Ask Ubuntu General Room

ajmitch

12:04 AM

nice & polite way of putting it :)

EvilPhoenix

12:14 AM

@JorgeCastro i NEVER saw that on askubuntu :P

Jorge Castro

askubuntu.com/questions/how-to-answer

askubuntu.com/questions/how-to-ask

EvilPhoenix

oh THOSE screens :P

George Edison

12:31 AM

Ext2/3/4 is orders of magnitude faster than FAT/FAT32/NTFS at manipulating large quantities of files.

lazyPower

1:05 AM

@JamesGifford i was in class, but yes, i got your DM :P

@JorgeCastro according to his twitter he's out and about tonight.

lazyPower

1:23 AM

0

Q: Does Novell's Mono promote bloat in programs?

Is Mono and/or Mono-based software bloatware? Eg: Banshee, Moonlight, Docky, Tomboy Notes, etc. Is there anything actually wrong with software using Mono and/or Mono itself, or is it nothing more than an ethics issue?

mono

thats a subjective question that would under normal circumstances be flagged correct?

Marco Ceppi

@JorgeCastro It's all SEs Depends on your reputation

James Gifford

@lazypower :P

lazyPower

1:40 AM

@JamesGifford ^.^

trampster

2:51 AM

How come I can get upvotes after a question was closed?

djeikyb

Mods, correct me if i'm wrong: closing a question only closes it for new answers.

George Edison

3:07 AM

@djeikyb Right. (I'm not a mod, but I have been in the past.)

jgbelacqua

0

Q: Is it normal for nm-applet to use 1,5Gig of ram?

nm-applet suspiciously uses about 1 gig of RAM on Ubuntu 10.10. Is this normal behavior?

network-manager

dupe alert?

djeikyb

yep

jgbelacqua

I've voted to close it....

George Edison

3

Q: Why can't I copy a large number of files to my USB flash drive?

I have about 7000 or so files I'm trying to copy to a USB flash drive. The total size is about 8GB. After copying about 10% of the files, the drive mysteriously aborts the transfer and unmounts itself. Results of dmesg | tail: [ 2193.272548] usb 2-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd a...

mount error usb-drive

I've put a bounty on that one.

ajmitch

@GeorgeEdison interesting problem :)

though there doesn't look to be enough of the dmesg output

George Edison

3:18 AM

That's all I get from dmesg | tail.

ajmitch

that's because tail only displays the last 10 lines

you're using a tool that deliberately cuts the output short :P

George Edison

I'll see if I can get more.

ajmitch

Check /var/log/syslog

George Edison

@ajmitch: pastebin.com/KZrrhfHm

ajmitch

nothing before that?

George Edison

3:24 AM

Oh, there is... hang on.

Here are the previous lines: pastebin.com/r0Hin0Q4

That's all. The stuff before has a much earlier timestamp.

ajmitch

so there are some definite filesystem errors on there

& it sets it to read-only when it hits them

I can't remember what tools there are in ubuntu for checking a fat32 filesystem for consistency

fsck.vfat may help

George Edison

No,no...

It had FAT errors before.

I reformatted it just now, and then tried copying files.

ajmitch

well that's not a good sign :P

because those timestamps are from just a few minutes ago?

George Edison

Yeah.

ajmitch

and they say that there are FAT errors, and that the filesystem is set to readonly

George Edison

3:30 AM

Ya, that was before I reformatted it.

Maybe it would help if I explain exactly what I did.

ajmitch

Please

George Edison

1. I plug it in.

ajmitch

#Apr 4 20:20:03 nathan-laptop kernel: [10774.494718] FAT: Filesystem has been set read-only

George Edison

2. It mounts without error and I try copying 2 GB of files.

ajmitch

how long ago was that?

