February 2013 - luv-main

UEFI and dual-boot?
by Neale Banks 15 Feb '13

15 Feb '13

What's the current state of dual booting (particularly Debian (Wheezy) and Win8) on UEFI ("Secure" boot) PCs? In particular, with say a Toshi L850/046 with Win8, can I reasonably expect success shrinking the existing partition and installing Debian in a separate partition and ending up with a workable dual-boot system? Pointers to HOWTOs etc gratefully accepted (I've searched, but didn't come up with much yet, apart from the discussion here in early Jan and an article on Matthew Garrett's Shim[1]). Thanks, Neale. [1] http://www.zdnet.com/shimming-your-way-to-linux-on-windows-8-pcs-7000008246/

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Script for batch video conversions
by Carl Turney 15 Feb '13

15 Feb '13

Hi All, I've got a collection of video files ( avi divx flv m4v mkv mp4 mpg ogv rmvb wmv ) with different video codecs (divx h264 mpeg4 RealVideo WinMedia8 theora xvid etc. ) and different audio codecs (you get the idea). I've also got a Sanyo TV that only wants to play ... flv mp4 mkv wmv mpg avi with... h264 WinMedia9 xvid-mpeg4 and ... certain audio codecs. Have any command-line Linux wizards on the list: made up a script file for a batch conversion of video files, searching for certain filespec extensions (wrappers?) and/or codecs, and having transmageddon (or whatever) convert them? I'm hoping to have something that could work its way through a directory of files, that I could leave it run unattended for a couple days, but could abort it (in case of a need to shut down the system for a while or give other processes system resources). I'm currently running Ubuntu 10.4 and got Transmageddon 0.15 Thanks very much in advance. Carl Bayswater

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MarketBot
by Russell Coker 14 Feb '13

14 Feb '13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STL_(file_format) http://www.thingiverse.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makerbot LUV has a MakerBot which will be first seen at the next Beginner SIG meeting on this Saturday. What is a good Linux program to create STL files suitable for the MakerBot? Something that's in Debian is preferred. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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unsupported UPS
by Shane Deering 12 Feb '13

12 Feb '13

I'm thinking I should buy a UPS (I have just about everything else I need for my computer. Either that or maybe a NAS). Anyway... Now if I buy an unsupported UPS I guess it will just work until the batteries go flat. So it will cover power dips and short outages. I'm happy with that and I don't want to stuff around with interfaces and controlled shutdowns for long outages (never happens here). Bonus if it is suported, but... So will any old UPS (with suitably rated V/A to last a $short period) do that for me? I'm thinking the "KSTAR BM3150 1500VA" which may actually be supported, but I don't want to care. Shane.

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USB mem stick testing
by Carl Turney 12 Feb '13

12 Feb '13

Hi All, I've got a USB mem stick that seems to be dodgy, but I'm not sure. I =know= it's not worth the time and effort financially, but I'd like to be sure it's the stick, and not some other part of the system. On this web page... superuser.com/questions/376274/check-the-physical-health-of-a-usb-stick-in-… Someone suggested using this command... sudo badblocks -w -s -o usbstick.log /dev/sdz ... where sdz is substituted for the actual device. But, when I try the command with the stick unmounted, I get an error message to this effect... No such file or directory while trying to determine device size. And, when I try the command with the stick mounted, I get an error message to this effect... /dev/sdb is apparently in use by the system. It is not safe to use badblocks! What's the obvious escape from this Catch-22 that I don't see? Thanks. Carl Bayswater

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Re: MakerBot
by Arjen Lentz 11 Feb '13

