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Linux Gazette... making Linux just a little more fun!
Copyright © 1996-98 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
_________________________________________________________________
Welcome to Linux Gazette! (tm)
_________________________________________________________________
Published by:
Linux Journal
_________________________________________________________________
Sponsored by:
InfoMagic
S.u.S.E.
Red Hat
LinuxMall
Linux Resources
Mozilla
Our sponsors make financial contributions toward the costs of
publishing Linux Gazette. If you would like to become a sponsor of LG,
e-mail us at sponsor@ssc.com.
Linux Gazette is a non-commercial, freely available publication and
will remain that way. Show your support by using the products of our
sponsors and publisher.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
June 1998 Issue #29
_________________________________________________________________
* The Front Page
* The MailBag
+ Help Wanted
+ General Mail
* More 2 Cent Tips
+ Linux Kernel 2.1.102 Error Patch
+ Tip for using Windows 95 Button in X
+ Re: Usershell on Console
+ IBM LAN Adaper for Ethernet
+ Easy Access to Removable Media
+ Re: bpp 16 question
+ Re: Finite Elements Programs
+ Re: How to Enable Swapping
+ Re: Slackware
+ Re: about::mozilla
+ Tips Contents for More Tips!
* News Bytes
+ News in General
+ Software Announcements
* The Answer Guy, by James T. Dennis
* Building an Audio CD Player, Part 2, by Michel Hamilton
* EMACSulation, by Eric Marsden
* The Importance of Adopting an In-House Linux Expert, by Carlo
Prelz
* Mastering Kernel Modules with Caldera, by David Nelson
* Replacing Windows NT Server with Linux, by Quinn P. Coldiron
* Revisiting VIM, by Andy Kahn
* Sun Joins Linux International, by Marjorie Richardson
* Tom's 2 Cent Tips, by Tom Bryant
* UniForum 1998, by Phil Hughes
* Using rdist for Backups, by John Pate
* The Back Page
+ About This Month's Authors
+ Not Linux
The Answer Guy
The Graphics Muse Will Return
_________________________________________________________________
TWDT 1 (text)
TWDT 2 (HTML)
are files containing the entire issue: one in text format, one in
HTML. They are provided strictly as a way to save the contents as one
file for later printing in the format of your choice; there is no
guarantee of working links in the HTML version.
_________________________________________________________________
Got any great ideas for improvements? Send your comments, criticisms,
suggestions and ideas.
_________________________________________________________________
This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette,
gazette@ssc.com
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
The Mailbag!
Write the Gazette at gazette@ssc.com
Contents:
* Help Wanted -- Article Ideas
* General Mail
_________________________________________________________________
Help Wanted -- Article Ideas
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 13:39:17 -0700
From: Michael Vanecek, webmaster@mjv.com
Subject: Blender
I'd be tickled pink if one of your writers/Linux gurus would take a
peek at the new 3D development package called Blender and write about
it. Info can be found at:
http://www.neogeo.nl/blender.html
It's still in beta, but appears to be a sharp product and will appeal
to us graphic artists looking for new tools for Linux.
Thanks, Mike
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 16:35:41 -0600
From: Phil Reardon, pcr@pcrt.com
Subject: Article Ideas
I think a lot of people would be interested in an article on Linux
related posters, which would have good eye appeal and provide a
resource to the community for ordering these collectibles. Someone
would have to locate all of them first, however.
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Sat, 02 May 1998 15:48:04 -0700
From: "Joseph Mugerwa", joe.jtm@mailcity.com
Subject: Sound card with radio on it
I am intending to install Red Hat 5.0 to my 486: PC and my question is
that I have a ISA sound card (SF16-FMI) with radio on it, it's 100% SB
compatible,and has a IDE connection on it and it's not PnP will it be
able to work and in particular the radio please help I enjoy listening
to radio
Joseph
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 04 May 1998 21:08:35 -0700
From: slappy, slappy@pcisys.ne
Subject: Best Linux Motherboard
Hi. I recently bought a Tyan Turbo AT S1571 motherboard to run my Red
Hat Linux www server on. The keyboard freaks out when I attempt to
install Linux. No BIOS update is available. Do you have any
suggestions as to what motherboard/chip set combinations work well
with Linux? I have searched and found only generic information, I'm
looking for something a bit more specific. Intel, ABit, Asus, DFI,
SuperMicro??? I'm planning on using a 233MHz MMX Pentium.
Slappy (slappy@pcisys.net)
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 06 May 1998 12:49:23 +0800
From: Guan Yang, guan@wk.dk
Subject: Permissions problem
After I have tried the 'su' command, all permissions for user accounts
seem to be gone (Slackware 3.4). When it try to login with a normal
user account, if says that I don't have permission to execute
/bin/bash. I have checked, and bash is world readable and world
executable.
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 12:46:47 +0200 (MEST)
From: Thomas Hotz, bombur@uni-koblenz.de
Subject: Help wanted! - PS/2-Intellimouse
I have just bought a Microsoft Intellimouse, because I thought it was
a good choice if you must use Windows and can use Linux. The Mouse is
connected to the PS/2-Mouseport. Here is my problem: I want to use the
wheel-button as the middle button in X, but in xf86config I only have
the choice between IntelliMouse or PS/2Mouse, there is no combination
of both. PS/2Mouse will enable the mouse, but the wheelbutton is not
recognized, the other way the movements of the mouse are not correctly
recognized, e.g. I cant move the pointer through the middle of the
screen. Anybody got a solution for this?
Thomas Hotz
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 18:32:20 +0000 (UTC)
From: Christopher Butler, chrisb@sandy.force9.co.uk
Subject: Printer
I have here an Epson Stylus COLOR 400 printer, and I was wondering if
I can get one of these beasts to print graphics in Linux (it only does
text atm).
I've got Aladdin Ghostscript 3.33 (4/10/1995) currently installed, but
setting that up was a mystery to me.
Pointers to HOWTOs would also be welcomed :-)
Chris Butler
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 12:12:16 -0400 (EDT) From: Randy Shaver,
randy@gconn.net
Subject: BJ-200e
I am having a very difficult time setting up my Cannon BJ-200e, has
anyone been able to configure Linux correctly to print from this?
Randy Shaver
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 17:42:00 +0000
From: Patrick Leung, wt.leung@student.unsw.edu.au
Subject: Compilation Error with Red Hat 5.0 on Cyrix CPU
I'm using a Cyrix 6x86 P150+ Machine with 80MB RAM. Everything when I
compile stuff with the gcc compiler (2.7.2.3) that come with RH5.0, I
get the error message like "cc1 internal error,signal 11". I know this
is a bug with Cyrix CPU but does anyone know how to fix it? Please
tell me.
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 19:06:55 +0100
From: Andrew Crook, Andrew@andycrook.demon.co.uk
Subject: X and list probs
I have noticed a real problem with X eg that the fonts listing in
Netscape and MANY APPS the list goes off the screen and many can not
be seen how can i stop this problem?
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 11:20:26 +0800
From: "Felix", felix@omen.com.au
Subject: definitions
Let me introduce myself, I am Felix. I am _totally_ new to not just
Linux but computers in general. I have had a computer for the last
....two years, and in all that time was restricted to the limitations
Windows puts on me. This is because , like many users, I started with
the program that came with my setup. Windows is _great_ for someone
who knows _nothing_ of computers. It is all point and click
accessible. But like anyone who uses a computer for a while, I have
come to realize that Windows is not the be all and end all of my
possibilities. Now I want more. Since I got on the Net, I have
realized this and found Linux. I am in the process of browsing Linux
for a grounding in the unfamiliar world of Linux. It is
................most enlightening.
One 'problem' I have encountered is strong, complete definitions of
terms. If I post a list of terms I have heard in the new groups and
ask for explanations, I get many replies { the Linux community is
amazingly tolerant of newbies, and help most unselfishly!} but the
common thread running through them is that each explanation is
slightly different to the next. While I realize that some of the
answers I get are subject specific, some definitions seem to vary from
application to application, even from distribution to distribution.
Again, I realize that each distribution may focus on different
capabilities of applications.
What I want to know is this: Is there a book, magazine, net site or
whatever that lists in dictionary form properties and definitions of
Linux?
Thank you, Felix
(Good books include Linux in a Nutshell from O'Reilly and Linux for
Dummies Quick Reference from IDG. While it is not specifically for
Linux, I find UNIX: The Open System's Dictionary from Resolution
Business press quite useful. --Editor)
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 01:42:02 +0900
From: Maximo Ramos, ramos@nuri.net
Subject: Deception about Linux
I wonder why I find so often in many home pages about Linux that it
will run fine in a 386 with 8 MB RAM, JA! Keep in mind that novice end
users (like me) who are trying to escape from Windows 95 by trying
something else, confuse Linux with the X Window System. Did you try to
run Linux and XFree86 in such a machine? Tell people the truth! Is
anyone using X Windows in a 14 inch monitor? It's ugly! Today I paid
the bill to buy a 17 inch monitor, ouch!!!! Again, tell people the
truth when you talk about hardware requirements to run Linux and X.
Of course, in some home pages they say that if you want to run the X
Window System you need a "little bit" more hardware, but what is
exactly "a little bit"? Come on!
Why am I writing this? Because I own a 486DX2 with 32MB of RAM, and I
said myself : Hey, if Linux runs fine in a 386 with 8 MB of RAM,
running Linux in my computer will feel like having a Pentium! But that
is not the true. X works good but more slowly than Windows 95, even
the Internet is slower, incredible!
So, I request one thing, tell the people (end users) on which hardware
Linux will run fast (with X Windows included); in my case, I have to
buy a new computer, at least a Pentium II 233 MHz. I thought MS
Windows was the only OS hungry resource.
Well, one more thing, any tips to improve the speed of my Internet
Connection?
What is the difference between having the PPP support as a module or
included in the kernel? Which is more recommendable?
Anyone has successful installed ICQ for JAVA? When I download some
libraries, which one should I choose? static or dynamic? How do I know
what is the correspondent to my system? By the way, It is Red Hat
Linux 5.0. My video card is Cirrus Logic clgd5426 with 1 MB.
Talking about e-mails, I heard about sendmail and so on, but I use
Netscape for Linux to send and receive e-mails, Which one is better?
Is sendmail only for servers?
Please, do I have to buy a new computer anyway?
cheers, Desperado
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 04:04:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: arunk@m-net.arbornet.org
Subject: Serial line overrun
When I'm downloading on one virtual console and doing something else
on another (especially accessing the hard disk) I get the message
'cua1 1 input overrub(s). Why does this happen? What should I do to
stop this? Please help me. Thanks.
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Sun, 31 May 1998 21:28:53 +0100
From: Martin Cannell martin@cannell.prestel.co.uk
Subject: Linux
Hi, a great magazine.
A bit advanced for me though. Do you know where to get an idea about
how to install Linux?
(Try the Linux Installation HOWTO by Eric Raymond:
http://www.ssc.com/linux/LDP/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO.html. In fact
you might want to search around the LDP (Linux Documentation
Project) for other things of interest to newbies. You might also
want to check out some of the earlier issues of Linux Gazette and
our semi-regular column "Clueless at the Prompt" by Mike List.
--Editor)
_________________________________________________________________
General Mail
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 08:03:52 +0000
From: Chris Fischer, protek@brigadoon.com
Subject: BusLogic Support for Linux
This is just a little FYI for anyone interested in the web page for
Linux BusLogic support.
http://www.dandelion.com/Linux/BusLogic.html
Chris
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 01 May 1998 09:14:06 +0000
From: Lars Hamren, hamren@sdu.se
Subject: Web Speed
Your home page just took me 45 seconds to load, mainly due to the nice
but far too large gifs. I think that the following holds:
* A lot of Linux users are accessing the gazette via modem.
* The typical Linux user is not impressed by a fancy surface, but
would rather have fast loading pages.
Lars
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 12:02:54 -0400
From: "Tim Gray", timgray@lambdanet.com
Subject: Article on home networking.
There is one part of the home networking article I strongly disagree
with.
"The software and hardware for networking can be expensive."
10baseT network cards sell for about $14.00USD that work well with
Linux.. even less if you want the holy grail of a card with actual
jumpers on it! A hub - 8 port will cost you a whole $60.00USD Buy the
cheapest you can get your hands on... this will be plenty for a home
network.
Now the software...... it comes with your Linux distribution, and
win95 has it built in.... So my network at home...
4 PC's Win95, 2 servers, 1 router, Full-time Internet connection......
Less than $300.00 total to network it, including a 1000' spool of
category 5 cable and a huge bag of connectors. and the wall plates
were 1.95 each (Cat 3 I don't need 100baseT capability) Oh yes, one
expensive part.. the connector crimper.... it cost 29.95USD one
weekend of running wire and a week of fighting with windows and VOILA!
home network!
Yes you can get more expensive stuff..... You can spend thousands on a
hub.. or even more on a switch (A glorified hub) especially if you
want that gleaming white box that says Cisco networking on it... but
it wont work any better than the 60 dollar blue thing that has Chinese
writing on it, not in a home environment. No networking your house is
not expensive, it's dirt cheap!
BTW, my servers and router are all Linux machines that were built from
"junk" computers that were given to me or found in a corporate garbage
dumpster!
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 17:43:04 +0200 (CEST)
From: Rob van der Putten, rob@sput.sput.dsl.nl
Subject: Modeline for TV
Though I have been using Linux for since 1.2.8, I still discover
something new every week or so. Yesterday I discovered the online
version of the Linux Gazette and was pleasantly surprised to read the
following:
I have shamelessly stolen this from USENET, because I feel this
excellent information should appear within the Linux Gazette. I
hope the original author don't mind. :-) From: Rob van der Putten
I don't mind at all. I just wanted to say that I wrote a html page
about it: http://www.sput.dsl.nl/~rob/tv-x.html
Regards, Rob
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 02:05:22 +0800
From: "Kevin Ng", kng@HK.Super.NET
Subject: Swap problem solved! Thanks...
Dear Linux fans,
I'd like to say thanks to all who have responded and offered help to
the swap problem. A number of you reminded me that I had to do a
mkswap before I can enable the swap space with swapon.And now my
system is running smoothly, with occasional swap. Once again thanks to
you all. Linux peer support is excellent.
Kevin
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 00:37:34 -0500
From: Todd Myers, tmyers@autobahn.mb.ca
Subject: good article
I just read the article "Marketing Linux" by Jim Schweizer and agree
with his points on this subject. Being involved with microcomputers
for the last 12-14 years I've noticed that each successful platform
has at least one 'killer app' that launched it onto people's
desktops...VisiCalc -> AppleII, DTP -> Mac, Office Suites -> Windows.
It appears that Linux has ,at present, 2 killer apps to use for it's
launch point...Apache and Samba. Since Linux is, at present, better
poised in a server role, these 2 apps are beginning to gain Linux it's
recognition. The only thing that will keep Linux off the desktop is
the lack of a standard GUI. Though this will change as this is
dissected and dealt with with the amazing collaboration efforts that I
have witnessed with other Linux-related issues in the past 12 months.
Later, Todd
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 18:40:48 +0100 (WET DST)
From: 40334022 Dani Pardo Portas, dp4022@speedy.udg.es
Subject: Proprietary formats
I just can't stop being fascinated with Issue 18, The Answer Guy where
the editor talks about proprietary formats. Even now, I often think
about the issue of word processors and proprietary formats (BTW, I've
started learning lout :).
And now that there is so much interesting talk about philosophy of
computers and programming, I'd just like to point everyone interested
to LG-issue 18:
http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue18/lg_answer18.html (users and
mounted disks)
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Mon, 04 May 1998 14:44:50 -0500
From: Clive Bittlestone, clyvb@asic.sc.ti.com
Subject: Linux in EDA - hot news topic
Just in case you had not already heard, Linux vs NT is a hot item in
my area of the CAE/CAD industry. Integrated System Design magazine had
a strawman poll last month, and based on the overwhelming response,is
organizing a public forum during DAC-week [a big industry conference].
http://www.isdmag.com/linuxvsnt.html
From what I can tell, NT is being touted as the next OS on PC's [vs
solaris/Ultrix/hp-os etc] Some engineers don't like that and there is
some form of pushback.
There is quite a buzz amongst the Linux users I work with. We hope
this will encourage CAD-Vendors to support Linux !!
These are my own opinions, and not those of Texas Instruments.
Regards, Clive Bittlestone
_________________________________________________________________
Date: Sat, 09 May 1998 03:38:17 -0700
From: Jim Dennis, jimd@starshine.org
Subject: Open Letter Re: Linux on Dell Hardware
To: Mr. Michael Dell, CEO, Dell Computers cc: T.R. Reid Re: Linux on
Dell Hardware
Dear Mr. Dell,
Please forward this to members of your marketing staff.
It is with great disappointment that I read comments by one of your
representatives, a Mr. T. R. Reid to the effect that "none of Dell's
customers" use Linux (*).
This is patently untrue. I have personally administered a number of
Linux servers that were running on Dell Dimension desktops. I have
also often recommended them to my clients, despite the fact that your
company offers no option to unbundle software from the system
(software which is utterly useless for my applications).
Obviously my advice was misguided. I clearly have failed in my duty,
as a consumer, to provide you with proper feedback --- and this as
resulted in a gross display of ignorance regarding the needs and
preferences of your customers (at least the ones I represent).
Forthwith I'm retracting all recommendation of your products from all
Starshine's customers where the intent is to use the system under
Linux. I maintain a list of smaller hardware companies which do
provide Linux, FreeBSD, and other alternatives to meet the needs of
their customers.
I'll be recommending VAResearch, PromoX, Telenet, SWT, Apache Systems,
Microway, and many others until you offer your customers a choice in
the software that's bundled with your systems. I personally consider
it a pity since your hardware has never required any special tweaks or
considerations to run with any distribution of Linux or FreeBSD that
I've ever installed on it.
This will be posted to a few Linux and FreeBSD venues as an open
letter so that you can be provided with *honest* feedback from real
customers. Hopefully with the co-operation from other interested
parties we can overcome this regrettable failure in communication.
You're comments have underscored the need for consumers every where to
make their requirements and preferences known --- and we must no
longer simply accept the "extra" and unwanted components that our
vendors foist on us.
It is time to just say "No!" to software that we'll simply be
replacing.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. My apologies for not
providing this feedback sooner.
(*) The precise quote was:
"I haven't been able to find any examples of customers requesting
Linux"
... and it can be read at:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/inwo/0427/310649.html
--
Jim Dennis, consulting@starshine.org
Proprietor, Starshine Technical Services: http://www.starshine.org/
_________________________________________________________________
Published in Linux Gazette Issue 29, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Next
This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette,
gazette@ssc.com
Copyright © 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
More 2¢ Tips!
Send Linux Tips and Tricks to gazette@ssc.com
_________________________________________________________________
Contents:
* Linux Kernel 2.1.102 Error Patch
* Tip for using Windows 95 Button in X
* Re: Usershell on Console
* IBM LAN Adaper for Ethernet
* Easy Access to Removable Media
* Re: bpp 16 question
* Re: Finite Elements Programs
* Re: How to Enable Swapping
* Re: Slackware
* Re: about::mozilla
* Re: Rebooting without logging in as Root
* Re: Running an ATAPI ZIP Drive
* Re: Enabling Swap Space
* Re: Problems using Menus in X
* Music Typesetters
* BASH hostname Completion
* Re: xdm and depth
* Re: Shutdown and root
* Printing with Linux
* Re: Finite Elements Programs
* Re: Hot to Enable Swapping
* Cuckoo Clock
_________________________________________________________________
Linux kernel 2.1.102(3) error - patch!
Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 16:20:07 +0000
From: Yaroslav Rosomakho, alons55@dialup.ptt.ru
Hello. I have found that make menuconfig and lowlevel sound drivers
won't work in 2.1.102 & 2.1.103 (latest kernels). I have written a
patch:
http://yaroslav.hypermart.net/linux
tell people about it!
Yaroslav Rosomakho.
_________________________________________________________________
Tip for using Windows 95 buttons in X
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 20:18:00 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Andreas Ehliar, tamyrlin@futurniture.se
I am sure that I am not the only one using a keyboard with Windows 95
buttons. Most people I know tend to ignore them, since they are not
very useful in Windows 95, and even less so in Linux. But they are
supported in the Linux kernel. That is, they do generate key codes
which applications could use, if they only know what to look for.
So, how do I get X to use the offending buttons? In the following
example, I will show how I configured X and fvwm2 to allow me to move
a window by pressing the left Windows 95 button, and the left mouse
button anywhere in the window. I can also resize the window by
pressing the left Windows 95 button and the right mousebutton anywhere
in the window. This greatly simplifies things for me, since I don't
have to locate the titlebar, or a border of the window to move it. So,
how did I accomplish this? First, I created a file named .Xmodmap in
my home directory with the following two lines:
keycode 115 = Hyper_L
add mod4 = Hyper_L
This will map the left Windows 95 button to Hyper_L, and map Hyper_L
to mod4.
I added the following line to .xsession to actually load the modified
keymap:
xmodmap $HOME/.Xmodmap
Note that .xsession is usually executed if you use xdm to log on. If
this is not the case, you need to find the relevant file on your
computer system. Some likely candidates are .xinitrc, or .Xclients,
however, YMMV.
To actually use mod4 I modified my .fvwm2rc by adding the following
lines:
# I have bound my left win95 button to mod4, and by holding down it
# I can move and resize my window without bothering to find a border or
# titlebar
Mouse 1 W 4 Move
Mouse 3 W 4 Resize
What these lines does is to specify that if you press the left mouse
button (1) in a window (W) while pressing mod4 (4) you will move the
window. (Move) If you want to know more about these lines, you should
study the fvwm2 man page.
So, read in your .Xmodmap, restart fvwm2, and enjoy the added
functionality. Now all that is left is to replace that Windows logo
with a penguin :)
Final notes:
* This is only an example, you will probably need to modify some paths
to suit your system.
* It is also possible that you already have a button bound to mod4. In
that case, you should probably think twice before binding another
button to it.
* If you don't use fvwm2 as your window manager,you should read the
documentation that comes with your window manager to figure out how to
do the above mentioned configuration.
* If you want to bind the other two window 95 buttons, the scan codes
for them are 116 respectively 117. This sort of information is by the
way available using the xev program.
Andreas Ehliar
_________________________________________________________________
Re: Help Wanted (usershell on console without logging in)
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 09:38:03 -0700
From: Rick Bronson, rick@efn.org
I've read, with interest, the good ideas people have submitted about
setting up Linux to be more stand alone. I've worked on this issue on
and off for some time now and would like to share my ideas.
I've often thought that there needs to be a Linux distribution that
has an automatic startup as the default. One of the reasons that MSDOS
(as bad as it was) was popular was because it wasn't burdened with
"security" items like logging in. Most of us that use Linux at home
don't need to waist time logging in every day. If we had a
distribution of Linux that booted up into X we would have a lot more
users.
My goals are as follows (all done automatically from power up):
1. From power up, automatically login.
2. Bring up X Windows.
3. If I haven't been connected to my ISP (via PPP) in the last 4 hours
then connect.
3.1 Start up Netscape, get mail from my ISP (via cron), and check it
every minute.
3.2 If I haven't read USENET news today then fire up newsreader and
automatically to thru and apply kill files to all articles and leave
newsreader just showing what's left.
3.3 (I admit, this one is weird) Telnet into my local library and
check to see if I have overdue books.
For the purposes of this 2 cent tip, I'm going to cover #1 & #2.
(NOTE: replace every occurrence of "username" with your real login
name).
1. Add this to the bottom of your /etc/inittab (for Debian), unless
you have an rc.local file
rc:12345:wait:/etc/init.d/rc.local
1a (if you don't have an rc.local file) Make an /etc/init.d/rc.local
file with this in it:
#!/bin/bash
echo "Auto login of user username"
cd /home/username
su - username
Set permissions of rc.local to:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 96 Jun 29 1997 rc.local
By doing:
chmod 755 rc.local
1b (if you have an rc.local file) Add this to the bottom of your
rc.local
echo "Auto login of user username"
cd /home/username
su - username
2. Add the following to the bottom of your ~/.bash_profile:
if [ "`tty`" = "/dev/console" -o "`tty`" = "/dev/tty0" ]
then
startx
fi
That's it! This has been tested under Slackware (a long time ago) and
under Debian, recently. Please give me any feedback.
Thanks, Rick Bronson
_________________________________________________________________
IBM Lan Adapter for Ethernet
Date: Fri, 01 May 1998 00:23:21 +0000
From: Brian Hall, brihall@pcisys.net
I believe this is the same card I have. I have two on my home LAN, one
in my Linux box and the other in a Win95 box. In Linux, use the ne2000
compatible network driver, found under "Other ISA" network cards in
the kernel configuration. To configure the card itself, you will need
to run a DOS program. The setup program is contained in an archive
called "ETILAN.EXE".
_________________________________________________________________
Easy Access to Removable Media
Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 10:30:52 +0100 (BST)
From: Karsten Ballueder, karsten@phy.hw.ac.uk
Here's a little tip that makes life much easier. I always found it
annoying to manually mount and unmount floppies, CD-ROMs or my ZIP
drive, so eventually I decided to use the amd automounter for that.
The configuration is somehow tricky, but once it's set up, it works
like a charm.
For amd to work, you need to create a mountmap /etc/amd.direct= . Mine
looks like this:
zip type:=3Dprogram;fs:=3D"/.amd/myhost/zip";mount:=3D"/bin/mount mount=
-tvfat -o user,rw,conv=3Dbinary,nosuid,uid=3D502,gid=3D100,umask=3D0000=
,quiet
/dev/sda4 ${fs} ";unmount:=3D"/bin/umount umount ${fs}"
cdrom type:=3Dprogram;fs:=3D"/.amd/myhost/cdrom";mount:=3D"/bin/mount m=
ount
-tiso9660 -o user,ro,conv=3Dbinary,nosuid,uid=3D502,gid=3D100,umask=3D0=
000
/dev/cdrom ${fs} ";unmount:=3D"/bin/umount umount ${fs}"
A type:=3Dprogram;fs:=3D"/.amd/myhost/A";mount:=3D"/bin/mount mount -tv=
fat -o user,rw,conv=3Dbinary,nosuid,uid=3D502,gid=3D100,umask=3D0000,qu=
iet /dev/fd0 ${fs} ";unmount:=3D"/bin/umount umount ${fs}"
Where you will need to replace "myhost" with your machine's hostname.
Like this it will automount the ZIPdrive, a CD-ROM and the first
floppy in a set of directories created under /.amd .
To start amd, you will usually use something like a script
/sbin/init.d/amd, which should contain a line like:
/usr/sbin/amd -l syslog -c 30 -w 30 -x all -a /.amd -- /tmpmnt
/etc/amd= .direct &=20
This will start amd and give it a 30 second timeout for unmounting
directories. You also need to create a directory called /tmpmnt where
you can access the devices. For easy access, I have create symbolic
links /zip, /A and /cdrom pointing to /tmpmnt/zip, /tmpmnt/A and
/tmpmnt/cdrom.
Now, when you try to access any of these directories, amd will
automatically mount the device with the options specified in
/etc/amd.direct. Once you no longer access it, it will get unmounted
after 30 seconds.
Oh, if it doesn't unmount your device, you can use thefuser /dir
command to check which of your processes uses it.
Karsten Ballueder
_________________________________________________________________
Re: bpp 16 Question
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 14:07:55 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Roland Smith, rsmit06@ibm.net
To: Denny@ele.kth.se
You asked in the Linux Gazette #28:
Hi, I'm tired of starting my X-session with 'startx -- -bpp 16' to
get 16 biplanes instead of the default 8. How do I get xdm to run
with 16 bpp? If I use it now, it starts X with 8bpp on my Red Hat 5
installation.
Assuming you're using the XFree86 server:
Edit your XF86Config file.
* Look for the "Screen" section, then the subsections marked
"Display" (you can have more then one).
* Make sure the display subsection which has a depth of 16 is listed
first.
Hope this helps.
Roland
_________________________________________________________________
Re: finite elements programs for Linux
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 14:07:55 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Roland Smith, rsmit06@ibm.net
To: berntsen@bkm.dtu.dk
In response to your query in the Linux Gazette #28:
I started talking to the ones buying it and my arguments stopped,
when they said that one reason for using NT was that they should be
running finite elements programs on them and that the frontier for
those programs was now on the Windows platform. I don't know
anything about that, so I am looking for info; should I accept
their arguments or is it that he just does not know what can be
gotten for Linux? Commercial Finite Element Method (FEM) programs
are also in the searchlight!
FEM has traditionally a UNIX domain. Most FE programs run on
commercial unices. I only know of one free program for Linux: felt.
You can find it at
http://www-cse.ucsd.edu/users/atkinson/FElt/felt.html
Hope this helps.
Roland
_________________________________________________________________
Re: How to enable swapping
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 13:51:21 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Roland Smith, rsmit06@ibm.net
To: kng@HK.Super.NET
In the Linux Gazette you wrote:
My machine, which is a Pentium Pro with 64MB memory, reports no
swap space being used. In procinfo, it always report 0K swap space.
I did a fdisk on /dev/hda and verified that a 64MB partition of
type Linux swap (83) is actually there. So why is the swap never
being used ?
Swapping needs to be started. This can be done with the `swapon'
command.
Normally there should be something like `/sbin/swapon -a' in the
system initialization scripts. On my Slackware system it is in
/etc/rc.d/rc.S.
For this to work, you need to define the swap partition in /etc/fstab.
Something like (on my box):
/dev/hda7 swap swap defaults 1 2
Hope this helps.
Regards, Roland Re: cd rom
_________________________________________________________________
Re: Slackware
Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 14:30:59 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Roland Smith, rsmit06@ibm.net
To: letromb@tin.it
In the Linux Gazette #28 you asked:
Hello.I have the Linux Slackware 2.0.30 Walnut Creek.I installed it
on a Pentium 200 MMX with a 24x CD-ROM. During the installation I
had to write "ramdisk hdd=cdrom" for reading the CD-ROM, but after
the installation Linux doesn't see the CD-ROM. I have an atapi
CD-ROM, and when I tried to compile my kernel another time, I saw
that atapi is the default !!! So I don't understand where is the
problem . What can I do ?
