- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Train spamassassin virtual domains.
by DrWho? 12 May '05

12 May '05

A question for all you script people. Has anyone come across a script that will read all users from the userprefs table then call sa-learn, with the user name and a constructed path to the spam / no spam. Basicly I have set up two IMAP folders, spam and no spam for use per user, which will hopefully be used to train spamassassin per user. All user options and Bayes are stored in MYSQL. I am using vpopmail to provide the "virtual domains" so the script has to be able to pull the user name apart so it can be re-assembled to form a path to the spam folders. i.e. User - x(a)y.z Path to spam folder - /home/vpopmail/domains/y.z/x/Spam/New Oddly enough I thought this would be something every man and his dog would do, but it seems not. Any ideas???

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Looking for ubuntu.sh
by Stephen 11 May '05

11 May '05

Hi Everyone, Any one have a link to the ubuntu.sh script used at the installfest ? TIA Stephen

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Linux hardware
by Bnonn 11 May '05

11 May '05

Hi everyone Just today my sturdy old Athlon 850's CPU fan decided to give up the ghost, and I decided that it was a sign that I need to get with the times. Because I have no need for anything particularly powerful, I'm going to be purchasing an AthlonXP 2400+, since they're dirt cheap. I'd like the list's advice on what sort of mainboard is best to pair this with; or, rather, what sort of mainboard I definitely shouldn't pair it with. I'm running Ubuntu, and I know its hardware support is pretty good, but any advice you can offer would be appreciated. Onboard graphics is prefered; onboard sound is neither here nor there. Regards Bnonn

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Ubuntu Hoary CDs
by Craig Box 11 May '05

11 May '05

Hi everyone, As promised, I have 100 Hoary CDs to dispense to everyone. I'd like to get rid of them in good public places; I'll make sure about half end up at the WAND group and have a counter display at the comp sci office if I can. Any suggestions on what to do with the rest, short of 'bring them to the upcoming WLUG meeting'? Any retailers want to pick up a handful and put them on their counters? Craig

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Thunderbird inbox
by Gun Caundle 11 May '05

11 May '05

On a notebook with XP, Thunderbird started taking a long time to load. The 'total' for the inbox in the bottom right corner showed '5863' but only the received mail (81 messages)showed in the right pane. The 'total' would then increase by 50 or so intermittently and is now up to '6124' Anyone able to shed some light on this occurrence? -- Cheers Gun

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Usability study
by Craig Box 11 May '05

11 May '05

Hi all, Kirsten has asked me to pass on this message on behalf of the University of Waikato Usability Laboratory. Anyone interested should contact her directly as per below. Craig Are you an Early Technology Adopter? ---------------------------------------- The Usability Laboratory is doing usability research for Telecom. We need study participants who: * Spend $40 or more per month on their mobile phone. * Use mobile data services. * Use the Internet. * Use or have one or more of: digital camera, games console, Game Boy, personal web page or a Broadband Internet connection. If you'd like to participate, please contact: Kirsten Thomson on 0800 USABILITY or email: kthomson(a)cs.waikato.ac.nz.

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Upcoming WLUG committee meeting (1 week today)
by Meeting Reminder bot 10 May '05

10 May '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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RE: [wlug] High speed internet ADSL
by Craig Box 10 May '05

10 May '05

Ian McDonald wrote: > If the alarm is on the phone side of the filter why can't you use ADSL > elsewhere and why don't you need filters elsewhere? > > Unless by phone side you mean behind the filter instead of in the > phone socket of the filter which would then make sense. > > All that an ADSL filter is, is a cheap bandpass filter. In general alarms are wired directly into the telephone system, not to a plug which goes into a socket. If it was, then eveyrone would just unplug the socket, and the alarm couldn't dial out to say it had gone off. In a wires-to-a-wall situation, if there is a random wire cut, the alarm should go into "I have been tampered with" mode. Therefore you can't just drop an inline filter in as easily as you can in front of a telephone. You can do your own ADSL installs (http://jane.nevada.net.nz/realDSL.jpg) but unless you have good equipment, it's not advised. The internet would always drop out at the flat in the picture. :) Craig

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High speed internet ADSL
by Ron Dean 10 May '05

10 May '05

ADSL USB Modem (DSL-200) Ihug are offering 256k with a 4gig limit If you go over the limit it defaults to 64k Does anybody have experience with this modem with Ubuntu. Because I have a monitored home alarm and the phone line carries data their installation cost is $148 including modem and wiring installation this month only.

