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10372 discussions

Annual ALUG Ipswich Xmas Meal - 20/12/10 (probably)
by samwise 04 Dec '10

04 Dec '10

Hey, all. It's that festive time of year again. We talked about this at the last Ipswich meet and there was a groundswell of approval for another Christmas meal again this year. I'll nominally start by proposing 20:00 on the the same date as the usual Ipswich ALUG meet (20th Dec), but please drop me a line if you'd like to attend but think that would be an awkward date for you as I'm sure we can re-arrange it, when I have a list of who's coming. Everyone is welcome - no need to be a LUG regular. Please mail me off-list, if you'd like to join in. When I have a list of ppl who'll be there, we can settle on where we want to go and finalise the date. Cheers, Peter.

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FW: What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN?
by keithjamieson＠hotmail.co.uk 04 Dec '10

04 Dec '10

---------------------------------------- > From: keithjamieson(a)hotmail.co.uk > To: cl(a)isbd.net; main(a)lists.alug.org.u > Subject: RE: [ALUG] What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN? > Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 15:10:21 +0000 > > > Chris > > The command > > > root@mws:~# host oldchris > > does a hosts lookup, I assume in the local tables, and gets > > > oldchris.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.140 > > ... and then does a DNS lookup and .... > > > Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > > ... as is on my machine... > > keith@laptop:~$ host oldchris.zbmc.eu > Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > keith@laptop:~$ nslookup oldchris.zbmc.eu > Server: 192.168.1.254 > Address: 192.168.1.254#53 > > ** server can't find oldchris.zbmc.eu: NXDOMAIN > > keith@laptop:~$ dig oldchris.zbmc.eu > > ; <<>> DiG 9.7.1-P2 <<>> oldchris.zbmc.eu > ;; global options: +cmd > ;; Got answer: > ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 42469 > ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0 > > ;; QUESTION SECTION: > ;oldchris.zbmc.eu. IN A > > ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: > zbmc.eu. 10635 IN SOA a.dns.gandi.net. hostmaster.gandi.net. 1290680931 10800 3600 604800 10800 > > ;; Query time: 21 msec > ;; SERVER: 192.168.1.254#53(192.168.1.254) > ;; WHEN: Fri Dec 3 15:08:37 2010 > ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 96 > > keith@laptop:~$ > > HTH > Keith > > ---------------------------------------- > > Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:01:56 +0000 > > From: cl(a)isbd.net > > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > Subject: [ALUG] What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN? > > > > What might cause this somewhat confusing response to a 'host' command? > > > > root@mws:~# host oldchris > > oldchris.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.140 > > Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > > > > > > > > -- > > Chris Green > > > > _______________________________________________ > > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >

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Newer ThinkPad 240x
by Simon Royal 04 Dec '10

04 Dec '10

Hi I'm in and out of Linux all the time and would like to settle with it again. I had a ThinkPad 240x and loved it but it was a bit old. Is there anything of similar size around the 1Ghz P3/P4 mark good for running Ubuntu. I dont want an Atom based machine and if it didnt have an internal CD/DVD drive then it would need to boot from USB - something my 240x didnt have. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OS9/OSX 10.4/Ubuntu 10.10 - iBook G3 running OSX 10.4 - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Running PHP script in background goes into "Stopped"
by Mark Rogers 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

I'm trying to make a PHP script run in the background: $php -q myscript.php & [1] 12345 $jobs [1]+ Stopped php -q myscript.php If I force it into the foreground (fg 1) it runs fine, and if I then stop it (ctrl-Z) and force it into the background (bg 1) it continues to run just fine. It's just starting in the background that seems to be a problem. The script is very simple for test purposes: <?php echo "hello"; ?> (I've tried various scripts, and obviously if I want to stop it and force it into the background it needs to run longer than this, so I just add a sleep(10); to the code.) Googling hasn't got me anything except suggestions that what I am doing is fine! I have no idea if this is a PHP issue or a Linux one? 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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FireFTP
by Anthony Anson 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

I've tried to download FireFTP and it shows all misty blue in Tools/add-ons, with only the 'Uninstall' button standig out like a wossname in the snow. It doesn't feature in Opt/Firefox/Add-ons Can it be that my FriedFox is too old? (Some sites complain about it, or try to send me off to get Shockwave (!) or somethng I don't want.) Trouble is, I can't unearth the version of FriedFox I'm using. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Ehhh?? [OT]
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

