RE: [gentoo-user] OT - Sending mail to a program

2005-04-05 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Here is my code:
 
 #include fstream
 using namespace std;
 
 int main (int argc, char* argv[])
 {
ofstream out;
 
out.open(/root/test.data);
 
for (int x = 0; x  argc; x++)
   out  argv[x];
out.close();
return 0;
 
 }
 
 It works fine from the command line, but when I try to send mail to it
 the file isn't written...

You're probably looking at a permissions problem.  Sendmail (and other
mailers) typically run as non-root.  Therefore when you are trying to open
/root/test.data it's probably failing miserably, throwing an exception, and
bailing.

Try changing to /tmp/test.data and see what happens.


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RE: [gentoo-user] Duplicate posts from John Lowelljohnlowell@ameritech.net on the Digest

2005-04-04 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Why people use Reply to all on a list such as this I have no idea...

Because the standard for most lists is that a reply goes to the original
sender only and 'reply to all' is used to send a message to the OP and the
list.

The gentoo list is the only one that we have seen that violates this policy
because our admins feel that w/o replying to the list knowledge would be
lost.


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RE: [gentoo-user] Monthly BugDay reminder!

2005-04-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I don't think 'fixing' is likely to happen as this discussion happens
 frequently. It mostly boils down to the list handling being correct but
 some clients seems to behave incorrectly.
 
 Personally, I'd prefer if the clients handle lists properly.

As would we all.  But the truth of the matter is that for this list I'd bet
we could find at least 10 different client programs being used, and the
chances of getting them all repaired any time soon are the same as M$
open-sourcing windows xp.

More importantly, I don't think it is specifically a client issue.  I am
very careful to look at my to: and cc: values before posting; the to: always
reads gentoo-user@gentoo.org and the cc: only has a targeted individual if I
feel that there's relevant information that person needs.

That said, I still see many of my posts duplicated on the list, often with a
significant time-lapse between the dups (i.e. 30 minutes).

Sure, it's one thing to say that the mail list admins want to adhere to the
correct standards, but it's quite another to annoy so many of the
subscribers as to chase them off, defeating the purpose of having a mailing
list at all.

We've got folks generating procmail rules and all kinds of other crap just
to handle the fact that, under the current configuration, tons of dups are
now coming through.

I admire the list admins for wanting to adhere to the standards, but at this
point in time it is probably too late in the game to do so.

Please please please bring back the old mailing list config...



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RE: [gentoo-user] Bug reporting questions

2005-04-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I'm getting an error with sys-libs/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1:
 
 #ifdef ERROR_MESS
 
 i386-pc-linux-gnu-gcc localealias.c -c -std=gnu99 -O2 -Wall -Winline
 -Wstrict-prototypes -Wwrite-strings -mcpu=i686
 -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -fPIC -g0 -O99 -fomit-frame-pointer
 -D__USE_STRING_INLINES -I../include -I.
 -I/var/tmp/portage/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1/work/build-default-i386-pc-
 linux-gnu-linuxthreads/intl
 -I.. -I../libio
 -I/var/tmp/portage/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1/work/build-default-i386-pc-
 linux-gnu-linuxthreads
 -I../sysdeps/i386/elf -I../linuxthreads/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/i386
 -I../linuxthreads/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux
 -I../linuxthreads/sysdeps/pthread -I../sysdeps/pthread
 -I../linuxthreads/sysdeps/unix/sysv -I../linuxthreads/sysdeps/unix
 -I../linuxthreads/sysdeps/i386 -I../libidn/sysdeps/unix
 -I../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/i386 -I../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux
 -I../sysdeps/gnu -I../sysdeps/unix/common -I../sysdeps/unix/mman
 -I../sysdeps/unix/inet -I../sysdeps/unix/sysv/i386
 -I../sysdeps/unix/sysv -I../sysdeps/unix/i386 -I../sysdeps/unix
 -I../sysdeps/posix -I../sysdeps/i386/fpu -I../sysdeps/i386
 -I../sysdeps/wordsize-32 -I../sysdeps/ieee754/ldbl-96
 -I../sysdeps/ieee754/dbl-64 -I../sysdeps/ieee754/flt-32
 -I../sysdeps/ieee754 -I../sysdeps/generic/elf
 -I../sysdeps/generic-nostdinc -isystem
 /usr/lib/gcc/i386-pc-linux-gnu/3.4.3-20050110/include -isystem
 /usr/include -D_LIBC_REENTRANT -include ../include/libc-symbols.h -DPIC
 -DSHARED -D'LOCALEDIR=/usr/share/locale'
 -D'LOCALE_ALIAS_PATH=/usr/share/locale' -o
 /var/tmp/portage/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1/work/build-default-i386-pc-linux-
 gnu-linuxthreads/intl/localealias.os
 -MD -MP -MF
 /var/tmp/portage/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1/work/build-default-i386-pc-linux-
 gnu-linuxthreads/intl/localealias.os.dt
 -MT
 /var/tmp/portage/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1/work/build-default-i386-pc-linux-
 gnu-linuxthreads/intl/localealias.os
 `-mcpu=' is deprecated. Use `-mtune=' or '-march=' instead.
 loadmsgcat.c: In function `_nl_init_domain_conv':
 ../sysdeps/i386/bits/string.h:655: error: can't find a register in class
 `GENERAL_REGS' while reloading `asm'
 make[2]: ***
 [/var/tmp/portage/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1/work/build-default-i386-pc-
 linux-gnu-linuxthreads/intl/loadmsgcat.os]
 Error 1
 make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs
 make[2]: Leaving directory
 `/var/tmp/portage/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1/work/glibc-2.3.4/intl'
 make[1]: *** [intl/subdir_lib] Error 2
 make[1]: Leaving directory
 `/var/tmp/portage/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1/work/glibc-2.3.4'
 make: *** [all] Error 2
 
 !!! ERROR: sys-libs/glibc-2.3.4.20050125-r1 failed.
 !!! Function toolchain-glibc_src_compile, Line 237, Exitcode 2
 
 #endif
 
 I define
 $ARCH='~x86'
 
 What product do I select when reporting this bug on Gentoo bugzilla?
 Should I just send an email directly to the glibc maintainer?

You should not do either of these things.  First you should fix your CFLAGS
to remove the -mcpu flag and replace with the appropriate -march value.

Secondly, since you're using -mcpu=686 yet gcc appears to be i386 based, I
would guess that your system setup from the ground up is poorly set up.

If you're still in the early stages of the system build, I'd suggest
starting over with valid CFLAGS; trust me, having a solid foundation ensures
that you'll end up with a stable gentoo box when you're done.

If the system has been operational for awhile, then I think you should count
yourself lucky, not emerge the glibc update, and keep your misconfigured box
running as it is.


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RE: [gentoo-user] Won't emerge -uDvp world

2005-04-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Anyways, I emerge synced, which went fine, but when I try
 to pretend to emerge -uDvp world to see what it's going to install, I get
 the error about missing /etc/make.profile and check symlink. What does
 this mean and what can I do about it? Are those the emerge options I
 should be using for this?

Possibly your /etc/make.profile is invalid, quite possibly because the
emerge --sync process removed the older profiles.  Re-create the link to a
valid profile from /usr/portage/profiles.  I've included my link for your
reference...

winux root # ls -l /etc/make.profile
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 48 Jan 28 19:45 /etc/make.profile -
../usr/portage/profiles/default-linux/x86/2004.3

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RE: [gentoo-user] Bug reporting questions

2005-04-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
NOTE: Making the changes I suggest below may impact your system (especially
by changing the CHOST).  If you choose to make them be sure to emerge
--emptytree system at least and probably the world as well.

 My make.conf has
 CHOST=i386-pc-linux-gnu

use CHOST=i686-pc-linux-gnu

 CFLAGS=-O2 -mcpu=i686 -fomit-frame-pointer
 
 Clearly -mcpu=i686 is depreciated.  What -march setting is good?
 

use CFLAGS=-O2 -march=pentium4 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer

 How does -fomit-frame-pointer effect the compilations?

It removes the frame pointer from the execution stack.  As one method calls
another, a frame pointer would normally be put on the stack to assist in
debugging.  However, it uses space that is not normally needed for a
production build, which is why it is omitted.

 I don't put -O[3-6] because I read that gcc doesn't always define such
 optimizations it falls back to -O2.  Also, I don' t know if any of the
 higher optimizations are experimental or not.

Stick with -O2 as it is the safest bet.

 I've emerged glibc about 4 times already.  I remember a similar error
 occured a while ago but was fixed by a subsequent release.

The toolchain is the critical part of any unix system; a misconfig on one of
the components can crop up in all kinds of weird and funky places at weird
and funky times.

I'm also going to guess that you do not have the nptl use flag defined in
make.conf; if you do not, add the nptl use flag as the nptl threads
currently receive more development support than the older threads.  With
your P4 they will have a better performance profile as well.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Gentoo for the Windows NT Kernel

2005-04-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
   http://gentooexperimental.org/nt/
 
 Nah!

It's got to be an april fool's joke...


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RE: [gentoo-user] Bug reporting questions

2005-04-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 OK.
 
 What does CHOST do?

It's the basis for the hosting architecture.  By defining it as 686 it (plus
the right CFLAGS) is supposed to optimize compiles for your platform.

 OK.  What does -pipe do?
 

Gcc will build intermediary files to pass between the internal components
(i.e. the preprocessor, compiler, assembler).  -pipe causes gcc to instead
pass the contents via a pipe and eliminates the need to create and write a
file plus open and read on the next tool in the chain.

 You're right, didn't have nptl defined...  (non posix threads ?)

It's still posix threads, but I think the acronym is more like 'next posix
thread library' or 'new ...', but I'm not sure.

 But before I begin, if something unexpected and interesting happens I
 won't lose my system will I?

Possible, but that's why I preceded the previous message with the NOTE at
the top.  Still it would be recoverable (might need to work from the live
cd).  But again you'll have the right solid foundation to build the system
from.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Monthly BugDay reminder!

2005-04-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Monthly BugDay reminder!
 
