Send: EHLO patsy.makina-nantes.net
Response: 250-kanis.fr Hello 179.240.204-77.rev.gaoland.net [77.204.240.179]
Response: 250-SIZE 104857600
Response: 250-PIPELINING
Response: 250-STARTTLS
Response: 250 HELP
Send: QUIT

Well crap it should work. It did work on my father's Thunderbird a year ago . How annoying. So I told my client to use Pegasus Mail which doesn't look as pretty but it works.

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Radeon"
        Driver          "radeon"
        Option          "MergedFB"              "true"
        Option          "CRT2Hsync"             "30-81"
        Option          "CRT2VRefresh"          "56-75"
        Option          "MonitorLayout"         "LVDS, CRT"
        Option          "CRT2Position"          "LeftOf"
        Option          "MergedNonRectangular"  "true"
        Option          "MetaModes"             "1600x1200-1280x1024"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Main Screen"
        Device          "Radeon"
        Monitor         "Generic Monitor"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1600x1200" "1280x1024"
                Virtual         2880 1200
        EndSubSection
EndSection

This is completely unrelated. Being unemployed, I have been comics binging lately. I highly recommend "Mom's Cancer" by Brian Fies. It is a very personal comics and I thought it was very good.

I installed Xorg version 7.1.1 with the ATI proprietary driver also known as fglrx version 8.28.8. I used the following command to setup xorg.conf:

aticonfig --initial=dual-head --tvf=PAL-B --tvs=VIDEO  --ovon=1 --ovt=Xv

I get TV output in color and it looks nice. I also have video overlay on both screens. Many people claim that it does not work, they must be talking about an older version of the ATI driver.

However when I play a video on the secondary screen a quarter is chopped off at the bottom. This happens even if the video is played inside a window, this makes me think there is a bug in the video overlay. It works fine on the primary screen.

There is also a mosaic of ghost videos on the primary screen. The driver is probably using wrong area of the video memory. The cursor is broken on the secondary display.

Close but no cigar.

This has nothing to do with the above but I was quite impressed that Ubuntu booted on a LVM partition.

Anyhow I am open for business and I have finished my first contract. I hope it is a good omen for the year to come.

apt-get install euro-support-x

I am now busy setting up my company and will do contracting work in Cambridge.

I did send an e-mail to i_am_frowning@smile.co.uk with a link to this web page. I got nothing back beside the automated reply.

I broke down and called, here is how the conversation went:

(me): "hello"

(Smile) "hi"

"I screwed up with my application and you have sent me a check book, a debit and credit card with a bogus name."

"Oh I see, let me put you on hold. (later) You will need to send us a certified copy of your passport so that we can update your account."

"Wait you are telling me I should go through the hassle of making a certified copy and yet you sent me a credit card without checking my name?"

"Huh, I will put you on hold (much later) Let's close your account and re apply on the web for a new account."

"OK"

I cut up the cards and the check book went down the shredder. It's not fair to criticize without making some suggestions for improvement.

1. Change your application form like so that it reads:

Forename (first name) Surname (family name)

I know I am a moron and got it mixed up. However your competitor HSBC does it, so should you.

1. You should fix your secure web e-mail interface. People should be able reply to the message. I would have been able to contact you and mention my mistake. I think it's the least to ask of an Internet bank.

Next I get a tracking number and they e-mail me to check my secure message on their web site. So far so good.

This where the frustration starts. I can't reply to the message on the web site. How annoying!

I have realized I wrote my first and last name in the wrong order. Now they have created my account and I still can't them tell them that the account name is wrong. I don't feel like calling their 0870 number as I have no idea how much it will cost.

This brings up a more chilling issue, did they even check that I exist? What if I entered in a bogus name?

I will quit ranting now. It's not a good start.

From: Ivan Kanis (ivank@wrq.com)
Subject: How do you switch the left and right mouse button in linux ?

View this article only
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.hardware
Date: 1995/12/29

My mouse is a PS/2 type of mouse. Any idea would be greatly appreciated.

