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Meta stuff about comparative operating systems and Switching Sideways
by Ruth Bygrave 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

This is an essay on the abortive blog that was my last blog, until it sank without trace because it had 0 readers and comments and I got discouraged and wandered away. http://mogcow.blogspot.com/2006/11/switching-sideways.html I'm still quite proud of it, and think it contains useful if opinionated advice. I don't expect people on this list to agree with it necessarily, but feel it's an interesting point for discussion... except I'm probably wrong about that because nobody ever read it: I put up Statcounter, and it had about 38 hits, most of which were probably me checking in from the library to see if anybody had read it yet... Regards, R

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Re: [ALUG] usb wireless card for visitors
by Elisabeth Fosbrooke-Brown 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

"Rob Grant" <r.grant at uea.ac.uk> wrote: > > Visitors to UEA need to get their network cards registered in order to > access our network. ITCS can provide temporary access for visitors at conferences etc., which could be what you want. When I worked at the BA Festival last year there was a simple process involving username/password being signed out to a user; no idea what the innards were. They're not anti-Linux as far as my experience goes, but maybe that's because I haven't had any problems - apart from the newsystem mess-up last year, of course. -- sfr

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RE: usb wireless card for visitors
by Rob Grant 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

> > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 16:38:21 +0100 > From: "Rob Grant" <r.grant(a)uea.ac.uk> > Subject: [ALUG] usb wireless card for visitors > To: <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > Message-ID: <007001c7b1be$b35f2c50$018ede8b(a)UEA.AC.UK> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > > Visitors to UEA need to get their network cards registered in order > to access our network. As a more convenient alternative, the > technical support manager here suggested that our school buy two or > three usb wireless cards which can be pre-registered and loaned to > visitors. > > Obviously, I'd like to make sure that whatever we get will have a > good chance of working for any visitors who arrive with Linux > laptops. Hence, any ideas on either of these would be appreciated. > Rob > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:02:43 +0100 > From: Simon Jude <s.jude(a)uea.ac.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] usb wireless card for visitors > > I'm not sure that you are aware of this, but the first time you > connect to the UEA wifi network it asks you to register. I did this > the other day with my laptop running ubuntu and it was registered and > working straight away (although the registration page says it can > take 20mins). > I'm not sure how this works for 'guests' at UEA but there used to be > a similar system for visitors wanting to use the UEA ethernet network > connections. Alternatively, parts of UEA are covered by the > Norwich-wide wifi which is free to use, and there are also numerous > departmental wifi networks too that are accessible. > > > Message: 3 > Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:15:42 +0100 > From: Richard Lewis <richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk> >> > You can only register a network device's MAC address if you have a > valid UEA network user account. However, a single user account can > register more than one device. So Rob, if you register some wireless > cards, you (or whoever registers them) would be responsible for > whatever use is made of them. > > Also note that the University hosts a second wireless network provide > by BT OpenZone which visitors can pay a fee to use. > > http://www1.uea.ac.uk/print/home/services/units/is/services/itservices/netw… pus/wireless > > (apologies for UEA's ridiculous > CMS-generated-ultra-long-just-to-annoy-pretty-much-everybody URLs). > > And Simon, did you manage to use netreg.uea.ac.uk with a non-MSIE > browser? I'm very impressed ;-) > > Message: 4 > Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:35:29 +0100 > From: Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] usb wireless card for visitors > > It is going to be a difficult search I am afraid, naturally you want > to > go the USB route rather than PCMCIA because not all new laptops have > PCMCIA. > > Of those that work a lot require a firmware image download (which is > going to be difficult to do before you get the link up) and/or only > work > for specific hardware revisions (and it's not easy to buy a specific > hardware revision of a card). For the former you could of course stick > the firmware with installation instructions on a CD or USB keydrive > > Then the range of wireless USB dongles that will play nicely with OSX > without lots of fiddling (you mention wanting it to be Mac compatible > too) is pretty limited, I am not even sure OSX will let you use a > third > party card if there is built in wireless hardware available. > > Even Windows is a bit of a problem if the machine already has Wireless > (and a fair percentage of recent laptops will) as you can get > unexpected > behaviour by adding an additional card. Even more so if there is no > way > to make the existing wireless card disappear without disabling the > driver in the device manager. And things only get worse if the > existing > card has a third party connection management bundle of nastiness on > the > taskbar. > > I've tried to help Coffee shops and pubs etc with this sort of set up > before and to be honest it is more trouble than it is worth. > > Perhaps you should ask the UEA should consider having a area on their > MAC registration page where a temporary visitor pass can be granted, > perhaps this would have restricted access compared to a fully > registered > MAC. It just strikes me that offering pe-registered cards for loan > effectively weakens the presumed reasoning for having the MAC > lockdowns > in the first place. > > Sorry I usually try to be more positive about the advice I give :-) > > > Message: 6 > Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:47:43 +0100 > From: Simon Jude <s.jude(a)uea.ac.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] usb wireless card for visitors > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Message-ID: <4677A63F.2030200(a)uea.ac.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > >> And Simon, did you manage to use netreg.uea.ac.uk with a non-MSIE >> browser? I'm very impressed ;-) >> >> > Yep, that worked fine, it even identified me as using linux! (just > don't > tell ITCS I'm running Linux!!! ;-)) > > > Simon > > > Wayne Stallwood wrote: >> O >> Perhaps you should ask the UEA should consider having a area on their >> MAC registration page where a temporary visitor pass can be granted, >> perhaps this would have restricted access compared to a fully >> registered >> MAC. It just strikes me that offering pe-registered cards for loan >> effectively weakens the presumed reasoning for having the MAC >> lockdowns >> in the first place. >> >> > It might be worth checking whether they have this already. > Simon, Richard, Wayne, thanks very much, that is very helpful. I anticipated that the IT manager would come back with a suggested card and wanted to see if I could propose something Linux usable- if you are right Wayne it seems more likely that the IT manager will come back and say that the whole idea is flawed even for MS machines. If a speaker turns up at 12pm wanting to access the internet during his talk, catch up on a few emails in the common room afterwards then be on a train at 5pm, we don't want to be poking around in his wireless card configuration trying to disable the built in one and enable our usb one. Apart from the hassle a visitor might feel justifiably annoyed if they then get back home and have problems getting their own wireless connections working again. I appreciate the info regarding the BT and Norwich networks. I think though that we are keen to offer the courtesy of a free connection to our guests and the Norwich city network has an uncertain future. Plus, how good is indoors reception with these? Looks like I should bring my own laptop in and try all the options with both Ubuntu and XP. Then if necessary our school can do what it can to push for a streamlining of the visitor registration process. I don't want to over push the linux thing at UEA as I get the feeling that attitudes to FOS in general vary considerably among our technical people here and I don't want to come across as too much of a trouble maker. I'm especially wary as someone with low technical knowledge- but you have given me some useful pointers to do what little I can here. Best wishes, Rob Rob Grant Lecturer in Development Economics School of Development Studies University of East Anglia NR4 7TJ +44(0)1603592324 r.grant(a)uea.ac.uk

