The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

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SnatchRabbit: Feb 23, 2006; by sebmojo

Just saw a link to this on digg: http://linuxmce.com/

Looks pretty sweet, in my opinion. I was wondering if this would work on the Apple TV. Looks like you need a Kubuntu installation, which I guess would have to be done over SSH. I'm not very advanced with Linux, but I did mod my Apple TV. Anyone think it's worth a try?

# ? Sep 11, 2007 17:21

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# ? May 14, 2024 12:26

atticus: Nov 7, 2002; this is how u post~

So, my laptop hard drive is SMART failing and I have 2GB worth of e-mail to get off of it before it goes. Knoppix can mount the hdd and see the files but when I try to scp the files to my other linux desktop I get "permission denied" even as root.

I desperately need this e-mail. I can post whatever anyone needs.

# ? Sep 12, 2007 02:41

dfn_doe: Apr 12, 2005; I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW STUPID FUCKING CATCHPHRASE OVERLORDS

atticus posted:

So, my laptop hard drive is SMART failing and I have 2GB worth of e-mail to get off of it before it goes. Knoppix can mount the hdd and see the files but when I try to scp the files to my other linux desktop I get "permission denied" even as root.

I desperately need this e-mail. I can post whatever anyone needs.

What is the exact command you are using and the exact error message you are getting?

:ninja:

# ? Sep 12, 2007 04:34

teapot: Dec 27, 2003; by Fistgrrl

atticus posted:

So, my laptop hard drive is SMART failing and I have 2GB worth of e-mail to get off of it before it goes. Knoppix can mount the hdd and see the files but when I try to scp the files to my other linux desktop I get "permission denied" even as root.

I desperately need this e-mail. I can post whatever anyone needs.

Most likely you are getting "permission denied" from the other host where you are trying to copy the files. When using scp pay attention to user/permissions on both sides.

# ? Sep 12, 2007 04:54

atticus: Nov 7, 2002; this is how u post~

dfn_doe posted:

What is the exact command you are using and the exact error message you are getting?

scp archives.pst user@user.desktop.blah.com:/home/user/outlook/archives.pst
PERMISSION DENIED

also get the same error when I try to tail the file.

teapot posted:

Most likely you are getting "permission denied" from the other host where you are trying to copy the files. When using scp pay attention to user/permissions on both sides.

Nope. HERE AT MY COMPANY WE USE MICROSOFT'S EFS!! On certain directories anyway. I just remembered I was able to scp a bookmarks folder from the Windows Desktop for my user (not encrypted) over to my linux desktop just fine and dandy. It looks like I'm hosed.

atticus fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Sep 12, 2007

# ? Sep 12, 2007 05:11

teapot: Dec 27, 2003; by Fistgrrl

Crush posted:

Okay, but what if I have a script almost exactly like that for logging into a different computer for FTP access? How would I get rid of the echoing of what it is doing?

To stop logging to user you only have to place "log_user 0" before the section you want to stop logging, and "log_user 1" after it. The problem that you may have to face is that the program you are calling may still produce output after the last string is sent to it, so to make sure that this output is not passed to the user you have to match it. For example, if the script runs shell and passes the first command to it, you would see the command's echo unless you match the shell prompt that will be produced after the command is finished (and then you will have to re-send it to the user):

code:

#!/usr/bin/expect -f
log_user 0
spawn /bin/sh
expect "$ "
send "ls / >> /tmp/ls-output.txt\r"
expect "$ "
log_user 1
send_user "$ "
interact

# ? Sep 12, 2007 05:26

Crush: Jan 18, 2004; jot bought me this account, I now have to suck him off.

teapot posted:

To stop logging to user you only have to place "log_user 0" before the section you want to stop logging, and "log_user 1" after it. The problem that you may have to face is that the program you are calling may still produce output after the last string is sent to it, so to make sure that this output is not passed to the user you have to match it. For example, if the script runs shell and passes the first command to it, you would see the command's echo unless you match the shell prompt that will be produced after the command is finished (and then you will have to re-send it to the user):
code:
#!/usr/bin/expect -f
log_user 0
spawn /bin/sh
expect "$ "
send "ls / >> /tmp/ls-output.txt\r"
expect "$ "
log_user 1
send_user "$ "
interact

Thank ya kindly

# ? Sep 12, 2007 05:49

teapot: Dec 27, 2003; by Fistgrrl

atticus posted:

scp archives.pst user@user.desktop.blah.com:/home/user/outlook/archives.pst
PERMISSION DENIED

also get the same error when I try to tail the file.

Nope. HERE AT MY COMPANY WE USE MICROSOFT'S EFS!! On certain directories anyway. I just remembered I was able to scp a bookmarks folder from the Windows Desktop for my user (not encrypted) over to my linux desktop just fine and dandy. It looks like I'm hosed.

You are not hosed yet

# ? Sep 12, 2007 06:29

atticus: Nov 7, 2002; this is how u post~

teapot posted:

You are not hosed yet

Thanks for this. It might be tricky as the laptop won't even boot Windows anymore, but I'll have to see what I can do.

# ? Sep 12, 2007 08:53

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

Are there any good alternatives to Nautilus on Gnome? For some reason it just rubs me the wrong way. For instance, with spatial disabled and the tree view visible, why doesn't the tree selection update when I navigate deeper into the tree in the right pane? Why do folders in the tree view expand to (Empty) instead of appearing simply as leaf nodes? Why can I set the list view to what equates to 7px (25% zoom), but the tree view uses the "Document" font setting?

If there are no decent alternatives, maybe someone can help me fix the sort order. I have LC_COLLATE=C in my .bashrc file, but Nautilus does not respect it. There's a bug report out there, but it was recently marked NOTABUG. If Nautilus DOES respect the locale setting, how the hell do I change it?

# ? Sep 12, 2007 09:45

Prince John: Jun 20, 2006; Oh, poppycock! Female bandits?

Kobayashi posted:

I have LC_COLLATE=C in my .bashrc file, but Nautilus does not respect it. There's a bug report out there, but it was recently marked NOTABUG. If Nautilus DOES respect the locale setting, how the hell do I change it?

I can't offer a suggestion as I'm not by my linux machine at the moment but AFAIK, isn't bashrc just used for shell settings? I'm not sure nautilus would even read that file.

Advanced nautilus options are found by running gconf-editor and drilling down the tree which may let you tweak some of the things that are irritating you. It's something like apps -> gnome -> nautilus.

Edit: From memory, try digging around in /etc/locales or similar.

Prince John fucked around with this message at 10:37 on Sep 12, 2007

# ? Sep 12, 2007 10:30

teapot: Dec 27, 2003; by Fistgrrl

Kobayashi posted:

Are there any good alternatives to Nautilus on Gnome? For some reason it just rubs me the wrong way. For instance, with spatial disabled and the tree view visible, why doesn't the tree selection update when I navigate deeper into the tree in the right pane? Why do folders in the tree view expand to (Empty) instead of appearing simply as leaf nodes? Why can I set the list view to what equates to 7px (25% zoom), but the tree view uses the "Document" font setting?

I use Thunar (and Sawfish window manager):

http://mars.illtel.denver.co.us/~abelits/sa/software/to-thunar-sawfish/to-thunar-sawfish-0.1.tar.gz

quote:

If there are no decent alternatives, maybe someone can help me fix the sort order. I have LC_COLLATE=C in my .bashrc file, but Nautilus does not respect it. There's a bug report out there, but it was recently marked NOTABUG. If Nautilus DOES respect the locale setting, how the hell do I change it?

.bashrc has no effect on things not started from interactive bash by the user that .bashrc belongs to. You can configure environment for X sessions by adding your own file to /etc/X11/Xsession.d/ (see other files in there for examples).

