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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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