- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

New Users Redux
by Craig Box 14 Apr '04

14 Apr '04

Over the last couple of days, due to some comments regarding the upcoming WLUG installfest [1] and "Software Freedom Day" [2], the issue of WLUG and new Linux users has come up again. While I realise that everything I'm going to say has been said before, hopefully any discussion that comes from this will explain a bit better about how some people feel, or get people inspired to do something about it. A lot of the people involved with the LUG are computing professionals, or higher level University students in computing science. It has been said that these people aren't new users, they don't have to do new things again and to keep them interested, we can't offer installation meetings every other month. It's not to say that these people don't want to help new people - lots of them, myself included, reply to posts here, sit in #wlug on IRC offering help. Yet people still don't think there's enough being done. There's a faction of Linux users that like Linux because they hate Microsoft. (Tip: if you use "M$", you're it!) Most of the aforementioned "clever" group, while they might prefer Linux for various reasons (open standards, open source, etc), don't hate Windows. There is a time and a place for everything. Pushing Linux before its time will just cause people to be aggrevated. As an example, if someone suggests running Linux to a home user, they will inevitably field a whole heap of the same questions over again; word documents, Flash. Questions that there exist easy answers for if people are prepared to look. (As an aside, people who deal with users every day who aren't prepared to learn for themselves, get a bit annoyed with that class of people!) Now, if you leave Linux to the people who find out about it themselves (or push it in a non-confrontational way; say "Linux exists, learn about if you want", and then help people when they have specific problems along the way, I think you end up with less problems. This is the approach that several people are espousing at the moment. Let people find Linux on their own merits - we don't have to replace every Windows machine in the world, and we certainly don't have to do it overnight. Then, if they have problems, we'll help them. That way we're sure that they are prepared to learn for themselves. No-one is paid to be involved with the LUG and some people put a lot of time in, only to be discouraged by the attitude of people who complain to other people, but not the LUG itself (so we have no idea how to change). We would love to see more new user based presentations. The general feeling that the people who have recently been new users should be presenting them. It's not tricky, and if you're worried about fielding questions you don't know the answers to, rest assured there will be someone in the audience who can help, or point to the wrong things. We don't want to alienate the people who have done this all before, because then at the current rate there will be no presentations at all. Not everyone in the LUG is interested in holding an "installfest", for the reasons above - Linux is not ready for everyone and we don't want to have to field questions from people who aren't ready to ask them yet. The people that are interested in helping, are. If you're interested, please shout out. Craig [1] http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFest [2] http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/forum/viewtopic.php?forum=2&showtopic=159 for us

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RE: [wlug] Re: problem with FC1 installation
by DrWho? 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

Have you created a swap partition? or left enough un-partioned disk space to make one? At 18:11 13/04/2004, you wrote: >no, i selected mini installation it poped up the same message. it never >warn me the disk space before that message. > > -----Original Message----- > From: zcat [mailto:zcat(a)wired.net.nz] > Sent: Tue 13/04/2004 12:11 p.m. > To: Waikato Linux Users Group > Cc: > Subject: Re: [wlug] Re: problem with FC1 installation > > > > Gerwin van de Steeg wrote: > > >There is another possibility, if you selected the complete > install of > >FC1 then you will run out of disk space as it exceeds 5.4 GB > > > > > >Gerwin > > > Doesn't it warn you first? Previous versions of Redhat tell you "you > don't have enough space to install this" before even starting, > I'm sure.. > > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > >_______________________________________________ >wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz >Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Welly InstallFest a go go!
by Jamie Baddeley 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

Fellow NZ_Luggites, Wellylug (http://www.wellylug.org.nz) is pleased to announce we are undergoing the annual ritual of the InstallFest. This year we have chosen MayDay (1st May) as the day that people can make the choice to add some freedom into their computing. We think MayDay is the ideal time to rescue your computer. Basically this email is to spread the good word. Anyone who needs a penguin injection is welcome to join us at Silicon Systems on the 1st. We're always keen for good volunteers, and I'm sure that the Aucklanders amongst us need a reasonable excuse to get out of the traffic jam ;-) Anyways - spread the word, and keep the heat turned up. Not long to go until we form the Jedi Council ;-) peace. Jamie, on behalf of the WellyLug crew.

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RE: [wlug] Re: problem with FC1 installation
by Bo Wang 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

no, i selected mini installation it poped up the same message. it never warn me the disk space before that message. -----Original Message----- From: zcat [mailto:zcat(a)wired.net.nz] Sent: Tue 13/04/2004 12:11 p.m. To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Re: problem with FC1 installation Gerwin van de Steeg wrote: >There is another possibility, if you selected the complete install of >FC1 then you will run out of disk space as it exceeds 5.4 GB > > >Gerwin > Doesn't it warn you first? Previous versions of Redhat tell you "you don't have enough space to install this" before even starting, I'm sure.. _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Re: problem with FC1 installation
by Gerwin van de Steeg 13 Apr '04

13 Apr '04

There is another possibility, if you selected the complete install of FC1 then you will run out of disk space as it exceeds 5.4 GB Gerwin

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compaq armada 1592
by Stephen Pearce 12 Apr '04

12 Apr '04

Someone unkindly hoisted this on me to get going! It came with win95 on the disk and 2 pcmcia modems .. us botics xejm3336 and a 3com device .. Anyway .. I got the damn thing working under win 95 for internet stuff .. then he went and bought a usb printer for which there was no win95 driver Right I thought .. linux is the thing ...and installed rh9.0 .. wiping out the win 95 partition... well it seems to take all day to try loading open office (64 M of memory) ..to the point of being useless So I fell back to win 98 .. and have spent most of today trying to get this installed .. but the graphics drivers don't work .. the modem isn't properly recognised etc etc!!!! :<((((( Has anyone experience of linux on one of these brutes .. it has to read ms word docs ... do a bit of graphing for illustrations and work on the internet ... Thanks Stephen