# ? Sep 12, 2007 12:43

DirtyDiaperMask: Aug 11, 2003; by Ozmaugh

Have they fixed the Thunar move-to-non-standard-obscure-trash-folder problem yet? That was a severe annoyance for me.

# ? Sep 12, 2007 15:47

hey mom its 420: May 12, 2007

teapot posted:

I don't have a box where I can test it, however it is possible that those problems were fixed in compiz fusion, so I guess, you can check it in
their forums. My Ubuntu 7.04 laptop uses Compiz Fusion from Trevino repository, however thanks to its ATI graphics card and fglrx driver, it has no AIGLX and doesn't seem to have a way to explain Xgl how to support dual screen on it.

Thanks, I installed compiz fusion and it's working very nicely now. That expo stuff is excellent.
Although, if I restart X (so I'm guessing that will happen when I boot up Ubuntu, I haven't rebooted yet), I have to run 'compiz --replace' to turn it on. How could I automate this so that it's on everytime Ubuntu boots up?

# ? Sep 12, 2007 16:16

deimos: Nov 30, 2006; Forget it man this bat is whack, it's got poobrain!

Bonus posted:

Thanks, I installed compiz fusion and it's working very nicely now. That expo stuff is excellent.
Although, if I restart X (so I'm guessing that will happen when I boot up Ubuntu, I haven't rebooted yet), I have to run 'compiz --replace' to turn it on. How could I automate this so that it's on everytime Ubuntu boots up?

System->Preferences->Sessions

and add an entry for: compiz --replace

# ? Sep 12, 2007 16:36

Mr. DNA: Aug 9, 2004; Megatronics?

I'm trying to get my scanner working and I'm getting a strange error.

code:

deryk@dna:~$ scanimage --format tiff >~/test.tiff
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
deryk@dna:~$

If I use:

code:

deryk@dna:~$ sudo scanimage --format tiff >~/test.tiff

everything works as expected.

I checked and 'deryk' is a member of the group 'scanner'.

Any thoughts on this?

EDIT: I'm using Ubuntu 7.04 and Update Manager says everything is up to date.

Mr. DNA fucked around with this message at 19:59 on Sep 12, 2007

# ? Sep 12, 2007 19:51

covener: Jan 10, 2004; You know, for kids!

Mr. DNA posted:

I'm trying to get my scanner working and I'm getting a strange error.
code:
deryk@dna:~$ scanimage --format tiff >~/test.tiff
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
deryk@dna:~$
If I use:
code:
deryk@dna:~$ sudo scanimage --format tiff >~/test.tiff
everything works as expected.

I checked and 'deryk' is a member of the group 'scanner'.

Any thoughts on this?

EDIT: I'm using Ubuntu 7.04 and Update Manager says everything is up to date.

You can get a quick backtrace by prefixing your invocation with "catchsegv'

# ? Sep 12, 2007 20:07

deong: Jun 13, 2001; I'll see you in heck!

What is the best MP3 IDv3 tag editor for Linux?. On windows I was using Tag&Rename, and I like how it can grab from directory names and such. I have tried out MusicBrainz Piccard, and while it is nice, its more complicated that i feel is needed. The process of Fingerprinting the files seems unnecessary.
What are other favorites?

# ? Sep 12, 2007 21:36

RoundsToZero: Dec 3, 2004; An open door is an invitation

I use Easytag for must stuff and Cantus occasionally. Cantus does the kind of tagging based on filename that I think you're talking about. However, I use(d) the 1.x stable versions, not the 1.99x 2.0 betas. It seemed like there were actually fewer features in the 2.0 betas.

# ? Sep 12, 2007 21:39

Kobayashi: Aug 13, 2004; by Nyc_Tattoo

teapot posted:

.bashrc has no effect on things not started from interactive bash by the user that .bashrc belongs to. You can configure environment for X sessions by adding your own file to /etc/X11/Xsession.d/ (see other files in there for examples).