George Edison

3:31 AM

A few minutes ago

3. About 600MB into the transfer, it aborts and then unmounts.

4. I plug it back in and then I get FAT errors.

The only way to use it again is to reformat.

ajmitch

ok, put the information in the question :)

George Edison

@ajmitch There. Done.

ajmitch

I'm really not liking the look of those I/O errors there

Roland Taylor

3:46 AM

>:)

youtube.com/watch?v=CHJp97KyUo8&feature=related

ajmitch

more rickrolling or friday? :P

George Edison

@ajmitch What do you think the problem is?

ajmitch

@GeorgeEdison I don't know whether it's actual I/O errors due to the drive having issues, or whether something was trying to access sectors out of range, I don't know enough to decide

George Edison

Is there a command to check the drive for issues?

ajmitch

badblocks may work for it, but that's just a maybe :)

Trufa

3:51 AM

has anyone tried guake?? very recommendable!!

Roland Taylor

o.o osm?

how did I type that?

George Edison

@ajmitch It's running now.

Stefano Palazzo

4:35 AM

heh all the interesting things happened after I went to sleep :-)

Good morning everyone (:

EvilPhoenix

@StefanoPalazzo morning

mornings are evil

ajmitch

4:59 AM

@StefanoPalazzo hi

Stefano Palazzo

'ello :-)

gnah!

George Edison

5:15 AM

@ajmitch There. badblocks finished. Everything's fine.

Stefano Palazzo

0

A: how do I leave a comment to an answer on the Ask Ubuntu site?

Commenting is a privilege you earn by using the site. When you reach 50 Reputation, you earn the privilege called Comment Everywhere: From the Privilege description: How do I comment? Click the add comment link under each post. Comments cannot be multi-line, so simply press enter to ...

A nice change from the usual anger about not being able to comment

George Edison

Anyone know of a good place to ask for help with this?

I'm not getting anywhere with #linux on freenode.

Oh, and I have a surprise for everyone:

blog.superuser.com/2011/04/05/…

djeikyb

@GeorgeEdison have you seen this thread yet?: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=797789&page=2

George Edison

5:30 AM

@djeikyb Thanks! Sounds like something that might help.

djeikyb

the first page involves an error -71 with a different fix and a different problem

@GeorgeEdison have you found anything about what -71 might mean?

George Edison

@djeikyb Hang on... I have to reboot to try this change out.

djeikyb

@GeorgeEdison kay-o. also post output of smartctl --all /dev/sdX (whatever your drive is)

George Edison

Device: Corsair Survivor GTR Version: 0.00
>> Terminate command early due to bad response to IEC mode page
A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.

djeikyb

oh well. was worth a shot. apparently there isn't a more permissive option than the default normal.

@GeorgeEdison i'm with @ajmitch. don't like those io errors.

George Edison

5:42 AM

@djeikyb Ya... but what do they mean?

djeikyb

not that i'm super knowledgeable, but usually they mean the hardware is borked. my experience with io errors are mostly with tape drives

especially travan 20/40s ;p

@GeorgeEdison be nice if you had a different computer and os to try the same 2gig transfer test

or at least a different os, to rule out usb driver bugs

George Edison

@djeikyb Right... I don't think I'm going to get anywhere until I try it on Windows.

djeikyb

@GeorgeEdison have you tried the same copy test formatted as ext2/3 ?

George Edison

@djeikyb No... do you think that could make a difference?

djeikyb

@GeorgeEdison i dunno. but it's a good test. it'll isolate the problem to the file system, which would be a sweet development as far as bug logging

George Edison

5:50 AM

@djeikyb That gives this error.

djeikyb

with what command? (just for posterity)

George Edison

From Nautilus. (Just right-click, Format.)

Format as FAT32 still works.

djeikyb

oh, hm, okay. i wonder if nautilus deletes the existing partition table first

George Edison

Same result from using System->Administration->Disk Utility.

Trying Ext4...

djeikyb

heh. this is where it would be helpful for me to use gnome

@GeorgeEdison are you explicitly deleting the partition table first? if not, do so

George Edison

5:54 AM

Okay.

Ext2 or 4?

djeikyb

ehhh, ext2 just for kicks

older, more tested. not that i know of any problems with ext4

George Edison

Same error. That was after running "Delete Partitions" until the device was empty.

djeikyb

okay, good

so now we know this isn't a fat problem

@GeorgeEdison do you have multiple usb buses? i don't mean just multiple usb ports

well. no. that's silly. do you have any other large usb drives, like say an external hard disk?

changing buses will isolate the problem to the usb bus, but might not be feasible for you

George Edison

@djeikyb Yes.