 On Apr 1, 2005 8:39 AM, Ciaran McCreesh [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 22:10:00 +1200 Nick Rout [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  | I say again, no other list I am on exhibits this problem, just bloody
  | change it back the the way it used to be, right, wrong or debateable
  | in technical terms. what is easiest and most convenient for the
  | majority of users, and causes the least annoyances, is the right
  | config
 
  gentoo-user is the only list where that change was causing problems.
  None of the other lists are having problems with it. I wonder why?
 
 April Fool's Joke? Because we user's are stupid? ;-)

Obviously.  That's why you're still posting to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

How many times do people need to be told to not post to that address before
it sinks in?



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RE: [gentoo-user] ssh authentication wierdness

2005-04-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 The other problem that was confusing everything is still a problem though.
 When I start the machine the /etc/init.d/sshd script doesn't start
 sshd,  /etc/init.d/sshd restart doesn't work and /etc/init.d/sshd status
 tells me that sshd is running when it isn't .  I have to /usr/sbin/sshd
 manually, after which the script works properly.

1. kill sshd
2. remove /var/lib/init.d/started/sshd
3. rc-update add sshd default to ensure it is started when the system comes
up.
4. /etc/init.d/sshd start to restart the daemon.

That should fix the remaining issues.


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RE: [gentoo-user] cyrus-sasl-2.1.20 error

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
  What's wrong with emerge cyrus-sasl?
 
 emerge cyrus-sasl fails.

How about posting a transcript of what is actually going on?

Have you tried sync'ing since this started?  If it was a temporary fluke
there may be a new or updated ebuild to fix it.

And just because the emerge fails doesn't mean the fallback position is to
attempt to use the ebuild command itself.  A failure of the emerge step
usually indicates something else is wrong, not necessarily the current
package.


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RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] moving /usr to different partition

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I want more space under /, so I tried to move /usr to a different
 partition - and (IIRC) had a 'failure to unmount the initrd' on boot...
 and no boot.
 
 So, is there a safe way to do this?

/usr is a little tricky because it will usually have open processes on it.
You can move /usr to a new partition as you have done with /opt, but you'll
need to do it from the live cd.  That's going to be the only way you can
delete the old /usr folder structure.

1. boot from live cd.
2. create new partition for /usr if you haven't done so already.
3. mount your current root partition.
4. cd to where your root partition is mounted, i.e. /mnt/gentoo.
5. tar cvfp usr.tar usr
6. mount your new partition, say /mnt/usr.
7. cd /mnt/usr
8. tar xvpf /mnt/gentoo/usr.tar
9. /bin/rm -rf /mnt/gentoo/usr /mnt/gentoo/usr.tar
10. edit /mnt/gentoo/etc/fstab to mount your new partition as /usr.
11. reboot and enjoy.

As to whether to move all of /usr or just parts of /usr, I have separate
partitions for /usr/local and /usr/portage but leave /usr on the root
partition.

Partitioning is really up to you to determine how to set things up.  I don't
know if it is still the case, but I come from those years where filling up
the root partition meant that you couldn't boot into the system, so I try to
isolate those areas that could possibly grow w/o my knowing it and keep them
off of the root partition (i.e. especially /home, /var{/tmp}, and /tmp).



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RE: [gentoo-user] Re: On-topic, possible mailing list issue

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 -Original Message-
 From: Richard Fish [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 4:36 PM
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 I'm trying to figure out how two copies of my email

You should not be posting mail to robin.gentoo.org, just
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] moving /usr to different partition

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
  As to whether to move all of /usr or just parts of /usr, I have separate
  partitions for /usr/local and /usr/portage but leave /usr on the root
  partition.
 
 Okay. I can live with that, if I know it's possible. I just need a little
 extra space, as the disk use approaches 90%. Moving /usr/local should be
 fine then.

You should be safe moving anything that is not relied upon before the
remaining filesystems are mounted, i.e. /usr/X11R6, /usr/kde {perhaps gnome
is installed in the same way but I'm not sure}, /usr/qt, etc.

That said, the /usr portion of the filesystem should remain pretty static
once your system is constructed.  For the most part updates will replace
what's already there, so you may be safe in leaving it float around the 90%
usage limit.


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RE: [gentoo-user] Error compiling showimg

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 grep: /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkio.la: No such file or directory
 /bin/sed: can't read /usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkio.la: No such file or directory
 libtool: link: `/usr/kde/3.3/lib/libkio.la' is not a valid libtool archive
 
 I have kde 3.4, but he tries to compile with a library from kde 3.3 that
 is not there. What is wrong?

Check /etc/ld.so.conf and see if /usr/kde/3.3/lib is in it.  If so, change
it to reflect 3.4, then run ldconfig and try compiling again.

My guess is that even though the -L/usr/kde/3.4/lib is provided to libtool
the linker is finding a match in the cache and is trying to use that one.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Error compiling showimg

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Is there any way to see what libraries hare linked to library?

ldd is your friend...


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RE: [gentoo-user] C compiler cannot create executables

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 The advice was:
 rm -f /usr/lib32
 ln -s ../../emul/linux/x86/usr/lib /usr/lib32
 FEATURES=-sandbox emerge gcc
 
 This fix the update off gcc problem. (but i am wondering it may break
 somting else?)

Well probably you lost your /usr/lib32's file crt1.o file.  Bummer.

If you remember what the old /usr/lib32 link was you might be able to copy
it back to /usr/lib32.

To properly repair your system you should probably re-emerge glibc now that
gcc is functioning again, but you'll need to get by the missing crt1.o file
before you'll be able to do that.


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RE: [gentoo-user] sometimes internet works only after /etc/init.d/net.eth0 restart

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Sometimes [about 1 in 3 times] my internet connection does not work
 directly after booting. After restarting the net.eth0 script all is
 fine. As this behavour is rather new to me, and this is a bit annyoing
 [particullary for people without root access] i would like to know if
 someone has had similar problems and/or any ideas .

Anything in the system logs?  Any errors reported by dmesg?

Any failures of net startups would be identified in one of those two places.



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RE: [gentoo-user] sometimes internet works only after /etc/init.d/net.eth0 restart

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 You could also try setting up ifplugd.  If nothing else, it would allow
 your users to reset the network by removing and reinserting the network
 cable.

That's not something I'd let *my* users do  ;-)


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RE: [gentoo-user] sometimes internet works only after /etc/init.d/net.eth0 restar

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 # during boot ##
 Mar 31 15:31:31 [kernel] NET: Registered protocol family 10
 Mar 31 15:31:31 [net.agent] add event not handled
 # guess this line is the problem #
 Mar 31 15:32:07 [dhcpcd] timed out waiting for a valid DHCP server
 response_
 # guess this line is the problem #
 # during boot ##
 # manual restart of the script #
 Mar 31 15:32:09 [su(pam_unix)] session opened for user root by
 antonio(uid=1000)
 Mar 31 15:32:25 [kernel] eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x41E1
 Mar 31 15:33:45 [dhcpcd] terminating on signal 2_
 Mar 31 15:33:47 [kernel] eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x41E1
 Mar 31 15:33:56 [dhcpcd] terminating on signal 2_
 Mar 31 15:34:02 [rc-scripts] ERROR:  net.eth0 has not yet been started.
 Mar 31 15:34:08 [kernel] eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x41E1
 Mar 31 15:35:31 [su(pam_unix)] session closed for user root
 # manual restart of the script #

Looks to me like eth0 is coming up fine, from the perspective that it is
active.  But since the dhcp is failing, you aren't getting a valid ip
address and that gives the appearance that the network is not up.

 Is it possible to tell dhcpd to wait longer for a response, or eaven
 retry automatically in periodic time intervals if not succesfull ?

Yep.  Check the man pages and it should tell you what options to put in your
config file.



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RE: [gentoo-user] portage and package specific CFLAGS

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 There may not be nothing wrong with it, but it is nevertheless almost as
 crappy way to do it. This is because the next time the package with custom
 CFLAGS gets updated as part of a world/system update, it will be emerged
 with the default CFLAGS again...

In these cases it is better to manage the package yourself rather than let
portage do it for you.  Set yourself up in freshmeat.net and you can receive
email notifications when the package is updated.



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RE: [gentoo-user] C compiler cannot create executables

2005-03-31 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Well after I updated gcc I run the updatescript and this script merges
 some pacage (portage gcc-config distcc linux-headers etc..) so gcc was
 working when i updated the system to 2005.0 else I will received an
 error.. (at least i suppose so :-)
 
 locate output this:
 Mjolne spetznaz # locate crt1.o
 /usr/lib32/Mcrt1.o
 /usr/lib32/Scrt1.o
 /usr/lib32/crt1.o
 /usr/lib32/gcrt1.o
 /usr/lib64/crt1.o
 /usr/lib64/gcrt1.o
 /usr/lib64/Mcrt1.o
 /usr/lib64/Scrt1.o
 
 so i don't think crt1.o is the issue.

Well, ld is the one complaining, perhaps it's the issue...


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RE: [gentoo-user] Config Files Update?

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 There is a program called 'etc-update' this will show you the changes
 that will be required to update your files in /etc and subdirs, but I
 find it doesn't do all the updates..

Really?  I use etc-update all the time but was running under the assumption
that it was supposed to handle all of the updates.

Perhaps this is a bug.

Do you have examples of updates that etc-update didn't process?


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RE: [gentoo-user] cyrus-sasl-2.1.20 error

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I am trying to compile cyrus-sasl and during configure
 i got the error that build options where changed in
 CFLAGS even though they were not. the recommended at
 the end of the script was to make distclean or rm
 config.cache and try again
 so i did that  and ran
 
 ./configure with options below
 make
 touch .compiled  (in work directory) and then
 
  ebuild
 /usr/portage/dev-libs/cyrus-sasl/cyrus-sasl-2.1.20.ebuild
 install
 
 but that failed with error listed below.

I think if you interpreted the message as either 'make distclean' or 'rm
config.cache' and only did the rm step, that was your downfall.

If you need to build it manually yet want the ebuild to manage it, I would
probably try it in a couple of steps:

1. ebuild [...]/cyrus-sasl-2.1.20.ebuild unpack
2. Go to the work directory and ./configure with your specific options
3. ebuild [...]/cyrus-sasl-2.1.20.ebuild install

Although I really can't understand why you would want to try to have portage
manage a package that you're compiling yourself.  The next time a release is
available and you emerge -uD world it would be replaced with one compiled
without your specific flags.