To use your CD-ROM, you must "mount" it, i.e. add it to your
file-system.
You will have to make sure that the iso9660 filesystem is supported in
the kernel.
Mounting is most conveniently done by first adding an entry into your
/etc/fstab file like this:
/dev/hdb /mnt/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 1 2
(Assuming your CD-ROM player is /dev/hdb) Create the directory
/mnt/cdrom before mounting the CD! Put a CD-ROM in the drive and issue
the command `mount /mnt/cdrom' to mount the CD.
You will have to unmount the CD (`umount /mnt/cdrom') before you can
open the drive!
Hope this helps.
Roland
_________________________________________________________________
May 2Cent Tips--about:mozilla
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 10:28:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Mc Anulty, davemc@connectnet.com
The tip of going to about:mozilla is incorrect. You do not have to
click on Netscape's logo to get the new animation. The act of visiting
about:mozilla does this.
It lasts until Netscape is restarted. So if you like him, set
about:mozilla as your home page.
Dave
_________________________________________________________________
Re: Rebooting without logging in as root, 2c tips
Date: Wed, 06 May 1998 09:25:13 +0200
From: Hartmut Niemann, niemann@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de
An alternative I used once on a system that did *not* have enabled
was to provide a special login that *just* did a shutdown. There is
such a line in my /etc/passwd now that I didn't put there, so I
guess it's from Red Hat two years ago.
I had this shutdown login too. Normally it needs rood rights, i.e. UID
0. But then I found out that su shutdown does not execute the login
shell, i.e. the shutdown script. So everybody can become 'shutdown',
which is basically 'root' with a different startup shell. Bad if this
'shell' doesn't get executed ...
For some time I have had 'shutdown' just SUID root, and now I'm back
to Ctrl-Alt-Del performing a shutdown -h. (And then press Ctrl-Alt-Del
again for a reboot.)
Hartmut.
_________________________________________________________________
Re: Running an ATAPI ZIP drive
Date: 05 May 1998 20:26:26 -0500
From: Omegaman, omegam@cmq.com
Steve Beach gives some interesting remarks and good advice for setting
up an ATAPI ZIP drive. In it he says: First, the kernel:
Do _not_ use the "IDE FLOPPY" option (officially the name is
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEFLOPPY ). This will work perfectly for reading
and writing, but it will not work for ejecting.
I recently bought a system with one of these units PRE-installed. I
purchased a copy of Debian 1.3.1 on CD and was surprised to find "IDE
Floppy" support compiled into the stock kernel. So, like Steve, I
added necessary entries to my /etc/fstab to mount my ZIPs and away I
went.
However, I do not have the problem he's had with ejecting my ZIP
disks. On the front of my drive is a status light that also functions
as the eject button. It works fine. I surmise that Steve's problem is
that he has no such button and requires a software-only eject method.
One note of warning: I once ejected a standard floppy by pressing the
drive's eject button when it was mounted causing a system panic and
forced reboot. I don't know if the eject button on the ZIP is disabled
in the same way as the eject button on a CDROM when it is mounted. I
have no intention of finding out.
Omegaman
_________________________________________________________________
Re: enabling swap space
Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 04:44:22 -0300
From: Diego Rodrigo, d.rodrigo@iname.com
On issue # 28, Kevin Ng wrote :
My machine, which is a Pentium Pro with 64MB memory, reports no
swap space being used. n procinfo, it always report 0K swap space.
I did a fdisk on /dev/hda and verified that a 64MB partition of
type Linux swap (83) is actually there. So why is the swap never
being used ?
Tagging a partition with type 83 (Linux swap) is not enough. You kave
to prepare it for swap with mkswap (see manual page) . Type:
mkswap /dev/hdxx
where hdxx is your swap partition. After that, you have to append a
line in /etc/fstab saying this:
/dev/hdxx none swap
where /dev/hdxx is your swap partition, none is the mount point, and
swap is the type of file system.
With these changes, the next time you reboot, your swap space will be
added to your system. The command that actually adds your swap space
to the system is swapon (see man page, section 8), which is called
from an init script at boot time. OK, I agree, Linux shouldn't be
rebooted, (only when recompiling the kernel), so you can just type:
swapon -a
and you'll have your swap space.
Diego Rodrigo - ARGENTINA
_________________________________________________________________
Re: problems using menus in X
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 11:45:01 -0500 (CDT) From: Michael Hammel,
mjhammel@graphics-muse.org
To: eijck@iri.tudelft.nl
I'm having a problem with my menus in X. I can access all menus (by
mouse), but the items of those menus which are WITHIN a "X-box" are
not selectable, somehow. The menus I'm talking about are menus like
the 'vt fonts', 'main options' and 'vt options' in the Xterm. Or
the 'file' and 'page' menu of Ghostscript. If anyone has a
suggestion on why I can select the menu but not menu item, please
send me a mail. I'm using Debian 1.3.
Check your NumLock key. It should probably be turned off for
applications written in strict Xlib or Athena widgets, which appears
to be the case with the applications you mention. Its not a strict
rule, but many people had problems with my XPostitPlus program, caused
by the use of the number keypad with applications like XCalc.
Michael J. Hammel, The Graphics Muse
_________________________________________________________________
Music Typesetters
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 12:13:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: Robert Tennent, rdt@qucis.queensu.ca
Although I appreciated Bob van der Poel's review of MUP in LG28, there
are some good free music notation systems that weren't even mentioned.
First, a very good site to check out is the Lilypond home page at
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/people/hanwen/lilypond/out-www/index.html
This describes Lilypond (which is still under development) but also
has links to many other music packages.
One of these, musixtex, is IMHO the best free system available. It
certainly isn't beta, but it is being extended and improved
constantly. The input language is plain TeX, but there are some good
pre-processors available (PMX, MPP, M-Tx, SceX, ABC2MTeX). The output
quality is professional. Several arrangements I've set using musixtex
have been published directly from my postscript files. Check out
http://www.gmd.de/Misc/Music
for links, downloads, documentation, examples, etc.
Bob Tennent
_________________________________________________________________
BASH hostname completion: comment on tip in May '98 issue
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 08:58:18 -0500
From: Justin Dossey, dossey@ou.edu
The script John Taylor sent had a nice idea to it, but I must admit I
didn't read it; Bash completes host names by a builtin function.
Just as you would use to complete a filename, you can use ESC, @ to
complete a hostname (if it is in /etc/hosts) and CTRL-X, @ to list all
possible hostname completions based on /etc/hosts.
_________________________________________________________________
Re: xdm and depth
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 11:32:26 +0100 (IST)
From: Caolan McNamara, Caolan.McNamara@ul.ie
From: Denny Åberg, Denny@ele.kth.se
Hi, I'm tired of starting my X-session with 'startx -- -bpp 16' to
get 16 biplanes instead of the default 8. How do I get xdm to run
with 16 bpp? If I use it now, it starts X with 8bpp on my Red Hat 5
installation.
under redhat in the file /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers
there's a line
:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X
change this to
:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X -bpp 16D
and ta-da, thats it.
Caolan McNamara
_________________________________________________________________
Re: Shutdown and Root
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 13:42:44 +0200
From: Aaron Digulla, digulla@wi-pc44.fh-konstanz.de
Another note to the 2cents Tip "Re: Shutdown and Root":
I have a shutdown user, too, and this is what he looks like:
In /etc/passwd:
shutdown:x:6:0:shutdown:/home/shutdown:/bin/sh
You'll probably have to adjust the user-id (here: 6).
Then you create a home-dir which just contains this script as
.profile:
------------------------ .profile ---------------------------------------
#!/bin/sh
trap "" SIGKILL SIGINT SIGQUIT
PATH=/bin
# List all users which are still logged on
/usr/bin/finger
echo
echo "Really shut down (y/N) ?"
read answer
# Every answer except "y" is no
if [ "x$answer" != xy ]; then
answer=n
fi
if [ $answer = y ]; then
echo 'The system will now shut down. You can turn the power'
echo 'off when the message "System halted" appears'
/bin/sleep 5
./halt
else
echo 'Abgebrochen...'
/bin/sleep 1
fi
------------------------ .profile ---------------------------------------
Now just copy /sbin/halt to /home/shutdown/ and make it executable for
this user (chown shutdown halt and chmod 700 halt).
Aaron "Optimizer" Digulla
_________________________________________________________________
Printing with Linux
Date: Sat, 09 May 1998 18:50:06 +1000
From: Mitch Davis, mjd@alphalink.com.au To: AFAIZ@cstp.umkc.edu
I've just bought a HP DeskJet 722C printer, but I couldn't get it
to work. I asked around and everyone has answered that Linux does
not support it - is it a Windows-only printer? If so, is it
possible to write a driver for it? or does anyone know of where I
can get my hands on the driver (if it's already been written, of
course).
In an effort to reduce the production cost of their low-end printers,
HP has removed as much of the electronics from the printer as
possible, and put the burden of turning commands into dots on the
printer driver in the computer. Somewhat euphuistically, this is
called the Printing Performance Architecture, a kind of less-is-more
concept which I'm sure is big in the HP marketing Dept.
All is not lost however. There's a guy who reverse-engineered the
protocol, and has written a driver. You can find his page here:
http://www.rpi.edu/~normat/technical/ppa/
(I have not tried it, nor have I corresponded with him).
I hope this helps you.
Mitch.
(I don't work for HP. Well Ok, I do, but further away from the bit
that makes printers than you'd ever believe. I speak as an outsider)
_________________________________________________________________
RE: finite elements programs for Linux
Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 09:39:29 -0700
From: "James Gilb (p27451)", p27451@email.sps.mot.com
To: berntsen@bkm.dtu.dk
At the department where I am sitting they are planning to buy a
PC-bar, and they intend to put NT on the machines. I would benefit
from them putting Linux on them, since I could then use them for
simulations overnight. ... I don't know anything about that, so I
am looking for info; should I accept their arguments or is it that
he just does not know what can be gotten for Linux? Commercial
Finite Element Method (FEM) programs are also in the searchlight!
There a some really neat FEM codes out there that are free or
semi-free. Check out the Scientific Applications for Linux (SAL) page,
sponsored by Kachina Tech at http:// SAL.KachinaTech.COM/
Next, go to the INTERNET FINITE ELEMENT RESOURCES page at:
http://www.engr.usask.ca/~macphed/finite/fe_resources/
and check out the section on Public Domain FE Programs (I think FElt
is way cool). Also, there may be some commercial vendors that support
Linux as well, you should probably ask your vendors. I found Northwest
Numerics and Modeling on the above page which sells a product called
Zebulon on Linux. Also, some related software is also available on
Linux, e.g. PV-WAVE (graphics), MATLAB, Mathematica, Maple.
Finally, do a search of Linux and FEM software on your favorite search
engine. (linux + FEM + software gave me 1085 hits on www.hotbot.com).
As a postscript, the future of FEM doesn't depend on the OS it is used
on. The real work is done in numerical code that never touches the OS,
indeed an OS call in the middle of the deepest loops would cause a
severe slowdown of the program. Some of the interfaces that you use
for input, pre-processing and post-processing may be moving to NT, but
there are still substantial packages available on the big iron. In any
event, the current IA32 line from Intel is not a leader in
double-precision floating point work, the current crop of workstations
will blow it away in most floating point benchmarks. This is improving
with the emphasis on multi-media, but the new chips will be very
expensive within the near term (USD $2000-$4000 until at least 2000).
If you have any more questions, please email me.
James Gilb, p27451@email.mot.com
_________________________________________________________________
RE: How to enable swapping
Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 15:49:17 -0700
From: "James Gilb (p27451)", p27451@email.sps.mot.com
To: kng@HK.Super.NET, gazette@ssc.com
My machine, which is a Pentium Pro with 64MB memory, reports no
swap space being used. In procinfo, it always report 0K swap space.
I did a fdisk on /dev/hda and verified that a 64MB partition of
type Linux swap (83) is actually there. So why is the swap never
being used ?
First, make sure the partition has been turned into a swap partition
by doing an mkswap on it. Then just do swapon /dev/hda? where ? is the
partition number of the swap partition. Now, if you put an entry for
the swap partition in /etc/fstab and run swapon -a in your boot
scripts (pretty early on), then swap will be automagically enabled
whenever you boot.
James Gilb
_________________________________________________________________
Cuckoo Clock
Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 23:48:02 +0200
From: Jjacobsen, jacobsen@biosys.net
My wife's grandpa has a pretty switzer-cuckoo-clock (kuckucksuhr..).
Well, I love to hear the little bird singing every hour. That's why I
wrote this little script...
#!/bin/sh
#cockoo.sh
time=`date +%I`
count=0
until [ "$count" -eq "$time" ]
do
play /usr/share/sounds/au/cuckoo.au
count=$[$count+1]
done
Then, I edited the crontab file using crontab -e:
00 * * * * /bin/cuckoo.sh
and well, it's really funny... Using my script and cron, your Linux
box will become a great switzer-kuckucks-uhr ;)
Joerg Jacobsen, Schweinfurt, Germany
_________________________________________________________________
Published in Linux Gazette Issue 29, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next
_________________________________________________________________
This page maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com
Copyright © 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
News Bytes
Contents:
* News in General
* Software Announcements
_________________________________________________________________
News in General
_________________________________________________________________
June Linux Journal
The July issue of Linux Journal will be hitting the newsstands June 5.
The focus of this issue is Science and Engineering with articles on
using Linux at CERN, the NIST Neutron Lab and the British Antarctic
Society. Also, an introduction to Samba and a look at two programming
languages: Yorick and ICON. Check out the Table of Contents. To
subscribe to Linux Journal, click here.
_________________________________________________________________
Corel & Open Source
Corel and Corel Computer Corporation have announced their official
position on Linux and Open Source Software. At the Ottawa Carleton
Linux Users Group meeting, Corel announced that they will port all of
their commercial applications to Linux, including a $99 version of
Corel Word Perfect Suite 8. Corel Computer will open the source code
for the development of their NetWinder NC.
For more information:
http://www.corelcomputer.com/
http://www.corel.com/
_________________________________________________________________
Linus Torvalds & Richard Stallman at the USENIX Conference, June 1998
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 10:53:17 -0700 (PDT)
Linus Torvalds, developer of Linux, and Richard Stallman, founder of
the GNU project, will participate in the USENIX Annual Technical
Conference, June 15-19, 1998, at the Marriott Hotel in New Orleans.
This year the conference includes a special track showcasing the
latest developments and interesting applications in FreeBSD, GNU,
Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Samba, and more. FREENIX offers 28 talks, plus
evening BoF sessions. Share ideas and actual code with developers and
avid users of freely redistributable software.
Full program and on-line registration:
http://www.usenix.org/events/no98/
For more information: Jackson Dodd, jackson@usenix.ORG
USENIX, the Advanced Computing Systems Association
_________________________________________________________________
O'Reilly's Perl Conference 2.0
Date: Fri, 22 May 1998 09:47:48 -0700 (PDT)
O'Reilly & Associates is presenting the Perl Conference 2.0 from
August 17-20, 1998 at The Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, California. Perl
Conference 2.0 features two days of intensive tutorial sessions
followed by a two-day conference led by key Perl developers. Full
program and registration information is at:
http://conference.perl.com
For more information:
Ellen Elias, elias@ora.com
O'Reilly & Associates
_________________________________________________________________
Linux Penguins Stickers
Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 01:06:25 +0300 (EEST)
Linux Penguin Sticker Movement announces printed Linux Penguin
Stickers
In cooperation with the Linux Penguin Sticker movement
http://www.jyu.fi/~juhtolv/linux-sticker/ Linux Mall has agreed to
make available professionally designed and printed Penguin Stickers
for all who do not wish to print their own.
For more information:
http://www.LinuxMall.com/PP.html
_________________________________________________________________
Announcement and Call for Papers, 7th International Python Conference
Date: Thu, 28 May 1998 18:29:07 -0400 (EDT)
7th International Python Conference
South Shore Harbour Resort
Houston, Texas
November 10-13, 1998
For more information, visit the conference Web page at:
http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/
IMPORTANT DATES:
June 29: email intent to submit paper
July 27: deadline for papers and tutorials
Aug. 31: notification of acceptance for papers
Sep. 28: deadline for final versions of full papers
For more information about submitting a tutorial:
http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/cft.html
Jeremy Hylton, CNRI, jeremy@cnri.reston.va.us
Program Chair, 7th International Python Conference
_________________________________________________________________
Linux Links
Project MUSCLE: http://www.linuxnet.com/smartcard/index.html
"Introduction to Linux" class:
http://www.learningtree.com/us/courses/330.htm#top
Linux Applications: http://www.linuxapps.com/
Linux Advocacy: http://www.netnomics.com/linux/
New Linux Help Page: http://www.admin.burned.org/
Linux Links: http://www.linuxlinks.com/
The Linux PenguinPlay Project: http://sunsite.auc.dk/penguinplay/
ECLiPt Project: http://eclipt.uni-klu.ac.at/
Linux Discussion Board:
http://paradigm.uor.edu/linux/wishlist/bulletinboard.html
Free Linux Support: http://support.marko.net/
Current ports of Linux OS:
http://www.ctv.es/USERS/xose/linux/linux_ports.html
Linux Books: http://www.technologybooks.com/linux.htm
Linux on-line bookstore: http://www.dragonfire.net/~garym/linux.html
_________________________________________________________________
Project Independence: Linux for the Masses
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 08:16:43 GMT
A system accessible only to a minority will remain a minority OS.
Project Independence believes that this is not an acceptable fate for
Linux. Project Independence aims to make Linux accessible to people
with little computing experience.
A Call For Action:
* If you want to make Linux usable
* If you favour a pragmatic approach
* If you believe in the bazaar model
* If you are unhappy when you are unable to recommend Linux to
friends and relatives,
* If you want to act upon it
Go straight to: http://independence.dunadan.com/
For more information:
Jean Francois Martinez, jfm2@club-internet.fr Linux Application
Development Book Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 08:27:42 GMT
New book available from Linux Central: Linux Application Development
By Michael K. Johnson and Erik W. Troan from Addison Wesley
Publishing.
Linux Application Development helps C programmers write applications
that run on Linux.
For more information:
sales@linuxcentral.com
_________________________________________________________________
Software Announcements
_________________________________________________________________
Stalker Software Announces CommuniGate Pro Server 2.0 Beta
Date: May 15th, 1998
CommuniGate Pro 2.0 beta is the platform-independent Internet
messaging server. The new generation of the CommuniGate integrated
messaging system unifies the performance of multi-threaded operating
systems, the standards-compliance of the Internet applications, and
flexibility of the modular CommuniGate System, initially designed for
MacOS.
The new version of the CommuniGate Pro is based on the Stalker
Foundation framework and can run under all major operating systems.
The first released versions can run on the Linux operating system
among others.
The CommuniGate Pro server can be configured, controlled, and
monitored from any computer connected to the Internet using any Web
browser application. The administrators can monitor the Server status,
create, update and modify user accounts, delete and redirect messages
in the queues, update the communication modules settings, and
configure the full-featured CommuniGate Router.
SMTP component of the CommuniGate Pro server incorporates all the
anti- spamming features implemented in the other Stalker mail servers,
including centralized DNS-based blacklisting (RBL).
The CommuniGate Pro server is scheduled for the commercial release in
July'98. The beta versions of the CommuniGate Pro Server are available
now, free of charge. They can be downloaded either from the Stalker
sites:
http://www.stalker.com/CommuniGatePro/
ftp://www.stalker.com//pub/CommuniGatePro/
For more information:
Ali Liptrot, ali@stalker.com, http://www.stalker.com/
_________________________________________________________________
LPEvol, A Java Application
Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 14:25:25 +0200 This is a first (beta) release
of LPEvol, a Java application which allows you to interactiveley breed
LSystems objects and view the results graphically. LSystems are
(recursive) mathematical models that can be used to describe growth
patters modelling the shapes we see around us every day, like trees,
flowers and many others. LPEvol is an application which uses LParser
and PovRay to generate and draw these LSystems. You as the user then
have the choice to select the LSystems you like and then breed them
(doing a crossover, using theGenetic Algortihm) to produce a next
generation (the children ) which will have been derived from the
formulas ( genes ) describing the parents.
LPEvol requires:
- JDK 1.1.x
- lparser (default works; a modified lparser.c is shipped with LPEvol)
- PovRay 3
- cjpeg
- see the README file for other (hardware/memory) requirements.
LPEvol 0.50 is available from:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/science/biology/
http://www.peoplesoft.com/peoplepages/g/robert_gasch/src/src.htm For
more information:
Robert Gasch, Robert_Gasch@peoplesoft.com
_________________________________________________________________
RED HAT LINUX 5.1
Date: May 26, 1998
Red Hat Software, Inc. announced the June 1 release of Red Hat Linux
5.1, a powerful update that includes enhanced installation features,
as well as system configuring, web caching, window management features
and an added value CD of applications for Linux.
For more information:
http://www.redhat.com/
_________________________________________________________________
Webmin version 0.51 - WWW-based configuration software
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 07:50:19 GMT
Webmin version 0.51 is now available for download from
http://www.webmin.com/webmin/
This version allows the simple, browser-based configuration of Unix
services such as
- Apache (version 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3)
- Samba
- Crontab
- NFS exports
- BIND
- Inetd
- SYSV init scripts
- Local/remote mounts and /etc/fstab
- Users and groups
- Disk partitions
- Running processes
- Disk quotas
- Software packages
- PPP accounts
Webmin runs on Solaris 2.5 & 2.6, Redhat Linux 4 & 5, Slackware Linux
3, Debian 1.3 and SUSE 5.1.
For more information:
Jamie Cameron, jcameron@webmin.com
_________________________________________________________________
banal 0.05 (bookkeeping software) released
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 12:50:51 GMT
TITLE INFORMATION: BANAL 0.05 - or BANAL's Absolutely Not A Ledger
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Matthew Rice - Matthew.Rice@ftlsol.com AFFILIATION
INFORMATION: FTL Solutions Inc. DATE INFORMATION: May 1998
BANAL is a bookkeeping system that allows you to track invoices,
clients, projects, TODOs, bank accounts and expenses. BANAL is a
client/server application so you can keep one set of books one your
system while allowing everyone access.
If you want to obtain BANAL and try it out, ftp to:
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/financial/accounting.
and look for a file banal-X.YY.tar.gz, with X.YY being a version
number (0.00 is of course the first). Unpack it in a "sources"
directory and start reading the document in the "doc" subdirectory.
FTL Solutions Inc. holds the copyright (I am doing it under their
time), however, it is very unrestricted (read: do what you want but
don't think of suing them). There is a more detailed COPYRIGHT file
included with the distribution.
For more information:
Matthew Rice Matthew.Rice@ftlsol.com
_________________________________________________________________
satlas-0.95 (solar atlas) released
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 07:17:18 GMT
I am announcing a first public release of satlas!
Satlas is an electronic atlas of the solar sprectrum and targeted
primaraly for astronomers who do a lot of spectral analysis work. It
is based on Gtk+ and MySQL. MySQL is used to store, manage and provide
a quick access to the data, while Gtk+ is provides GUI.
http://www.physics.unc.edu/~serge/satlas/
Satlas is distributed under GNU Public License.
For more information:
Sergei Naumov, serge@astro.unc.edu
_________________________________________________________________
ECLiPt Mirror 2.0b1 (former SimpleMirror)
Date: Mon, 4 May 1998 07:34:37 GMT
I've just released a new version of ECLiPt-Mirror (it's original name
has been SimpleMirror). The new release includes
- - HTML-Logs, including the possibilty to directly download from this
page
- - automatic creating of index-files as an overview over all mirrors
- - download just the most recent version of some files (e.g. the linux
kernel)
- - bug fixes :-)
- - new bugs :-(
Have a look at http://eclipt.uni-klu.ac.at (and then the mirror
section) for a example usage. You can download it from the same page
(under the projects section).
For more information:
Martin Preishuber, Martin.Preishuber@stuco.uni-klu.ac.at
_________________________________________________________________
Whisper 0.1 - Internet Telephone Application
Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 12:32:21 GMT
I announce the availability of Whisper -- Internet Phone. You can use
it to talk to other people on the Internet. It uses gsm compression
and should be suitable for low speed networks (19.200 bps and up)
I uploaded the sources to /incoming/Linux on sunsite. Hopefully they
will appear in /pub/Linux/apps/sound/talk. Sources (and a binary
version) are also available at:
http://www.itp.uni-hannover.de/~roeden/whisper.html
Copying-policy: GPL
For more information:
Claus Roedenbeck, roeden@itp.uni-hannover.de
_________________________________________________________________
JCam 0.3 - Java-based software for Digital Cameras
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 08:05:54 GMT
JCam - a single software program for (almost) all OSes and (almost)
all Digital Still Cameras ...
Release 0.3 of JCam, available from http://www.jcam.com introduces
support for cameras from Fuji and Olympus ... this adds to existing
support for cameras from Epsom, Casio, Kodak ... and a neater user
interface with "LEDs" ... ;-)
For more details about supported cameras, etc, please E-Mail to
info@jcam.com or visit the Web Page at "www.jcam.com" ... For more
information:
info@jcam.com, http://www.jcam.com/
_________________________________________________________________
gax 1.0 - galaxy DB utility for astronomy
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 08:14:06 GMT
Announcing the first release of Gax, a program for amateur astronomy.
Gax can create searchable databases of galaxy information that can
then be searched based on user selectable ranges for fields in the
database.
The information contained in or derived from the database includes:
RA
Declination
Major/Minor Diameter
Position Angle
Magnitude
Surface Brightness
Constellation
Uranometria 2000 Map number
Local Transit Time
Report formatting is also under complete user control providing the
ability to tailor the report output to your specific needs.
Temporarily at: http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming/
Permanite site: http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/science/astronomy/
Files: 1664Kb gax-1.0.tar.gz, 1Kb gax.lsm
Copying-policy: GPL
For more information:
Mark Anderson, manders1@csc.com
_________________________________________________________________
SampLin, new scientific data acquisition software
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 08:15:10 GMT
Few days ago I released first public version of scientific data
acquisition software 'SampLin' which can be found at
http://www.troja.mff.cuni.cz/~kvasnica/samplin.html.
Currently is implemented support for serial, gpib devices and
arbitrary labcards with drivers, basic-like script language and simple
plot widget. Software supports data acquisition over TCP/IP network
via RPC protocol from remote servers. Requirements: X11R6, Qt, KDE
libs, GPIB lib
*** I'M LOOKING FOR NEW PROGRAMMERS TO CONTINUE THIS PROJECT ***
For more information:
Samuel Kvasnica, kvasnica@iaee.tuwien.ac.at
_________________________________________________________________
SCNN3.3 cellular neural network simulator
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 08:33:00 GMT
The new version of our simulation system for cellular neural networks
(CNN) is now available from our home page
http://apx00.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/e_ag_rt/cnn/SCNN/
It is a zero price product, available for Intel x86 (Linux), IBM RS
6000 (AIX4), SGI Indigo (Irix 6.2), HP (HP Unix) and DEC Alpha
(Ultrix). It is planned to add versions for other Unix operating
systems on request. For more information take a look at our homepage.
For more information:
SCNN Team, Roland Kunz, kunz@apx12.physik.uni-frankfurt.de
_________________________________________________________________
Sox 12.14 - Universal Sound Processing Tool
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 07:40:31 GMT
The latest patchlevel of Sox is now available. Sox is intended to be
the Swiss Army knife of sound processing tools. Its allows a user to
convert sounds files between any supported format including CD Audio,
.au, .voc, .wav and several others. Latest versions also include
support for playing the sound file to either Linux's /dev/dsp or a Sun
/dev/audio.
It can be downloaded from the following sites:
http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/cbagwell/projects.html
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/sound/convert/sox-12.14.tar.gz
For more information:
Chris Bagwell, cbagwell@fujitsu-fnc.com
_________________________________________________________________
Linux Point Of Sale
Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 11:16:14 GMT
LinuxPOS Version 1.0 Released for Beta Testing
Linux Canada Inc. wishes to announce that the beta version of LinuxPOS
1.0 is now available for evaluation. LinuxPOS is an exciting new point
of sale application written in Tcl/Tk. If you require the
power,stability and connectivity of Linux, the graphical user
interface inherent in Tck/Tk, a dynamite point of sale application and
full source code for peace of mind and/or personal customizations ---
then LinuxPOS is for you.
For more information:
Philip Tonellier, phil@linuxcanada.com, http://www.linuxcanada.com/
_________________________________________________________________
SHAREWARE: QuoteGrabber-1.0 Real-time stock quotes.
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 12:47:06 GMT
The QuoteGrabber, 1.0.0 is a universal stock market client.
A stock market tracker and portfolio manager written in Java and
developed under Linux, the QuoteGrabber provides real-time and delayed
quotes, news and charts. Fully customizable, it is a versatile tool:
- - trading: real-time quotes for www.datek.com clients and registered
users;
- - charting: intra-day, 3 month, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years;
- - news: breaking company news as they arrive;
- - portfolio management: enter all transactions, track portfolio
performance;
- - alerts: based on a combination of four criteria;
- - international stocks: US, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Italy (delayed
15-20 minutes);
The QuoteGrabber is distributed as 30-day trial shareware with a
personal license price of $25.
For more information:
Louis-David Mitterrand, mito@aparima.com,
http://www.aparima.com/quote/
_________________________________________________________________
Fortify now on Linux_glibc2: 128-bit Netscape crypto
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 13:01:39 GMT
Sydney, Australia. (23 May, 1998). By popular demand, Fortify for
Netscape has now been extended to support the Linux_glibc2 editions of
the Netscape web browsers (Communicator and Navigator v4.05).
This functionality is available immediately, as part of the
Fortify-1.2.3-unix distribution. You can download this from the
Fortify web site, at http://www.fortify.net/
In a second addition to the Fortify service, the Fortify-announce
mailing list is now on-line, and open to anyone who wishes to receive
news and announcements via e-mail regarding the Fortify project. You
can subscribe to the mailing list here:
http://www.fortify.net/feedback.html
Farrell McKay, fbm@jolt.mpx.com.au
_________________________________________________________________
Organic molecule drawing program
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 13:30:46 GMT
I have written a program to draw organic molecules easily under X. You
can store the picture as bitmapfile. It is compiled with the Athena
Widget Set and is also compartible to UNIX.
