Re: [Dorset] Can login to router
Hi Tim On 09/07/2021 19:51, Tim wrote: HI Guys Not Strictly Linux but marginally related. I currently can not login into my Draytek 2926 Router, I just get bad username or password. Now I know roughly when I last logged in and one of the many things I have on my todo list is to update the router login details, so I may have updated it, forgotten all about it and here we are today. I save all my password to a password saving program (well I thought I had) but due to my own stupidity I only realised to day that the backup file for the password program is over written on a daily basis so there no point in trying to look back for an older version. So other than factory reset, do I have any other options, there was only the one account on the router with no remote access. I use Draytek routers. Assuming you did change the password then I think it's a factory reset. Tim -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-08-03 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Wireless dropping out
Have you tried moving your kit to a different location? My wife's car jams our wifi - she has to park it well away. Even though I'm 6ft from the router and showing 90-100% signal. On 2.4 and 5GHz. We also have an alarm system (in a different location) which periodically reports RF jamming (at certain times of the day, and at certain times of the year). The RF spectrum is awfully congested these days. Tim -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-03-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] CentOS petition
On 21/01/2021 16:23, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty wrote: On 21/01/2021 12:59, Tim Waugh wrote: Here's the latest about this: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/new-year-new-red-hat-enterprise-linux-programs-easier-ways-access-rhel Tim. */ Oh that looks really good, thank you for sharing :) Makes me feel quite a lot better about the whole thing. Dunno, I think it's just in Red Hat's corporate culture to monetise their stable offerings while keeping the free distros more or less bleeding edge (they are after all a business). I remember, with the EOL of RH9 back in 2004, asking on the list whether to move to Fedora or Debian; ended up switching to Debian. So I'd wonder how long this new RHEL offering will last. There's Rocky Linux on the horizon, but could that go the same way as Centos in a few years? Tim -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-02-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Old Books - Junk?
On 06/01/2021 11:02, Terry Coles wrote: On Wednesday, 6 January 2021 10:55:39 GMT Victor Churchill wrote: in Schlaer&Mellor's OO Systems Analysis or various other tech titles. I'm not even sure that a charity shop would welcome them - especially now, of course - but it seems a shame to just pulp them. I tried to get rid of some (originally) quite expensive but out of date text books some years ago. The charity shops didn't want them because they had more books than they could easily shift and those were novels etc. I found the same a while back with some historical technical books from the 1920's. Charity shops only want novels. And books aren't really meant to go into the blue recycling bins. I either burn them in a woodburner to get a bit of heat out of them, or compost them (minus the covers). Tim -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2021-01-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Home PBX Resources.
Hi Ralph On 06/05/2020 14:39, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi, Conversation in the virtual meeting late last night turned to establishing a PBX at home hanging off a single POTS line. Here's some related resources based on what was said and a bit of searching since. What are FXO and FXS? A brief summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_exchange_service_(telecommunications)#Use_in_voice-over-IP_systems More detail: https://www.dceexpress.com/what-are-fxs-and-fxo/ So I think the incoming POTS would connect to an FXO device which, `from the point of view of a telephone exchange, appears to be a telephone'. The other side of the FXO would be a digital interface to the computer, e.g. a PCI Express card. Yes, my understanding too. Once it's digital, VoIP phones could be used around the house with each having a unique extension number. Android and iOS devices can also run apps to be a VoIP phone; there might be lots of those already around, especially older models. A well-known telephony interface manufacturer is https://www.sangoma.com/telephony-cards/analog/ One device that keeps coming up in the Linksys SPA3102. Discontinued some years ago, but seems to have been well thought of. There's one or two on Ebay along with what looks to be Chinese knock-offs. It's difficult to find any current products that will do this - I guess nowadays people use a VOIP provider... An alternative is for the existing land-line number to terminate with a VoIP supplier on the Internet and to use the home's Internet connection thereafter. A POTS does have the advantage of working in a power cut. Yes! Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2020-06-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Local food suppliers
On 09/04/2020 10:26, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty wrote: Here's a link to a list of local food suppliers who are now doing online delivery for people in Dorset. Thought it might be useful for some of you. https://www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/News/News-Features/COVID19/Find-help-or-help-your-community/How-to-get-help/docs/bcp-community-food-suppliers.pdf Hamish I found this a few days ago: https://www.milkandmore.co.uk https://www.montanasonlinestore.co.uk/ Whole lot more at: http://www.dorsetmums.co.uk/companies-delivering-food-and-provisions.html Tim -- Next meeting: Online, Jitsi, Tuesday, 2020-05-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Next Meeting - COVID-19 Situation
Hi Terry On 30/03/2020 13:20, Terry Coles wrote: The discussion about Zoom recently shows how iffy it is to get it going. I've used Skype on Linux to keep in touch with family for years, but some people are reluctant to use it because of the fact that it isn't Open Source (neither is Zoom). I would guess that quite a few of us have a tablet or smartphone with Skype installed too - that's what I tend to use rather than running it under Linux as it's pretty universal and is just expected to work (which it does at least most of the time). Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, post-lurgi 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Next Meeting - COVID-19 Situation
Hi Hamish On 17/03/2020 22:35, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty wrote: I think a remote meetup would be nice. We could also use something like Discord potentially. WhatsApp requires that they have your phone number I believe - I won't be using that. Count me in. Just need a decision on what to use. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, post-lurgi 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Difference between adduser --disable-logins and adduser --disable-password
Hi Ralph On 06/02/2020 22:47, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi again Tim, https://arlimus.github.io/articles/usepam/ is relevant; sshd's ‘UsePAM’ configuration. Yes, I think that's a pretty good synopsis of the situation. I believe that setting the account expiry date is the definitive way to lock an account from both interactive logins and SSH public keys, as you mentioned. Easiest way is sudo chage -E0 username and to unlock sudo chage username Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2020-02-04 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
[Dorset] Difference between adduser --disable-logins and adduser --disable-password
Hi From the man page: --disabled-login Do not run passwd to set the password. The user won't be able to use her account until the password is set. --disabled-password Like --disabled-login, but logins are still possible (for example using SSH RSA keys) but not using password authentication. --disabled-login inserts a ! in the password field of /etc/shadow, --disabled-password inserts a * in the password field. Testing on Debian 10, either way it's possible to log in with SSH using a keypair. So I'm guessing this gets overridden by PAM setup. Does anyone have a better insight into this. Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2020-02-04 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Switching away from Evernote
Hi Hamish On 18/01/2020 10:23, Hamish MB wrote: Hi all, I've been thinking about switching away from Evernote as there's no native Linux client, and the upload limit for free accounts is quite restrictive. Has anyone got any suggestions for replacement note-taking and syncing services? Emacs Org Mode. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2020-02-04 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Moving POP3 Suppliers with Thunderbird.
Hi Ralph On 15/01/2020 17:17, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi, A Thunderbird question; I've not used it. Thunderbird is happily fetching mail from a POP3 account. The supplier of the account is going to start storing emails sent to the account on a new server to be accessed at a different domain name, etc. They'll stop storing emails on the old server. Can Thunderbird be told there's a second POP3 account to check for email whilst continuing to access the first? With emails from both effectively merging together in the one inbox? This would avoid the need to synchronise Thunderbird's switch-over with the supplier. I've only used TB for IMAP, and you can certainly have multiple accounts. It looks like this https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/unify-your-pop-email-accounts-global-inbox answers your exact question. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2020-02-04 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] OT: Lifetime of TV screens
Hi Graeme On 06/12/2019 16:18, Graeme wrote: On 06/12/2019 12:00, dorset-requ...@mailman.lug.org.uk wrote: Re: OT: Lifetime of TV screens I have two extension boards: one powers devices that have to be on 24/7 such as aerial amplifier, HDD recorder. The other powers the TV, DVD player, fresat tuner. The latter remains on from first switch-on (wife watching one-* disaster films while ironing!!) to when I retire. I've long recognised what Terry says about leaving electronic devices on because switching off/on can stress them - I have all my computers on 24/7, and 4 of them are running Boinc. The situation is a bit different when power cycling into standby as the power consumption is very low, so thermal cycling effects are typically orders of magnitude less than in going from standby to fully on. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2020-01-07 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] OT: Lifetime of TV screens
Hi Peter On 06/12/2019 09:17, PeterMerchant via dorset wrote: The question that has been raised at home is whether it is better to turn off (Standby) the TV when you leave the room for a short period. The one opinion that I have found on the Internet is that leaving it on only costs an small amount of electricity. Happy with that. But is there a cost in terms of stressing the components and reducing the lifetime for modern TVs? We have a Samsung and a Toshiba LCD TV. And does any answer relate to computer screens? No, won't affect the lifetime of the TV either way, but will shorten the life of the switch on the mains socket, which has a finite number of cycles. Same with a computer screen - they're the same thing really bar the TV receiver. If you want to consider secondary factors: Leaving it on in the winter converts a tiny amount of electrical energy into a tiny amount of useful heat. In a damp room, better to leave it on. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2020-01-07 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
[Dorset] Email case sensitivity
