Re: [newbie] Konsole won't open

[John Wilson]

On March 26, 2005 09:42 am, eric jackson wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Mar 2005 09:33:30 -0800, John Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> wrote:

>
> No, that's all it says.
>
> Any one know if it's possible to uninstall and re-install Konsole?
>
> Eric Jackson

Follow the menu System|Configuration|Packaging|Remove Software and then query 
it for the file(s) Konsole.  That will tell you which package needs to be 
removed.

Then urpmi the newest version of the package and install that one.

Here's hoping it works. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Konsole won't open

[John Wilson]

On March 26, 2005 08:11 am, eric jackson wrote:
> I recently installed 10.1. For some reason Konsole won't open. I get an
> error message saying KDEinit can't open Konsole. I tried using the other
> terminal program that Mandrake installed. It will open but it won't accept
> any input from the keyboard.
>
> Any help you can offer would be appreciated.
>
> Eric Jackson

Is there any other message from KDEinit about why it won't open Konsole?  That 
might be helpful.

I've not had that problem before.  KDE has refused to open other programs but 
never that one. :)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Web Page Design Software

[John Wilson]

On February 21, 2005 04:54 am, John Layt wrote:

>
> You might like to check out the following dedicated Realty web software:
>   http://www.open-realty.org/ (demo at
> http://open-realty.org/demo/index.php) http://freerealty.rwcinc.net/
>   http://real-estate-management-software.org/
>
> Xoops CMS:
> http://www.obscorp.com/obsportal/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?cid=31&;
>lid=10 (Demo at
> http://www.folsomliving.com/modules/realestate/singlelink.php?cid=23&lid=40
>060122)
>
> Mambo CMS (mambo is free, these modules cost):
>   http://www.mosets.com/hot_property/
>  
> http://mambo.theyard.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=30
>
> For general web galleries, try this search at FreshMeat:
>   http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=php+gallery§ion=projects&Go.x=9&Go.y=4
>
> There's a heap more out there, I'm sure, just google...
>
> John.

You might also want to look at any number of PHP-Nike powered sites just 
because most of the modules you'll need are free.

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] how to change the default font?

[John Wilson]

On February 5, 2005 02:25 pm, Alan Ianson wrote:

> It might. :) It's the console I want to change to make it easier to read
> what's on the screen. I did actually scoop the answer from someones post in
> expert yesterday although it still needs a tweak or two but I'm getting
> there.

Cool!

I hope it's going well and when you get a solution perhaps post it here so 
that others can see what you did and emulate. :-)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] how to change the default font?

[John Wilson]

On February 4, 2005 09:23 am, Alan Ianson wrote:
> How can I change the default font from lat0x16 to default8x16?
>
> TIA!

It might help if you told us which window manager you're using or if you're 
talking about the shell.  Different answers for each one, Alan. :-)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] firewall

[John Wilson]

On January 6, 2005 08:53 am, Ronald J. Hall wrote:
> On Wednesday 05 January 2005 11:34 pm, Miark wrote:
> > On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 16:03:10 -0800, John wrote:
> > > I wish I could say that Mr Eastep was either helpful or nice.  I've
> > > actually found him quite the arrogant, insulting boor.  Particularly
> > > when he knows you use Mandrake.
> > >
> > > Oh well, perhaps it's just me :)
> >
> > You just have that effect on people YOU ASSHOLE!
> >
> > ;-)
> >
> > Miark
>
> I'm subscribed to the Shorewall list and found Tom E. to be very helpful.
> He helped me, even though he knew I was using Mandrake. He did make the
> comment that Mandrake did a few things in a non-standard way. He is very
> direct, but he didn't insult me. As with so many things Linux, he does
> expect a person to read all the FAQs and docs, *before* posting a question.
> Just my experience.

Ahhh, so it is me then :)

Either that or I caught us both on a bad day.  I'll try again. :)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] firewall

[John Wilson]

On December 29, 2004 04:09 pm, Fajar Priyanto wrote:

> Yes shorewall is a good one. I appreciate Mandrake includes it. A little
> confusing at first, but once we read the tutorial, it's not that hard to
> setup. And Tom Eastep - the writer - is very active in the shorewall list.
> However, don't be offended by his sharp words though (especially when he
> knows we use mandrake) :) He's actually a very nice person, really :) His
> sharp words come because he's also a good writer on the documentation, so
> our problem regarding shorewall mostly has been covered in it.

I wish I could say that Mr Eastep was either helpful or nice.  I've actually 
found him quite the arrogant, insulting boor.  Particularly when he knows you 
use Mandrake.

Oh well, perhaps it's just me :)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Returning Newbie

[John Wilson]

Hiya Scott

On November 25, 2004 02:48 pm, Scott Manning wrote:
> Hi ppl,
>
> Been about 5 years since my last foray into Linux...heaps has change..2 q's
> if I may;
>
> Dumb question 1. What directory are the How-to pages in again?

Click the Star/Foot thingy on the left, More Applications, Documentation, 
English Howtos.  If, of course, you installed them :) 
>
> Not so dumb question 2. USB? Is it plug and play as in Win or does it need
> to be mounted like other drives (ie when using a thumb drive)+

I've found it to be so in 10 and 10.1.  Just make sure you have your CD/DVD or 
network URPMI ready to install any needed drivers.

>
> Not so dumb question 3. Can anyone point me to a FAQ on setting up an a USB
> ADSL modem? Kconfigure only allows for ehternet connected dls modems...
>

This I can't help with. 
> Thanks Very Much
>
> Scotty

Most welcome :)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Netmon and Linux

[John Wilson]

On November 10, 2004 08:19 am, Manaxus wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
>
> I am coming from the Microsoft world and learning LINUX so I am
> wondering if anyone is familiar with the network monitoring tool called
> netmon. If so, does LINUX have a tool similar to it?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Manaxus

Ann has already given you the definitive answer.

Depending on what you want to look at you can install Ethereal and or 
Etherape.

Also, check under System|Monitoring and you may find you already have what you 
are looking for there.

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Squeaky wheels and the Daily Show

[John Wilson]

I guess this means that I get to listen to Dave, Morely and all the rest on 
they Vinyl Cafe while reading the lists? :)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Which distro do you use? (humor)

[John Wilson]

On October 31, 2004 05:04 am, Ronald J. Hall wrote:
>   :-)
>
> http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/10/30/137

I love it!

Now where is my beret and striped tshirt?  :)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Update of the 10.1 Community tree

[John Wilson]

On October 23, 2004 01:27 pm, H.J.Bathoorn wrote:
> On Saturday 23 October 2004 22:21, Dennis Myers wrote:
> > > it would run.
> >
> > I tried that myself, and could not get the list to load, it would time
> > out after about 5 minutes
>
> Chances are that the hdlist itself is being updated/renewed when that
> happensnot all mirrors are equally fast, give some slack:)

We seem to be dealing with all of the mirrors today.  Perhaps tomorrow will be 
better. 

I'm betting we have to get used to this in the changeover from community to 
official. :-)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Linux Fact or Fiction

[John Wilson]

On October 21, 2004 04:11 pm, Elliot Somers wrote:
>   This is a pretty general question, I've heard it said by one party that
> linux/unix is virus proof, other's say it's that virus authors go after the
> big guys, so MS, wintel servers, etc. What I want to know is what's true
> and what's not. Also I'm curious not only if it is, or not,  but why? If
> there's any references you all know of to point me in the right direction
> I'd appreciate it.
>   Thanks,
>   Elliot
Goodness, here we go again.

To a degree it's true that virus writers go after the big guys.  It's also 
true that virus/trojan/spyware writers go after the easiest system to use to 
propagate their nasties and that also happens to be Windows.

One, in fact the only, reason the crackers charge after Windows is that from 
95 to XP Pro most windows boxes run in administrator mode or with 
administration rights widely given.  Even when they are not things like 
adding new software default to that.

Toss in Microsoft's much vaunted ease of use mantra which has led to VBA, 
scripting languages that operate system wide, browsers and email clients that 
happily install just about anything so that you won't have to trouble 
yourself about it.  Oh...and browsers and email clients that will follow HTML 
code anywhere no matter where it goes.

What all this boils down to is that a cracker can devise a simple program that 
will install itself on your Windows box without your so much as even knowing 
about it.  Nice, eh?

And Windows users have shown themselves the most undiciplined of surfers, well 
perhaps that title goes to AOL users, who will go to a web site and download 
any old crap, usually spyware, so they can get the video feeds of porn, stock 
tickers, latest prices of medicines or whatever.

As for wintel servers on the internet they are a definite minority when 
compared to Linux, one of the BSDs or UNIX.  But they are as easily breakable 
as the desktop Windows on which they're based and for the same reasons.  Only 
a near total moron would put anything on a windows server on the internet 
these days and for good reason.

Admittedly this is much simplifed and much understated, beleive it or not.  
Try Bugtraq or CERT is you want to know more.  You might also want to google 
virus writing to see how much there actually is out there.

Now, Linux, in common with almost all POSIX compliant software also has an 
administrators account and you can, if you want to, set up as insecure a 
system as any old Windows box.  Responsible Linux distributions will insist 
that you have at least one regular user as well as root and will boot you in 
as that.

Now it's possible for a virus to be written for Linux and it's been done.  
But, unlike the Windows situation, there is absolutely nothing that can be 
done in user space that overlaps with or conflicts with the root/system 
space.  In short, a virus cannot propagate itself.  Oh, it can mess up the 
user's home in short order but not the machine itself.  Spyware can find out 
everything it wants about you but nothing at all about the root or any other 
user on the box.

Nasties do exist for Linux but they are much further and fewer between than 
the almost daily attacks on Windows.  And they are, in general, far easier to 
defend against.

Also, it often takes less than 24 hours for a package to be fixed after a 
vulnerability is found, often before it's exploited, and the fix sent out.  
Compare that to the rather cavalier attitude of Micosoft to such things.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Default Terminal

[John Wilson]

On October 14, 2004 01:23 pm, Stephen Kühn wrote:
> On Fri, 2004-10-15 at 00:52, JoeHill wrote:
> > Okay, I've tried google.ca/linux, the list archives, and the Twiki
> > (perhaps not aggressively enough)
> >
> > Anyone got a quick answer as to how to change the default terminal,
> > globally and/or per-user?
>
> Ya are jokin, ain't ya?
>
> set $TERM = whateveryouwant
>
> --
> stephen kuhn

that's too damn simple.  Complexity!  He wants complexity and endless 
scripting dammit!:)

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Broadband modems

[John Wilson]

On October 12, 2004 02:17 pm, H.J.Bathoorn wrote:
> On Tuesday 12 October 2004 21:41, Stephen Kühn wrote:
> > They're simple, fast, web based control and configuration, NO DRIVERS
> > NEEDED(God I love my Netcomm NB-1300)
>
> An you don't want to ask what he does to the thing when he's offline!>:)

Are you sure that he's not single handedly responsible for the many slowdowns 
in the internet by doing whatever it is when he forgets that he's always 
online! :)

ttfn

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[newbie] Adventures in 10.1

[John Wilson]

Hi all, 

There's an amazing lack of screaming about 10.1 CE which is very promising 
indeed.

I've downloaded it and shared out till I've had the time to update which is 
today.

The installation went very smoothly with everything setting up beautifully 
with the exception of a networked printer and I already know how to fix that, 
I hope.

One immediately seen disappointment, though not a big one, is that as near as 
I can tell CD 5, which someone said would have KDE 3.3 on it, doesn't.  The 
KDE as installed is a mixture of KDE 3.2 and 3.3 and seems to work just fine.

Most packages don't seem to all have the 10.1 identifier on them.  A lot still 
show 10.0 and a lot don't have it at all.  Not a problem just an observation.  
Might make things interesting when OE comes out but I'll deal with that then.

Mandrake Update comes up with a list of alleged update mirrors, none of which 
either exist or work.  Not sure what is up because Mandrake Update says they 
exist and the Club says they don't.  So I tossed in a 10.0 OE update site in 
the hopes that that will catch something.  I'm starting to get used to 
Mandrake Update being borked but this is getting a bit tiresome, you know?

Now comes the fun part and trying it all out.  Except, once again, for the 
update mirrors problem, it's an excellent job and everone involved needs to 
be congratulated.

Now if Warly can just leave the mirror structure in peace for a while. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] MKD 10.1

[John Wilson]

On September 28, 2004 12:27 pm, Derek Jennings wrote:
> On Tuesday 28 September 2004 19:17, Derek Jennings wrote:

> >
> > 1/ and 2/ There are no update mirrors for Community. Updated packages go
> > into the main tree. Go here http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ to select an
> > online source for 'main' 'contrib' and 'plf' sources. Update by running
> > urpmi.update -a && update --auto-select
> > in a root terminal about once a week.
>
> SNIP
> There was a typo in my last post. It should be :-
> urpmi.update -a && urpmi --auto-select
>

> derek

Would this be the main 10 tree or a main 10.1 tree? :)

I'd suspect any updates would also show up, over time, on the 10.0 update 
tree.

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Odd Internet problem...

