Nabble - LUG

The NSLUG Diaspora

2008-12-02T07:02:48Z

Hey, by any chance are any NSLUG members now living in Silicon Valley?
That's where I am now.

I miss Canada a lot, someday I will return.

If any of you are in The Valley now, we should meet for coffee or a beer.

Mike
--
Michael David Crawford
mdcrawford at gmail dot com

Enjoy my art, photography, music and writing at
http://www.geometricvisions.com/
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From forum: nSLUG

Belated reminder: NSLug meetup today at Just Us! coffee

2008-12-02T06:52:29Z

Hi all,

Well, it's that time of the month again. Anyone interested in meeting
other NSLug members and talking about Linux related matters (or anything
else, for that matter) should feel free to join us today at 5:30pm at
Just Us! coffee, 5896 Spring Garden road.
--
William Lachance <wrlach@...>

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From forum: nSLUG

acpub mail + spamassassin + alpine?

2008-12-01T19:53:28Z

All,

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and ate their fill of turkey, or for some, the tofu equivalent :)

The list's been quiet for a while, so I thought I'd throw something out for those on the list smarter than I. Here goes.

I'm looking for a way to do near-automatic spam marking/filtering using alpine + acpub mail and something along the lines of spamassassin.

My set up: I'm running alpine off my Fedora workstation at work, getting my messages via imap. Obviously, I have no control over the acpub mail servers, so doing spamassassin in server mode is out. I do have a working sieveshell script in place, which is doing a good job of removing a lot of the spam, but it's a manual process adding new spam as it comes in. I've seen some references (Michael Stenner wrote one iirc) on using procmail + spamassassin, so I figured I could do something similar with sieve.

Alpine, acpub mail and the need to rid myself of as much spam as possble are the only necessities in this equation....if you have something that works that doesn't involve spamassassin, I'll take it as well :) thanks!

Brian

--
Brian Johnson
"And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight." (2 Samuel 6:22)

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From forum: Duke LUG Discuss

Re: IXP4xx and Kernel Scheduler

2008-11-25T09:58:07Z

Jeff, the lower the number, the higher the priority

Eugene

On Tue, 2008-11-25 at 11:31 -0600, Van Roekel, Jeff wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I’m not able to change the priority of processes on my IXP425 based
> system. To be more specific I can change the priority just fine but
> when I do, the higher or prioritized thread never gets rescheduled to
> yield the process to lower priority threads.

> Thanks,
>
> Jeff Van Roekel
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://nslug.ns.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nslug

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From forum: nSLUG

IXP4xx and Kernel Scheduler

2008-11-25T09:31:53Z

Hello,

I’m not able to change the priority of processes on my IXP425 based system. To be more specific I can change the priority just fine but when I do, the higher or prioritized thread never gets rescheduled to yield the process to lower priority threads.

I’m running kernel version 2.6.15.4 so it’s a little older than the most current stuff but I’m having hard time believing that this basic functionality isn’t supported. I checked the system timer interrupt and it appears to be calling scheduler_tick(). I created a test program that runs just fine on X86 architectures(single CPU) but on my ixp425 the critical thread never yields the CPU. Any support or directions on how to debug this problem would be really appreciated.

PriorityTest Results with sleep() functions in critical threads. Notice the regular or normal priority thread never seemed to produce output. I still cant CTL-C the process and have to reboot.

http://pastebin.com/f720a3bc0

This is the same code as above just compiled and ran on the x86 architecture.

http://pastebin.com/f275023bb

Compile Command:

X86: gcc priorityTest.c -lpthread -o prioritytestx86

IXP425: xscale_be-sencore-gcc priorityTest.c -lpthread -o prioritytest

FYI: I’ve posted my question/dilemma on linux-arm-kernel@... and have received a reply from Karl that I’m looking into. Any other help from people on this list would be appreciated as well.

Thanks,

Jeff Van Roekel

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From forum: nSLUG

Re: traffic shaping and archive networks

2008-11-23T12:45:18Z

On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 1:06 PM, Ian Campbell <ian@...> wrote:

> On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 12:56:23PM -0400, George N. White III wrote:
>> It seems that traffic shaping is here to stay:
>
> *snipped*
>
> It looks like you (and pc magazine and the globe and mail) only got
> half the story.
>
> http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2008/r081120.htm
>
> The CRTC said Bell can keep doing what it's doing because it's not
> shafting its resellers any harder than it's shafting its own
> customers.
>
> ... while I'm not sure I agree with that (what bandwidth is congested
> for ISPs like TekSavvy who aren't going through Bell for anything
> other than the last mile?) ... the CRTC is still going to look into
> traffic shaping in general in July.
>
> So, uh, there's hope yet.
>
>> How do you tell the difference between problems caused by conjestion and the
>> effects of shaping?
>
> You don't. Traffic shaping is just specific congestion, so you can
> make a guess based on whether different traffic types have different
> response times, I guess.
>
>> Have NSLUG users encountered problems that can be attributed to shaping?
>
> I can't say for certain whether it's shaping or if Eastlink just has a
> crappy network, but jitter is a real problem with them.
>
>> Is shaping causing problems for other archive networks?
>>
>> The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network is used with a new
>> package manager, tlmgr, which first downloads a master
>> database that gives the versions of the packages on the
>> server, If you don't get the database and packages from the
>> same server you can run into difficulties if the two servers
>> have different versions of some packages. Thsi can create
>> problems for users with unreliable network access.
>
> I don't see how this would be specifically affected by shaping. That's
> just saying "don't pick two mirrors that are out of sync"

