- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Digital Cameras and Linux
by Chris O'Halloran 03 Dec '09

03 Dec '09

Hello all, I know there are some photography enthusiasts on this list. I am considering purchasing a digital SLR camera. I bought a film based SLR camera about 6 years ago but it would seem it is time to move on. The previous camera was a Nikon F55 and I had purchased a few filters and a 300mm telephoto lens. Even though it was an entry level camera, I was generally happy with the quality of the images. In previous reading on this topic, I understand the opinion varies amongst manufacturers on the various file formats and how well they allow the RAW file formats to be extracted from the camera. The two brands I am mostly considering at this stage are Nikon and Canon. Would anyone care to comment if a Linux user is likely to have a preference for either and/or if there is another brand that is very Linux friendly? I like the idea of a camera that uses SD cards and possibly conventional batteries but that requirement isn't hard n fast. Additionally if there is some way to use my legacy 300m telephoto lens, that would also be cool but I'm resigned to it being incompatible. Thanks for any thoughts offered, just thought I'd ask. Cheers, Chris

4 4

performance difference between a swap partition vs a swap file >>>>>
by Narender 03 Dec '09

03 Dec '09

I have done a lot of research, but I do not have any real world experience so I'm hoping you can help me understand the real world differences in performance. The research tells me that if you create a swap file on an empty disk and on a OS using kernel 2.6 then the performance differences are minor, but that the swap partition is a slight favorite in terms of pure performance. Our Scenario: Raid 1 146GB partition 33GB Swap File created on / (Note: the swap file was created when the OS was built, so the hard drives were not full and they were very empty) Kernel 2.6 Best Regards N

6 13

Newbee near the university with vanishing XP cursor needs help
by Robert D Davidson 30 Nov '09

30 Nov '09

Hi Wlug, A computer newbee with XP who lives in Hillcrest and runs a property development business needs computer help. From an initial consultation with him, at my local cafe in Morrinsville, he seems like a canditate of a simple port to Lynix on his existing hardware. He is prepared to format his hardrive to solve his problems. Anyone interested please contact me for his details. I haven't discussed costs with him but I guess this would be a paying job at his expense as he wants a speedy response. Cheers Robert

1 0

WLUG Fixit Meeting is today!
by Meeting Reminder bot 27 Nov '09

27 Nov '09

A reminder, the WLUG Fixit Meeting is today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- End of year BBQ and saturday workshop SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/map/nz/hamilton/fairfield/-te+whanau+ptahi/) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. Since this is the last workshop of the year we're also going to make this the end of year BBQ We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee, BBQ lunch, etc.

1 0

WLUG End of year BBQ / Get together Saturday 28th Nov
by Bruce Kingsbury 27 Nov '09

27 Nov '09

Sorry for the short notice, but I didn't realise I hadn't put this on the Wiki already; The WLUG annual BBQ and get together will be on Saturday at Te Whanau Putahi (at the end of Oxford St), along with the regular Saturday Workshop. workshop is 10am-4pm, BBQ will be somewhere around 12-1pm. This will be the last meeting for the year, and a good time to renew your membership for next year! Hope to see you there.. Bruce

10 19

AJAX and jQuery help please?
by James Pluck 27 Nov '09

27 Nov '09

Hi all! Is there anyone out there who is adept with jQuery, javascript and AJAX? I have an ajax call in the application that I am working on that is the root of a Heisenbug that is causing me some grief! I have pruned the call to the collowing code: <code> function addPublication ( pubID, pubName, pubCategories ){ alert ( "in addPublication" ); var xhr = $.ajax ({ url: "/publisher/ajax/addpub.php", type: "POST", data: ({ id: pubID, name: pubName, "categories[]": pubCategories }), success: function(){ alert ( "We're Back from addpublication" ); } }); alert ( "*" + xhr.responseText + "*" ); }; </code> The post that is generated from this is correct and if I manually send that post data to the php script I get the expected results (at the moment all the script does is generate an empty page with a "print_r" of the post data. However, the ajax call randomly returns correctly or returns with "error - undefined error." Firebug is distressingly unhelpful in that all it does is show the url in red in the console and no errors or anything! I have found on occasion that erasing the url and retyping it exactly will cause the bug to disappear but any editting of the js file after that will cause the bug to return. The ironic thing is that when I have the full function of the php script activated it actually does the task that it is supposed to do correctly - except that I have to refresh the page to see the result instead of the ajax refreshing the page properly. Argh! can anyone shed some light? -- James Pluck A Cruce Salus Charles de Gaulle - "The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs." - http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charles_de_gaulle.html

2 1

WLUG Fixit Meeting tomorrow
by Meeting Reminder bot 26 Nov '09

26 Nov '09

A reminder; the WLUG Fixit Meeting is tomorrow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- End of year BBQ and saturday workshop SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/map/nz/hamilton/fairfield/-te+whanau+ptahi/) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. Since this is the last workshop of the year we're also going to make this the end of year BBQ We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee, BBQ lunch, etc.

