- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

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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Easier to install non-free software in Feisty
by Ian McDonald 08 Jan '07

08 Jan '07

Regardless on whether you think non-free is good or bad Ubuntu looks to be making it easier for next release: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=16890 -- 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 08 Jan '07

08 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Provisional agenda: # Minutes of previous meeting # Matters arising # Correspondence # Treasurers report # Topics for 2007 meetings # Public advocacy events ## Talking to local businesses ## Hamilton Central Library display ## Workshops ## Installfest # General Business CommitteeMeetingTopics

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Getting your money back for Windows
by Ian McDonald 05 Jan '07

05 Jan '07

Have a look at this for how to return your copy of Windows on a new PC: http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/01/03/227237 -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group

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Fwd: [NZOSS-OpenChat] Little pressie for you all...
by Ian McDonald 04 Jan '07

04 Jan '07

Interesting article here. Has some good points but it is heavily biased. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Date: Dec 25, 2006 12:17 AM Subject: [NZOSS-OpenChat] Little pressie for you all... To: NZOSS OpenChat <openchat(a)nzoss.org.nz> Hi all, Speaking of inspiration (and yes, thanks very much, Peter, for the excellent newsletter): in case you haven't read this already, I found this (not so) little gem to be most inspiring: http://www.vanwensveen.nl/rants/microsoft/IhateMS.html He might be dutch, but man can he wield the english language. Enjoy (and spread it around - I'm finding more and more people who a year ago wouldn't have cared less, are now interested in knowing why they might not want to deal with Microsoft... converted a guy - a visiting german - this evening, even). The tide has turned. Merry Christmas to those of you who observe such occasions - happy belated solstice to others. Hope you're all enjoying a good break. Dave -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group

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KDE SVG rendering
by Ian McDonald 03 Jan '07

03 Jan '07

If you want to look at how KDE 4 will be prettier have a look at: http://dot.kde.org/1167723426/ This is pretty much how the world is going - for example Vista does similar things -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group

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Re: [wlug] Wireless networking-Progress
by David 02 Jan '07

02 Jan '07

wlug-request(a)list.waikato.ac.nz wrote: I am trying to get my wifes computer set up on a wireless network, Ubuntu Edgy. I have a Dynalink / Netcom NP452 network card 88w8835 (libertas) chipset. I have set up the drivers with ndiswrapper. All seems OK except access point not associated, as below No it is a PCI card for a desktop Seems I was a little dyslexic, It is a NP542 card (not 452) The spec sheet is here Well we have progress First I got it going without WEP by removing the WE key and then it was necessary to reboot Edgy in order to get it to work again without the WEP key. Logging out and in again wasn't enough. Used command line to put the WEP key in sudo iwconfig wlan0 key s:(wepkey) This still did not work until we added open to the end ie. sudo iwconfig wlan0 key s:(wepkey) open This works, until the machine is rebooted. I assume that this will require manual editing of a config file. Am I right and which file do I have to edit. FYI the drivers I used with ndiswrapper were the WIN XP drivers on the CD. Thanks David Bowen

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Re: [wlug] Wireless networking
by David 31 Dec '06

31 Dec '06

wlug-request(a)list.waikato.ac.nz wrote: > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Wireless networking (Piers Harding) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 15:04:41 +0000 > From: Piers Harding <piers(a)ompka.net> > Subject: Re: [wlug] Wireless networking > To: Waikato Linux Users Group <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Message-ID: <20061230150440.GC30893(a)ompka.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hi - is that a PCMCIA card? For the internal mini-PCMCIA card that > came with my laptop (AMILO - Fujitsu-Siemens 64bit also running on > Ubuntu Edgy) I had to build the acer_acpi module to activate the > internal aerial - might be a red herring, but you never know => > http://www.archernar.co.uk/acer_acpi/acer_acpi_main.html > > Cheers. > > > Thanks. No it is a PCI card for a desktop Seems I was a little dyslexic, It is a NP542 card (not 452) The spec sheet is here http://www.netcomm.com.au/Spec_Sheets/NP542_SpecSheet.pdf *David*

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Wireless networking
by David 30 Dec '06

30 Dec '06

Hi I am trying to get my wifes computer set up on a wireless network, Ubuntu Edgy. I have a Dynalink / Netcom NP452 network card 88w8835 (libertas) chipset. I have set up the drivers with ndiswrapper. All seems OK except access point not associated, as below noi(a)noi-desktop:~$ sudo iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. wlan0 IEEE 802.11FH ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Frequency:2.442 GHz Access Point: Not-Associated Bit Rate:1 Mb/s Sensitivity=-200 dBm RTS thr:2346 B Fragment thr:2346 B Encryption key:off Power Management:off Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0 Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0 Yes no signal shows up from the router (Dynalink RTA1025W) -- Linux based apparently :-) but doing a scan picks up two networks. Mine is the first one. noi(a)noi-desktop:~$ sudo iwlist wlan0 scan Password: wlan0 Scan completed : Cell 01 - Address: 00:16:E3:58:B2:54 ESSID:"Sompoi" Protocol:IEEE 802.11g Mode:Managed Frequency:2.442 GHz (Channel 7) Quality:0/100 Signal level:-91 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm Encryption key:off Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s 12 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s Extra:bcn_int=100 Extra:atim=0 Cell 02 - Address: 00:14:78:F9:E5:96 ESSID:"TP-LINK" Protocol:IEEE 802.11g Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6) Quality:0/100 Signal level:-91 dBm Noise level:-256 dBm Encryption key:on Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s 12 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 9 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s Extra:bcn_int=100 Extra:atim=0 I have updated the router firmware, I am not sure what to do next. Rather new to networking, particularly wireless. Any suggestions appreciated Regards David Bowen

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Warren Hughes (IBM) is on leave until Jan 15
by Warren Hughes 29 Dec '06

29 Dec '06

I will be out of the office starting 28/12/2006 and will not return until 15/01/2007. Hi, thanks for your email. I'm on leave until Jan 15. I look forward to catching up with you on my return. Thanks and Merry Xmas, Warren.

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Re: [wlug] Working working - always working! *sigh*
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 27 Dec '06

27 Dec '06

Haaa, I got lucky also, Had a load to pick up on the 23rd in Detroit, MI that had to deliver Boxing Day at Laredo TX So I got to drive 720 miles on Christmas day. Got sent back to Detroit so looks like I get the same deal for the New Year. Ho Ho Ho Seasons Greeting all John... ----- Original Message Follows ----- > So who else has drawn the short straw and is working > through this year? > > > Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas weekend - however > you chose to spend it - and Best wishes for the rapidly > approaching 2K7! > > > James. > > -- > James Pluck > PalmOS Ergo Sum > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Working working - always working! *sigh*
by James Pluck 27 Dec '06

27 Dec '06

So who else has drawn the short straw and is working through this year? The cafe in the building is closed, the coffee is a barely acceptable substitute for the real thing and the workload is normal only there's fewer people to do it :) However, it is not all gloom and doom :) At least I still have my annual leave time for a holiday in the new year - that'll be cool! I'm thinking somewhere warm and sunny with a pool or nice ocean to swim in - around the time everyone else is shivering at their desks *grin* Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas weekend - however you chose to spend it - and Best wishes for the rapidly approaching 2K7! James. -- James Pluck PalmOS Ergo Sum

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Re: [wlug] Help with configuring modem under Ubuntu DD
by David 22 Dec '06

22 Dec '06

Hi First is to identify the modem chipset. You can do this visually or use scanmodem from http://www.linmodems.org/ You unzip the file and make it executable by running the command chmom +x scanModem Note the capital "M" then run it ./scanModem It will output to the home directory a file identifying the chipset and where to find drivers, if available. Also check out the Ubuntu wiki https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DialupModemHowto It was very good for setting up an Intel 536 modem "which is still available" Good luck David Bowen

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Help with configuring modem under Ubuntu DD
by James Pluck 22 Dec '06

