July 2009 - openSUSE Users - openSUSE Mailing Lists

Re: [opensuse] Beagle frontend
by Brian K. White 15 Jul '09

15 Jul '09

Osamalamadingdong wrote: > Brian K. White wrote: >> >> >> John Andersen wrote: >>> Adam Tauno Williams wrote: >>> >>>> On Tue, 2009-07-14 at 15:52 +0100, Peter Nikolic wrote: >>>> >>>>> On Tuesday 14 Jul 2009 14:53:02 Adam Tauno Williams wrote: >>>>> >>>>>>>> Disabling Beagle is well covered at >>>>>>>> >>>>> Lets face it beagle is nothing more than an excuse for a poorly >>>>> organised filing system not on the machines behalf but on the side >>>>> of the user >>>> No, you are wrong. >>>> >>>> >>>>> , IF the user was to have a sensible way of creating storing and >>>>> sorting his files in the first place there would be no need for >>>>> the unmitigated resource hog in the first place it just allows >>>>> people to be lax and untidy so there is no reason for it to be >>>>> installed there is on the other hand a need to teach people to >>>>> organise the machines . >>>>> >>>> And what 'organized' filesystem will let me see related IMs, >>>> documents, >>>> web content, e-mail, and contact information in one view derived >>>> from a >>>> single action? None. >>> >>> And why would anyone need that? >>> >>> Peter was addressing filesystem organization, but he could just as well >>> have been addressing organization of your life. >>> >>> Do you routinely keep all of your possessions in a heap in the middle >>> of the floor? If not, why do you maintain your files and your life >>> this >>> way? >>> >> >> What room or shelf would you put a knife in? The kitchen? Ok, but >> then what about the knife room? All the kitchen knives are missing >> from the knife collection room. And all the knives are missing from >> the cutting tools room because they're in the knife room and the >> kitchen, oh and the razors in the bathroom those are missing too, oh >> and the garden shears out in the shed... Dang, what about the room >> that contains all the things made out of brass? Where are all your >> batteries? In the battery room? Why not? Aren't you organized? Why >> are they scattered all around in your watches, remotes, clocks, >> flashlights, your car, your wireless mouse at your office... >> >> A filesystem is a one-dimensional linear hierarchy and as such you >> can only use it to organize things by one single aspect per item. >> You have to choose one place for a document about oats , perhaps >> /research/chemistry/organic/food/oats/proteins.txt > > links, either "hard" or "soft" (symbolic) completely eliminate > that problem. > > Entirely > > 100% Laugh. Symlinks? Substitute for indexing and searching and keywords and property lists and/or rich metadata? I knew some idiot would attempt to assert that. I don't even know where to begin to point out the ignorance displayed by such a claim. Filsystem symlinks (or hard) do not provide the functionality of multi key indexing or a relational database. You would have to create an insane number of symlinks for every document in order to come close to even merely poorly faking the functionality of searching the document contents. And then for all your trouble you're left with an inflexible structure. You can't modify the document contents or it's main/real name without breaking all the symlinks if you change a filename or making some or all of the symlinks untrue if you change the contents. Far from allowing you to organize your content better, they just allow you to make a bigger hairier mess if you attempt to use them for a purpose they weren't designed for. A front-end program might be built on top of such a filesystem feature, but then, that's all beagle is in the first place is a front end way to locate files on a filesystem to do something the filesystem can't do by itself (excluding extremely recent ext4/reiser4 concepts that don't actually exist yet) Also, beagle and windows indexing are hardly the invention of this idea. apropos and locate have been around since ages. An awful lot of awfully smart people wasted an awful lot of time and energy writing apps to solve a problem that doesn't exist. This argument is like any other don't-need-the-new-tool argument. My trusty easy simple calculator works just fine so therefor spreadsheets were just a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist. That's actually true for very simple tasks and small datasets. But only for that. If you even use a computer at all for anything it's stupid to have to explain this concept since you must have sometime had to justify the use of a computer for various tasks that can be done simpler (and less flexibly and not as well) without it. Just because not all new ideas are good doesn't mean that all new ideas are not good. 1.5 seconds of thought starts to show the validity of the idea of indexing content. It's been a problem since day one of computers. It's why databases were invented. Or do you claim that databases were also a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist. I mean, hey, Symlinks! -- bkw -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse] Encrypted partition fails to automount at boot time
by Bob Williams 15 Jul '09

