August 2006 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Firefox 2 beta nice features
by Ian McDonald 31 Aug '06

31 Aug '06

I found this quite an interesting read: http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS3852026030.html It has nice features like adding RSS feeds to Bloglines, unclose tabs, open links in new tab by default etc. This article shows a few things I didn't know about previously. Looks like Firefox isn't sitting still as IE starts to catch up. Competition is great! -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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10 misunderstandings about the GPL
by Ian McDonald 31 Aug '06

31 Aug '06

Useful article here if you want to talk to people intelligently about the GPL: http://www.itmanagersjournal.com/article.pl?sid=06/08/21/1659203 -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Acceptable use of the WLUG Mailing List
by Meeting Reminder bot 31 Aug '06

31 Aug '06

The WLUG Mailing List is the discussion-list extension of the Waikato Linux Users Group (Incorporated). As such, we expect members of this list to adhere to the principles espoused in the official WLUG Charter[1], in particular, Rule 6, which covers the activities on this mailing list. While this is an Acceptable Use Policy, the WLUG Committee do recognise the need for informal discussion among list members, and draconian administration is not the goal here. Please keep in mind, however, that your comments to this list do represent the WLUG, and while it is good to be seen as an organisation with a sense of humour, some comments may do major harm to our credibility as a serious advocate of GNU/Linux and all things Free Software/ Open Source related. List discussion should * be honest * accentuate the positive, without hyperbole or blatant misrepresentation * maintain a reasonable level of spelling and grammar * not indulge in ad hominem attacks * not continue inflammatory or abusive threads * not be unprofessional or petty, especially with respect to the names of other software companies * not promote or denigrate political, cultural, or religious views * not indulge in marketing or advertising, other than on a private sale basis, or advertising of jobs - which may be announced once only * not reproduce copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder * not defame any person or organisation Posters who consistently violate these guidelines will be dealt with at the discretion of the List Maintainer. If you feel you have been unfairly dealt with, you have recourse to any member of the WLUG Committee[2]. Certain mailing list etiquette should also be maintained: * please use only plain text (not HTML) * reply inline or below when quoting, rather than on top * trim quotes (don't reply quoting a 10 page message with a single line of reply) If you have any questions, start reading at http://www.gweep.ca/~edmonds/usenet/ml-etiquette.html. These points have been established over a long time on this list. If you want to question them, please do it off list. As list users, use your discretion when pulling people up over etiquette - please reply off list, and if there is a serious breach, the list administrator will probably have dealt with it off-list already. [1] http://www.wlug.org.nz/WlugCharter [2] http://www.wlug.org.nz/WlugCommittee

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Using Ubuntu and iPods
by Ian McDonald 31 Aug '06

31 Aug '06

Good stuff here (well I think it but I don't have an ipod...) http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9266 -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In which CraigBox will present an overview of the http://www.wlug.org.nz/Squid caching WebProxy server, including: * how to set it up for a home network * how to have a gateway machine transparently proxy requests * locking down web access * and a sneak preview of what's coming in the new Squid 3.0.

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Committee meeting update
by Craig Box 27 Aug '06

27 Aug '06

Hi everyone, Meeting minutes --------------- Minutes of our last committee meeting are available online at http://www.wlug.org.nz/CommitteeMeetingTopics.2006-08-24. AGM --- The 2005 Annual General Meeting for Waikato Linux Users' Group (Inc) will be held on Monday 2 October, in the regular location. This is one week after our September meeting. The topic of the September meeting will be related to new users (and advertised in a handout at SFD), and include __free pizza__! Software Freedom Day -------------------- We are on track for hosting our Software Freedom Day advocacy event. If you are keen to help out (I haven't yet seen anything from the people who added their name to the wiki page!) please read the forum at http://forums.wlug.org.nz/viewforum.php?f=11, and see if there's anything you can help out with. We will be having a meeting about a week before the day for potential helpers to come along to. We're probably on track for demo people on the day but will still need people to help with set-up and tear-down, as well as random tasks during the day. WLUG server ----------- Thank you for your patience with the WLUG server over the weekend. Perry, Matt and I took the server up to Orcon on Saturday and spent the afternoon installing it. The database was quite corrupt (we were lucky to get the last backup off it) and Perry and Matt spent most of Sunday getting everything under control. On behalf of the committee Shell and mail access should be back online. Secure features such as webmail and the password changer will be down for a while still, while we figure out what we're doing with SSL certificates. See you all tonight for a crash course in the Squid caching web proxy! Craig

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Wiki being upgraded
by Ian McDonald 26 Aug '06