22 Dec '06

Hi all, A friend of mine is trying to set up dialup internet on his computer under Ubuntu (as a gift for his wife so she can keep in touch with a good friend who's moved back to England - It's a surprise for Christmas). He and I have done our best to get things going but no joy. The modem is reporting as a HCF 56K voice/data/fax but we don't know the make as the computer was bought second hand with no supporting documentation :( Is there anyone out there who is adept at getting modems to work under Ubuntu who could help us get this working? We discovered that the Windows XP (original version - prior even to SP1) that is on the HDD (we installed Ubuntu to dual boot) is a pirated copy so it won't allow us to update the security patches and get things working under windows in the meantime. Any help would be appreciated. James. -- James Pluck PalmOS Ergo Sum

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Help with configuring modem under Ubuntu DD
by Leslie Katz 21 Dec '06

21 Dec '06

My view of these things is, no doubt, tainted, but when I got a used machine with an HCF modem already in it and set it up for a friend, I bought the Linuxant driver as the best way to get the thing going quickly. Upgrading kernels since hasn't presented any problem--the licence is perpetual, it seems, including upgraded drivers. Also, I had some problem, the nature of which I can't now recall, and asked Linuxant for assistance. I got it immediately by email and the problem turned out not to be a driver problem. (Maybe it was a wvdial problem.) However, the tech person, Jonathan, helped me sort it out over a couple more emails, even though I acknowledged to him that I knew he had no obligation to do so. Leslie

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First look at Thunderbird 2 beta
by Ian McDonald 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

Interesting article here: http://applications.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/12/19/2151210&from=rss -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group

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New Ubuntu release available from Dick Smith Electronics
by Craig Box 18 Dec '06

18 Dec '06

>From http://forums.wlug.org.nz/viewtopic.php?p=246 "I thought to pass on the news that DSE has started stocking the Ubuntu 6.10 Live DVD version. It comes with x86 and AMD64 Live DVD and retails for $9.98, great for those who don't wish to spend their bandwidth downloading it." The forum also has a high-res image of the new cover, which has been changed from DSE blue to a more Ubuntu brown. If you are interested in supporting DSE, ensuring they keep doing things like this, or just don't want to have to download the DVDs yourself, check it out: http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/en/product/XC4046

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Re: [wlug] Giveaway: MIPS teaching boards
by simc＠xtra.co.nz 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

---- simc(a)xtra.co.nz wrote: > I have three working boards that were used by the University of Waikato for teaching assembly language (MIPS) in 201. They have been sitting in a lecturers office for several years, the lecturer intended to make them into chip jewelry. I don't have any software or documentation (anyone?). They are all gone now, sorry to those who missed out. Simon Crosby

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Vista and Samba shares
by Ian McDonald 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

If you're planning on getting the two working together you might want to read this: http://www.builderau.com.au/blogs/codemonkeybusiness/viewblogpost.htm?p=339… -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group

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Giveaway: MIPS teaching boards
by simc＠xtra.co.nz 14 Dec '06

14 Dec '06

I have three working boards that were used by the University of Waikato for teaching assembly language (MIPS) in 201. They have been sitting in a lecturers office for several years, the lecturer intended to make them into chip jewelry. I don't have any software or documentation (anyone?). To get it to work you need a power supply (mine is 12V, 2A) and a 9 pin serial extention cord. Minicom can be used to conect to the boards monitor program. Contact me off list if you are interested. Simon Crosby

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Job hunting in Hamilton
by Bryce Utting 13 Dec '06

13 Dec '06

Hi all, Sorry about the WLUG-wide post, but hunting and chasing contacts and watching the agencies for over a year so far hasn't turned up anything yet. 'Tis a one-off message, I promise. Living in Pukekohe is just too much of a cost, so I'm trying to find a job back home in Hamilton. I've been working as an IT manager (JOAT: Windows, BSD, Samba, Apache, Perl, Postfix, etc) since 2001 and was a VB developer for a couple of years before that. The gotcha is that for health reasons I have to limit my work hours to 20 a week, which is why no-one's taken me up so far. (Yes, the university frequently job-shares, but their pay scales would mean a pay cut I can't afford.) Half-time jobs very rarely get listed, and my experience is that they only become available when an employer realises (a) they have a desperate need for someone with experience, but (b) they can't free up $80-$100K. If anyone knows of someone who's quietly despairing of finding someone they can afford but could work with those hours, I'd dearly love to hear about it. Address is as per header, CV available on request. I'd prefer to avoid short-term work if at all possible. And, yes, I'm fully resigned to many more months of searching. Sigh. Thanks all, and merry messy kweznuz! Bryce -- I am very new to programming drivers so if I sound un-knowledgeable then it's because I am. -- first4internet's Ceri Coburn on writing Sony's DRM rootkit http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~butting

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Fwd: [nzlug] OpenMedia formally release their Web based Virtual Remote add on for MythTV
by Ian McDonald 11 Dec '06

11 Dec '06

I know some people here are keen on Myth TV so forwarding. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Steven Ellis <mail_lists(a)stevencherie.net> Date: Dec 12, 2006 9:54 AM Subject: [nzlug] OpenMedia formally release their Web based Virtual Remote add on for MythTV To: aucklug(a)linux.net.nz, nzlug(a)linux.net.nz The primary aim for this was to assist customers with disabilities or access issues that would prevent them from using a conventional remote control to use their MythTV units. We have worked very closely with a customer who has Cerebral Palsy to come up with a layout that was both simple and obvious. As part of OpenMedia's commitment to the Open Source community all of this development is being released back to the MythTV team under standard Open Source Licenses. The initial release is now available on-line, and you can find more details at http://www.mythtv.co.nz/mythtv/?p=29 Steve. -- Steven Ellis - Technical Director OpenMedia Limited email - steven(a)openmedia.co.nz sales - sales(a)openmedia.co.nz support - support(a)openmedia.co.nz website - http://www.openmedia.co.nz _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)linux.net.nz http://www.linux.net.nz/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nzlug -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 10 Dec '06

10 Dec '06

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JamesPluck's house. This is at 31 Aberfoyle Street, Dinsdale. (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/nawton/aberfoyle+street/31/) Make sure you turn off Ellicot Road as the two ends of Aberfoyle Street do not connect! BYO meat and drinks, http://www.wlug.org.nz/WLUG will supply things like bread, salads, tables, BBQ.

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Java problem
by Leslie Katz 09 Dec '06

09 Dec '06

I posted a message a short time ago and don't know how to edit it, assuming that's possible, so I send this follow-on message. I kept looking for an answer to my problem after sending my original post and just found it. I record it, just in case it should be of use to someone who searches the archive later with a similar problem. As root, I did: mv /usr/bin/java /usr/bin/java.old ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0_09/bin/java /usr/bin/java Now, all works. Apologies for troubling people unnecessarily. Leslie

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Government overhauls copyright law.
by Ian McDonald 08 Dec '06

08 Dec '06

Folks, Here is a major announcement from the government: http://www.beehive.govt.nz/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=28024 and the actual proposed legislation is here: http://www.parliament.nz/NR/rdonlyres/5A88D15B-C4A1-42C2-AE75-9200DD87F738/… Some quick highlights as I read the act: (Note I am not a lawyer) - Reverse engineering IS allowed under some circumstances - basically for interoperability - format shifting is allowed but only initially for 2 years, this can be extended though (or not) - time shifting is allowed provided you don't keep it and it's not available on demand - ISPs are basically not liable (provided they follow take down notices) - allowed to alter commercial software if the vendor doesn't fix problems in reasonable time - anti-TPM (DRM via another name) is prohibited for sale or for producing (seems to cover open source). Fines of $150K or 5 years jail. Doesn't seem to prohibit if you have a copy but you can't write it yourself, sell it or tell others about it. Does make it an offence if you use it to copy copyrighted material. But you are allowed to use anti-TPM for "interoperability of software" so conceivably you could use software to play Itunes or DVDs on Linux. But this only applies if you have asked vendor for a copy you can use and they don't supply in a reasonable time. Overall this seems to be much better than DMCA of the USA but not perfect. It is probably better than people could have hoped for. Ian -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group

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Java problem
by Leslie Katz 08 Dec '06

