Re: SATA Installing Problem
silvain van Weers wrote: > Hi everyone, > > First I want to apologize for my tiny knowledge of the debian system at all. No need to apologize; no one is born knowing everything. [snip] > The Debian installer was unable to recognize the harddrive, even > attempting to pas "linux26" as parameter didn't result in detection. Did you try to install the 2.4 kernel? Although some claim otherwise, the 2.6 kernel installation is impossible (it was last time I tried, a couple of months ago, and things seem to not have changed). Fact is that 2.6 kernels detect SATA drives as SCSI, and therefore name them /dev/sdaX. Problem is the installer creates a /etc/fstab with /dev/hdaX entries for SATAs, hence the filesystem cannot be mounted after reboot :^( I'd recommend installing a 2.4 kernel, then switching to 2.6, and making due changes, specifically /etc/fstab, /etc/grub/menu.lst and also what modules are inserted at boot time (search this list for "Basajaun" and "SATA" for some posts on the subject). [snip] > If this is not the place to post my question I humbly apologize. If this were not the place to post such questions, WE should apologize. > Many thanx in advance, [snip] You're welcome! Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Alternative to Microcal Origin?
Bruno Buys wrote: > Is there any free software alternative to Origin, the chart plotting > software, with deb packages? I´m looking for suggestions, and trying to > figure which one people seem to like more. > Thanks! I would suggest GNUPlot and, specially, Xmgrace. Basajaun
Re: Basic questions
Rafi Gabzu wrote: > Hi , Hi, Rafi, welcome aboard! > I just installed Debian "testing" , I'm new in Linux. Few questions: > 1. How do I configure my audio card , it doesn't recognize it ? Install the package "alsa-utils" and run "alsaconf" as root. You should be presented a quite straightforward menu, following which you'll get what you want, I think. > 2. How do I add additional keyboard layout (Hebrew) and fonts? There are, I think, two places where you define your keyboard: a) The X settings file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf if you're using X.org, /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 if you are using XFree86. To find out which X server you are using (the X server is the program ultimately responsible of displaying the graphics), type " dpkg -l 'xserver-*' | grep ii" (w/o double quotes). You should see either "xserver-xfree86" or "xserver-xorg" listed, plus "xserver-common". b) The configuration of the Window Manager (WM) or Desktop Environment (DE). KDE and GNOME are DEs, and the WMs are the bare core of the DEs, striped of some fancy but sometimes unneeded features DEs have. I personally prefer KDE over GNOME, but that's just me (I actually use XFce, which is a different one). I advice you of using either KDE or GNOME, which are more newbie-friendly. You will have time later to switch to one of the many other WMs or DEs you might find better for you (or not). In KDE there is one nice thingie called "Control Center", which I wholeheartedly recommend you to fiddle with. There are tons of things you can customize to your liking, including the keyboard layout. > 3. How do I know if I'm working in KDE /GNOME , how do I switch between them? If you have a panel with icons, a system-tray, maybe a clock, etc. at the bottom (not unlike Windows), with an icon resembling a big "K" at the leftmost part, chances are you are running KDE. If not, then not. When you boot your comp, are you presented with a window asking for a username and a password, over a fancy-looking background, or a white "Machinename login: " message over a black background greets you? In the first case, you are using a display manager (xdm, gdm, or kdm). That login window must have somewhere a dropdown menu where you can choose between different DEs. In the second case, you will have to invoke the DE with "startx". That program reads a file called ".xinitrc", if present in your home directory. Type "man startx" and read the output. It might be a bit confusing in the beginning, but you might find it helpfull in the long run. In any case, if you use "startx", you'd better start creating a .xinitrc file in your home dir, and adding there a line reading "exec /usr/bin/startkde" (someone please correct me if the invokation is wrong). This will open KDE when you type "startx". > 4. Is there a guide/book that can help new users like myself ? I've never used (hardcopy) books myself, but I've found some resources to be very valuable: 1) Friends/colleages. 2) the internet: googling and reading mailing lists like this one. 3) the commands "man" and "apropos". To be honest, I've hardly ever used the latter (do a "man apropos" to know more) . man, followed by the name of a command, outputs the manual page for that command. Almost all of the programs shipped with Debian (with Linux in general) come with a man manual page. > I have many more questions ... And I hope we have many more answers... Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Upgrading to linux-2.6.14.2
Jeff Lucas wrote: > I've been trying to install an update from linux-2.4.27-2-k7 to > linux-2.6.14.2. But when I install the kernel package that I built and > reboot to linux-2.6.14.2 it brings up a kernel panic. When I created the > menu config file I made sure that all filesystems where to be installed in > the package and not as modules. I also built the IDE chipset and SCSI into > the package. Nothing has worked so far. I am a BRAND NEW user to linux and > I'm using debian GNU/Linux 3.1. I need detailed info if possible. > > Thanx > > Jeff Compiling the kernel oneself is not for the light-hearted :^) In theory, it is easy if you follow the instructions. In practice, is looking for trouble, unless you know what you are doing. I don't want to disencourage learning and getting experience, but I suggest that you use a prepackaged kernel image, instead. Once you get a Debian-packaged standard 2.6 kernel working, you can fiddle to your heart's content with a kernel.org source, and try to compile it. That way, you 1) already have a 2.6 kernel running (your #1 objective, I guess) , and 2) know that if your compiled kernel doesn't boot, it is because of some configuration mistake you made, and not some other weird thing that prevents such a kernel version from booting in your specific machine. , and 3) take advantage of the APT packaging system that is an important part of the reasons one uses Debian in first place. HTH, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Solaris: The Most Advanced OS?
Tshepang Lekhonkhobe wrote: > On 11/4/05, Ron Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Fri, 2005-11-04 at 11:19 +0200, Tshepang Lekhonkhobe wrote: > > > Hello, > > > Did you check the sun.com website which claims that Solaris 10 is the > > > most advanced OS on the planet? Could anyone tell me what grounds is > > > the claim based upon. I was surprised to see that claim and has anyone > > > > Surprised? That someone claims that their product is the greatest? > > > > That's very naive. > > > > > out there used it to testify on its truthfullness? > > > > Why ask us? Have you Googled? > > Sorry... I just wanted to get some somments. "Sorry"? I hope you are being sarcastic. If anyone, Ron should be sorry for his bitter reply, not you for your question. I guess that Sun does the usual thing, claiming that their product is The Best(TM). I am hopelessly ignorant, as Ron seems to be, of what the basis for that claim is, or if there's any at all. I hope anyone in the list is more enlightened than me, and can make, for example, a brief comparison of Debian Etch and Solaris 10. _That_ would be way more usefull than just calling you "naïve". Basajaun
Re: Sound, xmms and Xfce
Keith Bates wrote: > I've just started trying out Xfce and immediately discovered that I > can't run xmms. I get the error message "Couldn't open audio- Please > check that your sound card is configured correctly" You can run xmms, but what you can't do is play(hear) anything, right? Maybe do "ctrl-p" (preferences) in xmms, and change the "Output plugin" in the "Autio I/O plugins" tab to ALSA, or to something else, till it works... [snip] >-- > God bless you, > > Keith Bates [snip] > If you don't have a reason to live > > JESUS IS THE ANSWER! Everyone knows the answer is 42. The problem is the question :^) > Ask him into your life today... > He really does make a difference. Jesus can't fix your xmms problem, but somehow He can give meaning to my life? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: help: Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
