- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Getting user to choose whether to exit bash script
by Leslie Katz 03 Jan '06

03 Jan '06

Many thanks to both Matt and Warren for your assistance on the above subject. I hope I'll understand what you've told me well enough so that I won't have to bother you again about it. Thanks again, Leslie

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Getting user to choose whether to exit bash script
by Leslie Katz 02 Jan '06

02 Jan '06

I've created a number of bash scripts which make it easier for me to run particular security applications, among them rkhunter. I run the scripts in gnome-terminal. It's crucial to say at the outset that I've had no tuition in bash script writing, so I'm sure my scripts won't win any beauty contest. In any event, I was happy with my script for running rkhunter, except for one thing. I had great difficulty reading part of the output of the script, because that output (from rkhunter itself) was in yellow on a white background. I then figured out how to write a script that opened a second window in gnome-terminal. That second window had a black background, in which my original script for running rkhunter then ran. Legibility of the yellow and all other output in the second window is fine. However, there's a problem. When my script for running rkhunter in the second window finishes, it automatically exits, leaving me back at the first window, so that I haven't got a chance to examine the rkhunter output except as it scrolls by rapidly in the second window. I therefore want to amend my script for running rkhunter so that it doesn't end until the user says so. In a number of places on the Web appears the following script, which I thought I could borrow: #!/bin/bash # Shows how to read a line from stdin echo "Would you like to exit this script now?" read answer if [ "$answer" = y ] then echo "Exiting..." exit 0 fi I tried that script. There's a tiny problem with it. It exits no matter what answer the user gives! The only difference between giving a "y" answer and any other answer is that the word "Exiting" doesn't appear if one doesn't give a "y" answer. How should I amend my script to keep the output on the screen until the user enters some appropriate input?

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Fonts on Ubuntu.
by Oliver Jones 02 Jan '06

02 Jan '06

Hi Folks. I've switched to Ubuntu Breezy from FC4 on my laptop. Everything is going swimmingly. However one thing is odd. Fonts. The fonts in Ubuntu on webpages and apps don't appear quite the same as on FC4. I've installed the MS TT Core fonts package so I have Arial, Tahoma et al installed. But things still look different. Things look clearer in some apps (I think this is the freetype2 hinting setting at work) which is nice but other apps are ugly. Particularly GTK+ v1 apps are all jaggy. Also some websites don't look the same as I'm used to. Like as if the Arial fonts arn't being used.... Anyway, sage advice on fonts in Ubuntu would be apreciated. Regards, PS: Happy New Year

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mythtv question
by Jonathan Purvis 02 Jan '06

02 Jan '06

I've installed MythTV (0.18.1-5) under Ubuntu 5.10. Under the Video Source setup option in mythtv-set, the XMLTV listings grabber has no option for New Zealand. There doesn't seem to be any way of changing what's in the list, other than recompiling from source. Is there any way of configuring MythTV without using the gui or other option for specifying where to get the NZ TV listings? I don't seem to be able to procede without it. Regards, Jon

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Acceptable use of the WLUG Mailing List
by Meeting Reminder bot 31 Dec '05

31 Dec '05

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

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Superfluous files?
by Leslie Katz 31 Dec '05

31 Dec '05

A. Pagaltzis wrote: >Not likely. But if in doubt, keep copies. Tar up the directories >and keep the tarballs somewhere. If deleting them has bad >effects, just untar them into place again. (Make sure to pass >`-p` when extracting so the permissions, ownership etc get >restored fully.) > > Thanks for the reply. I've done as you said. I was just afraid that perhaps some plugin used by the current version was still in the files for the older versions, but so far, so good. Thanks again, Leslie

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Superfluous files?
by Leslie Katz 29 Dec '05

29 Dec '05

I first used chkrootkit recently. It categorised certain files of mine as suspicious. I understand that it did so because those files were hidden ones, but were not in my home directory. Many of the files chkrootkit called suspicious were connected with earlier kernels that I hadn't uninstalled, so I uninstalled those kernels. That reduced chkrootkit's list of suspicious files significantly. One of the files still on the list was associated with Firefox v 1.0.4. (I use Firefox 1.0.7.) On investigation, I found that in /usr/lib I had three directories, each connected with a version of Firefox earlier than the current one. Is there any risk involved in deleting the three directories?