08 Dec '06

When I test my Java Virtual Machine at www.java.com, I'm congratulated (no less), told I have the latest version, 1.5.0_09, and told that the JRE is functioning correctly. However, when, in a terminal, I issue the command "java -version", I get the following message: Error occurred during initialization of VM java/lang/NoClassDefFoundError: java/lang/Object I've tried to figure out how to resolve the contradiction in favour of the former statement, but it's beyond me. A snippet I've perhaps understood seems to suggest that rt.jar has the class file for java.lang.Object. I looked for rt.jar on my system and found I had two of them: /usr/lib/jre/lib/rt.jar; and /usr/java/jre1.5.0_09/lib/rt.jar. Why I have two, I don't know. The first one is smaller and seems to be older. I tried renaming it to rt.jar.old and then issuing the java -version command again. That had no positive effect, so I renamed it rt.jar again. Another snippet suggested that the problem might be that rt.jar was not included in the boot class path. I'm not sure if that's the same thing as not having the correct entry for JAVA_HOME, but I saw it suggested that, if there was no entry identifying Java's "home directory" Java might fail to identify its home directory. I found an entry about JAVA_HOME in /etc/profile.d/java.sh. It was: export JAVA_HOME=/usr/bin/java. Well, /usr/bin/java bears no resemblance to either of the two directories where I found the two rt.jar files. I did try substituting export JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jre1.5.0_09/ for the original entry, but that didn't work. If anyone has any further suggestions, I'd be grateful. Leslie PS Maybe I should add that when I run Firefox 2.0 and get a list of plugins, the java plugin is there. It seems to be working properly.

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Sunday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 07 Dec '06

07 Dec '06

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Sunday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JamesPluck's house. This is at 31 Aberfoyle Street, Dinsdale. (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/nawton/aberfoyle+street/31/) Make sure you turn off Ellicot Road as the two ends of Aberfoyle Street do not connect! BYO meat and drinks, http://www.wlug.org.nz/WLUG will supply things like bread, salads, tables, BBQ.

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Re: [wlug] I've seen the light
by elroy 06 Dec '06

06 Dec '06

My story: I have a requirement for a reliable, semi-up-to-date PC, that would keep my data reasonably safe if a HDD went South [1]. I would also like to be able to play the occasional Win32 game on it. Also, being faster than a Celeron-400 would be a bonus. I decided to get an IBM Netfinity 5100 (IBM x230?) - currently it has Dual-P-3-733s/1.2GB RAM/36GB RAID-5 Ultra160 SCSI/1x 10KRPM 36GB SCSI, with DVD-RW. Being slightly wary of Linux, I went about installing and using Win2k on it. Whether this is actually supported on this hardware would be interesting to find out - I'm guessing not, due to the USB issues I had... anything USB, and BSOD. Joy. I had a spare machine (Celeron-400), with USB stick that needed files from BenQ old digital camera copied to it. The Netfinity wouldn't budge, and ended up being unable to get past the boot prompt. Chucked an old copy of Ubuntu (5.04? Live CD) I was given at one of the WLUG meetings I attended, into the Celeron machine, it fired up, I connected the USB stick, it auto-mounted it, and I could see and access my files. Thought that was pretty cool, so connected the camera - same thing happened... I was impressed. I got the job done. I gave the Ubuntu CD a quick whirl on the Netfinity - and haven't looked back :-) Currently have an Intel SRCS14L plus 2x 320GB SATA to go into the Netfinity as RAID-1. Currently trying to figure out best way to get data transferred from Netfinity==>Celeron; remove SCSI RAID gear (insufficient capacity), install Intel RAID controller, setup, then move data from Celeron==>Netfinity again. Questions: Any reference pointers to NFS for noobs would be appreciated - having issues with identifying where exactly it is/isn't working... :-) Am learning a reasonable amount, however. Failing NFS, any Samba info would be appreciated - D/L'ing Samba packages plus docs at the moment... Recommendations for partitioning scheme please? Current Idea: Out of ~300GB: =GRUB= ===500MB /boot=B== ====4GB Linux Swap==== =====4GB Windows Swap===== ???? PROFIT! ======60GB Windows NTFS===B=== =======60GB Linux Business===B==== ========60GB Linux Play/Testing===B===== =========60GB Data1 FAT32=========== ==========60GB Data2 FAT32=========== Any help appreciated :-) Elroy. [1] A regular backup plan is also on the agenda... :P

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A flight simulator for Linux
by Ian McDonald 04 Dec '06

04 Dec '06

Good write up on flight gear at linux.com: http://applications.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/20/0533247&from=rss -- Web: http://wand.net.nz/~iam4 Blog: http://imcdnzl.blogspot.com WAND Network Research Group

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 02 Dec '06

02 Dec '06

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JamesPluck's house. This is at 31 Aberfoyle Street, Dinsdale. (http://zoomin.co.nz/nz/hamilton/nawton/aberfoyle+street/31/) Make sure you turn off Ellicot Road as the two ends of Aberfoyle Street do not connect! BYO meat and drinks, http://www.wlug.org.nz/WLUG will supply things like bread, salads, tables, BBQ.

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 01 Dec '06

01 Dec '06

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- End of year BBQ has been moved to 10th.

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Novell CEO gives interview about Microsoft deal
by Ian McDonald 29 Nov '06

29 Nov '06

Some more interesting background: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&art… -- 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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Good summary of PDF support in Linux
by Ian McDonald 28 Nov '06

28 Nov '06

http://applications.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/20/1933239&from=rss I agree with them that kpdf is nice - i use it a lot. -- 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 tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 26 Nov '06

26 Nov '06

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) as usual. A presentation on the SlackWare distribution by DeniseBates

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Java to be licensed under the GPL and become open source
by Chris O'Halloran 23 Nov '06

23 Nov '06

http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/java/getinvolved.jsp http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000125 http://www.redmonk.com/sogrady/archives/002516.html

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 23 Nov '06

23 Nov '06

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) as usual. A presentation on the SlackWare distribution by DeniseBates

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Article about Debian release management
by Ian McDonald 23 Nov '06

23 Nov '06

Interesting reading for Debian fans: http://distrocenter.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/21/1552223&from=rss -- 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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Date for Xmas bbq - 9th or 10th?
by Ian McDonald 22 Nov '06

22 Nov '06

Folks, We were going to have the BBQ on Saturday the 9th because of the Santa Parade on the 10th. However at least one person can't make it on the 9th because of other commitments. The santa parade is likely to be finished by early afternoon but I understand that people with families mightn't want to be going out all day to events. Can anybody who can't make it on the 9th or 10th please email me so that we can find the date that affects the least number of people. Thanks, 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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Updated articles on Microsoft and Novell
by Ian McDonald 21 Nov '06

21 Nov '06

Interesting reading. Microsoft says Novell does infringe patents and that's why we signed this agreement. Novell says no they don't and the agreement doesn't say that. Microsoft say - you're right the agreement doesn't say that but you still infringe our patents (but are protected by the agreement) http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6137444.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&sub… http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061120203431766 -- 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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Today's interesting articles
by Ian McDonald 21 Nov '06

21 Nov '06

One on how to use OpenVPN to connect networks: http://tips.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/07/213217&from=rss Another on how to setup Linux document management software: http://applications.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/10/31/1629224&from=rss -- 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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Creating videos using only open source software
by Ian McDonald 20 Nov '06

20 Nov '06

http://applications.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/13/2129256&from=rss -- 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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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 19 Nov '06

19 Nov '06

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) as usual. A presentation on the SlackWare distribution by DeniseBates

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usb problems
by Ron Dean 16 Nov '06

16 Nov '06

I foolishly used a usb 1 device on my computer and since then have not been able to use my usb 2 card reader or my pen drive or usb hard drive. I rebooted with the devices plugged in but they still weren't detected. Ron Dean

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Upgrade problems
by John Torrance 16 Nov '06

16 Nov '06

Just a short post to that you all for you help. A really big thanks to Bruce who spent a number of hours trying to solve my problem. It is great to have so many people happy to help a novice like me. I was unable to solve my upgrade problem in the end and I reloaded Dapper. I did come across the following which may have solved my problem - it may be helpful to someone. /*no text status messages in ubuntu edgy 6.10 splash screen* After upgrading from ubuntu 6.06 to ubuntu 6.10, usplash stopped working, Ubuntu started displaying a blank screen during startup and shutdown. *Solution* Edgy disabled the status messages in Usplash, but you can get them back easily using the following commands. First, open your menu.lst gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst Now you remove any mention of “quiet” from the file. You should get the messages again next time you boot./ /November 2nd, 2006 at 8:30 am <http://www.debianadmin.com/ubuntu-edgy-upgrade-common-problems-with-solutio…> In “text and splash doesn’t after upgrade to edgy” section, sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst should be a tiny typo of gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst/ Dapper is working for me and so I will probably just stick with it for the moment Cheers John

