LDP
/
old-www
1
1
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Releases Wiki Activity
old-www/LDP/LG/issue30/issue30.html

8250 lines
358 KiB
HTML
Raw Permalink Blame History

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE> Linux Gazette Index Page </TITLE>
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noindex, nofollow">
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#A000A0"
ALINK="#FF0000" >
<center><H2><IMG SRC="../gx/newlogo.jpg"
ALT="Linux Gazette... making Linux just a little more fun!">
</H2>
<H5>Copyright &copy; 1996-98 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.</H5>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--==================================================================-->
<center>
<H1>Welcome to Linux Gazette!<img src="../gx/tm.gif" alt="(tm)"></H1>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--==================================================================-->
<H1>Published by:</H1>
<center>
<H1><A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/lj/">
<img src="../gx/ljlogo.gif" alt="Linux Journal" border=0></A></H1>
</center>
<P><HR> <P>
<H1>Sponsored by:</H1>
<table>
<tr>
<td><H1><A HREF="http://www.infomagic.com/"><img ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="70"
src=../gx/infologo.gif alt="InfoMagic" border=0></A></H1></td>
<td>
<H1><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/"><img ALIGN="bottom" src=../gx/suse.gif alt="S.u.S.E." border=0></A></H1></td>
<td>
<H1><A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/"><img HSPACE="70" src=../gx/redhat.gif alt="Red Hat" border=0></A></H1></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><H1><A HREF="http://www.LinuxMall.com/"><img ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="70"
src=../gx/linuxmall.gif alt="LinuxMall" border=0></A></H1></td>
<td><H1><A HREF="http://www.linuxresources.com/"><img ALIGN="bottom"
src=../gx/linux6.gif alt="Linux Resources" border=0></A></H1></td>
<td><H1><A HREF="/cgi-bin/redirect.pl"><img HSPACE="70"
src=../gx/mozilla.gif alt="Mozilla" border=0></A></H1></td>
</tr>
</table>
<P>
Our sponsors make financial contributions toward the costs of
publishing <I>Linux Gazette</I>. If you would like to become a sponsor
of <I>LG</I>, e-mail us at <A
HREF="mailto:sponsor@ssc.com">sponsor@ssc.com</A>.
<P>
<I>Linux Gazette</I> is a non-commercial, freely available publication and will
remain that way. Show your support by using the products of our sponsors
and publisher.
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--=================================================================-->
<H1 align="center">Table of Contents <BR>July 1998 Issue #30</H1>
<P> <HR> <P>
<table><tr>
<td rowspan=4>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="../index.html">The Front Page</A>
<LI><A HREF="./lg_mail30.html">The MailBag</A>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_mail30.html#help">Help Wanted</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_mail30.html#gen">General Mail</a>
</ul>
<LI><A HREF="./lg_tips30.html">More 2 Cent Tips</A>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#resume">Producing a Resume in PDF with LaTeX</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#system">UNIX System man Pages</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#ext2">ext2 Partitions</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#bpp">Re: bpp 16 Question</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#network">Network Cards</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#kde">Tip for using Windows 95 buttons in
KDE</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#ppp">PPP, SLIP and Other Remote Service
</ul>
<LI><A HREF="./lg_bytes30.html">News Bytes</A>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_bytes30.html#general">News in General</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_bytes30.html#software">Software Announcements</a>
</ul>
<LI><A HREF="./lg_answer30.html">The Answer Guy</A>, by James T. Dennis
<LI><A HREF="./vrenios.html">CHAOS: CHeap Array of Obsolete Systems</a>, by Alex Vrenios
<LI><A HREF="./clue30.html">Clueless at the Prompt</a>, by Mike List
<LI><A HREF="./bennet.html">8 Reasons to Make the Switch</a>, by Bill
Bennet
<LI><A HREF="./mueller.html">Integrated Software Development with
<I>WipeOut</I></a>, by Gerd Mueller
<LI><A HREF="./nelson.html">Install New Icons in Caldera's Looking Glass
Desktop</a>, by David Nelson
<LI><A HREF="./pagey.html">Installing Microsoft & Linux </a>, by Manish P.
Pagey
<LI>Linux Expo
<ul>
<li><A HREF="./jacobowitz.html">Linux Expo a Smashing Success!</a>, by
Norman M. Jacobowitz
<li><A HREF="./raymond.html">Linux Expo Editor Wars!</a>, by Eric S. Raymond
<li><A HREF="./penland.html">The Fourth Annual Linux Expo</a>, by David
Penland
</ul>
<LI><A HREF="./wuest.html">LinuxCAD Impressions</a>, by Robert Wuest
<li><A HREF="./rooijackers.html">Book Review: A Methodology for Developing
and Deploying Internet & Intranet Solutions</a>, by Jan Rooijackers
<LI>New Release Reviews, by Larry Ayers
<ul>
<li><A HREF="./ayers1.html">The Blackbox Window-Manager</a>
<li><A HREF="./ayers2.html">Lesstif: One User's Impressions</a>
<li><A HREF="./ayers3.html">Sabre: An Svgalib Flight Sim</a>
<li><A HREF="./ayers4.html">SFM: A New GTK-Based Application</a>
</ul>
<LI><A HREF="./starkey.html">Portable GUI C++ Libraries</a>, by Sean C.
Starkey
<LI><A HREF="./koscielny.html">Using Linux Instead of an X Emulator</a>, by
Al Koscielny
<LI><A HREF="./mauck.html">USENIX 1998</a>, by Aaron Mauck
<LI><A HREF="./lg_backpage30.html">The Back Page</A>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_backpage30.html#authors">About This Month's Authors</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_backpage30.html#notlinux">Not Linux</a>
</UL>
</UL>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align=center>
<A HREF="lg_answer30.html">
<img src="../gx/dennis/answerwiz-255.gif" border=0 alt="">
</a><P>
<A HREF="lg_answer30.html"><i>The Answer Guy</i></a>
</td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center>
<!-- <A HREF="gm.html"> -->
<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/banner-3.gif" border=0 alt="">
<P><font color="maroon"><I>The Graphics Muse Will Return</I></font>
<!-- </a> -->
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<P> <HR><P>
<!--=============================================================-->
<A HREF="./issue30.txt">TWDT 1 (text)</A><BR>
<A HREF="./issue30.html">TWDT 2 (HTML)</A><BR>
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.
<!--=============================================================-->
<P> <HR><P>
Got any <I>great</I> ideas for improvements? Send your
<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">comments, criticisms, suggestions
and ideas.</A>
<P><hr><p>
This page written and maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A>
<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
<HR>
<center>
<table width="100%" cellpadding=7><tr><td>
<H2><a NAME="mail"><IMG SRC="../gx/mailbox.gif" ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT=" ">
The Mailbag!</a> </H2>
Write the Gazette at <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com"> gazette@ssc.com</A>
</td><td>
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_mail30.html#help">Help Wanted -- Article Ideas</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_mail30.html#gen">General Mail</a>
</ul>
</td></tr></table>
</center>
<a name="help"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">Help Wanted -- Article Ideas</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 11:05:23 +0100<BR>
From: Maurizio Ferrari, <A HREF="mailto:Maurizio.Ferrari@tin.it">
Maurizio.Ferrari@tin.it</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Photogrammetry tools for Linux? </B>
<P>
I am looking for a Linux program to do some close-range photogrammetry.
Close range photogrammetry is a technique that enables to reconstruct 3D
images from a series of 2D pictures.
There are a few powerful (and relatively inexpensive) tools for Windows
but none so far for Linux, that I know of. There was something once upon
a time called Photo4D. Despite my massive Internet search, any occurrence
of Photo4D seems to have been wipe erased from the face of earth. It
is listed in SAL but all the links fail.
<P>
I don't want to resort to buy and use Windows software for this. Help, anyone?
<P>
Maurizio
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Sun, 07 Jun 1998 11:36:33 -0500<BR>
From: Mike Godwin, <A HREF="mailto:mgodwin@socket.net">
mgodwin@socket.net</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Searching (somewhat in vain) for sources on shell scripting</B>
<P>
I recently came across an excellent mini-howto on overcoming some of the
pitfalls of having a dynamic IP address
(ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/unmaintained/mini/Dynamic-IP-Hacks).
<P>
Reading this document has refueled my desire to learn shell scripting,
sed rules and the like. My search of the Internet for information on
these topics has, however, been fruitless.
<P>
I would be most grateful if someone could point me to a good shell
scripting tutorial or book.
<P>
Thanks in advance.
<P>
Mike
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 22:58:11 +0200<BR>
From: "Himbeergarten Hummel", <A
HREF="mailto:himbeergarten.hummel@nanet.at">himbeergarten.hummel@nanet.at</A>
<BR>
Subject: <B>X Window System on a monochrome notebook</B>
<P>
I've a 486dx notebook with a monochrome display
what shall I do to make X windows run?
<P>
Himbeergarten Hummel
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 13:06:28 PDT<BR>
From: "Dave Stevens", <A HREF="mailto:davestevens@hotmail.com">
davestevens@hotmail.com</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>kudos</B>
<P>
I think the Coldiron article on replacing NT with Linux is the best
thing I've seen in the gazette. Congratulations. More such
articles are needed. I am especially interested in an article explaining
why Linux doesn't come with a "system requirements" box
on the package (no package??). Seriously, though, I am a computer dealer
and have many times advised people to buy their
application software first then buy a computer that will run that
package. If I tell my customers to go out and buy a 386 with 16
MB of ram and a half MB video card and a 200 MB hard drive, they
will think I am [characterization deleted!] in the head.
And maybe they'll be right. How much difference does the underlying
hardware make to the user of an X application, and how
can I assess (for them) the varying cost effectiveness of a faster
processor versus more RAM versus a SCSI disk versus just a
bigger IDE disk. Maybe you can commission an article like this. (Don't
even THINK of asking me). Someone of your loyal
readers must have relevant experience to write up.
<P>
Great magazine, keep up the good work. If ever you find yourself in northern
BC I will happily buy you a beer.
<P>
Dave Stevens
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 08:49:05 -0700 (PDT)<BR>
From: Renato Weiner, <A HREF="mailto:reweiner@yahoo.com">
reweiner@yahoo.com</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Suggestion for Article</B>
<P>
Recently I was looking at the Gazette and I think I have a good
suggestion of an article that will be very useful for the Linux
community.
<P>
I have had some technical difficulties of having two simultaneous
versions of Kernels in my system. I mean a stable one and a developing
one. I searched the net looking for information of how to co-exist
both but it's completely fragmented.
<P>
If somebody more experienced could put all this information together,
it will certainly help a lot of people from kernels developers to
end-users.
<P>
Thanks a lot for your patience. <BR>
Renato.
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 10:42:06 +0200<BR>
From: Carlo Vinante, <A HREF="mailto:vinante@igi.pd.cnr.it">
vinante@igi.pd.cnr.it</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Printing Problems</B>
<P>
I've just updated to Red Hat 5.0, and I cannot print anymore documents
using Ghostview, or LyX or whatever. Tests are OK. Have somebody a
suggestion ?
<P>
Carlo Vinante
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 15:46:35 +0200 (MET DST)<BR>
From: Sara Briganti mat.1510, <A HREF="mailto:briganti@CsR.UniBo.IT">
briganti@CsR.UniBo.IT</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Information</B>
<P>
We are 4 Italian students and we're just have a look about ELM's sources.
We have a lot of problems about these...<BR>
Could you ELM us? Do you know any interesting site about how ELM
works? And about sendmail?
<P>
Thank you a lot. Bye.
<P>
Sara, Elsa, Michele, Livio
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 22:24:47 +0200<BR>
From: Daniele Verzelloni, <A HREF="mailto:dverzel@tin.it">
dverzel@tin.it</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Network configuring</B>
<P>
Help me in configuring Red Hat Linux about networking.
I've a ISDN Adapter by Asuscom that I use for Internet in Windows95 and
I can't configure it!
I've even got an Ethernet adapter to go to another computer and in the
same way I can't configure it!
Thank you and sorry for my bad English, I'm Italian.
<P>
Daniele
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 23:12:30 +0200<BR>
From: Eric CANAL, <A HREF="mailto:Eric.Canal@supelec.fr">
Eric.Canal@supelec.fr</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>a question</B>
<P>
I've recently bought a CD-ROM recorder
I would like to know if it is legal to make a Red Hat CD distribution for my
own use. My idea is to copy the FTP distribution on a CD and to install it.
I've tried but it tells me that I don't have a Red Hat CD-ROM. Do I miss a
particular file?