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IBMer shows how to run Linux as a Windows screensaver
by Martin, Anthony (NZ) 22 Dec '05

22 Dec '05

This is from an internal company newsgroup, it shows how to run Linux as a Windows screensaver http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-scrnsave/ This will definitely be one of my new year projects! Anthony Martin

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linux.conf.au 2006: Just over a month to go!
by Mike Beattie 22 Dec '05

22 Dec '05

2006 - Dunedin, NZ! linux.conf.au is the annual Australian Linux technical conference, and is one of the largest gatherings of users and developers of Free and Open Source Software in the Southern Hemisphere. It is an opportunity for developers and groups to present their ideas amongst peers, and for the Free Software and Open Source communities to gather in general. Summary: There's just over a month to go until linux.conf.au 2006 begins! The 2006 conference is being held in Dunedin, New Zealand, at The University of Otago[1]. More information can be found on the conference website: http://lca2006.linux.org.au/ A "heads up" from the linux.conf.au 2006 Organising team. With just over a month to go before the start of linux.conf.au 2006, we feel it's time to let those that have not heard, hear, and give those that have a reminder that time to register is running short. linux.conf.au 2006 will be held at the University of Otago in the remarkable city of Dunedin, New Zealand from the 23rd - 28th of January 2006. With just over 200 seats left, that are filling fast, you'll need to decide soon if you're going to join us for the best LCA yet! If you're worried about accommodation, We still have over 200 beds available at University College, the student residential hall we've organised for the duration of the conference. As usual, the first two days of the conference are occupied by Miniconfs - This year we have a great selection: * Debian Miniconf * Education Miniconf * Embedded Miniconf * Gnome.conf.au Miniconf * Linux Digital Arts Miniconf * Openoffice.org Miniconf * Open Source Developers Workshop * SysAdmin Miniconf Along with the above Miniconfs[1], we have an excellent program[2] full of the worlds best and brightest speakers[3] covering a diverse range of subjects that we're sure will have something to offer anyone with Linux in their blood. So don't miss out, head on over to http://lca2006.linux.org.au/ and get yourself registered[4] for what is promising to be the biggest and most memorable linux.conf.au yet! Please feel free to forward this announcement to your local LUG, or any other person or group that you feel would be interested! [0]: http://www.otago.ac.nz/ [1]: http://lca2006.linux.org.au/miniconfs.php [2]: http://lca2006.linux.org.au/program.php [3]: http://lca2006.linux.org.au/speakers.php [4]: http://lca2006.linux.org.au/register/ Regards, Mike Beattie, linux.conf.au 2006 Organisers

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Video Conferencing with Santa in children's hospital
by Lindsay Druett 22 Dec '05

22 Dec '05

Hi All, I pulled these clips off Cisco's website.... Definfinitely worth viewing... http://www.lindsay.wired.net.nz/images/santa_122205_350.rm http://www.lindsay.wired.net.nz/images/santa_122205_350.wmv

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X won't boot in user
by Ron Dean 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

.xsessions-errors /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: Registering your session with wtmp and utmp /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: running: /usr/bin/X11/sessreg -a -w /var/log/wtmp -u /var/run/utmp -x "/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xservers" -h "" -l ":0" "ron" /etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup... _IceTransTransNoListen: unable to find transport: tcp _IceTransmkdir: ERROR: euid != 0,directory /dev/X will not be created. _IceTransmkdir: ERROR: Cannot create /dev/X _IceTransPTSOpenServer: mkdir(/dev/X) failed, errno = 13 _IceTransOpen: transport open failed for pts/ubuntu: _IceTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to open listener for pts _IceTransISCOpenServer: Protocol is not supported by a ISC connection _IceTransOpen: transport open failed for isc/ubuntu: _IceTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to open listener for isc _IceTransSCOOpenServer: Protocol is not supported by a SCO connection _IceTransOpen: transport open failed for sco/ubuntu: _IceTransMakeAllCOTSServerListeners: failed to open listener for sco ** (gnome-session:7837): WARNING **: Unable to read ICE authority file: /home/ron/.ICEauthority Despite looking for the .ICEauthority file I can't find it even amongst the hidden files I'm running Ubuntu Breezy and Ubuntu kernel 2.6.12-10-386 recently installed

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BBQ roundup
by Craig Box 20 Dec '05

20 Dec '05

(http://www.wlug.org.nz/MeetingTopics.2005-12-18) End-of-year Summer BBQ As traditional, held at Perry's and Jamie's place. Thanks for having us, and especially to Jamie for being co-opted back onto the committee for the day. We didn't quite get perfect weather, but there was still much cricket played. Turnout wasn't hugely inspiring; there were a good number of committee and hangers-on, but the number of "general WLUG members" wasn't that great. After the effort that was put in to try and appeal to the greater membership, it was disappointing and we will re-evaluate the event next year. Photos: http://www.pointless.co.nz/gallery/wlug-bbq-05 Craig

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WLUG Meeting is tonight
by Meeting Reminder bot 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