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Usb problems
by Ron Dean 15 Nov '06

15 Nov '06

I'm sorry I didn't mention that I'm using Ubuntu 6.10

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Sun considering GPL for Solaris
by Ian McDonald 14 Nov '06

14 Nov '06

http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6135461.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-20&sub… -- 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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Ubuntu/X/Beryl update
by Ian McDonald 14 Nov '06

14 Nov '06

Interesting read: http://community.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/13/2112259&from=rss -- 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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Sun release J2SE and J2ME under GPL
by James Pluck 13 Nov '06

13 Nov '06

I don't know who of you have seen this but it's the next step from Sun... http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/NL/87E69818532E8A9DCC25722500118A72 -- James Pluck PalmOS Ergo Sum

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ADS Realm - Openfiler configuration
by Chris O'Halloran 13 Nov '06

13 Nov '06

Hello, I am assisting the setting up of an "openfiler" server at work. www.openfiller.com Its on a network using Active Directories and I want openfiler to be visible on the network. One authentication question I have is what consitutes the ADS realm. Google search bring up lots of questions asked by other people on samba groups etc but I wonder how I can establish it from the windows configuration We've tried "tesla.local" and that seems to work to a certain extent but still can't see the computer on the Windows network. I've wondered if we haven't quite got the ADS realm or is there some other SAMBA setting the probably stopping the server being seen.

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 12 Nov '06

12 Nov '06

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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WLUG Comittee Meeting 20 Nov 2006 7:30pm, 31 Aberfoyle St (enter from Ellicot Rd end) Provisional agenda: # Minutes of previous meeting # Matters arising # Correspondence # Treasurers report # Server ## Hard disks ## NAS? # Topics for 2007 meetings # Public advocacy events ## Talking to local businesses ## Hamilton Central Library display ## Installfest # General Business

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Nearly fully open source phone
by Ian McDonald 08 Nov '06

08 Nov '06

http://lwn.net/Articles/208298/rss I want one! -- 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] Problems with sending email
by David 08 Nov '06

08 Nov '06

Date: Tue, 07 Nov 2006 18:49:26 +1300 From: "Ron Dean" <rvdean(a)ihug.co.nz> Subject: [wlug] Problems with sending email To: "Waikato Linux Users Group" <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> Message-ID: <op.tims4o04uq6lqx(a)ron-desktop> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes; charset=utf-8 I have thuderbird and Evolution Installed on Ubuntu 6.10 and am able to receive mail but am unable to send inspite of giving them the correct password. When I type it in it just re asks me for the password. I wondered if it was a bug that the two programs had in common as I am able to send Email with Opera in Ubuntu 6.10. This problem seemed to come after I had upgraded from the upgrade icon a few days ago. Ron Dean Read their home page status report. (Ihug) They have had problems due to a large quantity of spam being received. You have to chane some setting in the E-mail client. Below is their instructions for Thunderbird, Evolution was similar Thunderbird: Go to “Tools” --> “Account Settings”, click on the "Outgoing server (SMTP)" field. Depending on your version you will either then un-tick “Use name and password” or click edit then un-tick “Use name and password”. Then “OK” out of those screens.

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Warren Hughes (IBM) is on leave Wed Nov 7
by Warren Hughes 07 Nov '06

07 Nov '06

I will be out of the office starting 08/11/2006 and will not return until 09/11/2006. Hi, thanks for your email. I'm out of the office today and returning tomorrow Thursday Nov 8. Talk to you then, Warren

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Integration with Active Directory and Exchange 2003
by Ian McDonald 07 Nov '06

07 Nov '06

This might be of interest to some people: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=16412 I had a quick look at it. Never heard of most of it in the Active Directory parts and don't know what license etc it is using. Might be of interest to people working with AD though. -- 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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Problems with sending email
by Ron Dean 07 Nov '06

07 Nov '06

I have thuderbird and Evolution Installed on Ubuntu 6.10 and am able to receive mail but am unable to send inspite of giving them the correct password. When I type it in it just re asks me for the password. I wondered if it was a bug that the two programs had in common as I am able to send Email with Opera in Ubuntu 6.10. This problem seemed to come after I had upgraded from the upgrade icon a few days ago. Ron Dean -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

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Giveaways & freecycling
by Craig Box 07 Nov '06

07 Nov '06

I have one XL Software Freedom Day 2006 t-shirt from September. If anyone wants it, please let me know. Preference will of course be given to those who were there on the day. I also have an Epson Color Stylus 760 printer, free to a good home. Pick up from Hillcrest. Please e-mail me off list for both items. Craig

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Re: [wlug] [SPAM] Re: Two flavour install partioning?
by GJB 06 Nov '06