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RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Lindsay Druett 09 May '05

09 May '05

> On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 01:22:10PM +1200, Justin Hyde wrote: > > I contacted the bank this morning and received the reply below. > > Change banks, let them know why afterwards. > > James. Why ? At the end of the day, while it maybe frustrating that there are support issues with regards to doing Internet banking, I would rather be dealing with a bank that has a closed security policy and keeps my money safely tucked away. Security is their primary responsibility. As Matt said, a polite email to the bank explaining your problems, what you've encountered is a more appropriate action to take. Anyway, when you are more than likely to encounter the same problems with the next bank. Just bear in mind that they won't come up with an instant solution (unless they have already identified this problem) as they will spend time doing testing.

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AVG for Linux
by Shane Taylor 09 May '05

09 May '05

I know there was a thread about a month ago about Linux antivirus software, but I don't recall anyone mentioning AVG. Grisoft now have various versions of AVG 7.0 on offer for email servers & workstations. Has anyone tried any of the Linux versions yet?? http://www.grisoft.com/doc/Programs/lng/us/tpl/tpl01?prd=trisng Shane.

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RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Justin Hyde 09 May '05

09 May '05

yes, it should be https://www.ebank.hsbc.co.nz/ WINXP browser = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2 Browser String from www.showmyip.com = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2 Have to reboot to get Ubuntu version, post shortly -----Original Message----- From: mglb1-forwarding Sent: Mon 09/05/05 13:30 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox On Mon, 2005-05-09 at 13:22 +1200, Justin Hyde wrote: > Hi > > After installing Ubuntu on the weekend at the install fest, I tried > accessing my internet banking service with HSBC. > > I got an error message saying that I should use IE or Netscape. I > contacted the bank this morning and received the reply below. > > Could someone using Ubuntu and Firefox check whether they can access > https://ebank.hsbc.co.nz to see if its just my computer or a general > problem. Assuming you meant https://www.ebank.hsbc.co.nz/ then yes, I too get an error message. > Could someone recommend a way of getting around the customer services > people at the bank and through to the IT guys? The only way I can think of is to ask the customer services people. I find email often works better than phone for these sort of problems. > As an aside, I could access this banking service using Firefox on my > WINXP setup. Now this is strange. What version or Firefox were you using under WinXP? They are most probably doing their browser detection using the UserAgent string that your browser supplies which I would have thought would have been fairly similar between Linux and Windows. Perhaps not... You could try going to http://www.showmyip.com/ in both Windows and Linux, and recording the Browser (UserAgent) string it reports, I'd be interested in seeing how they differ. Regards -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Installfest
by Judy & Lindsay 09 May '05

09 May '05

Hello list, I'm interested to know how the install-fest went on Saturday. I was scheduled to be in Auckland at a convention for the weekend but was stricken with some illness and was left behind. Still I was able to install Ubuntu Hoary on my box. Some news would be welcome. Linz

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RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Justin Hyde 09 May '05

09 May '05

Thanks for all your help. I have installed the user agent switch and all seems to be working sweetly. I will contact the bank and advise them accordingly. Problem #1 solved. (how many am I allowed per day ;-) ?) -----Original Message----- From: Greig McGill [mailto:greig(a)hamiltron.net] Sent: Mon 09/05/05 14:23 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox James Clark wrote: > On Mon, May 09, 2005 at 02:12:22PM +1200, Daniel Lawson wrote: > >>Yeah. No shit. > > I'm sure this was absolutely necessary. Away put your weapons! Dan: Less grump. James: Less zealous. ;) Anyway, on topic... I see that this is very frustrating. I was explaining to Justin on Saturday that we spend a lot of time chasing online suppliers that our clients deal with in order to get them to support firefox. They usually respond helpfully. HSBC seem to be an exception. I would suggest that the useragent workaround will get you going right now, and in the meantime, if you find that their site works flawlessly with the switch, then email them, and let them know this. It may at least convince them to opening up trials of other browsers, once they realise there may not be anything to fix. Regards, Greig. _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Justin Hyde 09 May '05

