armondf

*sigh* The point is not whether that money is going to the right people, artist, whoever, the point is quite simply, the information/music/whatever is not in the public domain and you either have to pay for it or not use it. If you don't, and you still use it, you're breaking the law. That's how simple it all is. If you agree to any sort of license agreement, than you break the law if you do not adhere to it. If I steel quentin tarrantinos wallet, no judge is going to accept my answer of "I need the money more than he does". If you need it, buy it. If you can't afford it, either find a legally free alternative, or do without it. And on to South Africa: In essence, one dollar does not equate to the exchange rate. If you buy anything online from *within* SA using a credit card, then you're paying "item value" * exchange rate * percentage bank charge for offshore purchases. Then you still pay TAX, which you should be able to claim back, but SARS (SA Revenue Services (the SA equivilent of the US's IRS)) hardly ever hono(u)rs these small amounts. US$5, incidently, is half the average daily wage in South Africa (after Tax and UIF for more than 60% of South Africans - source Stats SA). That drops to under 4 dollars for the average African. US$5 buys an average of 10 loaves of bread in SA, which, incidently, is sourced as one of the most nutritious in the world. To boot, a gallon of water costs under 5 US cents, a litre of petrol (gas) around US$0.67, and a litre of milk US$0.52. So, for US$5 I can: travel to work, drink coffee, buy a sandwich for lunch, drink a litre of milk and still have change for a lottery ticket on wednesday. One full day's general expense for more than 60% of South African's does not total US$5. So, please, do not assume that someone living in South Africa can simply afford to fork out US$5 every time. Oh Yeah, last point, I think as far as *giving back to the community*, African's have proven to care about the community a lot more than your average capitalist western corporation

I've been running Mdk 10 official on my compaq nx9010 for some time now. Only thing I struggled with was finding a modem driver for the built in modem. Everything else worked out of the box (installed off cd with expert no-auto option). pretty kewl.

Hi it's trying to verify the md5 keys of the RPM package. You could try: rpm -Uvh --nomd5 *.rpm Kind Regards, Armond

Unfortunately, when designing and coding corporate websites for the masses, the point of entry for design (and coding) is IE. hopefully this will change in the next decade, but till then IE enjoys all the attention, followed by Netscape, Opera, Mozilla and then *lastly* browsers like Konqueror, Galleon, Epiphany, etc etc. One thing the linux community is geting right though is this: Basing *almost* all new browsers on Mozilla, which is coming along very very nicely. Regards, Armond

Hello... Well, this discussion has been around since the first implementations of CSS... is it better to use blocks or tables? As a web designer who uses scripting langauges like perl/php/etc to "create" the HTML, CSS styling applied to tabled layout is a lot simpler - and more robust in terms of programming application level websites. As a first time web designer, so much gets tried with floating divs, etc etc, but, inevetibly, once you need a functioning website across most platforms in *almost* all browsers, tables are virtually your first and last choice. What do you think? Regards, Armond

