December 2005 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Adept crash- graceful resolution to debconf
by Chris O'Halloran 08 Dec '05

08 Dec '05

Having converted from Suse9.2 to Kubuntu I have appreciated the Adept front end to dpkg. However the other day, it locked up my machine so I crashed out of X and rebooted the system. However whenever I start Adept now it mentions that another process is in effect and that I need root permissions to run Adept. Having run Adept as root it still won't let me install further packages and when I try it reports debconf:DbDriver "config" /var/cache/debconf/config.dat dpkg:status database area is locked by another process dpkg run finished I assume the file "config" is locked by the aborted Adept process. I was wondering what the graceful way of resolving this problem Delete config.dat? BTW, I have been pretty impressed with Kubuntu Cheers Chris

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nvidia-glx-legacy has gone from bad to worse
by zcat 07 Dec '05

07 Dec '05

When I first upgraded to breezy I was mildly annoyed that the nvidia drivers broke, I had to install nvidia-legacy instead, and that all of the openGL stuff stopped working although the driver appeared to be loading and xorg seems to think everything is in order. Programs like glxgears would tell me I didn't have GLX. Programs like mplayer would work with "-vo xv" which was good enough most of the time so I didn't worry about it too much. Just recently I thought I would try to sort this out properly. I removed all of the 'restricted' modules and glx stuff, including config, via synaptic, then cleanly reinstalled the nvidia-legacy kernel modules and nvidia-glx-legacy package. Now glxgears exits with a segfault. Worse, so does mplayer even when I use -vo xv and even if I'm trying to play some audio-only file (or even no file at all!) Where to I even begin trying to find out what's messed up and how to fix it?!

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no audio input sources
by Jonathan Purvis 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Aleisha's computer has a SoundBlaster Audigy and a fresh install of Kubuntu 5.10. When i load Audacity or any other sound recording program, no input sources are available. Where you'd expect to see "Microphone", "Line In", etc, the list is empty. If i turn up the volume on the microphone in alsamixer, i can hear it through the speakers. arecord claims to be recording, but the resulting .wav file is silent. Audio playback is fine with every program i've tried. Also on my computer with an nForce2 chipset, i can record via line in, but not microphone. This might be due to me plugging in a mono microphone plug into it and shorting something out. (Computer microphones seem to use a stero plug to provide power to the microphone.) Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks, Jon

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gnome equivalent of kio_fish
by Glenn Ramsey 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Hi, Does anyone know if there is a gnome equivalent to KDE's kio_fish? A quick Google seems to indicate that there are some tools but no exact equivalent. Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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Next meeting: Christmas Barbeque
by Craig Box 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Hi everyone, The December WLUG meeting will be the annual end of year barbeque. This year the barbeque will be on Sunday 18 December, starting at around 2pm. The venue is the same as last time - Perry and Jamie's, 3 Liston Crescent. Due to the closeness to Christmas there will be no postponement if it's wet. Please check the website and mailing list before coming if you're in any way concerned about the weather. Please bring yourselves, partners [1], meat, alcohol, topics of conversation [2], and a passing interest in backyard cricket. WLUG will provide salad, bread and soft drinks as usual. You don't have to be a member to come to the barbeque, but if you aren't, it would be a really nice gesture to bring your $20 and sign up, wouldn't it? Hope to see you all there. Craig [1] Not all topics of conversation at WLUG barbeques are suitable for children. Some aren't even suitable for us. [2] Some comment was made in the last survey about some of the members being 'cliquey'. Two things are at play here; a lot of the WLUG regulars are friends outside of WLUG, and a lot of people go to barbeques and have weekends to get away from computers. Please don't expect all the topic to be about Linux. Probably, most of it will be about backyard cricket. Most of the people involved are easy to talk to, so please strike up conversations, and if there's anything that can be done to make the barbeque better, feel free to suggest it to someone who looks official.

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Desktop internet dialler in Ubuntu 5.10
by Glenn Ramsey 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

Hi, In the weekend I installed Ubuntu 5.10 on my Dad's PC to replace Mandrake which didn't have support for all his hardware. It seems to have everything he needs except a sensible internet dialler. I was able to connect to the Internet by using the "Network settings" gui to configure the ISP parameters and then activate the modem device. But that seems like an odd way to dial up and isn't particularly obvious. I then installed GnomePPP but it didn't work. After some searching I discovered that it needs to have wvdial set up but that didn't work either due to the restrictive permissions of /etc/ppp/*secrets, and the wvdial man page just says "yeah we know about that and don't have a solution". I could probably fix that but I was expecting it to "just work". Whats up with that? I expected that an internet dialler frontend would have been part of the basic functionality. Did I screw up the installation in some way? I don't remember answering any questions that pertained to this. Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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help with network connection please
by John Torrance 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

I have installed Breezy badger on my other computer and was working well - I then moved the computer upstairs and now cannot connect to the network that I have. I had the same problem with windows and fixed this by changing the speed from 100BaseT full duplex to 10BaseT full duplex. I think that the problem is the poor quality of the network cable. How do I change the connection speed with Ubuntu? I am a newbie so will need simple instructions Thanks John

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Re: [wlug] Desktop internet dialler in Ubuntu 5.10
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

I was unable to find the applet. so far I am using a "pon' script because I could not get the correct modem setting into the network gui until I learn about "udev". Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > > On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 08:36:29PM +1300, Glenn Ramsey > > wrote: Hi, > > > > In the weekend I installed Ubuntu 5.10 on my Dad's PC to > > replace Mandrake which didn't have support for all his > > hardware. It seems to have everything he needs except a > sensible internet dialler. > > There is a gnome panel applet for this - right-click on a > panel, and choose the "Modem Monitor" under the "System > and Hardware" grouping of applets. > > John > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > [Attachment: jrm21(a)cs.waikato.ac.nz.sig]

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[Fwd: Apache HTTP Server 2.2.0 Released]
by Oliver Jones 02 Dec '05

02 Dec '05

Nice shinny new software to play with... ;) Regards

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