- main - earth.li

Ripping MP3s
by Chris Walker 23 May '12

23 May '12

I have a Creative Zen MP3 player which I use in my car. I want to tidy up a load of CDs which have accumulated over the years before they go to the bin. They're freebies from newspapers and so aren't worth anything and have the usual half dozen decent tracks followed a dozen rubbish tracks. But I'm stuck trying to rip them to MP3. I've tried k3b but that doesn't offer MP3 as an output option. I've also installed soundkonverter (rather than soundconverter as I'm using kde for a desktop) but despite saying that it can use FFmpeg as a plugin, there is still no MP3 option. Am I doing something wrong? The system is Mandriva 2011 64 bit.

9 14

[very off topic] drill press
by David Reynolds 22 May '12

22 May '12

Hi guys, Does anyone in the Norwich-ish area happen to have (or have access to) a drill press I could use? I am building a guitar from a kit and I need to drill 4 holes with said drill press. Can anyone help? -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

4 5

Tonight's Ipswich ALUG meet
by samwise 22 May '12

22 May '12

Well, looks like there's at least three of us out tonight. I thought I'd suggest that after giving it half an hour or so for stragglers, that we might want to try moving back to our old venue The Milestone (now The Mulberry Bush) tonight. It's been reinvented and is a proper real ale pub now, and may well be an improvement on McGinty's ... plus the poker night that turfed us out has long since gone. :) Not sure of the wi-fi situation but it can't be worse than McGinty's! So anyone who wants to come out to play tonight who might be late, come find us at The Mulberry Bush! Peter.

2 2

Can't get 1000Mb/s on ethernet port which should be capable
by Chris Green 19 May '12

19 May '12

I am backing up some data from a Dell Vostro V13 laptop which is currently running xubuntu 10.04 (the reason for the backup is that I'm aiming to install 12.04). The ethernet port is running at only 100Mb/s whereas it's supposed to be a gigabit capable port. Running ethtool shows:- Settings for eth0: Supported ports: [ TP MII ] Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full Supports auto-negotiation: Yes Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full Advertised pause frame use: No Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full Link partner advertised pause frame use: No Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Speed: 100Mb/s Duplex: Full Port: MII PHYAD: 0 Transceiver: internal Auto-negotiation: on Supports Wake-on: pumbg Wake-on: g Current message level: 0x00000033 (51) Link detected: yes Running ethtool on my desktop machine connected to the *same* switch shows:- Settings for eth0: Supported ports: [ TP MII ] Supported link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full Supports auto-negotiation: Yes Advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Half 1000baseT/Full Advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Link partner advertised link modes: 10baseT/Half 10baseT/Full 100baseT/Half 100baseT/Full 1000baseT/Full Link partner advertised pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only Link partner advertised auto-negotiation: Yes Speed: 1000Mb/s Duplex: Full Port: MII PHYAD: 0 Transceiver: internal Auto-negotiation: on Supports Wake-on: pumbg Wake-on: g Current message level: 0x00000033 (51) drv probe ifdown ifup Link detected: yes So why are the two machines seeing different "Link partner" settings? I tried Googling for "Link partner" but couldn't find anywhere that actually tells me what they mean, it *sounds* like it's what the 'other end' is advertising but from what I see above maybe it isn't. By the way I have tried changing the ethernet cable, no change at all. Can anyone elucidate things? -- Chris Green

5 5

Back issues of Linux Format (97 Oct 07 - 127 Jan 10)
by Andrew Williams 19 May '12

19 May '12

Hello all. I'm having a clear out of some of my older Linux Format issues. Would anyone like them before I consign them to the recyling bin? Most DVDs also included. Cheers, Andrew.

