Re: Great article resource
On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 18:58:24 +1300 anton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: LPI Certification 101 Exam Prep Part 1: Linux fundamentals Part 2: Basic administration Part 3: Intermediate administration Part 4: Advanced administration LPI Certification 102 Exam Prep Part 1: Compiling sources and managing packages Part 2: Configuring and compiling the kernel Part 3: Networking Part 4: Secure shell and file sharing ... These looked suspiciously like the developerWorks articles written by Gentoo people... and, in fact, they are! There are heaps more articles on developerWorks than are mentioned here, though they are easier to work out what the story is in this format. Indeed they are pointers to developerworks (mainly), but nicely collected and maybe good to browse for some specific areas like scripting. The developerWorks site SUCKS. It does if you don't have something to point your way through it. There are heaps of broken links, and the search is pathetic. I like the articles though, so I guess I'll just have to live with it. I wrote to them and they are obviously experiencing some of the hidden costs of outsourcing to India problem... Cheers Anton -- Sent by the lovely Mozilla running MDK9.2 on an Athlon2000XP
Re: MS at it again ....
But there is also the fact, pointed out in the article, that XML was put through the standardisation process, and the goal of that standardisation process was to come up with an open derivative of HTML that could be used for precisely such a purpose. To take part in such a standardisation process and then turn around and attempt to patent it, is in violation of the usual patent process. Patents in common law, if I remember correctly, are to reward the development of a unique proprietary product which has been developed behind closed doors - ie, not in the open cut-and-thrust of the standardisation process - by awarding the developers of such a product a legally-enforceable monopoly on its manufacture for a period of time in which the manufacturer has a reasonable chance of recouping the losses involved in its development, and being able to write them down as investment expenses, repaid by the product's sales. It is also to ensure that the processes concerned, the design developments, etc, have a chance to percolate outwards via licenses, etc, until it becomes standard knowledge and the industry concerned develops and improves. (This is information that I got when I enquired about patenting an electronic guitar pickup design in 1992 - I expected it to be common knowledge. Evidentally not.) Microsoft fails that test on several counts - firstly, XML is a standard, not a product, and as such, has _NOT_ been developed behind closed doors, but out in the open. Why should IBM, SUN, etc, be expected to subsidize Microsoft's extravagances? Secondly, patenting something like that goes against the grain. Patents are to ensure that a valuable technological improvement gets disseminated broadly while repaying its developers for developing it and for making it widely available. If something has been developed in a broad standards-making process, then it has already been disseminated broadly, it is hardly a proprietary secret in urgent need of defending against rivals. Thirdly, Microsoft is intending to use this as a rod to beat Linux, OpenOffice.org, etc. This again goes against the grain of patents, which are to reward an inventor for allowing rivals to see and make use of his invention while enforcing his rights on it, not for him to punish rivals. As such it falls under the area of anti-competition laws, misleading advertising, etc. The question of whether or not Microsoft was vaporwaring XML as its _new_ _innovation_, hardly counts - except for the fact that OO.org has been using it for the last two years minimum. While Microsoft is still in Cloud-Cuckoo-Land with its XML vaporware. Wesley Parish On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 08:42, you wrote: sorry when did MS start on xml as a format for office docs? before OO I do believe! I'm not familiar with patent law (and it's different everywhere), and I'm not about to disagree with a lawyer about this :) But, just because they were first to start doing something doesn't mean they can get the patent by default later on after everyone has done it. In this case, their own product is the prior art. As an aside, I think that in NZ prior art is determined from the time of the patent filing, where in the US you can file a patent up to a year after the invention still claim the patent. Am I correct in saying that? Cheers Brad Wesley Parish On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 10:32, Brad Beveridge wrote: If it was only filed last year, surely there is plenty of prior art in OpenOffice? -Original Message- From: Dale Anderson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 11:42 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: MS at it again Hi All Just noticed this interest snippet . http://www.nzoss.org.nz/portal/modules.php?name=Newsfile=arti clesid=284 -- kinda a worry . Cheers Dale. -- Wesley Parish * * * Clinersterton beademung - in all of love. RIP James Blish * * * Mau e ki, He aha te mea nui? You ask, What is the most important thing? Maku e ki, He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. I reply, It is people, it is people, it is people. -- Wesley Parish * * * Clinersterton beademung - in all of love. RIP James Blish * * * Mau e ki, He aha te mea nui? You ask, What is the most important thing? Maku e ki, He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. I reply, It is people, it is people, it is people.
Re: CLUG social
On Thu, 2004-01-22 at 17:41, Jason Greenwood wrote: Bungs up the munging... That has got to be the quote of the week! LOL -- Regards, Zane Gilmore (Linux nerd since 1998) Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.:- A.C.Clark
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
On Thu, 2004-01-22 at 21:27, Carl Cerecke wrote: As a general rule of thumb, if you aren't close to the answer within 5 minutes of competent googling, then ask away. We certainly don't want to put newcomers off asking questions, otherwise it might turn in to some elitist linux-experts group. Nobody wants, nor benefits, from that. Alright then, here's a couple that I've failed to successfully google for. By way of background, I have recently provided a strategy guide for America's Army to many forums, (no answers, just guidelines), and have provided a patch so that the FirebirdHelp extension works properly with user profiles, but that means nothing. The system that I'm using is a homebuilt AMD 2.5G with 512 of ram, Geforce2 Ti, 60G+40G HDD, 52x52x52x LG CDRW, DVD, with cable modem. I don't know how much of that will be of any use, but there we go. After logging in I always receive three identical warning messages. They being Could not find mime type application/octet-stream. When the warning messages appear there is nothing showing on the desktop. After clearing the top two warnings the Home icon appears, when the last is cleared everything else loads as per normal. The same message appears whenever a new Konquerer task is created. It doesn't appear when doing a new window from an already existing window. How do I resolve this. I don't want to reinstall Mandrake because I most likely will perform the same tasks that I currently am, and with no knowledge of how this issue came to be I won't be able to prevent it in the future, nor provide answers for others with similar troubles. -- Paul Wilkins