Li Weichen wrote: > Hi everyone: > > I have met a problem when boot my PC with my manual built kernel 2.6.12. > The error messages are, > > modprobe: FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.13/modules.dep: No such > file or diretory > > mount: mount point dev does not exist > pivot_root: No such file or directory > /sbin/init: 432: cannot open dev/console: No such file > Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init! > > The same error is shown when kernel 2.6.13 is used. What should I do? My > current system is debian-amd64 sarge 3.1. > > Thank you for your suggestions and best regards! > > Li Weichen Is your HD SATA? The problem might be that in /boot/grub/menu.lst (or lilo file) you have a line like: kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12 root=/dev/hda1 The kernel installed manages grub automatically, and adds lines with "hda" for SATA devices, when it should actually read "sda" for 2.6 kernels. With 2.6 kernels SATA devices are labeled /dev/sdX. HTH, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing to SATA drives (was Re: SATA DVD not recognized)
Bruno Buys wrote: > Basajaun wrote: [snip] > >Yes, the 2.4 does fine. Since SATA is seen as IDE by 2.4, the ide-* > >modules are loaded, then the IDE devices are seen. The problem under > >2.6 is to have some SCSI modules loaded _first_, so they get hold of > >the ide[01] channels, and actual IDE devices are not seen. [snip] > How exactly did you fix it? Could you provide details, please? Yeah, sure. You can follow the discussion at the thread named "2.6.12 and 2.6.13 won't access cdrom" in this list (hey! I just found out that you contributed responding to the OP!), and also my "instructions" at my web page: http://makeashorterlink.com/?O532317FB HTH, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[SOLVED]: Slow response of X
Basajaun wrote: > Joseph H. Fry wrote: > > On Wed, 2005-10-19 at 09:12 -0700, Basajaun wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > > > I have a weird problem with the response time inside X. I am running > > > Debian Etch, kernel 2.6.12-1-686-smp on a P4 3.4GHz HT with a SATA > > > drive and 1GB RAM. Whenever I start X (XFCE 4.2.2), I experience the > > > following problems: > > [snip] > > Second, are you sure there isn't a problem in hardware/bios that is > > causing this... > > No, I am not. It might well be the case. Eureka! Hooray! and all that! Yes, the problem was an incorrect BIOS setting. I don't know why the other PC we bought has a different BIOS setting (we bought two identical ones), but mine had a "Frame Buffer Size" of only 8MB. It made the boot time go up to 8m, whereas increasing it to 32MB (the maximum), sets the boot time in 1m10s. I have tried enabling/disabling the "PnP OS", the "Serial Port A", "Parallel Port" and "ISA Enable Bit", plus changing the "ATA/IDE Config" from Legacy to Enhanced, and the "IGP Aperture" (shouldn't it be _A_GP?) from 256MB to 128MB... but nothing would affect the booting time, except the FBS setting. With FBS=32MB, not only it boots in 1m10s, but Firefox starts in 5s (before: 15s) and KMail in 6s (before: 32s). The responsiveness is perfect, the icons get focused immediately when the mouse hovers over them, and the menus are displayed whithin miliseconds (ejem, my perception is veeery acute, :^). For me, it's end of story, except that I'm going to reboot the other comp when I get hold of it (and the owner is not around, hehehe), and see its BIOS settings... Thanks everybody, and specially Joseph! Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Installing to SATA drives (was Re: SATA DVD not recognized)
Michael Gregg wrote: > > >>1) Debian can not be installed on a SATA HD from scratch with a 2.6 > > >>kernel. Rather, one has to install with kernel 2.4, _then_ upgrade the > > >>kernel. This is so because, under 2.6, SATA is seen as SCSI, and > > >>somehow this makes the install program not see the IDE CD drive it is > > >>being installed from. > > >> > > >> > > > > > >Sure it can. I just did it a couple of weeks ago. > > > > > >Note that I did it using the latest Etch daily netinst ISO build, > > >not Sarge. Well, I don't know about a couple of weeks ago... a month ago I used the latest Etch CD1 and CD2 images (I had also downloaded CD3, but it was never asked for), and for the life of me I couldn't do a 2.6 install (neither normal nor expert), because the CD wouldn't be recognized. A 2.4 install was flawless. > > Yesterday I installed debian sarge with a netinst cd (from a ide dvdrom) > > on a sata disk (using the expert26 option, if it matters). The sata disk > > was recognized with no additional effort. Yes, the SATA HD is fine with both 2.4 and 2.6. My problem was finding the _IDE_ CD drive _if_ a 2.6 kernel was used. > I second that. I installed today onto a SATA disk. > > The issue you may have is installing through some unsupported > controller. I bow to the evidence that the issue seems to have been taken care of since I tried my install. Either that or I was too stupid to follow the simple steps required. > The 2.4 install kernel does support some sata devices. > > Sorry to hear about the problems Yes, the 2.4 does fine. Since SATA is seen as IDE by 2.4, the ide-* modules are loaded, then the IDE devices are seen. The problem under 2.6 is to have some SCSI modules loaded _first_, so they get hold of the ide[01] channels, and actual IDE devices are not seen. Of course, I might be that my HW has some special feature that makes it troublesome... whichever the case might be, I already fixed it, thanks! Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Slow response of X
Joseph H. Fry wrote: > On Wed, 2005-10-19 at 09:12 -0700, Basajaun wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > I have a weird problem with the response time inside X. I am running > > Debian Etch, kernel 2.6.12-1-686-smp on a P4 3.4GHz HT with a SATA > > drive and 1GB RAM. Whenever I start X (XFCE 4.2.2), I experience the > > following problems: [snip] > I doubt it's HD related... your numbers from hdparm (not quoted) were > resonable. I think your issue is a little deeper, probably in memory or > interrupts. > > First of all, have you tried with the prebuilt debian kernel... perhaps > you set an option in your custom kernel thats flaky? Yes, of course. All these problems happen with both 2.6.12-1-686 and 2.6.12-1-686-smp, as well as with any 2.6.13.4 I have compiled myself. I am getting the impression that it's not the kernel's fault (my custom kernel can be, and probably is, flaky, but I have some hopes on the Debian ones :^). > Second, are you sure there isn't a problem in hardware/bios that is > causing this... No, I am not. It might well be the case. > has this machine worked as expected in the past? If you > haven't tested it, try using a knoppix cd or some such to see if it's > just your Debian install. This is a brand new PC, bought for the research group I work in, together with an identical one, upon which Slackware was installed by a workmate. Not only I get little help from that fellow, but I even have to bear him mocking at me because Slackware rocks and Debian sucks (needless to add, that other computer works fine). I have Ubuntu in a second root partition (I always make two partitions to use as / by two different OSs), and I might give it a try. I have to add that I have Debian Etch installed at home (on an AMD 2800+), and works like a charm, so I don't think I messed something basic up at work... but it could be so. > I would probably update your system bios and tinker with some of the > settings (especially the "PNP OS" stuff) as sometimes a small change can > make a huge difference. I will see to it. However, as I say above, the other new PC works fine, and presumably has the very same BIOS configuration. We did not change anything except installing the OS. > Finally you don't say what additional hardware is in your machine. > Perhaps removing any cards or other attached hardware one peice at a > time will reveal the cause of the problem. If you can, try running the > system on different ram, or remove one stick at a time (if you have more > than one). > > Joe It has NO additional HW. The video is in-MB, as is the sound and NIC. It has no PCI cards or anything else, except a LG CD-RW. Regarding the RAM, between joke and joke, my Slackware fellow told me (when asked about that possibility) that usually RAM errors produce far more radical problems. I also ran memtest86, or whatever that memory testing utility that is automatically added to the grub menu upon instalation is called. I only had it running for some minutes. I think errors usually appear quite fast, but I could be wrong and the RAM is flaky, and I have to run memtest86 for 3 hours and have it almost finish all the tests before it fails... who knows? Thanks, Joe, I'll try the BIOS for now (and the alternative OS). Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: partitioning and formatting external usb hd
