579 lines
28 KiB
Plaintext
579 lines
28 KiB
Plaintext
The Linux BLFAQ
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Neil Zanella <nzanella@ganymede.cs.mun.ca>
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v0.2.1, Jun 4 1999
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Copyright Notice:
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Copyright (c) 1998-1999 by Neil Zanella. This document may be distributed under
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the terms set forth in the LDP license at
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<http://www.linuxdoc.org/COPYRIGHT.html>
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Intro:
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Welcome to the Brief Linux FAQ (BLFAQ)!
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This document contains a list of some frequently asked Linux questions and their
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answers. It is meant to provide general help to Linux users, especially newbies.
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I invite you to modify and add to this list but if you do so please be sure to
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mail me so that I can include your changes in future releases. Finally, I hope
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that this document will prove helpful to all Linux users, newbies especially.
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Current releases of this document can be found at:
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<ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/faqs/BLFAQ>
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FAQs:
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I am trying to use the text based ftp program to download some stuff via
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anonymous ftp from an ftp site. I have never done this before and the ftp
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server doesn't seem to be letting me log in. Do I need a special user name
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and password to do this?
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A: To use anonymous ftp services log in with user name "anonymous" without
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quotations and your full e-mail address as your password.
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Some ftp sites will also accept the words "ftp" or "guest" instead of the
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word "anonymous" as user name.
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Q: I plan to use the FIPS program to shrink a FAT32 partition (such as one used
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by MS-Windows 95/98) and hence create space for my Linux operating system.
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Can this be done?
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A: Yes, but in order to do so you will need a version of FIPS at least as recent
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as FIPS 1.5c. You can get the latest version of FIPS by anonymous ftp from
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the official FIPS web site at <http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/>.
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Q: I am using the DOS Fdisk utility to destructively repartition my hard drive.
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How should I deal with the question pertaining to whether or not I should
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"enable large disk support"?
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A: That question really has to do with whether you want to use a FAT32 or a
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FAT16 file system with your DOS/Windows partition. Linux will coexist equally
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well with both file systems except that in order to see a FAT32 file system
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from your Linux partition you will need a version of the kernel at least
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as recent as 2.0.35 .
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I have upgraded to kernel 2.0.35 or later but still can't see my FAT32
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partition. What went wrong?
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A: You must ensure that you have an entry for your DOS partition in your
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/etc/fstab file resembling the line:
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/dev/hda1 /dos vfat auto,user,rw 0 0
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Once the line is there you can just issue the command "umount -a;mount -a"
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to mount your DOS partition under the /dos directory.
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Q: I am trying to install Linux via CD-ROM. I have made space for Linux on my
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hard drive but inserting the Linux CD into the CD-ROM drive and rebooting
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has no effect.
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A: You might have to tell your BIOS (Basic I/O System) to enable booting
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from CD-ROM by changing the default BIOS settings. On most systems you may
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access the BIOS settings by pressing the <del> key on your keyboard shortly
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after rebooting. If implemented by the BIOS as a separate feature you may
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also have to change the BIOS's boot sequence.
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Q: I have completed the installation process but upon reboot I get a LI
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prompt or a bunch of zeros and ones.
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A: If your machine is somewhat old and you have an IDE (or EIDE) hard drive then
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you must install your root partition completely below cylinder 1023
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which means below 512 MB of disk space. On SCSI drives this means
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your root partition must be contained within approximately one GB.
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If your machine is fairly new and your BIOS supports it you may be able to
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get around this problem by enabling LBA mode in the BIOS settings.
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Q: I can log in and out of my system but how do I shut it down / reboot it?
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A: There are various ways. The most popular ones are logging in as root and
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issuing the command "/sbin/shutdown -h now" or "/sbin/halt" to shut it
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down or "/sbin/shutdown -r now" or "/sbin/reboot" to reboot.
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On most systems while using a text based console pressing the <ctrl>, <alt>
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and <del> keys simultaneously will also reboot the system.
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Q: I have shut down my system with the "halt" command and gotten to a message
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saying "System Halted" but why is my computer still on?
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A: If you want it to power off on shutdown then you must recompile the kernel to
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enable support for that feature by selecting the appropriate entry in the
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APM options.
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Q: My new video card is listed at <http://www.linux.org/> as a card which the
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X Window System supports under Linux but I cannot get it to work.
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A: Make sure that you have the newest version of XFree86 and that you installed
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the right X Server. If all else fails you might want to try selecting the
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generic SVGA server as your X Server.