[John Wilson]

On September 25, 2004 07:27 am, Ronald J. Hall wrote:
> On Saturday 25 September 2004 01:52 am, Stephen Kühn wrote:
> > MAC addresses are at hardware level; if the MAC address has changed,
> > consider disabling the card in BIOS and driving out to Greenville or
> > Pikeville for a new 10/100 card...
> >
> > --
> > stephen kuhn - proprietor
>
> As I reported to Lyvim, its all working again now, and reporting the
> original MAC address it had before. Because its "quirky" like this though,
> I'm gonna change it out ASAP.
>
> BTW, the local Wal-mart at Prestonsburg carries Linksys network cards
> Stephen, so I don't have to drive any real distance (5 miles/15 mins tops).
> :-)

Hi Ronald,

Out of nothing, at this point and keeping fingers crossed, did you check to 
see if the "phantom" MAC address on your son's card was duplicated in one of 
the other cards on your LAN?

The reason I ask is that he or someone else could have been playing around 
with something that could programmatically change a MAC address.  These 
changes are at software level not the hardwired level of the native MAC on 
the card itself.  But the effect is the same.  A duplicate MAC on a LAN can 
cause all kinds of problems including the one you're describing.

I spend four hours one day troubleshooting a customer ADSL setup only to check 
the LAN itself in sheer frustration and found the same MAC on three NIC 
cards.  After fixing it I asked the customer what they'd done.  They hadn't a 
clue but said that their computer guy, whose qualifications appear to be a 
mail order MSCE, had been in the day it all started and blamed it on my 
company.  It seems he was trying to get a Linksys ADSL router to spoof the 
internal MAC that had been registered with our network without going through 
the router setup to do it.

The strangest things happen sometimes and I'm starting to suspect that that's 
it.

ttfn

John (the well grounded :))
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Re: [newbie] [OT] Put on your tinfoil hats...

[John Wilson]

On September 15, 2004 08:42 am, David T Battler wrote:
> How about the typical American "Shite" in this email?
>
> I thought this was a discussion list regarding Linux.
>
> I am a Canadian, and proud of it; and I find this kind of garbage
> offensive; and this email list to be worse than useless.  Some people never
> grow up.
>
> I will be withdrawing from this list asap.
>
David,

Don't sweat it.  We do talk a lot about Mandrake around here.

I'm glad you're a proud Canadian.  There's nothing to be prouder of.  Well, 
unless you live in Toronto. :-)

I see nothing to apologize about in my nationality, my country, what's right 
with us and what's wrong with us.  My post was mostly about what's wrong, in 
my opinion, with far to many of us.  If you weren't around in 1970 then it's 
not really your issue, though it is  your history.

For all that we are often hypocritical in our attitude to other countries, not 
just the US, we do have one thing in our favour.  We don't labour under 
something as abhorant as the Patriot Act.  And. should Dubya and company get 
re-elected the US can kiss the one thing that makes it unqiue among 
democracies anywhere and that's the first amendment which John Ashcroft is 
drooling to destroy.

So, you see, we could end up being the most open and free society in the world 
in short order.  All in the name of security and some form of moral purity, 
you understand.  Sad, really, when you think of it.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] [OT] Put on your tinfoil hats...

[John Wilson]

On September 15, 2004 07:42 am, JoeHill wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 09:25:59 -0400
>
> Ronald J. Hall disseminated the following:
> > "I love my country but I fear my government"
>
> Amen to that. I think that's something that most people have in common, to
> varying degrees, all over the world.
>
> > Having said that, just let me note that no matter how bad my government
> > got, I'd never turn my back on my country, or disavow it.
>
> Well, I guess it depends on how you define 'country', at least to me. If
> you mean the people around you, that you live with and work with, and all
> the people that share your goals and values, basic to most of us, like
> 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (of course, in Canada it's:
> 'Life, Liberty, and the Security of the Person'...typical vague and somehow
> disturbing Canadian shite), then of course no one would disavow their
> country, IMO.
>
> Don't worry, though, the real people, the people that really make up a
> 'country', always win. The Government is always at a disadvantage:
>
> http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/s/SNAFUprinciple.html

Actually, it's Peace, Order and Good Government which you, of all people 
should know, Joe.

And it's been used in rather disturbing fashion.  AKA the War Measures Act in 
1970 when we Canadians were dealing with our own happy band of terrorists in 
Quebec.  The Patriot Act, for all the it stinks to high heaven, is a piker 
conpared to what we went through here at the time.  And better than 90% of 
the population supported it at the time!

It's one reason that I dispair of all the criticism that goes on among my 
holier-than-thou countrymen who seem to forget our own track record when we 
flay George W Bush.  We do that while naming mountains, airports and anything 
else not nailed down after Pierre E Trudeau who imposed the war measures act.  
Need I point out our hypocracy? 

And, though you wouldn't know it by all the uninformed hand wringing going on 
in some circles in Washington, DC, our current security laws haven't 
elimiated that bit of wartime nonsense.  It's just been renamed, repackaged 
and taught to smile.

Oh, and guess which country is home to the most developed, efficent and most 
secret communications interception and decryting agency on the planet?  Why 
it's Canada.

For all that I'm still Canadian and always will be.  I just don't trust 
government much.  Any government.  Then again, I don't expect much from them 
either.

Not bad for a unreconstructed lefty :)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] M$ has beaten Linux?

[John Wilson]

On August 31, 2004 11:22 pm, Fajar Priyanto wrote:
> http://www.forbes.com/enterprisetech/2004/08/31/cz_dl_0831msft.html

First off one needs to seriously question whether Newham was at all interested 
in using Linux or was simly using Linux as a way of bashing a pricing deal 
out of Microsoft.

That said, the article is full of errors of fact.  For example:

"Add in the cost of retraining users and IT staff, rewriting applications to 
run on Linux, and the cost of paying separately for programs like application 
servers, Web servers and directories (which come bundled with Windows). You 
also may need to pay consultants to stitch the pieces together, and you might 
need to buy insurance to protect you against lawsuits over intellectual 
property rights. (One outfit hawks such policies for $150,000 year.) "

Last time I checked, which was all of about a day or two ago, application 
servers, Web servers and directory servers are available as GPL'd software at 
little or no up front charge.  Certianly even Forbes has heard about Apache.  
As for consultants I can't think of one municipality or medium to large 
company that doesn't pay for consultants to stitch these things together 
regardless of the OS they run on.

Also, last time I checked, most of the applications mentioned in the paragraph 
above are freely downloadable for every major distribution and most little 
guys.

Later the IT type for the town goes on about that latest useless gimmick 
called a tablet PC.  At this point those things are not even close to ready 
for prime time, need to be coddled to keep working because the hardware is so 
fragile and the software..well..the less said at the moment the better.  I've 
field tested two of them and they're pure useless junk.

Towards the end of the article a well known microsoft shill named Rob Enderle 
is quoted.  This man has a history of not letting the facts get in teh way of 
his opionion or his "learned" comments.  So much so that he's even managed to 
offend our lady of Groklaw, which is probably the dumbest thing he could have 
managed to do.

Oh yes,  and IP insurance.  To date the attempts by SCO to sue end users has 
ended up going nowhere fast and it still looks as though they'll be soundly 
beaten in the end by IBM if there's still an SCO to beat up on.

Finally, so what if Microsoft has beaten IBM, Novell and others in the past?  
MS was a different company back then and so were IBM and the others.  I'd 
suggest that MS had less to defend back then and more to gain by buldgeoning 
everyone, customers included, in sight.

And Linux itself is a different beast in that it's not Red Hat, MDK, Novell or 
IBM but something bigger than that.  And that's the other problem with 
"beating" Linux.  It's a moving target and MS doesn't quite know what to do 
with that.

Microsoft has a problem now that it didn't have then.  It's fighting a multi 
front war in OS, development and application space.  In that sense they're 
similar to IBM when they went after them.  Even more so when you consider 
that while Microsoft doesn't make much hardware they do attempt to control 
it.  Like anyone in that position they can't be everywhere at once and they 
can't do everything at once well.  The fate of Longhorn should make that 
clear.

Linux and Open Source and even the closed source that is clustering around 
Linux have a serious advantage in that they can concentrate of OS or 
application or development.  And 'Nix's inherent modularity means that 
fitting the parts together isn't a huge insurmountable problem or that it 
needs to be buried in an OS a la Windows.

Add to this the fact that in spite of their own PR Microsoft hasn't really 
innovated in anything.  Oh they've copied, stolen and sometimes improved but 
to say they've ever really innovated is bunk.

The culture around Microsoft has become bureaucratic, as it must be, slow and 
fat.  It's a monolith and everything must fit into whatever master plan they 
have at the moment.  Even if they don't really seem to know what that is.

The culture around Linux and Open Source is general is close to anarchy.  
Contrary to the popular computing press this is a definite advantage.  People 
can and do concentrate on what interests them or what problems they can 
solve.  Innovation tends to be small but cumulative.  The explosion in 
quality and quantity of applications in the last 24 months is nothing short 
of phenominal even more so when one considers how much had to be reverse 
engineered.

Contrary to Forbes there is precious little hardware that Linux can't make use 
of now with ease.  So there's no block there.

FUD is FUD..even when published in Forbes.

ttfn

John
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_

Re: [newbie] Problem with MandrakeUpdate

[John Wilson]

On August 28, 2004 12:43 pm, Paul Smith wrote:
> Dear All
>
> I removed all the media and, afterwards, I added all of them.
> Surprisingly, now, whenever I run MandrakeUpdate, all hdlists are
> updated at startup, which is not very convenient, specially if they are
> already updated. Any ideas to solve this?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Paul

MandrakeUpdate does this by default to make sure, I guess, it can pull down 
any needed dependancies too.  I'm not aware of any work around and it's never 
bothered me all that much. :)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] External Drive

[John Wilson]

On August 28, 2004 05:46 am, et wrote:
> On Saturday 28 August 2004 00:38, John Wilson wrote:
> > On August 27, 2004 08:17 pm, Marc wrote:
> > > I just tried to use a USB external drive  in ML 10.0 My hopes were that
> > > ML would detect it and add a icon to my desktop like my card reader
> > > did. I was wrong, it was not that simple. Anyone have any ideas about
> > > how to get a External HDD workinh in ML 10.0?
> > >
> > > TIA
> > > Marc
> >
> > Hi Marc
> >
> > My copy of MDK 10 found the drive and added it like a charm. I know that
> > doesn't help a lot but it does show that it can be done.
> >
> > For the record it's an 80 Gig Western Digital drive formated with fat, at
> > least for now. :-)
> >
> > ttfn
> >
> > John
>
> run as root, harddrake2?

Come to think of it, yes.   I'd actually installed it under XP to back up the 
last of the data on the XP partition before wiping it out completely.  On 
reboot into Linux it was found during the check for new hardware routine by 
harddrake.

I suspect Marc could do the same thing with MCC.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Downloads and Installs

[John Wilson]

On August 15, 2004 08:24 pm, BJ Tracy wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> I have a number of books on Linux and find them to be a wealth of knowledge
> but they are really vague when it comes to downloads and installations.
>
> Can someone suggest a good book that will walk me thru a download and
> installation.  I may be making this harder than it is, but I have been on
> MS all my life and just recently switched to Linux.  It's been years since
> I last did a lot of work on the keyboard(in the terminal) but I really do
> like what I'm doing now in Linux.
>
> A couple of NEWBIE questions:
> 1)  When you download a program such as clamav, where should you down load
> to? A temp file in the usr file?
>
> 2)  After extracting the files form the tar,  and you do a 'make' and  a
> 'make install'  , , , , , does Linux know where to put the program files?
> Just a little confused.
>
> Any good books on this,  PLEASE ADVISE.
> bj

Hi BJ, 

Charlie has already talked to you about urpmi and it's companion programs to 
download RRMs and install them.  In general this is what you want to do with 
Mandrake or any distro that uses RPMs for installing programs.

The analogy with various Windows installers is that RPM's contain the whole 
program plus refereces to dependancies that the program needs to run.  The 
thing that urpmi solves is the dependancy issue.  If you don't have a program 
or library that your program, say ClamAV, needs to function urpmi will offer 
to download it for you and install it.  Compare that to a Windows intaller 
that happily installs a program and you try to run it only to be told you 
need a .dll or other file to actually run it.  You've just run into the 
Windows version of dependancy hell. :-)

Please not that installing from a tar file means that you'll have to, in most 
cases, compile the source file using gcc.  And if you're a serious newbie 
then that can be quite daunting.  Particularly if you've never used a command 
line compiler before.

So take Charlie's advice and use urpmi both from the supplied programs and 
from the command line.

BTW the four programs that make up the GUI to urpmi are found under System|
Configuration|Packaging| and they're Install Software, Remove Software, 
Mandrake Update and Remove Software.  There's another one called Browse 
Available Software that is just looking to see if something does, in fact, 
exist.

Use these and your life will be easy. :)

As for general purpose books, Charlie is right there too.  There are a few 
general purpose Linux books around but most of them are Red Hat centric.  
Still, some are useful.  There's even a Linux for Dummies book. :-)

Remember, though, that anything published by O'Reilly is excellent and well 
recommended. :)

Good luck!

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Teaching Spamassassin (Thanks!!!)

[John Wilson]

Thanks to all who answered.  It's all working now.

Chris, I'll be in touch with you off the list about other information you 
have.

Once again thanks to all!

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] KDE Headers??

