January 2007 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

"Free" version of Ubuntu - gNewSense
by Ian McDonald 21 Jan '07

21 Jan '07

Some people think Ubuntu shouldn't be using non-free software and have made gNewSense which is now supported by Gnu Interesting interview here about it: http://cuttingfree.blogsome.com/2007/01/19/an-interview-with-gnewsense-foun… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz WAND Network Research Group

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 21 Jan '07

21 Jan '07

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ubuntu dual-boot presentation by CairoKingsbury Ubuntu is so easy even my mum (http://www.wlug.org.nz/YourMum) can use it! And it's really easy to install too. 7:30pm, TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW)

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 18 Jan '07

18 Jan '07

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ubuntu dual-boot presentation by CairoKingsbury Ubuntu is so easy even my mum (http://www.wlug.org.nz/YourMum) can use it! And it's really easy to install too. 7:30pm, TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW)

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Another lightweight Linux distribution
by Ian McDonald 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

There's a review of DeLi here: http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/01/10/1529228 This runs on 386 class machinery with 4 MB RAM upwards. This might be useful to have in your toolkit with DSL and Puppy which are also well suited to older machines. -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz WAND Network Research Group

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Flashplayer 9 release out now
by Ian McDonald 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

Now out of beta: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2007/01/flash_player_9_for_linux_x86.html -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz WAND Network Research Group

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Windows based installer for Ubuntu
by Ian McDonald 17 Jan '07

17 Jan '07

This sounds cool: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=338279 A good way for people to get used to Linux. -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz WAND Network Research Group

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 15 Jan '07

15 Jan '07

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I think we have a committee meeting about here? 1. Minutes of previous meeting. 2. Matters arising. 3. Correspondence. 4. Treasurers report. 5. General Business

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Good new online about starting kernel building
by Ian McDonald 11 Jan '07

11 Jan '07

If you're interested in having a play with the Linux kernel yourself then there is an excellent new resource online at: http://www.kroah.com/lkn/ It does not assume you are a programmer or an expert so is suitable for most users who can use a command line. -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://iansblog.jandi.co.nz WAND Network Research Group

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Correcting filesystem errors
by Leslie Katz 10 Jan '07

10 Jan '07

Thanks very much for putting me right about the above, Daniel. Using mkfs (instead of fdisk) allowed me to replace the filesystems on the my three Linux partitions and, when I ran fsck afterwards on each of those partitions, I got a clean bill of health (though I understand your warning about the hard disk possibly going bad). I'm now onto re-installing DSL. Thanks again, Leslie

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Correcting filesystem errors
by Leslie Katz 09 Jan '07

09 Jan '07

I have an old Compaq laptop I'm trying to fix for the son of friends. I'm the one who gave him the laptop, with Damn Small Linux installed on the machine's only hard disk, so that he could use the thing for browsing, email, instant messaging, etc. When I set it up, I had four partitions: 1. hda1 was the boot partition. It started at cylinder 5 and went to 483. I put a regular Linux filesystem on it, ID 83. 2. hda2 started at cylinder 484 and went to 961. I put a regular Linux filesystem on it too, ID 83. 3. hda3 started at cylinder 1 and went to 4. I put a Compaq diagnostics filesystem on it, ID 12. I have a vague memory of learning at the time I was setting up the laptop that the BIOS for the computer was on the hard disk and that's why I had hda3. 4. hda4 started at cylinder 962 and went to 993. I put a Linux swap filesystem on it, ID 82. When I took the computer back to try to fix it, I was aware that there were lots of filesystem problems being reported. At the same time, I thought I'd take the opportunity to upgrade to the latest version of DSL for the boy. I thought the best way to proceed was to boot up using a Knoppix live cd in text mode, delete the existing partions 1, 2 and 4 and add new partitions 1,2 and 4 with the same filesystems as the original partitions had had before. I did that using fdisk and was told I'd have to reboot before my changes took effect. I did that and then tried to run fsck /dev/hda1. I thought there'd be no problem reported by fsck, because I thought that replacing the partitions as I'd done would have overwritten everything on them. However, that doesn't seem to be right. fsck found errors and asked me to confirm every change it suggested as it went along. I didn't want to have to do that, so I exited and ran fsck -p /dev/hda1 instead. However, that didn't work either. It kept telling me that because of unexpected inconsistencies, I had to proceed manually. How do I obliterate everything on hda but hda3 and create my other partitions and filesystems afresh, in a way that puts an end to existing filesystem errors?

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