If you want to manage sasl on your own (and I can understand why as I manage
some packages outside of portage), just bite the bullet and do it; don't
involve portage because it may come back to haunt you later on.



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RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B: command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 We can't make Linux better and ready for the desktop-- which does
 *not* mean we have to do everything via a GUI, dagnabit; people can
 certainly use the command-line comfortably *if they know how*-- unless
 we identify where people are falling over it and how to remove the
 obstacles to their understanding and ease-of-use. Difficulties using
 error output effectively looks like an obstacle to ease-of-use to me.
 Heaven knows I won't know what to do about it if I do find an answer
 (or the beginnings of one), unless that answer is add to the docs, but
 we all contribute what we can, and asking the question in the first
 place is what I can :-) .

Unfortunately, Holly, I don't think linux will be ready for the desktop for
quite awhile (yes, that does make me sad).

Because of the wide use of windows any replacement OS (be it linux, bsd,
macosx, or whatever) would have to function in a similar way before it would
be accepted.  The following would be a base set of requirements for such a
replacement:

1.  Boot totally into a gui - no startup output.  Those messages are great
for someone trying to diagnose an issue, but are just confusing to some and
unnecessary to most, which is why windows boots to gui and totally hides
this kind of information.

2.  Totally configurable via gui - no low-level file editing.  As power
users this is something that we want/need, but the windows user expects to
pull up a dialog for the program and click checkboxes to turn things on and
off.  I can just imagine the dialogs necessary to configure something like
postfix or sendmail ;-)

3.  Less service-oriented and more interactive.  Sure we run ftp servers,
web servers, mail servers, etc.  And we expect them to go off and do those
things without bothering us.  But at this point the windows user expects
visual feedback on everything - a mail icon indicating there's new mail in
outlook, blinking network light showing network activity, other tray icons
with menus allowing you to get to the background 'services' right away.

4.  Self-updating.  M$ has been pretty poor in this respect but they are
actively working on it and getting better.  My windows box downloads updates
automatically, installs them with a nice progress bar (and not a lot of
detail), and either a) handles whatever is necessary to get the new updates
used or b) asks me to reboot for the changes to take effect.  The whole
process is totally brain-dead, and that's what the average windows user is
going to expect.

I think all of these things would have to come to pass before linux would
make it on the desktop, and I'm not sure I believe they will ever happen.
Nobody wants to take linux in the direction of windows (thankfully), and
since most of the linux developers are power-users they have no reason to
want or include this kind of brain-dead junk in their software.



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RE: [gentoo-user] '[Masked]' packages - another newbie question...

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Can someone explain (or point me to a document which explains) exactly
 what the implications of the 'Masked' annotation...

Masked means, as you assumed, that it is not considered 'production ready'
under gentoo.  Could mean that it hasn't been fully tested yet, could mean
that there are issues with it, or it could simply mean that it is dependant
upon some other package that is masked for similar reasons.

That said, for most things outside of the sys-* entries I've found it safe
to use masked packages (as long as you don't complain if your system blows
up because you're using them ;-)

 where can I find out what the known problems on gentoo are, what
 considerations are then which should be taken into account when deciding 
 if I really want to risk it or not?

Not sure if this is really documented anywhere.  Masking doesn't mean that
there's necessarily problems with a release, it can mean that it hasn't been
fully tested yet.

 if I do decide I need it, how to I override the mask???

Add the package to /etc/portage/package.keywords in the form:

  x11-libs/kylixlibs3-borqt ~x86




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RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Everyone assumes that the masses must have a GUI, because the
 command-line is too scary in some way.
 
 But if the command-line was intuitively understandable, *would these
 users still be scared of it*? Would they continue to avoid Linux, just
 because text is not as pretty as icons, even when the text was just as
 easy to use as the icons, and the system as a whole had many other
 benefits?
 
 Maybe, maybe not, but the only way to find out is to *actually try it*--
 and that starts with asking real people who experience problems just
 what those problems were and attempting to determine the problem's root
 cause, so we can find out just what needs to be adjusted to help future
 users cross the gap.
 
 I'm flatly sick of assuming that the only choices are to turn Linux into
 a Windows clone as a bridge, or leave the user stranded on the shore
 strewn with brain-dead junk. Can the gap be forded? Can we teach the
 user to swim? Can we provide a raft-- or wings?

First and most importantly you're ignoring the research that has been done
on user interfaces over the past few years.  It has already been shown that
simplifying the interface to a point and click system is much less error
prone than the free style typing a console interface provides.  For example,
to open a file a user can double click on an icon, three steps (point click
click).  Under the command line a user must type the name of the editor
followed by the filename, and hopefully they get the spelling of each
correct.

The mainframe is entirely text based, and you won't hear more complaints
from a user community than you would from this group of users.

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally on your side about things.  I'd love to say
that linux is ready for the desktop and that the general users are ready for
the command line.

And on a small scale maybe it is.  I'm sure you could convert a handful of
users from windows to linux without too much difficulty.

But if you're in a large organization (i.e. 100K employees) or an
organization with limited resources (support and training), the cost of
conversion is significant.  The hiring requirements change when either
asking for folks with experience or expecting that a newhire would not be
available right off because they need training on the new system.

So the only way linux would make an inroads into these types of
organizations would be if it did migrate into a windows clone/bridge, full
of the brain-dead junk we as linux advocates would never like to see come to
fruition.

So maybe you can chalk me up as a pessimist in regards to linux desktop
readiness.  I'm a linux advocate and use it exclusively; you won't take away
my linux until you can tear it out of my cold dead fingers.  Realistically,
however, I cannot see organizations sinking the kinds of significant costs
and efforts it would take to bring them onboard at the current state of
things.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Rotating cron files

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I would like instead to enumerate the two files (starting from monday
 = 1, till friday=5)
 in order to keep a week backup, such as for instance: curve.1.tar.gz ,
 curve.2.tar.gz,
 .. curve.5. tar.gz  and the same for etc
 
 How can I obtain this result with crontab?

Use date +%u to get the day of the week, as in the following:

#crono
WEEKDAY=`date +%u`
/usr/bin/vacuumdb
/usr/bin/pg_dump -C -O -Fc -Upostgres
--file=/root/pg_dump/curve.$WEEKDAY.tar.gz curve
tar -cz /etc  /root/pg_dump/etc.$WEEKDAY.tar.gz


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RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B: command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Why does something have to act/look like Windows to be ready for the
 desktop.  If that's what you need/want just use Windows already!

It's not that the next OS has to act/look like windows to supplant windows,
it's a question of usability...

There's a lot of research that has been done and is ongoing re: user
interface design.  So far the research supports the statement that simpler
is better in regards to usability is concerned.

The replacement for windows will be one that provides a simpler, consistent
interface, not one that is more complex and requires intimate details of
low-level file editing and command prompt access, the current face of linux.

I love linux and use it everywhere except my 7 year old daughter's computer
(granted I could probably do it there too except the sites that she likes to
use are too dependent upon IE).  And I won't go back to windows, not anytime
soon.

But I can realistically gauge how much it would take to move organizations
in the direction of linux and understand where 'linux is ready for the
desktop' zealots miss the mark.  Most organizations are looking to cut costs
and simplify their infrastructure (again to cut costs).  Linux on the
desktop won't do that in it's current state and would have to be
significantly dumb-downed before it can happen.  I for one am glad it's not
going in that direction.



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RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B: command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
  Unfortunately, Holly, I don't think linux will be ready for the desktop
 for
  quite awhile (yes, that does make me sad).
 
 Novell disagrees: [snip]
 
 ATT disagrees: [snip]
 
 Various governments disagree: [double-snip for an nytimes link]
 
 The tide is turning.

Only if you can't see the hype and hidden agendas of those folks.  Novell
wants you to buy into it to build a consumer base for their own flavor
(which, on the surface, looks and acts a lot like windows).  ATT is only
testing it out, but basically they're looking to gain some leverage against
M$ in regards to pricing.  Brazil and other third world nations don't really
have the cash that M$ tries to extort from them.

Hype and agendas aside, there is no momentum in the mass market to move from
windows to linux.  I'd be real happy if there was as M$ IMHO is holding back
the development of systems and technology and general innovation, but that's
another thread all together.



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RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B: command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 My biggest worry now is Internet predators. I wish there was a real
 solution for that sort of stuff under Linux, like Net-nanny etc. under
 Windows. That's what scares me as a parent.

Heard of squid?  It's only the standard proxy for linux-based systems and
kicks the crap out of net nanny...


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RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B: command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
   Why does something have to act/look like Windows to be ready for the
   desktop.  If that's what you need/want just use Windows already!
 
  It's not that the next OS has to act/look like windows to supplant
 windows,
  it's a question of usability...
 
  There's a lot of research that has been done and is ongoing re: user
  interface design.  So far the research supports the statement that
 simpler
  is better in regards to usability is concerned.
 
 Here we agree ;) But do your previous points actually work towards this?
 Is a blinking icon simpler than a terse text message? Is a self-updating
 computer simpler than an admin being in charge of updating his own 
 computer? What when it installs something that breaks the system (we all 
 know this can happen...). How many layers of 'simplicity' do we have to 
 wade through to find the real problem? How is navigating through pages of 
 GUI dialogues simpler than a quick edit of a text file?

Is an icon simpler than terse text?  Yes.  And it is seen across more
industries than just the computer industry.  Sewing machines now come with
buttons with images representing the type of stitch rather than using text.
Cars come with idiot lights that have pictures rather than 'service engine
soon' (which is itself an over simplification of a problem with the car
rather than an indication of what the problem is).  We all know a red light
means stop, a green light means go, and the yellow light means speed up
because you're about to get pinned by the red light ;-)  We are beings
designed to work naturally from symbols, signs, and icons; not terse textual
messages.

That's what the research has and is proving out.

  The replacement for windows will be one that provides a simpler,
 consistent
  interface, not one that is more complex and requires intimate details of
  low-level file editing and command prompt access, the current face of
  linux.
 