[John Wilson]

On August 13, 2004 09:33 am, JRH wrote:
> Help!
>
> I'm trying to install Apollon v1.0, using the so called "all in one
> installer" (all in one pain in the ass so far!).
>
> I have had qt and Xfree related probhlems, which I have managed to
> overcome. Now it is throwing the mother of all errors up And I havent a
> clue what to do now!
>
> Can anybody help?
>
> Output is pasted below!
>
> Cheers,
>
> JRH
>
> PS, I am using KDE
>
> * Apollon
> * Running configure (./configure --prefix=/usr

> checking if Qt needs -ljpeg... no
> checking for rpath... yes
>  * configure: error:
>  * in the prefix, you've chosen, are no KDE headers installed. This will
> fail. * So, check this please and use another prefix!
> * Return value 1
>


Have you got the KDE development RPM's loaded?  That's what I think it's 
looking for.

ttfn

John

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Re: [newbie] Teaching Spamassassin

[John Wilson]

On August 15, 2004 03:03 am, Hoyt Bailey wrote:

>
> John you need to get to the messages for instance on my system the
> following works:
> sa-learn --ham /home/hoyt/.Mail/ham/cur
> You might try konqueror and go down to the individual messages that
> should give you the path. I am running kontact w/kmail on a default
> install and your path does not look right to me.

I suspect the path different is because I followed the directions from the SA 
site and made them mbox which, it appears, Kontact stores that way.

However with all the people reporting sucess with maildir I may just switch 
back so that I'm up with everyone else here. :-)

thanks!

ttfn

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Re: [newbie] Teaching Spamassassin

[John Wilson]

On August 14, 2004 09:23 pm, Chris wrote:
> On Saturday 14 August 2004 11:01 pm, Dennis Myers wrote:

>
> Odd, my SA 2.63 works fine with maildir.
>

>
> Ok, here is how I've got my SA running. Way back when I started running SA
> I went to, I believe it was Derek Jenning's site where he has/had a nice
> helpfile on how to setup SA with Kmail.  There is also a good link which
> I'll post below:
>
> http://www.tomchance.org.uk/research/random/kmail
>
> These two filters are the last two you'll have in your filter setup.
> SA-Learn can be turned on or off in your /etc/mail/spamassassin/local.cf I
> have it turned off in mine as I use a perl script file daily to learn spam
> and report it to DCC/Razor/Pyzor.  I also run another perl script to
> automatically report spam to my ISP as its processed.  If you need some
> more help, email me off-list, as someone declared SA off topic a few days
> ago and I'll try to help.  Realize I'm no expert at all, but, I've been
> messing with it for about 6 months now and I feel pretty familiar with it.

Hmmm..a list nazi got to you? :)

I may be in touch in the morning when I wrestle with this thing again.  Thanks 
for the offer.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Teaching Spamassassin

[John Wilson]

On August 9, 2004 03:01 pm, SME Server Admin wrote:
> Hiya
>
> Right. i've had Spam Assassin running for a few weeks now, and have built
> up about 300 or so messages in my Spam/missed spam directory. The actually
> directory is:
>
> Local Folders / Spam / MissedSpam
>
> Now, I've been into shell and done as it asked, ie type in the following
> string. The first one was without a dot before Mail and the second was with
> it in.
>
> It's not working. This is in Kontact by the way. Can anyone help?
>
> TIA
>
> Elwyn
>
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] elwyn]$ sa-learn --mbox
> --spam /home/Elwyn/Mail/.spam.directory/MissedSpam/*
>
> Learned from 0 message(s) (0 message(s) examined).
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] elwyn]$ sa-learn --mbox
> --spam /home/Elwyn/.Mail/.spam.directory/MissedSpam/*
>
> Learned from 0 message(s) (0 message(s) examined).
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] elwyn]$
Hi everyone.

All the answers here didn't help me, I don't know about Elwyn.

No matter WHAT kind of mailbox I have my spam messages placed in sa-learn 
refuses to learn.

My first experience was with the Kontact default of maildir boxes and sa-learn 
couldn't even find them.  Off to the SA site I go only to discover that SA 
hasn't supported maildir boxes for quite a long time.  Not a good start.

Next up was the thought that a competant mail client should have no problem 
converting mailboxes.  Again, nope.

So..set up a new directory structure for my spam to be sent to and make sure 
it's mbox..  Copy the messages into it then delete everything in the old one.

New structure is a directory called spam1 with subdirectories called called 
filteredspam, missedspan and notspam.

Now I try to teach spamassassin on what it missed (over 700 messages):

sa-learn --mbox --spam /home/john/.Mail/spam1.directory/missedspam/*
bayes expire_old_tokens: lock: 24884 cannot create tmp 
lockfile /home/john/.spamassassin/bayes.lock.d207-6-227-249.bchsia.telus.net.24884 
for /home/john/.spamassassin/bayes.lock: Permission denied

Learned from 0 message(s) (0 message(s) examined).

Okay..this isn't good either.  There seems to be a lock file there somewhere.

For fun I try as root.

sa-learn --mbox --spam /home/john/.Mail/spam1.directory/missedspam/*
Learned from 0 message(s) (0 message(s) examined).

I'll chase down the lock file and try again.  But there is one thing that does 
bother me a lot.  And that's that Konq shows two of the files related to as 
plain text (filteredspam and nonspam).  So I'm not sure they'll work.

Help please.  In simple words would be nice. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] [OT] Dumbest question ever asked

[John Wilson]

On August 13, 2004 09:44 pm, Carroll Grigsby wrote:
> On Friday 13 August 2004 11:36 pm, JoeHill wrote:
> >>> snip
> >
> > This is my fav part:
> >
> > "Microsoft admits that, in some cases, malicious code could indeed switch
> > the firewall off. However, this isn't so much a flaw as a limitation on
> > the role firewalls should play in a company's security system, according
> > to Microsoft.
> >
> > What??!!
>
> Joe:
>
> Any one want to get up a pool on how long it will take until the script
> kiddies exploit that hole? According to an article on /. a while back, if
> you connect a virgin XP install to the web using a wideband connection, the
> break in attempts can start within a minute or two. Scary. Very scary.
>
> -- cmg

Well, a friend of mine set up her office with Win2K and it took all of 3 
minutes before the first trojan slipped in.  The first virus came less than a 
minute later from a "trusted" source.

Her computer guy didn't quite know what to do and she ended up calling me.  
After a fair bit of messing around I got it cleaned up installed a well known 
windows firewall and told her to have her network guy install that, then 
update the virus defs immediately and then hope.

Oh, and don't under any circumstances use any form of Outlook or IE.

Naturally none of that was done. :-)

Her computer "geek" later added two XP Pro boxes which were infected in 
seconds of being added to the network.

As we all know...nothing is more secure than Windoze.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Current scanners

[John Wilson]

On July 28, 2004 01:05 pm, Lanman wrote:
> Dear List; I'm looking to buy a new flatbed scanner which will work
> seamlessly with Mandrake 9.2 and 10.0. If anyone on the list has
> recently purchased a new scanner and had an easy time setting it up,
> could you please let me know? I'm also hoping that this scanner can be
> shared by the host PC to 2 or 3 other PC's on the network, but this
> isn't critical.
>
> Thanks In Advance,..
>
> Lanman

I can't say how currrent it is but I have a HP Scanjet 2200 that works 
perfectly.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Mandrake10 Community

[John Wilson]

On July 26, 2004 07:42 pm, Greg Meyer wrote:
> On Sunday 25 July 2004 05:36 pm, John Wilson wrote:
> > On July 25, 2004 10:56 am, Keith Powell wrote:
> > > On Sunday 25 Jul 2004 18:39, PM wrote:
> >
> > 
> >
> > > > Mandrake Community was a beta, replaced by Official.
> > > >
> > > > There's now 10.1 beta.
> > >
> > > Thanks for the information.
> > >
> > > I thought that Mandrake were keeping the 10 Community label. Didn't
> > > realise that it had changed to 10.1 beta
> >
> > The Community label is for public betas of Mandrake releases.  We all get
> > to be guinea pigs before the rest of the world gets a crack at the
> > official relase.
>
> That's the cynical view.  It is supposed to be the stabilization release
> that will be used to cut the next official release, and then updates go
> directly into the dist tree, unlike official, which sees all updates in the
> updates directory
>
> cooker \
> \ Community \---
>  \ Official 
>
> > In any event the "new" Community will be 10.1 which is still in alpha
> > stage.

Actually I wasn't trying to be cyncial at all. :-)

To me a public/late beta is exactly what we're getting with the Community 
Edition.  And I'm not saying that it's a bad thing rather it's a good thing.  
It's a test on a much larger scale than Mandrake would otherwise be able to 
do and with some of the issues found in 10CE which were resolved by 10OE I'd 
say it's a very good plan.  One that I'm happy to be part of.

Now if we could just do something about bittorrent. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] The Linux virus myth

[John Wilson]

On July 25, 2004 06:24 pm, SME Server Admin wrote:
> On Monday 26 Jul 2004 00:42, Marc wrote:
> >   At one time someone here on the newbie list gave a link to a article
> > that did a nice simple job of explaining why it is next to impossible for
> > a succussfull linux virus to be created. I have been searching the
> > archives and have been unable to find it again.
> > Can anyone here point me to it?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Marc
>
> A quick session on Google revealed the following:
>
> 
>
> 251&start=60>
>
> 
>
> 
>
> Cheers
>
> Elwyn

Of course you could be missing the point that Microsoft keeps making that 
Linux itself is a virus. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Mandrake10 Community

[John Wilson]

On July 25, 2004 10:56 am, Keith Powell wrote:
> On Sunday 25 Jul 2004 18:39, PM wrote:

> >
> > Mandrake Community was a beta, replaced by Official.
> >
> > There's now 10.1 beta.
>
> Thanks for the information.
>
> I thought that Mandrake were keeping the 10 Community label. Didn't realise
> that it had changed to 10.1 beta

The Community label is for public betas of Mandrake releases.  We all get to 
be guinea pigs before the rest of the world gets a crack at the official 
relase.

In any event the "new" Community will be 10.1 which is still in alpha stage.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] MAC Address

[John Wilson]

On July 25, 2004 06:26 am, Lee Wiggers wrote:
> I have a new ECS N2U400-A which will not load either 9.2 or 10.0.  I
> spent 18 hrs trying different combinations and gave up.
>
> So I installed win2k on that box, just to prove to myself that the
> board sucked more than I originally thought.
>
> Okay, the question.
>
> It has an onboard nvidia 10/100 NIC.  I watched it check into the
> lan, copied its MAC, and assigned an address on the router.
>
> Every other box took this gracefully (win and mdk) and only uses
> that address.
>
> This new board just showed up on the net with another MAC and was
> assigned (of course) another address.  The net shows "black" logged
> in with two different MAC's and, consequently, two addresses
> although there is only rj45 on the box.
>
> I can't ping the assigned add and can ping the new and both show as
> dhcp logins.
>
> Any logical explanation?
>
> Lee

Yeah..the new (real) one is present and will respond to pings and other probes 
because it is there.  The assigned one gets confused because it doesn't know 
where to go.  Get rid of the copied/assigned MAC on the card and reconfigure 
everthing to use the real MAC.

The only time you can successfully spoof a MAC is when the real MAC isn't on 
the same network/interface as the rest of the world.  In short, you can do it 
with a Linksys router because it's really another tiny computer/firewall and 
it's just sort of borrowing it.  It doesn't work on the same box very well if 
at all.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] MDK 10.0 + Multimedia keyboard

[John Wilson]

On July 21, 2004 01:28 pm, Stephen Kuhn wrote:
> Hey y'all.
> I'm getting dead tired of "relearning" how to type here; MDK 10.0 surely
> isn't treating my keyboard nicely; I can either choose UK, US or US
> International - if I choose US, then my right "alt" key no longer works,
> and if I choose US International, I have to hit the ' and then tap the
> space bar - which is getting horribly annoying. I've almost gotten to
> the point where I don't want to chat in IRC or even do email as it's so
> annoying.
>
> No where I've looked can I change this behaviour - no where I've looked
> can I specify what KIND of keyboard I have - HELP!
>
> stephen kuhn - proprietor

Somewhere in MDK land there is a RPM the does allow you to configure a 
multimedia keyboard.  I've even downloaded the puppy but I'll be damned if I 
can find it at the moment.

Anyway, if memory serves it's in the club somewhere so you could try there.  
Give that a try or maybe someone can chime in and tell us what package it 
is. :-)

Anyway, I haven't set it up so I'm not even sure that it will solve your 
problem.

Good luck!

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Sympatico gives their clients the Microshaft!

[John Wilson]

On July 17, 2004 12:57 pm, Hoyt Bailey wrote:
> On Wednesday 07 July 2004 09:07, Lanman wrote:
> > Lyvim Xaphir wrote:
> > > --- Lanman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> 
>
> > If anyone else wants to submit a complaint, here's the link.
> >
> > http://www.crtc.gc.ca/
> >
> > Just select your language of choice and click on the "Complaints and
> > Inquiries" link on the left menu. This will take you to a
> > step-by-step complaint form.
> >
> > I am SO glad I don't use their service! I'll be sending a formal
> > email out to all my known Sympatico clients later today. Finally - a
> > good type of SPAM!
> >
> > Yeesh!
> >
> > Lanman
>
> Good luck you know how goverenments are.

Actually, in this case, the CRTC may actually do something.  They've been 
coming down hard on people lately and they may just continue.

Also, there's an election coming up in the next 12-18 months (current betting 
line).  So the political appointees on this regulatory group may just listen 
to enough outrage particularly if it's directed at concern for privacy and 
such.

