Re: dselect first impressions
On Sat, Jun 08, 2002 at 04:24:04PM +0200, Aaron Isotton wrote: > > Here I list my first impressions of woody's dselect. If you think > > these are bugs, please file them in your name. I'm don't feel like > > submitting bug reports at this time. I suppose I should try some of > > the newer dselect alternatives. Anyway, > > [snip] > > Try aptitude instead of dselect; it doesn't have many of its > problems. It's IMHO much better, and it is the new "standard" package > managing tool. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ apt-cache show aptitude Package: aptitude Priority: optional Section: admin [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ apt-cache show dpkg Package: dpkg Essential: yes Priority: required Section: base dselect is "standard" by any reasonable definition of standard, regardless of what some people would like to think. Works fine, too. Specific problems with it should be directed to [EMAIL PROTECTED], non-specific fluff should be ignored. -- .''`. ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield : :' : http://www.debian.org/ | Dept. of Computing, `. `' | Imperial College, `- -><- | London, UK -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: exploring debian's users and groups
On Mon, Aug 06, 2001 at 11:11:18PM -0700, Daniel Jacobowitz wrote: > > irc: > > > > HELP: Why does an irc daemon need its own static user and group? > > Because no one wants to trust it? :) > > It doesn't. Of course, removnig them is tricky. This is a bug in ircd. It setuid()s itself to a given UID on startup, if started as root, but doesn't know how to look up a name to get that UID - the UID is actually set at compile time. It does not need a uid. The correct solution is to #undef IRC_UID in config.h, which will cause it to error and exit if started as root. It should then be started from an init.d script that runs it as a suitable user, which then need not be static. -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK pgpWtM03TC5um.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: hard disk - smart failure predicted??
On Mon, Jun 04, 2001 at 01:09:05AM +0300, vordoo wrote: > Hi, > > On boot up I got the message: > " Smart Failure Predicted on Primary Master: WDCAC33200C Self Monitoring Analysis And Reporting (SMART) The drive thinks it's dying. It's probably right. > WARNING backup & replace H.D" > what is wrong, do I run get a new H.D?? Good idea. -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK pgpPOOZ8MyK5c.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: csh [was: Using tar saving Disk-space]
On Wed, May 30, 2001 at 10:36:13AM +0200, Joerg Johannes wrote: > How would this look for the csh? I'm going to assume you're just plain unaware of this: csh programming Considered Harmful Somebody can probably provide a link to a copy of the essay. csh scripts are a majorly Bad Idea[tm]. It has been obsolete for years, and may it's fetid corpse never surface again. I suggest you try bash script or perl or something... -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK pgp31JtWvPyKX.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: I've been getting scanned...
On Sun, May 27, 2001 at 12:15:12AM -0400, Carl Fink wrote: > It's just a constant frustration for me that to use the (most > excellent) apt/dpkg system, I have to stay two years out of date. Why? Pull the debianised source from testing/unstable and build a deb from it against your system. Just be warned that any code more recent than that which is in potato might not be stable. > > There's no reason why it *shouldn't* install in potato (and slink, and...), > > except the maintainers. Actually, the release manager. Who is doing what he's supposed to do, ie: not allow any non-essential updates to stable. -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK pgpHXWlantrW6.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Re-installing everything.
On Thu, May 17, 2001 at 08:58:20PM +0100, Stephen J. Thompson wrote: > What is the best way of reinstalling all the packages on my system. I was > thinking along the lines of apt-get install --reinstall, but it does not seem > to work. The best way is to backup your config and home directories, grab a boot floppy, and redo it from scratch. Failing that, try piping the output of dpkg --get-selections through grep, possibly something like this: dpkg --get-selections | grep "\\S*\\s*deinstall" | cut -f 1 Then feed that list to apt-get --reinstall install. -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK pgpkmsUDzYy9p.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: I'm so lost
On Mon, May 14, 2001 at 12:04:14AM +0100, Gordon Hart wrote: > In case you don't know, the 'man' command tries to find a manual page > for whatever you throw at it.. as does 'info' I find info to be decidedly clumsy. apt-get install pinfo for a much nicer interface (or use the info browser in emacs ;) ) -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgpvR4A87dhHs.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: woody release date
On Sun, May 13, 2001 at 06:25:35PM -0400, Stuart Krivis wrote: > I've always wondered why Debian has such trouble with releases. The > RedHat clones put stuff out regularly. Yeah, I know, Debian actually > wants things to _work_. :-) But FreeBSD also does a better job at new > releases, and FreeBSD is high quality like Debian IMO. Debian put a stable update (2.2r3) out in the last couple of months. It's not that uncommon for this to happen more often than rh/friends... (I know, it's not a full update. The reasons are somewhat obvious, and discussed elsewhere in this thread) -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgpO1nxM281US.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: How the average guy gets mail...
