- Arch-general - lists.archlinux.org

[arch-general] arch-release
by richard terry 27 Aug '09

27 Aug '09

/etc/arch-release Anyone know what is meant to be in this file The guys on the gambas user list are writing some sort of script so users can identify details of their system in case of bugs etc, and i was asked if this file exists, which is does, but it is empty? ?any other unique arch identifiers.

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[arch-general] introducing kernel26-lts
by Andreas Radke 27 Aug '09

27 Aug '09

Today I've added a 2nd kernel to our svn called "kernel26-lts". It should help to make you less caring about kernel updates. The intention is to 1) have a 2nd choice for the kernel pkg that suits better in certain situations and 2) it can be a fallback when a reboot after updating the core "kernel26" fails more detailed: 1) pkgdesc="The Linux Kernel and modules - stable longtime supported kernel package suitable for servers" The current longtime supported kernel version is 2.6.27.xx, right now we are at 2.6.27.31. The pkgdesc should clearly say what it should become in the future. Server systems won't be forced to take the risk to fail on the next boot after each kernel update. Modifications will be very small in the future within its lifecycle. The kernel configuration is based on the last .27.x config form our core pkg with small changes it has become in later versions + optimizations for server usage taken from here: http://www.serverwatch.com/tutorials/article.php/3715071/Ubuntu-Server--Ker… main changes are: 100Hz, no preempt, deadline I/O schedular. There will be no 3rd party modules. And no further patching. 2) a fallback kernel für almost everybody: a long requested feature. Everybody can install it along the core "kernel26" pkg and add lilo/grub entries for the "lts" kernel. Whenever an update of a future kernel26 will fail you won't be forced to boot with a rescue stick or cd. This should help a lot. attention: 2.6.27 kernel haven't had full ext4 support. I myself run a desktop with an ext4 / partition created with a later kernel version. the "lts" kernel is not capable to boot into this filesystem! But on real servers I guess everybody will wait a bit longer to use ext4. For the future it is planned to probably add Xen support to this or an outsplitted pkg. I will upload packages for both architectures to testing over the next days. Please discuss when you want see changes to the config file (x86_64 is done, i686 is not ready so far). -Andy

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[arch-general] How to choose which grub entry boots next from the cli via ssh in Arch?
by David C. Rankin 26 Aug '09

26 Aug '09

Listmates, How do I choose which grub entry will boot the next time the machine is rebooted from the command line? In suse there is a package called 'grubonce' which you issue from the command line giving the grub entry you want to boot next. Example, if your menu.lst looks like: # (0) Arch Linux - The Ferarri of Distros title Arch Linux on SuperSFF root (hd0,7) kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda6 ro vga=0x317 initrd /boot/kernel26.img # (1) Arch Linux title Arch Linux Fallback root (hd0,7) kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda6 ro initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img # (2) Arch Linux LTS title Arch Linux LTS on SuperSFF root (hd0,7) kernel /boot/vmlinuz26-lts root=/dev/sda6 ro vga=0x31a initrd /boot/kernel26-lts.img I could issue: # grubonce 2 and Arch Linux LTS would be booted next. I thought the grubonce package was part of grub, but it isn't. Also, I don't need it for a local machine (obviously), but I need something I can use via ssh. What do we use here? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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[arch-general] Bug in latest vim - have to enter :q an additional time after split
by David C. Rankin 26 Aug '09

26 Aug '09

Listmates, There is a bug in the latest vim. Something prevents split windows from completely closing requiring an additional :q to exit. Take for example any two text files. I'll use /boot/grub/menu.lst and menu.lst.sav. To confirm the bug, do the following: cd /boot/grub vim menu.lst :split menu.lst.sav ## you now have both windows open with menu.lst.sav on top [1] :q (to exit menu.lst.sav, you get --No lines in buffer-- msg) [2] :q (to exit menu.lst, the syntax highlighting is killed but no exit??) [3] :q (finally, after 3rd quit, you actuall exit) Screenshots: [1] http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/bugs/vim-1.jpeg [2] http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/bugs/vim-2.jpeg [3] http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/bugs/vim-3.jpeg Is this a bug I need to report or does it look like a configuration issue? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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[arch-general] Why doesn't plasma-panel show open apps in 2 rows in arch?
by David C. Rankin 26 Aug '09

26 Aug '09

Listmates, One strange difference in plasma-panel between my suse and my arch installs is that in suse, plasma-panel (kicker) shows the open application icons as 2 rows while my arch installs only show 1 row of apps. See: (26k) http://www.3111skyline.com/download/openSUSE_bugs/kde4/screenshots/panel-2r… Is there a hidden setting for this, or is it just in the next 4.3.00-xyz package to be released? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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[arch-general] http://archlinux.unixheads.org/$repo/os/testing/ - almost usuable "google-analytics"
by David C. Rankin 26 Aug '09

26 Aug '09

Listmates, I have had my updates hand horribly over the past several days. So bad, I thought there was a bug in pacman. I have even canceled some with ctrl+c out of frustration. I think I just found out why. I was looking to download the i686 lts kernel so I was browsing the various repositories to see which one had it. I tried to access packages on archlinux.unixheads.org, and access to the repository did the same thing -- just hung. The little spinner in firefox was just going round-and-round. Looking at the site it was accessing, I under stood why: http://www.google-analytics.com/ Evidently some of the archlinux repos are using google-analytics to trac web traffic to the packages and this is killing access to the repository. Here is a screenshot: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/bugs/hung-repo-ann.jpeg I'm glad to finally know what the problem is, but it may not be helpful to Arch to have the repos killed by some configured (or misconfigured) web traffic analyzer package... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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[arch-general] Script for finding and "moving" older duplicate packages from /var/cache/pacman/pkg
by David C. Rankin 26 Aug '09