It is ironical that I heard about Linux while I was working at Microsoft. My co-worker Frank told it was cool and I should check it out. He was also know as "leper" in some circle. He sent me a spoof e-mail from god@pearly.gate that baffled me.

Frank hung around with his goth friend Matt. I remember when Matt told me about the web and I was just no getting it. I wonder what Frank and Matt are up to now.

First install all the needed packages:

apt-get install exim4-daemon-heavy sasl2-bin

Make sure you are using split configuration files with Exim:

dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config

Next generate a self signed certificate, make sure you enter the server name and domain when the program asks for it:

/usr/share/doc/exim4-base/examples/exim-gencert

Edit /etc/exim4/conf.d/main/03_exim4-config_tlsoptions and add MAIN_TLS_ENABLE = 1, it should look like this:

### main/03_exim4-config_tlsoptions
#################################

# TLS/SSL configuration.
# See /usr/share/doc/exim4-base/README.Debian.gz for explanations.
MAIN_TLS_ENABLE = 1

Next enable authentication by commenting out the following section in /etc/exim4/conf.d/auth/30_exim4-config_examples:

plain_saslauthd_server:
    driver = plaintext
    public_name = PLAIN
    server_condition = ${if saslauthd{{$2}{$3}}{1}{0}}
    server_set_id = $2
    server_prompts = :
    .ifndef AUTH_SERVER_ALLOW_NOTLS_PASSWORDS
        server_advertise_condition = ${if eq{$tls_cipher}{}{}{*}}
    .endif

Do not worry that is using plain text to authenticate, the password is encrypted over TLS. Let's update the configuration and restart Exim:

update-exim4.conf
/etc/init.d/exim4 restart

Next we need to configure sasl, first edit /etc/default/saslauthd so that the service starts.

# This needs to be uncommented before saslauthd will be run
automatically
START=yes

Next you will need to give Exim the permission to use sasl and start the service:

adduser Debian-exim sasl
/etc/init.d/saslauthd start

It should be working, I use the following python script to check that the server is working:

#!/usr/bin/python

import smtplib

server = smtplib.SMTP('mail.server.name')
server.set_debuglevel(1)
server.ehlo()
server.starttls()
server.ehlo()
server.login("joe", "test")
server.sendmail("fromaddr","toaddr", "Subject: test")

Put the following in your .bashrc:

function stow
{
command stow --dir=$HOME/local/stow $*
}

function unstow
{
command stow --dir=$HOME/local/stow -D $*
}

Here is how to stow mplayer:

./configure --prefix=$HOME/local/stow/mplayer107
make
make install
stow mplayer107

Note that mplayer is neatly tucked in it's own directory. Stow creates a symlink to mplayer at ~/local/bin/mplayer so you need to only have ~/local/bin in your path.

Say that you compiled an earlier version of mplayer 106, switching from one version to the other is very easy:

unstow mplayer107
stow mplayer106

I hope I have convinced you that using stow is a good idea, installing different software in the same location becomes unmanageable.

The following commands move the repository to a backup location, dumps the database in a file. Finally I remove the file .nobunce from the repository. You can specify multiple files to remove.

mv subversion subversion.bak
svnadmin dump subversion.bak > dump
svndumpfilter exclude trunk/ivan/.nobounce < dump > dump.filter

Now I recreate a fresh repository and load the new new dump file minus the offending file. You can delete subversion.bak when you feel confident that your new repository is working.

svnadmin create --fs-type fsfs subversion
svnadmin load subversion < dump.filter

According to the subversion documentation, there will be a command called obliterate that will do the above without the hassle.

The package ifrenamesolves the problem nicely.

apt-get install ifrename

Next add the the mac address of each network card in /etc/iftab:

wire mac 00:40:45:24:A0:DC
wifi mac 00:0C:F1:09:2B:27

You'll need to reference you card as wire and wifi in /etc/network/interfaces. Things will break when you change network card, but that's a small price to pay for some sanity in network interface names.