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 23:07, pmw57 wrote: After logging in I always receive three identical warning messages. They being Could not find mime type application/octet-stream. OK, so you a loading KDE or Konqueror when you get this message. To solve this problem: 1) open konqueror (dismiss the warnings) 2) click Settings then Configure Konqueror... 3) click on the File Associations button/icon 4) click the Add... button 5) change the Group to application, type octet-stream into the Type name field 6) Press OK 7) change the icon/description to suit your taste. Don't touch the filename patterns though. 8) press OK That should fix it. If it doesn't then you may need to reinstall the package that has the MIME type files for KDE. It is not common to get that error. Hope this helps Later Lee Begg -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFAD6OypAHGV7d5I9kRApRvAJ0RwbFYOfLhUoXAyI7LmMtR00NSoQCffvyX Lj5sZnSgQDfQg6jHHkkqnrk= =2f1u -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 12:19, Lee Begg wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 23:07, pmw57 wrote: After logging in I always receive three identical warning messages. They being Could not find mime type application/octet-stream. OK, so you a loading KDE or Konqueror when you get this message. To solve this problem: create octet-stream file association That should fix it. If it doesn't then you may need to reinstall the package that has the MIME type files for KDE. It is not common to get that error. Hope this helps Way-hey! it's easy when you know how. But that's the trouble. Finding out how to know when you don't in the first place, there's the rub that first time experiences with troubles brings you in to. For example, I'm having trouble getting GNUCash to work something like MYOB, so what other business accounting programs are there out ther for Linux that are suitible for an office situation? -- Paul Wilkins
smb.conf file
I'm encouraged by all of yesterday's responses. I've not booted my machine into linux for a few weeks now. I'm going to change that starting Monday (I need to go away for a couple of days). Minimum 90% home computer time to be linux. So a question then . . . I was struggling with configuring my smb.conf file. Hindsight shows me that the issues were in part related to the windows machines I was trying to connect with (easily sorted - when I finally realised that it wasn't just about my inability to configure the smb.conf file!). And yes, I should have done a mv smb.conf smb.old before playing around. I didn't. I really need to start again with this file, and not do these things late at night ;-) Can I get the original file off the distribution disks and if so how. I'm using redhat 9. Regards Roger
Re: smb.conf file
On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 05:49:28 +1300 Roger Searle [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I'm encouraged by all of yesterday's responses. I've not booted my machine into linux for a few weeks now. I'm going to change that starting Monday (I need to go away for a couple of days). Minimum 90% home computer time to be linux. So a question then . . . I was struggling with configuring my smb.conf file. Hindsight shows me that the issues were in part related to the windows machines I was trying to connect with (easily sorted - when I finally realised that it wasn't just about my inability to configure the smb.conf file!). And yes, I should have done a mv smb.conf smb.old before playing around. I didn't. I really need to start again with this file, and not do these things late at night ;-) Can I get the original file off the distribution disks and if so how. I'm using redhat 9. yes you can get it off the original rpm file. man rpm Regards Roger
RE: Purpose of the CLUG
Do a google search for finance packages for Linux Regards, Robert What Do Fish Say When They Hit a Concrete Wall? Dam! -Original Message- From: pmw57 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 23 January 2004 2:26 a.m. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:Re: Purpose of the CLUG On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 12:19, Lee Begg wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 23:07, pmw57 wrote: After logging in I always receive three identical warning messages. They being Could not find mime type application/octet-stream. OK, so you a loading KDE or Konqueror when you get this message. To solve this problem: create octet-stream file association That should fix it. If it doesn't then you may need to reinstall the package that has the MIME type files for KDE. It is not common to get that error. Hope this helps Way-hey! it's easy when you know how. But that's the trouble. Finding out how to know when you don't in the first place, there's the rub that first time experiences with troubles brings you in to. For example, I'm having trouble getting GNUCash to work something like MYOB, so what other business accounting programs are there out ther for Linux that are suitible for an office situation? -- Paul Wilkins
Re: Accounting programs (was Purpose of the List)
On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 15:26, pmw57 wrote: For example, I'm having trouble getting GNUCash to work something like MYOB, so what other business accounting programs are there out ther for Linux that are suitible for an office situation? You could investigate Moneydance: not free, but cheap, and has an active users' mailing list. (I use it for personal and very rudimentary business accounting, not because it's incapable of more, but because that's all I need.) They're at www.moneydance.com. I've clipped the following from a recent mailing from the list: Send moneydance-info mailing list submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://moneydance.com/mailman/listinfo/moneydance-info or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can reach the person managing the list at [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with Moneydance.) =Andrew
updatedb affecting performance
Hi,
updatedb is set to run about an hour after I boot up in the morning.
Once it is started, my machine is almost unusable for 10 minutes. Moving
windows around the screen is unbearable: sometimes when I move a window
I can see X redrawing the screen line by line. If it was any slower I'd
just about see pixels forming. Typing into a shell is like being
connected at 300 baud with a dodgy modem.
My home machine doesn't suffer from this serious degredation of
performance while doing updatedb, and is similar in specs to this work
machine. Both home and work have 512MB ram. Although the hard drive at
home is a bit better - it has 8MB cache and 7200rpm and is so quiet I
don't even know updatedb is running. The work one is much noiser, and
has a piddly 512kb cache, as reported by:
# hdparm -i /dev/hdc
/dev/hdc:
Model=ST320413A, FwRev=3.58, SerialNo=6ED3WH4A
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw15uSec Fixed DTR10Mbs RotSpdTol.5% }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=512kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=39102336
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: device does not report version: 1 2 3 4 5
Don't know what the motherboard is, but CPU is Athlon XP 1800+
I'm thinking the changes in linux 2.6.x might help - although I'm
running 2.4.?? at home (Athlon XP 2000) and don't see this problem.
Question is, to fix this do I need (my boss to) replace:
hard drive
motherboard
kernel (with 2.6.x)
something else
Cheers,
Carl.
Re: updatedb affecting performance
On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 10:19:38AM +1300, Carl Cerecke wrote: updatedb is set to run about an hour after I boot up in the morning. Once it is started, my machine is almost unusable for 10 minutes. # hdparm -i /dev/hdc /dev/hdc: UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 What does 'hdparm -d -u /dev/hdc' return? What does 'dmesg | grep -C2 ide[0-4]' return? Particularly, make sure DMA is on. If it isn't, check that your kernel supports (and is setting up) your IDE controller(s) correctly. You can also force DMA on by running 'hdparm -d1 /dev/hdc', but I don't recommend doing that. If the kernel isn't setting DMA up automatically, it's usually not a good idea to force the issue. You can also enable the 'unmask IRQ' feature by running 'hdparm -u1 /dev/hdc', this will usually improve the responsiveness of the system during heavy I/O, but read the hdparm(8) manpage and make sure the dire warnings of FS corruption don't apply to your system Cheers, -mjg -- Matthew Gregan |/ /|[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: updatedb affecting performance
On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 10:19, Carl Cerecke wrote: updatedb is set to run about an hour after I boot up in the morning. Once it is started, my machine is almost unusable for 10 minutes. [snip] Question is, to fix this do I need (my boss to) replace: hard drive motherboard kernel (with 2.6.x) something else I have heard a lot of good things about machines having better interactive performance under 2.6, so it is probably worth a shot as it would be cheaper than the other options. One question, Carl, what does /sbin/hdparm -d /dev/hda report? -- Michael JasonSmith http://www.ldots.org/
RE: Purpose of the CLUG
(encouraged by these postings, I'll add my 5cents worth - since 2cents
isn't legal tender anymore).