Robert Epprecht wrote: > Excuse this probably very stupid question, > but before I shoot myself in my feets I'd rather ask... There are no stupid questions. Only stupid answers :^) > I've got my first external usb hd and can mount it without problems as > /dev/sda1 on my Debian/Sarge machine (kernel 2.4.27-2-386). It's formatted > as vfat and I want to keep a small vfat partition but for the main part > putting ext3 or something on it. > > As this is my first experience with this type of hardware I want to double > check on the list if I can do that using 'fdisk /dev/sda' and then 'mkfs.ext3' > just as on oldstile ide disks? I think so. IIRC, that's exactly what I did on mine. BTW, I have the idea that cfdisk is "better" than fdisk, although I am so accustomed to fdisk that I always use it. Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: SATA DVD not recognized
marc wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I´m trying to get a Plextor 712-SA DVD drive working on an Asus A8N-SLI > > with kernel 2.6.13. I can load the libata and sata_nv modules, and there > > are messages about adding and removing SATA devices. Also, it says the > > SATA device on the first SATA port, which is the DVD drive, is being > > configured for UDMA33. > > > > I have only the first two SATA ports enabled in the BIOS, and they show > > up as scsi2 and scsi3. The system is SCSI only except for the DVD drive. > > > > I cannot access the DVD drive because there´s no device for it. It also > > doesn´t show up in /proc/scsi/scsi. [snip] > SATA works pretty well here. A one line fix, that I've been using on a > laptop, involves activating ATAPI in include/linux/libata.h. I'm using > this on 2.6.13-3, and also used it on 2.12 kernels. > > #undef ATA_ENABLE_ATAPI /* define to enable ATAPI support */ > to > #define ATA_ENABLE_ATAPI /* define to enable ATAPI support */ [snip] Somehow I fail to see how changing the source file of a module one has to subsequently recompile can qualify as "works pretty well". Damn, we are not in the dark ages were Linux users were suposed (required) to be computer geeks. I am lately having some bad experiences with Debian, which, although made me learn a lot, where a pain, and I keep seing people have similar problems, mainly with SATA, SCSI emulation, 2.4 vs 2.6 kernels and the system being able or not to see the HD or CD-ROM: 1) Debian can not be installed on a SATA HD from scratch with a 2.6 kernel. Rather, one has to install with kernel 2.4, _then_ upgrade the kernel. This is so because, under 2.6, SATA is seen as SCSI, and somehow this makes the install program not see the IDE CD drive it is being installed from. 2) Booting on 2.4 gives SATA drives /dev/hdaX names. Booting on 2.6 gives /dev/sdaX names. Result: /etc/fstab hell. I think that fiddling with grub/menu.lst can fix it, but this shouldn't be necessary. 3) Unless some modules (ide-core, etc.) are inserted in the kernel or included in the initrd.img, when booting on a SATA drive, the IDE devices will go unnoticed, because the ata_piix module hijacks the ide0 and ide1. All this can be "easily" fixed... but gr, it shouldn't be required! I want Debian to boot and install flawlessly on both IDE and SATA, with eider kernel 2.4 or 2.6. I want to have my CD accesible with any kernel/HD type, just by default, w/o fiddling with anything... I guess the Debian community has accomplished much more difficult tasks, haven't it? And problems with SATA drives, which are the de facto new standard (the market is driven by the manufacturers, not the customers as we are fooled into believing) are far from minute... IMHO. Aggg, sorry for the rant. Basajaun
Re: Slow response of X
Olle Eriksson wrote: > On Wednesday 19 October 2005 18.12, Basajaun wrote: > > Somewhere else a guy with similar problems got a response asking if DMA > > was enabled, but my "dmesg | grep -i dma" shows: > > > > DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1 > > ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1F0 ctl 0x3F6 bmdma 0xFFA0 irq 14 > > ata1: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 398297088 sectors: lba48 > > ata1: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133 > > > > is it fine? > > Use the tool hdparm to find out if DMA is enabled. I am not sure how to > interpret the information from dmesg, but this has always worked for me. > > olle:~/movies$ sudo hdparm /dev/hda > > /dev/hda: > multcount= 0 (off) > IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit) > unmaskirq= 0 (off) > using_dma= 1 (on) > keepsettings = 0 (off) > readonly = 0 (off) > readahead= 256 (on) > geometry = 65535/16/63, sectors = 80418240, start = 0 > > Kind regards > > -- > Olle Eriksson > [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.olle-eriksson.com hdparm is bogus for SATA disks, or so I read. For me: root: hpdarm /dev/sda /dev/sda: IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit) readonly = 0 (off) readahead= 256 (on) geometry = 24792/255/63, sectors = 398297088, start = 0 root: hdparm -tT /dev/sda /dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 3720 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1860.28 MB/sec HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device Timing buffered disk reads: 176 MB in 3.02 seconds = 58.23 MB/sec HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device root: hdparm -d1 /dev/sda /dev/sda: setting using_dma to 1 (on) HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device My problem should not be disk I/O, should it? Is 58MB/s too low a buffered disk reading speed? Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Slow response of X
Hi all, I have a weird problem with the response time inside X. I am running Debian Etch, kernel 2.6.12-1-686-smp on a P4 3.4GHz HT with a SATA drive and 1GB RAM. Whenever I start X (XFCE 4.2.2), I experience the following problems: a) When autocompleting a command with TAB in a terminal (mrxvt), it "freezes" for maybe 3 seconds or more, then proceeds. After the first time I do it, I have "fast" autocompletions (for other commands too), at least for a while. I would swear that this problem is not in the console. b) When moving the cursor over the icons in the panel, I sometimes get delays in their focus (and trigger responsiveness). Maybe 90% of the time the focus is immediate, but a 10% of the times it is not, with delays of even 10-20 seconds!! c) Some (all?) the apps take a long time to launch. Maybe they always did (with my previous computers/kernels), but I'd swear that 30 seconds to open KMail, or over 15 to start Firefox is not quite correct. d) Right-clicking on the background produces an XFCE menu (as it should be), but also with a delay, sometimes null, sometimes of 3-6 seconds. Somehow (don't ask me how) I thought that I could fix the problem compiling a custom kernel (2.6.13.4 from kernel.org), because there are three options that sound interesting: 1) Preemption Model: "No Forced Preemtion (Server)", "Voluntary Kernel Preemption (Desktop)" and "Preemptible Kernel (Low-Latency Desktop)" If I understand it right, going from first to third make the system less "efficient", but more responsive to user input. 2) Preempt The Big Kernel Lock" Its "help" literaly says "Say Y here if you are building a kernel for a desktop system" 3) Timer frequency: 100, 250 or 1000Hz From the "help": 1000 HZ is the preferred choice for desktop systems and other systems requiring fast interactive responses to events. Well, I compiled the damned thing with 1) at "Preemptible Kernel", 2) at "Y" and 3) at 1000Hz, and still have the very same problems. Could it be related to the HD? I have read somewhere that ReiserFS (the FS I use for all my partitions) may have been so much "tweaked", that it was pushed too far and it has speed problems. Could it be the problem? Somewhere else a guy with similar problems got a response asking if DMA was enabled, but my "dmesg | grep -i dma" shows: DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1 ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1F0 ctl 0x3F6 bmdma 0xFFA0 irq 14 ata1: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 398297088 sectors: lba48 ata1: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133 is it fine? I am presently quite lost, and would appreciate any clues on how to fix it, or at least what info I need to provide to get the right diagnosis. TIA, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 2.6.12 and 2.6.13 won't access cdrom -UPDATE