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usb wireless card for visitors
by Rob Grant 19 Jun '07

19 Jun '07

Visitors to UEA need to get their network cards registered in order to access our network. As a more convenient alternative, the technical support manager here suggested that our school buy two or three usb wireless cards which can be pre-registered and loaned to visitors. Obviously, I'd like to make sure that whatever we get will have a good chance of working for any visitors who arrive with Linux laptops. Hence, any ideas on either of these would be appreciated. i) suggestions for a usb wireless card that should plug and play with Linux, Macs and Windows. Physical robustness probably a help too. ii) or is this whole idea a bad one? Apologies if this 'which wireless card?' thing has been rather done to death here recently. I can't recall anything specifically usb and mac/win interoperable though. Thanks, Rob Rob Grant Lecturer in Development Economics School of Development Studies University of East Anglia NR4 7TJ +44(0)1603592324 r.grant(a)uea.ac.uk

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kubuntu apt-get not installed
by elc 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

Tried what you suggested Adam, and got 'command not found' for aptitude install apt. Also had 'command not found' for sudo aptitude install apt. In fact I also tried commands ls, man, sudo, and they all returned 'command not found'. Does this mean that all (most) of my commands are unavailable? About a week ago I went through the update procedure. I started with Dapper 6.06 (from live CD), updated to Edgy 6.10, then updated to Feisty 7.04. Things worked perfectly until last weekend when I tried to boot up linux and got this result. Would I presume that the live CD 6.06 would not now be of any use since I am 2 upgrades up? I've alo tried recover mode at Grub but doesn't work either - same results. Is there such a thing as a rescue disk that will repair my OS without losing my work? Fortunately I am dual booting with Win98 (wash my mouth out), but it is a right pain rebooting backwards and forwards. I look forward to any suggestions - elc > > It gets to a point > > "the program 'apt-get' is currently not installed. You can install > > it by typing: > > apt-get install apt > > > Try > > aptitude install apt (or possibly sudo aptitude install apt) > > >> > What I am trying to get to is my normal GUI or desktop. >> > > It sounds like your machine might have serious problems, has anything > changed recently or any other things that might be relevant to this > problem? > > Adam

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FAO: Wayne (was Re: [ALUG] [ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Milestone, Woodbridge Road)
by samwise 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

Hey, Wayne, Are you coming tomorrow, should I bring my pair of book-laden carrier bags? Peter.

