- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Good distro for old machines
by async＠slingshot.co.nz 16 Aug '05

16 Aug '05

I have a tutor with a problem. He wants to send a whole lot of machines back to his home town in South Africa and has asked me to help. The problem is that most of the machines have 32/64MB RAM and only P2's with very small hard drives. I was wondering if anyone could recommend a distro that would run on these specs and be easy for people who have not touched a computer before. Ideally, it would run XFCE or something that is low on resource usage. I am looking at maybe Puppy, DSL or MepisLite. Cheers Nick

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bash versus the space character
by Jonathan Purvis 16 Aug '05

16 Aug '05

Does anyone know how to get bash to split the output of a command enclosed in `` the same way it would split the command line if typed in? Everything i do to try to escape spaces ends up not working. Eg, this command (for sorting the songs from _The Dark Side Of Phobos_ in level order) produces a string that can be cut'n'pasted to bash, but if i change the echo command to mplayer, it doesn't work as bash split on spaces. echo `find . -name '*E1M*' | awk '{print $2,$0}' FS='[()]' | sort | sed -e 's/[^ ]* $.*$/\1/' -e 's/$[ ()]$/\\\\\1/g'`

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linux.conf.au 2006 - Call For Miniconfs
by Mike Beattie 15 Aug '05

15 Aug '05

2006 - Dunedin, NZ! linux.conf.au is the annual Australasian 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: Call for Miniconfs 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/ Call for Miniconfs: The organisers of linux.conf.au 2006 would like to invite any groups or organisations wishing to hold a 'Mini Conference', or 'Miniconf', to present a short proposal outlining their interest. Miniconfs are held on the Monday and Tuesday before the start of the main conference (23rd and 24th of January 2006). Proposals for 1-day or full 2-day Miniconfs are welcome. Proposals should be made via email to the main conference organisers at: organisers(a)lca2006.linux.org.au . Proposals are due by Wednesday August the 31st, 2005. This is a very short period for proposals - Just over two weeks, since there have already been expressions of interest from several groups, and we wish to provide organisers with as much time as possible to organise their Miniconf. Organisation of a Miniconf is the complete responsibility of the individual, group, or organisation that has expressed interest. This includes, but is not limited to, inviting speakers for the Miniconf, scheduling allotted time, and leading the Miniconf. linux.conf.au 2006 will only provide a venue to hold the Miniconf, which includes AV equipment. We will also provide a mechanism for Conference delegates to 'register' which Miniconfs they intend to attend, during their registration for the main conference. Please note that attendance at Miniconfs is only available to delegates registered for the main conference. Miniconf Speakers are not eligible for the same benefits as main conference Speakers, and will need to register if they wish to attend the main conference. Dates to Remember: * Proposals Due: Wednesday August 24, 2005 * Announcement of Chosen Miniconfs: Friday August 26, 2005 * Conference begins: Monday January 23, 2006 Please feel free to forward this announcement to your local LUG, or any other person or group that would be interested! [1]: http://www.otago.ac.nz/ [2]: http://www.opensource.org/osd.html Regards, Mike Beattie, linux.conf.au 2006 Organisers

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WLUG Meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder bot 14 Aug '05

14 Aug '05

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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vpnc
by felix 13 Aug '05

13 Aug '05

Using SimplyMepis 3.3.1: I have to access work using a Cisco VPN connection. I have installed "vpnc" and "tun". I can establish a VPN connection and get an IP address assigned. ifconfig tun0 tun0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00 inet addr:10.255.255.1 P-t-P:10.255.255.1 Mask:255.255.255.255 I then added a route with the work IP address range: route add -net 10.83.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 dev tun0 However, I cannot access the servers at all. What have I done wrong and/or missed? Thanks for your help Felix

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Re: wlug Digest, Vol 170, Issue 12
by async 12 Aug '05

12 Aug '05

Why don't you try using the python scripting language. It is really simple and this thing was kinda my first project. See www.python.org Their site has all the docs and a tutorial to get you started. async

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Free wiki space?
by Ian McDonald 12 Aug '05

12 Aug '05

Folks, Does anybody have any recommendations for free Wiki space? I am thinking of maybe wikispaces.org as this looks OK and content is under Creative Commons. I am looking at this for todo for DCCP kernel development and it is a bit detailed, dynamic and hard core for the WLUG website in my opinion... Ian

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Part Time Linux Work At RimuHosting
by Peter 12 Aug '05

12 Aug '05

Hi. I'm looking to hire a part time Linux person to help with customer support over at http://rimuhosting.com. I've posted some info about what I'm looking for here: http://forums.rimuhosting.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130 RimuHosting is based out of Cambridge, but the intent is that most of the work is doable remotely (i.e. from home). It is evening work and may suit a Linux-mad uni student wanting to gain some IT work experience. Regards, Peter http://rimuhosting.com - Linux VPS Hosting

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OSDL promoting the idea of a patents commons
by Ian McDonald 10 Aug '05

10 Aug '05

Have a look at: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/08-0…

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New Zealand Linux Wiki
by Craig Box 10 Aug '05