I tried changing ports, etc.

...and I have another USB external HD (1TB) that works fine.

djeikyb

great, fantastic info

though not so fantastic for your flash drive's prognosis

George Edison

6:02 AM

Why?

djeikyb

by process of elimination, then, i pronounce your sweet flash drive borked

George Edison

Oh no!

djeikyb

prolly should rma that quicklike

George Edison

It was a gift :)

djeikyb

@GeorgeEdison dang

George Edison

6:03 AM

Really, though - I should try it in Windows.

And to be fair, it does work fine for smaller transfers.

djeikyb

oh. haha, spoke slightly too soon

George Edison

Hang on... I'll boot up Vista.

djeikyb

well.

George Edison

This may take a few minutes.... :)

djeikyb

k o

George Edison

6:04 AM

I'll hopefully be back in about 5.

djeikyb

let's logic this out. from the driver's perspective, is there any difference between a usb connected flash drive and a usb connected sata drive?

if not, then yeah, your drive is broken

if so, there's a small chance of it just being a driver bug

Kaustubh P

hello!

djeikyb

hiya @KaustubhP

George Edison

Vista has (sort of) finished loading.

It's slower than a turtle.

Kaustubh P

@djeikyb @GeorgeEdison hello!

George Edison

6:15 AM

I'm currently waiting for the drivers to finish installing.

@KaustubhP Hello.

djeikyb

@GeorgeEdison lol. it took that long to boot??

George Edison

It hasn't even finished yet :P I just managed to get Chrome up before it's done.

Still installing updates...

Takkat

good morning all

djeikyb

@GeorgeEdison eheh, so i'm not missing much. i've been tempted to try win7, but i've stuck with winxp so far

evening @Takkat ;p

George Edison

I'll never know why people complained about XP.

Vista was like fixing a flat tire with a sledgehammer.

djeikyb

6:17 AM

@GeorgeEdison because it hella sucked pre sp2

George Edison

@djeikyb I heard that it was pretty bad before SP2.

Driver's loaded now.

[Waiting for Explorer to open...]

[Waiting for second explorer window to open...]

djeikyb

xp + cygwin + xming is..livable. i mean, for ordinary web browsing, no huge difference from linux. but start to script or analyse logs..

George Edison

cgywin is awesome.

I used it before finally switching to Ubuntu.

djeikyb

nice. it was a lifesaver at my old job. silly it policies hating on linux

Kaustubh P

Eclipse sucks.

djeikyb

6:24 AM

@KaustubhP haven't used eclipse much. i've only written small perl scripts and websites. lovingly hand-coded with vim

George Edison

Windows Vista - ARGH!!!

> "You must restart to.... blah blah blah."

Kaustubh P

@djeikyb Installing plugins is a PIA.

George Edison

And it says I need to restart to use my USB mouse!

...which was working until a few seconds ago!

Hang on...

djeikyb

you're a power user right? you don't need no mouse!

George Edison

I'll be back again.

djeikyb

6:26 AM

nods sympathetically at @GeorgeEdison

htorque

6:39 AM

in win 7 i'm happy if it's just a restart and not a "installing on shutdown, configuring on boot" craziness

djeikyb

@htorque eesh. all this fun stuff i'm missing out on

htorque

heh, i only can handle this much fun once a month

Takkat

that's often :P
good morning :)

htorque

morning!

Kaustubh P

@Takkat @htorque morning guys!

Takkat

6:47 AM

hi @KaustubhP

htorque

hi!

damn, how is it already 9am? gotta go, cya!

Takkat

@htorque CEST still cu

@djeikyb just to remind you of history :P

Don't dare to leave your box...

djeikyb

haha, but i think i disabled auto updates. which makes me a terrible user, i know

Takkat

Everytime I have to see something like that I am so glad of not having to run XP at home any more :)

unfortunately here at office it's still all contaminated. Good I don't have to admin the office boxes

djeikyb

7:03 AM

@GeorgeEdison Whenever you get vista going, try to wipe the entire disk and reformat ntfs. i know you don't want it long run, but try your copy test with ntfs. see what errors you get in windows syslog, for both the format and the copy test.

htorque

7:33 AM

@GeorgeEdison can you add this to your question

1

A: Why can't I copy a large number of files to my USB flash drive?