1 0

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street ALUG ALUG
by samwise 18 May '12

18 May '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 next week - Monday, 21st May, at 20:00: P J McGinty & Sons 15 Northgate Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 3BY Tel: 01473 251 515 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP1+3BY WWW: http://www.pjmcgintys.co.uk/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. We're usually to be found in the lowest section of the bar, near the library entrance to the pub. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. 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

1 0

Anyone managed to acquire a Raspberry Pi?
by Anthony Anson 15 May '12

15 May '12

-- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

6 10

Some help with regex would be appreciated.
by Barry Samuels 14 May '12

14 May '12

I have to admit that apart from the simplest expressions I don't understand regex. I want to set up a logcheck ignore expression to ignore the following: kernel: [220359.596744] [drm] nouveau 0000:06:00.0: Setting dpms mode 0 on tmds encoder (output 2) The 220359.596744 number varies and so does the single mode digit, 0 in this instance, but the rest doesn't change. I have tried by copying some expressions parrot fashion but can't get it to work. Any help would be appreciated. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

4 8

CD based Linux which works with FaceBook
by Ian Douglas 11 May '12

11 May '12

Hi playmates, My wife's laptop (Samsung R20) currently runs MS Windblows Vista and now takes so long to boot she can make a cup of tea while waiting (literally). I have found an old 2005 version of Knoppix laying around and she is amazed at how quick it is (running off the CD) but I was wondering if there is an even faster/leaner distro she could use. The distro must run off the CD and the browser must be capable of accessing Facebook (about all she uses the computer for!). Any suggestions welcome. Ian.

5 8

Re: [ALUG] Cron oddity
by Mark Rogers 11 May '12

11 May '12

On 11/05/12 17:10, steve-ALUG(a)hst.me.uk wrote: > Cool. Hope it works for you. > Note this tho: > http://chrony.tuxfamily.org/FAQ.html#question_9.2 Noted, thanks. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

1 0

Cron oddity
by Mark Rogers 11 May '12

11 May '12

I have a script which runs from cron every minute. I've added some logging to the script and I can see it starting reliably every minute, usually around 1s past the minute. So far so good. Occasionally (about 30 times yesterday) the script will also start within the minute, and looking at the logs there's some consistency to it - most (but not all) started at 47s past the minute. So I end up with: 21:31:01 Start 21:32:01 Start 21:32:47 Start 21:33:01 Start What could cause this? The only thing kicking the script off is cron. (It's running Debian Wheezy on ARM.) Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

2 9

Re: [ALUG] Inserting env vars or other data into config files
by Mark Rogers 11 May '12

11 May '12

On 09/05/12 17:59, Martijn Koster wrote: > I'd use a little script that greps for some markers to see if the file needs > changing (or already has been), and then apply the required changes with > diff/patch. How would I make a change like this using diff/patch? Eg: If I have a config file that says (real example from ssmtp): .... AuthUser=someuser AuthPass=somepass mailhub=somehost:587 ... .. and I want to set the values of someuser/somepass/somehost, what would the input to patch look like? (A pointer to relevant resources would be fine!) Is there a reason why patch would be preferable to sed for something like this? Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

2 2

Small distro or compute cluster?
by Clark, Adrian F 11 May '12

11 May '12

Hello everyone, I'm in the process of building a couple of dozen oldish machines into a compute cluster. I'd like to install a fairly lightweight distro onto them, both to save on the install time and because the machines have fairly small disks. I'm keen to avoid installing unnecessary things such as documentation, X11 etc. I'm generally happier in the debian-flavoured world, and the distro will have to be loaded from a USB memory stick. Do people have recommendations as to a good distro to use? netinstall distros are fine. You can see I've spent too much time recently just installing and using Ubuntu! ..Adrian -- Dr Adrian F Clark M0PDF WEB: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~alien/ EMAIL: alien/at/essex.ac.uk TEL: +44 1206 872432 FAX: +44 1206 872900 PAPER: Comp Sci & Elec Eng, University of Essex, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, UK "The great tragedy of science: the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact" -- Huxley

2 1

Internet dongles
by Anthony Anson 10 May '12

10 May '12

I have a Vodafone dongle - an early-is one which gives me 1 GB of data-transfer for £15. While this may seem expensive, it has its advantages... Firstly, the early models had rollover, and my first fifteen quid kept me in touch for six months - very little web browsing, true, so mostly e-mail and Usenet. Even now, I'd seldom use one GB in a month, so I was relatively happy. I say 'relatively' because I only have a GPRS signal where I live, so I'm not tempted to wade amongst the websites. Then... It stopped working on the Eee, though it was fine on the Acer when it was in XP mode. I don't like using it under XP because it means I must keep AVG up to date, and that download alone takes a vast bite out of available credit, not to mention the clockface. Earlier, I'd become used to doing some shopping, finding wi-fi in The Fat Cat and elsewhere, or connecting over 3G with the dongle. When the dongle stopped talking to the Eee, and I couldn't get it to work with Squeeze (on the Acer), I just spent ages drinking tea and noshing cakes, sausage and/or bacon sandwiches etc in the Tea Room (*Highly recommended*). Recently, I stuck the dongle in the Eee's USB port, and lo! It worked. And its still working (touch wood). Anyone got any idea why/how the Eee refused to play nicely for - oh - nine months or more? -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

