- WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

CRT or LCD ?
by Andy Stewart June 14, 2004

June 14, 2004

HI all, My 9 year old Nokia 447X CRT monitor appears to be on its way out. At maximum brightness and contrast, I can't get a good picture. I'm using xgamma to crank up the colors, but that creates a washed out display. The picture size wavers and occasionally goes out of sync. I think I got my $1000 worth out of this monitor! At the risk of starting a religious war, I'm wondering if I can get some objective commentary regarding CRT vs LCD and any issues there might be with Linux. I would like a display that can do at least 1280x1024@75Hz and possibly up to 1600x1200@75Hz. I think that puts me in the 18" - 19" monitor category, which is OK with me (I have a 17" monitor now). I occasionally play games but mostly its text, websurfing, email, and some photo editing. Does the LCD quality degrade when using the VGA input vs. the DVI input (assuming that the monitor has both) ? Are there any major Linux related issues when using the DVI output of a video card ? Thanks in advance for your thoughts, opinions, flames, etc. :-) Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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Reminder: Upcoming meeting
by Andy Stewart June 13, 2004

June 13, 2004

HI Everybody, This coming Thursday, June 17th, will be our next WLUG meeting, to be held at the usual place at 7:00 PM. At this meeting, we have the unusual benefit of having two speakers. First, I will give a short talk about the "bootsplash" software and how it can liven up your session while the computer boots. You can read more about it at http://www.bootsplash.org. This software has been used by the last several SuSE Linux releases, but it also works with other distributions. If you want to jazz up your computer display while the machine boots, this is the software you want to install. After that, I'll give the floor to John Rulnick, who asked to address the WLUG memebership. John's short talk will be about a weekend program he is involved with launching at Bay Path College. To quote John: === The focus [of the talk] would be on a new weekend program I'm involved with launching at Bay Path College Central Mass Center that's aimed at developing Linux-savvy sys-, net-, and database admins. I suppose there may be some potential students in WLUG, but just as likely (more likely) there may be folks interested in teaching in the program. I could talk about pretty much any aspect of the program that interests people. === I'll bring the usual soda/cookies to the meeting, and I'll put out the donation box for those folks who choose to make a small donation to WLUG. After the meeting, we'll make our pilgrimage to the Boynton Restaurant. See ya then! Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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Linux kernel development project in MA
by ken＠netguru-system.com June 12, 2004

June 12, 2004

Senior Linux Kernel developer--- 5 Plus years of software development in Linux/Unix development including systems level Unix development. Experience with Linux SCSI and PCI hot plug support a huge plus. 5 Months project. Any interest?? Contact Ken with resume in word format with bill rate and availability Ken Rosenfield Netguru Systems Sr. Account Representative 240 Bear Hill Road, Suite 101 Waltham, MA 02451 USA Phone:(781) 890-GURU x306 or 1-800-587-7466 x306 Cell:(781)910-1004 Fax:(781) 890-5990 Email:ken@netguru.com www.netguru.com Netguru has just released version 4.2 enterprise edition of ereview . It is a web based collaborative software , for more information on ereview , please visit www.ereviewonline.com

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email sending problem with comcast
by Andy Stewart June 11, 2004

June 11, 2004

HI all, This is driving me nuts...I still have that problem where I get intermittent failures while sending email, even after hard coding the IP number for smtp.comcast.net (they normally have 4 different IPs...I hard coded one to make debug easier). Does anybody know the SMTP protocol sufficiently that they could help me debug this problem ? I have ethereal traces - one when it works, and another when it doesn't. I see differences, but I don't know why, nor do I know what I should do as a remedy. Thanks, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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RE: [Wlug] Hibernation
by Martin, Eric June 11, 2004

June 11, 2004

Ok, I'm using 2.4. Yes, ACPI is more recent than APM....I tried 2.6 once and stuff worked oddly, so I went back to 2.4 (2.4 gentoo-sources as opposed to ck-2.6 for all you gentoo buffs). Thank you all, I guess I'll have to get 2.6 working... Eric -----Original Message----- From: Andy Stewart [mailto:andystewart@comcast.net] Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 5:30 PM To: Worcester Linux Users Group Subject: Re: [Wlug] Hibernation On Thursday 10 June 2004 3:54 pm, Mike Frysinger wrote: > On Thursday 10 June 2004 02:53 pm, Martin, Eric wrote: > > does anybody know of a hibernate mode in linux (suspend to disk)? > > If there is, where? If there isn't, how hard is that to code? > > my ppc laptop has suppport via the hardware in 2.6 ... there's also > 'Software Suspend' and 'Suspend-to-Disk' support in 2.6 for all x86 > machines ... -mike Note that my laptop is running a 2.6 kernel and that the hibernate mode works pretty well, actually! When the user invokes the hibernate mode (suspend to disk) the software writes its info into the swap file, and then the machine powers off. When the machine is later powered on and starts to boot, a parameter is passed to the kernel which tells it to look at the swap file. If the swap file has valid "hibernate info" in it, the machine will resume that state, otherwise it will perform a normal boot sequence. I'm pretty sure I'm using ACPI, which is (I believe) a more recent standard than APM. Check to see what your hardware supports. Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Hibernation
by Martin, Eric June 10, 2004

