...making Linux just a little more fun!
Hello,
I am using RH8 linux and successfully installed xine for video play. Video cds(.dat format) are functioning well with xine. But I cannot play the video files (in .dat format) copied to hard disk. The following errors shows on 'xine /home/temp/AVSEQ14.DAT'
-xine engine error There is no available demuxer plugin to handle /home/temp/AVSEQ14.DAT.
Kindly note that same file on VCD play well in my system in xine. Please advise me.
VINOD
Hi
I have tried several times to backup my new Linux server into an existing Windows NT server but each time I tried the connection is often refused. I install the webadmin which makes it much easier but the same problem happens
I tried with the command below from the option in webadmin:
- smbclient //zeus/home/remote/Abacus/Abac -A samba-domain-pw -D trans >dump.tar
- smbclient //terabyte_server/e
- rdump -0u -f server: /dev/nst0 /dump
*where server = name of NT server and /dump a directory in NT server Etc, all same stories.
Could you please advice me what to do as the Linux and NT Server are of same domain and with possible solution.
Thanks for your help.
Maxwell
Forwarded from the mirrors@ mailbox. -- Ben
rdf's? will you be using rdf formatted xml feeds at any time?
Cheers, macewan
There's an RSS feed at http://linuxgazette.net/lg.rss
Every time I try to wrap my head around RDF, my brain ends up screaming in frustration. Dictionaries with 2-dimensional keys, XML namespaces up the gazoo, etc. If you can provide a _simple_ description of the format this particular RDF file requires, and what it does that RSS doesn't do, we can provide the feed. -- Mike
Re: http://linuxgazette.net/issue97/defectors2.html by Tom Brown
In Windows, each user has an entry in the Documents and Settings directory on the "C" drive.
In Windows XP, I know this is true; however, it is not true for Win98 or previous versions. Dunno about 2000 or ME, don't have experience with those.
Never login as root (the Linux equivalent of the Administrator in Windows)! Always login as yourself and use the "su" command to give yourself root privileges for specific commands.
I login as root all the time, and have only once trashed a filesystem (typed /dev/hda when I meant /dev/fd0.) You shouldn't do everything as root, but I do a lot of system maint every time I'm using linux, and it's just easier than typing sudo all the time. The biggest concern seems to be file deletion, which is easily abrogated by ONLY using 'mc' to delete files.
Better advice might be something like: "Do all your normal tasks - web browsing, listening to music, playing movies, word processing, etc - as a non-root user, and use root for system config and maintenance. DO NOT run a GUI for very long as root, it increases the chance of destabilizing the system. Wherever possible, use command-line or ncurses-based tools (like mc) when running as root."
/sbin: Programs and scripts used by system itself, and by users to administer the system.
You may want to add: "Statically compiled / Standalone binaries that don't depend on external libraries to run. In other words, critical Programs that can be run even when certain filesystems (like /usr, if it's mounted on a separate partition) are unavailable." That may be a bit technical tho.
/dev: Each "file" inside this directory represents a hardware device on the computer.
The /dev dir is full of stuff that doesn't necessarily exist on your machine, however. They put it all in there up front so the device file doesn't have to be created later if you plug one in. (New users might be confused if the do ' ls /dev -l ' and expect all those devices to really exist.)
Side note: Did you ever fix the 1GB memory and Promise problems? Recompiling the latest 2.4 kernel might give you some new options. Aside from that, I have to pass ' mem=511M ' on my 512MB AMD Duron box when booting Knoppix. Hdinstalled systems are fine w/o it. With the Promise controller you might be able to pass an "ide=" parm, or it may have a native Linux driver by now.
At the risk of offending everybody, vi.
Personally, I use jstar. It's provided by the "joe" package. All the common/major distros supply it (it's even in Mepis now, after I tweaked Warren's arm.)
Anyone who finds a console mode editor that resembles the interface of older DOS' EDIT.EXE command is welcome to send in a 2 Cent Tip. -- Heather
You can't just eject the CD-ROM as you do in Windows. You have to unmount it first.