Hi Interesting experience yesterday. I needed to send an email to someone at Microchip (major semiconductor manufacturer) and she gave me her email address over the phone (jane@microchip.com). I sent the email, which didn't arrive. Tried again, same thing, so she sent me an email, from jane@microchip.com Turned out the local part of the email address was case sensitive. She had no idea this was the case, and it's the first time I've ever (knowlingly) encountered this. Looking at the email headers, they're using a Microsoft Exchange SMTP server. For the low-down: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9807909/are-email-addresses-case-sensitive Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2020-01-07 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] CUPS browsing fails on Wifi access point
Hi Ralph On 01/08/2019 13:24, t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: Reading through this and comparing router setups, work is not configured as an IGMP proxy, but home is. Will do some more tests with that disabled later today. That appears to fix it. Well, to the extent I was testing. lpstat -s is still coming up with two non-working versions of each printer (Airprint_printername_servername and printermanufacturer_printername_series_server_name). Evince greys these out but also comes up with the plain printername, which works. Libreoffice doesn't. lpq -a finds nothing at all. This may be down to something on the CUPS server, so will compare with the work config. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-08-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] CUPS browsing fails on Wifi access point
Hi Ralph On 01/08/2019 11:00, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, At work, where I have a similar Draytek router, I see the printers with lpstat -s, no problem. Google found https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/guides/kb-bonjour-setup, Bonjour being another name for mDNS that's involved in service discovery, but Draytek restrict readership to registered users so I've no idea if it's worth reading. :-( I'm registers - the Draytek's can advertise their own services with Bonjour, so that's what that is about. Neither of my routers have this enabled. This answer has lots of interesting detail on what a crazily complex area it is. :-) https://superuser.com/questions/730288/why-do-some-wifi-routers-block-multicast-packets-going-from-wired-to-wireless/733115#733115 Reading through this and comparing router setups, work is not configured as an IGMP proxy, but home is. Will do some more tests with that disabled later today. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-08-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] CUPS browsing fails on Wifi access point
Hi Ralph On 31/07/2019 22:14, t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: Couple of things I'll try here. I see the router has a recent firmware update which I'll flash. And I have a similar Draytek router at work. I'll see if I get the same issues there. Updated the router. I do now sometimes see the printers when connected to AP0, but it's not consistent. At work, where I have a similar Draytek router, I see the printers with lpstat -s, no problem. Next steps will be a detailed comparison of the home/work CUPS server configs, switch off AP1 and AP2, and compare router configs. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-08-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] CUPS browsing fails on Wifi access point
Hi Ralph On 31/07/2019 11:30, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, Basically, it's a toggle setting and toggling the IPv6 resets the router and I get IPv4 entries in the avahi-browse response (IPv6 enabled or disabled). Switching to one of the other AP's, and back again, and I just get IPv6 entries appearing, whether IPv6 is enabled or disabled on AP0 (which is definitely strange). Could it be that IPv6 responses are being remembered when talking to a non-AP0 but then can't be used with AP0? If the laptop temporarily disabled IPv6 on the Wi-Fi interface then it would be using IPv4 to all APs? Something like this should do. It's temporary, resetting to default on reboot. i=wls34# Change to suit. ip a s dev $i # Show the ‘before’. sysctl net.ipv6.conf.$i.disable_ipv6 sudo -i sysctl net.ipv6.conf.$i.disable_ipv6=1 ip a s dev $i Just tried this, important to rerun after AP reconnect, and it sheds some light on the issue. Connected to AP0 with IPv6 disabled on the laptop and on AP0, I get no response to avahi-browse -at That's to be expected following the earlier test result. However, it's good to confirm it. So I guess that tells us that Avahi browsing is not getting through that router on IPv4, and that CUPS is having a problem with Avahi on IPv6? Couple of things I'll try here. I see the router has a recent firmware update which I'll flash. And I have a similar Draytek router at work. I'll see if I get the same issues there. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-08-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] CUPS browsing fails on Wifi access point
Hi Ralph On 30/07/2019 12:41, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, I'm compiling a summary of your results. # avahi-browse -at + wlp1s0 IPv6 Brother HL-5270DN series @ golux Internet Printer local ... As above, AP0 shows only IPv6 entries. I have IPv6 disabled on that AP (a Draytek 2862), following our discussions where you suggested I try that. On AP1 and AP2 I get IPv4 entries too. If I disable IPv6 on AP0 (which causes it to reboot), Am I reading that correctly? Despite IPv6 being disabled on AP0, when connected to it avahi-browse shows IPv6 results? It then goes on to say IPv6 is then altered to be disabled on that AP, but it already was? Or are some 4/6 en/dis mixed up? :-) They are a bit mixed up. Basically, it's a toggle setting and toggling the IPv6 resets the router and I get IPv4 entries in the avahi-browse response (IPv6 enabled or disabled). Switching to one of the other AP's, and back again, and I just get IPv6 entries appearing, whether IPv6 is enabled or disabled on AP0 (which is definitely strange). I did find https://wiki.debian.org/DissectingandDebuggingtheCUPSPrintingSystem#The_CUPS_Error_Log that describes how to get more information out of CUPS. I'll take a look. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-08-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] CUPS browsing fails on Wifi access point
Hi Ralph On 29/07/2019 20:30, t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: While following on from the fresh install on AP0, and still on AP0: # avahi-browse -at + wlp1s0 IPv6 Brother HL-5270DN series @ golux Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Canon MP230 series @ golux Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 AirPrint HL-5270DN-Home @ golux Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 AirPrint MP230 @ golux Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Brother HL-5270DN series @ golux Secure Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Canon MP230 series @ golux Secure Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 golux Remote Disk Management local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Canon MP230 series @ golux UNIX Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Brother HL-5270DN series @ golux UNIX Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 UPNP IPC-D120 - 214492577 Web Site local + wlp1s0 IPv6 UPNP IPC-D120 - 214492577 _psia._tcp local + wlp1s0 IPv6 UPNP IPC-D120 - 214492577 _CGI._tcp local As above, AP0 shows only IPv6 entries. I have IPv6 disabled on that AP (a Draytek 2862), following our discussions where you suggested I try that. On AP1 and AP2 I get IPv4 entries too. If I disable IPv6 on AP0 (which causes it to reboot), then I can print while connected to it (just a reboot doesn't normally help). That's until I connect to AP1 and back again. Toggling IPv6 on AP0 (enabling it), again allows me to print. However, in each case the lpstat -s report is "bad". IPv4 entries in the avahi-browse report tie in with the ability to print. So looks like IPv6 is playing a role in this, though not in an obviously direct way. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-08-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] CUPS browsing fails on Wifi access point
Hi Ralph On 29/07/2019 11:55, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, # apt-get purge cups cups-common cups-daemon # apt-get install cups cups-common cups-daemon If I do this while Wifi connected to AP1, then lpstat on laptop: #lpstat -s no system default destination device for AirPrint_HL_5270DN_Home_golux: implicitclass://AirPrint_HL_5270DN_Home_golux/ device for AirPrint_MP230_golux: implicitclass://AirPrint_MP230_golux/ device for Brother_HL_5270DN_series_golux: implicitclass://Brother_HL_5270DN_series_golux/ device for Canon_MP230_series_golux: implicitclass://Canon_MP230_series_golux/ - all good. If you repeat that purge and install whilst connected to AP0 instead, do you still get the same good lpstat result? That would show it's whatever AP is connected during the starting of CUPS after install that's good rather than some difference between AP0 and AP1 that makes AP1 break things. No, I get the bad lpstat response. Another command to try with the different APs is ‘avahi-browse -at’. I'm guessing the local CUPS is also using mDNS/DNS-SD to discover local network things and this may show if it's CUPS having problems, or discovery in general. While following on from the fresh install on AP0, and still on AP0: # avahi-browse -at + wlp1s0 IPv6 Brother HL-5270DN series @ golux Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Canon MP230 series @ goluxInternet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 AirPrint HL-5270DN-Home @ golux Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 AirPrint MP230 @ goluxInternet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Brother HL-5270DN series @ golux Secure Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Canon MP230 series @ goluxSecure Internet Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 golux Remote Disk Management local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Canon MP230 series @ goluxUNIX Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 Brother HL-5270DN series @ golux UNIX Printer local + wlp1s0 IPv6 UPNP IPC-D120 - 214492577 Web Site local + wlp1s0 IPv6 UPNP IPC-D120 - 214492577 _psia._tcp local + wlp1s0 IPv6 UPNP IPC-D120 - 214492577 _CGI._tcp local So looks OK. BTW, following your earlier suggestion, I have IPv6 switched off on AP0. I found a bug in this area, though I don't think it's related. It does suggest this area isn't problem free, though. https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=928838 Yes, and I was getting this problem before upgrading the laptop to Debian 10. New bit of info: if I connect to AP1 after being on AP0 and go to an application (Evince), I /can/ print. For each printer I get three listings: for the HL5270DN the AirPrint_HL_5270DN_Home_golux and Brother_HL_5270DN_series_golux ones (as reported by lpstat) are greyed out but an additional HL-5270DN-Home one is available and works. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-08-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
[Dorset] CUPS browsing fails on Wifi access point
Hi I have a long-standing issue with connecting to a CUPS server on a network which has 3 Wifi access points. CUPS server is running Debian 9, tests are with a Debian 10 laptop. Starting with a fresh re-install of CUPS on the laptop: # apt-get purge cups cups-common cups-daemon # apt-get install cups cups-common cups-daemon If I do this while Wifi connected to AP1, then lpstat on laptop: #lpstat -s no system default destination device for AirPrint_HL_5270DN_Home_golux: implicitclass://AirPrint_HL_5270DN_Home_golux/ device for AirPrint_MP230_golux: implicitclass://AirPrint_MP230_golux/ device for Brother_HL_5270DN_series_golux: implicitclass://Brother_HL_5270DN_series_golux/ device for Canon_MP230_series_golux: implicitclass://Canon_MP230_series_golux/ - all good. Disconnect from AP1 and connect to AP0 and I get: # lpstat -s no system default destination device for AirPrint_HL_5270DN_Home_golux: ///dev/null device for AirPrint_MP230_golux: ///dev/null device for Brother_HL_5270DN_series_golux: ///dev/null device for Canon_MP230_series_golux: ///dev/null From then on it's game over. Can reconnect to AP1, restart CUPS on the laptop but printers showing ///dev/null. Ralph - I know we discussed this a couple of months back - however this condition where the printers are permanently lost is new, I'm guessing following the upgrade to Debian 10 (CUPS 2.2.10). Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-08-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Links from 2019-07-02's Pub Meet.
