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When did this start?
by Bill Hill 31 May '21

31 May '21

Just been re-zapping a RaspberryPi and noticed that / has: lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 4 22:45 bin -> usr/bin/ lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Mar 4 22:45 lib -> usr/lib/ lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 Mar 4 22:45 sbin -> usr/sbin/ When did bin lib and sbin become links, and what's the rationale? Is this from Debian? -- Red to red, black to black, switch it on, but stand well back.

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Thunderbird problem
by Bev Nicolson 12 Mar '21

12 Mar '21

I use Thunderbird as a client for 4 email addresses. From yesterday, it's begun taking an age to log in to one POP server. It gets there eventually, and no error messages come up, but it would be great to sort it out. I've cleared the cache but that hasn't helped. Ideas? Bev.

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How to check if a cron.daily job has run?
by Chris Green 12 Mar '21

12 Mar '21

I run a daily backup on four systems. It's a bash script called 'backup' (original eh?) which is in /etc/cron.daily and thus gets run by Anacron in the early morning. I need to check that the backup has run somehow as, very occasionally, the backup system's USB disk 'falls asleep' and as a result any attempt to access it just hangs. Thus the rsync backup job doesn't fail (and produce an error message) it just never returns. So how can I check and get an error message if this happens? The next day is soon enough, it's not an urgent problem, I just need to know if my daily backups are working. However this needs to be 'no message means it has worked', message only if it has not worked. -- Chris Green

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Rust in Norwich
by Patrick Laslett 08 Mar '21

08 Mar '21

Hi All, Does anyone know how I find coders in Norwich familiar with Rust. Thanks in advance. Yours, Patrick

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spamassassin and bayes db
by Jenny Hopkins 08 Mar '21

08 Mar '21

Hello, I might need to join the spamassassin mailing list for this Q, but just in case anyone here can help first: I've got a mail set-up where exim4 hands mail to spamassassin before delivering to mailboxes local on the server. Users put any missed spam into missed-spam folders, and misfiled ham into missed-ham folders, and a cron job runs regularly to allow sa-learn to run learning from these folders. The problem is - it says it is learning, but it isn't. It is letting through handfuls of the same spam over and over. It's as if SA is running without paying any attention to the bayes-db, which would be weird as that is what I thought was a core integral part of spamassassin. Am I missing something in the basic setup? An example header of a missed spam shows something like: X-Spam_report: Spam detection software, running on the system "example.co.uk", has NOT identified this incoming email as spam. -then a few lines further down: 3.5 BAYES_99 BODY: Bayes spam probability is 99 to 100% [score: 1.0000] 0.2 BAYES_999 BODY: Bayes spam probability is 99.9 to 100% [score: 1.0000] Any ideas? It's driving me nuts. Thanks, Jenny

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How to disable headphones mic autodetection?
by B D 02 Mar '21

02 Mar '21

Hi All, I know this might be a bit too late, as we are all supposedly finishing with lockdown, so no more online meetings and video calls but it really bugs me. Whenever I connect headphones to my Linux Mint, pulseaudio forces use of headphone mic (which does not exist). This disables internal microphone and I have to go to sound hardware selection to change to internal mic array. Same happens on my kids laptops running Mint 20.1 (my is Mint 19.3). I think there is a priority setting somewhere in pulseaudio config which should allow to 'lock' mic to the internal array but I thought I'll ask first. Cheerio! Bart

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What's running at midnight?
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 02 Mar '21

02 Mar '21

Hi folks, My *buntu server runs a mail server. At 00:00 on some days, it complains that it can't reach the spam analyser or the virus analyser, despite the fact that they're still running and always have been, as far as I can tell. Other than stopping up to see what's running at midnight, is there a way of monitoring what's running at a particular time. I know you can see what's slowing things down at boot time using "system-analyze blame", or using pybootchartgui. Is there a way to do something like this around midnight? Also, of the top of your collective heads, can you think of any services update or hog processor at 00:00. How are scheduled tasks started, so I can have a root around and see what's happening? I can think of various ways. 1) A program (daemon) can constantly run, and may update at a specific time. 2) crontab 3) "at" perhaps. Any others? Any comments or advice appreciated. Steve

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DNS issues
by Mark Rogers 22 Feb '21

22 Feb '21

I have an Ubuntu 18.04 server running VirtualMin. I logged in today to do routine updates to discover it has lost its ability to resolve DNS queries. The server otherwise seems fine but I can't update it. /etc/resolv.conf tells me that it's using 127.0.0.53 for DNS, which is systemd-resolvd. systemd-resolve --status lists no nameservers, which will be where my problem is, but I work out where that information should come from. I temporarily set Google DNS in resolv.conf and did the updates, but a reboot restored the 127.0.0.53 DNS configuration (as expected) and the problem is back. I *think* VirtualMin is a red herring (it's not used for much and I've been planning to decommission it for years but not today!), and in any case it's just a glorified configuration tool with a GUI so any relevant settings should still be hiding under /etc somewhere, but where I have no idea. Suggestions? -- 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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sequential numbering app?
by Phil Thane 09 Feb '21

09 Feb '21

Hello, Anyone know if this exists or would anyone like to create it? (Not seq command, won't do what I want, I don't think). Read on... I'm the membership sec of GOBA (Great Ouse Boating Assoc). We've just launched a new website using WP and sundry plugins. Central to things is Paid Memberships Pro which allows new members to join or existing ones to renew online. PMP allows users to specify their own username and password. BUT, under the previous regime and going back to the dark ages (pre internet) GOBA assigned each member a membership number, and just to make life more difficult didn't just use a straightforward sequence. Each 'number' is actually alphanumeric based on initial letter of the member's surname, then the next number available in that sequence. Thus I'm T596 and there is one person after me T597 but in the S list there are over 1200 (too many Smiths). Two things make this a nuisance. First, we imported data from the previous system into PMP and had to choose a field to be the key ID. PMP would prefer this to be an email address but many members joined long before they had email and have never updated their details to include it. The one field they all did have was a membership number, so for all previous members Username = Membership number. Secondly GOBA is full of people who don't like change, they want us to convert new members with their personalised username into the 'traditional' system. That's do-able via the WP dashboard but a bit of a pain. Finding the last number issued on a particular sequence involves inspired guesswork and wildcard searching. I believe a previous membership sec had an app on an ancient version of Windows that kept a log of the last issued numbers so he just input an initial letter and got back the number. Obviously I'd have to find 26 last issued numbers manually to get started but subsequently it'd be a lot easier. So, anyone know of a Linux app that would help? Or is anyone able to script something? It doesn't have to be pretty, just idiot-proof. Or is there anyone with infinite patience who'd like to teach an old dog a new trick? My experience of scripting and programming is very limited and has rarely ended well but I'll give it a go with some advice. -- Phil Thane www.pthane.co.uk Tweet @pthane 01767 449759 07582 750607

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Testing reliability of Internet connection
by Mark Rogers 09 Feb '21

09 Feb '21

What is the best way to test the reliability of an Internet connection? I am getting lots of dropouts on things like Zoom meetings or Netflix, but a speed test is always healthy (typically close to 200Mbps on my Virgin connection). But speed isn't everything - a stop-start connection with lots of gaps can still get a high average speed. Problem is I don't even know what to search for! Ideally a simple "here's a rating" tool but happy to get my hands dirty if needed, eg if there are things I could monitor with Wireshark or whatever. I have an important meeting tomorrow and at the moment I'm going to struggle to take part! -- 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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