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Disk Space for Linux
by John Seago 15 Aug '01

15 Aug '01

Chris Drane and I have embarked on an experiment, we have installed a 40 gigabyte hard drive in my computer, in order to accommodate a number of Linux distributions. We would like to know what is the optimum size for one Linux distribution, as the Mandrake I have currently installed takes up a little over 2 gigabytes, (in a 5.5 gigabyte partition), how much more space do they needed over the the actual programme itself? There would also seem to a problem with the rest of my rather elderly computer recognising the whole of the 40 gigabytes, it seems to be able to `see' only 33 gigabytes of the new disk. Some opinions hold that when divided into separate drives it will be able to `see' the 40 gigabytes, whilst others hold that the rest of its innards need upgrading to be able to recognise the whole 40 gigabytes. I would welcome suggestions as what to try out in this new found space, I have an ambition to have an installation of Debian, installed by hand and up and running as a long term project, (I've got to learn how to work Mandrake 8 as yet), I've got Red Hat 7.1, (which I found rather `buggy', before I changed to Mandrake). Time is no problem as I retired early. Slackware 8 looks interesting, Progeny would lead in to Debian, and perhaps BSD for the challenge? Divided into 5 gigabyte chunks I would seem to have room for at least 6, and maybe 8 distributions if we can overcome this 33/40 problem. John Seago, (attempting things well beyond his capabilities)

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php4 install
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 14 Aug '01

14 Aug '01

Here's a lovely one: I've been re-installing php4 from source. All went well this time. But! The make install command was supposed to have edited my httpd.conf file to enter the dynamic PHP module: LoadModule php4_module libexec/libphp4.so Which it didn't. A search shows I don't appear to have this file. It was no use hopefully editing it in (burying my head in the sand syndrome) as apache is objecting strongly. Is this familiar to anyone? (David? ;-) ) Thanks, Jenny

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Steve Ballmer in action
by Ashley T. Howes 13 Aug '01

13 Aug '01

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/20840.html They must be putting something in the water at Microsoft! Ashley Dr. Ashley T. Howes PhD Web Developer Email: ashley(a)blueskyresearch.net Web: http://www.ashleyhowes.com "When he sees the dream he seeks, he will sleep"

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Re: [Alug] Meeting report?
by David Freeman 13 Aug '01

13 Aug '01

On Mon, 13 Aug 2001 11:21:16 GMT Martyn Drake wrote: > Okay, spill the beans - how did yesterday's meet go? :) > > Regards, > > Martyn Having managed to give Mark 125MB of email since 7pm yesterday I think its now safe to post a report. Well My worst fears didn't occur as I got a phone call from Mark at 1pm "Where are you" "getting cash out of a cash point which is giving me a DHCP error" replies I. Once I arrive I get a call from Andrew "I'm at tesco's how do I get to you?" which was duely sorted. 8 people turned up including Steve Fosdick Mark Ray Syd Hancock Neill Newman Andrew Glover Peter Holness Peter Clarke and me. We got the cd-writter and sound working on my new debian install and discovered why I couldn't install netscape. Other than that it was a typical meet with lots of chocy biscuits and stilulating conversation on various subjects. Notable by absence BJ Jen Jo Earl Tarquin So who wants to do the next one? Thanks D > _______________________________________________ > alug, the Anglian Linux User Group list > Send list replies to alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/ http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > See the website for instructions on digest or unsub! -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Meeting report?
by Martyn Drake 13 Aug '01

13 Aug '01

Okay, spill the beans - how did yesterday's meet go? :) Regards, Martyn

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 13 Aug '01

13 Aug '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. Popular irc clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and ircII on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.bitchx.com http://www.xchat.org http://freshmeat.net http://www.epicsol.org/ (for Brett!) Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Tomorrow
by David Freeman 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