In the past, you could pick a reliable mirror "close" to you in network
distance. Now, however, many people report that wget's for a list of
packages to be updated are need more retries, but that retries to the
same server generally work. This is a bit surprising, as my experience
over the years has been that when you can reach a server there is
usually a real problem that takes some time to resolve, so (neglecting
the version issue), it is better to do retries against a list of servers
rather than hitting the same server that just had a problem. It is
not hard to write a script to scan a list of servers and figure out which
have the latest database and good transfer rates. For some users,
however, transfer rates and even reachability appear to be highly
variable.

At many large organizations shaping is applied to subnets with Windows
PC's: highest priority to core services like Outlook and file servers, and low
priority to ftp downloads from external sites. It is faster and more
reliable to download a file from of the servers and then copy it to
the PC, which
avoids shaping. This suggests a local mirror that can be populated in off
hours, so the PC's never go to the internet. For CTAN there are two
directories that warrant local mirroring: TeX Live and MiKTeX, totalling a
few GB. If you have more than one system using one of these TeX distros,
the mirror reduces overall demand on the server, and if the mirror is
populated outside peak hours, the workload will be "nicer" than if the
individual systems
are updating during working hours. Some sites find they have to do multiple
restarts of the ftp transfer, and there are concerns that this may be due to
shaping imposed externally.

--
George N. White III <aa056@...>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
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From forum: nSLUG

Re: traffic shaping and archive networks

2008-11-23T09:06:22Z

On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 12:56:23PM -0400, George N. White III wrote:
> It seems that traffic shaping is here to stay:

*snipped*

It looks like you (and pc magazine and the globe and mail) only got
half the story.

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/RELEASES/2008/r081120.htm

The CRTC said Bell can keep doing what it's doing because it's not
shafting its resellers any harder than it's shafting its own
customers.

... while I'm not sure I agree with that (what bandwidth is congested
for ISPs like TekSavvy who aren't going through Bell for anything
other than the last mile?) ... the CRTC is still going to look into
traffic shaping in general in July.

So, uh, there's hope yet.

> How do you tell the difference between problems caused by conjestion and the
> effects of shaping?

You don't. Traffic shaping is just specific congestion, so you can
make a guess based on whether different traffic types have different
response times, I guess.

> Have NSLUG users encountered problems that can be attributed to shaping?

I can't say for certain whether it's shaping or if Eastlink just has a
crappy network, but jitter is a real problem with them.

> Is shaping causing problems for other archive networks?
>
> The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network is used with a new
> package manager, tlmgr, which first downloads a master
> database that gives the versions of the packages on the
> server, If you don't get the database and packages from the
> same server you can run into difficulties if the two servers
> have different versions of some packages. Thsi can create
> problems for users with unreliable network access.

I don't see how this would be specifically affected by shaping. That's
just saying "don't pick two mirrors that are out of sync"

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From forum: nSLUG

traffic shaping and archive networks

2008-11-23T08:56:23Z

It seems that traffic shaping is here to stay:

--Canadian Telecom Regulator Says Bell Canada's Traffic Throttling OK
(November 20, 2008)
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
has denied a complaint filed by the Canadian Association of Internet
Providers (CAIP) asking that CRTC stop Bell Canada from throttling
certain types of Internet traffic. Bell Canada admits that it has
slowed traffic from peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing websites during peak
Internet traffic hours. The company also acknowledged that it uses deep
packet inspection. CRTC said that "CAIP has not demonstrated that Bell
Canada's methodology for determining congestion in the network is
inappropriate." The finding contrasts with recent similar issues in the
US involving Comcast's use of selective traffic throttling.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2335133,00.asp
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081120.wcrtc1120/BNStory/Technology/?cid=al_gam_nletter_techweekly

How do you tell the difference between problems caused by conjestion and the
effects of shaping?

Have NSLUG users encountered problems that can be attributed to shaping?

Is shaping causing problems for other archive networks?

The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network is used with a new
package manager, tlmgr, which first downloads a master
database that gives the versions of the packages on the
server, If you don't get the database and packages from the
same server you can run into difficulties if the two servers
have different versions of some packages. Thsi can create
problems for users with unreliable network access.

--
George N. White III <aa056@...>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Remote Desktop

2008-11-19T13:24:09Z

Thanks Paul I knew there was a simple answer that I was overlooking. That
seems to work and no tedious setup with the windows clients, they just
download and run.