<P>
thanks for your answer and BRAVO for your Gazette :)
<P>
a French reader, Eric Canal
<blockquote> <I>
(Better check with Red Hat about legalities. --Editor)
</I> </blockquote>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 23:54:20 -0700<BR>
From: Ruth Milne, <A HREF="mailto:rmilne@mail.bulkley.net">
rmilne@mail.bulkley.net</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>article idea</B>
<P>
I have been reading a lot of speculation about whether Linux can ever
displace Microsoft on the desktop. In the course of wading through a lot
of hype I haven't seen much actual experience reported about an ordinary
computer user installing Linux on their PC. I don't mean someone who is
already a Linux enthusiast and I don't mean someone with a computer
science degree either. Just an ordinary computer user with an IQ bigger
than a shoe size, sitting down with a brand new Intel box and a Red Hat
5.1 package, say, and going through the hoops up to the point where X
starts up okay and the modem is a working Internet device. This ought to
be compared to such a person doing the same operation with a new box and
a copy of W98. I think that would make a useful comparison.
<P>
Dave Stevens
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 03:32:11 EDT<BR>
From: <A HREF="mailto:RangeScale@aol.com">RangeScale@aol.com</A><BR>
Subject: <B>Need older Linux</B>
<P>
Okay, I am pretty new to Linux and am trying to learn it. The main problem is,
is that I always have my desktop tied up doing more important things, and also
don't have the room on it to hold Linux. My solution is to pull out my old 286
laptop (old but very good) and use that to start learning Linux. My big
problem, though, is finding a version that will run on that. I have the Debian
1.3, but min reg. are 386+. Is there a ver. that will run on 286 - and where
can I get it?
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 00:47:14 +0200<BR>
From: B.L.Michielsen, <A HREF="mailto:BMichielsen@csi.com">
BMichielsen@csi.com</A><BR>
Subject: <B>Communication Problem</B>
<P>
I have a problem communicating with Compuserve through Seyon
since I installed a 16650A serial card on my Dell 486DX2 66MHz
running RedHat 4.1 Kernel 2.0.17. and a USRobotics SportsterMessagePlus
<P>
modem. Before, I used a 14.4 Hayes compatible modem connected to
a serial port with a 16450 IC, in that configuration everything was slow
<P>
but OK.
I am connecting to a Compuserve server with baud rates to 28.800bps.
The characters in the Seyon terminal form unreadable garbage, and I
cannot find out how to parameterize the connection to get it right.
To complete the information, when I make a ppp connection to a
56kbps server of Compuserve and use Netscape communicator, everything
runs perfectly well, so I guess the Seyon problem is not related to
kernel parameters but rather to xterm?
<P>
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
<P>
Bas L. Michielsen
<a name="gen"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">General Mail</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Tue, 02 Jun 98 12:19:28 -0500<BR>
From: <A HREF="mailto:cokeydepercin@pmsc.com">cokeydepercin@pmsc.com</A>
<BR>
Subject: <B>Article on home networking.</B>
<P>
I just read a reply to the home networking article by Mr. Gray and I
agree that home networking is cheap and easy. I disagree somewhat
about the 100baseT. I've just upgraded from 10baseT to 100baseT. The
hub was $100USD for an eight port hub with uplink and the cards were
$30USD (Dec Tulip chip set). I've heard there may be some cheaper NICs
now $20~25USD. My upgrade cost was $250 for 5 machines - 3 Win95,
Linux server, multi-boot Linux/win95/NT - the cable was CAT5 to begin
with. The additional cost of putting in 100 vs 10 is so slight, about
$115 in this case as the cable is the same, that it isn't worth
installing 10baseT. The advantage is that 100baseT and a reasonably
fast Linux machine allows a Win95 machine to access apps almost as
fast (in some cases faster) from the network than from its own drive.
Note that I too build from junk as much as possible and the children's
machines (the Win95 ones) are very low end Pentium and have old slow
small drives than contain only the OS and swap. Everything else is on
the server (install once use many!).
<P>
There is a caveat to this of course. 100baseT NICs for ISA machines
are VERY expensive so if you have ISA machines, your only realistic
choice is 10baseT. The one 100baseT ISA NCI I priced (3Com) cost more
than all the PCI NICs for my upgrade.
<P>
Just my $0.02 or so. Keep up the good work, I really enjoy the magazine.
<P>
Cokey
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 15:48:27 +0100<BR>
From: Raphael Marvie, <A HREF="mailto:raphael.marvie@cs.man.ac.uk">
raphael.marvie@cs.man.ac.uk</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Comment about LG last review</B>
<P>
It took me 3 tries to get the full article about "Replacing NT by
Linux" but I finally
did it. I am very pleased to see people from the "real-world" as they
call themselves
to admit that Linux can avoid lot of people using bad softwares. There is
only one thing
that make me sad, the only people who are going to read this article are Linux
users.
<P>
Is there any solution to make "real-world" people reading such article?
I not talking of a holy war against M$, but I think the worse thing
for Linux
and other brilliant systems or soft is that the end user never heard of
this solution.
<P>
The fact that Netscape has moved to Open Source Software was a big
advert
for the GNU/Linux solutions. I hope we will be able to take advantage of
it to say
to managers "Hey, we can do every thing you want, and in a better way
than it is done yet by Micro$oft and Co. You just have not to think in
buying a
solution 60,000$ each year for updates but paying someone 60,000$ a year
for
building you the exact solution you need using Open Source Software.
Which
means for you having a *personal* *reliable* *IT* solution."
<P>
That is the challenge: teach them that a man or a woman is more
important than
a soft, because this man or this woman can adapt (him|her)self to the
need of a
firm, and is more important for the end user as a spring of information
than a
bad-written manual.
<P>
Keep on LG, the job you are doing is brilliant.
<P>
Linuxly yours, Raphael
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 13:36:06 +0000<BR>
From: Andrew Josey, <A HREF="mailto:a.josey@opengroup.org">
a.josey@opengroup.org</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Web resource - UNIX 98 Spec online</B>
<P>
With the recent announcements concerning Linux and
conformance to the UNIX 98 specification, I thought it
would be useful to send you the URL where the online
specification can be browsed, searched and downloaded.
<P>
Its at http://www.UNIX-systems.org/go/unix/
<P>
Perhaps you could include this as a tip in the next Linux
gazette.
<P>
best regards, Andrew
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 12:19:44 +1000 (EST)<BR>
From: Con Zymaris, <A HREF="mailto:conz@cyber.com.au">
conz@cyber.com.au</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Article ideas...</B>
<P>
It would be of general interest, and help the linux/open source community,
if people out there were introduced to the concept of advocating that
their local University had its Computer Science students' major final year
projects written as open-source.
For reasons why the students would want to do this, check out:
http://www.cyber.com.au/misc/frsbiz/students.htm
<P>
Cheers, Con
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 16:04:12 -0700<BR>
From: "Travis Clark", <A HREF="mailto:hilt@telepath.com">
hilt@telepath.com</A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Simple Suggestion</B>
<P>
To further Linux in this world of ours, I think it fitting that Linux
Programmers look at two different ways this can be accomplished:
<ol>
<li>Applications -
This does not end in Word Processors... Desktop Publishing systems,
a simple database system, Accounting Software, the whole nine yards. If
we focused on software that companies use at a lower price (or freeware)
than Windoze, and comparable or better performance, then Linux would be
more acceptable world wide.
<li>Games -
As much as I hate to admit it, Games are a must in this PC world.
There are versions of popular games for linux, but there are no MAJOR
companies designing games for Linux. If we can get a
Doom/Myst/DeerHunter type game specifically designed for Linux, then
Linux will definitely have more interest in the market.
</ol>
That's my two cents...
<P>
Travis Clark
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 14:50:45 -0400<BR>
From: Brian Catlin, <A HREF="mailto:Brian_Catlin@BayNetworks.COM">
Brian_Catlin@BayNetworks.COM </A> <BR>
Subject: <B>Suggestions to improve readability</B>
<P>
First, I would like to express my appreciation to all the authors
for taking time to write excellent articles.
<P>
I do, however, have a suggestion or two that will make the
accessibility of the zine that much better.
<P>
As background, I am one of your readers that prints out the zine,
then reads it. It is much easier for my tired old eyes that way,
and I also get a nice resource to use when the screen is cluttered
with windows of different things for the project I am working on.
<P>
With that said, I have a couple problems that can be easily solved.
<ul>
<li>The first thing is links in the articles. The usual standard one
sees on the net is to put the URL in the body of the article and
then link it. This way us off-line readers can fire up a browser
later and go directly to the site mentioned without having to find
the link in the online version of the article.
<li>Secondly, and this came up in the latest issue BTW, when giving
source code, config or other text-based examples, please keep them
as text. Putting backgrounds behind the code makes them hard to
read, and if they are in fact graphics, one has to type in the code
by hand. A better way is to delineate it with some sort of
blocking character string and use the appropriate HTML tag to show
it is an example. I tend to use the following to start and stop
sections of code:
<P>
#-----------------------------
<P>
(Note: it is a pound sign with a bunch of dashes).
<P>
This will speed loading into browsers online, allow cut and paste
operations, and ensure readability for the off-line printout
readers. (I know that more people that just I do this!)
</ul>
Thanks again for a great zine!
<P>
Brian
<blockquote> <I>
(Okay, one, I'm guessing you are objecting to the practice of using word instead
of the address in the link so the text version only shows the word and
drops the address. I can make sure this happens in sections that I do
myself, but I really don't have time to do it for every article. I will
print your letter and maybe that will give authors a push in the right
direction.
Second, I use whatever the authors send as listings and most do keep them
between &lt;pre&gt;&lt;/pre&gt; tags without backgrounds. Mr. Coldiron article last
month did use backgrounds. His article has been quite popular.
Thanks for writing, --Editor)
</I> </blockquote>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<center>Published in <i>Linux Gazette</i> Issue 30, July 1998</center>
<!--====================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ TABLE OF
CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/homenew.gif" ALT="[ FRONT
PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./lg_tips30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P>
<h5>This page written and maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A><BR>
Copyright &copy; 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. </H5>
<P>
<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- QUICK TIPS SECTION ================================================== -->
<center>
<H1><A NAME="tips"><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="" SRC="../gx/twocent.gif">
More 2&#162; Tips!</A></H1> <BR>
Send Linux Tips and Tricks to <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">
gazette@ssc.com
</A></center>
<p><hr><p>
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#resume">Producing a Resume in PDF with LaTeX</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#system">UNIX System man Pages</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#ext2">ext2 Partitions</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#bpp">Re: bpp 16 Question</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#network">Network Cards</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#kde">Tip for using Windows 95 buttons in
KDE</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_tips30.html#ppp">PPP, SLIP and Other Remote Service
Support</a>
</ul>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<a name="resume"></a>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
Producing a resume in PDF with LaTeX
</H3>
<P>
From: David M. Cook <a
href="mailto:davecook@hotmail.com">davecook@hotmail.com</a><br>
Date: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 23:05:24 +0000
<p>
LaTeX and the resume.sty package are an easy way to produce a very
attractive resume under Linux. One just needs to fill in the
boilerplate provided. resume.sty is available from any CTAN
archive, such as cdrom.com:<br>
<a
href="ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/.1/tex/ctan/macros/latex209/contrib/resume">htp://ftp.cdrom.com/.1/tex/ctan/macros/latex209/contrib/resume</a>
<p>
However, I've found that windows users are often not familiar with the
usual Postscript output of the dvips program or how to view it.
Luckily, Ghostscript provides the ps2pdf program for converting
Postscript to Adobe's Portable Document Format, which is fairly familiar
to windows users.
<p>
However, converted ps documents that were produced from LaTeX source
using the default Computer Modern fonts look very poor when read with
the Adobe PDF reader. The trick is to use the times package, which
changes all the fonts produced by your LaTeX source to one the Adobe
reader can handle. Just include the package like this in your document:
<pre>
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{resume,times}
%other preamble commands
\begin{document}
%document body
\end{document}
</pre>
<p>
Some other things worth mentioning here: PStill, another PS-&gt;PDF
converter; pdfTeX, which produces PDF instead of DVI files from TeX
input; and finally the TeX User's Group page which has tons of great
links:<br>
ftp://ftp.cstug.cz/pub/tex/local/cstug/thanh/pdftex/<br>
http://www.this.net/~frank/pstill.html<br>
http://www.tug.org/interest.html<br>
<p>
--<br>
Dave Cook
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<a name="system"></a>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
UNIX system man pages</H3>
<P>
From: Andrew Josey <a
href="mailto:a.josey@opengroup.org">a.josey@opengroup.org</a><br>
Date: Wed, 03 Jun 1998 10:10:41 +0000
<p>
Hello, included is a possible tip for the Linux Gazette.
<p>
Ever needed to know what the official UNIX man page for
a particular command or function says? A new web resource
from The Open Group is the Common Access to the UNIX Man Pages,
a hypertext html set of browsable pages common to all UNIX 95
and UNIX 98 branded systems.
