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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 14th November
by Viperfang 16 Nov '13

16 Nov '13

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 14th November at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Simple SMTP server for authenticated mail relay
by Mark Rogers 15 Nov '13

15 Nov '13

I need to setup a server to allow authenticated SMTP from various devices. It won't be high volume, and it'll sit alongside other apps on an existing server. SSMTP is my default choice for a simple SMTP server but I don't think it'll do what I want here - any suggestions? I was hoping to avoid something as "big" as Postfix/etc -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Cross compilation
by Chris Walker 13 Nov '13

13 Nov '13

Apologies if this doesn't fit well here but I'm stuck and need some help. If I should enquire elsewhere, please feel free to point me in the right direction. I've been trying for some time to write an app. I tried first of all to do it for my phone but gave up with that and am now trying to modify it for a Blackberry Playbook. The problem I have is that when I upload the compiled app to the device, it complains and says 'libmeegoplugin.so' uses incompatible Qt library. Expected build key "arm qnx qcc no-pkg-config", got "Windows mingw release full-config" My problem is that I don't have a clue how I might generate another shared object but this time with the correct build key. Before you ask, I didn't generate that one, it came as part of a download which the author said worked for him. I can't see how but never mind. I built the Qt Creator install from source from instructions here - http://qt-project.org/wiki/Building-Qt4-for-Blackberry So did I miss a step there, or can I go back and redo some or all of those steps to recreate the file but this time in the correct format? I have also looked long and hard online for a version with the correct build key but without success so I'm having to ask here for help. For those with long memories, I have asked in the distant past about SQL tables and got help here. I'm guessing that was probably two or three years ago but that data was for this app. Yes, I have been at it for that long! I'm no programmer as is obvious ;-)

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Alug 2nd Thursday Social Meeting Reminder
by Steve Engledow 11 Nov '13

11 Nov '13

Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 14th November at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Steve Engledow aka Stilvoid

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how to read outlook express files
by mick 09 Nov '13

09 Nov '13

Hi guys I have been given a large stash of (email I believe) files with the extension .eml. I think these were created with outlook or outlook express. I have no MS software. The files appear to be text/XML but reading them with a text editor is difficult in many cases. Does anyone know of a linux based application I can use to make this task any easier. Cheers Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 http://baldric.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Fw: Make this your moment
by mick 07 Nov '13

07 Nov '13

All See below mail from ORG. Is anyone interested in the possibility of setting up a cryptoparty? Anyone from norwich2600 on the list with views? Is there likely to be a demand for such a party in Norfolk (or perhaps the wider Anglia region? Anyone with any similar experience (such as key signing parties)? Mick Begin forwarded message: Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2013 05:43:48 -0500 (EST) From: ORG- Ruth Coustick-Deal <ruth(a)openrightsgroup.org> To: mick(a)rlogin.net Subject: Make this your moment Dear Mick Morgan, How can we protect our email, IM chat and web browsing from the prying eyes of GCHQ and the NSA? Over the last few months we've learnt more and more from Edward Snowden and The Guardian about just how exposed our online communications are. To help protect our online privacy, we're looking to help you put on a Cryptoparty in your local area. Could you be a key organiser for one near you? Reply to this email to let us know. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/cryptoparties Cryptoparties are an easy and effective way to extend technical knowledge of encryption programs. All they require is a venue with internet access and power sources. We're also looking for people who are happy to teach others how to use encryption tools such as PGP, OTR and Tor. Are you able to provide this technical knowledge? Or are you keen to help organise the event? If so, it'd be great if you could be a key organiser of a local Cryptoparty. Reply to this email to let us know you're interested. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/cryptoparties We'll help you organise along the way and provide the essential materials to help make the event a success. There may already be an existing local ORG group in your area. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/groups/ If you'd like more information on how to organise a Cryptoparty, help can be found here: http://www.cryptoparty.in/organize/howto If you have any questions on how we could support you further, then of course just email me on campaigns(a)openrightsgroup.org So as Cryptoparty say - let's party like it‘s 31st December 1983! Thanks and best wishes, Olivia ___ Olivia Jardine Campaigns Intern Open Rights Group Follow us on: Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/OpenRightsGroup Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/openrightsgroup Google+ - https://plus.google.com/116543318055985390327 ORG relies on supporter donations to run campaigns like this. Please join us to support ORG's work. https://www.openrightsgroup.org/join This email was delivered to: mick(a)rlogin.net If you wish to opt out of future emails, you can do so here. http://action.openrightsgroup.org/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.i… --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 http://baldric.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Parsing XML from commandline
by Mark Rogers 07 Nov '13