Hi there, MySql is a very powerful Database Server, and there is a huuuuuuge amount of info available all over the net. Firstly, click on over to http://www.mysql.com/ and download the documentation in whatever format you choose. Documentation for MySql is extremely good, and if you use the online documentation, the user comments will usually sort out little issues you've been struggling with. Ok, as for startup... MySql will not necessarily be running at startup. To check if you have a working mysql installation, simply type mysql at a console prompt. If you have mysql installed, then it will either connect to a running mysql server, or die with an error like "ERROR 2002: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock'". If the message is the latter, then your mysql is installed BUT not running. to start mysql, try one of the following methods: type at a console prompt: /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld restart If you don't have a startup script, or your startup script is broken (some of my clients using FC1/2 and MySql have broken default startup scripts for Mysql), then create/save the following codeblock as a startup file mysqld in /etc/rc.d/init.d/ #!/bin/bash # # mysqld This shell script takes care of starting and stopping # the MySQL subsystem (mysqld). # # chkconfig: - 78 12 # description: MySQL database server. # processname: mysqld # config: /etc/my.cnf # pidfile: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid # Source function library. . /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions # Source networking configuration. . /etc/sysconfig/network prog="MySQL" datadir="/var/lib/mysql" start(){ touch /var/log/mysqld.log chown mysql.mysql /var/log/mysqld.log chmod 0640 /var/log/mysqld.log if [ ! -d $datadir/mysql ]; then action $"Initializing MySQL database: " /usr/bin/mysql_install_db ret=$? chown -R mysql.mysql $datadir if [ $ret -ne 0 ]; then return $ret fi fi chown -R mysql.mysql $datadir chmod 0755 $datadir /usr/bin/safe_mysqld --defaults-file=/etc/my.cnf >/dev/null 2>&1 & ret=$? # Spin for a maximum of ten seconds waiting for the server to come up if [ $ret -eq 0 ]; then for x in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10; do if [ -n "`/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u mysqld ping 2> /dev/null`" ]; then break; else sleep 1; fi done if !([ -n "`/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u mysqld ping 2> /dev/null`" ]); then echo "Timeout error occurred trying to start MySQL Daemon." action $"Starting $prog: " /bin/false else action $"Starting $prog: " /bin/true fi else action $"Starting $prog: " /bin/false fi [ $ret -eq 0 ] && touch /var/lock/subsys/mysqld return $ret } stop(){ /bin/kill `cat /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.pid 2> /dev/null ` > /dev/null 2>&1 ret=$? if [ $ret -eq 0 ]; then action $"Stopping $prog: " /bin/true else action $"Stopping $prog: " /bin/false fi [ $ret -eq 0 ] && rm -f /var/lock/subsys/mysqld [ $ret -eq 0 ] && rm -f $datadir/mysql.sock return $ret } restart(){ stop start } condrestart(){ [ -e /var/lock/subsys/mysqld ] && restart || : } # See how we were called. case "$1" in start) start ;; stop) stop ;; status) status mysqld ;; restart) restart ;; condrestart) condrestart ;; *) echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|status|condrestart|restart}" exit 1 esac exit $? Once you've done this, and an /etc/rc.d/init.d/mysqld restart starts and runs the server, you should be able to connect to the server by running mysql from a commandline. this will give you a prompt looking like this: [root@trefdb tmp]# mysql Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 1 to server version: 3.23.54 Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer. mysql> if you are that far, then congrats, your mysql server is up and running. Lemme know when you're there, then we can help setting up a user, etc. Regards, Armond

Hello Sounds like you're well on your way. Can you SSH from a local machine to your server yet? Samba is pretty straight forward. You will obviously need to set up your firewall to allow connections via SSH and Samba. Shout if you need any more help. Regards, Armond

ello Erm, you must tell us a bit more. Are you running a window manager (like KDE, Gnome, Enlightenment, etc)? Have you configured your monitor/graphics cards correctly? Are you using a theme with your window manager? What resolution are you running your system at? Regards, Armond

Have you tried the other US one? I haven't played on Arch too much of late. Sorry if I can't be of too much help. Regards, Armond

Ello One of the major issues when installing Mandrake on a notebook is it hangs when there is firewire onboard. The no-auto option just tells the installer not to probe these *unkown* devices.... Getting the firewire to work after the install is not a major problem. Regards, Armond

Notebooks and Linux are always a little tricky. Here are some tips: 1. If the notebook has Firewire, then boot linux install with no-auto option. 2. If notebook has a connexant modem chipset, download the drivers from connexant. There is a WIKI page that you can check out (I know, different notebook, different distro) but the tips are worth checking out, as they almost certainly will get you past *most* hiccups. The site is available here Regards, Armond

Hi there Samba's configuration files are found in /etc/samba/ The main conf file is smb.conf. You would like to share your entire drive? just share root (/) -- not the other root (/root). Like So (Warning: This shares all files and makes things writeable if the root password is provided): vi /etc/samba/smb.conf ### You're in VI, use keyboard arrows to move about, [insert] to insert Add the following to the file [everything] comment = everything path = / public = yes writable = yes printable = no ### [esc] wq! to write and quit restart samba, mount from the other machine like so mkdir /tmp/machine1 mount -smbfs //machine1/everything /tmp/machine1 Regards, Armond