  I love linux and use it everywhere except my 7 year old daughter's
 computer
  (granted I could probably do it there too except the sites that she
 likes
  to use are too dependent upon IE).  And I won't go back to windows, not
  anytime soon.
 
  But I can realistically gauge how much it would take to move
 organizations
  in the direction of linux and understand where 'linux is ready for the
  desktop' zealots miss the mark.  Most organizations are looking to cut
  costs and simplify their infrastructure (again to cut costs).  Linux on
 the
  desktop won't do that in it's current state and would have to be
  significantly dumb-downed before it can happen.  I for one am glad it's
 not
  going in that direction.
 
 You are implying here that Linux's ultimate goal is to replace Windows. I
 do
 not agree here. I think the two can coexist just fine. Linux for those
 end-users curious enough to go deeper into their computer's innards, and
 Windows for those that want it to 'just work' (innasmuch as windows
 works... :P) without having to learn anything about how it works. The
 server
 market is of course a different matter, but we're talking about desktop,
 right.

That's the wrong assumption.

Basically to say Linux is ready for the desktop is in kin to saying that
Linux is easier to use than windows so it can supplant the current
installation base; I don't think anyone here can say that with any
sincerity.

I don't think linux is out to (or even could) replace windows.  I do think
it has it's place.  What it's destiny will turn out to be is beyond my
guess.

Most folks, where work is concerned, expect to have the computer 'just
work'.  Your boss wants you to show up at 8 am and be productive for 8
hours, not spend time figuring out the innards (unless that, of course, is
what you're paid to do ;-)

That's the one thing that windows, I hate to say, has - it just works.

 I think a happy medium can be reached with certain distros trying to piece
 together a newbie friendly Linux desktop that moves towards some of the
 point
 you mentioned originally. As I understand it, Xandros and Linspire are
 working towards these ends. I just don't agree with the argument that
 'Linux'
 in general needs to be more user-friendly. In my opinion (for what it's
 worth) Linux (and UNIX in general) is just fine the way it is. If the day
 comes where I have to point and drool my way through a gui to admin my
 Linux
 box, that is the day I move to FreeBSD... as this is exactly why I left MS
 all those years ago in the first place... the obscurity.

I don't want to see linux/gentoo/freebsd/whatever go in that direction
either.  I'm happy with my gentoo systems and don't want to see them
bastardized to become more like windows.

My argument, however, was to be 'ready for the desktop,' to supplant
windows, requires that they do so.



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On-topic, possible mailing list issue: was RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B: command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
Okay, mailing list question...

I received six different copies of Mark's message...

Granted he did cross post to gentoo-user@gentoo.org and
[EMAIL PROTECTED] so I can understand getting two copies, but
six?

No offense to you, Mark, but was this something he did or something that
either the normal list or robin.gentoo.org did?

 -Original Message-
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
 Behalf Of Mark Knecht
 Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2005 3:01 PM
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B:
 command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)

[snip]


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RE: [gentoo-user] cyrus-sasl-2.1.20 error

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Well I took the same options ebuild  uses when it ran
 ./configure, i used the same options again. Hence I
 believe the use flags might be retained. I wouldn't
 know until it is installed. A wild swing and try. I
 just want to get over the compile error so that I  can
 compile openldap which has a dependency on this
 package.

Yeah, but why are you trying to use ebuild to install the package in the
first place?  Did emerge choke on it?  Do you need custom configure script
options?  Having that background will help to figure out how to complete the
task it seems you're trying to do...



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RE: On-topic, possible mailing list issue: was RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B: command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I received six different copies of Mark's message...

Make that 8 copies now...

Looked at the actual message headers and other than repeats for mailing list
stuff (see below), there's nothing really helpful in identifying the problem
source...

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Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 21:31:03 +0100
From: Mark Knecht [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B:
command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)
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RE: [gentoo-user] cyrus-sasl-2.1.20 error

2005-03-30 Thread Dave Nebinger

  Yeah, but why are you trying to use ebuild to
  install the package in the
  first place?  Did emerge choke on it?  Do you need
  custom configure script
  options?  Having that background will help to figure
  out how to complete the
  task it seems you're trying to do...
 
 Being a newbie, I assumed it was better to use ebuild
 since there are pre and post install function to be
 run and then updating the list of packages installed
 on the system say i wanna run qpkg -l cyrus-sasl ..
 etc  instead of just doing make install and then
 search for where the files went.
 
 If I am going about doing something round about way,
 please suggest alternative.

What's wrong with emerge cyrus-sasl?


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RE: [gentoo-user] emerge wget failed - help

2005-03-29 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I am trying an emerge on wget.  I get a compile error:
 
 In file included from ftp.c:52:
 ftp.h:81: error: parse error before numeric constant
 make[1]: *** [ftp.o] Error 1

Jason, wget-1.9.1-r3 builds fine on my system.  Perhaps you could send the
output from a few lines before this error rather than the ones following it?

The line in ftp.h (81) is an enum construct where several symbolic names are
used to represent constant values.  I'm not sure where the values are
located (i.e. a system include file or a local include file), but I'm
hunting...



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RE: [gentoo-user] again gdeslets please help

2005-03-29 Thread Dave Nebinger
 i hardly try to run gdesklets on my gentoo whit xfce4
 i have emerged all the packages  and now i have the
 gdesklets in the menubar. if i try to run gdesklets


[snip]

zh, not to sound crass but if you haven't seen any traffic on this message
it's most likely because no one has an answer for you - trust me, this list
generates traffic for almost anything.

Aren't there gnome-specific lists out there?  I think with a focused group
of gnome users and/or developers you'd stand a better chance at fixing the
problem.

Sorry,

Dave


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RE: [gentoo-user] emerge kde-base/arts doesn't see qt

2005-03-29 Thread Dave Nebinger
 checking for Qt... configure: error: Qt (= Qt 3.3) (library qt-mt) not
 found. Please check your installation!
 For more details about this problem, look at the end of config.log.
 Make sure that you have compiled Qt with thread support!
 
 !!! ERROR: kde-base/arts-1.3.2-r1 failed.
 !!! Function kde_src_compile, Line 154, Exitcode 1
 !!! died running ./configure, kde_src_compile:configure
 !!! If you need support, post the topmost build error, NOT this status
 message.
 
 but qt-3.3.4-r2 is installed.
 
 I have 2 questions.
 
 1. what can I do to resolve this ? (except masking arts)

I had this same issue with the kde 3.4 release; re-emerging qt resolved it.

The true source of the problem is that at the same time 3.4 came out a new
update to glibc came out; in rebuilding glibc, a new pthread library (ala
nptl) was built that had an API change that libqt-mt is no longer compatible
with.

Re-emerging qt resolves the linking failures in qt/kde builds.

 2. What is arts good for ? Shouldn't I avoid it altogether with a -arts
 USE flag ?

Arts is the kde sound daemon.  Based on your output of emerge -pvtuD
world, something (the ebuild) is overriding your -arts flag.  It's
probably being overridden by the libao ebuild, but why it thinks arts is a
dependency I can't answer.



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RE: [gentoo-user] how to remove package for ever

2005-03-29 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Please is it possible to remove package by specifying it within make.conf
 file??? 

No, that's not what make.conf is used for.

 I want to remove balckdown/ibm JDKs.

You can use the 'emerge -i dev-java/blackdown-jdk dev-java/blackdown-jre'
command to make portage think it's installed but not install it (see
injecting under the emerge man page).


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RE: [gentoo-user] [VERY OT] A Windows shell Im creating

2005-03-29 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Does it mean that non .NET will not run properly on their
 forthcoming pieces of vomit OSes?

Nope, it just means that support for VB 6 and earlier versions of the
development tool will not be supported.

Applications built under VB 6 will still run (obviously as there is a huge
installation base of apps constructed under VB6).

Just pray that you don't run into a bug because you will be SOL.


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RE: [gentoo-user] [OT] Users and errors (was: help line 6: B: command not found FIXED, user error in config file...)

2005-03-29 Thread Dave Nebinger
  In any case, Dave still had to search for the typo one way or another
  even with the advice; this was unavoidable. But the error message
  already contained the information on where to start the search (and in
  fact what was wrong, by indicating that there was a typo somewhere). So
  what I am wondering (again, nothing about you personally, Dave, you
  simply seem to have a fairly typical user issue), is why users have
  difficulty understanding these messages, and using them effectively.

Hmm, I take issue with the inference that the message was understandable.
The error message itself pointed to the depcache file, yet the error was in
a script in /etc/init.d.  Yes, the depcache file is readable but to approach
tracking that down you're saying you're willing to dive into the internals
of gentoo with (but mostly w/o) the knowledge needed to understand and
follow along.

Many folks, especially gentoo newbies, don't have that foundation.  It's
easier if you're a seasoned unix/linux user as you don't have the fear of
digging into the files to find out what's going on, but that experience is
not shared by all.

 As someone who works in support (ISP), I find a lot of people:
 
 1) Dont read the error message given (made worse by the fact that people
read less these days!). You can send these people FAQs, warning emails,
whatever and they won't read them. Recent case in point: user was over
mailbox quota and was sent automated warning when they hit 90% - advice
on how to clean out their mailbox is given in a URL in the email, but
does anyone read that???
 
 2) Read the error message but simply dont get it - these are the people
who drive a car but know nothing about the basic mechanics of how the
engine propels the vehicle (these people also rarely change their oil
or do any basic maintenance on their cars).
 
 3) Too scared to read the error - many people fear technology or fear that
they may break the computer by poking around. (IMHO, poking around
and tinkering however are the BEST ways to learn anything).
 
 4) Read the error message and use it as a starting point to systematically
track down the problem - these users are very rare (though there's a
lot of them in the Linux community). Users in groups (1), (2) and (3)
would consider these people power users.

The fifth group should include those that know, by experience, that a given
error message actually means something completely different than what's
being reported.

This depcache error was a perfect example; I asked Dave to send me his
depcache file so I could see what it contained - I was going to start
tracking the issue from the source (falling under group number 4, I guess).

Another gentoo person replied that Dave should look for B in /etc/init.d
scripts; obviously he had the experience to know that the depcache error
translated into an invalid command in one of the scripts.