You can download the sourcecode at:
http://www.uni-ulm.de/~s_tvolk/chemtool.html
copyright is GPL
For more information:
Thomas Volk, thomas.volk@student.uni-ulm.de,
http://www.uni-ulm.de/~s_tvolk/
_________________________________________________________________
Toshiba Linux Utilities
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 13:43:46 GMT
The Toshiba Linux Utilities are a series of three programs that I have
written to replace Toshiba supplied MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows
programs for controlling Toshiba laptops, with Linux versions. Full
details and source code can be found at
http://www2.prestel.co.uk/hex/toshiba.html
FAN: A update to my fan program that uses a completely new version of
turning the fan on/off. If you have tried a 1.x version of the program
and it did not work on your laptop try this version. This version is
known to work on the new Satellite Pro models (440x, 460x, 480x), and
may work on others that the previous version did not. I am
particularly keen to hear from owners of Tecra's.
SVPW: A direct replacement for the svpw.exe program found on the
Companion diskette, for the setting/removal of supervisor passwords,
and changing whether setup can be run in user mode. Known to work on a
Satellite Pro 400x, 430x, and 440x. I am keen to know if it works on
other models.
To anyone reading this, svpw does not, and cannot be made to remove
passwords unless you already know the password. This is not a
limitation impossed by me. I don't know how to *crack* the passwords
on Toshiba laptops and have no interest in doing so. I will not answer
any emails relating to this.
HOTKEY: This is not exactly a replacement for a Toshiba program, but
provides the same functionality as MaxTime(tm) does under Microsoft
Windows, under X11 when the power-up or battery save mode is changed
with the Fn+F2, Fn+F3 key combinations. Namely a small window pops up
in the centre of the screen with some icons to let you know what you
are doing. It is know to work on a Satellite Pro 400x, 430x, Portage
610x, and Tecra 740x
For more information:
Jonathan A. Buzzard, jab@hex.prestel.co.uk
_________________________________________________________________
GNU Midnight Commander 4.1.35 file manager
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 14:11:12 GMT
The Midnight Commander team has just released version 4.1.35 of the
GNU Midnight Commander. For more information on the Midnight
Commander, please consult
http://www.gnome.org/mc
This program is available now in:
ftp://ftp.nuclecu.unam.mx/linux/local/mc-4.1.35.tar.gz
For more information:
Miguel de Icaza, miguel@nuclecu.unam.mx
_________________________________________________________________
Published in Linux Gazette Issue 29, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next
_________________________________________________________________
This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette,
gazette@ssc.com
Copyright © 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
(?) The Answer Guy (!)
By James T. Dennis, linux-questions-only@ssc.com
Starshine Technical Services, http://www.starshine.org/
_________________________________________________________________
Contents:
(!)Greetings from Jim Dennis
(?)Version-a-go-go and the Tragedy of being "Left Behind"
(?)Removing Lilo from a multi-boot machine
(?)Question on sendmail... --or--
'sendmail' FEATURE creatures for virtual domain and generic
re-write tables
(?)Kernel crashes
(?)Winmodems --or--
More on 'WinModems': How to "lose" Gracefully - Just say No!
(?)Mail on a LAN Linux to NT --or--
Basic e-mail Setup for Linux?
(?)Remote Tape Backups
(?)adduser
(?)Letter to Dell - Linux on Dell Hardware
(?)Hello --or--
Connecting a Dumb Terminal to your Linux System
(?)Why Linux?
(?)Redhat telnet
(?)Network Cards
(?)A little note about "good times" or emailed viruses --or--
"Good Times" are Spread to the "Great Unwashed"
(?)The Answer Guy --or--
Regarding the Column's New Look
(?)TACACS+ client for Linux --or--
TACACS and RADIUS Authentication Models for Linux and/or PAM
(?)Sendmail jam --or--
'sendmail' Log Jams and Capacity Problems: running extra
'sendmail -q' processes
(?)PPP connection and diald --or--
Co-ordinating diald and Manual PPP
(?)getting ppp-2.3.3 to work
(?)Mail access --or--
Getting at MS-Mail from within Linux: The Myriad Ways to
Co-exist with MS Windows
(?)Program for Mailer Daemons --or--
Automated Handling for MAILER-DAEMON Messages: Read The
Sources, Luke.
_________________________________________________________________
Linux Gazette: The Answer Guy for June, 1998
The theme for this month seems to be "vendor support for Linux." From
the responses to my open letter to Dell, through the common problems
with "winmodems" and "winprinters" and even to the impossible dream of
running MS Windows applications and accessing Microsoft proprietary
formats from native Linux applications --- we continue to fight uphill
battles with so many vendors.
This isn't new in the broader Unix world. Readers of A Quarter Century
of Unix by Peter H. Salus should recognize this as a as an attitude
that has dominated hardware vendors for almost thirty years. They've
been prdicting the "death" of Unix (and the "death of the Internet)
almost since from the beginning.
There is some hope on the horizon. As some of you may have heard or
read corelcomputing (the hardware division of the famous software
company) is basing it's NC (network computer) on a Strong-ARM version
of Linux. Within a week or two after that Corel Software announced
their intention of porting the rest of the applications suite to Linux
(their WordPerfect 7 and 8 have been available in Linux versions for
some time).
A little further afield it appears that Apple Inc is starthing to make
some sense with their future OS strategy --- by "thinking different",
or "outside of the box" in a manner of speaking. Specifically they've
apparently decided to skip the planned version of Rhapsody with its
"blue" and "yellow" boxes that separated the MacOS and the
Mach/NeXTStep (Unix) personalities. Apparently buried in their
announcement for MacOS X ("ten") is the i rumor that your "NeXT"
(Rhapsody) native applications will co-exist on the same desktop with
yor MacOS programs --- and that the MacOS API's will be seamlessly
supported with all the multi-threaded support that the Mach
microkernel can provide. Of course you have to hear that as rumors, or
read between the lines with a considerable background in the Macintosh
architecture since it is not apparent from their own press releases,
or from the San Jose Mercury News articles on the subject. The San
Francisco Examiner sings a similarly hollow tune. However, I'm not
alone in my opinion as we see in David K. Every's article.
I suspect he knows way more than I do on the subject.
Oddly the MacOS Rumors web site seems to have no mention MacOS X on
their site.
What does this have to do with Linux? Well, I can only continue to
speculate that mkLinux binaries will eventually run under MacOS X
(Rhapsody). I can also still hope that, with the progress in the G3's,
and the plans for the G4 generations of the PowerPC platform, and
hopefully the continued availability development of the DEC (Compaq)
Alpha processor, we'll see some real choices and competition in the
market place. Linux is the one OS that crosses all of these (and Sun
SPARC's and SGI MIPS and others). Some form of Unix is available on
just about every platform, whether or not it supports Linux.
As we look beyond the world of PC clones we see that there is some
vendor support. There is some hope that Microsoft's legacy will be the
separation of hardware vendors from their "control" hegemony. Before
Microsoft it was the norm for computer manufacturers to almost
completely control the availability of software for their platforms
--- Unix has undermined that control for over two decades. The popular
backlash from Microsoft's own unique form of control --- over the
collective Wintel platform --- may finally completely sever the
puppet's strings. The trickles of vendor support that you're seeing
now is largely a survival strategy. So not only will these vendors
give up the efforts to control their customer's range of software
choices, they'll be glad they did it, considering the alternative.
_______
Jim Dennis
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, James T. Dennis
Published in Linux Gazette Issue 29 June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ Table Of Contents ] [ Front Page ] [ Back ] [ Next ]
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
GUI building using the Java 1.1 AWT
Java Linux Audio CD Player--Part 2
By Michael Hamilton
_________________________________________________________________
Contents:
* The Player Class
* The Form Panel
* The Menu Bar
* AWT Adapters
* The Main Button Control
* The CD Player Status Display
* The SmartDrive and the Monitor Thread
* The Program Window
* Summary
* Resources
_________________________________________________________________
In my previous article I described a simple CD player that can be
extended to create a GUI player such as Jcd, a freeware player I've
made available on the Web, see
http://www.actrix.gen.nz/users/michael/giveaways.html
In this article I will describe how to extend the Drive object so that
it can carry out programmed play (play a list of tracks) and shuffle
play (play every track once in a random order). The structure of the
new player is described by the class diagram in the following figure.
Rather than starting with the low level components, I thought it would
be more interesting to start with a description of the GUI interface.
For the moment just assume that there is a new SmartDrive version of
Drive that includes all the old functionality, plus monitoring of the
Drive state and the ability to accept and modify a list of tracks to
be played. I'll introduce the use of the new functionality as we
proceed.
[INLINE]
In my previous article I described a Java class, called ``Drive'',
that provides the following CD player functionality:
Drive Object:
Informational methods:
currentTrack, currentIndex, numberOfTracks,
currentAddress,
cdEndAddress, trackAddress, trackLength
Control methods:
play, stop, pause, resume, eject, setVolume
In this article I will describe how to extend the Drive object so that
it can carry out programmed play (play a list of tracks) and shuffle
play (play every track once in a random order). But rather than start
with the low level components, I thought it would be more interesting
to start with a description of the GUI interface. For the moment just
assume that there is a new SmartDrive version of Drive that includes
all the old functionality, plus monitoring of the Drive state and the
ability to accept and modify a list of tracks to be played. I'll
introduce the use of the new functionality as we proceed.
Since writing my previous article, the Java Development Kit 1.1 has
been ported to Linux. This code in this article will use features of
the AWT from JDK 1.1. The article was originally written using the JDK
1.0.1, and the original JDK 1.0.1 code is included in the tar
available at SSC's Linux Journal ftp site.
_________________________________________________________________
The Player Class
_________________________________________________________________
The new CD player I'm going to describe is called Player and is run
from the command line by entering:
setenv SBPCD 1 # if you have an old SoundBlaster connected drive
java Jcd.Player
Running the application creates the GUI interface in Figure 1 and
Figure 2.
The source code for the Player class is presented in Listing 1. The
Player class has a static main() method on line 30, which is where
program execution will begin. On line 32 the main() method creates an
instance of the player class:
Player player = new Player();
On lines 38 to 43, the Player's class constructor sets up the
SmartDrive object that communicates with the CD player. The name of
the device to open (/dev/cdrom) and the location of the native module
(Jcd_Drive.so) is hard coded into the Player's constructor. The native
module implements the kernel interface to the CDROM drive. In a real
production version of the system, these parameters would be read from
a configuration file or deduced by interrogating the operating
environment.
As previously stated SmartDrive is an extended version of the hardware
interface class described in my first article--it has been enhanced to
support programmed play, and to provide notification events concerning
the CD players status. On line 56, the Player's constructor starts the
SmartDrive's monitor. The monitor will begin delivering CD player
events to any object that has registered for them.
[INLINE]
Figure 1. GUI Components
I'll now go back over Player and look at some of the code involved in
the GUI. On lines 45 to 54 of Listing 1. the Player's constructor
creates the GUI components seen in Figure 1: a menu-bar; a display
area for track info; and a control area of push-button CD player
controls.
_________________________________________________________________
The Form Panel
_________________________________________________________________
The AWT GUI toolkit provides components such as text-labels,
text-entry fields, menus, and buttons. Components are placed into
containers to build windows and pabels. The AWT's top level component
container is the Frame class. A Frame constructs a separate
free-standing window. Like other GUI toolkits, the AWT provides the
programmer with sub-container classes that can be used to control
component placement by subdividing a window into smaller areas. The
AWT's major sub-container is the Panel class. The AWT provides further
control over placement by allowing the programmer to configure a Frame
or Panel's layout policy. For example, the standard AWT FlowLayout
just places components left to right, top to bottom. A Frame or
Panel's layout can be assigned from the layouts provided by the AWT or
you can write your own.
On line 10 of Listing 1, the Player class is declared to extend the
Form class. The source code for Form is presented in Listing 2. Form
is a class I've created that extends the normal top level AWT Frame
class. Player is a Form, a Form is a Frame, a Frame creates a
free-standing window, so Player creates a free-standing window. The
Form class uses the AWT GridBagLayout manager. The GridBagLayout
manager is the AWT's most flexible layout manager. It has a wide
variety of options for the spacing, and placement of objects with a
Frame or Panel. GridBagLayout's flexibility makes it complex to deal
with. Form simplifies dealing with the GridBagLayout by providing an
addCenter() method. On lines 23 to 32 of Listing 2, the addCenter()
method controls placement by placing the object at the next available
row and making it consume the entire row:
c.gridx = 0;
...
c.gridwidth = GridBagConstraints.REMAINDER;
It sets fill to NONE. It sets the inset space around the component to
1. The end effect is that the Form sub-class will place objects top to
button, one object per row, each consuming the space it needs plus a
little surrounding space.
_________________________________________________________________
The Menu Bar
_________________________________________________________________
Returning to the Player class. On lines 46 and 47 of Listing 1, the
Player's constructor sets up the windows menu bar:
setMenuBar(new MenuBar());
getMenuBar().add(createFileMenu());
The actual drop-down menu is created by the createFileMenu() method on
Lines 70 to 78 of Listing 1. It creates the player's file-menu, and
adds individual menu items to it. Lines 76 and 77 of createFileMenu()
setup the event handling for the menu:
fileProgramItem.addActionListener(this);
fileExitItem.addActionListener(this);
These two lines set up the Player object (this) to handle the
ActionEvents from the file-menu's fileProgramItem and fileExitItem.
These events are generated when the user selects a menu item. In order
to be able to handle these events the Player class must implement the
ActionListener interface--it is declared as such on Listing 1 line 10:
public class Player extends Form implements ActionListener
What's going on here? Player inherits from--``extends''--Form, but
what does ``implements ActionLister'' mean? Player can only inherit
data and method definitions from a single parent--Java doesn't support
multiple inheritance--an object can only ``extend'' one parent class.
However, to provide some of the functionality of multiple inheritance,
Java provides the ``implements/interface'' mechanism. In other
languages multiple inheritance has to deal with the issue of what to
do when a class inherits two more implementations of the same
data-structure or method from two different parents. For example, say
both parents have an add() method, which one should be used in the
sub-class? Java's limited multiple inheritance mechanism, the
``interface'', doesn't support the inheritance of implementation.
Except for class-wide constants, interface definitions must be
completely abstract. An interface definition, such as ActionListener,
cannot provide an implementation of any of the methods it declares.
Any class wishing to ``implement'' an interface must provide its own
code to implement all the methods in the interface. A class can
implement any number of interfaces--a class could implement both
ActionListener and MouseListener and handle both kinds of events. By
not providing an implementation, interfaces leave conflict resolution
in the hands of the programmer designing the implementation.
Listener interfaces such as ActionListener, MouseListener, and others,
were newly introduced in JDK 1.1. The new JDK 1.1 AWT Event model uses
the Java interface mechanism to provide a more flexible event handling
mechanism that the earlier version of the JDK. There are separate
interfaces for different kinds of events such as the mouse or the
keyboard. Multiple objects can register for the same events and they
will all receive them.
In order to implement the ActionListener interface, the Player class
has to have an actionPerformed() method--the method is defined on on
Lines 59 to 68. The Player will be passed menu events via a call to
the actionPerformed() method. The actionPerformed() method checks
which component was the source of the event and invokes an appropriate
code fragment: at lines 62 to 65, the Player's actionPerformed method
checks if the source of the event was the fileProgramItem--if it was,
and there isn't an existing program showing, a new one is created. At
line 66, if the source of the event was fileExitItem the program is
terminated.
_________________________________________________________________
AWT Adapters
_________________________________________________________________
In some cases the interface necessary to handle an AWT event is quite
complex. To save the programmer the work of having to completely
define all of an AWT event interface, the AWT includes pre-written
Adapter classes that provide default implementations for the more
complex event interfaces. For example the MouseListener interface has
a corresponding MouseAdapter class that provides a default
implementation. These pre-canned AWT Adapter classes can be
sub-classed to selectively override any of their methods.
The Player class makes use of an Adapter class to handle close
requests from the window manager. Close requests are usually the
result of the user double clicking the close button on window's title
bar. On line 52 of Listing 1, the Player registers a WindowListener:
addWindowListener(new DoClose());
The WindowListener interface has several methods and I only want to
override one of them--the windowClosing() method. Unfortunately the
Player class can't inherit from the default WindowAdaptor class
because the Player class already inherits from the Form class. The
solution I've applied in this case is to use another new feature of
the JDK 1.1. JDK 1.1 adds Inner Classes to the Java language--this
means I can declare a class within a class:
public class Player extends Form implements ActionListener {
...
addWindowListener(new DoClose());
...
private class DoClose extends WindowAdapter {
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
System.exit(0);
}
}
...
}
The Player uses addWindowListener() to register a new instance of its
own inner DoClose class. Because DoClose is an Inner Class of Player
it has access to Player's data and methods and can therefore be more
closely integrated into Player than a separately declared class. In
other languages it's quite common to solve situations such as this by
passing pointers to methods, functions, or code-fragments--but in Java
only objects can be passed, so Inner Classes were provided as one
solution.
_________________________________________________________________
The Main Button Controls
_________________________________________________________________
Turning now to the remainder of the Player GUI interface: the Controls
and Display classes. I'll describe the Controls class first because
it's the simplest. Controls is a panel of buttons which you can see on
the bottom of Figure 1. Listing 3 shows the source code for the
Controls class. Since it is intended to be a sub-panel of Player it
inherits from Panel:
class Controls extends Panel implements ActionListener
The Controls class also needs to take action when the buttons are
pressed, so it also implements the ActionLister interface.
Lines 17 to 22 of Listing 3 declares the set of buttons. The button
declarations also specify how to initialize the buttons when a
Controls object is created. On lines 26 to 32, the Controls
constructor adds each of the buttons to the Panel. The simple
GridLayout manager, not to be confused with the more complex
GridBagLayout manager, is used to control component placement within
the Panel. GridLayout places components left to right, top to bottom,
in equal sized cells in the grid specified:
setLayout(new GridLayout(1, 6, 2, 2));
In this case the grid is 1 row by 6 columns--a column for each button.
The last two arguments specify a horizontal and vertical gap between
grid cells of 2.
The Controls add() method, on lines 31 to 34, overrides the add()
method inherited from the Panel super-class. Add() behavour has been
modified to set the Controls object as the ActionListener for each
button:
private void add(Button b) {
b.addActionListener(this);
super.add(b); // Now call super class add() method.
}
The Controls actionPerformed() method, lines 36 to 49, reponds to
button press events by invoking corresponding CdPlayer methods.
_________________________________________________________________
The CD Player Status Display
_________________________________________________________________
The final part of the interface shown in Figure 1 is the Display
panel, the source code for which can be seen in Listing 4. The Display
panel consists of three text fields to display the CD track, the CD
index, and the CD track time remaining--trackField, indexField, and
timeField. They're declared on lines 13 to 15 of Listing 4 and will be
initialized as new TextFields a Display object is created (which only
ever happens once in this application).
The Display() constructor method is on line 20 of Listing 4. Lines 22
to 29 setup the basic components involved in the display. The Panel is
assigned the FlowLayout manager which means that calls to the add()
method will place the three text fields in a left to right layout
butted up to each other with a small amount of separation top and
bottom. And on Lines 23 and 24 I've made the indexField and timeField
read-only so the user can't alter their values:
indexField.setEditable(false);
timeField.setEditable(false);
The trackField is left editable so that the user can enter the number
of a track to start playing from. In order to handle the trackField's
mouse focus events and keyboard events, we have to register a couple
of event Listeners:
trackField.addFocusListener(new TrackFocusLost());
trackField.addKeyListener(new TrackKeyPress());
Both of the Listeners are quite complex, so rather that write our own
complete implementations, two default Adapter classes are sub-classed
to handle the task on lines 53 to 74--more about them later.
On line 34 we register Display() as an Observer of the cdPlayer:
cdPlayer.monitor.addObserver(this);
The status of the CD player is actually kept track of by a Monitor
object--the cdPlayer.monitor object. The monitor runs in its own
thread (a thread can be thought of as a light weight sub-process that
has shared access to the data of the main task). The need to monitor
events and notify other objects is a common programming problem. Java
provides the Observable Class, and its companion Observer Interface,
as a standard basis for addressing this kind of problem. The monitor
object is a sub-class of a Observable class. The Observable class
provides the code necessary to manage the Observer/Observable
relationship. The monitor class will be described in more detail
later. Display is declared to implement Observer, which means it must
define an update() method. The update() method will be called when an
Observable event takes place. Display's update() method is defined on
lines 37 to 51, it is passed the Observable object that caused the
event and an extra argument (which isn't used in this application).
Normally the trackField is updated once a second when the monitor
broadcasts a status update to its Observers. The user can also alter
the value of the trackField by entering a new track which will force
the player to skip to it immediately. To prevent the one second update
from clobbering the users input, the update() method is careful not to
update the trackField text unless the track really has changed:
if (prevText.compareTo(newTrackText) != 0) {
trackField.setText(newTrackText);
prevText = newTrackText;
}
Lines 53 to 75 of Listing 4 define two inner classes to handle user
input into the trackField. TrackFocusLost restores the correct track
number when ever the user changes focus out of the trackField. The
inner class TrackKeyPress checks every key pressed in the trackField
for the enter key. If enter is pressed, an attempt is made to parse
the text entered into an integer value, if this succeeds the cdPlayer
is instructed to immediately start playing at this track.
_________________________________________________________________
The SmartDrive and the Monitor Thread
_________________________________________________________________
Before we go on to describe how to write a GUI for programmed track
play and shuffle play, we really have to understand more of the new
SmartDrive class that extends the Drive class from my first article.
SmartDrive.java can be seen in Listing 5. SmartDrive is a sub-class of
the original Drive class. SmartDrive mainly adds new methods to
provide for playing a list of tracks.
In order to store the playlist of tracks, a new class called TrackList
is defined at lines 175 to 243. TrackList is a sub-class of the JDK
Vector class. A Vector is is a JDK implementation of a list-like
structure. A Vector can only store java Objects. I would like to store
int-type track numbers, but the int-type isn't a Java Object, it's a
primitive data-type and primitive data types aren't first-class
objects. To get around this problem the JDK provides a class wrapper
for each kind of primitive data type. In this case I have to use the
Integer wrapper class to contain each track number. When ever a track
is added to a TrackList, the code actually stores a corresponding
Integer object:
addTrack(int t) { addElement(new Integer(t)); }
TrackList provides methods to test the state of the list, to advance
along the list, and to reset the list. Because Vectors store generic
Objects, TrackList also has to do a fair bit of casting. For example,
elementAt() returns an Object that has to be cast to an Integer before
I can use it:
Integer elem = (Integer) (elementAt(position)); // Cast Object to Integer
The methods within TrackList have been declared as synchronized. This
prevents multiple threads from simultaneously trying to access the
same TrackList object. For example, we don't want the GUI to attempt
to clear the track list at the same time as the cdPlayer attempts to
advance to the next track in the track list. By declaring the methods
as synchronized we ensures that requests are handled one at a
time--waiting calls will block until the object is available.
In order to implement programmed play, the SmartDrive class includes
an instance of TrackList, called tracksToPlay. SmartDrive methods such
as next() and prev(), on lines 53 to 83, either just play tracks in
the normal numerical sequence, or in the order returned by the
tracksToPlay nextTrack(), prevTrack() methods.
Anytime the player gets to the end of track SmartDrive has to refer to
tracksToPlay and issue a new play() call to play the next track in the
program. In order to do this it sets up an instanse of the Monitor
object mentioned earlier.
2b:The code for the Monitor class is in Listing 6. As described
earlier the monitor object is a sub-class of a Observable class, a JDK
class that provides much of the code necessary to manage
Observer/Observable relationship. The Monitor class runs in a separate
thread that interrogates the hardware player and passes on its status
every second.
The monitor is started by calling the monitor's start() method--in
this case the call to start() is made in the main() method in Listing
1. The Monitor's start() method, lines 57 to 65 of Listing 6, creates
a new thread and starts it running:
if (updateThread == null) {
System.out.println("Starting thread");
updateThread = new Thread(this);
updateThread.start();
}
The Thread constructor expects to be passed an object that implements
the Runnable interface, in this case the Monitor is its own Runnable,
so it passes itself (``this''). To implement the Runnable interface,
Monitor has to define a run() method. The run() method provides the
code that will be executed in a new thread. When the
updateThread.start() method is called the new execution thread will be
created. The new thread will then call the the monitor's, run()
method. The run() method loops forever collecting status from the
cdPlayer, passing it on, and then sleeping one second. The update is
carried out in a synchronized statement:
synchronized (cdPlayer) {
updateCdInfo();
setChanged(); // Force notifyObservers() to do its thing.
notifyObservers();
}
The synchronized statement will obtain a lock on the cdPlayer before
it updates its info and notifies each observer. This ensures that all
Observers get the same consistent picture. The monitor uses the
setChanged() method, inherited from Observable, to indicate that the
Observers need to be informed. It then calls the notifyObservers()
method, also inherited from Observers, which passes the update event
on to all Observers who have previous registered with the monitor.
The bulk of the Monitor class on lines 72 to 127 implements the
updateCDInfo() method that collects info from the Drive/SmartDrive
object. It caches the CD info to save having to bother the Linux
kernel with repeated requests for constant information such as the
length of the tracks on the current CD. The Drive interface was
extensively covered in my first article, so won't go into the the
details of the calls to the cdPlayer again here.
Although the monitor provides the main means for conveying status
information, the SmartDrives's update() method, lines 118 to 148 of
Listing 5, has to switch into more precise mode to handle the
transition from one track to the next. The normal one second update
from the monitor is insufficient to control precise switching between
tracks so the update() method does it's own frequent polling when ever
the end of track is near:
if (monitor.currentAddress >= tend - 210) { // Near end of
track?
// Poll frequently so we don't miss the event.
while (currentAddress()
&& monitor.status == Drive.STATUS_PLAY
&& currentAddress() != 0) {
try { Thread.sleep(100); } // Sleep 100 msec's.
catch (InterruptedException e) { }
}
This ensures that the listener doesn't hear small sound bites of the
next track.
_________________________________________________________________
The Program Window
_________________________________________________________________
[INLINE]
Figure 2. Program Window
Now we can address the final GUI component--the Program class that
creates the Program window. The Program window can be seen in Figure
2. The source code for the program class can be seen in Listing 7. The
Program class lays out its sub-panels by using the same Form object
described earlier. The Program constructor, lines 40 to 87, assembles
three sub-panels:
+ programListing - a text field;
+ trackPanel - a grid of track buttons;
+ and buttonPanel - a row of control buttons.
The program class isn't really any more complex than the rest of the
GUI except that it features quite extensive use of Inner Classes and
Anonymous Classes newly introduced in Java 1.1. Most of the following
description will concentrate on these two new language features.
Lines 53 to 70 setup the buttonPanel and the actions to take when each
control button is pressed. The Program() constructor uses the
Program's own addButton() method to add the control buttons to the
buttonPanel. AddButton() expects to passed the panel; the button; and
an object to handle the associated button press action:
void addButton(Panel panel, Button button, DoAction action)
{
panel.add(button);
button.addActionListener(action);
}
The action parameter, is declared to be from the DoAction class.
DoAction is declared at the top of the Program class as an Inner
class--a class contained within the Program class:
class Program extends Form implements Observer {
private abstract class DoAction implements ActionListener {
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
this.invoke();
}
abstract void invoke();
}
The DoAction class is abstract because it has no implementation for
the invoke() method. The implementation of invoke() is provided
individually for each button by new sub-classes of DoAction. These new
sub-classes are created inside the Program() constructor on lines 54
to 78--each addButton() call creates a new DoAction sub-class:
addButton(buttonPanel,
editButton,
new DoAction() { void invoke() { setEditMode(); } });
In each of these calls to addButton, the last paramter is an Anonymous
sub-class of DoAction. Like Inner Classes, Anonymous Classes were
added to Java to give programmers the means for implementing objects
like ActionListeners without the programmer having to creating
zillions of free standing mini classes. The new verb, normally used to
create a new object, is used here to create a new class:
new DoAction() { void invoke() { setEditMode(); } }
This code creates a new anonymous, i.e., unnamed, sub-class of
DoAction. The body of the class, in the curly-braces, provides an
implementation of the invoke() method specific to the editButton. In
the same manner 6 other anonymous classes are created to handle each
control button.
Another anonymous class is used to handle the close-request for the
Program window on lines 71 to 79. Rather than fully declare a single
class to handle the request, I've used an anonymous sub-class of the
AWT WindowAdapter class:
new WindowAdapter() {
public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
dismiss(); // call dismiss(0) for the outer class.
}
}
Again ``new'' is creating a new class. In this case a sub-class of
WindoAdapter is created with an override for the windowClosing()
method.
Because these anonymous classes are inner classes of Program, they
have access to its data and methods. For example, windowClosing() in
the previous example calls dismiss()--dismiss() is a method of the
Program class.
The suggested use for Anonymous classes is for small fragments of code
only. Larger code fragments are more tidily expressed as named inner
classes.
The updateTrackPanel() method, on lines 171 to 194, contains a tricky
use of inner classes. Here inner classes are used to carry extra
information around. When the Program window is created the
updateTrackPanel() method is called to set up the track-number
buttons. The method is also called whenever the number of buttons has
to be altered due to a change in CD.
When the user presses a track-number button, the button event handler
has to know which button was pressed. updateTrackPanel() achieves this
by sub-classing the DoAction class:
for (int i = prev_n; i
class TrackAction extends DoAction {
int track;
public TrackAction(int i) { track = i; }
void invoke() { pickTrack(track); }
}
addButton(trackPanel,
new Button(Integer.toString(i + 1)),
new TrackAction(i + 1));
}
Each TrackAction objects is initialised with the track number it is
associated with.
The rest of the code in the Program class deals with the mechanics of
programmed mode play. This includes switching the mode of the track
panel between add (a track), del (a track), and play (immediately play
a track). The new java feature introduced by this code is the use of
the JDK Random class to select tracks at random on lines 152 to 169.