10 Aug '05

Hi everyone, At the last WLUG committee meeting, we discussed the topic of the "NZLUG view" into the WLUG wiki. The issue is that we have a very complete archive of Linux knowledge related to New Zealand that some people incorrectly believe "you have to be a WLUG member to use". The WLUG committee are committed to making our wiki useful and accessible to everyone, while retaining its identity as "the official WLUG website". We would like the wiki to be relevant to all of NZ's Linux users, not just those involved with WLUG or NZLUG. We also respect that much of the content has specific relevance to only New Zealand. Much discussion took place on the various options to rectify this situation, with the two main options being: * Remove the "NZLUG view" until a national organisation is in place * Rebrand the "NZLUG view" as a New Zealand Linux Wiki, now The committee decided that the first option may send the wrong signals regarding our intentions, and has therefore decided to offer the alternative view under the tentative name of "New Zealand Linux Wiki", and publicise it to all New Zealand LUGs. Feel free to check out the modified site at http://wiki.linux.net.nz/. Comments are welcome (offlist in the first instance please). Regards Craig

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Artwork required
by Craig Box 10 Aug '05

10 Aug '05

Hi, Anyone with an artistic bent willing to do a bit of simple artwork for a website related to WLUG? Please contact me off list. Thanks, Craig

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 09 Aug '05

09 Aug '05

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WLUG Committee Meeting To have something added to the agenda for this meeting, please email secretary @ wlug.org.nz. Provisional agenda: # Minutes from previous meeting # Matters arising # Correspondence # Treasurers report # General business

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Linux tutorial on hardware
by Ian McDonald 08 Aug '05

08 Aug '05

Hi there, There is quite a good tutorial gone online at: https://www6.software.ibm.com/developerworks/education/l-lpic1101/ You do need to register to read. This looks like material that can be used towards LPI exams. Regards, Ian

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RE: [wlug] suse linux goes community
by David Nicholls 08 Aug '05

08 Aug '05

9.3 seems to have bumped up its detection of hardware I'm pleased to say. It managed to detect an old scsi card that 9.1 & 9.2 both did not pick up. As a consequence I now have my tape drive & cdrwiter back... Yay! You can also choose a gnome install for suse (it's been my default choice since 9.0) although a few people up @ the uni seem to prefer the kde install. Cheers... david -----Original Message----- From: Oliver Jones [mailto:oliver(a)deeperdesign.com] Sent: Monday, 8 August 2005 10:55 pm Subject: Re: [wlug] suse linux goes community Hmmm... the System admins at work were waving around copies of SuSE 9.3 the other day. I only just installed FC4 on my Laptop and I'm happy enough with that. Certainly the Geekiest of the Sys Admins at work seemed to think SuSE was nice. Though he still uses primarily FC. I've toyed briefly with a SuSE 9.x Live CD just after I got my Laptop. It didn't detect all the hardware as well as FC3 did so I didn't dally with it long. Also, I'm not a big KDE fan. Good too see that Novell is being more open about SuSE development though. The whole Cathedral built from OpenSource bricks idea is not so good IMO.

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suse linux goes community
by David Nicholls 08 Aug '05

08 Aug '05

you might find this interesting... <http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050802-5162.html> SuSE goes community 8/2/2005 11:40:34 PM, by Ryan Paul <mailto:segphault(a)sbcglobal.net> The community dynamic perpetually stimulates the progress, development, and communication that enable distributions like Gentoo, Fedora, and Ubuntu to maintain their position at the pinnacle of Linux popularity. In an attempt to create a community of its own, Novell plans to announce <http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1843097,00.asp> the creation of an OpenSuSE community at LinuxWorld in San Francisco. Novell intends to make the entire body of SuSE Linux source code available to the public by the end of 2006 via its future OpenSuse.org web site. Novell believes that collaboration with the Linux community will substantially benefit Novell as well as Linux developers and consumers. Novell's open source marketing director, Greg Mancusi-Ungaro says "We're trying to make it easier for application developers to come to Suse, create forks, create packages and build the software." Source code accessibility will bring new developers into the fold, which could potentially yield exceptional new technologies. It will also broaden the base of active testers, which will enable Novell to squish bugs faster. Despite plans to make the new, fully open incarnation SuSE Linux widely available at no charge via Internet downloads and CD give-aways, Novell will also sell OpenSuSE in boxed sets. Distribution and availability are key in this game, and the marketing minds at Novell are well aware of it. According to Mancusi-Ungaro, Novell previously "made [SuSE] not widely available--just retail stores or a packaged download from an FTP. It's not the easiest way to gain a large user community." He says that Novell now plans to "give away thousands [of copies] at user group events." Migration towards a community model is always a very positive change for everyone involved. The value of a strong community is possibly best seen in Ubuntu (which means "I am what I am because of who we all are"), a widely popular Linux distribution that places an incomparable emphasis on collaboration. Ubuntu was named best community of the year, and best distribution of the year in the 2004 Ars Technica Linux Awards <http://arstechnica.com/columns/linux/linux-20050102.ars> and continues to be a favorite of the Linux.Ars crew. By establishing a well-knit community of users and developers, Novell hopes that SuSE will be able to achieve the level of success and notoriety attained by open distributions like Ubuntu. SuSE has always been a popular commercial distribution, and now by actively engaging its fans in the development process, it could become one of the new Linux leaders, both on corporate desktops and in the homes of individual users. Novell is already the proud custodian of countless imperative Linux technologies like Mono, Evolution, Hula and Beagle. OpenSuSE will give Novell even more leverage as it struggles against fierce competitors like RedHat and Mandriva. The notion of an open SuSE is not a new one. In May, Jason Perlow wrote an article for Linux Magazine in which he states: "It's pretty darn clear to me that to make mojo, SuSE Linux Professional needs to look deep into its roots and re-birth itself as a public, open-source project similar to Fedora." Now that Novell has heeded the call of the community, SuSE will have an opportunity to grow and evolve in ways that it never could before, and Novell will have many excellent opportunities to capitalize on increased community interest. David Nicholls Computer Support Consultant d.nicholls at waikato.ac.nz School of Science & Engineering / Dept of Chemistry The University of Waikato Hamilton, New Zealand