Putting in .bashrc gets me halfway home, by fixing everything terminal-related. After poking around in session.d/, I also put the same entry in .gnomerc, which seems to have fixed Nautilus. Is there anything stupid or incorrect about doing that?

I gave Thunar a quick go, and while it gets closer to what I have in mind as the "ideal" filemanager, I don't know how deep down the rabbit hole I want to go to get it to work. I might revisit this some time in the future...

# ? Sep 13, 2007 00:53

yippee cahier: Mar 28, 2005

deong posted:

What is the best MP3 IDv3 tag editor for Linux?. On windows I was using Tag&Rename, and I like how it can grab from directory names and such. I have tried out MusicBrainz Piccard, and while it is nice, its more complicated that i feel is needed. The process of Fingerprinting the files seems unnecessary.
What are other favorites?

I use easytag, which is great. Supports a bunch of formats, embeds images, you name it. The interface is a tiny bit quirky, but it's still gtk2. If you can interactively write out a string of how your directories files are arranged, it'll tell you what ID3 fields are being interpreted.

# ? Sep 13, 2007 03:55

teapot: Dec 27, 2003; by Fistgrrl

Kobayashi posted:

Putting in .bashrc gets me halfway home, by fixing everything terminal-related. After poking around in session.d/, I also put the same entry in .gnomerc, which seems to have fixed Nautilus. Is there anything stupid or incorrect about doing that?

No, this is fine, and in Ubuntu in particular .gnomerc is called from /etc/X11/Xsession.d/55gnome-session_gnomerc file. It's just I have seen many configurations that don't use that file.

quote:

I gave Thunar a quick go, and while it gets closer to what I have in mind as the "ideal" filemanager, I don't know how deep down the rabbit hole I want to go to get it to work. I might revisit this some time in the future...

The scripts I made are rather intrusive, however the goal was to keep all functionality and call Nautilus whenever something Nautilus-specific is called from menu. The only thing that does not work consistently in this configuration is trash -- Nautilus has its own one, Thunar and Konqueror have their own one. Considering that Thunar handles trash in a way compatible with freedesktop.org standards (and this is why it interoperates with Konqueror) I would rather prefer Thunar.

Thunar also does not support icons on desktop, and I didn't want to bring the whole Xfce into GNOME for a feature that I never use, however otherwise Thunar with my wrapper is perfectly usable, and this is what I have on my computers for more than a year. It's just only recently I made the installer scripts because I wanted to share this configuration.

teapot fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Sep 13, 2007

# ? Sep 13, 2007 07:46

Steve French: Sep 8, 2003

What's the easiest way to find the UID/GID of an NIS user name if you're unable to login? I figure I should be able to grab it from some files owned by the user, but I'm not sure how.

(Background: I'm trying to login, but the NFS server that hosts my home directory is down, so it just hangs everytime. I figure I can change my local /etc/passwd file to override that, but I want the correct UID/GID so everything's consistent. I'm logged into a different account locally and have read access to some other NFS mounts that are still up, and I'm hoping I can grab the values from some files I've created in the past. If there's another simpler way, that'd be fine too)

EDIT: NFS server is back up, don't really need this anymore, but might be nice to have an answer anyway if anyone knows.

Steve French fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Sep 14, 2007

# ? Sep 14, 2007 21:38

hey mom its 420: May 12, 2007

My knowledge of linux is intermediate at best. Probably not even that. I use Ubuntu as my main OS, I know how to do everyday tasks in the commandline like chmod, manipulate files, grep stuff, ssh, ftp. I know how stdin and stdout work with the pipes and all, I know about inodes, etc. But I'd like to get some real knowledge about linux, maybe even enough to be able to consider myself a power user, because I'm genuinely interested. How it works from the ground up, user groups, bash scripts. I still don't know some things I think I should know like what /usr, /dev, /etc, /lib are for, I just usually locate the files I need to modify and sudo vim to change them.

So my question is, what are some really good resources (online and books) for really getting to know linux?