1 0

Re: [wlug] WLUG End of year BBQ / Get together Saturday 28th Nov
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 25 Nov '09

25 Nov '09

I will do some head poking also. Regards John > > Speaking of turnout, who's coming? > I will poke my head in - but I'm helping a friend move > house so I don't know when. I won't be there for the BBQ > but I'll be there at some point :) > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

2 1

Re: [wlug] WLUG End of year BBQ / Get together Saturday 28th Nov
by Sam Lin 24 Nov '09

24 Nov '09

Ouch... I'll be away for attending a conference in Wellington for the rest of this week. Leave some meat for me~~

1 0

REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 22 Nov '09

22 Nov '09

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) 2009 AGM Agenda Approval of 2008 AGM minutes President's Report Treasurer's Report Election of Officers (Don't forget to do CommitteeHandover this year) General Business

1 0

WLUG meeting jan/feb
by Roger Sinel 22 Nov '09

22 Nov '09

Hi, I'm an expat living in Stockholm Sweden. Coming back home to Hamilton for a month and are interested in coming alone to a meeting if your having one between 10jan-10feb 2010. Anything else happening around regarding FOSS in NZ during this time? /Roger Sinel http://www.nordickiwi.com --

2 1

[OT] kiwicon - ride
by Brad Cowie 20 Nov '09

20 Nov '09

Hello list, Is anyone off to kiwicon this year and has room for another person in their car? Need a lift from Hamilton this year. Email me offlist. Thanks.

1 0

REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 19 Nov '09

19 Nov '09

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) 2009 AGM Agenda Approval of 2008 AGM minutes President's Report Treasurer's Report Election of Officers (Don't forget to do CommitteeHandover this year) General Business

1 0

Access brothers computer?
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 18 Nov '09

18 Nov '09

Hi All, Is there a simple way for me to access my brothers windows vista computer in Wanganui from my Ubuntu box? I have access to his internet account and can get my sis in law to change the windows permissions if need be... Regards John..

7 7

Re: [wlug] FreeGeek
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 17 Nov '09

17 Nov '09

Hi John, I would be a starter for that Free Geek thing. As you well know I am not a Geek but am trying hard to become a "g." I can mess around with things under someones guidance and come up with positive results most times ( I own a hammer for those other times <g> ) any how. For what it is worth, my hand is up. All the best John........

3 2

Bad move!
by Michael McDonald 16 Nov '09

16 Nov '09

When my Linksys router/modem failed, I bought an Asus DSL-G31 router/modem. It's quite a nice unit and has wireless. In my naivety I thought a router/modem was a router/modem! Not so, it seems - I have a problem. I also have Linksys PAP2T telephone adapter connecting to a VOIP connection at Xnet. However, the Asus router seems to blocking the VOIP connection. Checking back on the Xnet website, I see that the only router/modems listed as being compatible with Xnet's service are Linksys models. The Asus has SIP enabled, but I presume that the PAP2T is not using SIP. Xnet tech suggested unlocking the PAP2T, going back to factory default settings, and re-provisioning the PAP2T. It seems that the re-provisioning has taken place as Line 1 has the correct telephone number. Does anyone have any suggestions? The simplest way out may to just to buy a Linksys router/modem. I notice that Xnet seems to have support for Asterisk (but there are no instructions for it). I've got a spare computer, so downloaded and installed AsteriskNOW. That was the easy part. I am completely bewildered about getting it configured! Michael

2 1

Fwd: [NZOSS-Openchat] Invitation to complete IT Vendor Capability Survey
by Bruce Kingsbury 16 Nov '09