<p>
To try it out see <a
href="http://www.opengroup.org/common_access/">http://www.opengroup.org/common_access/</a>
<p>
--<br>
Andrew Josey
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<a name="ext2"></a>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
ext2 Partitions </H3>
<P>
From: Albert T. Croft <a
href="mailto:acroft@cyber-wizard.com">acroft@cyber-wizard</a><br>
Date: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 14:57:03 -0500
<p>
I recently ran into a small problem, and I think the results of
it might be helpful to others. I was recently helping out a
friend with a problem on his Linux machine, and we needed to find
a file-unfortunately, neither of us knew where it might've been
installed.
<p>
Having both ext2 and vfat partitions, we realized that doing a
find command might take a while, and would probably give some
false results. We knew there might be files with similar names
on his vfat partition-files we were sure were not the ones we
were looking for. We knew the files we were looking for would
only be on the ext2 partitions.
<p>
We started looking for an answer with the -mount option for the
find command; unfortunately for us, it only looked at files on
the same device as the path given to the find command. (A look
at the results of the mount command shows why that would be a
problem for us.)
<pre>
/dev/hda2 on / type ext2 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
/dev/hda6 on /home type ext2 (rw)
/dev/hda8 on /tmp type ext2 (rw)
/dev/hda7 on /usr type ext2 (rw)
/dev/hda1 on /win95 type vfat (rw,umask=0111)
</pre>
<p>
We tried writing a batch file, using grep and gawk to get the
mount points for the ext2 partitions and handing them to find.
This proved unworkable if we were looking for patterns, such
as h2*. We then tried to write just a find command, using gawk
and grep to get the mount points. This was somewhat better,
but using a print statement in gawk to get the names of the
mount points wouldn't work. Some help came with remembering that
gawk has a printf statement, allow.
<p>
Our final product, which we found quite useful and now have in
our .bashrc files as <B>linuxfind</B>, is the following:
<pre>
find `mount|grep ext2|gawk '{printf "%s ", $3}'` -name
</pre>
<p>
To use as an alias:
<pre>
alias linuxfind="find `mount|grep ext2|gawk '{printf "%s ", $3}'` -name "
</pre>
<p>
Written this way, other options to the find command can be
specified, such as <tt>-perm</tt>, <tt>-exec</tt> and <tt>-type</tt>. To use
it, we simply type something like:
<pre>
linuxfind less
linuxfind h2*
linuxfind x* -perm -2000
</pre>
<p>
The only problems we can see with this command so far are (1)
if there are drives mounted at login that are unmounted during
the session, the mount points are still searched, and (2) if a
drive is mounted after login, it is not included unless the
.bashrc files is sourced.
<p>
--<br>
Albert Croft
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<a name="bpp"></a>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
Re: bpp 16 Question</H3>
<P>
From: Michael Huttinger <a
href="mailto:mhutt.removespam@netnitco.net">mhutt.removespam@netnitco.net</a><br>
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 19:56:41 +0000
<p>
In regards to the question on starting X with 16 bitplanes instead of 8
(LG#28)...
<p>
I have done the following (assuming you are using XFree86)
<p>
Open up and edit your XF86Config file.
<p>
Look for the "Screen" section you are using.
Add an entry right after that specifying the default colors of the
format:
<pre>
DefaultColorDepth 16
</pre>
<p>
This will default your screen to 16 bit planes.
<p>
My example screen section follows:
<pre>
Section "Screen"
Driver "accel"
Device "STB Velocity 128"
Monitor "My Monitor"
DefaultColorDepth 16
Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection
</pre>
<p>
--<br>
Mike Huttinger
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<a name="network"></a>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
Network Cards</H3>
<P>
From: Wari Wahab <a
href="mailto:wari@technologist.com">wari@tecnologist.com</a><br>
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 21:36:27 +0800
<p>
Hi, there just like to give some tip or two regarding Network cards you
have in you Linux Box.
<p>
I have a 3Com 3c90x in my computer and it's not working up to speed, I
replaced it with anther one of the same kind and the most I get out of ftp
transfers from my machine is a measly 220 KB/s.. Samba acted weird.. I
thought that it's my network that caused the problem, indeed, it is the
problem..
<p>
Our network is all Cisco and there seems to be some disagreement between
the two brands, Changed my card to an Intel 'eepro100' and I can max out at
800 KB/s on a 10 Mbs network.. Cool.
<p>
So, if you find out that performance is not as cool (those Win NT guys may
be laughing at you as they did to me wondering why Linux is Super Slow) as
it should be, it could be the network card itself..
<p>
Regards,<br>
Wari Wahab
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<a name="kde"></a>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
Tip for using Windows 95 buttons in KDE</H3>
<P>
From: Jochen A. Stein <a
href="mailto:jst@writeme.com">jst@writeme.com</a><br>
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 21:05:21 +0200
<p>
Following up to Andreas Ehliar's 2cent article
in the June Linux Gazette, I took the same approach and made a patch
for KDE to shift some functionality from ALT to the W95 key.
Full instructions and patch against Beta-4 can be found
on http://home.pages.de/~jst/kde-w95.html.
<p>
--<br>
Jochen Stein
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<a name="ppp"></a>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
PPP, SLIP and Other Remote Service Support</H3>
<P>
From: Daniel Blezek <a
href="mailto:blezek@worldnet.att.net">blezek@worldnet.att.net</a><br>
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 22:40:48 -0500
<p>
Hi, here's a short tip:
<p>
Recently, I started working from home on a UNIX system. The system I was
working on did not support PPP, SLIP, or any other remote service except
shell sessions over a 9600 baud modem. So I decided to download SLIrP(a
program to emulate PPP/SLIP using only a shell session) to the remote
system to emulate PPP over a shell connection. Here is the snag, the
remote system did not support zmodem, ymodem, kermit or any of the other
file transfer protocols. Since I had no TCP/IP connection, I could not use
rsh, or ftp. Solution? I used uuencode to convert the SLIrP binary to
text, started vi on the remote system, and copied and pasted the entire
text(all 360K) into the remote shell session. After eating dinner, I
returned to write the uuencoded binary to the remote hard disk, uudecoded
it, uncompressed it, and started up SLIrP on the remote system. After pppd
came up on my LINUX system, I was fully connected.
<p>
Ain't LINUX fun?
<p>
--<br>
Dan
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<center>Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 30, July 1998</center>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ TABLE OF
CONTENTS ]"></A> <A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A> <A HREF="./lg_mail30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif" ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./lg_bytes30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<h5>This page maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A><BR>
Copyright &copy; 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. </H5>
<P>
<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
<HR>
<center>
<table cellpadding=7><tr><td>
<IMG SRC="../gx/bytes.gif" border=1 ALT="News Bytes">
</td><td>
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_bytes30.html#general">News in General</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_bytes30.html#software">Software Announcements</a>
</ul>
</td></tr></table>
</center>
<a name="general"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">News in General</font></H3></center>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><IMG ALT=" " SRC="./gx/cover52.jpg"></center>
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
August <I>Linux Journal</I>
</H3>
<P>
The August issue of <A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/"><I>Linux
Journal</I></A> will be hitting the newsstands July 10.
The focus of this issue is Navigating Linux and our feature article is an
interview with Marc Andressen and Tom Paqin of Netscape done by Doc Searls.
Check out the Table of Contents at
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue52/index.html">
http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue52/index.html</A>.
To subscribe to <I>Linux Journal</I>, go to <A
HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/ljsubsorder.html">
http://www.linuxjournal.com/ljsubsorder.html</A>.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
An Invitation: The Future of Linux with Linus Torvalds
</H3>
<P>
On July 14, 1998, at 6:00PM, Taos Mountain (<A HREF="http://www.taos.com/">
http://www.taos.com/ </A>)
in association with the Silicon Valley Linux User Group
(<A HREF="http://www.svlug.org/">http://www.svlug.org/</A>)
will present a panel discussion on THE FUTURE OF LINUX. Linux
is a freely available version of
the UNIX operating system.
<P>
Panelists will include Linus Torvalds, the creator of
Linux; Robert Hart from retail Linux distributor Red Hat
Software; Larry Augustin of the Silicon Valley Linux User
Group and director of Linux International, a non-profit
consortium of Linux users and vendors; and Jeremy Allison,
the developer of SAMBA. Phillip Hughes, publisher of Linux
Journal, will question the panelists.
<P>
<A HREF="./taos.pr">Complete Press Release</A>
<P>
For more information:<BR>
Michael Masterson, <A HREF="mailto:MMasterson@taos.com">
MMasterson@taos.com</A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
LINC: Linux conference in Silicon Valley, California
</H3>
<P>
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 23:56:32 +0000<BR>
LINC, the International Linux Conference and Exposition, will be held
in Silicon Valley, California next January.
<P>
We have just issued a Call for Papers, and we encourage Linux
developers to send abstracts for talks or tutorials.
<P>
More info at: <A HREF="http://lincexpo.org/">http://lincexpo.org/</A>
<P>
<A HREF="./linc.pr">Complete Press Release</A>
If you have any questions, please mail me.
<P>
For more information:<BR>
Don Marti, <A HREF="mailto:dmarti@electriclichen.com">
dmarti@electriclichen.com</A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Position Available: network security - development/maintenance
</H3>
<p>
Tue, 23 Jun 1998 <BR>
SecurePipe Communications is currently accepting resumes for a
network security support and development position.
<P>
Responsibilities will include support of installed firewalls,
development and maintenance of open-source network security
solutions, and support of existing mail and web servers.
<P>
For more information:<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.securepipe.com/jobs.html">
http://www.securepipe.com/jobs.html</A>
<P>
Joshua Heling, <A HREF="mailto:jrh@securepipe.com">
jrh@securepipe.com</A> <BR>
SecurePipe Communications, Inc.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
GNU Utilities Integrated Development Environment project
</H3>
<p>
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 08:47:02 GMT<BR>
GUIDE: GNU Utilities Integrated Development Environment
<P>
The purpose of this project is to merge existing GNU and GPL utilities
into a graphical GPL Integrated Development Environment,
which contain editor, class browser, debugger, profiler, man generator,
code checking, testing, animation, and management.
<P>
Go to <A
HREF="http://sunsite.auc.dk/GUIDE/">http://sunsite.auc.dk/GUIDE/</A> and join the mailing list.
<P>
For more information:<BR>
Knud Haugaard Sxrensen, <A HREF="mailto:khs@mi.aau.dk">khs@mi.aau.dk</A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
WWW: Linux search engine in beta
</H3>
<P>
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 08:50:18 GMT<BR>
Take a look at <A HREF="http://linux.ncg.net/search/">
http://linux.ncg.net/search/</A>
<P>
A search engine with a different twist.... We index <I>only</I> Linux
related web pages, and in addition to searching in the robot index,
we'll look up the keywords in our resource listings as well.
<P>
The engine uses heuristics to exclude most pages that aren't relevant to
Linux. Currently the engine is in early beta, with a small index of about
75.000 documents as of 11th June, and growing at a rate of a few thousand
documents pr. day. It might seem small, but the index contains most of the
important Linux sites already, and is getting quite useful.
<P>
Since we track what subjects that are most popular to search for, you also
help us improve the resource listing by testing the engine.
<P>
As soon as the indexer is well enough tested, we'll increase indexing
speed dramatically (from 10 documents at a time currently, to about 300).
<P>
For more information:<BR>
Vidar Hokstad, <A HREF="mailto:vidarh@ncg.net">vidarh@ncg.net</A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
The Freefire Project (IT security solutions)
</H3>
<P>
Wed, 17 Jun 1998 13:26:28 GMT<BR>
After some time in the dark I am happy to Announce the Freefire Project
<P>
The Freefire Project tries to support Developers and Integrators in building
IT Security Solutions (especially Firewalls) based on Free Tools (Open
Source). It is not Operating System dependent, but a lot of the Tools on the
Page can be used with Linux.
<P>
The Project features a web site where you can find a lot of useful links to
free Security Tools and Resources. There is a monthly Bulletin giving some
articles about recently discovered tools.
<P>
There is a Mailing list for Developers. You DO NOT need to subscribe if you
don't develop tools on your own. In this case it will be enough to enter you=
r E-Mail in
the Announce-Form on the Web Pages or monitor the Web-Pages.
<P>
<A HREF="http://www.inka.de/sites/lina/freefire-l/index.en.html">
http://www.inka.de/sites/lina/freefire-l/index.en.html</A>
<P>
The Start page is also available in German:
<P>
<A HREF="http://www.inka.de/sites/lina/freefire-l/index.de.html">
http://www.inka.de/sites/lina/freefire-l/index.de.html</A>
<P>
Also searching for contributors to the Bulletin and for Links to Tools
which are not yet on the Pages.
