November 2006 - Roundtable

Anyone else getting a kernel panic in the new Ubuntu?
by Mike Pfaiffer 20 Nov '06

20 Nov '06

It panics when I try to boot the CD. The old one wasn't a problem although two versions earlier it did the same thing. Same thing happens on a second machine (Proliant 1500). Later Mike

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Blocklist info (CBL)
by Tim Lavoie 19 Nov '06

19 Nov '06

I realize we've pretty much beaten the topic into submission, but thought that some info on a specific list might be a good example of reasonable policies. The CBL (Composite Block List) at http://cbl.abuseat.org/ is completely automated, and bases its list on addresses which have tried to send spam, malware, worms and so on to servers they monitor. - Listings have a time limit, so will age off automatically. - Only single IPs are listed, not ranges. - While they won't tell you the specific reason for listing (see exception below), there is a no-questions-asked de-listing available. If still infected though, you will be re-listed. - (quoting) The CBL operates in an entirely automated way designed to avoid listings of spamtrap hits due to bounces of forged spam, virus bounces, and "real" mail servers emitting the occasional spam. It tries very hard to avoid listing legitimate mail sources. It does not attempt to list every possible spam source. This list is a subset of the Spamhaus XBL list, and happens to be what catches most of the spam sent my way. I've checked quite a few of the IPs blocked on their web form, and it does happen to mention that blockage was due to a specific worm/virus infection. Cheers, Tim -- "Besides a mathematical inclination, an exceptionally good mastery of one's native tongue is the most vital asset of a competent programmer." - E. J. Dijkstra

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Query your CRT Monitor EDID using ddc-control - but not yer LCD
by John D 19 Nov '06

19 Nov '06

Hello Further to a question at MUUG Nov. RoundTable, about the nature of the data exchanged when we (or xorgconfig does a) "probe for type of monitor" VESA-compliant video cards (post'94) have a function to ask an attached monitor its EDID info. This handy VESA function is nicely explained by: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data Unfortunately, modern flat displays and TVs are not well represented under EDID paradigms. EDID data for a monitor is programmed into a serial (usu.i2c friendly) PROM at manufacture. This self-descriptor keeps enough data to be capable of being "verbose" when queried; e.g: Mfg ID, Prod ID, SerNum, WkMfg, YrMfg, HSync, VSync, Resolution (EDID "thinks" this geometry must be multiple-of-8) However, the recent Linux version of _ddc-control_ includes a separate XML-formatted db, which has been updated as recently as 2006-10. Haven't read inside latest _ddc-control_: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=117933 -but I suspect its useage is de-volving (at least for LCD and 'wide' displays) to a terse query from monitor, getting just the Maker, Model, and then using those to do a lookup in the XML-db. Another Linux tool _read-edid_ also reads info from monitor: http://freshmeat.net/projects/read-edid/ Assembler and x86 machine language fans will enjoy this 2003-04 kernel snippet- http://lwn.net/Articles/27597/ smiles, John D

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Pronounce Linux?
by Montana Quiring 16 Nov '06

16 Nov '06

Linn-ooks? Linn-ucks? Line-ooks? Line-ucks? >From the man himself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IfHm6R5le0 -Montana

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[Fwd: Cisco IPC/IPT]
by Sydney Weidman 15 Nov '06

15 Nov '06

George asked if I would pass this along in case anyone on this list was interested. - Syd

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serial consoles
by Theodore Baschak 12 Nov '06

12 Nov '06

Hi All: Wondering what solutions people are using to connect via serial to multiple cisco routers, switches, and computers equipped with real serial consoles. I tried to buy some of the cyclades units, but our local supplier has totally failed to deliver. Theodore

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MUUG Meeting, Nov 14, 7:30pm -- SUSE Linux Enterprise 10
by John D 10 Nov '06