-Original Message-
From: Roger Searle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, 22 January 2004 06:26
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Purpose of the CLUG
(encouraged by Douglas's first posting, here's mine)
{snip}
--
Preamble:
Note to Roger Douglas - I have asked a question on here and yes it was
a stupid question (in that it *really* displayed my ignorance) but I was
pointed in the right direction and given enough information to not only
sort out my problem but get some ideas for some consequential system
improvements.
Background:
I have linux installed as a server in my home network - Pentium II
Celeron 300Mhz, 60Gb HD 320Mb RAM running Mandrake 9.2. My three kids
each have an AMD 1.3Ghz 40Gb computer running either Windows 98 or XP
Pro (my son upgraded his computer to reduce the crashes when running his
games). I have three old pentium 120Mhz machines with 500K or 1Gb HD
(24 - 40Mb RAM). I had the 24Mb 500K one of these set up as an IPCop
firewall connected to jetstream router, one that was connected to the
orange interface that I wanted to be a mailserver (never got near w,
and the last was going to be my linux command line play machine. I've
moved to West Melton and can't get jetstream. My new home may not be
easy to run network cable around. For my new business I bought a
Brother MFC5200 fax/printer/scanner. So I'm a bit of a geek, but like
others attempting to get that stinking M$ outta the house it's an
uphill battle.
Discussion:
The biggest difficulty I have is working out what I need to get the
result I want. The mail server for example: I wanted something that
worked like M$ exchange - recieve all the mail from the internet (my ISP
had my domain pointed to my static IP address) then be a pop server to
the local network. I looked at several Howtos that seemed like they
might be the right thing but none were exactly what I wanted and I'm
still too much of a newbie to work out from them how to do what I want.
So I don't know what packages I should be trying to get running, let
alone how to configure them.
Suggestion:
What would be most useful to me in terms of a meeting would be a Linux
solutions session. Someone comes up with a desired setup and several
people state how they would use linux in this situation. So I could
provide the list of available hardware, what I'd like to achieve with
it, my resources to set it up (whether I have a budget for more
hardware...) and end up with a few potential system designs. Existing
experts would get the opportunity to expound on their favourite
distributions etc, and get ideas from others on how to make things
work. The desired setups can be as simple or complicated as there are
people prepared to come to a meeting.
regards
Kerry.
Re: updatedb affecting performance
Matthew Gregan wrote: What does 'hdparm -d -u /dev/hdc' return? # hdparm -d -u /dev/hdc /dev/hdc: unmaskirq= 1 (on) using_dma= 1 (on) Looks OK. I think the * next to udma5 in the output of hdparm -i also indicates that it is using udma mode 5, no? (That's why I didn't run the command above, just looked at the output of -i) What does 'dmesg | grep -C2 ide[0-4]' return? Relevent part of dmesg is: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta-2.4 ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:11.1 VP_IDE: chipset revision 6 VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx VP_IDE: VIA vt8233 (rev 00) IDE UDMA100 controller on pci00:11.1 ide0: BM-DMA at 0xd400-0xd407, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio ide1: BM-DMA at 0xd408-0xd40f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio hda: ATAPI CDROM, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive hdc: ST320413A, ATA DISK drive blk: queue c03bed60, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0x) ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15 hdc: host protected area = 1 hdc: 39102336 sectors (20020 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=38792/16/63, UDMA(100) ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide Partition check: hdc: [PTBL] [2434/255/63] hdc1 hdc2 hdc3 hdc4 All looks OK to my untrained eye. Cheers, Carl.
Mandrake 10 Beta1 Now on the mirrors
In case anyone is interested, it hit the mirrors last night and is a 3cd set - 3 ISO's available for download. Mirrors are syncing up now. Cheers Jason
Re: updatedb affecting performance
Michael JasonSmith wrote: I have heard a lot of good things about machines having better interactive performance under 2.6, so it is probably worth a shot as it would be cheaper than the other options. It would? I think it has the potential to be more expensive - futzing around with settings and whatnot. Could take all day if it goes badly. That's more expensive than a $150 HD. Mind you, things still could go wrong with that - copying the filesystems might take a while too. Of course, if you're a postgrad student doing, say, a PhD. Time's cheap. Ay, Michael? Cheers, Carl.
Re: updatedb affecting performance
Hi, updatedb is set to run about an hour after I boot up in the morning. Once it is started, my machine is almost unusable for 10 minutes. Moving windows around the screen is unbearable: sometimes when I move a window I can see X redrawing the screen line by line. If it was any slower I'd just about see pixels forming. Typing into a shell is like being connected at 300 baud with a dodgy modem. If it is an option, why not leave the machine running once you leave for the day and get a cron job to kick off the updatedb in the early hours of the morning? This has always been my preferred method. HTH Jamie
RE: updatedb affecting performance
I still regard myself as a Newbie but I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly my upgrade to 2.6 kernel went. It auto detected my hardware very well and as per my previous posts on the speed issue, it is substantially faster for me. Next speed upgrade, according to feedback, is upgrading KDE to 3.2 (but I will wait for the stable version) Regards, Robert What Do Fish Say When They Hit a Concrete Wall? Dam! -Original Message- From: Carl Cerecke [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 23 January 2004 10:59 a.m. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:Re: updatedb affecting performance Michael JasonSmith wrote: I have heard a lot of good things about machines having better interactive performance under 2.6, so it is probably worth a shot as it would be cheaper than the other options. It would? I think it has the potential to be more expensive - futzing around with settings and whatnot. Could take all day if it goes badly. That's more expensive than a $150 HD. Mind you, things still could go wrong with that - copying the filesystems might take a while too. Of course, if you're a postgrad student doing, say, a PhD. Time's cheap. Ay, Michael? Cheers, Carl.
