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What am I doing wrong?
by Paul Lenton 10 May '14

10 May '14

Hi all, Every time I send a message to the ALUG list I get a bounceback saying that my message is awaiting moderation for a "suspicious header". Am I adding anything funny into my emails that is causing this? Cheers -- Paul GitHub - EckoZero https://github.com/eckozero Registered Linux user #557339 https://linuxcounter.net/user/557339.html

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Memtest86 always reports bad ram on a specific motherboard
by Srdjan Todorovic 10 May '14

10 May '14

Hi all, I've inherited an old Dell PowerEdge desktop, with 3GB DDR2 RAM in modules of 1GB. Naturally, I ran Memtest86 from one of the Ubuntu CDs. With all 3 RAM modules, memtest fails at approximately 50% of the whole test, at approximate offset of 128MB (40,000++ errors). I then tested each of those RAM modules in isolation, same result. I ran the test of 1 module in a different slot, same result. I then took one of my old DDR2 modules, and tested that in isolation, same result. I have no reason to suspect that my old DDR2 module is faulty. I ran memtest with that module some time ago in an old motherboard and had no issues. The ram was stored in an anti-static bag, but maybe it's possible for that old RAM module to get zapped in storage. Could it be possible that the RAM controller on the motherboard is partially damaged? I have ubuntu running on this machine, and so far no detectable problems. Could it be that memtest86 itself has a bug or cannot execute the tests correctly? >From what I remember, all the BIOS settings relating to RAM are set to auto, but even so the BIOS beeps at me on bootup saying that the memory configuration is not optimal. I am trying to decide if it's worth keeping it for an experimental box or just salvaging workable parts and recycling the rest. Thanks! Srdjan

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Any WordPress experts here - need help selecting a plugin
by Chris Green 10 May '14

10 May '14

I'm adding what is effectively a membership database to a WordPress site, there are a couple of special requirements:- 1 - The members can be individuals or organisations. An organisation member will have the organisation details - Name, address, phone, etc. - plus the ability to add up to five named individuals with simple details for each. 2 - It's a paid for membership so there will be a PayPal button for both individual and organisation membership, we obviously don't want to enter details for someone who hasn't paid. The PayPal buttons can have a 'Take customers to this URL when they finish checkout' option so this could be done by having a separate commit for the input form. The actual data for a member is pretty standard, nothing beyond Name, Address, E-Mail, Phone, etc. Looking for 'membership' or similar on the WP Plugins site pulls up hundreds of plugins all aimed at giving multi-level access to the web site which isn't what we need at all. So, any ideas anyone? I'm happy to customise an existing plugin, I can code in PHP reasonably well, but the more off-the-shelf it is the better of course. It feels like a good club membership database plugin would do but I can't find one in the morass of website membership plugins. -- Chris Green

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Can anyone suggest why this ssh connection only works sometimes?
by Chris Green 09 May '14

09 May '14

I have a Beaglebone Black system on our boat in France which is connected to the internet via a WiFi hotspot. To allow me to connect to it with ssh it is set up to create ssh tunnels to a couple of places where I have logins. I used to run something similar on an ancient eeePc, on that system it remained permanently accessible but on the Beaglebone Black it only allows me to connect some of the time. I have to repeatedly try to connect over a few minutes to get connected:- halon$ ssh -p 51234 localhost ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host halon$ ssh -p 51234 localhost ssh: connect to host localhost port 51234: Connection refused halon$ while true; do ssh -p 51234 localhost; sleep 60; done ssh: connect to host localhost port 51234: Connection refused ssh: connect to host localhost port 51234: Connection refused chris@localhost's password: It's not that the ssh processes on the BBB are dying, they've been running for several days:- chris@beaglebone$ ps -ef | grep ssh root 968 1 0 May04 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/sshd -D root 1262 1 0 May04 ? 00:00:01 /usr/lib/autossh/autossh -N -R 51234:localhost:22 -l chris cheddar.halon.org.uk root 1263 1 0 May04 ? 00:00:01 /usr/lib/autossh/autossh -N -R 51235:localhost:22 -l isbdnet3 shell.gridhost.co.uk root 1264 1 0 May04 ? 00:00:01 /usr/lib/autossh/autossh -N -R 51236:localhost:22 -l timetode shell.gridhost.co.uk root 3288 1264 0 11:13 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/ssh -L 34227:127.0.0.1:34227 -R 34227:127.0.0.1:34228 -N -R 51236:localhost:22 -l timetode shell.gridhost.co.uk root 9614 1262 0 18:17 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/ssh -L 34448:127.0.0.1:34448 -R 34448:127.0.0.1:34449 -N -R 51234:localhost:22 -l chris cheddar.halon.org.uk root 9727 968 3 18:20 ? 00:00:00 sshd: chris [priv] chris 9752 9727 0 18:20 ? 00:00:00 sshd: chris@pts/0 root 18064 1263 0 May08 ? 00:00:01 /usr/bin/ssh -L 61875:127.0.0.1:61875 -R 61875:127.0.0.1:61876 -N -R 51235:localhost:22 -l isbdnet3 shell.gridhost.co.uk So what could be making the tunnels work some of the time but not all of the time? -- Chris Green

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Norwich
by Anthony Anson 07 May '14

07 May '14

Is there a meeting tomorrow? -- Tony http://www.girolle.co.uk/

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How is this - LAN - supposed to work?
by Chris Green 01 May '14