I'll try and sum up our chat discussion.. Is this a file system problem? No. Badblocks comes up clean. I had George try wiping the FAT partition table, then try formatting with ext2. He used Gnome's Disk Utility. Is this a usb port/bus problem? No. George tried multiple ports with this dri...

djeikyb

yeah, i debated whether to post as answer or edit his question. decided enough of it was me answering, but yeah, he should still work it into his question for the sake of everyone else

Octavian Damiean

morning!

htorque

@OctavianDamiean hi

Takkat

@djeikyb if the correct answer resulted later this anwer would be a great howto on how to debug USB issues.

djeikyb

@OctavianDamiean heya

Takkat

7:45 AM

Hi @OctavianDamiean

Octavian Damiean

I'ma link you to my SE question/answer quality improvement proposal, if you have an opinion, please share it. :)

2

A: How to improve quality of SO questions/answers?

I'd like to throw in an idea I had today. What would you think about some kind of mentoring program? The principle is very simple. You need one experienced user and one or more new (not so experienced) users. Mentors would get one or more trainees assigned with the aim to teach them how to ask ...

djeikyb

@Takkat heh, how to debug hardware issues in general

come up with failure points, test them

Takkat

@djeikyb sorry for the hurry: troubleshoot of course ;)

djeikyb

haha, yes. triage, troubleshoot, better words

Takkat

But even Hardware may have bugs (ants in @Alvar's keyboard e.g.)

djeikyb

7:52 AM

i know nothing of code, debugging is hardly my arena

Octavian Damiean

@Takkat is that a joke with the ants in the keyboard? :D

djeikyb

please tell me that happened and caused errors

Takkat

@OctavianDamiean no he mentioned that here some days ago when he saw an ant disappear in his laptop :D

Octavian Damiean

@Takkat OH lol! :D

Takkat

scary thought - that's why I remembered

Btw there are moths feeding their maggots from hardware: I've seen that - no joke

That's how they looked like

djeikyb

7:58 AM

that's rough. hate to be the one diagnosing those hardware failures

Octavian Damiean

@Takkat no way. You serious?

htorque

damn bugs!

Takkat

@OctavianDamiean they normally feed from food like flour pasta and stuff. But I've seen electronic devices crowded with dead maggots and web's from cocoons. That was scary I can tell you.

Octavian Damiean

@Takkat lol

Takkat

Hardware was still working fine despite that, so maybe it was only some insulation or resins they ate.

htorque

8:06 AM

maybe they just liked the temperature?

Takkat

@htorque it was a not used device. Maybe they die from the heat in PCs in action.

htorque

bah

Takkat

Glad we now live in a moth-free zone

Octavian Damiean

8:37 AM

wow, I just removed old kernel versions worth ~1GB of storage! :D

@StefanoPalazzo have you ever read the full circles magazine? I think since issue 19 they have a Python series fullcirclemagazine.org

they are at issue 47 now btw.

Stefano Palazzo

@OctavianDamiean I read it occasionally, but you might imagine the python series doesn't excite me that much ;-)

Octavian Damiean

@StefanoPalazzo yea well I know, just wanted to make sure you know about it :)

Stefano Palazzo

thank you :-)
I always forget about it

I just noticed I've missed three issues

Stefano Palazzo

9:21 AM

Using IRC is a real blast from the past, when you're used to the sort of chat system we have here...

Octavian Damiean

@StefanoPalazzo hehe :D

Stefano Palazzo

* Stefano has quit (*.net *.split)

:P

Oli

10:10 AM

uk /websites: uptime
11:06:22 up 372 days, 16:19, 1 user, load average: 0.27, 0.32, 0.14

This is getting silly.

Spacecraft

10:21 AM

Is this chat platform freely available / able to be used standalone on web page?

It's so nice.

Octavian Damiean

@Spacecraft as far as I know it isn't

Spacecraft

That's a shame.

Stefano Palazzo

@oli ;-)

Octavian Damiean

@StefanoPalazzo wow that is really a sick uptime

Spacecraft

Yeesh. 2263 days of uptime? What kind of black magic is this?