Basajaun wrote: [snip] > I intend to upload my epic odyssey to my Linux "trick page", and I > might post a link, if I don't find it too lame :^) [snip] Here you are: http://makeashorterlink.com/?O532317FB That page, and those following the [Linux stuff] link at the bottom, could be helpfull in general. If anyone finds one of the many errors there sure are, I'd be grateful to know about it/them. (As a side note, my Bluebottle e-mail account asks for a confirmation when receiving e-mails, as a way to prevent automated spammers to get through. Sorry for the inconvenience if anyone writes.) Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 2.6.12 and 2.6.13 won't access cdrom -UPDATE
Anthony Campbell wrote: > On 11 Oct 2005, Basajaun wrote: > > Anthony Campbell wrote: [snip] > > > I've just fetched the vanilla 2.6.13.3. It compiles correctly and > > > recognizes my CD drives. So it looks as if the problem has been > > > recognized and fixed in the most recent versions. > > > > > > Anthony [snip] > > Where did you find the 2.6.13.3 package? I have Etch and Sid sources in > > /etc/apt/sources.list, and 2.6.12 is the latest aptitude finds. Also, > > search in the Debian site gives 2.6.12 as the official kernel for Etch > > and Sid... could you post the sources.list line that does the trick, > > please? > > > > Basajaun > > > > I got it from ftp.kernel.org, i.e. the vanilla kernel source. > Subsequently I also got the relevant linux-image from > http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/linux-2.6/ and this seems to > work as well. > > Anthony Thanks a lot. I actually had already compiled a 2.6.13 kernel from kernel.org, as I mention, and also dpkg-ed one from the experimental release. Both work fine, but the non-detection problem is identical with both of them and 2.6.12, because the source of the error is somewhere else. I backtracked the problem to the SATA disk my comp has. The 2.6 kernels recognize it as SCSI at boot, so they load the ata_piix module, which subsequently blocks loading of ide-core, ide-generic etc. Actually, these modules are loaded at some point, but they complain that ide0 and ide1 are already taken (ata_piix seems to have "hijacked" them). I intend to upload my epic odyssey to my Linux "trick page", and I might post a link, if I don't find it too lame :^) My solution, in short, has been to insert these lines in /etc/mkinitrd/modules: ide-core cdrom ide-cd ide-disk ide-generic (the order is important, because of inter-dependencies that are not held properly at the boot time where these options kick in, since modprobe is not available to the kernel or whatever). Then I made a new initrd image for my kernel, reading the file above: mkinitrd -o /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-1-686-smp.custom 2.6.12-1-686-smp and the final touch would be to insert the corresponding line in /boot/grub/menu.lst. HTH any other person with a similar problem. BTW, searching the web for literal boot-time error messages like "I/O Resource 0x1F0-0x1F7 not free" did it, so bless Google, and bless the thousands of users that, no matter how obscure an error might be, have already suffered it and posted about it in public forums (in this case, even as far back as in late 2004). Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 2.6.12 and 2.6.13 won't access cdrom -UPDATE
Anthony Campbell wrote: > On 10 Oct 2005, Anthony Campbell wrote: > > On 10 Oct 2005, Basajaun wrote: > > > > > > I have a similar problem here, and sysfs won't help. My > > > /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info file is empty (contains the "drive name:"... > > > entries, but w/o a value). Also my /sys/bus/ide/devices/ dir is empty. > > > I am running Debian Etch with kernel 2.6.12-1-686-smp (on a P4 with > > > HT), udev 0.070-2. > > > > > > > Glad I'm not the only one - thought I was going mad! > > > > I've now found a version of the kernel tree (2.6.13.2) on my laptop and > > compiled it for my desktop, and I find it *does* compile and *does* > > recognize my cd drive. This is welcome, of course, but I wish I > > understood what is happening. > > > > Anthony > > > > > > I've just fetched the vanilla 2.6.13.3. It compiles correctly and > recognizes my CD drives. So it looks as if the problem has been > recognized and fixed in the most recent versions. > > Anthony I have compiled a 2.6.13.4 source from kernel.org, and the problem stays (no wonder, being the first kernel I compile. What bewilders me is that my comp didn't catch fire or something when I booted it on my compiled 2.6.13.4 :^). Where did you find the 2.6.13.3 package? I have Etch and Sid sources in /etc/apt/sources.list, and 2.6.12 is the latest aptitude finds. Also, search in the Debian site gives 2.6.12 as the official kernel for Etch and Sid... could you post the sources.list line that does the trick, please? Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: cdrom mount directory w/ kernel upgrade
Mark Grieveson wrote: > Hello. After I upgraded from kernel-image-2.4.27-2-386 to > kernel-image-2.6.8-2-386, I find that I need to manually add the > directory /media/cdrom0 (where the cdrom is mounted), whereas it used to > automatically create this directory for mounting with the former > kernel-image. Any way of fixing this? I fail to see the problem here... The directory where you mount the CD is quite arbitrary, e.g., I always mount everything in /mnt/ subdirectories. The first day I want to mount something I create the dir I want it mounted to, I add the corresponding entry in /etc/fstab, and it stays forever... I never thought creating the dir automatically was a feature, or failing to a bug; I always do it by hand. And, however, you only do it once, right? And upgrading the kernel won't remove any dir (e.g. /media/cdrom0) that was previously present, will it? The problem I could see is having missing _device_ files (say, /dev/hdc) when upgrading the kernel (I wrote to another thread on the subject), but not missing dirs... Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: 2.6.12 and 2.6.13 won't access cdrom
Stephen R Laniel wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 10, 2005 at 02:35:09PM +0100, Anthony Campbell wrote:
> > 2.6.13 won't access /cdrom and 2.6.12 segfaults when I try this. It is
> > then impossible to log out normally and I have to pull the plug on the
> > computer!
>
> Well, that sounds a touch drastic. First of all, do you mean
> /cdrom? There should be no such file. Do you mean
> /dev/cdrom? That used to exist, but I believe it's been
> deleted: it used to be a symlink to something like /dev/hdc
> (or whatever your CD-ROM drive device was), but lots of
> people have multiple CD/DVD drives; how is Linux supposed to
> know which one to symlink to?
>
> The proper approach now, I believe, is to use sysfs. See
> below for the info on my system. It says that my CD drive is
> /dev/hdc, which I can then -- if I want -- make a symlink
> to. I don't know how to make that symlink permanent, such
> that /dev/cdrom is there when I reboot.
>
> (09:39) [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~/private$ cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
> CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
>
> drive name: hdc
[snip]
I have a similar problem here, and sysfs won't help. My
/proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info file is empty (contains the "drive name:"...
entries, but w/o a value). Also my /sys/bus/ide/devices/ dir is empty.
I am running Debian Etch with kernel 2.6.12-1-686-smp (on a P4 with
HT), udev 0.070-2.
If I boot under 2.4.27-2-686-smp (w/o udev, of course), the /dev/hdc
device is created, and I can mount a CD just fine. With 2.6.12, not
even dmesg acknowlegdes the presence of the CD drive, no /dev entry is
created, and no info appears in /sys (I mean, regarding the CD drive).
Maybe, just maybe, it has something to do with module ide-detect?
Kernel 2.4 has it, but not 2.6. Somewhere I read to add "ide-generic"
to /etc/modules, in place of "ide-detect" (which would only make the
system complain everytime I booted into 2.6, anyway), and it didn't
help.
Another idea is: does it have anything to do with the fact that 2.4
sees my SATA drive as IDE, and 2.6 sees it as SCSI? Maybe 2.6 doesn't
find IDE drives, and doesn't load some modules which are later needed
for the CD? I seem to be seeing them loaded, however:
#>lsmod | grep ide
ide_cd 43748 0
cdrom 41088 1 ide_cd
ide_disk 19104 0
ide_generic 1376 0 [permanent]
ide_core 132352 4 ide_cd,ide_disk,ide_generic,usb_storage
I have to add that I disabled hotplug on boot (after doing a "lsmod |
awk '{print $1}' >> /etc/modules"), because it made the computer take
forever (over 15m!!) to boot. Now, w/o hotplug, it is much faster, but
still very slow. And before anyone jumps on me, the problem was there
when I was running hotplug...
Can someone help?
Basajaun
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Re: How to install under a SATA disk?