-----Original Message-----
From: nslug-bounces@... [mailto:nslug-bounces@...] On Behalf
Of Paul
Sent: November 19, 2008 3:15 PM
To: Nova Scotia Linux User Group
Subject: Re: [nSLUG] Remote Desktop

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 12:09 PM, Greg <gregmcal@...> wrote:
> This is an equivalent to UVNC, but the problem is creating a VPN across
the
> internet without knowing the external IP or configuring the gateway/router

Hey Greg,

I'm sure you have seen the UltraVNC: Single Click,
http://www.uvnc.com/addons/singleclick.html

Have you tried using it (linux, just have a shell script that
accomplishes the same, xfer a vnc binary and call it with the proper
flags) with its RC4 encryption and bounce it to a 443 port on a set
host not running SSL you have. In theory it should have no issues
besides clients with proxies, etc.
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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Remote Desktop

2008-11-19T11:15:03Z

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 12:09 PM, Greg <gregmcal@...> wrote:
> This is an equivalent to UVNC, but the problem is creating a VPN across the
> internet without knowing the external IP or configuring the gateway/router

Hey Greg,

I'm sure you have seen the UltraVNC: Single Click,
http://www.uvnc.com/addons/singleclick.html

Have you tried using it (linux, just have a shell script that
accomplishes the same, xfer a vnc binary and call it with the proper
flags) with its RC4 encryption and bounce it to a 443 port on a set
host not running SSL you have. In theory it should have no issues
besides clients with proxies, etc.
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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Remote Desktop

2008-11-19T09:21:09Z

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 3:14 PM, Greg <gregmcal@...> wrote:

I am moving from Windows to Linux and I am looking for a remote support solution to replace the one I am currently using.

Hi, have you heard/looked at http://code.google.com/p/gitso/ ?
It requires router configuration on the person offering assistance, but the person requesting remote support just needs to run the program and enter your IP or domain name.

Might be a solution you can use. Although the support request must come from the other machine, you can't just remote control their machine.

Colin
(My first post to NSLUG, I am not in NS, but will visit next year so figured I would join)

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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Remote Desktop

2008-11-19T09:12:08Z

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 01:01:24PM -0400, Rick Burdon wrote:
> For Security & performance reasons I use NX @ http://www.nomachine.com/
>
> There are clients for windows, mac & Linux and it's fairly easy to install
> the server on your Linux box. I also find that it out performs VNC and its
> free.

NX is proprietary, and as far as I know has no server component for
windows. The free implementation (http://freenx.berlios.de/) lags
behind. I can't speak to the quality of the windows/linux clients, but
the OSX one is buggy.

While NX does seem to perform better than VNC, if your concern is
security you could just tunnel VNC over SSH, which is essentially all
NX is doing.

Better option would probably be to use RDP on Windows (and Xrdp on
Linux)

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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Remote Desktop

2008-11-19T09:01:24Z

For Security & performance reasons I use NX @ http://www.nomachine.com/

There are clients for windows, mac & Linux and it's fairly easy to install the server on your Linux box. I also find that it out performs VNC and its free.

Thanks

Rick

Fred Allen - "An associate producer is the only guy in Hollywood who will associate with a producer."

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 12:09 PM, Greg <gregmcal@...> wrote:

This is an equivalent to UVNC, but the problem is creating a VPN across the
internet without knowing the external IP or configuring the gateway/router
to allow the connection (I don't know them all and don't want to talk
clients through changing the settings and then restoring them. I am hoping
for a solution that a new client can setup without any knowledge of
gateways/routers. The Hamachi uses a server/client configuration to create a
personal VPN tunnelling through routers/fire walls/NATs without any
reconfiguring needed for most home/home office users which is what I am
looking for but would prefer to
A) I would prefer to use my own server rather than depend on an external
server that I do not control
B) Use an open source product that works well in both Windows and Linux.

The VNC component is not the issue unless it is a packaged product

-----Original Message-----
From: nslug-bounces@... [mailto:nslug-bounces@...] On Behalf
Of crackers
Sent: November 19, 2008 11:34 AM
To: Nova Scotia Linux User Group
Subject: Re: [nSLUG] Remote Desktop

Try http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Greg <gregmcal@...> wrote:
> I am moving from Windows to Linux and I am looking for a remote support
> solution to replace the one I am currently using. It needs to be available
> in both Linux and windows, and needs to replace the combination of Hamachi
> and UVNC I have been looking at on the windows side. It needs to be open
> source of course and hopefully as simple a setup. The tunnelling of
Hamachi
> allows me to access a computer without changing router/firewall/gateway
> settings on the client (need to be able to be installed and configured
> during a 5 min. phone call) but Hamachi is not open licensed, the Linux
> version is no longer in production and I am told the Linux version is
buggy.
>
>
>
> Any suggestions would be helpful.
>
> _______________________________________________
> nSLUG mailing list
> nSLUG@...
> http://nslug.ns.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nslug
>
>

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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Remote Desktop

2008-11-19T08:09:14Z

This is an equivalent to UVNC, but the problem is creating a VPN across the
internet without knowing the external IP or configuring the gateway/router
to allow the connection (I don't know them all and don't want to talk
clients through changing the settings and then restoring them. I am hoping
for a solution that a new client can setup without any knowledge of
gateways/routers. The Hamachi uses a server/client configuration to create a
personal VPN tunnelling through routers/fire walls/NATs without any
reconfiguring needed for most home/home office users which is what I am
looking for but would prefer to
A) I would prefer to use my own server rather than depend on an external
server that I do not control
B) Use an open source product that works well in both Windows and Linux.