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Q: I have successfully installed the X Window System and use the startx
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command to run it from a text based virtual console. How can I have the X
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Window System run at all times so that I don't have to use the startx
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command?
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A: If you are running Red Hat then you can edit the file /etc/inittab on
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your system and replace the entry
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id:3:initdefault:
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with the entry
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id:5:initdefault:
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and reboot.
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On other systems you might have to change the number 5 (the run level) to
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another number like 4. How to choose the correct run level should be clear
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by reading the comments in the file /etc/inittab . Alternatively, you might
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have to change a link in /etc/rc[2345].d . Run levels 2-5 don't have really
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strong conventions behind them like 0, 1, and 6 do. It depends on the
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distribution.
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Q: When I use the X Window system and open multiple windows I find that my
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screen size is insufficient. How can I use more virtual screen space?
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A: Most window managers running under X Window have a built in feature known as
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a pager which allows you to have more virtual screen space.
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Q: I would like to have xdm run multiple local displays on my system and switch
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back and forth by pressing <ctrl><alt><F*> where * is a number between
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1 and 12.
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A: If you wanted to run 6 virtual consoles accessible by pressing the keys
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<ctrl><alt><F7> through <ctrl><alt><F12> then you could put the following
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entries in the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers
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:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X vt07 :0
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:1 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X vt08 :1
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:2 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X vt09 :2
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:3 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X vt10 :3
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:4 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X vt11 :4
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:5 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X vt12 :5
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I would limit myself to only a few of these though as X seems to eat up
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quite a lot of memory when multiple displays are running.
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Q: I hate the sound of the bell. I would prefer to disable it perhaps enabling
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the visual bell as an alternative.
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A: If you are running X then you can simply type "xset -b" without quotation
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marks at the command prompt. Alternatively, if you are running the bash
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shell then you can add the command "xset -b 2> /dev/null" without quotation
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marks at the end of your .bash_profile file in your home directory to have
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the audible bell disabled each time you log in.
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For more information see the Visual-Bell-mini-HOWTO at
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<http://www.linux.org/>
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Q: I have access to a remote Unix machine that has some commercial software that
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uses X which I would like to run remotely on my display. How do I do it?
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A: First connect to the remote machine using dip or whatever you use. If the
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remote machine is called grasshopper.uvw.edu and your machine is called
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kiwi.fruit.org then first type
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xhost +grasshopper.uvw.edu
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from your own machine's shell prompt while running X. If you telnet to the
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remote machine and you're using a modem to connect then your machine name
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on the Internet may be different from your actual machine name at home
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so be sure to use the finger command on the remote machine with your remote
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user name as an argument to find out what your machine name is on the
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Internet. Assuming your machine name has not changed you must type
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export DISPLAY=kiwi.fruit.org:0.0
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on the remote machine if it uses the Korn shell or the equivalent if it uses
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another shell. You should be now ready to fire up the remote application
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from your machine.
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Q: I am sick of having to type in my password interactively each time I want to
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start a shell on a remote server. Is there a way to avoid this.
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A: Surprisingly yes. Simply replace the words "remote-host", "username", and
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"password" in the following expect script and do a "chmod +x name-of-script".
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You can then simply invoke the script to log into the remote host.
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#!/usr/bin/expect
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eval spawn telnet remote-host
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set timeout 20
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expect ogin:
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send "username\r"
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expect assword:
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send "password\r"
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sleep 2
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interact
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Alternatively you can try out the ktelnet program.
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Q: Is it possible to make recursive downloads to mirror ftp or web sites or
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just download a file, perhaps while not even logged in?
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A: Yes, use the wget program. See <ftp://sunsite.auc.dk/pub/infosystems/wget/>
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for the latest version of the software.
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Q: I use the lp or lpr programs to print ASCII files and man pages. Is there
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any way that I can get more text on one page, hence less pages of output?
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A: Yes. If you have a printer which can print postscript files you could
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try the a2ps program. Make sure you specify the -M option for the paper's
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size and the -m option in case you're printing man pages.
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Q: I have more than 64 MB of RAM but when I use the "free" command to check
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the amount of available memory on my system only slightly less than 64MB
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show up. How do I get Linux to recognize the additional RAM?
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A: Linux uses the BIOS to detect the amount of available RAM. At the present
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time there are two separate function calls available to do the job. Any
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version of Linux prior to 2.1.x uses the old call which is limited to 64M.
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The newer call (used by 95/NT and Linux 2.1.x) can return more than 64M.