15 Jul '09

Hi, Using openSUSE 11.1 and KDE 4.2.4 I have an encrypted partition, which used to interrupt the boot process to ask for its passphrase, then it would automatically mount according to the entry in fstab. Don't ask what's been changed here (too much fiddling!) but it no longer does this, and I have to mount it manually with the following commands: # cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdd1 music # mount /dev/mapper/music /home/bob/music /etc/crypttab contains the following line: music /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_SAMSUNG_HD753LJS13UJ1MQ202570-part1 none luks and /etc/fstab contains this line: /dev/mapper/music /home/bob/music ext3 auto 0 0 Any suggestions as to what's preventing the drive from detected as an encrypted volume at boot time, and therefore invoking cryptsetup? Bob -- Registered Linux User #463880 FSFE Member #1300 GPG-FP: A6C1 457C 6DBA B13E 5524 F703 D12A FB79 926B 994E openSUSE 11.1, Kernel 2.6.27.21-0.1-default, KDE 4.2.4 Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR RAM, nVidia GeForce 9200GS -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse] Finally - Use Dark Themes in KDE without makingFirefox Alternating Lists Unreadable
by David C. Rankin 15 Jul '09

15 Jul '09

Listmates, I thought I would pass this along. I stumbled across it as a fluke. Background, I like the new dark themes in KDE4 (Obsidian Coast, etc.). One major drawback has always been not being able to see the light colored foreground text in applications that "use_system_colors", but don't do any checking on whether the foreground and background colors are the same. Firefox is one of the worst. If you set a dark theme in KDE and then try and "Organize Bookmarks..." in firefox, you can't read squat. It's all white-on-white. (well not all, just every other alternating row) Quite frustrating really given the number of "dark" themes available for FF. I have scratched my head on this off and on over the past few month but never gotten beyond looking up the fact that you would need to use the DOMi plugin to fine the node defining the color for the DIV and then hacking $/.mozilla/firefox/a9rzn8qv.default/chrome/userChrome.css It turns out the answer is utterly simple. (and hopefully permanent). The way I stumbled across will basically "lock" the standard color scheme for the alternating lists that were such problems in firefox before. Here is the trick (first close firefox): (1) In kde control center *SAVE* your current tricked out color scheme so you don't lose it, or simply "export" it so you can read it back in; (2) Change back to a normal black on white color scheme in kde control panel (Default will do); (3) Open Firefox and enter about:config in the address bar and the filter on "color". About 9-lines down you will see "browser.display.use_system_colors". Change this from "true" to "false" simply be double-clicking on it. (4) Now go back to control center and change back to your dark color theme. In my case, with FF 3.01, the changes are persistent. I halfway expected the colors to stay only for the current session, but nope, so far I have shutdown FF and restarted and the light background/dark text for the alternating lists of the interface have stayed the way they should. Now I know this part of FF isn't going to have a consistent dark-theme look, but I just glad it is readable... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse] KDE 4.3rc1: Why 25% CPU used by Plasma-Desktop
by John Andersen 14 Jul '09

14 Jul '09

Just sitting there, with nothing running on a Duel Core machine it chews up 23 to 33% of one CPU. Standard wall paper, nothing fancy going on, no dread dog in the background. Top shows Plasma-Desktop using >25% of one processor to show a static screen. What the heck is it doing? -- ----------JSA--------- Someone stole my tag line, so now I have this rental. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse] Using Sun's Java 1.6.0 JRE
by Stan Goodman 14 Jul '09

14 Jul '09

The JRE nowinstalled in my OS v11.1 is java-1_6_0-openjdk. There is some suspicion that this release lacks a feature that is preventing me from Making my JAlbum photo album, so I am thinking of replacing this JRE with java-1_6_0-sun, which appears in the YaST software management list. I would have thought that this would be as easy as uninstalling the existing JRE and installing Sun's. But I find the following page: http://en.opensuse.org/Installing_Sun%27s_Java_on_SUSE_Linux#Switching_betw… which contains the following sentence: ***** Because of licensing issues Sun's Java Edition can not be included on the CDs of the download edition of openSUSE. ***** and gives a "quick guide" for installing it. This is not an obsolete page (it even mentions openSuSE v11.1). How can I reconcile the sentence above with the presence of the rpm for the Sun release? -- Stan Goodman Qiryat Tiv'on Israel -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse] Thunderbird imap cx to Exchange broken; won't subscribe to folders
by Dan Goodman 14 Jul '09

14 Jul '09

I am completely stymied. I have Thunderbird for a client 2.0.18 something...connected via imap to our company's Exchange mail server. It had been working fine until recently, when I deleted a LOT of old email. After hours and days working with our mail admins, and after uninstalling and reinstalling Thunderbird a couple of times, plus a lot of work on the Exchange side, I was able to get connected for the first time in days (a clunky web interface worked all along, but no folders, etc.). Now, although I have the inbox and trash back, every time I try to subscribe to folders I have on the server, Thunderbird closes itself the minute I click subscribe. Tried deleting the 65K emails I had in trash, but still no luck. Anyone run into anything like this? Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance. Dan PS, I had had MozillaThunderbird-2.0.22-something, but when I uninstalled it the first time, it reverted to 2.0.18-something, a correctly x86_64 version. Don't know why, but my problems predated this. Originally couldn't log in with TBird, now just can't get my folders. Notice: This communication, including attachments, may contain confidential or proprietary information to be conveyed solely for the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, or if you otherwise received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and promptly delete this e-mail, including attachments, without reading or saving them in any manner. The unauthorized use, dissemination, distribution, or reproduction of this e-mail, including attachments, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse] rescuing 11.1
by jdd 14 Jul '09