June 10, 2004

does anybody know of a hibernate mode in linux (suspend to disk)? If there is, where? If there isn't, how hard is that to code? Eric

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New meeting schedule posted
by Andy Stewart June 10, 2004

June 10, 2004

HI all, Please check the recently updated WLUG website for the meeting schedule for the next 12 months or so. Note that we'll be having our annual WLUG BBQ at Doug Waud's house on Wednesday, July 21 (weather permitting). More details forthcoming. I'm still seeing a volunteer to run the June meeting with some topic of interest. Otherwise, I'll have to cram and give a presentation about the bootsplash software, which would be tough for me to demo since VMware doesn't work on SuSE 9.1 (yet). See ya later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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RE: Usenix Conference June 27-July 2
by albutler33＠netscape.net June 9, 2004

June 9, 2004

wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org wrote: >Send Wlug mailing list submissions to > wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > > >To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug >or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org > > >You can reach the person managing the list at > wlug-owner(a)mail.wlug.org > > >When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific >than "Re: Contents of Wlug digest..." > >Subject: [Wlug] Fwd: Usenix Conference in Boston June 27-July 2 >Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 21:42:43 -0400 >From: Andy Stewart <andystewart(a)comcast.net> >To: Worcester Linux Users Group <wlug(a)mail.wlug.org> > > >-- >Andy Stewart, Founder >Worcester Linux Users' Group >Worcester, MA USA >http://www.wlug.org >

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Fwd: Usenix Conference in Boston June 27-July 2
by Andy Stewart June 9, 2004

June 9, 2004

-- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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Contract Web Work
by Charles A. Haines June 6, 2004

June 6, 2004

Someone posted some information on here about contract web work for Stow, Ma, and I was curious if whoever it was knew if the position had been filled, and if not, could they pass along that email to send resumes to to me? I seemed to have misplaced the email. Thanks, Chuck ====================== Charles A. Haines Contract Web Developer 3G Publishing ====================== http://www.3gpub.com ======================

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Trolling for topics for the June meeting
by Andy Stewart June 5, 2004

June 5, 2004

HI everybody, The summer months always make it tough to draw people to a WLUG meeting, and announcing a meeting without sufficient notice makes it worse. Thus, I'll start the monthly troll for topics now in the hope that we can nail down this month's topic and advertise the meeting so that we'll have a pretty good turnout. If you have topics on which you would like to address WLUG, please let me know. FYI: I'm fabricating the schedule for upcoming meetings. It should be posted shortly. FYI: I'm currently negotiating the time and place for the annual WLUG BBQ to be held in July. More news coming soon. Stay tuned! Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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DEC Miata
by Andy Stewart June 4, 2004

June 4, 2004

HI everybody, Here is a DEC Miata system looking for a home. If you are interested, please contact Mike Keenan directly. -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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any ideas?
by brad June 4, 2004

June 4, 2004

Our school uses commercial library automation software. We would like to convert the database to open source. Anyone have experience doing so? Thanks, Dbn0002(a)aol.com Please send your reply to this email address.

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RE: [Wlug] any ideas?
by Keller, Tim June 2, 2004

June 2, 2004

Nope. However, I can envision how you might go about it. I did a quick look on freshmeat.net and found this application: http://ola.sourceforge.net/ <http://ola.sourceforge.net/> which looks like it might suite your needs perfectly. No sense reinventing the wheel... When you say "open source" I'm taking a broad shot in the dark that you want to setup some sort of linux based web front end with a mysql or postgres backend? The first big issue your going to have to tackle is getting the data out of the existing database. I highly doubt that this proprietary software will let you do something like export your whole catalog to a comma delimited file. If it can, then you'd be all set. However, it probably should allow you to run a report of all the volumes you've got in your library. Either way, you'll need to get your data into some sort of normalized form that you could use to populate your new database. Hope this helps... Tim. -----Original Message----- From: brad [mailto:brad0002@ameritech.net] Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 1:03 AM To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Subject: [Wlug] any ideas? Our school uses commercial library automation software. We would like to convert the database to open source. Anyone have experience doing so? Thanks, Dbn0002(a)aol.com <mailto:Dbn0002@aol.com> Please send your reply to this email address.