That directly depends on whether you have a file open from the disc; the hardware will be advised to resist the user pressing the button if you're running a program or reading a file from it at the time. The noticeable difference is that looking at its directories in Explorer isn't holding the filesystem locked open. -- Heather
FYI, if you type 'eject /dev/blah' at a command prompt it will umount it for you. (Depending on fstab permissions, you might have to root-run it tho.) See 'man eject'. One of the caveats for unmounting is that no-one's current directory can be the intended ejection point (if your $PWD is /mnt/cdrom and you try to eject it, it'll probably fail. CD to another directory 1st. If eject still fails, do 'lsof|grep $mountpoint' and see who's holding it up.)
If you haven't already, I suggest you try the following:
BitTorrent download: http://torrent.unix-ag.uni-kl.de:6969/
BTW, thanks for supporting and contributing to the "new" LG.net. Avoid the .com.
=====
Contents above ThisLine (C)ThisYear KingNeutron Ltd.
===== Check out KNOPPIX Debian/Linux 700MB Live CD:
===== http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-old-en.html
Normally I trim out sig blocks entirely, but leaving that in seems the right thing to do... I've made the logical assumption that he wants the world to see his note, but folks, if you have copyright notes, please clarify our permission to publish your words (with or without your name attached, etc.) -- Heather
Hello Heather,
I just wanted to send you a very sincere bit of thanks for your efforts in resisting the "CMSment" of LG. While I know that there are obviously many others who contributed to the cause, your name was mentioned to me just the other night by a friend here in NYC and from that news, I got the impression that you really drove the campaign. I am actually in the middle of reading this month's issue and love your statement regarding the CMS proposal:
"I think it's a solution to a problem we don't actually have, and "yet
another slashdot" is not a unique magazine on the scene."
Yeah, I figured Slashdot's a great thing, but somebody else already does that...
I can't say I was the most annoyed about it, but I was probably one of the clearest in saying what I didn't like.
I could not agree more! Thankyou once again and keep up the great work. I hope you'll extend my gratitude to the other members of the team who helped save this incredible resource
I certainly shall! If you're inclined to do so yourself before I get to bouncing a copy that way, you can send mail to tag@linuxgazette.net, and you'll reach the current Answer Gang.
All the best,
Adam Kosmin WindowsRefund.net
--
# chown -R linux.GNU world
Just wanted to say that Linux Gazette has been an excellent read since i stumbled on it a good three years ago. You guys do an excellent job and deserve kudos.
Good luck dealing with SSC.
Dean
[Thomas] Thanks, Dean, and thank you to all the other readers who have sent in their kind regards and thoughts over this. On behalf of all of us at LG, we are delighted.
There were far too many letters of this sort for us to dream of publishing them all. Just so you know. -- Heather
Hello TAG! I was reading through the new issue of LG and it is really nicely done. The new look is very pleasing and IMHO an example of a well balanced design.
My congratulations to Tougher, Mike and Ben.
Regards
Raj Shekhar
Hello Linux Gazette!
From the Mailbag of issue 97:
If you think LG is too strict -- or not strict enough -- in its
article selection, please let us know.
Please don't make it less strict! It is right at the moment, sometimes even not strict enough. Perhaps you would like to read a few thoughts about this.
What I like very much about the Linux Gazette is that it is a "real magazine" online, not like a news site that gathers seemingly random bits of information. There is a given time each week when it will be published, the structure is always the same etc. Another element of that "magazine feel" is of course the quality of the articles. Please keep up that up strictly, it is a crucial element of the success you have so far. A new issue is something that people look forward to. They won't do that if a new issue means they have to scan the articles first to find the mediocre ones.
I don't think you have to worry about information kind of "getting lost" when you reject articles. Linux has gone beyond the crititical mass concerning representation and information availability on the net. In fact, I believe it has gone so far beyond that critical mass that it is an important function of an edited magazine to help its readers sort out the good writings out of the vast amount there is available. This is exactly what strict editing does.
