- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

First beta of Ubuntu 12.10 released
by Peter Reutemann 10 Sep '12

10 Sep '12

"The first beta version of Ubuntu 12.10, code-named "Quantal Quetzal", has been released for testing ahead of its October final release. The new version brings together a range of enhancements the developers have been working on, from reducing the number of install images, to making 3D accelerated desktops run on non-3D hardware, and switching to Python 3.0." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1702021 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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slight problem with disk publisher
by Bruce Kingsbury 08 Sep '12

08 Sep '12

slight problem with disk publisher, after about the first ten disks, the labels are printing very faint and getting worse with every disk. black and white cartridge not printing at all, and colour one is a bit sketchy. If anyone has a pair of lexmark cartridges I could borrow to test 53335 and 53336 that would be good, otherwise we'll just use the machine for burning the disks (which works well, it's very fast) and have to sort out something else for labelling them.

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Comparing against a repository
by mailinglist 06 Sep '12

06 Sep '12

Hello All, Again, I'm trying to get this vmware server going that has preconfigured wiki set running on it. However, I'm adding some extensions. For that I need to install some additional programs off the debian repositories. I'm finding I cannot install 1) ocaml 2) nscd because of dependency conflicts. Now, I don't know what software the original person who configured this machine did but it there anyway of running a comparison of the installed software to what is on the repositories. And/or similary is there way get around the following error. How do you resolve this one? wikiserver:~# apt-get install nscd Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: default-jre-headless : Depends: openjdk-6-jre-headless (>= 6b14) but it is not going to be installed nscd : Depends: libc6 (> 2.11) but it is not going to be installed Depends: libc6 (< 2.12) but it is not going to be installed E: Broken packages wikiserver:~# dpkg-query -l libc6 Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Description +++-=============================================-=============================================-========================================================================================================== ii libc6 2.13-7 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries wikiserver:~#

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Domain Name Resolution and LDAP
by mailinglist 05 Sep '12

05 Sep '12

Hello all, I've got a query for the networking types. I'm currently trying to get a wiki to LDAP authentication. Despite my best attempts it keeps failing. I can't understand the following. Some commands can resolve the ip address of internal servers when using there FQDN while others cannot. This is all within a Windows network. The server I'm trying to configure is Debian Squeeze. I am wondering if this might be why the LDAP authentication is not working. Any thoughts? Cheers, Chris ############## Find the ip address of thesun.tesla.local ############## wikiserver:~# dig thesun.tesla.local ; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> thesun.tesla.local ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 45615 ;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;thesun.tesla.local. IN A ;; ANSWER SECTION: thesun.tesla.local. 3600 IN A 10.0.0.10 ;; Query time: 1 msec ;; SERVER: 10.0.0.10#53(10.0.0.10) ;; WHEN: Wed Sep 5 15:36:29 2012 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 52 ############### Then check if port 389 is open. It fails to resolve the IP address. ############### wikiserver:~# nmap -p 389 thesun.tesla.local Starting Nmap 5.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2012-09-05 15:37 NZST Failed to resolve given hostname/IP: thesun.tesla.local. Note that you can't use '/mask' AND '1-4,7,100-' style IP ranges WARNING: No targets were specified, so 0 hosts scanned. Nmap done: 0 IP addresses (0 hosts up) scanned in 5.15 seconds wikiserver:~# ############## Try again using the IP address Promptly returns an answer ############## wikiserver:~# nmap -p 389 10.0.0.10 Starting Nmap 5.00 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2012-09-05 15:37 NZST Interesting ports on thesun.tesla.local (10.0.0.10): PORT STATE SERVICE 389/tcp open ldap MAC Address: 00:50:56:93:76:FB (VMWare) Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.44 seconds wikiserver:~#

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Hybrid graphics support in NVIDIA's Linux driver
by Peter Reutemann 04 Sep '12

04 Sep '12

"NVIDIA is working on a new version of its proprietary Linux graphics driver that will add support for its Optimus switching technology, which is usually found used in laptops. The company's plans were revealed in an email from NVIDIA's Aaron Plattner, in which he asks open source developers for advice on some implementation details." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1697756 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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No software patents (again)
by Ronnie Collinson 04 Sep '12