07 Nov '13

Given the following: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <Project> <Network> <Unit> <UnitType>Type1</UnitType> <SerialNumber>123456</SerialNumber> </Unit> <Unit> <UnitType>Type2</UnitType> <SerialNumber>abcdef</SerialNumber> </Unit> [... snip...] </Network> </Project> .. I need to extract all the serial numbers where UnitType is "Type2". I have never managed to get my head around XPath etc, and all the examples I find seem either too general or too complex for me to make much progress. I always end up writing some code that parses it as text which is a massive cop out. How best can I do this correctly using XML tools, and which tools should I use? Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Re: [ALUG] Uninstall problem
by Bev Nicolson 05 Nov '13

05 Nov '13

>> >> Win. Or 'whoot', depending on your preference. Your next challenge, >> should you choose to accept it, is to get the locked file off the >> desktop. Have tried swapping to desktop and purging but no dice. Nor >> will it dragged and dropped into Trash or any other folder. >> >> Bev. >> > > On 05/11/13 14:32, Ben Whyall wrote: > How about > > open a terminal > > cd ~/Desktop > sudo rm -rf <name of file> > > Ben Off list (prob by accident) Ben suggested this and it worked. Hoorah. Cheers, Ben. To answer Brett, Gnome. Not that it matters much now. Bev

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Uninstall problem
by Bev Nicolson 05 Nov '13

05 Nov '13

Somehow (and clearly it wasn't sensible) I've got Calibre on this machine but it doesn't show as installed in Synaptic so I can't remove it. What can I do? I get permission denied if I try to delete it. Thoughts? Polite ones, if poss. Own silly fault etc. Bev.

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xsane is sulking!
by Ted.Harding＠wlandres.net 04 Nov '13

04 Nov '13

Greetings All! I would welcome anything in the way of useful advice/tips about the following. I have a (rather old) Epson Perection 2400 scanner (USB). This has been working very well for years on an old desktop, using xsane. When xsane is started up on that machine there is an initial fairly lar egwindow which allows (if needed) configurations. I now want to use this scanner with a more recent laptop which is running a 2011 version of Debian. It seems that xsane is correctly installed. Now: With the scanner powered on, I plug its USB lead into the laptop. After a second or two, the scanner makes the usual "initialisation" noises (scanner arm shifting up & down). So something is OK, at least at the scanner end. I then invoke xsane at the command line. Up comes a little window (not the big window like on the other machine) with a message "scanning for devices". Then the window says: "failed to open device 'v4l:/dev/video0" and the only option remaining is to close the window, at which point the instance of xsane closes. I have no idea why it should be looking for a *video* device! I can find no work-round for this. It might be that the laptop had not detected the scanner (how can I tell?). There is no icon for it on the GNOME desktop (but that didn't happen either when I connected my USB printer; and that works perfectly well). Any suggestions gratefully received! Best wishes to all, Ted. ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)wlandres.net> Date: 02-Nov-2013 Time: 21:25:23 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------

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Best distro for XP users
by Mark Rogers 04 Nov '13

04 Nov '13

I'm being asked quite frequently now for Linux options to replace XP. What would people here pick? Hardware will generally be pretty old so good support for older hardware is important. I note that current Ubuntu versions only get updates for 9 months from release (ie 3 months after they cease to be current) which is fine as long as the next version updates smoothly, but that would depend on continued support for the older hardware, and I know from experience that updates aren't always smooth (typically graphics issues as an older card loses support). I can go with the LTS version of-course, would that be better? Mint follows the same release cycle but doesn't (AFAIK?) provide upgrades. There's no point replacing XP because it's reached EOL with a Linux distro that will go EOL a few months later unless updates are pretty much guaranteed to work without my assistance. (I use Kubuntu in general on my own boxes and would prefer to stick with .deb -based systems, which rules out Fedora/OpenSUSE/etc.) And then there's the choice of desktop - probably something less memory hungry than KDE - or do I look at MATE, Cinnamon, etc with which I have no experience? I'm not great at Linux advocacy because I don't have the confidence in my ability to pick the right option for friends and family who "want" XP... -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Re: [ALUG] 2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 1st November.
by Steve Engledow 29 Oct '13

