Re: [PLUG] Can't boot to new dual boot
On Mon, 18 Sep 2023 12:26:22 -0500 Bill Barry dijo: >> I've been reading up on how to get this to work and I haven't found >> the answer yet. Both drives have a separate partitions for / and >> /home, and each of them has a /boot/grub/grub.cfg file in the / >> partition. At the top of the menu entries, the one in the Debian >> drive has Debian and Debian-Alternative followed by 80 (believe it >> or not) menu entries for Xubuntu. On the Xubuntu drive the file has >> menu entries only for Xubuntu, although only about 20 of them. >> Methinks some serious tidying up is overdue, but that can wait. >> Maybe a command to update grub is the right way to do it. >I had a similar problem after I did an update yesterday. Only one of >my systems was bootable. It turned out there was a line in the file >/etc/default/grub like this >GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false >which was commented out with a # in front of it. >Uncommenting it then running update-grub fixed the problem. I had already done that in both the grub.cfg files, but no luck. However, I finally kludged together something that got me booted into the Debian OS, and as you can see, I can reboot into Xubuntu. I had noticed that the grub.cfg file in the Debian installation had two menu entries at the top, which were missing in the Xubuntu file. I had been spending all my efforts trying to get the BIOS to find the Debian grub.cfg file, but I finally decided 'fine, if all it can find is the Xubuntu file, the all I need to do is add the Debian menu entries to the top of the Xubuntu file.' It took some finagling because of dealing with two files owned by root, but eventually I got the whole two menu entries from the Debian file pasted into the top of the Xubuntu menu entries. As I rebooted I was telling myself 'there is no way this is going to work, surely the computer won't boot to anything.' I had made a copy of the Xubuntu file, and I had visions of having to find a Knoppix disk or something to use so I could put the copy back, but guess what! It booted straight into Debian 12! Just before it booted I saw what looked like a Grub menu flash by in the upper left corner of my screen. It was gone way too fast to read, but it looked like there were eight lines in tiny text, text that happens on a 4K screen before it gets to a GUI. From past experience each distro in the menu probably had a main line, then a recovery line, followed by a couple lines for memtest. After I shut down Debian to come back here I remembered that hitting Esc after the BIOS gets you the Grub menu, so that's what I did to get back here. I never did get the BIOS to boot to the Grub folder in the new Debian drive. But at least it's working, and all I need to do is figure out how to get the Grub menu into a readable font, and make it come up always, without having to remember to hit Esc. Being a Linux user for years has accustomed me to using fudges and pokes to get things to work. Today was proof of that. :)
Re: [PLUG] Can't boot to new dual boot
On Mon, 18 Sep 2023 12:26:22 -0500 Bill Barry dijo: >> This would probably be easy to fix, if I only knew how. I'm anxiously >> looking for suggestions so I can look at Debian 12 on the new drive. >I had a similar problem after I did an update yesterday. Only one of >my systems was bootable. It turned out there was a line in the file >/etc/default/grub >like this >GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false >which was commented out with a # in front of it. >Uncommenting it then running update-grub fixed the problem. At this point I'm pretty disgusted with the whole install process. As I write this I have started over and reinstalled Debian 12 eight times. Once I actually got the dual boot working so I could easily boot into Debian 12 or Xubuntu 22.04.3. I spent several hours in Debian fixing everything, except HDHomeRun wouldn't even launch, so I left that problem for later. I was in the middle of uninstalling the 172 Thai fonts (Why?), when Synaptic screwed me up. I had a bunch of fonts selected to remove, and when I hit the Apply button I watched in horror as Synaptic spent 15 minutes removing half the OS. Synaptic needs an 'Undo' button. The result was so bad that it wouldn't even boot. I had to do a fresh install and start over from scratch. After several more installations that ended in non-functional boot loaders, I decided to take MX Linux for a spin. I downloaded the MX Linux ISO and burned it to a flash drive, then booted to it. I spent an hour trying to get it installed, but I have a 4K screen and the default fonts are too tiny to read without a magnifying glass. In the desktop GUI I changed things so it looked reasonable, but when I clicked on the Install button it popped up a tiny window, complete with unreadable fonts. Evidently the Install utility bypasses the desktop and uses base settings that can't be changed. I might have been able to install it, but MX Linux wasn't worth the effort of spending hours trying to read unreadable text; instructions that are hard to follow even if you can actually read them. I wasn't very excited about MX Linux anyway, because of their small user base, so I'm giving it a pass. The most recent installation of Debian 12 is still there, and the Grub menu comes up and offers it, but it won't boot. I can select Ubuntu and that works, but I'm evidently not smart enough to understand the Debian install utility boot options.
Re: [PLUG] Change hard drive FS
I'm back in Ubuntu, following my ninth failed attempt to install Debian 12. But I should say at the beginning that, like Rich, I've used ext4 for many years and have never had a problem. My issues with installing Debian 12 is that it won't boot because of a failure in setting up Grub. And the root cause of that is because I am too dumb to properly follow the instructions in the Debian installer. Xubuntu is on a Samsung M.2 drive of 1TB, and I'm trying to install Debian on a new Samsung M.2 drive of 2TB. I can easily tell which is which when they give me the Samsung product name, but while setting up Grub it asks 'Install grub to your primary drive?' Well, which drive is that? Both drives have a primary partition for / and a second logical partition for /home. It probably doesn't matter. I've answered that question 'yes,' and 'no,' and either way the installed Debian appears in the Grub list, but it still won't boot. I'd rather have it on the new 2TB drive rather than the three-year-old 1TB drive, but that probably also doesn't matter. And speaking of primary partitions, the Debian installer set the boot flag for / on the new drive, but the / partition on the old drive (which unfailingly boots Ubuntu) has no boot flag, at least according to GParted. More stuff I don't understand. Michael Ewan dijo: >I am glad you have not had any problems. I have had the opposite >experience with ext4 but never a problem with xfs, hence my suggestion. > >On Tue, Sep 19, 2023 at 1:25 PM Rich Shepard >wrote: > >> On Tue, 19 Sep 2023, Michael Ewan wrote: >> >> > You will ultimately have problems with a corrupted file system >> > with ext4, almost guaranteed. Xfs is a much more robust file >> > system but if you do >> not >> > trust it, then try zfs or btrfs. >> >> Michael, >> >> I've used ext2, ext3, and ext4 with no issues on any of them. I'll >> stay with >> what's worked flawlessly with me since 1997. >> >> Thanks, >> >> Rich >> >>
[PLUG] Trying to install Debian 12 as dual boot with Ubuntu
So far I've done this ten times. Only once was I actually able to boot to Debian. And sitting in front of my new Debian I spent several hours installing and configuring, which included deleting all the hundreds of Thai fonts (Why?), which ended with Synaptic deleting half the OS. It wouldn't run, nor would it reboot, so back to the drawing board. This morning I followed some suggestions from a user on the Debian forums which ended with sudo update-grub. That command edited grub.cfg in the new Debian / folder as well as grub.cfg in the Xubuntu / folder, and now I no longer even get the (useless) menu; it just boots straight to Xubuntu. I'm ready for install number 11, but at the end where it sets up grub I need someone sitting behind me to tell me how, because it is clear that I do not know how.
Re: [PLUG] Trying to install Debian 12 as dual boot with Ubuntu
On Wed, 20 Sep 2023 13:48:39 -0700 John Jason Jordan dijo: >I'm ready for install number 11, but at the end where it sets up grub I >need someone sitting behind me to tell me how, because it is clear that >I do not know how. My 11th effort also failed, but I finally got #12 to boot. It installed Grub to the / partition of the new drive so it would boot Debian, left the Xubuntu Grub alone on the old drive, and installed no Grub dual boot menus. I tried using the utility in the BIOS (hit F12 after the BIOS screen) that lists the various drives, and lets me choose which one I want to boot to. I had tried this with previous installs and all I got was a black screen with a cursor-like underscore flashing in the upper left corner. There was no mouse and the keyboard was dead, so reboot and start over. But after install #12, with no Grub dual boot menu, my F12 maneuver worked; it booted straight to Debian. Before continuing I shut down Debian and rebooted, this time choosing the Xubuntu drive, and Xubuntu came up. Yay! Who needs a Grub dual boot menu? Then I spent about eight hours configuring and installing in Debian, when I suddenly realized I needed my account number for Mullvad, my VPN, and the only way to get it was from the utility as it was running under Xubuntu, so I shut down Debian and booted to Xubuntu. When I had the account number I shut down Xubuntu and rebooted Debian. It came up, but most of my hours of work were gone. Most of the applications were still there, including Brave browser, the last thing I installed before shutting down. But the screen was plastered with about 40 icons, each for one of the tabs in Brave browser, and all my work at fixing font sizes, getting rid of default artwork, configuring apps, and more, was lost. I rebooted to Recovery mode, but there was nothing to be done. If I'm to get it working I'm going to have to make reinstallation #13 and start over from scratch. Eight hours down the drain. I wonder if it's possible to install Ubuntu and leave out the snapping turtles and flat things.
Re: [PLUG] Mint, Ubuntu, Debian (and Centos and Redhat/IBM)
On Mon, 11 Sep 2023 02:13:25 + MC_Sequoia dijo: >If you want a default lightweight Debian distro, I'd recommend either >BunsenLabs or Crunchbang++. > >Crunchbang is Debian 12, Bullseye w. Linux Kernal 6.1 Long Term >Support. > >Both offer an installation script so the user can decide which >packages to install based on the feature support wanted and/or use >case for the computer. Very interesting. I've never tried either one. I'm currently in the middle of getting SparkyLinux set up on my main computer. No snaps or flatpaks, although both are in the repository if you want to install them.
[PLUG] Move cron jobs to new computer
Several years ago I created a couple shell scripts to make rsync create mirrors of / and /home on another drive installed in the computer. Although it took awhile I created cron jobs to run the scripts every day at 3am and 4am. My efforts worked perfectly for years, but now I'm migrating from Xubuntu 22.04.3 to SparkyLinux 7.0, and I'd like to migrate cron jobs in the process. SparkyLinux automatically mounts / and /home from Xubuntu, so I can just copy config files from the old OS to the new OS. However, I can't figure out where cron on Xubuntu kept the jobs. They're in some config file somewhere on those partitions, but where they are is a mystery. Can someone give me a clue?
Re: [PLUG] Move cron jobs to new computer
On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 16:13:28 -0700 (PDT) Rich Shepard dijo: >I don't know where those distros keep cron files. But, look first at >/etc/; there should be a set of cron directories there; e.g., cron.d/, >cron.daily/, cron.hourly/, cron.monthly/, cron.weekly/. > >Second, use the `slocate' command, a.k.a. `whois'. (`locate' should >also work); e.g., `locate cron' will show all files with cron in their >names. Yeah, both distros have /etc/cron/daily folders, which is where both cron jobs should be; they ran daily only. Most of the files are identical between the two distros. None have my name on them or anything that looks like it might be something that I produced. On Xubuntu I originally had 20.04, then 22.04, so if the timestamp on a file is before 2020 it couldn't be mine. But here's something that makes no sense: In the cron/daily folder for Xubuntu there is a file 'brave-browser ... 9.27.2023.' WTH? The last time I booted to Xubuntu was a week ago, for only a couple of hours, and the OS hasn't been run since. My gast is flabbered. The cron jobs were just one-liners in crontab, so an easier way to deal with this would be to boot to Xubuntu, run crontab -e, copy the jobs to a small text file somewhere accessible, then reboot to Sparky and paste them into Sparky's crontab-e.
Re: [PLUG] Move cron jobs to new computer
On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 20:58:41 -0700 wes dijo: >On Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 6:21 PM John Jason Jordan >wrote: > >> >> >I don't know where those distros keep cron files. > > >they are kept in /var/spool/cron. > >But, look first at >> >/etc/; there should be a set of cron directories there; e.g., >> >cron.d/, cron.daily/, cron.hourly/, cron.monthly/, cron.weekly/. >> >> >these are different from crontab. each has its own strengths and >weaknesses. There is a /var/spool/crontabs folder in Xubuntu's /, but it is empty. And I read about anacron and a couple more, but what I did before worked well. I have it on tomorrow's to-do list to reboot to Xubuntu, go to crontab -e, copy my jobs to a text file, and get back to Sparky. In theory that's all I need to do. It's taken about a week, but I'm almost done. And I'm liking Sparky more than Xubuntu. And there's nothing snapping at me or flat packages to deal with.
Re: [PLUG] Move cron jobs to new computer
>On Thu, 28 Sep 2023 20:58:41 -0700 >wes dijo: > >>On Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 6:21 PM John Jason Jordan >>wrote: >>> >I don't know where those distros keep cron files. >>they are kept in /var/spool/cron. >>But, look first at >>these are different from crontab. each has its own strengths and >>weaknesses. >There is a /var/spool/crontabs folder in Xubuntu's /, but it is empty. >And I read about anacron and a couple more, but what I did before >worked well. I have it on tomorrow's to-do list to reboot to Xubuntu, >go to crontab -e, copy my jobs to a text file, and get back to Sparky. >In theory that's all I need to do. Well, that didn't come out well. In Xubuntu I did 'sudo crontab -e,' and it had one small job: a monthly reminder to pay my T-Mobile bill, The daily jobs to back up /home and / were nowhere to be seen. There was also nothing in anacron. Yet, in Xubuntu /home and / were getting backed up every night, and there was another daily cron job to pop up a message with the date and rsync exit code. In Xubuntu every morning that message was on the middle of my screen. But right now I have no idea what was making the rsync scripts run in Xubuntu. Sparky's crontab is empty, so I can paste in the T-Mobile job from Xubuntu, but it looks like I'll have to rewrite the two backup jobs and the job to pop up the rsync exit codes. The scripts are here and they run fine when I run them manually. I remember writing these jobs in Xubuntu's crontab a couple years ago. What happened to them? And if the jobs are no longer in Xubuntru's crontab, why are they still running?