All, Just incase any one gets lost, needs directions or needs to contact me for any reason tomorrow, I will have my mobile with me 07751588675 Also we haven't as yet had a volunteer to bring the biscuits :o) Thanks D -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Re: [Alug] Friday night ruminations
by David Freeman 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

On Fri, 10 Aug 2001 22:50:24 +0100 "Jenny Hopkins" wrote: > All - just been looking through all the old digests that I've kept since > joining the list and I noticed some stuff. Quite a fun past time, some amuzing threads in there in places. Don't forget the list is archived for latter black mail purposes :o) > 1. Did I ever courteously let those who helped me with samba know that the > problem was as simple as not having logged off as default user and on as > jenny in windows box, thus network neighbourhood didn't appear? D'oh. It > took months to find that. Always the good ones these, its like spending three days searching through 30000 characters of code to find I had a * instead of a & D'oh! > 2. There is nothing as irritating as a newcomer constantly apologising for > every post (me). Apart from the posts. Oh there is - my posts :o) > 3. There was a lot of discussion earlier in the year about putting > member's > details such as website, irc, mugshots up on the website that fizzled out. I think the website fits into the catorgory of "don't mention the war" (sorry for the Faulty towers link) ATM. > 4. I discovered the mystery large-garden-with-swimming-pool-owner is Chris > Allen. (Chris, come out from under that table...) Why did you discover this AFTER I had organised tomorrow D'oh. Never mind, maybe the next meet :o) > 5. I wondered how the > RD250 in carrier bags was doing (Simon P) RD250? I take it thats a Bike? > I went into a kind of glaze around April, specially when I realised it was > friday night and I was sitting reading old mail on my computer. Nought wrong with that. Hope to see you tomorrow. Thanks D > Jen. > > > > _______________________________________________ > alug, the Anglian Linux User Group list > Send list replies to alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/ http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > See the website for instructions on digest or unsub! -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Re: [Alug] Linux Expo Birmingham
by David Freeman 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

On Sat, 11 Aug 2001 11:36:40 +0100 (BST) Adam Bower wrote: > Hi all, > > Linux Expo in Birmingham is just over a month away and I figured that > maybe we should organise an Alug outing to it, as I believe this was > discussed just after the London Expo. It was. and it is. there was a Rumour that it had been cancelled, this was put out on the GLLUG mailing list so can't be curtain. > I am planning to go on September the 12th but want to arrive early because > there is a keynote conference with Bob Young (Redhat) and also Richard > Stallman starting at 10am, this means I may make an arrangement to stay > overnight or something. My hope was to go up the day before by train, camp over night and then go on the 12th so I can see RMS. Side Note: RMS has a lot to say and is a brilliant talker, ecentric and nuts but fanastic, Total Tangent: after RMS did a talk at BTLabs I was lucky enough to get a seat on the same table as him on the train to london, whilst on the train we over heard a discussion between two (media?) students over internet sensership, on hearing this RMS joined in an it was an amuzing debate to watch, whats more after we had left the train I caught up with the (beautiful and female) students and told them who they had just argued with. Boy was their face a picture! Back on topic: In short I highly recommend a RMS talk. > Anyway if you want to pre-register or find out more details visit > http://www.linux-expo.com/ also pre-registration has to be done before > September the 1st. Been there done that:o) I am hoping that lots of people can come and I beleive this will be yet another tribal gathering with some socialising between attending lugs. You never know I may be able to get the 3ft high Tux this time, and we can march through the streets of solihul chanting follow the penguin! :o) Thanks D > Adam > -- > This message is Copyleft - all rights reversed > Adam > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > alug, the Anglian Linux User Group list > Send list replies to alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/ http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > See the website for instructions on digest or unsub! -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Kmail Message Property
by Syd Hancock 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

Hi all, I'm using Kmail. Should I set the message property in the network section of the Configuration to 'Allow 8 bit' or 'MIME Compliant (quoted printable)'? TIA Syd

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Re: [Alug] brief intro before sunday
by Syd Hancock 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