14 Jul '09

Hello, My hosting provider allows me to install openSUSE 11.1, fine :-). However, as always, given what I am :-), I launched the firewall without opening the ssh port... usually, it's not a issue. I ask for a reboot on rescue system (remember, It's not my home but a server far away), from there I mount the drive, bind the necessary folders (this is openSUSE special and unpleasant): mount /dev/hdxy /mnt mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev chroot /mnt and then I can launch YaST and fix anything. This time, no avail... YaST menu launch, but no of the modules. neither with "yast module" syntax (simply crashes or stop silently). I had to manually remove SuseFirewall2 from /etc/init.d/rc3.d to be able to login on the server. * could opening ssh be default on SuSEFirewall2?? * what is the change in 11.1? I did this without problem with previous openSUSE * I couldn't manage to open the ssh port from the SuSEFirewall2 config file jdd -- http://www.dodin.net http://valerie.dodin.org http://news.opensuse.org/2009/04/13/people-of-opensuse-jean-daniel-dodin/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse] Re: Beagle frontend
by Joachim Schrod 14 Jul '09

14 Jul '09

Peter Nikolic wrote: > On Tuesday 14 Jul 2009 14:53:02 Adam Tauno Williams wrote: >> > > Disabling Beagle is well covered at > Lets face it beagle is nothing more than an excuse for a poorly organised > filing system not on the machines behalf but on the side of the user , IF the > user was to have a sensible way of creating storing and sorting his files in > the first place there would be no need for the unmitigated resource hog in > the first place it just allows people to be lax and untidy > > so there is no reason for it to be installed there is on the other hand a need > to teach people to organise the machines . Are you a troll, do you really believe that sh*t, or are you a superhuman? On my workstations I have files that date back to 1983, when I had my first account on a Unix system. I have email archives that date back to 1981, when I got my first email account and started to work on TeX. I have millions of code lines around, from software systems that I worked on (both open source and proprietary). If I remember that I had something to do, maybe 20 or 25 years ago, with some TeX dude that might be relevant for a historic question today; or if I remember that there was some functionality in some software module that I need to know how it was solved but don't remember the exact name of the system nor the respective module -- are *you* really able to answer such question with *your* properly organized filing system faster than could be done by a personal search engine? If no, you don't know a thing about the work environment of others and should stop looking down your nose at others. If yes, I bow deeply concerning your superhuman abilities. You would be the first one that I would have met in my > 30 years of professional IT work who would be able to do so. If I ever overcame my suspicion that this might perhaps not be true; I would eventually be inclined[*] to give you a hint about just two additional things to learn then: (1) others aren't as great as you, you should not think your superhuman abilities are common traits -- and (2) you should really think about adding some minimal social communication skills to your superhuman abilities, they're severly lacking at the moment. Joachim [*] Damn English language -- this shall be Conditional II, native speakers please adapt syntax as needed. -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Joachim Schrod Email: jschrod(a)acm.org Roedermark, Germany -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse] Re: Beagle frontend
by Joachim Schrod 14 Jul '09

14 Jul '09

Adam Tauno Williams wrote, in an answer to me: >> I'm also one of the old guys who deactivate Beagle owing to bad >> experience in the past. I might be tempted to revisit that >> decision, since a search feature for one's files is of obvious merit. >> Since you seem to know Beagle well: What is a recommended search >> frontend when one does neither use GNOME nor KDE? > > I only know in GNOME, but the "Desktop Search" dialog seems to 'just > work' if you set a key binding in System / File System / Search > > I also frequently use the web interface, just because I'm frequently in > a browser, which is http://localhost:4000/ provided you have it > enabled. It is my default page so Ctrl-T takes me there in a new tab. > Sounds odd, but it is handy. You enable the web interface via - > beagle-config Networking WebInterface true That's OK for trying. I can look for native clients after I have seen if it's useful for me. Thanks for the hint, Joachim -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Joachim Schrod Email: jschrod(a)acm.org Roedermark, Germany -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse] Printer cups, pam and samba authentication problems
by Marc Chamberlin 14 Jul '09