The VNC component is not the issue unless it is a packaged product

-----Original Message-----
From: nslug-bounces@... [mailto:nslug-bounces@...] On Behalf
Of crackers
Sent: November 19, 2008 11:34 AM
To: Nova Scotia Linux User Group
Subject: Re: [nSLUG] Remote Desktop

Try http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Greg <gregmcal@...> wrote:
> I am moving from Windows to Linux and I am looking for a remote support
> solution to replace the one I am currently using. It needs to be available
> in both Linux and windows, and needs to replace the combination of Hamachi
> and UVNC I have been looking at on the windows side. It needs to be open
> source of course and hopefully as simple a setup. The tunnelling of
Hamachi
> allows me to access a computer without changing router/firewall/gateway
> settings on the client (need to be able to be installed and configured
> during a 5 min. phone call) but Hamachi is not open licensed, the Linux
> version is no longer in production and I am told the Linux version is
buggy.

>
>
>
> Any suggestions would be helpful.
>
> _______________________________________________
> nSLUG mailing list
> nSLUG@...
> http://nslug.ns.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nslug
>
>

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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Remote Desktop

2008-11-19T07:34:25Z

Try http://www.tightvnc.com/download.html

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Greg <gregmcal@...> wrote:

> I am moving from Windows to Linux and I am looking for a remote support
> solution to replace the one I am currently using. It needs to be available
> in both Linux and windows, and needs to replace the combination of Hamachi
> and UVNC I have been looking at on the windows side. It needs to be open
> source of course and hopefully as simple a setup. The tunnelling of Hamachi
> allows me to access a computer without changing router/firewall/gateway
> settings on the client (need to be able to be installed and configured
> during a 5 min. phone call) but Hamachi is not open licensed, the Linux
> version is no longer in production and I am told the Linux version is buggy.
>
>
>
> Any suggestions would be helpful.
>
> _______________________________________________
> nSLUG mailing list
> nSLUG@...
> http://nslug.ns.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nslug
>
>

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From forum: nSLUG

Remote Desktop

2008-11-19T07:14:55Z

I am moving from Windows to Linux and I am looking for a remote support solution to replace the one I am currently using. It needs to be available in both Linux and windows, and needs to replace the combination of Hamachi and UVNC I have been looking at on the windows side. It needs to be open source of course and hopefully as simple a setup. The tunnelling of Hamachi allows me to access a computer without changing router/firewall/gateway settings on the client (need to be able to be installed and configured during a 5 min. phone call) but Hamachi is not open licensed, the Linux version is no longer in production and I am told the Linux version is buggy.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Breaking into a server

2008-11-18T16:06:58Z

Jim, check out this page:

http://www.linuxforums.org/security/howto:_recover_root_password.html

Eugene

On Tue, 2008-11-18 at 19:32 -0400, Jim Haliburton wrote:

> Good day all;
>
> I have a client with a problem. Client has lost admin access to their
> IBM hardware Linux OS box. They have the machine but no longer have root
> or admin access because of password issues.
>
> At this point I do not yet know the version of Linux it uses. I do know
> they would like to gain access to it. The server is on their premises
> and it really is theirs.
>
> My question is what are the suggested ways to regain access to the system
> as root to reset the passwords.
>
> I am open to all suggestions
>
> I have never had to do this in all my time running Linux systems, so am
> at a loss as to where to start.
>
> Thank
>
> Jim Haliburton
>
> _______________________________________________
> nSLUG mailing list
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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Breaking into a server

2008-11-18T15:44:00Z

2008/11/18 Robert McKay <robert@...>:
> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 11:32 PM, Jim Haliburton <jim@...> wrote:
>> My question is what are the suggested ways to regain access to the system
>> as root to reset the passwords.

> If you can append additional boot parameters to the kernel in grub or
> lilo, it's usually just a case of adding

> init=/bin/sh

> If that doesn't work, I'd just get a boot cd; boot from that, mount
> the hard drive and edit the password out of /etc/shadow.

That is exactly correct. If the 'init=/bin/sh' trick works, you will have to:
mount -o remount,rw /
in order to make the root filesystem writeable before you can edit /etc/shadow.

Booting with a generic Linux install CD is also good, but requires
downtime. Before resorting to that, you might check /etc/fstab to see
what filesystems might be mountable WITHOUT the noexec, nosuid, and
root_squash options. For example, there might be an entry for a
usb-stick or floppy disk. If the filesystem type is 'vfat', that's no
good, but if it's "auto", then you could format a USB stick or floppy
disk with ext2, put a root-owned setuid shell/wrapper on it, mount the
USB stick, and run the setuid shell. Similar for any NFS-mounted
filesystems from remote servers that you control.

(of course, this is an 'exploit' and should be fixed once you regain
control of the box!)

