- WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Cookout...
by Stephen C. Daukas 13 Aug '06

13 Aug '06

Great fun! Many thanks to our hosts, Jamie and especially Karen, for all the great food! Looking forward to the pictures! ;-) Steve

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Laptop recommendations anyone?
by Stephen C. Daukas 12 Aug '06

12 Aug '06

I forgot to bring this up at the cookout last night... I have decided to purchase a new laptop (a first for me - always used older equipment) and was wondering if anyone had recommendations for a model that plays well with Linux. I'm not interested in a laptop with the latest whiz-bang features, just the basics of wireless networking, ability to play/burn CDs/DVDs, enough horsepower & disk to run forecasting models, GIS, database, etc., and a battery that will last for several hours. (My guess is any laptop these days would be sufficient.) I want to avoid having to add drivers or other support for some whiz-bang hardware when something "vanilla" would work just as well for me, and I would prefer a distro that supports the various standard laptop features (e.g., power management) and typical peripherals like DVDs/movies, Burning CDs, etc., "out of the box". Again, this is probably a non-issue, but there could be a laptop using hardware known to be problematic (remember "winmodems"?)... I use several apps that only run on windows (probably forever), so another first for me will be dual-boot. I have done this before on others' systems, but I mention this just in case there is a awareness of issues with certain laptop models. Anyway, thanks in advance for your help! Steve

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Re: [Wlug] BBQ
by Andrew Robert 12 Aug '06

12 Aug '06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Everyone, I was walking my dog this morning and I noticed the chalk advertisement for the WLUG bbq. I've never had an opportunity to attend a meeting but would like to finally meet some in the group. Can anyone attend or should I wait to meet people at the next meeting? Thanks, Andy -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (MingW32) Comment: GnuPT 2.7.2 iD8DBQFE3c8tDvn/4H0LjDwRAn4+AJ9EXstKBW0iN4bHXqDEz8NeBBUhugCfdvtO 3GmSWOwEMJJ31RfkLP7Dzck= =8YQZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Weird fs problem...
by Tim Keller 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Hey Gang, I've got a really weird filesystem problem... I've got a 250GB external USB disk device. It's formatted at ext3. a 'df -h' yeilds the following: Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sda1 233G 115G 107G 52% /mnt/ext-usb The weird problem that I'm seeing is that I can't write data to it anymore. i.e. [root@fandango ext-usb]# pwd /mnt/ext-usb [root@fandango ext-usb]# touch test touch: cannot touch `test': No space left on device [root@fandango ext-usb]# And yes, before you ask, I've unmounted the volume and I'm currently running a fsck on it. Though it's 250GB so... it'll be a while... Tim. -- I am leary of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Website down? Plus "who is Jamie?"
by Jamie Guinan 09 Aug '06

09 Aug '06

Hi all, I can't connect to wlug.org:80, has it been down long? Also, while I can remember lots of facts about people at the WLUG meetings, I still have trouble associating names. So in case anyone else has the same problem, and you're wondering who's hosting the BBQ, here's a pic of me (Jamie) sharing some side dishes with my daughter at Kaya resaturant in Boston, http://www.bluebutton.com/misc/jamie-japanese-food.jpg I'll have 1 or 2 cameras to take pictures at the BBQ. -Jamie

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Another system available...
by Stephen C. Daukas 09 Aug '06

09 Aug '06

Hi guys! I have another of Doug's systems available for anyone who would like it: Gateway 2000 P5-90 MHz Tower, 32 Meg Ram w/ *matching* Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor (GW2K Vivitron) 2 HDDs: WD AC 31000H WD AC 36400L 2 Ethernet cards (was being used as a router for the home network) If interested, let me know and I'll bring it to the cookout tomorrow evening! Steve

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kickstart pxelinux foo needed
by John Stoffel 09 Aug '06

09 Aug '06

Guys, My google-foo is down today and I've got a quick question that maybe people can help me on. I've got some Rackable boxes I need to kickstart with RedHat 7.3, ideally via PXELINUX. All this actually works right now, but I need to force the system to load the e1000 module and bind it to eth0, instead of the eepro100 module which currently gets in there first. I guess I could just nuke the module from the initrd.img file, but I figured there's got to be a way I can specify this inside the pxelinux config file. I've got the following: default rh73 label rh73 kernel vmlinuz-7.3 append ks=nfs:10.10.1.1:/export/RH7.3/ks.cfg initrd=/RH7.3/initrd.img root=/dev/hda2 ro vga=ask I know I just need to put something into the 'append ...' line, but dammned if I can figure it out. Thanks, John