Stefano Palazzo

10:32 AM

This sort of thing happens when people don't dare to touch the server

NetWare came with a helpful sticker that admins could put on the server, to warn others. "Here be dragons"

djeikyb

o, netware..how i loathe trying to divine your commands, and shudder at your maimed excuse of a point-and-click interface

i will say, accomplishing something on netware grants much higher satisfaction than performing an equivalent windows or linux action. and i'm not talking ease of use..

Stefano Palazzo

Mh, I've used netware for about a year at school, found it pretty forgettable

but that's only the client-side

djeikyb

10:49 AM

yeah, interacting with netware as a file server isn't too bad on windows. kinda of a bitch on linux. i remember the bloody linux client timing out constantly

doing stuff on the server is where esoteria kicks in. that, or i just suck. i never trained for netware, just was thrown into it testing cross-platform software

Octavian Damiean

I'm going post my answer again, maybe some of you have thoughts you'd like to share.

meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/11938/…

Alvar

askubuntu.com/questions/31307/…

good question! :D

djeikyb

@Alvar yeah, it's an interesting one. that answer is a dead end though. it for sure is not a file system problem.

Alvar

aha

I thought if you reset everything in it and then it will show if it's a fake or not..

djeikyb

2

A: Why can't I copy a large number of files to my USB flash drive?

I'll try and sum up our chat discussion.. Is this a file system problem? No. Badblocks comes up clean. I had George try wiping the FAT partition table, then try formatting with ext2. He used Gnome's Disk Utility. Is this a usb port/bus problem? No. George tried multiple ports with this dri...

Alvar

10:57 AM

sorry I din't read it enough! :(

djeikyb

if the drive is a fake, filling it up should spit out messages like "wtf, i can't take any more data! stuff it elsewhere!". it shouldn't roll over and die.

htorque

31

Q: Unity keyboard/mouse shortcuts

In Compiz-based Unity, are there any pre-defined shortcuts, e.g. to open the dash or unhide the launcher?

unity 11.04 shortcuts

hehe, that's going to get me the Famous Question badge ;P

djeikyb

@htorque lol. is that why you're posting it in chat?

htorque

exactly

MOAR VIEWS!

Alvar

is it a hardware problem like something is broken?

djeikyb

10:59 AM

@htorque that's a useful question though. nice clearinghouse

htorque

@djeikyb actually it was JorgeCastro's idea, so thanks for the gold badge :P

djeikyb

@Alvar i'm pretty sure the drive is broken. the vista test will help confirm this, but george never made it back. vista ate him

Alvar

@djeikyb hehe, too bad really...

but still he has 600 mb to use ;)

djeikyb

@Alvar haha, i was wondering if maybe he can make a bunch of 600 mb fat partitions...don't know the nature of the brokenness.

htorque

"Oh my God, Vista killed George! ... You b*tards!" >:D

Alvar

11:03 AM

@htorque don't swear! :D

htorque

@Alvar i didn't - it was just a quote :P

Alvar

@djeikyb that would be awesome, but I think that only 600 mb is working that might be the problem...

@htorque of who? :O

Yi Jiang

@htorque gasp

djeikyb

@Alvar an alternate reality cartman.

htorque

@Alvar that's a quote from south park :)

Alvar

11:05 AM

aha... neards.....

djeikyb

@Alvar meme. "omg, X killed Y! You Z" where x is offender, y is victim, z is epithet towards x

Alvar

hahaha

djeikyb

i think i've seen two episodes, but the meme is everywhere

Alvar

and people say that I have to much spare time!

@djeikyb lol

djeikyb

@Alvar btw, your website is down. followed the link in your profile: alvarberglind.se

Alvar

11:12 AM

I know

I had to restart the router last night will make a fixed ip when I have the time...

but thanks to rmeind me! :D

will try to fix it now :D! :D

djeikyb

@Alvar good times : ) i looked at a google cache, and it looks like i won't be able to read any of it anyhow. i'm more or less monolingual

not that your page shouldn't be swedish(?)..

Alvar

@djeikyb what?

