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Re: [ALUG] Best way to code a linux comms daemon
by Barry Samuels 09 Jan '13

09 Jan '13

On 09/01/13 09:30:13, Mark Rogers wrote: > On 8 January 2013 09:43, Barry Samuels > <bjsamuels(a)beenthere-donethat.org.uk>wrote: > > > I also use the Python-based interface written by Dale Lane. I have > > to run that 3 times every 24 hours to store data for the bar graphs > > and don't understand Python enough to be able to modify it to run > > unattended. Yes I know that there is an option to 'stay connected' > > but I don't want it running all the time just long enough to > > collect 24 hours worth of data. > > > > Cheers, I'll take a look at Dale's code, I've been using "measureit": > http://code.google.com/p/measureit/ > > I thought that I would, at least, express an interest. > > > > Thanks, it was awful quiet out there! Measureit looks interesting but appears to be for the Envi and Envir models only and mine is older than that. Pity. Some of my posts haven't appeared on the list and I haven't had a copy back but I've just realised why. I think I've been clicking 'Reply' instead of 'Reply to group' so some posts went directly to the poster instead of to the group. Apologies to those affected and old age means it can only get worse. :(( -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Debian CDs
by James Freer 08 Jan '13

08 Jan '13

Knowing some of you use debian i just wanted to check before i download the wrong thing. If one wants a bootable (but not live CD) one just downloads the first CD of the (gulp) 53 available. I want to install xfce... so is the first one still ok? Since the last time i tried debian they seem to have liveCD iso and stick isos. Further down the list there is debian-6.0.6-i386-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso I assume this is xfce and lxde desktops on one iso - but i can't find any info referring to it on the website. Would this be the better choice? thanks james

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HDD error
by Richard Lewis 07 Jan '13

07 Jan '13

Hello ALUG, A few weeks ago I got this error when booting my Debian box: ata1.00: exception Emask 0x50 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x280900 action 0x6 ata1.00: BMDMA stat 0x66 ata1.00: SError: { UnrecovData HostInt 10B8B BadCRC } ata1.00: failed command: READ DMA EXT ata1.00: cmd 25/00:08:00:a8:d6/00:00:3d:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 4096 in res 51/84:00:00:a8:d6/84:00:3d:00:00/e0 Emask 0x70 (host bus error) ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR } ata1.00: error: { ICRC ABRT } ata1.00: hard resetting link ata1.01: hard resetting link ata1.00: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310) ata1.01: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33 ata1.01: configured for UDMA/133 ata1: EH complete It was repeating every second or so from very early on in the boot. It did eventually boot with the root filesystem mounted read-only and the partition on which I mount /home mounted normally. In a panic, I did a backup and bought a replacement disk. Shortly afterwards I did a full SMART test and it came up clean. Since then, I haven't encountered any problems and in fact never got round to replacing the disk. (The new one is still in the packaing on the shelf.) However, this evening the same thing has happened. I did a bit more research this time and it seems this could be a SATA cable issue. The box is a Shuttle XPC which I bought as a complete system (not self-build). Does this sound like it is a problem with the SATA cable? And if so, does anyone have any recommendations or advice regarding replacing it and helping to prevent this problem in future? Thanks and best, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis j: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li @: lewisrichard http://www.richardlewis.me.uk/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 10th January
by Viperfang 07 Jan '13

07 Jan '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, 10th January 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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USB Memory Sticks
by Michael Goddard 06 Jan '13

06 Jan '13

An odd request, but what is reasonable brand of USB M S for use with Linux? My reason for asking is that I've found of late some of these items, after a period of use, give a misleading response eg, describe item to be "full, no space", when user knows this to be untrue! tia Michael

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[OT] Google search without cookies
by Dan 06 Jan '13

06 Jan '13

Dear All, Since yesterday, Google web searches all come up blank unless I allow Google to set cookies (Firefox 10.0.7 on Gentoo). Google's privacy FAQ still says that Google search will work without cookies, and I find that Google Image, Books, and Scholar searches work just fine without cookies, so it doesn't appear to be a deliberate change of policy on Google's part. Anyone else experiencing similar symptoms? -- Thanks, Dan

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Selective 'repose' in Mint/Banshee/Brasero
by tony.anson＠girolle.co.uk 06 Jan '13