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RE: [Wlug] LTSP as a means of recycling old PCs...
by Martin, Eric June 2, 2004

June 2, 2004

Any body else have a problem getting to the article? Eric *********************** There's a post on Slashdot talking about LTSP... (Yeah, I posted it... <g>) The link is http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/22/223425&&mode=thread&tid=126&tid= 137&tid=163&tid=187 There's one comment that really drives the point home: #9227112 ... Anyway, I know that there was a recent WLUG meeting about LTSP, so I thought this might be of interest. -- William Smith wsmith(a)chezsmith.com Fall River, MA -----Original Message----- From: Bill Smith [mailto:wsmith@chezsmith.com] Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2004 8:22 PM To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Subject: [Wlug] LTSP as a means of recycling old PCs... _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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xcdroast
by Bill Mills-Curran May 28, 2004

May 28, 2004

I'm not much of a CD burner. I've used xcdroast to copy CD's, but I'm having problems getting it to use files from my hard drive. In fact, I can't even get it to look at my hard drive. What's the trick? Thanks, Bill

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Web Contractor needed
by Evans, Robert May 28, 2004

May 28, 2004

FYI: Temporary Job opportunity. If interested, please contact the person listed below directly. - Bob Evans > Subject: job desc > > The Town of Stow, MA is looking for a contractor to work on the town's web > site (www.stow-ma.gov) Required skills include PHP and mySQL, CSS and HTML. > Build web-based forms with proper security for entering data, fix bugs, add > small amount of functionality, document architecture. Begin work immediately, > up to 40 hours/week through June. > > Send resume and qualifications to Anne VanTine, 978-562-4733, stowtv(a)stow-ma.gov.

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*&(^$%^# Adaptec controller...
by Andy Stewart May 27, 2004

May 27, 2004

HI all, I have an Adaptec 29160N which for reasons unknown refused to boot my hard drive directly. I put in the DVD and that booted, which then booted the hard drive, and Linux came up. Today, I decided to fix this problem. I updated the BIOS on the 29160N, thinking that was the problem. On the computer in the cellar, it successfully booted a 4.7GB SCSI drive. Success(!), or so I thought. When I put the 29160N back into the "good" computer, it wouldn't boot from any hard drive. I suspected that the 18GB and 36 GB drives might be too new for the 29160N. To make a longer story short, if "enable booting from CD" *and* "enable booting from disk" are both simultaneously enabled, no disk booting occurs. By turning off "enable booting from CD", one can succeed in booting from a hard disk. Stupid, idiotic firmware programmer from Adaptec ought to be shot... Remember this so you don't waste 2 hrs on a rainy afternoon figuring this out. :-) Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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GNHLUG quarterly meeting to be held at USENIX Technical Conference
by Jon maddog Hall May 24, 2004

May 24, 2004

Hi, I have been thinking about having the quarterly meeting of GNHLUG down in Boston at the USENIX Technical conference. This meeting would not only be open to all members of GNHLUG, but also members of BLU (the Boston Linux User's group, www.blu.org) and the Worcester Linux User's Group (www.wlug.org) I have contacted USENIX and they have a room for us on Thursday, July 1st from 7-9 P.M. EDT. Later that evening Ted Ts'o and I will be leading a more formal Linux BoF from 9-11. Both meetings will be at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. I am arranging a speaker now, but I did want you to at least hold that evening open for what should be an interesting quarterly meeting. md -- Jon "maddog" Hall Executive Director Linux(R) International email: maddog(a)li.org 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the US and other countries.