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This problem should be fixed in the next stable release of the Linux kernel
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(release 2.2.0). For now it is possible to have Linux detect all of your
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RAM by adding the line:
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append = "mem=128M"
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to the file /etc/lilo.conf if you use LILO or to the end of the respective
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LOADLIN file if you use LOADLIN. This will enable 128MB of RAM, for example.
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You will need to rerun LILO for the changes to take effect. The next time you
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boot up, Linux will see all of your memory.
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Q: I have used the rm command to delete a file. Is it possible to undelete the
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file and hence recover its contents?
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A: In theory there is a way to undelete a file if you are using the ext2fs
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file system (most common). In practice, it is rarely possible. To prevent
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significant loss of data in this manner you must ensure that your system
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is backed up regularly. Alternatively if you had installed the program
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midnight commander before deleting and compiled a version with undelf
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then you could use cd undel:/dev/hda8 to see your deleted files (without
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names). Alternatively, some users like to have a shell script that moves
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a file to a directory like /tmp each time it is removed or just before
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it is overwritten. If you are really desperate, read the Ext2fs-Undeletion
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mini-HOWTO, which might work.
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Q: I am trying to run a script file named script or test but I am getting some
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unexpected results.
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A: The names script and test are names of executable programs on your system so
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you should not use them for your own executables. If you got unexpected
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it's because the system binaries got to be executed before your own binaries.
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Q: I (re/)installed windows on the same hard drive as Linux but now I no longer
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get the LILO prompt and can't boot into Linux. What should I do?
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A: Most likely windows overwrote the MBR (Master Boot Record) hence deleting
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LILO. If you manually installed the kernel and used "make zdisk" then you
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can boot from the floppy, otherwise you can download a boot/root floppy
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distribution of Linux like the one at <http://www.toms.net/rb/> or some
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other one. Once you get to your hard drive don't forget to rerun /sbin/lilo
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so that you won't have to boot from the floppy again. If you are using a
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floppy that boots its own file system then you must first mount your hard
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drive with something like "mount /dev/hda1 /mnt" and change to the hard
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drive with "chroot /mnt /bin/sh" before rerunning "/sbin/lilo".
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Q: I removed Linux from my system, but now DOS won't boot because LILO is still
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there. How do I remove LILO?
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A: If you have a version of DOS at least as recent as DOS 5.0 then you can
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insert your DOS boot diskette and boot from it. At the DOS prompt, type
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fdisk /mbr
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to remove LILO from the Master Boot Record (MBR).
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Q: I want to add '.' to root's PATH, to allow me to not have to put ./ in
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front of every local command I type. But I hear this is a bad thing. Why?
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A: Adding '.' to root's PATH would be a security risk. Imagine the case where a
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malicious user creates a file called /tmp/ls containing a command sequence
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such as
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# Caution: This script removes everything from the Linux file system.
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cat /tmp/ls
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rm -Rf /
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and you as root wander into temp and want to see what files are there. If
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the . occurs in root's path before /bin then typing ls at the shell prompt
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will execute the malicious command instead. Alternatively, the malicious
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command could be named mroe, ls-l, caat, lss, or similar in which case a
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typo on root's behalf would cause it to be executed even if . is the last
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entry in root's path. Finally, the malicious command may be set to copy
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/bin/bash to a hidden spot and change permissions of the copy to
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suid ( -rws---r-x ) so that anyone executing the hidden copy would have
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root permissions.
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Q: I can't execute my script/program. I can list the file with ls -l and
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it is there with the correct permissions:
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ls -l mumble
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-rwxrw-r-- 1 me user 104 Feb 14 15:46 mumble
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but when I type mumble at the command prompt I get the response:
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bash: mumble: command not found
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A: Most probably the current directory (CWD) is not in your path. The best
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thing to do in such situations is probably to type the full path to the
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script/program followed by the name of the script/program .
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If you are work in a directory that you alone use and which is not shared
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then you might want to take the risk of editing your PATH variable to
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contain CWD. Alternatively you could keep all your executables in a directory
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called ~/bin and put it in your path. You can look at your path by typing
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echo $PATH at the shell prompt.
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echo $PATH
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/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/me/bin
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: Why can't I telnet or rsh in to my Linux system as Root?
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A: This is a security feature meant to protect you. Malicious users must
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know a valid user password, as well as the root password in order to
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get in to the system and do anything as root. Log in as a user, and
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use the su command to then become root. Better still is to use the ssh
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command (if installed) which encrypts your session to prevent anyone
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from seeing the root password.