On Wed, May 09, 2001 at 07:18:01AM -0600, Cameron Matheson wrote: > Hey, > > I've been using mail for the past month (or two), by running 'fetchmail ; > mutt'. > This is a *little* bit annoying, because I'd rather be able to get my mail > and read it with one command. Is their a way to download mail, while in > mutt? ! fetchmail Mutt has pop3 capabilities, but fetchmail is much more powerful, imho. If you're so bothered by typing all those letters, make an alias or write a script. -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgp0AUvFsdCLQ.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Creating an initrd
On Wed, May 09, 2001 at 07:18:02PM +1000, Herbert Xu wrote: > Joey Hess <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Well there is a package in unstable called mkcramfs that makes initrds > > for debian, and it is supported by kernel packages for unstable. > > Actually, mkcramfs just makes a cramfs image. It's initrd-tools that > contains mkinitrd which makes initrd images. mkinitrd makes a specific kind of initrd, which is pointless in most cases unless you are trying to design a generic system (say for a boot floppy or something) which can handle lots of different types of hardware. Mostly, it's better to include the offending drivers in the kernel itself. A more sensible use of an initrd is to preconfigure things that are needed to load the root filesystem, like the lvm... -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgpRtp5rHDZcw.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: two apt sources
On Mon, May 07, 2001 at 03:12:16PM -0300, Marcelo Chiapparini wrote: > It is possible to have two sources in /etc/apt/sources.list? Yes, most people have several lines. apt will pull packages from everywhere in sources.list to get the latest versions it can find. -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgpqbVba8MQYt.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Filtering mail w/ procmail
On Mon, May 07, 2001 at 06:55:52AM -0600, Cameron Matheson wrote: > > #debian-user mailing list > :0: > * ^X-Mailing-List: > Mail/debian-user > > #agenda-user mailing list > :0: > * ^X-Mailing-List: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Mail/agenda-user > > #sdl programming list > :0: > * ^X-Mailing-List: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Mail/sdl > At a rough guess, the second two lists don't add "X-Mailing-List: <...>" to the mail headers. Open a mail from one of them in your mail client and look for a suitable header added by the list. (*not* To:, it's unreliable). -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgpoGdXIHnQQC.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: downgrading
On Fri, May 04, 2001 at 06:40:58PM -0400, Michael P. Soulier wrote: > Hey people. This must come up all the time, so I apologize. If I've found > that upgrading was a bad idea, is there any way to downgrade the system again? Frankly, no. > I'm considering simply reinstalling, but that's a bit of a pain. Yeah. Oh well... -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgp4iYw3uf1kB.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: removal catch-22
On Thu, May 03, 2001 at 02:55:56PM +0200, Hans wrote: > > > >dpkg --force-reinstreq --purge irda-common > > > >See dpkg(8) and dpkg --force-help for details. Be warned that this has the > >potentiol to break your system. Realistically, it's probably ok for this > >package, especially since you've never actually installed it properly. > > > > I think you meant dpkg --force-remove-reinstreq --purge irda-common, but > that returned.. Whoops. Brain fart. > > Removing irda-common ... > Stopping IrDA Manager: dpkg: error processing irda-common (--purge): > subprocess post-removal script returned error exit status 1 > Stopping irmanager... > Stopping IrDA Manager: dpkg: error while cleaning up: > subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1 > Errors were encountered while processing: > irda-common The post-removal script will be /var/lib/dpkg/info/irda-common.postrm Edit to taste, removing anything that it looks like you can do without (or take a risk and stick exit 0 at the top). Then try again. (Need I remind you to back the file up first, just in case?) -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgp18BLSWS5oY.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: removal catch-22
On Thu, May 03, 2001 at 12:18:40PM +0200, Hans wrote: > I'm running Potato 2.2r1 on a P200 desktop. For some reason (honestly, I > didn't do it consciously) irda-common-0.9.5-2 was installed, but never > wanted to get configured (and I don't even have ir hardware installed). It > also wouldn't let itself be removed, claiming that it needed to get > re-installed before being able to be removed. Re-install didn't help, so I > build a newer deb-version from testing sources. That didn't help either. > Installed the older version again, but now things have gone really bad: > dselect shows this package as RC**, it says it's in a very bad inconsistent > state and should be re-installed before being removed. > > To make things worse than that, other packages can't be installed now > either, because the configuration error of irda-common blocks their > configuration. How to get out of this? Thanks for the help. --Hans dpkg --force-reinstreq --purge irda-common See dpkg(8) and dpkg --force-help for details. Be warned that this has the potentiol to break your system. Realistically, it's probably ok for this package, especially since you've never actually installed it properly. -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgp0zZ47qYmwa.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Downloading of Debian