The error message I hate to see is the error coming out of emerge, the
'failed to build' error.  For reference:

 !!! ERROR: net-misc/wget-1.9.1-r3 failed.
 !!! Function src_compile, Line 54, Exitcode 2
 !!! (no error message)
 !!! If you need support, post the topmost build error,
 NOT this status message.

This really doesn't translate into anything useful.  If the failure occurred
during the configure script run, the config.log contents are needed to
understand what the error was.  If the failure occurred during a compile or
link, the full command line before the error is useful as well as other
pertinent information (i.e. gcc version, gentoo version, basic 'emerge
--info' output).

With experience we know that info is necessary to diagnose a failure, but a
generic post the topmost build error doesn't suffice.



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RE: [gentoo-user] CHOST *can* be changed!

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Impatient to an answer to my query whether or not I
 could change CHOST and CFLAGS in make.conf after
 having installed everything with reference to Intel
 arch instead of AMD, I went ahead anyway -- and it
 worked! After 7 3/4 tense hrs(!)xorg was emerged
 successfully. Well, almost.

While the switch is possible, it can introduce issues (i.e. one library
built for one architecture being linked against that of another arch), which
is why it is recommended not to be done.

That said, most of the time the issues will relate to what the compiler
optimizes at.  For example, if the 3dnow extensions were used for the amd
builds, those extensions aren't available for the Pentium platform.  Things
will compile and link against the old libraries (because it's the same api
for both platforms), yet you might run into strange issues (i.e. segfaults
et al.) when you attempt to run software that uses those extensions.

The fact that you were successful in rebuilding at this point is
meaningless; whether it runs or not will be the true test.

 In /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts I found two bad links to
 CID and Speedo in /usr/share/fonts. There was nothing
 in emerge.log about this. How did this happen if all
 the checksums worked? Anyone suggest a fix?

The /var/log/emerge.log would report errors on checksums and, when these
occur, emerge bails.  So you probably didn't get any errors on those.

As far as a fix for the links, I'd suggest just building the links manually
to restore them to their proper values.

 I haven't run Xconf yet, I was hoping for some tips
 for setting up my card, a Radeon 9250, mindful of the
 recent debate on the list of the relative merits of
 ATI and nVidia cards. I'm not a gamer and a lot of eye
 candy in not important to me but I would like sharp,
 clear text in the documents I hope to be able to read
 once X windows is startable 8)

The standard output of the xorg configuration should work for you in that
case.  You'll probably need to edit the config to specify your preferred
resolution stuff and might try running the radeon driver over the ati
driver, but for general X usage either should be fine.

 Also, df returns a reading of 29% use on /. But that's
 what is was before. Surely 7 3/4 hours of compilin'
 and installin' would have added a fair chunk to the
 hd.

Well, you really didn't install anything new, you simply rebuilt and
replaced what was already there, so you should not expect any significant
disk usage increase.



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RE: [gentoo-user] emerge/make failure i386 vs i686

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Trying to emerge the kde packages I get a make error from kde-libs
 build.
 
 Its looking for:
   /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.4/libstdc++.la:
 i386 packages but what is installed there is:
   /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.4/libstdc++.la
 i686 stuff.
 
 Do I need to pass something to emerge?  If so how is it done?
 Or is emerge/make supposed to know what is installed?
 

It sounds like you changed your CHOST value after the initial system build
(notice the difference in location is exactly what the CHOST value looks
like).

As a temporary fix, I'd suggest creating a link from the i686 dir to one in
the i386 dir.  Then re-emerge glibc to ensure everything is correct for your
CHOST value.

 You need libstdc++-v3.  So What you need to do here is 'emerge
 libstdc++-v3' then try to emerge kde again.

This might solve the specific problem, but leaves the system in a
questionable state (in that some things would still probably look in the 386
directory).



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RE: [gentoo-user] configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables help!

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
  Unpacking patch-2.5.9.tar.gz to /var/tmp/portage/patch-2.5.9/work
  Source unpacked.
 configure: WARNING: If you wanted to set the --build type, don't use --
 host.
 configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
 make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.  Stop.

If you go to the directory /var/tmp/portage/patch-2.5.9/work/patch-2.5.9
you'll find a config.log file.  Open the file and you'll see that it is the
output of what configure was doing when the failure occurred, and you can
see the exact output message from gcc that was handed to configure.  Note
that the info will not be at the end of the file but actually embedded
within it (the end of the file is a dump of variable settings configure had
at the time the failure occurred).

Typically you'll find something like an error about a missing library or
header file or something.

If you want to send me the config.log I'll help you figure it out.

Dave


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RE: [gentoo-user] emerge system = many automakes

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Why does emerge system want to install 6 different automake versions
 in different slots and 2 different autoconf versions?

They are slotted.  Different packages need different versions of
auto{make,conf} to build properly.

They don't take up that much space and ensure the system builds properly, so
don't worry about them.



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[gentoo-user] Any posters getting bounce messages?

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger

I'm getting bounces from [EMAIL PROTECTED]  I thought the mailing list
was set up to auto-unregister folks when the bounce messages are returned?

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 11:10 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

Delivery to the following recipients failed.

   [EMAIL PROTECTED]




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RE: [gentoo-user] Runlevel schizophrenia...

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
  Obviously I need to get a bit more used to where to find documentation
  on gentoo. I am used to being able to use 'man -k' to find most system
  documentation on BSD, with the addition of 'texinfo' and 'locate' since
  experimenting with linux...
 
 Web browser meet Digby. Digby meet web browser.

That was so cold I busted out laughing...

;-)


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RE: [gentoo-user] Re: configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables help!

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
   It seems odd to me that you have 3.4.3 emerged, but 3.3.5 is
   selected. Anyone else know what might be going on here?
 
  Gcc are slotted, there's nothing bad having multiple versions.
 
 I didn't say it was wrong, but it *is* curious that the *older* version is
 selected, rather than the newer one.

Not really.  My environments are the same.  I didn't have much success with
3.4.3 for compiling some packages (it was either X or kde, I don't remember
which).

So my default is 3.3.5 but 3.4.3 is available if I need it.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Runlevel schizophrenia...

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
  Oh, I agree that being able to nominate a runlevel at boot time is
  a good thing. But I think it would be more consistent to do it
  by specifying it the same way that it is specified in inittab or
  to telinit, and the same way it is reported by 'who -r'
 
  That is, they should all use numeric runlevels, or they should all
  use text runlevels. It is the inconsistency that I don't like...

There's nothing stopping you from renaming default to 3, etc.  If that's
what you prefer, then go ahead and have at it.  Gentoo is your friend, not
your enemy.

 I agree.  The worst part about switching from one *nix version to
 another is trying to figure out how that particular distro chose to
 implement the runlevels.

Hardly.  This is just one difference as compared to the whole /etc
structure.  Gentoo tends to nest /etc files in directories where, if you
build and install yourself, tend to have configuration files right at the
/etc level.

And when you're digging into other documentation you'll find references to
what are considered 'standard' files that aren't in the same places in
gentoo.

  As far as the dependencies go, are you sure they are checked at
  script execution time? Normally it would be when the script was
  added to the runlevel that the sequencing would be done (ie in gentoo
  when rc-update was run).
 
 
 I'm not sure.

It's both.  The env-update (and rc-update) rebuild the dependency cache file
which is then used at runlevel switch to ensure that the services for the
particular runlevel are up (or stopped if necessary during a runlevel
switch).

  And I don't think just running all the scripts is enough to change
  runlevels. Normally you have to work out the difference between the
  old runlevel and the new, shutdown the things in the old runlevel
  that weren't in the new, and only start the things in the new
  runlevel that weren't in the old. That is why it is best to
  do the change with 'telinit'.
 
 True, when switching between runlevels, you might want some services
 to stop.  So, you'd probably need to create a more intelligent shell
 script (unless there is already a way to switch between runlevels).

It's called /sbin/rc...

Telinit  sysv runlevels are not the be-all and end-all.  That's why gentoo
(and suse as well) use different models.



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RE: [gentoo-user] configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables help!

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
 configure:1655: i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc  -O2 -march=pentium4 -pipe -DLINUX
 -D_XOPEN i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc: installation problem, cannot exec `as': No
 such file or directory
 cc1: Broken pipe: error closing

Dude, you've got a seriously broken gentoo system :-(

Your toolchain is corrupted probably due to a misguided attempt to alter
your CHOST value after the initial install.

I'd suggest re-emerging your entire toolchain (binutils, gcc, glibc) before
going any further.  Hopefully the end result will be a working toolchain
that will get you by these problems...

Dave



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RE: [gentoo-user] Runlevel schizophrenia...

2005-03-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
 For instance you refer to /sbin/rc as the way to change from
 one runlevel to another, yet 'man rc' shows nothing. Whereas
 a 'man telinit' on gentoo does give a description of a program
 claiming to be the correct way to change runlevel...

Documentation (and man pages in general) are typically out of sync with the
actual development efforts.  Many open source projects have hoards of
developers that want to contribute yet many projects are begging for
documentation folks.
 
 Plus it isn't clear to me from any docs I can find if /sbin/rc expects
 a text or numeric runlevel argument. At least telinit is
 well documented...

 If /sbin/rc is the way to do it, why is it not documented in the manual??
 If telenit is not the way to do it, why is it in the manual??

I'm sure the gentoo developers would like a hand extending the documentation
to include such information.

But realistically I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.  I
have two runlevels, default and console.  I can either use the softlevel at
boot or change the runlevel in /etc/inittab, or both.

But who really changes runlevels frequently?  I don't.  My boxen come up
under the runlevel I assign and they stay up.  There's no need to change
runlevels on a frequent basis.

As to complaining about the lack of info in the man pages, I'm much happier
that the gentoo folks are focusing their efforts on portions of the gentoo
system that need it, rather than burning cycles on a man page that would
hardly be needed 99% of the time.

 And why specify the runlevel by name at boot, and by number in inittab?

 Fudging things by just making the name equal the runlevel number just
 introduces a source of potential confusion. A bit like having some file
 commands use name, and others using inode number. Sure you could suggest
 that all file names be made equal to the text representation of the inode
 number, but that would hardly be an elegant solution and would defeat the
 purpose of having text names... It is much better to have all system calls
 work on names and keep the inodes internal - as is done.