Here's a little 'setuid wrapper' program to make everything smooth:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main (int argc, char *argv[]){
if (setreuid((uid_t)0, (uid_t)0)) { perror ("setreuid: "); }
execl ("/bin/bash", "/bin/bash", "--login", NULL);
perror ("execl: ");
return (1);
}

gcc -o setuid -s setuid.c
chown root:mygroup setuid
chmod 4750 setuid

-D.
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From forum: nSLUG

Breaking into a server

2008-11-18T15:10:22Z

Good day all;

I have a client with a problem. Client has lost admin access to their
IBM hardware Linux OS box. They have the machine but no longer have root
or admin access because of password issues.

At this point I do not yet know the version of Linux it uses. I do know
they would like to gain access to it. The server is on their premises
and it really is theirs.

My question is what are the suggested ways to regain access to the system
as root to reset the passwords.

I am open to all suggestions

I have never had to do this in all my time running Linux systems, so am
at a loss as to where to start.

Thank

Jim Haliburton

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From forum: nSLUG

Re: Breaking into a server

2008-11-18T15:03:08Z

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 11:32 PM, Jim Haliburton <jim@...> wrote:

If you can append additional boot parameters to the kernel in grub or
lilo, it's usually just a case of adding

init=/bin/sh

That should drop you into a root shell.

If that doesn't work, I'd just get a boot cd; boot from that, mount
the hard drive and edit the password out of /etc/shadow.

Regards,

Rob.
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Re: recommended free shell for using swaks?

2008-11-18T14:57:28Z

I'm a very happy SDF user - if you want testimonial evidence.

Another option might be Amazon's E2C accounts. You can have access to
a whole virtual machine. It's not free but it scales, both downward
and upward so well that you might be able to do what you want for
only a couple dollars.

I also remember HP had some test-drive accounts. Only they might not
have allowed outbound connections.

Last time I went through a list of truly free shell accounts I just
ended up coming back to SDF.

Cheers,

Joshua

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 1:32 PM, D G Teed <donald.teed@...> wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:53 PM, Stephen Gregory <nslug@...>
> wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:09:20PM -0400, D G Teed wrote:
>> >
>> > ISP's block outbound port 25 so this is why I seek
>> > something other than doing it from home.
>>
>> Not all the ISPs block outbound port 25. Atleast in ON. Call around to
>> find one that doesn't.
>
> I'm in Nova Scotia. We only have Eastlink and Aliant and they
> both block outbound port 25 unless it is to their SMTP or
> you pay a lot more than residential ISP rates for business connection.
> vex.net doesn't block this, but as I mentioned I don't want
> to pay for another ISP away from my home.
>
>> If there are none :-( consider an IPSec point to point link in
>> transport not tunnel mode. Transport mode with a PSK is easier to
>> setup and understand then trying to connect to networks over a
>> tunnel. If you are talking linux to linux this should be almost
>> easy. You could also try OpenVPN but then you are adding an extra
>> interface to the mailserver which may affect the tests. Either way the
>> ISP can filter what it can't see.
>
> Yes, that would work, for the task of testing mail server.
> Setting an alternative port on postfix and swaks is less efforts
> however.
>
> --Donald
>
>
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Re: recommended free shell for using swaks?

2008-11-18T09:32:22Z

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:53 PM, Stephen Gregory <nslug@...> wrote:

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:09:20PM -0400, D G Teed wrote:
>
> ISP's block outbound port 25 so this is why I seek
> something other than doing it from home.

Not all the ISPs block outbound port 25. Atleast in ON. Call around to
find one that doesn't.

I'm in Nova Scotia. We only have Eastlink and Aliant and they
both block outbound port 25 unless it is to their SMTP or
you pay a lot more than residential ISP rates for business connection.
vex.net doesn't block this, but as I mentioned I don't want
to pay for another ISP away from my home.

If there are none :-( consider an IPSec point to point link in
transport not tunnel mode. Transport mode with a PSK is easier to
setup and understand then trying to connect to networks over a
tunnel. If you are talking linux to linux this should be almost
easy. You could also try OpenVPN but then you are adding an extra
interface to the mailserver which may affect the tests. Either way the
ISP can filter what it can't see.

Yes, that would work, for the task of testing mail server.
Setting an alternative port on postfix and swaks is less efforts
however.

--Donald

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Re: recommended free shell for using swaks?

2008-11-18T08:53:31Z

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:09:20PM -0400, D G Teed wrote:
>
> ISP's block outbound port 25 so this is why I seek
> something other than doing it from home.

Not all the ISPs block outbound port 25. Atleast in ON. Call around to
find one that doesn't.

If there are none :-( consider an IPSec point to point link in
transport not tunnel mode. Transport mode with a PSK is easier to
setup and understand then trying to connect to networks over a
tunnel. If you are talking linux to linux this should be almost
easy. You could also try OpenVPN but then you are adding an extra
interface to the mailserver which may affect the tests. Either way the
ISP can filter what it can't see.

I think this is the first time I have ever recommened IPSec over
OpenVPN.

--
sg
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recommended free shell for using swaks?