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problem with FC1 installation
by Bo Wang 10 Apr '04

10 Apr '04

i have tried several times to install fodera core 1 on my laptop. i have 5G free disk space allocated for FC1 but once it's started copying files onto the disk a error msg pop up says 'a problem occured probably because you don't have enough disk space'. does anyone know what the problem is? regards beau

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Re: [wlug] Renaming Debian platforms
by DrWho? 09 Apr '04

09 Apr '04

Microsoft still offer paid support for NT. Must of the current NT installs I have seen are acting as NAS, DNS and in a few file / print servers. It is installed on Compaq or HP server platforms. At 13:43 6/04/2004, you wrote: > > Once again "updating for the sake of updating" applies, sure there some > > genuine new stuff that offer something that is not just a fresh paint > > job. But can the same be said for the SERVER environment. > > > > Since you mentioned mickysoft, allot of people are still running NT3.5 & > > NT4 on there OLD pentium platforms, as a server, and in same cases as a > > work station, and shock horror mickysoft still support them. > >Oh Really? >http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx > >And reed the "see note" bit. > >Please stop with the unfounded guesswork. > > > Well, it is true for the end user, but I was talking about servers... > >OK, if you want to take that approach... >Name brand server hardware is supplied by most vendors with an expected >lifetime of 3 years. Maybe 5 tops. After that, you expect a high level >of hardware failures. From that angle alone, I'd not be bothering with >old hardware in a server environment. > >Are you for real, or are you trolling? >If the latter, please stop, or feel free to join #wlug, where we are eager >and waiting to tear you a new one! :) > > >-- >Greig McGill > > >_______________________________________________ >wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz >Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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RE: [wlug] Bite
by Lindsay Druett 08 Apr '04

08 Apr '04

This sounds Cat in the Hat > Linux is linux. It doesn't matter how its branded. It's still > the same > thing. Linux *will* run on an embedded 386 processor, and it > *will* run....

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[Fwd: [wlug-committee] O'Reilly Looking for GNOME Hacks]
by Daniel Lawson 07 Apr '04

07 Apr '04

If anyone has any useful or interesting GNOME 'hacks', please pass them on. If you do email Marsee directly, make sure you mention you're a WLUG member (probably best to spell that out, there's several WLUG's in the world)... Or email a committee member and we'll submit on your behalf. Feel free to discuss this on the mailing list if you want to bounce ideas around. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [wlug-committee] O'Reilly Looking for GNOME Hacks Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2004 14:47:14 -0700 From: Marsee Henon <marsee(a)oreilly.com> Reply-To: WLUG Committee Mailing List <wlug-committee(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> To: wlug-committee(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Hi Linux UG Leader, We're looking for GNOME hacks for our upcoming book, "Linux Desktop Hacks." We already have half of the book filled with KDE hacks, but no GNOME hacks! Do you know of any GNOME Hackers who could help us out? Please forward this email along. If you have a hack to share, please send 'em our way by having your members email me (marsee(a)oreilly.com) with "GNOME hacks" in the subject line. Don't let KDE hacks take over this book! As thanks for sharing, we'll make sure to get copies of "Linux Desktop Hacks" sent to your group shortly after publication. --Marsee _______________________________________________ wlug-committee mailing list wlug-committee(a)list.waikato.ac.nz http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug-committee

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RE: [wlug] install fest progress
by Lindsay Druett 07 Apr '04

07 Apr '04

Nah... I can hear Daniel reading us the Dr. Suess book.... "Linux is Linux....." > I can see a distro war brewing over this; I've started > leaning towards > Debian, and a lot of people are recommending Mandrake as a good > first-time distro.. > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > >

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Re: [wlug] install fest progress
by zcat 07 Apr '04

07 Apr '04

Jamie Curtis wrote: >>Do we actually want to go ahead with this? >> >>Because we have today and tommorrow to get things underway or there's no >>point doing it at this time. We can put it off, but if we don't get >>things organised real soon it's going to be me sitting on my ass all day >>at Crawshaw playing frozen-bubble. I'd rather be doing other things. >> >> > >I am able to help out as required, but I really doubt the number of >students we will attract on the last Saturday of the break. Are we doing >this focusing on Students or do we think there will be enough general >community interest to make it worth doing anyway. > > Bugger the students, they don't have much choice about using Linux anyway. Let's aim this at the general public. The date is more than two weeks away. I'm happy to phone around tomorrow, Friday, etc. I'm also happy to design a poster (although it'll suck; I'm no artist). Two weeks is plenty of time to make it happen. Are we doing this or not?

