Mailbag

Howard Dyckoff and Samuel Kotel Bisbee-vonKaufmann · and

"System lookup error: mount:undefined symbol:blkid_get_cache"

-- 
Amit Kumar Saha
[URL]:http://amitsaha.in.googlepages.com

-- 
Amit Kumar Saha
[URL]:http://amitsaha.in.googlepages.com

This module is intended for use in operations that can be done in
parallel where the number of processes to be forked off should be
limited.  Typical use is a downloader which will be retrieving
hundreds/thousands of files.

The code for a downloader would look something like this:

[...]

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:19:54 -0700
From: Scott Rainey <scott.rainey@thelinuxfund.org>
Reply-To: scott.rainey@thelinuxfund.org
To: editor@linuxgazette.net
Subject: TUX Images

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

>    I am writing a shell script to run on MC/SG cluster , and I am facing an
>    issue as mentioned below:
> 
>    if we have a package with a dash in the name say sgpkg-cust :
> 
>    # PKGsgpkg-cust=hello
>    sh: PKGsgpkg-cust=hello:  not found.
>    # PKGsgpkg=hello
>    # echo $PKGsgpkg-cust
>    hello-cust

>    I have a function get_package_fqdn which starts as below:
> 
>        37  get_package_fqdn()
>        38  {
>        39      eval var=$`echo PKG$1`
>        40      if [[ -z $var ]]; then
>                [...]
>        64      fi
>        65  }
> 
>    we will notice that if $1=sgpkg-cust, var will be equal to "-cust" and the
>    rest of the funcion "if[[ -z $var ]];" will not be used and nothing will
>    be introduced in the PKG$packagename variable.

package_name=$(echo -n "PKG$1"|tr -c 'a-zA-Z0-9_' '_')

ben@Tyr:~$ var=$(echo -n "xyzabc@$%^&*()_++sadbjkfjdf" | tr -c 'a-zA-Z0-9_' '_')
ben@Tyr:~$ echo $var
xyzabc____________sadbjkfjdf

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

> I have searched the net (google, newsgroups ...) to find an answer to
> this question .- but without success.
> 
> In KDE (for example) you can get individual desktops backgrounds for
> each virtual desktop.
> Well - i am used to a utility for M$-Windows called Xdesk that also
> can set the the desktops to have individual icons / folders.
> 
> I know that in the windows world they change a regkey that tells where
> the desktop belongs for each switch so such a 'true virtual desktop'
> 
> I have also in M$-Windows created bathc-files to use with less
> intelligence window-managers, theese batch-files separately update the
> regkey to get my own way to create 'true virtual desktops'
> 
> Is there any program that i can get to have different desktops-folders
> or is there any way  to trick either  kde / gnomw / idesk to have
> different desktops?

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pz215/fvwm-scripts/config

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

#!/bin/bash
cd /u1/database/prod/level0
rm *

linux:/usr/local/bin # crontab -l

# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (/tmp/crontab.XXXXvi5yHq installed on Tue Jun 26 14:13:04 2007)
# (Cron version V5.0 -- $Id: crontab.c,v 1.12 2004/01/23 18:56:42 vixie Exp $)
0 15 * * 5 /usr/local/bin/del_level0.sh > /dev/null 2>&1

 - vacation from Sendmail,
 - the Sieve vacation mailer that can be enabled in Cyrus and
 - a Perl script I wrote which is buried under the rubble of the company
   I worked for many years ago.

ben@Tyr:~/devel/0$ ./skewer 2 2
pork1|tmt1|tmt2|pork2

 ---#00#---

ben@Tyr:~/devel/0$ ./skewer 3 3
pork1|tmt1|tmt2|pork2|tmt3|pork3

 ---#00#0#---

ben@Tyr:~/devel/0$ ./skewer 4 4
pork1|tmt1|tmt2|pork2|tmt3|pork3|tmt4|pork4

 ---#00#0#0#---

ben@Tyr:~/devel/0$ ./skewer 5 4
pork1|tmt1|pork2|tmt2|pork3|tmt3|pork4|tmt4|pork5