"The linkage between April Foolery and the Springtime is seen in another story that traces the origin of the custom back to the abundance of fish to be found in French streams and rivers during early April when the young fish had just hatched. These young fish were easy to fool with a hook and lure. Therefore, the French called them 'Poisson d'Avril' or 'April Fish.' Soon it became customary (according to this origin theory) to fool people on April 1, as a way of celebrating the abundance of foolish fish. The French still use the term 'Poisson d'Avril' to describe the unfortunate victims of April Fool's Day pranks. They also observe the custom of giving each other chocolate fish on April 1."

apt-spy update
apt-spy -d testing -s GB

The above command finds the quickest mirror located in UK and updates /etc/apt/sources.list accordingly. Look for your country code in /etc/apt-spy.conf.

apt-get install xmms-mpg123-ja

The japanese is misleading as it will handle unicode just fine. You will then need to disable the standard libmpg123 one. That's it!

"Mouse motion only counts as activity if the mouse moved more than 10 pixels (so the screen won't unblank every time you bump your desk.)"

Hey, Jamie, it would have been nice to send me an e-mail back!

It is the custom in France to stick paper shaped fish on people's back. I don't think other countries do that. I wonder how it started.

M-x zone

When you had enough turn it off with:

M-x zone-leave-me-alone

alias auto='auto-apt -y run'

You'll need to have sudo to give you root access without a password. Next time you compile a package from source just do the following:

auto
./configure

All the dependencies will be downloaded automatically. Wonderful! It just make me grin every time I do it.

The following patch will make xscreensaver bump proof. It will prevent the screen from activating when someone bumps your desk or wind blows on your touch pad, etc ...

It works by ignoring small cursor motion. It does the job for my laptop, maybe someone else will find it useful.

Till March I looked for work in the french Riviera. I came to the conclusion that there was no work to be found there and moved in with Lucia in Limoges.

In Limoges I started expanding my work search: UK or France minus London and Paris. I found work in Cambridge at Tadpole Computer Ltd.

Lucia and I had a nice holiday in Scotland. I really ought to put up some pictures if I could find the time...

I moved to Cambridge and started work at the end of August. Lucia moved in with me in November. Now she has to learn English.

I am hoping that 2005 will be a steadier year!

15.11.2004 19:36:52 **UDP Flood to Host** 192.168.2.3, 32860->>

The problem is that the router thinks that SIP incoming packets are a denial of service attack. You'll need to follow this undocumented link. Next turn off SPI and Anti-DoS firewall protection.

I find it most uncool that Belkin did not document this link. It would have saved me a lot time had they mention it on their manual.

You'll need to launch alsamixer from a console.

Use the left arrow key till you get to the Capture channel. Press the space key you should see CAPTUR on top of the bar in red. Next increase the channel volume with the up key.

Make sure that you you have Mic1 selected on the Mic Select channel. Last it can be a good idea to unmute the Mic Boost channel to amplify your microphone input.

Now that was really simple wasn't it? Yeah right...

"I will assess the situation and speak to the owner and I am sure that we can come to some arrangement for the incontinence that has been caused."

# cd /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware
# tar xzf /tmp/ipw2100-fw-1.3.tgz

You'll need to locate and dowload the ipw2100-source package. It's currently in the unstable section.

# apt-get install module-assistant wireless-tools
# dpkg -i ipw2100-source_0.56-1_all.deb
# module-assistant prepare
# module-assistant a-i ipw2100

Next you'll need to configure you're wireless access. Put the following stanza in the file /etc/network/interfaces:

iface eth1 inet dhcp
wireless_essid belkin54g
wireless_key 419e0f8585ffbff42e90df4246

Reboot your computer. Start your wireless interface by typing ifup eth1. If everything went fine you should have a wireless connection.

apt-get install alsa-base alsa-oss
cat /usr/share/doc/alsa-base/alsa-base.discover >> /etc/discover.conf

Reboot your system and check that the OSS modules are not loaded. Run alsamixer to check that Alsa is running.

I was a late fan, thanks to the internet I have been able to catch his show. He was the only DJ I know that would play reggae after a speed metal tune. I will miss his show very much. Rest in peace, John.