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[Fwd: End of Life for Red Hat Linux 9]
by Matthias Dallmeier 06 Apr '04

06 Apr '04

-- Matthias

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RE: [wlug] Renaming Debian platforms
by Lindsay Druett 06 Apr '04

06 Apr '04

> Once again "updating for the sake of updating" applies, sure > there some > genuine new stuff that offer something that is not just a > fresh paint job. > But can the same be said for the SERVER environment. > > Since you mentioned mickysoft, allot of people are still > running NT3.5 & > NT4 on there OLD pentium platforms, as a server, and in same > cases as a > work station, and shock horror mickysoft still support them. I agree with Craig that perhaps you should start getting used to the fact that they are "Microsoft". Also, Microsoft haven't supported NT3.51 for quite a while, they basically have stopped supporting NT 4.0 December last year, and they are about to stop providing security patches very shortly AFAIK. > > >People buy new PC's because they want something which their > old PC didn't give > >them - the ability to do some new task (like play games, or > support larger > >hard > >drives/more drives/more ram, etc), or some existing task > faster than what they > >had. Or just because their old PC is broken. They throw old > PC's away, or off > >the roof at parties, or deal to them with a sledgehammer. That's life in the technology world, get used to it. People do that with cars too you know. > Well, it is true for the end user, but I was talking about servers... > > And yes, putting a server you paid $8,000+ for 3-4 years ago > in the bin is > a bit stupid, just beacuse the "latest and greatest" OS that > does the same > as what you have all ready got will not run on it.... An $ 8,000 server 3-4 years ago would have at least been a 800-1000 MHz PIII, possibly a Dual processor machine, depending on buying power. In the enterprise world, that is not a big deal at all, the ROI would have been well within 3 years. Normally, servers come with a 3 year warranty/service contract and in the enterprise environment in many instances the cost of having the server down for any length of time can outweigh the cost of the server itself, hence High Availability and Redundancy is a very important consideration. If the machine is out of warranty and/or is not on service contract, then in a lot of incidences, it shouldn't be in production. In other environments where things are not so crucial, I would expect a life of 5-7 years for a server. Quite often in the enterprise environment, 3-4 year old servers are used in test environments where if the server bellies up and/or spits out a hard drive, then so what ? So you'll be pleased to know that 3-4 year servers don't go straight in the bin.

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RE: [wlug] Gnoppix and Knoppix
by Bo Wang 04 Apr '04

04 Apr '04

thanks for your help anyway. but i have got a couple of wlug knoppix live cds on hand. i am just very keen to try knoppix 3.4 and Gnoppix. -----Original Message----- From: mglb1-forwarding Sent: Sun 4/04/2004 5:40 p.m. To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Gnoppix and Knoppix I couldn't find any NZ download mirrors for Knoppix when I downloaded it early last month and I believe the situation is similar for Gnoppix. They both have several australian mirrors however. On the other hand if you come past G1.02 tommorrow I can give you a copy of two of WLUG Knoppix which we created for the recent Introduction to Linux tutorials. It is basically Knoppix 3.3 with some very minor cosmetic changes. I also have quite and old version of Gnoppix that I could burn to a CD for you, but I suspect that you will be better served downloading a newer copy yourself as I could never get this version working. Regards On Sun, 2004-04-04 at 17:19, Bo Wang wrote: > is there anyone knows where i can download latest Gnoppix and Knoppix from? > i am prefer a domestic ftp or websize. > > regards > > Beau > > -----Original Message----- > From: Greig McGill [mailto:greig(a)hamiltron.net] > Sent: Sun 4/04/2004 1:57 p.m. > To: Waikato Linux Users Group > Cc: > Subject: Re: [wlug] [Fwd: End of Life for Red Hat Linux 9] > > > > Well, I assumed it went without saying that no one would run a production > server on anything other than stable... > > Clearly not. Assume any ref. to "Debian" from me is actually referring to > "Debian stable (woody)". > > G. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jason Le Vaillant" <jfl2(a)myrealbox.com> > To: "Waikato Linux Users Group" <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2004 1:33 PM > Subject: Re: [wlug] [Fwd: End of Life for Red Hat Linux 9] > > > > Kyle Carter wrote: > > > > >id love to use debian if it wasnt so last year (if not even older) > > >maybe this is my chance to find something else. > > > > > Now, hang on. When we talk about "debian", do we mean stable, testing or > > unstable? > > > > Other distros seem comparable to unstable, as opposed to stable, where > > packages are tested for months (or years) before inclusion. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug -- Matt Brown Email: matt(a)mattb.net.nz GSM : 021 611 544 _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Gnoppix and Knoppix
by Bo Wang 04 Apr '04

04 Apr '04

is there anyone knows where i can download latest Gnoppix and Knoppix from? i am prefer a domestic ftp or websize. regards Beau -----Original Message----- From: Greig McGill [mailto:greig(a)hamiltron.net] Sent: Sun 4/04/2004 1:57 p.m. To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] [Fwd: End of Life for Red Hat Linux 9] Well, I assumed it went without saying that no one would run a production server on anything other than stable... Clearly not. Assume any ref. to "Debian" from me is actually referring to "Debian stable (woody)". G. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jason Le Vaillant" <jfl2(a)myrealbox.com> To: "Waikato Linux Users Group" <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> Sent: Sunday, April 04, 2004 1:33 PM Subject: Re: [wlug] [Fwd: End of Life for Red Hat Linux 9] > Kyle Carter wrote: > > >id love to use debian if it wasnt so last year (if not even older) > >maybe this is my chance to find something else. > > > Now, hang on. When we talk about "debian", do we mean stable, testing or > unstable? > > Other distros seem comparable to unstable, as opposed to stable, where > packages are tested for months (or years) before inclusion. > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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What happened to the site?
by A. Pagaltzis 02 Apr '04

02 Apr '04

Hi all, what's going on? 404 on every page? Did someone screw up an alias in the serverconfig or something? (Also, hi to everyone on the list, of which some will recognize my name already. ;) ) -- Regards, Aristotle "If you can't laugh at yourself, you don't take life seriously enough."