 ---#0#0#0#0#---

ben@Tyr:~/devel/0$ ./skewer 7 4
pork1|tmt1|pork2|tmt2|pork3|tmt3|pork4|tmt4|pork5|pork6|pork7

 ---#0#0#0#0###---

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

>    Bank of America Higher Standards
>                             Online Banking Alert
>     Need additional up to    Re-Update Your Online Banking                   
>     the minute account                                                       
>     information? Sign  in    Because of unusual number of invalid login      
>                              attempts on you account, we had to believe      
>                              that, their might be some security problem on   
>                              you account. So we have decided to put an extra 
>                              verification process to ensure your identity    
>                              and your account security. Please click on sign 
>                              in to Online Banking to continue to the         
>                              verification process and ensure your account    
>                              security. It is all about your security. Thank  
>                              you. and visit the customer service section.    

http://www.tsv-betzigau.de/contenido/includes/hypper/repute/bankofamerica/online_bofa_banking/e-online-banking/index.htm

http://release35.par3.com/images/client/bankofamerica/em_logo.gif

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

> According to the GPLv3 lawyers, they're "procuring the distribution of"
> GPL'd software, and that requires permission from the copyright holder.
> So Microsoft are either distributing under the permissions which the GPL
> grants them, or they are violating copyright.

> July 2007 (#140):
> 
>   * Mailbag
>   * Talkback
>   * NewsBytes, by Howard Dyckoff

  Red Hat Adds Business Solutions to Open Source RHX

  RHX launch partners include Alfresco, CentricCRM, Compiere,
  EnterpriseDB, Groundwork, Jaspersoft, Jive, MySQL, Pentaho, Scalix,
  SugarCRM, Zenoss, Zimbra, and Zmanda.

  Red Hat Exchange helps you compare, buy, and manage open source
  business applications. All in one place and backed by the open source
  leader. We've collaborated with our open source software partners to
  validate that RHX applications run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and are
  delivered through the Red Hat Network. At RHX, Red Hat provides
  customers with a single point of contact for support.

  Are you only accepting open source ISVs into RHX?

  The initial set of participating ISVs all have an open source focus. We
  realize that there is debate about which companies are truly open
  source. To make it transparent to users, RHX includes information about
  each ISV's license approach. Longer term, we may introduce proprietary
  applications that are friendly with open source applications.

Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:45:53 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
To: Ashlee Vance <ashlee.vance@theregister.co.uk>
Cc: Karsten Self <karsten@linuxmafia.com>
Subject: Re: (forw) Re: when is an open source license open source?

> Rick, your explanation helped a great. Who are the main culprits of 
> consequence besides Sugar?

o  Former OSI General Counsel Larry Rosen's "OSL 3.0" licence is a
   really good, excellently designed, genuine copyleft licence that is
   especially well suited for ASP use, because it's one of the very 
   few that have a clause enforcing copyleft concepts within the 
   otherwise problematic ASP market.  (In ASP deployments, there is
   ordinarily no distribution of the code, so the copyleft provisions
   of most copyleft licences such as GPLv2 have no traction, and are
   toothless.)  Also, as Centric CRM, Inc. is keen to point out, OSL
   3.0 is an OSI-certified open source licence.

o  At the same time, the careful observer will note that this 
   announcement concerns the product "Centric Team Elements v. 0.9",
   which is not (yet?) the firm's flagship product.  That flagship
   product remains the entirely separate -- and very, very clearly
   proprietary, product "Centric CRM v. 4.1", which one wryly notices
   has been carefully omitted completely from this communique.

   Just in case there is any doubt about Centric CRM 4.1's proprietary
   status, here's one key quotation from the product brochure, about
   the applicable licence, "Centric Public Licence (CRM)":  "The major 
   restriction is that users may not redistribute the the Centric CRM 
   source code."

Date: 26 Jul 2007 16:01:24 -0000
To: rick@linuxmafia.com
From: LWN notifications <lwn@lwn.net>
Subject: LWN Comment response notification

*Is this a blunder, or just too subtle for me?*

[Announcements] Posted Jul 26, 2007 16:00 UTC (Thu) by khim

FYI, there are a number of genuinely open source licences, a couple of
them OSI certified, that do apply copyleft obligations to the ASP
industry.