Re: Mandrake 10 Beta1 Now on the mirrors
In case anyone is interested, it hit the mirrors last night and is a 3cd set - 3 ISO's available for download. Mirrors are syncing up now. Cheers Jason I wonder if this version will finally fix a few of the crappy sound quality I've had with 9.2? Mind you I'm tending towards Gentoo these days as Mandrake doesn't quite seem to cut it for me any more.
Re: Mandrake 10 Beta1 Now on the mirrors
In case anyone is interested, it hit the mirrors last night and is a 3cd set - 3 ISO's available for download. Mirrors are syncing up now. Cheers Jason I wonder if this version will finally fix the crappy sound quality I've had with 9.2? Mind you I'm tending towards Gentoo these days as Mandrake doesn't quite seem to cut it for me any more.
Re: Mandrake 10 Beta1 Now on the mirrors
Dunno, download, try, test, report faults - that's what BETA is for. If you don't test/report, then you can't complain! Cheers Jason Jamie Dobbs wrote: In case anyone is interested, it hit the mirrors last night and is a 3cd set - 3 ISO's available for download. Mirrors are syncing up now. Cheers Jason I wonder if this version will finally fix the crappy sound quality I've had with 9.2? Mind you I'm tending towards Gentoo these days as Mandrake doesn't quite seem to cut it for me any more.
Re: updatedb affecting performance
Jamie Dobbs wrote: If it is an option, why not leave the machine running once you leave for the day and get a cron job to kick off the updatedb in the early hours of the morning? This has always been my preferred method. It's my preferred method too. But we switch our desk machines off when we leave work. Cheers, Carl.
Re: updatedb affecting performance
On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:19, Carl Cerecke wrote: Hi, updatedb is set to run about an hour after I boot up in the morning. Once it is started, my machine is almost unusable for 10 minutes. Couple of ideas. Change the nice of the updatedb process. Change the time update is to run to be after you have left work. Schedule shutdown to be after the updatedb run. shutdown -h 19:00 would do that nicely. The boss can afford a couple of hours extra juice without even noticing. Upgrading to a 2.6 kernel would probably help considerably. [ description of computer provided by penny-pinching boss elided ] -- Sincerely etc. Christopher Sawtell NB. This PC runs Linux. If you find a virus apparently from me, it has forged the e-mail headers on someone else's machine. Please do not notify me when this occurs. Thanks.
Email server for Home Network - why?
Apologies to those who consider this a dumb question... I can think of two reasons why one would set up an email server at home. 1/ Mail is readily served to workstations from an always on server 2/ Mail can be accessed elsewhere without using webmail Neither of these reasons are compelling enough for me but I am curious to know if others have compelling arguments. -- Robert Fisher www.fisher.net.nz
Re: updatedb affecting performance
On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 10:47:26AM +1300, Carl Cerecke wrote: # hdparm -d -u /dev/hdc [ snipped output] Looks fine. I think the * next to udma5 in the output of hdparm -i also indicates that it is using udma mode 5, no? (That's why I didn't run the command That's right. But the transfer mode (i.e. udma5) is not related to whether the transfers are using DMA, which is why I asked for that additional hdparm output. VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:11.1 VP_IDE: chipset revision 6 VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later VP_IDE: VIA vt8233 (rev 00) IDE UDMA100 controller on pci00:11.1 [snipped additional dmesg] Looks fine--your kernel has the correct driver for your IDE controller. Next step; what kernel are you running? It's worth checking the changelogs between the kernel you're running and whatever is current (assuming you're not running the latest and greatest) to see if there have been any improvements in the VIA IDE drivers. If you've got time to muck around, you could try compiling a 2.6 series kernel and seeing how it runs. Enable CONFIG_PREEMPT and make sure the VIA IDE drivers are included. You probably need to set aside a few hours to get a 2.6 kernel working correctly, because you can't use your old 2.4 .config verbatim, and it's likely you'll end up with a partially broken machine on your first attempt. Can we assume you're not seeing any IDE or disk related errors in your kernel logs? What does 'hdparm -tT /dev/hdc' say? You need to run it at least 3 times to get a decent set of results. This doesn't reflect the real-world speed of your disk, but it's useful for locating certain types of performance problems. Does your machine feel sluggish if you run something like 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/somewhere/on/hdc/testfile bs=32k count=10k'[0]? How about when running 'find / /dev/null'? [0] This will create a 312MB file named testfile. Don't forgot to remove it afterwards. Cheers, -mjg -- Matthew Gregan |/ /|[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: updatedb affecting performance
Christopher Sawtell wrote: On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:19, Carl Cerecke wrote: Hi, updatedb is set to run about an hour after I boot up in the morning. Once it is started, my machine is almost unusable for 10 minutes. Couple of ideas. Change the nice of the updatedb process. It's already niced to the max. Change the time update is to run to be after you have left work. Schedule shutdown to be after the updatedb run. shutdown -h 19:00 would do that nicely. The boss can afford a couple of hours extra juice without even noticing. Possible, but I'd rather fix it than work-around it. I'd also get a surprise if I stayed at work late one evening and it suddenly shut down on me. Upgrading to a 2.6 kernel would probably help considerably. [ description of computer provided by penny-pinching boss elided ] He's not penny pinching. I asked for a 21inch CRT to go next to my 17 inch, and got it. As long as there is a sensible-sounding reason! Cheers, Carl.
Re: updatedb affecting performance
On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 10:58, Carl Cerecke wrote: Michael JasonSmith wrote: I have heard a lot of good things about machines having better interactive performance under 2.6, so it is probably worth a shot as it would be cheaper than the other options. It would? I think it has the potential to be more expensive - futzing around with settings and whatnot. Could take all day if it goes badly. That's more expensive than a $150 HD. Mind you, things still could go wrong with that - copying the filesystems might take a while too. Of course, if you're a postgrad student doing, say, a PhD. Time's cheap. Ay, Michael? I was factoring in your time, actually. [We pause to let Michael roll his eyes in a condescending manner.] Changing a MoBo or HDD can cause problems, and assuming that you will eventually be changing to 2.6 *anyway* I guessed that the $150 + time for a new HDD would be less more the time taken to get 2.6 going --- especially if you used a pre-packaged kernel. Anyway, if you do not want my help, I will go back to reading some articles\ldots -- Michael JasonSmith http://www.ldots.org/
RE: Email server for Home Network - why?