On 03/07/2019 21:01, PeterMerchant via dorset wrote: I remember ed. I don't think that I have used it for about 30 years and I can't remember what OS that was on. I did use ed, but also edlin on DOS boxes. I remember reading the CP/M ed manual in horror in the early 1980's (on a home-built Nascom II which I still have), wondering why they'd still provide anything so primitive! But then used edlin for a couple of years on early PC's developing in assembler and C. Incidentally, a pair of floppy disk drives with PSU, interface card and CP/M cost around £800 in 1983 - £2288 today according to https://www.inflationtool.com/british-pound Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-08-06 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] OCR from Chinese
On 06/06/2019 12:21, Terry Coles wrote: On Thursday, 6 June 2019 12:11:33 BST Ralph Corderoy wrote: Give us an image of the runes and we may be able to confirm their language? http://hadrian-way.co.uk/Misc/Xeredex_Silver_Glue_Instructions.png[1] That's simplified Chinese. -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-06-04 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] The Linux Solution book
On 01/05/2019 11:12, t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: On 01/05/2019 11:06, Terry Coles wrote: On Wednesday, 1 May 2019 11:02:43 BST t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: Yes, I've read the preview too and looks very good. How do us Linuxers actually read Kindle books without a Kindle tablet though? It appears that Linux isn't directly supported, which is kind of ironic given that the Intro points out that Amazon is powered by Linux. There is an online reader that works in a browser. I actually use my Kindle, a Kindle App on my phone and the reader on Linux. Does the reader run in Firefox? Yes it does, bought it and looking forward to a good read. -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-05-07 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] The Linux Solution book
On 01/05/2019 11:06, Terry Coles wrote: On Wednesday, 1 May 2019 11:02:43 BST t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: Yes, I've read the preview too and looks very good. How do us Linuxers actually read Kindle books without a Kindle tablet though? It appears that Linux isn't directly supported, which is kind of ironic given that the Intro points out that Amazon is powered by Linux. There is an online reader that works in a browser. I actually use my Kindle, a Kindle App on my phone and the reader on Linux. Does the reader run in Firefox? -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-05-07 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] The Linux Solution book
On 01/05/2019 10:54, Terry Coles wrote: On Wednesday, 1 May 2019 10:03:01 BST Keith Edmunds wrote: Hi everyone! My book, "The Linux Solution", is available on Kindle for 99p today. All proceeds to Great Ormond Street Children's Charity. I'd appreciate it if you were able to support both the book and GOSH by spending 99p on it (the offer is only for today). I enjoyed reading the introduction and if the rest of the book is written in the same style, it will be worth 99p! Yes, I've read the preview too and looks very good. How do us Linuxers actually read Kindle books without a Kindle tablet though? It appears that Linux isn't directly supported, which is kind of ironic given that the Intro points out that Amazon is powered by Linux. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-05-07 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] KMail "ghost" messages after deleting from IMAP folders
On 12/04/2019 12:10, Hamish MB wrote: Interesting, cos thunderbird does this as well - I'll see if I can find an option for that in there too. I select the options to move deleted emails to a Trash folder, and to expunge this on exit. Gives you the chance to undelete any accidentally-deleted emails. IMHO, Thunderbird is a pretty much flawless IMAP client and has been for many years. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-05-07 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Knotes and other means of keeping files
On 16/03/2019 16:55, Keith Edmunds wrote: On Sat, 16 Mar 2019 16:19:53 +, dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk said: Until Google retires Keep. For that reason, I have started using Simplenote. Not as sexy as Keep, but it does support markup, and runs natively on Linux, OSX and Windows as well as in a web browser. Another option is Emacs Org mode. Everything from note taking, todo lists, agendas, calendaring, project time tracking to producing formatted documents (using markup) and publishing to LaTeX, PDF, HTML, and can use Tramp mode to access from anywhere over SSH. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Linux bridging software for MTDfV
Hi Ralph On 10/03/2019 11:16, Ralph Corderoy wrote: I think https://metacpan.org/pod/WebService::HMRC::VAT#SYNOPSIS shows the use of that Perl library, once `MY-ACCESS-TOKEN' is obtained. The same author provides a suite of HMRC libraries, including https://metacpan.org/pod/WebService::HMRC::Authenticate#SYNOPSIS to get tokens, that were originally developed for https://ledgersmb.org/. HMRC provide a sandbox to run code against for testing. Interesting, so presumably this should find its way into LedgerSMB at some point. Do you reckon this could be the basis of a simple FOSS bridging software that takes a CSV file and interacts with the HMRC service? It would be an interesting learning experience which I'd be keen to get involved with, but would need some help to get some traction as all of this stuff is completely unfamiliar territory. The House of Commons Treasury Committee have tackled the provision of free software for MTD, including VAT: physical page 10 of https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmtreasy/1135/1135.pdf and starting on physical page 31 of https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmtreasy/927/927.pdf Despite all the assurances in these documents (and the consultations that are referenced in them) that free software would be available, this hasn't materialised yet, and I can't see any reason why it would from the commercial sector (loss-leaders doesn't really cut it). I imagine the one or two very low cost offerings will disappear after a year or two. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Ralph On 11/03/2019 13:49, t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: As of today I think I'm actually a few steps behind on all this. I'd blocked CC#2's phone from connecting to the network (at the MAC level) but this morning he managed to take the network down for 15 minutes before leaving for school, and for several hours at various times yesterday. Finally got to the bottom of this. I thought I'd accounted for any additional routers but CC#2 had found one and has been plugging it in to an extension socket when the coast is clear. For whatever reason, that router wins out when both routers are connected. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Ralph On 11/03/2019 10:31, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, I had another idea. Use Quality of Service rules to slow down traffic to sites CC#2 likes, e.g. YouTube, during verboten hours for the whole home network on the assumption it won't impact SWMBO. The idea being that access works, but playback is stutters, etc., so he'll get bored. I see Draytek have a similar idea, but using DNS to block entirely, and capturing all DNS queries so 8.8.8.8 isn't a workaround. https://www.draytek.com/en/faq/faq-security/security.firewall/how-to-block-youtube-for-some-of-lan-clients-only/ Yes, I'm doing something similar with the bandwidth limiting, and also Opendns, which can be used to block video sharing sites in general, or Youtube specifically. But the biggest time-waster is actually a game (Mobile Legends) which doesn't have any great bandwidth requirements, but appears to be completely addictive. That's the one I need to ration. As of today I think I'm actually a few steps behind on all this. I'd blocked CC#2's phone from connecting to the network (at the MAC level) but this morning he managed to take the network down for 15 minutes before leaving for school, and for several hours at various times yesterday. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Patrick On 10/03/2019 01:36, Patrick Wigmore wrote: My experience of RADIUS is limited to being a sometime user of [eduroam][1], which uses it. Thanks for explaining how this could work. If the client can be reliably forced into a particular VLAN or a particular IP address by the access point on the basis of the client's authenticated identity, then it is going to be easy for a router/ firewall to control what the client can access and when. The built in Draytek server allows for setting an IP address and mask and they have a number of help guides which I'll go through. But I'm getting the impression this is a bit OTT for a home network. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Linux bridging software for MTDfV
Hi Ralph On 09/03/2019 17:27, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, Come April all VAT returns to HMRC will need to be through a new digital portal. This is Making Tax Digital for VAT. Did you get anywhere with this? I did some digging at the time and still have a bunch of browser tabs open from then, but didn't have time to write it up. I revise their content and do that if it's not now a solved problem. No, I drew a complete blank, but I see HMRC have now updated their website so that you can now filter on bridging software, which lists 58 providers. So it's a matter of trawling through these to find something suitable, skipping the likes of Deloitte, KPMG and Mazars. So for instance https://1clickaccounts.com/ (second in list) is a web based solution that accepts CSV files, £9.95 per year. If there are no hidden catches then that is a possibility. I'm going to see how the dust settles as we have a few months before doing our first MTD VAT return. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Patrick On 08/03/2019 21:56, Patrick Wigmore wrote: I have got the impression from these messages that Tim might be quite enjoying the cat and mouse game, and so going straight for the 'nuclear option' of RADIUS might spoil the fun! Having said that, perhaps I am underestimating the adversary. Yes, not only that but I'm hoping that CC#2, by trying to beat the system, will learn a bit about networking rather than just using it. As someone who hasn't come across RADIUS before, could you explain how it could help in this situation (i.e. preventing someone from connecting to the network with an arbitrary IP address)? One 'cheaper' option for authentication would be to just have more than one WiFi SSID. Yes, that's a possibility, as the Draytek has multiple SSIDs with scheduling. But fairly quickly the unscheduled SSID passwords will be compromised. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Ralph On 08/03/2019 16:23, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, There's a fair number of devices (20-30) on the network at any time. I've not used it, and don't fully understand its operation, but I wonder if RADIUS is well suited to the `authentication and authorisation' of clients to the home network. https://freeradius.org/ is popular and packaged for Debian. This would be at a higher level than MAC or IP address and allow password or certificates to be used for authentication. With RADIUS's third `A', accounting, CC#2 could be given the option of out of hours access for a fee. :-) Haha - thanks, will do some reading. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Keith On 08/03/2019 16:46, Keith Edmunds wrote: You might want to install arpalert, too. http://www.arpalert.org/arpalert.html Thanks, have installed and set this up. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Stephen On 08/03/2019 11:17, Stephen Wolff wrote: Hiya then for around 30 minutes in the morning, returning exactly as Cost Centre #2 left for school. Blimey. Hadn’t considered that CCs could upset networking routing in the house. I think I’d better try this SmokePing thing Try Ralph's script - it tracked down the culprit for me pretty quickly! Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Ralph On 08/03/2019 11:12, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, then for around 30 minutes in the morning, returning exactly as Cost Centre #2 left for school. I was going to mention at the club if it could be your policy rules interfering. It didn't occur to me it could be them being routed around. :-) A few months ago, everything starts being a bit flaky. Sometimes I can't get a DHCP response from Golux when trying to connect my own laptop to one Wifi access point, but can do from one of the others. I have my suspicions, especially as rebooting the router clears the problem. Suspicions reinforced as flushing the router ARP table also clears the problem. But can't see anything untoward in the ARP table contents. Could #CC2 be switching to your laptop's MAC address? I think the evidence is that he's switching to Golux's IP address, as I lose connectivity with Golux from work (over VPN) when he's doing his thing. My laptop's off/asleep so it's really out of the equation. What I can't explain though is that I can't contact the router either from work during those times, and from the logs the router WAN actually goes down. I did suspect at one point he may be plugging another router into a phone extension socket, but have ruled that out. Could be down to the router being configured to use Golux as its DNS server. 7. So, last night, a quick fix of blacklisting CC#2's phone MAC for Wifi access in all the access points, although longer term will change this to a whitelist and IP filtering. How about leaving the mouse to continue his excursions, but see if you can monitor traffic levels over time by MAC or IP address on the Draytek. Or if the Draytek doesn't offer that, on Golux, if all traffic must pass through it to reach the Draytek. That might give a clue as to what's being spoofed? Yes, I had that in mind. If it's just the IP address it should be fairly quick to nail. If it's MAC and IP address, could take a bit of figuring and may be easier to bring out the thumbscrews :) There's a fair number of devices (20-30) on the network at any time. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
On 06/03/2019 13:12, t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: Will let this run for a few days (with time limit removed) and see what happens. Well the results are in. Connectivity was lost for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, then for around 30 minutes in the morning, returning exactly as Cost Centre #2 left for school. Lost connectivity again in the afternoon on CC#2's return, back up again on my return home. There's supposed to be a 1 hour phone internet access time for CC#2 in the evening, once homework etc. has been done, but he's obviously worked his way around all the blocks I've put in place over the years. Out of general interest, here's the setup that's subject to an ongoing game of cat and mouse. 1. Debian 9 server "Golux" running (amongst other things) ISC DHCP server and BIND9 DN, Draytek router/Wifi access point, two other wifi access points. 2. Golux forwards non-local name resolution to OpenDNS. The router firewalls are set up so that DNS port 53 is only open to Golux, so preventing casual setup of static IP address/DNS server config on devices. 3. Golux DHCP server allocates CC#2's devices dedicated IP addresses. 4. Router has bandwidth management so that specific IP addresses can be throttled back (to any level, including to nothing, so blocking internet access) on a schedule. The above setup was good for several years until CC#2 got a bit older and found that by setting up his devices with static IP addresses he could beat the internet blocking. He could also cause maximum annoyance by either switching off the router or hiding its cables. 5. Golux, router, access points, network sockets under physical lock and key (!) 6. In router, strictly bind MAC addresses to IP addresses. What this router feature means is that only specified MAC/IP address pairs have access to the internet. So, CC#2 can't change his IP address to beat his 1 hour play time. I'm not sure he can change his phone MAC address, but if he does, the same applies. A few months ago, everything starts being a bit flaky. Sometimes I can't get a DHCP response from Golux when trying to connect my own laptop to one Wifi access point, but can do from one of the others. I have my suspicions, especially as rebooting the router clears the problem. Suspicions reinforced as flushing the router ARP table also clears the problem. But can't see anything untoward in the ARP table contents. Which pretty much brings us up to date. CC#2 is unsurprisingly evasive as to what he's actually been doing, but I'm guessing that he has been setting his phone to Golux's IP address and getting some level of connectivity from that. I'm doubting he's changing his MAC address as this would be too much of a faff and he certainly makes use of his "official" 1 hour time slot which requires a specific MAC/IP pair. I was assuming that using Golux's IP would fully trash everything, rather than causing partial network paralysis, but I guess it's down to ARP caches in each device exactly how things pan out. 7. So, last night, a quick fix of blacklisting CC#2's phone MAC for Wifi access in all the access points, although longer term will change this to a whitelist and IP filtering. The saga continues... -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-04-02 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Aidan On 06/03/2019 13:22, aidangcole--- via dorset wrote: Personally, I tend to use SmokePing for this type of thing https://oss.oetiker.ch/smokeping/ Took a look at this as it looked ideal, but does pull in a bunch of dependencies including Apache and a mail server. Cheers Tim On 06/03/2019 13:12, t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: Hi Ralph On 06/03/2019 08:53, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi, Discussion last night included spotting if one's connection to the Internet suffered problems overnight. The conclusion was a simple script to log data for later inspection with journalctl(1) was probably good enough. Attached is such a bash script. I haven't run it as I'm in a hurry today, so bugs are left as an exercise to the reader to discover. :-) Thanks for this. In the end used the echo rather than logger so that running under nohup just writes the log to nohup.out Will let this run for a few days (with time limit removed) and see what happens. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-03-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-03-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-03-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Monitoring Internet Connectivity.