Re: [PLUG] Move cron jobs to new computer
On Fri, 29 Sep 2023 14:57:35 -0700 (PDT) Rich Shepard dijo: >On Fri, 29 Sep 2023, John Jason Jordan wrote: > >> Well, that didn't come out well. In Xubuntu I did 'sudo crontab -e,' >When you want to only look at the crontab contents use `crontab -l' to >list them. I did that as well, and as jjj and as root, and all I found was the T- Mobile reminder. >If you know the file names, or part of them you can do either `locate >' or `sudo find / -name '. Names of what? I still haven't found where cron is storing the jobs. The cron man page is silent on the subject, and online I haven't found it mentioned yet. It's not /var/spool/cron; empty on both systems. And it's not in /etc/cron.d or any of the /etc/cron. folders, because all they have is the standard default folders and files, all with old timestamps. Several GUI cron alternatives are mentioned on the net, but none seem to be in the Debian or Xubuntu repositories. I also haven't found a cron tutorial that is useful. I don't need instructions, I just need several pages of examples that I can crib from. Web 'tutorials' mostly just copy and paste man cron, which has zero examples. I'm just going to have to muddle through and rewrite them.
[PLUG] Java errors
I have a little application for drawing phrase structure trees that was written in Java, in roughly 2013. The author included a launch script, and it runs fine on Xubuntu 22.04.3, but on Sparky Linux I get: $ ./TreeForm_launch_script Error: could not open `/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-21-oracle-x64/lib/jvm.cfg' There is a document, also written in 2013, stating that it needed JRE 1.42 or later. Such is not available for SparkyLinux, but it wasn't available in Xubuntu either. The default in SparkyLinux is Debian 17, and I installed jre-8u381-linux-x64 and both jdk17 and jdk21, all downloaded from Oracle. I assume they are 'installed' correctly, because LibreOffice needs a JRE for some functions, and it has a utility to choose which java it is supposed to use; and all four appear in the list of available javas. I have no idea what the above error message means, and less than that about how to fix it. I know zero about such matters. Can someone hit me over the head with a clue?
Re: [PLUG] Java errors
I opened the launch script in a text editor and all it says is cd /home/jjj/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm/ java -Xmx256m -Xms64m -jar TreeForm.jar With the command line in ~/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm I just copied the above line and ran it, and I got the same error message. Then I deleted the -Xm... options and ran it bare, and again I got the same error message. It might be useful to know what those options do. Window size, maybe? In any event, they don't seem related to the error message. Checking in Synaptic I have had OpenJDK installed the whole time. Is there a way to tell the java -jar command which java to use? As for paths, do you mean the path to the java? I know where the Oracle Java 8 is located, because there were 'install' instructions telling me to put it in /usr/java/jre1.8.0_381, so that's where I put it. It must be correct because LibreOffice found it and listed it as available. I don't know where the others are. There is a Help file with TreeForm, which says at the top: To install this software in your computer, unzip the folder in any folder of your choosing. This software requires Java 1.4.2 or higher to run. The Java runtime can be downloaded from the Java Website. Michael Ewan dijo: >Your start script may be calling for a specific path rather than a >relative path in your JRE. >Also try using OpenJDK instead of Oracle Java. Do a text search in your >source code for that path. >>$ ./TreeForm_launch_script >>Error: could not open `/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-21-oracle-x64/lib/jvm.cfg'
Re: [PLUG] Java errors
This little app is currently running fine on Xubuntu 22.04.3, as it always has, but the Java versions installed there are somewhat different. I decided to experiment, and for my fist venture I uninstalled Oracle JDK 21. Afterwards the error message changed: Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: sun.misc.Launcher at userInterface.Start.(Start.java:54) I get the same error message whether I run from the launch script with its two options or straight from the command line without them. The only way I know how to tell what versions of Java are installed is to launch LibreOffice Writer and go to Tools > Options > Advanced, where it displays the versions of Java that LO found. It now lists Oracle 8, Oracle 17, and Debian 17, where it used to include Oracle 21 as well. There's probably a faster, simpler way to get a list of installed Javas from the command line, but I don't know it. For testing it might also be useful if I could specify which of the installed Javas the app is supposed to use. As it is, it just picks one based on who knows what criteria. In Xubuntu it appears that the installed Javas include JB-Java-jdk8.d. On that the net leads me to openjdk8, and more links. The TreeForm app there just runs, and I can't tell what Java it's actually using. On Sun, 1 Oct 2023 10:32:59 -0700 Michael Ewan dijo: >Unfortunately it sounds like there is a static string in the Java >source or possibly in the jar file. >You can disassemble the jar file with the "jar" command from the Java >runtime. > > >On Sat, Sep 30, 2023 at 6:31 PM John Jason Jordan >wrote: > >> I opened the launch script in a text editor and all it says is >> >> cd /home/jjj/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm/ >> java -Xmx256m -Xms64m -jar TreeForm.jar >> >> With the command line in ~/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm I just >> copied the above line and ran it, and I got the same error message. >> Then I deleted the -Xm... options and ran it bare, and again I got >> the same error message. It might be useful to know what those >> options do. Window size, maybe? In any event, they don't seem >> related to the error message. >> >> Checking in Synaptic I have had OpenJDK installed the whole time. Is >> there a way to tell the java -jar command which java to use? As for >> paths, do you mean the path to the java? I know where the Oracle >> Java 8 is located, because there were 'install' instructions telling >> me to put it in /usr/java/jre1.8.0_381, so that's where I put it. It >> must be correct because LibreOffice found it and listed it as >> available. I don't know where the others are. >> >> There is a Help file with TreeForm, which says at the top: >> >> To install this software in your computer, unzip the folder >> in any folder of your choosing. >> This software requires Java 1.4.2 or higher to run. The Java >> runtime can be downloaded from the Java Website. >> >> Michael Ewan dijo: >> >Your start script may be calling for a specific path rather than a >> >relative path in your JRE. >> >Also try using OpenJDK instead of Oracle Java. Do a text search in >> >your source code for that path. >> >> >>$ ./TreeForm_launch_script >> >>Error: could not open >> >> `/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-21-oracle-x64/lib/jvm.cfg' >> >>
Re: [PLUG] Move cron jobs to new computer
On Fri, 29 Sep 2023 16:22:47 -0700 John Jason Jordan dijo: >I'm just going to have to muddle through and rewrite them. When I sat down at the computer this morning the gxmessage window was in the middle of the screen announcing that rsync ran at 3am and at 4am to make mirrors of / and ~/ with exit code 0. I had put a dummy file on both partitions before going to bed, so I checked and it was in both mirrors. Problem solved. Except that I still haven't figured out where cron saves the files. At least now I have the sense to copy them to a text file in ~/.
Re: [PLUG] Java errors
SUCCESS!! This command did the job: PATH=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_381/bin/ followed by the launch script. The above path is for Oracle Java 8 which I downloaded and installed manually myself. I could probably just as easily have used openjdk17 or Oracle 17, both of which are also installed, but with Oracle 8 JRE I knew where it was and with the other two I'd have to figure it out. Now my only question is, does that PATH command create a permanent path, or will it go away, like after a reboot. Never mind. I just added it to the launch script, which now says: #!/bin/bash cd /home/jjj/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm/ PATH=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_381/bin/ java -Dsun.java2d.uiScale=3 -Xmx256m -Xms64m -jar TreeForm.jar The program runs perfectly, except that the fonts are about 1mm. I can still use the program because I know what the text says, even if I can no longer really read it. I added the '-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=3,' which was suggested to me as a way to increase the size of fonts, but in this case it had no effect. The two -Xm... comments were in the original launch scrip written by the developer. I don't know what they do, but leaving them out makes no difference. If anyone can suggest alternatives for the -Dsun... option to increase font sizes in Java applications, I'd be happy to do some experimenting. On Mon, 2 Oct 2023 13:35:05 -0700 John Jason Jordan dijo: > Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: > sun.misc.Launcher at > userInterface.Start.(Start.java:54) > >I get the same error message whether I run from the launch script with >its two options or straight from the command line without them. > >The only way I know how to tell what versions of Java are installed is >to launch LibreOffice Writer and go to Tools > Options > Advanced, >where it displays the versions of Java that LO found. It now lists >Oracle 8, Oracle 17, and Debian 17, where it used to include Oracle 21 >as well. There's probably a faster, simpler way to get a list of >installed Javas from the command line, but I don't know it. For testing >it might also be useful if I could specify which of the installed Javas >the app is supposed to use. As it is, it just picks one based on who >knows what criteria. > >In Xubuntu it appears that the installed Javas include JB-Java-jdk8.d. >On that the net leads me to openjdk8, and more links. The TreeForm app >there just runs, and I can't tell what Java it's actually using. > > >On Sun, 1 Oct 2023 10:32:59 -0700 >Michael Ewan dijo: > >>Unfortunately it sounds like there is a static string in the Java >>source or possibly in the jar file. >>You can disassemble the jar file with the "jar" command from the Java >>runtime. >> >> >>On Sat, Sep 30, 2023 at 6:31 PM John Jason Jordan >>wrote: >> >>> I opened the launch script in a text editor and all it says is >>> >>> cd /home/jjj/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm/ >>> java -Xmx256m -Xms64m -jar TreeForm.jar >>> >>> With the command line in ~/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm I just >>> copied the above line and ran it, and I got the same error message. >>> Then I deleted the -Xm... options and ran it bare, and again I got >>> the same error message. It might be useful to know what those >>> options do. Window size, maybe? In any event, they don't seem >>> related to the error message. >>> >>> Checking in Synaptic I have had OpenJDK installed the whole time. Is >>> there a way to tell the java -jar command which java to use? As for >>> paths, do you mean the path to the java? I know where the Oracle >>> Java 8 is located, because there were 'install' instructions telling >>> me to put it in /usr/java/jre1.8.0_381, so that's where I put it. It >>> must be correct because LibreOffice found it and listed it as >>> available. I don't know where the others are. >>> >>> There is a Help file with TreeForm, which says at the top: >>> >>> To install this software in your computer, unzip the folder >>> in any folder of your choosing. >>> This software requires Java 1.4.2 or higher to run. The Java >>> runtime can be downloaded from the Java >>> Website. >>> >>> Michael Ewan dijo: >>> >Your start script may be calling for a specific path rather than a >>> >relative path in your JRE. >>> >Also try using OpenJDK instead of Oracle Java. Do a text search in >>> >your source code for that path. >>> >>> >>$ ./TreeForm_launch_script >>> >>Error: could not open >>> >> `/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-21-oracle-x64/lib/jvm.cfg' >>> >>>
Re: [PLUG] Java errors
Didn't make any difference. The net came up with other possibilities (swing?), but so far I haven't hit on one that makes any difference. The window size is also a bit too big, but my attempts there have also failed. Michael Ewan dijo: >Try removing the -Dsun.java2d.uiScale=3 option and let the JVM choose. >On Fri, Oct 6, 2023 at 1:57 AM John Jason Jordan >wrote: > >> SUCCESS!! >> >> This command did the job: >> >> PATH=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_381/bin/ >> >> followed by the launch script. >> >> The above path is for Oracle Java 8 which I downloaded and installed >> manually myself. I could probably just as easily have used openjdk17 >> or Oracle 17, both of which are also installed, but with Oracle 8 >> JRE I knew where it was and with the other two I'd have to figure it >> out. >> >> Now my only question is, does that PATH command create a permanent >> path, or will it go away, like after a reboot. Never mind. I just >> added it to the launch script, which now says: >> >> #!/bin/bash >> cd /home/jjj/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm/ >> PATH=/usr/java/jre1.8.0_381/bin/ >> java -Dsun.java2d.uiScale=3 -Xmx256m -Xms64m -jar >> TreeForm.jar >> >> The program runs perfectly, except that the fonts are about 1mm. I >> can still use the program because I know what the text says, even if >> I can no longer really read it. I added the >> '-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=3,' which was suggested to me as a way to >> increase the size of fonts, but in this case it had no effect. The >> two -Xm... comments were in the original launch scrip written by the >> developer. I don't know what they do, but leaving them out makes no >> difference. >> >> If anyone can suggest alternatives for the -Dsun... option to >> increase font sizes in Java applications, I'd be happy to do some >> experimenting. >> >> >> On Mon, 2 Oct 2023 13:35:05 -0700 >> John Jason Jordan dijo: >> >> > Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: >> > sun.misc.Launcher at >> > userInterface.Start.(Start.java:54) >> > >> >I get the same error message whether I run from the launch script >> >with its two options or straight from the command line without them. >> > >> >The only way I know how to tell what versions of Java are installed >> >is to launch LibreOffice Writer and go to Tools > Options > >> >Advanced, where it displays the versions of Java that LO found. It >> >now lists Oracle 8, Oracle 17, and Debian 17, where it used to >> >include Oracle 21 as well. There's probably a faster, simpler way >> >to get a list of installed Javas from the command line, but I don't >> >know it. For testing it might also be useful if I could specify >> >which of the installed Javas the app is supposed to use. As it is, >> >it just picks one based on who knows what criteria. >> > >> >In Xubuntu it appears that the installed Javas include >> >JB-Java-jdk8.d. On that the net leads me to openjdk8, and more >> >links. The TreeForm app there just runs, and I can't tell what Java >> >it's actually using. >> > >> > >> >On Sun, 1 Oct 2023 10:32:59 -0700 >> >Michael Ewan dijo: >> > >> >>Unfortunately it sounds like there is a static string in the Java >> >>source or possibly in the jar file. >> >>You can disassemble the jar file with the "jar" command from the >> >>Java runtime. >> >> >> >> >> >>On Sat, Sep 30, 2023 at 6:31 PM John Jason Jordan >> >>wrote: >> >> >> >>> I opened the launch script in a text editor and all it says is >> >>> >> >>> cd /home/jjj/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm/ >> >>> java -Xmx256m -Xms64m -jar TreeForm.jar >> >>> >> >>> With the command line in ~/Software/TreeForm103/TreeForm I just >> >>> copied the above line and ran it, and I got the same error >> >>> message. Then I deleted the -Xm... options and ran it bare, and >> >>> again I got the same error message. It might be useful to know >> >>> what those options do. Window size, maybe? In any event, they >> >>> don't seem related to the error message. >> >>> >> >>> Checking in Synaptic I have had OpenJDK installed the whole >> >>> time. I
[PLUG] Free Patch Panel
Remodeling has made this unshielded patch panel redundant. Free to a loving home. It is a Trendnet TC-P16C6 (16 ports), gigabit Cat6 rated, for wall or rack mount. I have the instruction sheet that came with it. Here is a link to Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/y94korlu ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Fiber connectors?