Han Chunwei wrote: [snip] > 2. The hard-disk is of SATA type, and I can't install the system from > hard-disk(I don't have a CD-Rom). I have tried every method to do this > and failed. I nearly got despaired. [snip] You don't have the CD, or don't have a CD drive? The latter would be... ummm, surprising. I don't know if it has anything to do with your problem, but I have come across a little problem when installing Etch/2.6 kernels into a SATA drive. The 2.4.27 kernel would boot fine, but the 2.6.12 wouldn't (kernel panic). I traced the problem to the fact that the disk was regarded as /dev/sda by the 2.6, while the /etc/fstab read /dev/hda1 and so on. Seems that 2.6 regards SATA as SCSI instead of IDE. Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: setting up environment variables
Dom wrote: > Hi, > > Could someone please tell me if I'm doing this right and if not what > I'm doing wrong as I'm a newbie trying to get acquainted with the > linux system. I want to make every application that wishes to use my > /tmp folder on my linux partition to use a custom folder on another > partition (looks like I made my linux partition too small for my needs > and need to free some space now). [snip] Appart from the useful answers others have given to the env vars "way", you can go another way (in this particular case). If the problem is the size of the /tmp partition (or /, where /tmp probably resides), you could always move the current /tmp folder to somewhere else (another partition with lots of free space), then create a soft link: ln -s /newdir /tmp. This way, the settings of the system will stay unchanged. Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Want to set apt pin-priority lower for none debian sites
Florian Sukup wrote: [snip] > > >The problem: > > >testing is my target release. In my sources.list there the following > > >entries: > > > > > >deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main > > >deb http://ftp.at.debian.org/debian stable main non-free contrib > > >deb http://ftp.at.debian.org/debian testing main non-free contrib > > >deb http://ftp.at.debian.org/debian unstable main non-free contrib > > >deb http://www.linex.org/sources/linex/debian sarge linex > > >... > > > > > ># apt-cache policy mozilla-firefox > > >mozilla-firefox: > > > Installed: 1.0.6-1.linex1 > > > Candidate: 1.0.6-1.linex1 > > > Version Table: > > > 1.0.6-5 0 > > >400 http://ftp.at.debian.org unstable/main Packages > > > *** 1.0.6-1.linex1 0 > > >990 http://www.linex.org sarge/linex Packages > > >100 /var/lib/dpkg/status > > > 1.0.4-2sarge3 0 > > >500 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main Packages > > >990 http://ftp.at.debian.org testing/main Packages > > > 1.0.4-2 0 > > >400 http://ftp.at.debian.org stable/main Packages > > > > > >But this is not what I want. I want to have 1.0.4-2sarge3 0 installed. [snip] > > then include something like > > > > Package: * > > Pin: release a=unstable > > Pin-Priority: 500 > > > > in /etc/apt/preferences (again may need to create) > > > > This should prevent unstable packages being given the same, or higher > > priority as testing. > I tried that but didn't work. Seems logical to me. The linex packages > are also denoted as testing. Therefore, this doesn't work. [snip] >From the output of apt-cache, the LinEx package is labeled "sarge", which is Stable, not Testing. You should therefore add the following to /etc/apt/preferences: Package: * Pin: release a=stable Pin-Priority: 500 Or rather: Package: * Pin: release a=Etch Pin-Priority: 1000 The latter would directly give a higher priority to Etch packages, and make you forget about stable or unstable. Some say a=Etch is not supported, and that it should read a=testing. I have a=Etch and it is working so far. Do any of the two /etc/apt/preferences inputs I give do the trick? However, one would wonder why you include the 4th and 5th lines of your /etc/apt/sources.list... why not just comment them out? Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: fstab mount at boot
Rodney Richison wrote: > I've got an odd problems with a second ide drive. It will not mount at > boot. Though I can mount -a and it mounts just fine. My current fstab is > /dev/hdg1 /mnt/data ext3 suid,dev,exec 0 0 > Though I've tried /dev/hdg1 /mnt/data ext3 defaults 1 2 > and all I get for my trouble is fsck gets stuck at boot and makes you > hit control+d to continue. [snip] Maybe it is silly, but... what is the order of the lines in your fstab? Are you, by chance, trying to mount /mnt/data _before_ / is mounted, for example? Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How do you "move to testing/etch"?
Joseph Haig wrote: > --- marc <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I've scoured the archives and docs, and googled the globe, but I > > cannot > > find an explanation for safely moving - as safe as it can be - from > > stable/sarge to testing/etch. [snip] > > My best guess is to edit /etc/apt/sources.list, and apt-get update, > > apt-get dist-upgrade, but can anyone point to a good description of the > > process, please. > I am by no means an expert, but I believe that your 'best guess' is all > that is needed - it works for me, at least. So in summary, edit > /etc/apt/sources.list, replacing sarge or stable in each line with etch > or testing and then execute the following: > > $ apt-get update > $ apt-get dist-upgrade [snip] Here a "man apt_preferences" would help a lot. I was also confused by the way in which packages are chosen from the repositories one has in /etc/apt/sources.list, until I began editing /etc/apt/preferences (for which I took a look at the man page of "apt_preferences"). I can't say my grasp of the matter is perfect, but this is what I understand: aptitude (or apt-get), when called with the "update" argument, connects to all of the repositories you specify, and builds, not only a list of available packages, but also different versions (if it finds more than one), the release to which each one belongs, and the preference order of the versions, according to some settings, which give each package version an "score". Then aptitude upgrade will install not the newest versions of each package, but the one with highest score. That part about the score is the one you tune with /etc/apt/preferences. In the absence of this file, how does apt know what to install? More or less it installs the newest version it finds in the repositories. If you set your /etc/apt/preferences to giving the Etch packages say 500 points by default, and you have Sid and Etch repositories, and package "whatever" is 1.1 in Etch, and 1.3 in Sid, then an aptitude update will give the Sid version say 200 points because it is the newest it finds, but then the 500 points the 1.1 Etch starts with win, and you get the Etch package. However, if you had the 1.2 version installed, and aptitude gave the 1.1 Etch version a penalty of -400 points because it is older than the one already installed, then the 1.3 Sid would win 200 vs. 100 (The figures are completely made up by me). HTH, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: watching an avi
Rick Pasotto wrote: > On Sun, Sep 18, 2005 at 04:42:14PM -0400, Antonio Rodriguez wrote: > > On Sat, Sep 17, 2005 at 07:48:26PM -0400, Rick Pasotto wrote: > > > System: > > > KM4M-V motherboard with onboard video using via driver > > > 1-gig of ram (using less than 300mb) > > > Running testing so have switched to X-org > > > > > > Most of the time I can watch avi videos using xine with no problem, even > > > full screen. Sometimes xine runs but the display window remains black > > > and the sound plays fine. At least once when this happened I was able to > > > view the avi with kaboodle after which xine then worked properly. > > > > > > Now xine, kaboodle, and noatrun are all failing. > > > > Try maplayer, also install from the same marillat site the win32 codex > > How will that either solve or analyse the problem? If your problem isn't not being able to play a video, then, logically, mplayer won't help, no. Yes, I am being sarcastic. Antonio's answer is helpful because: 1) It might solve your problem. Mplayer could actually be able to suceed where others failed. 2) It might help analyze the problem, e.g.: if mplayer w/o win32 codecs can't play your video, but w/ them it can, then the problem is missing codecs. If Mplayer, be it w/ or w/o codecs, can play the video, then the problem is on the other playes. OTOH, if mplayer also fails, the problem could be either X.org or a corrupted video or... God knows. It might help "analyzing" the problem, if you stated it more clearly, like, for example, if the players fail with a given new video, or they also fail with videos that the had "always" been able to play. Maybe it's a silly question, but from: > unix_connect: can't connect to server > (unix:/tmp/mcop-rick/mnr_niof_net-7c4f-432ca596) I'd make the wild guess that maybe your /tmp is full? Either that or maybe the $DISPLAY is set wrong (another wild guess)? Does it help to "killall artsd" before running the player? I ask it because of the following, although kaboodle seems to be handling it correctly: > There are already artsd objects registered, looking if they are active... >... cleaned 5 unused mcop global references. Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Overwhelmed newbie
Fritz Brown wrote: > Well, I don't have any idea what's what when I begin the install. I have 7 > CDs (booting from the CD), and get through the partitioning OK, but am > utterly without a clue when it starts asking about packages with cryptic > names and cryptic descriptions on the second bootup (or is it the third?). > > > > As long as you've selected the Internet capability you can always add > > stuff later using `apt-get` or `aptitude` so you can ignore the rest. > > Also, you can always remove stuff at a later date. Take it easy, Fritz. You will be amazed by how easy it actually is, once you get the hang of it. In the meantime: First, recall that the actual stable release is 3.1 (Sarge), not 3.0 (Woody). Woody is outdated, but if you have those CDs and want/have to use them, go ahead, it should be fine. Second, I don't think any CD over the third has to be used during a sensible installation, unless you want Korean support for the OpenOffice Tea Biscuit Recipe Template. Probably the first two will do. What you have to do is to make a working installation, then put tools as "aptitude" or "apt-get" to good use, and install further packages as you come to need them. Third, choose a "Desktop" installation, as mentioned by another poster, then choose the default for everything, except those questions where you definitely know the correct answer. This will produce a working system 99.9% of the times, and the (many) questions regarding missing packages or configuration tweaks you might (will) come across... you can ask them here! HTH, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Problem whith fluxbox
Álvaro Eixea wrote: > Hello everybody: ¡Qué tal, Álvaro! > I instaled the new version of Debian called Woody Woody is old, man! > and when I try to install my window manager, fluxbox Aha!, the problem is this: Fluxbox :^) > the fonts on the menus and on the windows title bar > appears "smoothy", don´t look wheel and I can´t read > It. > > I take a look to the styles files but the font path > are the same for all of them. > > The same styles work´s OK with blackbox. With blackbox > I have no problems but dont support keyboard > shortcuts. > > What happend? I don´t understand? > > Thaks for help and sorry if my english is not correct, > I´m spanish. See us. Otro hispanohablante aquí. ¿De dónde eres?. Yo de Donosti. I can't really give you a solution, but I would first try Sarge (if you want Debian Stable), and see if the problem persists... Basajaun
Re: apt-listbugs and pinning
Thanks, Maurits. Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Where is everyone?