On Mon, Apr 30, 2001 at 05:27:00PM +0800, Quek Choon Huat wrote: > Hi, > > I am very new to Linux. Is there anyone who can tell me which exactly to > download for installation. > > Thnks and Rgds Look at http://www.debian.org/releases/potato/ , in particular the Installation Manuals -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgp5xyeev30RN.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Send You A Message
On Sun, Apr 29, 2001 at 03:11:42PM -0600, John Galt wrote: > > 1) they're not ... Yes they are, read the list rules. Flat fee of $1000 is charged per message, posting a message signifies acceptance of this. :) -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgpZyve02QQjz.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: diald trouble
On Sun, Apr 29, 2001 at 10:17:54PM +0200, Andreas Tscharner wrote: > Hello World, > > I have problems setting up a working diald. It is started up at boot time > and when a request is coming, diald starts the (standard [of course the > phone number is changed) connect script. But the connection is up only a > few seconds and then goes down again. In /var/log/messages, I can see: > Check the configuration in /etc/diald/connect (you did edit that, like the docs tell you to, right?). There's a VERBOSE or DEBUG option or something near the top, uncomment it, try again, and look at that log. -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgphStCTYjdsF.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Partitioning prior to dual boot installation of Debian and Windows ME
On Sun, Apr 29, 2001 at 08:13:31AM -0700, Abner Gershon wrote: > ... Also in Karsten Self's > mini-FAQ on partitioning he refers to creating 3 > primary and 1 logical partitions. Using fdisk I was > only able to create one primary and one extended > partition per hard drive. Am I doing something wrong? Probably using the fdisk in dos/windoze. That's not inherantly wrong, you just have to realise it's limitations, and the fact that an extended partition is not the same as a logical one. You can have up to 4 primary partitions on a hard drive (although dos fdisk can only handle one), one of which may be an extended partition. In this extended partition you may create loads of logical partitions (I think there's a limit of 256 or something equally high...). Either go back and look through fdisk carefully, or wait until you are installing debian, and use cfdisk (part of the install process) to finish partitioning. -- Andrew Suffield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> pgpRdHeoKzB8S.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Transferring Debian
On Mon, Mar 19, 2001 at 09:36:42AM -, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > I've set up and tailored a terrific potato 2.2r2 + KDE2 on my laptop and now > I'd like to replicate this same installation on my desktop via NFS. > My question is: How can I copy a Debian installation from one partition of my > laptop to another of my desktop? > (I had a go at with "cp -R -d --target-directory=/mydir files", modified > fstab, but, even if it works, from time to time UID problems emerge) > Vittorio > You're looking for cp -a /path/to/source/files/* /path/to/target/, but as has been noted, that's not recommended on different hardware, especially something as different as laptop -> desktop. Install debian again on the desktop, but selectively copy the configuration files for user-end programs and packages such as KDE2. User-level configuration is done entirely in your home directory (/home/username), and I suggest copying that (using cp -a), but redoing most of the system-level config. It's good practice anyway; a desktop box is unlikely to stay constant in it's configuration. -- -BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK- Version: 3.12 GCS d- s:-- a--- C UL+++ P+> L>$ E++> W++ N++ o? K- w--- O(++) M-(--) V-- PS+ PE Y+ PGP+ t-- 5++ X R*(+) tvi(+) b+++(++) DI+() D+(++) G++ e>+++ h+ !r !z+ --END GEEK CODE BLOCK--
Re: D-Link DFE-530TX+ via-rhine.o module
On Mon, Mar 19, 2001 at 12:15:29AM -0800, David Carlile wrote: > Hi, > > I am extremely new to Linux and I hope I am not wasting bandwidth here, but > here goes. > > I have a D-Link DFE-530TX+ nic card that wasn't in the list when I > installed. A source file was included on the floppy that came with the card > for Red Hat and I attempted to compile it, but it puked on me with a number > of error messages... I think it was expecting my kernel source to be in a > certain place and it wasn't. Anyway, I did a little looking on the web and > found several suggestions to use via-rhine.o. What I am wondering is whether > there is already a .deb package I can run on my cd, or if I have to compile > it myself and install it. Any help in this matter will be greatly > appreciated. > It's a realtek rtl8193, not a Via Rhine. The + on the end of the name is significant - the DFE-530TX is a Via Rhine I or II, the DFE-530TX+ is a Realtek 8193. The modules are in the kernel-image packages. If you haven't built your own kernel you already have it. Run "modconf". > --- > Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > Version: 6.0.230 / Virus Database: 111 - Release Date: 1/25/2001 -- -BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK- Version: 3.12 GCS d- s:-- a--- C UL+++ P+> L>$ E++> W++ N++ o? K- w--- O(++) M-(--) V-- PS+ PE Y+ PGP+ t-- 5++ X R*(+) tvi(+) b+++(++) DI+() D+(++) G++ e>+++ h+ !r !z+ --END GEEK CODE BLOCK--
Re: Testing upgrade and consequences