I'd also suggest that people concerned complain to the federal privacy 
commissioner too.  And, if Sypmpatico is stupid enough to let M$loth run an 
english only service then the languages commissioner is a good bet too. :-)

Oh, I'm so glad Sympatico doesn't exist in the west anymore. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] MS Wants The Skin Off Our Backs!!

[John Wilson]

On July 17, 2004 06:24 am, Richard Urwin wrote:
> On Thursday 15 Jul 2004 8:03 pm, Ron Hunter-Duvar wrote:
> > On July 15, 2004 12:51, Graham Watkins wrote:
> > > Literally
> > >
> > > 
> >
> > At least they haven't (yet) started trying to use our bodies to
> > generate power ;^). When they're granted a patent on that, I'll start
> > getting nervous.
>
> "The patent says the body could generate the power needed to run its
> various attached devices in a similar way to self-winding watches."
>

>
> Try to take the things off and you'll find that all those doors that
> open automatically by pushing them (bank, office, home) don't work any
> more, because they aren't reading a password from your cyber-ware.

Even more worrying you're locked out of the bathroom just as you need 
desperately need it.  Or, worse, you're locked in after.

Of course such things don't take into account playful house cats, kittens or 
puppies.

Nor do they do much for those of us who work in trades where our skin and 
clothes are often subject to dirt, grime, grease, hammers, slivers, direct 
sunlight and electricity.

I'm just trying to think of what this device would do after I've been jolted 
by ringing generator while working on someone's phone line.

Fine for suits in clean rooms but probably pretty useless to the rest of us.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] The Most Popular Programming Language in Linux

[John Wilson]

On July 4, 2004 03:30 am, EE wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> What is the most popular langauge that linux gurus are using to make
> programs under linux? Is it C, C++, Python, Tcl, etc?
>
> Best Rgards

Just to be a pest..all of the above plus Java, Ruby and, occasionally, the 
Borland port of Delphi (the name of which I can't remember at the 
moment.) :-)

Sorry, no VB or VBA here.  Virus enabled languages are frowned on.

It's the best tool for the best job.  In many cases the best combination of 
tools, in fact.

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] FW: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)

[John Wilson]

On July 4, 2004 01:07 pm, Joseph Gregory Croes wrote:
> >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Subject: Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
> >Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2004 13:02:43 -0700
> >
> >This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.
> >
> >Delivery to the following recipients failed.
> >
> >[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> >
> >
>
> _
> MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE*
> http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

We all get this from time to time.  Just ignore it.  Often you'll find your 
message on the list before you get the bounce message. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] OT/semi-lenghty: Any advice for a newbie programmer?

[John Wilson]

On June 15, 2004 04:06 pm, Marv Boyes wrote:
> Hello, everyone. I realize that this isn't a developer's list, but I get
> the sense that there are more than a few developers here, and some of
> the sharpest people I've yet encountered online. I'm looking for some
> sage wisdom. ;)
>
> I haven't done any serious programming since Extended BASIC for Texas
> Instruments' TI-99/4A. I lost interest in programming shortly after my
> father brought our first Windows 3.1 machine into the house-- it was
> easier to just accept what Microsoft fed me. Linux has gotten me
> interested in learning how to do things for myself again, and I've had a
> great time reading about the mindset and culture of coding. Having
> gotten a fair handle on bash scripting, I'm interested in moving on to
> something a little more advanced. Quite frankly, I'm a little
> overwhelmed by the possibilities.
>

>
> I'm interested in knowing which languages are favored by some of the
> "hobbyist" developers on this list, and why. Is there a particular
> programming/scripting language which seems to naturally lend itself to
> the beginner (while still being rich enough to produce some useful, if
> not particularly 'killer', applications)? Relatively easy to learn;
> powerful enough to create something other Linux users might find useful,
> should I stick with it long enough. Should I dive right into C, or might
> I be better-served by learning something about, for instance, Python or
> Perl? And if I _really_ get nuts about programming and decide that I
> want to give GUI-driven apps a try, are there languages which would lend
> themselves to something like, say, gtk (or is that a language in itself?
> See, utter newbie...).
>
> I would appreciate anyone's thoughts; feel free to respond off-list if
> this post shouldn't have been here in the first place. ;)
>
>
> Thanks,
> Marv

I see you've had recommendations for Perl and C already so I won't chime in on 
either of them except to say that the learning curve is pretty steep for C.  
That said both are useful and widely used.

For relearning to program again may I suggest either Python or Ruby.

Python is widely used for all kinds of tasks and widely supported.  There are 
many decent tutorials around particularly at www.python.org.

Ruby is a little newer and not so widely used.

Both are included with your distro.

The reality is that once you learn a modern programming language transferring 
the skills to another one is relatively easy.

Have fun!!!

ttfn

John

PS:  If you really want a long thread going ask what the best editor is. :-)
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Re: [newbie] Un libro bueno en Linux

[John Wilson]

On June 15, 2004 11:21 pm, Aron Smith wrote:
> On Tuesday 15 June 2004 06:40 pm, Stephen Kuhn wrote:
> > On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 11:27, Aron Smith wrote:
> > > > So ya reckon the snarling little bastard is out picking pot, eh?
> > >
> > > I diddn say enuythang.
> > > Farmer-in the -dell  High ho the merry-o
> >
> > Aron, ya know, someone somewhere DID program a really good spell
> > checker...or are you using elm/pico/mail/emacs?
>
> no Phew-bonics.
>
Anyway back to the notion of harvest season, it may not be the right time of 
year to harvest a certain green herb that also has been known to make rope or 
clothing but at this very moment thousands of ancient hippies are decending 
onto Vancouver Island in search of a (not so) rare variety of mushroom that 
is supposed to enchance a magician's act. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] searching for answers....

[John Wilson]

On June 11, 2004 06:24 am, Curt wrote:
> I'm scouring the web for answers to several issues I'm having with
> several programs. To save me searching for yet another little
> annoyance, can anyone tell me if the archive contains an answer to
> the reason that I'm (suddenly - as of yesterday) receiving two copies
> of most posts to this list?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Curt

Answers to which questions? :)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] bugy as comunity

[John Wilson]

On June 6, 2004 09:31 am, robi wrote:
> DÅa So 5. JÃn 2004 23:32 Brant Fitzsimmons napÃsal:
> > robi wrote:
> > >Same problems arising with off as with
> > >comunity, mozilla firefox does not start.
> > >Konqueror frozes on some webpages
> > >somtimes whole kde hangs.
> > >
> > >So i dont know what a hell were
> > >developers doing?
> > >I am really thinking to
> > >switch to another distro.
> > >
> > >hello
> > >
> > >robi
> >
> > Easy Tex.
> >
> > Is anyone else having the same problems?  It works fine for me, and I
> > let it run 24/7 and actively use it around 16 hours a day.
>
> Okay,
> I have mdk10 off kernel 2.6.3-13,XFree 4.3 kde32, cpu pentium4
>
>
> I tried mozilla-firefox binaries from tar.gz package
> same problem, if I running firefox its shell script
> neither starting nor output on console.
> If I run run-mozilla.sh, its complaing
> about that its cannot execute firefox-bin.pure.
> First time I tried rpm package from contrib,
> then localized version tar.gz package from
> www.czilla.cz, It was not working either.
>
> About konqueror I am aware of that it might
> hang on badly constructed sites, also
> aware of that it  could hang  couse
> java and flash plugin, and probably
> couse javascript.
>
> another anoying thing is when u use
> xmms and I want to dock it then
> the playlist does not get to panel,
> it just stays where it is.
> It small but really buging me.
>
> hello
>
> robi

Complaining about not finding something usually means the package isn't on the 
path.  Have you tried to locate it?

As for running mixed versions of the browser that can only lead to problems.  
I've tried it and I know. :-)  Uninstall all firefox/mozilla that you have 
and then do a clean reinstall of the MDK package with urpmi and see if that 
fixes things.

Funny that I've never had a problem with Konq using javascript though Java and 
flash sometimes have problems.  Could just be dumb luck or an avoidance of IE 
only sites :)

Also just about every browser I know will crash on badly designed sites.  IE, 
which I have to use at work, bombs constantly on me. :)

For multimedia there's a plugin for mplayer that works flawlessly for me. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Mozilla-Firefox does'nt work

[John Wilson]

On June 5, 2004 11:13 am, robi wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
> I have: mdk10 off, P4 1.8,kernel: 2.6.3-13,kde3.2
>
>
> I downloaded mozilla-firefox from contrib,
> and installed with urpmi but it does not
> start when I execute on terminal window,
> runing from menu is same.
>
> I would thank if sombody could help
>
> robi

Do you have any log messages or error messages you can share from when you 
tried to start it from a terminal?

Thanks.

ttfn

John

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Re: [newbie] Microsoft Brazil Decries Government Use of Linux

[John Wilson]

On June 4, 2004 04:19 pm, Stephen Kuhn wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-06-05 at 06:31, Josenildo Marques wrote:
> > Hello!
> > I'm laughing my head off here...
> > Here's why:
> >
> > "Microsoft Brasil's president, Emilio Umeoka, said that ideology led
> > Brazil's government astray when it decided to adopt Linux's free
> > software in public sector computers."
> > http://www.bizreport.com/article.php?art_id=7332
> >
> > By the way, the 5th International Free Software Forum began on
> > Wednesday, the 2nd.
> >
> > And last Friday, our Minister of Culture, singer Gilberto Gil, launched
> > the project Creative Commons in Brazil.
>

This got a bit of play on the well known "independant" voice of personal 
computing ZDNet.

It all seems like a large whinge from someone afraid of competition. :-)

ttfn

John

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Re: [newbie] bugy as comunity

[John Wilson]

On June 5, 2004 02:32 pm, Brant Fitzsimmons wrote:
> robi wrote:
> >Same problems arising with off as with
> >comunity, mozilla firefox does not start.
> >Konqueror frozes on some webpages
> >somtimes whole kde hangs.
> >
> >So i dont know what a hell were
> >developers doing?
> >I am really thinking to
> >switch to another distro.
> >
> >hello
> >
> >robi
>
> Easy Tex.
>
> Is anyone else having the same problems?  It works fine for me, and I
> let it run 24/7 and actively use it around 16 hours a day.

Not me.  It's pretty stable.

That said there are web sites that are so badly written that they'll freeze up 
the most well behaved browsers.  Equally I do get to the point where I'll 
chew up a lot of resources cause I've gotten too lazy to closer browser 
instances/tabs.

Firefox runs fine, Konq is good, Mozilla is it's normal resource hog self.

I wish robi would be a little clearer about what the problem is.

ttfn

John

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Re: [newbie] A-Z Index of the Linux BASH command line

[John Wilson]

On May 29, 2004 01:42 pm, Eric Huff wrote:
> This is kind of handy:
>
> http://www.ss64.com/bash/index.html

Nice, Eric.

Thanks :-)

ttfn

John

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Re: [newbie] How make a server ftp

[John Wilson]

On May 26, 2004 10:31 am, Aron Smith wrote:
> On Wednesday 26 May 2004 08:29 am, LtCdData wrote:
> > if you want an anno-moose log
>
> for our Canadian users  :-D

Is this so that in rutting season we can charge and derail a 1000 car ftp 
train? :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] help configuring onboard net RTL8139 (10.0 Community, MS-6577 Mobo)

[John Wilson]

On May 22, 2004 04:43 am, Dexter N Muir wrote:

>
> OK, if it's in the load order, why hasn't mdk done something to detect
> slow-to-respond cards and introduced delays or order-reshuffles to
> compensate?  Gates-Doze works every time, why not mdk?
>
> Why does the 8029 work, and the more modern 8139 not?
>
> What information can I give you to make some sense of this?
>
> Cheers
> Dex
>

Some boot log output would be handy.  Also some configuration information.

That's what I was getting to with the remarks about the DHCP NIC coming up 
just fine while the static one doesn't on my box, if all I believe is the 
boot messages.

As a matter of fact I have both cards on my box and they work so the problem 
is likely in configuration.

First off, the KDE configuration tool won't work to fix or diagnose this.  You 
need to use the MCC aka Configure Your Computer in MDK 10.  Is it detecting 
the on board NIC correctly and how does it have it all set up.

Open up the MCC and check the Hardware first.  Then go to the Network & 
Internet tool and check things in there.  In fact, this is where you can 
fiddle around with the connections.

As for the logs you can find your boot log in /var/log/boot.log

Secondly, are you using the same interface for both a LAN connection and your 
DSL?

Is this computer the one pointing to the internet and your other computer(s) 
on the LAN behind it or is it just part of the LAN?

I know this sounds  like a lot of questions but I need to understand what's 
happening on your machine.

