- 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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LUG Roundup Competition
by LUG Roundup 08 Dec '05

08 Dec '05

Hi Folks, Only 8 days left to get those entries in for the \"People\'s Choice Community Member of the Year\" award. Send your entries to me at comp.lugroundup(a)k-sit.com Cherio, Karin Purser lugroundup(a)k-sit.com http://mirror.linux.org.au/podcasts/la-update

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LUG Roundup Competition
by LUG Roundup 08 Dec '05

08 Dec '05

Hi Folks, Only 8 days left to get those entries in for the \"People\'s Choice Community Member of the Year\" award. Send your entries to me at comp.lugroundup(a)k-sit.com Cherio, Karin Purser lugroundup(a)k-sit.com http://mirror.linux.org.au/podcasts/la-update

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Adept crash- graceful resolution to debconf
by Chris O'Halloran 08 Dec '05

08 Dec '05

Having converted from Suse9.2 to Kubuntu I have appreciated the Adept front end to dpkg. However the other day, it locked up my machine so I crashed out of X and rebooted the system. However whenever I start Adept now it mentions that another process is in effect and that I need root permissions to run Adept. Having run Adept as root it still won't let me install further packages and when I try it reports debconf:DbDriver "config" /var/cache/debconf/config.dat dpkg:status database area is locked by another process dpkg run finished I assume the file "config" is locked by the aborted Adept process. I was wondering what the graceful way of resolving this problem Delete config.dat? BTW, I have been pretty impressed with Kubuntu Cheers Chris

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nvidia-glx-legacy has gone from bad to worse
by zcat 07 Dec '05

07 Dec '05

When I first upgraded to breezy I was mildly annoyed that the nvidia drivers broke, I had to install nvidia-legacy instead, and that all of the openGL stuff stopped working although the driver appeared to be loading and xorg seems to think everything is in order. Programs like glxgears would tell me I didn't have GLX. Programs like mplayer would work with "-vo xv" which was good enough most of the time so I didn't worry about it too much. Just recently I thought I would try to sort this out properly. I removed all of the 'restricted' modules and glx stuff, including config, via synaptic, then cleanly reinstalled the nvidia-legacy kernel modules and nvidia-glx-legacy package. Now glxgears exits with a segfault. Worse, so does mplayer even when I use -vo xv and even if I'm trying to play some audio-only file (or even no file at all!) Where to I even begin trying to find out what's messed up and how to fix it?!

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no audio input sources
by Jonathan Purvis 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Aleisha's computer has a SoundBlaster Audigy and a fresh install of Kubuntu 5.10. When i load Audacity or any other sound recording program, no input sources are available. Where you'd expect to see "Microphone", "Line In", etc, the list is empty. If i turn up the volume on the microphone in alsamixer, i can hear it through the speakers. arecord claims to be recording, but the resulting .wav file is silent. Audio playback is fine with every program i've tried. Also on my computer with an nForce2 chipset, i can record via line in, but not microphone. This might be due to me plugging in a mono microphone plug into it and shorting something out. (Computer microphones seem to use a stero plug to provide power to the microphone.) Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks, Jon

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gnome equivalent of kio_fish
by Glenn Ramsey 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Hi, Does anyone know if there is a gnome equivalent to KDE's kio_fish? A quick Google seems to indicate that there are some tools but no exact equivalent. Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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Next meeting: Christmas Barbeque
by Craig Box 06 Dec '05

06 Dec '05

Hi everyone, The December WLUG meeting will be the annual end of year barbeque. This year the barbeque will be on Sunday 18 December, starting at around 2pm. The venue is the same as last time - Perry and Jamie's, 3 Liston Crescent. Due to the closeness to Christmas there will be no postponement if it's wet. Please check the website and mailing list before coming if you're in any way concerned about the weather. Please bring yourselves, partners [1], meat, alcohol, topics of conversation [2], 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? Hope to see you all there. Craig [1] Not all topics of conversation at WLUG barbeques are suitable for children. Some aren't even suitable for us. [2] Some comment was made in the last survey about some of the members being 'cliquey'. Two things are at play here; a lot of the WLUG regulars are friends outside of WLUG, and a lot of people go to barbeques and have weekends to get away from computers. Please don't expect all the topic to be about Linux. Probably, most of it will be about backyard cricket. Most of the people involved are easy to talk to, so please strike up conversations, and if there's anything that can be done to make the barbeque better, feel free to suggest it to someone who looks official.