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Releases and thigns
by Craig Box 01 Apr '04

01 Apr '04

Fedora Core 2 test 2 has been released; if you're interested in a copy a couple of local people have it. Post to the list, perhaps (I haven't got my copy just yet, so don't ask me direct). Warning, it's for testing, it breaks things [1] It's not for general home users. GNOME 2.6 has been released today; check out the release notes at http://www.gnome.org/start/2.6/notes/ or some screenshots at http://fgo-temp.acc.umu.se/pub/GNOME/teams/marketing/en/2004/two-six-screens hots/html/ FC2 will have Gnome 2.6, but seeing as it came out a couple of days ago, it's only running 2.5rc. Fedora Core 2 comes with SELinux installed and enabled by default. SELinux is the NSA's patches for the Linux kernel to provide Mandatory Access Control - a way to, for example, lock your web server so it can't run anything outside of the commands apache uses and requires. There's a FAQ on it at http://www.crypt.gen.nz/selinux/faq.html, or a good general introduction can be found at http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=20372&group_id=21266. Craig [1] If you don't set SELinux up right, and FC2t2 is a test release, things don't run. You might not want it!

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reply
by Tammy Kaye Griffith 31 Mar '04

31 Mar '04

Could you please remove my name;TikiGriffy,off your User Group ;ASAP. I do not know enough about computers yet and maybe in the future,I will be able to join. I haven't sent anything to Waikato except this request. Thank You,TK

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WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup
by Tammy Kaye Griffith 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

Could you please remove my name;TikiGriffy from the group. I am not experienced enough with my computer to know enough about how to belong to a group such as yours,maybe in the future? Please remove me from the mailing list and the Waikato Group;ASAP. Thank You, TikiGriffy

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Book for the library
by s swami 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

I have these books for loan to the wlug lib: Python In A Nutshell Alex Martelli (2003) - An excellent intro if you've had some previous experience with a programming language. You may not need another book. Sams Teach Yourself Perl in 24 hours Clinton Pierce (2nd Ed, 2002) - This gives a simple first look at Perl. You may not want another book ;-) Am happy to bring them to the next wlug meeting. -Sid. P.S. Are user contributions useful and encouraged or are publishers our main source.

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Half Height network card
by Aaron Martin 29 Mar '04

29 Mar '04

Does anyone know where I can buy a half height (for micro atx case) pci network cards which work in linux?

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Re: Re: [wlug] apache, mySQL and pHp
by Stephen Pearce 25 Mar '04

25 Mar '04

Thank you for all the advise. Yes, you are correct about the ICU abbreviation ... there is some open source medical software, but it doesn't fit our requirements here. I will peruse some of the links you gave me and then get back to some of you. I have previously installed apache on another system, but then got lost setting up the local pages .. I thought I would do a staged implementation .. getting apache going then maybe pHp .. about which I know little .. and the MySQL .................. As a first q Can someone tell me where to put index.html once apche is installed .. so that it pops up when a remote system probes? ................... The breadth and speed of responces goes to reinforce my bias toward an open source solution Thank you all again Stephen > > From: "Mark Grimshaw" <mark(a)sirfragalot.com> > Date: 2004/03/25 Thu PM 12:28:17 GMT+12:00 > To: Waikato Linux Users Group <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Subject: Re: [wlug] apache, mySQL and pHp > > LOL - no offense but I couldn't resist.... > > > > I don't know what ICU is, but have you tried looking for existing open > > source apps that already provide the functionality or that provide > > most of it so that you only have to add the bits you want? > > I assume, from the context, that ICU is 'Intensive Care Unit' - I don't > think there is an open source ICU solution..... > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list > wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

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apache, mySQL and pHp
by Stephen Pearce 25 Mar '04

25 Mar '04

Hi Is there anyone who could guide me thru the installation and setting up of a MySQL database using pHp and apache. This is for an ICU database in a hospital .. so not a strictly commercial objective Thanks Stephen Pearce

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Upgrading from RH9 to Fedora Core 1.
by Oliver Jones 22 Mar '04

22 Mar '04

I decided to upgrade from RH9 to FC1 on the weekend. Below is my experience which I thought I might share with the rest of the LUG. My system was quite heavily modified with Ximian and FreshRPMs packages for RH9. So I figured I couldn't just do a from CD "upgrade" install. The first thing I did was install yum a package manager similar to apt but for RPMs. Yum comes with FC1. I could have also installed apt for RPM too. But I was more familiar with yum. I then copied all the RPMs off the FC1 CDs I have onto my hard disk. I then downloaded the "headers" directory from the fedora core ftp server. Yum uses .hdr files to resolve dependencies. It uses headers rather than downloading the rpms because this is much more network efficient. I then configured yum to use file:/// urls to get the files off my hard disk. I then started going over my installed RPMs finding Ximain and FreshRPM versions and replacing them where Icould with FC1 versions using yum. This was an easy process of erasing the installed versions and then issuing "yum install package-name". Once I had eradicated these troublesome packages I replaced the firstboot, redhat-config-securitylevel, and lokkit packages as I read on the web they can cause install issues. Then I started manually replacing 'core' packages like glibc, basesystem, redora-release, rpm, popt etc etc. I should have also replaced libzlib, libbzip2 and others.... I learned that lesson later. :) Then issued a "yum update". This started inspecting all my packages and upgrading them. About half way though the update I had a thought, started doubting the command I had entered was doing the right thing and decided I'd stop yum with Ctrl-C, check the command and start yum again. BAD IDEA!!!! This had the effect of A) breaking yum so I couldn't use it anymore due to python errors and B) of completely hosing my RPM database. My system thought that it had installed multiple version of most of my packages. I spent the next 6 hours rebuilding my system with rpm manually. This consisted of producing a list of all installed RPMS (including dupes) and running rpm --force -Uvh on all these packages and resolving dependencies by hand. This was a painful exercise. Once that was done I did a further rpm -Fvh *.rpm in the fedora core RPMS directory. By this time yum was back to working. I then reconfigured it to use some Fedora mirrors. I also configured it to use the Fedora.us and Livna.org yum repositories. Fedora.us and livna.org have lots of extra goodies to install. I issued a "yum update" and yum began to sync up my box with all the latest package updates and also a swag of replacements for FreshRPM RPMS I had installed. My system is now in relatively good working order. But it certainly was a mission to get it there. Everything would have been soooo much easier had I resisted the temptation to Ctrl-C yum when it was working on my system in the first place. Regards -- Oliver Jones » Director » oliver.jones(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 Deeper Design Limited » +64 (7) 377 3328 » www.deeperdesign.com