2008-11-18T08:09:20Z

Howdy,

Occassionally I'll want to test out MX server changes on
a dev box, and swaks from outside our network
is the preferred way to do this. I had a vex.net account
for awhile but reconsidered that dishing out $120
per year for this was too much (no raise this year, while
cost of living rises more).

ISP's block outbound port 25 so this is why I seek
something other than doing it from home.

I suppose I could set up an alternate port
to talk over, just for the testing. But there might
be other situations where I'd like to check DNS,
firewall, etc. from the outside and a shell account
with network tools would be handy.

I found a list of free shell account providers here:

http://www.bylur.net/free/

Some are out of action, many are restricted until you make
a donation. I applied to geekshells a few days ago
and have not heard anything.

I wondered if there is anyone on the list who uses
a free shell service they are happy with.
I might opt for SDF Public Access Unix
with the one time fee of $36 if I don't find
another option.

--Donald

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Re: USB inspection camera for linux?

2008-11-16T14:27:55Z

On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 3:59 PM, Jason Kenney <jdkenney@...> wrote:

> Just to clarify:
>
>> knockoffs ($50). Bodelin (US distributer) provided one to the
>> linux-uvc <https://linux-uvc.berlios.de/> developer, but apparently
>> this only supports the video mode, not
>> still image capture. Video formats generally degrade image quality,
>> so I wouldn't expect frame capture from video (e.g., videodog) to give
>> decent images. That means I'm looking for SANE image capture
>> support.
>
> Are you saying the device doesn't support still image capture, or the
> driver doesn't? Pretty cool little thing either way, but I can't
> imagine a 100x image capture from a handheld camera is going to be too
> clear either. :)

I would probably use a stand. The ProScope has 2 standard 1/4 x 20
camera mounts.

The device supports image capture at 1.3M pixels, with the Windows/Mac
software.

> You might be able to improve the effective video resolution a little
> bit with some object tracking/superresolution type setup, but I'm not
> sure what your goal is...

Superresolution might help, but I'm actually more interested in using
HDR methods to see shadow detail that is hard to get with a loupe
when viewing polished objects.

> Otherwise I think you can get an older used dSLR for not too much more
> than what you're paying, and I'd expect there is some kind of macro
> lens or higher you can get with some intelligent lighting solution?

To use any SLR for > 1x magnification normally requires a microscope
adapter and a microscope. Some SLR lenses are "supermacro"
2--3X, but I'm not sure about image quality. People seem to use
10--30X for the sort of work I'm doing, but even with "digital magnification
and a high end camera it would be hard to get past 10x.

A dSLR would need to support direct capture -- you loose time on
the shoot, connect, download, view cycle, and the capture.sf.net site
mentions wear and tear from cycling the lens and switching modes for
every shot using standard methods. I found <http://capture.sourceforge.net/>
for certain Canon models -- will have to see which ones have interchangeable
lenses. Reading the docs it appears than gPhoto can work with PTP
cameras, but Canon added some remote control extensions that require
"capture", which in turn uses PTP. I'd read the sources, but the dogs
are telling me their dinner is overdue.

--
George N. White III <aa056@...>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
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Re: USB inspection camera for linux?

2008-11-16T11:59:32Z

Just to clarify:

> knockoffs ($50). Bodelin (US distributer) provided one to the
> linux-uvc <https://linux-uvc.berlios.de/> developer, but apparently
> this only supports the video mode, not
> still image capture. Video formats generally degrade image quality,
> so I wouldn't expect frame capture from video (e.g., videodog) to give
> decent images. That means I'm looking for SANE image capture
> support.

Are you saying the device doesn't support still image capture, or the
driver doesn't? Pretty cool little thing either way, but I can't
imagine a 100x image capture from a handheld camera is going to be too
clear either. :)

You might be able to improve the effective video resolution a little
bit with some object tracking/superresolution type setup, but I'm not
sure what your goal is...

Otherwise I think you can get an older used dSLR for not too much more
than what you're paying, and I'd expect there is some kind of macro
lens or higher you can get with some intelligent lighting solution?

Jason
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USB inspection camera for linux?

2008-11-16T09:10:20Z

Does anybody have experience with low-end digital microscopes? These
are small cameras with led lighting, close focus lenses, and USB
interfaces. Some models have software (for
commercial OS's) that support dimensional measurements. The Bodelin
ProScope HR
<http://www.sciencetechnologyresources.com/Products/ProScope_HR/ProScope_HR.php>
is one example, but there are others from Dyna-Lite and also very cheap Chinese
knockoffs ($50). Bodelin (US distributer) provided one to the
linux-uvc <https://linux-uvc.berlios.de/> developer, but apparently
this only supports the video mode, not
still image capture. Video formats generally degrade image quality,
so I wouldn't expect frame capture from video (e.g., videodog) to give
decent images. That means I'm looking for SANE image capture
support.