When the CenturyLink dude installed my fiber the wall inside the house where it ended up had no sheetrock, so there is no jack - the skinny white fiber cable just dangles down between the studs and the end of it plugs into the back of the 'modem.' Now the wall is about to have sheetrock. I could drill a little hole in it and feed the fiber cable through it, but that strikes me as really not very professional. The cable from the street should connect to the back of some kind of jack, and then there should be a short piece to connect the jack to the back of the modem thingy, sort of like we use patch cords to connect ethernet wall outlets to whatever device we are using (laptop, etc.). I made the mistake of calling CL to ask if they could supply me with whatever jack they normally use. Half an hour and six conversations with technicians later I gave up. I did, however, discover that there exist fiber connectors in keystone jacks, which would be ideal for my situation. I wired my entire house with Cat6 ethernet cable, so I know all about keystone jacks. In fact, the wall where the fiber terminates now has a panel with 20 keystone jacks connecting to all the ethernet ports throughout the house. That panel could easily have one more keystone jack. Unfortunately I am pretty stupid about fiber. It appears that there are different kinds of keystone jacks for different kinds of fiber, and I have no idea which kind to get. I also don't know what is required to connect the end of the cable from the street to the back of the jack, or what kind of patch cable I need to go from the jack to the modem. It looks like the end of the cable just plugs into the back of the modem, so I pulled on it to see if it just comes out, but it was kind of tight and I didn't want to force it, so I left it alone. Advice and suggestions needed. :) ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Fiber connectors?
On Thu, 9 Nov 2017 16:02:53 -0800 (PST) Rich Shepard dijo: >On Thu, 9 Nov 2017, John Jason Jordan wrote: > >> ... the skinny white fiber cable just dangles down between the studs >> and the end of it plugs into the back of the 'modem.' >> Unfortunately I am pretty stupid about fiber. It appears that there >> are different kinds of keystone jacks for different kinds of fiber, >> and I have no idea which kind to get. I also don't know what is >> required to connect the end of the cable from the street to the back >> of the jack, or what kind of patch cable I need to go from the jack >> to the modem. It looks like the end of the cable just plugs into the >> back of the modem, so I pulled on it to see if it just comes out, >> but it was kind of tight and I didn't want to force it, so I left it >> alone. >Inside the house it should be Ethernet; the optical translator should be >on the outside. That's the way it is here with Frontier's >installation. The fiber terminates in the outside box and the >converter moves electrons across the cat5 to the inside box. I definitely have fiber dangling down between the studs inside the house. It is far too skinny to be ethernet, plus it ends in a plug that is just a little thicker than a #2 pencil lead. The installer ran fiber from the street to a box that he mounted on the outside of the house (about one foot square, way bigger than it needs to be), and from there ran skinny fiber cable along the outside wall and then up the wall to a point where he could poke a hole through to the attic. He pulled the cable through the hole and then he ran the fiber cable halfway across the attic to a point where he could drop it down into the wall that didn't have sheetrock. That's the point where it plugs into the back of the what I think is the optical translator (about the size of an old fashioned cigar box). The optical translator has lights labeled PWR, BAT, LAN1, LAN2, LAN3, LAN4, POTS1, POTS2, LOS, and PON. The PWR LAN1 and PON are lit up. It uses a wall wart, not a battery. From the optical translator there is an ethernet patch cord to the D-Link DIR-860L that Russell fixed for me so that it would work as a router here. I don't know if this is a normal setup or not, but it's what I've got. I really need to speak to a CL installer. My frustration with calling technical support was because they have never been in the field, have never installed service in someone's house, and have no idea what kind of equipment is used. Their skill is solely in scheduling a service call. I described my installation to them and they had no idea what I was talking about. In the meantime, in order to continue with sheetrocking I would like to thread the cable through an empty hole in one of the ethernet plates, to which I can add a keystone jack (plus patch cable) later, once I figure out what kind I need. But to do that I need to pull it out of the back of the optical translator and then plug t back in, and that is scary. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Fiber connectors?
On Thu, 9 Nov 2017 22:11:57 -0600 Carl Karsten dijo: >And post the model number of the box it plugs into. > extra credit for the url of its specs, like what kind of connectors > it has. I took pictures of the connector, but they are terrible. I will post them later (bedtime now), but they are so bad that I doubt they will be much help. However, the bottom of the device has the following: ADTRAN Model name: NDOOR SFU GEN3 Model No. TA324 Power rating: 12V 1.5A P/N: 1287735G3 RevB Assembled in China Manufacture date: 2016-03-03 I hope that helps. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Fiber connectors?
On Thu, 9 Nov 2017 22:14:32 -0600 Chuck Hast dijo: >Here are some good pix and data: >http://www.thefoa.org/tech/connID.htm Good lord. I will never figure this out. :( ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Fiber connectors?
On Thu, 9 Nov 2017 22:04:13 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >However, the bottom of the device has the following: > >ADTRAN >Model name: NDOOR SFU GEN3 >Model No. TA324 >Power rating: 12V 1.5A >P/N: 1287735G3 RevB > >Assembled in China >Manufacture date: 2016-03-03 Googling on NDOOR SFU GEN3: https://gist.github.com/blakerohde/267519833ea1abe417759cdb9b9af0d2 Very interesting, although I did not understand all of it. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Fiber connectors?
On Thu, 9 Nov 2017 22:32:19 -0800 Russell Senior dijo: >Yeah, the "bypassing needless" part is what we did already when I was >helping you. The NDOOR SFU GEN3 is the netgear thingie that the fiber >goes into, the so-called indoor ONT (optical network terminator). > >If you do end up finding a keystone, it will probably amount to a >passive optical connector (i.e. precisely holding the polished ends of >two fiber connector together). You don't crimp these yourself, at >least, not without a $5k fiber fuser, or a super tedious fiber >termination kit that involves cutting, epoxying, and polishing >absolutely flat the end of the strand. You would need not only the >wall plate and an optical connector, but a fiber patch cable for your >side of the wall plate. All of these would need to have the proper >connector pre-attached at a factory (unless you wanted to become an >expert fiber terminator, and, hint, you don't). > >On the other hand, if you do buy a fiber fuser for $5k, you can donate >it to the Personal Telco Project after you've fused the one or two >connections you need, and then we'll be happy to loan it back to you >when ever you need. ;-) OK, I guess I won't be getting a keystone jack for the fiber. I'll just feed the fiber through an empty hole in one of the plates. But to do so I will need to unplug it from the NDOOR SFU GEN3, thread it through the hole, and then plug it back into the NDOOR SFU GEN3. This morning my head is working a little better so it occurred to me to call Adtran to see if they could help. They have a support number and a very nice lady, with native Alabama English, took down my question, created a ticket number and promised that one of their support people would call me back. And after the call to Adtran I noticed that the fiber goes into the device in a corner that looks like it might come apart. Indeed, there was a small screw holding it together. I removed it and discovered that the real connector is inside, and can be pulled out easily. I unplugged the wall wart, pulled the fiber cable out, routed it through a hole in one of the wall plates, reconnected it, and powered it back on. There was some light-blinking for a few moments, but eventually it all went back to normal. My internet is working fine. I don't know why none of this occurred to me last night. I am frequently amazed at how much more intelligent I am in the morning. And now that I see what the connector at the end of the cable actually looks like I'll revisit the idea of getting a keystone jack and patch cable. In fact, I'll just pose that question to the support person when they call me back. Maybe Adtran even sells such accessories. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Hard Drives - WD Red Pro?
On Tue, 14 Nov 2017 16:21:04 -0800 Keith Lofstrom dijo: >I am leaning towards Western Digital Red Pro 8TB with >the 5 year warranty. I recently went through the same shopping experience with more or less the same needs as you, and the WD Red Pro 8TB is what I ended up with. I have had them less than a year, so I can't vouch for their reliability, but everything I read and everyone I talked to said they were currently the most reliable. I should add that I believe WD now has 10TB Red Pro drives. That's what I would have bought if they had been available at the time. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Hard Drives - WD Red Pro?
On Tue, 14 Nov 2017 22:13:47 -0800 Keith Lofstrom dijo: >The question about Amazon and Newegg and ??? is ... am >I missing a better source for online orders? My recent purchase of three 8TB WD Red Pro drives were from eBay, where I got better prices than Amazon or Newegg. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Fiber connectors?
On Thu, 9 Nov 2017 15:02:23 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >When the CenturyLink dude installed my fiber the wall inside the house >where it ended up had no sheetrock, so there is no jack - the skinny >white fiber cable just dangles down between the studs and the end of it >plugs into the back of the 'modem.' Success! I was driving toward Lowes passing by a McDonalds and what do I see in their parking lot but a CenturyLink installer truck. "Time to get a coffee" I thought, and pulled into McDonalds, parking right next to the CL truck. As I get out of my truck I see the CL guy coming out of McDonalds, recognizing him as the guy who installed the fiber in my house. Me: Hey, CenturyLink guy, I need to talk to you for a minute! CLG: Hey, I remember you! There followed a discussion where he remembered the fiber dangling down from the attic into the space between studs on a wall without sheetrock, followed by my adding that I was now sheetrocking the wall and how do I connect the fiber. He took me to the other side of his truck where he opened up his bag of tricks and produced a patch cable, plus a couple of connectors that he said they used to connect fiber cables, and a wall mount thing that they run fiber out of. He just gave them to me, no charge, no big deal. He didn't have a keystone jack, but he suggested that I might be able to use the connectors by drilling a hole in a blank keystone plug. I haven't had time to put this stuff together, but I think I now have what I need for a professional installation. On a personal level Portland CL people are pretty good folks. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Firefox crash when visiting aliexpress
On Thu, 16 Nov 2017 12:58:23 -0800 Ali Corbin dijo: > 56.0 (64-bit) on Mint also works. That's what I have on Xubuntu 14.04, and no problem with aliexpress. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Rsync command fail
I have an external USB drive that I back up to a Synology NAS drive with the command: rsync -rptog --progress --stats --delete --exclude-from=/media/jjj/Movies/rsync_exclusions /media/jjj/Movies/ /media/jjj/Synology The object is to make the Synology a mirror of the USB drive (/media/jjj/Movies). I deleted a folder on the USB drive, ran the command, and the folder was replaced on the USB drive. This is backwards. What am I doing wrong? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Linux Journal magazine is no more
On Fri, 1 Dec 2017 14:11:53 -0800 Tomas Kuchta dijo: >For those who remember the experience of actually reading a magazine >front to back, rather than just flicking pages full of shiny >advertisement - another one bites the dust. > >So long Linux Journal House remodeling required moving things, sorting though it to discard tons of stuff that is no longer needed. But I saved one item: May/June 2000 issue of Maximum Linux, featuring reviews of Corel Linux, Slackware 7.0 and WordPerfect 8.0, plus two CDs containing Storm Linux 2000 and Mandrake 7.0. Corel Linux was my first venture into Linux. For those who are too new to Linux to have heard of it, Corel Corporation, whose main program was CorelDRAW!, by 2000 had added Corel Photopaint, and had acquired Ventura Publisher and the WordPerfect Suite. Their avowed plan was to develop Corel Linux and then have all these programs running on it. Unfortunately, their method was to work with WineHQ to get them all running under Wine. They got as far as CorelDRAW, Photopaint and WordPerfect, but financial difficulties forced them to abandon getting Ventura Publisher working. I was heavily into DTP at the time and I was eager to abandon QuakXPress, PageMaker, and most of all, Windows and MS Office. I eagerly bought Corel Linux and all the Corel programs and installed them on my previous computer, sitting unused. Sadly, Michael Cowpland (head of Corel Corp.) was a genius at user interfaces, and an utter klutz at getting good code. Getting X and Wine to run for more than a couple hours without crashing was usually impossible. Eventually I had to give up and continue my obeisance to the evil empire. If anyone collects old Linux magazines I would be happy to give this copy to someone who would appreciate it. :) ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] 24-port gigabit switch recommendations
Just a plain old ethernet switch, gigabit rated, 24 ports. But I have a special desire that advertising information is mostly silent about - I want lights on one side and ports on the other. This is because it will sit on a cabinet in front of wall ports connected to all the wall ports around the house, with cables coming out the back of the switch. I currently have a Netgear but the lights are on the ports in the back, thus not visible to me sitting across the room. I want my lights in front and the ports in back, please. Shopping for this is difficult because Amazon and Newegg use the same pictures for all their 24-port switches of all brands (really!), and the pictures of the fronts are so dark they are basically just black rectangles with no visible detail. In fact, I can't even tell if they are really the fronts. Suggestions welcome! ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Can't log in to D-Link DIR-860L (with OpenWRT)
My DIR-860l that Russell flashed for me so it would work with CwenturyLink gigabit fiber is working fine, but logging in to the admin page is not working. The login page comes up with the username as root and a password. I think the password is supplied by Firefox that saved it from some previous login.* In any event it does not work, so I tried supplying 'admin,' 'Admin,' 'jjj,' 'JJJ,' and several other possibilities. For the password I tried leaving it blank, or any of several variants that I use for devices, plus I tried a nonsense password that was written on the label on the side of the device. The label also said: DIR-860L P/N BIR860LLNA ... B1 MAC 48:EE:0C:68:C2:F0 Password ** Mydlink No.: * Searching on support pages reveals that the username is supposed to be 'admin' or 'Admin' with a blank password, but they all assume the default D-Link firmware, not OpenWRT. I didn't check for it but I also assume there is a button on the device to be actuated with a paper clip to reset the device, but that might wipe out OpenWRT. I found the OpenWRT web page, but no help there. The login page also has a Reset button, but it appears to do nothing. *Firefox helpfully saves passwords, but some web pages won't accept the password if it is supplied by Firefox, e.g., PayPal and my bank, among others. I have to manually type in the password each time. And why would I want to log in to the admin page if it is working fine? Because I have a Brother laser printer that is giving me grief and I failed to put a label on it with its IP address (which is my normal practice for printers). Any suggestions welcome. :) ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] 24-port gigabit switch recommendations
