November 2005 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Links in PhpWiki
by Chris O'Halloran 14 Nov '05

14 Nov '05

Hello, I have set up a Phpwiki using my Suse Linux Box on the company lan and using Apache, Php, MySql using the code from the Phpwiki site. I've manage to get it all going quite nicely many of the staff are keen to use it as a collaborative documentation site for keeping each other informed of the latest technical information available or the gotcha's you find working with different manufacturers equipment. I've got the linking to other pages, webpages and email addresses working fine. What I was know wanting to know was how to link to various documents etc we might have on our servers. It's an MS Active directories network. I can link to documents I put on the webserver easily enough but what about P:\Library\Electrical\Transpower\Standards\ABC.pdf Any hints appreciated. Chris -- http://homepages.maxnet.co.nz/dusky/ ICQ: 213449133 Jabber: cmoman1(a)jabber.org Jabber: cmoman1(a)jabber.meta.net.nz Yahoo: cmoman1

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Re: [wlug] Installing Skype on Ubuntu [Rant]
by Mathew Carley 14 Nov '05

14 Nov '05

> > > Here's why I'm a bit frustrated at the moment with Ubuntu: > > >>I think it's a bit short sighted to blame your problems on a Ubuntu when > >>the problem is caused by a non-free application being distributed in > >>binary only form. The blame should be appropriately placed with Skype. You are quite right, perhaps I should have "blamed" Skype for the lack of appropriate support for a still young (yet surprisingly mature) distro. Keeping in mind it was a bit of a rant as to why (in this particular instance) I prefer(red) SuSE, and also this install of Ubuntu was to revive/choke out the last life of this laptops hard drive, and is not of any real importance, shall we say. I have since installed breezy, and had Skype working within minutes, all appropriate packages downloaded through Synaptic (yay no dpkg!) and so on. I've even changed totem-gstreamer to totem-xine with xine-ui and was able to get the multimedia stuff working quite quickly. I must say, 6 months of obviously hard work has made a huge difference to Ubuntu, and I must congratulate all who develop in and around it. > I wanted to install Skype. Skype is a KDE app, (and it looks ugly in > > Gnome - there are workarounds, but aside from that). It requires > > libqt3-xxxxxxxx. > > > > Firstly, I was trying to install it from the .deb package distributed > > on skype.com <http://skype.com> (skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386). > > >>Luckily, as fulfilling as it is to be a Free software zealot and say > >>it's all Skype's fault there are more pragmatic members of the community > >>who are happy to put time and effort into make non-free software like > >>Skype work seemlessly. My experience with Hoary was not nearly as pleasant as the one with Breezy. I must say that I much prefer Breezy over Hoary (surprised) and it is so much quicker than SuSE 9.3, but this may be due to the light-weight nature of the distro and the fact that I have bugger all installed on a clean (but slowly dying) hard drive and clean /home partition. To get Skype working nicely on Ubuntu you need to look no further than > the Ubuntu Guide (http://ubuntuguide.org) which links to nicely > built .debs for Ubuntu that I've used successfully from Warty -> Hoary > and now for Breezy. > > See specifically http://ubuntuguide.org/#skype Correct. Once again - instructions worked fine with Breezy, but not so well with Hoary. After reading the rest of your email and the packages you installed I'm > surprised that your box still works at all! So was I. In fact, I went so far as to leave the laptop on until I was able to download and burn the Breezy ISO the next morning (after some sleep). In saying that, I did end up having to reboot it, as for some reason it thought the CD-RW drive was busy, and, well, yeah. Believe it or not, the system did boot, apparantely without error; though there were a few complaints that it couldn't talk to locale (unsurprisingly). However, all is well now (until my hard drive and more RAM arrives), at which time it will be a tougher decision than originally anticipated to choose between SuSE 10 and Breezy. It hasn't taken long (or much) to like Ubuntu so far, though as a "full featured" distro, I will probably end up with SuSE. Or I could partition the drive and just have both, sharing a /home partition (with different user-folders) - Ubuntu for lightweight applications (eg when I'm on the tram and need to write down a URL, for example) and SuSE for my Development Stuff or something. -- Regards Mathew Carley HostENZ Data Services A Carley Network Media Ltd. (NZ) Company http://www.hostenz.co.nz mathewc(a)hostenz.co.nz Office Phone (Helsinki): +358 9 2316 3712 Cell Phone (Finland): +358 4 0816 2816 Cell Phone (France): +33 6 1811 9475 Skype: mgcarley The information contained in this electronic mail message and any attachments are confidential to Carley Network Media Ltd and it's subsidiaries, and may contain proprietary information or may be legally privileged. See http://www.cnmltd.net/email/ for our standard email disclaimer. Errors & Omissions Excepted. Prices in this email do not include GST unless stated otherwise.