I posted a question yesterday, and again today, but I got no answer... maybe people is not seing my question, or I am not seing people's answers... Or my question is too silly for anyone to answer :^) Maybe you are experiencing something similar... Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: apt-listbugs and pinning
Basajaun wrote: > Hi all, > > I am following the Etch release, and use apt-listbugs as a way to > prevent installation of buggy packages. I have came across a problem a > previous poster asked about, on July 25th > (http://makeashorterlink.com/?D23453BCB), but got no definitive answer. [snip] Come on, boys and girls, surely someone has something to say about it... Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: to not apt-get upgrade certain packages
Ganeshram Iyer wrote: > Hello all, > I am trying to ensure that certain packages that I have apt-get > installed are never upgraded (even security). specifically these are > libwine wine wine-utils. I have version 20041019 the version > recommended by winetools package > (http://www.von-thadden.de/Joachim/WineTools/) and I am more than > happy with this version. [snip] Others have given good answers, but for the sake of completitude: you can put the packages on hold with aptitude (I personally use aptitude exclusively): aptitude hold libwine wine wine-utils With this single line, you will prevent the packages from being ever upgraded. If you ever uninstall them, it will also prevent them from being reinstalled, though. A slightly more complex solution would be to take advantage of the /etc/apt/preferences conf file (of which I am a big fan). You sould add the following lines: Package: $pack Pin: version $ver Pin-Priority: 1100 Where $pack is the name of the package being "held", and $ver the version, as shown in the Version column of "dpkg -l $pack". What you do with these lines is to give $pack $ver a very high priority, so that when new versions of the package are found in the repositories, they are not installed, because their priority is lower. For priority figures: "man apt_preferences". The slight advantage of the /etc/apt/preferences solution is that if you uninstall the $ver version, you "aptitude install $pack" will reinstall it w/o problem (if it is still available in the repositories, else dpkg -i the .deb in /var/cache/apt/archives/). HTH, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
apt-listbugs and pinning
Hi all, I am following the Etch release, and use apt-listbugs as a way to prevent installation of buggy packages. I have came across a problem a previous poster asked about, on July 25th (http://makeashorterlink.com/?D23453BCB), but got no definitive answer. The thing is: let's say I have package "whatever 1.0", and "whatever 1.1" makes it into Etch. I run "aptitude update && aptitude upgrade", and "whatever 1.1" is found and properly "asked" for bug content by apt-listbugs, contacting Debian BTS, or doing whatever magic it does. If it does contain bugs, apt-listbugs will report them, and prompt me for confirmation on going on with the instalation, aborting it, or pinning the package (among other possibilities, IIRC). Now, if I choose "p" (pinning it), it will write a proper line into "/etc/apt/preferences", pinning the version that is _currently_ installed. My question is, isn't it silly? I mean, apt-listbugs gives a high (1000) pin priority to "whatever 1.0", so that "whatever 1.1" won't get installed (because its pin priority will be lower). That part sounds fine, but... wouldn't it make more sense to _forbid_ "whatever 1.1"? That way, if "whatever 1.2" is ever released, maybe even fixing the 1.1 bugs, aptitude will try to upgrade "whatever 1.0" to 1.2. If 1.2 still has bugs, or has other bugs, then fine, apt-listbugs will report them, no harm done. But the way it is now, you will never even get to know there is a newer version of "whatever", because you are forever stuck with "whatever 1.0", until you modify it's pin priority... by hand!! What I do now (ehem, what I just decided today to do) is to periodically delete all the pinnings from /etc/apt/preferences (by hand), and so let apt-listbugs catch (some of) the same bugs on and on, while the fixed packages slowly go through. Is there a way to "fix" apt-listbugs to do what I want it to do, instead of what it presently does? Is there any flaw in my view of how the pinning/forbiding should be done? TIA, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Tips and Tricks for Dial-Up Internet Access?
Darrell Bellerive wrote: [snip] > Can anyone share some tips, tricks, or favorite applications to increase > the useability of a dial-up Internet connection? [snip] I have found (command-line) pon/poff to be (far) more reliable than (graphical) kppp. Well, actually is probably a configuration issue, like calling timeouts and such, but the fact is that when using kppp I get several tries before contacting the ISP and logging, and with pon it hardly ever fails to connect on the first try. One question I would like to make myself (I mean... not _to_ myself, hehehe) is: how does one get the modem not to produce its annoying noises with pon? With kppp there is an option somewhere with the "Modem Volume" or something, but I have perused the pon conf files (some shared with kppp, I believe) to no avail. RTFMs kindly accepted, as answers would be :^) Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Top posting
Hal Vaughan wrote: > On Tuesday 14 June 2005 01:41 am, Steve Lamb wrote: > > Hal Vaughan wrote: [snip] > > > Putting a few sentences together in reverse order is not a comparison to > > > top posting. > > > > Yes, it is because that is exactly what top posting does. > > Nope. Different scale entirely. That's like saying re-arranging protons > within a nucleus of an atom does not change the atom, but if you have a group > of atoms, they can form different molecules with different properties > depending on their arrangement. If re-arranging the protons within a nucleus produces an atom that is indistinguishable from the former one, how does one know he/she actually re-arranged anything? And if it _is_ distinguishable, how could one say that it "does not change the atom"? Swapping sentences causes a more dramatic decrease in readability than swapping paragraphs does (we could agree that the order goes something like: letters > words > sentences > paragraphs). But swapping paragraphs _does_ cause a decrease in readability. There is no excuse for a 95% "performance" when 100% was easily attainable. [snip] > > > As to the "as /most/ points", I have yet to see anyone saying that show > > > that they have the least insight into learning and perception styles and > > > how different types of minds/personalities read and perceive information. > > > > This isn't about how different minds/personalities read and perceive > > information. It is about how things are done, why they are done that way > > and how one can LEARN to do it that way if one weren't lazy. > > Actually it is. It is not. We are not patronizing parents trying to "cut the wings" of the "creative children" who strive to communicate by means of a new, and equally valid, paradigm. We are trying to educate vandals who struggle to disrupt a consensed way of communication, or ignorants who do so without being aware. > I remember Harry Truman saying he never wanted to hear from > experts because all experts were people that didn't want to learn anything > more about their field, because if they did, they'd realize there was more to > learn and they weren't an expert anymore. I don't know of a single expert who thinks he/she knows everything about a field. Invariantly, the ones who think so, are ignorants. Nevertheless, this doesn't mean an expert can't know that he/she does know a lot. Did then Truman follow the advice of laymen? > The point I am making, which you > are so quick to write off is that not all people learn and process data that > way. It's not a point of being lazy. It is a point that different people > learn and process in different ways. We can be open to that, or we can be > closed minded about that. Yes, you are 100% right: not all people process data the same way. Some are dislexical, some are autistic, and some others are so far beyond common intelligence, that we could hardly follow their thoughts with a written guide. But 99% of people (reading this list, speaking English) do read following the same logical structures, from left to right, top to bottom, answer follows question, effect follows cause. Disturbing such an scheme annoys far more people than it intends (I don't doubt of your good intention as much as you doubt of mine/ours) to "liberate". > And before you come back with something about it > being done only one way, go back and look over the history of science and > computers and see how many breakthroughs or advances were made by the people > who didn't think like everyeone else. Are we so good we should adopt policies > that discourage such people? If you want to make such a breakthrough, write to a psychology/education/whatever journal, or to a relevant Usenet list. I'll be the first one getting happy because a new and better communication paradigm has been disclosed. > But I suppose the point here is that it is more important to set rules and > feel we are right than actually deal with life and people in that life as > they are. Yes. The point _is_ setting rules. There are some rules that make us understand each other better than without them (languages, driving rules, laws). Those rules should only be repealed when a better way is found, not for the sake of it. Repealing a set of rules is merely a step to apply a new set, not to promote anarchy. And then, supporting the new set of rules would invariantly be considered "close minded" again by some. Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Top posting
