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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 18 Jul '11

18 Jul '11

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- After an inexplicable absence in June, the monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back tonight, Monday 18th July, 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. I'll definitely be there, so if any one new wants to drop in, look for the guy in the corner with the latest copy of LXF ... ;) We're normally in the downstairs-from-the-bar-bit, nearest the entrance on the library side. 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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Installing Ununtu server to degraded RAID
by Mark Rogers 13 Jul '11

13 Jul '11

I want to set up a server using software RAID1 as follows: - Install single disk, do the OS install (Ubuntu server 11.04), creating RAID array (but degraded as only one disk) - Boot the system and check it all works - Install second disk and add to array The install works fine (I create an md partition and an array of 2 devices but only add one to it), and install grub to /dev/sda1 as usual. However it won't boot. Grub starts and gives me my menu, but gets no further. Suggestions? Am I doing this all wrong? (Reason for doing this: migrating an existing RAID1 array using the onboard RAID to an mdraid array; I want to keep one of the original disks to recover some files off once the system is up before wiping it and adding it to the new array. But also I want to confirm that my new array will boot with only one disk otherwise there's not a lot of point to it!) -- 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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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 14th July
by Viperfang 11 Jul '11

11 Jul '11

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 Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 14th July 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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Reg Exp question
by Stuart Bailey 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

Hello, I'm trying to search for a file name by pattern that will output the full path and timestamps. I've tried using ls -Rl | grep "^\." to show all the directories. but then I need to show all files within those directories that match my pattern, eg *abc.png Can I do this with my reg exp? Find does not give the timestamps. Many thanks, Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Managing Director) Linux Specialist & Software Developer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone: (0845) 658 3563 Direct: +44 (0) 1953 878162 Fax: +44 (0) 1603 858583 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.linusoft.co.uk __________ Information from ESET Mail Security, version of virus signature database 6276 (20110708) __________ The message was checked by ESET Mail Security. http://www.eset.com

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Re: [ALUG] Reg Exp question
by James Bensley 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

Classic school boy reply-to-person-not-to-list fail On 8 July 2011 11:37, James Bensley <jwbensley(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I'm not sure i' I under stand your request but are you looking for: > ls -Rl | grep ".abc.png" > > -- > James. > http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/

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APC UPS Batteries (RBC18) going spare
by Mark Rogers 07 Jul '11

07 Jul '11

If anyone is interested I have a box of used but working RBC18 battery sets from APC UPS's. Basically they've been replaced as part of routine maintenance, they've been in use approx 2yrs. I need to know asap (today) if there's interest else they'll probably go off to recycling. They'd need collecting from our office in Peterborough. -- 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] svn tags, branches, etc
by Phil Ashby 06 Jul '11

06 Jul '11

Mark Rogers wrote: >> After an hour or so of reading tutorials and trawling Google I'm >> still stuck on something. I find the best place to start is the on line official book. Here's chapter 4 on branches (and merging): http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.branchmerge.using.html >> Suppose I want to call my current software tree "v1", and create a >> copy to become "v2". The software is a PHP web library and basically >> the purpose of v2 is to start removing all the old PHP3/PHP4 >> compatibility code, and tidy things up, thus breaking backwards >> compatibility. >> >> I think I start with something like: >> svn copy -m "v2" <svnrepo> <svnrepo>/tags/v1 >> svn copy -m "v2" <svnrepo> <svnrepo>/tags/v2 >> >> My current code is already in a directory ~/mylib/v1, and I want to >> keep that as it is (several apps on the server are using it), and >> checkout v2 directory ~/mylib/v2; new apps will start to use that >> version. AIUI, you should be able to create a branch for v2 development without affecting the v1 tree, just by doing this: svn copy -m 'making v2 branch' <repo>/mylib/v1 <repo>/mylib/v2 >> So far so good. Where I'm stuck is how to make sure that ~/mylib/v1 >> stays on the v1 branch so I can continue to fix bugs and add >> features (unlikely but possible) to it if I need to, and ~/mylib/v2 >> similarly stays on the v2 branch. Both will have regular commits to >> their respective branches, and I may want to merge fixes from v1 >> into v2 (and vice versa). In other words v1 will become v1.0.1, >> v1.0.2, ... and v2 will independently become v2.0.1, v2.0.2, ... >> whilst sharing common history and allowing me to migrate some >> changes between branches. According to the book, you can now check out your v2 branch to a separate working area: svn checkout <repo>/mylib/v2 ..where you can continue development of v2 separate from the v1 working area. These two work areas will initially be the same of course, however changes checked into v2 will not appear in v1 and vice versa. If you want to 'tag' specific releases of anything, you simply copy the relevant tree again, but give it a tag name eg: svn copy <repo>/mylib/v1 <repo>/mylib/v1.0.3 ..this is the same as creating a branch, thus the *humans* have to understand that this directory should not have changes committed (you can also use the paranoid access control mentioned in the book to prevent this happening). Merging is covered in the next page of the book (after branching): http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.branchmerge.basicmerging.html ..where you will want to merge specific changes (that fix specific bugs) from one branch to the other. This works well as long as the humans don't commit bug fixes with other work, preventing the selection of changes by a changeset number (read the part on cherrypicking). HTH, Phil