04 Sep '12

So if you haven't heard some members of the government have recently met with reps of some big international software giants, such as IBM and Microsoft. Which has resulted is some possible changes to patent law here. The exclusion for software that many members of the NZ software communities (both commercial and open source), a couple years back, which was accepted, is looking to have a new clause 10A, which would exclude embedded systems (which for things like home routers and cellphones, are an absolute mine field of patents) from the software exclusion. The other unusual aspect for a democratic country, is that this clause is being added without going to select committee and therefore is unlikely to receive public submissions. If you haven't all ready, please sign this. http://no.softwarepatents.org.nz Ronnie

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Xen-Based Secure OS Qubes Hits 1.0
by Peter Reutemann 03 Sep '12

03 Sep '12

"Joanna Rutkowska, CEO of Invisible Things Lab, today released version 1.0 of Qubes, a stable and reasonably secure desktop OS. It is the most secure option among the existing desktop operating systems — even more secure than Apple's iOS, which puts each application into its own sandbox and does not count on the user to make security decisions. Qubes will offer users the option of using disposable virtual machines for executing tasks they believe could harm their computer. These VMs will be lightweight, easily and extremely speedily created and booted, and would be just as easy to discard." --source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/09/03/2147217/xen-based-secure-os-qubes-h… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 31 Aug '12

31 Aug '12

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- !!!WLUG Workshop Meet up at the university, usual meeting room for Monday meetings: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 10am to 4pm Agenda: Apart from the usual workshop (e.g., if you have a Linux problem or question) we will also prepare material (posters, flyers, etc) for SoftwareFreedomDay. We'll have internet access (48Mbit/s). Entry is free for visitors and club members. However, if you, as a visitor, wish to connect your computer to the internet for more than a few minutes, a fee of $4 dollars to cover internet costs would be appreciated. We will accept membership applications on the day ($20). There are no kitchen facilities within the room. Toilets will be available around the campus, a couple of bakeries not far from campus.

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Diaspora* Announces It Is Now a "Community Project"
by Peter Reutemann 31 Aug '12

31 Aug '12

"Decentralised social network startup Diaspora* announced on their blog today that they will become a 'community project' with the intention of making it an entirely community-driven, community-run project. Whether this is a sign of the project losing impetus, or whether this will provide the push needed to challenge commercially run social networks, remains to be seen." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/08/28/0117226/diaspora-announces-it-is-no… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GNOMEbuntu Set To Arrive In October
by Peter Reutemann 31 Aug '12

31 Aug '12

"Good News Everyone! Thanks to the Ubuntu Gnome Community and Jeremy Bicha, it seems that the popular distribution will ship a flavor with a relatively pure GNOME experience in the next release cycle, on October 18. At this point the effort is community based, but hopefully GNOMEbuntu will make it as an official Canonical spin, similar to Kubuntu, Xubuntu, et cetera, in the 13.04 release. This is the story: At the Ubuntu Developer Summit in May, some discussions took place on the need for a Gnome spin. On August 13, Jeremy Bicha posted on Gnome mailing lists about looking a name for the new Ubuntu derivative. After that, I had no news till Stinger gave us a thread in Ubuntu Forums. On there, Jeremy talks about working on an Alpha version! So I contacted him and he verified that GNOMEbuntu will be released together with Ubuntu 12.10." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/08/30/175221/gnomebuntu-set-to-arrive-in… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu to drop alternate installer
by Peter Reutemann 29 Aug '12

29 Aug '12

Bummer... "The alternate installer, required when users want to configure cryptsetup, Logical Volume Manager (LVM) or software-based RAID arrays during installation, may disappear from Ubuntu as early as version 12.10." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1676906 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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KDE 4.10 KWin To Properly Support AMD Catalyst
by Peter Reutemann 28 Aug '12

28 Aug '12

"KWin, KDE's compositing window manager, will better play with the AMD Catalyst binary blob in the KDE 4.10 release by enabling direct rendering and the OpenGL 2.x back-end for those using the latest Catalyst driver. " -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE2OTI Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 26 Aug '12

26 Aug '12

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards Topics * ReneBartosh will give a short demo of the Raspberry Pi running the RaspBMC and Raspian distributions and will include a chance to get hands on and have a tinker with the Pi