As for GatesDoze, XP fscks the on board NIC on my sony box with annoying 
regularlity so it's far from perfect itself. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] help configuring onboard net RTL8139 (10.0 Community, MS-6577 Mobo)

[John Wilson]

On May 21, 2004 04:01 am, Dexter N Muir wrote:
> Hi all
>
>I have Mandrake 10.0 Community, and am installing to my hp pavilion
> 713a.  It has a Microstar MS-6577 ver.1 motherboard, with onboard LAN.
> This is a Realtek 8139, and it works fine under the preloaded winXP.  It
> will not work at all under Mandrake 10.0.  I have disabled it in BIOS,
> and installed a Realtek 8029 card, and I can get a semblance of
> operability from this.
>
>The 8029 card says [FAILED] on bootup, but the Internet services
> started at boot say [OK].  Running the Configuration tool (KDE desktop)
> allows me to configure the Internet using the Realtek 8029 (to ADSL
> Hub), but NOT to configure the LAN connection - what is the difference,
> and does it matter?  I seem to be able to mount Windows shares on other
> machines on my net using Samba, so something must be working.
>
>Running the Configuration tool with the 8139 enabled results in a
> long-time hang in the system (both during configuration and at bootup),
> and no functionality at all.
>
>I'd rather use the 8139 if I can - the 8029 uses a PCI slot.  Is
> there an option I can pass to the driver to get this working? or is this
> just another hp standard that is non-standard? (I've encountered
> countless of these, right back since the mid-'80's :-)
>
>I've got similar problems with the sound (Avance AC97), but that's
> another story...
>
> Hopefully...
> Dex

A couple of things come to mind here.  The first one is, with two NIC cards my 
card configured for DHCP, the one pointed to my ADSL, always comes up just 
fine.  The one pointing to my network, the only fixed IP on my home network, 
fails. Probably because it's loading before the network.

In any event, everything works when the system comes up so I'm not overly 
concerned about it.

Sometimes it's all in the load order.

The other thing that may be doing it is that the NIC is coming up before the 
Internet which may cause the same error to occur.

Anyway, some more information is required. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] O(T)Virus

[John Wilson]

On May 20, 2004 11:05 am, Lee Wiggers wrote:
> I have a complaint.
>
> How can I get my share of virus laden emails?
>
> It isn't right that everyone get's a bunch and I'm only averaging
> one a week.
>
> Who's getting mine?
>
> fess up.
>
> Lee

We wish to apologize to you for our oversight.  But after reviewing the data 
on you we discovered that the best we can do is throw tons of spam at you 
with all kinds of little cookies that track your every movement on and off 
the internet and also collect pornographic photos of you and anyone else near 
your PC.

We note, with some sadness, that you are running Linux.  It is almost 
impossible to write a successful virus that will function on that platform so 
we've largely given up.  We are learning about rootkits, though, and expect 
to be up and running on them in a year or two.

If you believe that this is unfair we can't help you.  The best we can 
reccommend is that you install a real operating system, Windows XP will do 
nicely, and use approved software such as Outlook, Internet Explorer, VBA and 
Office so that you can revel in the full experiene of the Internet and the 
high quality commercial,  closed source software that will one day take over 
completely.

Yours with deep regret,

Script Kiddies Incorporated,
Dick Rotten, aged 12
Jane Throwback, aged 14

:-)


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Re: [newbie] Exporting mail from Kmail

[John Wilson]

On May 9, 2004 03:16 pm, JoeHill attempted to joke:
> On Sun, 9 May 2004 14:24:51 -0700
>
> rikona disseminated the following:
> > I'd like to move messages in and out of Kmail, but don't see any
> > export function. Can I just select multiple messages, export as text,
> > and then import as an mbox file?
>
> IIRC, this is one of those two-step processes. Moz to import mail, which
> then stores it in mbox format, which can then be read by smarter e-mail
> clients.
>
> Doesn't KMail have an option to store mail in mbox format yet? 

Yup. :-)

Always has, as far as I know.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] 10

[John Wilson]

On May 8, 2004 04:39 pm, Phlip J Scott wrote:
> Hi just a quick question before I start another adventure.
> I had 9.2 up and running without problems, but as I am trying out different
> things before deciding
> which to stick to. So a few weeks ago I got a copy of lindows 4.5 so I
> decided to try it out, the installation went well and it seemed to be
> working fine. Then the problems started first hardly any programs with the
> disk, you have to download from a website wich charge for the use. Secondly
> all email and web pages, infact anything you saved Lindows did not
> remember. So I decided to bin it, two days later I had my Pc up and running
> with an older version of windows 98, this was all to do with the bootloader
> in Lindows. Anyway I digress, tomorrow I intend to install a proper version
> of Linux
> Mandrake 10. I have the set of 3 CD`s and intend to run it along side
> windows on a 30 Gig partition.
> Are there any issues I need to consider before installation.
>
> Philip.
> ---
Some individuals have had all kinds of problems with 10 while most seem to be 
relatively problem free.  I'm one of the lucky ones who's problem free. :-)

Go for it. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Happy May Day!

[John Wilson]

On May 1, 2004 11:15 am, JoeHill wrote:
> Solidarnosc!
>
> (wife's Polish...)

And a happy May Day to you and your wife, too!

After all the May Pole and Morris Dancing would you like to join a fairly 
large number of British Columbians on the picket line tomorrow? :-)

Solidarity Forever!!!

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] ARTICLE: Does this bloke work for Microsoft FUD specialists?

[John Wilson]

On April 25, 2004 04:38 am, Stephen Kuhn wrote:
> JoePill, I know you'll dig this one...ahem...
>
> http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/235
>
>
> stephen kuhn - owner

I'm gonna play devil's advocate and agree with the columnnist on this one.

You need to remember that Lindows/Linspir> ==
> illawarra computer services
> a kuhn media australia company
> http://kma.0catch.com
> --
>   * This message was composed on a 100% Microsoft free computer *
>   We expressly refuse to utilise Microsoft DRM encoded documents
> --
> The wages of sin are high but you get your money's worth.
> ==
> illawarra computer services
> a kuhn media australia company
> http://kma.0catch.com
> --
>   * This message was composed on a 100% Microsoft free computer *
>   We expressly refuse to utilise Microsoft DRM encoded documents
> --
> The wages of sin are high but you get your money's worth.
e ships with no security at all set up and the user plays around in their box 
as root.  The same silliness is repeated with other distros as well.

It's also possible to install Mandrake with no password at all for root.  I 
found out on my course that I'm in this week that it's just as possible to do 
this in RH/Fedora.

As the columnist's point is about security he does have a point.  We, who have 
played with and worked with Linux for a while, know that yowou don't run as 
root and that you don't leave root unpassworded (if that's a word).  Serious 
newbies do not.  He's also right that this is an inviation to script kiddies 
to start to attack unprotected boxens out there.

One thing Mandrake does do right is to offer updates for free for supported 
releases.

It's important to educate new users and one of the ways of doing that is to 
enforce the idea of a password for root on install and to make sure that the 
same password isn't used by the user.  All this can and should be scripted 
into an installer.

Sorry but Walmart boxes are security problems waiting to happen.   And this is 
something that the entire Linux community needs to address.

That said, the situation is no worse than Windows which happily ships W2K and 
XP completely unprotected and most users don't even know that there is a 
administrator password waiting and needing to be set up.  Sadly most don't 
care either.  This applies to some of the dimmer MSCEs out there who feel 
that it's easier to telnet into a box than ssh in.

That the situation is no worse than Windows doesn't surprise me.  But we're 
supposed to be better than that and that's the point that the writer is 
making.

BTW, both Lindows and RH (after a grace period) charge for updates.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Took the plunge - CUZ I HAD TO

[John Wilson]

On April 24, 2004 04:11 pm, Stephen Kuhn wrote:

> 5.) I LIKE my sendmail. Nyah!

Ahhh, if I didn't know you were orginally from Detroit I'd have figured it out 
with this.  Just like the auto industry in the 70s hanging on like grim death 
to something that isn't as good as the newer stuff. :-)

Either that or you're looking for "Old Fossil of The Week" Award. 

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Update Mirrors

[John Wilson]

On April 20, 2004 07:32 am, Edgars Smits wrote:
> OK, this is getting very frustrating. I've added strasburg via easy
> urpmi, unchecked the original sources (I installed from the 10C DVD),
> ran update as advised, then when I do a software update it always dumps
> me into a screen where I have to select a mirror, and strasburg isn't
> one of the available options. No matter which one I choose I always get
> a curl error...
>
> BTW: how do I update Gnome to 2.6, either using urpmi or any other tool?
>
> Cheers
>
> ED
>
Unfortunately you have to do it by hand.

First off..don't just uncheck the old sources..toast them.

Second the syntax is urpmi.addmedia --update mirror with path to synthesis 
file.

If you do that Mandrake Update will happily search for you.

And I beleive that GNOME 2.6 is still in cooker.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Calgary gets smart!

[John Wilson]

On April 19, 2004 10:53 am, robin wrote:

> Then of course, there is the fun of uninstalling Windows software. Hmm,
> editing the registry to get rid of crap left by botched uninstalls - now
> _that's_ what I call user-friendly! ;-)
>
Robin, you are evil and wicked, do you know that? :-)

Windows uninstalls everything properly, never ever leaves unresolved 
references in the registry, would never whack a shared file needed by other 
programs and certainly wouldn't fsck the existing settings. :-)

And Micro$oft would never ever issue a bug fix that makes matters worse, 
breaks installations and leaves end users scratching their head as to why a 
perfectly serviceable computer, by Windows standards, suddenly doesn't wanna 
work. :-)

C'mon!  Read all the "independant" reseach on Microsoft's web sites about how 
this only ever happens in Linux!!!

ttfn

John

PS: I'm so proud of myself  DIdn't say winblows, winsucks or other 
pegroative even once. :-)




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Re: [newbie] Calgary gets smart!

[John Wilson]

On April 19, 2004 11:00 am, Owain Sutton wrote:

>
> Glib 2.4, xmms (not the version bundled with Mandrake, which crashed
> randomly),

Odd, they all work fine for me..but never mind.

> > Are you using urpmi or the GUI equivalents called Mandrake Update,
> > Install Software and so on?
>
> I'm talking about stuff not included with Mandrake.

Like

There is really nothing stopping you from setting up a urpmi source for any 
site that has rpm's on it.

One small caveat about using RPMs that are targeted at Red Hat or SuSE...they 
have slightly different file structures so it's a crap shoot whether or not 
they'll work properly.

Source files are a different ballgame, of course, but I'm not about to suggest 
that you try that. :-)


ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Calgary gets smart!

[John Wilson]

On April 18, 2004 11:54 pm, Owain Sutton wrote:

>
> Surely an oxymoron?  I'm trying hard, really hard, but I've yet to
> install any software as easily as on XP...oh, apart from Mozilla.

Now considering that Mozilla installs exactly the same way as every other 
package in MDK, I'm starting to wonder what problem you are having with 
everything else.

Are you using urpmi or the GUI equivalents called Mandrake Update, Install 
Software and so on?  Because if you are then, like Joe, you'll find that 
installing software is just as easy, easier in fact, than installing most 
software in XP and dealing with at least 3 installation packages, often 
unresolved dependancies that cause XP to hiccup or complain.

Oh well..troll away if you must, Owain.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] DANGER!

[John Wilson]

On April 18, 2004 07:32 pm, Stephen Kuhn wrote:
> On Mon, 2004-04-19 at 12:16, Aron Smith wrote:
> > > So we'll just carry on slagging you then. :-)
> >
> > So should we tell her about you and the 'Roo ?
>
> Er, well, I told her about the wombat...
>
wombat?  What happened to the platypus and the dingo? :)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Calgary gets smart!

[John Wilson]

On April 18, 2004 03:17 pm, JoeHill wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 08:26:03 -0600
>
> Steve Turner disseminated the following:
> > I use and see the advantage of Linux but it will never be a big player as
> > it is too difficult for a layman or typical computer user to use.
>
> Okay, is there some kind of rule that we have to have at least one FUD'ster
> / Wintroll on this list?

Or tis just a rookie who hasn't explored yet. :-)

Let him use MDK for a while yet and he'll soon change his mind.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] community vs official

[John Wilson]

On April 18, 2004 03:23 pm, Greg Meyer wrote:

> Those updates are in the community tree too, in fact, 10.0 official forked
> from Community just recently and I don't think there have been any updates
> since then.  Anyway, the difference between 10.0 official and 10.0
> community is basically that any bugfix/security updates to 10.0 official
> wil happen in the updates directories as they have in the past, while
> updates to 10.0 CE will happen right in the distribution tree.  Another
> difference is that Communiyt will get some updated packages and other newer
> features that might add some instability, like GNOME 2.6 may be packaged
> for 10.0 CE but not for 10.0 Official.
>
> 10.0 Official => stable, bugfix/security updates only
> 10.0 Community => more cutting edge with updates that include new packages
> Cooker => Unstable development branch.

Okay, I didn't see that in the mirrors.  So I won't toast the 10CE updates 
mirror for a bit yet. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] DANGER!

[John Wilson]

On April 18, 2004 07:34 am, Stephen Kuhn wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-04-18 at 22:39, et wrote:
> > On Sunday 18 April 2004 08:07 am, Stephen Kuhn wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2004-04-18 at 21:50, Paul wrote:
> > > > On 04/18/2004 12:55 PM, Stephen Kuhn wrote:
> > > > >Warning all list members: the girlfriend has subscribed!
> > > >
> > > > Uh-oh... Does this require that we speak nice of you now???
> > > >
> > > > Paul
> > >
> > > OF COURSE NOT. She knows me enough - so nah, ya don't have to put on
> > > aires, mate (g)
> >
> > hell she looks right at him,,, if we were to start acting respectable,,,
> > she would think something was BS right up front,,, don'tcha think?
>
> ...bingo, dingo.
>
So we'll just carry on slagging you then. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] community vs official

[John Wilson]

On April 18, 2004 08:48 am, Greg Meyer wrote:
> On Sunday 18 April 2004 04:53 am, mdk n00b wrote:
> > between 10.0 community and official what differences are there ?
> >
> > bug fixes i assume ?
>
> Right now, nothing really.