09 May '05

Looks like Firefox number is slightly different Ubuntu = Firefox/1.0 WinNT = Firefox/1.0.2 Browser string from Ubuntu = Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050405 Firefox/1.0 (Ubuntu package 1.0.2) -----Original Message----- From: Justin Hyde Sent: Mon 09/05/05 13:38 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: RE: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox yes, it should be https://www.ebank.hsbc.co.nz/ WINXP browser = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2 Browser String from www.showmyip.com = Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050321 Firefox/1.0.2 Have to reboot to get Ubuntu version, post shortly -----Original Message----- From: mglb1-forwarding Sent: Mon 09/05/05 13:30 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox On Mon, 2005-05-09 at 13:22 +1200, Justin Hyde wrote: > Hi > > After installing Ubuntu on the weekend at the install fest, I tried > accessing my internet banking service with HSBC. > > I got an error message saying that I should use IE or Netscape. I > contacted the bank this morning and received the reply below. > > Could someone using Ubuntu and Firefox check whether they can access > https://ebank.hsbc.co.nz to see if its just my computer or a general > problem. Assuming you meant https://www.ebank.hsbc.co.nz/ then yes, I too get an error message. > Could someone recommend a way of getting around the customer services > people at the bank and through to the IT guys? The only way I can think of is to ask the customer services people. I find email often works better than phone for these sort of problems. > As an aside, I could access this banking service using Firefox on my > WINXP setup. Now this is strange. What version or Firefox were you using under WinXP? They are most probably doing their browser detection using the UserAgent string that your browser supplies which I would have thought would have been fairly similar between Linux and Windows. Perhaps not... You could try going to http://www.showmyip.com/ in both Windows and Linux, and recording the Browser (UserAgent) string it reports, I'd be interested in seeing how they differ. Regards -- Matt Brown matt(a)mattb.net.nz Mob +64 275 611 544 www.mattb.net.nz _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Internet Banking using Ubuntu and Firefox
by Justin Hyde 09 May '05

09 May '05

Hi After installing Ubuntu on the weekend at the install fest, I tried accessing my internet banking service with HSBC. I got an error message saying that I should use IE or Netscape. I contacted the bank this morning and received the reply below. Could someone using Ubuntu and Firefox check whether they can access https://ebank.hsbc.co.nz to see if its just my computer or a general problem. Could someone recommend a way of getting around the customer services people at the bank and through to the IT guys? As an aside, I could access this banking service using Firefox on my WINXP setup. Cheers Justin Hyde Dear Andrew, RE: HSBC Internet Access We thank you for your email. Please be advised to access the HSBC Internet Banking you will need to use one of the following: Web Browser Version PC's Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0 Netscape Navigator 7.0 MAC's Internet Explorer 5.1.7 for Mac OS 8.1.9.x Internet Explorer 5.2.3 for Mac OS X We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience. If you require further assistance please call our Direct Service Centre 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 0800802380 (within New Zealand) or 09 3660366 (from overseas). Kind regards, Tatiana Mendoza Customer Service Consultant Direct Service Centre www.hsbc.co.nz --Original Message-- I have a new computer at home that has the Ubuntu version of linux as its operating system and Firefox as its web browser. When I tried accessing HSBC internet banking I was not allowed by HSBC to log on saying that I needed to Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. I believe that Friefox and Linux are widely accepted in the IT community, so I am puzzled as to why HSBC is not allowing access through these systems. I had to log into my old computer that has Windows XP so I could send this message from HSBC internet banking. Cheers

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Installfest roundup
by Craig Box 08 May '05

08 May '05

Hi everyone, Thanks to everyone who made the WLUG Installfest for 2005 a huge success. We had around 60 people attend, with about 40 maximum at any one time; slightly more than last year. Thanks to our sponsors: * CrawshawSchool, for the venue * DSE, for donating CDs, power cables and Cat5 patch cables * AlliedTelesyn, for the loan of network equipment * O'Reilly, for giveaway and new library books. Thanks also to all the committee members and helpers who gave a lot of time and energy into getting Linux going. Twelve people took advantage of our half price membership at the installfest offer and joined WLUG. We hope you're really pleased with Ubuntu as a distribution; I'm really pleased that we got it running perfectly on nearly all PCs, including two that were having serious problems with Mandrake and SUSE. [1] The network was really great. We had no major problems on the day, and we cached all the updates beforehand so that people didn't have to wait around. We did about 2gb of traffic, but about 80% of that came out of the cache, so we only actually downloaded 400mb of data (most of which will be the updates for the two AMD64 machines that we didn't have updates cached for). If anyone has any feedback (especially new people who are on the list now) please feel free to post it here. Photo galleries are linked from the http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFest.2005-05-07 page. Craig [1] To my knowledge, there were only two PCs that didn't leave with Ubuntu correctly set up on them. One was a very new tablet PC that couldn't boot off an external CD-ROM drive. We got the Ubuntu netinstaller and made it boot that, but the hard drive resizing facility in the installer didn't want to resize the hard drive. The other machine was a very old laptop that had a hardware fault of some sort.