29 Oct '13

On 29/10/13 02:00, Viperfang wrote: > Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, > more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk So the 2600 reminder is coming through alright then :)

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 1st November.
by Viperfang 29 Oct '13

29 Oct '13

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Re: [ALUG] Best distro for XP users
by Phil Wade 28 Oct '13

28 Oct '13

I've recently discovered LXLE (on a Linux Format DVD...) and found it's just the job for replacing XP, especially on older or more limited hardware. I replaced Widows 7 Starter with LXLE on my daughter's Netbook, and she was delighted with the speed and ease of use. I can't see any rough edges, although it's based on Lubuntu that some here say is rough, and it looks and performs really well. 15 minutes of showing her round the OS and she was sorted. The upstream base is Ubuntu LTS - currently 12.04, with 14.04 LTS rather well timed for XP EOL? It's a very young distro, but looks to be well worth trying for all those XP machines out there. The download ISO (which even comes in 64 bit if needed) is a Live DVD. Apparently LXLE stands for Lubuntu eXtra Life Extension - well named. Although I use Mint on my main machines, I'll definitely be leaning to LXLE for those customers who'll need help moving from XP before April 2014 and beyond. Anyone else tried it?

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Diagnosing disk issue
by Mark Rogers 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

I have 4x2TB disks configured for RAID5. Initially they were in a USB3 external caddy but this never worked correctly - the raid kept dropping offline before it completed building the array. I then switched to eSATA (same caddy) and that improved things but I still failed to build the array completely. So they're now in a new HP microserver. Until now I assumed the issues were connectivity but since I still have the same problem there must be a disk issue of some kind. However SMART is reporting healthy even after longer self tests. Do I just right this off as a duff disk or can I investigate this further? syslog reports thus: Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671201] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdd] Unhandled error code Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671217] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdd] Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671222] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671229] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdd] CDB: Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671233] Read(10): 28 00 d9 2e b1 f0 00 04 00 00 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671253] end_request: I/O error, dev sdd, sector 3643716080 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671264] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714032 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671274] md/raid:md0: Disk failure on sdd1, disabling device. Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671274] md/raid:md0: Operation continuing on 2 devices. Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671310] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714040 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671316] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714048 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671321] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714056 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671326] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714064 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671331] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714072 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671336] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714080 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671341] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714088 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671346] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714096 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49309.671351] md/raid:md0: read error not correctable (sector 3643714104 on sdd1). Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.107789] md: md0: recovery done. Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170142] RAID conf printout: Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170156] --- level:5 rd:4 wd:2 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170163] disk 0, o:1, dev:sdb1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170167] disk 1, o:1, dev:sdc1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170171] disk 2, o:0, dev:sdd1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170175] disk 3, o:1, dev:sde1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170279] RAID conf printout: Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170292] --- level:5 rd:4 wd:2 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170299] disk 0, o:1, dev:sdb1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170304] disk 1, o:1, dev:sdc1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170309] disk 2, o:0, dev:sdd1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170322] RAID conf printout: Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170325] --- level:5 rd:4 wd:2 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170329] disk 0, o:1, dev:sdb1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170332] disk 1, o:1, dev:sdc1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.170336] disk 2, o:0, dev:sdd1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup sSMTP[10706]: Unable to locate mail Oct 4 01:30:09 backup sSMTP[10706]: Cannot open mail:25 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup mdadm[3415]: Fail event detected on md device /dev/md0, component device /dev/sdd1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.172571] RAID conf printout: Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.172578] --- level:5 rd:4 wd:2 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.172585] disk 0, o:1, dev:sdb1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup kernel: [49310.172589] disk 1, o:1, dev:sdc1 Oct 4 01:30:09 backup mdadm[3415]: RebuildFinished event detected on md device /dev/md0 Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Getting started with Linux and electronics
by Mark Rogers 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