So it's different than BSD.  Big deal.  It's only one of many differences
between gentoo and BSD/other linux distros.  If you don't like it, you're
welcome to either a) submit changes or b) use another distro that's more to
your liking.

But complaining about portions of gentoo that aren't like BSD doesn't help
anyone.
 


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RE: [gentoo-user] xorg emerge seg-fault -- NOT ram!

2005-03-24 Thread Dave Nebinger
  CHOST=i386-pc-linux-gnu
 
 Why i386, could go i586, coudn't it?

Because you never change the CHOST after the initial gentoo build.  Besides,
the PIII is i686.



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RE: [gentoo-user] one more su problem

2005-03-24 Thread Dave Nebinger
  Can you log in as the user at all?  Or are you
  trying only from su?
 
 only from su...

You should try to log in as the user specifically to ensure that the login
is not expired.

 don't know what this means. After boot
 I login as user or root. If, as user, I enter su, I
 get error, acct expired. Am I missing something, some
 gentoo-specific method here? When I ran slack or
 redhat I would su as user($), enter a password, and be
 presented with a root prompt(#) on the next line with
 all the privileges of root at my disposal.

Now I'm wondering what you're trying to do.  Are you trying to su to a user
or su to root?  If root, then it's more serious because root is never
supposed to expire.

  Are there any messages in /var/log/messages (or your
  equivalent) that might
  apply?
 
 almost positive, no.

Hmm, I get all kinds of messages for login failures; it's the only way to
handle auditing...


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RE: [gentoo-user] sys-libs/glibc-2.3.4 b0rkage with segmentation fault

2005-03-24 Thread Dave Nebinger
 CFLAGS=-march=athlon-xp -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer
 CXXFLAGS=-O2 -mcpu=i686 -pipe

You really should try to match your CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS.  It's safer that
way.



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RE: [gentoo-user] one more su problem

2005-03-24 Thread Dave Nebinger
  Now I'm wondering what you're trying to do.  Are you
  trying to su to a user
 
 ??? in user - root, like I said!! If I'm
 already root where on earth could I su to? or why?

Su is just that - switch user.  I do it frequently from root to another
user, i.e. I want to test some changes that I made as root and want to see
what effect it has at a specific user/group level.

But that's neither here nor there.  I guess that you're saying when you do:

  [EMAIL PROTECTED] $ su

with no user, that's when you're getting the expired message, right?

Su has a couple of components that could possibly be interfering with the
process.  The first is pam; the file in /etc/pam.d/su has some doco that
plays a part and also speaks of other files that could also have some
effect.  You might want to check into those and ensure that the settings are
valid for what you are trying to do.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Re: gnu time command

2005-03-07 Thread Dave Nebinger
  Im trying to write some scripts to record some times for creating
  graphs. Im trying to use the time command and have it output to a
  file. In the man page it gives details of how one can use the -o and
  -a switches to output to and append to a file. However the utility
  does not seem to recognise these switches. It does mention that these
  are GNU options but I thought the version I had was the GNU version.
  Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
 
 You may find it easier to use /usr/bin/date in your scripts..

Date won't give him the same stats as time (time shows the different usage
of kernel  user times, etc.).

For the OP, the man page is probably from the generic man pages ebuild, but
the time you have is probably the built-in shell version (verify by typing
which time and you'll probably get the 'no time in ...' response).

You can find the gnu version of time at
http://www.gnu.org/software/time/time.html.

Dave


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RE: [gentoo-user] /dev/dri/card0 gone (ATI Radeon 9600)

2005-03-07 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I have recently lost 3d support for my ATI Radeon 9600, and am using
 x11-base/xorg-x11-6.8.2-r1 and media-video/ati-drivers-8.10.19.
 
 In my /var/log/Xorg.0.log, excerpted below, it complains that
 /dev/dri/card0 doesn't exist and sure enough:

6.8.2-r1 is a new release of xorg; I'm going to assume that you've followed
the instructions to emerge xorg only when X is not running...

If I remember correctly, the /dev/dri/card0 is created when the module(s)
are loaded.  I'd suggest getting into console mode, emerge xorg again, then
reboot or restart X.


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[gentoo-user] How to convince portage not to manage kernel...

2005-03-07 Thread Dave Nebinger
I typically run a customized kernel but every time the vanilla kernel (2.4)
is modified it's included in emerge --pretend --update --deep world.

I'm aware of package.mask, etc., but was wondering if there's a better way
to keep portage from trying to download/build the unused gentoo kernels...

Dave


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RE: [gentoo-user] OT: Mbox vs maildir

2005-03-07 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I'd imagine that 100% of the people on this list interact with email,
 which is a much better ratio than those that use X, setup a bootsplash,
 or want sound to work. I quitely delete those threads as being of no
 interest to me, but interesting and on topic for others on the list. I
 expect others to give my and a significant portion of the list's
 interests the same curtesy.

That's a problem that most mailing lists suffer from.  For this list, some
folks believe that if they're running a gentoo system, then the gentoo list
is the place to post questions whether they're truly related to gentoo
issues or not.

I'm on the KDE-linux mailing list and last week there was a long and OT
thread that started with an ubuntoo user with an ubuntoo issue that, since
he was running linux, thought the kde-linux list was the place to post.

Nick is right that the mailserver thing is OT because it's not a specific
gentoo issue.  Some of the other issues you mentioned are typically more
gentoo-related than the mailserver choice thing.

That said, each one of us on the list will have our own opinions about what
is or is not OT.  Let's not beat each other up trying to get everyone to
agree that one opinion is the best...


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RE: [gentoo-user] kde-split ebuilds advice

2005-03-07 Thread Dave Nebinger
 My ? is, do I have to emerge each individual app or kdemeta in order
 to be
 able to emerge individual apps at a later time for updates etc...

I installed my KDE via the emerge kde command.  I don't typically see
updates for individual applications but do see updates for the core KDE
component groups (i.e. kdelibs, kdebase).

I guess it would depend upon whether your app is part of the kde core
packages or as an individual kde-based application.

I'm planning on sticking with the emerge kde path as it appears to ensure
the full kde subsystem of core components is kept up to date.


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RE: [gentoo-user] How to convince portage not to manage kernel...

2005-03-07 Thread Dave Nebinger
 That is what homebrew-sources is for. It's a dummy ebuild that provides
 all necessary virtuals to simulate gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.99.

Great!  As I mentioned at the end of my reply, it was possible that I was
missing your point and apparently I was.

Thanks for this pointer; I'm going to give it a whirl...

Dave


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RE: [gentoo-user] How to convince portage not to manage kernel...

2005-03-07 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Put it in $PORTDIR_OVERLAY/sys-kernel/homebrew-sources and emerge.

Did that, but portage still thinks I want the 2.4 kernel:

server homebrew-sources # emerge --pretend --update --deep world

These are the packages that I would merge, in order:

Calculating world dependencies ...done!
[ebuild U ] x11-base/xorg-x11-6.8.2-r1 [6.8.2]
[ebuild U ] net-misc/wget-1.9.1-r3 [1.9-r2]
[ebuild U ] app-text/ghostscript-7.07.1-r8 [7.07.1-r7]
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.4.28-r8
[ebuild U ] kde-base/kdelibs-3.3.2-r5 [3.3.2-r4]
[ebuild U ] media-gfx/xloadimage-4.1-r3 [4.1-r2]



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RE: [gentoo-user] managing servers

2005-03-07 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I have most of this done already... I guess what I am really looking for
 is package management / security updates and building new machines.

I'm sure I'm not dealing with the sizes you are, but I'm running gentoo on a
number of my systems at home.  To that end I've got a 'gentoo server' that's
responsible for a) being the local gentoo rsync mirror (to serve portage
updates to the internal client systems w/o hitting the network for each) and
b) building packages into binary format (as the client systems are similar
architecture, one system builds binaries and the binaries are emerged on the
client systems).

In this way you'll have a single system doing all of the work of maintaining
synchronization with Gentoo and the client systems benefiting from that
work.  Since my client systems tend to have spare cycles, I've enabled
distcc on the internal network so the actual build process is distributed,
reducing the actual impact to the server and reducing the package build
times.

It's actually pretty sweet ;-)




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RE: [gentoo-user] linux-2.6.11 is out

2005-03-04 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Thanks, but I've already added those to my package.mask, but the 1.0-6111
 nVidia kernel module refuses to compile on 2.6.11 and most its the release
 candidates for me.

When I was using nvidia I downloaded the 6111 release from nvidia.com and
had to modify some of the code to get it to compile for 2.6.10.  Below is a
note that I made for myself of the changes that I made, they'll probably
work for you also:

winux nvidia # cat nvidia.changes

12/30/2004 - dnebing - I modified the usr/src/nv/nv.c to do the following:

1. Replace pci_find_class() with pci_get_class().  The arguments are the
same, but pci_find_class was removed and replaced with pci_get_class().
Replacement builds successfully with this change.

2. Declare __VMALLOC_RESERVE.  Don't know what value it should have, but a
value must be defined for it to work.  I used unsigned int
__VMALLOC_RESERVE = 128  20;.

After making these changes, the regular installer will work successfully.




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RE: [gentoo-user] [SOLVED] OT: Lost VI colors...

2005-03-04 Thread Dave Nebinger
 | Vim.  Vim and vim core (for both) are 6.3-r4.
 
 Hrm. Are we talking app-vim/colorschemes stuff here? If so, sync and
 upgrade.

Checked both systems, neither has colorschemes installed.  I guess if the
working one did and the failing one did not I could understand.

But I compared the /usr/bin/vi on both systems and, to my surprise, the
working system had vi as a link to vim but the failing system had an actual
vi executable (much smaller than vim).  Not sure what I had emerged to get
this, but I renamed it and put a link to vim in place and everything's
working as it should.

Thanks!


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[gentoo-user] OT: Lost VI colors...

2005-03-03 Thread Dave Nebinger
I'm not sure what I did, but I've lost color syntax in VI...

I've got two gentoo systems, each sync'd last night, each running vi 6.3-r4,
duplicate /etc/vim/vimrc and ~/.vimrc files.

