July 2002 - openSUSE Edu - openSUSE Mailing Lists

Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Meeting yesterday and welcome to new members of the list
by Philip Hands 07 Jul '03

07 Jul '03

Roger Whittaker <roger(a)suse-linux.co.uk> writes: > I've just subscribed various people to the list - please post a > message to say hello and introduce yourselves. Hi, If you were at the meeting, I was wearing a Debian t-shirt (with a red swirl logo on it) --- there's a photo at the top of this article, where I'm wearing similar stuff (except for the penguin ;-) http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/articles/issue6/lu6-Editorial-A_patently_bad_ide… I'm a Debian GNU/Linux developer, and run the UK Debian mirror, and am responsible for producing the Debian official CD images: http://www.uk.debian.org/ http://cdimage.debian.org/ I have only a peripheral interest in educational matters, in that I've been frustrated in the past in my efforts to provide free computers (which were otherwise destined for a skip), but I can certainly contribute on a technical side, and having been involved in Debian (which is completely voluntary, like OSIE is expected to be) since 1996 I may be able to make some suggestions about how to ``organise'' such a thing. For those of you who've not come across Debian before, we're a world-wide voluntary organisation (read, chaotic jumble of mailing lists) that puts together a Linux distribution (and soon a HURD distribution) and gives it away. Debian doesn't pay people to do this, and doesn't sell what it produces, and in most legal senses doesn't really exist (i.e. the machines in the mirror network mostly belong to people like me, rather than to Debian, and the bandwidth is donated rather than paid for). This probably gives a pretty good feel for what Debian is all about: http://www.uk.debian.org/social_contract which you will notice leads into the The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG), which is where the Open Source Definition came from. My internet machine, that hosts the Debian UK mirror, may be of use to OSIE, since it has about 30GB of spare disk, and a 20Mbit/s connection at a well connected ISP. This machine could act as either a primary host or mirror site for the web site, and could do DNS secondarying etc. as well. Something I'd be interested in working on (although perhaps a SuSE list is not the right place to spend too much time discussing this ;-) would be producing Debian CD images, tuned to the needs of educational users. Debian has accumulated some funds in the UK, and have been looking for a worthwhile cause to spend them on (we never really need to pay for anything that actually makes Debian work, so don't have much use for money), so we could probably afford to have a few thousand CDs pressed, and send them out to schools that are interested. Cheers, Phil. -- Say no to software patents! http://petition.eurolinux.org/ Philip Hands. +44 (0)20 7744 6244 philip.hands(a)uk.alcove.com Alcove UK --- Liberating Software --- http://www.alcove.com/ http://www.hands.com/ phil(a)hands.com http://www.uk.debian.org/

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RE NHS Meeting - Bill and Tony
by Alan Harris 18 Sep '02

18 Sep '02

Hi all thought this might be of interest to some of you :- <my email> > Subject: Microsoft and the British Government - Possible Anti-Competitive Behaviour > Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 15:04:20 +0100 > From: alanh(a)bryngwyn.carmarthen.sch.uk > To: Erkki.Liikanen(a)cec.eu.int > > Hi, > > I write regarding the current negotiations between the British > Government and Microsoft in which, to date, Microsoft have been awarded > a contract to supply the National Health Service with some 60 Million > (£)'s worth of software licenses. > > I would be grateful if you could inform me of the current state of the > anti-competition investigation being undertaken by the EU against > Microsoft, as it appears that more such deals (like that for the NHS) > are in the pipeline. As the commisioner with responsibility for the > Information Society I am sure that you are well aware of the potential > for damage being created by such actions. > > Many Thanks > > Alan </my email> <commisioners response> > Subject: RE: Microsoft and the British Government - Possible Anti-Competit ive Behaviour > Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 14:08:31 +0100 > From: Erkki.Liikanen(a)cec.eu.int > To: alanh(a)bryngwyn.carmarthen.sch.uk > CC: Mario.Monti(a)cec.eu.int, Marc.Van-Hoof(a)cec.eu.int, Olli.Rehn(a)cec.eu.int, Per.Haugaard(a)cec.eu.int > > Dear. Mr. Harris, > > I pass your letter to my colleague Mario Monti and his cabinet. He is > responsible for this issue. > But still, during investigation I don't believe much more can be said what > has been in public. > > with best regards > > Erkki Liikanen > > ******************************** > Mr. Erkki Liikanen > Member of the Commission > tel. +32-2-295.79.57 > fax +32-2-295.85.61 > erkki.liikanen(a)cec.eu.int > secretary; kirsi.larjava(a)cec.eu.int > tel. +32-2-295.14.40 > http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/liikanen/index_en.htm > </commissiones response> There may be hope for all of us then? Alan ----------------------------------------------------- Alan Harris Network Manager Bryngwyn School Tel : 01554 750661 Fax : 01554 758255 E-mail: alanh(a)bryngwyn.carmarthen.sch.uk ----------------------------------------------------- Notes: 1. The contents of this email may be snooped on by interested government parties for unknown purposes! Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2000. 2. The opinions expressed in this email are personal and may not be shared by Bryngwyn School. -----------------------------------------------------