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svn tags, branches, etc
by Mark Rogers 05 Jul '11

05 Jul '11

After an hour or so of reading tutorials and trawling Google I'm still stuck on something. Suppose I want to call my current software tree "v1", and create a copy to become "v2". The software is a PHP web library and basically the purpose of v2 is to start removing all the old PHP3/PHP4 compatibility code, and tidy things up, thus breaking backwards compatibility. I think I start with something like: svn copy -m "v2" <svnrepo> <svnrepo>/tags/v1 svn copy -m "v2" <svnrepo> <svnrepo>/tags/v2 My current code is already in a directory ~/mylib/v1, and I want to keep that as it is (several apps on the server are using it), and checkout v2 directory ~/mylib/v2; new apps will start to use that version. So far so good. Where I'm stuck is how to make sure that ~/mylib/v1 stays on the v1 branch so I can continue to fix bugs and add features (unlikely but possible) to it if I need to, and ~/mylib/v2 similarly stays on the v2 branch. Both will have regular commits to their respective branches, and I may want to merge fixes from v1 into v2 (and vice versa). In other words v1 will become v1.0.1, v1.0.2, ... and v2 will independently become v2.0.1, v2.0.2, ... whilst sharing common history and allowing me to migrate some changes between branches. I think all I need to do is make sure in each directory I switch to the right branch and then any commits/copys will apply to that branch only, but everything I've read talks in terms of the branch being temporary while a new feature is added, rather than permanent with the intention of maintaining v1 and v2 as separate versions going forward (and no doubt spawning v3 from v2 at some point down the line). Before I go too far I just want to be sure I'm on the right track. -- 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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Unwanted "600" perms from Acroread
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 04 Jul '11

04 Jul '11

Greetings! Maybe someone has an answer to this! If I open a PDF file in Acrobat Reader (ths file initially having '644' permissions), and then "print to file" (so that I have a PostScript version of it), the permissions of the PS file generated by Acrobat Reader are '600'. This is not a particular problem when I am working in the same directory as the file is in. However, when that machine is NFS-mounted to the machine that does my printing, and I 'lpr' the PS file from the printing machine, then the '600' prevents printing (I get error message "empty file"). This is because the '600' does not allow outsiders to access the file. All is well if I manually change the PS file permissions in the original directory to '644', since this now allows access. So my question: Is there a way to get Acrobat Reader to store the PS file it outputs with '644' permissions instead of '600'? I've had a bit of a look at the Acrobat Reader menus, without seeing anything helpful. With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 02-Jul-11 Time: 22:17:31 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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How to diagnose an intermittent web access 'hang'?
by Chris G 02 Jul '11

02 Jul '11

I have a strange problem when I try and access my home LAN web server from home. Once in every three or four connections the web server hangs for several minutes before the data is delivered. This happens when I access the pages as http://zbmc.eu/xxx/yyy. I was going to say that the data is eventually delivered but one I just tried returned a "The connection has timed out" message. If I access the same pages as http://localhost/xxx/yyy then it all works perfectly, no hangs. Now the 'fly in the ointment' as it were is that my ADSL connection uses two ADSL providers on two telephone lines, the sharing is provided by my Draytek Vigor 2820n router. I *suspect* that its the sharing in the router that causes the problem, but it doesn't happen for other URLs, just for http://zbmc.eu/ URLs. Any suggestions for how to diagnose what's going on? -- Chris Green

