have, at the UEA meet as I shant get to the red lodge meeting does anyone have a computer projector we could use for the meeting if not how about an OHP Regards Owen Date: 17-Oct-01 Time: 00:39:46

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