It's the third anniversary of 9/11. Three thousands American died that day.

I would like to point out that nine thousands Iraqis civilians have died on so called "collateral damage". How can we let our government get away with the killing of innocents?

There was no connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attack.

Speaking of innocents, one thousand Americans have died on a war that is waged not against terrorism, but personal interest on Mr. Rumsfied and Mr. Cheney. They will profit from the re-construction of Iraq.

This bear repeating: there was no connection between Iraq and the 9/11 attack.

I am sick and tired of Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair lying and getting away with it. As Abraham Lincoln said: "It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time."

Election is coming up in America: I urge all Americans to show them that we're not duped. Vote Democratic as the world can't put up with another four years of the Bush administration.

I myself, as a British citizen, will do my utmost to get rid of Mr. Blair for waging a war on Iraq when the majority of people in UK were against it.

I had to install Windows to get to the Internet, download and burn a Gentoo CD. This is embarrassing when I bragged a while back that I got rid of Windows!

Next my backup was on a firewire device, and it was a headache to get to. I booted the Gentoo CD with gentoo dofirewire. I then typed the following command to get to my external drive.

modprobe sbp2 spb2_serialize_io=1
echo "scsi add-single-device 0 0 0" > /proc/scsi/scsi

My drive needs the spb2_serialize_io set to 1 or it won't work.

I have learned that it's not enough to make backup. I need to make a rescue CD so that I don't waste time recovering my system.

I have found it is a waste of time to try converting the video from NTSC to PAL. I ended up with the audio and the video being out of sync. I discovered recently that my DVD player (Pioneer) can do this on the fly. I just had to set the output mode to PAL instead of Auto.

• Creating my resume in Word format
• Checking how Internet Explorer munges my web pages

I have tried CrossOver Office Standard and I must say I am hooked and have bought the product. It saves me a lot of time and is a snap to install. I can now use these tools without having to waste time rebooting my computer. I really encourage people to check out the trial version.

Having insomnia and doing some aimless web wandering, I was surprised to see that a team re-wrote "Head over Heels". In my opinion one of the best game on the ZX Spectrum back in the eighties. The remake is very good and runs on Linux.

bsh: Specified BeanShell jar filed does not exist:
/usr/share/emacs21/site-lisp/java/lib/bsh.jar

The following cures the problem:

cd /usr/share/emacs21/site-lisp
mkdir java
cd java
ln -s /usr/share/java lib

It looks like a bug in Debian, I might report it if I find the time.

apt-get install gimp1.2-nonfree

This is due to a silly patent by a company I won't care to name on LZW compression.

Package babel Warning: No hyphenation patterns were loaded for
(babel)                the language `French'

The folloing command fixes hyphenation in Latex:

texconfig hyphen latex

"We prefer plain dealings and straightforward transactions in America. If you go to Egypt and, say, take a taxi somewhere, you become a part of the taxi driver's life; he refuses to take your money because it would demean your friendship, he follows you around town, and weeps hot tears when you get in some other guy's taxi. You end up meeting his kids at some point and have to devote all sorts of ingenuity to finding some way to compensate him without insulting his honor. It is exhausing. Sometimes you just want a simple Manhattan-style taxi ride. But in order to have an American-style setup, where you can just go out and hail a taxi and be on your way, there must exist a whole hidden apparatus of medallions, inspectors, commissions, and so forth — which is fine as long as taxis are cheap and you can always get one. When the system fails to work in some way, it is mysterious and infuriating and turns otherwise reasonable people into conspiracy theorists. But when the Egyptian system breaks down, it breaks down transparently. You can't get a taxi, but your driver's nephew will show up, on foot, to explain the problem and apologize.