Good morning folks! I hope you are keeping warm and not suffering too much from travel problams. This is one of those off-topic things that I'm posting because so many of you know things that I don't know ... I'm increasingly seeing in emails (usually sent by organisations) a sentence like the following in the footer area of the message: "To ensure these emails reach your inbox please add <sender> to your address book." Ehhh?? If an email is delivered to me, it is delivered to my inbox. Punkt. So what's behind such a statement? And are people to whom such a thing might apply supposed to have all possible senders listed in their adress books (otherwise they may not have emails delivered)???? I smell a certain kludgy software company in the background! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 02-Dec-10 Time: 09:00:23 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Linux Laptop
by Simon Royal 02 Dec '10

02 Dec '10

Hi I am looking at switching - once again to Linux on a more permanent state. Ive been a Mac user for 11 years with an interest in Linux. Last year I switched to Linux on a low end laptop but moved back to Mac. Now I am triple booting on an old Mac (OS9, OSX and Ubuntu), but it is a bit old an PowerPC Linux is very unsupported. Id love a new Mac but cant afford it. I cant even afford a half decent one. The only funds I have will be from the sale of mine, which luckily should be about £100 and will buy a failry decent PC laptop. So I am looking for suggestions. It will run Ubuntu or Mint alongside Windows (for those times when you have to use Windows). It needs to be fairly small, with a built in CD drive, USB, PCMCIA slot and built in sound. I know that all sounds fairly standard but Ive had machines in the past few years without some of these. It really needs to be at least a 1Ghz machine capable of 1GB RAM - DDR preferably but PC133 would be ok. It needs to be good with Linux, no odd hardware that needs major tweaking to work. So suggestions please. Simon

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Linux Laptop
by Simon Royal 02 Dec '10

02 Dec '10

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And another can't...
by Anthony Anson 02 Dec '10

02 Dec '10

While Gargle finds a few hits and Ixquick a lot more, typing "Offbyone Linux download" brings up a lot of Offbyone downloads, but no Linux ones. I am (fairly) reliably informed that therre is a Linux version, but the only reference I can find (but no download) is to Red Hat. I use Xandros on the Eee and Debian on the Acer and the whoppingbigbox. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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How can I find what this apache "file does not exist" error is referring to?
by Chris G 01 Dec '10

01 Dec '10

I'm getting errors like the following in my apache2 error log:- [Wed Dec 01 17:57:58 2010] [error] [client 84.45.228.40] File does not exist: /var/www/dte-test/httpdocs/images, referer: http://dte-test/ The directory /var/www/dte-test/httpdocs/images doesn't exist but I can't work out any way to find out what's referring to it. Any ideas? -- Chris Green

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A git question now I have the basics mostly fathomed out
by Chris G 29 Nov '10

29 Nov '10

So, we have a git repository set up on a web server machine 'out there' somewhere. I make my local copy of the repository on my computer and do some editing etc. Then 'git commit' commits the changes to my local repository and a 'git push' sends the changes back to the remote repository. However I don't see how the files get to 'go live' on the remote web server, my 'git push' has simply put them back into the repository on that system. Presumably someone/somewhere has to extract the files from the git repository on the remote into the working directories from which the web server displays them. Is there a specific git command for doing this or would one use the standard 'git clone' to do it, or what? -- Chris Green

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Very strange "No such file or directory" messages - help!!!
by Chris G 29 Nov '10

29 Nov '10

I have a symbolic link from my home directory to another home directory:- chris$ cd chris$ ls -l total 988 ... ... drwxr-xr-x 3 chris chris 4096 2010-11-20 14:33 dte lrwxrwxrwx 1 chris chris 10 2010-11-22 18:58 isbd -> /home/isbd ... ... and, as expected, if I "cd isbd" I arrive at /home/isbd and can see its contents with an ls. However referring to "/home/chris/isbd" sometimes produces a "No such file or directory" error (but not always, as I have just discovered). I'm stumped. What started the problem was running rsync to backup the contents of /home/chris/isbd:- chris$ rsync /home/chris/isdb cheddar.halon.org.uk:backups/isbd rsync: link_stat "/home/chris/isdb" failed: No such file or directory (2) rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1060) [sender=3.0.7] chris$ ls /home/chris/isdb ls: cannot access /home/chris/isdb: No such file or directory chris$ cd /home/chris/isdb bash: cd: /home/chris/isdb: No such file or directory It appears to be something to do with whether I have been in /home/chris/isbd but also seems to be time dependent. It's as if bash 'remembers' where /home/chris/isdb is for a while but then forgets unless I do a "cd isbd" from my home directory. The target (/home/isbd) is simply another part of the same disk that /home/chris is on, nothing special. Another example sequence:- chris$ cd /home/chris/isdb bash: cd: /home/chris/isdb: No such file or directory chris$ cd chris$ cd isbd /home/chris/isbd chris$ cd / chris$ cd /home/chris/isdb bash: cd: /home/chris/isdb: No such file or directory chris$ cd chris$ cd isbd /home/chris/isbd I've never had this problem before with a symbolic link to a directory, what on earth is going on? -- Chris Green

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Mobile phone software
by Bev Nicolson 27 Nov '10

27 Nov '10

I have a fairly basic Alcatel OT S319 phone. There is no hope of expanding the memory so I would like to find some software to help me transfer the text to my PC. What should I look for? I have found a list of possibilities but I've no idea which would be the most Linux compatible. Thanks. Bev.