On Wed, Mar 14, 2001 at 05:40:29PM +, Martin WHEELER wrote: > > > He upgraded > > from a Potato 2.2r2 system to current "testing" and most things broke in > > serious > > ways, such that he swears he will never again move from stable releases. > > And *how*. > > NEVER again. (Certainly not for client-critical systems.) > I don't need to comment on that. Other people already have. > On attempting upgrade to testing, first thing I was presented with was a > decision to >>remove<< 402 Mb of system files (452 packages). > Yup, testing is somewhat messed at present (that's not intentional, needless to say). You should probably have guessed that something was very wrong... you realise that the developers aren't actually out to break your system? > This I declined; and proceeded to (re-)install packages individually > from an apt-get --just-print dist-upgrade list. > See "put package on hold" > Things started to break/dependency-loop almost immediately. > (The persistent offenders I remember most at this stage are exmh and > kdeadmin.) The dependency circus engendered was horrendous. > Yeah, that happens sometime. It's a beta-quality distribution. > Everything that was not "Debian-approved" got blown away. > (I run lots of non-free stuff on my Debian systems. I have no > ideological problems with this.) > Uhhh no. Read the social contract. Debian carries non-free and contrib, there's no attempt to force you into using free packages, only repeated encouragement (see vrms). What happened was that everything which was fulfilling one of these two categories got removed: a) package was dependant on something which was removed due to the testing mess, see above. b) package was =version dependant on something in potato (bad packaging/bug), so you would need to either find an official debian version, or one built for woody (testing) - you can't usually run packages from one release on another safely unless you know exactly what you are doing (recompiling from source into a new .deb will do the trick) > I was no longer able to go online. (diald had been installed -- without > asking -- on top of pppd.) > Oops. That one is probably a bug. > > Mailman configuration broke > -- due to fact that ALL apache confiiguration files/directories were > simply annihilated. Again -- no warning; no explanation. > Never used it myself... possibly another bug (hey, it's not called "stable" for a reason) > > Pine broke > -- discovered that something had reconfigured my smtp server (wasn't > asked; wasn't warned -- just another example of the "Debian-disapproved > -- therefore OK to blow away" syndrome experienced throughout this > whole attempt to upgrade.) > Far more likely is "not supported in debian due to licensing issues". Debian is not permitted to redistribute (modified) pine binaries. This kind of means that developers are disinclined to explicitly test it... although in this case, I'm guessing it wasn't pine related. Did you reconfigure the smtp server manually somehow? I'm guessing that you modified a configuration file directly when you should have used debconf/a source file (see /etc/modules.conf vs. /etc/modutils - suggestions on what could have caused this anyone?) and debian assumed that the changes to the config file were not of your doing, so put it back how you had told it (or not told it) you wanted it. > > Mutt works, but is not his preferred option. > Yeah -- but it's "Debian-approved", innit? > Will you quit with that? Read the social contract already. > > Exim configuration didn't, such that he reverted to smail. > -- conflicted with mailman -- not flagged. > > > He won't believe me > > when I say that Exim works fine. > > [Not for me it bloody well doesn't. Not after *this* upgrade.] > Factoid from apt, a bot on #debian: Look buddy, doesn't work is a strong statement. Does it sit on the couch all day? Does it want more money? Is it on IRC all the time? Please be specific! > > Most seriously of all - "Apache in Debian is seriously broken" > > > > There may be a dependency loop on apache-perl which is inappropriate. > > This is the real crux of the matter. > I CANNOT recommend this type of upgrade to any of my clients. > My existing apache configuration was totally wiped out. > Conflicting and inconsistent dependencies between apache and apache-perl > prevented re-installation. > (I eventually managed it by forcing something -- can't remember what, > now. I ended up with apache-ssl; and a version of apache-perl that > still can't be purged.) > This would be instant death to any of the clients I deal with -- I am > not surprised that some of them ban debian entirely. > dselect is arcane... dependency loops can be broken... or you can use dpkg --set-selections... apache-perl has been known to have problems, but you most certainly can force uninstall it... I am not suprised you have troubles with testing - it's not for those who don't u
Re: Installing kernel sources on alternative partition problem
On 8 Nov 2000, Hubert Chan wrote: >Kieren Diment <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> Hi there, >> >> I have a slightly obscure problem recompiling my potato >> kernel-source-2.2.17 on a P100 laptop. >> >> I have a disk space problem and therefore tried to unpack the kernel >> sources on my other partition, which is a now redundant vfat partition >> that had win 95 on it. >> >> When I extract the tarball, I get the following error message: >> >> tar: kernel-source-2.2.17/include/asm: Cannot create symlink to asm-i386': >> Operation not permitted >> tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors > >Hmm. Does vfat even support symlinks? That may be the problem. If you don't No it does not. AFAIK, the Linux kernel needs a UNIX file system to compile.
