December 2004 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Testing
by Judy & Lindsay Roberts 21 Dec '04

21 Dec '04

I am testing whether I have the correct address for wlug mail list Linz

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A request...
by Craig Box 20 Dec '04

20 Dec '04

If there is anyone on the list that has up to date contact details for Sahil Gupta, could they please email Liam Venter at liam(a)lan1.co.nz. (No discussion on this matter please) Craig

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RE: [wlug] Why do I bother with Linux?
by David Nicholls 20 Dec '04

20 Dec '04

If only they'd release mac OSX for x86... <sigh> Cheers... david -----Original Message----- From: Oliver Jones [mailto:oliver(a)deeper.co.nz] Sent: Sunday, 19 December 2004 8:00 pm Subject: [wlug] Why do I bother with Linux? Sometimes I think I'm a masochist for using Linux. I have put all my MPEG4 audio on the USB2 external HDD I was talking about previously. I tried importing all the audio into Rhythm Box. Rhythm Box proceeded to consume all of my RAM and swap. I managed to kill the app and restart it. It appeared to have imported most of the audio. I went about playing some songs. Changing between them etc. Rhythm Box proceeded to play them for a while then when trying to change between Black Eye Peas songs it locked up the ALSA sound card driver. Whoop. I don't think I'll be playing with Rhythm Box again. After a reboot XMMS proceeeded to play the m4a files with the MPEG4 Audio plug in I must have installed a while back. No track info though. *sigh* And we wonder why those crazy Windows users stick to their unstable OS and why legions of Linux geeks are fleeing at great haste to Mac OS X. Ah well, back to flagellating myself. Regards -- Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeper.co.nz> Deeper Design Limited _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Why do I bother with Linux?
by Oliver Jones 19 Dec '04

19 Dec '04

Sometimes I think I'm a masochist for using Linux. I have put all my MPEG4 audio on the USB2 external HDD I was talking about previously. I tried importing all the audio into Rhythm Box. Rhythm Box proceeded to consume all of my RAM and swap. I managed to kill the app and restart it. It appeared to have imported most of the audio. I went about playing some songs. Changing between them etc. Rhythm Box proceeded to play them for a while then when trying to change between Black Eye Peas songs it locked up the ALSA sound card driver. Whoop. I don't think I'll be playing with Rhythm Box again. After a reboot XMMS proceeeded to play the m4a files with the MPEG4 Audio plug in I must have installed a while back. No track info though. *sigh* And we wonder why those crazy Windows users stick to their unstable OS and why legions of Linux geeks are fleeing at great haste to Mac OS X. Ah well, back to flagellating myself. Regards -- Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeper.co.nz> Deeper Design Limited

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Re: [wlug] Linux LVM and Windows.
by Stephen Pearce 19 Dec '04

19 Dec '04

Hi, I had the same problem ... with fedora 2. I ended up doing away with LVM. As I understand it is only useful if you are likely to fill your partitions and need to resize them. I thought this might be useful initially, but as I don't create many huge files, I don't think I would ever use it even if I could get it working. When I looked into it they were doing a major change in the code .. it might be simpler now .. I've forgotten it and not regretted it. Stephen > > From: Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeper.co.nz> > Date: 2004/12/19 Sun PM 06:47:27 GMT+13:00 > To: Waikato Linux Users Group <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Subject: [wlug] Linux LVM and Windows. > > On my laptop I've installed Fedora Core 3. By default FC3 uses Linux > LVM for the install partitions and swap. It only puts /boot on a > separate "Linux native" partition. I also have Windows XP installed on > my laptop in a 20GB partition at the front of the drive (hda1). > > When I booted Windows today (a rarity) I noticed that the LVM partition > is showing up as a drive letter in Windows. The disk manager doesn't > show it with a file system but I am concerned Windows XP will do > something stupid and try and write to the device at some point and fruck > my Linux install. > > Does anyone else have experience with Windows XP and Linux LVM? How can > I hide the LVM drive from Windows. Is there a way of telling Windows > the get the hell away from that partition? > > I've never used LVM before so I'm in the dark a bit. Any help would be > appreciated. > > Regards > -- > Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeper.co.nz> > Deeper Design Limited > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

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NexStar external 3.5" USB2/Firewire HDD enclosures and FC3.
by Oliver Jones 19 Dec '04