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A question about git
by Chris G 25 Nov '10

25 Nov '10

I'm just starting to get down to the details of using git to co-operatively manage the contents of a web site remotely. I've managed all the basic set-up etc. such that I can connect to the site and get files etc. but I'm a little unclear about how things are supposed to go back to the remote/live site. So, I have used 'git clone' to get the files from the remote system and I have done some changes to the files. I then 'git commit -a' to commit my changes in my local repository, so far so good and it's what I'm (sort of) used to from previous experience of source code control. However what do I do next to actually get the changes back to the remote site? Or, what does the 'manager' who controls the code, do to get my changes integrated into the code on the remote site? Does 'git push' send my changes back to the site - it's not totally clear from the man page if this is what it does. The man page says "git-push - Update remote refs along with associated objects" which is a bit opaque. I *think* the following does copy the committed changes to the remote but I'd like to be sure:- chris$ git push --all --dry-run To chrisgreen@donttravelempty.com:/var/www/vhosts/donttravelempty.co.uk/subdomains/test/httpdocs 0474601..d6eb8a0 master -> master -- Chris Green

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Launch xterm with smaller font than specified in .Xresources
by Dan 24 Nov '10

24 Nov '10

Dear All, On my system, fonts are served up by XFS. The font I usually use in xterms is set in my .Xresources file as follows XTerm*VT100.Font: -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--20-200-75-75-C-100-ISO10646-1 XTerm.Font: -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--20-200-75-75-C-100-ISO10646-1 XTerm*Font: -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--20-200-75-75-C-100-ISO10646-1 However, for one particular task, I want to launch an xterm with a much smaller font. The command xterm -fn fixed Gets me part way there, but I want an even smaller font than that. Any ideas, please? -- Thanks, Dan

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Back With Linux
by TheMactivist 24 Nov '10

24 Nov '10

Hi I flit in and out of this group when I pick up Linux again. Ive been a Mac user for the past ten years, Windows user before that and the last few years developed an interest in Linux. About a year ago I left Mac and went full on Linux with older ThinkPads. I then went back to Mac and am now triple booting between OS9, OSX and Ubuntu on an old Mac laptop. It was a struggle getting them all to work nicely together but I am back with Linux and writing this in it now. TM -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OS9/OSX 10.4/Ubuntu 10.10 - iBook G3 running OSX 10.4 - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro.

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What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN?
by Chris G 23 Nov '10

23 Nov '10

What might cause this somewhat confusing response to a 'host' command? root@mws:~# host oldchris oldchris.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.140 Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) -- Chris Green

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why won't xterm start?
by Chris Walker 23 Nov '10

23 Nov '10

Having given up on the idea of installing a Nokia SDK on my base machine, I thought I'd try creating a Ubuntu system in VirtualBox. I did that using an iso of 10.10 - Maverick Meerkat. But partway through the install, it's meant to fire up an xterm offering me a choice of installs, but it fails. I can start xterm simply by issuing the command but the script fails every time. I've googled this and others have had similar problems when they've upgraded from 10.4 to 10.10. I haven't. I've gone straight in with a vanilla 10.10 build. I've tried various tweaks and hacks but the script still fails. For info, this is what I'm trying to run - http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/Maemo_5_SDK_installation_for_beginners It does the scratchbox install ok. It's when I get as far as the SDK install it fails. The ./maemo-sdk-install_5.0.sh script displays an agreement and I page down using the space bar. It then asks me to press the Enter key. At that point, it's supposed to open up a terminal window to enable me to choose an option. It falls over with an error - unable to open xterm. Any ideas? As I'm playing with VirtualBox, I did grab a copy of Ubuntu 9.04 and that ran through the whole thing so I do have an almost working copy of the setup so it's something peculiar to 10.10. The 'almost' working bit refers me not being able to see the host machine from the guest OS but I'll persevere with that. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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hexdump formatting
by Mark Rogers 23 Nov '10