Keep up the great work,
Thomas Kappler
Thanks for the support.
Of course, LG is a monthly publication, not weekly. We've sometimes done it twice a month, and in the mythical future we'd like to see it published twice a month regularly, but that's not in the cards now.
-Mike Orr (aka. Sluggo)
Yes, that was just a mistake. Better monthly with high quality than twice a month, but not as good. And of course we want you to stay motivated rather than tired
Seems to me this dispute over who should control the words:
Linux Gazette
is a real muddle. Each side's arguments seem pretty clear. It has been a monthly magazine for a long long time, and one side wants to continue that. The other side has supported it for a long long time, and wants to move into the future.
Both sides apparently have enough audience and crew to keep doing things their way.
Trimming his original down a bit... -- Heather
A modest proposal, how about both zine change their name, one to linux gazette monthly, one to linux gazette online. If you really want to get anal, make (the original sites) a CGI which chooses the order of the two links randomly, or a cron program to switch it every minute, or hour, or day. Then the contested shorter name can point to a simple page describing both, and people can bookmark either equally.
Our Gang was kind enough to leave SSC out of the reply stream. They can read it here like the rest of you.
Gentle readers, you really don't want to hear the heated portions of the responses, and some scufflings based on a few of the Gang being active among the editorial staff and so up on rather longer discussions of the topic. So if you can believe it, this is the summarized form...
Linuxgazette.org presently hosts a "portal" site, amount of connection with Linux unknown. Also note that the two-letter domains lg.com and lg.net have nothing to do with either "side" - or linux for that matter; they have their own owners and no awareness of us that I could find. Nor does that big electronics company with the L inside a big round G and a dot for their logo (LG Electronics, believe me they're far bigger than either group involved here). Any references here to these two "short" names refer to linuxgazette.com (SSC's site) or linuxgazette.net (our site) respectively. -- Heather
[Rick Moen] Felix, Mr. Hughes has made clear that he regards Linux Gazette magazine's use of any variation on "Linux Gazette" as a violation of his (alleged, phony) trademark. We've concluded that the proper way out of this is to disregard (and disarm as required) the bogus trademark claim, and just concentrate on publishing the magazine.
Thanks for your good thoughts.
[Mike Orr] A lower-tech alternative would be each site staying at their current URL (but modifying their popular name slightly) and linking to the other on the home page. We have repeatedly been willing to compromise throughout, but our e-mails are met with either intransigence or silence. If Phil changes his mind and wants to discuss further compromises, he knows where our mailbox is.
Robos spoke in favor of such a dualsite idea, assuming Phil goes for it. A few folks expressed this is... unlikely. -- Heather
[Jason Creighton] People working together for years without knowing that they disagreed on the most basic issue, that of control.
He suggested if such a "description only" site is created it may as well point at any other linux zines around, too. Which would imho be more of an almanac, or portal, than a "gazette". Now that could be confusing. -- Heather
[Tom Brown] Changing the name (and the web address) twice in so short a time can't be a good thing. Readers new and old need to find LG, not wander around looking for it in all the wrong places. A significant PR campaign would be needed to make it work. That's what makes the original proposal in this thread attractive: the original site gives people a choice. The trouble with the proposal is that egos are going to get in the way, no doubt about it. Get over that hurtle, and you have a reasonable solution. Of course, any agreement needs to be in writing so nobody has room to waffle in the future.
Musings among the Gang about conditions under which a name change might be forced, or acceptable, and likelihood of any of these, snipped. -- Heather
[Tom Brown] P.S. If this ever does go to court, maybe we can get Groklaw to cover our side of it.
[Thomas Adam] ...(SSC) ...re-newed the lease for the domain... and may continue to use it... (haven't seen commercial effects on SSC's site yet)... just because he has utilised a CMS engine means nothing. All we have is inferences which one must be careful not to try and personify into 'evidence'.