<P>
For more information:<BR>
Bernd Eckenfels.
<A HREF="mailto:ecki@lina.inka.de">ecki@lina.inka.de</A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Linux Links
</H3>
The Trove Project Press Release:
<A HREF="./trove.txt">trove.txt</A>
<P>
Open Source Devloper Day Press Release:
<A HREF="./opensource.pr">opensource.pr</A>
<P>
The Open Source Index:
<A HREF="http://home.maine.rr.com/sickthing/osi">
http://home.maine.rr.com/sickthing/osi</A>
<P>
List of Linux Mailing Lists:
<A HREF="http://www.linuxrx.com/Lists/Lists.perl">www.linuxrx.com/Lists/Lists.perl</A>
<P>
Linux Buyers Guide:
<A
HREF="http://www.linuxbuyersguide.com/">http://www.linuxbuyersguide.com/</A>
<P>
Linux Applications:
<A HREF="http://www.cynetcity.com/cyberzone/497/">
http://www.cynetcity.com/cyberzone/497/</A>
Linux Book Guide:
<A HREF="http://members.bellatlantic.net/~ptgeiger/guidehome.htm">
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~ptgeiger/guidehome.htm</A>
<P>
Article about Linux in Computer Currents Magazine:
<A HREF="http://www.currents.net/magazine/national/1612/inet1612.html">
http://www.currents.net/magazine/national/1612/inet1612.html</A>
<P>
The Linux Console Tools:
<A HREF="http://www.mygale.org/~ydirson/en/lct/">
http://www.mygale.org/~ydirson/en/lct/</A>
<P>
Article "How Linux Could Kill Windows NT":
<A
HREF="http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/adem2fpf/www.anchordesk.com/story/story_2241.html">
http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/adem2fpf/www.anchordesk.com/story/story_2241.html</A>
<P>
Linux Rally: <A HREF="http://www.penguincomputing.com/svlug-rally.html">
http://www.penguincomputing.com/svlug-rally.html</A>
<P>
Time Magazine Article: <A
HREF="http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/article/0,2334,13820,00.html">
http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/article/0,2334,13820,00.html</A>
<a name="software"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">Software Announcements</font></H3></center>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
PC-Internet
</H3>
<P>
Check out the new PC-Internet at <a
href="http://www.pc-internet.com/">http://www.pc-internet.com/</a> (the
site is in Spanish only)
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
WrapBit 0.2.1 - virtual object storage and programming environment
</H3>
<p>
Thu Jun 25 12:47:56 1998<br>
The WrapBit version 0.2.1 is now available. Read more about it from the
active server at <a
href="http://public.compot.com/WrapBit/">http://public.comput.com/WrapBit/</a>
WrapBit is a virtual, persistant, write once object storage and
programing environment. A small kernel serves forge proofed data, meta
data and dynamic views (object invocation). XML is featured (but not imposed)
for object control messages.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
w3mir 1.0.3 - HTTP copying and mirroring tool
</H3>
<p>
Thu Jun 25 12:56:55 1998<br>
w3mir 1.0.3 has been released and is available at
<a href="http://www.math.uio.no/~janl/w3mir/">http://www.math.uio.no/</a> now.
<p>
Fixes include
<ul>
<li>-R/remove option to remove files is no longer more destructive
than intended.
<li>Files with 'unsafe' characters in their filename is now saved as
"foo bar" instead of "foo%20bar"
<li>The -B switch works once again.
</ul>
<p>
w3mir is a all purpose HTTP copying and mirroring tool. The main focus
of w3mir is to create and maintain a browsable copy of one, or
several, remote WWW site(s). Used to the max w3mir can retrive the
contents of several related sites and leave the mirror browseable via
a local web server, or from a filesystem, such as directly from a
CDROM.
<p>
w3mir supports HTML4, and has partial support for CSS, Java, ActiveX
and Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Alphanumeric Paging Software beta test</H3>
<p>
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 09:02:46 GMT<br>
EtherPage(TM) is now available on Linux
<p>
Calling beta testers for our EtherPage product
running under Linux. If interested, you can download
software and request an evaluation license code from
<a
href="http://www.ppt.com/eval/version30.html">http://www.ppt.com/eval/version30.html</a>
<p>
EtherPage is a client/server based product for
delivering messages from computers to wireless messaging
services such as alphanumeric and numeric pagers. The
product includes a web interface for interactive use
and administration, a command line interface and a
C API.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
tomsrtbt-1.4.66</H3>
<p>
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 09:01:35 GMT<br>
tomsrtbt-1.4.66.tar.gz is available at Sunsite.unc.edu to be placed into
system/recovery and <a
href="http://www.toms.net/~toehser/rb/">http://www.toms.net/~toenser/rb/</a>.
<p>
It is a boot/root rescue/emergency floppy image with more stuff than fits.
Bzip2, 1722Mb formatting, and tighter compilation options helped jam it on.
tomsrtbt is useful for "learn unix on a floppy" as it runs from ramdisk,
includes the man-pages for everything, and behaves in a generally predictable
way.
<p>
The home page is: <a
href="http://www.clark.net/~toehser/rb">http://www.clark.net/~toehser/rb/</a>.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
MpegTV Player 1.0 released for Linux/Alpha</H3>
<p>
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 10:30:37 GMT<br>
MpegT@ Player 1.0 has been released for Linux/Alpha. MpegTV Player 1.0 is a
realtime software MPEG Video player with audio/sync.
<p>
MpegTV Player is a Shareware (US$10) for personal and non-profit use.
Commercial licenses available.
<p>
Key features include support for 8 bit, 16 bit and 24 bit display, random
access, frame capture and a VCR-like graphic front-end.
<p>
Download MpegTV Player 1.0 (mtv) for linux-alpha from:
<a
href="ftp://ftp.mpegtv.com/pub/mpeg/mpegtv/player/alpha-unknown-linux/">ftp://ftp.mpegtv.com/pub/mpeg/mpegtv/player/alpha-unkown-linux/</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Motif Interface Builder VDX 1.2</H3>
<p>
Mon, 15 Jun 1998 11:16:16 GMT<br>
Release 1.2 of VDX, the Motif Interface Builder for Linux is ready
for download. The VDX provides the interactive design of user
interfaces based on OSF/Motif and generates portable C and C++
source code. Tools like Resource Editor, Browser and the
interactive WYSIWYG View make the design process very easy. Their
object oriented interface and the adaptable code generation are
cool features.
<p>
Interested? Visit the VDX Home Page at <a
href="http://www.bredex.de/EN/vdx/">http://www.bredex.de/EN/vdx/</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
R 0.62.1 released: statistical computation and graphics</H3>
<p>
Wed, 17 Jun 1998 13:20:17 GMT<br>
R version 0.62.1 has been released and will propagate through the CRAN
mirrors within the next few days. The have been lots of changes, any R
user should definetely upgrade to this version.
<p>
R is a system for statistical computation and graphics. It
consists of a language plus a run-time environment with graphics, a
debugger, access to certain system functions, and the ability to run
programs stored in script files.
<p>
CRAN is a network of ftp and web servers around the world that store
identical, up-to-date, versions of code and documentation for the R
statistical package. Please use the CRAN site nearest to you to
minimise network load.
<p>
The CRAN master site can be found at the URL <a
href="http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/">http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Mobitex Radio Modem Driver</H3>
<p>
Wed, 17 Jun 1998 13:21:40 GMT<br>
Announcing the release of a new network driver which
implements the MASC data link layer protocol, enabling Linux to use
Mobitex radio modems as network devices. Armed with radio modems and a
subscription to a Mobitex operator, you can create a network
interconnecting two or more Linux systems wirelessly using TCP/IP or your
own custom protocol.
<p>
The driver has been verified to be stable on 2.0.30 through 2.0.33
kernels and is hence ready for release. The package includes a basic
FAQ list, a HOWTO document, driver source and a couple of tools.
<p>
Take a look at <a
href="ftp://ftp.linuxrx.com/pub/linux-contrib/">ftp://ftp.linuxrx.com/pub/linux-contrib/</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
sfm 1.4 - Simple File Manager</H3>
<p>
Wed, 17 Jun 1998 14:02:46 GMT<br>
Announcing the release a new version of sfm. There's a lot of great
improvements between this version and the 1.1 version.
<p>
Some important changes:
<ul>
<li>you can associate actions with files (using its extension or its type given
by file(1))
<li>a popup menu gives you the available commands and shortcuts
</ul>
<p>
For more information look at <a
href="http://www.chez.com/prigaux/sfm.html">http://www.chez.com/prigaux/sfm.html</a>
<p>
You can find there a binary (i386, glibc, gtk+) version.
It has been tested (not fully) on i386 and solaris.
<p>
Any remarks and bug reports are welcome at <a
href="mailto:pixel_@geocities.com">pixel_@geocities.com</a>.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Linux Router Project v2.9.2 - networking centric mini-distribution</H3>
<p>
Sat, 20 Jun 1998 17:32:40 GMT<br>
v2.9.2 of linux router is out. LRP is now fully glibc based, and this is a
very solid release.
<p>
You can download it from: <a
href="ftp://ftp.psychosis.com/linux/linux-router/">ftp://ftp.psychosis.com/linux/linux-router/</a>
<p>
And get more info from: <a
href="http://www.psychosis.com/linux-router/">http:/www.psychosis.com/linux-router</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Slidedraw-0.10 - drawing/presentation program</H3>
<p>
Sat, 20 Jun 1998 17:29:11 GMT<br>
Slidedraw is a drawing program for presentation slides.
<p>
Some new features added:
<ul>
<li>distinct canvas-window/drawing/print size
<li>grouping of objects, creating composites
<li>new and improved menu hierarchy
</ul>
<p>
Get it at <a
href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming">http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
SFS Software's iavaZIP
</H3>
<p>
04 Jun 98 0100 WN<br>
SFS Software announced a new version of it's certified 100% pure Java
compression utility iavaZIP. The full-featured, pioneering file
compression program offers some unique features.
<p>
iavaZIP's key advantage is that it lets you create archives containing
files from multiple folders and subfolders--even from different volumes--in
the same session.
<p>
iavaZIP is compatible with PKZIP, supports 10 compression levels and runs
cross-platform on every Java 1.1 supported operating system like Windows
95/NT, Unix, Linux, SGI, AIX and OS/2. The Java Archive format (JAR) is also
supported. The product is available now through shareware distribution and
is priced at $49 for the standard single user license. Also available are
Academic Single user licenses ($29) and attractive high volume discounts.
<p>
SFS Software's WebSite at <a
href="http://www.sfs-software.com">http:www.sfs-software.com</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Protecting Networks w/SATAN</H3>
<p>
Mon, 8 Jun 1998 15:48:49 -0700 (PDT)<br>
Because SATAN (Security Administrator's Tool for Analyzing Networks)
could detect weaknesses on other systems (as well as your own) through
its web interface, it earned notoriety when released in April 1995 as
the tool that would "wreak havoc" on the Internet. The Oakland Tribune
even wrote: "It's like randomly mailing automatic rifles to 5000
addresses. I hope some crazy teen doesn't get ahold of one."
<p>
But as more and more "mission critical" applications are accessible
through the web, administrators are turning their attention to the
danger of attempted intrusion from outside the networked host. SATAN
is a powerful aid for system administrators. It performs "security
audits," scanning host computers for security vulnerabilities caused by
erroneous configurations or by known software errors in frequently used
programs. O'Reilly's latest release, "Protecting Networks with SATAN",
is an invaluable tool for network and security administrators working
with SATAN.
<p>
Protecting Networks with SATAN<br>
By Martin Freiss<br>
1st Edition June 1998 (US)<br>
112 pages, 1-56592-425-8, $19.95 (US$)<br>
<a href="http://www.oreilly.com">http://www.oreilly.com</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Conix 3D Explorer
</H3>
<p>
Wed, 17 Jun 1998 19:51:05 -0800<br>
Conix Enterprises, Inc. announce the release of Conix 3D Explorer on Linux.
With a single command 3D Explorer brings your Mathematica
graphics to life in an interactive OpenGL window, providing advanced
rendering capabilities previously reserved for high-end rendering systems.
<p>
3D Explorer provides a new graphics type, GLGraphics, with extended
graphics primitives and directives. New features include continuous
surfaces, display lists, inline transformations, and per-element control
over all graphics options.
<p>
3D Explorer comes with online documentation, including user's guide,
reference manual, programming examples, and demos. Quality email technical
support is provided by Conix Enterprises Inc., <a
href="mailto:tech@conix3d.com">tech@conix3d.com</a>.
