May 2004 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Modern software on old hardware
by Craig Box 01 Sep '04

01 Sep '04

I recently had a Celeron 500 that I wanted to install for my flatmate to use as an internet/email machine. All evidence points to the 2.6 kernel being better on old hardware than 2.4, and in general support for hardware increases as you have newer software, so I thought I'd try installing Fedora Core 2 (then test3) on the machine. I've heard good things about the XFCE desktop environment, so I installed that. The machine started out with 64mb of RAM and took an ice age to install (I think it's about the RPM database needing to be in RAM at install time). It quickly got upgraded to 192mb RAM, which isn't exactly "new modern specs" but is a machine that was better specced than many machines we had at the recent installfest. I ran a quick, responsive, usable desktop environment on a 286 at 10Mhz. Linux was basically unusable on this machine. Software took an age to load, you could hardly run two things at the same time, and it was constantly in swap. The options seemed to be "run Windows 98" (the OS the machine was originally shipped with), or get some sort of Linux distribution that was around the same age. The Fedora Legacy project provides security updates for Red Hat as far back as 7.3, but I really don't want to run old software. In the end I found a surprising third option - I installed Windows XP and turned off most of the flash visual bits and pieces, and ended up with a usable machine running modern software. Not something that I wanted to have to do! There's a long standing belief that Linux can be used to revitalise old hardware. Short of using a terminal server of some description (which wasn't an option in this case), is this true? Craig

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Running Lynx From Floppy
by Gabriel Bankier-Perry 31 May '04

31 May '04

I'm currently writing a rather extensive tutorial on how to install and configure Slackware 9.1 (http://gabes.orcon.net.nz/slackware_install.html) It's so extensive in fact that it would be stupid for someone to try and print it all out. Instead of getting them to print it out beforehand, I thought I could get them to save the page to a floppy and bring it up in Lynx before starting the installation ie. insert the install cd-rom, login as root, switch to a virtual console, mount the floppy disk, and read the webpage with lynx. That way they could keep switching back to the virtual console and reading the next step while setup was running. The problem was that lynx was not included as an executable on the disk (it was obviously avaliable as a package-yet-to-be-installed). I was now faced with the problem of not having access to a web browser with which to read the tutorial. The first thing I did was try and copy the lynx binary (/usr/bin/lynx) on my (already installed) system onto the same floppy disk as the saved webpage. When I tried to run it, it complained about a missing library (which is logical considering that I only copied the executable). My next thought was to get one of those Linux floppy-based Linux distributions (which usually has lynx). The problem is that I have no idea how I could load it (the floppy-based distro) once I had already booted the install cd. To reiterate, here's my problem: I need to run lynx from the slackware installation cd so I can read a file stored on a floppy disk. Lynx (as an exectutable) isn't found on the disk. How would I be able to run lynx from a floppy disk? Thanks. Note: The Slackware install disks work as live distro before you start the actual installation (ie. you can login and do partitioning, mounting, formatting etc.).

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Spam: Law vs Technology
by Oliver Jones 31 May '04

31 May '04

Personally I think that spam will not go away with new laws. Certainly some laws could be enhanced to give them scope to cover spam type acts but ultimately the problem is with technology not law. Certain things should be made illegal. Ie, domain or email forging. If you don't have permission from the domain or email owner to use an email address the address owner should be able to sue/prosecute. However the problem really is technological. SMTP is too trusting. We need ways of verifying the authenticity of sender addresses and their sources. If methods like SPF were universally adopted and turned on by default much of the problem with spam would go away. People could still send spam. But they would have to do it via "legitimate" servers. Ie, ones they owned. It would then be a case of blocking those servers/networks that repeatedly offended. People will argue that they shouldn't need to block servers. People should just stop sending spam. This however is more problematic than you might think. The problem with spam is not that it is unsolicited or commercial or bulk but rather that it is unwanted. The problem however is that you don't know it is unwanted until you read it. For example, say someone was overtly generous and very rich (and perhaps slightly crazy). If they send 2 million email messages to randomly harvested addresses giving them information on how to get a $100 would this mail necessarily be unwanted by the recipients. In today's environment people would be highly suspicious of this email but for the sake of argument imagine that the offer was legit. Why should this behaviour be illegal? Similarly would it be illegal to send 2 million snail mail envelopes to randomly selected addresses with $100 stuffed into each? People would be falling over themselves to get on this mailing list. I believe all we need is good law regarding fraud, false advertising, pornography and commercial entity identification accompanied by good user driven technology that enables network administrators to lock the bad guys out. So, everyone should configure their mail server with SPF immediately! Regards -- Oliver Jones » Director » oliver.jones(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 Deeper Design Limited » +64 (7) 377 3328 » www.deeperdesign.com