# ? Sep 14, 2007 22:23

Prince John: Jun 20, 2006; Oh, poppycock! Female bandits?

Bonus posted:

So my question is, what are some really good resources (online and books) for really getting to know linux?

There are a couple of really good linux system administrators guides out there. Check out the long guide section of tldp.org as well.

One thing you may find useful if you really want to get into the guts of it all is Linux From Scratch which is supposed to have excellent documentation.

# ? Sep 14, 2007 22:40

Jonny 290: May 5, 2005; [ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

Ubuntu 7.04 on a headless fileserver.

Question: I can mount my media drives to any directory I want - so, what's the best 'textbook' location to mount shared media such as mp3's and videos onto my machine? I'm tired of mixing up /media/sda2 and /media/sdb1; want to set more intelligible aliases but don't know where I should put them.

# ? Sep 15, 2007 00:15

teapot: Dec 27, 2003; by Fistgrrl

jstultz posted:

What's the easiest way to find the UID/GID of an NIS user name if you're unable to login? I figure I should be able to grab it from some files owned by the user, but I'm not sure how.

(Background: I'm trying to login, but the NFS server that hosts my home directory is down, so it just hangs everytime. I figure I can change my local /etc/passwd file to override that, but I want the correct UID/GID so everything's consistent. I'm logged into a different account locally and have read access to some other NFS mounts that are still up, and I'm hoping I can grab the values from some files I've created in the past. If there's another simpler way, that'd be fine too)

EDIT: NFS server is back up, don't really need this anymore, but might be nice to have an answer anyway if anyone knows.

code:

ypcat passwd

# ? Sep 15, 2007 01:08

6174: Dec 4, 2004

Bonus posted:

So my question is, what are some really good resources (online and books) for really getting to know linux?

If you want to get really hardcore on the system call level, the book "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" by Stevens and Rago is very good.

# ? Sep 15, 2007 01:36

The Remote Viewer: Jul 9, 2001

New WINE released...apparently iTunes is supposed to work now, which I think is a much bigger deal than most Linux people make it out to be. Can anyone confirm?

# ? Sep 15, 2007 02:57

marcan: Sep 3, 2006; (:(){ :|:;};:)

The Remote Viewer posted:

New WINE released...apparently iTunes is supposed to work now, which I think is a much bigger deal than most Linux people make it out to be. Can anyone confirm?

Why is it such a big deal? There are several very good media players around in Linux. I'll take Amarok over iTunes any day. It supports the iPod as well.

# ? Sep 15, 2007 03:45

Jonny 290: May 5, 2005; [ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

marcan posted:

Why is it such a big deal? There are several very good media players around in Linux. I'll take Amarok over iTunes any day. It supports the iPod as well.

This is likely why.

http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/07/09/14/1831236.shtml

Apple starting to lock out non-iTunes sync clients on iPods.

# ? Sep 15, 2007 03:50

Zuph: Jul 24, 2003; Zupht0r 6000 Turbo Type-R

marcan posted:

Why is it such a big deal? There are several very good media players around in Linux. I'll take Amarok over iTunes any day. It supports the iPod as well.

Because the iTunes music store is the be-all end-all of all digital music distribution systems.

# ? Sep 15, 2007 07:10

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

Does anyone know what settings, locations and whatever else do influence the operation of Nautilus-open-terminal? Sometime ago I've installed a package theoretically unrelated to it and since then selecting Open Terminal in the context menu blows up Nautilus.

It's even stranger that it still blows up even though I've clean installed a newer version of my OS a few days, put my home directory on it and it still blows up. It works when logging in with a different account (well, root, whose home directory is virtually untouched, apart a few copies of files from /etc).

# ? Sep 15, 2007 15:41

The Remote Viewer: Jul 9, 2001

marcan posted:

Why is it such a big deal? There are several very good media players around in Linux. I'll take Amarok over iTunes any day. It supports the iPod as well.

That's not the point. iTunes has an installed base of tens, if not hundreds, of millions. iTMS is the biggest digital media store in the world.