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If your network is totally local (you have only a terminal connected
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to a serial port), you can edit /etc/securetty to add that port as one
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considered secure enough for root to log in.
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Q: Why can't I ftp as root?
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A: This is a security feature meant to protect you. No user listed in
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/etc/ftpuser is allowed to use ftp. Always ftp as a regular user.
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Q: I've tried to create a shell script and made it setuid root so the users
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can execute it. But no matter what I do, it doesn't execute with root
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privilege. Why?
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A: Shell scripts are a notorious security hole. To protect you, the kernel
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purposely ignores setuid and setgid in scripts. Create a C or Pearl
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program to do the task.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: Why should I create ordinary user accounts. I'm the only user on this
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machine. Why not just work as root?
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A: Root, commonly called the super-user, is for system administration tasks
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only. The normal protection mechanisms are eliminated for this account
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(indeed for any user with UID or GID equal to 0). So if you make any
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little mistake (for example the classic "rm * myfile" -- note the
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space between the wild-card and myfile) the system will do _exactly_
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what you told it to do, not what you meant it to do. In the classic mistake
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above, the system will remove all files in the current directory, then
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complain because it can't remove 'myfile' which doesn't exist.
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Q: I am able to establish a dial up connection but when I use telnet to
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connect to remote hosts telnet understands IP address but not host names.
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What can I do to have telnet and other programs understand host names?
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A: You should be able to get rid of this problem by adding an entry for a
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name server in the file /etc/resolv.conf . If you have more than one name
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server then you should put your primary dns first as nameserver entries
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get read from top to bottom. The 'search' or 'domain' line should have
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your isp's domain name. Your /etc/resolv.conf should look something like:
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search virtual-impact.com
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domain virtual-impact.com
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nameserver 205.162.94.51
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nameserver 205.162.88.33
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nameserver 134.153.2.90
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I don't like having to type the full host name when using telnet.
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How can I resolve this problem?
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A: Edit the file /etc/hosts and add entries like the following:
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127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain
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134.153.1.200 riemann riemann.math.mun.ca
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134.153.39.1 ganymede ganymede.cs.mun.ca
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134.153.1.1 garfield garfield.cs.mun.ca
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134.153.2.151 plato plato.ucs.mun.ca
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129.128.88.12 vega vega.math.ualberta.ca
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I am logged into a host. I would like to find out its IP address
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and a few other ones. How can I do this?
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A: You could use the hosts command as follows:
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ganymede $ host ganymede.cs.mun.ca
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ganymede.cs.mun.ca has address 134.153.39.1
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ganymede.cs.mun.ca mail is handled (pri=5) by garfield.cs.mun.ca
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ganymede $
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The programs nslookup and /sbin/ifconfig can also be used for this
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purpose.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: How can I have the "useradd" or "adduser" command automatically place some
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default files in a user's directory when that user is added to the system?
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A: Edit the contents of the files located under /etc/skel to suit your needs.
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These files will be added to a user's home directory each time that user
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is added.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I am trying to build a new kernel. Why is it that "make menuconfig" does not
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display any colors when running under an xterm?
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A: You could either use "make xconfig" or if you have the terminfo library
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installed you could say "export TERM=xterm-color" or something similar.
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Look at the entries in the terminfo library to chooses an appropriate value
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for the TERM environment variable.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Q: I am trying to get X to read my window manager's configuration file but with
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no success.
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A: If you start X with "startx" or "xinit" then you need a "~/.xinitrc" file
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containing a command to execute your window manager and make the file
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executable with "chmod u+x .xsession". If you start your session with xdm
|
|
though, your file will have to be named "~/.xsession" instead of
|
|
"~/.xinitrc".
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: Are the modules part of the Linux kernel or are they distributed separately?
|
|
|
|
A: They come with the kernel. There used to be an old package called
|
|
modules-x.y.z.tar.gz that you could download. This did not consist of the
|
|
modules themselves but the module utilities needed to handle modules.
|
|
For obvious reasons this package was renamed to modutils-x.y.z.tar.gz.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: What is the quickest and safest way to recompile the kernel?
