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How to use git (or similar) for locally patched versions of installed software?
by Chris G 10 Aug '11

10 Aug '11

I'm wondering what is the best way of setting about this. I use a PHP application called dokuwiki, it's mostly 'as released' and this makes updates etc. fairly easy. However I have a few local patches which I would like to keep track of and also would like to be able to re-install if/when they get overwritten when I get a newer version of dokuwiki. How do I do this using git (or similar)? I don't want to sit at the bleeding edge of dokuwiki releases which is where I would be if I ran a local copy of the dokuwiki git repository. What I want to do is to be able to use the current released version of dokuwiki but maintain a local collection of minor changes and patches. (Dokuwiki isn't the only software I'd like to do this with, it's just the one that's obvious to me at the moment). -- Chris Green

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Transferring audio to CD
by Anthony Anson 10 Aug '11

10 Aug '11

Something which (strangely) I've never tried, as my business, such as is remaining, is in audio, but I don't rate the quality of CDs... Last week I bought an interesting and scarce 45 rpm record - a university rag record - and several Sheddi (denizens of uk.rec.sheds) would like a copy and scan of the label. Scan's no problem, but what program (under Squeeze) would people suggest for writing the best quality audio files to CD (or DVD)? -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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sudo crontab -e vs /etc/cron.d/xxx vs /etc/crontab
by Mark Rogers 10 Aug '11

10 Aug '11

I have a script, /etc/init.d/xxx, which I want to restart at 3am every morning. If I use sudo crontab -e .. and add MAILTO=<my email> 0 3 * * * /etc/init.d/xxx restart .. I get an email at 3am telling me that start-stop-daemon can't be found, so I assume that the environment isn't set up correctly? If I try creating: /etc/cron.d/xxx comprising MAILTO=<my email> 0 3 * * * root /etc/init.d/xxx restart .. then restart crond, I get no email and nothing appears to happen (I've tried with/without the MAILTO). On the other hand, just straight editing /etc/crontab and adding MAILTO=<my email> 0 3 * * * root /etc/init.d/xxx restart .. works a treat. I don't want to be directly editing /etc/crontab so where am I going wrong? Note that /etc/init.d/xxx is hand-crafted so could well be at fault here. -- 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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Scanner now...
by Anthony Anson 09 Aug '11

09 Aug '11

Same project - the record, but I want to scan the sleeve and the label. Plugged-in a scanner - HP ScanJet 4300C, switched it on, and the tube lit as it should. Opened XSane scan. It found the scanner and identified it. So far, so good. Adjusted parameters to desired resolution etc and told it to scan. Acer began working hard according to the fan noise, scanner made a 'Tump' noise, and nothing else happened. I suspect a faulty drive/carriage in the scanner (never used that one before). Before I carry the heavy HP ScanJet downstairs to try that (it works - it prefers an UW SCSI connection, but it will work OK on USB) - is there anything I might have missed? Running Squeeze with Gnome 'desktop'. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Re: [ALUG] Intelligent Linux backups
by Mark Rogers 09 Aug '11

09 Aug '11

On 09/08/11 17:03, Martijn Koster wrote: > You want a backup and a restore; and I can't recommend anything for that. > > What you could consider (for the future) is to look at something like Chef, and use that for the initial config of a machine... Later you can them re-run that on a newer machine. And if you wanted you could setup a service to store backups somewhere and then have the machine initialisation scripts pull the data from there. Unfortunately, all the uses I can think of for this are retrospective, ie take that box that works and work out how to re-install it. I suspect that the information I'm trying to get out would be quite useful in setting up an install via Chef though. -- 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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Intelligent Linux backups
by Mark Rogers 09 Aug '11

09 Aug '11

Something like this ought to be quite possible but I'm not sure if it exists. I'm using an Ubuntu Server install (11.04) 1. Make a note of the base install (eg ubuntu-server) and version, from which a fresh install could be done on new hardware 2. Create a list of all packages installed/uninstalled relative to that base (by name, not version, assume that a re-install would be applied to current versions of the same packages). 3. Backup all configuration files which were created by the above but have been changed from the distro installed versions, ideally as diffs against the original files. 4. Backup all files which are not part of the distro install (ie as defined by the above), with a list of exclusions (to avoid backing up log files, for example). Does anything like this exist? It seems to me that it should be fairly straightforward (but my knowledge of the relevant packing tools isn't very good so I might be wrong). In principle it would be quite easy from this to backup (say) an 11.04 server and restore to an 11.10 install, and have something which would probably be pretty close to working. As an additional step, say 3a, it would be nice to do intelligent backups of certain files (eg proper database dumps to SQL) which could then be excluded from step 4. Aside from the above, does anyone have a good recommendation for efficiently backing up an existing server via SSH without pulling all the base install stuff but without missing anything? -- 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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How to set mouse actions for a KDE application in [x]ubuntu (i.e. gnome)?
by Chris G 08 Aug '11

08 Aug '11

I use xubuntu 10.10 on my desktop computer but run a couple of KDE4 applications, one in particular being digikam. I want to get a single click to open images in digikam but no matter what I've tried it stays determinedly double click. In particular I have tried putting:- [KDE] SingleClick=true into ~/.kde/share/config/kdeglobals, but to no avail. Can anyone tell me how to get single click opening back into digikam (I'm sure it used to work once). -- Chris Green

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Firefox isn't using system default typeface, how do I make it do it?
by Chris G 08 Aug '11

08 Aug '11

I've obviously changed something somewhere that has made Firefox stop using the system default font settings but I can't fathom out what/where. By this I mean the font used for all of Firefox's menus, etc. not the font used when displaying web pages. On closer examination it seems that if I change the desktop settings to something very different (e.g. Courier), then everything changes to that font. However when I change to my preferred DejaVu Sans then everything *except* Firefox changes to that and Firefox changes to a poor imitation of it. The font used in Firefox is not so tall and is less bold. In addition Firefox seems unable to use DejaVu Sans for web pages too. It's as if Firefox can't see DejaVu Sans but can see all the other fonts. -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Transferring audio to CD
by Anthony Anson 08 Aug '11

08 Aug '11

nev young wrote: > On 08/08/11 00:54, Anthony Anson wrote: >> (Ted Harding) wrote: I can get one of those USB sound cards (which >> should be safe). >>> In which case: Where's a good place to look, and which are >>> good ones? (Oh, and would Debian readily recognise it?). >> >> First I've heard of them too, but filed in the noddle for future >> reference. >> > I have a thingy that works under XP. (and vister and se7en) > It has red and white phono sockets for (line level) audio input and a > USB2.0 (must be 2.0) connection to the PC. > Also has a composite video input. > > While I got it to transfer my VHS tapes to the PC it has a audio to > mp3(I think) function. > > As you're only doing one record you're welcome to borrow it. > I've taken a holiday from the VHS transfer just now any way. Thanks for the offer. I'll probably get by with a cable thobut. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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forensic specialists
by Peter Alcibiades 08 Aug '11

08 Aug '11

Does anyone have a firm or person they have used for forensic investigations and would recommend? I have a disk (ntfs) which I am looking at and need a professional with a track record to help with. Data recovery. Yes, I did make a clone using dd and worked on that in my bumbling way, so the original is pretty much as was when obtained. I've got quite a bit of stuff off but suspect a secure delete tool was used on some parts. It would be nice to get this confirmed if possible. Peter

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