March 2015 - luv-main

Kernel 3.17 no longer allows bonding ppp devices
by Toby Corkindale 18 Nov '15

18 Nov '15

Hi, I hit a problem when attempting to upgrade to kernel 3.17.2 on a particular server. Some time between 3.13 and 3.17, the bonding driver has stopped accepting ppp devices, instead throwing an error that the MAC address cannot be changed. (And does not allow this to be forced) I suspect it's unlikely.. but has anyone here encountered this issue and found a solution? Alternatively.. do you know where the right place to file bug report about this would be? It's been a while since I've filed anything against the linux kernel itself. Cheers, Toby

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X login problem
by Craig Sanders 30 May '15

30 May '15

can anyone think of any reason why on one of my systems I can't login with lightdm? as soon as I do (with any account, including a brand new one without any weird/old/obsolete dotfiles), it seems to login OK but then logs out again immediately. my normal desktop environment is xfce, but the same thing happens if i tell lightdm to use lxde or gnome or anything else. logging in on a text VT and running startx works perfectly, and is how i've had to login for the last few months. I have four other very similar systems where lightdm works without a problem, including a mythtv box set to auto-login as the mythtv user. two of them are sysvinit, two of them are systemd. i can't see anything in the logs to indicate any problem, even the auth.log just shows that the session was started and then the session terminated immediately afterwards. any hints on what to look for in the logs or where/how to increase debug log levels would also be appreciated. craig -- craig sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au>

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multicolumn xterm output
by Tim Connors 15 Apr '15

15 Apr '15

Anyone heard of a way of splitting your terminal into 2 columns (newspaper style columns) where your eg. 180x49 sized xterm then becomes an emulated eg. 90x98 sized xterm? Preferably supporting the full ansi escape sequences. -- Tim Connors

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Iceweasel won't come out of its burrow, except on ABC.
by Erik Christiansen 08 Apr '15

08 Apr '15

On my newly installed Debian 7.8.0, Iceweasel plays video clips on the ABC news site without any problems. But if the clip is from youtube or the BBC, then no dice. On youtube, after clicking the "play" triangle, the playing time indicator moves, but the screen remains black, and there is no sound. The little grey two-bump-lego-block in Iceweasel's TLH corner says: "Adobe Flash" is enabled on www.youtube.com and clicking on "Continue Allowing" does nothing to start allowing, either. On the BBC, the "play" triangle doesn't show, and clicking on the initial image does nothing - mostly. Once in a dozen tries, a "you need to download FlashPlayer" message appears. Following the links to: https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/ doesn't show anything for Debian, and Ubuntu isn't binary compatible, AIUI. In case a bit of non-free might provide the missing functionality, I added to sources.lst: # non-free multimedia stuff. Mirror for http://deb-multimedia.org/ deb http://mirror.optus.net/deb-multimedia/ stable main deb-src http://mirror.optus.net/deb-multimedia/ stable main And then as root: # apt-get install deb-multimedia-keyring # apt-get update # apt-get dist-upgrade The latter includes a new iceweasel, but no change in behaviour. If there's a debian-compatible package for firefox anywhere, then that'd perhaps be the best way around this mess. If not, does anyone know how iceweasel might be coaxed to perform this basic function? Erik -- Personally I love having sole control of the TV. I can stay up until 2am binge watching my favourite shows and not be worried about disturbing anyone. I can sleep in to 10am the next morning and no one wakes me. I can eat porridge for dinner and not have to cook for anyone else. No one steals my chocolate supply. I don't have to put up with someone else's dodgy friends or relatives. I can decorate the way I like without having to compromise. Oh the bliss of living alone. I love, love love it. - LK

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DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.
by Andrew McGlashan 30 Mar '15

30 Mar '15

And so it continues to consume Linux as we knew it, it most definitely is becoming "Lennart Linux" .. through and through, just read the story. http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20150330#community NB: The story doesn't really give much of an opinion, it just shows what is going on. A.