On Fri, 8 Dec 2017 01:09:13 -0800 Neal dijo: >TRENdnet TEG-S24D -- ports on one side, connectors on the other. A bit of searching revealed that there is an older S24D no longer being sold, version 1.0R, so what you want is the version 1.1R. I like that it is fanless and consumes only 12 watts. And silver is fine with me. :) http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail?prod=560_TEG-S24D After checking prices Newegg got my order for $77 and change with free shipping. Should be here in 4-7 days. Thanks for the suggestion! ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Can't log in to D-Link DIR-860L (with OpenWRT)
On Sat, 9 Dec 2017 17:30:51 -0800 Russell Senior dijo: >John has regained access, fwiw. As far as I know, the problem is now >resolved. Yes, and I should add that I knew I could get the information directly from the printer, and I also supposed that there was a command line tool like arp that I could use, but needing the printer's IP address encouraged me to solve the problem of accessing the D-Link. I had known for some time that there was a problem getting into its admin page, and this was as good a time as any to tackle that issue. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Another SpiritOne Question
On Sun, 10 Dec 2017 16:17:16 -0800 Dick Steffens dijo: >Does anyone have experience with Century Link as an ISP? I signed up for their gigabit fiber service a few months ago. So far everything is fine. However, a few points to consider: 1) Don't ever sign up with someone who comes to your door or over the net. You don't get the good deals unless you go to their office. (For me that is their office in Hollywood.) 2) Their installers are great people, knowledgeable and they do a good job. 3) Their weak point is billing, which their staff at Hollywood will readily admit. They had to fix my bill three times, but now it is finally working properly. In fixing the bill they were cheerful, apologetic, and easy to deal with. 4) For my gigabit service I could get $10 off if I agreed to automatic billing. But this means that they can charge me whatever, so I declined. Instead, I set up auto bill-pay with my bank. And I got a guarantee of a discounted amount for two years; afterwards it just about doubles. Check out the fine print in your agreement. 5) They guarantee that you will get at least 85% of what you are paying for. For my gigabit service that means at least 850 mbps. I don't get quite that much, but I can't complain because I'm not using all their equipment. What I get is plenty good enough. And there is more - unlike Comcast there are no data caps at all, either up or down, and you get the same speed up as down. 6) If you get fiber be advised that fiber is not as forgiving as copper. A kink in the line and you are dead. I learned this the hard way. But the installer guy who came out to fix it did not put it down as a repair, so it didn't cost me anything. Did I mention that their installers are cool people? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Another SpiritOne Question
On Mon, 11 Dec 2017 08:28:21 -0800 Dan Bolduc dijo: >Jason, I am curious to know what kind of 'deal' you were able to get on >your service by going to the Hollywood office. My promotional period >has run out on gigabit service, so I am currently paying the full >price of $160/month. I'm able to make this more economical by sharing >the cost with some housing units adjacent to me. Would you mind >sharing what you're paying for gigabit? >From my most recent bill: High Speed Internet 154.95 Term commitment month 8 of 24 -74.96 Total79.99 Internet cost recovery fee 3.99* Total charges83.98 *I have asked several times at their Hollywood office what an 'internet cost recovery fee' is for, and no one has ever been able to tell me. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Another SpiritOne Question
On Mon, 11 Dec 2017 12:24:43 -0800 Russell Senior dijo: >I was recently told you can ask for an $85 "forever"-rate (as >advertised on teevee) too. But you have to ask. And it only takes >effect at the start of the next month. I see a trip to the Hollywood district in my near future. :) ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Stuff that I no longer need
Free to a loving home: The switches all have their wall warts and their documentation, and the Netgears even have their original boxes. I no longer need them because my shiny new Trendnet from Newegg arrove today and is working fine. Dynex DX-GB8PRT 8-port gigabit ethernet switch Netgear GS116 16-port gigabit ethernet switch Netgear GS116 (broken) 16-port gigabit ethernet switch CanoScan N650U LIDE scanner USB powered (needs the square USB 2.0 plug) I paid $10 for this at Free Geek and used it with my desktop laser printer as a copy machine. Now I have a desktop all-in-one laser printer so this is redundant I put them in the back of my vehicle so I will have them with me at the Clinic this Sunday. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Stuff that I no longer need [all items now spoken for]
On Fri, 15 Dec 2017 16:04:02 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >Free to a loving home: > >The switches all have their wall warts and their documentation, and the >Netgears even have their original boxes. I no longer need them because >my shiny new Trendnet from Newegg arrove today and is working fine. > >Dynex DX-GB8PRT > 8-port gigabit ethernet switch > >Netgear GS116 > 16-port gigabit ethernet switch > >Netgear GS116 (broken) > 16-port gigabit ethernet switch > >CanoScan N650U LIDE scanner > USB powered (needs the square USB 2.0 plug) > I paid $10 for this at Free Geek and used it with my desktop > laser printer as a copy machine. Now I have a desktop > all-in-one laser printer so this is redundant All items are spoken for. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] [Resolved] - Re: Making a byte-perfect copy of a partition
On Mon, 18 Dec 2017 08:32:06 -0800 Galen Seitz dijo: >If there's any chance the drive is having read errors, you should >consider using dd_rescue. It will try hardier in the presence of >errors. +1 for dd-rescue. I use it all the time to read movie DVDs that I bought used and can't play because of damage. It makes an ISO that I can play in VLC or re-write to a fresh DVD. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] OSCON 2018
On Thu, 21 Dec 2017 15:44:45 -0800 Steve Dum dijo: >if you haven't heard, OSCON will be back in Portland this year July >16–19, 2018 Hooray!!! And none to soon - I need to replenish my stock of t-shirts. :) And as in previous years, I volunteer to manage the booth, assuming we will have one. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] recommendation Xerox 8560 solid ink printer repair?
On Sat, 30 Dec 2017 10:47:53 -0800 RParr dijo: >I have a Xerox 8560 solid ink printer in need of repair. It starts >but then gets a memory error before I can even get to the diagnostics. > >Any recommendations where I might get this repaired? Is the memory removable, or hard soldered? My first suggestion would be to remove the memory or, if it's in more than one stick, swap places. Just re-seating is often a cure. As for repair places, the old Tektronix buildings in Wilsonville are now Xerox buildings, and one of them is where they remanufacture lease returns. That is, that statement was true at least several years ago when I went there to pick up the remanufactured printer that I bought from them on eBay. I don't know if they have a repair facility there as well, but it's the first place I would call. There is also The Printer Place in close-in SE Portland. They'll work on almost any kind of printer, including getting parts for you to repair it yourself. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Increase font size on PDF file
On Tue, 2 Jan 2018 10:20:37 -0800 Dick Steffens dijo: >This probably won't do what you want because it seems to lose >paragraph indenting, but I can copy the text of a pdf and past it into >a LibreOffice Writer document. I don't know what other formatting it >might lose, but it's something to play with. LibreOffice will import a PDF file, although you have to install an add-on program to get that functionality. I don't remember off the top of my head what the name of the add-on is, but it's in the Ubuntu Trusty repos. I think I found it by searching on 'LibreOffice' in Synaptic. Or maybe I searched on 'PDF.' ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Increase font size on PDF file
On Tue, 2 Jan 2018 10:53:35 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >LibreOffice will import a PDF file, although you have to install an >add-on program to get that functionality. I don't remember off the top >of my head what the name of the add-on is, but it's in the Ubuntu >Trusty repos. I think I found it by searching on 'LibreOffice' in >Synaptic. Or maybe I searched on 'PDF.' I just poked around in my LO and couldn't find a button to import a PDF. But when I tried to just open a PDF it worked. I opened a simple little PDF and LO displayed it in a new document window. All the text was in text frames, one frame per line. I could put the cursor in the text, select some of it, and apply any character formatting I wanted. I could also do a Ctrl-a (select all), which selected all the frames, and then change the font to whatever I wanted. I think the reason that the text came up in one frame per line is because that is how PDFs work - text is always truncated into individual pieces. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] One of my drives has disappeared
When I bought my System76 Bonobo Extreme laptop it came with a 1TB Seagate hybrid drive with regular Ubuntu on it. I deleted the partition and created a new single partition for the whole drive with the label 'Data.' I bought a 512GB Crucial mSata drive and installed / and ~/ on it in separate partitions. The Seagate remains largely unused, except that I have a Cron job that backs up my mail folder to it every night. I have been having issues with the latest version of a program which cannot find either of my optical drives. In troubleshooting I ran lsscsi and was shocked to see that the Seagate is not listed. Nor does it appear in the Places tab in Thunar, the Xfce GUI file manager. Since I do not use the Data drive for other than the backup, which takes no intervention from me, I have no idea how long the drive has been inactive. I am wondering if there is any kind of command wizardry that I could do to shed light on the situation before powering down and opening the case. It is listed in fstab, so is there a way to refresh fstab? Any other ideas? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] One of my drives has disappeared
On Mon, 22 Jan 2018 22:50:24 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >I am wondering if there is any kind of command wizardry that I could do >to shed light on the situation before powering down and opening the >case. It is listed in fstab, so is there a way to refresh fstab? Any >other ideas? OK, I lied. I thought it was listed in fstab, but it's not. I discovered that after 'mount -a' did nothing. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] One of my drives has disappeared
On Mon, 22 Jan 2018 23:15:18 -0800 Tom dijo: >I guess that you found your drive by now. > >If not, try: >sudo fdisk -l > >If that does not help, get a screw driver to see if it is still in the >laptop. Thanks for the suggestion. It didn't appear. Time for a screwdriver. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] One of my drives has disappeared
On Tue, 23 Jan 2018 07:55:17 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >Thanks for the suggestion. It didn't appear. Time for a screwdriver. OK, I opened the case and looked at it, and it appeared fine. Nevertheless, I took it out and put it back in, then restarted the computer. Still nada. On the drive it said: Seagate laptop SSHD 1000GB Dec '13 Product of China SN: W380KMX9 ST1000LM014 PN: 1EJ164-301 DOM: 10/2013 I went to Seagate support to check on the warranty, but the warranty check page is offline at the moment. It is now January, 2018, so it's doubtful that there is still warranty coverage anyway. Time to shop for a new laptop drive. It won't be a Seagate. If anyone has any suggestions for huge laptop drives, I'm all ears. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] One of my drives has disappeared
On Wed, 24 Jan 2018 01:48:07 + Jason Barnett dijo: >this drive has a 3 year warranty. > >If you purchased it with a credit card, you may have additional >warranty coverage. Typically an extra 1 year after the manufacturer's >warranty ends. Since you probably didn't purchase it the same month it >was manufactured, you might still be covered. Well, technically I did purchase it with a credit card because it was included with the System76 computer that I bought with a credit card. But I recently confirmed with System76 that its warranty was finito. I can't believe I bought this computer over three years ago. That Tempus guy just fugits his little butt along, doesn't he? Anyway, to put an end to this story, after much shopping, I settled on a Samsung Pro 2TB SSD with a 10 year warranty (the longest warranty I could find). It's on its way from Watsonville CA via eBay. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] SCSI device driver
Xubuntu 14.04.5, all updates applied. I have a program that can't find ether of my optical drives, /dev/sr0 and /dev/sr1. Apparently there is a new module, 'sg,' that calls them /dev/sg0 and /dev/sg1, and those are all that the program will look for. I can't tell if I have the module installed or not: sudo modprobe sg - returns nothing, no error messages lsmod | grep sg - also returns nothing ls -la /dev/sg* returns: crw-rw+ 1 root cdrom 21, 0 Jan 23 16:33 /dev/sg0 crw-rw 1 root disk 21, 1 Jan 23 16:33 /dev/sg1 crw-rw+ 1 root cdrom 21, 2 Jan 23 16:33 /dev/sg2 crw-rw 1 root disk 21, 3 Jan 23 16:33 /dev/sg3 crw-rw 1 root disk 21, 4 Jan 23 16:34 /dev/sg4 crw-rw 1 root disk 21, 5 Jan 26 23:00 /dev/sg5 ls -la /dev/sr* returns: brw-rw+ 1 root cdrom 11, 0 Jan 25 17:46 /dev/sr0 brw-rw+ 1 root cdrom 11, 1 Jan 23 16:33 /dev/sr1 Synaptic lists no module 'sg,' although it does list 'sg3_utils and 'sscsitools-gui,' which I installed. I can't figure out how to use either one, no man pages and no way to launch the GUI. According to http://sg.danny.cz/sg/#mozTocId689512 the latest version of sg is 3.0.19. If it matters, uname -a gives: Linux Devil-Bonobo 3.13.0-139-generic #188-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 9 14:43:09 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux I can't tell is the module is installed or not. Evidence is confusing: 1) the program still can't find the devices 2) lsmod doesn't find it 3) modprobe returns no error messages 4) ls -la /dev/sg* shows the devices I could use some suggestions. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] SCSI device driver
On Sat, 27 Jan 2018 10:22:53 -0800 (PST) Rich Shepard dijo: >On Sat, 27 Jan 2018, Rich Shepard wrote: > >> the permissions you show you might need to add your user name to the >> cdrom and disk groups in /etc/group. > > Make that only the cdrom group. > >BTW, use the command 'id' as a user and it will tell you to which groups >you are enrolled. First, I neglected to mention that I did once try chown on the devices. I changed the owner of one of the optical drives from root to me (jjj), but it made no difference, so I changed it back I also tried launching the application from the command line as root, but also no joy. Regarding groups, 'id' shows that I am a member of group 24(cdrom). I su'd to a root prompt and did 'id' again, but root doesn't belong to any groups. Not sure why, maybe something to do with the fact that I changed the prompt to root but I am still logged in as jjj. I also neglected to mention that the two optical drives both work perfectly with all other applications and for all purposes. They even work with older versions of the program in question. There is some discussion on the forums for the application, where the developers have made it clear that it now requires the sg module and won't see optical drives with just the sr module. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] SCSI device driver