Mark Thanks for the welcomes (in both senses if I read you correctly :) Syd > [Mandrake 8.0] > > Syd, glad you can join us :-)

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Getting data out of databases
by MJ Ray 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

I'm the secretary of an association and responsible for keeping their membership lists. As a Linux user, it seemed natural to me to keep the membership records in a database and along the way I discovered two applications which make life very much easier for the non-programmer. PostgreSQL is the database that I use, mainly because I like to have all the features available and I have never had any stability problems with it. For database design and data entry, I discovered the handy pgaccess application which presents an interface not dissimilar to a more famous program with a similar name. The notebook window which is displayed when you start up has tabs for Tables, Views, Forms, Queries and so on, while each one contains a list of available items and some actions on them. Once the command "CREATE DATABASE members;" had been given at the psql command line, it was simply a case of inputting the database details into pgaccess's "Open Database" window to be able to start entering the information. pgaccess was downloaded as part of PostgreSQL, available from ftp.postgresql.org/pub and its home page is at http://flex.ro/pgaccess/ The report generator of pgaccess is not yet finished, so I was left with the problem of how to get the data out. I usually use LaTeX for writing letters and reports, so I was quite happy to discover the GNU Report Generator, gurgle, which was originally designed to work with that. To use it, you write a short gurgle script which includes a few definitions, the database query and the template for outputting the data to another file. Here's my script to print envelopes: %%define PHYSDB "members" %%define NAMCOL %%define TEXEXT .tex %%database "members.sql" select name, institution, mailaddress from memberdetails %%header %%record \envelope{%NAME \\ %INSTITUTIO \\ %MAILADDRES} %%footer %%end The first line sets the database name to connect to, the next tells gurgle to use the names from the query, the third says to save the file with the .tex extension, then we have the query. An empty header and footer surround the record template, which simply puts the database results in a call to my "envelope" macro with some line breaks. The file is then included into my envelope printing file (which also contains the association's logo, etc) and any small changes (replacing commas in the address with line breaks, for example) are done before sending the file to the printer and generating a stack of printed envelopes for a mailshot. Gurgle can be downloaded from http://www.gnu.org/directory/GURGLE.html or http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/timc/gurgle/ and has optional modules for GNUSQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL and CA-Ingres databases as well as text dump files. Comments? Improvements? Your alternatives?

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Friday night ruminations
by Jenny Hopkins 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

All - just been looking through all the old digests that I've kept since joining the list and I noticed some stuff. 1. Did I ever courteously let those who helped me with samba know that the problem was as simple as not having logged off as default user and on as jenny in windows box, thus network neighbourhood didn't appear? D'oh. It took months to find that. 2. There is nothing as irritating as a newcomer constantly apologising for every post (me). Apart from the posts. 3. There was a lot of discussion earlier in the year about putting member's details such as website, irc, mugshots up on the website that fizzled out. 4. I discovered the mystery large-garden-with-swimming-pool-owner is Chris Allen. (Chris, come out from under that table...)5. I wondered how the RD250 in carrier bags was doing (Simon P) I went into a kind of glaze around April, specially when I realised it was friday night and I was sitting reading old mail on my computer. Jen.

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Linux Expo Birmingham
by Adam Bower 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

Hi all, Linux Expo in Birmingham is just over a month away and I figured that maybe we should organise an Alug outing to it, as I believe this was discussed just after the London Expo. I am planning to go on September the 12th but want to arrive early because there is a keynote conference with Bob Young (Redhat) and also Richard Stallman starting at 10am, this means I may make an arrangement to stay overnight or something. Anyway if you want to pre-register or find out more details visit http://www.linux-expo.com/ also pre-registration has to be done before September the 1st. Adam -- This message is Copyleft - all rights reversed Adam

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Sunday
by David Freeman 11 Aug '01