06 Jan '13

After a few minutes the (newish) netbook goes to sleep as it ought. However, when watching a video or listening to a CD (or, I presume, installing something?) the system snoozes, which is a pain. The system I'm using is the latest stable Mint put on last meeting at the Waggon and Horses. I have looked in various (IMO) likely places, but I can't find any way of disabling sleep for specific applications. Any ideas, gang? Pretty please? -- Tony

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Fwd: Re: USB Memory Sticks
by tony.anson＠girolle.co.uk 03 Jan '13

03 Jan '13

Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:35:01 +0000 [20:35:01 UTC] From: tony.anson(a)girolle.co.uk United Kingdom To: nev(a)nevilley.org.uk Subject: Re: [ALUG] USB Memory Sticks Quoting nev young <nev(a)nevilley.org.uk>: [Hide Quoted Text] On 01/01/13 10:15, Chris Green wrote: On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 at 06:50:05PM +0000, Michael Goddard wrote: An odd request, but what is reasonable brand of USB M S for use with Linux? My reason for asking is that I've found of late some of these items, after a period of use, give a misleading response eg, describe item to be "full, no space", when user knows this to be untrue! I can't reaally see why the *brand* of memory stick would affect why this might happen. Have you simply got a lot of hidden files on the stick using all the space? Chris could be right. I had a problem with losing space on the memory card in my camera which I eventually found to be all the old photos filed under .Trash I've never had that problem, and my oldest stick is 64 MB... Most of mine are now SanDisk, Peak and Kingston. Be aware that decent sticks write to the memory in a pattern, so that it is used and re-used in rotation as it doesn't last for ever. As well as Nev's good suggestion, you can delete the partition which makes the thing usable - I have a small one to which this has happened - somehow. -- Tony

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Ubuntu for smartphones
by Bev Nicolson 03 Jan '13

03 Jan '13

Eventually. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20891868 Bev.

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Sound - how to get 'Output devices' to appear in PulseAudio?
by Chris Green 01 Jan '13

01 Jan '13

I am slowly getting to understand what's going on with sound on my little Acer Revo. However I still *don't* understand why sometimes PulseAudio can see some output devices and sometimes it can't. When it has no output devices not surprisingly I can't get any sound out of it, I then curse it for a while, run various things to see if I can understand what's going on, and at some point it works - but I can never understand why! So, how does one get output devices to appear? Then, further, how does one do this from the command line, because I want to run this headless and will only have ssh access. (Running X remotely doesn't work with modern applications as they use DBUS which breaks X) -- Chris Green

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 4th January.
by Viperfang 01 Jan '13

01 Jan '13

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

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3Com 8 port hub
by Chris Walker 29 Dec '12

29 Dec '12

Does anybody want one of these? http://www.amazon.co.uk/3Com-3C16750-US-OfficeConnect-Speed-8-Port/dp/B0000… One of my sons gave me one of these things over Christmas as he has never used it and he's in a 'tidying' mood! I think he's had it for some time and never used it. All I've done is find a power lead for it and switch it on. It lights up as expected but I haven't hooked up any LAN connections. It's free for the first person that shows an interest.

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Sound problem (no sound) Ubuntu 12.10 - command line
by Chris Green 29 Dec '12

29 Dec '12

I'm trying to get sound working on an Acer Revo R3600 which has Ubuntu Server (i.e. no GUI) installed on it. When I run something like mplayer I see (among other things):- AO: [pulse] Init failed: Connection refused Failed to initialize audio driver 'pulse' This happens even when mplayer is run as root (and anyway I have added the relevant users to the audio group). It's the only significant difference I can see between this system and other systems where mplayer works OK. Google hasn't helped much. Does anyone have any idea what may be wrong? -- Chris Green

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xilence psu
by Peter Alcibiades 27 Dec '12

27 Dec '12

Thanks for the advice on this. The 250 watt came, it went in and works just fine, and it can be recommended. Very quiet. The first one, evo by brand, had a high pitched whine. This one is just about audible and not annoying at all. However, the lesson I learned is that when putting together an sff machine, its better to go one bigger than min-itx form factor, and matx is the way to go. Reason being, the bigger case is quieter in itself, and it will take standard atx power supplies - at least the Sliverstone one does. And this means more choice, and fanless is available too. Yes the bigger Sugo is less portable. But its still compact enough for a desktop, its a medium shoebox rather than a very small one, and its quieter even with similar levels of fan throttling. The other thing about the mini is that it has one large front fan. That's fine. But it collects dust like crazy in the filter. So it has to be vacuumed out every so often. The psu blowup was a blessing in disguise, I'd never have known. They are both running Debian, and its getting to be time to move to wheezy one of these days. Backup first! Al