3 4

Wrong Desktop
by Chris Walker 09 May '12

09 May '12

Can somebody help me diagnose why my machine always starts up with desktop 4 instead of desktop 1 please? Or would it be simpler just to rename them 4-3-2-1 instead of 1-2-3-4? The machine runs Mandriva 2011 64bit.

1 0

Inserting env vars or other data into config files
by Mark Rogers 09 May '12

09 May '12

I'm using ssmtp to provide simple mail services on a Linux box. I want the configuration to be as simple as possible to migrate between different boxes, but using different users and passwords for different boxes. So for example I might decide to use the device's MAC address as the username, and derive a password from that somehow. That way, I can install a filesystem image onto a device and it will self-configure. (It may be that the device will call a web service with it's MAC address and retreive settings that way, but once the script knows what the user and password details are I still need a method to "insert" them into the configuration files.) So, my question is how best to "insert" these details into a config file (in this case /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf but I'm looking for a general solution). One option would be to simply recreate these files on startup inserting relevant details - or, better, to use sed (or maybe awk) to replace the relevant parts of the config. Is that the "right" way to do it? Obviously I'd need to restart any relevant services after this is done (or better, make sure it happens before they start). Is there a general way to insert an environment variable or other value into a configuration file? Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

2 2

[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 10th May
by Viperfang 07 May '12

07 May '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, 10th May 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

1 0

Browser trouble
by Bev Nicolson 06 May '12

06 May '12

My connection is fine (I've rung my ISP) but I'm having trouble loading pages. It doesn't always happen. Sometimes, like now for example, it'll be slow, then when I go back to it, it springs into life. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox (not gone away) and Chrome's at it now too. Anyone got any ideas? Bev. (Ubuntu 11.04)

2 3

ATD Hogging the processor
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 04 May '12

04 May '12

Hi folks, I've got a problem with my laptop that's recently occurred. The processor usage gets stuck at 100%, and I can't work out why. If I look at processes with top or htop, atd is the biggest user of the processor, with about 20%. Adding up all the processes gives a rough total of 30%. No idea of where the other 70% is going, yet the total at the top is 100%. Issuing the command sudo service stop atd almost immediately brings the total processor usage down to 2-18%. Then issuing sudo service start atd takes it right back up to 100% Any idea what atd is up to? How can I find out? I did get a disk space warning the other day, but have freed up a load of space since. Ubuntu 11.04, fully patched. No recent changes AFAIK apart from installing patches regularly. Any ideas? Steve

2 2

Are there any DLNA/UPnP streaming *clients* for Linux?
by Chris Green 03 May '12

03 May '12

Maybe my multimedia naivete is showing through but I can't find any *clients* for DLNA/UPnP media streaming. I.e. I want to be able to use a laptop (or a desktop) to play music etc. stored on a media server using media server software rather than the file system. -- Chris Green

4 5

FWD: Re: [Sheflug] UK Open Standards: Time to act
by Ted.Harding＠wlandres.net 02 May '12