For more information, see <a
href="http://www.conix3d.com">http://www.conix3d.com</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
LinuxCAD v 1.55
</H3>
Thu, 18 Jun 1998 06:34:43 +0000<br>
Software Forge Inc. announcing the availablity of LinuxCAD v 1.55
at July 25 , 1998. LinuxCAD v 1.55 includes all hardcopy capabilities
namely:
<ul>
<li>output to LaserJet family of printers,
<li>output to PostScript Black and White as well as Color,
<li>output to HP-GL compatible plotters,
<li>output to LinuxCAD MS-Windows print server,
in the base version.
</ul>
<p>
LinuxCAD v 1.55 will be priced at the same level $75+tax and shipping.
All users who will prepay LinuxCAD v 1.55 before July 25, will get
extended free upgrades until July 1999.
<p>
To learn more about LinuxCAD visit <a
href="http://www.linuxcad.com">http://www.linuxcad.com</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
Nighthawk 2.1 and FunktrackerGOLD 1.5 (announcement)
</H3>
<p>
Mon, 22 Jun 1998 23:13:50 +0930 (CST)<br>
Nighthawk 2.1 (nighthawk-2.1.tgz) and FunktrackerGOLD 1.5
(funktracker-1.5.tgz) have now been released. You can find them on:
<a
href="http://www.downunder.net.au/~jsno/rel/unix_projects">http://www.downunder.net.au/~jsno/rel/unix_projects</a>
<p>
Nighthawk is an X11 arcade game with sound and music. FunktrackerGOLD is a
digital music tracker. Read my page for more details on them.
Take a look at <a
href="http://www.downunder.net.au/~jsno">http://www.downunder.net.au/~jsno</a>
both come under the GNU GPL.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
CYBERSCHEDULER FOR LINUX v2.1
</H3>
<p>
Wed, 24 Jun 1998 18:34:09 -0700<br>
CrossWind Technologies offers CyberScheduler, web-based calendaring and
scheduling software for workgroups. It has been designed to leverage an
organization's existing web resources:
<ul>
<li>running on Apache's web server
<li>with end user access from any desktop browser.
</ul>
<p>
More information about CrossWind Technologies and a live on-line demo of
CyberScheduler is available on the Web site at <a
href="http://www.crosswind.com">http://www.crosswind.com</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<center>Published in <i>Linux Gazette</i> Issue 30, July 1998</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ TABLE OF
CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/homenew.gif" ALT="[ FRONT
PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./lg_tips30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif" ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./lg_answer30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P><HR><P>
<h5>This page written and maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A><BR>
Copyright &copy; 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. </H5>
<P>
<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =============================================================== -->
<center>
<H1><A NAME="answer">
<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)" border="0" align="middle">
<font color="#B03060">The Answer Guy</font>
<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)" border="0" align="middle">
</A></H1> <BR>
<H4>By James T. Dennis,
<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
Starshine Technical Services,
<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A> </H4>
</center>
<p><hr><p>
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<p><a href="#tag_greetings"><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0">Greetings from Jim Dennis</a></p>
<DL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<dt><A HREF="tag_SCOkeys.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a> Linux and SCO Keymap --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_SCOkeys.html"><STRONG>SCO Compatible Console Keymaps?</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_chroot.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a> linux kernel security --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_chroot.html"><STRONG>Breakin' Out of the
<TT>chroot()</TT> Jail</STRONG></A> adding "disabilities" to Linux
<dt><A HREF="tag_dosemu-db.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>Dosemu and virtual terminals? --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_dosemu-db.html"><STRONG>Clipper/xBase Capacity Problems
--- DOSemu as a Solution?</STRONG></A> "I don't think so."
<dt><A HREF="tag_NTauth.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a> NT Domain and Linux --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_NTauth.html"><STRONG>Linux as a "Domain Controller" for
a WinNT Domain? Not Yet!</STRONG></A>
Linux use of an NT PDC/BDC for authentication?
<dt><A HREF="tag_cdr.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a> DAO software for linux? --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_cdr.html"><STRONG>"DAO" (Disk at Once) CDR?</STRONG></A> Stump Me!
<dt><A HREF="tag_3270.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>tn3270 security</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="linux-questions-only@ssc.comport.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>readdress COM port to 3 or 4</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_lilostop.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a> Lilo won't boot --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_lilostop.html"><STRONG>Installed on a Secondary SCSI HD:
Lilo Stops at LI</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_emulate.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>help on unix --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_emulate.html"><STRONG>Running Unix/Linux Under Win '9x</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_ppadrivers.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>winprinters &amp; MTAs</STRONG></A>: Pointers and Corrections
<dt><A HREF="tag_database.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a> FoxPlus for Linux? --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_database.html"><STRONG>Dreaming about xBase tools
for Linux</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_vacation.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>auto response for email ?</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_nullmodem.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>Connecting Linux to Win '95 via Null Modem</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_lockups.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a> PC lockups --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_lockups.html"><STRONG>Hardware Lockups due to
Graphics Load</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_gzipC.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28"
width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"></a> gzip from C program --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_gzipC.html"><STRONG>Compression Libraries to
Link into a C Program</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_newlook.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>LOVE THE NEW LOOK!!!!</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_c500.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a>please, advice about Linux and C500 --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_c500.html"><STRONG>Linux PPC on the Umax C500 SuperMac:
Not A Good Idea</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_solprint.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></A>printing Solaris->Linux --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_solprint.html"><STRONG>Remote lpd from Solaris to Linux</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_vc1shell.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a> Help Wanted --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_vc1shell.html"><STRONG>User Shell on Virtual Console 1</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_memleak.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
></a> Memory deallocation problems --or--
<dd><A HREF="tag_memleak.html"><STRONG>Linux Memory Usage vs. Leakage</STRONG></A>
<dt><A HREF="tag_tvcard.html"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50" alt="(?)" border="0"
><STRONG>tv cards and dual monitor</STRONG></A>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</DL>
<p><hr width="40%" align="center"></p>
<a name="tag_greetings"><H3>Greetings from Jim Dennis</H3></a>
<p>Well another month is upon us. This last month was particularly busy
since I was able to afford the USENIX technical conference, in New
Orleans --- the best annual gathering of fellow Unix and Linux nerds
I've ever found. If you can get your boss to send you to just one
computing technical conference in the next year --- ask for it to be
this one (or the USENIX/LISA --- Large Installation Systems
Administration which will be in December).</p>
<p>Linus was there with his wife, Tove, and their two baby daughters.
He agreed to host an "intimate little BoF" (Birds of a Feather
discussion) which turned out to have over half of the conference
attending it (much to his surprise).</p>
<p>The '97 USENIX in Anaheim had a "parallel track" for Linux. This
year had one for "Freenix" (collectively referring to FreeBSD,
NetBSD, OpenBSD, and the GNU HURD, in addition to Linux). It's
important for us (Linux users) to recognize that Linux wasn't the
first "free" Unix kernel, and it is by no means the only one.</p>
<p>I've been trying to encourage the free *BSD users (all variants) to
come out of the woodwork and show up at their local Linux user's
group meetings. I know they'll be welcome at the Silicon Valley
LUG (<a href="http://www.svlug.org/">http://www.svlug.org</a>) and
I sincerely hope that they'll be welcome at other Linux events.
Now that we're getting enough market
share to get noticed in the press, and to have some effect on the
decisions of hardware and software vendors (particularly in the areas
that relate to documentation and NDA's) --- it would be a very bad
time for us to get embroiled in the sorts of infighting that's been
stifling the commercial Unix vendors for so long.</p>
<p>I noticed an interesting press release (forwarded to me by my wife)
regarding Microsoft's new "WISE" (Windows Interface Source Environment:
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/win32dev/base/wise.htm"
>http://www.microsoft.com/win32dev/base/wise.htm</a>) which basically
looks like a scheme to bolster the commercial Unix vendors up in their
battle against the free Unix clones (by providing them with <em>some
limited</em> support for running Windows '95 software). (From the looks
of it the WINE and Bochs projects may eventually be more capable).</p>
<p>Luckily these, and the other interesting user space projects that
are going to make Linux more accessible to non-technical users,
like GNOME, KDE, and GNUStep are <em>portable</em>. Linux has been a
primary development platform for many of these projects --- but
they all run under other versions of Unix.</p>
<p>So, while it may look like Linux is "taking over the world" ---
it is also opening up a world of opportunity for all of the other
Unix variants. There are now a few million users of Linux that will
feel right at home in just about any Unix on just about any hardware.</p>
<p>Perhaps that's why Sun and <a href="http://linux.sgi.com/">SGI</a> are
both supporting Linux projects.</p>
<!--================================================================-->
<A NAME="tag_SCOkeys"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">SCO Compatible Console Keymaps?</H3>
<p><strong>From Jim Kjorlaug on 25 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<br><br>
I work for a company that sells vertical solutions using
<a href="http://www.sco.com/">SCO unix</a> as a
platform. We are currently looking at linux as another possible
platform and I have found a possible contention. Does there exist a
keytable that causes the linux keyboard to behave like an SCO console.
I have already worked out the termcap for SCO ansi to work on linux but
some of the keymaps have me stumped. Any suggestions or advice would be
greatly appreciated. I realize that we could modify our application but
it would be much easier if it were possible with a keytable.
<br><br>
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
<br>Jim Kjorlaug
<br>Teleflora Technologies
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>I don't know how a SCO console keymap is supposed to behave
--- but Linux does have utilities to remap the console
keyboard to your heart's content. All of the popular
distributions include the '<TT>loadkeys</TT>' and '<TT>dumpkeys</TT>'
programs (parts of Andries Brouwer's
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux/util/kbd/">'<TT>kbd</TT>'
package</A>). You can look at the man pages for these for details.
<br><br>
I've never used these packages much --- just once to
set up "sticky shift" keys for a friend who lost most of the
use in one arm to a stroke a couple of years ago and again to
answer some other question back before I started this column.
<br><br>
It does seem quite odd that you'd go for console specific
binding rather than using the more portable
<TT>termcap</TT>/<TT>terminfo</TT> (<TT>curses</TT>/<TT>ncurses</TT>)
interfaces which would allow your app to be
accessed via terminals, over modem/dial-up connections, across
telnet sessions and from within xterms. However, I'm sure you
have your reasons.
<br><br>
Yann Dirson is working on a package called
"<A HREF="http://www.mygale.org/~ydirson/en/lct/">Linux console tools</A>"
which enhances the kbd package.
<br><br>
There is also a console fonts package (the '<TT>setfont</TT>' command
is also included with many Linux distributions; it allows
you to choose from among about 100 different VGA/EGA
compatible console fonts, some of which are quite silly).
Andries Brouwer is apparentlly the co-author of the console
fonts package, too.
<br><br>
Good luck on the port and welcome to the club.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_chroot"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Breakin' Out of the chroot() Jail</H3>
<H4 ALIGN="center">Or: adding "disabilities" to Linux</H4>
<p><strong>From Ron Arts on 25 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<br><br>
Hello,
<br><br>
I saw a post by your hand from 26 Apr 98 in
<A HREF="news:comp.os.linux.development.system"
>comp.os.linux.development.system</A> where you said a lot of noteworthy
things on linux security. Also I have been talking to Jos Vos from
Xopen Systems (who wrote the <TT>ipfwadm</TT> package).
<br><br>
Both you and he noted the possibility to break out of a <TT>chroot</TT> jail
(once you become root there). It seems that devices are the weak
factor.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>It seems that letting anyone "become root there" is the weak
factor! If we can reduce the need to "become root" --- by
providing mechanisms other than "SUID" and "SGID" programs
for accessing "privileged" operations than we have made
some progress.
<br><br>
One approach would be the POSIX.1e "capabilities" (which are
more like VMS style "privileges" than true "capabilities").
There is a bit of preliminary work being done on this in the
2.1.x kernels --- but nothing is likely be usable in 2.2
(so you're looking at Linux 2.4 before there is "stable" support
for any of that).
<br><br>
Another approach is to limit the damage that '<TT>root</TT>' can do
using something like the BSD securelevel features. Last I
heard on the Linux kernel mailing list they had dropped plans
to put in simple '<TT>securelevel</TT>' support in favor of a
"more flexible" approach --- which would mesh better with the
eventual POSIX.1e ("Orange Book") work.
<ul>
<li>(The implementations of 'securelevel' in all of
the popular BSD variants, free and commercial
have been vulnerable to a few attacks via the
<TT>/proc</TT> filesystem and more recently via
<TT>ptrace()</TT>
--- so having Linux adopt one of those designs
might not be a sound idea. We'll see).
</ul>
I'm a little shy on the implementation details and design
but I think they said it would essentially be a bit field
of limitations that would be set on a per process basis.
There would be bits to prevent various syscalls like
<TT>mknod()</TT>, <TT>chroot()</TT>, <TT>mount()</TT>, etc.