Re: cannot find the Kernelimage aft compiling
On Wed, 8 Nov 2000, robert_wilhelm_land wrote: >"make bzImage" helped to create arch/i386/boot/bzImage as you stated. >I used before make zImage which in fact had put the file in >arch/i386/boot/compressed/. So the size of about 0.6MB is valid. I was >just wondering because the 2.0.38 kernel I recently compiled was not >much smaller (~0.5MB), but contained raid features. > >Here's what I did: > >make dep >make clean >make bzImage >make modules >make modules_install > >which differs from what you suggested by not using "make oldconfig". >Why should I have done this since I didn't alter anything and all >settings are in ../.config from the previous "make xconfig"? > You don't >Anyhow I copied system.map and bzImage as "vmlinuz" into /boot and >changed the old system.map and kernel into bak files. Then edited >lilo.conf and executed lilo. > >Something must have gone wrong because the system now complains about >"unresoloved symboles" after the phrase " calculating module >dependancies". > This often happens - did you rm all the old modules first? I know this is a little risky, so you probably should take the system down to single-user first, but this usually works: rm /lib/modules/`uname -r` -rf make modules_install If you are being save, then use mv /lib/modules/`uname -r` /lib/modules/`uname -r`.bak make modules_install The unresolved symbols are in all the modules for which the kernel no longer contains support. The error messages are given by the command "depmod -a", which Debian automagically runs at boot, JIC. You don't actually need them, and they cannot be loaded. They will not prevent the viable modules from loading correctly, so you could just ignore the error messages. >Unfortunatly these unresolved errors are not stored into any /var/log >file so I cannot attach them to this mail. What do I have to change to >get these reports into a file? Is the syslogd responseble for this? >The only thing I can provide is part of /var/log/messages and the ls >-l listing in the attached file named "files_in_boot". > >To make the day perfect, lilo refuses to accept any key (the old >kernel is supposed to be booted with alias 2) and boots by default the >new kernel remarking alias 1 >Lilo.conf is aswell attached to this mail. > The lilo.conf file attached contained the line boot=/dev/hda2 For this to work, a first stage boot loader is required, as lilo is not installed into the MBR - is this what you intended? And what do you have in your MBR? Could it feasibly be replaced with lilo/chos/grub? What exactly are you doing? You do not have a prompt line in your lilo.conf, so you will have to be holding down shift when the word LILO appears on the screen at boot, to get the prompt to appear. When the prompt comes up, hit TAB. What do you see? >This really beates me down. > > > >Robert
Re: Soundblaster PCI 128
>> The last days I've read some messages that I should use the es1370 or >> es1371 >> driver for that card. lsmod identified my card as es1371 so I've loaded lsmod shows you what drivers you have got loaded - it doesn't identify hardware. I have succesfully used es1371 with an SB PCI 128. >> this >> driver as module. But although my card seems to be found by the kernel, >> there is nothing in /dev/sndstat. >> Did i forget something to do? >> >> I also have no idea, which drivers are needed too, to get my soundcard >> working (sound, soundcore, soundlow, ...) >> ... >> >> cat /dev/sndstat: >> >> OSS/Free:3.8s2++-971130 ... es1371 is not an OSS module, and definitaly does not support /dev/sndstat - not sure what /dev/sndstat actually does, but it looks like a part of OSS, so it won't show a non-OSS driver.