10 Nov '06

Hello All After this last week's "momentous" Novell/SuSE-Microsoft accord(s), there will no doubt be ample fodder for bavardage; bark, bombast and blether. It was only "one score" years ago that both companies were regarded in the reverse roles (by the [still] non-Mac,non-*n[iu]x majority). I wonder if those who "care" should _meet_separately_ and let fly OUTSIDE the normal meeting place/format ? There is much to consider, and the conspiracy theorists (and fidgety Apophenians) among us will have hard work ahead to divine whom is being driven by The Discordians** _this_time_. So (ironically or hypocritically, as one who tends to jabber a fair bit at our meetings) I would like also to PROPOSE: -Whereas- our presenter, Mr. John Lange is NOT a Novell employee or rep, and -Whereas- he is certainly a very good person to help us appreciate some of the features and technologies the OpenSuSE community and Novell have worked very hard toward; Therefore Let Us Resolve that: Mr. Lange should NOT be expected to interpret Novell's recent announcements, and he should NOT be expected to field any crankiness from the peanut gallery. Respectfully, John D. Brandon ** Robert Anton Wilson & Robt.Shea "The Illuminatus! Trilogy", 1975, 1984 I figure it's the Dolphins. Yeah, it's the Dolphins.

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MUUG Meeting, Nov 14, 7:30pm -- SUSE Linux Enterprise 10
by gedetil＠cs.umanitoba.ca 07 Nov '06

07 Nov '06

The Manitoba UNIX User Group (MUUG) will be holding its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, November 14. The meeting topic for this month is as follows: SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 "The platform for your Open Enterprise needs." That's how Novell describes SUSE Linux 10. Since it's purchase of SUSE, Novell has been positioning SUSE Linux as the one product line that will work from the desktop to the enterprise server. With this goal in mind, Novell has taken steps to provide greater power and security as well as to increase the "user friendliness" of SUSE Linux. In this presentation by Wayne Billing, of the University of Manitoba, we will see a brief overview of some of the things (AutoYAST, 3D desktop, AppArmor, XEN) that Novell is counting on to make SUSE Linux a viable choice for enterprise desktops and servers. The group holds its general meetings at 7:30pm on the second Tuesday of every month from September to June. (There are no meetings in July and August.) Meetings are open to the general public; you don't have to be a MUUG member to attend. ********************************************************************** Please note our meeting location: The IBM offices, at 400 Ellice Ave. (between Edmonton and Kennedy). When you arrive, you will have to sign in at the reception desk, and then wait for someone to take you (in groups) to the meeting room. Please try to arrive by about 7:15pm, so the meeting can start promptly at 7:30pm. Don't be late, or you may not get in. (But don't come too early either, since security may not be there to let you in before 7:15 or so.) Limited parking is available for free on the street, either on Ellice Ave. or on some of the intersecting streets. Indoor parking is also available nearby, at Portage Place, for $3.00 for the evening. Bicycle parking is available in a bike rack under video surveillance located behind the building on Webb Place. ********************************************************************** For more information about MUUG, and its monthly meetings, check out their Web server: http://www.muug.mb.ca/ Also note that MUUG maintains two mailing lists, called "muug-announce" and "roundtable". If you're not already on these lists, we encourage you to subscribe now: http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/ The "muug-announce" list is used for monthly meeting announcements (such as this one) as well as other important announcements of interest to MUUG members. The "rountable" list is meant to be a forum for follow-ups to topics discussed at the meetings, or for round-table-style discussion on other topics that come up between meetings. Of course, for this to be effective, we need to reach a certain critical mass. So, please subscribe, and stay involved! -- Gilbert E. Detillieux E-mail: <gedetil(a)muug.mb.ca> Manitoba UNIX User Group Web: http://www.muug.mb.ca/ PO Box 130 St-Boniface Phone: (204)474-8161 Winnipeg MB CANADA R2H 3B4 Fax: (204)474-7609

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Re: Roundtable Digest, Vol 23, Issue 2
by Steve Moffat 02 Nov '06