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 23 Aug '12

23 Aug '12

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards Topics * ReneBartosh will give a short demo of the Raspberry Pi running the RaspBMC and Raspian distributions and will include a chance to get hands on and have a tinker with the Pi

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Fwd: [Marketing] Promote SFD 2012
by Bruce Kingsbury 21 Aug '12

21 Aug '12

How's our SFD planning going? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Pockey Lam <pockey(a)softwarefreedomday.org> Date: 21 August 2012 16:39 Subject: [Marketing] Promote SFD 2012 To: The SFD marketing committee list <marketing(a)sf-day.org> Dear marketing committee, We are about 24 days to the big day, SFD 2012, so far we have 220 teams registered. It's time to boost registration and have more teams for 2012! There are some ways to promote SFD, e.g.: 1) email local communities in your country 2) Blogging 3) Social Networks [1] 4) SFD Banner (link to SFD site) [2] 5) SFD countdown (link to SFD site) [3] 6) Join local conferences / events to talk about SFD 7) others We need your help to promote SFD in your country! If you think of any other ways to promote SFD, please share with us! [1] http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/SocialNetworks [2] http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/Promote [3] http://wiki.softwarefreedomday.org/CountDown Regards, Pockey _______________________________________________ Marketing mailing list Marketing(a)sf-day.org http://mail.sf-day.org/lists/listinfo/marketing

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 19 Aug '12

19 Aug '12

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards Topics * ReneBartosh will give a short demo of the Raspberry Pi running the RaspBMC and Raspian distributions and will include a chance to get hands on and have a tinker with the Pi

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MATE and gnome-keyring
by Peter Reutemann 19 Aug '12

19 Aug '12

Hi there Running a MATE session, you might encounter warning messages like this in your terminal when, for instance, updating via subversion: WARNING: gnome-keyring:: couldn't connect to: /tmp/keyring-*****/pkcs11 Apparently, gnome-keyring is only started if a session manager is started that supports this. E.g., running the MATE session manager on my Linux Mint Cinnamon install generates this error message, since "MATE" is not listed in the "OnlyShowIn" key of the "/etc/xdg/autostart/gnome-keyring-pkcs11.desktop" config file. Just add "MATE" to the value of the "OnlyShowIn" key, e.g.: OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;MATE Original source: http://laslow.net/2012/05/06/gnome-keyring-issues-in-ubuntu-12-04/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Discovering and Monitoring Hardware in Linux
by Peter Reutemann 19 Aug '12

19 Aug '12

Handy overview in this article. "Nothing ever need be a mystery on Linux as it has a large number of excellent utilities for discovering hardware and monitoring hardware health. Here are a handful of good tools for spotting possible hard drive failure, displaying hardware information and monitoring temperatures, fans, voltages, email, music players and more." -- source: http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/620416-discovering-and-monitoring-hard… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Is MySQL Slowly Turning Closed Source?
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '12

18 Aug '12

"Sergei from MariaDB speculated on some changes within MySQL 5.5.27. It seems new testcases aren't included with MySQL any more, which leaves developers depending on it in the cold. 'Does this mean that test cases are no longer open source? Oracle did not reply to my question. But indeed, there is evidence that this guess is true. For example, this commit mail shows that new test cases, indeed, go in this "internal" directory, which is not included in the MySQL source distribution.' On a similar note, updates for the version history on Launchpad are not being updated anymore. What is Oracle's plan here? And is alienating the developer community just not seen as a problem at Oracle?" -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/08/18/0152237/is-mysql-slowly-turni… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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(no subject)
by Bruce Kingsbury 17 Aug '12

17 Aug '12

We're starting to prepare for software freedom day which will be held on Sept 15th at Te Whare o Te Ata, 60a Sare Cres. Progress so far; We have a venue (not huge but I think it'll do) wireless internet, a VOIP PABX, 8 reasonable machines running Linux. And I have two small volunteers who will take turns wearing the penguin suit and handing out CDs and chocolate fish to visitors. For the inside space, I'd like to have tables set up where people can show interesting things they're using Linux for. If anyone has something specific they'd like to demo, get back to me and I'll set a table aside. I'd also like to print off A4 or A3 posters about some of the more polished bits of free software such as OOo/LibOO, VLC, Gimp, etc and put those up around the room. We need an A5 flyer done as soon as possible, and I can arrange to have this delivered with the community newsletter to a couple of thousand houses around the area.

