Re: My list of annoyances

On Wed, 2003-09-17 at 23:29, Rhett Maxwell wrote:
> Just a few thoughts, see below...
> 
> -rhett
> 
> --- Roland Nagtegaal <[email protected]> wrote:
> > I'm a user of gentoo, and sysadmin of a redhat linux
> > network,
> > and these are mine or my users most common
> > annoyances:
> > 
> > 1. cannot shutdown because an nfs mount refuses to
> > unmount, usually the
> > /home
> > 2. cannot open a cdrom drive because someone else
> > mounted a cd and I'm
> > not root
> use the 'users' option in your /etc/fstab.  this
> should allow anyone to mount & unmount the cdrom.
> 
> > 3. cannot run TV program
> > (xawtv/xawdecode/tvtime/etc...) because
> > /dev/v4l/video0 is owned by the previous user that
> > used the
> > TV program
> just a thought, but try creating a group called
> 'video', and all all video users to this group.  Then
> chgrp the /dev/v4l directory to 'video', and set the
> sgid bit.  chmod /dev/v4l 770 (not sure what
> permissions it need).  This should make it so all
> files (i believe this will apply to device files)
> created within this directory are owned by the 'video'
> group, and have rwx permissions for that group and the
> owner.  any group members should have access to the
> group.

This will not work on a devfs system. At least, I don't know
how to change the permissions and ownerships on devicefiles in a devfs
filesystem...

> > 4. cannot burn a CD because the scsi device file
> > /dev/scd0 or whatever
> > is owned by the previous user that used cdrecord.
> > 5. after installing new software it does not appear
> > in any menu
> > 6. the gnome programmers decided that I should not
> > have a virtual
> > desktop but only virtual workspaces when they
> > introduces metacity over
> > sawfish. GRRRRR!
> > 7. every one of a zillion different mua's (mail user
> > agent, like pine,
> > evolution, balsa, mutt ...) has its own unique
> > directory
> > (structure) or mail file and metadata files, and
> > cannot be easily
> > interchanged or used side by side. This is a real
> > pain if you have to
> > support people who all use a different program
> > but as a sysadmin, it's fairly important you don't
> > mess up your
> > own mailfile/directory.
> > 8. The nicer mail clients (evolution, mozilla mail)
> > cannot be used if
> > you also want to use a commandline or curses based
> > client for when you
> > log in from home at work (and X is too slow
> > even over adsl).
> > 9. processes that cannot be killed somehow. Usually
> > because of
> > some problem with files that are still open. And
> > even with
> > lsof or fuser it is not possible to find out which
> > files, or why.
> kill -9 (i know someone else already answered this).

No this will not work. I explained why not in the answer to this person.


> > 10. cannot print pdf files, except from acroread.
> > Which almost
> > always has to be installed seperately.
> > 11. most important mozilla plugins like realplay,
> > acroread, flash java,
> > plugger are not installed. Takes hours to find them,
> > and
> > get them all working. 
> I noticed the installer doesn't always install these
> on mozilla, but do on netscape.  I'd suggesting
> changing the default plugin directory for mozilla to
> look at netscape's plugin directory or setting up a
> link of some kind.

Yes, that is an idea. I do that now: I just keep all plugins
in a separate directory, and links them in the right plugin dir. I made
a script for this. So I can work around, but it's
stupid that it isn't automatic, or plugins are not a part of mozilla. Or
at least in  a related package provided by the distro. (ok, sometimes
is, it used to be worse).

> > 12. xterms/gnometerms/whatever mess up the
> > commandline after resizing
> > the window. The newly entered text wraps over the
> > left side of the
> > xterm/etc... and overwrites my already typed
> > commands. The command will
> > still work, but I have to essentially type blind.
> > 13. mozilla crashes and leaves some lock file,
> > causing a newly started
> > mozilla to start up with a wizzard to make a new
> > profile. What's up with
> > this bloody profiles in mozilla anyway! That's only
> > needed for single
> > user systems like windows 98, but for linux I'd
> > rather do without them,
> > just a single .mozilla directory with all my
> > settings is good enough.
> i found this annoying too, i wrote a script to get
> around it.  basically i noticed that if you click the
> netscape/mozilla icon, and another instance of mozilla
> is already running, the profile wizard pops up.  I
> created a script to test if another instance is
> already running, if so i launch it with the following:
> nohup netscape -remote "openurl($URL,new-window)"  &
> where $URL is an argument from the command line of my
> script or a default page.

mozilla itself has a script for this. but it does not always
work...

> > 14. for some mysterious reason, X windows does not
> > provide direct (DRI)
> > rendering anymore, and falls back to software
> > rendering of 3D stuff.
> > Nothing has been reinstalled, no drivers were
> > altered, but still
> > hardware 3D rendering suddenly does not work
> > anymore. Rebooting will
> > sometimes fix this, but just as often will
> > not...(probably related to
> > some permission/ownership issue like with cdrecord
> > or tv viewing with
> > v4l).
> > 15. TV viewing, or divx players like xine or mplayer
> > get interrupted
> > by the xscreensaver program that kicks in.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Roland Nagtegaal <[email protected]>
> > loridanshof
> > 
> 
> > ATTACHMENT part 2 application/pgp-signature
> name=signature.asc
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Roland Nagtegaal <[email protected]>
loridanshof

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