Not quite.   There are some updated packages in 10 Official/Final which you 
can find on the, thankfully, now working mirrors.

ttn

John


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Re: [newbie] URPMI mirrors broken? (Partially solved????)

[John Wilson]

On April 17, 2004 09:52 pm, robin wrote:

> That 2.6 kernel just hums. At one point I considered going back to 9.2,
> but I decided to fix what I could, and wait for the official edition for
> the few remaining problems.
>
> Sir Robin

I think you can now.  These two worked for me and Mandrake Update actually 
recognizes them as update media (or is that medium? :) )

The Offical tree is:

urpmi.addmedia --update new-updates 
ftp://ftp.proxad.net/mirrors1/ftp.mandrake-linux.com/Mandrakelinux/official/updates/10.0/RPMS
 
with ../base/hdlist.cz

The CE tree is:

urpmi.addmedia --update final-updates 
ftp://ftp.proxad.net/mirrors1/ftp.mandrake-linux.com/Mandrakelinux/devel/10.0/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/
 
with ../base/hdlist.cz

You'll need both if you're running CE.

Evidentally there are other mirrors up to date as well but I haven't spent any 
time poking around them yet.  It's kinda slow, which could be overload at my 
end or dealing with two update sources or just overload on the server.

Still, I'm now up to offical, I guess.

Finally. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] What's this with transparent proxies and bittorrrent?????

[John Wilson]

On April 17, 2004 10:53 am, Anne Wilson wrote:
> On Saturday 17 April 2004 18:40, John Wilson wrote:
> > As I've about given up on ever updating CE I thought about
> > downloading the final using bittorrent.  (My computer has nothing
> > better to do for the next week.)
> >
> > Now it tells me it can't do it because of a transparent proxy and
> > what, to me, is a very cryptic note about opening ports and such.
> > One problem is the ports ARE open.
> >
> > I'm getting very discouraged and after so much enthusiasm for 10CE.
> >
> > :(
>
> I have to say that I'm disappointed with bittorrent.  Last night I went
> to bed confident that my download would be finished by 9am, given the
> rate at which it had been downloading.  Here I am, 6pm, and it's
> telling me that it still needs another 7 hours.  I have been getting
> 1/10th the speed that I had yesterday.  I assume that a lot of people
> have switched off their machines for the weekend, which is very
> frustrating.
>
> Anne

I'd be just happy to be able to use it right now. :-)

ttfn

John


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[newbie] What's this with transparent proxies and bittorrrent?????

[John Wilson]

As I've about given up on ever updating CE I thought about downloading the 
final using bittorrent.  (My computer has nothing better to do for the next 
week.)

Now it tells me it can't do it because of a transparent proxy and what, to me, 
is a very cryptic note about opening ports and such.  One problem is the 
ports ARE open.

I'm getting very discouraged and after so much enthusiasm for 10CE.  :(

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Calgary gets smart!

[John Wilson]

On April 18, 2004 07:54 am, Lanman wrote:
> Another Canadian city gets smart. Ya gotta love this stuff!
>
> http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3340731
>
> Lanman

Intresting, given that the cultural reputation of cowtown would lead me to 
believe that it would stay with UNIX or go with M$.  To see them move to 
Linux is good news indeed. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] URPMI mirrors broken?

[John Wilson]

On April 14, 2004 10:23 am, Hoyt Bailey wrote:

> Amen.  I would just like to add it is especially difficult on us
> newbies, I havent been able to trust the mirrors for weeks and that has
> nothing to do with 10.

Actually, the mirrors for CE worked very well right up till this happened.

Now, I'm the first to admit the search for a good and frequently updated 
mirror can be frustrating at the best of time.  Just keep at it, Hoyt, and 
you'll find one.

After all the dust has settled and the flack has lessened a bit.

Keep your head low and your powder dry!

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] URPMI mirrors broken?

[John Wilson]

On April 14, 2004 03:12 am, Anne Wilson wrote:
> On Wednesday 14 April 2004 08:21, RichardA wrote:

>
> > No one expects Mandrake to actually communicate to their customers,
> > even before a major restructure of the mirrors, but it seems they all
> > went home for Easter withour fixing it. So much for Mandrake's
> > 'enterprise' ambitions.
>
> An unfair and unjustified comment.  Try reading the explanation on the
> Club pages.  The situation only developed as people were going home for
> the holidays.  Warly tried to contact the various mirror owners, but
> they are totally independent of Mandrake, and most of them were
> unavailable.  Oddly enough, they like holidays, too.  There is no way
> that Mandrake employees can guarantee how long it will take mirror
> owners to sort out this problem.  Let's just hope that not too many of
> them are taking an extended break.
>
Actually, Anne, Richard's comment is fair and justified.  As is your response.  
One point I'd like to make is that the problem developed the monday prior to 
the Easter weekend and one of the reasons it occurred was communication with 
the mirror admins or the apparent lack of it.

What could have happened was that Mandrake (generic :-) ) could have done some 
testing of fixes over the weekend, announced that, and then they'd be in a 
position to have the fixes up and running by yesterday.  Not all mirrors 
fixed to be sure, but working on it.

That said, and I'm one of the very frustrated ones, there are things to be 
learned here.

First off, never, ever do a major change the weekend before, during or after a 
major global long weekend.  It's an invitation to disaster.  And when you 
invite disaster it usually walks on in.  I've learned this through painful 
personal experience.

Second communicate major changes of things like mirror structures to all user 
groups.  Before doing it.  Communicate status of the changes, success, 
failure, partial success/failure. There is absolutely no reason not to and 
every reason to.  A discussion on the cooker lists is not notification, btw.  
If you want to play in enterprise space then do things the way enterprises 
want it done.

Third, test your changes.  Retest. Break them.  Figure out what can go wrong. 
Have a plan in place if and when it does go wrong. This wasn't done, as near 
as I can tell.  At least there's no evidence anywhere that any testing was 
done.

Fourth.  Have a rollback/commit plan in place.  Just in case.

I did project management on this sort of thing for years before deciding that 
I much more enjoyed working with the equipment itself than planning around 
it.  Over the years IT has developed some pretty well known rules around this 
kind of major change from hard experience in what can, and will, go wrong.  
There are very good reasons for the four points I mentioned above.  There is 
a fifth.

Fifth.  Remember Murphy's Law. :-)

I hope this is a learning experience for Mandrake and Warly as much as it is a 
frustrating and, quite truthfully, anger causing experience for us.

That said, with the exception of one very important update, the rollout of 
10CE has been a fairly painless experience for all concerned if traffic on 
this list is any indication.  It's been polished, works and most of the rough 
edges taken off.  What's surprising is how few messages have appeared saying 
that this release broke something compared to past releases.

MDK 10 is a high quality bit of software, make no mistake about that.  It's 
even better when we consider that 10CE is a public beta.  In fact, it's 
gorgeous. :-)

It's sad that this mess, perhaps not entirely preventable, may cause it a 
black eye.  And this comes from poor planning on Warly's part.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Simple home network

[John Wilson]

On April 12, 2004 03:21 am, Aron Smith wrote:
> On Monday 12 April 2004 01:47 am, John Wilson wrote:
> > On April 11, 2004 07:39 pm, Marc wrote:
> > .
> >
> > In the vast majority of cases two grounds will simply, as you say, make
> > things worse.
>
> Can't see that electricity is going to follow Ohms law and go the path of
> least resistance so 2 grounds would be  (r1+r2)/(r1*r2) =Rt
>
It doesn't quite work like that, though you might think it should.  What a 
second ground (or third etc) would do, unless it's engineered properly, will 
create a different potential to earth.  This can be due to differences in the 
makeup of the earth in the different locations, conductivity of elements in 
it and so on.

You can see something of this where you see a fork lightening flash strike the 
ground and the different "widths" and intensity of the light.

Electrically lightening is complex, a mixture of frequencies, voltages and 
currents.  Each of these can seek earth in slightly different ways depending 
on the combination.

Another problem with mutliple grounds, unless properly engineered, is that it 
sets up the possibility, however slight, of a feedback loop.  The lightening 
surge seeks and finds its best potential to ground and goes into the earth at 
a single point.  This energizes the earth around it.  When this energy 
reaches the second ground rod it is at a different potential than  the first 
and can (will) induce current back up the rod and into the building.

One solution to this is to erect a ground field around the building and, 
perhaps, below the base of the structure.  The field itself is earthed much 
deeper.  All ground rods are placed into this field which, in theory, reduces 
the potential to close to 0 ohms as the field itself is, in turn, earthed 
much deeper than the rods connecting to it.

There remains a problem even with an earth ground field, no matter how well 
engineered.  There are transients involved the most common one being the 
amount of water in a given part of the field at a given time.  The presence 
of water affects the field and throws off the potential differences in 
different parts of the field, essentially setting up a second, third, fourth 
and so on, earth ground potential.  We had an example of this many years ago 
at a small central office near a river.  In the spring, during breakup, the 
river stayed within its banks but under the surface soaked the ground near 
it.  One side of the CO had dry earth around the ground field, the other 
side, nearest the river, was soaked.  The potential difference was so great 
that it took the CO down without any kind of storm or structural power 
failure.

Welcome to complexity. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Simple home network

[John Wilson]

On April 11, 2004 07:39 pm, Marc wrote:
>
>I would not worry about running wiring out side as long as proper
> methods are used like drip loops and a bit of caulk. I think a outdoor wire
> run would be only slightly more susceptible to lightning than a indoor run.
> I will however add making sure that every thing is grounded is not by any
> stretch of the imagination a cure all for lightning damage, but it is a
> good step in the right direction.  At times having 2 grounds at at
> different locations can be much worse than no ground at all. During a
> lightning strike the voltage at 2 different grounding rods 20 feet apart
> can be several thousand volts for a few miliseconds . EVERYTHING
> (electricty, phone line, cable line etc. ) in the entire home should all be
> bonded to 1 common ground point for the best protection. Another thing, if
> anyone thinks that a outlet strip with a surge supressor is going to stop a
> mediem to strong surge, think again! It can stop thousands of small surges
> but a good solid hit can get past it with ease. If you want to find out
> about lightning protection talk to someone who does maintainance and repair
> on telecommunications equipment where tall antenna towers are involved.
> Those guys often learn a LOT about proper lightning protection from the
> school of hard knocks.
>

In fact two grounds is dumb because unless they are exactly the same potential 
the lightening surge will either hunt for the best one or just spread around 
the building rushing to both.  Electricity isn't bright and won't say..ah-ha!  
this one is .001 ft closer..I'll go there! though most of it will.

In the vast majority of cases two grounds will simply, as you say, make things 
worse.

In our industry's experience the only thing that will stop a surge like that 
is the battery strings we use to back up our power to our switches.  It 
doesn't do them any favours, mind, but with the exception of a direct hit and 
a flawed ground it will bleed the surge down to manageable levels.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Simple home network

[John Wilson]

On April 11, 2004 05:37 pm, Carroll Grigsby wrote:

> Thunderstorms are quite common here. (Matter of fact, the weather guys say
> that they are likely tonight, tomorrow and possibly Tuesday.) In the 37
> years that I've lived here, the only lightning damage that we've ever
> suffered came in on the telephone drop. It took out my shiny brand new 2400
> baud external modem, an answering machine and two telephones; the guy
> across the street ended up with a shattered pine tree (60 ft?) in his yard.
> Evidently the stroke hit the tree, jumped to the telco drop to his house
> (it passed through the tree's limbs), and decided that all that copper was
> another neat way to get to ground. I called BellSouth to ask them to check
> out the protection block; their response was pretty much, "Stuff happens.
> Deal with it." SOP around here is that whenever there's lightning in the
> area, the PCs are shutdown, the power cords and modem lines are
> disconnected from the wall, and we only use cordless phones.
>
> Since then, I've talked to many others who have also had lightning damage
> via the phone lines. A few have had also had hits on the power lines.
> Curiously, no one has ever mentioned a lightning problem with cable TV.
>
> -- cmg
Hi, 

Anything that is run on a pole can be struck by lightning.  In fact lightening 
seems to love power/phone poles.

What often happens with power, though not always, is that a lightening strike 
will cause the breaker on the pole or on the transformer to pop, usually 
after frying the transformer which is supposed to send everything to ground.

Sadly a side effect of this is a sudden burst of power down the line and into 
the house.  This MAY cause the main breaker to go, but even then the surge 
can get into the house wiring.  Years ago this used to do things like explode 
TV tubes.  Even now it can take out a PC in no time flat.

As for telephone..well the same dynamic is at work.  Though we do bond the 
ground to the main earth ground of the house as close as we can get to it.  
In the olden days we'd bond to the metal plumbing in the house which was also 
grounded and provided a lovely path to ground.

Nothing is ever perfect, but an improper installation can cause significant 
damage that a good install won't do.

