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A complement to Asus for a BIOS fix
by Chris G 28 Jan '09

28 Jan '09

Ever since I built my latest box I've had *very* occasional total crashes. By "very occasional" I mean once a week or even less, they only ever occurred when I was actively using the system, it runs all the time as a disk server for our home LAN and never died in the middle of the night or while we were away. Just recently (like yesterday and the day before) it crashed more frequently, like twice or three times, and I decided to try and work out what the problem was. A quick Google showed that I was getting kernel panics as when the system froze the Caps Lock and Scroll Lock lights flashed which apparently indicates a kernel panic. There was absolutely no clue in the logs anywhere, not a murmur of anything wrong before the burst of messages for the reboot. A while ago (when I first built the system) it seemed as if it might be an Intel video driver issue but there have been a few updates since then and I decided to see if there might be a hardware problem. First I looked at the temperatures, nothing untoward there, CPU was 32 degrees, motherboard was 20 degrees. Then I tried running the memtest you can get to from the Grub menu, aha! Test 5 produced some errors (it's the block copy test). I tried moving the DIMMs around to see if that helped, it just moved the errors around but didn't fix them so it seemed there was a real error. Then I looked at the Asus web site (and my motherboard manual) to see if there were any clues there. The latest BIOS upgrade says "1. Improve the compatibility with some memory.", hmm, I wonder if that means me? So a BIOS upgrade seemed a good idea, first looks suggested that it might be a bit difficult because I don't have a floppy disk drive in the system. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that the BIOS upgrade utility built into the system BIOS which you get to by hitting ALT/F2 at boot can read the BIOS file from CD and USB as well as from a floppy (this wasn't very well documented anywhere) so I needed neither a floppy disk nor an MS operating system. I just wrote the updated BIOS file to a CD and the system did the rest. .... and now I appear to have error free memory according to memtest! :-) It remains to be seen whether it *was* the memory problem causing my kernel panics but it does seem likely. So, thank you Asus for finding the bug and fixing it and for providing utilities etc. that will work on Linux. They also have Linux drivers on their web site (not that I needed them, ubuntu detected everything without problems). -- Chris Green

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Postfix store-and-forward
by Mark Rogers 27 Jan '09

27 Jan '09

Any Postfix gurus here? Some time ago I set up Postfix based on a collection of How-To's and it works but I don't sufficiently understand the configuration to make changes safely. At the moment it received email on port 25 for a number of domains (specified in a MySQL database); it sends them via a dspam content_filter which redelivers on port 10026 from which the majority of email is dropped into MailDir mailboxes for Dovecot to make available via POP3, although some mail is forwarded to other addresses (eg gmail accounts). All of that is working. What I want to add is that for some domains, after spam checking they get forwarded to another SMTP server (specified in the database per-domain). Those servers will typically be Exchange servers within people's offices. I'm not sure what info I can offer to enable someone to help me, as I'm sure the above is nowhere near enough. I'm running on an Ubuntu server using standard repo packages only. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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How to override X security to run a remote network-admin?
by Chris G 26 Jan '09

26 Jan '09

I'm trying to run network-admin on a remote[ish] system on my LAN. I.e. I'm using ssh to connect from my desktop machine to another machine on the LAN (same subnet) and I want to run network-admin on that machine. Whatever I do to relax X security I still get:- root@garage:/home/chris# network-admin X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. X11 connection rejected because of wrong authentication. (network-admin:9918): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: localhost:10.0 I have connected to the garage system using both 'ssh -X' and 'ssh -Y' and I have done 'xhosts +' on the desktop system so that *any* X connection should be allowed. I'm still getting the above error. What do I need to do? Ah, a little further information, I can run network-admin as the non-root user on the remote system with the display on the desktop system. However it's no use because the 'Unlock' button is greyed out. What's the command line equivalent to network-admin? I know it's not a single program, I just want to 'un static IP' the remote system and the easiest way was (except for the above problem) to run network-admin. What files do I need to edit to undo the static setup? OK, I can find out myself really by looking at an un-static system. -- Chris Green