02 May '12

Greetings All! In case you may not be aware, I'm passing on this message from the Sheffield LUG. The original message (from Richard Ibbotson) gives the URL for on-line participation in the consultation. Gary Stimson's reply gives a link to a very interesting announcement from the Government Digital Service/Digital Cabinet Office. Feel free to pass this on to any other groups you think would be interested! Best wishes to all, Ted. -----Fwd: <4FA18654.2060800(a)stimson.org.uk>----- Date: Wed, 02 May 2012 20:09:08 +0100 Sender: sheflug-bounces(a)sheflug.org.uk From: Gary Stimson <bulk(a)stimson.org.uk> To: sheflug(a)sheflug.org.uk Subject: Re: [Sheflug] UK Open Standards: Time to act On 28/04/12 11:48, Richard Ibbotson wrote: > HI > > For those of you who have an interest in this.... > > http://fsfe.org/projects/os/uk-standards-consultation.html > > " The Cabinet Office is currently conducting an important consultation > on Open Standards The question is whether companies offering Free > Software will in future have the opportunity to sell their services to > the British government. Whether or not British money will continue to > be spent on supporting proprietary standards which lock in public > bodies, currently hangs in the balance. Thanks Richard. I strongly encourage everyone to respond to this Cabinet Office consultation. Our responses will have much greater impact than signing petitions etc. The consultation is very long but you don't need to respond to all of it. If you prefer, you can send some free text instead of answering the questions in turn. If the government wants to demonstrate support then they will count the responses, so yours does matter. If they want detailed analysis they have responses from FSFE, Open Source Consortium and more. If they want to ignore the consultation... they will. The deadline has been extended by a month (to 4th June) following an astonishing conflict of interest by a Microsoft advisor. http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/04/26/open-standards-consultation-… tant-update/ Again, please do take action on this. Gary _______________________________________________ Sheffield Linux User's Group http://sheflug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/sheflug_sheflug.org.uk FAQ at: http://www.sheflug.org.uk/mailfaq.html GNU - The Choice of a Complete Generation --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)wlandres.net> Date: 02-May-2012 Time: 22:33:08 This message was sent by XFMail -------------------------------------------------

1 0

2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 4th May.
by Viperfang 01 May '12

01 May '12

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

1 0

Forum access--browser problem?
by James Freer 24 Apr '12

24 Apr '12

[xubuntu 10.04..... just two days until 12.04!] I'm hoping someone can advise on what to look for with what seems to be a forum access problem. I belong to a classic car forum which has recently decided to change server and forum software. They claimed the vBulletin was having problems. This i question as the Ubuntu forum as many of you probably use is also vBulletin with 1.8 million members and doesn't seem to have problems. The car group are now using Xenforo - anyone any experience of it? I'm using the Chrome browser which i've found fast and without problems so far. I regularly use forums which have the phpBB, SMF and Invision software without problems and fast as well. The problems; difficulty logging in and logging out (like 3-4 attempts), navigating round the forum is very slow if in fact i can enter a particular thread (when i can another 3-4 attempts are required). Going into Settings then activated a window with a message saying a server problem. It would seem to me [not that much IT expertise!] that there is server problem rather than a browser problem. Emailing the Administrator revealed that he uses linux Mint with Firefox - i thought most likely a problem with linux when other folk are using windows. Could there be a problem with Xubuntu? Chrome problems... well i tried a few of the other browsers earlier today and little difference - so Chrome doesn't seem likely. If Xubuntu what could be the problem because i want to sort it before putting 12.04 on - wrong setting somewhere... he's able to use Mint ok! I know this seems vague but i'd be very grateful if someone could give some pointers to investigate. thanks james

1 0

Re: [ALUG] Acer Aspire One can't keep up with audio streaming
by Srdjan Todorovic 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

On 23 April 2012 22:47, Chris Green <chris(a)isbd.co.uk> wrote: > I've just put it into exaile, it played for a few seconds then just said > "Buffering 0%..." and virtually completely stopped. Even producing no > sound at all virtually exaile is using 30% or more of the CPU. Seems like network or software issue. >> Please... no iPlayer / BBC links. Do you have any other links? >> > There are virtually no other usable links for BBC radio, since most of > the point of this exercise is to listen to the BBC I'm a bit stuck! Not everyone has, or wants, a license. Don't know what codecs they use. If they use dirac, I thought that was very experimental a few years ago. Regards, Srdjan

2 1

Acer Aspire One can't keep up with audio streaming
by Chris Green 23 Apr '12

23 Apr '12

I have an Acer Aspire One 751h which has a 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU. It seems unable to decode radio streams that run at 128k, all BBC radio streams stutter hopelessly whether I use a dedicated application (radiotray) or try listening using iPlayer in Firefox. Running top shows radiotray using around 60% of the CPU with pulseaudio using 10% or so, that doesn't leave much to spare! Do I really need a faster computer to listen to radio on line? I'm pretty sure it's not a bandwidth problem, the on-line BBC iPlayer bandwidth check tells me I have enough bandwidth to play HD television. Are there any audio/radio apps out there which specifically aim at using as little CPU as possible? -- Chris Green

2 5