This is more likely to be a dumb question! What other methods are there to get individual mail for each member of the family (of five)? (And what are the advantages / disadvantages of each method) Kerry Mayes -Original Message- From: Robert Fisher [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 23 January 2004 11:24 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Email server for Home Network - why? Apologies to those who consider this a dumb question... I can think of two reasons why one would set up an email server at home. 1/ Mail is readily served to workstations from an always on server 2/ Mail can be accessed elsewhere without using webmail Neither of these reasons are compelling enough for me but I am curious to know if others have compelling arguments. -- Robert Fisher www.fisher.net.nz
Re: Email server for Home Network - why?
My wife and I tend to send email to each other when we need to pass information on, or get one another to proofread some text, or whatever. I never got round to get internal mail going, so we have to log on and use our normal adresses. The irony is that she goes online through my box when we need to work online at the same time, so her messages passes through my box, all the way to our mail server in the UK, and then back to my box . -J Robert Fisher wrote: Apologies to those who consider this a dumb question... I can think of two reasons why one would set up an email server at home. 1/ Mail is readily served to workstations from an always on server 2/ Mail can be accessed elsewhere without using webmail Neither of these reasons are compelling enough for me but I am curious to know if others have compelling arguments. -- Robert Fisher www.fisher.net.nz
RE: Email server for Home Network - why?
We have all got separate email addresses. There are heaps of free email providors if your isp does not have enough. Regards, Robert What Do Fish Say When They Hit a Concrete Wall? Dam! -Original Message- From: Kerry Mayes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 23 January 2004 12:09 p.m. To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:RE: Email server for Home Network - why? This is more likely to be a dumb question! What other methods are there to get individual mail for each member of the family (of five)? (And what are the advantages / disadvantages of each method) Kerry Mayes -Original Message- From: Robert Fisher [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 23 January 2004 11:24 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Email server for Home Network - why? Apologies to those who consider this a dumb question... I can think of two reasons why one would set up an email server at home. 1/ Mail is readily served to workstations from an always on server 2/ Mail can be accessed elsewhere without using webmail Neither of these reasons are compelling enough for me but I am curious to know if others have compelling arguments. -- Robert Fisher www.fisher.net.nz
Re: Email server for Home Network - why?
Speed(your client isnt tied up with trying to download 86 emails when you get home if they're collected every 30 minutes), avaliability(the ISP pop server can crash all it likes, your email server can store and send them later), backups(the Opps I didnt really mean to send that factor...), simplicity(one email/fetchmail setup can collect mail from all 5 email addresses, at one time, every half hour, as well as dump from 5 email addresses all in one swish maneuver), Learning Curve (If you've never administered/set up an email server, a Home Server is a good place to start, make mistake, restart, make HUGE mistake, restart, make mistake (you get the picture))... - Original Message - From: Robert Fisher [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 11:24 AM Subject: Email server for Home Network - why? Apologies to those who consider this a dumb question... I can think of two reasons why one would set up an email server at home. 1/ Mail is readily served to workstations from an always on server 2/ Mail can be accessed elsewhere without using webmail Neither of these reasons are compelling enough for me but I am curious to know if others have compelling arguments. -- Robert Fisher www.fisher.net.nz
Re: Email server for Home Network - why?
some isp's let you have a number of pop boxes on their server. so then set up your mail server with fetchmail with a number of entries like this: poll pop.isp.co.nz proto pop3 user mayes1 with pass whatever is kerry here this retrieves mail in mayes1's pop box at isp.co.nz and spools it to user kerry on the local mail server. On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 12:09:19 +1300 Kerry Mayes [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This is more likely to be a dumb question! What other methods are there to get individual mail for each member of the family (of five)? (And what are the advantages / disadvantages of each method) Kerry Mayes -Original Message- From: Robert Fisher [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, 23 January 2004 11:24 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Email server for Home Network - why? Apologies to those who consider this a dumb question... I can think of two reasons why one would set up an email server at home. 1/ Mail is readily served to workstations from an always on server 2/ Mail can be accessed elsewhere without using webmail Neither of these reasons are compelling enough for me but I am curious to know if others have compelling arguments. -- Robert Fisher www.fisher.net.nz -- Nick Rout [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Email server for Home Network - why?
well 1. you may have many client machines (even two is enough to be a pain), so you don't want pop mail, because u end up with half your email on machine a and half on machine b. imap solves this. isp's in general do not do imap. ergo do it yourself. 2. if you have dialup you can regularly dialup and send/receive mail, under programmatic control on the linux server. 3. you have a number of dialup accounts with different isp's and don't want to keep changing the smtp server setting in your email client, you just set it to the linux box and let it bypass the isp's smtp server. 4. you like taking control 5. you want to learn how. On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 11:24:01 +1300 (NZDT) Robert Fisher [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Apologies to those who consider this a dumb question... I can think of two reasons why one would set up an email server at home. 1/ Mail is readily served to workstations from an always on server 2/ Mail can be accessed elsewhere without using webmail Neither of these reasons are compelling enough for me but I am curious to know if others have compelling arguments. -- Robert Fisher www.fisher.net.nz -- Nick Rout Barrister Solicitor Christchurch, NZ Ph +64 3 3798966 Fax + 64 3 3798853 http://www.rout.co.nz [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Email server for Home Network - why?
On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 12:50:15PM +1300, Nick Rout wrote: email on machine a and half on machine b. imap solves this. isp's in general do not do imap. ergo do it yourself. Well, if the users don't ask for it, they won't provide it... Having said that, I was doubtful of your claim that IMAP is not generally available from NZ ISPs. I ran a very quick and shallow survey found that nine out of the fourteen surveyed ISPs provide IMAP services. It's possible that some of the other ISPs only allow their IMAP service to be accesses from users attached to their network. ISPs providing IMAP services: actrix.co.nz caverock.net.nz actrix.co.nz clear.net.nz hyper.net.nz orcon.net.nz maxnet.net.nz xtra.co.nz globe.net.nz Cheers, -mjg -- Matthew Gregan |/ /|[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Email server for Home Network - why?