Hi Ralph On 06/03/2019 08:53, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi, Discussion last night included spotting if one's connection to the Internet suffered problems overnight. The conclusion was a simple script to log data for later inspection with journalctl(1) was probably good enough. Attached is such a bash script. I haven't run it as I'm in a hurry today, so bugs are left as an exercise to the reader to discover. :-) Thanks for this. In the end used the echo rather than logger so that running under nohup just writes the log to nohup.out Will let this run for a few days (with time limit removed) and see what happens. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-03-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
[Dorset] Linux bridging software for MTDfV
Hi Come April all VAT returns to HMRC will need to be through a new digital portal. This is Making Tax Digital for VAT. Where existing software is not compatible, a option is to use "bridging software" which takes data from a file (e.g. in CSV format) and transfers it to the portal. It's only 6-7 numbers, so a huge amount of hassle and a portent of things to come. Unlike with RTI for PAYE, where HMRC provides a basic tool for small businesses (including a Linux version), for MTD they've left it to the market. So far, unsurprisingly, I've yet to find any Linux MTD bridging software. Which is ironic, as HMRC publish the API at https://github.com/hmrc/vat-api and from the dollar signs and references to Bash in the documentation it looks like this is being developed under some *nix and all the dependencies are FOSS (Scala, Java, SBT). Don't know if there's anyone else on the LUG in the same boat, looking for a Linux solution to this. Obviously it's possible to build a utility using the API but web development isn't my bag. Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-03-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] PVR disk formatting problems
Hi Peter On 04/02/2019 11:10, PeterMerchant via dorset wrote: My Humax 9150T PVR is starting to give problems on playback where it skips and hesitates and sometimes the sound is out of sync with the video. Yes it is quite old. I bought a second one recently to use for a replacement hard disk, but it worked so well I put in use on the downstairs TV for the grandchildren. The hard disk is a WD1600AVVS where the AV indicates that it is built for AudioVisual purposes such as security monitors etc. It's 160GB. I attached it to my computer and it is not seen. Gparted shows the disk as unformatted.> Q1. Is there a utility or Distro that can read this disk? I would like to copy off the programs if I can. [The Humax only has a serial port for communications, and no means of exporting programs] Presumably you could just use dd for this but it will need to be readable of course. Q2. If I buy a new disk, is there anything that will format it appropriately? The Humax does have a format disk option, so perhaps that would do it. I used to have one of these and yes, from memory you just use that. However, in my case the problem was failure of the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply (several of them were underspec'd). I replaced all of them and got a couple of extra years of life out of the machine, before it finally failed for good. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-02-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Password manager
Hi Tim On 24/01/19 21:25, Tim wrote: Evening all I am considering setting up a password manager for all the family password (all your eggs in one basket??) It will need to be cross platform (Windows and Linux), I can not make my mind up if I want to keep the database on my own NAS or host it in a cloud situation (all your eggs in one basket and letting somebody else look after it??) which would be useful for some password away from home Would be interested to hear other peoples thoughts view and if you use a password manager which one do you use and why? Been using KeepassX for a number of years, with no problems. Cross platform, although I have only installed from Debian repositories. KeepassXC is a community fork, due to lack of recent development on KeepassX, and so may be preferred now. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-02-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] OpenWRT (was Network connectivity issues)
On 15/01/19 17:52, Paul Tansom wrote: If you want to play there are plenty of budget routers to experiment with and some are even easily available through things like Freecycle / Freegle / Gumtree / etc.. My first one, which admittedly was with DD-WRT not OpenWRT, was a D-Link DIR615 that I picked up for free as it was badged as a Virgin router. It was only custom firmware on standard hardware, so could be re-flashed with the stock firmware (much like the Netear DG834 units used by Sky some years ago - I did well with free ones of those reflashed too stock allowing an easy VPN to parents and in-laws for IT support - there was an odd date bug in the log email code though that jumped the month back a couple of months at the end of the year). That I setup as a wireless access point with a straight forward install of DD-WRT. This was a handy cheap way of extending my wifi coverage. Actually, two of the access points (original post) are WRT54G running DD-WRT. Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-02-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Network connectivity issues
Hi Ralph On 13/01/19 16:58, Ralph Corderoy wrote: #ip neigh add 192.168.2.8 lladdr 00:24:d2:94:35:16 dev wlp1s0 RTNETLINK answers: File exists That suggests there was an (incomplete?) entry already and either `replace' or `change' should be used. Yes, looks like something to do with arp tables, maybe tied in with clients moving from access point to access point. One access point is a router, and the others are connected to Ethernet sockets on that router. I'll do further tests. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-02-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Network connectivity issues
Hi Ralph On 13/01/19 11:31, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, I'll just ask lots of questions in the hope it strikes lucky. I have a puzzling issue here, in that I can't see a laptop on my network from my own computer (normally I can ssh into the laptop just fine). Both are connected via Wifi. The laptop has a static IP. So both Computer and Laptop are *only* connected by Wi-fi. Yes. Computer's IP address is from the router's DHCP server. The Laptop's IP address is static. Is that last one done by having the DHCP server always dish out the same IP address for Laptop's MAC address, or the Laptop has it configured directly? If the latter, does the DHCP server know to steer clear of the static addresses when allocating dynamically? IP addresses are from third machine (server), which is running dhcpd dishing out addresses to Laptop and Computer. Laptop gets same IP address 192.168.2.8 from its MAC address, Computer gets its from a pool, 192.168.2.205. The DHCP server pool is well clear of the static IP's. Can Laptop see Computer, e.g. ping(1), when Computer can't see Laptop? No. All devices are on the same IP network, including the network mask? Yes. However, I can ssh into a third computer on the network How is Third connected? Also Wi-fi only? Static or dynamic IP address? Cabled, static IP 192.168.2.2. and from there can ping (and ssh into) the laptop. When Computer SSH's into Third, does w(1) show you've come from the Computer IP address you expect? Does `arp' show Computer's MAC address or that of an access point? w(1) shows 192.168.2.205 as expected. arp shows the MAC address of Computer, not an access point. Can Laptop SSH into Third? Ditto above WRT w(1). Haven't got SSH set up for SSH logins from Laptop to Third, although I expect it to work as these machines can see each other on the network. arp lists the laptop HWaddess as incomplete. There's also ip-neighbour(8) that gives `ip neigh' to show the table, and allows an entry to be added. When it's not working, you could try explicitly adding an ARP table entry to Computer for Laptop and see if that makes it work. OK, tried #ip neigh add 192.168.2.8 lladdr 00:24:d2:94:35:16 dev wlp1s0 RTNETLINK answers: File exists Further tests: Disconnecting both Computer and Laptop from the access point and then reconnecting both to a different access point. Now Computer cannot see Laptop /or/ Third computer. So disconnect Computer again and get physically close to the access point. Reconnect and now can see both. Repeat with original access point, ensuring in close proximity. Again can now see Laptop and Third from Computer. So looks like a poor Wifi signal on original connect may be a factor. I have seen something similar previously in terms of getting an IP address from the DHCP server. I appear to be connected to the network but have no IP address assigned to Computer. I am using Network Manager of XFCE and suspect that under weak Wifi conditions I'm only getting a partial connection. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-02-05 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Network connectivity issues
Hi Keith On 13/01/19 07:56, Keith Edmunds wrote: On Sat, 12 Jan 2019 19:56:35 +, t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk said: I can't see a laptop on my network from my own computer What exact commands are you typing, and what exactly is the response? tda@ux305ca:~$ ping 192.168.2.8 PING 192.168.2.8 (192.168.2.8): 56 data bytes 92 bytes from ux305ca (192.168.2.205): Destination Host Unreachable 92 bytes from ux305ca (192.168.2.205): Destination Host Unreachable 92 bytes from ux305ca (192.168.2.205): Destination Host Unreachable -- Next meeting at BEC: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-02-05 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
[Dorset] Network connectivity issues
Hi I have a puzzling issue here, in that I can't see a laptop on my network from my own computer (normally I can ssh into the laptop just fine). Both are connected via Wifi. The laptop has a static IP. However, I can ssh into a third computer on the network and from there can ping (and ssh into) the laptop. The Wifi network has a total of three access points and whether the laptop and my computer are connected to the same or different access points makes no difference. All three machines running Debian 9. So far I have restarted Network manager on my machine. arp lists the laptop HWaddess as incomplete. I am periodically seeing issues of this kind, and would like to try to figure out what's going on. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting at BEC: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2019-02-05 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Oscillating sensor values
Hi Graeme On 09/10/2018 11:35, Graeme Gemmill wrote: Interesting comments, thank you. 1. The DS18S20 is a sensor I happened to have around unused. Tim is correct - it doesn't need/use the 5v. 2. It WAS the freezer. I turned it off for two hours and the oscillation stopped and resumed after switching on again. The air in the summerhouse is very static - only ventilation is what comes through the keyhole. The heat given off from the condenser cooling coils must be what's driving the temperature variation, and I know that RH varies with temperature, but why such a small variation can affect humidity readings by 2 % points I can't imagine. Any physicists out there? From the Honeywell HIH-4031 data sheet: Temperature compensation: True RH = (Sensor RH)/(1.0546 – 0.00216T), T in oC Cheers Tim -- Next meeting at *new* venue: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-11-06 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Oscillating sensor values
On 07/10/2018 17:58, Terry Coles wrote: On Sunday, 7 October 2018 16:25:42 BST Graeme Gemmill wrote: Ralph, Terry, thanks for the replies. Further information: Sensors are Hobby Boards DS18S20 and Sheepwalk SWE3 humidity sensor. The only common factor with those two devices would seem to be the +5 V PSU brick. If the PSU voltage was varying by a small amount over time, then the readings will too. If this is the case, you might have to provide a PSU brick with better regulation or insert a regulator into the line between the brick and the devices. Can you run the two devices from separate PSUs to see if the variations stay in step? The DS18S20 should not be affected by power supply variations, but could be a resolution issue, depending on what resolution has been configured in the software (Maxim APP4377). Slightly unusual to be using the DS18S20 as it's designed to be backward compatible with the DS1820. The DS18B20 is normally used when that backward compatibility is not required. From the SWE3 website: "This is a humidity sensor module based on a Honeywell HIH-4031 humidity sensor interfaced to the 1-Wire bus with a Maxim DS2438Z IC.". The HIH-4031 produces an analog voltage scaled to the supply voltage. The DS2438Z has two analog inputs, one of which is Vdd, so if the software does things right it should be doing ratiometric convertions, eliminating the supply voltage from the humidity reading. A simple test is to hook up a lab supply and vary by +/-5% and look at the readings. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting at *new* venue: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-11-06 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Question on 3 V from Pub Meet.