26 Aug '09

Listmates, I like to keep the current set of updated packages in /var/cache/pacman/pkg but not have all of the older duplicates in there as well. However, I don't want to delete the old packages either, in case I need to downgrade a package. I simply want to move the older packages to a backup location on a different partition so I'm not filling up / with several extra gigabytes of older packages. To do this I adapted a script that I used to clean duplicates from my local rpm repository and changed the script to deal with package-name-v.e.r-arch.pkg.tar.gz instead of rpm-name-v.e.r-s.u.b-arch.rpm. (Thankfully arch just uses the pkg directory instead of a nested spiderweb under /var/cache/zypp/packages/.....) The script for finding and moving older duplicate packages is named fduppkg and is fairly self-explanitory. Running without arguments gives the options: 23:33 supersff:~/scripts/file> fduppkg Usage: <search dir> [ -d -l logfile -s -v ] Searches <search dir> for duplicate pkgs and moves duplicate files to [dup_dir] or <search dir>/duplicates by default. -d | --dupdir Used to specify directory to hold duplicate rpms -l | --logfile Specify the log file name (default ./duplicates.log) -s | --silent Don't output anything to stdout, just log results -v | --verbose Output information showing which files are kept and not moved You should note that the actual check for older/newer uses the file modification date to make the decision rather than parsing the version number digit-by-digit. So if you have done something nutty like moving all the packages out of /var/cache and then copying them back so all the file modification times are the same, this script won't work. (I could see it happening) If you have a need for something like this, you can grab the script at: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/scripts/fduppkg Since the script if fairly generic for packages, if you have a number of directories you want to operate on, you can just call the script from another script that sets the command line inputs. Example: http://www.3111skyline.com/download/Archlinux/scripts/fdup-archpkg I generally just create a link to the script in /usr/local/bin so it is in the search path. Also, if you just want to tear it apart for the bash scripting learning, I have commented it so it is somewhat readable. Enjoy. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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[arch-general] What changed: udev PolicyKit - No mount of usb or CD for non-root?
by David C. Rankin 26 Aug '09

26 Aug '09

Listmates, After updates this past week or so (not sure exactly when), Arch no longer mounts usb or CD/DVDs when inserted. What is the most likely culprit? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com

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[arch-general] bluetooth pairing with cellphone
by Dieter Plaetinck 25 Aug '09

25 Aug '09

hey dudes. I fail (sort of) at pairing my pc with my phone via bluetooth. (sony ericsson k810i, pc uses broadcom dongle) I have a system where everything is up to date, bluez is installed etc. the configs are all pretty much default. I did need to enable HID2HCI_ENABLE="true" in /etc/conf.d/bluetooth otherwise the bluetoothd daemon would abort immediately after startup ( ? ) I can do `hcitool scan` and see my phone. But to pair... 1) the bluez-simple-agent way: I start `sudo bluez-simple-agent`,it listens, and on the phone I search new devices. phone cannot find pc :( 2) the blueman way: 2a ) If I run as regular user, I get: dieter@dieter-ws-a7n8x-arch ~ blueman-manager Loading configuration plugins _________ on_bluez_name_owner_changed (/usr/bin/blueman-manager:99) org.bluez owner changed to :1.6 Using gconf config backend _________ SetAdapter (/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/blueman/gui/DeviceList.py:293) None ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on org.bluez:/: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Rejected send message, 2 matched rules; type="method_call", sender=":1.33" (uid=1000 pid=5982 comm="/usr/bin/python /usr/bin/blueman-manager ") interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable" member="Introspect" error name="(unset)" requested_reply=0 destination="org.bluez" (uid=0 pid=4642 comm="/usr/sbin/bluetoothd ")) Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/dbus/connection.py", line 578, in msg_reply_handler reply_handler(*message.get_args_list(**get_args_opts)) File "/usr/bin/blueman-manager", line 148, in on_bluez_name_owner_changed self.List = ManagerDeviceList(adapter=self.Config.props.last_adapter, inst=self) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/blueman/gui/manager/ManagerDeviceList.py", line 71, in __init__ DeviceList.__init__(self, adapter, data) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/blueman/gui/DeviceList.py", line 120, in __init__ self.SetAdapter(adapter) File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/blueman/gui/DeviceList.py", line 324, in SetAdapter except dbus.DBusServiceUnknownError: AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'DBusServiceUnknownError' do i need to be in some kind of group or something? There was no post install message, nor info about this on the wiki page (http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bluetooth) 2b) if I run blueman-manager as root I can pair (hooray). But actually I don't want to run stuff as root, nor do I want to use the bloatware that is blueman-manager. Dieter

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[arch-general] Stuff in /etc/cron.d/ won' work?
by Sven-Hendrik Haase 25 Aug '09

25 Aug '09

Hey there, I just noticed that I just couldn't get cron to properly execute stuff in /etc/cron.d/ no matter what I did. Let's say I have /etc/cron.d/lol with this content: * * * * * root echo "lol" >> /tmp/omg and restart crond afterwards, the crond log tells me that cron actually runs this command every minute without a problem. Sadly, this isn't the case and the file at /tmp/omg is created but remains without contents. In contrast, if I put an executable script to /etc/cron.hourly/lol with the content: echo "lol" >> /tmp/omg then the file at /tmp/omg fills up with lots of "lol"s after a couple of hours. It also works fine if I put it into the crontab. Now, I'd like to be able to use /etc/cron.d/ as well because it seems more transparent to me. Is there anything I do inherently wrong? -- Sven-Hendrik

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