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Software Info, Wiki with file attachments?
by Andrew Thrift 08 Aug '05

08 Aug '05

Hi, Just wondering if anyone knows of a PHP based wiki that allows users to attach binary files to a page. e.g. a page called "ServicePack4" could have a description and attached a copy of Service Pack 4. Users would also be able to attach files themselves. I have a use for it internal to our company for keeping track of information relating to client sites. Regards, Andrew Thrift

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RE: [wlug] Announcing Planet WLUG
by Lindsay Druett 07 Aug '05

07 Aug '05

Looks cool :) I could get the person of the month up and running again :) > They're a great way to get a summarised view of what is happening in a > community. > > WLUG's planet can be found at http://planet.wlug.org.nz/ surprisingly > enough. > > If you have a a blog and want to be added let me know.

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Announcing Planet WLUG
by Matt Brown 06 Aug '05

06 Aug '05

Hi, WLUG now has a planet. If you've not heard of one of these before it's basically a blog aggregator. Some of the more famous planets are at http://planet.gnome.org/ http://planet.debian.org/ http://planet.ubuntu.com/ They're a great way to get a summarised view of what is happening in a community. WLUG's planet can be found at http://planet.wlug.org.nz/ surprisingly enough. If you have a a blog and want to be added let me know. Cheers -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz

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Reminder: linux.conf.au 2006 - Call For Papers
by Mike Beattie 05 Aug '05

05 Aug '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: A gentle reminder that the Call for Papers is open, and there's only one month remaining for submissions! http://lca2006.linux.org.au/cfp.php 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/ Call for papers: The organisers of linux.conf.au 2006 would like to invite you to submit a paper for presentation at one of the world's leading Linux community conferences. Most presentations will be of a technical nature, but those covering legal, educational, organisational, community or similar aspects of open source software will also be welcome. Promotional presentations, commercial advertisements, sales pitches and their like are not appropriate for this conference. Papers on the following topics are encouraged: * The Linux kernel, filesystems and networking * Databases and storage * Programming languages and tools * Linux on the desktop: productivity, groupware and GUIs * Multimedia, audio, video, music and games * Security * Linux deployments, practical experience and war stories * Linux on unusual platforms: embedded systems, virtual systems, handhelds and very large systems * Distributions, management and standardization * Other open source projects We are open to a broader range of topics as well, even non-Linux based projects. So, submit it to us anyway! Please note however, that all presentations must be based on 'open source' software and projects. We have two (very different) main presentation formats: 120+ minute interactive tutorials and 50 minute seminars. You may also wish to participate in a miniconf, lightning talk, BOF session, or present a poster. ** Submission Guidelines Abstracts are required for paper, tutorial and work in progress presentations. Abstracts should be up to 400 words and be submitted to the Paper Review Committee via the web page: http://lca2006.linux.org.au/cfp/ Submission requires pre-registration as an Author, providing the following information: * Author's full name (and preferred handle, if any) * Author's complete email address * Author's affiliation with commercial or relevant organisations * Author's postal address * Author's telephone and/or mobile numbers, with area and country codes. * Author's short biography, in around 1 - 3 paragraphs. * Whether travel and accommodation assistance will be required Abstracts and biographies should be submitted as plain text. The final paper should be submitted in an appropriate open format, such as 7-bit ASCII text, HTML, DocBook or LaTeX. Any featured software in papers must be available under a licence compatible with the Open Source Definition[2]. Any papers that are accompanied by non-disclosure agreement forms will be rejected. All successful papers must be eligible for republication on-line and on distribution media given to conference attendees. linux.conf.au requires publication rights to accepted papers, including the publication of the audio proceedings as well as publication and reproduction rights to any video filmed during the presentations. These rights are non-exclusive. Copyright ownership is retained by the author. Submitting an abstract indicates understanding of and consent to these conditions. In the event that you miss one of the deadlines we reserve the right to revoke any offer to present your paper. We take having the paper for the conference proceedings very seriously and late submissions place an undue burden on our formatting team. ** Travel and Accommodation Assistance Some financial assistance is available for speakers' travel and accommodation in cases of need. Please indicate in the appropriate place during registration as an Author if this is the case. Financial assistance may be withheld if final complete submissions aren't received by the date specified above. Dates to Remember: * CFP Opened: Tuesday July 12, 2005 * Abstracts Due: Tuesday September 5, 2005 * Notifications by Review Committee begin: Wednesday September 20, 2005 * Final Complete Submissions Due: Friday December 1, 2005 * Conference begins: Monday January 23, 2006 Please feel free to forward this announcement to your local LUG, or any other person or group that would be interested! [1]: http://www.otago.ac.nz/ [2]: http://www.opensource.org/osd.html Regards, Mike Beattie, linux.conf.au 2006 Organisers

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Trying to contact Bryce Utting
by zcat 04 Aug '05

04 Aug '05

If Bryce is on the list or if anyone here knows how to get hold of him, please tell him to give me a call, 8551826 thanks..