Hi Terry On 04/10/2018 14:57, Terry Coles wrote: On Thursday, 4 October 2018 14:42:40 BST t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: There's an internal current source and it's settling at that voltage with no load to source current into. That's not at all obvious from the datasheet either. Is there another reference that tells you this? Or this down to good old-fashioned experience? What is the purpose of this current source? Yes, just gleaned from the Iil spec. It's a typical input configuration. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting at *new* venue: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-11-06 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Question on 3 V from Pub Meet.
Hi Terry On 04/10/2018 12:22, Terry Coles wrote: I still don't understand why the inputs were sitting at 2 to 3 V with nothing connected. Unless my Ohms Law is rustier than I thought, there can be no input current if there is no connection. Normal logic gate inputs might float a bit if they are left disconnected, but they normally wouldn't deliver enough current to destroy a Pi! There's an internal current source and it's settling at that voltage with no load to source current into. This is not the type of circuit which lends itself to breadboarding. Lots of high peak currents so need really good ground and power planes and careful decoupling. I only stuck the chip onto a breadboard (in isolation) to try to understand the input voltages that I was seeing. I assume however from your comment, that Veroboard would be no better than breadboard for this circuit, I have in the very distant past breadboarded similar circuits on perf board with solid copper planes. All the grounds can be soldered to the plane on one side and power to plane on other side. Then spot face cut with a regular spot face cutter (power/grounds) or annular cutter for non-power/ground pads. But even then you really end up with too much inductance on other critical signals. Much easier to lay out a PCB. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting at *new* venue: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-11-06 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Question on 3 V from Pub Meet.
Hi Terry On 03/10/2018 10:25, Terry Coles wrote: With that in mind we decided to use Power MOSFETs (specifically the IRLZ34NPBF (https://docs-emea.rs-online.com/webdocs/0791/0900766b807913d5.pdf)) because their ON Resistance is very low (about 0.05 Ohms in this case). To drive it we chose the HIP4082IPZ H-Bridge FET Driver (https://docs-emea.rs-online.com/ webdocs/14f5/0900766b814f52f3.pdf). Don't know the background to this but that driver is a bootstrap device for use with high-side NFETs in an H bridge motor driver. It must be driven by PWM and with that type of device it's important that the PWM is kept below 100% otherwise the high side gate drive voltage falls and the high side FET is destroyed (for starters). Some good background info at https://www.fairchildsemi.com/application-notes/an/an-6076.pdf Detailed analysis on the relationship between maximum PWM duty cycle and bootstrap components at: https://www.fairchildsemi.com/application-notes/AN/AN-9052.pdf That's the background, now the problem. I built a circuit based on the Application Block Diagram on Page 3, but I couldn't get it to work. To bring the 12 V / 3 V thing into the discussion; the chip can be powered by any voltage between 8.5 V and 15 V and the logic levels have to be less than approx 1 V for a Low and greater than approx 2.7 V for a High. In theory the Pi can do that, although we are aware that we may have to buffer the inputs to get the high level well above the minimum. What I found was that when the Pi put out a high (measured on the LHS of a 100 k limiting resistor), I got 3.3 V (standard Pi High level) and when the Pi put out a low, I got close to 0 V. However, the actual chip pins (RHS of the 100 k resistors) never went below 1 V. From the data sheet, Iil is 100uA, so through a 100k resistor that's a 10V drop. Ends up settling at 1V as the bias current reaches equilibrium. In desperation, I laid out a brand new chip on a breadboard, applied 12 V between Vdd and Vss (and nothing else) and measured the inputs. What I got was around 2 V or more. At first I thought the inputs were floating, so I connected the Pi directly, (without the 100 k limiting resistors) and I now have an ex-Pi, so there was current behind the volts. This is not the type of circuit which lends itself to breadboarding. Lots of high peak currents so need really good ground and power planes and careful decoupling. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting at *new* venue: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-11-06 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Firefox extensions gone after Debian 9 upgrade
Hi Ralph On 25/09/18 17:46, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, On Debian 9, I've been using Adblock-plus (via the xul-ext-adblock-plus package). On a recent normal upgrade this is no longer listed in the Firefox extensions. Tried purging and re-installing xul-ext-adblock-plus, then uninstalled it and installed xul-ext-ublock-origin as an alternative, with same result. Firefox stopped supported XUL extensions at some point; only the `web extensions' are supported. I'm guessing Firefox has just upgrade across that boundary for you and so the installed XUL packages are of no use. Ah, that explains it. I think the security-updates APT source may have caused a big jump in Firefox versions because the old one was too hard to patch. Yes, 52→60, if package firefox-esr is what's installed. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/source-package/firefox-esr https://packages.debian.org/buster/webext-ublock-origin exists, but not in stable, only testing, AFAICS. I expect there's many in the same boat as you. I'll look into it more tomorrow if you haven't solved it by then; out of time now. My statement "and a third machine with xul-ext-ublock-origin installed and working" was wrong. That machine has ublock-origin installed but not via xul-ext-ublock-origin, which explains why it works. For now, I'll just install the extension via Firefox on a per-user basis until Buster goes stable. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting at *new* venue: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-10-02 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
[Dorset] Firefox extensions gone after Debian 9 upgrade
Hi On Debian 9, I've been using Adblock-plus (via the xul-ext-adblock-plus package). On a recent normal upgrade this is no longer listed in the Firefox extensions. Tried purging and re-installing xul-ext-adblock-plus, then uninstalled it and installed xul-ext-ublock-origin as an alternative, with same result. Looking in my profile directory now, there's an addblockplus subdirectory, but nothing resembling a ublock-origin directory. Tried creating new profile, still no extensions listed in that. As I recall, once the Debian package is installed that used to provide the extension to all users. I have another machine with same situation, and a third machine with xul-ext-ublock-origin installed and working (all at latest Debian 9). Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks Tim -- Next meeting at *new* venue: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-10-02 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Visual basic on Linux
Hi Ralph On 13/09/18 17:05, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, For his school computing course, my son has been told he needs to download Visual Studio 2017 onto a Windows PC, to write some simple programs in vb.net. We don't have any Windows machines It used to be Linux users were the odd ones out and everyone else had a Windows PC at home. Then that became a Windows laptop. But these days I'm seeing more homes without any PCs because tablets and phones are preferred by the public and do everything they want. So it's still possible a pupil won't have Windows at home, but that's because they'll have Android or iOS devices, or the Jones's will have an iMac Pro. This suggests to me the trend for being able to run VB.Net is in downwards. Do they not have a Windows PC lab where you can check in at lunch time or after school, like the wall of Commodore PETs and then BBC Masters in my day? Beats standing outside on a cold day, even if you get locked in and have to climb out a window... I asked that question, and the teacher mentioned that they have a RemoteApp feature where the pupils can log in to a school computer from home and run up VS remotely. Perfect, problem solved hopefully (yet to try it). Of those, Python is the clear winner for education. The first two are too complex and would put off pupils, (and programmers!), Pascal died with Borland, and VB.Net was just to coerce VB programmers into .Net even though the languages are different in many ways. Yes, some interesting language choices there. However, it probably doesn't really matter what they use. They're only going to get a flavour of what programming is about in this course, anyway, and they're all equally valid in terms of the fundamentals of a programming language. Python's cross-platform, even the GUI too with TkInter. It's common on the Raspberry Pi. The BBC micro:bit uses the MicroPython derivative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro:bit It's no contest out of those. I agree. https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/computer-science-and-it/gcse/computer-science-8520/teaching-resources is interesting. PDFs for lots of topics to cover, e.g. Huffman code. And Python syntax code cards for Coding Club. Nothing for VB.Net, Java, ... So perhaps it's the school's choice to plump for VB.Net rather than the examination board's syllabus? I hope it's not the school's governors identifying that's what industry requires; as John said, VB.Net is decaying fast and legacy/maintenance now. I would think it's down to the teacher. Can't imagine school govenors having the remotest idea about appropriate programming languages. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting at *new* venue: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-10-02 20:00 Check if you're replying to the list or the author Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
Re: [Dorset] Visual basic on Linux
Hi Terry On 13/09/18 07:43, Terry Coles wrote: On Wednesday, 12 September 2018 21:43:45 BST t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: For his school computing course, my son has been told he needs to download Visual Studio 2017 onto a Windows PC, to write some simple programs in vb.net. We don't have any Windows machines, so for starters I complained about this when my kids did ICT at school over 10 years ago. The whole thing is divisive. Rich parents can afford to buy an expensive PC whereas the poorer and (possibly less educated ones) won't have one and couldn't afford one anyway. This means that the rich kids get an unfair advantage. At the time, I was running Linux almost exclusively on all the machines in the house. We had one c***p Dell running Windows 98 (I think), so we could comply with the Windows bit. However, the requirement at the time was MS Office, which cost £100 for a single user Student addition (and another £100 for each subsequent child of course). Some of you may remember that I campaigned on this to my MP after considerable help from this list to write a Paper and accompanying Presentation (using OpenOffice of course). I had thought that the message had got through and the updates to the curriculum had banished this brain-dead approach to teaching ICT in schools. It may be worth investigation and a complaint if your son's school is clinging on to the old syllabus. Totally agree, and the whole thing is compounded by the kids natural tendency to groupthink (Windows machine = expensive, therefore good). Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-10-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Visual basic on Linux
Hi Patrick On 13/09/18 00:11, Patrick Wigmore wrote: Hi Tim, ...my son has been told he needs to download Visual Studio 2017 onto a Windows PC... Are there any options other than spending several hundred pounds on a new PC to run this bloatware for compiling programs. MonoDevelop is probably the closest equivalent to Visual Studio on Linux, supporting most of the same languages and libraries (or drop in replacements; i.e. Mono instead of .NET). For console programs or those using third party libraries for graphics (e.g. MonoGame) it's more or less equivalent. However, last I looked, the GUI builder in MonoDevelop only supports GTK GUIs, unlike Visual Studio. So, for GUI programs, you probably want to stick to one IDE or the other. I've run Visual Studio on Windows 7 in VirtualBox, and it is usable with 4GB RAM and VT-x hardware acceleration. It is one of the slower applications though. It takes ages to load on real hardware too, but once it's going it feels a bit more responsive. This is running on a dual core Celeron N3060 1.6GHz with 8GB RAM (Debian 9). I've devoted 4GB to the virtual machine and best performance is with both cores available to the virtual machine. And of course if you're not booting Windows every day, the first thing it's going to do when you boot up your virtual machine is run Windows Update in the background and bog itself down for several minutes doing whatever it is that Windows Update does that takes so much time and effort. Well, that's a real revelation. Looking at the service host processes under the Windows task manager, there are a bunch of update processes. After 15 minutes or so these are done and the machine becomes usable - thanks! Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-10-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
[Dorset] Visual basic on Linux