On Sat, 27 Jan 2018 09:39:12 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >Xubuntu 14.04.5, all updates applied. > >I have a program that can't find ether of my optical drives, /dev/sr0 >and /dev/sr1. Apparently there is a new module, 'sg,' that calls >them /dev/sg0 and /dev/sg1, and those are all that the program will >look for. I can't tell if I have the module installed or not: > >sudo modprobe sg - returns nothing, no error messages >lsmod | grep sg - also returns nothing OK, I think I just found out that sg is NOT loaded. From the forums for the application someone posted: I have sg loaded, i.e.: # lsmod | grep sg sg 29973 0 ll /dev/sg* scsi_mod 191405 4 sg,libata,sd_mod,sr_mo But when I do the same thing I get no results. Now I have to figure out how to install sg. Synaptic doesn't list it, at least not by the name 'sg.' Google doesn't know either, at least I have not been able to get Google to divulge the secret. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] SCSI device driver
On Sat, 27 Jan 2018 18:22:36 -0800 Denis Heidtmann dijo: >Is it possible that sg3-utils and/or sg3-utils-udev is what you need? >They seem to relate to the same stuff the posted comments mentioned. Apt-get can't find the package sg3-utils-udev. As for sg3-utils, I installed it some time back, and apparently they did nothing. However, while there is no man page, I found a web site with some commands for it, most of which I did not understand a word of. However, I did try one: sg_get_config, adding /dev/sg0 (one of my optical drives), and it dumped about everything about the drive. How could it do that if the sg module was not loaded? Yet lsmod does not find it. I am so confused! ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] SCSI device driver
On Sun, 28 Jan 2018 01:16:24 -0800 King Beowulf dijo: >On 01/27/2018 09:39 AM, John Jason Jordan wrote: >> Xubuntu 14.04.5, all updates applied. >> >> I have a program that can't find ether of my optical drives The program is MakeMKV. Older versions still work, but MakeMKV (not open source, not free) provides aacss keys for Blu-ray media, whch are constantly changing, so I need the latest verson. There has been an extensive discussion of this problem on their forums: http://www.makemkv.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16939&start=60 n>/kernel/drivers/scsi/ but this will only >(exist) load if >(1) Kernel was compiled with scsi support >(2) kernel/udev detects a scsi device, which you don't seem to have. As far as I know I hae no SCSI devices, yet: $ lsscsi [2:0:0:0]cd/dvd hp BD MLT UJ260AF FW06 /dev/sr0 [4:0:0:0]diskATA Crucial_CT480M50 MU03 /dev/sda [6:0:0:0]diskH/W RAID 00106 /dev/sdb [7:0:0:0]cd/dvd HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GU90N 1.00 /dev/sr1 [8:0:0:0]diskPNY USB 3.0 FD 1.00 /dev/sdc [9:0:0:0]diskLG USB Drive1100 /dev/sdd lsscsi -g [2:0:0:0]cd/dvd hp BD MLT UJ260AF FW06 /dev/sr0 /dev/sg0 [4:0:0:0]diskATA Crucial_CT480M50 MU03 /dev/sda /dev/sg1 [6:0:0:0]diskH/W RAID 00106 /dev/sdb /dev/sg3 [7:0:0:0]cd/dvd HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GU90N 1.00 /dev/sr1 /dev/sg2 [8:0:0:0] diskPNY USB 3.0 FD 1.00 /dev/sdc /dev/sg4 [9:0:0:0]diskLG USB Drive >you won't find sg.ko in synaptic, etc, as it is part of the kernel >package. I did find what claimed to be an sg driver, but insmod pukes it up. >check the output of 'dmesg' to see what sort of drives are detected and >what modules are then loaded. check output of 'modinfo sg' for >something like: > >modinfo sg >filename: /lib/modules/4.4.111/kernel/drivers/scsi/sg.ko $ modinfo sg modinfo: ERROR: Module sg not found. >That said, "cat /proc/scsi/scsi" should show scsi capable devices and >"lsscisi" should list them with their primary device nodes: > $ cat /proc/scsi/scsi Attached devices: Host: scsi2 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: hp Model: BD MLT UJ260AF Rev: FW06 Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 05 Host: scsi4 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: ATA Model: Crucial_CT480M50 Rev: MU03 Type: Direct-AccessANSI SCSI revision: 05 Host: scsi7 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: HL-DT-ST Model: DVDRAM GU90N Rev: 1.00 Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 00 Host: scsi6 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: H/W RAID Model: 0Rev: 0106 Type: Direct-AccessANSI SCSI revision: 06 Host: scsi8 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: PNY Model: USB 3.0 FD Rev: 1.00 Type: Direct-AccessANSI SCSI revision: 06 Host: scsi9 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: LG Model: USB DriveRev: 1100 Type: Direct-AccessANSI SCSI revision: 00 >Note that on my system the primary devices are not mapped (passthrough) >to sg as sg is not needed. The following sequence (as root) adds the >sg mapping: > ># lsmod |grep sg ># modprobe sg ># lsmod |grep sg >sg 27465 0 ># lsscsi -g >[0:0:0:0]cd/dvd HL-DT-ST BD-RE WH16NS40 >1.00 /dev/sr0 /dev/sg0 [1:0:0:0]cd/dvd HL-DT-ST DVDRAM >GH24NSB0 LF00 /dev/sr1 /dev/sg1 [4:0:0:0]diskATA WDC >WD5000AAKX-0 1H15 /dev/sda /dev/sg2 [5:0:0:0]diskATA >WDC WD10EZEX-00B 1A01 /dev/sdb /dev/sg3 [6:0:0:0]disk >ATA ST1000DM003-1ER1 CC45 /dev/sdc /dev/sg4 [7:0:0:0] >diskATA WDC WD10EZEX-08W 1A01 /dev/sdd /dev/sg5 # lsmod |grep sg # modprobe sg # lsmod |grep sg # I can't get the same results as you. It appears that the commands are working because there are no error messages, but apparently not. >Yes, I do think the devs are complete idiots. After kernel 2.6, all >drive devises use /dev/sdX or /dev/srX as primary device nodes and all >the SCSI tools and other software can use those directly without the >generic scsi driver (sg). Why they suddenly decide go in the opposite >direction of the kernel devs baffles me. Perhaps the discussion on the MakeMKV forum can make sense to someone who knows more about this than I do. Thanks heaps and heaps for taking the time to explain things! :) ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] SCSI device driver
On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 02:22:22 -0800 Tomas Kuchta dijo: >Pretty old distro/kernel. For what is worth it - I do not have the same >problem with 16.04. > >Anyway, how about creating soft link pointing to /dev/sr?. Did you try >that? No, I did not. try creating a soft link. I assume it would need to point /dev/sg* to /dev/sr0 and /dev/sr1 (my optical drives). ls -la /dev/sg* crw-rw+ 1 root cdrom 21, 0 Jan 23 16:33 /dev/sg0 crw-rw 1 root disk 21, 1 Jan 23 16:33 /dev/sg1 crw-rw+ 1 root cdrom 21, 2 Jan 23 16:33 /dev/sg2 crw-rw 1 root disk 21, 3 Jan 23 16:33 /dev/sg3 crw-rw 1 root disk 21, 4 Jan 23 16:34 /dev/sg4 crw-rw 1 root disk 21, 5 Jan 26 23:00 /dev/sg5 I note that the /dev folder has sx zero byte files for sg0 - 5, plus zero byte sr0 and sr1. I assume the syntax should be ln -s /dev/sg0 /dev/sr0, and ln -s /dev/sg2 /dev/sr1, right? Or do I have that backwards? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] SCSI device driver
On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 13:10:41 -0800 Tomas Kuchta dijo: >Yes, this would create soft link to /dev/sr1 and satisfy your >application. And so on... >I assume the syntax should be ln -s /dev/sg0 /dev/sr0, and >ln -s /dev/sg2 /dev/sr1, right? Or do I have that backwards? A slight problem: $ ln -s /dev/sg0 /dev/sr0 ln: failed to create symbolic link ‘/dev/sr0’: File exists What am I doing wrong? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] SCSI device driver
On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 14:18:07 -0800 (PST) Rich Shepard dijo: >On Mon, 29 Jan 2018, John Jason Jordan wrote: > >> A slight problem: >> >> $ ln -s /dev/sg0 /dev/sr0 >> ln: failed to create symbolic link ‘/dev/sr0’: File exists >> >> What am I doing wrong? > You have them backwards. Try: > > ln -s /dev/sr0/ /dev/sg0/ > > sr0 is the target and sg0 is the link name. 'man ln' has details. OK, still doesn't work: ln -s /dev/sr0/ /dev/sg0/ ln: failed to access ‘/dev/sg0/’: Not a directory ln -s /dev/sr0 /dev/sg0 ln: failed to create symbolic link ‘/dev/sg0’: File exists I read the man page for ln and maybe I need to give the command the name of a file that it will create? Still confused. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] SCSI device driver
On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 19:55:45 -0800 King Beowulf dijo: >On 01/29/2018 02:22 AM, Tomas Kuchta wrote: >> Pretty old distro/kernel. For what is worth it - I do not have the >> same problem with 16.04. >> >> Anyway, how about creating soft link pointing to /dev/sr?. Did you >> try that? >IIRC, /dev/sg* are character devices, /dev/sr* are block devices, and >you can't just link them together with 'ln' > >lsscsi -g should list the connection of block to scsi char device if >the sg module is loaded correctly and udev creates the dev nodes > >I did read somewhere that ubuntu dropped sg as "unused". Since others >here have said that newer Ubuntu kernels have sg and it works. Perhaps >an upgrade is the best fix. For now I have shelved the idea of a symlink. Here is what I get from lsscsi -g: $ lsscsi -g [2:0:0:0]cd/dvd hp BD MLT UJ260AF FW06 /dev/sr0/dev/sg0 [4:0:0:0]disk ATA Crucial_CT480M50 MU03 /dev/sda /dev/sg1 [6:0:0:0]disk H/W RAID 0 0106 /dev/sdb /dev/sg3 [7:0:0:0]cd/dvd HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GU90N 1.00 /dev/sr1 /dev/sg2 [8:0:0:0]disk PNY USB 3.0 FD 1.00 /dev/sdc /dev/sg4 [9:0:0:0]disk LG USB Drive 1100 /dev/sdd /dev/sg5 Tomas mentioned previously that he had no problem with MakeMKV on Ubuntu 16.04. I assume he meant the latest version 1.10.10, because I can still run 1.10.8 on Ubuntu 14.04. The only reason I need the latest version is because it has recently released aacs keys. Not only does this affect only a few very recently released Blu-rays, but there is a workaround. I can use dd (although I prefer ddrescue) to make an .iso of the disk, and MakeMKV 1.10.10 can use that, thus not needing access to the optical drive at all. It's a clunky workaround, but it works. I should mention in passing that, while not open source, the Linux version of MakeMKV is free, although you get some extras if you pay for it. And dumphd is a FOSS program with similar functionality, although I could never get it to work. If anyone wishes to play around with these things you can do so with no cost except your time. Oh, that is, assuming you have a Blu-ray drive for your computer. As I write this there are 68 comments in the thread about this on the MakeMKV Linux forum, including several by the admin asking for input from users. The problem is being worked on, so I'm going to sit back and wait. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Another Seagate drive died
Have I mentioned lately how much I hate Seagate drives? This was the boot drive in my desktop computer. Fortunately this computer is used only for watching tv, playing movies, and streaming internet radio. It took a couple of hours, but its back n business, running Xubuntu 17.10 off of an 8GB USB stick, pending acquisition of a real replacement drive. I'm tired of drives with moving parts. Does anyone have any faves in the SSD world? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Another Seagate drive died
On Wed, 31 Jan 2018 09:03:00 -0600 Chuck Hast dijo: >Seagate is evil. After sleeping on the problem I have arrived at a new plan. The desktop computer in question is actually about seven years old. There was originally one Seagate 200GB hard drive, replaced about four years ago when it failed, with two 300GB Seagate hard drives because I wanted to experiment with mdadm so I used them to create a 300GB mirror. After two more years one of these drives failed, but I got a replacement (refurbished) from Seagate under warranty. Right after its warranty expired the other one failed, leaving me with just the refurbished drive, which has now failed. When the other one failed I decided I didn't really need a mirror so I just carried on with the refurbished one. In the middle of this I added a 2TB Western Digital drive which is still running fine. I am currently running on an 8GB USB stick that I installed Xubuntu 17.10 on. I installed enough stuff to make the computer usable until I get a replacement boot drive. At that point I will install Xubuntu 17.10 on it and all the stuff I need for linguistics and movies, which I will dist-upgrade to 18.04 when it comes out. Then I will stick with 18.04 for many years. The computer itself (motherboard, case, etc.) is also seven years old. It's running pretty slow now on the USB stick because it's just USB 2.0. So my new plan is to build myself an entirely new computer with up to date parts. Since it will take a while to finish the shopping and for things to arrive, why not wait to put it together until the February Clinic? And anyone here who wants to learn how to build a desktop computer, you're welcome to come and participate. Lots of fun! Plus, when the new computer is all functioning properly I will donate the old one (minus drives) to whoever can make use of it. It'll make a fine computer for tasks that don't require huge computing power. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Another Seagate drive died
On Tue, 30 Jan 2018 22:30:36 -0800 wes dijo: >> I'm tired of drives with moving parts. Does anyone have any faves in >> the SSD world? >Kingston! I started my shopping on Newegg and haven't gotten much further. But I note that none of the drives are 3.5" form factor. I can get a ~1TB SSD in 2.5", mSATA, M2, or PCIe. I assume there exist hardware adapters to mount one of these in a 3.5" bay, but what about the connectors? Will the SATA2 cables and power connectors in my current desktop fit one one of these drives? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] SSD drives (Was: Re: Another Seagate drive died)
On Wed, 31 Jan 2018 12:03:32 -0800 "John Bartley K7AAY j...@503bartley.com" dijo: >Kingston SSDs did not last as long as the Samsung Pro (Pro, not Evo) >series SSDs in my sojurn at the Jones Farm SSD testing lab. I >therefore prefer the Samsung Pro SSDs. Before reading the above I had already sort of decided on a Samsung Pro (not EVO). The Pro have a ten year warranty, where their others have a five year warranty. That's the longest warranty I could find for any drive, SSD or otherwise. Interestingly, Samsung currently offers an 850 Pro and an 860 Pro for a bit higher price. I looked everywhere for what the difference was and finally called Samsung to find out why: Me: What is the difference between the 850 Pro and the 860 Pro? Samsung guy: The 860 has better endurance and will last longer. Me: OK, what is the warranty on the 860 Pro? Samsung guy: Five years. Me: That makes no sense. The 850 has a ten year warranty, so if the 860 will last longer it should be at least ten years also. Samsung guy: Samsung made the decision to go back to five years on all new SSD products. Me: Then the decision is made. Warranty is more important to me than performance, so I'll get the 850 Pro. I might add that I had already ordered a 2TB 850 Pro to replace the dead Seagate in my laptop, also because of the ten year warranty. According to tracking it may be delivered today. >There are 2.5" to 3.5" adapter sleds available at Fry's, but velcro is >also a proven mounting method which does not require a trip to >Wilsonville. I think I may even have a couple of those sleds somewhere around the house. But I'm going to get a new case for the computer that I'm going to build, so having a 2.5" bay is something to look for. And Wes already answered my question about the connectors, so I'm off to find a cheap price on a 1TB 850 Pro. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] CPU info needed