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wlug server (hoiho)
by John R. McPherson 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

Before people start noticing and complaining, there is currently a problem with the server due to a misconfigured firewall. Not sure when it will be brought back up - Craig M (who's hosting it) doesn't seem to be around at the moment. John

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Waikato Linux Users Group Inc. Statement on discuss@meta.net.nz
by Greig McGill 02 Aug '05

02 Aug '05

Waikato Linux Users Group Inc. Statement on discuss(a)meta.net.nz =============================================================== Tuesday, 2nd August 2005 WLUG affirms the goals listed in our Interim Statement dated 26 July 2005 on the formation of a National Linux Body and encourages all interested parties from around the country to participate in the discussion on the mailing list setup for that purpose. -- Greig McGill President Waikato Linux Users Group Inc.

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Invitation to participate in discussion about a national Linux body
by Matt Brown 01 Aug '05

01 Aug '05

Tue, 2 August 2005 Recently, discussion has taken place in a number of forums around the creation of a national Linux body in New Zealand. We (the undersigned) envisage a national Linux organisation for New Zealand which would be very closely modelled on the successful Linux Australia. In particular, such an organisation would have the following broad goals: * Support, resource and promote local LUGs[1] * Provide national co-ordination services (speaker organisation, etc) * Provide web/email/mailing list hosting for LUGs where required * Seek funding from corporates and other interested parties in order to provide financial support to LUGs and individuals to foster F/OSS[2] development efforts and support attendance at F/OSS conferences. * Partner with organisations like NZOSS[3] to advocate and educate the community (and particularly the Government) on the benefits of Linux and F/OSS. * Partner with organisations like Linux AU to support and enhance the LCA conference. * Provide SIG[4] mailing lists and support services for NZ F/OSS users The national organisation would not perform the functions of a LUG itself, instead it would: * Provide a central location where users could be connected to their local LUG * Provide co-ordination and communication between individual LUGs * Undertake national initiatives supported by all LUGs * Aggregate LUG opinion and present a unified voice to the Government and other industry groups. * Support the formation of local LUGs in areas where they currently do not exist. We believe that to be successful such a group must be separate to local LUGs but have strong relationships with each of the LUGs around the country. A mailing list has been setup at discuss(a)meta.net.nz; see https://secure.meta.net.nz/mailman/listinfo/discuss for details on how to subscribe. All interested parties are invited to join this list and participate in the disucssion. In particular, we would like to see robust discussion of the above goals and also of the scope of the organisation: * What should the name of the organisation be (LinuxNZ, NZ Linux)? * Should the group seek to enhance an already existing group (eg NZOSS)? * Should it seek to support other Free Operating Systems (*BSD, etc)? * Should it seek to support F/OSS on other Operating Systems, eg Mozilla / OpenOffice.org on Windows? * How should the organisation be organised legally? * What should the nature of the group's relationships with NZOSS and Linux Australia be? Our intention is to solicit opinions until about 1 October 2005. At that point we would hope to be able to be in a position to put together a more formal proposal to refine the discussion. All going well it would be great to be able to hold the inaugural AGM of the new organisation during LCA'06 in Dunedin in the final week of January 2006. We look forward to seeing you on the discussion list. Kind Regards -- Craig Box <linux(a)dubculture.co.nz> Matt Brown <matt(a)mattb.net.nz> John McPherson <jrm21(a)cs.waikato.ac.nz> Footnotes 1. Linux User Group(s) 2. Free and Open Source Software 3. NZ Open Source Society 4. Special Interest Group

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Interesting article on software patents
by Craig Box 01 Aug '05

01 Aug '05

Following the presentation from Denise Tyrer-Harding from Pipers on Monday, I thought some of you might be interested in reading an article from the New York Times on software patents: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/business/yourmoney/31digi.html?pagewanted… (If you're one of those people who care about online registration, try using 'cypherpunk' as the username and password. Or bouncing through Google. Or adding &referrer=something to the end of the URL. Or using bugmenot.com I don't know, I signed up.) Craig

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Fedora, RPM, and repositories.
by Oliver Jones 31 Jul '05

31 Jul '05

Hi Folks. I've recently upgraded from FC3 to FC4 on my laptop and I'd like to ask about others experiences with RPMs and the different repositories out there. Personally I think the whole Fedora repository thing is getting a little messy. At the moment I'm just using the FC, Fedora Extras, Livna.org, nRRPMS-mono and JPackage repositories because they are all "compatible" with each other. However there are a number of other repositories out there like Dag Weirs, Dries, ATrpms etc that have lots of neat stuff but tend to be fairly incompatible with FC+FE. Ie, they duplicate packages found in Core or Extras. I'd be interested to hear about how others are dealing with repo incompatibility issues when using Fedora. I'd also like to hear about any advocacy or repository merging stuff that is going on that anyone knows about. Regards

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Philip Hazel's Exim talk at WLUG
by Craig Box 31 Jul '05