The WLUG meeting is this evening ---------------------------------------------------------------------- !!!Annual WLUG Xmas http://www.wlug.org.nz/BBQ Sunday 18 December Time: starting around 2pm. The venue is the same as last time - Perry and Jamie's, 3 Liston Crescent (http://www.zoomin.co.nz/hamilton/hamilton/liston+crescent/3/) Due to the closeness to Christmas there will be no postponement if it's wet. Please check this page and/or the mailing list before coming if you're in any way concerned about the weather. Please bring yourselves, partners, meat, alcohol, topics of conversation, and a passing interest in backyard cricket. WLUG will provide salad, bread and soft drinks as usual. You don't have to be a member to come to the barbeque, but if you aren't, it would be a really nice gesture to bring your $20 and sign up, wouldn't it? ----

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Re: [wlug] breezy repositories
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

Thanks Jon. However two little problems, 1. The server keeps dumping me every 700 kbs. 2. I had to say yes to downloading the unauthorised version. Are these things going to be a problem? Regards John ps. Found lincity in universal after using correct spelling ----- Original Message Follows ----- > jaytee(a)clear.net.nz said: > > I am looking for a couple of repo's for ubuntu breezy. > > Reading Google has not helped as it seems some > > repositories are not suited to breezy or ubuntu. > > Is there a link to our wiki or somewhere that will give > > me a list of repositories > > I am looking for Wine Lincity and OpenCity for > > starters Regards John > > I use this for in my sources.list for wine: > deb http://wine.sourceforge.net/apt/ testing/ > > http://www.winehq.org/site/download-deb has full > instructions. > > > Regards, > > Jon > >

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breezy repositories
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 17 Dec '05

17 Dec '05

I am looking for a couple of repo's for ubuntu breezy. Reading Google has not helped as it seems some repositories are not suited to breezy or ubuntu. Is there a link to our wiki or somewhere that will give me a list of repositories I am looking for Wine Lincity and OpenCity for starters Regards John

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WLUG Meeting is on Sunday
by Meeting Reminder bot 15 Dec '05

15 Dec '05

The WLUG meeting is on Sunday ---------------------------------------------------------------------- !!!Annual WLUG Xmas http://www.wlug.org.nz/BBQ Sunday 18 December Time: starting around 2pm. The venue is the same as last time - Perry and Jamie's, 3 Liston Crescent (http://www.zoomin.co.nz/hamilton/hamilton/liston+crescent/3/) Due to the closeness to Christmas there will be no postponement if it's wet. Please check this page and/or the mailing list before coming if you're in any way concerned about the weather. Please bring yourselves, partners, meat, alcohol, topics of conversation, and a passing interest in backyard cricket. WLUG will provide salad, bread and soft drinks as usual. You don't have to be a member to come to the barbeque, but if you aren't, it would be a really nice gesture to bring your $20 and sign up, wouldn't it? ----

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Different answers when trying to learn file numbers
by Leslie Katz 15 Dec '05

15 Dec '05

Thanks to Perry and to Aristotle (again) for taking the trouble to reply to my query. I'll now experiment as well with the further suggestions made and see what happens.

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recent library book acquisitions
by John R. McPherson 15 Dec '05

15 Dec '05

Hi, O'Reilly has recently donated several books to WLUG. These are for review purposes, so if you'd like to be the first person to borrow one of these (and write a short review of the book for the website) then please arrange pick-up with Craig (secretary @ wlug.org.nz): Asterisk: The Future of Telephony (http://library.wlug.org.nz/show.pl?id=48) Linux Desktop Pocket Guide (http://library.wlug.org.nz/show.pl?id=47) Linux in a Windows World (http://library.wlug.org.nz/show.pl?id=46) If you have any particular book you'd like WLUG to acquire, please make suitable edits to the http://www.wlug.org.nz/WantedBooks webpage. John

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Different answers when trying to learn file numbers
by Leslie Katz 15 Dec '05

15 Dec '05

Thanks both to Oliver and to Aristotle for taking the trouble to reply to my query. I'll have to take Aristotle's word that the difference between my second and third results, as implied by Oliver, was caused by /proc and /sys "files", since I don't know how to act on Oliver's suggestion to exclude those "directories" from my command. I printed out and tried to read the entire man page for "find", but that didn't overcome my ignorance. Thanks again, Leslie

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Different answers when trying to learn file numbers
by Leslie Katz 13 Dec '05

13 Dec '05

I wanted to discover the number of files on my system. I found on the Web the suggestion that the way to do so was to type in the Terminal, as user, "find / \! -type -d | wc -l" and then press "Enter". I did that. The names of quite a few files appeared on the screen, each with the words "Permission denied" after it, and then, ultimately, the number 153,406. I decided to issue the command as root instead, to see what happened. No file names appeared on the screen as they had before. I just got the number 154,821. That was 1,415 more than earlier, though the number of filenames which had appeared with "Permission denied" the first time round was nowhere near as many as 1,415. I next edited my sudoers file, so that, as user, I didn't need to enter a password in order to run "find". I then typed, as user, "sudo", followed by the command I'd typed twice before. That time, I got the number 154,722. Can anyone explain to me why I've been getting the different results that I have?