First, let me make it clear that when it comes to CPUs, motherboards and RAMI am hopelessly out of date. I was out of date four years ago when I bought my laptop - I just selected component options based on the price. I had no idea what any of the features of the CPU actually did. So now I need to buy a CPU, motherboard and RAM for the new desktop computer that I am going to build. From web sites I see that you can pay up to a couple thousand dollars for a CPU, so for my first step in the decision making process I drew a line at ~$300 for the CPU. Intel/AMD are going to have to find someone else foolish enough to pay thousands of dollars for a CPU. My current desktop has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ on an ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard with nVidia video. It is pathetically slow. My laptop has an Intel Core i7-4800 MQ CPU @ 2.7GHz. It is fast enough, but I'd like the new desktop to have something faster, if only to stave off obsolescence. I'm not averse to AMD, but don't their CPUs now come with video built in, and haven't there been some driver issues with Linux? And speaking of video, my current monitor will do 1920x1080 and the ancient nVIDIA on the ASUS motherboard drives it fine. But some day 4K will no longer be cutting edge, so planning ahead for it might be a good idea. Most of what the desktop does is stream internet radio all day long and play over the air tv or movies at night. This is trivial work, but sometimes I rip and encode a Blu-ray movie. On the faster laptop this will take 2-4 hours. I tried it once on the current desktop and it took a day and a half. I use Handbrake for this stuff and while it is working it takes over 90% of the CPU. So I can justify a reasonably fast processor. I asked DuckDuckGo what kind of CPU to get and was presented with a bewildering array of choices. There's i3, 15 and i7, there are cores and threads, there are different GHz ratings, not to mention Kaby Lake, Skylake and even Coffee Lake. (Coffee Lake? So if I get one of these I can just stick a spigot in the case and throw away my coffee maker?) I need a really, really dumbed down explanation, dumber than I have found on the net. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Firefox blocked me from creating an account
I just wanted to sync Firefox from my laptop to the new drive on my desktop. On the laptop I tried to sign in to sync, but (as usual) I had forgotten the password. Sadly Firefox has also forgotten the account, at least all three e-mail addresses that I tried resulted in 'unknown account.' OK, fine, I'll just create a new account. The page required a name and a password, which I supplied, but it also wanted my age. I thought that was rather nosy, so I left it blank. Oh so sorry, Firefox apologetically informed me that I can't leave the age blank. OK, fine, I entered 0 in the age slot and hit enter. Aargh! That resulted in a page informing me of a federal law to protect children and since I was violating it Firefox would not create an account for me. I tried to go back and enter something like '21' in the age blank, but I'm blocked; the 'create account' page will no longer even appear. Sigh. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Firefox blocked me from creating an account
On Sun, 4 Feb 2018 17:55:44 -0800 (PST) Rich Shepard dijo: >When they deign to allow you to register an accont store your password >somewhere so you can refer to it when needed. For things like this I always use my 'standard' password, which I modify occasionally when a site requires it, using always the same modifications. In the present situation it turns out that Firefox completely lost the account, because it wouldn't respond to any of my three e-mail addresses. I finally solved the problem by exporting the laptop bookmarks to bookmarks.html, which I then moved to the desktop where its Firefox was happy to import it. >Why firefox is hassling you makes no sense to me. I'm sure the reason they wanted my age was to target ads to me. Had I given them my age I would be awash in ads for rest homes and hearing aids. As for blocking me, it smells like they got in trouble with the federal agency that oversees the law they accused me of violating. But their programmers need to make an exception for year 0. Or maybe they deliberately blocked 0 hoping to force people to give them a real age. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Firefox blocked me from creating an account
On Mon, 5 Feb 2018 13:28:04 -0800 Tomas Kuchta dijo: >Seriously, what's wrong with saving your bookmarks, address book, etc. >to disk and reading them back on the other end? That's what I ended up doing. The only reason for sync s that I had already set t up for my phone, so I figured it was installed, so I might as well. When I discovered that it wasn't installed after all, at least not the way I thought it was, then I saved them to an html file and imported that. As for why it wasn't installed, it probably was/is installed, but when I did so I used a phony name for the sake of privacy, and I couldn't remember it. Ah, the webs we weave when first we practice to deceive. :( ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Parts shopping for new desktop
For CPU I have settled on Intel i7 6700 or maybe 7700. The problems is the motherboard because I insist on a USB 3.1 Gen. 2 port on the front of the case, and that means an adapter like the following: https://tinyurl.com/ycbkjf55 Unfortunately, that adapter requires a SATA Express connector, and I can't find any motherboards with a SATA Express connector - lots of regular SATA3 connectors, but no SATA Express connectors. Shopping is a PITA. Any suggestions welcome! ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Parts shopping for new desktop
On Tue, 6 Feb 2018 20:40:15 -0800 Denis Heidtmann dijo: >I did a brief search and found a prediction that the SATA Express "may >never catch on." That may be a true prediction, but at the moment a SATA Express port plus the device to mount in the front panel is the only way I can find to get USB 3.1 Gen. 2 in the front of a desktop computer. I can find plenty of motherboards that offer ports accessible in the back of the computer, but I don't want to have to crawl around on the floor behind the computer to plug in a portable drive. For the benefit of those who may be wondering what I'm yammering about, let me clarify the current situation re USB. USB 1.1 is now so old that it is safely forgotten, having been replaced by USB 2.0 (480Mbps). USB 2.0 was then replaced by USB 3.0 (5Gbps). USB 3.0 was recently superseded by USB 3.1 (10Gbps). However, for reasons I cannot grasp, it has been decided to rename USB 3.0 as 'USB 3.1 Generation 1' and the new 10Gbps version as USB 3.1 Generation 2.' The result is a mass of confusion on vendors' web sites as most older copy has not been updated. My computing makes moderately heavy use of disc I/O. At this time I have no portable devices with USB 3.1 Gen 2, but the computer I'm replacing is 7-8 years old, so I am building a new one that I hope will serve my needs for just as long. It won't be very long before Gen 2 becomes the norm, so it makes sense to be ready for it. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Alea jacta est*
It should all be here in 4-5 days, plenty of time for assembling during the February 18 Clinic. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117726 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233859 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157754 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811990012 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817338010 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=1W8-0032-00043 *Latin, commonly translated as 'the die is cast.' In fact, the English expression refers to 'alea' as 'die' (one of a pair of dice), but the Romans had no dice; the alea was a game piece that was thrown during play, but it wasn't actually what we think of today as a die. And while I'm at it, what idiot decided that the plural of die should be dice? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Alea jacta est*
On Thu, 8 Feb 2018 00:23:42 -0800 King Beowulf dijo: >No quibbles here except for the power supply. > >300W is going to be a bit thin at load even with intel GPU, and a HD or >two, some USB stuff and you are already pushing almost 200W at load. >Also, this power supply is for older style AT boards. You need ATX >power supply unless you want to modify plugs and use adapters - and >have enough 3.3V and 12V amps. >Don't skimp on the power supply. A poor choice can fry all the other >components. The CPU is rated at 91w full load. I can't find specs for the motherboard and RAM. As for drives, there will be two optical drives, but all the other storage will be SSD. There will be one case fan. I find it difficult to believe that I will exceed 300w. However I do take to heart your comment about ATX. I knew that the motherboard was ATX, but it never occurred to me that power supplies were not universal. I just bought the cheapest 300w power supply they had. Having said the above, the computer I will be putting together is a replacement for a seven-year old computer in a case with a 500x Antec EA-500 power supply: https://www.antec.com/product.php?Type=c:\boot.ini&id=MTIxNQ==&lan=jp Antec's web site does not say if it is an ATX power supply, but it is currently powering an ATX motherboard, so it probably is. The only reasons I bought the new power supply is because the existing case, power supply, RAM, motherboard and CPU will go to a good home, and sans power supply it is not plug and play, plus the existing power supply is now seven years old. Still, it is a backup. >Also, hope you budgeted heatsink/fan and thermal compound. I new Free >Geek has boxes of heatsinks but not all will fit the newer CPUs. >Cooler Master and Thermaltake in the $20-30 range are good. > >Also, I've recently switched from Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound to >the non-electrically conductive Arctic MX-4. 8 yr durability, stays >soft. https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAB7G5F67951 This is also something that I did not buy. Free Geek has nothing for socket 1151. Best Buy at Jantzen Beach might have a heatsink/fan and thermal compound but Best Buy no longer answers their phones inside the store. Damn, I miss ENUinc. It looks like I might need to make a trip to Wilsonville before next Saturday (18th). Thanks for the heads up! ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] VLC 3.0
VLC 3.0 has recently been released, but at this time Ubuntians can only install it via Snap. I installed Snap (sudo apt-get install snapd), and then VLC, but I got extremely strange results. Prior to this the version of VLC on my computer was 2.2.6 (Umbrella). Afterward I had both installed. Apparently Snap things are in a different world from apt-get things. I had working launch entries for both versions. One of the things that I use VLC for just about every day is playing television from my HDHomeRun tuner. Unfortunately, starting the tuner invoked 2.2.6, not 3.0. So I uninstalled 2.2.6 (sudo apt-get remove vlc). It appeared in Synaptic as not installed. Now here's the weird part that makes no sense: The only version of VLC installed on the computer is 3.0, but when I open the HDHomeRun tuner and launch VLC, the About popup in VLC says that it is 2.2.6. But 2.2.6 is certainly not installed. Major head scratching. Ubuntu forums are no help. Does anyone have an idea about what is going on? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] VLC 3.0
On Sat, 10 Feb 2018 15:18:13 -0800 Tim Garton dijo: >From what I've read online, I don't think the Linux version of 3.0 has >been released yet. I could be mistaken though I had it installed, so definitely released. But you have to install it with Snap; there are no .deb or .rpm packages yet. And from what I read on the VLC forums, they apparently have no intention of releasing .deb or .rpm packages. You can get the source, however, so I assume distro managers will soon make .debs and .rpms. This is my first time ever installing something with Snap. It's kind of strange and so far I'm not sure I like it. But my opinion will probably improve after I learn more about how it works and how to use it. After installing Snap, to install vlc you just do 'snap install vlc.' But unlike using apt-get where lines and lines of procedures appear in the terminal and remain there after apt-get finishes installing the application, Snap echoes lines explaining what it's doing, but they disappear immediately, too fast to read, being replaced by the next line. When it finished my terminal said: $sudo snap install vlc $vlc 3.0.0 from 'videolan' installed I had no record of the myriad things it did during the installation. There is probably an option to make the lines remain, but if I cannot see what it did after it finishes, Snap is not for me. I also note that there is now a root folder 'snap,' containing a readme file. In the readme it says 'the disk space consumed by the content under this directory is minimal as the real snap content never leaves the .snap file, Snaps are *mounted* rather than unpacked.' Sounds sort of like like .AppImage files. If anyone really understands Snap it might make a topic for a general meeting talk. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] VLC 3.0
On Sat, 10 Feb 2018 18:46:14 -0800 Nat Taylor dijo: >snap includes all the dependencies in the .snap, I believe. Like an >app on osx I don't know about that. My experience this evening leads me to question what is included. I started at 5:30 playing PBS news from the HDHomeRun tuner on VLC 3.0. That worked fine. When it was over I closed down the tuner and VLC. Then I selected a movie .avi file to play. I double clicked on the .avi file and nothing happened. Then I launched VLC and tried to open the .avi file by Media > Open File, but it didn't see the .avi file. I set it to 'All Files' and then it finally saw the .avi file, but it wouldn't open it. No error message, it just wouldn't open it. Finally I gave up on the .avi file and tried a .mkv file. Same results. At that point I did: snap remove vlc sudo apt-get install vlc Afterward double-clicking on the .avi file opens it in VLC. That is, VLC 2.2.6 (Umbrella). I don't know what's wrong with 3.0, but it's not ready for prime time. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] VLC 3.0
On Sun, 11 Feb 2018 12:31:30 -0800 Tomas Kuchta dijo: >Regarding you Snap container not playing .avi. - This is equivalent to >not having compiled VLC with .avi support. It also wouldn't play .mkv files. And .avi and .mkv are the two most popular formats for movies and other videos. What were they thinking? >There is nothing you can do, short of compiling it yourself and >creating own .snap or .deb >I'd wait to Ubuntu guy to make standard .deb that should fix it. >Alternatively, check if Ubuntu has snap repo - you could install both >versions - Ubuntu and VLC, or more of them and use each one to play the >stuff which works in each .snap version. >Welcome to the world of Snap packages - more freedom for the creator >projects to not to work with distributions, more freedom for the users >to install any .snap they can find anywhere - almost as great as >Windows. Welcome back to the dependency hell - this time though, it >should not break the system. I installed it because I use VLC for several hours every day, so getting the latest and greatest (3.0) was very enticing. However, I later checked out what the new version does that 2.2.6 does not and it turns out that it enables Chromecast (which I have no use for), and it changes the icons and moves them around so I can't find them. Bah. I have gone back to 2.2.6 and I will stay there. As for snap, it is quite possibly the wave of the future, but definitely not yet ready for prime time. Here is a web page explaining it in more detail: https://itsfoss.com/use-snap-packages-ubuntu-16-04/ And yes, there is apparently already an Ubuntu snap repository, although it has only a few packages so far, Interestingly, one of them is the core, even on my laptop with 14.04.5: $ snap list Name Version Rev Developer Notes core 16-2.30 3887 canonical core For those curious about snap I recommend reading the above itsfoss.com web site. Even I understood it. :) ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Fiber connectors?
