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Windows refund: stymied
by linux-cOjNTMaGA5U＠public.gmane.org 28 Aug '03

28 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 28 Aug '03

28 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 28 Aug '03

28 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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Drive Imaging with dd
by kareem-d+8TeBu5bOew5LPnMra/2Q＠public.gmane.org 28 Aug '03

28 Aug '03

On Thu, 2003-08-28 at 16:21, Jim Rootham wrote: > I would suspect (with almost no evidence) that you may be missing latency > windows (especially on write). It would not take too many times for the disk > to have to spin (almost) all the way round to hammer the total transfer rate > pretty good. If you could get more buffers in the pipe that might help. > > Jim 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. Kareem -- /********************************************************************* kareem-d+8TeBu5bOew5LPnMra/2Q at public.gmane.org - Kareem Shehata - 416-676-6611 -------------------------------------------------------------------- The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life. -- Henry Ford (1863 - 1947) ********************************************************************/ -- 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 clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ＠public.gmane.org 28 Aug '03

28 Aug '03

At 03:46 PM 28/08/2003 -0400, Sidney Shapiro wrote: >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. [snip] >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? <http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/reisner/drbd/> seems like it might fit the bill. I have not tried it but it is on my TODO list of things to check out. Regards, Clifford Ilkay Dinamis Corporation 3266 Yonge Street, Suite 1419 Toronto, Ontario Canada M4N 3P6 Tel: 416-410-3326 mailto:clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org -- 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 jim.rootham-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA＠public.gmane.org 28 Aug '03

28 Aug '03

>On Thu, 2003-08-28 at 11:47, Lennart Sorensen wrote: >> Have you looked at top while running dd with gzip? Might be CPU >> limited. >> >> Lennart Sorensen > >With gzip set anywhere between -2 and -7 I seem to get around 15-25% >idle time, which seems to indicate that there's enough processor time. >It does bounce around a lot though, anywhere between 97% to 60% use for >gzip. > I would suspect (with almost no evidence) that you may be missing latency windows (especially on write). It would not take too many times for the disk to have to spin (almost) all the way round to hammer the total transfer rate pretty good. If you could get more buffers in the pipe that might help. Jim -- 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 sidney-3Kd7Tu4o6f/sBN0MCq728g＠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. 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. 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. WWW for example is much easier to do than mail, you can use rsync to keep the content up to date. Logfiles on the other hand would have to be recombined and processed later on to do statistics. 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. 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). 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? Sid -- 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 offshoredan-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w＠public.gmane.org 28 Aug '03

28 Aug '03

--- Madison Kelly <linux-5ZoueyuiTZhBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote: > Hi all, > > 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!! You will partition your drive so that each distro will have its own partition. Your swap partition can be shared by the various Linux installs - no need to create a separate one for each. Multi-booting can be handled by GRUB - pick one of the Linuxes to be your 'permanent' install and whenever you add another Linux install to your drive, setup a entry for it in this 'permanent' Linux's /boot/grub/menu.lst. Daniel __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com -- 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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no negative billing here! Dell - Dimension XPS Desktop (fwd)
by andzy-bYF1QM81rroS+FvcfC7Uqw＠public.gmane.org 28 Aug '03

28 Aug '03

On 28 Aug 2003 14:24:09 -0400, "Matthew Rice" <matt-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> said: > Max Blanco <blanco-S8qYAnHmZTt34ZA5RureAJ4VBq8PJc8F at public.gmane.org> writes: > > Shouldn't be too hard to set up. Have you got wiki? > > I'm sure we can come up with a list of under five "checklist" items. > > Then rate vendors on how they stack up. This is where wiki comes in > > handy: many hands make short work. > > > > Then we can go public... > > There is one. The CLIC guys are using it. I or Bill could setup another > or > I could ask them if they want to share it. Co-incidentally, I just made a request to the Ottawa LUG on behalf of the Open Source development group at St. Chirstopher House for permission to use their wiki site. They haven't got back to me yet but I could email them and ask about some more space for TLUG use. OLUG is using PHPWiki: http://oclug.on.ca/wiki/ Someone at a group called Linux Studio (I think also in Ottawa) emailed me separately to offer wiki space if OLUG doesn't come through, though this offer may apply just to charities (which the St. Chris program kind of is). Anyway, this is another possibility. ------------------- Andrew Malcolmson -- 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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