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Re: [wlug] Help with fedora 2 please
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 28 May '04

28 May '04

Hi Glenn, I looked at the site, am totally clueless, will have to learn a little more about the o/s basics before I attempt to take this further. John.. > > Have a look at dri.sourceforge.net. You may need to > install one of dev snapshots. I have a Mobility U1 > (IGP320M) on my laptop and 3D acceleration works fine > with this. I get similar fps to the Windows versions. > > MergedFB however is broken for this chip and it doesn't > work with 2 monitors at once. I had to fool it into > thinking that the LCD doesn't exist to be able to set the > framerate on the CRT port to something other than 60 Hz. > > g > > > -- > Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 > http://www.componic.co.nz > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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creating folders
by Gun Caundle 27 May '04

27 May '04

I'm trying to create a new folder within the 'guncom' folder but can't. However I can create a new folder in the 'gun' folder. > [gun(a)LinuxBox home]$ ls > gun guncom > [gun(a)LinuxBox home]$ cd guncom > [gun(a)LinuxBox guncom]$ mkdir testsharing > mkdir: cannot create directory `testsharing': Permission denied > [gun(a)LinuxBox guncom]$ cd .. > [gun(a)LinuxBox home]$ cd gun > [gun(a)LinuxBox gun]$ mkdir whozyadaddy > [gun(a)LinuxBox gun]$ Any help with this would be appreciated. Gun Caundle

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Legislation Against Spam
by Perry Lorier 27 May '04

27 May '04

The government is currently requesting information from "interested parties" about drafting legislation against spam, as can be found here: http://www.med.govt.nz/pbt/infotech/spam/ As the LUG is a concentration of technically minded users, it seems that we would be a good candidate to put forward some comments. The government have asked 22 specific questions which are documented at the URL above. I've created a wiki page for people to discuss their ideas with the hope that in about a months time (when the submissions are due) we can take the comments and merge them into some kind of prose to submit to the government. After reading the above document, go over to http://www.wlug.org.nz/LegislatingAgainstSpam and add your comments :)

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RE: LDAP Browsers
by Gerwin van de Steeg 27 May '04

27 May '04

I use a program called LBE, it's java based so will run on nearly anything. http://www.msc.anl.gov/~gawor/ldap http://www.iit.edu/~gawojar/ldap Gerwin van de Steeg

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Help with fedora 2 please
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 26 May '04

26 May '04

Hi All, I am having a few of problems with fedora 2. The ati rage mobility card is working very slowly, ie chrominum is slow, choppy, cursor uncontrolable. programme is hard to get out of. Tux racer is working but very slow and graphics are not amazing. Also on boot it is not loading eth0 xircom cb for some reason. I still managed to configure the modem and can get on line. I have no clue on text editting so please just use small words and type slowly. :) Any help appreciated John (newbie) Thompson.

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Wifi PCMCIA Card Trade 2 for 1 ?
by Drew Broadley 25 May '04

25 May '04

I have two wifi PCMCIA card's I am willing to trade below: 1 * Netgear HA501 - 802.11a 1 * Belkin F5D6020 ver2 - 802.11b Neither of these work under my current OS (FreeBSD) and I am wanting to trade these two for a single 802.11b card that will work under FreeBSD (prism2 /prism2.5 chipset) Cheers, Drew

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Committee meeting minutes
by Craig Box 23 May '04

23 May '04

Minutes of last Wednesday's committee meeting are now up at http://www.wlug.org.nz/CommitteeMeetingTopics.2004-05-19. Remember also tonights meeting at Crawshaw School, 7pm, on Linux at the Hamilton City Council. Craig

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