02 Nov '06

I only see these once per day, so if this has been offered already I apologize. But, speaking of Edgy and finding software over and above the Ubuntu install, have you seen Automatix? http://www.getautomatix.com/ pretty slick, especially for multimedia things. Steve IBM Global Services sjm(a)ca.ibm.com (204)934-2767 roundtable-reques t(a)muug.mb.ca Sent by: To roundtable-bounce roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca s(a)muug.mb.ca cc Subject 11/02/2006 12:00 Roundtable Digest, Vol 23, Issue 2 PM Please respond to roundtable(a)muug.m b.ca Send Roundtable mailing list submissions to roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to roundtable-request(a)muug.mb.ca You can reach the person managing the list at roundtable-owner(a)muug.mb.ca When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Roundtable digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Ubuntu newbie question (Mike Pfaiffer) 2. Re: Ubuntu newbie question (Scott Balneaves) 3. Re: Ubuntu newbie question (Mike Pfaiffer) 4. Packages in Ubuntu (Mike Pfaiffer) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 20:55:43 -0600 From: Mike Pfaiffer <high.res.mike(a)gmail.com> Subject: [RndTbl] Ubuntu newbie question To: roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca Message-ID: <45495E2F.3060508(a)gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed OK. I shot myself in the foot with this one... I'll admit it up front. I did the upgrade from Dapper to Edgy. It went better than most. Suffice it to say I got the GUI back as well as a number of other things which messed up. While tracking down one problem (something wasn't finding files for verification I burned onto a DVD - source or copy I don't know) I figured the problem might have been a library (libdvdread1). I thought I'd uninstall and reinstall. The problem is it took out mplayer. Again I figured an uninstall and reinstall may do the trick. Well now I can't reinstall it or vlc because both depend on this library and the library is unavailable. Figured I'd try compiling it myself but Ubuntu complains about no acceptable C compiler in the path. Later Mike ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 21:00:25 -0600 From: Scott Balneaves <sbalneav(a)legalaid.mb.ca> Subject: Re: [RndTbl] Ubuntu newbie question To: roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca Message-ID: <20061102030025.GA30390@localdomain> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii On Wed, Nov 01, 2006 at 08:55:43PM -0600, Mike Pfaiffer wrote: > OK. I shot myself in the foot with this one... I'll admit it up front. > > I did the upgrade from Dapper to Edgy. It went better than most. > Suffice it to say I got the GUI back as well as a number of other things > which messed up. While tracking down one problem (something wasn't > finding files for verification I burned onto a DVD - source or copy I > don't know) I figured the problem might have been a library > (libdvdread1). I thought I'd uninstall and reinstall. The problem is it > took out mplayer. Again I figured an uninstall and reinstall may do the > trick. Well now I can't reinstall it or vlc because both depend on this > library and the library is unavailable. Have you re-enabled the universe and multiverse repositories? System -> Administration -> Software Sources. Scott -- Scott L. Balneaves | "Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us Systems Department | To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side..." Legal Aid Manitoba | -- Pink Floyd "High Hopes" ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 21:37:03 -0600 From: Mike Pfaiffer <high.res.mike(a)gmail.com> Subject: Re: [RndTbl] Ubuntu newbie question To: roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca Message-ID: <454967DF.6080306(a)gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Scott Balneaves wrote: > On Wed, Nov 01, 2006 at 08:55:43PM -0600, Mike Pfaiffer wrote: >> OK. I shot myself in the foot with this one... I'll admit it up front. >> >> I did the upgrade from Dapper to Edgy. It went better than most. >> Suffice it to say I got the GUI back as well as a number of other things >> which messed up. While tracking down one problem (something wasn't >> finding files for verification I burned onto a DVD - source or copy I >> don't know) I figured the problem might have been a library >> (libdvdread1). I thought I'd uninstall and reinstall. The problem is it >> took out mplayer. Again I figured an uninstall and reinstall may do the >> trick. Well now I can't reinstall it or vlc because both depend on this >> library and the library is unavailable. > > Have you re-enabled the universe and multiverse repositories? Actually I didn't. I just turned them on. Simple fix I didn't know about. > System -> Administration -> Software Sources. Works in KDE too. The path is System -> Software Source. > Scott > Thanks. Later Mike ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Thu, 02 Nov 2006 10:51:34 -0600 From: Mike Pfaiffer <high.res.mike(a)gmail.com> Subject: [RndTbl] Packages in Ubuntu To: roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca Message-ID: <454A2216.6060004(a)gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed I was going through the list of packages in the package manager. There is always something I don't want and I can remove (eg. IM clients). I found something interesting... There was a package titled rpm and the description matched what I used to do under Fedora. Has anybody tried it yet? Is it worth installing? Later Mike ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable(a)muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable End of Roundtable Digest, Vol 23, Issue 2 *****************************************

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Packages in Ubuntu
by Mike Pfaiffer 02 Nov '06

02 Nov '06

I was going through the list of packages in the package manager. There is always something I don't want and I can remove (eg. IM clients). I found something interesting... There was a package titled rpm and the description matched what I used to do under Fedora. Has anybody tried it yet? Is it worth installing? Later Mike

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