_________________________________________________________________
Summary
_________________________________________________________________
This concludes my description of how the CD player works. I started
this whole exercise to try out as much Java as possible, both in terms
of the compilers and tools, and in terms of the language and JDK
libraries. I've found that the langauge, libraries, and compilers are
stable enough to for me to write non trivial programs, the fully coded
Jcd clocks in at 3600 lines of Java and 450 lines of C. The compilers
work but are slow. The JDK libraries are quite functional and offer
far more standard facilities than originally provided with C or C++. C
integration is easily accomplished. Programming in a garbage collected
environment is a real boost to productivity. Xemacs provided me with a
really good Java editing environment.
_________________________________________________________________
Resources
_________________________________________________________________
See previous article in Linux Gazette issue 28 for detailed
references.
Tar file containing all listings in this article
My home page containing more infomation on Jcd.
Jcd is available on Sunsite.
The Linux Java page--a good starting point.
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, Michael Hamilton
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next
_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
EMACSulation
by Eric Marsden
This column is devoted to making the best use of Emacs, text editor
extraordinaire. Each issue I plan to present an Emacs extension
which can improve your productivity, make the sun shine more
brightly and the grass greener.
_________________________________________________________________
Emacs as a server
Many people meet Emacs as the default program launched by Elm to edit
an email message. Starting up Emacs in this way is a bit of a pain,
because of the delay and memory use, but also because the fresh Emacs
doesn't share buffers and a kill ring (storage for cut/copied text)
with other invocations. Rather than starting up a new Emacs for each
letter, you can set the environment variable EDITOR to emacsclient.
The Emacs server mechanism allows one Emacs process to service editing
requests from other applications. To enable it you need to add a line
like (server-start) in ~/.emacs. When you say emacsclient filename,
the program searches for an Emacs process (launching one if necessary)
and sends it a message asking it to edit filename. The caller process
(the shell for example) is blocked while the file is being edited.
When you're finished type C-x # and the client will be unblocked.
Gnuserv
Gnuserv is a more sophisticated remote invocation mechanism for Emacs,
written by Andy Norman (also the author of ange-ftp). It allows
arbitrary Emacs Lisp commands to be sent to an Emacs process running
either on the local machine or on another machine on the network.
1. If you're using XEmacs everything is already set up; you will only
need to add a (gnuserv-start) to your ~/.emacs.
2. Obtain the gnuserv-2.1alpha RPM from Red Hat contrib, or the .deb
for Debian Hamm and skip to 6 ;
3. Download the source ;
4. Edit config.h (I suggest using #define DONT_USE_LITOUT) and
gnuserv.h, where you choose the communication method (the default
is Internet domain sockets, which is necessary if you want to be
able to do the remote stuff) ;
5. Put the file gnuserv.el somewhere in Emacs' load path. Let's
assume you have an ~/elisp/ directory where you put your favorite
Emacs Lisp extensions; an alternative is to copy gnuserv.el to a
site-wide Emacs Lisp directory such as /usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp
(type C-h v load-path in Emacs to see a list of possiblities) ;
6. Add something like this to your ~/.emacs :
(setq load-path (cons (expand-file-name "~/elisp") load-path))
(autoload 'gnuserv-start "gnuserv" "Better Emacs server support")
(setq gnuserv-frame (current-frame))
(gnuserv-start)
The second line tells Emacs that the function gnuserv-start is
defined in a file called gnuserv.el, which Emacs will load on
demand. The third line inhibits the default behaviour of opeing a
new frame for each new file edited (leave this out if you prefer).
The last line fires up the server.
To check that everything is working, type
~$ gnuclient <filename>
which asks Emacs to open <filename>, just like emacsclient. If this
doesn't work (with a message like ``Refused connection'' or ``Broken
pipe''), skip down to the Security section. You can also send off an
arbitrary bit of Emacs Lisp :
~$ gnudoit '(message "Hi there, %s!" (user-full-name))'
Applications
Now you can do all sorts of silly things. You could get two Emacsen on
networked machines to play ping pong, echoing messages back and forth.
You could use Emacs as a CGI script server, profiting from its
powerful library without incurring the overhead of launching an
interpreter for each script (a little like the FastCGI mechanism). For
example, let's hack together an external interface to Emacs' builtin
psychologist :
(defun eliza-start ()
"Fire up the doctor."
(interactive)
(doctor)
;; We only have to type return once under this interface.
(re-search-backward " twice" nil t)
(replace-match "")
(goto-char (point-max))
(buffer-substring (point-min) (point-max)))
(defun eliza-continue (str)
"Send a string to the doctor and return her response."
(interactive)
(switch-to-buffer "*doctor*")
(insert "\n" str "\n")
(doctor-read-print)
(save-excursion
(re-search-backward "\n\n\\(\\(.+\n?\\)+\\)\n\n")
(match-string 1)))
(defun eliza-cleanup ()
"Pay the bill and leave."
(interactive)
(let ((buf (get-buffer "*doctor*")))
(if buf (kill-buffer buf))))
This can be used from the command line (for CGI use you'd have to
think about the trickier question of concurrent accesses) with a
script such as
#! /bin/sh
gnudoit '(eliza-start)'
while read line
do
gnudoit "(eliza-continue \"$line\")"
done
gnudoit '(eliza-cleanup)'
You might even find constructive uses for the gnuserv technology, like
starting Gnus (an Emacs news/email client) and ange-ftp transfers from
a ``network Emacs'', so that your primary Emacs isn't affected by
networking delays. You could also communicate with Emacs from a
crontab, telling it to fetch some web pages with Emacs/w3, or send
someone an email. You could use Netscape's third party email/news API
to invoke Emacs instead of the builtin mail and news clients. It might
also be useful for sending commands to Emacs from a window manager
menu.
Security considerations
More and more Linux distributions use good X security as set up out of
the box. You will notice for example that when you su to root on a
modern system, you will no longer be able to launch X clients, because
the X server is protected by an xauth cookie.
While allowing access to your X display is bad enough (someone could
capture all your keystrokes, for example), giving remote access to
your Emacs process is much more worrying, since Emacs can execute
arbitrary commands under your id, delete files, send insulting email
to the President of the United States, etc.
Since release 2.1, gnuserv is able to use MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
authentication for remote requests. This protocol uses the contents of
your ~/.Xauthority file, as described in the xauth(1) man page.
Gnuserv requires a cookie for display number 999, which you can create
as follows (blade is the name of the machine) :
~$ xauth add blade:999 . `cat /etc/passwd | md5sum`
~$ xauth list
blade/unix:0 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 bc1d627babdbabe9d1f288d2b57c348f
blade:999 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 d89570b20925d401c05a79be67159cae
(`cat /etc/passwd | md5sum` is just a convenient way of generating a
cookie; on most Linux systems you will be able to use the mcookie
command, or you can bake a cookie by hand). Now you should be able to
use gnuclient/gnudoit on the local machine. The next step is to
transfer the cookie to each remote machine from which you plan to
access Emacs, with a command such as :
~$ xauth extract - blade:999 | rsh remotehost.edu xauth merge -
If you don't run X you will have to fall back to a host-based access
control system : the environment variable GNU_SECURE is assumed to
point to a file which contains a list of machines which are authorized
to open connections to your Emacs process. Finally, if your machine
isn't networked, you've probably already skipped to the next section.
How does it work?
Your command takes a fairly convoluted route to reach Emacs. There are
four parties involved in a transaction : the ``client'', or program
which wants a service from Emacs (Elm for example), the gnuclient
program (which runs on the requesting machine), the gnuserv process
(which runs on the machine running Emacs), and of course the Emacs
process itself. They communicate as indicated by the following
diagram :
Communication diagram (3 kB)
The fragile aspect of the system is that if the gnuserv program dies
for some reason, everything grinds to a halt. An alternative
communication method which would involve fewer working parts could be
inspired from the Netscape remote invocation protocol. The gnuclient
capabilities would be added directly to Emacs, and a gnudoit request
would look something like
emacs -remote -lisp '(message "Hi")'
The new Emacs process would search for an existing Emacs process to
which it could dispatch the request, or service it directly. The
disadvantage is that each request would be slower, since an Emacs
needs to be forked each time. The image is most often in the disk
cache, so this wouldn't be catastrophically slow (it works OK with
Mozilla, which is far bigger than Emacs).
Next time ...
I've received a fair bit of email asking how to customize various
aspects of Emacs, so I'll try to scratch the surface of this vast
topic next month, and discuss the Customize package. Don't hesitate to
contact me at <emarsden@mail.dotcom.fr> with comments, corrections or
suggestions (what's your favorite couldn't-do-without Emacs extension
package?). C-u 1000 M-x hail-emacs !
PS : Emacs isn't in any way limited to Linux, since implementations
exist for many other operating systems (and some systems which only
halfway operate). However, as one of the leading bits of free
software, one of the most powerful, complex and customizable, I feel
it has its place in the Linux Gazette.
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, Eric Marsden
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next
_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
The Importance of Adopting an In-House Linux Expert
By Carlo Prelz
_________________________________________________________________
Changes, even huge changes, are difficult to evaluate when you happen
to live close to whatever is undergoing the change, be it a child,
global politics, or the world of people who make a living with their
knowledge of information technology (IT) matters.
In our world, as the most common computer-dependent tasks get
standardized and as more and more raw computing power can be tapped by
more people, the figure of the white-clad ``computer priest'' is about
to vanish. But what is the world getting in exchange?
How is the young manager of a new company going to build its IT
infrastructure? No, he most likely won't phone IBM. Instead, he will
order a bunch of PCs, equipped with a various assortment of Microsoft
software. Other Microsoft software will follow, because that's what
everybody does.
Through a brief, fractal period, we have moved from one monopoly to
another, with the added disadvantage that people who blindly accept
the new easy solution end up with less-than-solid material. This
material is much harder to adapt to local needs. In the past,
companies who could afford a high level of informatization hire with a
handful of COBOL or RPGII programmers who could customize the software
that needed to be adapted.
Today, a manager will most probably be equipped with a NT server, a
Microsoft Office suite on Windows 95 for each desk, an Ethernet
network, and an assistance contract with some specialized firm (who
has to deal with dozens of other companies). He may organize things so
that his people have some limited sort of Internet access. All
standard, on a path that is being walked on by a huge mass of people
all around the globe.
As the path gets dug deeper and deeper, it gets harder to choose a
different one. This has to do with gravity: the deeper the path and
the steeper its sides, the harder the person, company or organization
has to want to choose a personal way to its own IT goals.
But why would a reasonable IT manager want to get out of the
mainstream? The keyword is customization.
Yes, you can program in Windows. But when it gets to having an
``intimate'' relationship with what actually happens, Windows leaves
you in the cold. You may find books, but unless you have uncommonly
strong links with the Microsoft engineering circles, you have no way
to be confident in the fact that whatever OS feature you are using
won't disappear without a trace in the next release. Which you will
have to use because everybody will be using it at a certain time. You
end up being dependent on the next brilliant idea they come up with at
Redmond, WA.
This strategy is evident. Human beings' laziness is again tapped, at
the benefit of a company that found itself at the right space-time
coordinates, and has been as un-principled as needed.
But if our young manager were to dedicate a moment of thought to how
to solve his IT problems, what are his choices?
* If he has enough resources, he can go the mainframe way. The road
is still open and fast becoming an elitist choice.
* If his connections with IBM are vital, or for a series of
(constantly diminishing) other reasons, he may go the OS/2 way.
* He may be romantic and like Macintoshes. There are concrete
rewards in these choices, although these give the impression of
diminishing, too.
* He may instead choose the proprietary UNIX way--yes, the
overpriced one.
* If he has a curious attitude, chances are that he has already met
Linux, and that he has seen Linux mentioned at an increasing rate
during the past months. Thanks to the Net, there is no scarcity of
information open to whomever decides to look around a bit.
* He may also decide to either write or pay somebody to write an
operating system from scratch. This seems somewhat improbable.
Let me know if I missed some important options. But of all the above,
the one that promises to bear more fruit is the Linux way. So, how to
give it a try? The best solution for a manager who would like his
computers do what is needed without learning the way himself, is to
engage the services of one or more Linux aficionados.
_________________________________________________________________
The Linux Aficionado
_________________________________________________________________
Linux has been growing like a big, healthy forest plant. Each branch
has been contributed by someone like us, who decided to spend a bit of
their free time to make the tree look and live better. Not ``for
free'': we humans always do things for a reward; it happens that money
is not the only (nor the best) reward. The impulse behind the Free
Software movement has been and still is to demonstrate to ourselves
and to the world that we worked well, that we brilliantly solved a
problem. That we created a handy tool, that was not there before. That
is, that the world is now a little bit nicer now than before we
started developing our ideas.
Of course, programmers need to survive, too. Here is what the Richard
Stallman has to say about the topic (excerpt from the GNU Manifesto):
``Won't programmers starve?''
I could answer that nobody is forced to be a programmer. Most of us
cannot manage to get any money for standing on the street and
making faces. But we are not, as a result, condemned to spend our
lives standing on the street making faces, and starving. We do
something else.
But that is the wrong answer because it accepts the questioner's
implicit assumption: that without ownership of software,
programmers cannot possibly be paid a cent. Supposedly it is all or
nothing.
The real reason programmers will not starve is that it will still
be possible for them to get paid for programming; just not paid as
much as now.
Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software.
It is the most common basis because it brings in the most money. If
it were prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business
would move to other bases of organization which are now used less
often. There are always numerous ways to organize any kind of
business.
Probably programming will not be as lucrative on the new basis as
it is now. But that is not an argument against the change. It is
not considered an injustice that sales clerks make the salaries
that they now do. If programmers made the same, that would not be
an injustice either. (In practice they would still make
considerably more than that.)
The above was written back in 1985, when programmers were still
earning big money; 12 years later, our market and contracting power
has diminished a lot. Gone are the days when a programmer could be the
best paid man in the company thanks to writing huge bits of database
access/data entry pieces of software that differed very little from
their brothers.
When the need arises for an application that is somehow different,
there is no other way than to call an actual programmer. Here are a
few characteristics that make a Linux aficionado an ideal choice for
such a special need:
* Passion. Something better than money as the reason for what we do.
* Love for quality. Learning from previous experience, and being
able to judge and better our work.
* Ability to solve problems. If a problem exists, we like see it
solved in the best possible way, and we generally find a way.
* Loyalty. If we are given recognition, an interesting place to work
in, interesting things to do and a reasonable wage, we may oppose
more than normal resistance to the lure of head hunters.
I may like to add a couple of counter-indications:
* Lack of particular enthusiasm for wearing ties or adopting
uniforms (or respecting poorly justified liberticide rules).
* The wish to understand what one is doing renders less than
desirable a sort of job where you must focus on a tiny fraction of
the whole thing, knowing nothing about the complete picture.
_________________________________________________________________
No Need for Another Windows95
_________________________________________________________________
There are recurring, well-financed efforts to create a new
good-for-everybody operating system on the robust structure of Linux.
These efforts are justified by the hope of snatching even a small
percentage of the huge market held by Microsoft. A very small
percentage of a very large sum may promise reasonable earnings to
those who follow this path.
Regardless of how things look like now, the omnipresent PC that we see
today has a limited time to live.
A very big slice of the PCs that are currently in use in the world are
used for standard operations: keeping one's correspondence, making
spreadsheet calculations, maintaining one's agenda, playing games and
looking around the Internet. How many PCs do you know are being used
with software that has been written especially for them? The logical
direction, one that much effort has been spent to hamper, is that of
including everything that a secretary, a non-IT-oriented office worker
or a common home user will ever need in an idiot-proof box.
This tendency has at last emerged in the shape of network computers.
No matter which way is selected, the result of adopting an NC is that,
from the prospective of the user, there will simply be a couple of
plugs to insert into the respective sockets, and the user will be
ready to work or play. No need to reinstall Windows95 for the nth time
because the maintainer can't divine a better way to recover from the
cryptic error messages.
Along this way, comes the demise of shrink-wrap software. If the
server is the only place where a separate operating system needs to be
installed, it will be much harder for Microsoft to maintain their
stronghold on the computer market. NT has very little advantage
compared to the many UNIX options in the field. In particular, it is
not significantly easier to manage than UNIX by a knowledgeable
person. And if or when the networked world becomes so easy to manage
that a bunch of software wizards can do the job, the next step will be
NSes (Network Servers, I think I'll patent the name...). Again,
something that spells bad to a software-only company that is
programmed to EARN.
Isn't it futile to try to be the new Microsoft? As if it really
mattered much to have so much money that you will not have the
material possibility to spend it all in your lifetime.
_________________________________________________________________
Meet the Ideal Entrepreneur
_________________________________________________________________
So, what is there that is not futile? Doing something nice, that makes
the world a bit better. I said that before.
A human being has an idea. Some say they float around, and visit you
when you become receptive enough. She finds all the resources that are
needed to turn this idea into a practical product. After some time,
other people can exchange some of their own wealth to take advantage
of the idea of our entrepreneur.
Or the idea can be imported within a sufficiently fertile existing
corporation, one that will recognize the value of the idea and give
our human being enough space and resources to reach her goal.
Or the idea deals with bettering an established way of doing some
task.
What kind of enterprise can you think of, that won't benefit from the
use of IT? Most of the times, she will have to look for computer
assistance. It is to all the entrepreneurs who are facing the problem
of which way to informatize their pet project that I would like to
speak.
Linux may well be the best choice for you. But for Linux to adapt well
to your world, you will want to adopt one or more Linux aficionados.
You will want to secure the continuing services of a person who deeply
knows and appreciates the tools he works with. Who can craft your
personal solution. Who can maintain the operating system that your
solution works on abreast of the latest technical progress.
Linux cannot be eternal. Nothing is. But it has reached a solid,
mature stage NOW. Especially, it is the ideal tool for tapping into
the networked world. Now is the time not to be lazy and to profit from
this situation. And keeping a Linux aficionado happy and well-fed now
might also imply finding yourself in a more elevated position in the
post-Microsoft world, tomorrow.
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, Carlo Prelz
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
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_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
Mastering Kernel Modules with Caldera
By David Nelson
_________________________________________________________________
You shouldn't have to read this article. The concept of Linux kernel
modules is fairly simple. Unfortunately, information needed to
compile, install and use modules is scattered over several HOWTOs,
READMEs, and man pages. Plus, the files which need to be modified are
in several obscure directories.
I finally wrote this cookbook approach to get myself, and you,
started. Once you are up and running with modules, you can dig into
the details later. I tested this material on an X86 processor running
Caldera Open Linux 1.1, which is close to Red Hat 4.2. You mileage
with other processors and distributions may vary.
Why use modules? Modules let you compile a small, fast kernel, then
install and remove device drivers on demand. Without modules the Linux
kernel could bloat to resemble a certain commercial OS.
First, I recommend that you compile a base kernel that includes all
essential capabilities for your system without modules. I know this
sounds like we are going backwards, but you don't want to lose the
ability to boot up because you messed up your modules. The README in
usr/src/linux is your guide, but basically you execute the command:
make mrproper; make xconfig
(or menuconfig or config) to include all needed capabilities, then
run:
make dep; make clean; make zImage
Save your kernel configuration to a file named kernelconf.base, in
case you need to recompile. The xconfig menu prompts you to save and
load configuration files. If you use menuconfig or config, the current
configuration is in the file /usr/src/linux/.config; copy that file to
kernelconf.base. If you configured too big a kernel, final compilation
will fail. If this happens, execute make bzImage instead of zImage.
Your compiled kernel will be in the directory
/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot.
You might have made a mistake in compiling your base kernel, so don't
throw away your old one. If you are running LILO, rename your new
kernel to zImage.base and copy it to the location of your current
kernel, usually / or /boot. Add a section to /etc/lilo.conf that lets
you select either your default or base kernel on boot up. My lilo.conf
is shown here minus some comment lines:
# general section
boot = /dev/hda3
install = /boot/boot.b
message = /boot/message
prompt
timeout = 50
# default entry
image = /bzImage
label = linux
root = /dev/hda3
read-only
# base kernel
image = /zImage.base
label = base
root = /dev/hda3
read-only
The important addition to lilo.conf is the last section (#base kernel)
which tells LILO about your new kernel. Also, be sure lilo.conf has
prompt and timeout lines. Now execute lilo and then reboot. LILO will
pause giving the prompt boot:. If you hit TAB, you will be given the
choices linux and base. Enter base, and your new kernel will boot. You
may get complaining messages about bad module dependencies, but if
your base kernel is complete that shouldn't bother you. If something
goes wrong, reboot and enter linux (or just wait the timeout interval)
and your old kernel will boot. Make sure you have a working base
kernel before proceeding. With this approach you never burn your
bridges (or kernel) behind you.
If you don't use LILO, make a boot floppy for your base kernel. To do
this, insert a floppy and execute make zdisk, instead of zImage.
You are now ready to compile a kernel with modules tailored to your
system. Execute the same commands as above, but when you execute
xconfig or menuconfig pick some features to compile as modules. I
suggest you experiment first by picking nice-to-have, but
not-necessary, modules to add to zImage.base. Good choices might be
printer support or floppy support (unless you are booting from the
floppy). Save your configuration as kernelconf.mod in case you need to
go back. Also, write down which modules you are compiling. To know
exactly which modules are compiled, I suggest you move or delete your
old modules (if any). The Caldera release includes a lot of modules.
They are in /lib/modules/2.0.29. I moved my old ones into
subdirectories rather than deleting them in case I needed to back up.
If you are working with a different release of the kernel, instead of
subdirectory 2.0.29 you will have a subdirectory corresponding to your
release number.
After executing make zImage, run:
make modules; make modules_install
As before, move (using cd) to the directory containing zImage, rename
it zImage.mod and move it to the directory where LILO will look for
it. Put a new section at the bottom of lilo.conf to let you boot this
kernel with the label modules. If you don't use LILO, make another
zDisk.
Now, execute depmod -aq. This creates /lib/modules/2.0.29/modules.dep,
needed by module utilities. Next, execute the following:
modprobe -c | grep -v '^path' > /etc/conf.modules
This command sets up another file needed by the module utilities.
Now reboot, choosing label modules at the boot prompt. Next, move to
the /etc/modules/2.0.29 directory. It should contain a file with a
very long name like the following:
#1 Tue Feb 11 20:36:48 MET 1997.default
This file is read at boot time by /etc/rc.d/rc.modules. It contains a
list of the default modules loaded when the kernel boots. You need to
change both the name and the contents. Fixing the name is the hard
part. In directory /etc/modules/2.0.29 execute the commands:
FILE=i`uname -v`.default
cp "#1 Tue"* "$FILE"
This magic creates a file with the name that rc.modules will look for
on bootup. The name is based on the time when the kernel was compiled.
If you recompile the kernel, you must repeat the magic.
Edit this file to contain just the modules you want loaded at bootup.
For example, it might contain the lines
floppy
lp
which would load the floppy and printer modules, assuming you compiled
them as modules. To get your editor to accept this file, you may need
to put quotes around the name.
To load a module manually, execute insmod 'modname'. To remove it
execute rmmod 'modname'. To tell which modules are currently loaded,
execute lsmod.
The best toy is kerneld; it automatically loads and unloads modules as
needed. Assume you have compiled the floppy driver as a module. Check
whether it is loaded by executing lsmod. If it is, remove it by
executing rmmod floppy. Then execute kerneld. Now execute
mount /mnt/floppy (or whatever mounts your floppy). Magically, kerneld
installs the floppy module when needed. It will also uninstall modules
which haven't been used for a while, keeping your kernel lean and
mean.
You now know enough to experiment with modules without crashing your
kernel on bootup. Read the Module mini-HOWTO, the kerneld mini-HOWTO,
and the man pages for the utilities to become a real expert. Happy
moduling!
_________________________________________________________________
Resources
_________________________________________________________________
Module mini-HOWTO
kerneld mini-HOWTO
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, David Nelson
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next
_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
Replacing Windows NT Server with Linux
Copyright (c) 1997 Quinn P. Coldiron
qcoldiro@unlinfo.unl.edu
Table of Contents
Introduction
Section 1--Outlining Our Situation
Section 2-- Why we chose RedHat Linux
* Linux Features
* Reliability
* Cross platform
* Compatibility
* Speed
* Inexpensive
* Low hardware requirements
* Ease of administration
* Simple upgrade path
* Remote control and administration
Section 3--Under the Hood
* Setting up the server
* Linux installation
* Samba installation/setup
* Netatalk installation/setup
* Installing The Cats Pajamas (Getting a DOS network application to
run on Linux)
* Installing Cats on the Server
* Configuring your Windows clients
* Configuring the DOS emulator to run Cats
* Installing a RAID
* Daily administration
* System backups
* Scheduling events
* Replacing your Desktop OS with Linux
Appendix A--RedHat 5.0 Installation Guide
Appendix B--Samba
* Just What is SMB?
* Samba FAQ
* Samba HOW-TO
Appendix C--DOSEMU Manual
_________________________________________________________________
Introduction
Network Operating Systems (NOS) have many features and capabilities
that allow the Information Systems departments of most organizations
to better server your organization and help streamline work flow. Each
NOS has different features and a excels in different areas.
Traditionally, Novell Netware has been viewed as the best file/printer
server, Unix was viewed as the premiere application and database
server and recently, Windows NT has come in as a good choice for the
smaller networks as a file/printer server or application server. The
market has become very aggressive with each of these platforms
branching out into each others market area. Microsoft has expanded NT
into the midrange server market once dominated by Novell and is trying
to get into the high end market which was once filled by Unix venders
such as Sun, Hewlett Packard and Silicone Graphics.
I inherited an aging Novell Netware 3.11 server when I began my career
at the University of Nebraska Press that was on an under powered
Pentium 90 and had older disk drives that were failing. I also wanted
to expand into other areas, so I knew this was going to be my first
project. When I began looking at my options to replace our aging
Novell Netware server, I of course turned first to the just released
Windows NT Server 4.0. The marketing materials, magazines and
television advertisements all told me that this was the one thing that
would solve all my problems. The operating system promised to be
easier to setup and maintain than the Netware product it was replacing
and it could easily handle the 55 users on my network. Fourteen months
later, we are running Linux as our server.
Linux is a completely free reimplementation of the POSIX
specification, with SYSV and BSD extensions (which means it looks like
Unix, but does not come from the same source code base), which is
available in both source code and binary form. Its copyright is owned
by Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com> and other contributors, and
is freely redistributable under the terms of the GNU General Public
License (GPL). A copy of the GPL is included with the Linux source;
you can also get a copy from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/COPYING.
Linux is not public domain, nor is it `shareware'. It is `free'
software, commonly called freeware, and you may give away or sell
copies, but you must include the source code or make it available in
the same way as any binaries you give or sell. If you distribute any
modifications, you are legally bound to distribute the source for
those modifications. See the GNU General Public License for details.
Linux is still free as of version 2.0, and will continue to be free.
Because of the nature of the GPL to which Linux is subject, it would
be illegal for it to be made not free. Note carefully: the `free' part
involves access to the source code rather than money; it is perfectly
legal to charge money for distributing Linux, so long as you also
distribute the source code. This is a generalization; if you want the
fine points, read the GPL.
Linux runs on 386/486/Pentium machines with ISA, EISA, PCI and VLB
busses. MCA (IBM's proprietary bus) is not well-supported in 2.0.x and
earlier versions, but support has been added to the current
development tree, 2.1.x. If you are interested, see
http://glycerine.itsmm.uni.edu/mca
There is a port to multiple Motorola 680x0 platforms (currently
running on some Amigas, Ataris, and VME machines), which now works
quite well. It requires a 68020 with an MMU, a 68030, 68040, or a
68060, and also requires an FPU. Networking and X now work. See
news:comp.os.linux.m68k
Linux runs well on DEC's Alpha CPU, currently supporting the "Jensen",
"NoName", "Cabriolet", "Universal Desktop Box" (better known as the
Multia), and many other platforms. For more information, see
http://www.azstarnet.com/~axplinux/FAQ.html
Linux runs well on Sun SPARCs; most sun4c and sun4m machines now run
Linux, with support for sun4 and sun4u in active development. Red Hat
Linux is (as of this writing) the only Linux distribution available
for SPARCs; see http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/rhl-sparc/
Linux is being actively ported to the PowerPC architecture, including
PowerMac (Nubus and PCI), Motorola, IBM, and Be machines. See
http://www.cs.nmt.edu/~linuxppc/ and http://www.linuxppc.org/
Ports to other machines, including MIPS and ARM, are under way and
showing various amounts of progress. Don't hold your breath, but if
you are interested and able to contribute, you may well find other
developers who wish to work with you.
Linux is no longer considered to be in beta testing, as version 1.0
was released on March 14, 1994. There are still bugs in the system,
and new bugs will creep up and be fixed as time goes on. Because Linux
follows the ``open development model'', all new versions will be
released to the public, whether or not they are considered
``production quality''. However, in order to help people tell whether
they are getting a stable version or not, the following scheme has
been implemented: Versions 1.x.y, where x is an even number, are
stable versions, and only bug fixes will be applied as y is
incremented. So from version 1.2.2 to 1.2.3, there were only bug
fixes, and no new features. Versions 1.x.y, where x is an odd number,
are beta-quality releases for developers only, and may be unstable and
may crash, and are having new features added to them all the time.
From time to time, as the current development kernel stabilizes, it
will be frozen as the new ``stable'' kernel, and development will
continue on a new development version of the kernel.
The current stable version is 2.0.31 (this will continue to change as
new device drivers get added and bugs fixed), and development has also
started on the experimental 2.1.x kernels. If 2.0.x is too new for
you, you may want to stick with 1.2.13 for the time being. However,
the latest releases of 2.0 have proved quite stable. Do note that in
order to upgrade from 1.2 to 2.0, you need to upgrade some utilities
as well; you may wish to upgrade to the latest version of your Linux
distribution in order to obtain those utilities. The Linux kernel
source code also contains a file, Documentation/Changes, which
explains these changes and more.