[Phil] Again, we don't object to Phil operating a CMS -- or anything else, really.
[Thomas] He can do whatever he likes. lg.net is the official LG now.
[Jason] It would have been nice if it [*exactly* stating what SSC's role was to be] had been done seven years ago, in the same way that world peace would be nice.
[Thomas] It is Christmas afterall
Some tussles over whether verbal contract may or may not apply. Certainly it doesn't apply to most of us, many of whom have never met Phil, much less worked for him. Regarding what John Fisk passed on, perhaps; but that was strongly against becoming commercial in this sense -- he was kind enough to clarify the historical perspective when asked. -- Heather
[Jason] ...of course it was impossible to know that this would happen 7 years ago, and I don't blame John Fisk for not demanding that SSC's role be made clearer. There's simply no way he could have known.
[Mike] Not only that, but what were Fisk's alternatives? LG was on the verge of disappearing.
Interesting point, that; when we finally decided to take the zine and keep running it here, we thought that it was once more in danger of disappearing forever, at least in magazine format, and in fact, that only pressing within the space of one month would provide the continuity needed to preserve the magazine at all. -- Heather
[Rick] Phil absolutely did LG a huge and vital favour.
Honestly, I think their understanding about LG's non-commercial nature was perfectly clear back in 1996. It's just that, come 2003, Phil...
Speculation as to what he was really thinking or his motivation for choosing to apply trademark to this, snipped. -- Heather
[Rick] (As I've mentioned previously, computer geeks have a dismal record for running screaming in terror from even laughably unfounded demand letters.)
[Karl-Heinz Herrmann] Right now I'm all for making it a public issue. That way the new site and the issue gets some popularity. If LG.net is forced or at some point thinks its simply wise to move away we've some audience aware of the switch and it's not starting at a point zero with no known name or link. Right now the public opinion seems to be with us so we get the sympathy. If this changes and we come over as the stubborn ones without a case we should resolve the issue one sided by backing down -- again as publicly as possible.
[Ben Okopnik] ...although the idea has some appeal. ...As it is, we don't really need to play that game; we do have a quality 'zine, one that people obviously want to read, and the mechanism of that continues to work for us steadily, day in and day out. This is one of the major reasons that it behooves us ... just keep doing what we do... the status quo is our friend ... .
I agree that any name change by us would need to be attended by much fanfare, parades, dancing girls, and political rallies in all the major world capitals; however, at this point, I see no good reason for it and several reasons against it (including the political rallies; all the baby-kissing gets sticky.)
Ashwin M said he'd stand by what the core decides, but would prefer that we stick with producing the 'zine... -- Heather
[Ashwin M] If Phil is very persistent, just change the name to one that represents the spirit of the gazette and get on with life. Continue to deliver quality articles to the public and they won't give a s*** what the LG is named as.
...I just don't want to see LG.net becoming a turnoff to the readers in the petty quarrel between LG.com and LG.net.
flamage about what "very persistent" or "petty" means exactly, heavily doused with Halon... snipped. -- Heather
[K.-H.] ... lets get back to making LG.net. ... I would consider an ideal settlement if LG.com goes back to their non-monthly posting style they wanted at first -- then they could simply link us as a monthly edition and we can link the good articles on LG.com. Phil then will have his low work, uneditied, "anybody can post" gazette while we can edit and everybody oose what to read. Then both could even keep going as Linux gazette. As far as I can judge Phils reactions I don't have high hopes he will be agreeable to this, but who knows?
I have already seen calls for a boycott of SSC. That's stupid.
[Rick] I think I can speak for the entire staff in saying that we agree -- and have said so in numerous places including... [ SSC's forums ]. [Estimate regarding changing policy of SSC's version, snipped as speculative.]
It's our policy to do nothing at_all_ injurious to SSC's interests. We take defensive actions only, and regard SSC as our natural friends and allies. We heartily encourage others to take the same view.