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Anyone know what this message from logwatch means?
by Chris Green 22 Dec '12

22 Dec '12

I am getting this in logwatch every day:- --------------------- httpd Begin ------------------------ A total of 1 sites probed the server 178.63.53.21 A total of 1 possible successful probes were detected (the following URLs contain strings that match one or more of a listing of strings that indicate a possible exploit): null HTTP Response 200 Requests with error response codes 404 Not Found /robots.txt: 7 Time(s) /urchin.js: 4 Time(s) /appConf.htm: 1 Time(s) ---------------------- httpd End ------------------------- Any ideas as to what that "... probed the server" bit means? (I know the "Requests with error response codes" bit is unimportant). 178.63.53.21 is io.iwmnetwork.com which doesn't seem to be anything/anyone particularly nasty though of course it could be spoofed or used maliciously. -- Chris Green

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Some net site access problems?
by Ted.Harding＠wlandres.net 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

Greetings all! I'd like to cross-check to see if others encounter similar problems. [A] Trying to access the Argos website: http://www.argos.co.uk simply hangs: "Waiting for argos.co.uk..." [B] Similarly, trying to access the National Rail website: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk simply hangs: "Waiting for www.nationalrail.co.uk..." Trying traceroute: traceroute www.argos.co.uk gives: traceroute to e624.b.akamaiedge.net (2.18.178.168),... [...] 6 xe-7-0-0.lon10.ip4.tinet.net (89.149.187.101) 43.012 ms xe-5-2-0.tinet.net (89.149.185.74) 45.272 ms xe-2-3-0.lon10.ip4.tinet.net (89.8) 47.953 ms 7 * * * and there it hangs. traceroute www.nationalrail.co.uk gives: traceroute to www.s603697.gslb.savvis.net (206.150.181.244),... [...] 12 dcs2-v3002.lo6.savvis.net (205.138.33.38) 46.148 ms 45.220 ms 47.738 ms 13 * * * and there it hangs. It has been like this since yesterday at least (could have also been earlier, but yesterday was the first time recently that I have tried to access these sites). Any comments? And, while I have the opportunity: Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! Ted. ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)wlandres.net> Date: 20-Dec-2012 Time: 10:47:08 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Mulberry Tree
by samwise 17 Dec '12

17 Dec '12

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 tonight, 17th December, 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. I think I mentioned to the regulars last month - I'm now 200 miles away, so won't be in attendance. But hopefully a few of you will turn up to celebrate a Suffolk ALUG Christmas! :D 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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Re: [ALUG] Android app development
by Phil Ashby 17 Dec '12

17 Dec '12

On Thu, 13 Dec 2012, Mark Rogers wrote: >> Anyone here played with Android app development? >> ... >> "All" it needs to do is create a secure connection (SSH) to an existing >> server using a pre-shared key, then tunnel a connection through it to >> a web server, displaying the web content in the app. > > [Dan questioned the need to write an app..] > > In this case yes: it needs to be something that a "normal person" can > install > (albeit side-loaded). > > It's certainly possible in an app; there are several apps that act as proxys > to send all web traffic through a secure tunnel (to defeat the Great > Firewall > of China etc) which do something pretty close to what I need. The problem is > any time I search for keywords like "Android ssh tunnel" I get pages of hits > for that, not examples on what I actually need. > > I think I just need to re-install the tools and give it a go, and see > where I get stuck. > > Mark A brief search for 'Android ssh VPN app' turns up this how-to guide, which describes the setup of SSHTunnel - you can get all the source for that as a starting point from Google code: http://www.howtogeek.com/121698/how-to-route-all-your-android-traffic-throu… https://code.google.com/p/sshtunnel/ Shouldn't be far from there to a pre-configured app for your client(s).. Phil.