26 Aug '06

Folks, In case you are wondering about the page errors at present this is because the Wiki is being upgraded to our new server provided by HP. Many thanks to the people working on it - especially Perry and Matt who have worked long hours on it not to mention others like Craig, Daniel and John. Ian -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Printing with CUPS and Kyocera FS-9500DN
by Chris O'Halloran 24 Aug '06

24 Aug '06

http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~cmoman/Scan3845.pdf The above pdf is scan of the output I get having configured CUPS on my linux box to print to a Kyocera printer. It appears to me that the printer is not interpreting the PostScript test file as Postscript and is instead interpreting and printing the text within the file. The printer is connected to a local lan and most people print to it via Windows XP computers via a Windows server. I am using KDE with CUPS and have successfully printed to a brother colour laser using IPP and the PPD file from the Brother website. I am using the PPD file from the Kyocera file and linuxprinting.org says the Kyocera is supported perfectly. The Kyocera doesn't appear to use IPP but can be seen as a network printer or via SAMBA but I am not sure if this makes a difference. >From what I have described is a solution obvious? Thanks

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MAME arcade cabinet
by Craig Box 22 Aug '06

22 Aug '06

Does anyone have or know anyone in the Waikato have an arcade cabinet running MAME (preferably under Linux), and who would loan it to us for a day? Regards Craig

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XGL eye candy for Ubuntu
by James Pluck 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Has anyone had a chance to try this yet? http://news.com.com/2061-10795_3-6107780.html?part=rss&tag=6107780&subj=news -- James Pluck PalmOS Ergo Sum

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Running from a USB drive
by Glenn Ramsey 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi, I have sucessfully installed XUbuntu Dapper onto an external USB disk drive. I would like to be able to run it using this drive but the PC I have does not have the option of booting from USB. I understand that one solution to this is to create (or obtain) a custom boot floppy or CD, but I am wondering if it is possible to do it just with the live/install CD by passing the right parameters at the boot prompt. I tried pressing F6 and changing the root=/dev/ram to root=/dev/sda1 and removing all the other stuff but that didn't work. It boots but still runs from the CD. If that approach is not possible then is there a small (we're still in the DSL dark here) prebuilt iso that can be used to do this? I notice that there is a mini.iso in the distribution which I understand has something to do with network booting. Since that isn't too far removed from what I wan't to do then would it possible to use that? I have done some web searching for this but could only find the instructions for making a custom boot floppy or CD. Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 20 Aug '06

20 Aug '06

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In which CraigBox will present an overview of the http://www.wlug.org.nz/Squid caching WebProxy server, including: * how to set it up for a home network * how to have a gateway machine transparently proxy requests * locking down web access * and a sneak preview of what's coming in the new Squid 3.0.

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Getting files from a debian/ubuntu mirror
by Glenn Ramsey 18 Aug '06

18 Aug '06

I have LAN access to an Ubuntu mirror at Akl uni and I'd like to copy all the Dapper packages (incl multiverse and universe) onto my laptop so I can install it on other PCs at home. For Breezy I just copied the whole thing (11.4Gb), since the mirror was new and that's all that was there but I expect that it will have more than doubled in size now and I won't have HD space for it. Is there a way to copy only the package files for a specified version? Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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Python problem?
by Leslie Katz 18 Aug '06

18 Aug '06

Hi, Carlos. I tried your method 1 (except that I substituted "python24" for "python2.4", given the file's funny name) and it worked immediately. Many thanks, Leslie

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Python problem?
by Leslie Katz 17 Aug '06

17 Aug '06

I downloaded the latest version of youtube-dl (2006.08.15) from www.arrakis.es/~rggi3/youtube-dl/. It's a CLI program to download videos from YouTube. The instructions say you need the Python interpreter, v 2.4. A check of my RPM packages showed that I only had python-2.3.4-13.1.i386.rpm installed, so I also installed python24-2.4.1-2.i386.rpm, which I assume means that I now satisfy the requirement for v 2.4 of the Python interpreter. However, when I run youtube-dl, I get the following error message: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl", line 150, in ? urllib2.install_opener(urllib2.build_opener(urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor())) AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'HTTPCookieProcessor' I checked the contents of the file youtube-dl and line 150 of it is identical to the third of the four lines I just set out. I know nothing about Python. I did google to see if I could find some solution to the problem, but couldn't. Is there anything that strikes people immediately as something I could try to get youtube-dl working?