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LTSP as a means of recycling old PCs...
by Bill Smith May 23, 2004

May 23, 2004

There's a post on Slashdot talking about LTSP... (Yeah, I posted it... <g>) The link is http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/22/223425&&mode=thread&tid=126&tid… There's one comment that really drives the point home: #9227112 ... Anyway, I know that there was a recent WLUG meeting about LTSP, so I thought this might be of interest. -- William Smith wsmith(a)chezsmith.com Fall River, MA

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Creating web content with Linux
by Andy Stewart May 22, 2004

May 22, 2004

HI everybody, I gave my "Introduction to Linux" presentation to a group of Internet professionals in Hopkinton last night (http://www.ip495.org) I was asked a question which I could not definitively answer since I am not a creator of web pages. The questions are: What tools are available on Linux for creating web content? Is there something akin to FrontPage for Linux? Sure, for simple HTML, any text editor will do. I've even used OpenOffice, but it feels crude to me (maybe I just don't know how to use it properly). GIMP could be used to create still images. Beyond that, I'm lost. Do I smell a topic for an upcoming meeting ? Thanks, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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mouse scroll wheel
by Gregory Avedissian May 22, 2004

May 22, 2004

I did a new install of SuSE 8.2, and my mouse scroll wheel no longer works. Previous install was on top of 7.2. Current XF86Config mouse section is identical to the one that worked. It also works when I boot into debian. I've tried adding the imwheel command to .xinitrc, but that didn't help. Maybe I don't understand the -W option. What's a GPM fifo? Is that the script file that starts gpm? If it is, I tried that, and it didn't work, either. Also tried adding and removing gpm from run-level services. Any ideas? Thanks, Greg

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RE: [Wlug] Comcast dolts (mail server problem?)
by Keller, Tim May 21, 2004

May 21, 2004

Your theory is absolutely correct. We implement our SMTP systems in the same way. We've got 3 boxes behind a DNS round robin. Tim. -----Original Message----- From: Andy Stewart [mailto:andystewart@comcast.net] Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 8:53 AM To: Worcester Linux Users Group Subject: [Wlug] Comcast dolts (mail server problem?) HI all, In Kmail, when I configure the email sending parameters, I fill in "smtp.comcast.net" as instructed. In the security section, there's a selection for "check what the server supports". I do this and it returns "encryption TLS, authentication method CRAM-MD5". Well, it does this *most* of the time. Once in a while, it returns "encryption SSL". Keeping the above in mind, I periodically get errors when sending email. The error is "authentication failure". However, if I immediately resend, it goes through just fine (sometimes after repeated resends). Note also that smtp.comcast.net maps to 4 different IP addresses. My theory is that the Comcast servers are not all using the same authentication method, and when I catch one that's not setup the same as my email program, I don't authenticate and thus cannot send email. Does this theory seem reasonable? I tried to explain my theory to Comcast tech support who asked me to reboot Windows, and then complained about my unsupported email client. When I asked to speak to the system administrator for the email server, they refused. Comcast can't get into their heads that there might be an intelligent user or two using their service, and that all problems aren't the fault of the user. Sigh...any thoughts ? Thanks, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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Comcast dolts (mail server problem?)
by Andy Stewart May 21, 2004

May 21, 2004

HI all, In Kmail, when I configure the email sending parameters, I fill in "smtp.comcast.net" as instructed. In the security section, there's a selection for "check what the server supports". I do this and it returns "encryption TLS, authentication method CRAM-MD5". Well, it does this *most* of the time. Once in a while, it returns "encryption SSL". Keeping the above in mind, I periodically get errors when sending email. The error is "authentication failure". However, if I immediately resend, it goes through just fine (sometimes after repeated resends). Note also that smtp.comcast.net maps to 4 different IP addresses. My theory is that the Comcast servers are not all using the same authentication method, and when I catch one that's not setup the same as my email program, I don't authenticate and thus cannot send email. Does this theory seem reasonable? I tried to explain my theory to Comcast tech support who asked me to reboot Windows, and then complained about my unsupported email client. When I asked to speak to the system administrator for the email server, they refused. Comcast can't get into their heads that there might be an intelligent user or two using their service, and that all problems aren't the fault of the user. Sigh...any thoughts ? Thanks, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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GPG - web of trust
by Andy Stewart May 21, 2004

May 21, 2004

HI all, I recently received an email from Jeff Moyer on the WLUG list. Kmail noted that the digital signature was valid but untrusted (I thought that feature was broken - why is it suddenly working??). I had downloaded Jeff's key from the key server. What establishes this key as trusted? Certainly, if I had signed Jeff's key myself, I would trust it, but in this case, I did not. I also don't know anybody who has signed Jeff's key. Do I need to place a personal value on keys which I've downloaded? Hypothetically, what if I downloaded it from some rogue server masquerading as the real thing? What I suspect is that if I signed Joe Blow's key, and Joe had signed Jeff Moyer's key, and I had placed a value on Joe's ability to properly verify keys, that there would be some implication about the goodness of Jeff's key. Correct? In my situation, I suspect that there are too many degrees of separation between keys which I trust and Jeff's key and its signers. How does this gap get closed? Thanks, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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