Hal Vaughan wrote: > On Friday 10 June 2005 03:05 am, Basajaun wrote: > > Hal Vaughan wrote: > > > On Thursday 09 June 2005 05:26 pm, Alex Malinovich wrote: > > > > On Thu, 2005-06-09 at 22:06 +0100, Graham Smith wrote: [snip] > > > As > > > long as people follow your rules, they are open minded. People who don't > > > are closed minded. So does it not occur to you that many people think > > > differently than you, so top posting may work better for you? > > > > [snip] > > > > Yes, and many people could choose to believe that Mars is closer to the > > Sun than the Earth, yet it would not make it true, would it? > > And that has what to do with the price of tea in China? What I meant is that supporting what is actually right is not "close-minded", and opening the mind to something that is wrong is not necessarily "good". Of course, how does one judge something is he/she didn't open his/her mind in first place? Well, there you could have a point. > Oh, nothing. I get it. Just your way of saying you think something is a fact > when it is an opinion. There's a big difference between fact and opinion and > you don't see that your "2 euro cents" is an opinion, not a fact. Actually you are right. Yes, the debate in this thread _is_ a matter of opinion, and I have been a bit too axiomatic. But the arguments against top-posting are facts, and I only see opinions to back it. The proposition that bottom-posting is more readable, respects logical order and context etc. is a fact. You could dismiss it (opinion), but not negate it. [snip] > Again, that's your opinion, also the opinion of others. From this thread, > it's clear it is not everyone's opinion. Yes, it is the accepted practice on > the net from way back, but that does not make it the best or only way to > post. Insisting we have to stick with something because there are some who > say it is the best or because it's tradition does not make your opinion fact. > Insisting the current or old way is the best or only way is the same type of > attitude that we saw when rock 'n' roll first started to emerge and the older > generation said it was evil and terrible and should not be tolerated. Hey, but, rock 'n' roll _is_ evil! :^) > Such > people had the opinion rock was morally wrong and inferior to all other > music. They may or may not have been right, but the point is it was only > their opinion and is generally the opinion of each generation about the music > of the younger generations. It is a strawman argument. I support bottom-posting because it is better (well, yes, "I think" it is better), not because it is common practice. The rock 'n' roll is a cultural activity, and has nothing to do with efficiency or correctness. The Usenet is also cultural, but a list like this one should try to adhere to efficiency and correctness standards. Hence, it should obey some rules, or at least follow some guidelines, aimed at this. One can choose not to, but will be probably frowned upon. > So come out of the dark ages and separate opinion from fact. > > > You can top-post out of selfishness or laziness, and you might be > > forgiven. But don't try to sell us that you "made the great effort" of > > top-posting because you thought that "it was much more readable an > > generally nicer" to others. > > While you may notice I inline post, I've seen many top postings that were much > easier to read than others. It may be a short 1-line "Thank you," or > something similar. In my overall experience, I know I've never had much of a > problem reading top posts, but, then again, I'm open minded and understand > that different people process information in different ways. Some are stuck > in a linear mode and others have transcended that and can process it in other > ways. Yes, your inline post is indeed "more readable and generally nicer" to me, thanks. Way other some information process to linear too is brain my that fact the to due is this probably (Yes, I am not being original, sue me). And, to be honest, yes, 1-line "Thank you" posts could well be correctly top-posted... not 100% of top-posts are full of satanic evil, I'll give in on that one. [snip] Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Top posting
Hal Vaughan wrote: > On Thursday 09 June 2005 05:26 pm, Alex Malinovich wrote: > > On Thu, 2005-06-09 at 22:06 +0100, Graham Smith wrote: [snip] > > I would argue that top-posters fall into the same category as most users > > of proprietary software. They are too lazy expend a bit of effort to > > benefit their fellow man. Bottom-posting makes reading easier for those > > who haven't followed an entire thread. Much in the same way that users > > of proprietary software are too lazy to find, support, or write a free > > alternative that would benefit all of mankind. [snip[ > That's the most self-serving, self-centered, one-sided point of view I've read > on any tech list in years. In 3 paragraphs, you manage to insult users of > proprietary software a number of ways, calling them self centered over and > over, and say how FOSS people are more world oriented and less self-centered. > > Yet, while you are going on and on calling others self-centered, you are > totally incapable of seeing how "Me! Me! Me!" your point of view is. As long > as people follow your rules, they are open minded. People who don't are > closed minded. So does it not occur to you that many people think > differently than you, so top posting may work better for you? [snip] Yes, and many people could choose to believe that Mars is closer to the Sun than the Earth, yet it would not make it true, would it? Bottom-posting plus trimming _is_ the Good Thing to do, period. It is not a matter of preferences. It is not a matter of your social background, your language, your religion or your pet's name. Opinions are like... well, everyone has one. But when talking about facts, either something is true or it is not. Someone's opinion about a fact is not worth as much as some other's one. Simply one is right, and the other one is wrong, and millions of people preaching the wrong thing don't make it right, just as the right thing is not so because some others support it. The right thing is the right thing. You can top-post out of selfishness or laziness, and you might be forgiven. But don't try to sell us that you "made the great effort" of top-posting because you thought that "it was much more readable an generally nicer" to others. Supporting top-posting because you either follow the threads (and don't need the context) or don't read them at all (so the text of the very last message can help you choose to skip the thread), is, actually, very selfish. Firstly, if you don't need the context to follow a thread, then don't support top-posting, and instead support an absolute lack of quotes (after all, if they are not needed, why make people with limited access to the internet needlessly download them?). Secondly, as many others have mentioned, you are disregarding the many-many people that can, and will, reach the post when surfing the net looking for some specific information (or not), and (correct) bottom-posting can save their day. Or even people reading the list only occasionally... it is better for everyone! Just my 2 euro cents, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: i think I switched to Etch without knowing it
Clive Menzies wrote: > On (09/06/05 15:05), Guillaume TESSIER wrote: [snip] > > The problem is that i did some apt-get upgrade a fiew days ago (don't > > remember exactly which days...) and i hear yesteday that debian sarge > > got frozen. Therefore everything has slided : and as my apt-sources are > > pointing on "main testing", i guess i'm by now using etch. > > > > My question would be : am i really using etch by now? And broadly : what > > am i running > > It's a bit irritating not knowing what you're running.. > > > > Thanks, as i guess i'm not alone to wonder what is in his comp by now! > > > > Guillaume > > What is in your /etc/apt/sources.list ? > > If it says 'sarge' you're still running sarge but if it says 'testing' > then your running etch. [snip] AFAIK, this is not true. Strictly speaking sources.list tells the system where to get its packages, not what packages to get, which is a subtle but important difference. APT could well read the contents of all the sources your sources.list points to, and then conclude the packages there don't belong to the release you are actually running. For understanding what version you are running, and what packages will get updated (or not), take a look at "man apt_preferences". Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Confused-New Stable Sarge Dist-Upgrade
Luis Finotti wrote: > Dear Basajaun and all, > > Basajaun wrote: > > [snip] > > > > Well, you could try the old link trick. First of all locate the biggest > > directory(ies) residing in /, e.g. > > > > du -sh /* > > > > then, move that directory and all of its contents to a bigger > > partition, where space is not a problem, e.g. > > > > cp -R /big_dir /scratch/ > > > > then create a link in / with the old dir name, and pointing to the new > > location, e.g. > > > > ln -s /scratch/big_dir /big_dir > > > > Yes, it is a dirty trick, but will save your day until you repartition > > properly (say, when reinstalling the whole system). > > > > HTH, > > > > Basajaun > > That was my first idea when reading the original post. In fact, I was > thinking of doing that in a laptop of a friend. Is there any reason why > this is a "dirty" trick. Is there any problem or disavantage in doing > so? It seemed to me it would be safer (and easier) than changing > partitions sizes... > > Thanks in advance, > > Luis In fact I don't consider it to be "dirty", I was just being humble :^) A problem I could think of is that symlinking makes it more difficult to track what exactly is in each partition. In my example, supposedly /scratch/ is a big dir where all the temporal files for the execution of some programs reside. It gets trashed periodically (these programs don't always successfully delete their temp files), and it is good practice to delete its contents once in a while. If I am not careful, I could end up deleting files that _are_ important, and that shouldn't really be there. Another problem is that it defeats the whole purpose of partitioning, which is making independent compartments, so that if one of them fills up or gets corrupted, the others don't suffer. Finally, I am not sure if it affects the I/O speed. I guess it should be transparent, but I don't know. So, yes, actually it is a good solution :^) Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: how many bugs in 3.1r0?