14 Jul '09

I guess I must be missing something so need some wonderful guru to bail me out... I am back at one of my most abhorrent tasks at the moment, trying to set up computers around my home/small business network to use a printer attached to a Windoz box. Every time I have to do this, or something similar, it usually involves several days of debugging and lots of cursing at all the incomprehensible layers of security and obtuse or lack of documentation that goes with it. And once again I am stumped... So to boil all this down to a simple example, I have a printer attached to a Windoz box and all of my Windoz machines can use it just fine. All my computers are attached to a simple single network. Trouble is that for Linux, I have to supply CUPS with a special printer driver, from Turboprint, to handle the formatting of data before passing it on to the Windoz machine for printing out. So I have one SuSE 11.0 machine acting as my print server, and I WANT all my other SuSE machines to send their print requests to this central SuSE print server. All are running either SuSE11.0 or 11.1 with KDE 3.5 (I tried KDE4.0 and had so many other problems that I had to give up on it.) The print server has CUPS set up an running, and it alone can successfully send documents to the Windoz computer and print things out on the Windoz printer. So I know I do not have a network/firewall issue between the SuSE printer server itself and the Windoz box. For all the rest of my SuSE machines, I have tried and tried and tried to use Yast to configure each one to "Do all my printing directly via one remote CUPS server" and when configured and testing the remote IPP access, I get a report that there it is successful in connecting to the CUPS server. To bad that YaST does not supply an actual print a test page button for this mode however!!!! That is the real proof in the pudding that one has successfully set things up, but apparently some brain dead designer dropped the ball on that one... (It does supply a print test page button for local CUPS servers, so the designer(s) of YaST got it half right at least) So next I go and try to use an application to print something out.. Zilch! nadda, no joy.. Looking in the cups error.log file all I get is brain dead message telling me that an authentication failure occurred. HUMP! More hours of investigation later I try to use the KDE configuration manager, on one of the client machines, to see if KDE is somehow interfering with my ability to print out remotely from my SuSE machines, and when I use it's Print Test Page VIOLA! up pops a dialog box asking me for the password for ROOT!!! So I give it the Root's password for the SuSE printer server and VIOLA! Out comes a test page from the Windoz machine's attached printer!!! Another experiment revels that this dialog box only comes up when I place the KDE configuration manager in administrator mode. And a third experiment revels that it ONLY works for ROOT and not for any other valid users (including myself) of the SuSE computer acting as a printer server. WELL GOOD GRIEF!!! This seems to indicate there may be a massive design flaw! If the CUPS server is asking for a user name and password to authenticate a remote request to print something, THEN WHY OH WHY AM I NOT BEING PRESENTED WITH THIS SAME DIALOG BOX EVERY TIME, from any application, to give the cups server a valid user name and password??? What is worse though, is that apparently ONLY ROOT is a valid user of the remote CUPS server, authorized with the remote ROOT's password, to print things out! I search for answers on the server side as well and my research revealed that some monstrosity called PAM is SUPPOSED to be handling the authentication processes. But I think it is ONLY the designers and perhaps someone with a PhD who will be capable of understanding and configuring that mess without receiving outside help. My attempt to do so only left me with a splitting headache! Whatever happened to the KISS principal in user interfaces and client/server model view control frameworks? Object Oriented design of architectures? Use case studies? Nowhere in Yast or the KDE manager, on either the server or client side, can I find a place to enter valid user name/password(s) for using a remote CUPS server, nor is there anyplace in the CUP'S web administrator, and if the apps themselves are not asking for it, via a common dialog utility, then HOW IN THE WORLD AM I SUPPOSE TO AUTHENTICATE MYSELF TO A REMOTE CUPS SERVER? I have tried other approaches as well, such as setting up my SuSE boxes to connect to the Samba server on the SuSE printer server, and have Samba handle to authentication/connection to CUPs but nada, zilch, and no joy there either. FRICK! WHAT A MESS! To make all this even harder, is that there is very little, easy to understand, documentation about the underlying models of how authentication takes place, how Samba, CUPs, and PAM interplay and it appears each is following an authentication model that is uniquely it's own.. And I cannot find any diagnostic tools anywhere for following the authentication process... Nor is there much documentation on how Yast and KDE work to set up printers.. For example, 80% of the time clicking on the help button in the printer setup menus of YaST, results in a blank help dialog coming up! So God only knows what some of the settings actually do or mean! .... So like I said, I am at wits end and need a kind guru to help bail me out! Any takers? Many thanks in advance and sorry if I sound a bit frustrated.. I HATE setting up printers, firewalls and networks in general, regardless of whether it is Windoz, Linux, Macs or Unix OS's; it ALWAYS turns out to be far more difficult than it should be, mostly due to all these layers and layers of obscure complex security features... Might be a good thing to have good security, but IMHO this growing incoherent design is breaking the usability of SuSE/Linux. I OUGHT to be the one in command of these machines but right now I feel like I am a General over a battalion of anarchist mutineers! Marc... -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help(a)opensuse.org

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