On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:36:22 +1300 Matthew Gregan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Well, if the users don't ask for it, they won't provide it... Having said that, I was doubtful of your claim that IMAP is not generally available from NZ ISPs. I ran a very quick and shallow survey found that nine out of the fourteen surveyed ISPs provide IMAP services. It's possible that some of the other ISPs only allow their IMAP service to be accesses from users attached to their network. ISPs providing IMAP services: actrix.co.nz caverock.net.nz actrix.co.nz clear.net.nz hyper.net.nz orcon.net.nz maxnet.net.nz xtra.co.nz globe.net.nz well thats certainly an improvement on last time i checked, which was probably about the time i set up my server, ie about 5 years ago. * what sort of limit do they have spacewise? * do they allow the creation of folders or are you restricted to an INBOX? * importantly for next time you are away from home, do they allow you to log in from anywhere, or just their own network (you referred to this in your response) -- Nick Rout [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: updatedb affecting performance
On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 14:02, Carl Cerecke wrote: Does your machine feel sluggish if you run something like 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/somewhere/on/hdc/testfile bs=32k count=10k'[0]? How about when running 'find / /dev/null'? Bingo. It feels like video conferencing on dial-up. Same as updatedb. I've been pondering this some more * Does updatedb slow down your machine *only* when it runs across hdc, not hda, hdb, or hdd? * Is updatedb working across multiple disks at the same time? -- Michael JasonSmith http://www.ldots.org/
Size of initrd
Hello, I have built an MP3 player box at home. Well, I built one ages ago but the hard drive expired, so I made it network boot instead. Is there a limit to the size of the initial ramdisk? I have compiled my kernel with support for initrd, and the default size is 4096kb, so I left it at that. I then created a 4Mb file on the server which I can mount as the root fs and tweak it just so... Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to include LCDproc, Lirc and IRMP3 in the same image with all the libraries and support for login etc. etc., so, can I just increase the size of the root fs file? Does its size have to match exactly the size in the kernel option? I had it all going without Lirc in less than 4Mb, but adding Lirc involves compiling more stuff into IRMP3, so it's too tight. I am using busybox to keep things small, and I have a very minimal set of files to boot the machine with. The kernel is 2.4.18 from Debian 3.0 distribution. Thanks in advance, Andy
Re: updatedb affecting performance
Michael JasonSmith wrote: On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 14:02, Carl Cerecke wrote: Does your machine feel sluggish if you run something like 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/path/to/somewhere/on/hdc/testfile bs=32k count=10k'[0]? How about when running 'find / /dev/null'? Bingo. It feels like video conferencing on dial-up. Same as updatedb. I've been pondering this some more * Does updatedb slow down your machine *only* when it runs across hdc, not hda, hdb, or hdd? * Is updatedb working across multiple disks at the same time? hdc is a hard drive hda is a CD-ROM My boss had a look and said Why did you set your machine set up like that? I replied Why did *you* set up my machine like that?. There are no other hard disks on the machine. I guess it is possible that the mobo was only designed to handle CD-ROM drives on ide1 perhaps, but this seems unlikely.
Re: updatedb affecting performance
On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 02:02:34PM +1300, Carl Cerecke wrote: The 2.4.20 that came with RH 9 If you don't mind building a new kernel and want to avoid the pain of upgrading to 2.6, try upgrading to 2.4.24 and using your current .config. There has been quite a bit of work on the IDE drivers, and a few patches specific to VIA controllers have gone in between 2.4.20 and 2.4.24. Bingo. It feels like video conferencing on dial-up. Same as updatedb. With either of those two tests running, or only the find? When updatedb runs, keep an eye on your free memory, cache and buffer sizes, and swap in-use. What may be happening is that updatedb is causing some of your applications to be pushed into swap as the buffer grows. Cheers, -mjg -- Matthew Gregan |/ /|[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: updatedb affecting performance
On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 14:18, Carl Cerecke wrote: hdc is a hard drive hda is a CD-ROM My boss had a look and said Why did you set your machine set up like that? I replied Why did *you* set up my machine like that?. You could try swapping them around and seeing if that helps. Maybe ide1 has better access to the MoBo maybe. However, mjg's suggestion of checking the memory usage is far less intrusive :) Oh, you could always run updatedb during your lunch break :P Right, back to UIST papers. -- Michael JasonSmith http://www.ldots.org/
Re: Size of initrd
On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 02:19:13PM NZDT, Andrew Errington wrote: Hello, I have built an MP3 player box at home. Well, I built one ages ago but the hard drive expired, so I made it network boot instead. [snip] I had it all going without Lirc in less than 4Mb, but adding Lirc involves compiling more stuff into IRMP3, so it's too tight. I am using busybox to keep things small, and I have a very minimal set of files to boot the machine with. The kernel is 2.4.18 from Debian 3.0 distribution. Have you considered linking against diet-libc or uClibc? I think busybox already uses a light libc, but your extra tools might not. Good luck. It would be nice to see the steps you've taken. Are you planning to publish the results when you're done? Greg --- - pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Kinda interesting interview with Lindows COO
Hi all .. http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5758 included is a coupon to get LindowsOS 4.5 for nothing :) I particularly like the our competition is Microsoft, Microsoft and Microsoft... phrase. anyways have a read. Cheers Paul Swafford (Manager, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Arts Centre) (Level 2/28 Worcester Boulevard, Christchurch, NZ) (ph/fax +64 3 3656480 www.e-caf.com)
Re: Kinda interesting interview with Lindows COO
On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 02:40:07PM +1300, Paul Swafford wrote: [snip] Please don't do the whole 'hit reply, change subject' thing to start a new thread. For those of us with threaded mail readers, it appears smack in the middle of another thread. In other places, this is called thread hi-jacking. Mike. -- Mike Beattie [EMAIL PROTECTED] ZL4TXK, IRLP Node 6184 Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
This is a FixItFest or a ProblemFest, which would be a good side-track
to an InstallFest. Victims bring along their gear (just like at an
installfest), but with something they want to achieve, e.g. Install
Linux on this Windows machine; Set up a mail server for my home network;
Set up a photo album and download photos from this digital camera; ...
Douglas.
Kerry Mayes wrote:
(encouraged by these postings, I'll add my 5cents worth - since 2cents
isn't legal tender anymore).
{snip}
Discussion:
The biggest difficulty I have is working out what I need to get the
result I want. The mail server for example: I wanted something that
worked like M$ exchange - recieve all the mail from the internet (my ISP
had my domain pointed to my static IP address) then be a pop server to
the local network. I looked at several Howtos that seemed like they
might be the right thing but none were exactly what I wanted and I'm
still too much of a newbie to work out from them how to do what I want.
So I don't know what packages I should be trying to get running, let
alone how to configure them.
Suggestion:
What would be most useful to me in terms of a meeting would be a Linux
solutions session. Someone comes up with a desired setup and several
people state how they would use linux in this situation. So I could
provide the list of available hardware, what I'd like to achieve with
it, my resources to set it up (whether I have a budget for more
hardware...) and end up with a few potential system designs. Existing
experts would get the opportunity to expound on their favourite
distributions etc, and get ideas from others on how to make things
work. The desired setups can be as simple or complicated as there are
people prepared to come to a meeting.
regards
Kerry.