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Free Items: Computers, Monitors, mice, keyboards, books and more !
by Andy Stewart 08 Aug '06

08 Aug '06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi gang, I was helping Steve Daukas and Barb Waud clean out some of Doug's old computers today. You may recall that Doug was a WLUG member for many years (sadly, he passed away in March 2006). Barb has asked me to find a home for these items. Everything works, but some of it is rather "vintage" (sorry, preused, preowned!). Don't worry - if you don't get something now, there's more where this stuff came from(!). Doug was very avid when it came to his computer hobby. I will bring these items to the WLUG BBQ (coming up this Thursday) and to the next regular WLUG meeting (Thurs Sept 7th). If you want something, send me an email and I'll be happy to hold it for you. Please pick it up at one of these two meetings, or make other arrangements with me. First come, first served. Here is the email address in case you wish to send a thank-you note to Barb Waud: barbara.waud(a)umassmed.edu OK, here is the (long!) list of items which are available. Ideally, someone will want a system box with a matching monitor, keyboard, and mouse combo. However, I'll breakup the set if it helps more items find homes. === start === Monitors - -------- Monitor #1 Manufactured 2/1994 TECO TE1450 (color) Super VGA COLOR monitor H: 30-50 kHZ V: 50-100 Hz 13" diagonal viewable (probably 14") Appears to work fine Monitor #2 Manufactured 12/1996 AcerView 54e (color) Model #7154e 14" diagonal viewable (probably 15") Works at 1024x768x60HZ Monitor #3 Manufactured 5/2000 Viewsonic E655 (color) Model #VCDTS21526-4M 14" diagonal viewable (probalby 15") Works at 1024x768@60Hz Monitor #4 Manufactured 2/1999 Dell Trinitron Model #D1025TM (color) H: 30-85 kHz V: 50-120 Hz 16" diagonal viewable (probably 17") Works at 1024x768@60Hz CPUs - ---- System #1 Dell XPS Pro200n Pentium Pro 200 MHz (says /proc/cpuinfo - 400 BogoMips) 64 MB memory PS2 KB and Mouse ATAPI 12X CDROM 3.5" Floppy Western Digital WDC WD400BB-00AUA1 (wiped clean but functional, 40 GB) 1 parallel, 2 serial ports 1 10/100 NIC 1 sound w/gameport Boots my ancient LNX-BBC business card CD (live Linux) Runs X w/blackbox 640x480x16 (maybe more??) System #2 AOpen Pentium 200 MHz Processor 32 MB memory HD ST32132A (wiped clean but functional, 2GB) ATAPI 8X CDROM (CDU511-F) NIC Phoenix S3 video TRIO64V 3/5" Floppy AT KB, serial mouse Boots my ancient LNX-BBC business card CD (live Linux) Runs X w/blackbox 640x480x16 System #3 No name system Pentium 200 MHz CPU 32 MB memory HD ST33210A (wiped clean but functional, 3GB) AT KB, serial mouse Phoenix S3 video TRIO64V NIC ATAPI 8X CDROM 3.5" floppy Runs X w/blackbox 640x480x16 System #4 Pot luck - probably similar to the above Case wires disconnected from MB It may work, it may not Knowing Doug, it works... I can investigate further if you are interested - please ask! Keyboards - --------- comes with the systems (I think 3 are PS/2 (with a couple of AT adapters), and one is strictly AT). Mice - ---- 3 out of 4 come with mice (2 serial mice, one PS/2) Books - ----- LaTeX User's Guide and Reference Manual Leslie Lamport ISBN 0-201-15790-X Addison-Wesley Publishing Company 4 copies are available The LaTeX Graphics Companion Michel Goossens, Sebastian Rahtz, Frank Mittelback ISBN 0-201-85469-4 Addison-Wesley Publishing Company The LaTeX Companion Goossens, Mittelback, and Samarin ISBN 0-201-54199-8 Addison Wesley Publishing Company LaTeX 2e Thomas Demmig ISBN 3-8272-6517-7 Damn, this book is in German, not English!! LaTeX User's Guide and Reference Manual updated for LaTex 2e Leslie Lamport (2nd edition) ISBN 0-201-52983-1 Guide to LaTex Helmut Kopka and Patrick W. Daly (4th edition) ISBN 0-321-17385-6 Addison Wesley Publishing Company The LaTeX Web Companion Michel Goossens and Sebastian Rahtz ISBN 0-201-43311-7 Addison Wesley Publishing Company Do you think Doug was into LaTeX much ?!? DNS and Bind Paul Albitz and Cricket Liu (3rd Edition) ISBN 1-56592-512-2 O'Reilly and Associates RedHat Fedora Linux 3 Bible Christopher Negus ISBN 0-7645-7872-3 Wiley Publishing Linux(1): Users Reference Manual (all the man pages in one book!) edited by John Purcell Just Computers! Publishing Printed in Canada - no ISBN number Running Linux Matt Welsh and Lar Kaufman (1st edition) O'Reilly and Associates ISBN 1-56592-100-3 Great for the Linux novice! Linux System Security Scott Mann and Ellen L. Mitchell Prentice Hall Publishing ISBN 0-13-015807-0 Magazines - --------- Linux Journal June 2006 August 2006 Sept 2006 Misc - ---- Belkin 802.11b wireless router Model #F5D6231-4 4 ports + WAN port plus wireless I tried it - it works fine as far as I can tell Includes AC/DC adapter and one network cable 3 pairs of memory dimms (untested) looks like 144 pin dimms not sure of the sizes 2 pairs are HP 1818-6126 (looks like 16 MB ECC each) 1 pair has 9 chips (each) with "SEC Korea KM44C16104AK-6" === end === The following items are not in my possession (they're at Barb's house) but also need to find new homes. Please let me know if you are interested, and I'll get these to you. All items are in "as-is" condition. Printers - -------- HP Deskjet 600C HP Deskjet 697C HP Deskjet 870Cse Apple Hardware - -------------- Printer: Color Style Writer 4100 Printer: System Writer II (2 available) CPU: Power Mac 5400 / 200 Mac Powerbook (Laptop?) 1400Cs/133 - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFE1plnHl0iXDssISsRAtQoAJ0WNSIH4kOb2QS9CQUOJtKqvfTHjwCfd1wD bnKwxu4ANL4oBHE/Ty0iiD4= =Zne/ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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update; thanks
by Andrew Perry 04 Aug '06