11 Feb '13

OpenSCAD is the way for most designs, it's simple and awesome. You lay out the shapes programmatically, like a script. And it visualises immediately in 3D, which you can rotate/scale. You will find it useful to have someone show the basics, and cover stuff you need to know for reprap such as minimum thickness and possible angles for structures. Erik Christiansen <dvalin(a)internode.on.net> wrote: >On 11.02.13 22:00, Russell Coker wrote: >> On Mon, 11 Feb 2013, Russell Coker <russell(a)coker.com.au> wrote: >> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STL_(file_format) >> > http://www.thingiverse.com/ >> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makerbot >> > >> > LUV has a MakerBot which will be first seen at the next Beginner SIG >> > meeting on this Saturday. >> > >> > What is a good Linux program to create STL files suitable for the MakerBot? >> > Something that's in Debian is preferred. > >I haven't used it myself, but salome might be a candidate: > >http://www.mailinglistarchive.com/html/emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net/2008… > >But there's probably more specific info in the reprap community. > >Incidentally, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reprap says > >»Virtually any CAD or 3D modeling program can be used with the RepRap, >as long as it is capable of producing STL files. Content creators make >use of any tools they are familiar with, whether they are commercial CAD >programs, such as SolidWorks, or open-source 3D modelling programs like >Blender or OpenSCAD.« > >but blender gives very indifferent results, according to some posts on >the LinuxCNC ML. (The STL triangles are not all closed, resulting in >failure. IIUC.) > >Some people seem to use: http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Art_of_illusion > >Are you planning to do a Repstrap? > >I haven't taken the dive, so that is just a superficial scan. You may >find better, with more digging. > >Erik >_______________________________________________ >luv-main mailing list >luv-main(a)luv.asn.au >http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main

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Fwd: Review Request for Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner’s Guide
by Kathy Reid 08 Feb '13

08 Feb '13

In case anyone is interested, Regards, Kathy -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Review Request for Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner’s Guide Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:41:37 +0530 From: Bhavin Shah <bhavins(a)packtpub.com> To: Kathy Reid <kathy(a)kathyreid.id.au> Hello Kathy, My name is Bhavin and I work for Packt, a UK based publishing company specializing in publishing books based on Information Technology (I.T). We have recently published a new book titled "Linux Mint System Administrator’s Beginner’s Guide”, written by Arturo Fernandez Montoro. This book is for developers who want to learn basic shell commands and how to deal with user accounts, and find out how to carry out system administrator tasks such as monitoring, backups, and network configuration. You can read more about this book here: http://www.packtpub.com/linux-mint-system-administrators-beginners-guide/bo…. I came across your website through a Google search and considering your expertise in Linux Mint, I feel you’d be one of the best persons to review this book for us. Therefore your thoughts about this book would prove extremely valuable to us and will be very much appreciated and I also feel that your thoughts about the book would be something your readers would be looking forward to. In case this subject interests you and you’d like to write a review on your website or Amazon, do let me know. I’d be delighted to send you an e-copy of the book on your confirmation. Alternatively if the review looks impossible, could I request you to put up a contest/giveaway on your website so that your readers can receive free e-copies of our books? I can send you a review copy if you would want to review the book before you put it up for a giveaway. In case you have any queries, do let me know and I’d be happy to assist. I look forward to hearing from you. Regards, Bhavin -- *Bhavin Shah** **Marketing Research Executive*| Packt Publishing | www. <http://www.packtpub.com/>*Packt* <http://www.packtpub.com/>Pub.com <http://www.packtpub.com/> MSN: bhavins(a)packtpub.com <mailto:jagdevs@packtpub.com>

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same exe, same input, different output on different servers
by James Harper 08 Feb '13

08 Feb '13

I have an application I wrote to take a xen core dump and build a windows crash dump from it, and with the same input file, on one server it runs to completion and on the other it reports errors to the read and write functions... I have md5sum'd the exe and the input file, and both are identical on each server. Does anyone have a hint on where I might start looking for the problem? It's not a disk space issue, both systems are 64 bit, libc is the same version. Is it possible to run strace in such a way that pointers are removed so I can compare the output between runs on the different machines? Thanks James

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Puppet Camp
by Michael Lindner 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

Hi List, Any Linux admins/devotees out there looking for something awesome to do tomorrow might like to give this a go - looks like a lot of fun (if (like me) that's your idea of fun!) http://puppetcampmelbourne2013.eventbrite.com/ For those of you that don't know, Puppet is - imho - the greatest tool for sysadmins since openssh, and a must have in everyone's *nix skill set. Oh and it's free too (like Puppet!) See you there, Michael.

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purchasing Raspberry Pi
by Russell Coker 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

We are considering the possibility of a LUV bulk purchase of Raspberry Pi computers and related hardware to give better prices for LUV members. If you are interested then please contact me off-list. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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