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Meeting is tonight
by Daniel Lawson 21 Mar '04

21 Mar '04

The March meeting of the Waikato Linux User's Group is tonight. It will be held in SG.01 at Waikato University, from about 7:30 pm onwards. The topic will be a guided install of linux. See http://www.wlug.org.nz/MeetingTopics.2004-03-22 for maps and more information. Daniel

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WLUG Meeting is on monday
by Meeting Reminder bot 19 Mar '04

19 Mar '04

The WLUG meeting is on monday ---------------------------------------------------------------------- !!Installation of Linux - University of Waikato, SG01, 7:30pm A guide for new users, which will include a live Linux installation to show everyone exactly how easy it can be! After the main presentation we will have plenty of time for questions and answers. If you are having problems getting linux installed it would be a great time to ask. We won't have many facilities for plugging in machines unfortunately but we will be holding an InstallFest sometime in the very near future. This meeting will be held in SG01 at the University of Waikato. This is the same lecture theatre as the CS Linux Tutorials were held in. !Map |[http://www.wlug.org.nz/archive/hillcrest-map.png] %%% |[http://timetable.waikato.ac.nz/perl-bin/tt-map.pl?term=S&foo=.jpg]

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Mandrake 10 CD's
by rod-a＠hnpl.net 16 Mar '04

16 Mar '04

Does anyone have Mandrake 10 yet? Would you be able to supply CD's at the next WLUG meeting? Roderick Aldridge

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Monday's meeting - Introduction/Demystifying Linux Installation
by Craig Box 16 Mar '04

16 Mar '04

Hi everyone, The upcoming Monday's meeting will have a Linux installation live on the big screen for everyone to see, plus a general question/answer session about Linux installation. We'll be catching all the CS students who have attended our Linux tutorials and we're encouraging everyone who reads the mailing list but hasn't been along to a meeting before because they've thought that they would be over your head, to come. No prior knowledge is required! The meeting is to be held in S.G.01 on the University of Waikato campus - if you're coming from outside, you might like to try Gate 8. A map will be up on the Wiki shortly. MONDAY 22 FEBRUARY, 7:30pm, S Block, University of Waikato (S.G.01)

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WLUG committee meeting
by Craig Box 16 Mar '04

16 Mar '04

Hi everyone, The WLUG committee will meet tomorrow, as per schedule. If you have any items you would like on the agenda, please email them to me. Regards, Craig Box Phone 07 957 2653 IT Partners Ltd Fax 07 957 2659 PO Box 9361 Mobile 021 475 869 Hamilton, New Zealand _________________________________________________________________ #include <standard-disclaimer.h> _________________________________________________________________

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WLUG Meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder bot 14 Mar '04

14 Mar '04

The WLUG meeting is one week away ---------------------------------------------------------------------- !!Installation of Linux A guide for new users, which will include a live Linux installation to show everyone exactly how easy it can be! This meeting will almost certainly be on the University of Waikato campus - exact location to be announced.`

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Voice over IP WLUG meeting & plans for the installation demo meeting after
by Craig Box 11 Mar '04

11 Mar '04

Just another note to say thanks to Nathan Ward for coming down from Auckland on Monday and presenting a meeting on Voice over IP. Nathan covered VoIP from several angles; protocols, software (client and server), and usage, both from an end-to-end perspective and as part of a toll bypass system (where you call from a normal telephone to another one, and get your call shunted onto an IP network along the way.) Thanks also to Gerwin and Computer Upgrades 2000 for providing an excellent venue. Over the next month we will be presenting tutorials to second year University students who will be using Linux as part of their course. The next month's meeting is going to be an introduction meeting for people who want to install Linux, so keep the date free (Monday 22 March) - the meeting will almost certainly be on the University campus but an exact location will be announced soon. We want to try and attract everyone that has felt that meetings have been a bit over their heads, people who have lurked on the list or on the Wiki and want to install Linux for the first time, want a run down on the various distros, pros and cons etc. If there are new users floating around on the list, please let us know what you'd like to see at this meeting - it's for you. The current plan is to run a Linux install live on a projector while the presentation runs so that everyone can see exactly how easy it is. Craig

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Slow typists
by sns＠paradise.net.nz 10 Mar '04

10 Mar '04

Following Tony's lecture tonight: Were Thompson & Richie really slow on the keyboard? Sid.