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Imaging Windows dynamic disks using Linux
by Mark Rogers 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

I have a guy on site trying to replace a hard disk in a server (W2003); simple job: shut the server down and image it to a new disk, boot from new disk, walk away. Except it turns out not to be a single disk, it's two disks using Windows dynamic RAID which I know nothing about, but his imaging software doesn't handle it (Acronis). Anyone have any experience of imaging these disks using any of the various Linux options? Ideally I'm looking for something that'll be a small download as he only has limited Internet, and it would be even better if he can boot it from a USB thumb drive as he doesn't have a blank CD with him, although he can probably scrounge one from someone if he has to. -- 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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2600 meeting
by Ben Bewick 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

Hello Aluggers, A few people from alug have expressed and interest in the 2600 meetings, Stevepdp and I are attempting to relaunch the Norwich group. The meeting will take place today (Friday 1st July) at 6pm at the old Borders entrance to Chapelfield Mall, under the Big-Screen TV. Just to be verbose, we are not trying to poach alug members, we are by example attending both meets. There is alot of crossover of interests, we hope that both communities can benefit from each other. For those who are interested and can attend, see you there. If you are interested but cannot attend, maybe next month? For more information you can see our specific group information at http://norwich2600.co.uk or you can get a more generalised view at http://2600.net Viper

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Loosing IP address
by James Bensley 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

I expect this is totally obvious and I'm being a complete buffoon but I can't work it out. Every time I disconnect my Ethernet cable on my laptop I loose my IP address (dropping to none configured) [Ubuntu 10.10]. I am constantly unplugging my cable and plugging it in different switch ports configuring switches all day, and I have to keep a terminal window open in the background so I can quickly switch to it, hit "up" and "enter" to re-run "sudo ifconfig eth0 1.2.3.4". I takes 5 seconds but man its annoying. Anyone got any idea? -- James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/

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1 July 2011
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

Greetings All! Today is the 1st of July. I am wondering if the following is 3 months late: http://tinyurl.com/6hmmame Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 01-Jul-11 Time: 10:50:38 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Motherboard software RAID vs Linux FakeRAID
by Mark Rogers 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

I have an HP server with on-board RAID, ie it takes two drives and presents them to the O/S as a single drive, but the management of that drive utilises the main CPU not a RAID controller. If I use it, how would I be able to detect the RAID status? Or should I just use software RAID and mdtools? lspci reports: 00:11.0 RAID bus controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [Non-RAID5 mode] (rev 40) If I decided to move to software RAID, what are my chances of migrating the existing install to RAID without re-installing? -- 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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Minimal GUI for server (kiosk?)
by Mark Rogers 30 Jun '11

30 Jun '11

I have a server which will be running a web server and the primary means for accessing it will be via a web browser. I need to also provide a screen and keyboard/mouse for local use. Basically that means providing a mechanism for running a web browser. I don't *have* to limit the GUI to only running the browser, but it seems like that wouldn't be a bad idea (in which case the browser needs to stay running, ie be restarted if it dies for any reason). Chromium crossed my mind but as I understand it that's not really ready yet. My base OS install is Ubuntu Server, so ideally I'm looking for something that would be an apt-get install away from Ubuntu Server rather than a different OS or distro. Suggestions? -- 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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Cheese, again
by Anthony Anson 29 Jun '11

29 Jun '11

Anyone with an Eee using Tellytubbies Linux know if Cheese is lurking there? I can't find any trace of it, not even round the biscuits... -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Cheese
by Anthony Anson 26 Jun '11

26 Jun '11

Can't find the thread, but thanks muchly to whoever pointed me at Cheese to get a CCTV onna stick thing working, and not least because I've just been given an old microscope USB camera which the donor insisted worked OK on Win 98, but the software wasn't compatible with XP, and when I told him that I intended to use it in Linux, his anticipation of success dropped to zero. He was most surprised when it worked in Cheese without demur. I hope to proselytise... So, thanks again for the pointer. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Where has all the free space gone?
by nev young 25 Jun '11