|
|
|
|
A: In short, as root issue the following commands after downloading a kernel:
|
|
|
|
# mv linux-x.y.z.tar.gz /usr/src; cd /usr/src
|
|
# tar zxpvf linux-x.y.z.tar.gz
|
|
# cd linux-x.y.z
|
|
# make menuconfig
|
|
# make dep
|
|
# make clean
|
|
# make bzImage (or better, insert a floppy and do a "make zdisk").
|
|
# make zlilo (or if this doesn't work,
|
|
cp /usr/src/linux-2.0.x/arch/i386/boot/zImage /boot/vmlinuz
|
|
Edit /etc/lilo.conf and change the image label to point to
|
|
/boot/vmlinuz-x.y.z and rerun /sbin/lilo)
|
|
reboot (here you may use the disk you made if something goes wrong)
|
|
# cd /usr/src/linux-x.y.z
|
|
# make modules; make modules_install
|
|
|
|
... and your kernel and modules should be all done.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: I am trying to set up a home page. How do I go about doing that and where
|
|
should I put my web files to view them on my Linux box?
|
|
|
|
A: If you are running the Apache web server then look in
|
|
/etc/httpd/conf/srm.conf . There you should see lines like:
|
|
|
|
UserDir public_html
|
|
DirectoryIndex index.html index.shtml index.cgi
|
|
|
|
This means that your web files should be stored under a directory called
|
|
~/public_html and the first file to be read when a user accesses your web
|
|
site with http://x1.x2.x3.x4/~<your-username> must be one of ~/index.html ,
|
|
~/index.shtml , or ~/index.cgi . If you have an entry like:
|
|
|
|
127.0.0.1 localhost
|
|
|
|
in your /etc/hosts directory (ie. you have loopback enabled) than you can
|
|
make sure everything is OK by pointing your browser to
|
|
http://127.0.0.1/~<your-username> . Of course all files must have the right
|
|
permissions, in particular you probably want to do
|
|
a "chmod a+x ~/public_html" and a "chmod a+r index.html".
|
|
If you are not on the Internet this enables you to edit a whole web site on
|
|
a Linux box without having to be dialed up to your ISP. You can later upload
|
|
the pages to the Internet. This method will pay off in browser speed when
|
|
editing your web page.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: I would like to have more lines and/or columns displayed when I use the text
|
|
consoles. Is there a way I can do this?
|
|
|
|
A: Yes. If you are using LILO to boot your system then you can do it by
|
|
inserting the vga option in your /etc/lilo.conf file. For example a line
|
|
saying "vga=ask" will let you choose the text mode at boot time (type
|
|
"man lilo.conf" for more details). Don't forget to rerun /sbin/lilo after
|
|
you modify /etc/lilo.conf .
|
|
Alternatively you could get the SVGATextMode program by anonymous ftp from
|
|
<ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/linux/utils/console/>.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: I have two Linux boxes but they're not networked. What's a good way to
|
|
transfer data from one to another.
|
|
|
|
A: Get a bunch of floppies (one might be enough) and use:
|
|
|
|
$ tar cvMf /dev/fd0 <file/directory to be archived>
|
|
|
|
move the floppies to the other PC's floppy drive and do a:
|
|
|
|
$ tar xvMf /dev/fd0
|
|
|
|
Alternatively you can use the "split" command to split your file into many
|
|
files of a particular size with the "-b" option, copy them to a floppy
|
|
with a DOS file system with "mcopy", move the floppies to the other PC, copy
|
|
them to the hard drive and redirect the output of "cat" to merge them.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: What's the cheapest way to network two Linux boxes?
|
|
|
|
A: Probably your best bet is to get an Interlink/Laplink/Bi-Directional cable
|
|
to connect the parallel ports. This method makes use of the PLIP protocol.
|
|
This will allow your PCs to communicate at a speed of approximately 47kB
|
|
per second. This is of course somewhat slower than a connection that makes
|
|
use of Ethernet cards. See the relevant HOWTOs and mini HOWTOs for more
|
|
detail.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: I am running X. What's an easy way to put an image file in the background.
|
|
|
|
A: If you have "xv" installed then you may want to use:
|
|
|
|
xv -root -max -quit <absolute-path-to-image-file/image-file>
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Q: I have read the Brief Linux FAQ (BLFAQ) but could not find what I was
|
|
looking for. Where else should I look?
|
|
|
|
A: Other places include links under <http://www.linux.org/> including the Linux
|
|
FAQ (LFAQ) and the various HOWTOs and mini-HOWTOs. Other sites of interest
|
|
might include <http://www.xfree86.org/> for X related things and
|
|
<ftp://metalab.unc.edu/> if you're looking for interesting applications to
|
|
run under Linux.
|
|
|
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
A big thank you to all those people who contributed to this FAQ.
|
|
Send me e-mail for corrections and enhancements.
|
|
|
|
--
|
|
maintained by: Neil Zanella
|
|
e-mail: nzanella@ganymede.cs.mun.ca
|