Most versions of Linux, beta or not, are quite stable, and you can
keep using those if they do what you need and you don't want to be on
the bleeding edge. One site had a computer running version 0.97p1
(dating from the summer of 1992) for over 136 days without an error or
crash. (It would have been longer if the backhoe operator hadn't
mistaken a main power transformer for a dumpster...) Others have
posted uptimes in excess of a year. One site still had a computer
running Linux 0.99p15s over 600 days at last report.
One thing to be aware of is that Linux is developed using an open and
distributed model, instead of a closed and centralized model like much
other software. This means that the current development version is
always public (with up to a week or two of delay) so that anybody can
use it. The result is that whenever a version with new functionality
is released, it almost always contains bugs, but it also results in a
very rapid development so that the bugs are found and corrected
quickly, often in hours, as many people work to fix them.
In contrast, the closed and centralized model means that there is only
one person or team working on the project, and they only release
software that they think is working well. Often this leads to long
intervals between releases, long waiting for bug fixes, and slower
development. The latest release of such software to the public is
sometimes of higher quality, but the development speed is generally
much slower.
As of October 24, 1997, the current stable version of Linux is 2.0.31,
and the latest development version is 2.1.59.
I will begin this report by covering the areas that we were concerned
about and giving reasons that were chose options that we went with. I
will not get very technical in this fist section, but will cover in
detail how we implemented each part of the system and give examples of
the configuration files in section two.
_________________________________________________________________
Section 1
Outlining Our Situation
Our Situation
When I became the Information Systems Department manager for the
University of Nebraska Press I inherited a very tired and aging Novell
Netware 3.1 server that was handling all the network serving duties
for approximately fifty users. This is not a large network and our
needs are not out of the ordinary, but this machine was due for
replacement. Novell was on version 4.x, NT 4.0 had just come out and
this machine was only a Pentium 90 with data drives that were noisier
than Nebraska's memorial stadium.
It was time to begin the search for replacements and I had the same
issues to deal with that my predecessors had, plus some new ones. The
main issue was compatibility with our order fulfillment and inventory
system called The Cat's Pajamas. This system was originally developed
on the Data General line of mini and mainframe computers using its
interpreted language. The system was ported to PC servers (mainly
Novell Netware) when a company called Subject Wills ported the
interpreter to the PC platform. It has a character based user
interface, stores all its data in flat indexed text files and is
pretty fast and stable on the Novell platform. Our new requirements
were for remote access for our warehouse, and if possible, access for
the five Macs that we have, but spend as little money as possible.
I was not very interested in upgrading our current Netware license,
since at this time Novell was playing the CEO of the Month game which
had caused me to lose much of my confidence in the company. The next
logical choice was Microsoft Windows NT. I called Cats and asked if
the application would run on NT and they told me that they had a few
installations and things seemed to be running fine, but I would need a
different version of the DBC interpreter, which they uploaded for me.
I proceeded to copy the entire system and database to the NT server
and logged on from my Windows 95 PC. I had to rewrite the batch file
that Cats uses to start because they were using Netware network
commands, but I was able to get them changed and get a session up.
At this point I thought this looked very good, so I ordered the
production server. The server was a dual CPU Pentium 150 with built in
Adaptec 2940UW SCSI controller and 256MB of RAM. I thought this would
be perfect to act as the CATS server, file server and printer server
for 50 people, especially since Netware was doing this on a Pentium 90
with 64 MB of RAM. I got the server a few weeks later, installed NT
4.0 and Cats. After I got Cats installed I had our business department
and Customer Service department try running some large and CPU
intensive reports on it and things seemed to run great, so we pushed
it into service. At this same time I was setting up a RedHat Linux 4.1
machine on a Pentium 100 with 32 MB of RAM. I had used RedHat Linux in
my previous position with great luck as a web server and StreamWorks
audio/video server so I wanted to see if it could fit in here, but I
didn't know where or how.
Life after moving Cats to NT was a nightmare. The system was crashing
two to three times a day with no reason that I could find. I was on
the phone with Microsoft and Cats constantly, but nobody could figure
it out. Microsoft had me apply Service Packs one through three and a
few HotFixes, which helped, but it still was crashing at least twice a
week with the infamous "Blue Screen of Death". After many weeks and
about $1500.00 in phone support from Microsoft, the technical support
rep told me that I should find a better software package than The
Cat's Pajamas. This is was not the solution I was looking for, since
this is the package that a sizeable percentage of presses our size
nationwide are running, so I was forced to bring the old Novell server
back into production until I could figure something out.
By this time I had upgraded the RedHat Linux machine to version 4.2,
but it still wasn't doing much, so I added two IDE 1.6 GB hard drives,
installed SAMBA and copied CATS over to this computer to play a
little. I was able to connect from my Windows 95 computer and run Cats
without any modifications to the batch file I had created for the NT
server. I had the Business manager and Customer Service manager try
the reports again and everything seemed fine, but I still had my
doubts, so I just kept the system up for myself and the IS department
to test until a later date.
The Netware server was still holding on and doing its job until I got
a call one Thursday night at about 9:00 from our Customer Service
manager. He had been running the reindexing program to prepare for the
month-end closing that was to start Friday, but the server had
crashed. I worked on it until about 12:30 am and finally got it
working, but the whole thing died again Friday morning at about 6:30
and again at 7:00, so I knew we were in trouble. The only option left
was to replace the server now and the only thing I had was the Linux
server, so I restored Cats off our Windows NT tape backup machine to
the Linux server and changed the login scripts to connect the users to
this server for the Cats drives. Within one hour, we were back in
operation.
After completing the morning duties, we normally run a complete Cats
backup before we continue with closing which usually would take two
hours to complete on the Netware server. The Linux machine was able to
do the entire backup in 45 minutes, cutting a little over an hour off
our closing time. This increase in speed came from a decrease in
hardware because the Linux server was running only 32 MB in RAM and
IDE hard drives where the Netware server had 64 MB in RAM and SCSI
drives. The speed increase has been noticed in daily work also. I get
almost daily remarks that the system seems to be running faster and
more reliable.
We have recently upgraded the CPU to a 200Mhz Pentium and have
upgraded the Memory to 64 MB to handle the newest plans of making this
server replace our Windows NT file/printer server, which still crashes
about twice a month for no reason, even after an additional $1,500 in
tech support with Microsoft. This single computer running RedHat Linux
will replace both our Novell Netware 3.11 server and our Windows NT
4.0 server, while decreasing total hardware requirements. With the
recent advances from the Samba team in supporting the NT domain
structure and the December 1997 release of RedHat 5.0, I expect to
have a very efficient and inexpensive server for our Windows 95,
Windows NT and Macintosh clients.
_________________________________________________________________
Section 2
Why We Chose RedHat Linux
Linux Features
Linux is a very feature rich operating system. Many of its features
are not found on its commercial competitor Windows NT due to the fact
that Unix has been in constant development since it was invented in
the early 1970's. Even though Linux has only been around since the
early 90's, it benefits from the rich archives of Unix applications
and utilities because of its POSIX compliance. Linux is unique in that
the kernel does not use any code from previous Unix implementations,
but can still tap into the libraries of BSD and System V
distributions. I feel the strongest feature of Linux is the Internet
itself and the many technical users that are responsible for the
development of the many drivers and ports to other hardware platforms.
Many Intel platform bug fixes are release for Linux before they are
release in other ``mainstream'' operating systems mainly due to the
fact the users are also the developers.
* · multitasking: several programs running at once.
* · multi-user: several users on the same machine at once (and no
two-user licenses!)..
* · multiplatform: runs on many different CPUs, not just Intel.
* · multiprocessor: SMP support is available on the Intel and SPARC
platforms (with work currently in progress on other platforms),
and Linux is used in several loosely-coupled MP applications,
including Beowulf systems (see
http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux-web/beowulf/beowulf.html) and
the Fujitsu AP1000+ SPARC-based supercomputer.
* · runs in protected mode on the 386.
* · has memory protection between processes, so that one program
can't bring the whole system down.
* · demand loads executables: Linux only reads from disk those parts
of a program that are actually used.
* · shared copy-on-write pages among executables. This means that
multiple process can use the same memory to run in. When one tries
to write to that memory, that page (4KB piece of memory) is copied
somewhere else. Copy-on-write has two benefits: increasing speed
and decreasing memory use.
* · virtual memory using paging (not swapping whole processes) to
disk: to a separate partition or a file in the filesystem, or
both, with the possibility of adding more swapping areas during
runtime (yes, they're still called swapping areas). A total of 16
of these 128 MB swapping areas can be used at once, for a
theoretical total of 2 GB of usable swap space. It is simple to
increase this if necessary, by changing a few lines of source
code.
* · a unified memory pool for user programs and disk cache, so that
all free memory can be used for caching, and the cache can be
reduced when running large programs.
* · dynamically linked shared libraries (DLL's), and static
libraries too, of course.
* · does core dumps for post-mortem analysis, allowing the use of a
debugger on a program not only while it is running but also after
it has crashed.
* · mostly compatible with POSIX, System V, and BSD at the source
level.
* · through an iBCS2-compliant emulation module, mostly compatible
with SCO, SVR3, and SVR4 at the binary level.
* · all source code is available, including the whole kernel and all
drivers, the development tools and all user programs; also, all of
it is freely distributable. Plenty of commercial programs are
being provided for Linux without source, but everything that has
been free, including the entire base operating system, is still
free.
* · POSIX job control.
* · pseudoterminals (pty's).
* · 387-emulation in the kernel so that programs don't need to do
their own math emulation. Every computer running Linux appears to
have a math coprocessor. Of course, if your computer already
contains an FPU, it will be used instead of the emulation, and you
can even compile your own kernel with math emulation removed, for
a small memory gain.
* · support for many national or customized keyboards, and it is
fairly easy to add new ones dynamically.
* · multiple virtual consoles: several independent login sessions
through the console, you switch by pressing a hot-key combination
(not dependent on video hardware). These are dynamically a
located; you can use up to 64.
* · Supports several common filesystems, including minix, Xenix, and
all the common system V file systems, and has an advanced
filesystem of its own, which offers filesystems of up to 4 TB, and
names up to 255 characters long.
* · transparent access to MS-DOS partitions (or OS/2 FAT partitions)
via a special filesystem: you don't need any special commands to
use the MS-DOS partition, it looks just like a normal Unix
filesystem (except for funny restrictions on filenames,
permissions, and so on). MS-DOS 6 co pressed partitions do not
work at this time without a patch (dmsdosfs). VFAT (WNT, Windows
95) support is available in Linux 2.0 ·special filesystem called
UMSDOS which allows Linux to be installed on a DOS filesystem.
* · read-only HPFS-2 support for OS/2 2.1
* · HFS (Macintosh) file system support is available separately as a
module.
* · CD-ROM filesystem which reads all standard formats of CD-ROMs.
* · TCP/IP networking, including ftp, telnet, NFS, etc.
* · AppleTalk server
* · Netware client and server
* · Lan Manager (SMB) client and server
* · Many networking protocols: the base protocols available in the
latest development kernels include TCP, IPv4, IPv6, AX.25, X.25,
IPX, DDP (AppleTalk), NetBEUI, Netrom, and others. Stable ne work
protocols included in the stable kernels currently include TCP,
IPv4, IPX, DDP, and AX.25.
Reliability
The system has to be available 365 days a year.
The Linux server has proven to be as reliable as any other server
operating system I have ever used, and more reliable than most. My
past experience includes managing Novell Netware, Windows NT 3.51 and
4.0 and Irix (Silicon Graphics) servers. I must say that Novell has
always been a steady performer, but I have always felt that it was
more complex than it needed to be. The Silicon Graphics machines were
always rock solid, but they should be when you pay more than $20,000
for a single server.
My Linux server was initially setup in January 1997 as a test platform
to see if it could handle being a production server. At this time I
had installed a copy of The Cat's Pajamas, Apache, StreamWorks
(audio/video server) and Samba. Using Samba, I was able to connect the
Information Systems Department to this server so we could run Cats and
test the audio/video server. A typical day of testing the system would
include reindexing and reformatting Cats while serving multiple 100
megabyte video files and acting as a file server. The Linux machine
was able to handle all of this while running on only 32 megabytes of
RAM and using a Pentium 100 CPU.
From January 1997 to July 1997, we experienced only three shutdowns of
this server, two of which were caused by power failures in the
building and the third time was due to stupidity on the
administrator's part. This reliability was a key factor in our
judgment to use Linux as our server platform.
The installation of NT was simple, and it was easy to get the system
connected to all the printers, but it proved to be unreliable. We were
experiencing crashes every day, even after installing service packs
one and two. I then installed a hot fix to service pack two which was
to fix errors in the Macintosh services which helped. I was down to
crashing just one to two times a month. I also tried to run Cats off
this system, which was a complete disaster since we could not get more
than five users at a time in Cats, and reports would take forever to
run.
Cross platform
The new server must be able to serve the Mac users as well as the
Windows clients.
The server must be able to allow connections from Windows and
Macintosh clients. All major server operating system allow for this,
including Linux. To server Windows clients, Linux uses a package
called Samba. Samba is server software for computers running under
Unix or another Unix-like operating systems with standard TCP/IP
available. Samba, as it stands right now, depends on Unix file
structure, permissions, system calls and services. It provides file
and printer services for clients using some variants of SMB (Server
Message Block) protocol. SMB is a "native" networking protocol used by
MS-DOS based (in a very broad sense, including derivatives) clients.
They include those from IBM, ICL, Microsoft and even one particular
Novell product. In particular clients are distributed with `Windows
for Workgroups', `Windows 95', 'Windows NT', 'OS/2 Warp and others.
Some of Samba's server cousins include DEC Pathworks, Microsoft LAN
Manager/X, OS/2 Lan Manager, IBM LAN Server, Syntax Server and Windows
NT Server. Some clients such as Windows 95/Workgroups or Warp Connect
can also act as low volume servers with limited management facilities.
SMB is becoming very popular, mainly owing to these factors:
* · Windows 95 has dial-up access to PPP servers with an included
service, and this service allows one to "browse" to public shares
on the Internet.
* · Samba is "free" and this is a lot less expensive than Novell!
(friendlier too!)
* · With Samba, Unix servers, well connected to a global network,
can speak in a "native" protocol of clients. It is much simpler to
maintain one more protocol on a capable server than teach new
tricks to multiple clients which were never meant to do something
else.
* · There is an established, well tested way of doing SMB over
TCP/IP described in publicly available RFC 1001 and RFC 1002
documents. This means that SMB has a head start when it comes to
Internet integration.
[INLINE] On the Macintosh side, Netatalk provides the connectivity
services. Netatalk is a Unix implementation of the AppleTalk Protocol
Suite, originally for BSD-derived systems. It includes support for
routing AppleTalk, serving Unix and AFS file systems over AFP
(AppleShare), serving Unix printers and accessing AppleTalk printers
over PAP. A number of other minor printing and debugging utilities are
also included.
Compatibility with Existing Applications
This server would have to be compatible with The Cat's Pajamas
When we tried to move to Windows NT, we were given a migration
guideline from The Cats Pajama's to follow. The instructions were
simple and the entire migration took little time, but performance was
terrible. We needed a system that could handle serving the system to
the network and help maintain the integrity of the Cats data files. I
have been told that Unix heavily caches file I/O activity (more so
than Windows NT or Novell Netware), so this added to my hopes that
Linux would be a strong server platform for Cats, which is a file I/O
intensive application.
My hopes were verified when we formally flipped the switch on the
Linux server and turned off the Novell server. Cats ran smoothly and
gracefully scaled up to the normal daily user level without any
slowdowns or misfortunes. The Novell Netware server would normally
experience periods when the system would slow down severely, and then
speed back up to normal levels after 5 to 10 minutes. During these
slowdowns, Cat's would become virtually useless, and sometimes users
would be booted out of Cat's totally.
Another key area that I needed to be compatible with was the world
Wide Web. I needed to be able to get CGI programs that were already
tested and in use without having to develop them all myself. I also
wanted to be able to get help easily and cheaply on setting up the web
server and fixing it when it breaks. Linux uses Apache, the most
widely used web server in the world. I can easily get support from
mailing lists , news groups and Internet BBS's.
(http://www.netcraft.com/survey/)
Speed
After installing the Windows NT server, many users complained about
slows access times for the network drives.
My users equate network drive access speed with network quality. They
were very pleased with the speed of saving and opening files when they
were on the Novell Netware server, but expressed disappointment in the
speed of saving and opening files when we switch to the Windows NT
server. One way that I have very unscientifically measured the speed
of the Linux server was when we were using a Windows NT 4.0 machine to
backup the Cats files off the Linux machine. This operation took 45
minutes while the exact same operation on the Novell server would take
at least an hour longer. Currently I am backing up CATS by creating a
gzipped tar file directly on the Linux server and it takes a little
less than 45 minutes. Below is part of the output from the df command
that shows the drive I have Cats on. This shows the current size of
our Cats installation so you can get an idea of how much information
is backed up in 45 minutes.
Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/hdc1 2417493 1584580 707923 69% /usr/local/samba-sys
Inexpensive
I could not afford to go through another costly installation .
During the twelve months of running Windows NT 4.0 server, I have
spent more than $3,000 in technical support with Microsoft to remedy
various problems, including the frequent crashes and problems running
Cats. The fix for the crashes was always ``Install the latest service
pack or hot fix and call us back tomorrow.'' The fix for Cats was
``Get rid of The Cat's Pajamas and find a better system which was more
Windows compatible to replace it.'' I wish I would have documented
that support call with Microsoft so I had the name of the tech rep.
Technical support is no the only area of expense involved with Windows
NT. The table below shows typical applications and the cost for each
platform.
Service Microsoft Cost Linux Cost
Operating System Windows NT Server 4.0 $2,950.00 Linux RedHat 5.0 (CD)
$49.00
Web Server Internet Information Server
$0.00
Apache
$0.00
E-Mail Exchange 5.0 Enterprise
$6,400.00
Sendmail,UW IMAP,POP-3
$0.00
Telnet server SLNet (4 user licensee)
$300.00
Included free unlimited licensee
$0.00
FTP server Included with IIS
$0.00
Included
$0.00
Relational Database SQL Server 6.5
$10,650.00
Just Logic SQL
$219.00
Proxy Server Microsoft Proxy Server
$995.00
Squid Object Cache
$0.00
Backup Software Included
$0.00
BRU, included
$0.00
Total Cost
$20,995.00
$268.00
Number of Users 100 100
Cost per seat
$212.95
$2.68
Low hardware requirements
I did not want to build the next Cray just to serve 55 users.
As at most University Press's, our operating budget is relatively
small, especially when compared to commercial business and some other
campus departments. This financial restriction did not allow me to
purchase a server hardware platform that I would have like to have for
the NT server, but the system was not low-end either.
Our Windows NT 4.0 server:
OS Windows NT Server 4.0 (SP3)
CPU 2 x Pentium 150
RAM 256 Megabytes
SCSI Adaptec 2940
-All data drives are SCSI
-Boot drive is IDE
Ethernet NE2000 clone Our RedHat Linux 4.2 server:
OS RedHat 4.2
CPU Single Pentium 200
RAM 64 megabytes
SCSI DPT SmartCache IV
-RAID Station 3 (RAID 5)
-Boot drive is IDE
Ethernet NE2000 clone The RAID which is listed on the Linux server was
not purchased strictly for the Linux server, but was purchased to be
placed on whatever server we decided to put into production.
Ease of administration
For myself and staff .
[INLINE] Unix usually gets the standard rap of being difficult to
manage and requiring a steep learning curve. While many of the tools
that will be used to manage the system are still command line based, a
growing number are graphical and comparable to Windows in ease of use.
This is especially true with the RedHat distribution, which includes a
graphical control panel which allows the administrator to change
system setting without working through the many text files which store
this information. The control panels I use the most are the ones which
setup the printers, file system, users and packages. If you use the
included RedHat Package manager to install new applications, they are
listed in the package manager, which allows you to graphically see
what applications are installed on your system and remove them if
wanted, much like the uninstall option on Microsoft Windows.
[INLINE] [INLINE]
Simple upgrade path
I don't want to start over each time a new version comes out.
RedHat Linux provides a very simple upgrade system in its installation
set. The upgrade is actually better than the Microsoft Windows NT
upgrade path, since you do not have to uninstall the previous version
first.
While it is not required that you uninstall the previous version of
Windows NT before installing the current release (4.0), it is
recommended. This can be a very intensive installation, since you
would need to setup all the user accounts again, along with
reinstalling any software and automated systems and scripts.
When I upgraded from RedHat 4.1 to 4.2, the installation when smoothly
whiteout any problems. While this was not a major revision step,
RedHat has assured me that the soon to be released version 5.0 will
offer a smooth transition from 4.2.
From the RedHat Linux manual:
1.5 Upgrading from a Prior Version
The installation process for Red Hat Linux 4.2 includes the ability to
upgrade from prior versions of Red Hat Linux (2.0, 2.1, 3.0.3, 4.0,
and 4.1) which are based on RPM technology. Upgrading your system
installs the modular 2.0.x kernel as well as updated versions of the
packages which are installed on your machine. The upgrade process
preserves existing configuration files using a .rpmsave extension
(e.g., sendmail.cf.rpmsave) and leaves a log telling what actions it
took in /tmp/upgradelog. As software evolves, configuration file
formats can change, so you should carefully compare your original
configuration files to the new files before integrating your changes.
To upgrade a Red Hat Linux system, you must use a boot floppy (and
possibly a supplemental floppy), just as if you were performing a full
install. After selecting the medium to install from (and setting up
networking information if it's required), the installation procedure
prompts you to either Install or Upgrade; select Upgrade. This upgrade
procedure is the functional equivalent of running the upgrade script
in prior versions of Red Hat Linux. [INLINE]
Please note that some upgraded packages may ``depend'' on other
packages which may not be installed on your system. The upgrade
procedure takes care of these dependencies, but it may need to install
additional packages in order to satisfy them.
Remote control and administration
One of the most attractive features of Linux (or Unix in general) is
the ability to truly remotely control the server. Since Linux comes
with a telnet server built in, you can use virtually any computer,
regardless of operating system to telnet into the computer to do all
administrative tasks. To remotely administer a Windows NT server, you
must purchase a separate application to allow remote control. The most
popular program for this is PCAnywhere by Symantec. This approach can
become costly because you must purchase a copy for the server to act
as the host, and a copy for each computer that needs to remotely
control the server. How many remote computers need to control the
server? This depends on each installation, but I have found that it
save me a lot of running by having the ability to control the server
from every PC on my network, and from home.
Telnet is text only, so this will be a drawback for many, but luckily
for us, Linux supports X Windows. X Windows can be used locally on the
server's console, like Windows NT, but can also be run remotely from
any computer that can run an X client. These remote terminals can by
other computers running Linux, or any other flavor of Unix and many X
clients can be downloaded or purchased for Windows, Windows NT and
Macintosh computers. Running X terminals does require more bandwidth,
so I prefer just telneting into the server.
Another nice feature is the ability to display results of various
system utilities in a web page. One of the things our Customer Service
manager likes to know is which users have which files open and locked
while using Cats. I wrote a simple Perl script to run the smbstatus
program and print the results as a web page.
The output web page:
Snapshot of users for: Fri Dec 5
11:41:18 CST 1997
This page shows currently logged on users and locked files for the
UNPLINUX server.
Right-click this page and select REFRESH or RELOAD to force an
update
Samba version 1.9.17p1
Service uid gid pid machine
----------------------------------------------
cdrom root root 11697 enterprise (129.93.31.35) Thu Dec 4 16:35:23
1997
quinn root root 11697 enterprise (129.93.31.35) Thu Dec 4 16:35:23
1997
M-DATA cbrumm cbrumm 11435 ds9 (129.93.31.14) Thu Dec 4 16:08:16
1997
programs root root 11697 enterprise (129.93.31.35) Thu Dec 4 16:35:23
1997
L-NE cbrumm cbrumm 11435 ds9 (129.93.31.14) Thu Dec 4 16:08:29 1997
N-DBC cbrumm cbrumm 11435 ds9 (129.93.31.14) Thu Dec 4 16:08:29 1997
O-WORK cbrumm cbrumm 11435 ds9 (129.93.31.14) Thu Dec 4 16:08:29
1997
P-HIST cbrumm cbrumm 11435 ds9 (129.93.31.14) Thu Dec 4 16:08:29
1997
<snip>
Locked files:
Pid DenyMode R/W Name
------------------------------
19818 DENY_NONE RDWR fileauth.txt Fri Dec 5 11:41:14 1997
21212 DENY_NONE RDWR fileauth.txt Fri Dec 5 11:40:28 1997
20590 DENY_NONE RDWR fileauth.txt Fri Dec 5 11:38:56 1997
21384 DENY_NONE RDWR fileauth.txt Fri Dec 5 11:06:15 1997
<snip>
19818 DENY_NONE RDWR filebac2.isi Fri Dec 5 11:02:36 1997
20590 DENY_NONE RDWR filebac2.isi Fri Dec 5 10:14:44 1997
19818 DENY_NONE RDWR fileauth.isi Fri Dec 5 11:41:14 1997
21212 DENY_NONE RDWR fileauth.isi Fri Dec 5 11:40:28 1997
Share mode memory usage (bytes):
92584(90%) free + 7728(7%) used + 2088(2%) overhead = 102400(100%)
total
The script that generates the above page:
#!/usr/bin/perl
# ******************************************************
# * *
# * Author: Quinn P. Coldiron *
# * Date: 12-1-97 *
# * Program: This program shows current users of the *
# * Samba server. *
# * *
# ******************************************************
# Use cgi-lib CGI library for PERL.
require "/home/httpd/cgi-bin/cgi-lib.pl";
$date = `date`;
$users = `./smbstatus`;
#Get the data from the form.
&ReadParse;
print &PrintHeader;
print "<HTML>\n";
print "<HEAD>\n";
print "<TITLE>Logged In Samba Users</TITLE>\n";
print "</HEAD>\n";
print "<BODY BGCOLOR= #D4D4D4>\n";
print "<H1>Snapshot of users for: $date</H1>\n";
print "This page shows currently logged on users and locked files for
the UNPLINUX server.<br>\n";
print "Right-click this page and select REFRESH or RELOAD to force an
update<br>\n";
print "<PRE>$users</PRE>\n";
print "</BODY>\n";
print "</HTML>\n";
Windows NT provides a graphical program to show a chart us system
performance, but it is recommended that you do not run it on the
server that you want to monitor, because the monitor program itself
takes too much of the system resources, and thus skews the data. Linux
provides a system monitoring tool called TOP that is character based
so it can be run on the server. Since it is character based, you can
telnet into the server and run it from anywhere, getting an accurate
picture of how the server is running.
Sample output of TOP:
11:55am up 1 day, 15:02, 3 users, load average: 0.08, 0.04, 0.00
83 processes: 82 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
CPU states: 2.7% user, 4.2% system, 5.9% nice, 93.7% idle
Mem: 63204K av, 62336K used, 868K free, 38384K shrd, 5536K buff
Swap: 114908K av, 368K used, 114540K free 29496K cached
PID USER PRI NI SIZE RSS SHARE STAT LIB %CPU %MEM TIME COMMAND
22390 root 10 0 540 540 400 R 0 2.8 0.8 0:00 top
22388 cats 3 0 848 848 516 S 0 1.5 1.3 0:00 login
22391 cats 10 0 660 660 524 S 0 0.7 1.0 0:00 bash
6058 root 1 0 3568 3568 1396 S 0 0.5 5.6 1:25 tkdesksh
22283 root 0 0 552 552 424 S 0 0.3 0.8 0:00 in.telnetd
22387 root 1 0 552 552 424 S 0 0.3 0.8 0:00 in.telnetd
21212 quinn 0 0 1084 1084 660 S 0 0.1 1.7 0:02 smbd
20921 root 1 0 588 536 356 S 0 0.1 0.8 0:08 SWserver
1 root 0 0 312 312 244 S 0 0.0 0.4 0:02 init
2 root 0 0 0 0 0 SW 0 0.0 0.0 0:01 kflushd
3 root -12 -12 0 0 0 SW< 0 0.0 0.0 0:00 kswapd
19509 root 0 0 1092 1092 652 S 0 0.0 1.7 0:18 smbd
331 root 0 0 812 812 480 S 0 0.0 1.2 0:00 login
21 root 0 0 280 280 216 S 0 0.0 0.4 0:00 kerneld
240 root 0 0 336 316 280 S 0 0.0 0.4 0:00 gpm
128 root 0 0 368 360 276 S 0 0.0 0.5 0:00 syslogd
137 root 0 0 496 488 268 S 0 0.0 0.7 0:00 klogd
_________________________________________________________________
Section 3
Under the Hood
Setting up the server
Linux installation
The actual installation of an operating system is often used as a
judgement on how good the system is. Just as with meeting people, you
can never change the first impression. I have found that setting up a
RedHat Linux server is as easy or even easier than setting up a
Windows NT server. The setup includes two floppies have everything
needed to get the system to the point that it can recognize the media
(CDROM, FTP site, other server, etc.) that the installation files are
on. Windows NT supplies three floppies for this purpose, but only
supports CDROM installation. I have found that installing RedHat Linux
on a laptop can even be easier, since it can detect the PCMCIA slots
at installation time, while NT cannot. The most important factor is to
be familiar with the hardware you have installed in your machine,
including:
* · hard drive(s): number and size; if you have more than one, it's
helpful to know which one is first, second, etc.
* · memory: amount of RAM.
* · CD-ROM: its interface type (IDE, SCSI, or other interface), and,
for non-IDE, non-SCSI CD-ROMs, the make and model number.
* · SCSI adapter: make and model number.
* · network card: make and model number.
* · mouse: type (serial, PS/2, or bus mouse), protocol (Logitech,
Microsoft, MouseMan, etc.), and number of buttons; also, for
serial mice, the com port it is connected to.
* · If you will be connected to a network, be sure you know your IP
address, netmask, gateway IP address, name server IP addresses,
domain name, and hostname. If you don't know these values, ask
your network administrator.
* Also, if you will be installing the X Window System, you should be
familiar with the following:
* · your video card: make and model number or video chipset, amount
of video RAM.
* · your monitor: make and model number, allowable range of
horizontal and vertical refresh rates.