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Re: [wlug] Internet Banking
by Matthew Browne (DSL HN) 12 Dec '05

12 Dec '05

> From: Bnonn [mailto:bnonn(a)orcon.net.nz] > > Generally speaking I really can't complain about ASB in any > way, except for that they run Windows in their branches ;) > Their support for alternative browsers is awsome, and their > Fastnet site is excellent. I don't know how much ASB had to do with the push for alternative browser support but I know it is something the developers of the Fastnet site were trying to do. I can't say for sure but most likely they are running Firefox themselves. Any in house stuff we do gets tested with IE, Firefox and Opera, and I've been pushing for Safari testing as well. Of those, supporting IE gives us the most trouble. Matt

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Internet Banking
by David Bowen 11 Dec '05

11 Dec '05

Hi I remember some postings some months ago about not being able to log on to the ASB unless using Internet explorer. I heard today that Firefox 1.5 was able to log in. I tried it and it does. (under windows at least) I will try under Linux tomorrow. Yeh one less reason for using windows!! Another thing I haven't seen posted is an article I found in the Post DB Open Source Project, Run by an editor of the Bangkok Post, found here http://postdb.ricshreves.net/archives/ An interesting link to the NBR where The New Zealand State Service Commission is promoting use of the Open Source Content Management System Plone for other agencies. The story can be found here http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_article.asp?id=13734&cid=3&cname=Technology Maybe the politicians are listening? Regards David Bowen

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\"People\'s Choice Community Member of the Year\"
by LUG Roundup 10 Dec '05

10 Dec '05

Only 6 days remaining to get your entries in. \"People\'s Choice Community Member of the Year\" is open to all within the Linux community. Closing Date is 16th December at 5pm. All entries are to be sent in writing to comp.lugroundup(a)k-sit.com Entries are to be submitted in the form of 500 words or less. You either enter yourself or nominate a person you feel is deserving of the title, detailing how they have contributed to the community. *Please include Name, *Email address for the entrant, *State and *Suburb. We have 4 independant judges that will be judging each entry on merit. The winner will be notified and announced in the final episode for the year on 24th December. The winner will recieve a concession ticket to LCA2006 in Dunedin and $200 cash to assist them in getting there. Don\'t forget you will need a passport to travel to New Zealand. Cherio, Karin (aka MotherLUG) http://mirror.linux.org.au/podcasts/la-update lugroundup(a)k-sit.com

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ssh and cat problem
by Bnonn 08 Dec '05

08 Dec '05

Hi again everyone. In my continuing quest to automate absolutely everything about rebuilding one of my computers, I'm writing a script that will generate a key relationship between it and my laptop (which I use for remote backup sometimes). I'm able to create the public and private keys without problems, but when it gets to adding the public key to the laptop ("scarlet"), I run into an issue. I don't want to just copy the public key into ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 on scarlet, because from an aesthetic point of view, and a portability point of view, that's just nasty. If authorized_keys2 exists already, I'll overwrite it and cause myself pain. So, I instead copy the public key into my home dir on scarlet (scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub bnonn(a)scarlet:~/) However, I then want to append the contents of this key to the authorized_keys2 file in ~/.ssh/ on scarlet. Seems to me that the best way to do this is to simply cat it, since this will create the file if it doesn't already exist. I'm using the following command: ssh bnonn(a)scarlet cat ~/id_dsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 This, however, appears to have no effect at all. It doesn't return an error; it just quietly does nothing. Again, I apologize if this is again an example of my fundamental dimness, but any help would be appreciated. Regards, Bnonn

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1/packet writing for cd 2/formating flash memory stick
by stephen pearce 08 Dec '05

08 Dec '05

Hi Can anyone help me here please. 1/ How do you do incremental writing to a cdrw under linux. I have a cdrw which was formated under windows .. used the INCDFS file system according to the properties report in wondows. With this I can then write, and delete files from the cd .. within windows .. as if it was a large floppy or removable hard disk. Under Fedora Core 4 the disk mounts ok and I can read the contents at anytime .. but I cannot do the incremental writing .. I have looked up linux references to this INCDFS using google and not found anything of significance. Any pointers to making cdrw work more adeptly would be appreciated. 2/ My 64Mb and 128 MB usb memory sticks mount fine under fedora core 4 and I can delete and write to the devices .. deleting I think puts the data into a trash directory .. but when I empty trash it does not seem to free space on the device .. also .. although ".Trash" appears when you mount it in Windows .. and you can delete the files and reclaim the space there .. .Trash does not appear in the Linux FS .. even using say mc which would normerly show ".--" directories . Also formating the flash memory does not seem straight forward .. I tried mounting with fdisk and deleting all partitions, making a siingle FAT32 partition .. then using format to format it .. unsuccessfully ... are there any tricks here? Formating under windows seems straight forward. Thanks Stephen

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