Hi For his school computing course, my son has been told he needs to download Visual Studio 2017 onto a Windows PC, to write some simple programs in vb.net. We don't have any Windows machines, so for starters I installed Windows 10 and VS 2017 under Virtualbox. But it's painfully slow (primarily CPU-bound). Are there any options other than spending several hundred pounds on a new PC to run this bloatware for compiling programs (starting with Hello World)? I've so far read about Visual Studio Code and Mono, but unsure whether either of these will provide what we need. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-10-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] CV148 Description and Spec
Hi Terry On 06/06/18 15:44, Terry Coles wrote: I'm not sure that I understand that. My 1-Wire Temperature Sensors (https:// www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HCB8GLU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00? ie=UTF8&psc=1) only have three wires; +3.3 V, 0 V and data. When I connect them to my Pi I can read the temperature without any messing with pulse generation or measurement. That's fine - whoever has written the 1-Wire interface driver software will have needed to mess with those things. I can see that if we wanted to design the interface in discrete components or low-level logic, we would probably need to think about such things, but even we aren't daft enough to try that :-) What we need is the 1-Wire interfacing components that are integrated into the DS18B20. I wasn't suggesting that, only implementing the 1-Wire driver code on the Pi, but I gather that's all been done. In terms of multiplexing several Hall effect sensors, you could use a PISO shift register (eg 74HC165) and clock the bits out as with SPI. For longer distances, I'd suggest a single chip micro to read the Hall devices and send the data over asynchronous serial (RS232, RS485 etc). An MC9S08SH8 is available in DIL package and a USBDM programmer can be bought on Ebay for around £20. We are happy with getting the bits into serial and have considered several designs. We've got to the point of deciding the best interfacing technique at the moment. Currently we are prototyping a system using I/O expander chips and I2C. If that throws up problems then we'll look at SPI, 1-Wire or RS232/422/485 and whatever logic we need to get the bits to the bus. Looks like Ralph has located what you were looking for! Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-07-03 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] CV148 Description and Spec
Hi Terry On 06/06/18 13:53, Terry Coles wrote: Pros and Cons of I2C and 1-wire Interfaces: This is to communicate with multiple devices connected to a Raspberry Pi. Two fundamental elements are relevant. I2C (literally Inter-Integrated Circuit) is only good for short distances, but has the advantage of allowing addressing as part of the protocol and sensor design. 1-Wire has longer range, but the devices arrive with their unique identifier hard coded into them by the manufacturer. After last night, I was unsure whether we would be able to implement a level sensor with 1-wire capability, since they tend to be very expensive and aimed at specific industries and therefore expensive. Our current level sensors are using hall-effect devices with a bit per level, so we clearly want to multiplex that data into a serial bus of some kind. This appears fairly easy with I2C, but not so easy (because of the unique ID requirement) with 1-wire. The jury's still out. With I2C you are typically limited to just a small number of identical devices on the same bus, as they come preprogrammed with a 7-bit identifier, with the ability to change perhaps 1 or 2 of those bits (but if there are no spare pins available on the device, it won't be possible to select any address bits). 1-Wire devices come with a 64-bit identification code (8 bit family code, 48 bit serial number, 8 bit CRC). This allows multiple identical devices to hang off the same bus and be uniquely identified. Identification of all devices on the bus is via a search routine implemented in the master. One problem with 1-Wire is that it requires time-critical pulse generation and measurement. The DS2282-100 IIC to 1-Wire bridge allows you to avoid time-critical stuff on the master processor. In terms of multiplexing several Hall effect sensors, you could use a PISO shift register (eg 74HC165) and clock the bits out as with SPI. For longer distances, I'd suggest a single chip micro to read the Hall devices and send the data over asynchronous serial (RS232, RS485 etc). An MC9S08SH8 is available in DIL package and a USBDM programmer can be bought on Ebay for around £20. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-07-03 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Range of a Cat 5 Ethernet Signal
Hi Terry On 21/03/18 11:07, Terry Coles wrote: Hi, We've just re-connected our WMT Webserver with the antenna in its new location at the far end of the site. The server is currently in the old location so there is about 70 m of armoured Cat 5 cable between the two. The Question is; do we need something a bit more powerful at each end to drive the lines or do we need something at both ends? 70m ought to be fine but may depend on the quality of the cable (i.e. is it solid copper or copper-clad aluminium). For what it's worth, I have a long exterior cable run of around 100m with POE with a TP-Link or Netgear POE switch at the near end, fairly new installation so Cat 6, but running at 100MHz. I have two switches to hand; a very cheap TP-Link and a bit more expensive Belkin job. With the TP-Link, only the near end indicator lights and with the Belkin, both indicators come on. This leads me to believe that something a bit more powerful might do the trick. When the Belkin is installed the phone gets an IP address, but fails to retrieve the data. Could be the switch. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-04-03 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Uninterruptible Power Supplies
Hi Graeme On 11/02/18 17:31, Graeme Gemmill wrote: That was a bit of a rant; in fact, I couldn't be bothered to read it all. I bought a APC back-up 800 UPS many years ago after 6 power outages in one day It's sufficient to supply 2 PCs and their monitors, a Buffalo network backup device and the hub that connects them (operation time 17 mins) . I have replaced the battery once. I use the excellent apcupsd software. Not a great expense in the wider scheme of things, and I'm very pleased I have it. According to the log, most outages are very short - a few seconds - and there have been 56 since 29 October 2017. 'Nuff said Yes those were my thoughts too. I have 3 APC SmartUPS ranging in age from 12 to 21 years. With apcupsd they just get on and do their stuff. Sealed lead acid batteries last approx 4 years in these sort of applications; I've brought various replacements off ebay (the UPS 700 batteries have somewhat rare 1/4" terminals on 12Ah cells which is something to watch). I noticed probably 15 years ago that apcupsd started reporting these very brief outages and did look into switching that off (as I generally didn't see so much as a flicker to indicate they were of any significance) but just learned to live with it. I don't think a UPS is a good community-driven project. The voltages, currents, and consequences of getting something wrong (and there's loads that can go wrong), are way too nasty. Then there's custom magnetics, EMC - the list goes on and on. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-03-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Using Two USB Audio Adaptors and Selecting the Right One Programatically
Hi Ralph On 22/01/18 14:04, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Terry, `const char *p' means p is a pointer to a char that's const. Although it's a bit ugly in this case, I prefer to write this as char const *p Then you can read right to left: p is a pointer to a const char. This makes life easier when things get more involved. Working on a bunch of definitions at the moment which look like: uint8_t volatile * const tpmsc_rising i.e. tpmsc_rising is a constant pointer to a volatile uint8_t. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2018-02-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] YAWMT Question
Hi Terry On 22/06/17 12:25, Terry Coles wrote: On Thursday, 22 June 2017 12:17:56 BST Terry Coles wrote: I'm not sure that I understand how this works. Taking the Remote Pi; it reads the water level and writes the value to a variable. Fine so far, but how can the Master Pi, then read that variable? That variable is a location in the Remote Pi's RAM, so is inaccessible to another device. Thinking about this a bit more; clearly the Master Pi can get access to the Remote Pi's variables through SSH, but wouldn't it then have to maintain multiple SSH sessions? Sorry, from your description I'd assumed you'd got the data in the master. To get it there you would need a connection to each slave for sure. At the lowest level you can use sockets but it's not an area I'm familiar with in the Linux world. Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2017-07-04 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] YAWMT Question
Hi Terry On 22/06/17 11:54, Terry Coles wrote: Hi, (Yet Another Wimborne Model Town Question) :-) The system design for the WMT River System Water Sustainability Programme (that really is its name) is progressing slowly and we have tentatively agreed on a number of things. The control system will be a distributed network of Raspberry Pis, interconnected by Ethernet cable (we are trialling Power over Ethernet to see if we can power the remote devices without needing mains local to them). Each device will be responsible for taking one or more measurements of water depth, flow, etc and, in certain locations, for controlling pumps. My question is about distributing data (eg measurements and speed demands). There will be a master controller orchestrating everything, so we need to get measurement data from the Remote Pis to the Master Pi and possibly pump speed demands the other way. As a systems engineer my instinct is to use a central database which each of the Pis can write to or read from. So for example, a level measurement value gets written to a record and the Master Pi reads that record to use when determining if a pump speed needs to be changed. The Master Pi then writes the speed demand to another record, which the Remote Pi reads and acts upon. My reasoning for selecting a database is that there won't be problems if a Remote Pi is trying to write to a record at the same time as the master is tring to read it, plus, I believe that it should be possible to do all these transactions over the Ethernet link. However, my knowledge of database functionality is very much at the systems level, so before I embark on a programme of research, does anyone have any comments on this approach? If there is a better way, I'd like to hear about it. Using a database to deal with concurrent reads and writes is a bit of overkill. These are only an issue if you have multiple threads running on the master AND reads and writes are not atomic. Using variables equal to or less than the word width of the processor (32 or 64 bit?) is therefore fine without worrying about concurrency and 32 bit or less variables should be more than adequate for this application. If you did need variables with non-atomic access from multiple threads then simply placing read/writes to them in critical sections (interrupts briefly disabled) protects them. All far simpler than bringing a database to bear. Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2017-07-04 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
[Dorset] HP Microserver
Hi You can currently get £70 cashback on an HP Microserver (£155 + VAT). These are regular deals. At the price I think these are great little machines for general light server duties at home or work. Very neatly thought out inside with four drive bays (no disks included) and pretty light on power consumption. https://www.serversplus.com/microserver_cashback do them, among others. Currently running Debian on a couple of these. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2017-05-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Python Function Appears to be Entered Twice
Hi Terry I've come into this a bit late I know, but get the impression things are getting rather involved to read some switches, although I may have got the wrong end of the stick. You don't need hysteresis to read input switches. You just need a pullup resistor and the switch to ground, or a pulldown and switch to Vcc. I prefer the former, as I don't like Vcc wandering around. In the old days of TTL it had to be pullups but that was long ago. Typical CMOS thresholds will be close to mid-rail, but it doesn't really matter. Simplest way to debounce is scan keys every 100ms or so and on every 1 to 0 transition log a keypress. Typical bounce will be much less than 100ms. You can get more involved than this if you need auto-repeat, and repeat times are comparable to bounce times, but assuming that's not needed here, we can forget about all that. If libraries are getting in the way, then there must be a way of reading raw port inputs. Everything is then under your control. Hope this helps. Cheers Tim On 20/03/17 13:17, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Terry, So bounces can reach that simple callback that printed the current time in your cut-down Python test program? In the pub, there was mention of daylight savings time. I can't remember how the Pi copes, but you said WMT only opens in the summer. http://www.wimborne-modeltown.com/visitor-information/basic-information/ says Wimborne Model Town is open between 1 April and March 19th and 29 October daily (They were emailed a while ago about the two start dates.) Assuming `29 October' is correct, DST will end in the early hours on that day. ;-) $ for d in 28 29; do date -d "12:00 2017-10-$d"; done 2017-10-28 12:00:00 +0100 Sat 2017-10-29 12:00:00 + Sun $ Cheers, Ralph. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2017-04-04 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Links from Last Night's Pub Meet.