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Is there a lightweight version of YP/NIS for sharing passwords?
by Chris G 25 Jan '09

25 Jan '09

I'd like to make my life even easier by having some sort of simple/lite version of YP/NIS+ on my home system. I now have three xubuntu boxes and would like to be able to set up user logins in one place for all three systems. Is there some moderately easy way of doing this? -- Chris Green

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Local machine names/DNS - how to handle?
by Chris G 24 Jan '09

24 Jan '09

I know we've been here before but now I actually have everything working pretty well I'd like to decide how I *should* be doing this, i.e. the most elegant way of doing it. Our home network has a number of machines and devices on it:- My desktop machine - xubuntu 8.10 The TV/Lounge machine - xubuntu 8.10 The garage backup machine - Ubuntu server (8.10 too I think) An HP7310 printer A Siemens DECT VOIP box My wife's Windows XP machine plus occasional 'visiting' machines and devices These are all on the same 192.168.1.xxx subnet and a Draytek Vigor 2820n router connects them to the internet. There is a second backup ADSL connection provided by a BT "Business Hub" (2Wire) router on a different subnet. The Draytek Vigor shares its own ADSL and that of the BT router between users. I want to be able to refer to machines on the network by name, e.g. they are called isbd, lounge, garage, hp7310 etc. The methods I know about are:- Static IPs plus dnsmasq: Currently I do this by giving them fixed IP addresses which I put in the /etc/hosts file on my desktop machine (which runs all the time) and run dnsmasq in that machine to provide the other local machines with access to the names. Static IPs I used to set up /etc/hosts in all machines (well, all the Linux machines) separately before I used dnsmasq but although very simple it gets annoying to do this when a something is added or removed. It also means that one has to set up DNS host addresses everywhere. Dynamic IP This is where I get a bit lost. If I let everything go the the default then all IPs are assigned by DHCP. I.e. an ubuntu machine 'as installed' will ask for DHCP on the LAN, similarly the printer and the VOIP box will do so. The Draytek Vigor 2820n provides (as do nearly all routers) a DHCP service. If left like this though nothing wil have a name (as far as I know) and I will have no easy way to ssh to the garage machine for example. People keep telling me that this should be easy to resolve using (if I understand it correctly) the router but at the moment I don't really see how. If I *could* get names for everything using dynamic IP (i.e. DHCP provided by the router) then it would make for a simpler life as, at present, I have to change the Ubuntu default networking to give machines static IP and I also have to do slightly more configuration on the printer etc. There's a section in the router set-up called "Bind IP to MAC" which will allow the router to always give the same IP to each device/system but I don't see how I can get names in there. Am I missing something obvious somewhere? I don't think I've seen the ability to attach names to MAC addresses in any of the routers I've used over the past few years (Zyxel, Speedtouch). The BT 2Wire router allows you to manually give names to the MAC addresses but I'm not sure that it will let you use them to refer to them. -- Chris Green

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recommended commercial hosting companies?
by mbm 23 Jan '09

23 Jan '09

The recent discussion about mail access via ssh and ssh tunnels prompts me to ask about list members' experience of commercial hosting services. I have long since ceased to have any direct responsiblity for publicly accessible servers and my only network is now my home system. As I have said in earlier posts, I don't run 24/7 servers on that network and my only public servers are those provided by my (limited, home user) 1and1 contract. However, I have recently been playing with egroupware and a few friends and colleagues have asked if I could make the poc system I have built at home available on a public server. 1and1 provide good, reliable, fast, mail, DNS and web services, but they also offer virtual servers for the home user at around 15 UKP pcm. The other likely looking candidate is fasthosts who are a lot cheaper, have no traffic cap, but have different limitations. What I am looking for is a good quality commercial provider offering the following: root ssh/sftp access to a linux server apache/mysql/php/perl (preferably with no limit on the number of mysql databases, but I'd settle for 5 rather than the typical 1). ssl certificates for the webserver personal DNS management ideally local email server not too many restrictions on the outbound traffic (e.g. I'd like to be able to ssh out as well as in...) Any recommendations? TIA Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a Microsoft free zone. Please do not send me Microsoft Word Documents. For some reasons, see: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------