Yup. And they are mostly unsuccessful ones. It's quite hard to
distinguish two cases:
1) where your package is used for SaaS (like Google)
2) where your package is used for some private endeavour (like LWN)

Licenses like AGPL/APSL punish equally - that's why I'll probably never
use AGPL/APSL-licensed software. And if I'll be forced to use such
software I'll do everything possible to not ever fix or change it. Even
badgeware is better from practical viewpoint. If you'll think about it
it's only logical.

Yes, usurpation of the code by SaaS vendors is a problem but AGPL is
worse medicine then disease itself...

> Yup. And they are mostly unsuccessful ones.

> It's quite hard to distinguish two cases:

Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:21:01 +0100
From: Simon Phipps <Simon.Phipps@Sun.COM>
To: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
Cc: license-discuss@opensource.org

Subject: Re: For Approval: Open Source Hardware License

>Quoting Jamey Hicks (jamey.hicks@nokia.com):
>
>>There are no OSI-approved licenses for open source hardware, so I am
>>proposing this license.
>
>My understanding is that OSI's licence approval process
>(http://www.opensource.org/docs/certification_mark.html) is specifically
>for software licences.  That scope limitation came up previously when
>people proposed documentation licences for certification; I suspect the
>same logic applies here.

Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 11:43:36 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
To: license-discuss@opensource.org
Subject: Re: For Approval: Open Source Hardware License

> I'm afraid the distinction between "software" and "hardware" is  
> getting harder and harder to make.

-- 
Cheers,                English is essentially a text parser's way of getting 
Rick Moen              faster processors built.
rick@linuxmafia.com    -- John M. Ford, http://ccil.org/~cowan/essential.html

Date: Thu, 05 Jul 2007 13:20:56 -0400
From: Matt Mattox <mmattox@redhat.com>
To: rick@linuxmafia.com
Subject: RHX and License Clarity

Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 11:02:52 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
To: Matt Mattox <mmattox@redhat.com>
Subject: Re: RHX and License Clarity

> Just a quick note responding to your comment in the "More About RHX" 
> section of RHX. We're working on a solution that will make the license 
> approach used by each RHX software vendor very clear to users, including 
> whether or not they are OSI-approved. I'd love to get your feedback on 
> our approach if you have the time and interest. Let me know....

  Starts out with "Trusted open source software" -- without saying that 
  some offerings are open source and some proprietary -- and goes on for
  the entire page talking how RHX has helped you select open source 
  applications, etc.

  Starts out with "Red Hat Exchange helps you compare, buy, and manage
  open source business applications. All in one place and backed by the
  open source leader. We've collaborated with our open source software
  partners to validate that RHX applications run on Red Hat Enterprise
  Linux and are delivered through the Red Hat Network."

Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:21:42 -0700
To: ashlee.vance@theregister.co.uk
Cc: Karsten Self <karsten>
Subject: Red Hat Exchange has a serious flaw

Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:54:04 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com>
To: Ashlee Vance <ashlee.vance@theregister.co.uk>
Cc: Karsten Self <karsten>
Subject: Re: Red Hat Exchange has a serious flaw

> Thanks so much for this, mate. Will investigate.

  RHX helps you compare, buy, and manage business applications -- all
  available from the open source leader. All in one place.

  We've done the work for you. You'll find profiles, ratings, priceseven
  free trials -- for every application. Working in collaboration with our
  partners, applications are validated to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux,
  delivered through Red Hat Network, and backed by Red Hat as the single
  point of contact for support.