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Newbie assistance
by Gun Caundle 09 Mar '04

09 Mar '04

I am wanting some help to set up a RH9 box as a server and firewall. I expect to pay for this as a service. Anyone who is interested please contact me either by e-mail or phone 07 873 6575 wk or 07 873 1831ah. Cheers Gun Caundle

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Memory usage
by Gun Caundle 02 Mar '04

02 Mar '04

I'm a newbie using RH9 In system monitor is see my memory usage is 303Mb, total 312Mb. CPU usage is between 2% - 5% with no significant processes running. 1. Why is so much memory being used? 2. What could be using it? 3. If a process was running, would the memory become full and start using swap space? Any light on these points would be appreciated. Cheers Gun Caundle

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Re: [wlug] Introduction to Linux Seminars
by DrWho? 28 Feb '04

28 Feb '04

At 17:35 14/02/2004, you wrote: > > > I agree, I think you might need a "cross over" component that explains > > > how to migrate your existing windows into Linux. > > > > And compatibility - > > "I can't use Linux as I need to be able to read and write Microsoft Office > > documents". > > "OF course I won't be able to play WAV or mp3 files on linux will I?". > > "I need to be able to open Windoes images (by this they usually mean > > GIF or JPEG) so linux is no use to me". > > "Linux is Unix isn't it? I couldn't function without my mouse and a > > window". (Hence my worries about the first few seminars.) > >While we may need to show people answers to these questions to make Linux >more attractive, we are not trying to convert these people. They are going >to use Linux, they have to and have no choice if they are to complete >their courses. What we are aiming for primarily with these training is to >help the students use Linux more effectivly for their course requirements >(hence the focus on bash, editors etc). Hopefully if we do a good job of >that we will get students interested in Linux in general. We will make >sure that they realise that WLUG is there for them when/if they want to >make the transition to Linux on machines at home. Teaching them some >things like Linux gaming, wine and even gimp and mp3 players isn't going >to be achieving our goal of helping them with their course related >requirements. I hate to flog the dead horse, but if you make it more attractive for them to use they will be better off then just a "you need to do it" situation. If they get a feeling for what they would normally do in a familiar environment it will be a win win at the end of the day. After all, no one likes too leave their comfort zone, and if they must it would be better for them to do so in a manor that would be easy for them to understand, and if that means exposing them too the side of linux that is not part of the course needs, will it really hurt? One problem I encounter with linux is the "server" impression of linux. Not many people really seem to be aware that linux can be a desktop platform, and as a result fun to use. If you can impose this on the students it would be a good start, in my opinion. Also if the students are using it at home then it will be better for them in a work situation as well. >On the other hand, we have talked about the March WLUG presentation being >an intoductory presentation, perhaps going through installing a distro, >setting it up and showing off solutions to the common issues you have >discussed. Perhaps if we have time and enough interest / help we may >follow this up with an installfest. I think an installfest is long over due... be sure to sing out for help.... >Jamie > > >_______________________________________________ >wlug mailing list >wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz >http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Keyboard types
by Glenn Ramsey 27 Feb '04

27 Feb '04

What is the difference between US and US International keyboards? g -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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WLUG Meeting is tonight
by Meeting Reminder bot 24 Feb '04

24 Feb '04

The WLUG meeting is this evening ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Please notice the location for this meeting is one we haven't used before - Computer Upgrades 2000 Ltd, in the court behind McDonalds Te Rapa (on Pukete Rd). There's plenty of signage, and you'll see people you know floating around. The topic for this meeting is [VoIP] (Voice Over [IP|IPv4]) Our guest speaker is NathanWard. PerryLorier has asked me to put in some kind of list of stuff I'll cover in here, so here goes: * Servers * Asterisk * OpenH323 / GNUGK / Open Gatekeeper * 'blackbox' / hardware * Protocols: * [SIP] * [H.323] * MGCP * Skinny * Endpoints * Hardware Phones * 'Soft Phones' * People * What [WLUG] people have been doing so far * What [WLUG] people can do * Other people doing [VoIP] * What I am doing with [VoIP] * Demos (or, things I'd like to demo...) * [VoIP] -> [PSTN] call * [PSTN] -> [VoIP] call * [VoIP] -> [VoIP] call * [PSTN] -> [PSTN] (over [VoIP]) * Voicemail stuff * [IVR]s * VoIP applications * Carrier level: * Toll Bypass * Calling card * Virtual [PABX]/Voicemail/[IVR] networks * Business level: * Toll 'Hopoff' * [PABX]/[IVR]/Voicemail * Personal Level * Long distance calling * Amusing [IVR]s (Note - it won't be in this order, and contents will definately change, etc.)

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Committee minutes
by Craig Box 23 Feb '04

23 Feb '04

Hi everyone, Just a note to say that the minutes of our last WLUG committee meeting are up on the Wiki at http://www.wlug.org.nz/MeetingTopics.2004-02-18, for any interested parties. Things we're doing at the moment: - Setting up (home made) software for the WLUG library - Organising Unix tutorials for 2nd year computer science students at UoW (see http://www.wlug.org.nz/UnixTutorials for details) - Working on getting distibutions/Linux books available from the Hamilton Public Library - Organising a Linux installfest for after the next meeting (we'll discuss this when plans are arranged) - Applying for some funding from the WEL Energy Trust Thanks, Craig

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lsmod command
by Gun Caundle 21 Feb '04

21 Feb '04

Hi I am a newbie using RH 9 and working with the Red Hat Linux Bible by Christopher Negus. He uses a command 'lsmod' which I think is for listing modules. However my version of RH9 doesn't appear to have this command. IE > [root(a)LinuxBox /]# type lsmod > bash: type: lsmod: not found > . Is there another command I could use instead? Cheers Gun Caundle

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Books from O'Reilly
by John R. McPherson 19 Feb '04