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Why is it so hard? (Making Ubuntu Work)
by Mephi 23 Jan '09

23 Jan '09

Ok, I've been using Debian on my server for years and Knoppmyth (Debian based) on my media centre for slightly longer. But I've not really done much on the desktop. Since I do a fair amount of gaming, I've stuck with windows for my desktop. Recently though I've only been playing one game a lot (Guildwars) which is supposed to work fine under wine. Also I play GW with friends and we use skype. Which has a linux client, so I thought I'd give it a go... I downloaded and installed the 64-bit version of ubuntu, setup the ATI graphics card, setup the medibuntu repository and apt-getted skype and wine. So now I have 3 problems. 1. Now they're using something new in Ubuntu called Pulse Audio, which puts another layer between your devices and your applications, and apparently it's why I can't get my microphone working in skype. So, I've been working through everything on the Ubuntu forums (it appears I'm not the only one) documented by someone else here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1006163 But nope, none of that works... 2. I'm trying to setup my screens to work at their native resolution. I've got one that runs at 1680x1050 and another at 1280x1024. I managed to get them to run correctly, but the settings don't stick. It boots with both screens set at 1280x1024. To get them to work I do the following steps through the ATi Catalyst Control Centre: 1. Disable the second screen (1280x1024) 2. Reboot 3. Set the first screen to its correct resolution (1680x1050) which wasn't available before the reboot. 4. add the second screen in. Then it works, until I reboot. The third problem is that Guildwars doesn't want to run under Wine. I've not yet looked into this in great detail yet, as I've usually given up by this point and booted back into windows. Matt

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Can anyone explain why this HTML table displays as it does?
by Chris G 21 Jan '09

21 Jan '09

I'm trying to create a fairly simple table to lay out an itinerary. Currently I'm using OpenOffice as it makes it easy to generate the table with row spans and column spans etc. It actually seems to produce quite straightforward HTML. However neither Firefox 3 nor IE 7 seem to display the table borders correctly. Firefox 3 does really wierd things to some of the borders and IE 7 just shows them with differing thicknesses. All I want is the same cell/table borders everywhere. The url is:- http://www.isbd.net/images/itinerary.html There's very little CSS and not much HTML so why are the borders so wonky? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] [ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting: McGintys, Northgate Street (samwise)
by Adam Reid 20 Jan '09

20 Jan '09

So... I'm currently sat in McGinty's, have been for well over an hour now; a couple of members have appeared and left due to a distinct lack of anyone other than me being here, and issues with bus times. The barman doesn't know anything about a Linux group having either been here or moved on to pastures greener, and unless you're hiding down the well you certainly don't appear to be anywhere in the vicinity. The IRC channel hasn't a clue, not that anyone there is Ipswich-based but if it were cancelled/relocated it'd be handy to stick a note there or on the wiki and/or mailing list. Suffice to say I'm slightly cheesed off, I took time off of a rather tight project deadline to make the meet this month, and now have a half-hour walk back home again toting a laptop. So I have to ask, what the blazes happened? Did the regulars just not turn up, and the whole thing just fizzle out, or...? O_o

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Unbootable 2.6.28 kernel
by Dan Hatton 20 Jan '09

20 Jan '09

Dear All, When I try to boot into kernel 2.6.28, I get a kernel panic with message `VFS: Cannot open root device "hda1" or unknown block (0,0)', followed by a list of available partitions which suggests that, between kernels 2.6.27.10 and 2.6.28, the drive on which I keep my root filesystem has changed its name from /dev/hda to /dev/sda. Is this expectable behavior? Should I edit my "root" boot option and fstab accordingly? Or does it indicate something wrong? -- Thanks, Dan

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