01 May '14

How is one supposed to use a LAN with a mixed collection of 'things' on it such that you can actually connect to them without simply guessing their addresses? I have just arrived on our boat in France where we have a TP-link WA5210 WiFi box connection to the local WiFi hotspot, on the 'local' side it uses 192.168.13.x. Then there's a standard domestic WiFi router whose WAN is 192.168.13.x hard-wired to the WA5210 that provides WiFi and wire ethernet within the boat. On the boat there's the following:- My Acer Aspire netbook Seimens C475IP 'gigiaset' VOIP phones A Beaglebone Black computer nmiontoring various things An Android tablet (or two) Sometimes an HP printer So it all works from the 'client' point of view in that I can use the iternet from my netbook, the phones work, my wife can read and send E-Mail from her tablet, etc. However it's a total disaster if I want to connect from one system to another. How am I suppsed to find the address of, for example, the Beaglebone Black? Why do routers seem to have forgotten the ability to register names when DHCP clients come along? OK, with just four or five systems I can just try them all but it's a bit crude and painful. Once you get to ten or more it's hopeless. It's why I run dnsmasq on a server on my LAN at home, all my systems (well, nearly all, one insists on being anonymous) have 'names', what an amazing concept! -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Robolinux
by Phil Ashby 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

On 28/04/14 12:00, Chris Walker <alug_cdw(a)the-walker-household.co.uk> wrote: > I've just downloaded and installed a copy of Robolinux on a spare > desktop machine. It says that it's a replacement for Windows XP as it > will keep the Windows stuff secure without fear of a virus or malware. > > I paid a few dollars for the basic version as I thought I would be able > to configure the XP stuff myself. But it seems they want me to pay for > more of it first. > > But then the thought occurred to me that I might be able to do all this > stuff with VirtualBox anyway. This is the link to the info about the > secure bit - http://www.robolinux.org/stealth-vm-info/ > > There's a video on the site showing how a virus attacks the VM. What I > find more than a little annoying is that it says I can do this for free > and yet there's no way to get past the donation page. > > The question remains though. Is this special software or simply a > cunning bit of configuration of a virtual machine on the part of > Robolinux? > Interesting - not looked at Robolinux before. I fear making claims such as: "A Windows keylogger, virus or malware cannot attack a native Linux application." and "Windows Viruses and Malware do NOT attack Linux file systems." is just asking for trouble - I can hear the shouts of 'Challenge accepted!' already :-/ Many virii already detect VM environments and self-destruct to avoid the reverse engineering teams who study them, it's only a short step from there to breaking out of the VM via it's 'convenience features' such as drag/drop file transfer, guest-based tools, file shares and clipboard support to infect the host.. game over. Made easier with robolinux using the popular VirtualBox platform too. I've just spent half an hour trying to find their source code: given it's largely built on a GPL Debian base they are obliged to publish their code under GPL too - nothing found. So I've asked on their official support forum if they are open source or not - if they admit to not I'll shop 'em to gpl-violations.org, if they are, I'll ask for the code and notify gpl-violations.org anyway. Phil (in hacker/legal mode today!)

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chromebook for linux - repost from correct address (sorry)
by mick 29 Apr '14

29 Apr '14

Hi guys I currently run mint on a couple of old Acer Aspire One ZG5 netbooks and have been considering getting a chromebook as an upgrade. The use case is travelling light, VPN back home, access to a browser and email, so nothing that will really stretch a laptop (but I /don't/ want an android tab for this). So I need light weight, long battery life, clear (but not necessarily large) screen, decent keyboard. Probably something like the 11.6" Samsung or the Acer C7xx series. But of course I don't want chromeOS so I want to install a linux distro (probably mint) but any distro with XFCE will do fine by me. Any experiences/recommendations out there? Any devices in particular that I should stay away from? Thanks in advance Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- Mick Morgan gpg fingerprint: FC23 3338 F664 5E66 876B 72C0 0A1F E60B 5BAD D312 http://baldric.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Emulating a parallel printer in Linux
by Mark Rogers 29 Apr '14

29 Apr '14

I have a potential customer with some industrial kit that currently prints to an obsolete parallel port (Centronics) printer. They need to keep the kit but ditch the printer, sending the data to a "black box" instead that logs that data. I'd like to do this on a Linux box, any suggestions? Off the top of my head I am thinking I'll need to do a parallel to serial conversion first, then pull the raw serial data into something that can interpret however the data is being encoded for printing. But it's turned out to be quite a hard thing to Google for (although I have found some bits that might be useful). Alternatively I wonder whether the I/O pins on a Pi or Beaglebone could be used to emulate a printer (although I might be way out of my depth there...) Another approach might be lptcap[1] although that's intended for DOS (FreeDOS??) [1] http://www.qi.fcen.uba.ar/materias/iqi/paralel1/home.clear.net.nz/pages/khe… -- 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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How to make a terminal window stay 'on top' automatically?
by Chris Green 28 Apr '14

28 Apr '14

I want to start a terminal window in "Always on top" mode, is there any way to do this? I can use wmctrl to set the 'above' option but it's a command line utility itself so as this is running from a detached script I'd have to fire up yet another terminal window to run wmctrl to set the option. I need a wmctrl that can run without a terminal! -- Chris Green

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