August 2003 - Legacy - lists.gtalug.org

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

29 Aug '03

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. They get one to acknowledge one's soul away. 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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Drive Imaging with dd
by robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On Thu, 28 Aug 2003, Kareem Shehata wrote: > When just dump the files directly from one drive to another, the > performance is spot on: > root at ttyp0[test]# dd if=/dev/hda1 of=shuttlepod.hda1 > 2260624+0 records in > 2260624+0 records out > 1157439488 bytes transferred in 64.225880 seconds (18021388 bytes/sec) > > But the moment I stick gzip in the middle, is slows down by at least half: > > root at ttyp0[test]# dd if=/dev/hda1 | gzip -1 > shuttlepod.hda1.gz Have you considered: dd if=/dev/hda1 of=shuttlepod.hda1 | gzip -1 I believe you may see different performance with this. Also, any particular reason you're using dd rather than tar? 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. Rob -- Robert Brockway B.Sc. email: robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy at public.gmane.org, zzbrock at uqconnect.net Linux counter project ID #16440 (http://counter.li.org) "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" -Baha'u'llah -- 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 marc-bbkyySd1vPWsTnJN9+BGXg＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

Le 28 Ao??t 2003 21:54, Ian Goldberg a ??crit : > 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. > > Ugh. 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... 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. Marc -- 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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Konqueror and Yahoo Groups
by fcsoft-rxKNY4w4koG3ikBYyZqyVg＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

Mine is the stock version that comes with RedHat 7.3 ie. Konqueror 2.2.1 Looks to me that something changed between your version and this one which broke the ability to access the Yahoo Groups server. On August 28, 2003 08:52 pm, you wrote: > On August 27, 2003 10:17 am, bob findlay wrote: > > > I just tried Bob, using Konq 1.5.3 and got to my 4 groups with no problems. > Nothing special has been configured in Konq. > > Konq. is identified as Mozilla 5.0/ Konq.... Java is not set globally but > Javascript is on. > > Merv -- 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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OT: unlimited DSL bandwidth usage
by fraser-Txk5XLRqZ6CsTnJN9+BGXg＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

Now if only they would give me a mail relay that actually worked. http://forums.sympatico.ca/WebX?14@@.1de4406a -- Fraser Campbell <fraser-Txk5XLRqZ6CsTnJN9+BGXg at public.gmane.org> http://www.wehave.net/ Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada Debian GNU/Linux -- 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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Drive Imaging with dd
by ttanski-iRg7kjdsKiH3fQ9qLvQP4Q＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On 28 Aug 2003, Kareem Shehata wrote: > I have the same suspicion. Is there any way to control pipes in bash? > I was thinking of piping the data through dd again with a different > block size to try and make a quasi-buffer, but I don't think that'll be > very efficient. Have a look at the following: http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/contrib/libc6/i386/buffer-1.19-1.i386.html Terry -- Terry Tanski, B.Sc. Phone: (416) 863-2126 Canada NewsWire Ltd. Fax: (416) 863-4825 20 Bay Street, Suite 1500 Email: ttanski-BEj8/MhvOJIsA/PxXw9srA at public.gmane.org Toronto, ON M5J 2N8 Web: http://www.newswire.ca -- 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 linux-cOjNTMaGA5U＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

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. Ugh. - Ian -- 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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Dual-Booting Linux
by mervc-MwcKTmeKVNQ＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On August 28, 2003 12:47 pm, Lloyd D Budd wrote: > On Thu, 2003-08-28 at 12:37, Madison Kelly wrote: > > I have setup dual-boot windows/linux machines many time but now I > > want to dual/triple boot linux distros (Redhat, Mandrake, Debian) on > > one machine. How do I avoid conflicts with things like /root, /ver, > > etc... Has anyone one this before? Thank you!! > Sure, you just create a partition for each distro. Linux now can safely partition drives I'm told or use the old Windows pgm Partition Magic. Any Linux install will install Grub or Lilo which have a menu to select which partition to boot. Merv -- 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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Konqueror and Yahoo Groups
by mervc-MwcKTmeKVNQ＠public.gmane.org 29 Aug '03

29 Aug '03

On August 27, 2003 10:17 am, bob findlay wrote: I just tried Bob, using Konq 1.5.3 and got to my 4 groups with no problems. Nothing special has been configured in Konq. Konq. is identified as Mozilla 5.0/ Konq.... Java is not set globally but Javascript is on. Merv -- 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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High availability question
by kmastin-PzQIwG9Jn9VAFePFGvp55w＠public.gmane.org 28 Aug '03

28 Aug '03

> I am running a hosting server currently equipped with a backup diesel > generator. Since the blackout, I have been considering a backup high > availability system, where if one would go out, the other would pick up > the slack. I have been told that this is impossible, and can only work > if I use a high availability scheme which would always keep one server > running. It's called quasi real-time backup with redundancy failover... > I have been told: "The expensive version of that would be to use the > akamai network, you could have both geographical load balancing and > near-instant failover. That's the hardware version... yikes. Count your pennies, you will need them. > Otherwise, Youd have to build a cluster to start > with, there are a lot of ways to do this, and it depends on the service. A cluster is not necessary, although I've heard the word "cluster" loosely used to decribe what you want. IIRC there is a distro out (I have no details, this is from memory) that does this pretty much automagically. > WWW for example is much easier to do than mail, you can use rsync to > keep the content up to date. Unless those websites are glued together by a database. Then it becomes more complex... > Logfiles on the other hand would have to be > recombined and processed later on to do statistics. Log to a seperate log machine and you don't have to worry about it. good idea on an Enterprise network anyways... > Another cheap way to > do this would be to set up a bunch of squid servers to proxy traffic to > your box. This wouldnt do anything for mail though, to keep that > together you'd need some kind of network file system, NFS, AFS or Coda > (qmail is NFS aware, which helps). You'd only need to store the user > mailboxes (/var/qmail/mailnames) on the network filesystem, Id keep the > queue on a local disk for performance reasons. Just settle for using Maildir. Anything not completed will be tried again by most mailservers. Using a short (1 min) backup window will come in handy here, so only the mails completed within that magic minute will be lost until synced back into the mix after bringng the first machine back to life. > For content, I'd > designate one system as the designated "master" for inbound content > (ftp, database, etc), and everything else mirrors that (rsync, > replication for mysql and postgres, etc). Just directing to an IP is good enough... the failover scheme takes care of all the rest. > Databases would be the most > complex component, you'd have to work out your replication strategy to > break out how to do the inserts/updates without each system stepping on > each others toes." > > Does anyone have an idea of how I could offer live (or rsynced to 2 > hours) backup/live services for hosting. I would like if one server went > down, the other would take over. Is this possible? I know you can do it to within as little as one minute depending on the data you're backing up. The setup is quite simplistic: One machine that holds the data master copy, one for the backup server, and a third to see to the switching. Sysadmin Mag had an article about doing thsi last year (July 2002) "An Economical Scheme for Quasi Real-Time Backup" by Leo Liberti and Franco Raimondi. I don't think the article can be found on the net, but I happen to have a copy that I can photocopy for you if you'd care to come pick it up. That will take care of keeping the 2 servers sync'ed. Now you need a fast failover plan. Here's a link to another article that's pretty simple to follow. "Quick Network Redundancy Schemes" by Leo Liberti http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1152/sam0104a/0104a.htm Liberti co-authored the first article and also combines the 2 systems, which is pretty simple, actually. HTH -- Keith Mastin BeechTree Information Technology Services Inc. Toronto, Canada (416)696 6070 -- 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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