Microsoft and Apple do things the Manhattan way, with vast complexity hidden behind a wall of interface. Linux does things the Egypt way, with vast complexity strewn about all over the landscape."

enscript = popen.pipe_cmds(
    [(os.path.normpath(os.path.join(cfg.options.enscript_path,'enscript')),
           '--color', '--language=html', '--style=msvc', '-E' + lang, '-o',
           '-', '-'),

The style option is optional, the default color scheme is emacs. I just got used to the MSVC colors.

apt-get install equivs
cd /tmp
apt-get source java-common
cd java-common-022/dummy
for i in *.control; do equivs-build $i; done
dpkg -i *.deb

The exemple on the FAQ only registers the javacommand. They are many more programs in the SDK such as javadoc, jar, jdb, etc... Use my script to register all Java commands on Debian. You will need to edit the variable jsdkto point to the path of your Java SDK.

EOF, check amidxtaped.debug file on server.

You need to add the following line in your amanda.conf:

amrecover_changer = "change"

Next time you run amrecover do the following so that amanda will switch tapes for you:

settape change

-L volume-label
        Set  the   volume  label  of   the  filesystem.    Ext2
        filesystem labels can be at most 16 characters long; if
        volume-label   is longer  than 16  characters,  tune2fs
        will truncate it and print a warning.  The volume label
        can  be used  by mount(8),  fsck(8),  and /etc/fstab(5)
        (and possibly  others) by specifying LABEL=volume_label
        instead of a block special device name like /dev/hda5.

That's good because when I run cfdisk I won't need to look at /etc/fstabat the same time to figure what partition maps to what. (I tend to have lots of partitions.)

CATALINA_OPTS="-Djava.awt.headless=true \
-Xdebug -Xnoagent -Djava.compiler=NONE \
-Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=8000"

Restart Tomcat, in Netbeans go the menu and select Start Session then Attach session. Set an obvious breakpoint and you should be all set!

And I have to reinstall Windows XP, endless fun :(

Good session with my client, did tricky GRUB manipulation and partition swapping and it all ended well.

I have discovered why gnomemeeting crashed when answering a call. Why the edit field in Mozilla would not work the second time I ran it. It turns out that I had the accessibility feature turned on by Gnome. I don't know if this will impact other user of Debian out there but my advice is to turn it off. I find it quite funny that it completely crippled my environment. But only in hindsight, I have been gnashing my teeth for days on this.

Well it is Debian "unstable", isn't it? I have stored my list of packages before doing the Gnome thing so I can revert to how things were.

dpkg --get-selections > before-gnome

I have formatted my Windows partition by accident so I guess I'll have to reinstall it. Some days everything goes wrong and this is the day

# Christian Marillat package
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ testing main

Now you can play with avidemux and transcode:

apt-get update
apt-get install transcode avidemux

So, let's get the tool:

apt-get install vcdtools

I used an MPEG1 movie of dimension 384x288 with a bitrate of 1152 KBit/sec and an audiostream with a sample rate of 44100 Hz, stereo and a bitrate of 224 KBit/sec. Let's call this file movie.mpg.

Next I create the VCD file with the following command:

mkvcdfs movie.mpg

Next you will need to burn the file with cdrdao. I had a bit of a headache here because the version that comes with Debian testing doesn't yet support the new IDE interface that comes with Linux 2.6. I grabbed and manually installed version 1.1.7-5 in unstable and it works fine.

Now i am blanking my CD-RW:

cdrdao blank --save --driver generic-mmc --device /dev/hdb

Note that adding the --save parameter will save the options in a file called .cdrdao in your home directory. In effect, you don't need to specify the driver and the device on the command line.

Next I burn my movie:

cdrdao write vcd.toc

I pop that CD in my DVD player and the movie looks great. I am pleased!

I if use a movie encoded in NTSC, it plays back in black and white and I am not sure why

CDR_DEVICE=cdrw
cdrw=/dev/hdb 8 4m burnfree

Replace /dev/hdb with you CD-ROM device of course! That's all there's is too it. 8is for the speed you want to write, and the 4m is the size of your CD writer buffer. The program cdrecordshould work like a charm.

Well since Gnome 2.6 just got in testing I have downloaded the whole darn thing. I had a quick look at epiphany. The new official Gnome browser. It looks fine, too bad it didn't import my Mozilla's bookmark :(

More work this afternoon and having many, many problems with gnomeeting with my customer. It seems that his machine his dropping the connection. He is currently using Mandrake and has decided to move to Debian. Well why not ?