06 Nov '06

Wanker here again. Okay, thanks a lot Chris, that's really helpful. I admit I was suprised no one suggested I do a e2fsk before disk partioning since this used to be standard practice back in the day when I last fuzzily recall doing this kind of thing. So everything seems to be set-up for the disk partioning exercise now and I've got the go ahead on disabling the DMA but the question I now have is there seems to be two options; Do I i) merely make some free space available for Xubu (i.e. just shrink current root (/) and let the Xubu installation decided how to do the actual pationing and naming or ii) set up some partions for Xubu and a boot sector for it (actually will I even need two boot sectors for two linux flavours?) and tell it where to go? If/when a new root directory is made for Xubu will it named root (/) also? Can you have two sector named root(/) on the same hard drive? Thanx for any and all suggestions, Greg > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [SPAM] Re: [wlug] Two flavour install partioning? > From: "Chris O'Halloran" <cmoman(a)gmail.com> > Date: Sun, November 05, 2006 8:48 pm > To: "Waikato Linux Users Group" <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > > On 05/11/06, GJB <balle(a)auspira.com> wrote: > > > > Okay, it seems I should apologise, I expect whoever called me a wanker to do > > the same of course. > > > > There seems to be a huge misunderstanding here, my apologies for that. My > > comment to Matt wasn't intended as a "bite" (what does that mean?). > > I merely said in a somewhat rural vernacular that it was a "bum stare" (we > > are in waikato right?), i.e. the advice didn't work for me, not any > > reflection on Matt. > > And yes I know all about the "free advice is worth what you pay for it" > > thingy, I have picked up a few useful tips lurking here and that is > > appreciated. > > Messing with disk partions is hair raising stuff for the DIYer, once in a > > decade partitioner, linux user who values his data for his livelihood, it > > was late, etc. > > Anyway no-one, except Matt, has actually offered any useful suggestions on > > what the problem maybe or even queried what my hardware maybe really be as > > to where to go from here so I'm not expecting anybody to come up with > > anything. I cannot for the life of me see how armchair sysadmin types can > > diagnose harddisk partioning problems without knowing the hardware of the > > drive they are advising towards. If I have any criticism of anybody, this > > would be it. No malice intended, just a technical point and that perhaps > > there should be some more caution on that side of it. > > > > Back to the technical issue at hand. So yes Matt I did check the md5sum of > > the CD image before the burn but had become skeptical of the burn itself, is > > there anyway of checking the md5sum of the iso image once it is on the CD? > > From > http://www.g-loaded.eu/2006/10/07/verify-a-burned-cddvd-image-on-linux/ > > The method below assumes the iso image is called sep2006.iso > > <quote> > So, getting back to the md5 sum calculations, you can get the on-disk > image's md5 sum with the following: > $ cat sep2006.iso | md5sum > cc363de222ba6fe7455258e72b6c26ca - > > The final step is to calculate the md5 sum of the burned data. The dd > command can be used to read the DVD, but the crucial part is that dd > must read as much data as the size of the ISO image. Otherwise, it is > almost certain that you'll get a false negative about the quality of > the copy. > Data is written on a CD/DVD in blocks of size: 2048 bytes. The number > of the written blocks is the number of extents mkisofs had printed to > the stdout when creating the ISO image. The following command > instructs dd to read 169383 blocks, 2048 bytes each, and pipe it to > md5sum: > $ dd if=/dev/hdc bs=2048 count=169383 | md5sum > 169383+0 records in > 169383+0 records out > cc363de222ba6fe7455258e72b6c26ca - > > </quote> > > Similary the method above assumes the CD/DVD drive is /dev/hdc. > > > > > > > > Regardless of that, I found the problem with sysrescdd was I had to disable > > the DMA for the sysresccd to boot up cleanly. Others may want to note this, > > maybe not. This raises the further questions now: > > > > i) Is disabling the DMA before doing hard disk partitioning a safe thing to > > do? Qtparted seems to give me a GUI and recognises my current partion so > > that's encouraging. > > Disabling DMA is generally safer, it's just slower and in the case of > partitioning I can't see it making the slightest bit of difference. > It's a technology that allows disk data to be loaded directly into the > RAM bypassing the CPU. If DMA is causing problems, then disabling DMA > won't make them worse. The CPU will just have to manage the transfer > of the data. > > > > ii) Oh yeah, shouldn't I be doing an e2fsck before doing any disk > > partioning? > > I can't advise if is necessary but its probably a sensible precaution. > > But, have you made backup of your critical data? If you aren't > prepared to do that it might be better looking to install Xubuntu on a > separate harddrive. > > > > > > > > For now I'm getting up the gumption to screw around with the partions and > > make room for Xubu. > > Thnx for any help so far, particularly Matt. > > > > Greg > > > > > > > -------- Original Message -------- > > > Subject: Re: [wlug] Two flavour install partioning? > > > From: "Chris O'Halloran" <cmoman(a)gmail.com> > > > Date: Sun, November 05, 2006 2:50 pm > > > To: "Waikato Linux Users Group" <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > > > > > > Similarly, > > > > > > Greg, LUG's are voluntary associations of people with a common > > > interest in Linux and more generally open source software. Technical > > > questions to the list are welcome because we all share a general > > > interest in promoting and enjoying the use of open source software. > > > There are no commerical interests or obligations within the WLUG. > > > > > > You volunteered a question. Matt, a well established and knowledgeable > > > member of the WLUG (possibly a founder?) tried to assist you. Your > > > criticism of his advice is unwarranted. I would encourage you to > > > reconsider your criticism and offer an apology if you would like > > > anyone to consider responding to your questions in future. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 05/11/06, jaytee(a)clear.net.nz <jaytee(a)clear.net.nz> wrote: > > > > I Agree, > > > > It serves no purpose biting people who are trying to > > > > be helpful. > > > > Regards John > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message Follows ----- > > > > > I think you owe Matt an apology, your reply was rude and I > > > > > honestly don't think you will be getting better free > > > > > support from anywhere else.. > > > > > > > > > > Matts suggestion was completely on par with what you would > > > > > get from anyone else.. id suggest an apology and no longer > > > > > being such a wanker to people who are trying their best to > > > > > help you. > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > > > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > _______________________________________________ > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Re: [wlug] Two flavour install partioning?
by GJB 05 Nov '06

05 Nov '06

Okay, it seems I should apologise, I expect whoever called me a wanker to do the same of course. There seems to be a huge misunderstanding here, my apologies for that. My comment to Matt wasn't intended as a "bite" (what does that mean?). I merely said in a somewhat rural vernacular that it was a "bum stare" (we are in waikato right?), i.e. the advice didn't work for me, not any reflection on Matt. And yes I know all about the "free advice is worth what you pay for it" thingy, I have picked up a few useful tips lurking here and that is appreciated. Messing with disk partions is hair raising stuff for the DIYer, once in a decade partitioner, linux user who values his data for his livelihood, it was late, etc. Anyway no-one, except Matt, has actually offered any useful suggestions on what the problem maybe or even queried what my hardware maybe really be as to where to go from here so I'm not expecting anybody to come up with anything. I cannot for the life of me see how armchair sysadmin types can diagnose harddisk partioning problems without knowing the hardware of the drive they are advising towards. If I have any criticism of anybody, this would be it. No malice intended, just a technical point and that perhaps there should be some more caution on that side of it. Back to the technical issue at hand. So yes Matt I did check the md5sum of the CD image before the burn but had become skeptical of the burn itself, is there anyway of checking the md5sum of the iso image once it is on the CD? Regardless of that, I found the problem with sysrescdd was I had to disable the DMA for the sysresccd to boot up cleanly. Others may want to note this, maybe not. This raises the further questions now: i) Is disabling the DMA before doing hard disk partitioning a safe thing to do? Qtparted seems to give me a GUI and recognises my current partion so that's encouraging. ii) Oh yeah, shouldn't I be doing an e2fsck before doing any disk partioning? For now I'm getting up the gumption to screw around with the partions and make room for Xubu. Thnx for any help so far, particularly Matt. Greg > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: [wlug] Two flavour install partioning? > From: "Chris O'Halloran" <cmoman(a)gmail.com> > Date: Sun, November 05, 2006 2:50 pm > To: "Waikato Linux Users Group" <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > > Similarly, > > Greg, LUG's are voluntary associations of people with a common > interest in Linux and more generally open source software. Technical > questions to the list are welcome because we all share a general > interest in promoting and enjoying the use of open source software. > There are no commerical interests or obligations within the WLUG. > > You volunteered a question. Matt, a well established and knowledgeable > member of the WLUG (possibly a founder?) tried to assist you. Your > criticism of his advice is unwarranted. I would encourage you to > reconsider your criticism and offer an apology if you would like > anyone to consider responding to your questions in future. > > > > > > On 05/11/06, jaytee(a)clear.net.nz <jaytee(a)clear.net.nz> wrote: > > I Agree, > > It serves no purpose biting people who are trying to > > be helpful. > > Regards John > > > > ----- Original Message Follows ----- > > > I think you owe Matt an apology, your reply was rude and I > > > honestly don't think you will be getting better free > > > support from anywhere else.. > > > > > > Matts suggestion was completely on par with what you would > > > get from anyone else.. id suggest an apology and no longer > > > being such a wanker to people who are trying their best to > > > help you. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Re: [wlug] Two flavour install partioning?
by GJB 05 Nov '06

05 Nov '06

actually, now I think about it, the correct turn of phrase is spelt "bum steer" ... as in a bad animal that one might buy at the sales from time to time. which it wasn't thus far ... so no harm done, yet.

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Re: [wlug] Two flavour install partioning?
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 05 Nov '06

05 Nov '06

I Agree, It serves no purpose biting people who are trying to be helpful. Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > I think you owe Matt an apology, your reply was rude and I > honestly don't think you will be getting better free > support from anywhere else.. > > Matts suggestion was completely on par with what you would > get from anyone else.. id suggest an apology and no longer > being such a wanker to people who are trying their best to > help you.

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(no subject)
by Leslie Katz 05 Nov '06

05 Nov '06

What about a Knoppix live cd as a way into repartitioning? It may work even if sysrecord doesn't.