In reply to Mike's comment that Phil knows how to mail us if he feels inclined to, Felix noted... -- Heather
I have had no response either, which is disappointing.
I hope my original email didn't sound like I had the answer to everything. I have no illusions about knowing more than those who are right in the middle of it. I was hoping that perhaps a suggestion from an outsider might be some good to keep both sides talking, since it was not an idea owned by the other side.
Thanks for not chewing my head off
[Mike] It was an idea that nobody had proposed yet, so you can take credit for that.
Rick's for sticking to our guns 'til we turn blue; Ben and I fought for sticking with our name, and considering how long it took TLDP to decide what to do and continue to carry the magazine at all (which it is now doing), I'm for staying here for the long haul. A few expressed support for working with him much more happily if he stops claiming that his CMS is a magazine but supports one as a CMS is inclined to behave - crosslinking named threads there, etc. - possibly contingent on him renaming his site. Among the gang overall, desire to change our name for good was expressed in the form of an "if" plus some suggestions as to what names; as far as I can tell that means as a group, we'll do what we have to do... but right now, that's simply continuing to have the same great magazine at this site, linuxgazette.net.
We've gotten a lot of reader letters regarding the topic of our name and whatever its legal status might be, this month. Too many to publish, but we don't mind. Thanks, everyone, for your support - and for your barbs, your thoughts, and suggestions. Especially, thanks to those who sought us out through the twists and turns of the changeover and were happy to find us again. That'll be a lot easier now that TLDP.org points at both sites.
As for the heat that resulted among the Answer Gang... -- Heather
[K.-H.] *I'm* doing what I wanted and volunteered to do: wait for interesting questions on TAG and try to help people having more fun with linux -- I'm done with politics, feel free to decide whatever you want.
The editor gal considers putting up a sign in the TAG lounge stating "no fighting" -- but that would ruin the lighthearted banter we often see between Ben's dark glasses and the lot. Various other signs are considered, but how about the old standby:
"Making Linux just a little more fun."
Thanks, Karl, for I think you hit the nail on the head neatly. Shame the thing fell on the floor during that tussle over names. Maybe it'll stay nailed up this time.
For those of you who chimed in - heated or not - thank you for the encouragement, and your opinions, and for sticking around past any of the opinions you didn't like. We're not here because we're all the same; we're here because we all like Linux, but that covers quite a world of choices... and, for the most part, the fact that we'll have to make a few. Hopefully the kindest for a maximum number of people.
Happy New Year, everyone. -- Heather
Hi Rick, thanks for writing. I'll try to address your questions below.
Dear Dr. Fisk:
You've probably been too busy with real life to notice, but we at Linux Gazette magazine have been having some problems of late. To make a long story short, because SSC announced intentions in 3Q 2003 to effectively kill Linux Gazette by transforming it into a Slashdot-style Web discussion forum, and for several other reasons, the couple of dozen editors and staff unanimously voted to move the magazine away from SSC, to http://linuxgazette.net .
Phil Hughes at SSC, Inc. has unfortunately been extremely vindictive about this, and is retroactively asserting commercial trademark over our magazine's name, and based on that is attempting to seize our Internet domain.
It would help us a great deal if you could confirm our understanding of your intentions in August 1996. Based on your wording in issue #8, we believe your understanding was that SSC would continue to operate Linux Gazette as a free, entirely non-commercial magazine alongside its commercial offering, Linux Journal. Can you confirm this?
This is correct.
Bear with me for a moment and I'll try to provide a bit of background. I had started the Linux Gazette in early 1995, essentially as a means of learning HTML and to provide an educational/entertaining resource for other Linux enthusiasts. I had spent a bit of time lurking around various Linux related USENET groups and found that although there was a good deal of useful information there, the signal to noise ratio at times dipped pretty low.