I'm interested in using it in metalworking, and my wife will be using
it for quilting/knitting.
The tradtional jeweler's loupe doesn't provide image that can be
viewed by more than one person and stored for future reference, and
you have to get you head close to the subject.
I've been using digital cameras, but they barely get to 1/1 (macro)
magnification, the small
displays sometimes make it hard to get the right shot, and to see the
full image you have
to exit photo mode, connect to the PC, and upload. The higher
resolution of cheap
digicams does mean that 1/4 of a 1/1 image is comparable to a 1.3MP
image, e.g, 2x magnification, but is it a waste of time transferring a
bigger image, loading, and cropping just because you can't zoom in on
the small area you want to see.

--
George N. White III <aa056@...>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
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Re: How to get a Marvell 88SE6145 (and probably 6121) sata controller working on new kernels

2008-11-12T06:40:34Z

I installed Ubuntu 8.04.1 on my Server whit kernel 2.6.24-21-server
options ahci marvell_enable=1 is not working
but
options ahci.marvell_enable=1 is working

From forum: nSLUG

Re: How to get a Marvell 88SE6145 (and probably 6121) sata controller working on new kernels

2008-11-11T05:28:20Z

i thank you so mach
I was already best long busy with this problem
I have
DSEB-DG Mainboard
extra sata raid chipset on mainboard Marvell 88se6145
If i enable Marvell Sata on mainboard Ubuntu 8.10 give samting els errno=-16

I added this to
/etc/modprobe.d/options

options ahci marvell_enable=1

and run update-initramfs -u
shutdown
enable Marvell
and i see its works

thank you so mach

Ian Campbell-9 wrote:

So I just got bitten by an idiotic bug in recent Linux kernels, and
figured I'd share. Symptoms are being unable to access (or install if
it's your primary/only controller) SATA drives on Marvell controllers.
I gather PATA is unaffected.

Ubuntu 8.04 (which I think is 2.6.24) was unaffected, 8.10 (2.6.27)
is. I believe 2.6.25 and 2.6.26 were affected as well. This isn't
distro-specific, I've seen people complaining about it on SuSE as
well.

You'll see things in the syslog looking like this:

Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 5.085025] scsi6 : pata_marvell
Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 5.085093] scsi7 : pata_marvell
Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 5.085131] ata7: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x3018 ctl 0x3024 bmdma 0x3000 irq 16
Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 5.085133] ata8: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x3010 ctl 0x3020 bmdma 0x3008 irq 16
Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 5.085152] BAR5:00:04 01:7F 02:22 03:C8 04:02 05:00 06:00 07:80 08:00 09:00 0A:00 0B:00 0C:1F 0D:00 0E:00 0F:00

*snipped about 20 lines of md0 being sad*

Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 10.520156] ata8.01: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 10.520163] ata8.01: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 15.560030] ata8: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 20.544020] ata8: device not ready (errno=-16), forcing hardreset
Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 25.852020] ata8: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Oct 19 23:18:34 leviathan kernel: [ 30.556020] ata8: SRST failed (errno=-16)

Those last couple lines will loop for a while. Sometimes the system
will finish booting, sometimes it won't, but the drives won't show up.

Then I stumbled on this:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/linux/kernel/968813

It's an amusing thread, but the result is that there's a patch
present in 2.6.27.

I added this to /etc/modprobe.d/options:

options ahci marvell_enable=1

... and ran update-initramfs -u

I'm not sure if that last step is really necessary, but it can't hurt.

I think you may be able to set that on the boot line as well,
ahci.marvell_enable=1, but I'm not sure.

Setting that option has the AHCI module take over the drives instead
of the (awful) pata_marvell driver. Downsides are that you'll lose the
IDE controllers, but at least in my case that's no contest.

Not sure how common the chipsets are, I've got the 6145 on my
motherboard, which is an Intel D975XBX2.

Hope this saves someone some time.

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Re: install-fest

2008-11-09T11:53:16Z

On Sun, Nov 09, 2008 at 03:48:23PM -0400, Tom Daly wrote:
> > the next Installfest will be November 15th.
> > Starts at noon
> > A few more details in the 'official' email.
>
> will there be the capacity to ssh to my 'home' system and doctor about?

If you're bringing something in to connect with, yes, we should have
both wired and wireless access.

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Re: install-fest

2008-11-09T11:48:23Z

> the next Installfest will be November 15th.
> Starts at noon
> A few more details in the 'official' email.

will there be the capacity to ssh to my 'home' system and doctor about?
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Re: Virtualbox problem (was Re: Debian vserver kernel)

2008-11-08T17:19:07Z

Hi Everybody

Well I found a solution.

To understand the solution it must be realized that the standard
GNU/Linux "mount" command does not directly perform mounts of virtualbox
shared folders. Instead it invokes the program "/sbin/mount.vboxsf"
which is supplied by virtualbox to perform these mounts.

The problem seems to be an improper communication between "mount" and
"/sbin/mount.vboxsf". When the "mount" is issued from the command line
everything works fine, but when it is issued from a shell script, or as
a result of an entry in /etc/fstab it doesn't.

What worked was to remove the entry from /etc/fstab completely, to never
issue "mount" on the shared folder except from the command line, and to
replace the "mount -a" in /etc/rc.local with

mount.vboxsf -o ro,uid=1004,gid=1004 FullHost /FullHost

Hope this helps other potential users of virtualbox.