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Modem Problem
by Ron Dean 08 May '05

08 May '05

Modem times out when connecting to ihug with Ubuntu but connects fine win98 below is the connection log --> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.54.0 -> Initializing modem. -> Sending: ATZ -> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 -> Modem initialized. -> Sending: ATM1L1DT087300777 -> Waiting for carrier.L1DT087300777 -> Timed out while dialing. Trying again. -> Sending: ATM1L1DT087300777 -> Waiting for carrier.CARRIERL1DT087300777 -> No Carrier! Trying again. -> Sending: ATM1L1DT087300777 -> Waiting for carrier.CARRIERL1DT087300777 -> No Carrier! Trying again. -> Maximum Attempts Exceeded..Aborting!! -> Disconnecting at Sat May 7 22:38:38 2005

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Hey ;)
by B M 05 May '05

05 May '05

B M has invited you to join hi5. By joining hi5, you will be connected to B and all of B's friends. hi5 is the place where friends meet. You can use hi5 for the following purposes: * Find old friends * Meet new people * Browse photos Join B, meet B's friends, and meet people that share your interests now! Click here: http://www.hi5.com/register/LX27G?inviteId=Y3DQI1ROI520125001w0 This invitation was sent to wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz on behalf of B M (bluemaru(a)hotmail.com) If you do not wish to receive invitations from hi5 members, click on the link below: http://www.hi5.com/friend/displayBlockInvite.do?inviteId=Y3DQI1ROI520125001…

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Sarge is frozen
by James Clark 04 May '05

04 May '05

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/05/msg00001.html Choice! James.

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got hardware/machines for sale?
by John R. McPherson 04 May '05

04 May '05

Hi everyone, we're considering setting a table or two aside at the installfest[1] this Saturday for the sale of machines and hardware. We'd like to have a couple of reasonable low-end/mid-range machines for sale that are suitable for a linux desktop in case anyone wants to buy a machine and get help with installation at the installfest. If you are interested in selling anything, please let me know (off-list!) so we have some idea of how much stuff we need to accommodate. Note that you'll have to be responsible for bringing it along, looking after it, and taking it away if it is unsold. [1] http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFest John McPherson

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Debian, Shorewall and dial-up
by Glenn Ramsey 02 May '05

02 May '05

Recently I changed the NAT/firewall setup scripts on my Debian box to Shorewall from ipmasp, because I couldn't figure out how to configure DNAT using ipmasq. There is problem with the Shorewall setup that I cannot find any references to, neither in the docs nor googling. This box does NAT/firewall for my small office LAN through a dial-up connection[1]. On boot as Shorewall tries to start I get messages saying: "modprobe: modprobe: can't locate module ppp0", until the script times out after 180s. After that, however it seems to work fine. The issue is that this extends the startup time by 3 minutes. I think this is because, following the "two interface setup" in the docs, I have set wait_interface="ppp0" in /etc/default/shorewall and this causes /usr/share/shorewall/wait4ifup to be executed. Since it's a dialup connection it can't find ppp0 at boot time, hence the problem. Removing the wait_interface causes the startup of Shorewall to fail. Seems like this would be a common issue and since I can't find any references to it this makes me think I have missed something fundamental in the setup. Apart from this issue the rest of the setup works fine. Ipmasq handles this situation by setting up LAN stuff at boot and then having a /etc/ppp/ip-up script to setup the external interface stuff. What is the right way to resolve this issue? The solution I'm after is the "standard, out of the box" one. This is because if I put in customised stuff I will inevitably forget about it and then wonder why it's broken next time I uprade something[2]. For now I have disabled shorewall at startup and added a script that contains only "/sbin/shorewall restart" to /etc/ppp/ip-up.d. This works but also involves customisation beyond what is described in the docs and is additional to the configuration provided by the package. Ie if I remove the shorewall package my script will not be deleted. I could just set the timeout in wait4ifup to be a smaller value, like 1sec, which would solve the problem but that seems like a hack that I shouldn't need, but it's more likely to be removed if I remove/purge the package. Glenn [1] in case you were wondering, DSL is not available where I live. [2] and it's frustrating enough dealing with the stuff that breaks all by itself when you upgrade something -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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InstallFest
by Ron Dean 02 May '05