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CoderDojo
by Andrew Pam 30 Mar '15

30 Mar '15

Martin Harris, who spoke at our meeting earlier this month, wanted me to pass on to the members that he heard someone from LUV travelled to Wooranna Park on Sunday the 15th only to discover that CoderDojo was not being held that weekend. He asked me to pass on his apologies. The next CoderDojo meeting will be Sunday 12 April. Cheers, Andrew

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Re: X login problemOn
by zlinw＠mcmedia.com.au 30 Mar '15

30 Mar '15

On Mon, 30 Mar 2015 09:44:27 Craig Sanders said, >i was kind of hoping that someone would know something really obvious >and stupid about X / lightdm / x sessions / xfce / whatever that i >didn't. no such luck. Do not know if this will help but............ The Xserver requires a child process under control of the user in order to stay up, this process is usually the window manager. If this process exits for any reason the Xserver shuts down. Try another window manager with something like, In the file ~/.Xsession a line like "/usr/bin/fvwm2", Note no ampersand, this is required. Note the Xserver config may have the exicuting of this line disabled. This is enabled in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc with the line "$HOME/.Xsession". I run fvwm window manager this way no problems. Lindsay

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Fwd: [luv-ctte] Work for the Dole at Computerbank
by Andrew Pam 30 Mar '15

30 Mar '15

Forwarded in case anyone knows someone who would be interested in this work, or somewhere they could pass on the information. Regards, Andrew -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Work for the Dole at Computerbank From: Computerbank Victoria <info(a)computerbank.org.au> Computerbank can now offer eligible people an option to do a work for the dole activity with us. Our project runs on Wed and Thur between 9.30-5pm. We are trying to sign on people who have both Linux and hardware experience. To date we have been unable to find anyone that fits this criteria. Working at Computerbank involves testing Linux imaged computers along with loads of other equipment (printers, LCD screens, hard drives, input peripherals, interface cards, networking devices and more). It involves recycling e-waste, undertaking user support, possibly writing documentation and helping out with advanced projects (eg our customised distro, our inhouse database and/or our new to be released word press website). People are able to participate in a work for the dole project if they are aged 18 to under 30 years and are registered with a Job Services Australia (JSA) provider in selected areas and have a Work Experience Activity Requirement. Many thanks, Kylie -- Computerbank Victoria http://www.computerbank.org.au

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Re: Regular event calendar
by zlinw＠mcmedia.com.au 27 Mar '15

27 Mar '15

Erik Christiansen said, >On Debian 7.8.0 it's there without overt action on my part, so >bsdmainutils is either a default install, or was pulled in by some of >all the other stuff I have to download after every distro change. (It's >always been there on SunOS, Solaris, HP-UX, Redhat, Ubuntu, and Debian, >when I've needed it.) In debian testing bsdmainutils is depended on by man-db, lsb-core, xorg and x11-apps so its pulled in ___very___ early in the piece, so its very likely on all linux systems. Linux since kernel 0.96d, when the entire linux distro ___plus____ source fitted on a single CD, Lindsay

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Can Ubuntu 14.04 not install on a new HD?
by Erik Christiansen 27 Mar '15

27 Mar '15

Downloaded ubuntu-14.04.2-desktop-i386.iso, and burnt a CD. To install on a new hard-drive, selected "Something Else" at the first "Installation type" dialogue. At the subsequent "Installation type" dialogue, the new drive was detected, and came up first on the menu of drives, already highlighted. Clicking "Install Now" gave: "No root filesystem is defined. Please correct this from the partitioning menu" Clicking "New Partition Table ..." gave: "Create new empty partition table on this device?", with options of "Go Back" or "Continue". The latter took a few moments, but did not progress to another dialogue. That left no option but to again click "Install Now", which promptly reiterated the "No root filesystem" gripe. Lacking any other buttons to click on that dialogue, I find myself in an endless loop. Is there any GUI way forward, or is it necessary to hack at the disk with parted and mkfs before an install attempt now? I recall partitioning drives during GUI installation on prior occasions (Ubuntu 5.10, 7.10, 10.04), so what can I have missed this time? It's too late in the day to try coffee. I'll have yet another go after posting - that sometimes works. Erik -- My folks came to the US as immigrants, aliens, and became citizens. I was born in Boston, a citizen, went to Hollywood and became an alien. (Leonard Nimoy)

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