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SuSE EMail Server II
by Rob Keeling 10 Aug '02

10 Aug '02

Thanks for the replies I received to my last post, it turned out to be a combination of dirty cd, dodgy CD-ROM drive and overheating problems! I have now installed everything, and trying to get to grips with the way it works. I need to try to integrate it with a NT 4 domain database if at all possible, using NT passwords would be a VERY good move. I am trying to move our system slowly but surely to Linux rather than MS, at the moment Outlook express is giving us major problems with pop3. What I want to do is, configure Outlook for IMAP access, (as an added bonus it looks like LDAP will do our system wide address book). Allow web mail from anywhere, and add a IMAP tool to our new Linux machines (once I have built them!). I was assuming that I could replace the Unix password file with winbind, giving me common users and passwords, this looks like a big assumption? Can I configure something to populate the LDAP server with all our user names etc, and then use something else to use NT password authentication? Thanks for any help anyone can give! I am getting a bit out of my depth................ Rob Keeling Network Manager Queen Elizabeth`s Grammar School Ashbourne

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Squid and broadband
by Dave Williams 02 Aug '02

02 Aug '02

Hi everyone We have been using a dialup connection and squid successfully as a proxy for the past few months. However, we have just been connected to broadband (18 months later than promised) and I now need to change the squid.conf file to connect to the new service. Broadband is provided through embc (East Midlands Broadband Consortium) and we have a router on site, 10.0.12.1, which machines can use as a gateway to access the embc proxy. We have ip numbers for the embc dns and proxy but I cannot get machines on our network to connect through the squid box. When an individual client connects directly through the gateway to the embc proxy there are no login screens and internet access (filtered) is immediately available. I assume there must be some way of enabling the squid box to do the same and then proxy the internet to the rest of the machines on the network. Can anyone help? Dave Williams

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Quick cron question...
by Andrew RAY 30 Jul '02

30 Jul '02

Excellent advice from Michael, as always. On 2002.07.29 23:01 Michael Brown wrote: > Even nicer: > > While in your home directory (or anywhere else you don't mind storing > your > crontab file) : > crontab -l > crontab > ci -l crontab In case you need it, to track back through any revisions you have made, you will need to use the command co -r1.3 -l crontab where 1.3 corresponds to the version of the crontab you wish to use. (Versions are numbered, by rcs, conventionally from 1.1 ascending, as you proceed through.) The -l ensures the file is locked for you to revise (and will place a rw copy for you to edit). If you leave out the -l, you'll get a ro copy. Don't worry about overwriting your existing file with an earlier revision. As long as you don't delete the crontab,v file that rcs makes, you can always unpack a later revision again later on. Managing revisions sensibly requires a little bit of care. The rcs file holds notes of locks imposed as you check revisions out for editing. If you need to remove a lock, you'll need rcs -u1.3 crontab I could go on, but the man pages on the rcs suite are quite good. Look at those for ci, co and rcs as a first step. (By the by, Michael's 'killer' package, Lyx, has built-in facilities for using rcs to control versions of documents which is an amazing bonus!) If you prefer to use CVS, you might also want to look at pharmacy or lincvs, both of which are graphical front ends for the cvs system Michael recommended as a more powerful means of version control. Managing revisions is getting a little further away from your original enquiry, but might even be worth a thread of its own. Thanks for raising it, Michael. Andrew -- ******************************************************************************** E-Mail: aray(a)computerpark.co.uk ********************************************************************************