31 Jul '05

Hi everyone, On the 1st of February we were happy to have Philip Hazel, author of Exim and PCRE, present to WLUG (see http://www.wlug.org.nz/MeetingTopics.2005-02-01 for the writeup). The meeting was videoed and was then encoded by R2 in Wellington. You can find it with the NZNOG talks at http://www.r2.co.nz/20050203/, else a direct link is at http://www.r2.co.nz/20050203/p-hazel.asx. Be warned, the entire talk comes in at about 650mb. If anyone is interested I might be able to get a couple of copies on CD at the next meeting. With the win32 codecs (w32codecs package from Marillat on Ubuntu) you can play this stream with mplayer. Regards, Craig

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

31 Jul '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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RE: [wlug] Ubuntu apt widget and name issue(Hoary 5.04)
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

---- Original Message Follows ----- > > I have checked for case errors and tried a variety of ways > of putting the pass it simply does not work. > There are three likely outcomes after I type a > password.<enter> > 1 The widget disappears and nothing further happens. > 2 The widget returns "Failed to run < name of programme> > Child terminated with 1 status" > 3 returns a password error message (least likely) > Regards John Lets review this. Warty then Hoary 5.04 It took me a long time to get this distro installed. I think the main reason for this was that I was a bit afraid of losing my Ntfs partion (XP win with a working 54m wireless card) so I allowed the auto partion to do its thing. What happened was the install went ahead but failed right at the end because there was no / root partion. auto partition made a 8.7 gig non root ext3 and a 512 bootable swap. The way I finally overcame this error by reinstalling but choosing the "expert" mode (Yep, John the expert) I could then choose a partion with a /root I still stayed with the two partitions 8.7gig /ext3 and 512meg bootable swap. the result of this was that I got (for the first time ) a non crippled but not quite fully funtional Ubuntu laptop. the problems that I _KNOW_a little about are 1.. The last thing about the install was a message telling me to become su and run cron. I do not know what the actual message said or how to recover the message in order to read it 2.. The widgets that require a user pass word are returning "fail" with a child <n> error 3.. I have no sounds because I have not joined the correct group yet. In an attempt to get this right I have downloaded a several thousand more words to read from a number of Debian areas with a view to doing yet another, perhaps even more successfull instal. If any Wlug members would like to add some helpful comments (on or off list) I would appreciatte their input as I am determined to do this this thing at some time of my life.. Regards John

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Wiki Commons licence. ATTN: Criag
by DrWho? 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

Got an email, I think, about approving the few mods I made to the Wiki. Can you send it again? Thanks.

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Re: [wlug] Knoppix, apt
by Camster342 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

> > 1. Working out from my knoppix machine at work which packages it's > > going to need. 2. saving that list somehow, going home, downloading > > all of the packages at home. 3. Writing a CDRW or something with those > > packages. 4. Configuring apt on my machine at work to get all of the > > packages it needs from the CDRW, rather than the net. > I have a script setup to do this type of thing (although in reverse) > it basically consists of ... > [snip] Thanks very much! This was exactly what I needed. -- Cameron

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Unsubscribed posts
by Craig Box 28 Jul '05

28 Jul '05

Oliver Jones writes: On Tue, 2005-07-26 at 09:53 +1200, Matt Brown wrote: > On Tue, 2005-07-26 at 08:16 +1200, jaytee(a)clear.net.nz wrote: > > When I run update-manager as root I get > > "(synaptic:7648): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_destroy: > > assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed > > Note that if you're running update-manager from a console window then > you can probably safely ignore these messages. They do indicate a bug in > the application but it's almost certainly non fatal and will just be a > memory leak or something. GTK is amazingly anal. Soooo many Gnome apps generate these sorts of messages. You would think that developers would get rid of them. I certainly would if I were writing GTK/Gnome software. But that is just me. But then lots of Gnome apps (even "professional" ones like Evolution) commonly crash. I love Linux, but for all the "linux is so stable" rhetoric out there, GUI apps in Linux are not always the best. Which is why more GUI apps should not be written in C/C++. More python I say. Even Java would be a good option now with the way GCJ is maturing and the Gnome/Java bindings. I would also give props to Mono as that looks pretty cool but until it is on safer legal ground I can't. Regards -- Michael Honeyfield writes: > You know, if they actually bothered coming to hamilton I'd actually go. > Seing as I use suse linux 9.2 and all as does the uni in certain areas. I have asked Andreas if the content will be made downloadable from Novell. Yes, Hamilton seems to be missed all too often. I would certainly attend also as I am a user of suse also, home and work. Mike -- Both of these people posted from an unsubscribed address. Please remember that *messages posted from an unsubscribed address are dropped on the floor* (or realistically, to my Bounces folder :) I can't recover them, I can only forward them like this. If you are likely to find yourself in this situation, feel free to subscribe as many addresses as you need as 'nomail' - they will not receive any messages but they can post them. See the link in the footer below if you need any more info. listadminnyCraig

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Knoppix, apt
by Camster342 28 Jul '05