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On Wed, Jun 08, 2005 at 07:58:19PM -0700, j smith wrote: > > i have just downloaded 1st CD of 3.1, only to find the > > following "Last Minute Notes" in README.txt: > > > > You should keep in mind that this is an unofficial CD > > of the current development version of the Debian > > system. This means that all sorts of bugs may be > > present anywhere in the system. > > > > i'm completely confused. after waiting for so long, > > 3.1 still has so many bugs? > > > > They just said all sorts of bugs *may* be present. > > They don't really know, until they get everybody using it. > Just like a new kernel. That's when the real testing happens. Apparently 3 years of testing for Sarge are not enough testing? That's what the release name "Testing" stands for, after all. Now Sarge is labelled "Stable", and that means a reputation to live up to, in Debian. It is clearly an error, or is it? It makes for a very nice paradox: since the README comes with a Stable release, it is out of place. But since it is out of place, its presence is a bug, therefore making its claim true, and consequently it is _not_ a bug... thus it is not out of place in a Stable release :^) Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Confused-New Stable Sarge Dist-Upgrade
Obviously, the following line: cp -R /big_dir /scratch/ should read: mv /big_dir /scratch/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: dist-upgrade and sources.list
Maurits van Rees wrote: > On Wed, Jun 08, 2005 at 02:55:47AM -0700, Basajaun wrote: > > My impression (correct me if I'm wrong) is that whatever sources you > > put in "sources.list" have nothing to do with the version of Debian you > > are running. Those lines only tell apt-get where to look for the > > packages, but apt-get will ignore the ones not matching your version. > > Not true. It will download the list of updated packages from each > valid line. If you have one line with woody, one with sarge, one with > etch and one with sid then apt will download four package lists. Yes, "apt-get update" will read every line, and update the package list. What I meant is that "apt-get upgrade" will ignore the packages from that list(s) that don't apply to your release. > > Actually, while writing this post, I have read "man apt_preferences", > > and I am still digesting it... anyway... > > Keep digesting. It is good stuff. ;-) [snip] > But all valid lines in your sources.list will lead to an update of an > available package list. What you really want to do is explicitly tell > apt which distribution you want to track. By default only packages for > that distro will get upgraded. See below. OK, we agree on that one. > > The second question is the use of "apt-get dist-upgrade". Say I am > > running Debian 3.1 Sarge (stable), and I want to upgrade to Debian 3.2 > > Etch (testing)... how does apt-get know it has to upgrade me to Etch, > > and not Sid? It always upgrades stepwise (stable -> testing -> etch)? > Look at the manual page of /etc/apt.conf: > > man apt.conf > > Actually I fail to see the info I am looking for there. Ah, it is in > the apt_preferences man page you mentioned. The point of interest here > is the Default-Release line. Put sarge or stable there. And if you > want to track the new testing distro put etch or testing there. I > think you can either handle it in the apt.conf or in the preferences > file. Here is my /etc/apt.conf (I have no preferences file > currently): [snip] > And on dist-upgrade: this is not meant just to upgrade to a new > distribution. I used to think that too. It is a more thorough (and > possibly more dangerous) method of upgrading. Say you have package-a > version 1 installed, with no dependencies. A new version 2 becomes > available, which has a new dependency on package-b, which you don't > yet have installed. An 'apt upgrade' will do nothing. An 'apt > dist-upgrade' will upgrade package-a from version 1 to version 2 and > will install package-b. So, my guess is that "apt-get dist-upgrade" is a kind of "do whatever you have to do to make what I have in 'Default-Release' (or wherever) be my current release". So dist-upgrade, by itself, is useless, unless you have changed something in your preferences, right? I was going to ask how to do the latter... but probably I would be kindly recommended to do some RTFM (so I'll get to it when I have time) :^) Thanks, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
dist-upgrade and sources.list
Hi all, I have been using Debian Sarge back from the "old" days when it was "testing" :^), and now that it became "stable", I have a couple of questions... My impression (correct me if I'm wrong) is that whatever sources you put in "sources.list" have nothing to do with the version of Debian you are running. Those lines only tell apt-get where to look for the packages, but apt-get will ignore the ones not matching your version. Actually, while writing this post, I have read "man apt_preferences", and I am still digesting it... anyway... What this means is that if I put "sarge" or "stable" (both are synonyms now) where I had "testing", my system will continue updating "correctly", but even if I keep "testing" as sources (which would be inappropriate for my box now), no harm will be done: apt-get will simply look only in the directories I provide (testing ones), and conclude that the stuff there corresponds to Debian 3.2 Etch, not Debian 3.1 Sarge, and downright ignore it, telling me that 0 updateable packages where found, isn't it so? The second question is the use of "apt-get dist-upgrade". Say I am running Debian 3.1 Sarge (stable), and I want to upgrade to Debian 3.2 Etch (testing)... how does apt-get know it has to upgrade me to Etch, and not Sid? It always upgrades stepwise (stable -> testing -> etch)? TIA, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Confused-New Stable Sarge Dist-Upgrade
[snip] > Phil said: > >>Your / partition is where /lib lives, and you've only got ~18MB. I'd say > >>your modules directory should take up more than that. 30MB+. Prolly not > >>enough space. > > > Hey Phil, thanks, that explains it. Now how to get more space on /? I > could resize partitions with cfdisk and probably mess things up. You > have a more newbie(noobie) frendly way of doing this? Any thought or > suggestions > will be much appreciated. [snip] Well, you could try the old link trick. First of all locate the biggest directory(ies) residing in /, e.g. du -sh /* then, move that directory and all of its contents to a bigger partition, where space is not a problem, e.g. cp -R /big_dir /scratch/ then create a link in / with the old dir name, and pointing to the new location, e.g. ln -s /scratch/big_dir /big_dir Yes, it is a dirty trick, but will save your day until you repartition properly (say, when reinstalling the whole system). HTH, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
amaroK 1.2 crashing too often
Hi all, I am running Debian Sarge with kernel 2.6.8-2-686. When I discovered amaroK, it was version 1.1 in Sarge, and 1.2 in Sid (I think). Although 1.2 has some nice features that 1.1 does not have, I waited until 1.2 eventually made it to Sarge (at present the same version of amaroK is in both Sarge and Sid, that is, 1.2.3-1). My problem is that it crashes every couple of ours or less, sometimes even freezing the keyboard (not the mouse). I have read in this list (http://makeashorterlink.com/?A48721C2B) that the libflac4 in Sid is bugged, and that using liblac4 1.1.0-11 (from Sarge) is recommended, but that is the one I am using. Also JuK, for example, does not crash, so the problem does not seem to be related to that library. Additionally, I have to say that amaroK 1.1 did not crash half as much as 1.2 does. One friend of mine runs amaroK 1.2 on Slackware 10.1, and it barely crashes on him (although it does crash). If these crashes are a "feature" of the amaroK package, I am amazed by the fact that it is included in a distribution (Sarge) that is about to become Stable. In fact, its instability should not entitle it to be anyware but Sid, IMHO. I would greatly appreciate any help to either fix this problem or suggest a replacement. Right now I am using JuK, but I like amaroK better... if it just didn't crash so much... Thanks in advance, Basajaun -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