@djeikyb the server is a power mac g3 with ubuntu 8.04 :D

@djeikyb oooh, I'm planning on making a english version for people with not a swedish ip, still on my to do list

the page is just very very basic, it works that's it kind of..

trying to connect to a server is haaaard work! :D

ssh: connect to host 192.168.0.5 port 22: Connection refused what should i do?

@djeikyb google translate! ;)

djeikyb

11:30 AM

@Alvar 192.168.0.5 is your local lan server?

Alvar

true

djeikyb

@Alvar add verbosity! ssh -vvv although maybe just start with one

Alvar

aha

OpenSSH_5.3p1 Debian-3ubuntu6, OpenSSL 0.9.8k 25 Mar 2009
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to 192.168.0.5 [192.168.0.5] port 22.
debug1: connect to address 192.168.0.5 port 22: Connection refused
ssh: connect to host 192.168.0.5 port 22: Connection refused

djeikyb

hm. maybe the ssh_config on the server is messed up

Alvar

maybe...

djeikyb

11:33 AM

or the ssh service isn't started

Alvar

well I don't have a screen on it just a keyboard, so im a bit blind..

djeikyb

hehe

Alvar

@marcoCeppi any ideas?

djeikyb

umm, service ssh start

or, sshd

on the remote machine, then retry

Alvar

k

what is the first you see if you rebote a server? (ubuntu server 8.04)

is it a login screen?

typing blind

djeikyb

11:37 AM

on server edition, it should be a login prompt

unless you marred a perfectly good interface with gdm ;p

Alvar

lol I can connect o my own laptop from my laptop by using ssh LOL

@djeikyb not likely...

Stefano Palazzo

@Alvar and with good reason :-)

Alvar

hehe

gah! typing blind is VERY hard

nothing works...

hmmmm, what to do?

I could just pick up the server and plug it into a screen that would work.. but it's messy...

Yi Jiang

12:02 PM

o_o Why would xorg use up more than 30% of 2GB of RAM?

Alvar

filesystem has failed :D

Marco Ceppi

Stack Overflow Blog: Helping The Experts Get Answers

Posted by Jeff Atwood on April 5th, 2011

In A Recipe to Promote your Site, Robert provided a great set of guidelines for organically growing your Q&A community. Buried within was this observation:

Reach the right kind of publications and bloggers. Make sure that the key experts in every field know about the site; not just the “Martha Stewart” big names; we want to talk to the people who go to these conferences.

But how do you reach writers, bloggers, and other notable experts in the field?

Help them get answers to their questions, too! …

Alvar

/dev/hdc3/ contains errors

Alvar

12:29 PM

I got my server working but now I can't login!

the maps doesn't exist

Jorge Castro

hey @htorque

Alvar

My ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS Server is dead! :( It might work to reinstall... sad

Stefano Palazzo

12:44 PM

@JorgeCastro quick status update on the blekko thing: It's slooooooooow :-) But I don't know anything else yet. I'll test it properly once I'm done with my day's work

Jorge Castro

heh

sounds good

I got up early do do some questions today

Stefano Palazzo

nice :-)

Oh, that means you'll pass me in the all-time-reputation ranking

:-P

Jorge Castro

I saw you passed me last week!

it's mostly editing

Stefano Palazzo

I've been really slow these last two weeks, rep wise. I've got so many new projects and things...

Now I'm thinking about writing python bindings for pulseaudio

Oli

@JorgeCastro Can you give the upstream question for this duplicate a bit of love? Reading the duplicate question's body, the answer on the original won't work because the shortcut is bound to Expo. I know nothing about Unity and I class you as our Unity guy.

0

Q: what will the new Session Menu keyboard shortcut be in Unity? --the current one is redesignated in Unity

Possible Duplicate: Is there a way to access Session Menu with keyboard shortcut? I've always used the keyboard shortcut "Super + S + Up-Arrow" to activate the Session Menu's Shut Down option in the 10.04/10.10 panel. When reading this list Unity keyboard/mouse shortcuts I noticed tha...

unity shortcuts

Jorge Castro

12:50 PM

@Oli it's currently a bug, I'm trying to find out which key for sure will be the shortcut

that was duped like twice yesterday or something

it's on my list!

Oli

@JorgeCastro Thank you!

I'm just going to play with a few settings here. Please forgive me if I destroy the room.

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