28 Jul '05

Hi people, first time poster here... Okay, this is somewhat difficult to explain, but I'll try my best. I use Knoppix 3.8.1 at work, but I cannot get good internet access (it keeps randomly cutting off downloads larger than about 500K), and I want to update/replace a couple of packages, but I know that doing this is going to require a whole lot of dependencies. First of all I want to replace OpenOffice.org with an english version (this knoppix only came with the german version). And then I want to upgrade KDE from 3.3.2 to 3.4.1. I want to do this by 1. Working out from my knoppix machine at work which packages it's going to need. 2. saving that list somehow, going home, downloading all of the packages at home. 3. Writing a CDRW or something with those packages. 4. Configuring apt on my machine at work to get all of the packages it needs from the CDRW, rather than the net. Has anyone had to something like this before? The ones that I think I need pointers on are going to be 1 and 4. Anyone know how I would go about those in particular? -- Cameron

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RE: [wlug] Ubuntu apt widget and name issue(Hoary 5.04)
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 28 Jul '05

28 Jul '05

I have checked for case errors and tried a variety of ways of putting the pass it simply does not work. There are three likely outcomes after I type a password.<enter> 1 The widget disappears and nothing further happens. 2 The widget returns "Failed to run < name of programme> Child terminated with 1 status" 3 returns a password error message (least likely) Regards John

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RE: [wlug] FW: Novell CHOICE Roadshow
by David Nicholls 27 Jul '05

27 Jul '05

You know, if they actually bothered coming to hamilton I'd actually go. Seing as I use suse linux 9.2 and all as does the uni in certain areas. Cheers... david -----Original Message----- From: Craig Box [mailto:craig(a)dubculture.co.nz] Subject: [wlug] FW: Novell CHOICE Roadshow (originally from nzlug mailing list) Hello fellow NZLugers! The Novell Choice Linux Roadshow is starting this week and on the following dates we are in the following cities. Please register for free for the event with Kristi kwildish(a)novell.com. 28th July Christchurch 2nd August Wellington 10th August Auckland The Agenda: Morning 8:30-9:00 Registration with Tea/Coffee/Muffins 9:00 - 9:15 Introduction to event and positioning of CHOICE - Matthew Christie, Country Manager of Novell 9:15 - 9:45 Novell Linux Desktop, Workgroup Linux and Management - Novell, Andreas Girardet 9:45-10:15 The Data Centre and LINUX - David Woolford Oracle 10:15-10:45 Linux Reference Architecture - Buddika Aluwihare, HP 10:45- 11:00 The Cathedral and the Bizarre. Why Linux has become such an interest. - David Woolford Oracle 11:00-11:15 The Open Source Community. What is it and how to get involved - Andreas Girardet Novell 11:15-11:45 How to Adopt Linux- what, where and how to start! - OSS 11:45 - noon Close of event - Matthew Christie 1:00-2:00 Hands on workshops begin. 50 people split in 2 groups. Desktop in one room, Oracle in another Regards, Andreas Girardet Consulting Architect Novell, Inc.

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"Bus Error" when running apt-get, and how it went away.
by Glyn Webster 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

At the last meeting I told some friendly people I had problems with 'synaptic', 'aptitude', and 'apt-get' all crashing with a "Bus Error" on my Ubuntu installation. They all began to work again after I ran 'dselect'; I assume 'dselect' somehow repaired the package database while updating it. Yay: a grave bug in the APT package management system has been hidden away until Next Time! :-) I mention this because the friendly people (whose names I'm sorry I can't remember) said to describe my problem again on the mailing list. -- Glyn Webster ~ Simplicity Himself.

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FW: Novell CHOICE Roadshow
by Craig Box 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

(originally from nzlug mailing list) Hello fellow NZLugers! The Novell Choice Linux Roadshow is starting this week and on the following dates we are in the following cities. Please register for free for the event with Kristi kwildish(a)novell.com. 28th July Christchurch 2nd August Wellington 10th August Auckland The Agenda: Morning 8:30-9:00 Registration with Tea/Coffee/Muffins 9:00 - 9:15 Introduction to event and positioning of CHOICE - Matthew Christie, Country Manager of Novell 9:15 - 9:45 Novell Linux Desktop, Workgroup Linux and Management - Novell, Andreas Girardet 9:45-10:15 The Data Centre and LINUX - David Woolford Oracle 10:15-10:45 Linux Reference Architecture - Buddika Aluwihare, HP 10:45- 11:00 The Cathedral and the Bizarre. Why Linux has become such an interest. - David Woolford Oracle 11:00-11:15 The Open Source Community. What is it and how to get involved - Andreas Girardet Novell 11:15-11:45 How to Adopt Linux- what, where and how to start! - OSS 11:45 - noon Close of event - Matthew Christie 1:00-2:00 Hands on workshops begin. 50 people split in 2 groups. Desktop in one room, Oracle in another Regards, Andreas Girardet Consulting Architect Novell, Inc., the leading provider of information solutions http://www.novell.com My phonenumbers: NZ Mobile: 0064-027-645-9827 NZ Landline: 0064-09-3081402 Germany: 0049-0180-16666-269-609 USA (WA): 001-360-488-0966 USA (NY): 001-347-952-3413 UK: 0044-087-04902877 UK: 0044-087-09315298 Italy: 0039-02-303127527 Austria: 0043-0720-503393

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WLUG and NZLUG tentative position
by Greig McGill 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