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kubuntu apt-get not installed
by elc 16 Jun '07

16 Jun '07

Various people at ALUG are trying to help me with my problem, and I thank them for their help in trying to get me back into Kubuntu. Someone asked if anything unusual has occured in the recent past to maybe cause my current situation. Only one thing comes to mind, is that when I first enter my password at the beginning of a session the first character depressed on my keyboard is not registered. There is no fault with my keyboard, - I have checked this. When I have tried to test my OS with your suggestions during the past week, I have got to a terminal prompt without any imput from me and at the first occassion of me entering a character the character is not registered, the second character (which is a repeat of the first) is registered. Do I have a gremlin here? Is it a cause or a symptom of my problem? On another thought, can I re-install my OS on top of my existing (non-working) OS to resolve my problem, as I can do with Windows? elc

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kubuntu apt-get not installed
by elc 16 Jun '07

16 Jun '07

I entered 'cat /etc/environment' and got PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games" LANG="en_GB.UTF-8" LANGUAGE="en_GB:en" in this order elc Wayne Stallwood wrote > Right this either means that something nasty has happened > to /etc/environment or your boot process is getting suck because of > another problem and not even getting to the point that the running PATH > is set. > > Can you tell me what the output of the following looks like- > > cat /etc/environment > > You should get something like > > LANGUAGE="en_GB:en" > > LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 > PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games" > > It's the PATH= bit that I am interested in > > If it looks similar to mine then I suspect the problem is earlier on in > the boot process and we are just looking at a symptom.

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kubuntu apt-get not installed
by elc 16 Jun '07

16 Jun '07

I entered 'find / -name dpkg' and got '/var/lib/dpkg' '/etc/dpkg' '/etc/logrotate.d/dpkg' '/usr/bin/dpkg' '/usr/lib/dpkg' '/usr/share/doc/dpkg' '/usr/share/dpkg' '/usr/share/lintian/overides/' I entered 'find / -name wget' and got '/usr/bin/wget' '/usr/share/doc/wget I'm typing at 'root@elc-desktop:~# _' I entered 'set> /tmp/set.txt' 'set>/tmp/set.txt' 'set > /tmp/set.txt' and got nothing to all three I entered 'more /tmp/set.txt' and got about 50 lines of BASH=/bin/bash BASH_ARGC=() BASH_ARGV=() and so on, elc > '$ which dpkg' and got nothing - just returns to cursor > '$ which wget' and got nothing - just returns to cursor > > this means that it didnt find the command. If you are used to M$ DOS then the path is normally c:\windows\system32 > > try the commands > find / -name dpkg > find / -name wget > > if this comes back with "not found" then > cd /sbin > and then issue the commands with a dot slash in front > ./find / -name dpkg > ./find / -name wget > > or cd into /bin /usr/sbin /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin > > and I hope we can find the commands. > > Is this as a user or root you are doing this? If its a user the "su minus" which gets you to root with roots environment. > su - > > and then try the "which dpkg" and such like again. > > Keith >

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kubuntu apt-get not installed
by elc 15 Jun '07

15 Jun '07

Did as suggested 'echo $PATH' gave /lib/init:/sbin:/bin and 'ls' just returns me to desktop cursor and '/usr/bin/apt-get' gives me a fast scroll which I was not able to record and 'cd /bin' gives 'root@elc-desktop:/bin#_' and 'cd/usr/sbin' gives 'root@elc-desktop:/usr/sbin#' Wayne Stallwood wrote > Given that it worked for a while after the upgrade I am guessin that > either your system volumes is not available or your path is wrong. > > > What is the output of - > echo $PATH > > (case sensitive) > > does /bin/ls work rather than ls on it's own ? > or /usr/bin/apt-get ? > > Can you 'cd' to /bin or /usr/sbin ? >

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