Regards

Jack

Jack Warkentin wrote:

> Hi everybody
>
> I switched almost completely to GNU/Linux from Windows 98 five or so
> years ago. My only remaining need for Windows is for doing my income
> tax. (I refuse to use a web-based application where the data is stored
> on somebody else's machine.)
>
> I have been using a virtualization product called Win4Lin home with
> Windows 98, which uses a patched kernel and is no longer supported. I
> have an unactivated copy of Win XP SP2 which I would like to set up in a
> virtual machine. After reading about KVM, Xen, Qemu and Virtualbox I
> decided to try out Virtualbox.
>
> But first, as an experiment, and to gain some experience, I decided to
> set up a 32-bit Debian testing system in a Virtualbox vm on my
> AMD64-based laptop, where I ran into some difficulties.
>
> Setting up the vm from the GUI interface and installing 32-bit Debian
> testing went smoothly. I also succeeded (eventually, had to find an
> appropriate kernel and compile environment) in installing the Guest
> Additions and managed to enable sharing of my full file system by including
>
> <SharedFolder name="FullHost" hostPath="/" writable="false"/>
>
> in the vm's definition file, and
>
> FullHost /FullHost vboxsf noauto,users,ro,uid=1004,gid=1004 0 0
>
> in its /etc/fstab file.
>
> The root of my problem is that /sbin/mount.vboxsf (the
> Virtualbox-provided binary that gets invoked by the mount command) will
> not allow ordinary users to mount FullHost, no matter what options (most
> of which are not allowed) I try putting into the fstab file.
>
> Removing the "users," from fstab allows root to perform the mount
> successfully from the command line.
>
> But I didn't want to have to su to root in order to perform this mount
> every time. So I removed the "noauto," from fstab and tried again. Here
> is the result from the /var/log/boot file (with the date/timestamps and
> several irrelevant lines removed):
>
> Mounting local filesystems.../sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with
> the error: No such device
> ^[[31mfailed.^[[39;49m
> Activating swapfile swap...done.
> INIT: Entering runlevel: 2
> Starting VirtualBox Additions ...done.
> Starting VirtualBox host to guest time synchronisation ...done.
> Starting VirtualBox Additions shared folder support/sbin/mount.vboxsf:
> mounting failed with the error: Protocol error
>
> The first failure is understandable - the virtualbox daemons had not yet
> been started. But the second is not understandable. In the first place,
> why would there be a second attempt at the mount? In the second place,
> why would it fail, when root is able to perform the mount successfully
> from the command Line?
>
> So I finally tried putting the mount command into /etc/rc.local as follows.
>
> . /lib/lsb/init-functions
> log_action_msg "In rc.local, about to execute \"mount -a\""
> mount -a
> log_action_msg "$? returned from \"mount -a\" in rc.local"
>
> (The first line is to make the log_action_msg function available.)
>
> The results were disappointing. Again from /var/log/boot
>
> In rc.local, about to execute "mount -a".
> /sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: Protocol error
>
> Note that not only did the mount fail, but that the mount command never
> returned to the rc.local script for execution of the last log message
> command.
>
> I suppose I should address the first problem (mount failure) to the
> virtualbox team and the second (return failure) to the Debian people,
> but since Eugene seems to have had a lot of experience with virtualbox I
> thought maybe he might be able to shed some light on this.
>
> Any help, from anybody, would be much appreciated.
>
> Jack
>
> Eugene Cormier wrote:
>> On Fri, 2008-11-07 at 09:11 -0400, D G Teed wrote:
>>> I see a lot of the chatter around vserver is from 2005ish, and not
>>> much
>>> recent. Is there something more commonly used now? Xen?
>>> Virtualbox? OpenVZ? VMware? Or should I look at compiling
>>> my own kernel for vserver?
>> Donald, depending on what you're doing (and I assume you're probably
>> doing some kind of linux server as opposed to running windows) then I
>> would say the way to go is to use Xen or KVM ......personally though I
>> like to toy with different OS' so I started using Virtualbox (which I
>> love) and I've recently setup a http server on it....it's been rock
>> solid (no crashes or other problems) for about 2 years now
>>
>> Eugene
>

--
Jack Warkentin, phone 902-404-0457, email jwark@...
39 Inverness Avenue, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3P 1X6

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Re: Virtualbox problem (was Re: Debian vserver kernel)

2008-11-08T11:40:59Z

Hi Daniel

Daniel Morrison wrote:

> I have never tried a Linux install inside VirtualBox (never had a need
> for that) but I tried many times to share a folder from my host OS
> (CentOS 4) to the guest OS (WinXP) in VirtualBox 1.6.4, following
> Sun's instructions. No matter which way I tried it, it never worked.
> I eventually gave up, and hope that an upgrade to VirtualBox (it's at
> version 2.0.4 now) would fix it, but I haven't tried yet.

This is useful information, as my next step after getting the GNU/Linux
vm working is to get a Windows XP vm working, specifically with a shared
folder.

Thanks

Jack

Jack Warkentin, phone 902-404-0457, email jwark@...
39 Inverness Avenue, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3P 1X6
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