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Nokia Researcher Puts Firefox OS On Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '12

17 Aug '12

"Mozilla's mobile phone operating system only exists in an early beta form, but Oleg Romashin, a researcher at Nokia, has already got it working on the Raspberry Pi and posted video to prove it. We don't think this indicates any alternate strategy for Nokia if Windows Phone doesn't pan out, but it does show that Firefox OS is portable, and the Pi is capable, and both can be played with — which will please both Mozilla and the Raspberry Pi Foundation. And the Firefox OS work in progress is available for download." -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/08/16/1237214/nokia-researcher-puts… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Is a Lemon On the Retina MacBook Pro
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '12

17 Aug '12

"It turns out that Linux doesn't work too well on the Apple Retina MacBook Pro. Among the problems are needing special boot parameters to simply boot the Linux kernel, graphics drivers not working, no hybrid graphics support, WiFi requiring special firmware, Thunderbolt troubles, GNOME/Unity/KDE not being optimized for retina displays, and other snafus, including 20% greater power consumption with Linux over OS X. According to Michael Larabel, it will likely not be until early next year when most of the problems are ironed out for a clean 'out of the box' Linux experience on the Retina MacBook Pro." -- source: http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/08/16/1741235/linux-is-a-lemon-on-the-re… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Debian celebrates its 19th birthday
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '12

17 Aug '12

Only a day late, so happy belated birthday! "Today, Debian celebrates its 19th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, parties have been organised all around the globe and users traditionally bake cakes to bring to these events." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1668366 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Mounting a USB drive without hotplugging or logging in
by mailinglist 16 Aug '12

16 Aug '12

Hello all, I've got a mythtv set up on a pc. It got a 40G drive which I'm finding a bit limiting. I figured I'd just plug in an external USB drive, have it mount on boot up, and configure mythtv to use a directory on it as part of its storage area. Well, its becoming a frustrating exercise. As a user logged in, I can hotplug it and read and write to but anything else either doesn't work or will only ever mount the drive read only. I've tried 1) editing fstab (result read only despite specifying rw) 2) pydsm (result read only despite specifying rw) 3) Some scripts using udev rules. (can't find the drive) The system used lightdm as the window manager and Thunar is available as a GUI file manager. Underlying system is Mythbuntu updated to Precise Penguin Any clues? Or scripts known to work? Cheers, Chris

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Calligra 2.5 released
by Peter Reutemann 16 Aug '12

16 Aug '12

"In the second stable release of the KDE-oriented office suite, Calligra has now been updated to version 2.5 with, among other changes, enhancements to the spreadsheet, word processor, database and painting components". -- source: http://h-online.com/-1666586 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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The OggBox Project
by Peter Reutemann 15 Aug '12

15 Aug '12

Not strictly speaking Linux, but with all those little hackable boxes around, I thought this worth mentioning: "The OggBox is a simple, hackable open hardware music player. It's a pocket sized device, about the size of a smart phone which can play or record open formats to or from an SD card. It will support Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and WAV files, but has only been tested on Ogg so far. The hardware was designed in KiCAD and all the files are available to download and use (CC-BY-SA)." --source: http://www.nathandumont.com/node/269 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu debates replacing Nautilus file manager
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '12

12 Aug '12

"Members of the Ubuntu development team are discussing whether the distribution should switch away from GNOME's Nautilus file manager and if it should include an older version of the software until a decision has been reached" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1665463 I'm actually quite happy with Mate's custom version of Nautilus. After all those years of people complaining about Nautilus not being able to do an "undo", the Mate version of Nautilus called "Caja" can do exactly this. Yay! :-) Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Rasberry Pi Foundation announces the Gertboard
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '12

10 Aug '12

"The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced an I/O breakout board for the Raspberry Pi mini-computer. The Gertboard uses an Arduino microcontroller and enables the Raspberry Pi to access a variety of electronics devices" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1664335 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Digia buys Qt
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '12

09 Aug '12

"The open source cross platform application framework Qt has been sold by its owner Nokia. Digia, the Finnish software and services company that previously purchased the commercial assets of Nokia's Qt development has announced that it is acquiring the entire Qt business and assets from Nokia." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1663753 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fwd: [NZOSS-Openchat] Introducing the Hackberry - a higher-spec RPi-like board
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '12

