August 2003 - Legacy - lists.gtalug.org

Drive Imaging with dd
by kareem-d+8TeBu5bOew5LPnMra/2Q＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On Fri, 2003-08-29 at 09:08, Robert Brockway wrote: > Have you considered: > > dd if=/dev/hda1 of=shuttlepod.hda1 | gzip -1 I'm not entirely sure what would happen there. The if and of directives tell dd to just pipe the data to the file shuttlepod.hda1, what's left to go to gzip? To anyone interested, I think I may have figured out the bottleneck: 2000M instructions/sec / 20M bytes/sec = 100 instructions/byte That's not a lot of overhead for gzip to deal with the file, especially when you consider system overhead. I managed to image the drive at about 10M/s, achieving a compression rate of 75% with gzip at -5. This is by far the best drive imaging solution my company has seen. > I believe you may see different performance with this. > > Also, any particular reason you're using dd rather than tar? I'm trying to take a complete snapshot of the partition so that if *anything* happens, all I have to do is create the partition, dump the data, and boot. I'm not certain tar would capture everything, and NT/XP are notorious for doing interesting things with the filesystem. > I'm currently developing a CD which will (as one of its functions) backup > Win* boxes (and allow easy recovery). When I'm finished this will be > freely redistributable. I'll mention it on list when I'm done if anyone > wants to download it. I'd be interested in giving it a shot. One more tool can only be a good thing. Kareem -- /********************************************************************* kareem-d+8TeBu5bOew5LPnMra/2Q at public.gmane.org - Kareem Shehata - 416-676-6611 -------------------------------------------------------------------- I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be. -- Douglas Adams ********************************************************************/ -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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If someone sells laptops w/o Windows installed
by lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 05:19:44PM +0300, Peter L. Peres wrote: > These brands seem to change with the seasons. They have two things in > common: they are mostly made in Taiwan, and they come 'bare bones' w/o > anything excepting psu and battery. I do not know where to get these in > Canada, here they appear on specials in the local newspapers etc almost > every week. They are usually stuffed with hdds etc by local > small integrators and you can up/downgrade at will. I will try to get some > names for you next week. The quality is more than reasonable. > > Whatever happened with Sony Vaios and Crusoe ? I thought those would be > very compatible with linux ? No more ? The Sony Vaio's are as is usually the case with Sony, very proprietary. They have bits of hardware that has requires special coding to deal with. It seems to be finally possible to use a Vaio properly with linux, but it sees to have taken a good year or two to get there. ie: Package: spicctrl Description: Sony Vaio controller program to set LCD backlight brightness spicctrl is a small program that can use the Sony Programmable I/O Control device (SPIC), which is part of Sony Vaio's, to do a few simple things. Currently, it can only be used to control the brightness on the LCD backlight, and print out some information about the battery. You need a kernel with the sonypi module (and a Vaio laptop..) to use this program. So not really that plain and simple. No idea about the Crusoe based machines. Supported CPU doesn't imply supported other hardware. Lennart Sorensen -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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Grub Not Starting
by lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 11:30:03AM -0400, Kareem Shehata wrote: > Apologies in advance for the total newbie-ness of this question, but I > can't seem to figure this one out. > > I've managed to shrink the ntfs partition my Inspiron shipped with > thanks to Fraser's tip. I've set up swap on hda2 and Gentoo on hda3. I > followed the gentoo docs on setting up grub on the MBR (hda or hd0), but > every time it boots I get: > > GRUB Loading stage1.5. > > > GRUB Loading, please wait... > > Then nothing. > > The good news is that I can boot both XP and Gentoo using a grub boot > floppy and typing in my grub.conf manually. That leaves me with the > impression that there's something wrong with the way I'm setting up > grub. The docs said to do the following in grub: > > root (hd0,2) > > setup (hd0) > > Any ideas? On debian I do: grub-install /dev/hda and that's it. I don't use grub to install grub. Lennart Sorensen -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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Grub Not Starting
by kareem-d+8TeBu5bOew5LPnMra/2Q＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

