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Hello everyone on the mailing list!
by Adam H 25 Oct '11

25 Oct '11

Hi there everyone, I joined the mailing list today and thought I would introduce myself. I'm a software developer, writing mainly smartphone apps but occasionally I kludge together small bespoke tools when my boss decides he wants the workflow to be made easier/faster! I've been interested in GNU/Linux since around 2000 and installed my first distro (Mandrake Linux) around 2002-03. Today I use Puppy on a USB stick, because I have to use a Macbook Pro for work. Aside from things learned along the way as part of my job, I know quite a bit about GNU tools and software, but I'm still learning the guts of Linux, so to speak. I'm a complete geek, so as long as I'm fueled by PG Tips: ask me anything! I look forward to chatting to all of you :) Adam

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Routers (as in ADSL routers and similar) and DHCP and DNS
by Phil Ashby 24 Oct '11

24 Oct '11

On 23/10/11 12:00, Chris G <cl(a)isbd.net> wrote: > Is it just me or are most routers' DHCP servers close to useless? > ... > However *none* of them provide name access to clients on the LAN, so I > have printers, a VOIP server, etc. on the LAN to which the router gives > IP addresses (using DHCP) but the router *doesn't* allow one to > reference anything by name. > ... > Am I just unlucky in the routers I choose or are they really all like > this? I'm running OpenWRT on my old Netgear DG834, this uses dnsmasq to serve DHCP and DNS, which automatically adds/removes local DNS entries when DHCP leases are granted/revoked. This works nicely for the PCs (linux or Windows) and my printer... Phil.

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Routers (as in ADSL routers and similar) and DHCP and DNS
by Chris G 23 Oct '11

23 Oct '11

Is it just me or are most routers' DHCP servers close to useless? I have several, all of which can provide DHCP and most of them also allow you to set them as the DNS server such that they forward (most?) requests to your ISP's DNS server. However *none* of them provide name access to clients on the LAN, so I have printers, a VOIP server, etc. on the LAN to which the router gives IP addresses (using DHCP) but the router *doesn't* allow one to reference anything by name. This makes the DHCP server completely pointless! If I want, for example, to be able to refer to my VOIP server by name (it has a web server for configuration) then I have to give it a fixed/static IP address and put it in /etc/hosts everywhere, by the time I have done that for the printers too I might just as well turn the DHCP server off in the router. Am I just unlucky in the routers I choose or are they really all like this? -- Chris Green

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HP Laserjet P1102
by Bev Nicolson 23 Oct '11

23 Oct '11

People may remember me wrestling with another HP a while ago. This is a new machine but I wondered if the results from CUPS below shed any light on the topic on why it says it may not be connected? E [22/Oct/2011:11:51:56 +0100] [cups-driverd] Unable to write "/var/cache/cups/ppds.dat" - Permission denied E [22/Oct/2011:11:52:19 +0100] CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer: Unauthorized E [22/Oct/2011:11:52:31 +0100] [cups-driverd] Unable to write "/var/cache/cups/ppds.dat" - Permission denied E [22/Oct/2011:11:53:21 +0100] CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer: Unauthorized Bev.

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Open Office failing
by Chris Walker 23 Oct '11

23 Oct '11

I have Open Office running here (Mandriva 2010.2) on my 64bit i7 machine. It also runs on the Windows 7 side as the machine dual boots. The Windows side works and I use it to save some multi page spreadsheets. But whenever I try to open any of the spreadsheets here, OO fails to open them. It says it will try to recover the docs but as it doesn't seem to open them, it never manages to recover. The machine has gone through several updates/upgrades and yet the problem persists. Can anybody suggest what I might do to fix OO here please? -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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Google Chrome - anyone use it?
by James Freer 21 Oct '11

21 Oct '11

[running Xubuntu] Just wondering if anyone uses it and what their thoughts are! I decided to have a change from Firefox. I liked Chrome and didn't find any problems - except for the bookmarks. In FF i installed the google toolbar and had all my bookmarks stored in my gmail account. Useful while i was teaching and using lots of different machines...(no longer) but i've got into the habit so i wanted to do that with Chrome. Setting up Sync and logging in to gmail i don't find it syncing at all. Having installed Chrome i then found that FF google toolbar bookmarks didn't work. Assuming there was conflict between the browsers i removed FF and google toolbar - problem remains. I think i've found a glitch somehow and will only know when i install the new Xubuntu release. james

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sshd in single-user mode, resizing root ext3 partition
by Richard Lewis 21 Oct '11

21 Oct '11

Hi ALUG, So we've recently purchased a new server on which we intend to run Xen and hand out some virtual OSs to the students our Digital Sociology and Digital Journalism courses. The server machine has two HDDs and I allowed the Debian installer to set up LVM using just one of the drives, leaving the other un-partitioned. I let it create swap and root logical volumes with the root logical volume taking up all the volume group space not used by swap. Now, however, I realise that what I really wanted was a small root LV and then a large LV for Xen to use to store guest OSs which could use physical extents from both HDDs. In principle this should be a matter of: 1. Reduce the size of the / filesystem 2. Reduce the logical volume on which / is mounted 3. Create a new partition on sdb 4. Add sdb to the volume group 5. Create a new logical volume using all of the remaining space 6. Create a new filesystem on the new logical volume 7. Mount this new filesystem in the place where Xen stores its guest OSs However, I can't resize the root filesystem while it's mounted. And now the server has been moved to the rack. Before I face the ITS staff and ask to be allowed to login locally in single user mode in order to resize the root filesystem, I wondered if there's any way to, either: 1. Resize the root filesystem while it's mounted (it's an ext3 filesystem) or; 2. Log in to the computer remotely in single user mode so that the root filesystem is mounted read-only and is thus resizable? (such as running sshd in single user mode) I know this is total schoolboy stuff and please feel free to point and laugh. But after that, any advice would be very much appreciated. Best, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis ISMS, Computing Goldsmiths, University of London Tel: +44 (0)20 7078 5134 Skype: richardjlewis JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li http://www.richardlewis.me.uk/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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ubuntu 11.10
by nev young 20 Oct '11

20 Oct '11

Oh my. Oh dear. I've just upgraded (one of) my ubuntu VBoxes from 11.04 to 11.10. How do I get the nice previous gnome desktop back and get rid of the abomination that has replaced it. Of course, I 'spect everyone will think the BIG clicky bar down the left is k3wl and I'm just being an old fart. Looks like the entire household may have to go minty. -- nev

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RIP DMR
by mick 20 Oct '11

20 Oct '11

For anyome who hasn't seen it, Jon "maddog" Hall wrote a nice piece in Linux Magazine. http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Blogs/Paw-Prints-Writings-of-the-maddo… Mick

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Watching "Look East" on line
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 20 Oct '11

20 Oct '11

Greetings all! I am not managing to watch the BBC "Look East" news programme on-line. I start with http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv then set "Your location" to "Ely, Cambridgeshire", then select "Full Schedule" under "BBC One". Up comes the schedule for the day, and at 13:00 there is "BBC News at One" followed at 13:30 by "Look East - East". Also, at 18:00 there is "BBC News at Six", again followed at 18:30 by "Look East - East". But, in either case, if while the main "BBC News" programme is on I select "Watch Live", after the end of the main News programme it is followed by the London programme and not by Look East. Also, if I click on the "Look East" link, there is no option to watch today's Look East, but although yesterday's is allegedly "available on BBC iPlayer", when one clicks on this it is "no longer available"!!!! Any solutions? Or am I somehow just confused? Thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 19-Oct-11 Time: 18:59:59 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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