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Ubuntu Breezy (5.10) CD's
by Jamie Curtis 14 Nov '05

14 Nov '05

I have just recieved an Ubuntu Breezy ShipIt delivery of CD's for distribution via the CS department here at Waikato. There are Ubuntu sets (one install, one live CD) for x86, x86-64 and Mac available. You can get yourself one by visiting the CS office on the 1st floor of G-Block at the Uni. Please only take as many CD's as you need, we do have a limited quantity. Cheers, Jamie

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D-Link DSL-302G modem queries
by Leslie Katz 14 Nov '05

14 Nov '05

My apologies to all those who kindly replied to my post on the above subject for not acknowledging those replies sooner. I was required to be away from the computer for a few days. Encouraged by some of those replies to do so, I re-configured the modem in Windows, using the instructions from the D-Link Australia site. I then switched into Linux and found that the changes did what I'd hoped (at least for now!). My thanks to everyone.

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Episode 9 of the LUG Roundup
by Karin Purser 14 Nov '05

14 Nov '05

Hi All, Episode 9 of the LUG Roundup is now available. This fortnight we speak with Matt Brown from Waikato LUG in New Zealand. Sorry for the lateness of the post to notify, but due to technical problems(my computer dying) mid week I lost everything. So you can find the pods at the following links http://mirror.linux.org.au http://la-pod.k-sit.com Cherio Karin lugroundup(a)k-sit.com

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Installing Skype on Ubuntu [Rant]
by Mathew Carley 13 Nov '05

