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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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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 11th August
by Viperfang 08 Aug '11

08 Aug '11

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 Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 11th August 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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Can't cope with these new fangled GUIs - help wanted with Thunderbird IMAP/SMTP setup
by Chris G 05 Aug '11

05 Aug '11

I'm trying to get Thunderbird to connect to a fairly standard E-Mail account and I'm failing miserably at the moment. The apparent problem is that I don't seem to be able to tell Thunderbird that the user name for both IMAP and SMTP authentication is user(a)isbd.co.uk. I've gone into manual setup for the account and changed the user name to user(a)isbd.co.uk but now when I tell Thunderbird to get mail it says:- Enter your password for user@isbd.co.uk@mail.gridhost.co.uk which is fairly stupid! How do I get Thunderbird to allow me to set the user name to something which isn't <user>@<name of domain>? The correct mail server to use *isn't* related to the name of the domain where the user's mailbox is. The domain for the user's mailbox is isbd.co.uk but the mail server (if you're using SSL) is mail.gridhost.co.uk. -- Chris Green

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Obscure PHP / FTP issue
by Mark Rogers 04 Aug '11

04 Aug '11

Not sure if anyone here will be able to shed some light on this but Google isn't helping. I have some PHP code that opens a connection to an FTP server (running Pure-FTPd), writes a few lines to a file, then closes the connection. In other words: $fh = fopen('ftp://user:pass@ftp.example.com/test.csv','w'); for ($i=0;$i<=100;$i++) fputs($fh, "blah blah blah\r\n"); fclose($fh); The problem is that when I look at the uploaded file it's contents have been truncated. Putting a suitably long sleep() before the fclose "solves" this for some definition of "suitably long" but obviously isn't a real solution. Inserting an fflush($fh) makes no difference. I'm not sure if this is a PHP issue (specifically with the FTP wrappers to fopen/fclose), or a generic FTP issue, or a problem specific to Pure-FTPd. I have however tried to two different servers running very different versions of Pure-FTPd with the same effects. If there was a standard issue here I'd have found something with Google, surely? Otherwise I don't know where to go looking? -- 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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A new appp!
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 02 Aug '11

02 Aug '11

First, my apologies for cross-posting (which I know will affect some of you), but this is one of those news gems which deserves the widest publicity. I just received my ISP Zen's latest News letter. One item therein is: Powerpoint politics There's a new political party in Switzerland and its sole aim is to have PowerPoint outlawed. The Anti-PowerPoint Party says banning the application would allow people to get back to doing some real work. In the party's blog, it claims that so many government institutions use PowerPoint that about 11 per cent of more than 4.1 million employees have to waste time on presentations on a regular basis. The ban might happen. Citizens can force a referendum on any subject in Switzerland. All it takes is 100,000 voters to sign a petition demanding one. URLs in the Zen article: [techeye.net: "Switzerland demands Powerpoint's death"]: http://zen-mail.co.uk/IJT-HCUP-3BFWEB-6SFFZ-0/c.aspx Sample quote: "Looking at the problem Europe wide, SAP thinks that Powerpoint costs the 110 billion Euros which is coincidentally how much the Greek debt bail-out will cost." [techeye.net: US Army declares war on Powerpoint"]: http://zen-mail.co.uk/IJT-HCUP-3BFWEB-6SFG0-0/c.aspx Sample quote: "Sam Nuxoll, a platoon leader in Iraq, seems to have shaken the Pentagon with a quote that said he was spending most of the war making Powerpoint slides. Instead of spending his time dodging bullets, he was making bullet points." ===================================== And I shall add one of my own favourite APP diatribes (much inspired by Edward Tufte, one of the great experts in the presentation of information, and a pioneer in formulating the principles of good presentation): http://services.exeter.ac.uk/cmit/media/audio/ Microsoft-Powerpoint-And-The-Decline-Of-Civilisation-BBCR4-2004-10-18.mp3 (equivalently: http://tinyurl.com/42al9e9 ) [BBC Radio 4, 18 October 2004. Duration 14 minutes. Which was a delightful surprise to me that day, with R4 casually on in the background] See also the Wikipedia article on Tufte: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_tufte There's a good (bullet-pointed???) summary of his views on PowerPoint in Section 2.2 "Criticism of PowerPoint". Best wishes to all! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 01-Aug-11 Time: 11:37:35 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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