19 Feb '04

Hi, O'Reilly (the book publisher) has generously offered to send us some free technical manuals, although I think they are supposed to be for review purposes. If you are a paid up member of WLUG, and would like to see us acquire a book of your choosing (and you are prepared to write up a small review of it), visit http://www.wlug.org.nz/WantedBooks and edit the page. (There is a link to O'Reilly's online catalog... the page linked to is about 400 kB). John McPherson

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Committee meeting this Wednesday
by Craig Box 16 Feb '04

16 Feb '04

Coming up this Wednesday, a WLUG committee meeting. (Seems the 'bot hasn't figured that out yet!) If you'd like anything on the agenda, you will find it at http://www.wlug.org.nz/MeetingTopics.2004-02-18 - please e-mail me with anything you'd like discussed, as usual. Craig WLUG Secretariat

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Introduction to Linux Seminars
by Matt Brown 16 Feb '04

16 Feb '04

Hi, In conjunction with the CS Department at Waikato University WLUG is organising a series of seminars aimed at introducing first and second year students to Linux and OSS in general. We are currently in the process of planning these seminars and are looking for comments on what to include and what to leave out. The seminars will run in weeks 2 and 3 of semester A for 3 nights each week. Each seminar will be around 1.5hrs long. Below is a brief outline of what we are currently planning on covering in each seminar. If you have comments or suggestions please let us know. Seminar 1: (Tue 9th Mar) - Introduction to Linux / OSS - What is OSS - What is Linux - What is GNU - Why use Linux - History of Linux - About the Linux Distributions Seminar 2: (Wed 10th Mar) - Bash - A general introduction to bash, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks. Seminar 3: (Thu 11th Mar) - Emacs - A general introduction to emacs, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks. Seminar 4: (Tue 16th Mar) - Processes - An introduction to process control in unix systems. We will cover how to start, stop, suspend and kill processes. Seminar 5: (Wed 17th Mar) - Applications - An introduction to useful OSS applications that can be used under linux. This will focus on what is installed in the TSG labs and will probably cover (pending confirmation) - ssh / scp - Mozilla - OpenOffice Seminar 6: (Thu 18th Mar) - Summary / Q&A - A summary of how to put everything that has been taught together, followed by a question and answer session. The popular cheat sheet will be given out again and we are looking at providing each attendee with a copy of Knoppix. Comments welcome :) Regards -- Matt Brown Email: matt(a)mattb.net.nz GSM : 021 611 544

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WLUG Meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder bot 15 Feb '04

15 Feb '04

The WLUG meeting is one week away ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The topic for this meeting is [VoIP] (Voice Over [IP|IPv4]) Guest Speaker: NathanWard PerryLorier has asked me to put in some kind of list of stuff I'll cover in here, so here goes: * Servers * Asterisk * OpenH323 / GNUGK / Open Gatekeeper * 'blackbox' / hardware * Protocols: * [SIP] * [H.323] * MGCP * Skinny * Endpoints * Hardware Phones * 'Soft Phones' * People * What [WLUG] people have been doing so far * What [WLUG] people can do * Other people doing [VoIP] * What I am doing with [VoIP] * Demos (or, things I'd like to demo...) * [VoIP] -> [PSTN] call * [PSTN] -> [VoIP] call * [VoIP] -> [VoIP] call * [PSTN] -> [PSTN] (over [VoIP]) * Voicemail stuff * [IVR]s * VoIP applications * Carrier level: * Toll Bypass * Calling card * Virtual [PABX]/Voicemail/[IVR] networks * Business level: * Toll 'Hopoff' * [PABX]/[IVR]/Voicemail * Personal Level * Long distance calling * Amusing [IVR]s

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[Fwd: PuTTY version 0.54 is released]
by Oliver Jones 12 Feb '04

12 Feb '04

For all you chaps who have windows boxes and access your Linux server/router/workstation via PuTTY.... The most interesting thing is the Unix port. Why he's done this when there are the great OpenSSH apps on most Unixes I don't know. But I guess some people will prefer the GTK front end. Regards -----Forwarded Message----- From: Simon Tatham <anakin(a)pobox.com> To: putty-announce(a)lists.tartarus.org Subject: PuTTY version 0.54 is released Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 19:41:08 +0000 PuTTY version 0.54 is released ------------------------------ All the pre-built binaries, and the source code, are now available from the PuTTY website at http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ Development work on PuTTY for the past year or so has mostly involved taking it apart and putting it back together again for improved portability; so I'm afraid there aren't many visible new features in 0.54. Some of the highlights are: - Dynamic SSH port forwarding. PuTTY can now act as a SOCKS server, and programs using that server will have their connections forwarded over SSH. - PSFTP should now be usefully fast. - When connecting through a proxy (SOCKS or HTTP), PuTTY is now able to let the proxy do the DNS lookup. - Some of the default settings have changed. Notably, the SSH protocol is now the default, and SSH2 is preferred over SSH1. (This will not affect anyone who already has Default Settings stored in their registry, since those override PuTTY's internal defaults.) - Bug fix: forwarding SMB connections over SSH should now work. - Bug fix: the configuration box was slow to respond because it occasionally went looking for printers across the network by accident. It shouldn't do this any more. - A couple of minor vulnerabilities have been fixed (none with very serious impact, or with known exploits). But the _really_ big feature resulting from the substantial rewrite is that there is now a Unix version of most of the PuTTY utilities: - There's a Unix PuTTY and PuTTYtel, which are GTK applications. - There's a Unix Plink, PSCP and PSFTP, which look pretty much exactly like their Windows equivalents. - There's a Unix PuTTYgen, which is a command-line program unlike its Windows counterpart. Anyone who needs to convert OpenSSH or ssh.com private keys into PuTTY format in an automated way may be able to do it using this utility. - There's an entirely new utility: `pterm', which is an xterm clone using the PuTTY terminal emulator. (Again, it uses GTK.) - As yet there is no Unix version of Pageant, but all the utilities can interoperate with OpenSSH's ssh-agent. The Unix port is available from the PuTTY Download page as a source tarball. Enjoy using PuTTY! Cheers, Simon -- Oliver Jones » Director » oliver.jones(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 Deeper Design Limited » +64 (7) 377 3328 » www.deeperdesign.com