25 Jun '11

Good morning ALUGers. I have noticed something a little odd about the space allocation on my disks. Prompted by the disks getting rather full. Taking two in particular I see (using system monitor) device type total free available used /dev/sdb1 ext3 1386.0Gb 79.8Gb 10.0Gb 1306.2Gb 99% /dev/sdc1 ext3 1386.3Gb 111.0Gb 41.2Gb 1275.2Gb 96% Ok. total = free + used but why only 10Gb / 41.2Gb available? I find it hard to believe that there is 69.8Gb of disk lost by sector padding at the end of files or is allocated to the directory. Even more odd that both disks appear to have "lost" 69.8Gb. I get the same numbers (to 1Kb precision) if I use du and df to check the space. I don't know the ext3/4 file system layout and would like to know if these numbers are normal or exceptional. Could I have done something at mkfs time to "improve" on the above? BTW, Trash is empty. I'm not overly worried by this, it's just a "want to know" thing. The disk almost full problem will go away on the 3rd July when the automatic backup program deletes all the incremental backup data for June from these disks, which are my first line of system backups. I've had a very heavy month processing VHS tapes to mpeg4(xvid).avi files. -- nev

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Meet In Ipswich.
by Bradley Simpson 24 Jun '11

24 Jun '11

Hello i was wandering iff anybody was going to be at the nexzt meet in Ip-swich as i went along last week Laptop in hand and a load of questions ready to be asked and nobody showed up. Please say some one will be next time. Bradley.

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text authorship analysis
by Peter Alcibiades 24 Jun '11

24 Jun '11

Does anyone know any packages that do word recurrence intervals, something called the trigram markov model etc to test for same authorship of two passages? Obviously a linux package would be best, but windows would be ok. Whatever works. Peter

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EA-Meet Up
by James Bensley 23 Jun '11

23 Jun '11

The only Anglian meet-ups I am aware of are the Norwich ones (my old stomping ground) and the Ipswich ones as those are the ones posted on this 'ere mailing list. Firstly, are there any others? Perhaps small meets that don't get advertised on the list and/or are rather ad-hoc? Secondly, has there ever been an "Anglian meet up" where everyone gets together? I think this would be good fun personally. -- James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/

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Why does permission on home directory affect ssh?
by Chris G 23 Jun '11

23 Jun '11

I just spent a long time diagnosing why I couldn't get a public key ssh login to work. It eventually transpired that ssh doesn't allow one to have group write permission on one's home diectory. That's *not* the permission on the .ssh directory, it's the permission on the one above that. A quick Google search confirms that this is the case, ssh refuses to do public key authentication if the user's home directory has group write permission on it. I can't see any way to disable this (turning StrictModes off seems to disable too much) and I don't really understand the reason for it either. I only want group write set on one particular user, can anyone suggest a way to allow ssh public-key login to that user? -- Chris Green

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Message from (mostly friendly) List Admin about conduct, was Re: My Internet experience...
by Adam Bower 23 Jun '11

23 Jun '11

On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 03:14:29PM +0100, Anthony Anson wrote: > > That's gets my vote. I'm always reluctant to ban someone outright - > after all, we all have (probably) adequate filters on threads and > particular e-addies if necessary. I have just come back from work and found this thread. Joy. I have sent a further warning to Krishna about being on topic and not upsetting members. Krishna's account is now set that all posts will have to be approved by the list administrators now before they can go the list and I have explained that seeking a way around this will result in a permanent ban. I don't believe that seeking an outright ban is the way forward in this situation, people can learn from their mistakes and when I see mail that contributes to this list from Krishna then I will remove the moderation flag from their email address. I think other members have quite rightly pointed out what the problems are here. Please be nice to each other kids. Thanks Adam -- New signature required, suggestions on a post card please.

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Norwich Meet/Coach And Horses Refurb
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 22 Jun '11

22 Jun '11

Hi Folks, Dunno if it coincides with a Norwich meet, but thought I should point this out in case it does. "The Coach and Horses in Thorpe Road will close at about 6pm on Sunday, June 26 and reopen in the afternoon of Thursday, July 7." http://bit.ly/mqaLGR Regards Steve

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