09 Aug '12

Sorry for cross-posting, but I thought this might be of interest. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Shiv Manas <...> Date: Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 11:31 PM Subject: [NZOSS-Openchat] Introducing the Hackberry - a higher-spec RPi-like board To: NZOSS Open Discussion List <openchat(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz> Hi all, Just a heads-up for those of you who haven't heard of the Hackberry - it's a $60 - $65 (US) development board featuring the Allwinner A10 SoC. Specs: 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU Mali400 GPU (same GPU used in a Galaxy S2!) 512MB - 1GB RAM Android and Linux support https://www.miniand.com/products/Hackberry%20A10%20Developer%20Board The A10 SoC has been around for a while now in the form of cheap tablets and USB-stick PCs, so there should already be quite a few distros and ROMs available that one could download and hack around with. :) Regards, Shiv _______________________________________________ Openchat mailing list Openchat(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/openchat -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GNOME OS plans laid out
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '12

08 Aug '12

"At the recent Guadec 2012 GNOME developers conference, birds of a feather sessions saw the project set out goals for a GNOME OS initiative to improve GNOME for all users and developers." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1662865 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Debian Changes Default Desktop From GNOME To XFCE
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '12

08 Aug '12

"The default desktop within Debian 7.0 'Wheezy' has changed from GNOME to Xfce. GNOME, KDE, and LXDE will continue to be available, but the decision was made to default to Xfce. The reported reasoning comes down to size constraints in fitting GNOME on a single CD." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/08/08/1455243/debian-changes-default-des… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Desktop Fragmentation
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '12

08 Aug '12

"Competition may be good for business, but competition among Linux desktops is currently so fierce that it may end up being to everyone's detriment in the medium-term." read more at http://h-online.com/-1662354 Personally, I'm curious which desktops will prevail. Survival of the fittest, i.e., largest developer/user base? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Mint team forks Nautilus
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '12

07 Aug '12

"The Linux Mint team has forked GNOME's file manager after design changes led to the removal of some features. The result is the Nemo file manager which is based on the last Nautilus version before these changes were incorporated." --source: http://h-online.com/-1660545 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Adafruit launches educational distro for Raspberry PI
by Peter Reutemann 06 Aug '12

06 Aug '12

Regarding Raspberry PI and schools... "Adafruit Industries has published a new Linux distribution called "Occidentalis" for hardware hacking and teaching electronics using the ARM-based Raspberry Pi mini-computer. Its developers say that they decided to create Occidentalis because Raspbian – a Debian-based distribution released by the Raspberry Pi Foundation last month – didn't include many of the tools and software components that most hardware hackers would need. " --source: http://h-online.com/-1660567 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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BerryTerminal
by Peter Reutemann 05 Aug '12

05 Aug '12

Hi there It looks like "BerryTerminal" is exactly what Ian was after at the Saturday workshop, a Linux distro for LTSP/Raspberry Pi: "BerryTerminal is a minimal Linux distribution designed to turn the Raspberry Pi mini computer into a low-cost thin client. It allows users to login to a central Edubuntu or other LTSP server, and run applications on the central server. " http://www.berryterminal.com/doku.php/start NB: It's still labeled "alpha". Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Upcoming Event: Next-generation Networks
by David Hallett 04 Aug '12

04 Aug '12

Institute of IT Professionals National Series: Next-generation Networks 23 August 2012: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Wintec City Campus Events Room 2 Gallagher Hub Gate 3, Tristram Street Hamilton National Series: Next-generation Networks Research networks have long been at the forefront of the technological revolution changing our society. Their role in bridging the gap between the high-end requirements of the science community and services available commercially led to inventions such as the Internet and World Wide Web. Often a leading indicator for emerging trends in the commercial sector, research networks have led the way in virtualization, security, and performance management. Today, research networks are facing a deluge of data that is forcing them to rethink how people, sensors, and machines are connected. In this topical presentation, REANNZ CEO Steve Cotter will talk about the challenges research networks are facing and why they are exploring new paradigms like software defined networking and energy efficiency. If you are interested in hearing about the latest cutting-edge trends in networking and how they could have an impact on New Zealand businesses and consumers, this is the talk for you. About The Speaker Steve Cotter has an extensive background in developing highly engineered, cutting-edge networking systems that require a deep understanding of advanced technologies and business drivers. He joined REANNZ from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) in 2011. As the head of ESnet, he was responsible for providing high-performance networking to thousands of researchers and scientists at more than 40 national laboratories and research institutions. Prior to ESnet, he served as Google's network deployment manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before being hired by Google, Steve worked for Internet2 as Deputy Operations Officer and was CEO & President of their wholly owned subsidiary, FiberCo. Note: Light lunch provided. Free for IITP members, inexpensive for others. Registration required at the following URL: http://www.iitp.org.nz/events/waikato_bop/621-Next-generation_Networks Regards, David Hallett, BSc, MIITP ITCP P.O. Box 15-516 Hamilton, New Zealand Mobile: +64-21-802 256