Waikato Linux Users Group Inc. Interim Statement on National Linux Body ======================================================================= Tue, 26 July 2005 During this year discussion has intensified around the creation of a national Linux body in New Zealand. WLUG committee members have been involved in this discussion and WLUG has shown its commitment to the ideal of a national linux body by offering to host an "NZLUG Theme" into the WLUG Wiki. WLUG envisages a national Linux organisation for New Zealand which would be very closely modelled on the successful Linux Australia. In particular such an organisation would have the following broad goals: - Support, resource and promote local LUGs - Provide national co-ordination services (speaker organisation, etc) - Provide hosting for LUGs where required - Provide financial support - Partner with organisations like NZOSS to advocate and educate the community (and particularly Government) on the benefits of Linux and OSS. - Partner with organisations like Linux AU to support and enhance the LCA conference. The national organisation would not perform the functions of a LUG itself, instead it would: - Provide a central location where users could be connected to their local LUG - Provide co-ordination and communication between individual LUGs - Undertake national initiatives supported by all LUGs - Aggregate LUG opinion and present a unified voice to the Government and other industry groups. The WLUG committee intends to meet this Friday (July 29) to discuss this issue further and to formulate WLUG's definitive position on this subject. We look forward to working with other members of the New Zealand Linux community in trying to create a national Linux organisation. Please direct all submissions on this matter to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz before midday on the 29th of July. -- Greig McGill President Waikato Linux Users Group Inc.

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RE: [wlug] Setting up and learning MySQL
by David Nicholls 26 Jul '05

26 Jul '05

Hi rod, I suggest you go here ( http://dev.mysql.com/doc/ ) and check out the different forms of documentation - one even has user comments. You can also download tarballed html and PDFs etc. I myself have found this site extremely helpful in the past. There are other sites around dealing with mysql and they should be easy to find, by the official site is pretty good. Cheers... david -----Original Message----- From: Roderick Aldridge [mailto:rod-a(a)hnpl.net] Subject: Re: [wlug] Setting up and learning MySQL James Clark wrote: > On Tue, Jul 26, 2005 at 12:59:13AM +1200, Roderick Aldridge wrote: > >>Do you just run the install script (as root?) ---snip--- > > Cheers, > James. > I installed mysql and mysql-client using synaptic but I see I didn't install the documentation, which I have since done. However it seems to be an info version of what I read on the mysql website. This looks to be just what is needed for an expert, but leaves me uncertain as to what has already been done by synaptic and what I need to do to achieve what I want. For example the installation section of the info manual says: ---snip--- I think synaptic has done most or all of that and I that should go on to post-installation setup and testing, but how do you tell? There is no sign of mysql on my user menu. Do I need to add rod to the mysql user group? Rod

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Ubuntu apt widget and name issue(Hoary 5.04)
by jaytee＠clear.net.nz 25 Jul '05

25 Jul '05

When I run update-manager as root I get "(synaptic:7648): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done" It did however down load a small update for Mozilla. If I try to run it (or anything else) from the gui I am asked for a password by the widget. My root pass and my user pass does not work (even Gandhalf is no good) I think this last issue is unrelated, on boot I get "ror: temporary unable to resolve name" Any help on this would be welcome Regards John

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Setting up and learning MySQL
by Roderick Aldridge 25 Jul '05

25 Jul '05

I have installed MySQL on Ubuntu but have not initialised anything yet. I want to learn it well enough to set up a simple database for my audio collection and also a simple database for work. Neither will be on-line or need high security. What is the easiest way to initialise it? Do you just run the install script (as root?) shell> cd mysql_installation_directory shell> ./scripts/mysql_install_db shell> ./bin/safe_mysqld --user=mysql & or shell> ./bin/mysqld_safe --user=mysql & if you are running MySQL 4.x. and continuing? I want to set it up for user rod to be able to experiment easily without ruining everything. Also what and tutorial GUI would you reccommend for my purposes? I see the python front-end was also installed along with MySQL and I have installed mysqlcc. Any pointers greatly appreciated Roderick Aldridge

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WLUG Meeting is tonight
by Meeting Reminder bot 24 Jul '05

24 Jul '05

The WLUG meeting is this evening ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ! WLUG Meeting - 25 July 2005 Location: University of Waikato, http://www.wlug.org.nz/LitB Time: 7pm Denise Tyrer-Harding of Pipers (http://www.pipers.co.nz/) is scheduled to speak to the WLUG about IntellectualProperty within New Zealand. Denise is a highly regarded IntellectualProperty lawyer and we look forward to what she has to say.

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

24 Jul '05

The WLUG meeting is on Monday ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ! WLUG Meeting - 25 July 2005 Location: University of Waikato, http://www.wlug.org.nz/LitB Time: 7pm Denise Tyrer-Harding of Pipers (http://www.pipers.co.nz/) is scheduled to speak to the WLUG about IntellectualProperty within New Zealand. Denise is a highly regarded IntellectualProperty lawyer and we look forward to what she has to say.

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WLUG Meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder bot 17 Jul '05

17 Jul '05

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ! WLUG Meeting - 25 July 2005 Denise Tyrer-Harding of Pipers (http://www.pipers.co.nz/) is scheduled to speak to the WLUG about IntellectualProperty within New Zealand. Denise is a highly regarded IntellectualProperty lawyer and we look forward to what she has to say.