02 May '05

Hi I registed for the installfest on the Wiki but have had nothing to confirm it. So I'm wondering if I registed correctly

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Programming in bwBasic - newbie Linz
by Lindsay 02 May '05

02 May '05

I have downloaded and installed BWBasic to tinker with some older basic programming code that I know. I cant get it to run in RUN but it starts in Terminal. However, with no GUI I tell tell what I'm doing. 1) Is there away to make this more visual i.e. like GWBasic, Quick Basic? 2) Where can I find some coding instructions? (I have googled without getting anything I thought was relevant) Thanks in advance

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Debian Administration
by James Clark 02 May '05

02 May '05

www.debian-adminstration.org Good stuff on this site, a lot of it will be fairly portable. Cheers, James.

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Sausage sizzle at installfest
by Craig Box 02 May '05

02 May '05

Hi, Anyone want to run a sausage sizzle/cold drink sale at the installfest? Short notice unfortunately, but if anyone has a school or another club that wants to fundraise they would be welcome to. Alternatively if anyone wants to run a sausage sizzle for the WLUG and doesn't mind bringing a BBQ, we'll buy the sausages/bread etc.. Craig

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PC Case with Tux logo.
by Oliver Jones 01 May '05

01 May '05

Hi Folks. Anyone interested in this case? It has a 360W PSU. $35 + $15 courier. Thought I'd offer it to WLUG members first as it has a Tux logo on the front. Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

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

30 Apr '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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XML Schema Help
by Joseph Gibbs 28 Apr '05

28 Apr '05

Hi, I'm writing an XML schema for a uni assingment. I have this thing pretty much down, except for one thing. I'm referring to this document entitled "Global versus local" (http://www.xfront.com/GlobalVersusLocal.html) According to that document, and for my requirements, I can take two approaches to this. I can write things in a "Salami Slice Design" or a "Venetian Blind Design". Obviously a "which way should I design this" question comes down to how I'll be using my schema, it's purpose etc. From the URL above: "[1] The Venetian Blind design is the one to choose where your schemas require the flexibility to turn namespace exposure on or off with a simple switch, and where component reuse is important. [2] Where your task requires that you make available to instance document authors the option to use element substitution, then use the Salami Slice design." I'm not trying to ask "how do I do my assignment", my questions are: What is "namespace exposure", and why does it matter?, and, what is an "instance document" and "element substitution"? Thanks, Joseph.

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Dual Boot
by John Torrance 27 Apr '05

27 Apr '05

Thanks for the info. I had no desire to start a distro war. I do have another question though. The last time I tried to load a dual boot system with Fedora and Windows XP with Grub, I completely stuffed up my boot sector and could not access windows. I found out later that it was recoverable but I buggered it up so badly, I had to "format C" and start again. This only seems to happen with the NTFS file system windows and not using the older system which I used successfully on my other computer. I am keen to load Ubuntu but am terrified of stuffing up my windows partition. Has anyone successfully loaded a dual bootup system with Ubuntu and Windows XP (NTFS)? Cheers John

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default distro
by John Torrance 27 Apr '05

27 Apr '05

Hi I see that you are using Ubuntu v5.04 (Hoary Hedgehog) as your official distro for the install fest. What advantages does if have over the latest Fedora? As a newbie, I have some experience with Red Hat and Fedora but have never used Debian which I believe is the basis of Ubuntu. Cheers John

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Resetting the preferrred browser in KDE/Debian
by Glenn Ramsey 27 Apr '05

27 Apr '05

I am running Debian/Testing with KDE and I mostly use firefox for web browsing. Somehow (ok, really because I fiddled with the config) it has become the default browser and I can't figure out how to change it back. This is annoying because In KDE you can choose "run command" from the start menu and enter "#commandname" to get a nicely formatted man page. On my system only konqueror understands this but currently it tries to start firefox which reports that it doesn't understand the man: protocol. update-alternatives says this: pixie:~# update-alternatives --display x-www-browser x-www-browser - status is auto. link currently points to /usr/bin/konqueror /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox - priority 70 slave x-www-browser.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/mozilla-firefox.1.gz /usr/bin/mozilla - priority 80 slave x-www-browser.1.gz: /usr/share/man/man1/mozilla.1.gz /usr/bin/konqueror - priority 100 Current `best' version is /usr/bin/konqueror. pixie:~# update-alternatives --list x-www-browser /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox /usr/bin/mozilla /usr/bin/konqueror pixie:/etc/alternatives# ls -l x-www-browser lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Apr 27 11:09 x-www-browser -> /usr/bin/konqueror Does anyone know where/how to reset this? Alternatively is there an easy way to just reset KDE to all have everything back to the default? Would it be unwise to delete or rename my .kde directory and have it recreate it? Glenn -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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making a bootable CD
by John Torrance 27 Apr '05