You can install or upgrade Red Hat Linux/Intel via any of several
basic methods. Depending on the method you use, you need either one or
two formatted high-density (1.44 MB) 3.5-inch diskettes.
Installing from CD-ROM or via NFS requires only a boot diskette.
Installing from a hard drive, via FTP, from an SMB volume, or from a
PCMCIA device (including PCMCIA-based CD-ROMs) requires both a boot
diskette and a supplemental diskette. Section 2.3.1 below explains how
to create boot and supplemental diskettes.
CD-ROM
If you have a Red Hat Linux CD and a boot diskette you will need a
supported CD-ROM drive and either a 3.5 inch floppy drive or an
operational installation of MS-DOS on your machine in order to run the
installation utility. If a boot diskette did not accompany your CD,
you will need access to a computer running either Linux or MS-DOS to
create a boot diskette from the CD.
NFS
If you wish to install over a network, you will need to mount the Red
Hat Linux CD-ROM on a machine that supports ISO-9660 file systems with
Rock Ridge extensions. The machine must also support NFS. Export the
CD-ROM file system via NFS. You will need to have name services
configured, or know the NFS server's IP address, and the path to the
exported CD-ROM.
FTP
For an FTP install, you must have a boot disk and supplemental disk.
You will need to have a valid name server configured or the IP address
of the FTP server you will be using. You will also need the path to
the root of the Red Hat Linux directory on the FTP site.
SMB Shared Volume
If you wish to install from an SMB shared volume, you will need to
mount the Red Hat Linux CD-ROM on a Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 95
server that supports shared volumes. You will need to have name
services configured, or know the server's IP address; you will also
need the name of the shared volume containing the Red Hat Linux CD-ROM
and the account number and password to use to access the volume.
Hard Drive
To install Red Hat Linux from a hard drive you will need the same boot
and supplemental disks used by the FTP install. You must first create
a RedHat directory at the top level of your directory tree. Everything
you will install should be placed in that directory. First copy the
base subdirectory, then copy the packages you want to install to
another subdirectory called RPMS. You can use available space on an
existing DOS partition or a Linux partition that is not required in
the install procedure (for example, a partition that would be used for
data storage on the installed system).
If you are using a DOS filesystem, you may not be able to use the full
Linux filenames for the RPM packages. The installation process does
not care what the filenames look like, but it is a good idea that you
keep track of them so you will know what you are installing.
PCMCIA
If your CD-ROM, Ethernet card, or local hard disk is connected to a
PCMCIA adapter, you must install with PCMCIA support. You need a
supported PCMCIA controller and a supported PCMCIA SCSI adapter or
Ethernet card. Installing via PCMCIA requires the use of a
supplemental diskette.
Please See Appendix A for The Official RedHat Installation Guide.
Samba Installation/Setup
Installing the Samba RPM is the easiest way to install, as you only
need to download the file and type rpm -I filename and it is
installed. Setting up Samba is simple, as you just edit a text file to
tell it what directories are going to be shared to the Windows
clients. The text file's name is smb.conf and is located in the /etc.
directory if you installed Samba using RPM. If you downloaded the .tar
archive and installed Samba using the default installation, you will
find the smb.conf file in /usr/local/samba/lib/.
An advantage to installing Samba using RPM is that it is easier. A
disadvantage is that the versions are not as current, but they are
usually more stable and reliable. I choose to go directly to the Samba
web pages and download the most current non-beta release.
The picture on the left is the Network Neighborhood window on my NT
workstation and is currently showing everything that I have access to
on my Linux server.
If you installed Samba using RPM, it will automatically be started on
system startup, but I had to manually add it to my rc.local script to
have it start on bootup because I did not install from the RPM. I
chose to install from the tarballs available at the official Samba
site, so I could always have a current installation. To start the
server manually, I just issue these commands:
/usr/local/samba/bin/smbd -D
/usr/local/samba/bin/nmbd -D
Extensive has been accomplished that allows Samba to act more like an
NT server, including making a Linux server a Primary Domain Controller
and more features are currently being added. I have listed the steps
that I took in making my Linux server the Primary Domain Controller
(PDC) for our network.
1. Set up the server.
a. Create the smb.conf file.
b. Create the netlogon directory. I put mine in /home.
c. Restart Samba.
2. Setup the Windows 95 clients. (We set our up for roaming profiles.)
Do not reboot until step 3!
a. Control Panel
1. Click Passwords, then Profiles and choose these
settings:
a. Users can customize their settings.
b. Include desktop items.
c. Include start menu.
2. In the Control Panel, select Network.
a. Under Identification, set your WORKGROUP
name.
b. Access control = USER-LEVEL.
c. Obtain the list from YOUR SERVER NAME.
d. Under Client Configuration
1. Select CLIENT FOR MICROSOFT
NETWORKS.
2. Under that client's properties.
a. Log onto Windows NT domain.
b. Enter your WORKGROUP name.
c. Select LOG ON AND RESTORE
CONNECTIONS.
e. Set primary network logon to CLIENT FOR
MICROSOFT NETWORKS.
b. Set up the user profiles.
1. Install the Policy Editor from the Windows 95 CD.
2. Create a new profile called config.pol and save it
into the NETLOGON share on the Linux server. Make sure you add all the
users on your server! This step only has to be
done once, not on each client.
3. Using the Policy Editor, select Open registry from
the File menu and select the options you want.
4. Save it as config.pol and copy into the netlogon
share on the Linux server. Set its permissions as 755.
3. Reboot the Windows 95 computer(s) and logon.
4. Possible problems.
1. Windows95 OSR2 seems to send the passwords as uppercase, so
try changing the passwords on the Linux server to uppercase.
2. I had problems making my Linux server the WINS server, so
you have some choices to fix this:
a. If you do have another NT server, make it the WINS
server and point all the clients to it.
b. Disable WINS on each client and edit the
c:\windows\Lmhosts.sam file and add the server and workstations to
this file. Save the file as Lmhosts, NOT Lmhosts.sam This file can be
appended to from a server, but
I haven't tried doing it from Linux/Samba. The
entries look like this: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx computername
c. Disable WINS. At this time, we are running our Win95
clients with WINS disabled, but we do have a DNS server.
My Samba configuration (smb.conf) file looks like this:
; *******************************************************************
; *
; * Samba config file for UNPLINUX
; * Quinn P. Coldiron
; *
; *******************************************************************
[global]
workgroup = UNP
comment = Unplinux Server
volume = RedHat5
lock directory = /var/lock/samba
locking = yes
strict locking = no
share modes = yes
security = user
os level = 65
domain master = yes
local master = yes
prefered master = yes
domain logons = yes
wins support = yes
;logon script = %m.bat ; per workstation (machine)
;logon script = logon.bat
logon script = %U.bat
preserve case = yes
short case preserve = yes
case sensitive = no
; printing = BSD or SYSV or AIX, etc..
printing = bsd
printcap name = /etc/printcap
load printers = yes
print command = /usr/bin/lpr -r -P %p %s
[netlogon]
comment = Samba Network Logon Service
path = /home/netlogon
case sensitive = no
guest ok = yes
locking = no
read only = yes
browseable = yes ; say NO if you want to hide the NETLOGON share
;admin users = @wheel
create mode = 0755
;
######################################################################
#########
; # #
; # Printers #
; # #
;
######################################################################
#########
; I couldn't get the generic printers section to work, so I commented
it out
; and explicitly declared the printers.
;[printers]
; comment = All Printers
; path = /var/spool/samba-print
; browseable = yes
; printable = yes
; Set public = yes to allow user 'guest account' to print
; public = no
; writable = no
; create mode = 0700
[Technology]
comment = Technology Printer
path = /var/spool/samba-print
print = Technology
browseable = yes
printable = yes
public = yes
writeable = yes
create mode = 0777
[Marketing2]
comment = Technology Printer
path = /var/spool/samba-print
print = Marketing2
browseable = yes
printable = yes
public = yes
writeable = yes
create mode = 0777
[Marketing1]
comment = Technology Printer
path = /var/spool/samba-print
print = Marketing1
browseable = yes
printable = yes
public = yes
writeable = yes
create mode = 0777
[CustServ]
comment = Technology Printer
path = /var/spool/samba-print
print = CustServ
browseable = yes
printable = yes
public = yes
writeable = yes
create mode = 0777
[CanonColor]
comment = Color Laser Printer
path = /var/spool/samba-print
print = CanonColor
browseable = yes
printable = yes
public = yes
writeable = yes
create mode = 0777
;
######################################################################
#########
; # #
; # Shared Volumes #
; # #
;
######################################################################
#########
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
writable = yes
read only = no
preserve case = yes
short preserve case = yes
;create mode = 0777
[userdata]
comment = All userdata that you are allowed to see.
path = /home
writeable = yes
;Full control for your stuff, full in you group, nothing for other
;people's stuff.
create mode = 0770
[sys]
comment = System drive. Various Press utilities.
path = /usr/local/samba-sys/
writeable = yes
create mode = 0777
[programs]
comment = Program drive. Installation sets and programs.
path = /usr/local/samba-programs
writeable = yes
create mode = 0777
[ulrich]
comment = Ulrich's PLUS.
path = /usr/local/samba-programs/ulrich
create mode = 555
[cdrom]
comment = Internal IDE cdrom. For temporary usage.
path = /mnt/cdrom
[dictionary]
comment = Random House Dictionary.
path = /mnt/scd1
[bip]
comment = Bowker Books In Print CDROM
path = /mnt/scd0
[msoffice]
comment = Microsoft Office Bookshelf Reference.
path = /mnt/scd3
[encarta]
comment = Microsoft Encarta
path = /mnt/scd2
[press]
comment = Press share. Marketing maps this to U:
path = /home/press
writeable = yes
create mode = 0777
[CATS-VOL]
comment = Entire Cats volume for backup
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[L-NE]
comment = Cat's root. Map as L.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[M-DATA]
comment = Cat's data drive. Map as M.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/data
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[N-DBC]
comment = Cat's program drive. Map as N.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/dbc
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[O-WORK]
comment = Cat's work drive. Map as O.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/work
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[P-HIST]
comment = Cat's history drive. Map as P.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/hist
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
My actual logon.bat batch file is here:
REM *******************************************************
REM * *
REM * University of Nebraska Press network logon script. *
REM * *
REM * Last modified : 10-16-97 *
REM * By: Quinn *
REM * *
REM * The drive letter scheme is leftover from the past *
REM * network administrator and the Novell Netware 3.1 *
REM * server he had. *
REM *******************************************************
REM User's home drives
net use e: \\unplinux\homes
REM General network drives
net use f: \\intrepid\sys
net use g: \\intrepid\userdata
net use h: \\intrepid\dictionary
net use i: \\intrepid\bip
net use j: \\intrepid\programs
net use s: \\unplinux\ulrich
REM CATS drives
net use l: \\unplinux\l-ne
net use m: \\unplinux\m-data
net use n: \\unplinux\n-dbc
net use o: \\unplinux\o-work
net use p: \\unplinux\p-hist
REM Temp entry for Robotronics
REM The old system had robo on the T:\ drive but
REM all new installations will run robo from the j:\ drive.
net use t: \\unplinux\programs
Netatalk Installation/Setup
Netatalk offers the same installation options as Samba, so you can
choose either the RPM, or .tar archives. I would choose the RPM here,
as they are the same versions as the .tar files and make life easier
during installation. I really don't have mush to say about this
installation, since it was very simple and straight forward. After
installing the package, I just edited the AppleVolumes.system file and
started the daemon. Below is a very simple AppleVolumes.system file
that will give the Mac users their home directory and a few other
volumes that might have stuff they need.
#
# This file is read before (after if -u is specified) the user's
# AppleVolume file. Add extension mappings and volumes here.
#
/usr/local/samba-sys Sys (F drive)
/home Userdata (G drive)
/usr/local/samba-programs Programs (J drive)
# default translation -- note that CR <-> LF translation is done on
all
# files of type TEXT. The first line turns off translation for files
of
# unknown type, the second turns this translation on.
. BINA UNIX
# . TEXT UNIX
# sounds
.mod STrk STrk
.mid Midi ttxt
.aiff AIFF SNdm
.wav WAVE SNdm
.au ULAW SNdm
# video
.moov MooV mMPG
.mov MooV mMPG
.mpg MPEG mMPG
.mpeg MPEG mMPG
# formatted text
.html TEXT MOS!
.rtf TEXT MSWD
.doc WDBN MSWD
# compressed archives
.bin BINA MB2P
.zip ZIP ZIP
.tar TARF TAR!
.gz Gzip Gzip
.Z ZIVM LZIV
.sea ???? SITx
.cpt PACT CPCT
.sit SIT! SIT!
.hqx TEXT SITx
# graphics
.tiff TIFF JVWR
.tif TIFF JVWR
.bmp BMPp JVWR
.pct PICT ttxt
.pict PICT ttxt
.jpeg JPEG JVWR
.jpg JPEG JVWR
.gif GIFf JVWR The other file that you need to edit with NetaTalk is
papd.conf. This file hold the printer information.
# Attributes are:
#
# Name Type Default Description
# pd str ".ppd" Pathname to ppd file.
# pr str "lp" LPD printer name.
# op str "operator" Operator name, for LPD spooling.
#
# Some examples:
#
# On many systems (notably not Solaris), no papd.conf is required,
# since papd shares the same defaults as lpd.
#
# A simple example:
#
# terminator:\
# :pr=lp:op=wes:\
# :pd=/usr/share/lib/ppd/HPLJ_4M.PPD:
#
# Note also that papd.conf can list several printers.
Installing The Cats Pajamas
Installing Cats on the Server
Installing Cats on a Linux server can be as simple as copying all the
files and directories from the old server to the Linux server's shared
volume for Cats. The way that I set up out server was to install
another drive in the Linux server to hold the Cats installation. I
chose an IDE drive mainly because I didn't have a SCSI card in the
server, didn't have an extra one handy and I was under an extreme time
crunch to get Cats back online. My intentions were to eventually
replace the IDE drive with a SCSI drive over Christmas break, but the
performance has been more than satisfactory, so we are going to leave
the setup alone. I mount this drive as /usr/local/samba-cats and have
the permissions set open to the world by running the command chmod 777
/usr/local/samba-cats -R. This is a security risk, but Cats has told
me that the files must be world writeable and readable for Cats to
work properly. I also have the Samba configuration file set up with a
mask of 0777, which will make sure that all files written will be
readable by all the users.
The specific portion of the smb.conf file for Cats is listed here:
[CATS-VOL]
comment = Entire Cats volume for backup
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[L-NE]
comment = Cat's root. Map as L.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[M-DATA]
comment = Cat's data drive. Map as M.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/data
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[N-DBC]
comment = Cat's program drive. Map as N.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/dbc
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[O-WORK]
comment = Cat's work drive. Map as O.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/work
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777
[P-HIST]
comment = Cat's history drive. Map as P.
path = /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/hist
writeable = yes
printable = no
guest ok = yes
public = yes
create mask = 0777 At the time of this writing, we were still running
Cats 2.3, so the major directories were as follows:
ne----+
|---> data
|---> dbc
|---> work
|---> hist While we are currently able to get all of our system
onto a 2.5 gigabyte hard drive, I can see a day when we will have a
large enough history that we will need more space. We could just get a
larger hard drive, but an easier upgrade would be to just add another
drive and mount it into the directory tree. We could actually run four
drives for Cats by mounting a different drive into the ne directory
for each subdirectory. By doing this, data would be running on a
drive, dbc would be a drive, work would be a drive and hist would be a
drive. In theory, the performance would increase, since drive access
to data would not slow down history searches, or read/writes to the
work drive.
I have written a CGI Perl script to make it simple for our Business
Department and Customer service department to lock Cats during
month-end closing and reindexing procedures. The script asks for a
password, and then replaces the standard batch files to start Cats
with another batch file that says Cats is locked for closing or
maintenance. When they are finished, they can unlock Cats by running
the unlock CGI script. The scripts are listed here:
Lock Cats:
#!/usr/bin/perl
# ******************************************************
# * *
# * Author: Quinn P. Coldiron *
# * Date: 11-24-97 *
# * Program: This locks Cats *
# * *
# ******************************************************
# Use cgi-lib CGI library for PERL.
require "/home/httpd/cgi-bin/cgi-lib.pl";
#Get the data from the form.
&ReadParse;
print &PrintHeader;
print "<HTML>\n";
print "<HEAD>\n";
print "<TITLE>Finished</TITLE>\n";
print "</HEAD>\n";
print "<BODY BGCOLOR= #b7b7b7>\n";
if ( $in{password} =~ "PASSWORD") {
print "<P><B>Finished.</B></P>\n";
print "<P>Batch files written and CATS is <B>locked</B>.</P>\n";
print "<BR>You may access CATS by going to the M: drive and typing
secret.bat\n";
print "This should only be used for Month-end closing, reindexing and
system repairs.\n";
print "<BR><BR>Quinn.\n";
system ("cp /home/httpd/cgi-bin/cats/lock/*.bat
/usr/local/samba-cats/ne/data/");
system ("chmod 777 /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/data/*");
} else {
print "Wrong password\n";
}
print "</BODY>\n";
print "</HTML>\n"; Unlock Cats:
#!/usr/bin/perl
# ******************************************************
# * *
# * Author: Quinn P. Coldiron *
# * Date: 11-24-97 *
# * Program: This program copies that cats#.bat files *
# * to the correct location. *
# ******************************************************
# Use cgi-lib CGI library for PERL.
require "/home/httpd/cgi-bin/cgi-lib.pl";
#Get the data from the form.
&ReadParse;
print &PrintHeader;
print "<HTML>\n";
print "<HEAD>\n";
print "<TITLE>Finished</TITLE>\n";
print "</HEAD>\n";
print "<BODY BGCOLOR= #b7b7b7>\n";
if ( $in{password} =~ "PASSWORD") {
print "<P><B>Finished.</B></P>\n";
print "<P>Batch files written and CATS is unlocked.</P>\n";
print "<BR><BR>Quinn.\n";
system ("cp /home/httpd/cgi-bin/cats/unlock/*.bat
/usr/local/samba-cats/ne/data/");
system ("chmod 777 /usr/local/samba-cats/ne/data/*");
} else {
print "Wrong password!\n";
}
print "</BODY>\n";
print "</HTML>\n";
Configuring your Windows clients
I have setup our Cats installation to share each required cats
directory as a hard mounted drive letter. The specific portion of the
login script that mounts cats is listed here:
REM CATS drives
net use l: \\unplinux\l-ne
net use m: \\unplinux\m-data
net use n: \\unplinux\n-dbc
net use o: \\unplinux\o-work
net use p: \\unplinux\p-hist My cats batch file is here:
PATH=C:\;C:\WINNT;C:\WINDOWS;L:\;M:\;N:\;O:\;P:\
SET DBC_FILEPATH=L:\;M:\;N:\;O:\;P:\
Set DBC_PREP=M:
Set DBC_FILES=140
Set DBC_PGMSIZE=65024
Set DBC_CMDLINE=OLD
SET DBC_XKEYS=ON
Set DBC_COMPAT=DOS
Set DBC_PORT=24
SET DBC_DBCPATH=N:\
M:
DBC.EXE I have also followed the suggestions on the Cats web site
http://www.tcpj.com for specific settings for Windows 95. I have found
that all of these do help in getting Cats to run better.
Configuring the DOS emulator to run Cats
Linux has a very interesting program called DOSEMU which creates a
``DOS box'' that can run many DOS applications, including MS-DOS,
PC-DOS, DR DOS, Open DOS, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, the Novell
Netware client and many more. I had problems at first getting DOSEMU
to run programs on the redirected drives unless I called them by the
full name (go.bat instead of go) but tracked this down to the version
of DOS that I was using. I was using Novell DOS 7.0 but switched to
MS-DOS 6.22 on the advice of Hans Lermen (one of the DOSEMU
developers) and this fixed the problem. He said that this has been
reported many times and it seems to be a bug in the command.com code
that many versions of non Microsoft DOS use.
DOSEMU uses an image file of a hard disk to emulate a DOS hard drive
so you do not need to have a DOS partition. Using the
/var/lib/dosemu/setup-hdimage program will step you through making a
basic hdimage file. The only required item is a bootable DOS 6.22
floppy disk with whatever DOS tools you think you might need. I
included EDIT.COM and QBASIC.EXE. After running through the
setup-hdimage program, start the emulator with xdos or dos, depending
on if you are in X-Windows or not. The default setup gives you the
Linux hard drive as DOS drive D:\. To copy the programs I wanted off
the floppy to the hdimage file, I opened another xterm window and
mounted the floppy to /mnt/floppy, then switched back to DOSEMU,
changed to D:\mnt\floppy and copied EDIT.COM and QBASIC.EXE to C:\. I
could now run the MS-DOS editor to edit the config.sys and
autoexec.bat files. If I wanted, I could also write a quick QBASIC
program.
DOSEMU gives you a utility called LREDIR which redirects Linux
directories to DOS drive letters. Below is the AUTOEXEC.BAT that I use
with DOSEMU to give me the drive letters for Cats and for Robotronics.
@echo off
path=c:\;l:\;m:\;n:\;o:\;p:\
prompt $p$g
rem set temp=c:\temp
lredir l: linux\fs\usr\local\samba-cats\ne
lredir m: linux\fs\usr\local\samba-cats\ne\data
lredir n: linux\fs\usr\local\samba-cats\ne\dbc
lredir o: linux\fs\usr\local\samba-cats\ne\work
lredir p: linux\fs\usr\local\samba-cats\ne\hist
lredir t: linux\fs\usr\local\samba-sys\programs\nesb
c:
menu.bat This autoexec.bat file loads the redirected drives and
displays a menu which allows the user to select the DOS application
they want to run (CATS and Robotronics). I have set the dos emulator
as the shell, so that as soon as the Mac users or remote users telnet
into the Linux server the DOS emulator is started and they get the
main menu. When they exit the DOS emulator, they are disconnected from
the server.
Installing a RAID
[LINK]The RAID that we chose to purchase was a kit that contained a
SCSI RAID controller and subsystem storage cabinet from Distributed
Processing Technology.
The SCSI card is a PCI card with a caching module added to it. The
cache module has four SIMM slots on it and will accept any standard 32
pin SIMM up to 16 meg each for a total of 64 megabytes of cache. The
card comes with a four meg module already installed, and that is what
we currently are using.
The storage subsystem requires you to supply your own drives and comes
in two style. One supports narrow SCSI drives and the other supports
wide drives. We are using the narrow drive cabinet, mainly because I
already had three drives that I wanted to use. Installing the drives
can be tricky, as the data cable is not color coded and I could not
tell what wire was for pin one. The first time around I had the drives
installed backwards, but nothing was hurt. I called the tech support
line and they were very helpful in getting the problem fixed.
After installing the card in the server, the next step is to configure
the RAID with the RAD level of choice. We chose to run RAID level 5.
While Linux does have built in drivers for the DPT controller card,
DPT does not offer Linux utilities to configure the unit. What I did
was temporarily plug a 200 meg IDE hard drive into the server to boot
from and ran the DOS configuration utilities which are graphical and
easy to follow. Using the mouse, I selected the three drives that I
wanted to include in my RAID, then selected the RAID level I wanted,
saved the configuration and shutdown the computer. I then unplugged
the IDE DOS drive and reconnected the IDE Linux boot drive.
I kind of cheated when I installed the driver for the SCSI card by
rerunning the Linux setup program. I had other things that needed
fixing, so I thought this would be the best way. I could have just
added the daemon by using the tools in the control panel as well or by
typing insmod eata-dma at the command prompt and the driver would be
loaded and I could see the report that the system now recognizes my
SCSI card and RAID. During the installation, select YES when asked if
you have a SCSI card and select correct driver (EATA-DMA) for the card
you have. When you are finished and reboot the computer, you will see
the RAID initialize and report the settings you configured under DOS,
then the kernel recognizing the card.
Now, you need to create a partition and format the drive. To make a
partition, use the fdisk command and follow the menu to make a Linux
primary partition. Formatting the RAID is as easy as formatting any
other drive. Remember that the system sees your RAID as a single,
large disk. To format it in Linux, issue the mkefs2 /dev/sda1, or
whatever SCSI drive it is. To actually use the disk after formatting,
you need to mount it someplace. I wanted to use this disk for the home
directories of our users, so I mounted it as /home/raid. But, whenever
I added a user, they were still being added to /home and not on the
RAID, so I edited the /usr/sbin/adduser script (which is just a Perl
script) and changed the home directory location to /home/raid. Now,
whenever I add a user, they are added to the RAID.
Daily administration
System backups
I have a SCSI Hewlett Packard SureStore 6000 4mm DAT drive that I am
setting up for backup duties for our Linux server. Currently, I am
backing up all data through Samba to our Windows NT server using
another SureStore 6000 tape drive and Cheyenne Arcserve software. I
have also been known to make a quick backup to the RAID using tar. Tar
is a simple utility that has been around Unix almost as long as Unix
has been around.
To make a tar backup, just issue the following command:
tar cvf archivename.tar /directory-to-archive
This will create a tar file named archive.tar of the contents of the
directory directory-to-archive. While this works fine, the resulting
file might be very large because we did not apply any compression. By
modifying the command to look like this:
tar cvzf archivename.tar.gz /directory-to-archive
We compress the tar file with gzip after the file is made. At a later
date, we might want to view what is in the tar file, so we can issue
the tar tvf archivename.tar.gz to list the files in the archive.
While backing up to disk is OK for a temporary thing, you should
always backup to tape for critical data. Linux supports two types of
tape drives. The first is the style that connects to the floppy drive
controller, like the Colorado drives and Iomega Ditto. The other style
connect to a SCSI controller. Floppy tape drives have the device names
of /dev/ft0, dev/ft1 and so on. SCSI drives are /dev/st0, /dev/st1 and
so on. These devices are "rewinding" devices which rewind the tape
when the operation is completed. IF you are archiving more than one
session to the tape, then use the non-rewinding devices /dev/nft0,
/dev/nrft1, /dev/nst0, /dev/nst1 and so on.
After writing the archive to tape, you can use the mt (magnetic tape)
command to rewind, retention and find sessions on tape. The table
below shows the commands.
mt /dev/nft0 rewind
mt /dev/nft0 retention
mt /dev/nft0 fsf 1 skips the current session to find the next session
on tape.
To use the mt command, you must use the non-rewinding devices.
Using tar to make backups has its good points and its bad points. On
the bad side, neither tar or gzip are fault-tolerant. Compressing tar
files with gzip will greatly reduce the amount of space on the backup
media, but if even one block of the archive gets corrupted, which can
happen on tapes, the entire file can be useless. Usually, you will be
able to retrieve all data up to that point, though. A better solution
is to use a "real" backup system such as BRU (Backup and Restore
Utility) that comes with a purchased version of RedHat Linux 5.0.
Backup systems usually compress each file individually, so that if the
media is damaged, you will not usually lose the entire archive.
BRU has both a command prompt interface and a graphical X-Windows
interface and is included with RedHat 5.0. BRU offers automated backup
scheduling and scripting, so it is very easy to setup a simple but
effective and reliable backup system. I find the system as easy to
maintain as ArcServe on Windows NT.
Scheduling events
Linux has a very easy to use scheduler program called cron that will
run commands, scripts or programs at the scheduled times. To edit the
list of events, issue the crontab -e command. This will start the
default editor (usually vi, but I changed mine to joe). When you exit
the editor, cron will install the new config file you just edited and
schedule all the jobs. You can view the schedule by issuing the
crontab -l command:
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
MAILTO=root
# Run any at jobs every minute
# * * * * * root [ -x /usr/sbin/atrun ] && /usr/sbin/atrun
# run-parts
# 01 * * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.hourly
# 02 1 * * * root run-parts /etc/cron.daily
# 02 2 * * 0 root run-parts /etc/cron.weekly
# 02 3 1 * * root run-parts /etc/cron.monthly
# Remove /tmp, /var/tmp files not accessed in 10 days (240 hours)
# 41 02 * * * root /usr/sbin/tmpwatch 240 /tmp /var/tmp
# Remove formatted man pages not accessed in 10 days
# 39 02 * * * root /usr/sbin/tmpwatch 240 /var/catman/cat?
#############################################################
# WWW logs. I run 2 so I can compare results.
#############################################################
# Run web one web log utility 0 0-23 * * * /usr/bin/log
02 1 * * * /usr/bin/log
# Run the other web log utility 0 0-23 * * *
/usr/local/mkstats/mkstats.pl -c mkstats.config
02 1 * * * /usr/local/mkstats/mkstats.pl -c mkstats.config
#############################################################
#############################################################
# Live stream management
#############################################################
# Create xdm file for live stream for Sports Nightly (5:45 pm)
45 17 * * 1,2,3,4,5 livestream-on
# Kill xdm file for live stream for Sports Nightly (8:10 pm)
10 20 * * 1,2,3,4,5 livestream-off
# Create xdm file for live stream for Saturday games (7:00 am)
0 7 * * 6 livestream-on
# Kill xdm file for live stream for Saturday games (10:00 pm)
0 22 * * 6 livestream-off
# Check the 3.0 server to see if it is running and not dead! (every
minute)
1-59 * * * * /usr/local/streamworks-3.0/checkSWserver
##############################################################
# Check to see if network volumes are mounted (at 10:00 p.m.).
# These need to be mounted since this machine performs the
# backup at 11:55.
0 22 * * 1,2,3,4,5 checkmounts
# copy BIP from Intrepid to exeter (WWW)
0 23 * * 1,2,3,4,5 /usr/local/bin/mvbip
# backup userdata from intrepid
55 23 * * 1,2,3,4,5 bu-userdata
# backup CATS
55 23 * * 1,2,3,4,5 bu-cats
# backup Marketing
0 3 * * 1,2,3,4,5 bu-marketing
# mail orders to quinn
0 8 * * 1,2,3,4,5 /usr/local/bin/mailunporders.pl Each entry has a
specific configuration to follow. If you want the command to run every
day at 1:00 AM, specify the minute as 0 and the hour as 1. The other
three fields should be asterisks, which means ``every day and month at
the given time.