In the POSIX.1e model
this would later become the "maximum privileges mask" ---
and the individual privileges would be set by meta data on
the executable files (think of that as a list of about 80
"P" bits rather than just the SUID and SGID bits we have now).
<br><br>
The argument for this is that we could set any set of
this bits we want on the '<TT>init</TT>' process (PID 1) to accomplish
the same limitations as we get with BSD's '<TT>securelevel</TT>'.
<br><br>
That's a pretty compelling argument so far as I'm concerned.
My main hesitation beyond that has to do with code
complexity. The BSD crowd has been trying to get their
'<TT>securelevel</TT>' implementations right for years --- and the
<TT>ptrace()</TT> bug was just found a couple of weeks ago.
<br><br>
It's not a simple problem. NT's "object" model (and I
use the term "object" very loosely) provides ACL's on
files, registry keys, and all sorts of other OS elements.
There is work underway to add ACL support to Linux ---
over some filesystems at least. However, I'm convinced
that ACL's are a fundamentally flawed security model ---
and that opinion is based on some pretty good academic work.
<br><br>
Unfortunately the true capabilities security model entails
a completely different programming paradigm --- it doesn't
translate to Unix conventions at all. In my research
(purely "armchair" or "book larnin'") I spent most of my
energy trying to unlearn the Unix, Netware, and NT approaches.
<br><br>
You can read more about the capabilities security model at
Jonathan Shapiro's "EROS" (extremely reliable OS) web site:
<blockquote><code> <A HREF="http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~eros/"
>http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~eros/</A>
</code></blockquote>
(EROS is an ongoing research project which will hopefully
eventually be available as a production operating system).
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>I have been thinking about disabling the <TT>mount()</TT> or
better the <TT>mknod()</TT> systemcall when executed from <TT>chroot</TT>'ed
programs (patching the kernel).
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>I think the "<TT>capabilities</TT>" (or Linux "<TT>securelevel</TT>" or
"<TT>privmask</TT>") patches will allow you to disable access to these
sorts of syscalls. I also suspect that these "disabilities"
(a more apt description really) will be inherited by all
forked processes. They will certainly need to be immutable
(by the process) and will have to imply certain disabilities
with regards to <TT>kmem</TT> and <TT>/proc</TT> access by the
'<TT>root</TT>' processes
that are running within these process groups.
<br><br>
You can look at the existing patches (in the recent 2.1.1xx
kernels) and possibly build on that.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
> Do you think that would be worth the effort? We currently run
<TT>ftpd</TT>, <TT>telnetd</TT>, <TT>sshd</TT> and some more things
<TT>chroot</TT>'ed in a very minimal linux
environment. Based on the false assumption that even when you make it
to becoming root you cannot break out of that.
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>The assumption that the <TT>chroot()</TT> jail is inescapable by
rogue root processes is very bad. You've discovered that.
<br><br>
The main advantage for <TT>chroot()</TT> have to do with limiting
the number of SUID/SGID programs that are accessible in the
effort to exploit various vulnerabilities that are used to
<EM>get</EM> root or other unauthorized access. The other advantage
is that you can limit the amount of snooping that a class
of users (anonymous and guestgroup ftp, for example) can
perpetrate on other users on the system.
<br><br>
In other words you can limit the exposure of your "general"
users from some classes of other users. For a long time
the most important element of this was to prevent FTP users
from grabbing your passwd file and running '<TT>crack</TT>' on it.
With the advent of shadow password systems that has been
much less of a concern.
<br><br>
These days the most common approach to securing systems
is to create special, sacrificial hosts for each service
and class of users. Linux and {Free|Net|Open}-BSD have
made this an increasingly economical and attractive option
since we can put any old "junker" 386 or better to work
in this sort of role (some people are <EM>giving</EM> away 386 and
486 systems these days). This is easy enough for commercial
sites --- but more of a problem for ISP's and educational
sites, which traditionally still have shell access to at
least some of their machines.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>I think very few programs use <TT>mknod()</TT>, and that probably are
the programs you wouldn't allow in a <TT>chroot</TT>'ed environment anyway. I
also think it would be a relatively small patch, I've done some digging and
- not being a kernel expert - it seemed pretty easy. The only thing
left to find out is how to detect in the kernel that the current env
is <TT>chroot</TT>'ed.
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>The kernel obviously already tracks the 'root' directory
(device:inode) for every process. I think it's a field
in the uarea struct (a data structure maintained by the
kernel for every process).
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>Can you offer any thoughts on this, I'd like to know if I am on the
wrong track (again) here.
<br><br>
Thanks in advance,
<br>Ron Arts
<br>Netland Internet Services
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>Look at the existing (2.1.x) sources for references to
"securelevel" and "capabilities" --- I'm sure they're in there
somewhere. You can also consider contributing to the
Linux Security Audit project. See the following URL's for
more details:
<dl><dt>The Linux Weekly News article on it
(search on the keyword "audit"):
<dd><A HREF="http://www.lwn.net/980625/">http://www.lwn.net/980625/</A>
<br>&nbsp;<br>
<dt>Their currently archives/web site:
<dd><A HREF="http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Pubs/Mail/archive/linux-security-audit/"
>http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Pubs/Mail/archive/linux-security-audit/</A>
</dl>
If your organization needs these features and is willing to
donate some web space and some personnel time and expertise
to the project --- you'll be doing yourself and all of us
alot of good.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_dosemu-db"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Clipper/xBase Capacity Problems
--- DOSemu as a Solution?</H3>
<H4 ALIGN="center">"I don't think so."</H4>
<p><strong>From Steven Jackson on 25 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
Hi AnswerGuy,
<br><br>
I was reading an article on the web about diskless
workstations and redhat when I recognised your name, (I think you
helped me out with redhat a long time ago, thanks).
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>You're welcome.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
> I look after a small network of 4 pcs at a doctors surgery which
runs an accounting package and an appointments diary compiled under
Clipper. System Manager is run on the host pc which does all of the
local processing of these applications and the clients run as
virtual terminals.
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
> I don't know what you mean by "system manager" ---
from what I remember/know of dBase and Clipper these
were designed as single-user database systems. The
multi-user deployment of xBase applications normally
relies on "record locking" (similar to file locking
but allowing one to request exclusive access to a
<EM>portion</EM> of a file).
<br><br>
In this model the <TT>.DBF</TT> files are normally stored on a
network filesystem (Netware, LANtastic, and later
WfW among others). I don't know if Samba or the
Mars-NWE (Netware emulator) supports these forms of
record locking.
<br><br>
It is unclear from your description how your are
running this. You mention 4-PC's and Clipper (a
DOS based compiler/developement package for dBase
programming), which leads me to think of networked
DOS systems --- then you mention "virtual terminal"
which suggests that you're using a multi-user OS
(like Linux).
<br><br>
Are you running DR or CCI's "Concurrent DOS" (or
their later "M-DOS" or "Multi-user DOS") or something
like TSL's "PC-MOS" (another multi-user MS-DOS clone)?
Is "System Manager" yet another multi-user DOS?
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>Over the past year or so the system has run slower gradually to the
point where it is getting annoying. I'd like to try running linux
on the fileserver and somehow run the dos based clipper programs
under dosemu. I think it would be wise to keep all the <TT>*.dbf</TT> files
on the server rather than sending them over the network. I got the idea
from the recent Linux Journal article about the Latvian Police dept.
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
><dl><dt>The first question is:
<dd>Why is the performance degenerating?
<br>&nbsp;<br>
<dt>The obvious suggestions are:
<dd>Have you been regularly "pack"-ing your
databases (purging deleted records and transactions)?
<br><br>Have you been maintaining your indices?
(Indexing is usually a vital key to db performance).
<br><br>Have you been defragmenting your filesystems
regularly?
<br><br>Has your system utilization increased in some marked
way (you've added *lots* more customers, etc)?
<br><br>Does your current design have any features or support
for migrating old and inactive records to "archival"
or "historical" databases (tables) so that the "active"
db routines are maintained at feasible sizes?
<br><br>Are there other activities on your LAN that might
be causing network congestion?
</dl>
Regarding the notion of running the existing program
under DOSemu . . .
<br><br>
I don't know if that will do any good at all. Since we
don't know what is causing the problem, it seems premature
to recommend solutions. My first thought is that moving
the processing from four systems onto a single one (even a
single system under a superior OS) is unlikely to improve
overall performance.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>Do you have any ideas about how I could embark upon this?
<BR><BR>
Thanks,
<br>Steve Jackson
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>I have many ideas. The first, and most obvious, would be
to port the application to a client/server database design
--- one that's designed to be multi-user and scalable at the
outset. Another, less radical approach would be to take the
existing Clipper sources and port them to
<A HREF="http://www.wgs.com/fsad.html">Flagship</a> (an
xBase to C development package from WorkGroup Solutions).
<br><br>
... their web pages suggest that they will soon be shipping
betas of a "visual" frontend for xBase programming. That
should be interesting for all those "VB" and "VC++" developers
that are still clinging desperately to Microsoft's platform.
<br><br>
Or you might try X2C from:
<blockquote><code><A HREF="http://www.on-the-net.com/x2c/"
>http://www.on-the-net.com/x2c/</A>
</code></blockquote>
The questions I asked above may give you some ideas for
some "stopgap" measures (re-index, defrag, migrate inactive
records, etc). In the long run you'll want to do some
analysis to see if the current system can continue to meet
your needs.
<br><br>
If you do decide to go with a client server model you
have many choices that run under Linux. There are the free
and shareware packages like mSQL, Beagle and MySQL and
there are a number of commercial packages like InfoFlex
Adabas, and the JustLogic SQL. Rather than give URL's
to all of these I'll just point you at the definitive
guide to RDBMS packages for Linux --- maintained by
Christopher B. Browne at:
<blockquote><code> <A HREF="http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/"
>http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/</A>
<br><A HREF="http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/rdbms.html"
>http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/rdbms.html</A>
</code></blockquote>
... and another excellent list of Linux business applications
maintained by Linas Vepstas (<EM>NOT</EM> to be confused with
Linus the kernel guy) at:
<blockquote><code> <A HREF="http://www.linas.org/">http://www.linas.org</A>
<br><A HREF="http://www.linas.org/linux/db.html"
>http://www.linas.org/linux/db.html</A>
</code></blockquote>
I should mention that you aren't limited to just xBase or
SQL --- there are a number of alternative DBMS system that
are available to Linux and other Unix users and programmers
--- including a number of object-oriented and hybrid
systems. Allegedly there's even Linux support for the venerable
<A HREF="http://www.picksys.com/">Pick system</A>.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_NTauth"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Linux as a "Domain Controller" for
a WinNT Domain? Not Yet!</H3>
<H4 ALIGN="center">or: Linux use of an NT PDC/BDC for authentication?</H4>
<p><strong>From Cesar Augusto Kant Grossmann on 25 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<br><br>
Hi James!
<br><br>
Again a problem to me, and a exercise to you.
<br><br>
Is it possible to make the Linux Box do login authentication
requests from a NT Domain Server?
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>Not yet. The <a href="http://samba.anu.edu.au/">Samba team</a>
is working on this and hopes to have something ready within a couple of
months. Lest you think this is all wasted effort
(on the thought that Microsoft will ship NT 5.x
in a year or so) --- the indications seem to be that
the MS NT implementation of Kerberos will still rely
heavily on the data structures that they currently use
in their PDC/BDC protocol. So, the work being done
now is an investment to the future as well as a hope
for the near-present.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>I have a Linux box in a TCP/IP network, part of a large NT Domain,
and want to allow NT domain-users to log in the Linux Box and access
Internet in it. The idea is provide access to the Linux Box without
having to register every user. The users don<6F>t need a regular
account, with home directory, because Internet access is not
frequent (thanks to a low connection) and they only use it to
surfing (not email, not FTP).
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>Hmm. It looks like I read too much into your first
paragraph. This sounds like you want Linux to be a
client to an NT domain controller. I think there is
a PAM (pluggable authentication module) for doing this.
<br><br>
Since the whole PAM project is still in beta (and not
moving nearly fast enough for my tastes --- not that I've
contributed to it nor that the programmers would want me
to) I can't make any promises on how well it will work.
<br><br>
However the state of PAM can speak for itself at:
<blockquote><code><A HREF="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/"
>http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/</A>
</code></blockquote>
(Andrew Morgan's pages on the Transmeta sponsored Linux site).
<br><br>
The module you might want to play with is by David Airlie
and is at:
<blockquote><code><A HREF="http://www.csn.ul.ie/~airlied/pam_smb/"
>http://www.csn.ul.ie/~airlied/pam_smb/</A>
</code></blockquote>
Other modules (for things like one-time passwords, authentication
on a Netware server, a couple of different "SecureCard" and
"DESGold" cards, RADIUS, and support Kerberos realms, etc) can
be found by browsing around at:
<blockquote><code><A HREF="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/modules.html"
>http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/modules.html</A>
</code></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>No, I don't want to make the Linux Box act as a firewall (I don't
have authorization to do that). And, again, sorry my bad english...