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Two flavour install partioning?
by GJB 04 Nov '06

04 Nov '06

Well Matt, the sysresccd was a bum stare. How many times have you actually used this utility on pre-Millenial Dell laptops? Segmentation Fault untarring the hotplug firmware and unceremoniously hung. Perhaps some more caution before bandying advice about third party disk tools? I was expecting at least a hardware question or two but your misplaced confidence spurred me on. Anybody else got ideas for disk partioning utilities for a Dell '99 era laptop, only ever had linux redhat on it? See previous discussion for what I'm wanting to do. Greg

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Two flavour install partitioning?
by GJB 04 Nov '06

04 Nov '06

Hello all, a longtime lurker here, I have an old Dell Laptop that has faithfully run various versions of Redhat over the years. The current hardrive in it has Rh7.3 that I'd like to keep on there for a while yet but I'd also like to put Xubuntu on the same hard drive, tried out the CD test and like it. The drive is currently partitioned with a separate boot, swap space and rest on root (/), all ext3 and no other system has ever been near it ;). Several questions arise: i) can I adjust the partitions of the hardrive to shrink the current root (/), create a new partion to install the Xubunutu on and set-up GRUB bootloader to give me a choice of which system to boot from? Is the best tool to do this fdisk or is there something else out now? ii) will I risk losing any of the current data in "/"? (As always will do a full system back-up first but what's the chances?) iii) will the systems need separate swap drive partitions or will Xubunutu recognise the current swap partition set-up? (No idea if or where config for this would be) iv) can i also partition a new section for to mount the current /home that both systems will then recognise as the new /home? (Just mount table config here I'm picking) Thanx for any help, Greg

2 1

Ubuntu 6.10 login problem
by John Torrance 03 Nov '06

03 Nov '06

Thanks for the advice I tried alt control F1 which gave me a command line - and allowed me to log in to a console, however, as I was typing the commands, it then automatically went back to the graphical interface. I then loggin in using the recovery mode which allowed me to run the sudo aptitude update sudo aptitude dist-upgrade this seemed to run until it listed a syntax error with "freemed" which might be an application I tried to install in the past - it then exited back to the command line. When I rebooted, it gave me the same screen - however, it tried to go past it, the screen would flash blank then white and then back to the cream blank screen. Eventually it popped up a box with: "The greeter application appears to be crashing - attempting to use a different one" After I clicked OK, the same thing happened - eventually sticking on the blank cream screen again. Any ideas?

4 6

Microsoft and Novell sign agreement
by Ian McDonald 03 Nov '06

03 Nov '06

Seems to be about patent protection etc. Haven't had a good read but this shows Linux is moving to next level in my opinion! (i.e. proprietary vendors have to co-operate) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10409018 -- 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

3 3

ubuntu 6.10 login problem
by John Torrance 03 Nov '06

03 Nov '06

John Torrance wrote: > > I have upgraded my ubuntu to 6.10. The problem is that after the logo, > > the login freezes with a blank cream coloured screen prior to the login > > stage. Does anyone know how to remedy this? > > > Does it eventually get to the login screen or not? It's not obvious from your post. Sorry, I should have been more specific - no, it just hangs - I am unable to log on hence my concern. I could do a fresh install but then I would loose everything on the computer. Thanks for the advice John, but I am an illiterate and the logs, even if I could work out how to boot into safe mode, would be meaningless. With regard to the Graphics card however, the computer has always run fine with all the previous Ubuntu releases that I have used Cheers John

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Fwd: Looking for prospective contacts within Hamilton IT
by Chris O'Halloran 02 Nov '06

02 Nov '06

Greetings. I have a flatmate who is becoming rather disallusioned with his present job. He is from the UK and came here to work in transport planning. The job hasn't materialised quite the way it was sold to him when he first applied for the position. So he's looking to move on and so he's looking for contacts within the IT sector/transport planning Waikato realm. Briefly he lists his skills as: Software testing - Manual and automated Developing user and process guides training prototyping code in Delphi 6 basic Delphi 6 Extensive MS Excel Spreadsheet development Extensive VBA Macro Code in MS Excel VBA Macros in Powerpoint Visual Basis 6 MAP Info GIS software IT support for MS office IT support for MS Windows various manipulations using text editors Database development in MS Access custom pedestrian simulation software EMME2 Transport modelling software Consultancy Proposal writing to win work I am really looking for potential contacts in various organisations that could use his skills. Thoughts appreciated. Chris

1 0

Comparing GIMP and Krita
by Ian McDonald 01 Nov '06

01 Nov '06

Krita (KDE graphics editor) has had a bit of publicity recently so this is worth having a look at comparing the features. http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/10/25/1950242 I'm starting to like KOffice a bit now as the different applications in it start to mature. 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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Countdown to linux.conf.au 2007: 75 DAYS TO GO
by Craig Box 01 Nov '06

01 Nov '06

The programme for LCA2007 has been published, and registrations are open. Here's the e-mail on the subject. - Craig Countdown to linux.conf.au 2007 =============================== 75 DAYS TO GO News: 1) Registrations have opened, with early bird discounts available until mid November! Due to issues with our payment gateway that have delayed this announcement, we will not be able to accept payment immediately. Please register, and as soon as our credit card facilities are up and running, we will contact you for payment. http://lists.linux.org.au/archives/lca-announce/2006-November/msg00000.html http://lca2007.linux.org.au/Registration 2) The linux.conf.au 2007 programme has been published! By all accounts, it is completely awesome. We've tried very hard to avoid terribly obvious clashes, but with so many exceptional topics and speakers, there will be the inevitable desire to see three or more things at once. Do *not* try this at home. Complete information about the talks and speakers will be up soon -- we just wanted to whet your appetite first. :-) http://lists.linux.org.au/archives/lca-announce/2006-November/msg00001.html http://lca2007.linux.org.au/Programme 3) Our first round of sponsors have confirmed their support! Sponsorship is crucial for a volunteer-run, non-profit conference such as ours, to ensure that we can fly in excellent speakers from around the world, to have fantastic venue, and for all the... extra-curricular activities! http://lca2007.linux.org.au/Sponsors Join the linux.conf.au announce mailing list for important announcements: http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/lca-announce Thanks, - Jeff Waugh The Seven Team -- linux.conf.au 2007: Sydney, Australia http://lca2007.linux.org.au/ _______________________________________________ linux-aus mailing list linux-aus(a)lists.linux.org.au http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/linux-aus

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Help Please
by John Torrance 01 Nov '06

01 Nov '06

I have upgraded my ubuntu to 6.10. The problem is that after the logo, the login freezes with a blank cream coloured screen prior to the login stage. Does anyone know how to remedy this? Much appreciated John

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WebMail - broken url
by stephen＠heyste.com 01 Nov '06

01 Nov '06

Hi, Webmail url - https://secure.wlug.org.nz/squirrelmail/ looks to be broken. TIA, Stephen

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Introducing 'Iceweasel' and 'Icedove'
by Simon Green 01 Nov '06

01 Nov '06

>From this weeks Debian Weekly News: "Firefox becomes Iceweasel. Due to trademark [47]issues the Debian project felt impelled to rename the Firefox web browser to Iceweasel and the Thunderbird mail client to Icedove. Roberto Sanchez [48]explained that the new packages don't contain non-free artwork from the [49]Mozilla Foundation and that security updates will be properly backported. The trademark [50]policy requires that such packages are not distributed under the original name, hence the new names. 47. http://lists.debian.org/debian-legal/2004/12/msg00328.html 48. http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2006/10/msg00665.html 49. http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/ 50. http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/trademarks/policy.html " Personally, I see this as the death of debian as a desktop distribution. Ubuntu 6.10 (which includes the non-free logo for the first time) suggests Ubuntu won't be following Debian footsteps in the renaming, thankfully. -- simon

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Lost property at the last meeting
by Jamie Curtis 01 Nov '06

01 Nov '06

Hi, I've just been asked by the University if anyone from WLUG left a small suitcase at the last meeting on Monday. If it's yours and you would like to claim it, message me off list and I'll put you in contact with the right person. Cheers, Jamie

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Ubuntu 6.10
by John Torrance 31 Oct '06

31 Oct '06

I have upgraded my ubuntu to 6.10. The problem is that after the logo, the login freezes with a blank cream coloured screen prior to the login stage. Does anyone know how to remedy this? Much appreciated John

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XFN
by Chris O'Halloran 31 Oct '06

31 Oct '06

interesting link regarding hyperlinks on blogs or any personal website to assisted in identifying social networks http://gmpg.org/xfn/and/

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Article on Ubuntu server setup
by Ian McDonald 30 Oct '06

30 Oct '06

This article claims to help you setup the "perfect" Ubuntu server: http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_ubuntu_6.10 -- 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 tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 29 Oct '06

29 Oct '06

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) as usual. PerryLorier will talk about http://www.wlug.org.nz/Plan9 (from BellLabs), the follow-up to http://www.wlug.org.nz/UNIX worked on by the original http://www.wlug.org.nz/UNIX authors and other luminaries.