16 Nov '09

Not sure if this already got crossposted, and I suspect most of us are also on the NZLUG list.. but ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Brenda Chawner <Brenda.Chawner(a)vuw.ac.nz> Date: 2009/11/13 Subject: [NZOSS-Openchat] Invitation to complete IT Vendor Capability Survey To: NZOSS Open Discussion List <openchat(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz> I would like to invite you to complete an online survey designed to find out what services New Zealand IT vendors can offer to support a free software desktop. Free software is software released under a license that supports the four essential software freedoms, which allow users to * run the program for any purpose (Freedom 0) * study the source code, and improve it to better meet their needs (Freedom 1) * distribute copies of the software to others (Freedom 2) * distribute modified versions of the software to others (Freedom 3) For more information about free software, please see: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html The survey is being conducted by the New Zealand Open Source Society and the School of Information Management at Victoria University of Wellington as part of the Public Sector Remix project, which seeks to demonstrate the viability of free software for use by New Zealand government agencies. It includes questions about your current services, including * end user support and training, * desktop configuration management, and * server integration You are also asked to provide information about which free software packages are used within your organisation, and how people from your organisation contribute to free software projects. Before starting to complete the survey, you may find it useful to find out what free software packages other staff within your organisation use, and whether they contribute to the projects in any way. It should take you up to 45 minutes to complete the survey. The data you provide will be stored securely in a password-protected file for up to two years, and only the researchers will have access to it. The aggregated results will be shared with the government agencies who are participating in the Public Sector Remix project, and they may be presented at conferences such as GOVIS, or published in academic, professional, or industry journals. No organisations or individuals will be named in any presentations or publications that report on the results of this survey. A summary of the results will be published on the New Zealand Open Source Society website once the data is analysed; this is likely to be in early 2010. The survey starts at http://survey.publicsectorremix.org.nz/index.php?sid=87388&lang=en If you have any questions about the survey, please contact: Brenda Chawner brenda.chawner(a)vuw.ac.nz. For more information about the Public Sector Remix project, please contact: John Rankin john.rankin(a)affinity.co.nz. -- Brenda Chawner Senior Lecturer School of Information Management Victoria University of Wellington P O Box 600, Wellington NEW ZEALAND (04) 463 5780 | fax (04) 463 5446 | Room EA201 | brenda.chawner(a)vuw.ac.nz _______________________________________________ Openchat mailing list Openchat(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/openchat -- Disclaimer: By sending an email to any of my addresses you are agreeing that: 1. I am by definition, "the intended recipient" 2. All information in the email is mine to do with as I see fit and make such financial profit, political mileage, or good joke as it lends itself to. 3. I may take the contents as representing the views of your company. 4. This overrides any disclaimer or statement of confidentiality that may be included on your message.

1 0

windows thru Linux
by David Giles 15 Nov '09

15 Nov '09

Hi, I run Mandriva as my main operating system, but on a second computer I have windows 98 to run a small [windows only] accounting program. Can I join the computers together and operate the accounts program through Linux? The program will run on a Mack using virtual PC. Does linux have a similar program and would windows have to be loaded onto the computer? Regards, David

5 4

ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 15 Nov '09

15 Nov '09

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:30pm MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) 2009 AGM Agenda Approval of 2008 AGM minutes President's Report Treasurer's Report Election of Officers (Don't forget to do CommitteeHandover this year) General Business

1 0

Karmic review
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 08 Nov '09

08 Nov '09

Karmic review, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/29/ubuntu_9_10_review/

5 5

Sendmail + catchall account
by Narender 06 Nov '09

06 Nov '09

Hi Is there any way of creating a 'catchall' or a default account that all undelivered mail can go to ? eg if we have 3 user accounts (user1, user2, admin) already set up, but someone sends an email to user3(a)mydomain.com, can sendmail figure out that it doesn't match any existing users and deliver it to admin(a)mydomain.com ? I am using sendmail-8.13.1-3.RHEL4.5 Best Regards N

4 9

WLUG Fixit Meeting tomorrow
by Meeting Reminder bot 05 Nov '09

05 Nov '09

A reminder; the WLUG Fixit Meeting is tomorrow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday November 7th, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm SaturdayWorkshop at Te Whanau Pūtahi (http://zoomin.co.nz/map/nz/hamilton/fairfield/-te+whanau+ptahi/) the community church at the end of Oxford Street. We'll have the usual tables, power, various ISO's, Internet, coffee and light lunch, etc.

4 6

Getting the keyboard and mouse back after a power cut
by Glenn Ramsey 04 Nov '09

04 Nov '09

Hi, I have a Dell laptop in a docking station running Kubuntu 8.10. After a short power cut the keyboard and mouse (ps/2) do not work. I can ssh into it but I'm not sure how to reinitialise the kdb and mouse. Have tried restarting kdm, restarting udev and removing and reloading the psmouse module (couldn't see a module that looked like it might have something to do with the keyboard), but that doesn't fix it. The only way I can currently do it is to reboot. Anyone know how to do this? Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