Re: updatedb affecting performance
Matthew Gregan wrote: On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 02:02:34PM +1300, Carl Cerecke wrote: The 2.4.20 that came with RH 9 If you don't mind building a new kernel and want to avoid the pain of upgrading to 2.6, try upgrading to 2.4.24 and using your current .config. There has been quite a bit of work on the IDE drivers, and a few patches specific to VIA controllers have gone in between 2.4.20 and 2.4.24. Bingo. It feels like video conferencing on dial-up. Same as updatedb. With either of those two tests running, or only the find? The find slows things down a bit. The dd makes the entire desktop feel like it is doing 1 fps. When updatedb runs, keep an eye on your free memory, cache and buffer sizes, and swap in-use. What may be happening is that updatedb is causing some of your applications to be pushed into swap as the buffer grows. Already considered. Memory is not the problem. Cheers, Carl.
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
Now this is an idea I _really_ like, makes me even more desperate to move my wife and I down to Christchurch!!! (now if only we could find work to enable this to happen). This is a FixItFest or a ProblemFest, which would be a good side-track to an InstallFest. Victims bring along their gear (just like at an installfest), but with something they want to achieve, e.g. Install Linux on this Windows machine; Set up a mail server for my home network; Set up a photo album and download photos from this digital camera; ...
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
This is where we started the conversation. One of my points in initiating this discussion was that not many people were attending/supporting the workshop sessions. And that includes both patients and doctors. So it looks as if there are still some problems out there that people want fixed/sorted in a workshop type session. Some are bigger than what we have usually handled (so far they have usually been hardware glitches (like the guy who's soundcard wouldn't go until he plugged the speakers into the right socket LOL). booting problems, quite specific sort of stuff that could be fixed (or not) in a 2-3 hour session. Maybe people want bigger projects like setting up a mail server. That might be better handled at the OSTC, maybe not. I am willing in any event to help with that sort of thing, remembering of course that there is no _right_ way to do undertake such a project. maybe a full day job? On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 15:50:52 +1300 Douglas Royds [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This is a FixItFest or a ProblemFest, which would be a good side-track to an InstallFest. Victims bring along their gear (just like at an installfest), but with something they want to achieve, e.g. Install Linux on this Windows machine; Set up a mail server for my home network; Set up a photo album and download photos from this digital camera; ... Douglas. -- Nick Rout [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
Nick Rout wrote: This is where we started the conversation. One of my points in initiating this discussion was that not many people were attending/supporting the workshop sessions. And that includes both patients and doctors. Fixing of problems is the main use of this mailing-list. Although fixing things often works better face-to-face if you have someone who knows what they are doing, hte mailing list still serves as a very valid and useful forum for problem diagnoses and solution suggestions. Therefore, I would prefer meetings to consists of things that a mailing list doesn't easily provide: 1. Talks (guest speakers etc.) 2. Demos 3. Socialisation. rather than fix-it-up workshops, for which the mailing list can often be an effective substitute. Note that 1 and 2 above generally require a bit more work on the part of the presenter, and I'm not suggesting that we eliminate fix-it-up workshops altogether. Since I suggested it, it would be cowardly of me not to volunteer to do a talk :-) I'll do a talk entitled A taste of LaTeX. (The title is the most well-developed part of the talk so far :-). I'm crazily busy for Jan and Feb, so make it April or later. Any other volunteers? It doesn't have to be long. Even a 20-30min demo of nifty-app would be good. Michael J, what about that talk on filesystems? Cheers, Carl.
Re: updatedb affecting performance
The find slows things down a bit. The dd makes the entire desktop feel like it is doing 1 fps. Ok, summary: disk is using DMA, box is not swapping, Athlon XP (i.e. fast) CPU, 20GB Seagate disk (prob 5400 rpm, 512k cache), VIA VT8233 chipset. RH 9. On heavy disk activity, simultaneous reading and writing, the system becomes unusably slow (reaching the speed of a 4.77MHz 286). I have a P3-450 here and used to have a similar disk. Updatedb slowed things down where it was noticable, as any heavy disk activity would, but the box remains usable. Via chipsets are generally well supported, but some of them are distinctly dodgy. I would say it's a kernel bug with that particular IDE chipset. It's possible the bug shows in RH 9 but not other distros (due to exactly what kernel options were used and/or bug fixes applied). It's possible a 2.6 kernel fixes it (I wouldn't hold my breath). In a commercial environment where time = big money, replace mobo with different chipset. Alternatively, spend limited time and swap disk and or mobo with another different system for speed comparison, and google for vt8233 and linux kernel. Perhaps add another different type hard disk and threash that instead, see if things change. On no account even touch the 2.6 kernel. For a commercial desktop, compiling any kernel is out (esp the 2.6). Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann is possibly list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
RE: Re: Purpose of the CLUG
Talking of fixits and stuff - I'd like an opinion on the following.
I have been given a 486 (DX475) Digital HiNote laptop - no CDROM 20mb of RAM 1.3gb
hard drive. I would like to load Linux of some flavour on it so that I can use it for
word processing (Abiword) and checking webmail etc, while connected via my home
network (56k modem on my main box).
Question is - should I use an old distro with a 2.2 kernel and KDE1 or 2 or use more
uptodate Debian (ie one of the cutdown Knoppix versions) and a lightwieght window
manager - fluxbox or similar, what do people think?
I might add that I have tried damn Small Linux and have had trouble with the mouse -
basically wouldn't (read like mollasses) move.
I have been trying to load Corel Linux by transferring the files to the harddrive
first - but no joy so far - not sure that I can install it that way - but I think now
that the problem was a faulty boot floppy - might have another go with a better floppy.
I could do a net install of Debian (I have the Net install CDROM - but can't figure
out how to use it without a CDROM drive) - might take rather a long time with 56K
download.
Happy to hear your thoughts
Lance Blackler
-Original Message-
From: Douglas Royds [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 15:50:52 +1300
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Purpose of the CLUG
This is a FixItFest or a ProblemFest, which would be a good side-track
to an InstallFest. Victims bring along their gear (just like at an
installfest), but with something they want to achieve, e.g. Install
Linux on this Windows machine; Set up a mail server for my home network;
Set up a photo album and download photos from this digital camera; ...
Douglas.
