November 2007 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Xinerama issues with Fedora Core 8...

by Tim Keller

Hey Gang, I had a perfectly working Fedora Core 6 system and I had to go mess things up... I backed up my whole system and did a clean install of Fedora Core 8, only to find that my >old< xorg.conf config doesn't work anymore... I was able to get a config finally working, but only on a single monitor. Here's my setup: Screen 1: DELL LCD panel connected to an onboard AGP intel video card Screen 2: DELL LCD panel connected to a PCI ATI Radeon video card Now, I have config files that'll drive one or the other, but not both. The moment I enable Xinerama, the X server crashes with a signal 11. As far as I can tell... Xinerama support is totally borked in Fedora Core 8. Has anybody come across any solutions? Thanks, Tim. -- I am leary of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

Nov. 19, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Linux Choix?

by Lee Keyser-Allen

Colin, No need to apologize. It may help you to understand what Parallels does, though, so you can figure out whether it's appropriate for you. The first piece of information that may be helpful is that, while it was originally for the Mac, and its best supported platform is still the Mac, it can run on both Windows and Linux. What Parallels (and software like it) does is to create a virtual computer that can run on your currently installed OS. VMWare is (I think) the commercial pioneer in this field, and is perhaps still the most well known. What this means, in practice, though is that you are not really getting away from Windows, since you are actually running a full copy of windows in its own sandbox. Think of it as running a dual-boot machine, except that you don't have to reboot your native OS to start running the 'Virtual' one. The advantage of this is that you can run virtually *any* windows app (including most games ... although the performance can suffer) in your Linux (or NT/XP or Mac) machine. Generally speaking, however, this is not really a final solution for most people. You still are running windows, and as such must pay for the license and deal with the flakiness. It is sometimes a reasonable interim step when you have applications that simply do not play well (or at all) on Linux. There are also side-benefits with this sort of setup, involving easily saving and restoring configurations and operating environments, and from what I've seen of Parallels, the nested OS is still pretty responsive (this is in sharp contrast to the first time I ran VMWare about 7 years ago ... it was not fast, although it was *very* cool :) ) I hope that that is a (relatively) clear explanation of how that works. Feel free to e-mail me on or off list if you have any other questions. Cheers, Lee On Nov 17, 2007 10:59 PM, Colin Novick <c-novick-1(a)alumni.uchicago.edu> wrote: > Apologies. Deepest even. > > Before anyone needs to chastise me I looked it up and OS X is more Next and > other sources than Linux per se. > > Apparently Parallels on OS X will run Win and Lin, but the underlying OS is > OS X and does not imply that ArcGIS would be stably emulated by a Linux > machine emulating Win. > > Sorry. > > Hope not to have too terribly offended in my ignorance. > > Colin > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > -- Lee Keyser-Allen (lkeyser(a)alum.wpi.edu)

Nov. 19, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Linux Choix?

by Richard Klein

On Nov 17, 2007 10:59 PM, Colin Novick <c-novick-1(a)alumni.uchicago.edu> wrote: > > Before anyone needs to chastise me I looked it up and OS X is more Next and > other sources than Linux per se. Not to chastise you, but I wanted a definitive answer, so I turned to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mac_OS_X#Development_outside_of_App…) "NeXTSTEP was based on the Mach kernel and BSD, an implementation of Unix dating back to the 1970s. Perhaps more remarkably, it featured an object-oriented programming framework based on the Objective-C language. This environment is known today in the Mac world as Cocoa. It also supported the innovative Enterprise Objects Framework database access layer and WebObjects application server development environment, among other notable features. All but abandoning the idea of an operating system, NeXT managed to maintain a business selling WebObjects and consulting services, but was never a commercial success. NeXTSTEP underwent an evolution into OPENSTEP which separated the object layers from the operating system below, allowing it to run with less modification on other platforms. OPENSTEP was, for a short time, adopted by Sun Microsystems. However, by this point, a number of other companies — notably Apple, IBM, Microsoft, and even Sun itself — were claiming they would soon be releasing similar object-oriented operating systems and development tools of their own. (Some of these efforts, such as Taligent, did not fully come to fruition; others, like Java, gained widespread adoption.) Following an announcement on December 20, 1996,[1] on February 4, 1997 Apple Computer acquired NeXT for $427 million, and used OPENSTEP as the basis for Mac OS X.[2] Traces of the NeXT software heritage can still be seen in Mac OS X. For example, in the Cocoa development environment, the Objective-C library classes have "NS" prefixes, and the HISTORY section of the manual page for the defaults command in Mac OS X straightforwardly states that the command "First appeared in NeXTStep."" So, yes, OS X is based on OPENSTEP, an evolution of NeXTSTEP. And it's based on BSD. And it's based on Mach. -- Rich

Nov. 18, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Information for Linux newbies?

by Andy Stewart

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Kevin Harrington wrote: > As i mentioned at the meeting this past week I am going to be giving a > seminar for linux newbies and would like to pull from people that > know better then i do on what i should teach people. What i would like > to know is: What are some things that you wish you had known as a > newbie? Think back to your very first linux install and any > short-cuts, tips, tricks, and gatcha's that would make peoples first > experience easier. There is a lot of windows resentment after the slow > trainwreck that is vista, so lets see if we can get a few new > converts! Hi Kevin, When I was a newbie, Linux live CDs didn't yet exist, but they do now! I find the Knoppix CD/DVD useful for testing a new piece of hardware (like a laptop) to see if all of the pieces work with Linux. I believe that the Ubuntu CDs can also boot up in a live mode. In this way, you can try Linux without messing with your hard drive, and also see if your hardware works with that distribution. Note that if something doesn't work with the live CD, that doesn't necessarily mean it won't work with Linux at all, but demonstrating that something *does* work is a good thing. Just a thought... So, when are you resurrecting WPILA?! :-) Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org) Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393) Amateur Radio: KB1OIQ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHP8pAHl0iXDssISsRAkIlAJ9jTYAhCb3UkpsR7d1A4AWtufiv4wCgiICP 1T+k0toR3pc9MyRrDjSM2PE= =oBFq -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Nov. 18, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Information for Linux newbies?