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New wine, old wineskins
by Michael McDonald 03 Aug '12

03 Aug '12

New wine, old wineskins Thought I might have had a problem to bring along to tomorrow's work but alas, I managed to find a workaround. Read on ... Had a long day Saturday trying to get Ubuntu 12.04 on to an old computer (or two). Live CD ran perfectly OK, but install seemed to crash at the same spot each time. The last machine I tried had an AMD 2000+ CPU, so after the failure with the 32 bit live CD, downloaded and tried the AMD/64 bit version. No go for that ... CPU was 32 bit - AMD wasn't relevant in this case! Did a little bit of Googling and it looked like PAE (pyhsical address extension) might be the problem. Recommended action was try Xubuntu or Lubuntu. Downloaded Xubuntu. Live CD ran up normally but install crashed, apparently at the same spot. Oh well, may have to live with an older version, so installed 11.10. Live CD was fine, Install went fine. Reboot ... and YUCK ... 640x480 (or worse) screen display. Also promptly appearing was the screen offering an upgrade to 12.04. Do I decide to chase the nVidia driver problem or try the online upgrade? Chose the latter (can always reinstall 11.10). Some windows were a bit of a problem ... had to use Alt/F7 to move them around so I could see the buttons at the bottom of the window. I was reminded why I always do fresh installs when changing sytems. It took at least two hours, and downloaded at least 700MB of files from the Internet. And guess what... Success! Video fine, 12.04 runs fine. Total Internet usage for the day was over 3.5GB. Would have been quicker for me to to pop down to PBTech, buy a "clean" computer, and install U12.04! Michael

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Nokia reportedly planning to sell Qt as more developers are laid off
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '12

01 Aug '12

"Nokia is shutting down its Qt offices in Australia, laying off the team that was responsible for developing key parts of the open source development toolkit, including the QML user interface layout system." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/08/nokia-reportedly-plan… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Bogus leap second disrupts Linux systems
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '12

01 Aug '12

"Last night, various time servers wrongly announced that a leap second would be applied; it is as yet unclear whether this was caused by a simple bug or whether it could have been a DoS attack that targeted Linux systems." --source: http://h-online.com/-1657965 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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MATE 1.4 desktop improves Caja file manager
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '12

01 Aug '12

Funny... Ever since GNOME 2.x got forked and the MATE project was born, the progress of the desktop seems much faster than it used to be... "Version 1.4 of the fork of the older 2.x branch of GNOME adds support for sharing files via bluetooth and features further improvements to the Caja file manager." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1655846 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Meeting topics for 23 Jul 2012
by Rene Bartosh 23 Jul '12

23 Jul '12

Hi all, Does anyone have any subjects they would be willing to present at the next Monday meeting (in a weeks time)? Or for any upcoming meetings for that matter? I have a Raspberry PI on order (as I suspect a few others do too) which I am happy to bring along for a look and a tinker once it arrives - should be in the next month or two. Also I've signed up for the Beginners and Friends Python Programming Workshop (see http://www.meetup.com/nz-python-user-group/events/71029952/) so I'm happy to give a quick recap of that if anyone is interested. Another topic I could talk on is the XBMC home theater package - xbmc.org if anyone is interested. Regards, Rene -- >From Rene Bartosh (Gmail account) <kirjava(a)gmail.com> Personal: http://kirjava.net.nz/

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Measuring / limiting internet use
by Bruce Kingsbury 20 Jul '12

20 Jul '12

At community centre I have a debian server that routes / filters all network traffic. Is there any easy way to produce graphs of daily internet use by machine, by site visited, etc? I've tried to set up a few different packages but I can't figure any of them out, what's the easiest option? Also at home I have one computer that uses between 2GB and 3GB every day. Is there any easy way to limit this to 200M a day and then just cut off the internet for the next 24 hours?