13 Nov '05

Today I "rescued" my laptop (temporary measure as it needs the hard disk replaced) by installing Ubuntu Hoary over what was SuSE 9.3. 1. Yes, I know I could get breezy. It would take <5 minutes to download on my connection here (Yay for 40 megabits). 2. SuSE 10 will be going on the new hard drive, anyway. [That DVD ISO took around 2 hours] Here's why I'm a bit frustrated at the moment with Ubuntu: I wanted to install Skype. Skype is a KDE app, (and it looks ugly in Gnome - there are workarounds, but aside from that). It requires libqt3-xxxxxxxx. Firstly, I was trying to install it from the .deb package distributed on skype.com <http://skype.com> (skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386). Err, no - turns out I needed libqt3c102-mt_3.3.4-3_i386. So I download it. I read that I can use libqt3-mt_3.3.5-1_i386 instead, which is supposed to be a better way... I thought hrm... I should only need this package and maybe one other... but no. Next, it tells me that I need (insert several GCC-related libraries and supporting packages * 6) Why is none of this mentioned on any of the forums I ended up going to? Long story short: Here is what I ended up downloading and installing with dpkg (and for some parts I used Synaptic, but I couldn't make a local repository? What about apt-get? Would that have made life easier?): cpp-4.0_4.0-0pre6ubuntu7_i386 gcc-4.0_4.0-0pre6ubuntu7_i386 gcc-4.0-base_4.0.2-3_i386 initrd-tools_0.1.81.1_i386 [and Ubuntu versions of initrd-tools 0.1.77 and 0.1.78; however they wouldn't work with libc6] libc6_2.3.5-6_i386 libfontconfig1_2.3.2-1_i386 libgcc1_4.0.2-2_i386 libqt3c102-mt_3.3.4-3_i386 [which was replaced with libqt3-mt_3.3.5-1_i386] libqt3-mt_3.3.5-1_i386 libstdc++6_4.0.2-3_i386 libxrender1_0.9.0-2_i386 nscd_2.3.2.ds1-20ubuntu14_i386 and of course skype_1.2.0.18-1_i386 Not only did I have to get the required versions of these files from ftp.fi.debian.org/ <http://ftp.fi.debian.org/>, but the Ubuntu versions were "outdated" in terms of version numbering. According to most of what I read, I should have just needed to resolve 1 or 2 things (ended up downloading the repackaged skype .deb from a link posted on the Ubuntu Forums). Now, aside from all that, when I went to install libc6_2.3.5-6_i386, I found it conflicted with initrd-tools. Which is a vital part of the OS, if I am not mistaken. However at some stage over the several hours I was installing and figuring all this out, it installed. At some stage Synaptic decided that it would be a good idea (well, it asked, and there didn't appear to be any "argh! don't do that!" option) to remove most of the base system because I no longer had initrd-tools. So I downloaded initrd-tools 0.1.81, installed that, but now I want to install things like locale, but it won't because it needs a whole lot of other things. I think if I reboot this machine it... well... won't. Perhaps I will download and install Breezy and give the same task a go. As I mentioned originally, installing Ubuntu on this hard-drive was just a temporary measure so that I could at least browse the net. I like Ubuntu, but I felt that I really had to stuff around to get this app installed (and even then it doesn't seem to quite work correctly). Did I just have a bad experience (that perhaps I shouldn't have?) Maybe I have been somewhat spoiled by SuSE, and I don't use Debian-based Distros that often, so I'm not as used to them, but has anyone else experienced similar problems? This is the part where you all go: you didn't need to do all that, you should have .... :-) -- Regards Mathew Carley HostENZ Data Services A Carley Network Media Ltd. (NZ) Company http://www.hostenz.co.nz mathewc(a)hostenz.co.nz Office Phone (Helsinki): +358 9 2316 3712 Cell Phone (Finland): +358 4 0816 2816 Cell Phone (France): +33 6 1811 9475 Skype: mgcarley The information contained in this electronic mail message and any attachments are confidential to Carley Network Media Ltd and it's subsidiaries, and may contain proprietary information or may be legally privileged. See http://www.cnmltd.net/email/ for our standard email disclaimer. Errors & Omissions Excepted. Prices in this email do not include GST unless stated otherwise.

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Re: [wlug] wlug Digest, Vol 173, Issue 12
by Mathew Carley 13 Nov '05

13 Nov '05

>Did you check that this package was compiled for your distribution? >Ie was that .deb for ubuntu hoary, or was it for debian sarge? .deb is >just a packaging format, it doesn't magically work on any computer that >can install .deb files, just like you can't assume a Red hat .rpm will >work on mandriva. See http://www.skype.com/products/skype/linux/ Debian package <http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-deb> (7.7 MB) Xandros, MEPIS, Ubuntu, other Debian-based distros Apparantely it was. Whether or not "Debian-based distros" is accurate is up to the development team. After reading a bit, I downloaded a version from ubuntuforums.org<http://ubuntuforums.org>that someone had re-compiled to work "correctly" with Ubuntu - which still didn't seem to work. >What provider offers 40mbit connection(s) in NZ ? Seems a rather odd >shape for bandwidth allocation. 1. No bandwidth provider offers 40mbit connections in New Zealand. I am currently living in Finland. 2. Yes, you are correct, it is unusual. I think it's actually rated at 48Mbits, but I typically get around 4000 *kilobytes* per second in actual download speed (total). I posted a screenshot of my downloading of the Breezy ISO from Denmark (not using a download manager other than the one that comes with firefox). The file came in at a measly average of 2950 kilobytes per second. (I have also used Ibiblio.org <http://Ibiblio.org> and got similar speeds). The screenshot is at http://www.mathew-carley.com/images/screenshot.png. >Sometimes Debian packages will work on Ubuntu, but that is only >coincidence. >If a package doesn?t work because it was made for Debian, not >Ubuntu, don?t even dream of installing other Debian packages to >make it run. You?ll tear up your system, but you won?t achieve a >working install. I figured that I was having a problem such as this, but wanted to see how far I could take it and if I could actually get it to work. I can load up skype and see my buddy list, but if I want to use voice or even text chat? Forgetaboutit! -- Regards Mathew Carley HostENZ Data Services A Carley Network Media Ltd. (NZ) Company http://www.hostenz.co.nz mathewc(a)hostenz.co.nz Office Phone (Helsinki): +358 9 2316 3712 Cell Phone (Finland): +358 4 0816 2816 Cell Phone (France): +33 6 1811 9475 Skype: mgcarley The information contained in this electronic mail message and any attachments are confidential to Carley Network Media Ltd and it's subsidiaries, and may contain proprietary information or may be legally privileged. See http://www.cnmltd.net/email/ for our standard email disclaimer. Errors & Omissions Excepted. Prices in this email do not include GST unless stated otherwise.