Although not strictly OT here, there's almost certainly better places, so can anyone recommend any friendly mailing lists for getting started with using Linux to talk to GPIO etc? The sort of thing you might use a Pi or BeagleBone for (but not specific to a single platform). I've got several Pi's, a BB Black (and an Arduino for good measure) sitting around not really being used for much, and I really should learn to do some interesting things with them. There are loads of forums and Google Groups but I just prefer mailing lists like this one. Specific examples of the sort of thing I want to do: For personal use I want to do something interesting with Christmas lights, probably running from a solar charged 12V battery - that feels like it should give me plenty of scope to "play". Also, a colleague has asked about a simple application to record encoder and analogue input values to CSV on a periodic basis. In each case I can't even decide whether I should be looking at Arduino or Pi/BBB hence looking for a more general mailing list than one targeted at a specific solution. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Mulberry Tree
by samwise 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back today, 21st October, at 20:00: The Mulberry Tree 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 225776 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA WWW: https://www.facebook.com/MULBERRYHOSPITALITY The Mulberry Tree, previously known as The Milestone Beer House, is a grade 2 listed building in the centre of Ipswich. It is located at the intersection between Woodbridge Road and the A1156, across the road from the old Odeon cinema and not far from the Regent Theatre. It re-opened on Thursday March 29th 2012 after a major refurbishment, under its original name of The Mulberry House and has already begun to regain a good reputation for its selection of beers and ales. It has a sizeable car park to the rear of the building. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Cheers, Peter. ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Recording event data efficiently
by Mark Rogers 18 Oct '13

18 Oct '13

I need to record changes in values of several variables (in this case around 9000) so that I can display their changes against time on a graph. I'd like a resolution of around 1min, however, I don't need to sample these values every minute because any change in value is available to me so the values only change on event. Storing a sample every minute for 9000 variables is about 1.3MB/day (each sample is a single byte). But that should compress heavily because for most of the time any given value will be static. So, what would be the best way to store these values for graphing? Recording the events in a database would be efficient storage but is not great for generating graphs from. (Graphs would be along the lines of what MRTG generates, at a rough guess, although that's not a tool I've used in anger. I looked at the MRTG log file format but unless I'm reading the spec wrong I don't think it's quite what I want.) If it matters, I plan on doing this on an ARM-based SBC such as a Pi or Beaglebone. Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

1 0

SQL injection
by Mark Rogers 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

A payment gateway that a client is using is reporting that data we're submitting to it is triggering an SQL injection warning, and as a result the connections are being rejected (the end user is in the payment stage on a shopping cart and it being told that their IP is being blocked, which isn't very nice). The string they're apparently picking up on is: (Size:Medium (Size 12) )|27.4917 and specifically the ') )|27' part of it. The error being generated is: Possible SQL injection attack (detectSQLi)"] [data "s))o1,ARGS:xxxx" Other strings have triggered this where the number is different, it seems to be ))|<number> that causes a problem. (xxxx is the field we're submitting the value in, edited so as not to identify the payment gateway in use) Any suggestions as to what SQL attack this is trying to catch? I can't think of anything where ))|27 would represent an SQL injection attack. At the moment the payment gateway is just telling us to remove that string (they haven't given us an option to escape/encode it) which makes no sense. I'd like to know if this is part of a set of standard rules they're using that makes sense to someone or a homegrown set that might not. Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

1 0

Resizing a mdadm RAID5 array
by Mark Rogers 15 Oct '13

15 Oct '13

OK, so as per other thread I have a RAID5 array comprising 4x2TB disks in which I want to replace the disks. Makes sense that I replace with 3TB disks, so that will mean resizing the array. My options (as I see them) are: 1. Backup all the data on the disks. Replace them all and create a new array. Restore all the data. 2. Replace disks one at a time and let the array recover, leaving blank space at the end of each partition for now. Then resize the array to take advantage of the remaining space. 3. Remove the disks and image them onto the new disks, leaving blank space. Bring the array up on the new disks then resize. Option 1 is by far the simplest, does anyone see any reason why I should try to be cleverer than this? (Actually, option 1a comes to mind which is better still: buy the new disks and get them set up in another box, build the empty array, then copy the data across and transfer the disks; much reduced downtime. If the array is ready before the weekend, and I leave the data copying across over the weekend, I should be good to go on Monday..) I think I've answered my own question but would still appreciate comments. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Can't uninstall Linux Spotify Client - help please
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 14 Oct '13