27 Apr '05

Sorry, I hope that this is not a stupid question. I have downloaded the Ubuntu Iso - I have tried to burn a bootable disk with gnome toaster - I only seem to be able to make disks with the iso file on it. I tried dragging and dropping the file then right clicking and asking for a bootable ISO image but still got another fine .ISO coaster. Clearly my windows programs won't read these - how do I make a loadable disk from the ISO with gnome toaster? Thanks for the all the advice Cheers

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logger
by James Clark 26 Apr '05

26 Apr '05

This isn't new to me, but maybe someone might think "hey that's just what I wanted", since it's a slow day on yon list. If your running an application and want to capture the output to a system log file, you can use logger. Instead of explain it in too much depth, try the below while tail -f'ing /var/log/daemon.log. echo test | logger -p daemon.info -t \[test\] You'll now have an idea of what it does and why you might like to use it, of course you can do more so you can always rtfm @ `man logger`. Cheers, James.

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/etc
by Bnonn 26 Apr '05

26 Apr '05

A random question. Does /etc stand for Et Cetera? I can't really see why it would, but then I can't think of anything else it would stand for. Et Cetera means literally "and so forth", so I'd expect a folder called /etc to contain miscellaneous files rather than configuration data. Anyone know? Bnonn

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RE: [wlug] Ubuntu Live cd
by David Nicholls 25 Apr '05

25 Apr '05

Ron Dean wrote: Has anybody got a copy of x86 iso of the live cd. I have used Mandrake 10 for some time but would like to try this. ----------------- If you need one now, I can supply it. Cheers... david

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Ubuntu Live cd
by Ron Dean 25 Apr '05

25 Apr '05

Has anybody got a copy of x86 iso of the live cd. I have used Mandrake 10 for some time but would like to try this.

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Official announcement of 2005 Installfest
by Craig Box 24 Apr '05

24 Apr '05

Hi everyone, The Waikato Linux Users Group are proud to announce their second annual Linux installfest, to be held at the Crawshaw School Hall on Crawshaw Drive, Hamilton, from 10am on Saturday 7th May. Registration for the installfest is now open on the WLUG website at http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFest. There is no charge to attend. "Our last installfest was a great success and an educational experience for the WLUG, as well as the participants" says group president Greig McGill. "We look forward to applying lessons learned last year, and making this one as good as it can be." Over 50 people attended the 2004 event, and this year WLUG intend to streamline the installations in order to run more training. For people who are interested in Free Software, but not yet ready to take the leap into running Linux, the WLUG will also have demonstrations of free software for Microsoft Windows, such as the tremendously popular Firefox web browser and OpenOffice.org office software. How you can help ---------------- If you are interested in helping with the installfest organization, check out the http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFestToDo page, and email me if there is anything there you'd like to have a go at. If you want to sign up to either attend or help on the day, please register on the registration page. (The page will be updated later tonight; if you go earlier, please make it clear if you're a helper or a new installation). Thanks Craig

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6to4 site examples wanted
by Steven Lisson 24 Apr '05

24 Apr '05

Hi, I have been having some difficulty accessing the www.wlug.org.nz site via IPv6 from my network, all machines apart from the gateway do not use a 6to4 addressing (e.g. 2001:db0:10f7:1::1), as soon as a trace leaves the 2001:: range the trace fails (no matter if it leaves IPv6 via the 6to4 interface on the gateway or elsewhere on the IPv6 internet), however, the gateway that has a 6to4 address on it can ping, trace and view the website without difficulty. To assist with further troubleshooting further from my end could someone please provide me with some other sites that use 6to4 addresses so I can troubleshoot further, I was going through a list of IPv6 websites that I know of but only 1 site I tested out of about 70 on the list used a 2002:: address and it was offline in both the ipv4 and 6 internet. Sorry to be a hassle but would like to get to the cause of the issue and be able to rectify it as it is pretty much the only site I regularly visit via IPv6 that I have problems with. Regards, Steve