Kerry Mayes wrote:
(encouraged by these postings, I'll add my 5cents worth - since 2cents
isn't legal tender anymore).
{snip}
Discussion:
The biggest difficulty I have is working out what I need to get the
result I want. The mail server for example: I wanted something that
worked like M$ exchange - recieve all the mail from the internet (my ISP
had my domain pointed to my static IP address) then be a pop server to
the local network. I looked at several Howtos that seemed like they
might be the right thing but none were exactly what I wanted and I'm
still too much of a newbie to work out from them how to do what I want.
So I don't know what packages I should be trying to get running, let
alone how to configure them.
Suggestion:
What would be most useful to me in terms of a meeting would be a Linux
solutions session. Someone comes up with a desired setup and several
people state how they would use linux in this situation. So I could
provide the list of available hardware, what I'd like to achieve with
it, my resources to set it up (whether I have a budget for more
hardware...) and end up with a few potential system designs. Existing
experts would get the opportunity to expound on their favourite
distributions etc, and get ideas from others on how to make things
work. The desired setups can be as simple or complicated as there are
people prepared to come to a meeting.
regards
Kerry.
brbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbr
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 17:25, you wrote:
Talking of fixits and stuff - I'd like an opinion on the following.
I have been given a 486 (DX475) Digital HiNote laptop - no CDROM 20mb of
RAM 1.3gb hard drive.
If you can get it a bit more memory that would be very good.
I would like to load Linux of some flavour on it so
that I can use it for word processing (Abiword) and checking webmail etc,
while connected via my home network (56k modem on my main box).
Question is - should I use an old distro with a 2.2 kernel and KDE1 or 2 or
use more uptodate Debian (ie one of the cutdown Knoppix versions) and a
lightwieght window manager - fluxbox or similar, what do people think?
Use an up-to-date kernel. Modern kernels are considerably better imho.
You could compile it on a differnt - faster - machine and move it over to the
old lappie. I don't think any Kde would go acceptably with only 20Megs
memory. I had FVWM working in 32 Megs on a machine of that vintage, but it
was very clunkey.
I might add that I have tried damn Small Linux and have had trouble with
the mouse - basically wouldn't (read like mollasses) move.
I have been trying to load Corel Linux by transferring the files to the
harddrive first - but no joy so far - not sure that I can install it that
way - but I think now that the problem was a faulty boot floppy - might
have another go with a better floppy.
I could do a net install of Debian (I have the Net install CDROM - but
can't figure out how to use it without a CDROM drive) - might take rather a
long time with 56K download.
basically you use a floppy such as tom's root and boot to boot the machine,
transfer the files into it, and then use the chroot command to activate the
newly d/led and installed file system.
Happy to hear your thoughts
Buy more memory! Is there an empty socket? Could you toss out the 4Meg stick
and insert a 16 Meg one?
Lance Blackler
-Original Message-
From: Douglas Royds [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 15:50:52 +1300
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Purpose of the CLUG
This is a FixItFest or a ProblemFest, which would be a good side-track
to an InstallFest. Victims bring along their gear (just like at an
installfest), but with something they want to achieve, e.g. Install
Linux on this Windows machine; Set up a mail server for my home network;
Set up a photo album and download photos from this digital camera; ...
Douglas.
Kerry Mayes wrote:
(encouraged by these postings, I'll add my 5cents worth - since 2cents
isn't legal tender anymore).
{snip}
Discussion:
The biggest difficulty I have is working out what I need to get the
result I want. The mail server for example: I wanted something that
worked like M$ exchange - recieve all the mail from the internet (my ISP
had my domain pointed to my static IP address) then be a pop server to
the local network. I looked at several Howtos that seemed like they
might be the right thing but none were exactly what I wanted and I'm
still too much of a newbie to work out from them how to do what I want.
So I don't know what packages I should be trying to get running, let
alone how to configure them.
Suggestion:
What would be most useful to me in terms of a meeting would be a Linux
solutions session. Someone comes up with a desired setup and several
people state how they would use linux in this situation. So I could
provide the list of available hardware, what I'd like to achieve with
it, my resources to set it up (whether I have a budget for more
hardware...) and end up with a few potential system designs. Existing
experts would get the opportunity to expound on their favourite
distributions etc, and get ideas from others on how to make things
work. The desired setups can be as simple or complicated as there are
people prepared to come to a meeting.
regards
Kerry.
--
Sincerely etc.
Christopher Sawtell
NB. This PC runs Linux. If you find a virus apparently from me,
it has forged the e-mail headers on someone else's machine.
Please do not notify me when this occurs. Thanks.
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
Lance Blackler wrote: Talking of fixits and stuff - I'd like an opinion on the following. I have been given a 486 (DX475) Digital HiNote laptop - no CDROM 20mb of RAM 1.3gb hard drive. I would like to load Linux of some flavour on it so that I can use it for word processing (Abiword) and checking webmail etc, while connected via my home network (56k modem on my main box). Question is - should I use an old distro with a 2.2 kernel and KDE1 or 2 or use more uptodate Debian (ie one of the cutdown Knoppix versions) and a lightwieght window manager - fluxbox or similar, what do people think? What I would do with that: Use a purely console setup without X, BUT using frame buffer for graphics with a limited range of apps: noteably web browsing with links2. mplayer and a few others.- there must be some pretty good console word processors ? I rember from DOS days it took a long time before any WYSIWYG wp was better than Word Perfect. You should be able to make a usefull system this way. maybe look a transfer of LNX-BBC(50MB live CD) to the harddrive... /chris
Re: Purpose of the CLUG
Lance Blackler wrote: Talking of fixits and stuff - I'd like an opinion on the following. I have been given a 486 (DX475) Digital HiNote laptop - no CDROM 20mb of RAM 1.3gb hard drive. I would like to load Linux of some flavour on it so that I can use it for word processing (Abiword) and checking webmail etc, while connected via my home network (56k modem on my main box). Question is - should I use an old distro with a 2.2 kernel and KDE1 or 2 or use more uptodate Debian (ie one of the cutdown Knoppix versions) and a lightwieght window manager - fluxbox or similar, what do people think? What I would do with that: Use a purely console setup without X, BUT using frame buffer for graphics with a limited range of apps: noteably web browsing with links2. mplayer and a few others.- there must be some pretty good console word processors ? I rember from DOS days it took a long time before any WYSIWYG wp was better than Word Perfect. You should be able to make a usefull system this way. maybe look a transfer of LNX-BBC(50MB live CD) to the harddrive... /chris