Coolies! On Fri, 16 Feb 2018 01:00:02 -0800 Russell Senior dijo: >i just recently discovered these people. They have a warehouse in >seattle and UPS ground got me an order (of stuff they had in stock) to >my door in under 24 hours. > > https://www.fs.com/c/fiber-optic-wall-plates-1003 > >FWIW. > >On Wed, Nov 15, 2017 at 10:39 PM, John Jason Jordan >wrote: >> On Thu, 9 Nov 2017 15:02:23 -0800 >> John Jason Jordan dijo: >> >>>When the CenturyLink dude installed my fiber the wall inside the >>>house where it ended up had no sheetrock, so there is no jack - the >>>skinny white fiber cable just dangles down between the studs and the >>>end of it plugs into the back of the 'modem.' >> >> Success! >> >> I was driving toward Lowes passing by a McDonalds and what do I see >> in their parking lot but a CenturyLink installer truck. "Time to get >> a coffee" I thought, and pulled into McDonalds, parking right next >> to the CL truck. As I get out of my truck I see the CL guy coming >> out of McDonalds, recognizing him as the guy who installed the fiber >> in my house. >> >> Me: Hey, CenturyLink guy, I need to talk to you for a minute! >> CLG: Hey, I remember you! >> >> There followed a discussion where he remembered the fiber dangling >> down from the attic into the space between studs on a wall without >> sheetrock, followed by my adding that I was now sheetrocking the wall >> and how do I connect the fiber. >> >> He took me to the other side of his truck where he opened up his bag >> of tricks and produced a patch cable, plus a couple of connectors >> that he said they used to connect fiber cables, and a wall mount >> thing that they run fiber out of. He just gave them to me, no >> charge, no big deal. He didn't have a keystone jack, but he >> suggested that I might be able to use the connectors by drilling a >> hole in a blank keystone plug. >> >> I haven't had time to put this stuff together, but I think I now have >> what I need for a professional installation. >> >> On a personal level Portland CL people are pretty good folks. >> ___ >> PLUG mailing list >> PLUG@pdxlinux.org >> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug >___ >PLUG mailing list >PLUG@pdxlinux.org >http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Clinic on Sunday
On Wed, 14 Feb 2018 11:04:37 -0800 wes dijo: >The Linux Clinic is this Sunday, 1-5pm. Bring your ailing systems or >questions and we will try to help, or at least get you pointed in a >useful direction. I will be providing two attractions! 1) I will be putting together a new desktop mid-tower computer If you've never assembled a desktop computer out of component parts, this is your opportunity to see how it's done. 2) New Seasons Market had a half-price sale on dark chocolate bars and I went way overboard. There's quite a variety to try out. If you like dark chocolate don't miss tomorrow's Clinic! ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] New computer
Thanks to all who helped with putting together my new desktop computer at the Clinic today! Unfortunately, it is not working properly, that is, I have no video. When I got home the first thing I discovered is that the motherboard video output options are HDMI or DisplayPort. My monitor (ASUS VE228, 1920x1080) will take VGA. DVI or HDMI. I had been using a DVI cable with my old computer and I did not have an HDMI cable, so off to Best Buy. When I got home with the new HDMI cable I plugged it in, but the monitor just says 'no signal.' I also tried booting to an Ubuntu USB stick, but still no signal to the monitor. My laptop also has an HDMI output so I tried that, but still no signal to the monitor. There is strange stuff going on with the monitor too. According to the manual when the power switch is on the LED for it is supposed to be lit up, but it does not light up. And there is a menu button where you can select the signal source, but it does not come up. The monitor is seven years old, but it was working this morning with the old computer. I'd call ASUS but I'm sure they won't talk to me considering the age of the monitor. I'm off shopping for a new monitor, but if anyone has any brilliant ideas I'm all ears. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Sun, 18 Feb 2018 20:49:32 -0800 a...@clueserver.org dijo: >Check to make sure all the cards are properly seated. Sometimes moving >will knock them out of place. It does not have a separate video card; I am using the video on the motherboard. >Does it make any beeps when booting? No noises when booting, but there is no video so I can't tell if it actually boots. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Sun, 18 Feb 2018 21:32:31 -0800 Russell Senior dijo: >Are you sure the box is booting? Does the fan run? Are there lights? > Can you ping it over the network? I'm pretty sure it is booting: There are lights, fans are running, and if I plug in a USB stick that has lights the lights flicker as it mounts. I could probably ping it if I had a clue what its IP address is. Oh wait, I could see that in the D-Link page. Hmmm, D-Link says that 'Devil10' at 192.168.1.146 is connected, but that is the name and IP address of the old computer, which is sitting in the corner not even plugged in. But I just tried to ping 192.168.1.146 and there is no response. Strange. And D-Link does not show anything that could be the new computer. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Sun, 18 Feb 2018 23:47:45 -0600 Carl Karsten dijo: >> There is strange stuff going on with the monitor too. According to >> the manual when the power switch is on the LED for it is supposed to >> be lit up, but it does not light up. >not light up = not on. >Either power isn't plugged in, or it died. Power is definitely plugged in because when I hit the power switch the ASUS logo flashes on the screen. But it flashes for just a moment and then disappears. And the LED for the power button never comes on. I'm thinking the monitor is dead. It is, after all, seven years old, and t has been running 24/7 all that time. It's just weird that it died right when I plugged in a new computer. I'm already shopping for a new one, which is not easy because any monitor I might want to buy locally is out of stock. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Sun, 18 Feb 2018 22:27:23 -0800 Bill Barry dijo: >I have a similar monitor. It does not automatically detect where the >signal is coming from. You have to switch it to HDMI. The button to >toggle between DVI, HDMI and VGA is the one just to the left of the >power button. According to the manual for my monitor you change the setting with the Menu button, which is three buttons to the left of the power button. But when I push the Menu button nothing happens. Also, I just discovered that I lied. I said that the LED for the power button was not coming on, but in fact it is on. It's just that it shines down so you can't see that it is on unless your finger is over it and you can see your flesh light up. I think you are right about selecting the HDMI input, but the menu does not appear so there is no way to change the setting. Maybe the menu would appear if I sent it a DVI signal, but I no longer have anything that will output a DVI signal. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Sun, 18 Feb 2018 22:47:58 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >I think you are right about selecting the HDMI input, but the menu does >not appear so there is no way to change the setting. Maybe the menu >would appear if I sent it a DVI signal, but I no longer have anything >that will output a DVI signal. Ah! I do have something with a DVI output - the docking station for my old Thinkpad. The Thinkpad itself just has a VGA output, but the docking station has both VGA and DVI. But just now I tried it and got no results. I think the problem is that the Thinkpad is configured for just one screen and I can't find any way to change it, or to send its one screen to the docking station. Oh well. It's bedtime. Maybe in the morning I'll think of something. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 05:50:18 -0800 (PST) Rich Shepard dijo: > Did the video work at the clinic? Yes, but we did not have any monitors with HDMI, so we connected it to the big TV screen on the south wall of the room. I was not the one who connected it, so I don't know what kind of cable/connector was used. but it did work, so at least I know that the video output from the motherboard is functional. It has two connectors - HDMI and DisplayPort. > While FreeGeek is not open today I thought the thrift store changed to being open on Mondays. On the other hand the roads here are frozen and my only vehicle is a two-wheel drive pickup - the worst vehicle ever for traction. I do have chains, but they're a PITA. And I have homework to do for class tomorrow at PSU. And if I run out of that there is always housecleaning. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 07:24:25 -0800 Johnathan Mantey dijo: >One issue I have run into with a 4U server is that the BIOS was >configured to only output on the on-board VGA output. This despite >having a PCIe graphics card. Since you are relying on the on-board >graphics you may want to get a VGA monitor long enough to alter your >BIOS settings. Obviously last Sunday you had a working system. What >type of display device did you use to complete the build? Free Geek may have some monitors with HDMI or DisplayPort, but they were not easily locatable, so we used the TV screen mounted on the wall in the room we use for the Clinics. The only connectors on the motherboard are HDMI and DiusplayPort, so we used one of them, probably HDMI. (I'm not the one who plugged it in.) I can't connect VGA without some kind of adapter, but if I had one my ASUS monitor has VGA, HDMI and DVI. Except that I can't get the Menu to work on the monitor so I can't change it out of DVI. This morning my head is clearer and I have decided to just buy a new monitor. The ASUS is, after all, seven years old, and new ones are not terribly expensive. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
Happy happy! I don't need a new monitor! I finally broke down and went to Fry's where I got an HDMI > DVI adapter. I plugged it into the monitor's DVI connector and then used my HDMI cable to connect it to the motherboard's HDMI output. When I booted the computer it came up with OpenSuse that Tomas had installed while we had it on the TV at Free Geek. (OpenSuse hangs and won't finish booting, but I'm going to replace it anyway.) Once the monitor gets what it thinks is a DVI signal the Menu button works - that is, it sort of works because I can't find the option to change the input from DVI to HDMI. But at least the monitor is not hopelessly broken, as I feared before. Now I need to get it to boot to a USB stick, but it insists on trying to boot OpenSuse. According to the motherboard manual it's an AMI BIOS, but I can't get into it. Every magic key that I tried fails to bring up the BIOS. And the motherboard manual fails to state what the key is. At the Clinic Tomas mentioned that the motherboard manual sucks. He was right. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 17:25:32 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >Now I need to get it to boot to a USB stick, but it insists on trying >to boot OpenSuse. According to the motherboard manual it's an AMI BIOS, >but I can't get into it. Every magic key that I tried fails to bring up >the BIOS. And the motherboard manual fails to state what the key is. At >the Clinic Tomas mentioned that the motherboard manual sucks. He was >right. If I wasn't stupid and blind I'd have figured this out, because the instructions were right in the corner of the monitor - F11 for boot options, F2 for UEFI. But in spite of the fact that UEFI is disabled, it won't boot anything, not a DVD or USB stick with Xubuntu, not OpenSuse on the SSD drive, nada. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 21:51:49 -0800 Russell Senior dijo: I tried several different USB ports and I also burned it to a DVD, and it always hangs. The OS that I'm trying to install is Xubuntu 17.10.1. At the Clinic Tomas installed OpenSuse to the hard disk, and it hangs if I try to boot it. Here are the error messages from Xubuntu (hand copied): [0.00] [Frmware Bug]:TSC_DEADLINE disabled due to Errata: Please update microcode to version: 0x52 (or later) [6.660695] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] No caching mode page found [6.660709] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through [35.866524] ata8.00: exception Emask 0x52 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x action 0xe frozen ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Mon, 19 Feb 2018 22:38:55 -0800 Russell Senior dijo: >Try a different live-image. Even 17.04.x (you can always dist-upgrade >if you want). Good idea. But it didn't make any difference. I tried 17.04 and it gave me exactly the same error messages, exactly, to the letter. :( ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:37:29 -0800
Tomas dijo:
>If this is still relevant, unresolved, understanding you Ubuntu or
>whatever the distro you want as requirement.