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Joining split avi files.
by Oliver Jones 23 Apr '05

23 Apr '05

Howdy folks. Linux to the rescue yet again. I needed to join some avi files together, end on end. I did a Google and found lots of shareware/download-ware utilities for Windows for doing the job. All wanted money. Of course I thought, "This is dumb. There has to be a Linux command-line tool for this." One of the Google results mentioned avicat on Linux. Part of Mplayer's transcode suite. I knew I had transcode installed but avicat didn't exist. So I went, "$ avi<tab><tab>" and lo and behold the command avimerge appeared and looked promising. After a quite man read it became clear that this was exactly what I wanted and I set about "fixing" my avi files. Hurrah! Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

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Microsoft announces support for Linux!
by Ian McDonald 21 Apr '05

21 Apr '05

Looks like Microsoft has realised Linux has gained real support. This is showing that Linux IS gaining real traction if Microsoft support. http://news.com.com/Microsofts+Ballmer+grins+and+bears+Linux--a+little/2100… Please remember - be professional in your replies. WLUG is not about maligning any software company - we are about supporting Linux and this has to be good news. Regards, Ian

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web hosting
by stephen pearce 21 Apr '05

21 Apr '05

Our web host will soon be shutting down ... the choise of alternatives is overwhelming .. has anyone got any thoughts on best price performance options locally? Thanks Stephen

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No meeting this Monday
by Craig Box 20 Apr '05

20 Apr '05

Hi everyone, Due to Monday being Anzac day and the installfest coming up soon after, we have decided to roll the planned upcoming meeting on Monday 25 April into the Installfest which is happening on Saturday 7th June. Please accept our apologies for the late decision, but rest assured that big plans are underway for the installfest and we look forward to seeing you all there! Craig (on behalf of the WLUG Committee)

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Committee and installfest update
by Craig Box 20 Apr '05

20 Apr '05

Hi everyone, Another month, another committee meeting. Please see http://www.wlug.org.nz/CommitteeMeetingTopics.2005-04-20 for the minutes. I hope that due to the lack of input from the members this means we're doing everything right and you're all very happy! :) An update on the installfest planning. We are on track and you're welcome to check out whats happening at the http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFestToDo page. Any offers of help are always welcome! What we would love you to do is print copies of the poster from http://www.wlug.org.nz/archive/installfest/installfest-poster-2005.pdf, and put them up anywhere you can think of that people might be interested. Thanks, Craig

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Intro and ISPs
by Ian Swainson 20 Apr '05

20 Apr '05

Mornin All, Just arrived in NZ from (not so) sunny Ireland, recently joined your esteemed mailing list, looking forward to catching up with some of you in person at the next installfest. Please be gentle with me... As I've just arrived, I'm looking for a nice Linux-friendly ISP to give my hard-earned cash to - any recommendations would be gratefully received. Google is usually my friend, but NZ certainly has a lot more choice than Ireland. In Ireland many of the ISPs are free, and make their money from the phone-calls. They all seem to need registration here - is that the case? In relation to above, does anyone know if this USB Modem will play with Linux nicely? http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/42656b330da56e082740c0a87f99070… ...I note that it has a Conexant chipset, which reeks of WinModem nastiness. I need the modem for a lappy, so can't go the internal route. Feedback delightfully received. I have had some success with WinModems on Linux, the drivers certainly have come a long way. Not sure about this one tho. Anyhoo, let the flaming begin (although surely ye can't be as bad as the ILUG...:) ) Cheers, ian -- "Turn off the lights and I'll glow." -Implausible Claims Made by Vanilla Ice in "Ice Ice Baby." http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/26DougErickson.html

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Command line util of the day.
by Oliver Jones 19 Apr '05

19 Apr '05

To continue the trend set by James Clark... Here is my choice for useful command-line tool of the day. fold Fold is a simple little command line util that lets you fold lines of text at a particular width. Eg if you have some long lines of text, say out of some HTML or other document format that only maintains paragraph breaks, that you want to show on a console screen you can do this: fold -s -w 70 long-lines.txt |less This command will fold the text from long-lines.txt at 70 characters (or the nearest preceding space). If you leave off -s the lines will get cut in the middle of words. Most consoles are 80 columns wide and fold defaults to a width (-w) of 80 columns. This can also be useful in scripts where you need to display a paragraph of text with interpolated variables which you don't know the width of beforehand. Eg: echo -n "Enter some text: " read var para="You said, '$var'. That's really interesting. But \ do you know the answer to the ultimate question of life, \ the universe, and everything?"; echo $para | fold -s -w 78 - Regards -- Oliver Jones » Roving Code Warrior oliver(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 » www.deeperdesign.com