11 Aug '01

All, Update on the meet this sunday: We have the hut from 1pm so can start off from then. I have had a request for directions for people who wish to come by boat, instructions are: OS map coordinates 24405 45336 (OS Landranger map 169 I believe) Lat/Long N 52 degrees 03.627 mins, E 1 degree 16.438 mins (OS datum) Also the BBQ is a non starter(not enough interest), I suggest that we go to the PUB which is about 20yrds away. I hope to see you all on sunday. Thanks D -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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brief intro before sunday
by syd 10 Aug '01

10 Aug '01

Hi All I'm hoping to come to the meet on sunday so I thought I'd give a brief intro. I've played around with computers and telecoms for about 14 years but still know surprisingly little. I am one of life's dabblers and now I'm dabbling into linux. I've played around with a few distributions recently and at the moment have mandrake 8.0 installed with KDE 2.11. Yesteray evening I tried setting up the internet access and within a few minutes was on line. Very impressed. So here in tribute is my first email message using linux (apart from a test send and receive which doesn't count). I know it's not really 'installing' or 'managing linux' in any technical sense - using an installer that auto configfures everything, using a few menus in KDE to set things up - but all the same, for a newbie like me it is great to have something tthat I can actually use while I start looking around under the bonnet. I bought and read a lot of 'Running Linux' two years ago. It's fascinating but does give the impression that al of that hand-editing of config files and using the command line is the only way to install and use linux. So when I first tried out a Storm Linux CD last year I was absolutely gobsmacked to find a GUI desktop coming up. Who'd have known? I know it sounds daft but there must be many others who think like that after looking at the recommended books. I really don't think that the linux community puts over how easy it is to install and use, at least to do a few simple things like browse the web and send a few emails etc. (I'm assuming that it still works today of course when I come to send this in a few minutes :) Anyway, I know I'm boring all you non-quiche-eating sysadmins out there but if there are any other newbies lurking on the list, wondering whether to dive in, then I just want to say - go for it and have a go. With a beginners distribution at least, it really does seem to be pretty straightforward - if I'm not tempting providence, fingers crossed and pass the garlic. Hope to meet some of you on sunday - hopefully I won't be the only peson who doesn't know their xml from their sql Regards Syd PS - I will be driving so anyone from the Norwich area need a lift - email me.

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Re: [Alug] This meeting thingy
by David Freeman 10 Aug '01

10 Aug '01

On Thu, 9 Aug 2001 23:25:35 +0100 Steve Fosdick wrote: > On Thu, Aug 09, 2001 at 08:13:33AM +0000, David Freeman wrote: > > > its a 35 min bus ride from Ipswich station, and will cost about £205 > > return (long time since I used it) > > Two pounds and fivepence, or two hundred and five pounds? > > Steve. D'oh oops that should be 2.05 ukp Sorry D > _______________________________________________ > alug, the Anglian Linux User Group list > Send list replies to alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk > http://www.anglian.lug.org.uk/ http://rabbit.stu.uea.ac.uk/cgi-bin/listinfo/alug > See the website for instructions on digest or unsub! -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Re: [Alug] This meeting thingy
by David Freeman 09 Aug '01

09 Aug '01

On 08 Aug 2001 20:53:38 +0100 MJ Ray wrote: > Q1. Does anyone from K.Lynn - Thetford - Bury want a lift to the next > meeting? Not sure. I think Jen may be on that sort of area, but I think she is bringing the bike. > Q2. If not, how long does it take to get from Ipswich's train station > to the venue? And how much? its a 35 min bus ride from Ipswich station, and will cost about £205 return (long time since I used it) > Q3. What are we supposed to bringing? Beer, gifts and T-shirts for me and a little money for the pub afterwards :o) Seriously, its just like any normal meet. We wont be doing the BBQ afterwards as I can't get permission to burn the green down, so the plan now stands at going to the pub which is only 20 yrds from the hut. OS map coordinates 24405 45336 (OS Landranger map 169 I believe) Lat/Long N 52 degrees 03.627 mins, E 1 degree 16.438 mins (OS datum) For those who need them Thanks D -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Wireless LANS and DMCA
by David Freeman 09 Aug '01