by Mike Leo

Where the heck is everything? http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/sect_03_01.html has a nice chart I think one thing that frustrates people is their relative path to everything...you can't cd /mike unless you're already in /home for instance. Even from the GUI's, Windows people will start at C:\ and move around from there. ----- Original Message ---- From: Kevin Harrington <mad.hephaestus(a)gmail.com> To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 12:01:05 AM Subject: [Wlug] Information for Linux newbies? As i mentioned at the meeting this past week I am going to be giving a seminar for linux newbies and would like to pull from people that know better then i do on what i should teach people. What i would like to know is: What are some things that you wish you had known as a newbie? Think back to your very first linux install and any short-cuts, tips, tricks, and gatcha's that would make peoples first experience easier. There is a lot of windows resentment after the slow trainwreck that is vista, so lets see if we can get a few new converts! P.S. one of the big concerns for a few people that i have talked to has been games, if anyone has a list of new-ish games that work or any tips specific to making the most recent generation work under linux, that would make things much easier ;) _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Nov. 18, 2007

Information for Linux newbies?

by Kevin Harrington

As i mentioned at the meeting this past week I am going to be giving a seminar for linux newbies and would like to pull from people that know better then i do on what i should teach people. What i would like to know is: What are some things that you wish you had known as a newbie? Think back to your very first linux install and any short-cuts, tips, tricks, and gatcha's that would make peoples first experience easier. There is a lot of windows resentment after the slow trainwreck that is vista, so lets see if we can get a few new converts! P.S. one of the big concerns for a few people that i have talked to has been games, if anyone has a list of new-ish games that work or any tips specific to making the most recent generation work under linux, that would make things much easier ;)

Nov. 18, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Linux Choix?

by Andy Stewart

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Walt Sawyer wrote: > Some banks (like mine-Ben Franklin) will allow the customer to download > a .qif file when banking online.. GnuCash imports that and will check > for duplicate entries. It works well (after using it for a year). I > like it. > Walt Besides GnuCash, there is also KMyMoney (a KDE application). Does anybody have any experience with it? I am fairly certain it can import a QIF or (perhaps) a QFX file (both Quicken formats). I am seriously considering dumping Quicken for one or the other of these, but as of know, I know not which one. Later, Andy - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org) Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393) Amateur Radio: KB1OIQ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with SUSE - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHP72NHl0iXDssISsRAuj0AJ9s6Z4GYc1h55Y7GNfgAlv0O7VoYgCeNe9S r2KHOY00I8L0PhIm3qjvKkg= =zrxP -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Nov. 18, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Linux Choix?

by Walt Sawyer

Some banks (like mine-Ben Franklin) will allow the customer to download a .qif file when banking online.. GnuCash imports that and will check for duplicate entries. It works well (after using it for a year). I like it. Walt Eric Martin wrote: > John Stoffel wrote: > > Mike> There is one application and one process that is keeping me from > > Mike> being able to completely eliminate getting rid of windows. That > > Mike> is Quickbooks and syncing to my nokia 9300. I use SugarCRM for > > Mike> customer and marketing related related activities. Is there an > > Mike> open source alternative to quickbooks and to sync to my nokia > > Mike> (symbian os)? > > > Have you looked at gnucash as a QuickBooks replacement? I just wish > > I was anal enough to bother putting all my home/personal expenses into > > GnuCash, but I'm balking at re-typing my credit card and bank > > statements into it. > > > This is the Quicken advantage, they can talk to alot of banks and > > credit card companies to import data easily. > > > Actually, GnuCash can do this too, if your bank/CCC supports exporting > > in one of the standard financial formats. Now if I could just get my > > bank to *email* me an encrypted statement each month, I'd be happy... > > GNUcash can handle grabbing stuff online the same way quicken does. > The problem is most banks / credit cards (that I've tried) check for > quicken, so it doesn't work easily. I'm trying to get back into > punching my stuff into gnucash so I'll let you know how it goes. > > As for the Nokia, sorry, no clue. > Ditto > > Eric _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Nov. 18, 2007

Linux Choix?

by Colin Novick

Apologies. Deepest even. Before anyone needs to chastise me I looked it up and OS X is more Next and other sources than Linux per se. Apparently Parallels on OS X will run Win and Lin, but the underlying OS is OS X and does not imply that ArcGIS would be stably emulated by a Linux machine emulating Win. Sorry. Hope not to have too terribly offended in my ignorance. Colin

Nov. 18, 2007

Re: [Wlug] Linux Choix? Mach kernel

by Keith Wright

> From: Mike Leo <mleo963(a)yahoo.com> > > A pleasant correction... > > Mac OSX is a BSD derivative, not Linux, though they are similar. I am pretty sure that OSX uses the Mach microkernel, the same one used by the GNU Hurd, and which was developed by Rick Rashid et.al. at CMU in the 1980's. Last I knew Rick took a job at MS as Director of Research, or something like that. I know these things because I was a small part of the et.al. mentioned above. Mach was meant as a base on which to build a Unix-like OS, and FreeBSD had a large influence on how Mach was turned into OSX. I don't know if there is actual code from FreeBSD in it. (Apple has been lax in telling me before they do anything.) Many "Linux" programs, many of which are really GNU programs, run on OSX. -- Keith

Nov. 18, 2007