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

17 Apr '05

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week today. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A WLUG meeting is booked for this date. No topic has been set. 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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WANTED: Cisco admin in Taupo
by Andrew Thrift 14 Apr '05

14 Apr '05

Hi All, We have a new site in Taupo that is connected to TelstraClear Private IP via a Cisco 805 Router on frame relay. As I am going on holiday tomorrow I am unable to go onsite and figure out why the connection is not coming up when the router is as far as I can remember configured properly. Is anyone on this list in Taupo and able to check it out for me, and if so reply off list with your hourly rate. Regards, Andrew Thrift National IT Manager Turbo Investments Group.

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DHBs to test open source alternative to Windows and Office
by Bnonn 12 Apr '05

12 Apr '05

<http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/UNID/39A5FAC6A45E8FB2CC256FDA00319B5C?O…> --- DHBs to test open source alternative to Windows and Office Boards band together to reduce their software licensing costs Stephen Bell, Wellington New Zealand's District Health Boards plan a trial of open source desktop software in an effort to reduce the licensing fees they pay to Microsoft — more than $20 million over three years, according to one estimate. Microsoft licences are a major element of DHBs’ software costs, says Phil Brimacombe, CIO of Waitemata and Counties Manukau DHBs and healthAlliance, the shared services organisation owned by the two boards. While there are some “power users” likely to need the full capabilities of Microsoft Office and related applications, users with less elaborate IT demands may be able to use OpenOffice.org and other open source software at much-reduced cost, Brimacombe says. At a quarterly meeting of DHB CIOs in February, a joint three-part plan to reduce software costs was adopted. First, the DHBs will pilot an open source desktop environment, being put together by Steve Rayner, CIO of Wanganui DHB, to assess how many users it will serve adequately. Rayner plans to support two categories of user: "power users" with Microsoft desktop software, and "regular clinical users" with Novell Enterprise Desktop, OpenOffice.org and GroupWise running on Suse Linux. The pilot will seek to establish how many users there are with basic needs and whether it is possible to meet them with an entirely non-Microsoft environment, Brimacombe says. “The majority of users don’t use Access databases, for example; they wouldn’t use PowerPoint; they’re not advanced users of Excel and they probably only use about 20% of the functions of Word. They may manage quite well with OpenOffice.” There are also open source options for clinical database access clients, “but we don’t know how practical those are”, he says. Brimacombe expects one of the knotty problems will be DHBs’ extensive use of Outlook and Exchange. They will have to find some practical email alternative, he says. Another initiative is to approach suppliers of health software to see if they are willing to develop open source versions of their applications. At least one major provider of clinical systems, Orion, has told the board that it is looking seriously at supporting the open source Mozilla Firefox browser with its its clinical portal, Concerto, as an alternative to Internet Explorer, Brimacombe says. Laboratory software developer Sysmex has also indicated a willingness to explore open source solutions, he says. The third part of the DHBs' plan is to push for stronger representation on the public sector committee negotiating the details of G2006, the next iteration of the New Zealand Government’s bulk licensing agreement with Microsoft. Steve Mayo-Smith, CIO of Auckland DHB, will be the DHB CIO representative on the public sector negotiation group. He says DHBs will collectively have spent over $20 million on Microsoft licences during the three year of the previous agreement, G2003. “In particular the DHBs with a large user population end up with little choice within the G2003 agreement, and feel captured by the structure of that agreement into paying the highest charges, often for products that are not widely needed,” Mayo-Smith says. “The potential cost efficiencies of open source are also attractive to smaller DHBs who do not have the resources of the larger DHBs.” “We’re not expecting any stunning short-term breakthrough,” says Brimacombe, but the joint initiative, alongside individual DHB plans in the open source direction, could go some way to reducing Microsoft expenditure, “which is a big number for the taxpayer”. The push to reduce licensing costs has been building for many months, Brimacombe says; one catalyst came in mid-2004, when Dr Ross Boswell, clinical director of information systems for Counties Manukau and an open source enthusiast, addressed the quarterly CIO meeting. Discussion since then has built up to the point of a formal agreement among the boards. ---

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

12 Apr '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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