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Re: [ALUG] Anyone use a USB Mobile Broadband dongle?
by Chris G 05 Jul '10

05 Jul '10

Just to report that both dongles are now working with very little effort at all. I just installed usb-modeswitch and both dongles worked without any hassle at all. The Virgin Mobile Alcatel one just plugged in, was trivial to set up and worked. The Belgian one was a *little* more involved but not bad:- I bought an unlocked Hauwei (3) dongle one Ebay for £19.99 I got a Mobistar pay-as-you-go SIM in Belgium for 15 euros Plugged said SIM into the dongle and it connceted but would only access the Mobistar site saying it had run out of credit. I then realised I had to 'enable' it by putting it in my mobile phone and texting 'start' to specified address. ... and now the Mobistar dongle is working too, hence this message. It was all rather less painful than I feared. -- Chris Green

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USB Floppy drive problems
by Chris Walker 02 Jul '10

02 Jul '10

Can somebody point out my error please? I have a usb floppy drive attached to my machine. If I insert a DOS floppy, the light comes on and Dolphin pops up to tell me the disc label. But I want to read some adfs formatted floppies and the thing isn't playing ball. If I run cat /proc/partitions with the DOS floppy in, it tells me it's sdc but if try it with an adfs floppy the light comes on and goes off. If I then type mount -t adfs /dev/sdc /media/floppy it tells me that there is no medium found on /dev/sdc so what am I doing wrong? -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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cron not running script
by Jenny Hopkins 30 Jun '10

30 Jun '10

Hi folks, I've set up a script** to run from cron as below. This script runs from a terminal as it should, but won't run either from cron.d or from cron.hourly when stuffed in there. Can anyone see anything glaringly obviously wrong with it? It's run as /etc/cron.d/update-ip, with the following line: */5 * * * * root /bin/checkIP.sh **I'm sure it's a crappy script, but as long as it does the job..... ;-) Puzzled, Jenny #!/bin/sh #checks IP of courthouse every 5 mins and updates file on stoneboat /etc/ddns/courthouse-ip set -e currentIP=$(/usr/bin/wget -q -O - checkip.dyndns.org | sed -e 's/[^[:digit:]|.]//g') remote="stoneboat:/etc/ddns/" local="/tmp/courthouse-ip" echo $currentIP > $local >> /home/jenny/checkip.txt 2>&1 ##the last bit was put in to troubleshoot scp $local $remote exit 0

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Sound - is it just me or is it really such a black art?
by Chris G 29 Jun '10

29 Jun '10

I never seem to be able to get sound apps working quickly/easily in Linux (or WIndows for that matter). Is it really such a black art. For example I'm trying to get twinkle (VOIP softphone) to work in Ubuntu 10.04. Installs OK, configures OK with my VOIP provider, works perfectly as far as making the call is concerned. I can dial a number, the number rings and I get all the confirmations when the far end picks up the phone and hangs up. .... but there's no sound, which is rather fundamental for a phone application! And there's no way to diagnose it at all, no simple tests to play a sound, nothing, nada. How is one meant to configure and test sound setup on Linux (Ubuntu 10.04 in this case) with no simple tests to try out. Sound does appear to work as my Virtualbox Windows XP guest plays Windows sounds fine. However I can't find *any* Linux application which will play a test sound for me. Twinkle offers me a whole raft of different sound 'devices':- ALSA: default device ALSA: plughw:0,0: HDA Intel (ALC1200 Analog) ALSA: plughw:0,1: HDA Intel (ALC1200 Digital) ALSA: Other device OSS: /dev/dsp: Realtek ALC1200 (HDA-Intel) OSS: other device So which do I choose (I think I've tried most of them!)? -- Chris Green

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Is there anything like a 'non-blog' Wordpress?
by Chris G 29 Jun '10

29 Jun '10

I've been around this loop before and not really got anywhere but still there's no harm in asking. Is there anything as simple and straightforward as Wordpress for creating web sites that *isn't* a blogging platform? There are many much more heavyweight CMS/Portal systems such as Drupal and Joomla but there really doesn't seem to be a site creation application as simple to use as Wordpress. I *can* use Wordpress to create a site which isn't fundamentally a blog by turning off loads of options and using its static 'pages' but it somehow seems silly to turn off so much of what it's intended to do. I already have ways to create utilitarian web pages from restructured text and that's fine for 'own use' internal web pages but I'm looking for something just a bit more sophisticated between that and a full-blown CMS. -- Chris Green