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Desktop internet dialler in Ubuntu 5.10
by Glenn Ramsey 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

Hi, In the weekend I installed Ubuntu 5.10 on my Dad's PC to replace Mandrake which didn't have support for all his hardware. It seems to have everything he needs except a sensible internet dialler. I was able to connect to the Internet by using the "Network settings" gui to configure the ISP parameters and then activate the modem device. But that seems like an odd way to dial up and isn't particularly obvious. I then installed GnomePPP but it didn't work. After some searching I discovered that it needs to have wvdial set up but that didn't work either due to the restrictive permissions of /etc/ppp/*secrets, and the wvdial man page just says "yeah we know about that and don't have a solution". I could probably fix that but I was expecting it to "just work". Whats up with that? I expected that an internet dialler frontend would have been part of the basic functionality. Did I screw up the installation in some way? I don't remember answering any questions that pertained to this. Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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help with network connection please
by John Torrance 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

I have installed Breezy badger on my other computer and was working well - I then moved the computer upstairs and now cannot connect to the network that I have. I had the same problem with windows and fixed this by changing the speed from 100BaseT full duplex to 10BaseT full duplex. I think that the problem is the poor quality of the network cable. How do I change the connection speed with Ubuntu? I am a newbie so will need simple instructions Thanks John

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Re: [wlug] Desktop internet dialler in Ubuntu 5.10
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 05 Dec '05

05 Dec '05

I was unable to find the applet. so far I am using a "pon' script because I could not get the correct modem setting into the network gui until I learn about "udev". Regards John ----- Original Message Follows ----- > > On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 08:36:29PM +1300, Glenn Ramsey > > wrote: Hi, > > > > In the weekend I installed Ubuntu 5.10 on my Dad's PC to > > replace Mandrake which didn't have support for all his > > hardware. It seems to have everything he needs except a > sensible internet dialler. > > There is a gnome panel applet for this - right-click on a > panel, and choose the "Modem Monitor" under the "System > and Hardware" grouping of applets. > > John > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > [Attachment: jrm21(a)cs.waikato.ac.nz.sig]

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[Fwd: Apache HTTP Server 2.2.0 Released]
by Oliver Jones 02 Dec '05

02 Dec '05

Nice shinny new software to play with... ;) Regards

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Blinkers
by Craig Box 01 Dec '05

01 Dec '05

"OSDL shares desktop survey results": http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5481370522.html Please specifically refer to http://www.desktoplinux.com/files/article019/osdl-dtl-survey-12.jpg. Craig

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Competition
by Karin Purser 01 Dec '05

01 Dec '05

Hi All, Just a reminder to get those entries in for the "community member of the year" Send your entries to: comp.lugroundup(a)k-sit.com You don't have to have donated $5000 worth of computers or something huge to be eligable. In what ever way you or someone you know has contributed, no matter how small you think, we would love to read about it. Cherio, Karin. "May all you hopes and dreams be just around the corner" You can find the podcasts at http://mirror.linux.org.au/podcasts/la-update lugroundup(a)k-sit.com

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Acceptable use of the WLUG Mailing List
by Meeting Reminder bot 30 Nov '05

30 Nov '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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Clearing out lots of old PC's
by Jamie Curtis 30 Nov '05

30 Nov '05

Hi all, I have a number of older PC's that I need to get rid of. All ran linux fine while in use. Most of these are yours for some small donation to WLUG. I just want them gone. First come, first served, e-mail me off list if you want one. Details on the wiki: http://www.wlug.org.nz/GarageSale Cheers, Jamie

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sudo and writing to /var/log
by Bnonn 30 Nov '05

30 Nov '05

Hi everyone, I'm writing a small script to automate backing up to a remote machine using rsync. As part of the script, I'm directing stdout from rsync to /var/log/b.netbackup.log. The problem I'm having is in actually outputting said stdout. I run all my scripts with user privileges only, escalating to root only those commands within the script that need it. This has various benefits in my eyes: 1. Principle of least privilege; why run a whole script as root when you can just run certain bits of it? 2. No need to error-check UID=0 3. Anyone in the sudoers group can run the script. So normally I just type the script name from the dollar prompt, rather than sudoing it. Inside the script itself, rsync is run with sudo, so as to both read certain files in /etc/ which have 0600 umasks, and also to be able to output to the log file in /var/log. HOWEVER You would think (or at least, I do) that something like "sudo rsync options source destination >> /var/log/logfile" would NOT give you a permission denied error. Similarly with "sudo date > /var/log/logfile". But you would be dead wrong. Running the entire script with sudo (ie, sudo b.netbackup) will work fine, as will running it from a hash prompt. Anyone got any ideas why I can't write to a log file using sudo? Hopefully it isn't something really obvious that will demonstrate my fundamental lack of understanding of how Linux works... Regards, Bnonn

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Re: [wlug] hoiho moving - service disruption
by Matthew Browne (DSL HN) 28 Nov '05

28 Nov '05

> From: Craig Box [mailto:craig(a)dubculture.co.nz] > > http://www.orcon.net.nz/images/international_traffic.gif > > You were saying? ;) > > They now (very rightfully) deprioritise P2P. I was taking that into account actually, they still aren't quite up to IHUG in terms of latency but it's nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I suspect IHUG already deprioritised P2P which would seem true if you try and use port 6881 for anything ;) Before Orcon started doing that they were having delays of up to 6000ms at peak times hitting overseas servers. It was virtually unusable for any real time applications (i.e. like gaming). Thankfully things have improved a lot now and the difference is slight. Matt