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Announcing Ubuntu 6.10
by Simon Green 27 Oct '06

27 Oct '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen(a)ubuntu.com> Date: 26-Oct-2006 23:11 Subject: Announcing Ubuntu 6.10 The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 6.10, codenamed "Edgy Eft". This release includes both installable Desktop CDs and alternate text-mode installation CDs for several architectures. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for your desktop or server, with a fast and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default, every other package you can imagine available with a few clicks, and professional technical support from Canonical Limited and hundreds of other companies around the world. Ubuntu 6.10 will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers. Note that the previous stable release (6.06 LTS) is a long-term support release, and so users requiring a longer support lifetime may choose to continue using that version rather than upgrade to or install 6.10. To Get Ubuntu 6.10 ------------------ Download Ubuntu 6.10 here: New Zealand: http://nz.releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-releases/6.10/ ... To burn these CD images, you will need 700MB media. Ubuntu 6.10 media can also be purchased from a number of retailers. For more information, visit: http://www.ubuntu.com/products/GetUbuntu About Ubuntu 6.10 ----------------- Highlights of this release include: On the desktop This version introduces a host of new features, an improved interface and a wide variety of new applications and desktop tools making Ubuntu 6.10 flexible and user-friendly. Enhancements include: * Tomboy, an easy-to-use and efficient note-taking tool * F-Spot, a photo management tool that enables tagging, photo editing and automatic uploading to on-line web management sites such as Flickr * GNOME 2.16, which in addition to new features such as enhanced power management, makes the GNOME desktop more secure, faster and more stable * Substantially faster startup and shutdown with eye-catching high-resolution graphics * The latest Firefox web browser, version 2.0, which offers inline spell check support in web forms, easy recovery of crashed sessions, built-in phishing detectors, enhanced search engine management with built in OpenSearch support, and better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds * Proactive security features, preventing many common security vulnerabilities even before they are discovered * Evolution 2.8.0, which brings new features such as vertical message panes On the Server The Ubuntu server edition builds on the functionality from the previous release simplifying common Linux server deployment processes. It also includes a pre-release of the upcoming LTSP-5 (Linux Terminal Server Project). LTSP-5 offers clients a lower TCO (total cost of ownership), simpler installation and easier maintenance than typical IT deployments. With all data stored on the server, administrators have substantially eliminated the cost of updating individual workstations to ensure their security. Enhancements to LTSP-5 include: * Automatic network configuration with DHCP service for servers with two or more network cards attached -- available with the alternate CD installer * Language and session selection from the LTSP login manager -- allowing a user to choose from any of the languages and desktop sessions installed on the server * Support for locally attached devices on thin clients -- allowing users to access cameras, iPods or USB sticks on the thin client * Printing support - enabling printing on a local printer from the thin client * Full support for Etherboot Localization * Automatic setup of non-Latin input methods * Menu item translations included in language packs, for faster integration of new and updated translations provided through Rosetta * Ongoing translation updates from the Rosetta web service: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/edgy/+translations Installation and Upgrades Under the hood * GCC 4.1 * Glibc 2.4 * Linux 2.6.17 As always, Ubuntu includes the very best of the 100% Free / Libre application software world, and each new release incorporates countless new features and bug fixes from the global development community. More detailed release notes are at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/EdgyReleaseNotes Helping Shape Ubuntu -------------------- If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate/ If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren't sure, try asking on the #ubuntu channel on IRC.FreeNode.net, on the Ubuntu Users mailing list, or on the Ubuntu forums: http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-users http://www.ubuntuforums.org/ More Information ---------------- You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this release on our website: http://www.ubuntu.com/ To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's very low volume announcement list at: http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 26 Oct '06

26 Oct '06

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) as usual. PerryLorier will talk about http://www.wlug.org.nz/Plan9 (from BellLabs), the follow-up to http://www.wlug.org.nz/UNIX worked on by the original http://www.wlug.org.nz/UNIX authors and other luminaries.

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Oracle doing a CentOs (rebadging RedHat)
by Ian McDonald 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

For those that haven't heard Oracle is rebadging RedHat and providing support. http://weblog.infoworld.com/openresource/archives/2006/10/with_friends_li.h… Things that I see significant are: - Download RedHat EL clone for free - Cheaper support costs - Full compatiablity support - More support for older versions. - Don't have to be a Oracle customer Oracle have contributed a lot of kernel patches recently so I think they are fairly serious about that. I think this may well reduce CentOs installs and some corporates will go with Oracle. Interesting times. -- 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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Debate around ndiswrapper in the kernel
by Ian McDonald 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

People who are interested in such things might find this interesting: http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/205644/f12f60903303d835/ (Yes it is a link you can read - SubscriberLink refers to the fact I am a subscriber and sharing a story) -- 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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Firefox 2 features
by Ian McDonald 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

And on a similar note to the last post here is what's new in Firefox 2: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features.html -- 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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Organisation needed for Free & Open Source Software study
by Nigel Nguyen 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

Hi all, I am Nigel Nguyen, currently doing a dissertation that study about FOSS movement in New Zealand that focused on SME (small & medium size enterprise - that is business that have less than 19 staffs). I wonder if anyone from the list that run a business or the main decision maker / technology people that could help me to have an insight study in FOSS. Following are information about the study: ----------------- Overview This research is conducted to examine the status of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) adoption within New Zealand context, particularly the small and medium enterprises community. The report of this research is a compulsory dissertation for my Postgraduate of Electronic Commerce qualification. This research also aim at provide literature ground for later study on FOSS in New Zealand as well as to provide chance for FOSS developers learn about New Zealand business requirements. Who’s responsible? My name is Dung Trung (Nigel) Nguyen who undertake the responsibility for this entire research. You can contact me at 021 78 6769, email me at nigel(a)nigelnguyen.org. This research is supervised by Professor Robert J. McQueen who contact details is available on requested. What will you as a participant have to do and how long will it take? There will be a single interview which should take approximately half hour. The interview will be unstructured (non-directive), unbiased, yet still focus on the recent FOSS implementation in your organization. What will happen to the collected information? The interview responses will be used by the researcher to write a descriptive research report. Only the researcher and the supervisor of the study will be privy to source materials. Afterwards (30 days after final submission of the report), all physical material (notes, recorded tape) will be destroyed and/or erased. Some information, however, will be trimmed to be unidentifiable and transferred to digital format for later reference. No participants will be named in research reports unless explicit consent has been given, and every effort will be made to disguise the identity. Declaration to participant If you take part in the study, you have the right to: - Refuse to answer any particular question, and to withdraw from the study (all collected information will be destroyed immediately in this case) within 21 days from the interview day. - Ask any further questions about the study that occur to you during your participants. - Be given access to a summary of the findings from the study when it is concluded. - The Privacy Act 1993 will be applied in order to protect the interest of participants. -------------- If you are interested, please contact me off the list. I will then forward you some further (formal) documentation. Thank you for your help, time and attention, Nigel Nguyen

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Fedora Core 6 out
by Craig Box 25 Oct '06

25 Oct '06

http://fedoraproject.org/static-tmp/FC6ReleaseSummary.html The main Fedora server has melted under the load, so find another mirror for the release notes. A good summary and BT links are on that page though. Craig

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Review of Gaim 2
by Ian McDonald 24 Oct '06

24 Oct '06

I know a few people use this so might find this interesting - review of the beta of Gaim 2. http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/10/24/1634247 -- 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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Good little tutorial on permissions, users and processes
by Ian McDonald 24 Oct '06

24 Oct '06

I learnt a few things from this and it helps explain quite a few concepts: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/aix/library/au-speakingunix4/?ca=dgr-… -- 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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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 22 Oct '06

22 Oct '06

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm, TW.2.07 (http://www.wlug.org.nz/TW) as usual. PerryLorier will talk about http://www.wlug.org.nz/Plan9 (from BellLabs), the follow-up to http://www.wlug.org.nz/UNIX worked on by the original http://www.wlug.org.nz/UNIX authors and other luminaries.