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What would give me a high load average when tops reports nothing much?
by Chris G 28 Jun '10

28 Jun '10

I have an odd situation here, after a recent reboot my system seemed *very* slow indeed, took ages to start the X desktop etc. and when I looked at the load average with 'uptime' it was over 5 which is pretty silly considering there is really nothing much happening. While the X desktop was still thinking about appearing I ran a virtual console, logged in (even that was a bit slow) and ran tops. Tops reported virtually nothing consuming processor time. So what's going on, why is my system slow, especially when starting, but nothing actually seems to be doing much. This is a Core 2 Duo Quad core processor with 8Gb of memory so really should be quite quick - especially when doing nothing! Running uptime now (40 minutes after power-up) the load average is 0.03 which is more like what I'd expect to see? Is there any way to see what that load average is indicating? -- Chris Green

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Anyone use a USB Mobile Broadband dongle?
by Chris G 26 Jun '10

26 Jun '10

I've just ordered mobile broadband from Virgin for my wife to use with her laptop (Ubuntu 10.04) when on the move. It comes with an Alcatel X220 USB dongle. Does anyone here use one (same or similar), if so a couple of questions:- What are the chances of it working 'out of the box'? The Alcatel X220 says it has Linux support. If not then any ideas where to go to find useful information? (I've done some Googling and have some ideas but more is always useful) I'm assuming there's a SIM in the dongle because we want to use it in Belgium as well and I'm hoping all I need to do is buy a mobile broadband SIM there and stick it in the dongle. Am I right? Is there some initialisation/configuring needed to activate the SIM? -- Chris Green

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Lubuntu
by Simon Royal 26 Jun '10

26 Jun '10

Hi I just wanted to say thanks for the Lubuntu suggestion. Its fast. Installed it last night only took a couple of hours via normal installer vs Ubuntu and Xubuntu which took about 4 hours via the alternative installer as the normal installer wouldnt run. Lubuntu is fast, even on my P2 300mhz with 296MB RAM. Chromium browser opens within two or three seconds and rips from page to page at an amazing speed. Plus it has all the benefits of a Ubuntu base like all my hardware being detected straight away including wireless card. So far so good. A new install means setting up sound again but so far so wow! Very impressed. Simon --- http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - http://www.tinyurl.com/macspectrum (sent using Sony Ericsson P990i)

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VOIP from the computer - possible? how?
by Chris G 25 Jun '10

25 Jun '10

We have VOIP phones on our home network working completely independently of the computers, the base station just plugs into a switch or router and off it goes. Now, however, I'm thinking it would be useful to be able to use VOIP from a netbook or laptop while travelling around. So, is there a straightforward way to connect a headset to a Linux computer and use it as a VOIP phone? How does one dial a number if so, presumably some sort of on screen interface. Lookin in synaptic (the GUI package manager for Ubuntu) there seem to be a few possibilities - kphone, twinkle, etc. - any recommendations for what works well etc. ? -- Chris Green

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Best OS For TP600
by Simon Royal 25 Jun '10

25 Jun '10

Hi. I have a ThinkPad 600 compliments of a generous group member. Its a 300mhz maxxed with 296MB of RAM. Its no speed demon, but it does ok. Its currently running Ubuntu 10.04 and XP, probably not the best choice for great performance. So what would be good? Is Windows 2000 still viable as a good version of Windows. I only use it for surfing, emailing via webmail and listening to music. Nothing heavy. The apps I use in Windows are Firefox, iTunes, Office 2000. I use Ubuntu most of the time and only use it as it is one of the less nerdy linux distros as my linux skills are not great. Id like a newer machine, but funds are not permitting at present, so I need to get the most out of this one. Is there much performance difference between 2000 and XP? I know I have asked this before. Ubuntu and XP are ok, but are quite sluggish at times and it is frustrating. Simon --- http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - http://www.tinyurl.com/macspectrum (sent using Sony Ericsson P990i)

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