14 Oct '13

Hi Folks, Ages ago, I installed Spotify Linux client. I was tidying up today when I spotted that the Medibuntu project had closed so I removed that repository. I then spotted that I had the spotify client installed but I don't use it, so I tried to unistall it. It didn't work: sudo apt-get remove spotify-client [] The following packages will be REMOVED spotify-client [] Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y dpkg: error processing spotify-client (--remove): Package is in a very bad inconsistent state - you should reinstall it before attempting a removal. Errors were encountered while processing: spotify-client E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) So I then tried to install it, various ways, for example https://www.spotify.com/uk/download/previews/ sudo apt-get install spotify-client Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: gir1.2-unique-3.0 libunique-3.0-0 Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them. The following packages will be upgraded: spotify-client 1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. 1 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 41.7 MB of archives. After this operation, 17.7 MB of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://repository.spotify.com/ stable/non-free spotify-client i386 1:0.9.4.183.g644e24e.428-1 [41.7 MB] Fetched 41.7 MB in 1min 5s (634 kB/s) Selecting previously unselected package spotify-client. (Reading database ... 274060 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to replace spotify-client 1:0.9.1.55.gbdd3b79.203-1 (using .../spotify-client_1%3a0.9.4.183.g644e24e.428-1_i386.deb) ... /var/lib/dpkg/info/spotify-client.prerm: 9: /var/lib/dpkg/info/spotify-client.prerm: ./unregister.sh: not found dpkg: warning: subprocess old pre-removal script returned error exit status 127 dpkg: trying script from the new package instead ... /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: 9: /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: ./unregister.sh: not found dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/spotify-client_1%3a0.9.4.183.g644e24e.428-1_i386.deb (--unpack): subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 127 No apport report written because MaxReports has already been reached /var/lib/dpkg/info/spotify-client.postinst: 5: /var/lib/dpkg/info/spotify-client.postinst: ./register.sh: not found dpkg: error while cleaning up: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 127 Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/spotify-client_1%3a0.9.4.183.g644e24e.428-1_i386.deb E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) So now I'm stuck. I can't install it. I can't uninstall it. How can I get rid of this error and remove spotify? Cheers Steve

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What do these messages in syslog mean (stops my trackball working)?
by Chris Green 13 Oct '13

13 Oct '13

I have a Logitech wireless trackball that I use with my Acer Aspire netbook running Xubuntu 12.10. It works for quite a while (random amounts of time) and then stops, the following messages appear in syslog when it stops:- Oct 11 11:24:06 acer-aspire kernel: [ 7812.377726] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: >host controller process error, something bad happened! Oct 11 11:24:06 acer-aspire kernel: [ 7812.377751] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: >host controller halted, very bad! Oct 11 11:24:06 acer-aspire kernel: [ 7812.377781] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: >HC died; cleaning up Oct 11 11:24:06 acer-aspire kernel: [ 7812.378030] usb 3-1: >USB disconnect, device number 2 An identical Logical trackball works perfectly with Xubuntu 12.10 on my desktop machine. -- Chris Green

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music server hardware
by Peter Alcibiades 10 Oct '13

10 Oct '13

I've now bought a small HP thin client, a t574. Used on ebay it was 60 with no psu, but I picked up what looks like a very decent psu for a tenner. You can get earlier HP models for 35 or so, but this one has an atom processor so I thought it was worth the extra. Also more memory and flash drive. Got a 64G micro usb stick for storage, and will now install Slitaz and mpd as people have suggested. Or another one which seems quite interesting is sockso. However, meanwhile, and as always, one comes on the real solution after having bought an alternative, this seems the perfect solution: https://store.tinygreenpc.com/tiny-green-pcs/utilite-1.html This looks really neat. Wish I'd known about it before buying the thin client, which is probably very functional but by comparison very clunky. The thing that is a bit dismaying is that having started the process of ripping the CDs to FLAC, the free space on the 64G usb stick seems to be shrinking at an alarming rate.... Al

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Encrypt password in script
by Ewan Slater 08 Oct '13

08 Oct '13

Hi, A number of applications I have known will allow you to specify a password in plaintext in a startup file. After the first start, the password is encrypted, and will be used on subsequent starts, so you don't need an admin there to supply a password. I need to be able to do the same trick. A couple of hours of googling would suggest that it's done by PBE (password based encryption) but I can't seem to find a code example Java for preference). If anyone has any idea, or could point me to an example, that would be great. Cheers, Ewan

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No path
by Chris Walker 05 Oct '13

05 Oct '13

I'm using an IDE called Qt Creator but looking at the C++ stuff in it, it says that it can't find much of the inbuilt libraries. If I run 'echo$PATH', it's empty. But I've modified the ~/.bash_profile to look like this :- =============== [chris@localhost ~]$ cat ~/.bash_profile # .bash_profile # Get the aliases and functions if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc PATH=$PATH:/home/chris/qt/bin fi # User specific environment and startup programs PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin export PATH unset USERNAME =============== The question is, well 2 questions, 1, have I modified the correct file, and 2 if I have done the correct file, have I modified it in the correct way?

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