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Renaming of files failing
by Chris Walker 17 Dec '12

17 Dec '12

I have a directory full of files and sub-directories which I've pulled from an emulator. But it has extra filename extensions on it. I would like to traverse this directory, stripping off the extensions and so I've been trying to write a script to do it but it's failing. An example of a file is this :- lamborghini miura_1024.jpg,c85 and so there, I'd like to remove the ,c85. But a bigger problem is where I have the odd file which has a numeric extensions such as .;1 and that's where I struggle. How do I do a substitution in my script to cope with things like that? I've been reading things like this - http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/renaming-multiple-files-at-a-shell-prompt.html and http://www.unix.com/answers-frequently-asked-questions/13774-unix-tutorials… but I'm still struggling. Can somebody point me in the right direction please, even if it's towards the door ;-) -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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Re: [ALUG] Will a 200 Watt Supply do this rig?
by Peter Alcibiades 16 Dec '12

16 Dec '12

On Saturday 15 December 2012 22:48:26 Wayne Stallwood wrote: > It's not really all about the overall wattage, mostly you need to look > at the current capacity of the +12V rails and compare to what one of the > online PSU calculators say for your hardware. > > Modern supplies will be more generous as to what portion of the 200W is > available on the 12v rails as modern hardware hits this rail harder in > proportion to the others. In the old days the CPU supplies were derived > directly from the lower voltage rails. > > Thanks - didn't even know there were online power calculators, but having now used one, it suggests 164 Watts as the proper level including a safety margin. Meanwhile, the xilence seems to come in a 250 W version, so I've ordered that which should give plenty of headroom. Good to hear that people have had good results from xilence. Thanks everyone! Al

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Will a 200 Watt Supply do this rig?
by Peter Alcibiades 15 Dec '12

15 Dec '12

My machine died the other night, reasonably gracefully, and having decided it must be the PSU I went and bought the only matx one locally in stock. Its 300 Watt, which is what the old one was, and it works but is unbearably noisy. So I am thinking of replacing with a 200 Watt Xilence, which is reviewed in some german mag as being exceptionally quiet. Question: will 200W be enough? Its an i3, one hard drive, no optical, no graphics card and a gigabyte main board in a mini-itx case. My intuition is that it will be just fine because this is such a minimalist setup, but I know nothing about power or how to measure what the draw is. The other choices seem to be silverstone, but they only make them 400W +, and that is certainly over the top. There do not seem to be any fanless ones in this form factor. Al

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Android app development
by Mark Rogers 14 Dec '12

14 Dec '12

I posted this initially on the Peterborough LUG list but I wonder if there are more Android experts here? --- Anyone here played with Android app development? It's something I've wanted to try my hand at, and just needed an app to work on. I now have one (a specific development for a customer, it's not going to be App of the Year 2013 on Google Play or anything :-) "All" it needs to do is create a secure connection (SSH) to an existing server using a pre-shared key, then tunnel a connection through it to a web server, displaying the web content in the app. Most of the infrastructure is already set up, although the web pages will want some tweaking to suit the Android device (although not too much as it'll probably be a tablet not a phone). Some time ago I did install the development tools and get as far as a simple "hello world" app, although I can't claim to remember much of the experience, so I'm starting very much from the position of a novice. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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Using a laptop/pc to bridge a 3G dongle connection - easy?
by Chris Green 12 Dec '12

12 Dec '12

If I have a laptop with a 3G internet connection provided by a USB dongle is it fairly easy to allow other systems to use the internet connection via the laptop's ethernet port? E.g. if I run something like dnsmasq on the laptop it can be a DHCP and DNS server so that anything connected (directly or via a switch) should work shouldn't it? -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 13th December
by Viperfang 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

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, 13th December 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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LCD screen for Raspberry Pi
by Chris Walker 09 Dec '12

09 Dec '12

Ages ago, I think it was Anthony Anson asked here about hooking up a Pi to a small screen. I've just come across this - http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/desktops/25-fun-things-to-do-with-a-raspberry-pi-… (article number 22) which might help. Can I make a public thank you to Nev Young and all the other people that helped me yesterday to recover the SD cards for my Pi. One problem, identified by Nev, was that the cards aren't 8 gigs, they're 4. That's brain fade on my part! Second is that even though they boot fine on the Pi, my machine still won't see them. That's despite using a brand new USB 2 device reader. Finally, once I had the Pi up and running here, the keyboard wouldn't work on it. So that can go back to the shop in Wymondham where I bought it. I had to use an old Cherry keyboard which weighs a ton but works on the Pi. Lessons learned all round but thanks once again to Nev and the other people yesterday.

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