1 0

Fwd: [nzlug] Dialup on Slingshot
by Bruce Kingsbury 03 Nov '09

03 Nov '09

Can't remember who was having problems with dialup a couple of meetings back, but a similar issue has come up on the nzlinux mailing list so this information may be useful to someone. Or you can bring it along (again) to the saturdayworkshop end of year BBQ Nov 28th and we'll take another look at it. (useful ppp options down the bottom of the following mail) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Graham Lauder <gl(a)openopportunities.co.nz> Date: 2009/10/22 Subject: Re: [nzlug] Dialup on Slingshot To: NZLUG Mailing List <nzlug(a)linux.net.nz> On Wednesday 21 October 2009 08:58:39 Mark Foster wrote: [...] > > Having been on the other side (Helpdesk'r for several years - including > for Slingshot ironically enough (though a very long time ago) - try it > from a helpdesk's POV. > > - Probably nil experience with Linux and linux software. > - Fault unable to be duplicated from a windows box? (I think that's what I > read). > - Working from one OS and not another would point to an OS specific fault, > not an ISP specific fault. I would doubt that many ISPs actually provide > helpdesk services with Linux in mind. > [....] Yep all of the above, interestingly, I'll give them ups for one thing the first guy I talked to had a pretty good shot at trying to help which was very good considering that he was probably doing it blind not being able to pull up an OpenSuSE desktop in front of him. > > Have to say that my answer would've been similar at any of the three ISP's > I performed tech support for. > > Unfortunately while there's essentially one way to configure dialup under > Windows, Linux offers too many gotchas around modem drivers, dialup > software, GUI vs CLI, for support staff to be proficient with the > environment (Unless, somehow, they have both time and inclination to > fiddle with many of these.) > > Most helpdesk'rs I have known are afforded precious little professional > development time, so what they know = what they are experienced with. > > (The social win, as it were, would be to improve linux experience levels > amongst those who work on helpdesks. This will have a flow-on effect to > the capabilities the ISPs provide). Agreed, toward that, I'm going to email the fix to them and the ppp/options file, you never know it may be useful to them. > > Anyone know any ISPs who explicitly provide Linux tech support? (And more > importantly, where that offer is not tied to the skills of one or two > individuals (aka SPOF's))? I'm not sure here but is /etc/ppp/options common to all distros and/or Desktop Environments. I'm using KDE and Kinternet and the assumption is that all distros running KDE should be the same. Does the Gnome desktop use the same location and options file? That's obviously significant because of Ubuntu's position in the market. If I'm going to help the Helpdesk'rs that would be useful for them to know. One of the advantages of course is that we're dealing with a text file. A text file looks the same in windows or whatever. Of course there are certain questions here, Does the user know how to open a terminal and run it as a superuser/root ? Does the user know how to use a text editor? Does the user know what KDE or Gnome is? Given that there are more and more "less than technical" endusers of Linux out there, affirmative answers to all of the above are not so much a given any more However assuming a reasonable level of knowledge a process could be: What's your Desktop environment: Gnome or KDE KDE: Open Konsole Do su Enter super-user password at request type kate at the prompt in the address field type /etc/ppp/options Gnome : Open terminal do sudo gedit Enter password at request in the address field type /etc/ppp/options then it's simply a matter of stepping through the text file. >From Johns mail In KDE on OpenSuSE > ============= lock (This one was already set) noauth (same here) defaultroute (wvdial does this by default in any case) ipcp-max-configure 65 (This doesn't appear to be necessary) ipcp-accept-local (uncomment this line) ipcp-accept-remote (uncomment this one as well) idle 600 (already set) > ============= So then, at least in my system receive-all (add this line) ipcp-accept-local (uncomment this line) ipcp-accept-remote (uncomment this one as well) That's a relatively easy fix. The question is, is /etc/ppp/options the same on other distros, particularly Ubuntu. It would be good to know before I ping this off to the Slingshot helpdesk. Any other comments? Cheers GL -- Open Opportunities Ltd http//:www.openopportunities.co.nz Open Technologies Migration and Change Management Consultants Front Office ICT Training and Certification Web Presence Management Consultancy SuSE Linux Enterprise and OpenOffice.org specialists _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)linux.net.nz http://www.linux.net.nz/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nzlug -- Disclaimer: By sending an email to any of my addresses you are agreeing that: 1. I am by definition, "the intended recipient" 2. All information in the email is mine to do with as I see fit and make such financial profit, political mileage, or good joke as it lends itself to. 3. I may take the contents as representing the views of your company. 4. This overrides any disclaimer or statement of confidentiality that may be included on your message.

2 1

Karmic Koala
by Chris O'Halloran 02 Nov '09

02 Nov '09

Hi guys, I tried to be sensible and wait for other online reviews first but in the end I couldn't resist and just hit upgrade to Karmic Koola for a Kubuntu Jaunty Jackalope machine. The process worked flawlessly and I am impressed. It upgraded my virtual Windows XP machine (running on VirtualBox), keep Amarok 1.4 and didn't break Wine. Skype still works and the wireless configuration dialog is much improved. The Nvidia drivers were updated for the new kernel. And a few annoying bugs in Kontact are gone! That was the most painless update I've experienced. It still took about an hour a 800Kb/s ADSL connection and I had to answer a few questioned along the way but otherwise very impressed. Just though I'd share that. Cheers, Chris

3 3