And in case getting these working means that it'll be a lot easier to get any future iPod or iPhone working out of the box with full functionality, which can't be taken for granted anymore now that Apple is starting to take steps like encrypting the firmware and hashing the song database.

# ? Sep 15, 2007 17:20

teapot: Dec 27, 2003; by Fistgrrl

Toiletbrush posted:

Does anyone know what settings, locations and whatever else do influence the operation of Nautilus-open-terminal? Sometime ago I've installed a package theoretically unrelated to it and since then selecting Open Terminal in the context menu blows up Nautilus.

It's even stranger that it still blows up even though I've clean installed a newer version of my OS a few days, put my home directory on it and it still blows up. It works when logging in with a different account (well, root, whose home directory is virtually untouched, apart a few copies of files from /etc).

Nautilus takes its configuration from gconf, run gconf-editor and look if there is anything unusual there. Relevant options should be in /apps/nautilus and /desktop/gnome subtrees.

# ? Sep 15, 2007 22:21

DevastatorIIC: Nov 13, 2006; Dvorak- Ubuntu- KDE- and Opera-fag

Bonus posted:

So my question is, what are some really good resources (online and books) for really getting to know linux?

I have about the same experience as you, and I learned a ton of useful stuff from just the first chapter of O'Reilly Essential System Administration.

Teapot: How often do you use the file browser? I find myself using mine less and less, and just going straight command line.

# ? Sep 15, 2007 23:23

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

teapot posted:

Nautilus takes its configuration from gconf, run gconf-editor and look if there is anything unusual there. Relevant options should be in /apps/nautilus and /desktop/gnome subtrees.

The exec value was set to nothing in /desktop/gnome/applications/terminal in my profile, while it said gnome-terminal in the root profile. I figured that it's that key from the source code I've just looked into. But said code substitutes gnome-terminal on an empty key, apparently that doesn't work. Filled the key, now it's fixed. Danka.

# ? Sep 15, 2007 23:36

Jo: Jan 24, 2005; Soiled Meat

Edit: Nevermind. :sigh:

Jo fucked around with this message at 04:11 on Sep 16, 2007

# ? Sep 16, 2007 03:55

teapot: Dec 27, 2003; by Fistgrrl

DevastatorIIC posted:

I have about the same experience as you, and I learned a ton of useful stuff from just the first chapter of O'Reilly Essential System Administration.

Teapot: How often do you use the file browser? I find myself using mine less and less, and just going straight command line.

Very rarely -- usually on directories with images/drawings/documents to look at the thumbnails. Occasionally I also use Midnight Commander for sorting and cleaning up directories.

# ? Sep 16, 2007 04:30

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# ? May 14, 2024 12:26

marcan: Sep 3, 2006; (:(){ :|:;};:)

teapot posted:

Very rarely -- usually on directories with images/drawings/documents to look at the thumbnails. Occasionally I also use Midnight Commander for sorting and cleaning up directories.

I also rarely use standard file browsers anymore, except for thumbnails. Besides the terminal, I also use an NC clone - Krusader instead of Midnight Commander. I've been telling myself to use Krusader more often, as I have a feeling it may be more efficient for some tasks (and it has a terminal built in, so there is nothing to lose), but I just end up using the commandline most of the time, unless I'm doing bulk moving and sorting. Strange though, because the times I have to use Windows I always go for Total Commander for file management. How do you feel NC-style (dual pane) file managers compare to using the commandline?

Oh, yeah, now that I remember - does anyone know how to turn the "*" hotkey off in Krusader, or ideally disable it while the built in Konsole has focus? For that matter, all single-key hotkeys should be disabled while the Konsole kpart has focus. Not having * when using the terminal is a huge problem. It doesn't seem to be one of the entries under Hotkeys, so I can't turn it off there.

# ? Sep 16, 2007 05:43

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > The Linux Questions Thread: a bunch of pitfalls, but technically it's possible

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