SSH into one and vi does the color syntax.  SSH into the other and vi does
not do the color syntax.  Term is set for xterm on both SSH sessions.

Color works for both (i.e. emerge -uDp world and ls both output color
info).

Anyone have suggestions for getting the color syntax working on the second
system?

Thanks!

Dave



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RE: [gentoo-user] OT: Lost VI colors...

2005-03-03 Thread Dave Nebinger
Vim.  Vim and vim core (for both) are 6.3-r4.

 -Original Message-
 From: Ciaran McCreesh [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 10:42 AM
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] OT: Lost VI colors...
 
 On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 10:26:16 -0500 Dave Nebinger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
 | I've got two gentoo systems, each sync'd last night, each running vi
 | 6.3-r4, duplicate /etc/vim/vimrc and ~/.vimrc files.
 
 vi or vim? If vim, what vim-core version?
 
 --
 Ciaran McCreesh : Gentoo Developer (Vim, Fluxbox, shell tools)
 Mail: ciaranm at gentoo.org
 Web : http://dev.gentoo.org/~ciaranm


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RE: [gentoo-user] Naive question

2005-03-03 Thread Dave Nebinger
Take a look at the contents of /etc/make.profile.  There's really not much
in there outside of (from what I can see) files containing use flags and
package masks.

If I had to venture a guess, I'd say it was the default values used to
construct the base system from your initial install, whether 2004.3 or
2005.1.

As all of these files are typically changed as your gentoo system becomes
customized (i.e. you edit your /etc/make.conf and files in /etc/portage), I
doubt these are used for much.

The real question is why do you care what profile your gentoo system was
built from?  If you've been doing the standard emerge --sync and emerge
-uD world, you've already got a system that's beyond whatever the initial
2005.1 profile represents.


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RE: [gentoo-user] System has UTC, where I want EST

2005-03-03 Thread Dave Nebinger
What is /etc/localtime linked to?



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RE: [gentoo-user] gentoo mirrors

2005-03-03 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I'm using mirrorselect to update my make.conf and get faster
 downloads, but I've noticed that each mirror it selects gets
 unreachable after a while (usually one week or two).

What do you mean by 'unreachable'?  emerge --sync reports an error, or is it
more of a network problem that ping/traceroute actually reports a node is
unreachable?



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RE: [gentoo-user] 6 gigs to clean up

2005-03-03 Thread Dave Nebinger
You can safely drop /var/tmp/portage to reclaim a lot of space.
/usr/portage will typically contain the distribution files for those pieces
that you've emerged; you can remove these but re-emerging/updating would
download them again.

To 'clean' your /usr/portage directory you could try removing the whole
thing then drop a snapshot in place.

I keep my distribution files in an alternate location (my local ftp space
for other gentoo boxes on the internal network to retrieve from), but du -h
/usr/portage still reports that I'm using 1.5 Gig.  To me this is a small
price to pay, especially since disk space is so darn cheap to begin with.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Root cannot open display

2005-03-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 When I'm logged on as a user, and I try to open gvim or firefox by
 su'ing or sudo'ing as root, I get the following error.
 
 E233: cannot open display

By default X.org disables tcp access.

To enable root (or another user) to open windows on the display you need to:

1. remove the -nolisten tcp from the config files in /etc/X11 and the
startx script (if you start X from the console).
2. use the xhost command to allow users to open windows in your session.

Dave



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RE: [gentoo-user] Lost par_port printer after emerge

2005-03-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Hello all,

Hello, James.
 
 After a emerge --update --deep --newuse world
 
 and then
 
 env-update  source /etc/profile  updatedb  etc-update
 

I hope you had a reason to include --newuse as, without the -e for empty
tree it's kinda pointless, I believe.

 I used cups to setup the printing and now

Is the cups daemon running?

server root # ps -ef | grep cups
root  6492 1  0 Feb19 ?00:00:09 /usr/sbin/apcupsd
root   515 1  0 Feb22 ?00:01:58 /usr/sbin/cupsd
root 10287 10280  0 14:20 pts/100:00:00 grep cups

 'man cups' says No manual entry for cups.

That's par for the course.  'man cupsd' or an actual cups executable will
give you the info.

 Ideas are most welcome

Check the printer from http://localhost:631 to see what the status of it
is...

Dave



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RE: [gentoo-user] Re: Lost par_port printer after emerge

2005-03-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 
 I did 'emberge unmerge ghostview' and 'merge ghostview-afpl' earlier
 today...

In that case I'd re-emerge cups.  There are parts of cups that tie into
ghostview for the printing of postscript files.  Having a different
ghostview implementation could be causing you some problems.


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RE: [gentoo-user] eclipse and memory

2005-03-01 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I am wondering whether it is worth trying to install eclipse with 256meg
 of RAM. I have tried netbeans and it was a complete dog. Has anyone got
 any experience with this?

I've been running eclipse on my gentoo system, 256mb, no problems.  I think
you'll notice a big difference between it and netbeans.

Dave


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RE: [gentoo-user] Newbie Hardware Advice

2005-02-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
 From personal experience, I can say this:
 DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE GET AN ATI CARD.
 
 I am very happy with my new nVidia card. I went through hell with my
 ATI card. So I greatly recommend nVidia.

From personal experience, I can say this:
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE GET AN NVIDIA CARD.

I am very happy with my new ATI card. I went through hell with my
nVidia card. So I greatly recommend ATI.

Actually I'm not trying to be crass.  But for every response like the one
above you'll get an equally-emphatic opposite response.  I had problems with
nVidia because I had an older card and the later nVidia drivers just
wouldn't work with it.  I had problems with X freezes, etc., that just would
not go away.  Switched over to an ATI card and have had no problems since.



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RE: [gentoo-user] uuencode

2005-02-28 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Where is uuencode packaged?

I think it's part of uulib.

 What is the correct way way to find this out myself?

esearch -S uuencode

Dave

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RE: A perfect example - was RE: [gentoo-user] Reply-To: header seems broken-- OT question stimulated by this thread

2005-02-24 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I know that today I sent two messages back to the people who originally
 posted when I really wanted it to go back to the list.  Yes I was not
 thinking and just did a reply (which should have gone to the list).

That's just it - the thought process should go into which messages go to the
list, not which messages go to the OP.

Of course the OP should always get the reply, but the list as a whole should
not.



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RE: [gentoo-user] search emerge

2005-02-24 Thread Dave Nebinger
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~ # time emerge --searchdesc analyzer
 Searching...  -/usr/lib/portage/bin/ebuild.sh: line 21:
 ...
 real22m48.548s
 user18m54.880s
 sys 3m29.307s

do an emerge --meta which might help a little.

 Second, is this the only way to see all of the packages in a specific
 folder?
 (And is folder the correct term to use here?)  Is there a tool or utility
 which will show all packages, perhaps in a tree format?

$ ls /usr/portage/net-analyzer


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A perfect example - was RE: [gentoo-user] Reply-To: header seems broken-- OT question stimulated by this thread

2005-02-23 Thread Dave Nebinger
This is a perfect example of why the 'reply to' thing was originally broken,
recently fixed, and today reset back to the broken state.

One person posts an OT message that is quite easily resolved by doing a
simple google search.

But since the 'reply to' is broken again, we get 7 different replies telling
the whole list, rather than the one person, how to find out what the acronym
means.

Andrea, I'm sorry if you felt flogged by folks wanting the old modus
operandi in place; you were right in the first place to have fixed the
'reply to'.



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RE: A perfect example - was RE: [gentoo-user] Reply-To: header seems broken-- OT question stimulated by this thread

2005-02-23 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Yes, but the point of the list is to tell the list, not that one person
 alone. Had all 7 replies been to the OP, then no one else who wanted the
 answer, now or in the future, would know what the answer was.

The broken 'reply to' means that you don't have to think about where your
replies go, a shortcut I'm sure many folks like but is not a good thing
IMHO.

A working 'reply to' means that each responder must consider whether the
information they're returning is something the list needs to know or if it's
specific for the OP.

Had all seven replied to the OP does not mean the answer would have lost; as
many have pointed out a simple google search would have delivered the same
information.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Unattended sftp?

2005-02-22 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I think you're right.  Does this mean anyone could easily intercept my
 login and password and log in as me?

The basic answer for this is yes.  Definitely your password could be
intercepted and used by others.

But consider for a minute what is involved with that...

Someone floating out there on the net would have to be intercepting packets.
And the packets that you're sending would need to flow over the same path to
the endpoint (not guaranteed by IP).  And they would need to be able to
filter the mass of packets going by their system to get the one(s) with your
password information.  And they would initially have to identify a need to
get your password in order to target your packets for capture.

Granted all of this is indeed doable, but IMHO it's like looking for a
particular atom in a haystack, let alone the needle...




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RE: [gentoo-user] New Gentoo installation won't let me set root'spasswd [SOLVED]

2005-02-18 Thread Dave Nebinger
 From /etc/make.conf:
 
 CFLAGS=-O2 -march=i686 -fomit-frame-pointer
 CHOST=i686-pc-linux-gnu
 CXXFLAGS=${CFLAGS}
 MAKEOPTS=-j2
 
 
 The machine is has a Pentium MMX 199MgHz processor, so I'm not sure if
 the i686 is right (I thought i686 was a Pentium II) so I changed CHOST
 to x86 and changed CFLAGS to i586 and re-emerged shadow.  It let me set
 the password...

Ah, but if you built the box from gentoo stage 1 or 2, you're probably going
to want to start all over again (not necessary if built from stage 3).

Likely the entire system was built using the i686 architecture and you'll
run into other problems (i.e. illegal instruction errors) as time goes on.



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RE: [gentoo-user] New Gentoo installation won't let me set root'spasswd [SOLVED]

2005-02-18 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Hope you have a spare week or so with a machine that slow. :)

Either that or a distcc compile farm, which is what I use for keeping a
gentoo p133 system up to date...



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RE: [gentoo-user] Unattended sftp?

2005-02-18 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I'm also concerned about sending my
 password for these systems over the internet in clear text.

Ah, you're doing that whether you are doing it manually or automagically via
a cron task.  So if you're not worried about the manual upload, why worry
about the automated upload?