On 08/02/17 12:44, John Carlyle-Clarke wrote: Isn't backwards compatibility great? Reminds me of this oddity that still exists in Windows http://superuser.com/questions/613313/why-cant-we-make-con-prn-null-folder-in-windows Ah, memories of PIP PUN:=CON: in the days of good ol' CP/M Cheers Tim On 8 February 2017 at 12:06, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi, One main thing; poking about an NTFS filesystem mounted with ntfs-3g on a Linux laptop using FUSE. Many of the files showed a link count of two, that second field from `ls -l', but there was no second occurrence of the file's inode number on the filesystem. ntfs-3g's support forum has an explanation. http://tuxera.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=858&p= 3383&hilit=link+count+2&sid=fa22e085b9df90934edc125c1bcf70bb#p3383 A short 8.3 name is present, but not returned by readdir(3) so can't be found. It can be accessed by name, e.g. FOOBAR~1.TXT, if you guess correctly. Short names aren't created for new files. We did think it might be this, but the deception doesn't persist to the inode-count output of `stat -f'. That showed a lot less inodes used than the sum of all the link counts for all the filesystem's contents. If on Windows, there also seems to be a `fsutil 8dot3name' command to manipulate the 8.3 name; that would presumably lower the displayed count in Linux to one confirming it's the cause. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff621566%28v=ws.10%29.aspx Cheers, Ralph. -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2017-03-07 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2017-03-07 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] SSID Hiding
On 07/02/17 09:02, PeterMerchant via dorset wrote: On 06/02/17 16:19, Terry Coles wrote: Hi, I have just installed a shiny new Netgear VSDL Router to replace the never updated Plusnet supplied one. The main reasons that I bought it is that the Plusnet router has the above mentioned lack of security patches and the inability to filter on MAC Addresses or hide the SSID. What's the point of a hIdden SSID when the moment any device starts talking to that SSID, a listener can see it in the ether? One reason to use it is where you have multiple SSID's (say mySSID which gives full access to an internal network and mSSID-Guest which just gives visitors access to the internet). Saves the confusion of a visitor trying to connect to mySSID with the mySSID-Guest password. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2017-02-07 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Restoring Grub on an EFI Machine
Hi Terry On 05/10/16 10:46, Terry Coles wrote: So the message here is, no matter how good the reviews are (and they are good), don't be tempted into buying a Linux Laptop from Dell. They are not providing anything like the same level of support that a Windows user gets, but they charge a premium price. It is a nice laptop, but I'd have been better off by the Windows one and dual-booting that. That's interesting. Looked long and hard at the XPS13 Developer Edition but in the end settled for Asus UX305 which is quite a bit cheaper. Comes with Windows but Ubuntu 16.04 has gone straight on these (UX305FA and the more recent UX305CA with HDPI screen) with no problem. Nice machines. Of course also no support for Linux, but at least not paying for it. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-11-01 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] IMAP instead of POP3 in KMail
Hi Terry On 13/06/16 16:32, Terry Coles wrote: On Monday, 13 June 2016 14:40:16 BST t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: Yes. IMAP is a proper client/server protocol. Your folder structure is all on the server. Your drafts and sent folders are (if you wish, and no reason not to) on the server. So you can flit from device to device and everything is there in one place. e.g. you can work on a draft, continue working on it from another device. Sounds good. One final question before I try it out. I currently have several thousand messages in my local folders and sub-folders in KMail. Presumably IMAP doesn't work in reverse, so I will have to recreate that folder structure at the server. So I should probably archive them into a separate local folder before I make the change? In Thunderbird you can just drag your local folders to your IMAP top-level folder (always called Inbox) - this copies (rather than moves) them. I'd assume you can do the same in Kmail. If you do the folder copy in Kmail first you would avoid needing to export local folders out of Kmail and into TB. Obviously make sure you've got backups first. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-07-05 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] IMAP instead of POP3 in KMail
Hi Terry On 13/06/16 10:26, Terry Coles wrote: Basically, I have three mailboxes (one for commercial comms, one for personal (family, friends, etc) and one for the DLUG (so I could respond to the list from Hotel rooms using only webmail, without the list server barfing at the address I was using). Those three mailboxes service around 100 aliases (simply put; one for each recipient). That way, if I get a surfeit of SPAM, I can kill the alias instead of the mailbox. This has worked well for years. The downside is that this takes a bit of management. KMail helps because it supports mailing lists very seamlessly and if I reply to an incoming message the Reply To address will be the alias that the sender used not the mailbox address, that the account uses. I couldn't get Thunderbird or Evolution to do those things when I tried them. Just tried sending myself emails to two different aliases. Hitting reply uses the alias I sent to, so unless I'm missing something that seems OK. Again, as Keith said, with IMAP all your messages stay on the mail server and are accessible from any of the devices you are using. In the typical case this will be your ISP IMAP server. OK. I think I've got that. Is the end result any different from using POP3 and ticking 'Leave the messages on the server'? Yes. IMAP is a proper client/server protocol. Your folder structure is all on the server. Your drafts and sent folders are (if you wish, and no reason not to) on the server. So you can flit from device to device and everything is there in one place. e.g. you can work on a draft, continue working on it from another device. If running your own mail server, add in a Caldav/Carddav server like Davical and your calendar and address book are also on the server and accessible from any of your devices. Lightning and SOGO connector add-ins for Thunderbird give client access to these. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-07-05 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] IMAP instead of POP3 in KMail
Hi Peter On 13/06/16 10:35, Peter Merchant wrote: Like Tim, I like Thunderbird. I use it with the lightning add-on to my Google calendar. It sorts incoming mail to the appropriate folder. It manages three email accounts, all set up as Pop3, with the settings to delete mail from the server when read. this aspect doesn't work too well, but I blame the Netscape/yahoo/hotmail servers as occasionally it picks up mail for a second time. The one thing that I miss in Thunderbird is putting emails into draft so that I can review them later before sending. It is not as easy as in my other mail programs. File, Save (or simply Ctrl-s). From this discussion I guess the one thing that would be nice to do would be to filter outgoing mail into folders., But as all the DLUG stuff comes back anyway. Procmail + formail. But Thunderbird may way be able to do this - set up a filter on your Sent folder. I occasionally read emails from these accounts on-line, but they then get picked up by T-bird when I fire it up. If Pop3 is obsolete(?) and IMAP is the current thing, can I reconfigure T-bird to IMAP and still delete emails once read? Yes, by default Delete sends to Trash folder, then Unpunge from trash either manually or on exit. All these are tweakable. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-07-05 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Printing of extra blank page for PDF's
Hi Ralph
On 13/06/16 10:13, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
when it comes to scaling when printing and the comprehensive scaling
options in Evince are completely missing in Okular.
I don't have a good command-line program for that. pdftk(1) does a
bunch of things, but not N-up printing. psnup(1) means going to
PostScript and back. CUPS offers -o number-up={1,2,4,6,9,16} and I
think it can be configured to print to a PDF? Anyone know of a good
command-line PDF-manipulation program? (Hijacking Clive's thread a
bit.)
pdftk is great but it is a PDF manipulation toolkit rather than a print
tool. cups-pdf is a PDF-printing backend for CUPS.
Cheers
Tim
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Re: [Dorset] IMAP instead of POP3 in KMail
Hi Terry On 12/06/16 12:04, Terry Coles wrote: Hi, Sometimes I wonder why I stick with KMail! This morning I made a minor change to the settings of the three mail accounts that I use and KMail proceeded to throw up dozens of errors when I closed the Settings dialog. As Keith said, try something else. I've found Thunderbird to be grief-free for many years. (Actually, I do know why I like KMail; its management of Identities, filtering and other features are better than all of the others I've tried. In particular, I like to archive messages into sub-folders and then get the filters to automatically sort incoming messages into the appropriate folders automatically.) Not sure exactly what identities management features you're after, but Thunderbird has all that. As regards mail sorting, I've always used Procmail. Really long in the tooth but very powerful and completely MUA-agnostic. In addition to sorting incoming mail, I have a cronjob which sorts all my sent messages into the relevant folders every night. My question therefore is this. If I changed from POP3 to IMAP, (to ensure that I can find the messages again in the future using any tool if this happens again) will I still be able to do all these things, bearing in mind that the messages will be retained on the server instead of locally? Again, as Keith said, with IMAP all your messages stay on the mail server and are accessible from any of the devices you are using. In the typical case this will be your ISP IMAP server. If your ISP mailbox size limits are too restrictive or you don't trust your ISP to not lose old messages, you can set up your own IMAP server. Then you can use POP3 to pull messages down from the ISP onto your own server using something like fetchmail. But getting that all set up does require a fair bit of sys admin. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-07-05 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Printing of extra blank page for PDF's
Hi Clive On 11/06/16 22:50, C Wills wrote: Info for Ralph and others:- At the last DLUG meeting I asked if anyone was having trouble when printing a PDF, as every time I print a PDf it produces a blank page after the last page ( a blank does not show on any print preview). Ralph had a look but all the usual suggestions did not provide an answer. Tonight I tried changing the default reader from Evince to Ocular and no extra page was printed! To confirm I printed the same file again with Evince - blank page printed! I've not been able to find any setup options/properties in Evince; so my default is now Ocular. If anyone can tell me if there is a setup in Evince for PDFs I'll try going back to the supported default. System used is Cinnamon Mint 17.3 I've seen this in the past. Each new version of Evince seems to introduce a new set of printing bugs. Although it's a couple of Debian (stable) releases back that I saw this. From memory it's associated with the way Evince mishandles duplexing (ie it treats a non-duplex printer like Laserjet 6P as a duplex printer). Try printing a pdf with an even number of pages to confirm - you shouldn't get the blank page. Currently using Evince 3.14.1 (Debian Jessie), and that has issues with scaling pages, which disappear if you do a print preview prior to printing! But the blank page problem is fixed. Okular is OK, but the biggest limitation is that it decides what to do when it comes to scaling when printing and the comprehensive scaling options in Evince are completely missing in Okular. So it's no good for printing things like sheets of labels. Okular is also very easy to set up with synctex if you happen to use LaTeX for writing documents. Then there's Xpdf. I've found that it is unable to print many PDF's at all. The other option is to print straight to CUPS: lpr -P printername file.pdf Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-07-05 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Ex-Plessey and on Facebook, and watching here?