I had no access to the internet, other than a 2400 baud dial up connection to the Vanderbilt University VAX machine. A physics grad student, Tim, offered to host it on a site that he was running, and that's where the LG got its start. Throughout the early life the LG, I was always beholden to others to the host the content.
My stated intention at that time was to start a monthly online magazine with a variety of article formats: in-depth articles, short tips-and-tricks, email correspondance, etc. It was always intended to be open (in the sense of open to all contributors), free (in the sense of beer AND speech), non-commercial, and "moderated" only in the sense that no flames or derogatory material were going to be allowed. At the time, the Linux community was pretty small (Patrick V. was just getting Slackware well established and Marc Ewing, Erik Troan, and Donny Barnes were gearing up for RedHat!) and collegial.
It was an almost instant success in terms of community interest and took very little time for several regular contributors to come forward and offer to provide monthly articles of good quality. Within a year, I was getting overwhelmed trying to provide the time to get new editions of the Linux Gazette ready and sent out to the various hosting sites.
In 1996, I received an unexpected call from Phil Hughes at SSC with an offer to take over the management of the Linux Gazette. He mentioned that he had the personnel to handle the editing and distribution aspects and that he would continue to make it available as it had been started - open, free, and non-commercial.
Phil was very pleasant and we entered into a "gentleman's agreement" that he would take over management of the Linux Gazette and I would be able to retire gracefully and continue to contribute as time allowed (which clearly, it has not...) No money was exchanged during this transaction and no documentation was created or signed -- we simply had an mutual verbal agreement.
They were good to their word and Marjorie Richardson did a wonderful job of handling the early efforts of keeping the LG going. On my part, I returned to residency in Pathology at Yale and am currently completing a fellowship in Transfusion Medicine. I was delighted to have someone interested in the LG and have greatly appreciated their years of dedication to it.
Can you also confirm that you made no agreement with SSC, Inc. to assign them any trademark?
That is correct: the verbal agreement that Phil Hughes and I entered into was that the Linux Gazette would continue as it had been started, the only change being that SSC would take over the day-to-day management of it.
I will stress that we bear absolutely no ill will towards SSC, Inc. or towards Mr. Hughes. We wish only to prevent his use of belated trademark claims to harrass the Gazette, after its departure from his site.
I'm deeply sorry to hear of this situation. Phil was a godsend and I appreciate his efforts in keeping the LG going. I will demur on comment as to whether moving to a "Slashdot Style" format is A Good Thing(tm) or not -- it certainly was not my original intention.
It's unfortunate that a complementary solution could not be amiably arrived at: a "two-site" Linux Gazette, as crazy as that sounds, wouldn't be entirely a bad idea. As long as the two sites linked to each other, I could envision having a Slashdot style site with daily chatter and such, and an ongoing monthly online magazine as a complementary site for more currated content. Just a thought...
(The situation is admittedly somewhat more confused than that, but I was going to omit the gory details.)
Again, sorry to hear about this mess. I hope that it can be resolved in an amiable fashion and that the community will support, rather than split from, whatever is decided.
I wish you the best. The grace and wisdom of God be with you.
cheers,
John
--
John M Fisk, M.D.
Transfusion Medicine Fellow, Department of Laboratory Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT
Rob Tougher's family lost a good friend and companion this week; he would have helped us more this issue but for this. He's already done great by helping us with stylesheet improvements. Netscape and Phoenix users should have a better chance at reading LG now.
Thomas Adam, our Weekend Mechanic, has also been helping me out with preparing TAG; I'm sorry we didn't have an Answer Gang or Tips last month, for I was going to be out of town and could only prepare Mailbag. Thomas cheerfully offered to fill in for me, but it turns out that he has been ill for the last few months, and outstretched his poor health -- he was too ill to complete them in time, though he had hoped better of himself. He has pitched in such as he could across this month, but many of the Tips are last month's material. I am pleased to say that he is recovering now, but it looks like it may take awhile for him to be at his best again; the staff is encouraging him to take it easy.
Please join us in offering kind thoughts for Rob and Thomas.