Based on the systems you've mentioned (google  yahoo), alternate methods
(i.e. sftp, scp, etc.) might not be available to you.  Wput will work for
uploading via ftp and it's probably going to be your only option.



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RE: [gentoo-user] mysterious lockups

2005-02-17 Thread Dave Nebinger
 On Mon, Feb 07, 2005 at 08:27:42AM -0800, Bob Sanders wrote:
  Typically it's the graphics drivers hanging the AGP bus.  But you
  didn't memtion if you were running xscreensaver.  If you're
  running xscreensaver, do -
  Then, when it hang again, ssh in and killall xscreensaver.
 
 Well, a lockup happened again last night (of course *not* while I
 was using the computer).  Funny thing is, I can ping the locked
 machine, and it responds as though everything was okay.  But I
 cannot ssh into the computer.  ssh does not timeout (like it would
 if the host were down); after I type ssh host and press enter, it
 just sits there---I let it sit there for about 30 minutes before I
 got impatient and hard-rebooted the machine.

Ssh will react like this when there is significant load on the target
machine.  Same thing happened to me when I had an ebuild that started
forking like crazy.  The system was so busy spawning and reclaiming
processes that it appeared to freeze (even the screen saver was stuck).

Are the lockups occurring at a consistent time?  If so, you might be able to
track down a cron or at task that might be hammering your system...

 
  Look in /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card
  ...
  If you have SBA and Fast Writes on, try turning them
  off - /etc/modules.d/nvidia
 
 I'm hesitant to try this, only because the lockups are so random.
 It's been almost two weeks since it last happened; I have a feeling
 that I could get lucky and it won't happen again forever (or it
 could happen in the next five minutes).  Either way, it's hard to
 determine the solution when I make a change and then just wait.

My lockups were from the nvidia drivers.  Swapped out nvidia for a radeon
card and had no lockups since.

So do give this a try; if it eliminates the lockups then it will be well
worth it for you.



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RE: [gentoo-user] ntfs vs *nix fs

2005-02-17 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I had a google but didn't find anything. Anyone know of any
 investigations trying to measure ntfs vs other *nix fss? I know that it
 is a bit like comparing apples with oranges but might be nice.

Last I heard write support to ntfs was still classified as experimental.  I
don't know that I'd want to use it even if the performance was tens of times
faster than other unix filesystems.

That said, I would have to guess that with the amount of emulation needed to
ensure the ntfs partition would be compatible with windows the performance,
at best, would be on par with unix filesystems but, more likely, would not
perform as well.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Need help with apache2 setup

2005-02-17 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I am trying to setup apache2, but I cannot get access from outside my
 machine. I have it set to listen on port 8000 and have that forwarded
 from my router, however, I can only connect to the server locally and
 only by specifying 127.0.0.1:8000. Outside of the machine, all I get is
 connection refused.

Are you running iptables?  You might have a rule which blocks external
entities.

Are you running tcp-wrappers?  You might need to add an entry to
/etc/hosts.allow to allow the connection from your router.

Anyways it doesn't sound like an apache issue, but more of a security issue.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Error in the emerge of gpm-1.20.1

2005-02-16 Thread Dave Nebinger
 My questions are :
 
 a. Why is this happening (i.e. is this a bug, or a misconfiguration on my
 side)
 b. How should I fix this ?

Don't believe it's a bug, but then I'm not running emacs so I don't have
that use flag set.

You could try an env-update, which would rebuild the ld cache and might
resolve it.

 c. Is gpm a must?, I can't really verify that I use the mouse in the
 console.
 if not how can I remove it(gpm) from [system] so that the [emerge -e]
 can be finished successfully.

You can do an emerge -C gpm to remove it, and no it is not necessary.
Although I do a lot of stuff from the console and find gpm to be very handy,
it's totally up to you to keep it or dump it.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Cygwin and Sygwin

2005-02-16 Thread Dave Nebinger

 Is it the same thing?

Freshmeat shows no projects with that name and google matches seem to
indicate they are the same (people entering typos).

http://www.cygwin.org

Dave



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RE: [gentoo-user] Cygwin and Sygwin

2005-02-16 Thread Dave Nebinger
 http://www.cygwin.org

Oops, that should have been http://www.cygwin.com

Dave



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RE: [gentoo-user] Assistance? Kernel 2.6.10-as2-grsec-20050124: proftpd segfaulting(11 / SIGSEGV)

2005-02-16 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Now, does this mean grsecurity sent that signal? Or is this just the
 signal logging?

Grsecurity is sending the signal.  Segment violations are usually culprits
of bad pointer referencing, not that it would help identify why grsecurity
is failing.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Patches

2005-02-15 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Well, there are 2 tarballs with patches. Can someone tell me where
 ${DISTDIR} is? I'd like to have a look at the tarballs to at least know
 what I'm patching. ... or where do I find the genpatches-*?
 ... and where is ${WORKDIR}? Maybe the _README will tell me what I
 want to know.

These both reference settings defined in your /etc/make.conf.


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RE: [gentoo-user] symlinks missing when distcc installed

2005-02-15 Thread Dave Nebinger
 Then, it didn't work.  Distcc did not distribute any compile tasks to
 the other computers.  I tracked it down as far as I can.  It looks
 like there are not any links from the /usr/lib/distcc/bin directory to
 the distcc binary.
 
 For a short term solution, I created the links on the PCs that did not
 have them.

Great Abap!  But did distcc work after these links were created?

This came up as an issue before on the list but I don't believe anyone
tracked down the source of the problem...



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RE: [gentoo-user] Postfix excessive logging

2005-02-15 Thread Dave Nebinger
 For every single mail I get I see a few hundred(!) lines of logs... :-(
 I reckon something is running in debug mode, but try as I might I cannot
 find
 what is (and where it is configured). A log excerpt is to be found below.

It's mostly the smtpd guy (it looks like) that is generating the logs.

Look in /etc/postfix/master.cf at your entries that have smtpd under the
command + args column.  You probably have the -v flag set.  It should be
cleared and postfix reloaded.

Also look at the debug_peer_list and debug_peer_level values in
/etc/postfix/main.cf.  The debug_peer_list indicates which peers to do
excessive logging on and level indicates how verbose it should be.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Installing GENTOO from CD

2005-02-15 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I was comparing the installation instructions for Gentoo with that of
 other Linuxes.  I currently have Libranet, SuSE, two KNOPPIXes, UBUNTU,
 installed and of course some decisions, such as you mention, were needed
 but not to the extent that Gentoo requires.  They didn't have a 100
 page set of microinstructions and rhetoric  All I had was two sheets of
 paper for each of these distros..   I'm not claiming that Gentoo can be
 installed without requiring ANY decisions but surely,
 the installation of a basic workable Gentoo that then could tailored to
 whatever you want, could be made as simple as other Linux distros,
 couldn't it?

Picking a linux distribution is like buying a car.  There are many different
flavors and each comes with its pros and cons.  The user manual for a ford
escort is shorter than that of a Hummer; that's not an indication of which
vehicle is better.  The choice, in the end, is to find a distribution which
meets your requirements.

If all you're concerned about is the length of the installation
documentation, then maybe gentoo is not for you.

If, however, you want a custom built system that is tuned to your specific
hardware with detailed control over what packages are installed, then the
binary based distributions will let you down.

The difference in the installation documentation size relates to these
alternate means of installing linux.

We welcome new gentoo converts and assist them to get their boxen up and
running and celebrate their decision to use (IMHO) the best distribution
available.  If the size of the installation documentation keeps a few folks
from moving to gentoo, I don't think there's much we can do about it.



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RE: [gentoo-user] [Gentto-user] R for Gentoo linux

2005-02-14 Thread Dave Nebinger
 What's the best way to install R?

That depends upon your needs.

For a simple usage scenario, emerge is the best as it will become part of
your world file and will be updated automatically as new releases are put
out.

For a custom usage (i.e. you need to use special options for the configure
script or you really don't want portage to manage the package or you're
using a package that has not been put into portage yet), the standard
tgz/configure/make install cycle works.

I'd avoid the RPM route, however, as you're no longer running a redhat-based
distribution.  I'm not an rpm user, so I can't really comment on rpm usage
except to say that I haven't run into a package that was available as an RPM
that wasn't also available either via portage or the standard
tgz/configure/make install cycle.



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RE: [gentoo-user] Filesystem Choice

2005-02-10 Thread Dave Nebinger
 I want to know which filesystem is a better choice for having lots
 (4billion) directories.  The dirs will be in tree format, so at the
 root will be 256 dirs, each with 256 sub-dirs, each with 256 sub-dirs.
 This will go on for 8 to 12 levels deep (I don't know yet)  Then each
 dir will have one small file in it (32bytes).  How would I tune ext3
 for this?  What about XFS, I read that some of it's features might be
 useful to me for this project.  Any good links?  I don't even know what
 phrases to Google for this one, my results have been unhelpful.

Search for unmaintainable ridiculous software architecture and you'll
probably find a match to your product.

It doesn't matter what filesystem you choose as this architecture is going
to abuse them significantly.

As an application developer I would never create software that met the
requirements that you've listed above; it's obviously a poor solution to a
problem that is better handled by a database.

You really should contact whoever created the software and ask them to take
a programming course or two.


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RE: [gentoo-user] Filesystem Choice

2005-02-10 Thread Dave Nebinger
  ReiserFS does deal with billions of tiny files better than almost
  all other file systems. You're going to run into inode issues with ext3
  as well. However what you're doing sounds like it belongs in a database
  instead of creating weird data structures within your filesystem.
 
  kashani
 
 Kashani,
Thanks, I searched and found some docs that indicate this too.  Your
 answer was much better than Dave Nebinger's of search for
 'unmaintainable ridiculous software architecture', that wasn't helpful
 at all.

It wasn't meant to be helpful in choosing a filesystem.  If you think that
choosing ReiserFS will make the software somehow magically function better
than whatever you're looking at now, you're sadly mistaken.

Traversal of that directory structure (256 within 256 within 256 ... 8 to 12
levels deep) is going to be difficult for any software.

The point that you should have taken from my response is that a filesystem,
any filesystem, is not the correct implementation; a database is.

I'm sorry you didn't appreciate the sarcasm.



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