Apologies in advance for the total newbie-ness of this question, but I can't seem to figure this one out. I've managed to shrink the ntfs partition my Inspiron shipped with thanks to Fraser's tip. I've set up swap on hda2 and Gentoo on hda3. I followed the gentoo docs on setting up grub on the MBR (hda or hd0), but every time it boots I get: GRUB Loading stage1.5. GRUB Loading, please wait... Then nothing. The good news is that I can boot both XP and Gentoo using a grub boot floppy and typing in my grub.conf manually. That leaves me with the impression that there's something wrong with the way I'm setting up grub. The docs said to do the following in grub: > root (hd0,2) > setup (hd0) Any ideas? Thanks in advance, Kareem -- /********************************************************************* kareem-d+8TeBu5bOew5LPnMra/2Q at public.gmane.org - Kareem Shehata - 416-676-6611 -------------------------------------------------------------------- I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be. -- Douglas Adams ********************************************************************/ -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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If someone sells laptops w/o Windows installed
by plp-ysDPMY98cNQDDBjDh4tngg＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, Lennart Sorensen wrote: > What brands would these be? I am currently helping a friend find a new > laptop, and would love to avoid the likes ofd Dell, Toshiba, Sony, etc. These brands seem to change with the seasons. They have two things in common: they are mostly made in Taiwan, and they come 'bare bones' w/o anything excepting psu and battery. I do not know where to get these in Canada, here they appear on specials in the local newspapers etc almost every week. They are usually stuffed with hdds etc by local small integrators and you can up/downgrade at will. I will try to get some names for you next week. The quality is more than reasonable. Whatever happened with Sony Vaios and Crusoe ? I thought those would be very compatible with linux ? No more ? Peter -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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If someone sells laptops w/o Windows installed
by lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 04:57:07PM +0300, Peter L. Peres wrote: > Yes. In one case the supplier installed MSDOS I think to see if it booted > right and then deleted the partitions with fdisk I think before shipping. > Any laptop where you purchase it with a disk up-or downgrade will have a > blank hdd in it and you can tell the vendor you want him to leave it like > that. There is a better chance to get such a machine from a local shop > that does its own integration (shop around in your area), than from a big > chain. You will also likely get a good price. > > Buying a big name brand laptop for use with linux/others is a risky > business imho. They almost always have the cojones to implement > non-standard hardware that requires special drivers. If you then try to > run anything but a mainstream os (like netbsd etc etc) on it you have a > problem. The problem can range from nonfunctioning modem to burned out cpu > due to acpi incompatibility not allowing the cpu cooler fan to run. I haven't personally seen any of those sall brand laptops yet. Where do you find those? As for linux comaptible laptops, IBM thinpads often are very good, although not all of them. I think their website even has a list of certified linux compatible laptops. I have had problems with video on one thinkpad that wasn't listed as compatible, and the modem didn't work either (apparently the sound chip conflicted due to some stupidity in the intel chipset design). > Cheapers laptops will have more compliant hardware since they usually do > not have the special agreements with our favorite software house and they > need to be compatible with the mainstream. Many even have linux drivers on > the system driver cd (supplied). What brands would these be? I am currently helping a friend find a new laptop, and would love to avoid the likes ofd Dell, Toshiba, Sony, etc. Lennart Sorensen -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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Windows refund: stymied by Dell
by blanco-S8qYAnHmZTt34ZA5RureAJ4VBq8PJc8F＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, Max Blanco wrote: > On Thu, 28 Aug 2003, Ian Goldberg wrote: > > > The whole story: > > > > http://www.cypherpunks.ca/dell.html > > > > from said page: > > "7. Software. All software is provided subject to the license > agreement that is part of the package. Customer agrees that > it will be bound by the license agreement once the package is > opened or its seal is broken. > > "Customer agrees that --->it<---" > > This licence does not apply to a human being. Correction to: > They get one to acknowledge one's soul away. They have an animate human being acknowledge that he or she has no soul by indirect means. The animate human, who would warrant the appellation of "he" or "she", is replaced by a meat machine, denoted by "it". > Please don't touch this licence with a ten-foot pole. -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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If someone sells laptops w/o Windows installed
by plp-ysDPMY98cNQDDBjDh4tngg＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

Yes. In one case the supplier installed MSDOS I think to see if it booted right and then deleted the partitions with fdisk I think before shipping. Any laptop where you purchase it with a disk up-or downgrade will have a blank hdd in it and you can tell the vendor you want him to leave it like that. There is a better chance to get such a machine from a local shop that does its own integration (shop around in your area), than from a big chain. You will also likely get a good price. Buying a big name brand laptop for use with linux/others is a risky business imho. They almost always have the cojones to implement non-standard hardware that requires special drivers. If you then try to run anything but a mainstream os (like netbsd etc etc) on it you have a problem. The problem can range from nonfunctioning modem to burned out cpu due to acpi incompatibility not allowing the cpu cooler fan to run. Cheapers laptops will have more compliant hardware since they usually do not have the special agreements with our favorite software house and they need to be compatible with the mainstream. Many even have linux drivers on the system driver cd (supplied). Peter -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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Windows refund: stymied
by lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 01:31:00AM -0400, Marc Lijour (Professeur d'Informatique) wrote: > A masterpiece! > > I had the same problem with DELL. But, wait until you try to install vmware > and discover that you windowsOEM won't work with the vmware pseudoBIOS! > DELL CDs are for DELL BIOS... Same with Gateway. > It's a shame. And I'm glad to ear that. Next time, I probably won't buy a DELL > unless somebody can tell me they changed this ludicrous policy. I imagine microsoft doesn't want Dell's diskimage installable Windows version to work on other machines. imagine if it fell into the wrong hands. Lennart Sorensen -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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Windows refund: stymied
by lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On Thu, Aug 28, 2003 at 09:54:59PM -0400, Ian Goldberg wrote: > I spent all afternoon on the phone with Dell. It turns out the Windows > refund issue didn't even come up, because (get this), when you boot the > computer, you're presented with a *Dell* screen that forces you to say > you've read and agreed to all the EULAs for the software on the system. > > Trick is, they don't give them to you. > > No one at Dell seemed perplexed by this. I was being forced to say I've > read agreements I don't have. So we didn't even get to the bit where I > could point to the "refund" clause in the Windows EULA, since I was > never presented with it in the first place. > > The whole story: > > http://www.cypherpunks.ca/dell.html > > This is the next level above "click-through" licenses. Now, they figure > no one reads the EULAs anyway, so why bother even providing a copy? > They'll click "I've read and agreed" anyhow. I wonder if it is time Dell started shipping a bit more paper with their machines. License agreements for example. :) Well IBM does sell laptops with Linux preinstalled. Not sure if anyone else does, or if anyone sells laptops with no software at all. Lennart Sorensen -- The Toronto Linux Users Group. Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml

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