23 Nov '10

Has anyone here got any experience of hexdump output formatting? If I use hexdump -C I get: $hexdump -C -n32 /usr/bin/lsof 00000000 7f 45 4c 46 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |.ELF............| 00000010 02 00 03 00 01 00 00 00 60 97 04 08 34 00 00 00 |........`...4...| 00000020 What I want to do is extend the number of bytes per line to 32, but as there isn't a format for it that means using the horribly complicated -e option. I have got as far as: $ hexdump -n 32 -e '"%04.4_ao: " 16/1 "%02X " " " 16/1 "%02X " " " "xx" "\n"' /usr/bin/lsof 0000: 7F 45 4C 46 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 03 00 01 00 00 00 60 97 04 08 34 00 00 00 xx .. but haven't worked out how to insert the ascii values in place of "xx". -- 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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Is there any way to run an rsync daemon/server on-demand as a non-privileged user?
by Chris G 23 Nov '10

23 Nov '10

Is there any way to do the equivalent of running rsync from an entry in inetd.conf that can be done by a non-provileged user? I want to run rsync from cron to backup files to a couple of places where I have shell logins (but not the privilege to make additions to inetd.conf). I suppose I could just run rsync in daemon mode using a cron job on the remote system (and kill it later) at the right time but that seems a little crude. -- Chris Green

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An odd bluetooth problem
by Barry Samuels 22 Nov '10

22 Nov '10

I have just got Bluetooth working on my Thinkpad (Debian Testing/Squeeze) and it will pair with my Android 'phone but the signal keeps fluctuating. The link quality between 100% and -1%, the strength between 58% and -1 and it does this at around 2-5 second intervals. It does it even when the 'phone is next to the laptop. Can anyone suggest a reason for this? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Re: [ALUG] [ALUG Announce] Free Teeth Whitening for you
by Steve Engledow 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

Well I don't know about you, but I'm convinced. Does this whitening kit run on linux though? Cheers, Steve On Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:33:16 +0000, "paul Frei" <onetofifteeneco(a)aol.com> wrote: > Untitled Document > > Get a Pro Whitening Kit 30 Day supply and two touch-up pens Free - > only pay £2.95 P&P. > > ? They know how important their smiles are and they've spent > thousands > and thousands of pounds to have the whitest teeth. Now you can have > the celebrity smile you deserve with . Try our today! > > People seeking better smiles spend £1.74 billion per year to have > white teeth. Celebrities know their success depends on having a great > smile. They are no different than you. __, and you can with . > > Get the white smile you've always wanted. will give you the bright, > celebrity smile you deserve. See if you qualify for your today! > > "I was so excited about my wedding until I tried on the perfect dress > and looked in the mirror. The dress was perfect and white, but my > teeth were yellow. I looked horrible. So I tried __ and it saved my > wedding." > > "I had an interview scheduled for the job I really wanted and needed, > but years of smoking and coffee drinking had stained my teeth so > badly > I knew the impression I would make would be bad. I tried __ and am > amazed at how white my teeth are." > > Be Attractive & Confident > ! > > We all want to look younger, happier and more confident. Everyone > would like to be attractive, successful and > have an incredible > relationship. > . > > in 3 simple steps with > Choice White advanced- > formula gel. > > if you do not wish to hear from us again please reply with cancel in > the subject line

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HDD errors
by Mark Rogers 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

I have a hard disk connected via a IDE/USB convertor. I was asked to look at the disk because of issues, and with a combination of tools (surprisingly mount and cp did most of what I needed!) have managed to recover most of his files (well the ones that matter anyway). However, I'm getting lots of the following in /var/log/messages: Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430217] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430221] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430225] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current] Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430230] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Add. Sense: No additional sense information Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430234] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 01 00 95 a0 00 00 08 00 Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430248] __ratelimit: 41 callbacks suppressed .. and I was just curious to learn what they were telling me about what was wrong with the drive? I've Googled for some of the key phrases but don't seem to get a clear picture. I've seen references to Sense Key etc before with problems in the past (often USB thumb drives) so I figured a little extra knowledge might be no bad thing! -- 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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Is there a fairly easy way to allow two users to write to the same hierarchy of files?
by Chris G 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

I want to enable two users to write to a specific hiearchy of files and I really can't see an easy way to do it. To be specific I have a hierarchy of files making up the data files of a wiki which I (mostly) edit directly but also need to be able to edit in the normal wiki fashion. Thus they need to be writeable by the apache2 process (which is user www-data) and directly by the user (which is me, user chris). Can anyone suggest a way to allow these to be writeable by both users? When a user creates a new file it must be editable by the other user as well so simply creating a common group to which both users belong won't work as, in general, the umask won't give files user write permission. -- Chris Green

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Snapshots
by Chris Walker 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

Is it possible to take a snapshot of a running system rather in the way it's possible to do in things like VirtualBox? I'm thinking of installing some software but am not sure that once installed, I will be able to back it out with leaving files everywhere. Hence the idea of a snapshot. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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