-- 
Cheers,     "Learning Java has been a slow and tortuous process for me.  Every 
Rick Moen   few minutes, I start screaming 'No, you fools!' and have to go
rick@linuxmafia.com       read something from _Structure and Interpretation of
            Computer Programs_ to de-stress."   -- The Cube, www.forum3000.org

#!/bin/bash
# Created by Ben Okopnik on Thu Jul 12 15:27:45 EDT 2007

# Exit with usage message unless specified file exists and is readable
[ -r "$1" ] || { printf "Usage: ${0##*/} <file.m3u>\n"; exit; }

# For the purposes of the loop, ignore spaces in filenames
old=$IFS
IFS='
'
# Get the file size and sum it up
for n in `cat "$1"`; do s=`ls -l "$n" | cut -d ' ' -f 5`; ((total+=$s)); done
# Restore the IFS
IFS=$old

# Define G, M, and k
Gb=$((1024**3)); Mb=$((1024**2)); kb=1024
# Calculate the number of G+M+k+bytes in file list
G=$(($total/$Gb))
M=$((($total-$G*$Gb)/$Mb))
k=$((($total-$G*$Gb-$M*$Mb)/$kb))
b=$((($total-$G*$Gb-$M*$Mb-$k*$kb)))

echo "Total: $total (${G}G ${M}M ${k}k ${b}b)"

-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

GRUB SATA confused

    kernel /vmlinuz root=UUID=f0bfe866-2449-4d75-8222-b444ff564876

    c:\grldr = "sundry distros"

    root (

    root (hd0,

    Because GRUB Legacy has become unmaintainable,
    due to messy code and design failures.

aplay
alsa-utils
/dev/shm
#!/bin/bash
if ! amixer scontents >/dev/null; then
  # sound adapter has someho

August 2007 (#141):

Mailbag

This month's answers created by:

Still Searching

Sudden Failure on Centos

XEN Installation Problems on Ubuntu 7.04

Clock problem

Keeping indices of filesystems to handle backup archives

Linksys router

Our Mailbag

Things Debian Project Leaders Do

Latex Editors

perl: forking and children.... again

MI/X PPC Classic Macintosh X Window server (freeware)

Tracking load average issues

TUX Images

need some help

Virtual Desktops with individual folders

Help with Bash script

Good vacation mailers?

A Router With Just One Ethernet Port...

Shuttle-SD39P2: Should I buy one?

Max-spread algorithm

Backup software/strategies

Re-Update Your Online Banking !

An Ongoing Discussion of Open Source Licensing Issues

Editor's Note

Microsoft GPLv3 "statement"

SugarCRM goes to GPLv3

[lg-announce] Linux Gazette #140 is out!

when is an open source license open source?

Red Hat flags OSI offenders on partner site - Register Article

[Tech briefing invite: 'What can be called open source?']

I kill me. I just do.

For Approval: Open Source Hardware License

RHX and License Clarity

Red Hat Exchange has a serious flaw

RHX: Red Hat, Inc. does the right thing

Talkback

Talkback:124/smith.html

Talkback:68/tag/9.html

Talkback:140/dyckoff.html

2-Cent Tips

2 cent tip: Guide to Ubuntu on the Intel Apple iMac

2-cent tip: Summing up file sizes

NewsBytes

Contents:

News in General

Ian Murdock, Sun, Unveil Project Indiana

$100 Laptop for 3rd World Kids Delayed, but Intel Joins the Party

Intel Hosts Moblin.org Site for Linux Mobility Developers

Python Database Tool First Open Source Component of Launchpad

Personal Package Archive Service, Free Space for Ubuntu Developers

Animators to Compete for 'Viking Animator' Title at SIGGRAPH 2007

Mozilla Firefox use up in Europe

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Adds Open XML Document Format

Events

July

August

September

October

November

Distros

Linspire 6.0, Open XML Translator Released

Sun Donates High Availability Cluster Code

Samba Switches to GPL v3

Software and Product News

Zenoss Releases Enterprise Edition

The Everex IMPACT GC3502 Features OpenOffice.org on Windows Vista

Network Engines Integrates Appliance-Optimized Linux Distribution

XenSource Surpasses 500 Virtualization Customers

Borland, VMware Advance Testing of Virtual Lab Environments

GRUB, PATA and SATA

1 The Problem

2 Accessing the GRUB boot record

3 Terminology

4 Method A

5 Method B

6 The Correct Device Map

7 State of the Nation