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Re: [wlug] hoiho moving - service disruption
by Matthew Browne (DSL HN) 28 Nov '05

28 Nov '05

> From: Gavin Denby [mailto:redhat(a)ihug.co.nz] > > Hmm Methinks I should have a look at Orcon's plans. after all > the best support I could give would be to use them as my ISP, > and IHUG's recent cap reduction on my plan still sits poorly with me. Not to belittle Orcon's support of the LUG or their great no-cap policy but from my own experience and a group of Orcon/IHUG users I know, Orcon's latencies are a little lacking at times compared with IHUG's. This isn't a dig at Orcon, in fact more power to them I'd say. My respect for them has grown too hearing they are supporting the LUG. The truth is, most people would probably not even notice but it's better to say it up front now rather than have those few to whom low latencies matter switch only to have some trouble. I blame all the heavy downloaders that love Orcon's no-cap plans personally. One other thing worth mentioning, Orcon probably loses money on consumer broadband as most ISPs do. If you really want to support them financially, buy their dialup, tolls or hosting services. Matt Browne

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WLUG Meeting is tonight
by Meeting Reminder bot 27 Nov '05

27 Nov '05

The WLUG meeting is this evening ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A WLUG meeting is booked for this date. Date: Monday 28 November Time: 7:30pm Location: J.1.10 at WaikatoUniversity If you're seeing this message, feel free to suggest or offer to present a meeting topic - the MeetingTopics page might be a good place to start.

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LUG Roundup Competition
by Karin Purser 26 Nov '05

26 Nov '05

Hi All, The first competition for the LUG Roundup has been announced and is now open. "Community Member of the Year" is open to all within the Linux community. The competition was opened at last nights LA Live from SLUG. 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.

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hoiho moving - service disruption
by Matt Brown 25 Nov '05

25 Nov '05

Hi All, As many of you probably know from previous posts to the list earlier this week hoiho's current hosting arrangements are coming to an end. Over the weekend we'll be moving hoiho from its current home at Tintz Digital to the Orcon Internet datacentre. Unfortunately most services offered by hoiho (HTTP, SMTP, POP, IMAP, etc) may be unavailable at various times over the course of the weekend. We are endeavouring to keep downtime to a minimum of course! Hoiho should be back up and running at full steam in its new home from mid Monday morning onwards. I'm sure I speak for everyone in the LUG when I extend a big thank you to Tintz for their generous hosting of hoiho to this point, and also to Orcon Internet for taking over the hosting of hoiho at this point. Sorry for the late notice about this change. If you have any questions or urgent problems over the weekend my contact details are below and please feel free to contact me. Kind Regards -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz

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Meeting update
by Craig Box 25 Nov '05

25 Nov '05

There -will- be a meeting on Monday. Lindsay is currently trying to finalise plans for a keynote speaker to present to the WLUG; failing that please come along with a list of your favourite Linux tips/tricks, perhaps concentrating on anything you use and surprised that collegues and friends don't seem to be aware of. Craig

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WLUG Meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder bot 24 Nov '05

24 Nov '05

The WLUG meeting is on Monday ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A WLUG meeting is booked for this date. If you're seeing this message, feel free to suggest or offer to present a meeting topic - the MeetingTopics page might be a good place to start.

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O3 - Open Source Enterprise Data Networking
by Daniel Lawson 24 Nov '05

24 Nov '05

Hi, As seen on /., a new open source magazine had it's first release today. The FTP servers are heavily overloaded, and the bittorrent was fairly slow, so I thought I'd link to a copy I've downloaded. http://www.meta.net.nz/~daniel/o3/

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problems connecting to the website
by Raymond Burgess 23 Nov '05

23 Nov '05

Hey All. I have been having a lot of trouble connecting to the Wlug website recently. It's been at least a week, mayeb two since I remember being able to connect. I'm having the same problems from the Office and at home. I tried it from Olivers place last night and he also couldn't connect. Oliver has a different ISP. As I'm in Melbourne all of these attempts would probably use the same link to reach to New Zealand. All of these attempts where using Firefox. I have now attempted to view the site from a couple of US based machines using lynxs and from home using links and have had better success, although not what I expected. One of the US machines complained initially with [socket failed: family 10 addr 2002:d237:12fa::1 port 80.] this is probably due to having a badly setup ipv6 config. It then falls back to using ipv4 and works, but at bytes per second, 100 *bytes* per second. Which is very very slow. I see the same speed from the other machines, no ipv6 error tho. Has there been any changes made tot he server config in the last month? I know that another wlug list member was having trouble connecting earlier in the year which I think was resolved once their ISP fixed up some routing issue. I no longer have any NZ based shell accounts so I can't do any further testing, I assume it's ok inside NZ otherwise someone would have mentioned something earlier. Does anyone have any suggestions for diagnosing connectivity issues like these? I guess a step by step process for diagnosing such things would make a good page for the Wiki. Raymond

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