Setting it up the client part on Debian was very simple

apt-get install ez-ipupdate

I was prompted with all the information needed, and it just works.

"Sexy C++ Developer required by market leader near Stoke, North Staffordshire."

I thought it was funny: sexy and C++ don't go together as far as I am concerned!

Once I had my system backup I decided that I wanted the GRUB files on a partition that I didn't move around so much. I selected my first partition which is used to boot XP. This is where I did my second mistake. I overwrote the boot sector of XP. Trying to recover XP was impossible.

Oh well, I decided to back up everything up and reinstall XP. I put it on a partition half the size. I also installed it on a FAT32 system so that I have write access from Linux.

Lots of time wasted for a silly mistake.

The quickest way to make it work is to grab the source from the Amanda web page. Compile and install the client part.

./configure --without-server --with-user=backup --with-group=backup
make
make install

Next create and add the following lines in the file /etc/xinet.d/amanda:

service amanda
{
    socket_type = dgram
    protocol = udp
    wait = yes
    user = backup
    server  = /usr/local/libexec/amandad
}

Run amcheck on the server to check that the client is set up properly. You should be set!

apt-get install libflashplugin-nonfree

I have compiled the Helix Player on Debian this morning and I have taken the following notes.

You will need the Ogg Vorbis development file:

apt-get install libvorbis-dev

The player also depends on the Theora codecs. These files are not packaged in Debian yet. Grab the sources from the web site, unpack them and type the following commands:

./configure --prefix=/usr
make
make install

Once the dependences are taken care of you should be able to build the player. Here is what my build environment looks like :

Build System Menu
-> Current Directory: /home/ivan/src/helix/helix
[0] Set BIF branch (helix-player)
[1] Set Target(s) (player_inst)
[2] Set Profile (/home/ivan/src/helix/build/umakepf/helix-client-all-defines)
[3] run: build -trelease

Next run the build by pressing 3. I have the self extracting installer in the releasedirectory. So I ran the following command:

./hxplay-0.3.0.59-linux-2.2-libc6-gcc32-i586.bin

The installer register the plugin to Mozilla and you should be able to listen to the best radio out there!

I am again annoyed as I can't listen to the BBC anymore. This has worked for years with the venerable Real Player 8 for Linux. It seems that BBC has upgraded their servers and it just won't work anymore.

So I tried the Real Player One alpha without much luck. I couldn't see any Mozilla plugin in their package.

I then signed in to the Helix Communitypage so that I could try the Helix Player MS2. I got some assertion error: that's progress! Well I'll try to build the darn thing and see if I can make it work....

Had a kick to see that my friend Nick is the tech lead for the Unix player. Keep up the good work Nick!

More Amanda work for my client this afternoon. Setting up the client on Debian was more painful than expected. A file called /etc/amandahost needs to edited and have the following entry:

your.server.name.com backup

Running amcheck on the server confirms that it can connect to the client. It would have been really easy if the doc had mentioned the file. I might file a bug if I find the time...

A bit of googling around and it turns out that the file is obsolete.

To setup Sane properly, you need to have the following line in the file epson.conf (that is, if you have an epson scanner):

usb

Make sure you have libusb installed. Next unpleasant surprise only root can access the scanner. The only way I have found to fix this is to run the following quick script when my machine boots up:

#!/usr/bin/sh

# Silly hack so that regular user can access the scanner
chmod 777 -R /proc/bus/usb

I did some Amanda configuration for my client this afternoon.

Worked this afternoon on more JSP stuff.

As a side note I have volunteered to port Skype to Linux but they wanted me to relocate to Estonia... No thanks!

I need to set the following variable to sbp2 so that my external firewire drive works: serialize_io=1.

I was surprised that my options set in the directory /etc/modutils would not work anymore. I had to put it in /etc/modprobe.d instead, run update-modules and it worked as usual. It might be a bug in sarge...

back