Still unresolved. Ultimately I want Xubuntu 18.04, but since it is not
released yet my current plan is to install 17.10 and then do a
dist-upgrade in a couple months. But right now I just want to get
*something* that will boot.
The OpenSUSE that you installed will not boot. It starts, and then
hangs. I burned the ISO to a DVD and tried to use it to reinstall. It
got as far as
>>>OpenSUSE Leap 42.2 installation programv5.0.87
starting udev...
And then it hangs.
For the version you installed there are other options, including a
recovery mode. I tried it but it hung on:
32.9125001 ata10.00: status: { DRDY }
32.9125091 ata10: hard resetting link
I have also tried Xubuntu 17.10, 17.04, 16.04, and they all hang.
I tried Knoppix 7.7 and it starts, but then hangs on 'Starting dbus...'
>Try to walk through this list in order:
>1. Is your bios up to date? If not, update it first.
> That often helps with new shiny things PC.
The BIOS has a flash utility that will go out to the internet and flash
the BIOS. I used it and t finished saying '"The BIOS is up to date."
But it made no difference, still can't get anything to boot.
>2. Unless you have done something to the bios settings, boot
> priorities or started another installation, you should be
> able to get the openSuse installation going.
It hangs. See above comment.
> - I would walk back the bios changes you might have made
> and get that going for piece of mind and to become familiar
> with the bios settings - particularly related to UEFI and
> various legacy settings.
> It is not given that disabling UEFI makes magically things work.
> These days UEFI is more reliable than disabling it because
> MS Win needs it, and needs it in locked down state.
> - UEFI typically depends on number of bios settings - and often
> the PC does not boot until the only combination is right.
> - You can always use the "Reset CMOS" jumper to set BIOS to
> defaults, if there is no Bios way resetting it to defaults.
This computer will never boot any version of Windows, so that is
irrelevant.
Your comment about resetting the BIOS is something I had not yet tried,
so just now I did it. And I know it was successful because I got a
different start screen. But I still can't get anything to boot.
>3. Another thing is to try, after you are back to default bios
> settings would be to choose the SSD as boot in the boot menu (F11).
> Bios sometimes sets the last used boot device as default for
> the next boot.
This BIOS has an option to get the list of drives and what is on them
by pressing F11 when it boots. I can select either optical drive or the
SSD, and the SSD shows OpenSUSE twice - once as 'secure boot' and the
other blank. No matter, neither will boot. If there is a bootable USB
stick that will also appear in the list.
>4. Failing all the above, try to make yourself opensuse 42.3 usb boot
> stick. It just worked, so the chances are that it will just work
> again. It would not achieve your favorite distro setup, but it
> could take you to the right track and turn the brick to useful
> device until you have new Ubuntu in a few months.
I already tried that, except I burned it to a DVD because I'm running
out of USB sticks. And I used 42.2 because I already had it downloaded.
It hangs like everything else.
There is a glimmer of hope: You installed Leap 42.3, so it must have
booted from your USB stick. As far as I know that is the only time when
any distro has actually booted. Somehow I need to get back to the state
it was in when you did that, but clearing the CMOS didn't do it.
It's my bedtime. Maybe in the morning I'll think of something else. In
the meantime, thanks for the suggestions.
___
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Re: [PLUG] New computer
On Wed, 21 Feb 2018 01:34:12 -0800 Tomas K dijo: >For what it is wort it 42.2 will not boot your new HW, you either >install 42.3 or do not waste your time. I know, I have tried that on >the same CPU and chipset before. OK, it booted! To accomplish this I unplugged all SATA data cables from the motherboard except the one for the SSD. After seeing OpenSUSE boot with them all unplugged I plugged them back in and rebooted, one device at a time, starting (1) with the funny USB device (making sure I was looking at it sideways), then (2) the WD drive, then (3) the brand new DVD drive, and finally (4) the Blu-ray drive. Results (1) No problem with the funny USB device (2) No problem with the WD drive, except a really long boot time (3) OS hangs (4) OS hangs So what is it with the optical drives? OK, problem solved. As all of us who have worked with this motherboard know, many things are not labeled, and when they are labeled they are often wrong, and at least strange. So it is with the SATA connectors. There are two SATA-Express connectors, one of which is in use for the funny USB device. The manual shows ten additional connectors but, in fact, there are only six additional connectors. They are in two banks of three and they are labeled: 3_0 3_2 3_1 3_3 3_4 3_5 I had connected the SSD to 3_0 and the WD to 3_3 because anything else increases boot time dramatically. That left four unused, so I plugged the optical drives (one at a time) into each one of the four, but it would always hang. Then, struck by inspiration, I noted that the SATA-Express connectors each had two SATA connectors, and only one connector was in use for the funny USB device, so I plugged the optical drives into the two SATA connectors for the other SATA-Express connector. Voilà! Now I'm off to see how badly I can screw up installing Xubuntu 17.10.1. THANKS to all who suffered through this saga! ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] Username for network device
My old desktop could connect to my Synology and browse files on it, but that capability does not yet exist in the new Xubuntu. The Synology is visible, but when I try to view files on it (i.e., mount it) I get a prompt asking for the username and password. I tried several of my usual usernames, but all fail. Is there a way to find out from the device the username that it is expecting? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Username for network device
On Wed, 21 Feb 2018 17:43:24 -0800 Tomas Kuchta dijo: >I do not think that you will be able to break into the NAS without >either pulling disks out, mounting them on the PC and resetting the >password or by factory reset. So that would take some effort or data >loss. > >How did you access your data before without the password? NFS, >CIFS,...? I bet that both NFS and CIFS mounts are functional even on >Ubuntu. My laptop accesses the Synology without a problem. There is this line in fstab that mounts it every time I boot the laptop: 192.168.1.115:/volume1/Synology /media/jjj/Synology nfs auto,user 0 0 So I added the line to fstab on the new desktop and rebooted. When it came up I saw Synology in the Thunar file manager, so I clicked on it hoping to see the list of files as I do on the laptop. Instead I get a popup: 'mount.nfs access denied by server while mounting 192.168.1.115/volume1/Synology.' The line in fstab is identical on both machines. I think the problem is that (apparently) when I set up the Synology I added something telling it to accept requests from the laptop and the old desktop. Now I need to add a permission for the new desktop. Unfortunately, I can't get in to the Synology administration because I have forgotten the username or password. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Username for network device
On Thu, 22 Feb 2018 01:59:46 -0800 Tomas Kuchta dijo: >One more thing comes to my mind, if you run out of ideas. Try to keep >domain names same between the NAS and hosts, if you set them up. If you >didn't, check them, new distros can have different defaults. Everything on my network is 192.168.1.x. The router is: D-Link DIR-860L B1 Firmware VersionLEDE Reboot SNAPSHOT r3761-6bada71e51 / LuCI Master (git-17.074.58473-ea801ada7) Kernel Version 4.4.53 My laptop is named Devil-Bonobo and has two IP addresses: 192.168.1.126 (for ethernet) and 192.168.136 (for wifi). My old desktop was Devil-10 and was 192.168.1.146. I chose those numbers because if I could remember any of them I could remember all of them. I set these numbers in the router based on the MAC addresses of the computers. And the Synology is 192.168.1.115. When I first booted the new desktop there was no setting for it in the router, so it assigned it 192.168.1.107. At the time I had not yet realized the problem I would have with the Synology, so I went into the router and set it to 192.168.1.156. Now I realize that it needs to be -146, but there is another problem: In spite of being set to -156 in the router, every time I reboot the new desktop the router assigns it -107. I need someone with router exorcism powers to get rid of -107. And then I need to figure out how to set it to -146, because there are a bewildering and confusing number of displays in the router administration that apparently I am not setting up correctly. It might be easier to do this from the command line if I had a clue what commands to use. At least I need to figure out how to force the router to reboot and reassign numbers to connected devices. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Username for network device
On Thu, 22 Feb 2018 14:00:12 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: Success! I tried dozens and dozens of usernames and I finally hit it. Everything on the Synology is now visible on the new desktop! And now I will write the username and password on a piece of paper and tape it to the Synology. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Ubuntu Mate Update Weirdness
On Tue, 27 Feb 2018 17:48:07 -0800 Rigel Hope dijo: >Im sorry i dont have anything more constructive than "have you tried a >command line apt update followed by upgrade?” to offer. I love the GUI, but when it goes awry I switch to the command line if I can. Instead of mysteriously evaporating from the screen, the command line is better at giving real error messages. I have also been having issues with Update Manager lately, similar to what Dick reports, including failing to find the internet. Because of the problems, which I assume are bugs, I don't even try Update Manager anymore. When I want to do an update I launch Synaptic, which I find more reliable. I have two computers and get these same results with both - Xubuntu 14.04.5 and Xubuntu 17.10.1. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Ubuntu Mate Update Weirdness
On Tue, 27 Feb 2018 22:02:38 -0800 Dick Steffens dijo: >Thanks for the apt lesson. +1! That was very informative. Now I wonder if that might be why I have better luck with Synaptic than with Update Manager. Maybe Synaptic refreshes the cache when being launched and Update Manager does not? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Ubuntu Mate Update Weirdness
On Tue, 27 Feb 2018 21:50:26 -0800 Dick Steffens dijo: >> I have also been having issues with Update Manager lately, similar to >> what Dick reports, including failing to find the internet. Because of >> the problems, which I assume are bugs, I don't even try Update >> Manager anymore. When I want to do an update I launch Synaptic, >> which I find more reliable. >In that case are you updating specific packages? I've depended on >Update Manager to know what needs updating. Is there some tool in >Synaptic to check for what needs updating? Once in a while I need a different (newer or older) version of a program that is already installed, but that happens very seldom. Mostly I need a general update, which I do once a month just before leaving for the Clinic. I do it this way because the updates almost always require a reboot, and I always shut down when traveling, so if I'm going to reboot anyway it's a perfect time to do the updates. Plus, it makes a regular schedule so updates don't get forgotten. As for Synaptic, in the left column there is a button labeled Status. Click on it and it will display packages in groups, like All, Installed, Upgradable, etc. At the top there is another button labeled Mark All Upgrades. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
[PLUG] New monitor
My old monitor still works, but when it starts up there appears an artifact that looks like light is leaking onto the screen from the right edge. The spray of light disappears as soon as the opening screen of the operating system appears (Xubuntu 17.10). The 'light leakage' can't be, of course; it is clearly an artifact that I take as evidence that the monitor's days are numbered. I have been shopping for a replacement. The existing monitor is a seven-year old ASUS which can do 1920x1080, which is all the video on the motherboard can output. So for now a new monitor that can do 1920x1080 would serve my needs fine, but it might make sense to plan for the future, i.e., a 4K monitor. Store employees tell me that a 4K monitor can display a 1920x1080 screen, but what they can't tell me is how the 1920x1080 will appear. Will it extend to the edge of the bezels, or will it appear as a 1920x1080 image in the middle of the screen surrounded by blackness. (4K normally = 3840x2160) Can anyone shed ... er, 'light' on this matter? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] New monitor
On Thu, 8 Mar 2018 14:55:58 -0800 John Jason Jordan dijo: >Store employees tell me that a 4K monitor can display a 1920x1080 >screen, but what they can't tell me is how the 1920x1080 will appear. >Will it extend to the edge of the bezels, or will it appear as a >1920x1080 image in the middle of the screen surrounded by blackness. It suddenly occurred to me to check what the on-board video can actually do. It's putting out 1920x1080 now, but is that only because that's the best that the monitor that it's connected to can do? I grabbed the manual from the Asrock Z270 motherboard and here's what it said: Dual graphics output: Support HDMI and DisplayPort 1.2 ports by independent display controllers Supports HDMI with max. resolution up to 4K by 2K (4096x2160 ) at 24Hz / 3840x2160 @30Hz Supports DisplayPort 1.2 with max resolution up to 4K by 2K (4096x2304) @60Hz I have read online that <60Hz is not good. So it looks like DisplayPort 1.2 is what I need. Yet another video cable to buy. But that is better than having to buy a whole video card and praying that I can get it working. Thoughts? ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
Re: [PLUG] Clinic on Sunday
On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 13:49:34 -0700 wes dijo: >The Linux Clinic is this Sunday, 1-5pm. Bring your ailing systems or >questions and we will try to help, or at least get you pointed in a >useful direction. I will be bringing a CPAP machine that just died. It started making whining noises about a week ago and when I turned it on Wednesday night it didn't go and the screen said 'motor defect.' No doubt it's bearings/bushings and nothing can be done at the Clinic, but I'm curious what's inside the thing. So before finally saying kaddish for it I decided to take it apart. It's dead anyway, so why not? And I might get lucky. ___ PLUG mailing list PLUG@pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