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Installing OOo beta on Ubuntu
by Graham Lauder 15 Jul '05

15 Jul '05

Need a little help here for an rpm centric user I put the latest OOo beta in my Ubuntu box and ran alien with -i to convert and install Everything seemed to go swimmingly . All files in the right place and installation exactly as would expect. However, the executable: soffice, won't run. I ran ls -la and soffice permissions read: --------- interesting Anyway I'm definitely a deb newbie, so I'm scratching my head a bit. Anyone else used Alien to get OOo 1.9.113 running on Ubuntu or would have a suggestion what to try. I also did a simple conversion from rpm to deb. Would that be a better way to go rather using Alien to do the install. And having said that what's the install procedure. man install is of course no bloody use at all. ;) Cheers Yo

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Exim 4 and vm-pop3d
by Michael Honeyfield 14 Jul '05

14 Jul '05

Is there anyone here that has working knowledge of Exim 4 with virtual domains using vm-pop3d ? Cheers Mike

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New MythTV music player on the way - something to help hack on?
by Craig Box 13 Jul '05

13 Jul '05

One of the complaints we have about MythTV is that the music player is very unintuitive. Have a brief read of the thread http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-dev/2005-July/038011.html where some discussion is underway about a replacement that is a frontend/backend system, using the DAAP protocol (http://daap.sourceforge.net/) that ITunes uses. http://cvs.mythtv.org/trac/browser/trunk/mfd - backend http://cvs.mythtv.org/trac/browser/trunk/mfe - frontend When I get home I'm very interested in having a look at this and it might pay to look at helping this project rather than doing anything with MythMusic. Craig

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SATA RAID cards
by Bnonn 13 Jul '05

13 Jul '05

Hi guys I'm looking for a 2-port SATA RAID 1 card, which I'll be installing into a P3 1 GHz to make up a wee webserver running Ubuntu. I currently have my eye on the Adaptec 1210SA or the Promise FastTrak TX2200/TX4200 cards. Both of these appear to have Linux driver support, although the websites only list specific distros so I suspect they're binary drivers only. Does anyone know of any thorny issues I should be aware of? I've done some searching and couldn't find anything conclusive either way. I don't want to spend too much on the card, but I'm willing to pay a little more for a card which is known to work (I couldn't find a list of supported RAID controller cards for Ubuntu; if anyone can point me in the right direction I'd be appreciative). If anyone has any other cards they know work and can recommend, I'd be pleased to hear from them. Regards Bnonn

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 12 Jul '05

12 Jul '05

As per the WLUG charter, please note that there is a WLUG executive committee meeting one week from today. If you wish to get an item on the agenda for this meeting, please email it to secretary(a)wlug.org.nz. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WLUG Committee Meeting To have something added to the agenda for this meeting, please email secretary @ wlug.org.nz. Provisional agenda: # Minutes from previous meeting # Matters arising # Correspondence # Treasurers report # General business

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ISO + Modem questions
by Dean 11 Jul '05

11 Jul '05

I solved my modem problem yesterday by using pppconfig instead of the GUI one Ubuntu provides, I'm not sure whats wrong with it, but something is definatly broken. I'm not sure if ubuntu comes with pppconfig by default (I downloaded it and installed it before checking) if not I used the package from http://packages.debian.org/stable/base/pppconfig I then installed the package and used it, just as easy as the GUI to setup, and all you need to use are pon <name of connection> and poff <name> and all works wonderfully :) Hope that works, Dean > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2005 23:20:43 +1200 > From: Ivan Potgieter <tealsky(a)bigfoot.com> > Subject: [wlug] ISO + Modem questions > To: wlug <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Message-ID: <42CFB30B.5(a)bigfoot.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Hi all, <snip> > > I realize that the speed test is not going to be overly accurate, but > I'm not concerned with getting an accurate speed measurement. I just > used this method to get a comparison. btw - I did the 500k test. > > Does anyone have any ideas / suggestions ? > > Thanks > Ivan

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ISO + Modem questions
by Ivan Potgieter 10 Jul '05

10 Jul '05

Hi all, I have been running Ubuntu now for a few weeks (on a test box) and I am continuously finding new 'gems' in the GUI. It does handle writing ISO images to disk very well, but I found no way to create an iso image of an (existing) disk from within the Ubuntu (Gnome) GUI? (I was trying to copy the Ubuntu Live CD). I had to use 'dd' from a console - is there another way? ALSO: I am having some trouble with my external modem... * The abridged version * Good connection using Win2K, SLOW connection using Ubuntu. * Detailed version * Step1: To begin, I checked to see what modem I had via MiniCom: atz OK ati1 External Controller Ver1.20, CheckSum=617A OK ati3 TP560 Data/Fax/Voice 56K Modem OK - So it is a (generic) 56K Modem. Step2: I used Win2k to perform a speed test (it's the pc nearest to the phone line) Connected to http://www.jestreamgames.co.nz/speed/ Quite a respectable speed (43 K bits/sec) Step3: I connected the modem to Com1 on my Ubuntu box, it connected, but the same test (on the same phone line) gave me 0.9 K bytes / sec! I realize that the speed test is not going to be overly accurate, but I'm not concerned with getting an accurate speed measurement. I just used this method to get a comparison. btw - I did the 500k test. Does anyone have any ideas / suggestions ? Thanks Ivan

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