09 Aug '01

http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20010806S0006 Is an interesting article on how the WEP encryption on Wireless LANS has been comprimised, there is a paper being released next week on it. One thing I note here is no case has been bought under the DMCA for circumventing copy protection measures, which is what you could say WEP is if they say CSS is copy protection for DVD! Also for those who care there is a DMCA equivlent currently going through the EU which will be a big problem see www.eurocrimes.org Thanks D -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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Latex help
by Alexis Lee 09 Aug '01

09 Aug '01

I have a Latex table (begin{tabular}), and I want it to break one of the columns if it needs to. So rather than: <------------ size of page ------------> /---------------------------------------------------\ | field | field | long field | field | | field | field | long long long long field | field | | field | field | long field | field | \---------------------------------------------------/ I get: /--------------------------------------\ | field | field | long field | field | | field | field | long long | field | | | | long long | | | | | field | | | field | field | long field | field | \--------------------------------------/ Anyone? Alexis -- Failure- When your best just isn't good enough. "Democracy is an appalling system of government, but it is seven times better than any other" - Churchill "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok

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How big should a swap partition be?
by David Freeman 09 Aug '01

09 Aug '01

Ok, not being that great an expert at linux installs, I am wondering what people would recommend for the swap partition size, I have 384MB of ram, so am thinking a 256MB swap file is plenty for what I will be doing. What do others think? Also dare I ask what peoples views are on partitioning? Thanks D -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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How big should a swap partition be?
by tom potts 09 Aug '01

09 Aug '01

Redhat 7.1 seems to thing that ram*2 is necessary which may surprise you - I thought about taking all but 32meg out and then installing! I've 256Meg on my laptop and even running Sql/IIs/Forte and a background search/index engine under W2K its not all used so under Linux if your not running everything under the Sun I would have thought you would only want swap when something goes pear shaped. Tom ____________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie

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Sun monitors.
by PleXeR 08 Aug '01

08 Aug '01

Hi, Check out: http://www2.tk.elec.waseda.ac.jp/~tanaka/private/monitor-e.html For details of the adapter you need to make. Cheers, Ben

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This meeting thingy
by MJ Ray 08 Aug '01

08 Aug '01

Q1. Does anyone from K.Lynn - Thetford - Bury want a lift to the next meeting? Q2. If not, how long does it take to get from Ipswich's train station to the venue? And how much? Q3. What are we supposed to bringing?

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Re: [Alug] How big should a swap partition be?
by David Freeman 08 Aug '01

08 Aug '01

On Wed, 8 Aug 2001 17:06:51 +0100 (BST) Adam Bower wrote: > On Wed, 8 Aug 2001, David Freeman wrote: > > > people would recommend for the swap partition size, I have 384MB of ram, > > so am thinking a 256MB swap file is plenty for what I will be > doing. What > > do others think? > > hmmm, what will you be doing?? and also how big is your disk? I have 768Mb > of Ram and a 1gig swap partition but I also have a 40Gb disk so space is > not an issue, I am playing with big images (upto 300mb each) in the gimp > and blender, I also run VMware with lots of resources given to virtual > machines. Big images in GIMP, plex86, Video capture, MP3 enc, CAD, electonics design, Surfing, LaTeX pretty much sumerises what I will be doing, oh and quake. > > Also dare I ask what peoples views are on partitioning? > > I seperate /var (around 800mb) /boot (around 30mb) /usr (around 4Gb on my > machine here but depends on how much spare disk you have) /tmp (around > 300mb) / (around 180mb) /etc (around 40mb) and /home however big you need > it. Of course you can use less space for these but I have the spare disk > so I am not bothered. Why do you seperate all of the above? Thanks D > Adam > -- > This message is Copyleft - all rights reversed > Adam > -- "Your house sounds like a fire hazard" Peter Clarke

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