19 Dec '04

Hi Folks. Thought I'd share a little tidbit of experience with you all. Recently I purchased a Vantec NexStar external USB2/Firewire 3.5" HDD enclosure. I had an existing 200GB Seagate Barracuda drive to put in it. Today I assembled the unit and plugged it into my Fedora Core 3 powered Compaq laptop. I was rather pleased to see FC3 detect the device, amend /etc/fstab, mount it, and put a nice little media icon on my desktop with a USB logo on it. It even did so when the HDD was formatted with NTFS. I subsequently deleted the NTFS partition that was on the drive and reformatted with FAT32 so that I can share the device more easily between Windows and Linux machines. I did the partitioning and formatting under Linux as Windows XP (in its infinite wisdom) can not create FAT32 partitions greater than 30GB. All in all the experience was quite nice. Certainly nicer than my past experiences with USB storage devices under Linux. Unfortunately when I switched cables to Firewire (IEEE1394) things didn't go so smoothly. The Linux ieee1394 driver can't seem to communicate with the device. Something about being unable to parse the configrom. This isn't the only firewire device that this Laptop hasn't been able to talk to under Linux. So I imagine it is some driver issue with whatever chipset that this laptop has. I've never had much luck with firewire and Linux. But I don't mind. This laptop has 3 USB 2 ports and USB is "fast enough" for storing my iTunes/iPod music and other backup/archive data. Regards -- Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeper.co.nz> Deeper Design Limited

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Linux LVM and Windows.
by Oliver Jones 19 Dec '04

19 Dec '04

On my laptop I've installed Fedora Core 3. By default FC3 uses Linux LVM for the install partitions and swap. It only puts /boot on a separate "Linux native" partition. I also have Windows XP installed on my laptop in a 20GB partition at the front of the drive (hda1). When I booted Windows today (a rarity) I noticed that the LVM partition is showing up as a drive letter in Windows. The disk manager doesn't show it with a file system but I am concerned Windows XP will do something stupid and try and write to the device at some point and fruck my Linux install. Does anyone else have experience with Windows XP and Linux LVM? How can I hide the LVM drive from Windows. Is there a way of telling Windows the get the hell away from that partition? I've never used LVM before so I'm in the dark a bit. Any help would be appreciated. Regards -- Oliver Jones <oliver(a)deeper.co.nz> Deeper Design Limited

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Python and recording audio
by zcat 16 Dec '04

16 Dec '04

I'm trying to write a program in python but I am _very_ confused about how to set audio parameters. I can find documentation but it doesn't make any sense. I can't seem to find an example anywhere that I can follow. In the past I've just used /dev/dsp with the default settings of 8 bit mono, 8k samplerate. This time I want to record 16 bit, two channels, 44k1, splitting the recording into left.wav and right.wav and stripping out silence in realtime. How do I do it?

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WLUG Xmas BBQ Canceled
by Jamie Curtis 10 Dec '04

10 Dec '04

Hi all, Unfortunately, due to the unpredictable weather and the lack of an indoor venue, we have had to cancel the WLUG Xmas BBQ planed for tonight. It is possible that if we could find a suitable time or location we could still run the BBQ, but as it's getting closer and closer to Christmas this is going to get harder. Again, sorry all, and if you do have any suggestions, please get in touch with me or any of the committee. Thanks Jamie

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RE: [wlug] Overlapping usage nonsense
by Gund Wehsling 07 Dec '04

07 Dec '04

Hi I agree, NAT is supposed to be almost impossible to detect. Change your dial-in password now and see what happens next billing cycle? Perhaps your mate who you helped to setup his computer will ring you later this week to tell you the Internet connection you helped him with has stopped working? Of course I have done that before. Gund -----Original Message----- From: James Clark [mailto:jamesc(a)bofh.co.nz] Sent: Fri 19/11/2004 12:04 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Overlapping usage nonsense On Fri, Nov 19, 2004 at 11:17:58AM +1300, Jared Wigmore wrote: > Having got a network and Internet connection sharing > set up (thanks Bruce), Xtra is now charging my family > for "overlapping usage" via my Linux computer. (The > Internet connection is on the family computer, with > Windows XP professional.) Overlapping usage: http://www.xtra.co.nz/help/0,,6155-1452314,00.html (if the link works) I suspect someone is dialling up with your account simultaniously, not because your NAT-ing... James. _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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