You might notice the entry
# Check to see if network volumes are mounted (at 10:00 p.m.).
# These need to be mounted since this machine performs the
# backup at 11:55.
0 22 * * 1,2,3,4,5 checkmounts
This calls a script I wrote to check that the NT server is mounted so
I can backup all data on it. I mount the server using the smbmount
command which allows a Linux machine to mount shares from a Windows
machine. This script just verifies that a certain file or directory is
actually at the mount point. I use these ``reference'' files for
checking purposes, so they are read-only, so they can't be
accidentally deleted by users. The script is listed here:
#!/bin/sh
# Cronjob to remount network drives if they are not mounted.
# Author: Quinn P. Coldiron
if [ -z "`ls /mnt/exeter | grep InetPub | grep -v grep`" ]
then
umount /mnt/exeter
/mnt/mountexeter
echo "Exeter remounted `date`"
fi
if [ -z "`ls /mnt/intrepid-f | grep BLINE | grep -v grep`" ]
then
umount /mnt/intrepid-f
/mnt/mountintrepid-f
echo "Intrepid F remounted `date`"
fi
if [ -z "`ls /mnt/intrepid-g | grep QC | grep -v grep`" ]
then
umount /mnt/intrepid-g
/mnt/mountintrepid-g
echo "Intrepid G remounted `date`"
fi
if [ -z "`ls /mnt/intrepid-mrktdept | grep KK | grep -v grep`" ]
then
umount /mnt/mountintrepid-mrkt
/mnt/mountintrepid-mrktdept
echo "Marketing remounted `date`"
fi
echo "All network volumes mounted."
Replacing your Desktop OS with Linux
Places to go:
* RedHat
* K Desktop
* Amazing Linux Desktops
I have wanted to make Linux my desktop operating system for a long
time, but I couldn't because I needed to be able to run the following
applications: Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft
Access, our internal mail system (Pegasus), Microsoft Access and
Microsoft Visual Basic. I have recently narrowed the list of required
applications that do not have a Linux counterpart down to Access and
Visual Basic, which we will analyze later.
I have found that, for the most part, I can replace Microsoft Office
with Applixware. Applixware is an office suite for Linux (an many
other Unix platforms) that can read and write Word and Excel files,
which allows me to share documents with the rest of the press. While I
still cannot read Access databases, I am working out a solution for
that which we will discuss later.
Applix Words
* · Live links to Applixware or third-party applications
* · Mail-enabled compound document technology
* · Landscape, portrait and merge printing
* · Multiple undo and redo
* · Hypertext with optional HTML output
* · Forms editor
* · International dictionaries, thesauri and spell checkers
* · Conditional text and cross-referencing; find and replace
* · Embedded equations and calculation support
* · Multiple typefaces, type styles and sizes
* · Highly graphical user interface
* · Tables and frames; borders and shading
* · Multimedia support including audio and video
Applix Spreadsheets
* · Live links to other Applixware and external applications
* · Calculation-based attributes
* · 3D spreadsheets and charts
* · Integration of external functions
* · Built-in string, financial, mathematical, and statistical
functions
* · Goal seeking
* · Multiple named views
* · Dynamic inter-spreadsheet links
* · Live graphs and charts
* · Editable graph styles
* · Print preview
* · Borders and shading
* · Drag-and-drop moving of cells
* · Projection tables
* · Relative and absolute cell references
* · Built-in database functions
* · Built-in shared library, RPC, and shell command mechanisms
* · True minimal recalculation
Applix Presentation Graphics
* · Feature-rich palette, fill patterns & drawing tools
* · Horizontal and vertical shearing
* · User-definable fill patterns, brush styles and shapes
* · Unlimited color support and point sizes
* · Rotating and scaling options
* · Drop shadows
* · Text wrapping
* · Image digitizing
* · Pixel editing
* · Managed layers and animation
Applix Mail
* · Fully mail-enables all Applixware products
* · Personal and global user lists, distribution lists and aliases
* · Sorting, filing and querying on incoming messages
* · Automatic conversion of messages/documents to recipient's
preferences
* · UNIX sendmail transport and MIME compliant
* · Shared folders
Applix HTML Author
* · Availability of a wide range of basic and advanced HTML concepts
* · More than 25 standard HTML styles for headlines, subheads, lists
and text
* · Auto-conversion of Applix Words styles to standard HTML styles
* · Auto-conversion of Applix Graphics and Applix Presents to GIF,
including linked or embedded graphics
* · Auto-conversion or creation of tables
* · Full control over background color, text and hyperlink colors
* · Auto-bulleting and auto-listing functions
* · Dialog boxes and pull-down menus for all attributes and
activities
* · Straightforward linking and editing of existing GIF files
The Extension Language Facility (ELF) and Macros
* · Robust interpretive programming language
* · TCP/IP socket interface and remote procedure calls (RPCs)
* · Interactive debugger, compiler/interpreter
* · Arithmetic, string and Boolean operators
* · Over 2500 built-in macros. Time-saving features for all users
* · User-definable menu bars, dialog boxes and keybindings, menu-bar
editor across all Applixware products
* · Keystroke and mousepick recorder
* · Live linking and launching of external applications from Applix
Words,
* · Spreadsheets, Presents, and Mail.
* · User-definable ExpressLine icons for automating tasks
* · Incremental zoom
Changes from Previous Version
This new version features advanced HTML authoring tools for adding
pages to your website simply and directly. It also has dramatically
improved filter technology enabling you, for example, to import and
work on Word or WordPerfect files and export back in those formats. If
you want the ``real thing'', Corel has version 7.0 of Word Perfect
available for Linux.
The graphical user interface for Linux (and Unix in general) is X
Windows. A typical X Windows setup is shown below. This system is
running the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) window manager. X Windows
is divided into two subsystems consisting of a server and a client and
you are free to change either of these as your want. The main reason
for changing an X server is to gain better speed and better support
for your video cards and monitors. The main reason for changing window
managers is to get the look and feel you desire. You can not change
the server or window manager under any of the Windows products,
because Microsoft has decided the look and feel you get. The closest
they get is the Plus! pack and its themes.
Another possibility , which will save money and breath life into your
old 486's is to install Linux on them and use them as a NC (Network
Computer). Linux's GUI is X, so it is perfect for an X terminal (with
either another Linux machine as the server, or any other Unix system)
and you can run Insignia Solutions Inc.'s Keoke client under Java in
order to turn your Linux workstation into a thin client that runs
Windows (virtual NT) applications.
As a rule, Linux performs radically better than Windows 3.1 given the
same amount of RAM. Linux can run complete with a graphical desktop on
a 386 with 4MB of RAM, if you're patient. Add Netscape Navigator, and
you can get away with a 486 and 8MB of RAM. Consider 16MB of RAM a
performance sweet spot, especially if you use Communicator. Linux also
has unimposing disk space requirements. The bare-bones Caldera
graphical client uses about 68MB of disk space. You'll want to install
a few more packages than that (Netscape, Java, and perhaps a
friendlier window manager than the default Fvwm), and you'll need at
least a 32MB swap partition. When you consider all the factors, a
200MB disk is plenty for most desktops.
Appendix A
RedHat 5.0 Installation Guide
Appendix B
Samba
Appendix C
DOSEMU Manual
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, Quinn P. Coldiron
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next
_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
Revisiting VIM
by Andy Kahn
April 29th, 1998
_________________________________________________________________
Vim stands for "VI Improved", and certainly, it a very much improved
version of the old text editor, vi. It's been a while since the
gazette had an article on vim (over a year to be exact!), and a lot
has changed since then, including a major version release. I decided
to cover some of the new features (as well as some older features)
that I find extremely useful in vim, but not in vi.
Features
First of all, let me just run down some of the big features of the
latest version of vim:
Syntax highlighting
Win32 GUI version
BeOS version, including GUI
MacOS GUI version
VMS version
Built-in scripting language
Perl and Python support
Unlimited undo
Multiple windows
...and a ton of other good stuff
Syntax highlighting
Personally, I found the syntax highlighting to be one of the most
useful features of vim. Syntax highlighting (or coloring, as some may
call it), colors text according to their attributes. For editing code,
this allows you to have different colors for commented text, keywords,
numbers, etc. You may not think much of it, but believe me, after
staring at code for long periods of time, all the text on the screen
starts looking pretty much the same. It certainly helps to have some
color differentiate between actual code, and comments in the code! A
picture is worth a thousand words, so here's a screen shot of my vim
setup editing main.c from the vim source:
[INLINE]
You may notice the curious string on the very first line of the file:
"vi:set ts=8 sts=4 sw=4:" This is just a little formatting shortcut.
If you write code that other people may look at and/or edit, if they
also use vim, then the code will be properly indented as you intended
it to be! This is just like the magic strings people use in emacs:
"-*- Mode: C++; tab-width: 4; indent-tabs-mode: nil; c-basic-offset: 4
-*-" to make indentation look consistent.
Gui versions
As for all the wonderful GUI versions of vim, here's a screenshot I
found at http://polder.ubc.kun.nl/~rhialto/be/vim-5.0s-screen1.gif
showing off the BeOS version:
[INLINE]
Here is a BIG screenshot of the Unix version of vim with four
different looks (vim in an xterm, vim using Athena, vim using Athena
with Xaw3d, and vim using Motif (for Linux users, Vim also works with
Lesstif)). Click on the image for the full size version:
[LINK]
There are plenty more screenshots here.
Built-in Scripting
The built-in scripting language is a small language (as opposed to
Perl and Python) that let's you do some simple things in your vim
startup file (.exrc or rather, .vimrc). For example, the simplest
thing to do is to check for a version or feature:
if version >= 500
" Switch on syntax highlighting.
syntax on
if has("cscope")
set csexec=/usr/local/bin/cscope
set csto=0
set csta=1
set csverb=0
cs add cscope.out
set csverb=1
else
map ^] g^]
endif
endif
Visual Text Selecting
A feature which is present even in the previous version of vim that I
use frequently is its "Visual" capability. By hitting "v" when in
command mode, you can highly lines and words and then perform just
about any normal vim operation on the selected text! This includes,
deleting, copying, pasting, running more ":ex" commands, and my
favorite, reindenting. For example, let's say I highlighted the
following code:
[INLINE]
If I hit ">" (that's the greater-than sign, or Shift-.), the result
will look like this:
[INLINE]
Or if I were to hit "<" (the less-than sign, or Shift-,), I get this
result:
[INLINE]
If I really wanted to, I could highlight the entire function, and run
then run it through the "indent" program:
Before:
[INLINE]
After:
[INLINE]
C and C++ tags
Another feature programmers will find handy is vim's ability to deal
with multiple tags. Vim comes with "Exhuberant Ctags", and with it,
you can store multiple definitions in the same tags file. Once in vim,
you can do use ":tselect" or ":tjump" on a tag, and vim will present
to you a list of the multiple tag entries. Just select from the list,
and vim will take you there as it normally would with a single tag
entry!
There's More!
Of course, I could go on and on about all the little (as well as big!)
things that make vim such a great editor. But I won't bore you with
the details. :) You can go read about them yourself on vim's
homepage: www.vim.org. There's plenty of new things being worked on
and added all the time, including more features in the various GUI
versions (contact me if you are interested in doing a GTK and/or a QT
version!), ports to other platforms (including the Amiga), and other
nifty features.
There are certainly a lot of text editors out there, and if you're a
vi user, you should definitely consider using vim if you aren't doing
so already!
_________________________________________________________________
Andy works at Digital Equipment Corporation doing Digital Unix
filesystems kernel development. He thinks he's just hacking away at
more and more C code, and in his copious spare time, he hacks on lots
of other things, including all the trees in his neighborhood. Feel
free to send him email.
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, Andy Kahn
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next
_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
A Linux Journal Preview: This article will appear in the August issue
of Linux Journal.
_________________________________________________________________
Sun Joins Linux International
By Marjorie Richardson
_________________________________________________________________
In May, Sun Microsystems joined Linux International. In a year where
Netscape has released their source and many companies have announced
that their products will be supporting Linux, I felt Sun's move was an
interesting enough development to want to know more. Therefore, I did
a short e-mail interview with Charles Andres, a Group Manager in
Market Development Engineering at Sun Microsystems. Here's what he
told me.
Margie:Why has Sun made the decision to join Linux International?
Charles: Sun Microsystems is responding to renewed interest in running
Linux on its UltraSPARC products, such as the Ultra 5. SPARC products
have always been designed to run UNIX extremely well. Linux runs well
on UltraSPARC platforms.
It is important to note that this move in no way diminishes Sun's
support for Solaris, a proven reliable scalable operating system. The
Solaris environment will still be provided with all SPARC systems and
is considered by us to be the best operating system for enterprise and
network computing.
Margie: Is Sun planning to have Linux support for all its products?
Charles: Sun Microsystems is not planning on selling any products that
are bundled with Linux. Sun bundles Solaris with every workstation and
server it currently ships. There are also no plans to provide support
for Linux directly. However, there are a number of Linux vendors that
support a variety of platforms. We are working to ensure that these
vendors include UltraSPARC platform support for their Linux products.
Margie: Does this move represent a shift in policy for Sun? Last year,
we asked for a picture of a SunSPARC workstation to use on our cover,
and were refused because ``Linux is a competitor.'' (We used a Ross
SPARCplug instead.)
Charles: Sun Microsystems has never had an official policy regarding
Linux up to now. As stated above, Sun Microsystems has gone from
having no policy regarding Linux, to helping to ensure that Linux runs
on SPARC by assisting companies who sell supported versions of Linux.
Margie: How does Sun feel about the ``Open Source'' movement?
(Prominent in the news, because of Netscape source release.)
Charles: Sun Microsystems has a long tradition of supporting open
standards, typically through standardized interfaces, many of which
Sun has invented. Providing source code may be appropriate in some
specific instances, but typically works well only in situations where
trademarks associated with the source code are licensed.
Compatibility, consistency, reliability and upgrades require a
business model that can finance the effort required to provide them.
Users who want the freedom of Open Source take on the responsibility
of maintaining their own source code, but cannot guarantee consistent
results with other variants. This could become a problem for Netscape
source variants if they are not uniquely identified. This is why we
feel brand protection through licensing is so important.
Margie: Some people feel that Java should be made Open Source. Any
chance of that happening?
Charles: Source for the Java language is available to anyone who signs
the Java license which is free for non-commercial use. This is done to
allow Java to run anywhere, and to avoid problems that could occur
when source is modified to produce variants that are not consistent
with the Java language specification.
Margie: Anything else you'd like to add?
Charles: We look forward to working with you and the Linux community
to promote the advantages of UNIX and Linux on SPARC in the future.
Margie:Thank you for your time.
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, Marjorie Richardson
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next
_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
Tom's 2 cent Tips
By Tom Bryant
_________________________________________________________________
The notes listed below document the author's "show stoppers" which
were made as he learned UNIX, after working on DOS, VMS, and other
systems. There is a small chance that you will make exactly the same
error, and this document will help you to solve it. What is far more
likely is that you will skim through it, and hopefully learn one very
important thing:
Almost all errors are trivial, and result from your understanding a
Unix function *almost* completely. Gross errors in understanding are
very rare, although when you hit a show stopper, you usually get the
initial impression that you are hopelessly in left field and will
never understand this cryptic operating system. Not True!! *Do not
give up*!
I suppose that you have already guessed it, but the FAQs, man pages
and emacs info documentation comes with Linux, and *really* help out.
You have to really dig: there are bookshelves of documentation in the
above sources. You will probably learn more about certain topics than
you wanted to, but after a while all this knowledge begins to look
good on your resume. While I have tried to avoid overlap in this
document, some does exist. It should give you pause that there is so
little overlap! A modern operating system is a complex, many faceted
beast. Take it a facet at a time and you'll get around it!
UNIX is largely free of the system crashes that plague DOS and the
MAC. This is because a user account is almost incapable of accessing
the system resources required to crash the system. When you're running
in DOS or MAC mode, you (or more often, programs that you run) can
crash the system. I once complexly wiped my hard disk while running
Borland's C++ compiler. I have never had this happen with Linux. I've
never, in five years, crashed the system so badly that I had to reset.
Granted, some functions (X windows and the modem) required a reset,
but I could always get to a root virtual terminal to shut down
gracefully. I've merrily crashed VMS, other Unicies, and of course,
anything Microsoft has ever produced, from DOS 3.3 to NT. Linux is
robust.
I suppose no introduction is complete without a testimonial. Here
goes: I mentioned above that I had worked on a number of systems
before embracing Unix. Unix (especially Linux) is the best system I
have *ever* worked on. Give it a chance: it takes a while to collect a
"critical mass" of Unix commands to make the system really fly, but
once you do, you'll become one of those insufferable Unix propeller
heads who claim (truthfully) that nothing else even comes close!
Please Note: The author has made every effort to insure the
correctness of the information which follows. However, there are NO
warranties, expressed or implied, for this information. In other
words, if something goes wrong, it's your problem.
_________________________________________________________________
Contents:
* adduser
* ar
* Backing Up
* bash
* C
* chmod
* cshrc
* find
* ftp
* gdb
* imake
* kermit
* login
* less
* Linux
* mail
* make
* modem
* Networking
* nroff
* qsort
* PPP
* rm
* Setup
* swapon
* tar
* test
* Time
* useradd
* Virtual Terminals
* X
_________________________________________________________________
Alphabetical list of utilities with one or more tips with them:
_________________________________________________________________
adduser
You can only run this from root, but it is an essential command.
Almost all of your time spent in Linux should be spent in a user
account of your own creation, as this account is prevented from
executing disastrous commands such as rm -rf /* (This cleans your disk
in a disastrously complete fashion.)
MORAL: Always run in a user account, not root unless you are doing
some system administration which will only work in root.
_________________________________________________________________
ar
Ar creates a library file, which, after you get a utility program
you'll be using in other programs, allows you to easily access the
object files of that program. The files are created by the following
command:
ar -r libArchiveName.a objectfile.o
ArchiveName is, by convention, named libArchiveName.a. However, you
refer to in your make file only by ArchiveName. e.g
LIBFILES = ... -lArchiveName ...
_________________________________________________________________
Backing up.
Having your system crash and not loosing valuable data is what
separates the computer pros from the also rans. Here's how I do it.
All of the software on my system is safely contained on the CD that I
used to load it in. There's no reason to back up this stuff. CDs are
more stable than any tape or disk backup I know of.
I only back up files that I have fiddled with. My programs,
configuration files, documents, etc. I have a script file, sall (save
all) which goes to each directory that I have stuff in, tars it, gzips
it and then saves it to floppy.
This stuff all fits on one 1.44 Mb disk. It represents about 730 pages
of single spaced typewritten output. That's a lot of typing. Most
books aren't that big. If you have more stuff than this, I'd suspect
that 80% of it is stuff you haven't touched in a year. You can back it
up to a disk, put the disk in a safe place and pretty much forget it.
Of course, if you gzip the result, you can usually more than triple
the amount of stuff you back up.
I have 15+ disks which I keep my backups on, and back up at the end of
any day that I have done a substantial amount of input. This gives me
access to a month or more of past versions.
You'll find your own way in this. The important thing is to *do* it.
Then you can feel almost smug when you hard disk finally dies.
_________________________________________________________________
bash (and ksh and sh)
To set an environmental variable with bash use the following syntax:
VARIABLE=value
For example, to tell bash that your are a vt100 type terminal, enter:
TERM=vt100; export TERM
NOTE: There are no spaces around the equal sign. This is true for all
bash commands, not just setting environmental variables. Remember this
and be saved frustration down the road.
_________________________________________________________________
C
1. As Unix is currently configured, there is no easy way to get a
single keystroke without using curses or changing the terminal
characteristics. Your users will just have to get used to hitting
Enter after an input. If they can't, uses curses or the GCC C
manual (actually a superb reference for C libraries well worth the
$50+ bucks!)
2. After you have output to an opened text file, it is a good idea to
send a fflush(stdout) command. This will flush the buffer and keep
you from overflowing it if you get over 2048 characters in it,
which is easy to do.
3. To use math.h functions in a c program:
Link in the math libraries by typing:
gcc source.cxx -lm
Math libraries MUST be linked in last!!! Old UNIX linker convention!
4. When declaring pointers, every variable must be proceeded by an
asterisk!
int *v1,
v2,
v3;
Results in compiler complaints of bad unary operator arguments!
Correct:
int *v1,
*v2,
*v3;
5. To capture the output of a compile which is causing problems, and
outputting reams of digital vomit, use this construct from a sh
based shell like bash:
gcc -c flaw.cxx &> TextCapture
or
gcc -c flaw.cxx 2> TextCapture
The errors will be captured in TextCapture.
6. A static variable is initialized only once in a function. All
other calls to that function result in the existing value of the
variable being used.
7. Shifts in most Unix C compliers are actually integer divides and
multiplies by 2. Never mind what the ANSI spec says:
This code gives problems:
long n = 0x80000000;
for (i = 0; i < 24; i++) printf("\n n is now %lx.", n >> i);
n must be declared as an unsigned long for this to produce reasonable
results. The fact that n starts negative fowls the compiler up.
This also indicates that right and left shifts are implemented as
divide and multiply by 2 with the GNU C++ compiler.
8. This is perhaps my favorite subtle error. If I only had a dollar
for every hour I've spent searching for this self imposed
klutziness...
for (i = 0; i < upper_limit; i++);
{
this = cant_happen;
the_loop = wont_execute;
}
See the semi-colon at the end of the for statement line? The program
pauses for an empty loop of upper_limit cycles, and then proceeds
to do just the first installment of the loop and nothing else.
It's quite easy to to, too, even after you've been bitten a few
times by it.
9. You can core dump a program sooner than quicker by writing too
much stuff into a string, so that it doesn't end with that all
important 0. e.g.:
double age;
char oops[52];
int len; ...
sprintf(oops,"The age of the universe in nanoseconds is %f.\n",age);
len = strlen(oops);
The fragment will die at the strlen call, as the string is longer than
50 characters, even if it is 10 character in the sprintf
statement. The age of the universe in nanoseconds is about 19
characters long.
10. This code will pass a file pointer (tfile) to a function:
#include <stdio.h> /* fclose, fopen, printf.*/
#include <stdlib.h> /* exit. */
void main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
/* Function Prototypes:*/
int openfile(FILE** tfile);
/* Variables:*/
FILE *tfile; /* Test file.*/
/* Begin:*/
printf("Starting program. tfile = %p.\n", tfile);
openfile(&tfile);
printf("Back in main. tfile = %p\n", tfile);
fclose(tfile);
}
/* Open the file and return the pointer.*/
int openfile(FILE **tfile)
{
*tfile = fopen("junk","wb");
printf("Tfile just opened. tfile = %p, *tfile = %p.\n",
tfile, *tfile);
return 1;
}
11. This code will allow you to reference an array of characters as an
array of longs without using a union:
int bozo(void)
{
void use_long(long *array); // Function prototype.
char *array; // The character array.
use_long((long*) array);
}
void use_long(long *array);
{
// Reference the array as longs here.
}
12. Profiling:
Compile with the flag -pg (for gprof compatible output). Link with
the -pg flag AT THE END OF THE LINK LIST. e.g:
gcc -o run_time_image my_main.o my_other_stuff.o -pg
Even then, don't expect miracles. This does not work on an mpeg2
package I found on the net.
13. Reading in a globbed (wildcarded) file list:
If you want you program to work on all files in a directory, you
can enter "myprog *". Argc will count the number of files out
there, and argv will be the char **list of their names.
14. The code
string1[i++] = string2[i];
Will take the nth component of string2 and put it the into the nth
component of string1, then increment i. This is how GCC and the
SGI C compiler do it.
The Motorola C compiler takes the (n + 1)th component of string2
and puts it into the nth component of string1. I gets incremented
*before* the assignment. Safer is to just use this code:
string1[i] = string2[i];
i++;
15. The code
if (index++ == NR_PTS) index = 0; // Fails to implement a circular buffer.
Does not implement the desired buffer. Let's say that NR_PTS is 100,
and index is 99. The comparison is made when index is 99. Index is
not reset, by then it is set to 100 by the ++. Next time, of
course, the index will be reset to 0, but by then, it's
overwritten whatever was in buffer[100], which is the 101st entry
in buffer, a 100 int (or whatever) array.
use this instead:
if (++index == NR_PTS) index = 0; // Implements the circular buffer.
16. Occasionally, if you allocate a *huge* array (I needed one 10.7 MB
to make this one happen) the program will bomb as it tries to pass
the array to another function. For example:
char moby[20000000]; // A really big text file.
There simply wasn't enough room on the C/C++ stack to hold the array,
and the program bombed as soon as it tried to access it. The
compiler, of course, didn't complain.
The fix is to malloc (or new, in C++) the array:
char *moby; // A really big text file.
moby = (char*) malloc(20000000);
if (moby == NULL)
{
printf("Hey! I'm not big enough to hold moby!\n");
}
17. When it works on one machine and not on others, or in the debugger
and not out of it:
You might well be not initializing your variables properly.
Sometimes one machine will just happen to initialize a variable to
a non lethal value, and the others won't. See inexplicable errors
item 3 as well.
18. Inexplicable errors:
Occasionally, you will face very odd errors. A function works
perfectly *most* of the time. The rest of the time, it has very
strange errors. Variables seem to change value in a capricious
way, and your frustration index soars off of the charts. If you're
a beginner, you decide that programming is beyond you, and give
up. Don't despair, quite yet. There are a few tricks, not written
in any book that I have seen, that I have developed over the years
to help you over these rough spots. In general, try these in the
order given.
1. Rewrite your code until it is remorselessly neat.
2. Step through it line by line with a good debugger (I
recommend GNU's GDB for C code. It's a bit flaky (1998) for
C++).
3. If these steps did not fix the problem, try recompiling
everything with a command like:
rm *.o // Important!
make // Or whatever compilation command you use.
4. If you have inconsistent program results, so that the program
works most of the time, and inexplicably fails occasionally,
carefully check to see that all of your variables have been
initialized properly.
5. Sometimes the memory can be corrupted by new routines not
fitting into word boundaries on your machine. Granted, this
is *not* supposed to happen, but it does anyway, even in the
best compilers and linkers. Try declaring arrays to be 1
index larger than they should be and see if that fixes it.
(This is getting to be a rare C error (1998)).
1. There are times when the program does not misbehave in
the debugger, and if you put a few diagnostic printfs in
it to further check it out, it still does not die. These
temporary measures may need to be made permanent as the
extra variables you created to let you see what is going
on have pushed the memory usage boundaries of the
function to a more robust spot (i.e. to a word
boundary).
6. Once you think you've fixed the problem, *TEST EVERYTHING*
before you release anything.
7. Keep at it. With practice, you can dumb yourself down to the
intelligence level of a compiler. Good Luck!
_________________________________________________________________
chmod
The command chmod XXX .* can have unforeseen after effects. It affects
the directory you're in as well as the files in that directory! You
might find that only root can access the files, and then only after
chmoding them back to where they were supposed to be.
cpio (not often used, most Unix users use tar instead)
To use cpio, for backups, specify:
find (path name) [-name] | cpio -oc > (destination file and directory.)
To extract a cpio file:
cpio -i [-F (full file specification)] [-r rename files]
_________________________________________________________________
cshrc
To change the erase key from ctrl h to stty erase \x7F To the .cshrc
file. Unfortunately, the C shell interpreter does not understand the
sequence \x7F, and I needed to write a short C program to insert the
byte with value 127 (7F hex) at the end of the file.
To set the terminal from 'console' or 'Linux' to vt100 (needed by elm
(a mail handling utility)) on an SGI, put this line in your .cshrc
file in you SGI home directory:
eval `tset -s -Q vt100`
If your etc/ttytype file is set up to recognize vt100s, this should
work.
Note this does not work on all machines. These methods were useless on
a motorola, for example
_________________________________________________________________
find
find (path name) -name (file name) -print
wildcards at the beginning of a find names must be preceded by a \.
e.g.:
find / -name "\*bozo*" -print
finds all files with the letters bozo in them. Some systems require
the quotes as well.
_________________________________________________________________
ftp
Make sure the line setting is binary. Zipped files will not transfer
correctly if this is not set.
_________________________________________________________________
gdb (and dbx)
To examine a core file:
gdb <executable file name> <core file name>
The core file name is usually "core".
To examine an array:
p *arrayName@number_of_bytes_you_want_to_see
_________________________________________________________________
imake
The new way of handling compiling and linking programs is with a
utility called imake. It makes programs easier to move around from
machine to machine. To use it:
1. Read the imake, make and xmkmf man pages. Also any README files
that came with the program you're trying to build. If you're going
to be getting into some serious program development, the emacs
info page on make is a must read.
2. Back up everything! Source, Makefile, imakefile, etc.
3. imake
4. If imake doesn't work, try xmkmf
5. If it *still* doesn't work, go back to step 0.
_________________________________________________________________
kermit (quick check of file integrity)
This is true for any other data transfer protocol as well, such as
ftp.
Check the size of the files that you have transfered to the target
system. If they are not the same size, something went wrong.
_________________________________________________________________
login
To disable the annoying wait after an unsuccessful login, edit the
file /etc/login.defs. Change the parameter FAIL_DELAY from whatever
it's set to to 0. You'll have to be root to do this.
link (ln)
to create a symbolic link:
ln -s <existing file or directory> <Linked file or directory$gt;
e.g.:
ln -s OldFile NewLink
This creates a symbolic link name NewLink that points to OldFile. When
you access NewLink, Unix actually accesses OldFile.
Links are mainly used to save disk space, allowing yu to have the same
file in several different places without actually having maintain
multiple copies of the file.
_________________________________________________________________
less
Less can't display ANSI color escape sequences like most of the other
Unix text output utilities can. It instead tries to print them with
ugly results. On other unicies, the work around is to use the pg
function, but it's not avalible on Linux (yet).
_________________________________________________________________
Linux
To regain text that has scrolled off of the screen, try shift-PageUp
and/or shift-PageDown. This will work on a given console until you
shift to another one. When you shift back, however, you will find that
the scrolled text has been lost.
To change from virtual console to virtual console, use left alt (only
the left alt key works on my machine) FX where FX is one of the
function keys F1 thru F6. F7 will be your X window, and isn't set up
for you to log into it, but see the note below.