04 Aug '06

Hi everyone, About a year ago I asked for help from this group on getting linux to work with the internet, preferably though my home wi-fi network, which works OK with Windows. Until then, I had played with linux for a long time but had never been able to make it a part of my life due to the deal-breaker factor of no internet. Someone suggested using the latest distros, such as Fedora Core (3 at the time), which would be most likely to have the appropriate drivers. (Incidentally, frozentech.com sells linux cd's/dvd's at $1/$2 with max $0.49 shipping.) I tried many distros, and two or three different USB wirless adapters, but no luck. Another person suggested trying a wired network first, as wired networks were easier to make work. Until now, I haadn't tried that suggestion, since I thought that it would still involve a lot of time in configuration and trial and error. Lo and behold, last night I hooked up a patch cable to my wife's router, booted up Damn Small Linux on an old PC, and it just plain worked ! Having tried off and on for many years to make linux _useful_ to me (not just a novelty), I was really excited. Unfortunately, a lot of work lies ahead of me before I can really convert to linux: for example, I tried to listen to my favorite radio station 2gb.com, and successfully downloaded real player for linux, but got stuck installing it... I'll try to figure it out eventually, but didn't have time last night. Thanks, everyone. - Andrew -Dr. Andrew B. Perry Assistant Prof. of Mathematics, Springfield College 263 Alden St., Springfield MA 01109 Work Phone (413)748-3193

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REMINDER: WLUG BBQ Thurs Aug 10 6PM
by Andy Stewart 02 Aug '06

02 Aug '06

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 What: WLUG Summer BBQ at Jamie's House in Shrewsbury When: Thursday August 10, 6pm-~9pm. Hot dogs, burgers, and maybe a few other items (chicken+veggie kebobs anyone?) will be on the grill, and various non-alcoholic beverages will be available. My grill is a bit old and battered, so if you're bothered by a little rust, feel free to BYO food. We're anticipating around 15 people based on past WLUG events, and I'll have chairs for about that many people. If the weather is horrible, I might bring things inside, and we can do some fun Linux demo things like install gentoo on a spare box, broadcast a movie on VLC, etc. WIFI will be available if you want to bring a laptop. Directions: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=21+Lexington+Road+01545 Text directions: http://bluebutton.com/misc/dirxns2.html I'll leave 2 open spots in the driveway, otherwise you can park along the curb. Walk around the right (north) side of the house to get to the back yard. See you there! - -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA, USA http://www.wlug.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFE0STGHl0iXDssISsRApd4AJ0VPhBTBs5sP/3ue0pjFJ2yB5Gv/gCfbhtB zt3EYKFu6CWiEGdRj5UX3GE= =7Sci -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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