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RE: [wlug] Introduction to Linux Seminars
by Matt Brown 12 Feb '04

12 Feb '04

Umm, I don't think it will be strictly for Uni students, but we will be tailoring a lot of the material to make it useful for people who are using the CS undergraduate labs. We may need to try and get some indication of who many people are wanting to come just so we can book a big enough lecture theatre... Regards On Sat, 2004-02-14 at 00:10, Lindsay Druett wrote: > Is this strictly for Uni students ? > > The reason behind this, is that a friend of mine who does web design > with real things like MySQL, PHP4, uses Java in a more appropriate > manner, but he has, up until I've been hosting his material, or > supporting him with hosting issues, been using Apache, MySQL server, > PHP4 on a Win2K/WinXP box because he is unfamiliar with the Unix > environments. > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: mglb1-forwarding > > Sent: Friday, 13 February 2004 10:46 > > To: wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > Subject: [wlug] Introduction to Linux Seminars > > > > > > Hi, > > > > In conjunction with the CS Department at Waikato University WLUG is > > organising a series of seminars aimed at introducing first and second > > year students to Linux and OSS in general. We are currently in the > > process of planning these seminars and are looking for > > comments on what > > to include and what to leave out. > > > > The seminars will run in weeks 2 and 3 of semester A for 3 nights each > > week. Each seminar will be around 1.5hrs long. Below is a > > brief outline > > of what we are currently planning on covering in each seminar. If you > > have comments or suggestions please let us know. > > > > Seminar 1: (Tue 9th Mar) - Introduction to Linux / OSS > > - What is OSS > > - What is Linux > > - What is GNU > > - Why use Linux > > - History of Linux > > - About the Linux Distributions > > > > Seminar 2: (Wed 10th Mar) - Bash > > - A general introduction to bash, what it is, how to > > use it and tips > > for performing common tasks. > > > > Seminar 3: (Thu 11th Mar) - Emacs > > - A general introduction to emacs, what it is, how to use it and > > tips for performing common tasks. > > > > Seminar 4: (Tue 16th Mar) - Processes > > - An introduction to process control in unix systems. > > We will cover > > how to start, stop, suspend and kill processes. > > > > Seminar 5: (Wed 17th Mar) - Applications > > - An introduction to useful OSS applications that can > > be used under > > linux. This will focus on what is installed in the TSG > > labs and will probably cover (pending confirmation) > > - ssh / scp > > - Mozilla > > - OpenOffice > > > > Seminar 6: (Thu 18th Mar) - Summary / Q&A > > - A summary of how to put everything that has been > > taught together, > > followed by a question and answer session. > > > > The popular cheat sheet will be given out again and we are looking at > > providing each attendee with a copy of Knoppix. > > > > Comments welcome :) > > > > Regards > > > > -- > > Matt Brown > > Email: matt(a)mattb.net.nz > > GSM : 021 611 544 > > > > _______________________________________________ > > wlug mailing list > > wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > > -- Matt Brown Email: matt(a)mattb.net.nz GSM : 021 611 544

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kate question
by Glenn Ramsey 09 Feb '04

09 Feb '04

Hi, Probably this isn't the best place to ask this but since it's low traffic and I'm not subbed to any of the kde lists.... In the kate editor in kde 3.1.4 there is a block comment feature and the keyboard shortcuts are comment = Ctrl+# and uncomment = Ctrl+Shift+# . I can't get these to work because in order to get Ctrl+# you actually need to do Ctrl+Shift+3. They work fine if you use the menu. I wanted to change the shortcut key but I couldn't find anyplace that allows this particular one to be changed. Does anyone know how to make this shortcut work? Cheers g -- Glenn Ramsey <glenn(a)componic.co.nz> 07 8627077 http://www.componic.co.nz

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Old bits?
by Kim Shepherd 08 Feb '04

08 Feb '04

I'm loathe to throw anything away, no matter how useless or old... would it be at all useful if I brought in a few bags worth of NICs, HDDs (mostly old small SCSI), RAM, etc., to the next meeting, or are most of you up to your ears in nostalgic junk already? -k. -- Kim Shepherd Systems Operator/Administrator ITS Systems & Development The University of Waikato, NZ DDI: +64-7-838-4681 Mob: +64-27-240-8682 Mail: kims(a)waikato.ac.nz

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fedora 1 distrubution
by Stephen Pearce 31 Jan '04

31 Jan '04

Could someone provide me with the 6 cd versionof this .. I don't have an adsl connection .. that is the 3 binary disks plus the 3 srpm disks .. I'll pay media cost and postage .. just give me an address Thanks Stephen

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Compiling kernels for Red Hat
by Gerwin van de Steeg 27 Jan '04

27 Jan '04

The easiest I've found to do this is to use rpmbuild on the spec file, the problem is including your own patches and getting them in the right place without conflicts. The problem I was having was that my patch (LIDS) wasw conflicting with the redhat patches. Never actually tested if it would work. Otherwise there's a base kernel.org spec file available from somewhere but I'd have to find the link to it first in the large heap of miscellaneous links. Gerwin van de Steeg

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