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Copying from one hard drive to another
by Glenn Ramsey 20 Oct '06

20 Oct '06

I have a hard drive that contains several ext3 partitions an NTFS partition and a FAT32 partition. Is it possible to copy it's contents to another drive of a different type but nominally the same capacity (one drive is 2.5" the other 3.5") using some sort of bitwise copy? If so then what commands do I need to do it? I could do it manually by creating the right partitions on the second drive and copying the files, but I'm wondering if there's a less tedious way? Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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Flashplayer 9 beta out now
by Ian McDonald 19 Oct '06

19 Oct '06

For all of those people who haven't been able to use MySpace and YouTube fully under Linux you might want to check this out: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2006/10/beta_is_live.html I haven't had a play yet but looking forward to trying it. I've also tried gnash which is an open source alternative to flash but unfortunately it doesn't really work very well at all - the sites I tried on it crashed or did nothing. -- 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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Openfiler
by Chris O'Halloran 19 Oct '06

19 Oct '06

Hello, The company I work for is about >< this close to setting up Openfiler as a file server. The IT guys have setup 1.1 and liked what they saw but were waiting for OpenFiler 2 to be released as stable for use. It is now, so our IT guy downloaded the ISO file, cut it to CD but it won't boot. He came to me and I suggested that we check the md5sum to verify the image. I've looked high and low on the site, googlged around, searched wikis and mailing lists and even hooked on to a few mirror sites to see if I could find a text file with the md5sum. But I am stuck for an answer on this one short of posting to the openfiler discussion list. Any other suggestions? Cheers Chris

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Linux on the Playstation 3
by Ian McDonald 19 Oct '06

19 Oct '06

Interesting article here: http://arstechnica.com/articles/columns/linux/linux-20061018.ars -- 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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Ubuntu 7.04 planning begins
by Ian McDonald 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

Folks, Efty Edge is not quite out and Feisty Fawn is getting underway. I like the sound of multimedia enablement and improving the end user experience. From: Mark Shuttleworth <mark-AT-canonical.com> To: ubuntu-devel-announce-AT-lists.ubuntu.com Subject: Planning for Ubuntu 7.04 - the "Feisty Fawn" Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:48:22 +0100 Salve, Ubuntero's With the final release of Ubuntu 6.10 approaching, and apparently set to be spot on schedule October 26th, we're starting to look beyond it to Ubuntu 7.04, scheduled for release on 19 April 2007. In the next cycle we'll expand on the brand new infrastructure that has landed in Edgy as well as branching out in some exciting new directions. This combination of courage and restlessness is also found in a young deer that sets out to explore a world that is new and exciting - seeing the world through eyes unprejudiced by what has gone before. In that spirit, the release will be be code named "The Feisty Fawn". The main themes for feature development in this release will be improvements to hardware support in the laptop, desktop and high-end server market, and aggressive adoption of emerging desktop technologies. Ubuntu's Feisty release will put the spotlight on multimedia enablement and desktop effects. We expect this to be a very gratifying release for both users and developers. Detailed planning will take place at the developer summit next month in Mountain View, California. Please join us there to help shape the Feisty Fawn! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDeveloperSummitMountainView This will be our sixth release, marking the third anniversary of the project's inception, and will be a return to our standard six-month release schedule following the shortened catch-up cycle used for 6.10. Edgy has been a wild ride, with some remarkable achievements (nothing like re-inventing and substantially improving on init!). Feisty will be a little more focused on features that are very visible to end-users. We welcome new participants in our community - whatever your talent we look forward to working with you! Jono Bacon, our new community lead, will find a way to make sure your contribution is well received. Mark -- 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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Slackware 11 review
by Ian McDonald 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

Given the recent interest in this I'm posting this review I've just seen: http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/10/16/2045208 -- 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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NTP syncing on a local network
by Ian McDonald 18 Oct '06

18 Oct '06

I'm wanting to sync two machines to within 1 msec for my research using ntp. Questions: - is this realistic given how clocks drift? Has anybody done this? - is there a quick way to force them to converge I've had a quick read of the ntp pages and made one of my machines a broadcast server and the other broadcast clients I think but they seem to be taking a while to converge. The man pages say they will fix at 0.5ms/sec but I'm not seeing that. Comments appreciated. NB I don't want my clocks to be deadly accurate to the "real world", just to each other. 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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Suggestion for meeting topic next year
by Denise Bates 15 Oct '06

15 Oct '06

Hello folks, At last months meeting there was a call for suggestions for meeting topics for next year. I would like to propose the following..... As I am in the process of upgrading my stable of computers to Slackware 11.0, I remain puzzled why the BS about Slackware being hard to use has any traction at all. While I expect _any_ discussion of Slackware will probably be branded as a distro war, I think that I could deliver a constructive, informative talk on the _underlying essence_ of text-based installation, package management, and configuration. I would invite the audience to engage in _constructive_ discussion of whether the extra demands made by GUIs on computer resources justifies any ease of installation, package management, and configuration (if any). I would like to have a newbie actually install and configure a computer as part of the presentation. I realise that time will be tight, but I should be able to keep it around the one-hour mark. I suggest the following parameters- ** The installer does not have to be experienced with Linux, but it would be helpful if they were savvy with the computing basics on any operating system. I can give them a printed copy of Slackware Basics and the Slackware Manual. If they get stuck and cannot find the information that they require within one minute, then I could tell them what to do (to keep the presentation moving along). ** The computer to be used should be representative of current modest-specced machines available- no Winmodems, odd-ball, or defective components. ** The installation should be a typical one for a typical home user - no esoteric networking or overly specialised hardware. I would have the installers machine hooked up to the projector, so to show how she/he is progressing. Given these parameters, the newbie should be able to complete the installation/configuration in well under an hour on a reasonably fast machine. I could offer up a few Slackware CDs if any member of the audience also wants to do an install during the presentation. I would welcome the participation of other Slackers as co-presenters. I would also like to attend equivalent presentations by other folk who prefer a substantially different distro (I am particularly curious about Gentoo and LFS). Again, I stress that I am not attempting to start a distro-war. I would be attempting to discuss the underlying philosophy behind the oldest surviving Linux distro and to question whether the purported user-friendliness of GUI-based administrative suites can be justified. regards, ********************************************* Dr Denise J. Bates, PO Box 50, Meremere New Zealand E-mail: dbates(a)iconz.co.nz Telephone 09-2336433 Mobile 021-2541330 *********************************************

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Memory module information
by Leslie Katz 12 Oct '06

12 Oct '06

I've acquired half a dozen old memory modules. I've been able to identify them from Googling as two 72 pin SIMMS and four 168 pin DIMMS. The DIMMS have PC speeds varying between 66 and 133. It may be that one or more of the modules will fit into a friend's computer, which is itself pretty old. Is there some command I can ask the friend to run which will give us information about the installed memory modules now in her computer--such things as type and PC speed--so that I can find out now whether I should even try to install any of them for her?

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Date for October meeting
by Ian McDonald 11 Oct '06

11 Oct '06

Folks, Normally the meeting for October would be on October 23rd being the fourth Monday. This is also labour day. We are trying to decide whether to have it on that day or the 30th. If anybody can't make either day can you send me an e-mail off list please? The speaker will be Perry Lorier on Plan 9 which is an alternative operating system with some really interesting concepts. 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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[Fwd: FW: Signing up for an account on the new Genesis Energy website TMS 43752]
by Dominic Tennant 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

FYI, this is Genesis' response to my email :)

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Splitting an image file over CR ROMs
by Chris O'Halloran 08 Oct '06

08 Oct '06

Hello, I have a disk image of about 8.4G that I took from a friends computer about 18 months ago. Since then the harddrive has been reformatted and that data lost. I would like to send disk image via CD's to the UK where the disk image can be reassembled. I imagine that might take about 12-13 CD's the file is recognised as a xxxxxx.dat file and I am sure I made it using something like dd if=/dev/hda5 of=/mnt/hdb11/image_name.dat Would people be prepared to offer any hints on how to do that? Cheers

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Linux Installation
by Sahil Gupta 08 Oct '06

08 Oct '06

Hi Wlug, Long time no see! This is slightly off-topic. I'm currently located in Australia and need a couple of boxes installed with Linux. The machines are located in Hamilton at present and can be dropped off/picked up by someone, along with a Slackware 11.0 install disc. Would anybody like a quick job on installing a distro on a bunch of machines? Cheers! Please reply off-list. Regards, Sahil Gupta VoiceValley

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