I don't know about Bell South but at Telus we'll still roll to check out the 
protection after a lightening storm if the customer reports noise on the line 
and we isolate it to the house or that the lines went dead and we know it 
wasn't our switching equipement or the cable.  A  blown protector will cut 
the lines or cause a ton of noise.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Simple home network

[John Wilson]

On April 11, 2004 11:37 am, Greg Meyer wrote:
> On Sunday 11 April 2004 09:22 am, Steve Kaurfman wrote:
> > What about having the cable run on the outside of the house for the
> > office? They should be able to split it where it comes into the house on
> > the outside. My home has a box on the outside with 3 or 4 connections
> > for different runs.
>
> Coax should be fine outside, amazingly, all cable starts outside at some
> point.  I have a run underground from the b0x at the street all the way up
> to the house and have never had a problem.  You can split the cable any
> where you want, just as long as the first y splits to the TVs and the cable
> modem. If you split off the cable modem below where you have already split
> off for a TV or two you could suffer some signal degradation.  So if you
> split off the cable outside the house, and one run goes to where the
> existing tv splitter is, and the other runs outside and comes into the
> house where you want the cable modem, you should be fine.

There's a similar concept in wiring for telephony.  The attached diagram 
should show most of the concept.  The same concept applies to cable.  What's 
missing from the dia diagram is the filter that a lot (most) telcos use to 
isolate their ADSL from the dial tone which should show right on the 
protector and dedicated to the computer line.  In reality it's a notch filter 
which removes the ADSL signal from lines you would normally use for 
telephones.  As Greg noted it performs the same function as splitting the 
cable line at their main splitter to your house, which sometimes also is 
fused, and keeping all your TV runs on one side of that splittter.

Hope it helps.

ttfn

John
<>
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Re: [newbie] Simple home network

[John Wilson]

On April 11, 2004 06:58 am, Anne Wilson wrote:

>
> One caveat, Steve.  We had a telephone wire going round the outside of
> the house like that.  One day we had a thunderstorm, lightning found
> the cable, and the whole system (including a mini-switchboard setup)
> was fried.
>
> Anne


My guess, Anne, is that someone either bypass the circuit protection on the 
telephone lines to run the wiring or it wasn't grounded properly.  That 
should never have happened.

I do this for a living and I've run wire around the outside of buildings in 
climates where thunder and lightening are a dime a dozen and I've yet to have 
this happen to anything that I've installed.  Where I have seen it happen is 
where either the protection has been bypassed or the ground has been severed.

For your own piece of mind get that part of the entrance to your house checked 
or you might end up with a fire if you get hit by lightening again.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Image viewer

[John Wilson]

On April 11, 2004 02:33 am, Stephen Kuhn wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-04-11 at 18:36, John Wilson wrote:

> YES I'M A PERV AND CAN'T RESIST GOOD PORN.
> I'm a man. Can't help it.
>
There, there, there.  Don't you feel better now that you have that off your 
chest?  Or whatever other part of your anatomy it was resting on? :-)

Confession is good for the soul, don't you know.

Now if you'd just click this link www.spammer.com we can help you with your 
addiction. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Image viewer

[John Wilson]

On April 10, 2004 09:24 pm, Stephen Kuhn wrote:

> Good point. Not like I'd actually admit to being a perv.
>
Just hint at it, eh Mate? :)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Simple home network

[John Wilson]

On April 10, 2004 10:49 pm, Ronald J. Hall wrote:
> On Sunday 11 April 2004 12:17 am, John Wilson wrote:
>
> ->4. I've yet to run DLink equipment that doesn't work out of the box.
>
> For the record: Dlink DWL 650 pcmcia wireless card does not work, except
> for the very earliest release. Each new release brought different a chipset
> and they do not work.
>
> Other than that, all my Dlink stuff (routers) work great with Mandrake
> Linux.

That's one I haven't encountered in Canada.  Maybe they never released it 
here. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Crappy Sound, only on Linux

[John Wilson]

On April 9, 2004 10:35 pm, Marc Resnick wrote:
> I ripped some music off my CDs and encoded it with LAME at 160 kbps(getting
> ready for when my iPod comes). When I play it on my MDK 10.0 system, it
> sounds fuzzy and like it was encoded at 16 kbps. When I booted in Windows
> and played it, it was fine...almost CD Quality?
>
> Can anyone lend me some tips on sound devices or this kind of problem?
>
> --Marc

A little more information on your machine and setup would be helpful, 
Marc. :-)

Also version number and kernel and that sort of thing.

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Any update site that works?

[John Wilson]

On April 9, 2004 08:44 am, Schwartz Avi wrote:
> Since the switch to the new mirrors hierarchy I am unable to find any
> sites that actually carry the MDK 10 Community updates.  Anyone had any
> luck?  Which site?
>
> Thanks,
> Avi


Try looking at this Avi

http://www.mandrakeclub.com/article.php?sid=1888&mode=nocomments

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Mandrake 10 destroying Windows XP boot

[John Wilson]

On April 8, 2004 05:17 pm, Owain Sutton wrote:
> Extreme newbie here..
>
> I installed Mandrake 10 onto spare space on my main hard drive, which
> has XP in the first partition.  Everything went fine on the Linux side -
> but choosing Windows from the boot options caused a freeze, with a
> flashing cursor on black screen.  The XP recovery console couldn't cope
> with the Linux partitions being in the FAT, so I ended up with a
> complete repartition, reformat and reinstall of XP.  Not wanting to go
> through that twice, is there anything I should be doing with Mandrake
> other than following the default setup?

Of course another way to do it is to reinstall XP, which you've done, grab a 
copy of Partition Magic, resize all your Windows partitions, both of them, 
grab some spare space at the end, say 10 GB.

Now, using Partition Magic reformat all but 640 or so MB of it as Linux ext2.  
The last 640 or so MB format as Linux swap.

Now..install MDK from the CD's.  It'll find the Linux partitons.  Just tell it 
to put "/" on the one you formatted as ext2, MDK will happily format it as 
ext3 and you're off. :-)

You can, of course, get a bit more compicated about it.  But I think that's 
all we'll throw at you for now.

Also, you can do most of this in the installer by selecting expert install at 
any time.  The main difference is that there is a Partition Magic workalike 
in there but beware..it doesn't protect your files the way Partition Magic 
claims to.

However, by installing it through the expert mode you can divide your Linux 
partition in 2 or better yet 3 peices.  1 small hunk for /boot, one smallish 
hunk for "/" and one largish hunk for "/home".  There's a reason for all this 
once you come to upgrade your system.

Have a happy time!

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Unpleasant stigma on Mandrake users

[John Wilson]

On April 7, 2004 05:05 pm, Fajar Priyanto wrote:
> Guys,
> What do you think of this:
> "Because you run Mandrake, you didn't invest the 20-30 minutes that most
> Shorewall users do in learning about Shorewall during the installation
> process."
>
> That is a response I got in the shorewall list. I hate it. In fact, I have
> been getting those kind of views from many people in the Linux community
> when they found out that I use Mandrake.
>
> What's wrong with Mandrake? Does Linux have to be difficult so that we are
> proud to be called "Linux guru" by others? Does the easiness that offered
> by Mandrake make it's users lazy and stupid? I'm afraid this is the
> unpleasant stigma that we get in the Linux community.
>
> Boy, I hate this.

I've had this response from others on other lists and, by and large, have 
learned to ignore it.  Sure, there are reasons to get down and dirty under 
the hood of any system but for the average home user (which I'm not) this 
isn't an issue.  So MCC sets it up for you?  So what?

One can be content with what MCC does or dig under the hood.  That neither 
makes people lazy or incomptetant.  Most computer users will never become 
gurus anyway. Most don't want to be.

As for that 20-30 minutes of learning that some of these people go on about I 
daresay they haven't learned much.  I got that crack from a couple of people 
I know in on IRC recently and had hacked through their firewall in a matter 
of minutes.  Not hard to do when you realize that all they'd done was 
moderately enhanced the example setups on Shorewall's site.

I will say I dislike Shorewall.  I dislike it's documentation.  I even dislike 
the attitude of it's creator that anyone that doesn't understand it is 
somehow mentally deficient.  It reminds me of the attitude of the creator of 
MPlayer.  The difference is that MPlayer is a quality piece of work and 
Shorewall can be replaced with another IP Tables scripting system.

As for holy wars about distros, well, I just lean back and giggle when I hear 
SuSE and Red Hat users complain that they've fscked something while good old 
Mandy ticks on and on. :-)

ttfn

John


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[newbie] 10CE Updates -- Broken?

[John Wilson]

Hi all!

I know that this has been gone over but I can't find the threads right now.

As I recall there is something transit right now with updates to 10CE.  The 
graphical sources manager keeps retrieving either empty lists or seriously  
broken ones.  And all appear to be development sources, even if they say 
stable.  So, it appears that I'm still getting cooker lists. :-)

At the risk of seeming thick..where are the updates? :-)

(This really shouldn't be happening.  For 10.1 and on the sources need to be 
moved as quickly as possible and the graphical sources manager should stop 
retrieving cooker lists.)

Thanks!

ttfn

John


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[newbie] Recording from a microphone in MDK -- Help!!!!

[John Wilson]

Hi folks, 

I seem to have hit a brick wall here.   I've managed to get a mike up and 
working, sound coming out of the speaker and all that.

The problem is that whenever I try to record from that mike in Audacity or in 
Rezonds I get nothing..flatline..nada.

In Audacity the input is set to mike, Rezonds doesn't seem to have such a 
thing.

Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?


ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] IT/workplace Linux orientated books

[John Wilson]

On April 4, 2004 07:33 am, Todd Slater wrote:

>
> At the tech college where I work, we have one person that dominates a
> portion of the IT curriculum. So, if you want to learn about Web
> publishing, you won't learn any free database or scripting languages,
> you'll be forced to learn IIS, java, asp and .NET. I keep telling them I
> don't know anybody who uses that stuff, which is probably just because
> I'm selective in choosing my friends ;) but seriously, to think we're
> graduating people who don't know squat about Apache, php, perl, mySQL etc.
> seems like we're doing a big disservice to our students.

Your college is when you consider the large number of sites that use the 
services you named and what appears to be the decilining number of sites that 
use junk like IIS.  The java course might be useful but knowing Apache, php, 
perl, mySQL etc is a ticket to ride these days.  People trained on M$ stuff 
are a dime a dozen right now.  People trained in the good stuff seem to be 
mighty rare. :-)

> It's really dangerous, I think, to put all your eggs in one IT basket.
> But I'm just a freak that doesn't understand the "business world" so
> nobody listens to me.
>

I'd say your person who dominates the IT cirriculum is the one who isn't 
paying attention to the real world.

But then perhaps the real world has nothing to do with it. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] mandrake 10 community ISO problem

[John Wilson]

On April 2, 2004 06:36 am, Pete Doak wrote:

> When I popped the CD-1 in the CD drive and restarted my computer I found
> that the computer would not boot off the CD. Just to make sure I had the
> computer configured right I put CD-1 from the 9.2 version, and it booted
> right up into the installer.
>
> Anyone else here have a problem with the ISO for CD-1 from the Mandrake
> 10 Community not burning a bootable CD? Anybody have any suggestions or
> corrections I might try?

Hi Pete,

This is a known problem with some installations (I didn't have a problem).  
Just boot from CD-2, switch to CD-1 and you're off. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] MDK 10 -- Webmin won't start

[John Wilson]

On March 28, 2004 09:24 am, Bill Winegarden wrote:
> Hi,
> Your message prompted me to install webmin and give it a try. I used mcc to
> install it. Then I ran 'webmin' in a cli. Then I tried to connect and
> voila...it worked. Did you run the program before trying to connect?
>
> Regards,
> Bill W.
>
Sigh.

Ya know, I just thought of that.  I normally install webmin on the inital 
install and it's always sorta been there.  This time it was an after the fact 
install.

Me stupid. :-)

thanks anyway, Bill :-)

ttfn

John


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[newbie] More adventures in MDK 10

[John Wilson]

After a few days of playing with this I'm really starting to love it.  Speed 
is definitely not an issue.  This old Dell is acting like it's a young pup 
again.  About the only thing it won't do is direct a missile at a car parked 
under me whose alarm has been singing at me for the last two hours.  But I'm 
working on that. :-)

After reading some of the complaints here and being horrified by some of my 
own past experineces I haven't noticed one little thing I can't live with so 
far.  A few quirks but nothing serious.

As far as the downloaded CDs are concerned 3 of them, the first three, quite 
happily play on my CD player...an old and rather balky thing that has been a 
pain in the past.  So far so good this time out.  CD's 4 and 5 though fail to 
read on that device but read just fine on the CD burner.  I can't figure that 
out but I can live with it.  I just had to rejig my sources a bit and I was 
off.

Now...the Internet connection sharing and all that rot.

In the past drakgw has made a right royal mess of things because I use eth1 
for the outside world and eth0 for my internal network.  The first time I 
tried to configure it this way it failed.  As I was in a hurry that time I 
reinstalled and cringed a few days before I tried again.  This time it 
worked!

There was one difference and only one in how I installed.  On the first 
attempt I configured both cards when I was installing.  drakgw happily 
assumed that eth0 was the internet instead of eth1, in spite of asking me 
politely, and borked the whole thing.  On the second install I only 
configured eth1.

drakgw asked me all the same questions, correctly selected the unconfigured 
NIC as the card to assign the internal network to and installed.  I brewed a 
very strong cup of coffee (the strongest mood altering substance I'm allowed 
these days) and waited.  After configuring everything drakgw happily 
announced that I was set up.