Ello Is this your IP Address? cos you're trying to ping something completely different.... Try this. Leave eth0 to get the DHCP address, create a ifcfg-eth0:1 set up a static host in that, restart networking and try again.... here is how.... cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ vi ifcfg-eth0:1 #### You're in vi, use insert to to get writeable prompt DEVICE=eth0:1 BOOTPROTO=static IPADDR=192.168.1.10 NETMASK=255.255.255.0 ONBOOT=yes #### hit [esc], wq! to write and quit restart your network... do ifconfig, should pick up 2 eth devices (first is eth0, next is virtual, eth0:1) P.S. If it still doesn't work, check your netmask, try setting all netmasks to 255.255.255.240 instead of .0 ... you can then add your route to use the virtual as the gw for this machine.... Remote admin, from whatever windoze to whatever linux.... Ur best bet, putty, it's a nice, simple SSH client that works straight and immediately, no installers required. Fire up tucows, search for Putty and voila. SSH will give you access to a full console, no GUI. Tight VNC is an option for those interested in a gui interface. Regards, Armond

Do a cat on the following file, like so: cat /etc/sysconfig/keyboard and copy/paste the output here.... should look something like this.... KBCHARSET=iso-8859-15 KEYBOARD=us KEYTABLE=us DISABLE_WINDOWS_KEY=no You should have some kind of admin configuration for things like keyboards, mice, screens etc in your distro. Try selecting a different keyboard there. Regards, Armond

Ello try taking the user *out* of the root group and reassigning to the, well, *users* group. Regards, Armond

Hi there, Sometimes Quanta crashes when started as root. Make sure you are running Quanta under a different user. In fact, try logging in to kde/gnome/whatever as a different (or new) user, and see if your menus are working properly. (Creating a new user is the best way to figure out where problems are.... as a whole new, fresh menu, desktop etc is created for your new user) Regards, Armond

H there, what kind of notebook? Which distro/version? I found that using a different keymapping seems to resolve these kind of issues. Regards, Armond

Hi make sure that when you copy the files, that *all* files are copied, *especially* the hidden files. best way however is to burn iso/image blah blah. Regards, Armond

Ello, Like all things Linux, you are quite spoilt for choice. Mandrake is an excellent starting point for new Linux Users, and can be lots of fun. I always suggest that people get to grips with the nitty gritty about Linux administration if that's what your primary use for linux is going to be. If you want to use file sharing and setting up this and that via networking, try and do as little through webmin as possible. Webmin is powerful and very good in terms of the "overall administrators" tasks, but it has it's shortcomings. :) Samba is very powerful, and even more so when you start understanding the configuration files. Like all things in linux, understanding the configuration files for any server/app allows one to streamline almost everything. With Linux, your only limitations are hardware based. The software, if 1) configured correctly and 2) optimised/streamlined efficiently, will not hamper speed or performance. The same can never be said of a windows based server/environment ( as much as the friendly folks with their MCSE and MCSD try to deny and denounce this). So, a few questions you should ask yourself: Have you poked around Samba configuration howtos Have you tried to streamline your Samba configuration have you installed the packages you require for the tasks at hand? Have you got the servers that you need AND ONLY THESE servers running? What does your hardware look like? Is it a 10Mbps network, or a hundred? Is your Fileserver doing more than being a fileserver? Check that all the additional servers (like Apache, FTP, postfix/sendmail, Jabber, anonftp, etc etc) aren't running if you don't need it to run.... Does your file server run IDE 4800 RPM disks or better? Is your file system ReiserFS or EXT2/3? ReiserFS performs much better for fileservers and webservers What is your average disk, memory and CPU loads? If these are high, especially when being polled by a networked computer, then you probably have a disk/cpu intensive server running other than Samba, or your configuration is not optimised. Ok, onto the next stuff. Shorewall default is pretty tight, depending on what you let in/out. For internet connection sharing, I would suggest setting up a proxy, like squid (just install the RPM packages). The default configuration for squid should work ok, you will just need to set up ACL (Access Control Lists) to allow your network to see the net via this. If you need other services like FTP, ICQ, etc etc, just open the ports required, and make sure the forward/accept rules are kewl. But for the most part, Squid will handle most of your requests comfortably - and seamlessly. It also gives you a good log of what machine is accessing what website. Powering of Harddisks, etc. This is also configuration. If you are running KDE, look for the power management apps. Generally, Linux handles harddisks like any good servers do, i.e., does not spin them up unles required. Remember, Linux architecture is strongly server based, and this is testament to it's stability. Good Luck, Oh yeah, in future, to get specific help, please ask specific questions, and give us some error messages, hardware configurations, etc to go on, otherwise our help will be as general as this.... Regards, Armond