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Sublime Text Editor
by mailinglist 19 Jul '12

19 Jul '12

Hi all, For anyone writing code, this was a new one for me yesterday http://www.sublimetext.com There is a ppa for it which is simpler than the website's download option. https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/sublime-text-2/ Dependencies include Mono and you are obliged to pay for it if you decide to use it. I've had a quick play with it. Looks pretty whizzy but I've yet to decide if I'll buy it. If anything, it's an insight into what is possible. Cheers, Chris

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4 Intriguing Desktop Linux Options Coming Soon to Retail Stores
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jul '12

13 Jul '12

1. Chromebooks at Best Buy 2. The New Asus EeePC 1225C 3. Dell's 'Project Sputnik' 4. The Diminutive Desktop -- source: https://www.linux.com/news/hardware/desktops/601187-desktop-linux-coming-so… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Re: [wlug] raspberry pi order (David McNab)
by Eric Light 12 Jul '12

12 Jul '12

I'd be interested as well - again, only in model 'B'. Perhaps someone could set up a 'registration' page on the wiki or elgg? Cheers, - Eric On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 12:00, <wlug-request(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> wrote: > > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:35:46 +1200 > From: stephen pearce <pearce.sg(a)gmail.com> > To: wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Subject: [wlug] raspberry pi order > > Hi > I would be interested in at least one .. and am prepared to pay cost > if there is a bulk order .. if this goes ahead could you let me know > and I'll forward you the money > Thanks > > > -- > Stephen Pearce > Critical Care > Whangarei > ph 021 390 997 > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:40:29 +1200 > From: David McNab <david(a)rebirthing.co.nz> > To: Waikato Linux Users Group <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Subject: Re: [wlug] raspberry pi order > > On 24/04/12 10:35, stephen pearce wrote: > > Hi > > I would be interested in at least one .. and am prepared to pay cost > > if there is a bulk order .. if this goes ahead could you let me know > > and I'll forward you the money > > Thanks > Ditto, but I would only want a Model B. The A's lack of ethernet is a > bit of a blocker. > > Cheers > David > >

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Ex-Nokia Staff To Build MeeGo-based Smartphones
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

"A group of ex-Nokia staff and MeeGo enthusiasts has formed Jolla (Finnish for 'dinghy'), a mobile startup with the aim of bringing new MeeGo devices to the market. According to its LinkedIn page, Jolla consists of directors and core professionals from Nokia's MeeGo N9 organization, together with some of the best minds working on MeeGo in the communities." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/07/07/2036239/ex-nokia-staff-to-build-me… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Meeting?
by Michael McDonald 04 Jul '12

04 Jul '12

There's been no mention ... are we meeting tonight (Mon 25 Jun)? Michael

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FishPi: Raspberry Pi Powered Autonomous Boat To Cross the Ocean
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jun '12

28 Jun '12

"The Raspberry Pi is a triumph in computing, and it's now set to become a triumph in robotics as one developer plans to build a model boat around it and sail it across the Atlantic Ocean, completely unmanned. It's codenamed FishPi and will see a model boat sail across the Atlantic all by itself save for a camera, GPS module, compass and solar panels." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/06/27/154242/fishpi-raspberry-pi-powered… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Are Open-Source Desktops Losing Competitiveness?
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jun '12

26 Jun '12

"Peter Penz has been a user of KDE since version 1.2, and he led the development of the Dolphin file manager for the past six years. Now, he's quitting KDE development and handing off Dolphin. His reasons for quitting KDE development are described in a blog post. Penz speaks of KDE losing competitiveness to Apple and Microsoft due to increased complexity and other reasons. 'Working on the non-user-interface parts of applications can be challenging, and this is not something that most freetime-contributors are striving for. But if there are not enough contributors for the complex stuff behind the scenes and if no company is willing to invest fulltime-developers to work on this... well then we are losing ground.' Are open-source desktops losing?" -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/06/26/1940250/are-open-source-deskt… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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