I took a big swig of coffee, scratched my cat's ears for luck, and switched 
over to Networking in MCC.  Damned if it didn't look like everything was 
there!  I was even seeing traffic!  I pointed Konq to a known good web site 
and I got there!

So here's the moral of the story...if you plan to use a NIC for the internal 
network do NOT, EVER, configure it on install.  Leave it out.  Don't even 
pretend it exists.  Only configure the card you plan to use to connect to the 
internet.  That way drakgw will actually select the right card, configure the 
correct card for the internal network and you'll be fine.  Anything else and 
it will sulk and insist that you must mean that eth0 is the internet 
regardless of what you tell it.

There...figured out...all on my own.  Gee I'm proud of myself. :-)

If I keep this up I'll be able to join Joe Hill as a sage here. :-)

ttfn

John


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[newbie] MDK 10 -- Webmin won't start

[John Wilson]

Hi there!

There is probably an issue at my end but...here we go anyway.

Whenever I try to start Webmin I get this:

An error occurred while loading https://localhost:1/:


Could not connect to host localhost (port 1)

What could this be?  And yes, webmin is installed. :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] package name?

[John Wilson]

On March 28, 2004 09:58 am, JoeHill wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Mar 2004 09:42:01 -0700
>
> Charlie Mahan disseminated the following:
> > > I just installed Mdk on a new machine and I can't seem to remember what
> > > package it is that puts the server config page in Mandrake Control
> > > Center.
> > >
> > > Anyone know?
> >
> > urpmi drakwizard [Enter]
>
> Heh, everybody always jumps on the easy ones...in my case 'cuz those are
> the only ones I usually know the answer to ;-)

Okay..but can you explain Stephen Harper? :-)

ttfn

John


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Re: [newbie] Problem with MK10 cd1

[John Wilson]

On March 25, 2004 02:31 am, bmobile40 wrote:
>  I've been trying to install mandrake10 for about a week now.
> I keep getting a boot failure when I try to boot from cd1. I've
> re-downloaded the iso image from 4 different locations and i still get
> the same error. I've tried boot the machine off of my fedora core 1 cd1,
> and don't have any problems, so I know my cd drive is working.
>   Anyone else having this problem. It seems really odd that you'd get
> the same error with an iso downloaded from different locations.
>
> Jim

It's a known problem.  The soloution is to boot from CD2, which works, then 
switch back to CD1 and off you go. :-)

ttfn

John


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[newbie] Mandrake 10 -- Excellent...but...

[John Wilson]

First of all I have to say that MDK 10 is very pleasing eye candy.  It's fast 
with the 2.6 series kernel and it's a pleasure to use it.

The download via Bittorrent went smoothly and I continued to share it for a 
couple of weeks.  (I'll get it back up soon once I get something here 
fixed :-) ).  

The only problem was that CD 4 wasn't recognized on installation and had to be 
added manually later.  I'm thinking the problem is the folder name RPMS5 
instead of RPMS4.  In any event, it wasn't serious.

Updates went smoothly from the listed update sites.

Sound works, all hardware was recognized and both machines came up flawlessly.

Now, onto the problems.

I think the first one about the unreliablity of reading and, apparently, 
writing CDs and DVDs has been answered in that I probably don't have magicdev 
(??)  installed and I'm using automount instead.  It seems automount is 
installed by default for some strange reason and yes I'm using the 2.6.x 
kernel.

The second issue is more troubling.  When setting up internet connection 
sharing the wizard fscks all networking.  I can always reach the internet 
before I set it up but not after.  I admit I haven't had the time yet to look 
too deeply into it so I don't  know whether or not it's the shorewall 
installation, the "transparent" proxy or if it just screws up the settings on 
the NIC. What I have noticed is that the wizard insists on setting up my eth1 
card which is the one the internet connects to as static and eth0 as dhcp.   
It should be the other way around.  This was a problem with the older 
releases up to 9.1 when it suddenly worked as I wanted it to.  Ditto with 
9.2.  10 seems to have taken a step backwards in assuming that eth0 is the 
one heading to the outside world.  Nevertheless, it's caused some headache 
and I've been wondering if anyone else has experienced this.

It's not a big problem as I can set it all up manually if needs must.

Incidentally, the machines installed on are an old Dell Dimension and a newer 
Sony Viao desktop.  Next victim will be my laptop :)

ttfn

(a generally very happy)

John

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Re: [newbie] Bittorrent help -- some detail please

[John Wilson]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

On March 8, 2004 06:57 am, Inhabitant of Zion wrote:
> > Are your ports open?
>
> Yep.

A curious thing, which I can't understand, is happening.  I started the 
download of the powerpack CDs some 16 hours ago.  The speed, with some 60 
peers and 19 seeds, crawled along at an average speed of something in the 
neighbourhood of 3 KB/s.

I just got in with the intent of restarting everything to see if I could do 
something about this.  Not, you understand, that I'm really wanting to do 
anything other than burn and test the CDs till the weekend.  Just to see.

Well, I got home and low and behold with only 8 peers and now 28 seeds I'm 
flying along at 110-119 kBps.  Now I either have wonderful peers or it just 
took 16 hours to get up to speed with fewer peers.  Even more interesting is 
my share rating has hit the tank.

To say that I don't understand this is an understatement. :-)

ttfn

John



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Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
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Re: [newbie] Bittorrent help -- some detail please

[John Wilson]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
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On March 7, 2004 10:06 pm, Troy Thomas Hall wrote:

>
> how r u seeing all these peers and such?  Also I tried the shorewall
> command that was put in the list and shorewall hated it.

With regard to shorewall I've just forwarded the ports that I've been advised 
to.  I also don't have a hardware router as too many of the cheap ones cause 
all kinds of grief and most of them can't be configured worth a damn anyway.

I'm using the shadow client and it's showing them to me in the GUI.  I've also 
opened myself up to unlimited connections.

For the record, for anyone following this thread, I'm not at between 55 and 86 
kB/s which isn't bad, I guess.  It should finish sometime tomorrow at this 
rate :)

Still seeing very few clients and peers but that could be just a regional 
thing and the clients and peers that respond in a given amount of time.  I 
haven't looked into it any yet.

Also the packet error rate is way down now.  I've seen one peer disappear and 
I'm not downloading from them now.  I'll wait till they reappear and if the 
bit error rate goes through the ceiling again I'll block them at Shorewall.  
They were always kinda suspect anyway.  I wonder if they've got a fscked hard 
drive?   Oh well :)

Going well now, I guess, though waiting 4.5 hours to get decent throughput is 
a bit much.  Still, better than nothing. :)

ttfn

John
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=/2bA
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Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? 
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Re: [newbie] Bittorrent help -- some detail please

[John Wilson]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

On March 7, 2004 04:39 pm, Dennis Myers wrote:

> This is strange, I had both of the powerpack bittorrents downloaded in
> about 8 hours, the download was running full bore capacity of my broadband
> so I don't understand unless you are routing through a busy server on the
> internet. Have you tried stopping and restarting?

Yup.  Third time attempting it.  Also have set it to allow multiple 
connections, which, I've heard speeds things up. No joy.

In fact the speed is degrading rapidly now.  Ranging from 6 KBbs to 0.2.  Most 
of it under 0.5.  There is nothing wrong with the route, I've tested it.  
Protocol analysis shows a whack of bad packets arriving and being 
rejected..upwards of 80% on each connection I've attempted.

I'm about ready to give this up here.  Reliable this is not at the moment.

ttfn

John
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=Z144
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Re: [newbie] Bittorrent help -- some detail please

[John Wilson]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

On March 7, 2004 02:18 pm, Dennis Myers wrote:
> On Sunday 07 March 2004 03:09 pm, John Wilson wrote:
> > -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > OK, I have a Bittorent client up and running but running so slowly that
> > I'll be a very old man and we'll be on Mdk 12 or 13 by the time this
> > download completes.
> >
> > The FAQ on the club site sucks and there is no other documentation on
> > this piece of &^*&.  Strangely there is nothing on Twiki either.  I have
> > better things to do than google the world to figure out how this
> > works!
> >
> > I tried it with 9.2 with similar results (I'm currently running with no
> > firewall to see if that works and it's not making me feel good or helping
> > one iota) and ended up waiting till the public release where it was
> > finally placed on FTP.
> >
> > Okay..frustration over.  To any I offended, I'm sorry, but this is NOT
> > what I joined the club to get.
> >
> > By the way..torrent just stopped dead...oh what fun
> >
> > Now..does anyone have a point by point set of instructions on setting
> > this god forsaken thing up?  And don't point me to the FAQ on the club
> > site, please. It's about as much use as stone knife when trying to cut
> > steel.  It seems to work for some but judging from the traffic here and
> > elsewhere it's a frustrating, angering and ultimately bad thing for MDK
> > in the sense of customer satisfaction.
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > A very frustrated
> >
> > ttfn
> >
> > John
> >
> > -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
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> >
> > iD8DBQFAS4+IkxLVEWCTiQ8RAkI5AJ9jvcNz6e8ul4pzA5PLC/w+IZDmlACglK2y
> > uXTHYJUvdm1kxv2H+yEzepY=
> > =0uFH
> > -END PGP SIGNATURE-
>
> John, what speed connection do you have? cable, t1, phone line, dsl?
> here is what I put in a command line as user not root:
>
> btdownloadgui.py --max_upload_rate 12 mytorrent-yourusername.torrent
>
> This will limit the upload and allow a faster download. Once you put that
> in it will ask where to save the files, I use the bittorent gui which makes
> it more user friendly for me. Not a cli guy so to speak. Anyway give that a
> try and see what you get.  Also is your computer on a LAN or stand alone? I
> had to open ports on the router for my set up. HTH

ADSL, semi fixed IP, that is in theory I have a DHCP connection but I've had 
the same IP for about 7 months now.  2048 down 1024 up.  Ports wide open.  My 
box is my router so that shouldn't be a problem.  It could be that things are 
just slow today.

I'm only seeing 24 peers out there at the moment a decrease of about 40 in the 
last 10 minutes and my speed has dropped accordingly.  Rough estimate now is 
2 and one half weeks.

I know that SOME people are happy with this arrangement but for the life of me 
I can't understand why Mandrake wants to put so many people off.  All the 
posts about good speed are in the first couple of days after the distro is 
announced and then the complaints seem to start because people take their 
torrents down and leave us latecomers to stew in downloads that are 
reminiscent of 300bps days.

Whoops..down to 18 peers and 3 seeds...this is getting awful :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Bittorrent help -- some detail please

[John Wilson]

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On March 7, 2004 03:13 pm, Greg Meyer wrote:

> I have to say again that the biggest problem with bittorrent is that people
> don't understand how it works, and their machines aren't configured
> properly. Yes there are specific issues that affect some issues, and there
> are workarounds for most.  For those that it really doesn't work, ftp/http
> downloads are available by request.

Okay..then how is it supposed to work and what are the configuration issues?

This is exactly the same answer I got with 9.2 with the same lack of 
explaination.  Maybe I'm being as thick as a brick here (something I'm more 
than prepared to admit) but the understanding and configuration are what I'm 
looking for.

As for being in the minority perhaps I am.  Still..something a bit more 
helpful "than you don't understand" would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, and I never did have a problem ftp'ing the old way. :-)

ttfn

John
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Re: [newbie] Eleven days...some thoughts

[John Wilson]

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On November 30, 2003 02:23 am, Melissa Reese wrote:
> Hi,
>
> It's now been eleven days since I installed Mandrake, and I'd like to
> share a few thoughts.  This may be a bit long, so I apologize in
> advance for my sound-byte challenged condition.
>
> First, I want to thank all of the very helpful and patient people on
> this list...you're all great! You've not only helped me with technical
> issues, but have also given me an appreciation for the community
> effort that is Mandrake in particular, and Linux in general.

We do try to be both helpful and encouraging. :-)

> I'm going to keep working on tweaking my Mandrake and associated
> programs, but I'm also going to slow down the pace of my Linux
> project. You see, I'm a busy person, and I'm realizing that I'm
> spending way too much time staring at this silly screen, and not
> getting, amongst other things, enough sleep. Do beware though...I'm
> not through with you yet! No doubt I'll be back, sooner than you might
> hope...to ask more stupid and silly questions. :-)

The only silly question is always the one you don't ask :-)

>
> Remember the world just on the other side of our windows? No...not the
> "Windoze" or "xWindows"...but those transparent glass barriers between
> where we are at this moment, and all that fresh air out there! And
> what about spending some quality time curled up by the fire with a cup
> of tea and good book?
>
> As I said, my life is busy. I'm a musician, a kayaker, a boat builder,
> a chess player, a bicyclist, a reader, a beach bum, and another thing
> or two or three. I know the rest of you have lives beyond your
> computers as well, so I know you understand.


S..don't say that too loudly around here.  Some folks are hard core, 
caffine by IV drip, tied to their computers day and night types :-)


> In a "perfect world" according to me, know I'd be using Linux
> exclusively, but considering the current reality of software
> development and availability, I know that I'll be dual-booting for
> some time to come. Maybe someday I can happily claim to operate a
> "100% MS free computer". :-)
>
> Thanks again to all of you for helping me so much in my first few
> clumsy steps with Mandrake/Linux!
>
> To quote a certain governor..."I'll be back!" :-)

Enjoy your break.  We all need one from time to time.  Though the tinkering 
does become addictive and will draw you back.  As you said, though, balance 
is important.

Have a good break. :-)

ttfn

John
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