Hi Peter On 09/06/16 15:09, Peter Merchant wrote: Dorsetforyou have posted a picture of Plessey c 1970. I didn't join until 1978, but it looks like the shop floor in C block to me. Any body recognize it? P. Fascinating. No computer terminals or Teletypes, however there's an old Creed 75 printer on the chair on RH side. All men, thin ties, chap in jacket with 60's style glasses, thermos flask on desk, 'scope with circular screen - certainly looks c 1970. Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-07-05 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Mysteries of X Servers [solved]
On 13/05/16 10:33, t...@ls83.eclipse.co.uk wrote: Hi Ralph On 13/05/16 00:51, Ralph Corderoy wrote: I'd guess that either Xfce is asking for server fonts that the server doesn't have, Cygwin apparently has a whole load of fonts in separate font-... packages now rather than put lots into the main package, or it can't use the client-side fontconfig fonts because the Cygwin X server doesn't support one or more extensions it wants, xdpyinfo(1) lists a server's extensions. Does Cygwin's /var/log/xwin/XWin.1.log give any clues? Can you XDCMP-connect with a Linux X server, but from another machine so the local/remote font difference still applies? Nothing particularly obvious in terms of uninstalled fonts in Cygwin. I'm actually looking at two Cygwin machines. One with Windows10 and fresh Cygwin install. One with XP and an older Cygwin install. On the Win10 machine I'm able to specify the remote machine as font server C:\cygwin\bin\XWin.exe :1 -clipboard -query fleet -fp tcp/fleet:7100 - not that it seems to make any difference whether or not I do that. On the XP machine, specifying font server causes Cygwin to hang. My assumption has been that a font server will serve up fonts. $ fslsfonts -server fleet:7100 fslsfonts: unable to open server "fleet:7100" Ah no font server - I am on the right track here? On your second point, I can log in from remote Linux/Xephyr, WinXP/Cygwin, WinXP/MobaXterm, Win10/Cygwin machines. The Cygwin logins show the wrong fonts and XFCE icons. $ aptitude show xfs No current or candidate version found for xfs Package: xfs State: not installed ... But even stranger is that I get a different set of desktop icons when logging in from XWin than logging in any other way. I am set up to use Tango icons but looks like when connected via XWin this changes to Adwaita theme. I hadn't appreciated that X icons are somehow configured server-side, but that seems to be the case. As is often the case, there were multiple issues here. Firstly, doing away with specifying a font server from Cygwin/X (remove -fp switch) resulted in a full complement of X fonts becoming available. The mystery of the incorrect theme was a bit more elusive. From an XP machine login it spontaneously corrected itself which left a Windows 10 machine being the only remote login which showed this effect, and only when loging in as myself, not as other users. That left environment or some config file on the X client. Eventually tracked it down to the presence of an XFCE config file ~/.config/xfce/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/display.xml. It was the differing screen resolutions from different X server machines that was triggering the effect. Deleting this file gave the correct theme from all machines. It may end up being regenerated on a local login, something I rarely do. Glad to have Cygwin/X back working after probably 10 years of using XMing, Mobaxterm etc, as it is a very nice X server. Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-06-07 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Mysteries of X Servers
Hi Ralph On 13/05/16 00:51, Ralph Corderoy wrote: I'd guess that either Xfce is asking for server fonts that the server doesn't have, Cygwin apparently has a whole load of fonts in separate font-... packages now rather than put lots into the main package, or it can't use the client-side fontconfig fonts because the Cygwin X server doesn't support one or more extensions it wants, xdpyinfo(1) lists a server's extensions. Does Cygwin's /var/log/xwin/XWin.1.log give any clues? Can you XDCMP-connect with a Linux X server, but from another machine so the local/remote font difference still applies? Nothing particularly obvious in terms of uninstalled fonts in Cygwin. I'm actually looking at two Cygwin machines. One with Windows10 and fresh Cygwin install. One with XP and an older Cygwin install. On the Win10 machine I'm able to specify the remote machine as font server C:\cygwin\bin\XWin.exe :1 -clipboard -query fleet -fp tcp/fleet:7100 - not that it seems to make any difference whether or not I do that. On the XP machine, specifying font server causes Cygwin to hang. My assumption has been that a font server will serve up fonts. $ fslsfonts -server fleet:7100 fslsfonts: unable to open server "fleet:7100" Ah no font server - I am on the right track here? On your second point, I can log in from remote Linux/Xephyr, WinXP/Cygwin, WinXP/MobaXterm, Win10/Cygwin machines. The Cygwin logins show the wrong fonts and XFCE icons. $ aptitude show xfs No current or candidate version found for xfs Package: xfs State: not installed ... But even stranger is that I get a different set of desktop icons when logging in from XWin than logging in any other way. I am set up to use Tango icons but looks like when connected via XWin this changes to Adwaita theme. I hadn't appreciated that X icons are somehow configured server-side, but that seems to be the case. The only "icons" server side have been characters in fonts, e.g. `xfd -fn cursor' familiar from mouse images. Perhaps again the client, Xfce, is having to fallback because the server doesn't support some of the image formats with a protocol extension? Guessing again. Is there any complaint from the clients in ~/.xsession-errors or similar on the client machine? On MobaXterm and Cygwin logins, .xsession-errors report (wrapper:32134): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in module_path: "pixmap", but as above, MobaXterm shows correct theme. The Cygwin login also shows several: The program 'xfsettingsd' received an X Window System error. This probably reflects a bug in the program. The error was 'BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)'. (Details: serial 126 error_code 8 request_code 139 minor_code 7) I guess rendering of themes has been pushed down to the X server with Cygwin. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-06-07 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
[Dorset] Mysteries of X Servers
Hi I normally log into my main Debian box via XDMCP either using Xephyr from another Linux machine or a windows X server. Over the years I've using Cygwin/X, XMing or MobaxTerm from Windows. By and large it's a matter of picking the one with the least glitches and lately I've been using MobaxTerm. Periodically I go back and try Cygwin/X as when it works I prefer it. I've been trying a few experiments and have a stack of questions to try to gain a better understanding over how this stuff all hangs together, but here's the first. From a Windows XP box I'm running: C:\cygwin\bin\XWin.exe :1 -query mybox -clipboard into my Linux XFCE desktop. The desktop looked vaguely unfamiliar and I realised that the desktop fonts were not what is defined in the desktop settings (normally used the MS core fonts Tahoma). Changing the settings makes no difference - I get a nice crisp, slightly large set of desktop fonts which don't match the XFCE Appearance settings. But even stranger is that I get a different set of desktop icons when logging in from XWin than logging in any other way. I am set up to use Tango icons but looks like when connected via XWin this changes to Adwaita theme. I hadn't appreciated that X icons are somehow configured server-side, but that seems to be the case. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-06-07 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] interesting statistics about operating systems
On 05/05/16 20:52, Peter Merchant wrote: I guess I am OK to let my wife stick with XP for a little while as nearly 10% of OS's out there are XP. A smaller proportion are 'other' which can only be linux. http://www.extremetech.com/computing/227693-windows-drops-below-90-market-share-for-the-first-time-in-years-windows-7-falls-below-50 Interesting pie chart. The implication is that more people are running Windows NT than Windows 2000 or Linux. Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-06-07 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] {Spam?} Using a Raspberry Pi 'Headless' and Unattended
On 11/01/16 13:21, Terry Coles wrote: On Monday 11 January 2016 13:08:25 Peter Merchant wrote: I have always understood that the way to power down the R-Pi is to unplug it, and I have never heard about problems with the memory cards. Hmm. I'm fairly sure that the RPi Foundation recommend that you do a proper shutdown before pulling the plug. I have actually had problems with corrupt SD Cards, although I haven't established why yet. Yes, it needs a proper shutdown. Two or three years back I designed a UPS to work with a Pi for a backup server, communicating over IIC, only to discover that the Pi IIC didn't implement pulse stretching. In the end it wasn't worth the effort considering an extra £60 bought an HP Microserver. So I agree the best way is any one of the embedded dev boards out there. FRDM-KL25Z gives you an Arm Cortex M0+ on a little board for a tenner. gcc for Arm and the Segger utilities then give a complete FOC Linux-based development platform. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2016-02-02 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] CUPS same printer multiple drivers
Hi Ralph On 31/10/15 00:44, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, Setting up a raw queue overcomes this. Another option I've seen is uncommenting "application/octet-stream" in CUPS's mime.types and mime.convs. This apparently lets the raw data from Windows through to the printer? Yes that's true, but Windows won't see that as a raw printer but as a cups PS printer as defined by the PPD file in /etc/cups/ppd. "application/octet-stream" seems to be enabled by default in recent CUPS releases. So the question is, can I have a raw and a non-raw version of the same printer? I've found quote a few independent pages on the Internet suggesting doing just that; multiple queues for the same printer. Found only one, very old, post that suggests jobs on different queues, same device, crash into one another. I don't think just setting up separate printer queues cuts it, as I would think that has the potential for jobs getting garbled at the backend. I guess CUPS multiplexes whole print jobs onto the backends per device? https://wiki.debian.org/PrintQueuesCUPS Several queues can point to the same physical device, the printer, #cups on freenode thought the job in process on one queue would make the device appear locked from use on the other. I don't know what method of locking that is, could well vary per type of device, e.g. locking the device file for a parallel printer. I think the way to do this is set up queue-1 for the printer in the standard way, and then queue-2 as a raw printer, but printing to cups printer on queue-1. The "application/octet-stream" on queue-1 will let the raw data straight through, and queue-2 hides the ppd from Windows. For the moment I've gone back to cupsaddsmb and Samba. Much of the issues appear to be permissions differences between different versions of Windows. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2015-11-03 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
[Dorset] CUPS same printer multiple drivers
Hi I have a CUPS server in a mixed Linux/Windows environment. In the past I have used Samba and cupsaddsmb to have the CUPS/Samba server provide drivers to Windows clients. In recent years all sorts of weirdness has crept into this setup (peculiar page sizes in Windows, unable to change page size preferences etc) so decided to move to IPP (http://cupsserver:631/printers/printername). However, it looks like I need to set up raw queues for the Windows machines to use, otherwise for some printers there appears to be a mismatch in what CUPS advertises as printer characteristics and what Windows thinks they should be (this occurs for older printers where Windows has its own drivers - it simply refuses to connect to the IPP printer at the Add Printer stage). Setting up a raw queue overcomes this. So the question is, can I have a raw and a non-raw version of the same printer? I don't think just setting up separate printer queues cuts it, as I would think that has the potential for jobs getting garbled at the backend. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2015-11-03 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
[Dorset] Illegible printouts of some web pages after upgrade to Debian Jessie
Hi Working through CUPS upgrade issues, although like the Edimax printer server problem this one isn't CUPS' fault. After upgrading to Debian Jessie, most printing seems fine, but some pages printed from Iceweasel (thunderbird) produced illegible blocky fonts (eg cups web admin pages). Tracked this down to a dangling fontconfig symlink: /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps.conf -> /etc/fonts/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf should be /etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps.conf -> /usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/70-no-bitmaps.conf Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2015-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
Re: [Dorset] Cannot print to network lpd: after CUPS upgrade
Hi Ralph On 26/09/15 10:23, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Tim, Yes I could but as I've found a work-around I think I need to move on to some of the other new CUPS problems this release has thrown up. I found mention of kernel TCP changes causing problems with Edimax Ethernet/Centronics interfaces, amongst other makes. The workaround was to set sysctl(8)'s net.ipv4.tcp_frto to 0. Without it, data was sent very slowly to the printer and it would give up waiting. Seems it was acknowledged as a kernel bug. Ralph to the rescue yet again :) That was it. Really strange that this bug was reported in Ubuntu back in '08 but I've only just seen it here. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2015-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
[Dorset] Cannot print to network lpd: after CUPS upgrade
Hi Recently upgraded a machine from Debian Wheezy (CUPS 1.5.3) to Jessie (CUPS 1.7.5). After the upgrade, print spooling to an old HP Laserjet 6P through an Edimax ethernet-Centronics print server stalls (lpd://printer:lpt1). This setup has been working previously for 10+ years. I can print to other networked lpd printers. Tried a Raspberry Pi, still on CUPS 1.5.3 - that also stalls which really surprised me. Swapping Edimaxes doesn't help. Looked at the differences in the source for lpd driver between 1.5.3 and 1.7.5 - can't see anything obvious. For now I've hooked up a USB-Centronics print server cable, but I'm really intrigued as to what the incompatibility is. Logs (on logging level debug) didn't show up anything obvious. Cheers Tim -- Next meeting: Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2015-10-06 20:00 Meets, Mailing list, IRC, LinkedIn, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk / CHECK IF YOU'RE REPLYING Reporting bugs well: http://goo.gl/4Xue / TO THE LIST OR THE AUTHOR