Hi there, For web editing, Quanta is pretty kewl, has all the standard stuff like syntax highlighting, intelligent indenting (if there is such a thing), common HTML tag generators/wizards, etc. Or, if you really wanna be hardcore, use VI *evil grin* Regards, Armond

Hi Isaac, **** Edited Post **** After some thought, I finally figured out what you meant. And good news is that there is actually nothing to it.... Apache2 has many ACL abilities, specifically on Directories. And although *strictly speaking* a Vhost should work without ACL, Apache2 by default RPM install adds all sorts of order by deny, allow, deny from all rules. In any event, the answer you your problem: Add the following directive INSIDE your VHOST directive (you can do this inside your VHosts file).... <VirtualHost yourvhost.com:*> DocumentRoot /path/to/documents ServerName yourvhost.com HostNameLookups off UseCanonicalName off DirectoryIndex index.htm index.php index.pl #whatever else you want IndexOptions FancyIndexing # the following part is the ACL part <Directory "/path/to/documents/"> allow from all order allow,deny </Directory> # end ACL part </VirtualHost> Remember to do a configtest (apachectl configtest or /path/to/apache/bin/apachectl configtest) after editing any conf files. Hope that helps, Regards, Armond **** End Edited Post ***** I always install from source, as I need lots of other config options that don't get honored with RPM installs. To install from source, get the latest tarball from http://httpd.apache.org/, unpack (tar zxf httpd-whatever.tar.gz, ./configure --with-prefix=/path/to/where/you/want [other configure options] make and make install. This also installs a couple different conf files. remember, if you install apache from source, to uninstall the RPM (rpm -e httpd should do the trick). to learn more about apaches virtual host directives, visit http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/vhosts/ Good Luck, Regards, Armond

Hi John, If you have cups installed, and it's running, try browsing with galeon/konqueror/mozilla/whatever to http://localhost:631/ and setting up your printer as follows: Click on printers, add printer, (log in as root at the password prompts), enter printer name (make one up, no spaces or special characters), location can be anything, make it the IP address of the printer, choose AppSocket/HP Jet Direct, enter socket://[ip address of your printer], continue with the prompts, and finally, your printer should be installed. to see if the cups daemon has correctly written your printer to file, at a bash, type: cat /etc/cups/printers.conf and check to see that the values correspond to what u selected from the admin tool. good idea: restart cups (/etc/rc.d/init.d/cups restart), and try to print. If you installed Mandrake, cups should be installed by default. Regards, Armond

Hi all, managed to get everything working with Redhat 9.0 Download the Redhat 9 drivers for Fasttrack100 TX2, extract to a linux ext2 floppy, enter kernel paramaters as per the README, install the driver from the floppy, run install, set kernel parameters for lilo/grub, and voila, a working installation. Had mixed success with slackware, but managed to compile a working driver. Otherwise, I think Promise should get their ass into gear and start supporting linux properly. P.S, one good thing that came from all this: I am now running Mandrake on my notebook, nuked my XP installation. Now I only use linux *everywhere*

Hi again Configuring apache is actually quite simple, depending on how robust and secure you wish to make your webserver. The heart of apache is the conf file (usually httpd.conf). A standard install of apache on any linux system usually includes an httpd.conf file that's pretty much useable out of the box. Installing from RPMS would leave your apache folders in /etc/httpd/something, whereas configuring from source allows you to override this. Read through the httpd.conf files... there's an abundance of configurations. Just remember to backup your files, and you should be ok. Chances are, if you installed apache along with your distro, you can already see your webserver in action. fire up a browser on your linux box and see if you can browse to http://localhost/ Lemme know where I can help. Regards, Armond

Hi there, are you trying to configure webmin or apache to serve *other* webpages? Or are you trying to get webmin running to configure apache to serve *other* webpages? nmbd is more a networking issue, it's not related to webmin directly.