<br><br>
TIA
<br><br>
Cesar Augusto Kant Grossmann
<br>Uruguaiana - RS - Brasil
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>Given the muddy murky nature of the term "firewall" the
difference between what you're doing and "acting as a firewall"
may be purely a matter of semantics. However, if it'll keep
your management happy I'll go into a Brazilian court of law
as an "expert witness" to state my opinion that this is <EM>not</EM>
a "firewall."
<br><br>
If by "surfing" you mean that your users will only be
using the Linux system as a web proxy --- why are you
fussing with authenticating them at all? Why not just
install Apache and configure it purely for caching/proxy
use --- or use Squid (there are RPM's avaiable --- they
were included with my copies of
<A HREF="http://www.suse.de/">S.u.S.E.</A>
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a>, CERN, and Squid can
all be configured as caching
web proxy/servers and can all be configured with a variety
of limitations on which systems are allowed through in which
directions. Do you really care <EM>which</EM> user is logged into
the workstation that is using these proxies? That seems like
an odd requirement unless you're also trying to enforce
some other policies (like certain classes of employees are
only allowed to "surf" during their lunch hour, etc).
<br><br>
I suggest you actually review your requirements a bit further.
It sounds like you are complicating matters more than the
situation requires.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_cdr"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">"DAO" (Disk at Once) CDR?</H3>
<H4 ALIGN="center">Stump me!</H4>
<p><strong>From Mark Heath on 25 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<br><br>
Hi there,
<br><br>
I've been searching high and low for DAO (disk at once) CDR
recording software for linux. Does any exist, Commercial or
otherwise?
<br><br>
I've email Jeff Arnold about a Linux port and he bluntly refused.
<br><br>
I've email'd HyCD who have a tool that appeared to support DAO and
claimed UNIX support. But their software didn't support DAO and
they weren't interested in a Linux port. I've informed them of this
hole in the Linux software market.
<br><br>
The closest thing that appears to be available is that Joerg
Schilling's cdrecord supports DAO MMC-3 (err i think that is the
spec) Of course my CDR (HP 4020i) isn't MMC compatible.
<br><br>
I've had a look at writing my own but it appears that every CDR has
a different command set to write in DAO mode. I think is was a
little out of my depth, since I couldn't even get the CDR to read
raw sectors.
<br><br>
So your help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
<br>Mark.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>Well, you have me stumped.
<br><br>
I don't know anything about the difference between DAO and
other forms of CDR recording. Normally, I'd spend an
hour or two hunting around on
<a href="http://altavista.digital.com/">Alta Vista</a>,
<a href="http://www.yahoo.com/">Yahoo!</a>,
Savvy Search,
<a href="http://www.dejanews.com/">DejaNews</a>, etc and
pulling out more of my hair to find out. However, I have a book to
write and a wife to feed, and it is just too close to my deadline for
me to wait until tomorrow.
<br><br>
So, what is DAO and why would you need it? What is the
difference between <TT>cdrecord</TT> and <TT>cdwrite</TT> (the one I
use with my Ricoh CDR)? Have you tried them both? What is
MMC? Who is Jeff Arnold? Who are HyCD and should we
care enough to start another Linux grassroots
"petition-the-vendor" campaign or should we just write
more code to "do-it-ourselves"?
<br><br>
I'll publish this one --- and let you and the rest of my
readership nail me with the answers. (Naturally I'll
bounce you copies of the other responses as they trickle in).
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_3270"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">tn3270 security </H3>
<p><strong>From Art Blair on 25 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
When I try to use <TT>tn3270</TT> or <TT>X3270</TT> on my redhat 5.0 box to
connect to our school's system I get
<BLOCKQUOTE><code> TELNET Server: Session security is required.
<br>TELNET Server: Good-bye!!!
<br>Connection closed by foreign host.
</code>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
Is there a different version of tn3270 that has session security or some
way to enable it with what I have?
<br><br>Thanx, Art Blair.
</strong></p>
<img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>Are you sure you want to be using <TT>tn3270</TT> (or <TT>x3270</TT>)
to make this connection? Are you connecting to an IBM mainframe or
minicomputer (presumably using the 3270 "block mode" ---
full-screen protocol --- and EBCDIC)?
<br><br>
Also does your site use Kerberos or some form of SNA
security (encryption or host-to-host authentication)?
<br><br>
The sad fact is that I know nothing about 3270 emulation
or about the SNA protocols. You'll want to contact your
site admin or help desk to find out more about their
requirements. They should also be able to let you know
if there are any freely available client/terminal emulation
packages that are suitable for use with their facilities.
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>please do not publish my email address or use it for
advertising</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>We usually strip out e-mail addresses from the published
version of the column.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="linux-questions-only@ssc.comport"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">readdress COM port to 3 or 4</H3>
<p><strong>From PJ on 25 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
can you tell me how to readdress COM port2 to port 3 or 4?
I need to use COM port 2 for other device.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>No. I can't. You'll want to refer to the documentation
that should have come with your hardware (this is almost
certainly a hardware issue that is completely unrelated to
the OS or software that you're running). The details vary
among manufacturer, devices and models.
<br><br>
If you have a couple of COM ports built into your
motherboard it is possible that you can disable or reset
the I/O addresses, IRQ's and other details for your COM
ports via the CMOS setup program (the interface through which
you set the date and time, the hard drive type and geometry and
various other firmware settings that are stored in extra registers
of your PC's clock chip --- a chip which uses CMOS technology
so that it dissipates very low power consumption and is thus
suitable for operation off of a battery while the system is
powered down).
<br><br>
This "setup" program is usually (almost always) stored in
the system firmware (the BIOS ROM's on your motherboard) and
is typically accessible at boot/power-up via some system dependent
keystroke. Usually there is a message that is briefly displayed
to note what the magic keystroke would be --- something like:
<blockquote><code> "Press &lt;Del&gt; not to enter Setup"
</code></blockquote>
If that doesn't work (either because your COM ports are not
on your motherboard or for other reasons) you can open up the
case and look at the various DIP and/or "berg" (jumper pins)
settings that you'll find. Some of them may be labelled.
There might also be a manufacturer's mark that might lead you
to a website or phone number where you can get support and
documentation for the device.
<br><br>
If you can't find any documentation for some cheap multi-function
(IDE, floppy, COM, and parallel port) card --- your best bet is to
buy a new one (typically $10 to $35 US) and toss the old one into
a drawer as an emergency spare.
<br><br>
As a final note: please consider what it's like to answer such a
question. You give no details about what sort of system you have,
what you've tried (do you have any docs, have you looked at them),
what device you're trying to add (odd that it <EM>must</EM> be on COM2
--- how do you know that), what OS distribution and software
you're running, etc.
<br><br>
You send a two line question which cannot be reasonably answered
in less than fifty. In IRC and on most newsgroups and mailing
lists you'd either be ignored or flamed. We're all volunteers
here and the one thing we ask is that you do your homework before
you post.
<br><br>
I'm not saying this just to sound crabby (if I was going to be
irate, I'd've just deleted this). If you don't do your homework
--- and put considerably more thought and energy into your
questions than you won't get any satisfaction out of the Linux
community.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_lilostop"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Installed on a Secondary SCSI HD:
Lilo Stops at LI</H3>
<p><strong>From Rick V Smith on 9 Jun 1998</strong></p>
<!-- begin body -->
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0">I have installed linux on my second scsi drive
the swap on a small partition on my first scsi. and lilo on a big mbr for my
win 95. the start of linux went well but when I shut down and went to restart
all that happens is <TT>Li</TT> and the system hang's
<br><br>
Any Idea's.
<br>Thank's Rick
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>I don't know what you mean by "and like on a big mbr"
--- all MBR's (master boot records) are the same size
on PC's --- one sector!
<br><br>
It sounds like your BIOS can't "see" the 2nd SCSI drive
-- so Lilo can't "see" it either. The easiest solution
would be to install <TT>LOADLIN</TT> into a DOS/Win '96 directory
--- with a copy of your kernel(s). The kernel doesn't
rely on the BIOS to access your drives (since it provide
32 bit native drivers for your SCSI card --- etc) so it
will find its root filesystem with no problem.
<br><br>
Another think to try is to add the "linear" switch to
your <TT>/etc/lilo.conf</TT> --- and then rebuild the boot block
and boot map using the <TT>/sbin/lilo</TT> command. Read the
lilo man pages and/or look at the lilo "user" and "tech"
<TT>.dvi</TT> files using xdvi (under X Windows) for details.
<br><br>
There may be other settings that you'll have to tweak to
get it working. This is particularly true if you have a
large SCSI drive (my guess is that your second drive is
bigger than 2 Gb -- and your first one isn't). Look in
the CMOS/Setup settings (or whatever your SCSI card
provides) for things that suggest that it is doing something
"fun" to make the large drive "DOS compatible").
<br><br>
Jim,
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0">I found the following line you wrote in a responce to someone else and
this cured my hair loss problem, that probably worked better than Rogain.
Thank's for the time and insight.
<br>Rick
<font color="#003366"><pre>
# The stanza for booting Linux.
image = /vmlinuz # The kernel is in /vmlinuz
label = linux # Give it the name "linux"
root = /dev/hda2 # Use /dev/hda2 as the root
filesystem
vga = ask # Prompt for VGA mode
append = "aha152x=0x340,11,7,1"
# Add this to the boot options,
# for detecting the SCSI controller
</pre>
<A HREF="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO-8.html#ss8.2"
>http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO-8.html#ss8.2</A>
</font></p></strong>
<A NAME="tag_emulate"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Running Unix/Linux Under Win '9x</H3>
<p><strong>From John Riddoch on the
<A HREF="news:comp.unix.questions">comp.unix.questions</A> newsgroup
on 05 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<br><br>
<em><font color="#003366">Jeff wrote:
<br>I need a question answered. I am running Windows 95 and soon 98.
...
<br><br>
I was
wondering if there is any way to run the unix program itself in a
program window in Win 95,
</font></em>
<br><br>
unix is not a program; it is an operating system. You _<EM>cannot</EM>_
run two operating systems at the same time on the same hardware. Dual-booting
is a different matter.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>And running an OS under simulation or under a VM
is also a "different matter." Also not that the phrase
"OS" is not so precisely defined that you can defend this
position. For example the IBM mainframes support VM's
(virtual machines) that would allow the concurrent use of
multiple OS'. Also consider the case of Tenon Systems'
"MachTen" a microkernel OS that support MacOS running as
a personality under the microkernel.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"><em><font color="#003366"
>just like you can run win 95 the same way on a mac.</font></em>
<br><br>
???? I sincerely doubt it. Perhaps the mac had an emulator that ran
win 95 programs. Apart from anything else, win 95 is i386 only and
won't run on a 68000 (or whatever macs use these days).
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>He's probably referring to
<A HREF="http://www.connectix.com/html/connectix_virtualpc.html"
>VirtualPC</A> --- an emulation of the hardware, including CPU, video,
disk, I/O, and ethernet chipsets. There's also
<A HREF="http://www.softwindows.com/SoftWindows/Mac/Products/RealPC_brief.html">RealPC</A>.
These are the most popular PC
<A HREF="http://www.emulation.net/">emulators under MacOS</A>.
<br><br>
Modern Macs run the G3 (PowerPC) processor, and the performance
of Win '95 under VirtualPC is tolerable (about equivalent to a
Pentium 90 on a 250 Mhz G3 Powerbook (laptop) and about a
Pentium 75 on a 180 Mhz Performa).
<br><br>
Getting back to the original question:
<br><br>
There is a shareware package (distributed as source code
and available for free evaluation) by Kevin Lawton called Bochs.
<br><br>
This started as a PC emulator (hardware) emulation for Unix
(including Linux) that is allegedly capable of supporting Win
'95 under emulation. It apparently isn't quite up to supporting
NT (apparently the CPU emulation is only 386 and NT requires
486 or Pentium emulation). For info on that look at the
Bochs web site:
(<A HREF="http://world.std.com/~bochs/">http://world.std.com/~bochs/</A>).
It looks like Kevin will be upgrading the processor emulation
as time (and possibly funds) allow. Apparently you can
License this package for $25. (I haven't used it yet, but
I might send him the money just 'cause I'm so impressed
by the effort).