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D-Link DSL-302G modem queries
by Leslie Katz 12 Nov '05

12 Nov '05

I use the above modem, connected to my Ethernet port, with Fedora Core 3, kernel version 2.6.12-1.1378. I wanted to try out an application called Qnext, which is, among other things, a videoconferencing application. However, it insisted that the ports it required on my machine for incoming communications were not accesible by external contacts. Looking for the reason why that was, I found at the Australian D-Link site information about opening ports in the modem and realised that that was my problem. The D-Link information was for Windows only, so I looked on the Web to try to find information applicable to Linux. That led me to the WLUG Wiki page on the DSL-302G. That page contains the fullest information available on the topic, at least according to my Google searches I'm posting this because I'm hopeful that a subscriber to the list has followed the instructions on the Wiki page successfully to open a port. Unfortunately, I haven't even been able to take the first step, accessing the modem's internal web server. My Linux browser is Firefox. When I ask it to go to 10.1.1.1, I'm prompted for the user name and password and I give those and press Enter. Then, the browser says that it's waiting for 10.1.1.1 and never connects. My computer is dual-booting and my Windows browser is Firefox too. I tried to access 10.1.1.1 with it and had exactly the same result. I also have Internet Explorer and when I go through the same routine with it, I get the modem's internal web server instantaneously. Here are my questions: 1. Is there some thing I should be doing to access the server in Linux Firefox? 2. If I can't use Linux Firefox, is there some other browser anyone's used successfully? (I tried lynx, but it wouldn't work, I suppose because of the need for username and password. Maybe one can add those to the lynx command string, but that's way beyond my capabilities.) 3. Finally, I don't understand the effect of changing settings on the modem, but is it possible that changing them through Windows, which I think I could manage, would change them for Linux too? (I don't know how to express the idea technically correctly, but are those changes somehow internal to the modem and independent of the operating system used with the modem?) If anyone can give me information on any of the above questions, I'd be very grateful. Leslie PS: Ian McDonald, who kindly directed me to this list, said he thought that there'd been some discussion on this list recently about my modem. I searched for "302" by thread for each month for 2005, but found nothing. Perhaps the thread didn't make reference to that number. In any event, if you see this, Ian, I wouldn't want you to think I didn't bother trying the archives first.

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debianhelp new website - www.debianhelp.co.uk
by gg gg234 09 Nov '05

09 Nov '05

Hi, This new website is having some basic information about debian and still it is under development stage and you can post your comments about this website .This website might help for some users. www.debianhelp.co.uk Best regards

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Totem Music Player
by Ivan Potgieter 09 Nov '05

09 Nov '05

Craig Box wrote: > Gstreamer in Breezy isn't all that good at keeping sync with all files. > Try using mplayer or totem-xine. Totem-xine did the trick. Just use synaptic to install it and it works well. Many thanks, Ivan

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