When you are in X, you can move back to the text consoles by
simultaneously typing the control and alt keys, and then the function
key of the virtual console you want to be in.
To add more virtual consoles edit your /etc/ inittab file and add a
line to the getty configuration section. I added this line to inittab
and it allowed me to add another virtual console:
c7:456:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400 tty7
This let me log into F7, but not as root. To log in as root, I added
this line to the /etc/securetty file:
tty7
I did not add further consoles, as 7 is the canonical number for the
maximum number of things you want to juggle at one time, and each
virtual console takes up precious RAM even if it is dormant.
When your screen gives weird output for lower case letters, try this:
echo "^V^[c"
(that's E C H O space control-V escape C return) to fix it.
_________________________________________________________________
mail
To send a message with a subject:
mail -s "This is the subject" recipient@computer.full.ip.address < message
To forward your mail:
Create a file in your root directory called .forward. This file should
contain the address of the machine that you want to send the mail to:
e.g. My .forward file reads:
Thomas.V.Bryant.1@gsfc.nasa.gov
_________________________________________________________________
make
The make utility *requires* that commands (as listed under a
target:dependency line) begin with a tab (ASCII 09).
If your emacs tab stops are set to under 8, emacs will insert spaces
(ASCII 32), and not a tab. This will stop make dead in its tracks.
You'll have to reset your tabs to edit a makefile.
If you break up the lines in your make file (a good idea: readability
is king!) don't put anything after your backslash (line continuation
symbol) or make will throw up on it:
LIBS = Lmylib Lyourlib ... \
^
|
|
No spaces or tabs or anything after here!!!
_________________________________________________________________
modem
When you install linux, your serial ports will not be configured. You
have to enable the call to /etc/rc.d/rc.serial in /etc/rc/rc.S:
# Run serial port setup script:
# (CAREFUL! This can make some systems hang if the rc.serial script isn't
# set up correctly. If this happens, you may have to edit the file from a
# boot disk)
#
# You need to enable this line (remove the # comment symbol):
. /etc/rc.d/rc.serial
# for your modem to work.
_________________________________________________________________
Networking
Installation (for Author's PPP link -- a *very* brief reminder list):
Load the networking module in the slakware file.
Create or copy the /etc/hosts file.
Create or copy the /etc/resolve.conf.
Edit /etc/rc.d/rc.serial.
Run time problems:
Try the ifconfig and netstat commands to find out what your current
network configuration is.
Use the ping command to check you connections.
Make sure that your linux kernel has drivers both for your network
card and ethernet. Networking will not work without them.
_________________________________________________________________
nroff
Many text files are quasi-readable, and filled with control
characters. If the file turns out to be an nroff man page, you can
read it with the command:
groff -Tascii -man file.name | less
Often a variation of this command is necessary. See the man pages for
groff and grog. Grog tries to look at the file for you and suggest a
command. This is one that repays a lot of fiddling. Back up the
original file, and groff away. Usually you'll get it. Remember also
that postscript files (usually denoted by a .ps suffix) are read with
the ghostscript command from X.
_________________________________________________________________
qsort
Here's a wierd one. The qsort function has a hard time calling it's
comparison function from a C file compiled with gcc. It works fine if
gcc thinks it's compiling a C++ file. Here's a pixel value sort I did,
heavily edited:
int pixCmp(pixel*, pixel*); // Return -1, 0, or 1. For the qsort call.
...
qsort(data, BigNumber, sizeof(pixel), pixCmp);
...
int pixCmp(pixel* a,
pixel* b)
{
if (a->clr > b->clr) return 1;
else if (a->clr < b->clr) return -1;
else return 0;
}
If the file is named pixels.c, it produces the following gcc error:
pixels.c: In function `readData':
pixels.c:164: warning: passing arg 4 of `qsort' from incompatible
pointer type
If the file is named pixels.C, it produces no errors:
_________________________________________________________________
PPP
Installing PPP to work with Linux can be done, but it is not trivial.
I'll describe the steps that worked for me, so that you might get a
variation on them to work for you.
Don't expect it to work perfectly the first time. You'll have to futz
with it, unless you are very lucky.
PPP must first be installed in your kernel. To check if it is there:
dmesg | grep -i ppp
You should get something that looks like this:
PPP: version 0.2.7 (4 channels) NEW_TTY_DRIVERS OPTIMIZE_FLAGS
PPP line discipline registered.
If you don't, you'll have to recompile your kernel, or get a copy of a
kernel that has ppp on it from the net. Instructions for doing this
are found in the file /usr/doc/ppp/README.linux.gz. This is where it
is in my Slackware release, yours will probably be similar. You need
to read this file now. Before you go any further. Otherwise, what
follows will read like gibberish.
Read the Readme? Good. Here's how my pppd/chat command looks:
/usr/sbin/pppd connect '/usr/sbin/chat "" ATDT7035551212 CONNECT "" ogin:\
tbryant word: secret_password' /dev/modem 38400 -detach crtscts modem \
defaultroute noipdefault
Fill in your appropriate telephone number, user ID and password.
Run the script from your root directory,unless you have given pppd
suid privileges (recommended).
When I am running the script, I do so from an X windows term, so I can
start netscape (or whatever X application I want) easily.
Once I've established the connection, then I can run netscape, ftp, or
telent to other internet connected machines.
My ISP (Internet Service Provider) assigns me a different IP address
each time I log on. This IP address can be found with ifconfig, or
from the /var/log/messages file.
The last few lines have what you need:
Aug 28 20:01:23 3C273 pppd[168]: local IP address 205.252.11.62
To log off, the PPP-HOWTO.gz document has the following logoff script:
#!/bin/sh
DEVICE=ppp0
#
# If the ppp0 pid file is present then the program is running. Stop it.
if [ -r /var/run/$DEVICE.pid ]; then
kill -INT `cat /var/run/$DEVICE.pid`
#
# If the kill did not work then there is no process running for this
# pid. It may also mean that the lock file will be left. You may wish
# to delete the lock file at the same time.
if [ ! "$?" = "0" ]; then
rm -f /var/run/$DEVICE.pid
echo "ERROR: Removed stale pid file"
exit 1
fi
#
# Success. Let pppd clean up its own junk.
echo "PPP link to $DEVICE terminated."
exit 0
fi
#
# The PPP process is not running for ppp0
echo "ERROR: PPP link is not active on $DEVICE"
exit 1
Additional hints not in the README.linux file:
All exchanges between you and you host computer will be logged in the
/var/log/messages file. Deducing what's going wrong is much easier if
you just look at the end of this file:
tail /var/log/messages
Keep trying, don't be afraid to futz around. If you're well backed up
(you *ARE*, aren't you?) you won't hurt any of you hardware, or
permanently damage any software (even this is very unlikely). Good
Luck!
_________________________________________________________________
rm
When a file absolutely refuses to go away, try surrounding its name
with quotes. This might kill it. I needed to remove a file called
#filename#. Here's how I fared.
rm #filename# Refused to work.
rm "#filename#" Worked.
rm '#filename#' Worked.
rm \#filename# Worked.
The top command worked on the older versions of Linux and SGI's IRIX.
This is probably a Posix compatibility problem that caused the more
recent versions of Linux to stop working.
_________________________________________________________________
Setup
The setup script will not run unless you are in /usr/lib/setup, and
running as root. Be careful. Back up everything before you start
playing around with this. Don't be afraid to play, however, as you can
always improve on the defaults Linux comes with.
_________________________________________________________________
swapon
To set up a swap file, (needed for installation)
1. Start you new Linux box with the boot and root disks.
2. make a partition (The rule of thumb is 1 - 2 times the size of the
RAM on your machine.) using fdisk. Be sure and set the data type
to Linux swap.
3. Format the partition: mkswap -c </dev/partitionName>
4. Enable swapping in /etc/rc.d/rc.S: /sbin/swapon -a
_________________________________________________________________
tar
To make a tar file:
tar -cf tarfilename filename (or directory. Directory is recursive)
This creates the file.
tar -rf tarfilename filename (or directory. Directory is recursive)
This appends to an existing file.
To extract a tar file:
Get into the directory where you want to have the files.
tar -xf (Complete filespec of the tar file to be extracted.)
_________________________________________________________________
test
*NEVER* *NEVER* *NEVER* name an executable test. This is a very easy,
logical thing to do. When you try and run it, the shell will invoke
it's test utility, find nothing there, and exit silently, leaving you
very puzzled.
_________________________________________________________________
Time
To set the system clock (CMOS) from Linux:
Set the system time from the CMOS clock, adjusting the time to correct
for systematic error, and writ- ting it back into the CMOS clock.
This option uses the file /etc/adjtime to determine how the clock
changes. It contains three numbers: The first number is the correction
in seconds per day (for example, if your clock runs 5 seconds fast
each day, the first number should read -5.0).
The second number tells when clock was last used, in seconds since
1/1/1970.
The third number is the remaining part of a second that was left over
after the last adjustment.
The following instructions are from the source code:
1. create a file /etc/adjtime containing as the first and only line:
'0.0 0 0.0'
2. run clock -au or clock -a, depending on whether your CMOS is in
Universal or Local Time. This updates the second number.
3. set your system time using the date command. mmddhhmm[yy][.ss]
4. update your CMOS time using clock -wu (for UT) or clock -w.
5. replace the first number in /etc/adjtime by your correction.
6. put the command clock -au or clock -a in your /etc/rc.local, or
let cron(8) start it regularly.
_________________________________________________________________
useradd
When a user is added, you have to make sure that the user owns, or at
least has read, write, and execute privileges on his/her home
directory. If you neglect this step, the new user will be unable to
function properly, and perhaps will not be able to log on!
The /usr/bin directory must have its privileges set to 755 in order
for users to be able to execute the UNIX commands contained therein.
_________________________________________________________________
Virtual Terminals:
To change from terminal to terminal:
Left Alt + fn
(n is the terminal number, from 1 - 6 and f is a function key.)
To return to virtual terminal text mode from X:
Left Alt + Control + fn
n is again the number of the terminal you want.
To see text that has scrolled off of the screen:
Shift + Page up or Page down.
Moves you up and down by half a screen each time.
To see task information:
+ Scroll Lock
To see memory information:
Shift + Scroll Lock
_________________________________________________________________
X:
There are few short X tips. You need to read much of the documentation
that is out there, and but the O'Rielly series in X and Motif if you
intend to do serious developemt. It's an extrodinary, platform
independent, system that solves some very difficult problems with
accessing system resources in a uniform way. It's also very complex,
with all sorts of redundant functions and kludges. Good Luck.
If you're going to just start getting into building user interfaces, I
suggest that you bypass X entirely, and concentrate on Java. Of
course, Java for Unix platforms is based on X, but you shouldn't have
to worry about that.
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, Tom Bryant
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ] [ FRONT PAGE ] Back Next
_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
A Linux Journal Preview: This article will appear in the August issue
of Linux Journal.
_________________________________________________________________
UniForum '98 Report
By Phil Hughes
_________________________________________________________________
I am writing this article as I fly back from the UniForum Association
Spring '98 Conference. This was the first ever East Coast conference
held by UniForum in its 17 year history. It was held in Ocean City,
Maryland--a beautiful town by the Atlantic Ocean.
UniForum is an advocacy organization that promotes the use of Open
Computing solutions--or, to put it in succinct terms--the use of UNIX
and UNIX-like solutions. UniForum and Usenix have tended to complement
each other with UniForum being the conference for suits and Usenix the
conference for T-shirts.
The conference was a two and a half day event that looked light on
paper. Once there, I discovered there was too much to do in such a
short time. For the first two days, there were three tracks: New Open
Software Development Model and Linux, Network Computing and Best of
SCO Forum. All tracks included common Plenary and Keynote sessions. On
the third day there were two three-hour sessions: one presented by the
Open Group and the other by Linux International. I attended all the
Linux track sessions as well as the common sessions.
Monday's Plenary session was Eric Raymond's presentation of his paper
The Cathedral and the Bazaar which is credited with convincing
Netscape to take their Open Source stance. If you haven't heard the
talk or read the paper, it is available on our Linux Resources page.
After Jon Hall introduced the Linux track, Frank Hecker, who is a
systems engineer at Netscape, gave a talk entitled The Why and the How
that filled in the background of Netscape's decision to embrace the
Open Source model. For those of us who have been involved in what I
call ``revolution from below''--that is, attempting to sell Linux or
Open Source to those in the trenches and let it move up the corporate
ladder--Frank had some interesting things to say. He said the
engineers didn't believe Open Source could happen with Netscape. So,
Frank went to Marc Andreessen with the idea, and the rest is history.
After Frank's talk, we got together for the keynote lunch where Ralph
Nader (UniForum Press Release) spoke on the Microsoft monopoly and how
Linux could be a big player in an alternate solution. It was a treat
to get to meet Ralph and to hear the word Linux come out of his mouth
just a few days after hearing Marc Andreessen saying it. I brought up
how U.S. government procurements used to require a POSIX-compliant
operating system be made available with any system they purchased, and
Ralph and his staffers are going to look into why that requirement was
dropped. I asked him to keep LJ up to date on any findings, but you
might also wish to check out his web site at
http://www.essential.org/.
Two afternoon sessions were held in the Linux track. The first was
presented by Ron Workman of Cygnus Solutions, and the second was
presented by me. Covering mine is easy--I went through a series of
articles which have appeared in our Linux Means Business column,
illustrating how companies identified a problem, then used Linux to
address that problem.
Ron's talk addressed Open Source software from a different direction:
how a company can succeed in the business of supporting freely
available software. Cygnus was founded in 1989 to provide commercial
support for open Internet technologies and has grown to 160 employees.
The company has succeeded by offering consulting and support on such
products as the Free Software Foundation's GNU C Compiler.
Monday evening was filled with good food and bad beer (Coors
Light?--lucky Linus wasn't there) at a beach party hosted by Red Hat
Software. Like most parties at these conferences, the evening was
filled with meeting others and talking about computers, the UNIX
market and telling Microsoft jokes. I found it a valuable time to get
to know people better, for example, Morgan Von Essen and Garry Paxinos
of Metro Link, and to thank Alan Fedder and Kathy Goetz of UniForum
for organizing the conference.
Tuesday morning started with a Plenary by Eid Eid, President of Corel
Computer (see LJ, Issue 48). If I had to choose one person who
provided me with the most new information, I would choose Eid. I did
cheat a little however, as I also talked to him extensively over
lunch.
Eid's Plenary was a pleasant combination of future fantasy and a look
at what is available today. The fantasy part consisted of describing a
day in the life of Mr. Twenty O'One, illustrating what we should
expect in the near future (2001 isn't that far away) from our personal
communicator: voice- and e-mail access, voice commands and an
interface to the Corel NetWinder.
At the office, Mr. Twenty O'One will have a typical Intel-based PC but
most of his work will be done on his personal communicator and his
NetWinder. The NetWinder is much faster for doing common tasks
because, while it is a complete Linux system, common tasks (everything
from e-mail to video conferencing and replying to e-mail with a voice
message automatically appended to e-mail) are trivial to access.
After this fictional introduction, Eid went on to cover the pieces
which actually exist today, including the NetWinder, video
conferencing, XML and capable portable systems. He went on to say that
we need to make all the interfaces and standards open so any vendor
can produce pieces which interoperate. I expect some people were
surprised when he said, ``Corel, Lotus and others will have no choice
but to provide some source code for commercial products in the near
future.''
Eid also pointed out that Microsoft controls over 50% of the money
made on PC applications. Eid was the Chief Technical Officer for Corel
Corporation, makers of CorelDraw and owner of Corel Computer before
coming President of Corel Computer. He explained how Corel had been a
Microsoft partner until Corel acquired WordPerfect, then Microsoft
started hiding technology from them.
As many of us have concluded in the past, Eid believes you cannot
successfully fight Microsoft, but went on to point out what you can
do. He sees the network computer as the new wave, being less costly
and more maintainable. The network computer opens up a new market and,
done right, it can become a market as large as today's personal
computer market.
The morning session in the Linux Track included a presentation by Don
Rosenberg of Stromian Technologies on making money with Open Source as
an OEM/VAR. Differing from Ron Workman's presentation of the previous
day, Don's presentation was a mini-tutorial on how to get into a
market and how to make the right distribution choices along the way.
Next, Morgan Von Essen, President of Metro Link, with the help of
Garry Paxinos, Vice President, presented a talk on Metro Link's
cooperative work with the XFree86 community--another model of a
commercial enterprise working with the free software community. In
this case, they developed technology needed for their commercial
customers and then gave that technology back to the XFree86 community.
Doing this makes it easier for Metro Link to continue development,
because their work becomes standard in new XFree86 releases.
Tuesday's keynote lunch was presented by Janpieter Scheerer who was
President of Sunsoft and has now moved to head the storage division of
Sun. He talked about WebTone and made some very interesting points
demonstrating how the non-Microsoft community is growing faster than
the Microsoft community. His pointed out that while MS Windows sales
are growing at 13% a year, companies like Cisco are growing at 30%,
and that while there are over 100,000,000 MS/PC users, that number is
a small minority of the six billion people on the planet. He also
pointed out that every Quicken user who registers their product is a
UNIX user since the Quicken on-line registration server runs on Sun
systems.
Janpieter explained that today most ISVs will port their product to
either NT or Solaris. By mentioning an old Dutch saying, ``the enemy
of my enemy is my friend,'' he clearly sees Linux as an ally. By the
same reasoning, we need to see Sun ports as potential Linux ports of
the future.
Janpieter, like Eid, pointed out that the network computer is in--all
we need is a $150 device to connect to the Internet. He then went on
to talk about two subjects: first ``OPEN-standardization'' and then
Java. This got a reaction from both Eric Raymond and Eid Eid, who both
pointed out that for Java to be the answer, its standard needs to be
open. There was no resolution, but I am sure we were heard.
The afternoon Linux track brought Bob Young discussing the size of the
Linux market or, more accurately, explaining how hard it is to come up
with an accurate estimate. Bob also announced the availability of the
Extreme Linux CD which includes all the Beowulf RPMs for those of you
who want to build your own supercomputer. Jon Hall of Linux
International closed the track with some general comments and
preparation work for the workshop the following morning.
On Wednesday the Linux track attendees changed their plans and
attended the first hour of a presentation entitled What Exciting
Technology is Emerging? by The Open Group, the organization that owns
the UNIX brand and standards. In this presentation, the Open Group
announced the UNIX'98 standard.
Historically, vendors such as Digital, Hewlett-Packard and Sun have
paid a lot of money to use the UNIX brand. This money goes to support
The Open Group's work on the standards and enforcement of the
trademark. While it would be great for Linux or a Linux distribution
to be UNIX branded, the cost is prohibitive.
The Open Group has now recognized the advantage of getting the Linux
community on board. While Sun and others anchor the high end of the
Open Systems community, having an entry-level system compatible with
the standard would be a plus. This is not yet a done deal. While the
use of the UNIX trademark is limited to those who have paid the fees,
the opportunity will be present for a system to be conformant with the
standard. Stay tuned, this could be the in necessary to tighten the
bond between Linux and the rest of the UNIX community.
For more information on the UNIX'98 standard, see the web page
http://www.UNIX-systems.org/.
The melding of minds with regard to UNIX standards, Open Computing and
Open Source software needs a venue and UniForum has elected to be that
venue. Here's what Alan Fedder (UniForum Press Release), President of
UniForum had to say about it:
UniForum Association is the only forum for open discussion and open
debate about open computing. Where else could Eric Raymond and Mike
Lambert [of The Open Group] debate each other, listen to each
other, and have a better understanding of each other's position?
Where else could you hear Ralph Nader, Eid Eid, Janpieter Scheerer,
Eric Raymond--all quoting Eric Raymond? Momentous things happened
at the UniForum Spring Conference in Ocean City--and I honestly
believe that five years from now, 5,000 people will be telling each
other they were there when UNIX was saved.
In conclusion, I found attending the conference to be truly worthwhile
and look forward to going again next year.
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, Phil Hughes
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
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_________________________________________________________________
"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
_________________________________________________________________
Using rdist for Backups
By John Pate
_________________________________________________________________
In Linux Gazette Issue number 24 Gerd Bavendiek described his script
which he calls "mirror." In this script he makes use of the utility
'rdist' which is widely available on Unix systems. In my article I
shall explain how I use 'rdist' which I hope will give the beginning
Linux user a background to Gerd's article and show how useful 'rdist'
is to those with multiple computers (which should be every Linux user
nowadays!)
In the UK today you can get a complete 486DX66 system including
monitor for a hundred pounds, which has got to be a bargain and ideal
as a backup system for your "main" computer. Even if you feel its hard
disk is too small (typically they have them in the 200-300meg range)
today you can get a 2gig hard disk for under one hundred pounds or an
850meg one for sixty pounds. So for no more than a couple of a hundred
pounds you not only have a backup device but a working computer you
can use in emergency in the event of the failure of your "main"
machine. I have two 486DX66s, both other peoples' discards which cost
me nothing apart from extra RAM and a bigger hard disk for the "main"
machine (and a modem of course - though now I have a couple of spare
V32bis other people have junked, isn't progress wonderful). One has
40meg of RAM and is my "main" computer running Slackware 3.3. The
other has 8meg of RAM and Slackware 3.3 again. The "backup" has a half
gig hard disk given to me because it makes an unpleasant whine during
operation. In spite of the noise, the disk works fine so is good for
backup space. A couple of discarded network cards from a "parts bin"
and a look at the NET-3-HOWTO (you can find this in the directory
'/usr/doc/faq/howto' in Slackware 3.3) gets the two computers talking
to each other. Other alternatives are PLIP or a null modem cable, but
network cards are easy to come by nowadays. (Note: network cards with
RJ45 interfaces can connect two computers together if you make a
crossover cable, it works for me.)
Once the computers are talking you can use ftp or even Samba to
transfer files, as well as mounting various drives and partitions by
NFS. All good clean fun. But the ideal way to maintain a "mirror" of
your home directories so you don't lose any precious datafiles is to
use 'rdist'. (Note: the following describes a Slackware 3.3 setup but
the procedure should give the rest of you a start.) Firstly you must
amend the file 'hosts.equiv' on the "backup" machine (i.e. the one you
are going to back-up the files to) to allow users to 'rlogin' (see the
man page for 'rlogin') to the "backup" computer from the "main"
computer without having to supply a password. 'hosts.equiv' is found
in '/etc' (Slackware), the stock 'hosts.equiv' has one entry,
'localhost'. Simply add the relevant name or IP address for your
"main" computer (go back and read the NET-3-HOWTO, you know you have
to) on a new line. If you have accounts (same user name) on both
machines, you are now able to 'rlogin' to the "backup" from the "main"
with the command 'rlogin <other_computer_name>' and it should not
demand a password (unless you are 'root', but you don't want to mess
around letting 'root' rlogin without a password, do you?).
Now you're cooking with gas. Make a file called 'distfile' in your
home directory on your "main" computer. Here's one I made earlier--
HOSTS = ( johnny@pod )
FILES = ( ~/ )
EXCEPT = ( ~/.netscape ~/\(PROG\) ~/StarOffice-3.1 ~/.trash ~/.bash_history )
${FILES} -> ${HOSTS}
install -oremove,chknfs,younger ;
except ${EXCEPT} ;
Now's the time for you to consult 'man rdist' to see what all this
means. The first three lines set variables - it is possible to give
'rdist' command line switches to modify these, so it could be helpful
when you get more adventurous. The last three lines are commands for
'rdist'. The 'install' command copies/deletes files/directories as
specified. The 'except' command omits the specified files/directories
from processing. (If you specify a directory it means that directory's
files and subdirectories and files.) The '->' line tells it what to
where. Note the 'host' is the "backup" computer and given of the form
'user@domain'. This should be an account you can 'rlogin' to without
needing a password (modify 'hosts.equiv' see above). If you look at
the above example, it says,
"Copy the entire home directory to "pod," excepting the Netscape
cache directory, the trash directory, the StarOffice stuff and the
.bash_history file."
The switches to 'install' say,
"Remove any files on the backup that aren't on the main machine,
don't follow through NFS links, and don't update files on the
backup machine that are younger than the equivalent on the main
machine."
Note how 'remove'and 'younger' interact: 'remove' will remove any
orphan files, so 'younger' won't keep brand new files on the backup
that haven't been made on the main machine - decide what you want! In
the case of a backup to an account you don't use then 'younger' isn't
really necessary. If it's an account you do use, then don't use
'remove' but do use 'younger'.
A perusal of the 'rdist' man page should make this all clear. Having
made the 'distfile,' all you have to do to synchronize the files on
your two machines is type 'rdist' at the prompt on the "main" machine
and it will go ahead and do it all for you and tell you about it.
'rdist' will create directories as needed, preserve permissions,
ownerships etc., will only change files that don't match (you can
alter the criteria it uses to decide this, see the 'man' page). It is
excellent! Run 'rdist' regularly and you need never "lose" your
data-files. Even better if you back-up over the Internet to a remote
location.
Now you can go back to Gerd's article and see how he uses his script
to keep his laptop and desktop in synch. A study of the 'rdist' man
page will make evident that 'rdist' has great power and flexibility
for the adventurous. There really is no excuse for not backing up your
work!
_________________________________________________________________
John Pate
Last modified: Sat May 2 12:25:18 BST 1998
_________________________________________________________________
Copyright © 1998, John Pate
Published in Issue 29 of Linux Gazette, June 1998
_________________________________________________________________
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_________________________________________________________________
Linux Gazette Back Page
Copyright © 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.
For information regarding copying and distribution of this material see the
Copying License.
_________________________________________________________________
Contents:
* About This Month's Authors
* Not Linux
_________________________________________________________________
About This Month's Authors
_________________________________________________________________
Tom Bryant
Tom has been working with computers since 1978. Since then, I wrote my
thesis (on emission lines in planetary nebulae) on an Apple II, wrote
the telemetry processing program with which NASA deduced some of the
early problems with the space telescope (its direct descendant is
still in use today), and lately a program that fixes a serious
telemetry formatting error on the EOS AM-1 satellite. I've written
programs that display tesseracts, simulate a star cluster with
accurate stellar motions, implement a new language (related to forth),
and play the piano! My interests include (in alphabetical order) 35mm
photography, the American Civil war, Astronomy, Beethoven, Chopin,
Classical piano, Cryptography, Explorer post 1275, Fixing old cars,
History, Mathematics, Rachmaninov, Science, Single Malt Scotch, Sports
cars, Telescope making... My wife and I have 2 kids, 2 cars, 2 birds
and 1 18 year old cat.
Jim Dennis
Jim is the proprietor of Starshine Technical Services. His
professional experience includes work in the technical support,
quality assurance, and information services (MIS) departments of
software companies like Quarterdeck, Symantec/ Peter Norton Group, and
McAfee Associates -- as well as positions (field service rep) with
smaller VAR's. He's been using Linux since version 0.99p10 and is an
active participant on an ever-changing list of mailing lists and
newsgroups. He's just started collaborating on the 2nd Edition for a
book on Unix systems administration. Jim is an avid science fiction
fan -- and was married at the World Science Fiction Convention in
Anaheim. His wife, Heather Stern, is now doing the HTML for his
column.
Michael Hamilton
Michael has been working as a freelance Unix C/C++ developer since
1989. More recently he's been working on web applications and Unix
server administration. Michael tripped over one of Linus's postings
back at the beginning of 1992 and has been hooked ever since.
Phil Hughes
Phil Hughes is the publisher of Linux Journal, and thereby Linux
Gazette. He dreams of permanently telecommuting from his home on the
Pacific coast of the Olympic Peninsula. As an employer, he is
"Vicious, Evil, Mean, & Nasty, but kind of mellow" as a boss should
be.
Andy Kahn
Andy works at Digital Equipment Corporation doing Digital Unix
filesystems kernel development. He thinks he's just hacking away
at more and more C code, and in his copious spare time, he hacks
on lots of other things, including all the trees in his neighborhood.
Feel free to send him email.
Eric Marsden
Eric is studying computer science in Toulouse, France, and is a member
of the local Linux Users Group. He enjoys programming, cycling and Led
Zeppelin. He admits to once having owned a Macintosh, but denies any
connection with the the Eric Conspiracy Secret Labs.
David Nelson
David manages scientific research at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Before that he earned his living as a theoretical plasma physicist. He
started programming on the IBM 650 using absolute machine language and
later graduated to CDC, DEC and Cray machines for his research. But
Linux is the most fun. He and his wife, Kathy, live near Washington
DC; they enjoy tennis, skiing, sailing, music, theater and good food.
John Pate
John works part-time at Café Cyberia Edinburgh and is looking for a
full-time job in Unix System Administration. John has a first degree
in Psychology and has been playing on the Internet since he first
discovered it in the late eighties. Having worked for a while
programming for Windows 3.1x he decided Linux was the way forward. He
can be contacted at johnny@dvc.org.uk and his homepage is at
http://www.dvc.org.uk/johnny
Carlo Prelz
Carlo is an Italian who does not live in Italy, an architect who
does not work as an architect. He spent the last decade developing
software for TV audience measurement calculation but he does not watch
TV. His secret wish is to become the in-house Linux expert for the
Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala. Suggestions are welcome
at his e-mail address: fluido@fluido.markdata.pt
_________________________________________________________________
Not Linux
_________________________________________________________________
[INLINE] Thanks to all our authors, not just the ones above, but also
those who wrote giving us their tips and tricks and making
suggestions. Thanks also to our new mirror sites. And a special thanks
to Heather Stern for the great job she is doing on htmlizing "The
Answer Guy". It looks good and she's saving me a lot of work. :-)
My wonderful father-in-law, Ralph Richardson, has moved to Seattle
from Southern California. He's been here almost 2 weeks now and it's
been fun helping him get settled in and seeing him on a much more
frequent basis. I know we'll get used to him being here all the time,
but right now getting to see so much of him feels like vacation. And I
can use as much vacation as I can get! :-)
Have fun!
_________________________________________________________________
Marjorie L. Richardson
Editor, Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com
Linux Gazette Issue 29, June 1998, http://www.linuxgazette.com
_________________________________________________________________
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_________________________________________________________________
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