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Open source WMA/WMV from Real
by Ian McDonald 15 Aug '06

15 Aug '06

http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6105970.html?part=rss&tag=6105970&subj=news I know you can get this already from some sources but this in theory is fully legal rather than obtaining from other countries... Hopefully it will be in a license that can be incorporated into other code so we don't just have to use helix but regardless is another step forward as is Java going more opensource which was also announced at Linux World. -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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device order
by zcat 15 Aug '06

15 Aug '06

I ran into a very frustrating problem yesterday, hopefully someone in wlug knows the answer.. Verne has 4 sound devices; onboard sound, two PCI cards, and a USB transmitter. When I first set up breezy I had them loading as /dev/dsp onboard /dev/dsp1 first PCI /dev/dsp2 second PCI When he first got the USB transmitter it kept coming up as /dev/dsp1 and I managed to fix that by listing snd-intel8x0 and snd-ens1371 in /etc/modules, forcing the module for the onboard sound and two PCI cards to load earlier. Yesterday I upgraded to dapper and now all the sound devices come up in completely unpredictable order, not even the same on two consecutive boots. Even though the correct modules are still listed in /etc/modules. Is there a proper way to force devices to get detected in the order I want?

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Re: [wlug] DVD woes!! + wifi
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

Is that a single command on one line or two seperate commands? John > > Which suggests that you need to set an environment > variable. Try this in a shell; > > export DVDCSS_RAW_DEVICE=/dev/dvd > totem dvd:// > > And let me know what happens. > >

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Re: [wlug] DVD woes!! + wifi
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

You are right about strange, unless the dvd is encrypted differently to the last one we tried... Wlan I read that I need to dump "wifi radar" so just did that while I was out. The Howto says I need to extract a driver but I am sure I saw a reference to the bcm driver in dmesg so looking there then more reading I guess. Bruce. If you would like to I can bring it around at some stage. *........* Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > > > Here we go this is strange but true, > > * Eats words and watches dvd's* > > I went down and ran "apt-get update then installed > > mplayer. > > That is very strange, because I'm still quite sure we did > already try mplayer when you were here last! But good to > know it's working now. > > > How's the wireless coming along? >

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Irix
by Shane 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Hi All, Ive had an indy for a couple of years (complete with working webcam!) but I have no media for the OS (nor a monitor for that matter) As much fun as you can have with one of these things, Id like to have the OS on hand to start from scratch. Does anybody know where I can lay my greasy hands on the media? (and how much beer will need to be traded) Thanks Shane

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Intel opensources graphics drivers
by Ian McDonald 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Good news for us Linux users: http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6103941.html?part=rss&tag=6103941&subj=news Hopefully AMD/ATI and nvidia follow suit but don't hold your breath. This and the fact that a whole lot of wireless drivers are going into the latest kernel drivers signal that things are getting better for Linux on the desktop - especially with great distributions such as Ubuntu also. -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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Interesting article on digital cameras native format and Linux
by Ian McDonald 09 Aug '06

09 Aug '06

http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/08/01/209226 -- Ian McDonald Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group Department of Computer Science University of Waikato New Zealand

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SFD planning now on forums
by Craig Box 08 Aug '06

08 Aug '06

Hi all, As not everyone who wants to help is on the committee, and not everyone who is on the mailing list is in a position to help, and we have new forums that we're trying to encourage people to use, I thought I'd put some more information about what needs to be done up on a forum. Please check out http://forums.wlug.org.nz/viewforum.php?f=11 - each task is in its own topic, so if you're interested or have an opinion, please feel free to post. I will keep updating the first message in each thread as appropriate, but the more conversation, help and support, the better! The success of the LUG hinges on the participation of members. This is an event where we have the opportunity to set out well defined goals and then measure our success. It also has the potential of bringing lots of new blood into the society. Please get behind it. Regards Craig

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Re: [wlug] DVD woes!! + wifi
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 07 Aug '06

07 Aug '06

Thanks Ian Will try to follow that howto.. John.. > The bcm43xx consists of two parts - one is the in kernel > driver and the other is the binary firmware you extract > from an object file (usually a windows driver). > > dmesg will have the in-kernel driver giving messages even > if no binary firmware is there. > > I have put instructions on how to set it up at: > http://wlug.org.nz/BroadcomWirelessChipset > -- > Ian McDonald > Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 > Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com > WAND Network Research Group > Department of Computer Science > University of Waikato > New Zealand

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Re: [wlug] DVD woes!!
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 07 Aug '06

07 Aug '06

Here we go this is strange but true, * Eats words and watches dvd's* I went down and ran "apt-get update then installed mplayer. Came home and tossed a dvd in the drive and "VIOLA" the thing started playing in totem as dvd root. So, is there a lib type file in mplayer that totem needs? Bottom line is if the dvd drawer is closed with a disc in, it begins the autoplay in totem-xine. Resolved but I am unsure of how. Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > > > mplayer is one of the few that I have not tried, I will > > go to a network and download it but I am not confident > > about it working. > > John > > > I'm fairly sure we did try that already.. same problem. >

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