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Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Quick cron question...
by Andrew RAY 29 Jul '02

29 Jul '02

> > crontab -e A neater way to keep a history of the old crontab entries (just in case your changes cause things to go wrong): 1. As the user whose crontab you are changing (presumably root in your case), make a suitable directory (~/cronfiles). 2. In that directory, execute crontab -l > original.root.cron crontab -l > 2002.07.29.root.cron (This places the contents of the current crontab in a text file you can edit with vi, and preserves an original.) 3. vi 2002.07.29.root.cron (This allows you to edit the copy of the cron file that you will update.) 4. crontab 2002.07.29.root.cron (This reads your edited file, replacing the current cron settings with your proposed new ones.) By these small extra steps, you can keep various versions of the cron file available for immediate use, and obviously re-name them if you find it helps. More ... > > The entry you want to do if you want to run something every 15 mins is > > 0-59/4 * * * * root /path/to/my/script > Sorry, but it is not. The columns normally work out like this: #mins hours Day-of-month Month Day-of-week (User-name-if-this-is-the-system-cron) Command 0-59/15 * * * * root /path/to/my/script is the correct entry. The figure after the / indicates the *step to jump* in units appropriate to the cron entry you are looking at (here, minutes), and is not used as a divisor in the sense Gary suggested. The man page Gary Stainburn referred you to is really very clear, so follow his advice and make sure you understand it. Hope this helps Andrew -- ******************************************************************************** E-Mail: aray(a)computerpark.co.uk ********************************************************************************

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problem with xinit, chooser and dhcp
by Simon Wood 28 Jul '02

28 Jul '02

Hi all, I'm having problems getting my xinit/chooser setup working properly, and was hoping that someone knows a solution or can suggest something to try. What I have set up is xinit running on the local machine (laptop), but without a Xserver entry. I then start 'X -indirect w.x.y.z' from inittab. This works with varying success. I'm doing this so that I can either work locally on the laptop or use it as an X terminal onto another machine. The main problem is that the IP is DHCP'ed and this seems to cause confusion. If I use the loopback I can see 'myself' and other machines, but can't log into other machines (I assume that they get confused by 127.0.0.1). If I use an allocated IP (which is a fixed value at home) then I can log into all (both) machines. However the DHCP IP at work is more dynamic and has the potential to change. Two questions. 1). Can someone confirm why the 127.0.0.1 fails, as this is the more logical one to use (I think). 2). Can anyone suggest a way of automatically altering the value for inittab, bear in mind that the network may come up/be ejected after the machine has booted (as it's pcmcia) and can change when DHCP license expires. I'm running on Debian, which I suppose makes it a little naughty posting to Suse-Schools.... Thanks in advance, Simon Wood

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Dependents
by ptaylor 28 Jul '02

28 Jul '02

Hi all: Has anyone had any difficulties trying to load the kdebase3.rpm for SuSE 8.0? I get the following: error: failed dependencies: kdebase3 = 3.0 is needed by kdebase3-devel-3.0-5 All the other updates worked so I assume there is a problem with this or me, can't be me right :) Paul

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SCORM AICC FlashMX
by Colin McQueen 28 Jul '02

28 Jul '02

Hi I have just started getting into FlashMX and have found the Quiz templates. These help quickly produce flash based quizzes that will communicate with a LMS that sticks to AICC or SCORM based standards. Questions Is anyone building a Linux LMS based/using on these standards? How difficult would it be to write something that recieves the FlashMX SCORM/AICC communication to put it into say an MySQL database. ie. not a full LMS but a simple database based on the users and their interaction with the FlashMX applets. -- Colin McQueen : Using an Acorn StrongARM Risc PC Web Domain : http://www.mcqueen.uk.net/ BSc Zoology + Oceanography : PGCE : MSc in CBL/T

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SuSE Email Server II Installation
by Rob Keeling 27 Jul '02

27 Jul '02

I got a copy of Email server II SuSE`s recent sale, which I am trying to install on various machines with no success. Is there anyone using this that might be able to tell me whats going on? A minimum system spec would be a good start. Thanks Rob Keeling Network Manager Queen Elizabeth`s Grammar School

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