<br><br>
I know this doesn't answer the question <EM>Yet</EM> but hang with
me a moment. Someone named David Ross seems to have ported
<A HREF="http://v.nu/core/Bochs/">Bochs</A> to the Win32 platform,
thus allegedly allowing one to run Linux, FreeBSD, or (presumably)
most other forms of x86 Unix.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"><em><font color="#003366"
>if you can gimmie a hand and maybe tell me some sites where i can
download some software please tell me.</font></em>
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0">See above.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
>You might try <A HREF="http://www.linux.org/">http://www.linux.org/</A>
for a few pointers. Do some web searches for linux and read some stuff.
RedHat linux 5.0 is a reasonable version which is nicely pre-packaged for
you and fairly easy to install
(<A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">http://www.redhat.com/</A>).
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0"
>Having answered the basic question (where can you find
a PC emulator for Win '9x) I have to add my own suggestion:
<br><br>
<div align="center">Don't do it.</div>
<br><br>
You can buy a cheap PC (even an old used 486) for next to
nothing (I've recently had one 40Mhz 386 given to me for free);
and you can install Linux on that.
<br><br>
(My main household server is a 10 year old 386/33 with 32
Mb of RAM. Eventually I'll install some extra RAM and
a new disk into that "new" 386 and throw it up as an
extra server on my LAN).
<br><br>
Once you have a machine (give it at least 16Mb and at least
a 540Mb drive) then you can just slap a null modem between
it and you desktop machine, or toss in a couple of ether
cards and a cross-over 10BaseT cord (or even by a little
4 or 5 port hub). Once that's done you can use a terminal
package (like Hyperterm, Telix, or K95 -- Columbia U's
Kermit for Win '9x), or even Kermit for DOS) to connect
to the Linux box. If you go the ethernet route you can
use Win '95's '<TT>TELNET.EXE</TT>' or you can still use K95
(it's also a telnet client --- and it's terminal emulation
is far less buggy than Microsoft's --- so you won't need
a custom termcap/terminfo file to run "curses" (Unix/Linux
"full scree" terminal/console) applications).
<br><br>
There are two reasons for me to suggest this approach:
<br><br>
First, you are likely to be very unhappy with the performance
of running any form of Unix under emulation. Although
Linux performs adequately on a 386 with only 16Mb of RAM
--- and some kernels can run in as little as 2Mb --- you'll
probably just find emulation to be too frustrating to be useful
--- particularly when using any Unix networking utilities.
<br><br>
The only two viable reasons I can see for the mode of operation
that you've requested are:
<ul>
<li>You want to play with Unix to learn it.
<li>You want to use <TT>Perl</TT>/<TT>awk</TT>, or other text
processing tools that are considered to be "Unix" utilities.
</ul>
You won't learn as much about Unix by running it under emulation
--- and you'll probably end up being too frustrated by its
performance to come away with a realistic appreciation of it.
<br><br>
In the other case you can get versions of <TT>Perl</TT>, <TT>awk</TT>,
and most other Unix utilities, shells, editors and many other tools that
have been <A HREF="http://www.itribe.net/virtunix/">ported to Win32</A>
(and even to DOS, often using the GNU'ish Go32 "DOS extender").
<br><br>
The other reason for my suggestion is that Linux, even on a
lowly 386, makes a great server. My box has over 6Gb of online
storage (which I'll probably double in the 40Mhz) a magneto
optical drive, a CD-ROM and a CDR recorder, a 4mm DAT
autochanger, a modem line (which handles uucp, incoming and
outgoing fax, dial out terminal/BBS'ing, dial in terminal, and
dial out PPP and will handle dial-up PPP when I get around to
configuring it), a null modem into the living room (for use from an
old XT laptop) and some other toys.
<br><br>
The machine has currently been up for about three months.
<br><br>
I forget why I rebooted three months ago, maybe I built a new
kernel for it or maybe I just made some changes to the startup
files and wanted to make sure it would come up automatically.
It's been used as my mail gateway and newserver for a few years
--- and it was used as my primary interactive machine (mostly
text editing) for years. My wife and our various house guests
sometime still use it or the dumb terminal to read their mail
(if they don't want to use one of the Pentium's in the living
room or in my bedroom). Sometimes I dial into to it from
a client site (I'm a consultant) or even from some local
coffee house using the Ricochet wireless to telco gateway
(offered in selected areas by Metricom:
(<A HREF="http://www.metricom.com/">http://www.metricom.com/</A>).
<br><br>
You can use Linux as a gateway. Its kernel offers an optional
feature called "IP Masquerading" which is a special form of
"network address translation" (NAT) that allows you to hide a
whole network of computers (using "private net IP addresses"
like <TT>10.*.*.*</TT>, <TT>192.168.*.*</TT> and others defined in the
RFC 1918). It is trivial to install a package called '<TT>diald</TT>'
that will dial up your ISP on demand (automatically when any of
you computers try to access the Internet -- or any other
non-local nets) and will automatically drop the line after
a configurable period of inactivity. This puts virtually
no load on a machine (not measurable on my 386!).
<br><br>
Another handy server role you can assign to your Unix box
(Linux or otherwise) is as a household schedule/reminder
service. The Unix '<TT>cron</TT>' and '<TT>at</TT>' facilities are just
perfect for this. You can write simple scripts and
schedule them for periodic execution (<TT>cron</TT>) or for one
time execution in the future (<TT>at</TT>). With slightly more
complex scripts (using the GNU '<TT>date</TT>' command, and
simple shell conditionals and tests) you can do
arbitrarily complex scheduling. It is truly easy to
set this up to automatically e-mail you reminders
post them to your "intranet web server" or to even page
you (using a normal modem) as an alarm service.
<br><br>
Eventually I expect someone to release a set of CGI scripts
to act as a front end to a reminder/alarm service --- which
you could toss up on your "intranet" server.
<br><br>
Using a little box as an "intranet" web server for a
household or small business also takes almost no memory
or CPU power on a Linux or FreeBSD box. I think the
overhead is about 70K for a small web server, and you can
even configure them to be "dynamically" loaded if you're
really pressed for RAM. The little box can also function
as a fileserver for you Win '95 box by using Samba, a Unix
package that provides Windows/NT compatible file sharing.
It's easy to run all of these functions on the same box,
they don't conflict with one another at all, and most of
them present very little load on the server.
<br><br>
On top of all that you can use the old clunker to run household
appliance over the old BSR X-10 "Powerhouse" interface (also sold as
"ActiveHome"). Larry Wall just gave a talk at the
<A HREF="http://www.svlug.org/">Silicon Valley Linux user's group</A>
showing us a demo of how he's automated his house. It was
incredibly amusing. He has a detector on his clothes
dryer, in the garage, that announces through the household
PA system when the laundry is done; and motion sensors
on the walk way leading up to the front door to announce
visitors, and scripts to tell his wife and kids when they get
mail (presumably he gets too much mail to want such an
announcment for himself).
<br><br>
Naturally you can put a sound card in the PC and run
PA/Speakers off of it to do various cool things.
<br><br>
The point is that you can't do all of this when you're
running Unix in an emulator under Win '95 (since the
chances are too great that you'll need to reboot it, and
also since your emulator won't have access to most of
the hardware that we're talking about --- it can only
access the virtual/emulated hardware. The other problem
is that Win '95 is generally not nearly as stable as
any form of Unix. Even NT doesn't come close to Linux,
FreeBSD, or any of the popular forms of Unix for stability.
<br><br>
For the same reasons you won't benefit nearly as much from
a dual or multi boot configuration. There's not much point
to having a "server" that you keep rebooting to play
<A HREF="http://www.idsoftware.com/archives/doomarc.html">Doom</A>
(which is available for Linux, BTW) or to read that MS
Word document.
<br><br>
Although I've focused on Linux (and I prefer it for my
personal use) all of what I've said applies to
<A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</A>,
<A HREF="http://www.netbsd.org/">NetBSD</A>, and
<A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</A> among others.
(There are some differences, the *BSD's don't have their NAT/masquerading
and packet filtering in the kernel -- it's run as a
user process, things like that. If you're learning
Unix for professional reasons I'd definitely suggest that
you clock in some time and practice on any one of the
BSD systems as well as on a Linux box. Potential employers
(in Unix savvy companies) will be far more intrigued by
entry level applicants who've worked with BSD.
<br><br>
Also, if you want to play with the X Window system (the
dominant tehnology for supporting GUI's under Unix ---
though, technically, it is a communications protocol and
programming API --- and not a "GUI") you won't want to
run it on less than a Pentium. In that situation I'd
put one (character only) installation on the cheap/used
PC and install a dual boot configuration on your main
(Win '95) workstation. The best way to do that is to
install an extra hard drive on the workstation (so you
don't need to repartition your existing drives).
<br><br>
Even you decide to put one of the BSD's on your cheap/used
server you should probably still put Linux on your
Win '9x workstation. There are two reasons for this:
<ol>
<li>there are more commercially available
productivity applications available for Linux
(WordPerfect, StarOffice, Applixware, Cliq,
Wingz, etc).
<li>Linux has <EM>very</EM> good support for DOS, and
Windows filesystems (and even some, read-only
and even NTFS and HPFS). You can even install
a small Linux distributions directly into a
DOS subdirectory.
</ol>
You could install Linux on the workstation and have it
access most of its files (almost all of them) over the
network (over NFS). All you need on a Unix box is a
fairly small "root" filesystem. 20 Mb is enough for
all the "root" files (all you <EM>really</EM> need is
<TT>/etc</TT>, <TT>/dev/</TT>, and <TT>/sbin</TT>
-- the rest can all be mounted
over the LAN though I'd suggest adding a local swap
file or partition, and a local <TT>/tmp</TT> directory).
<br><br>
If you do an installation like this: (with one server
installation on a dedicated PC and another on your
workstation -- say FreeBSD on the server and Linux
on a multi-boot for your Win '9x box) you'll get the
maximum benefits and you'll learn enough about Unix
to qualify for professional work in the field.
<br><br>
So, in conclusion: You won't learn nearly as much about
Unix from any form of "emulation" or dual-boot arrangement.
The principle advantage of Unix has always been the client
server model it uses. Unix "wants" to be a server. It's
as important to learn this philosophy as it is to learn
the syntax for a couple hundred Unix commands. So, that's
the best approach to installing and learning it around your
house.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_ppadrivers"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">winprinters &amp; MTAs</h3>
<H4>Pointers and Corrections</H4>
<p><strong>From John Levon on 05 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<br><br>
Hi, two points:
<br><br>
1) for win printers, someone has written a PPA driver. i don't have
the URL, but it was mentioned in 2 cent tips a while ago i think.
This possibly enables win printers to be used with linux
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
In fact I had heard of it. However, it had not progressed
far enough along, last I checked, to be worth mention in
LG. It's a tough call for me whether to go dig up the
latest scoop on a digression or whether to gloss over it
in the interests of conveying the more important message.
<br><br>
The important message is that "Winprinters" and "Winmodems"
are a big lose for everyone involved (even for Windows '95
users, who may find them "abandoned" in future versions of
Windows and NT). These are not "progressive" developments
in the hardware market. The other important message is
that we shouldn't have to reverse engineer these protocols.
<br><br>
While I admire the heroic efforts of people like Andrew
Tridgell (original architect of Samba, who implemented it
by analysis of the packets off "the wire")
<br><br>
For those that are interested in some info on the
HP PPA printer drivers for Ghostscript and Linux look at:
<dl><dt>Ghostscript Printer Compatibility
<dd><A HREF="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/printer.html"
>http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/printer.html</A>
</dl>
... and follow their link to:
<dl><dt>(Tim Norman's) PPA for the masses
<dd><A HREF="http://www.rpi.edu/~normat/technical/ppa/index.html"
>http://www.rpi.edu/~normat/technical/ppa/index.html</A>
</dl>
... and for other printer stuff for Linux try Goob's:
<dl><dt>Linux Links: Software : Utilities : Printer
<dd><A HREF="http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Utilities/Printer/"
>http://www.linuxlinks.com/Software/Utilities/Printer/</A>
</dl>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
2) instead of www.faq.org, try <A HREF="http://www.faqs.org/">www.faqs.org</A>.
this is a top site that automatically contains HTML versions of FAQs on
<A HREF="ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/">rtfm.mit.edu</A>
<BR><BR>
thanks,
<br>john.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Doh! I looked for that by memory and tried "faq.org" first.
I didn't think to try "faqs.org" (and it wasn't in the
bookmark file on the machine I was typing from at that
moment). I remember being impressed with faqs.org and
as disappointed when I look "back" (finding the wrong one).
<br><br>
Thanks for catching that!
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_database"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Dreaming about xBase tools for Linux</H3>
<p><strong>From Michael "Mookie" Kepler on the
<A HREF="http://www.ch4549.org/lust/lusthome.html">L.U.S.T</A> List
on 04 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<br><br>
<em><font color="#003366">Is there a FoxPlus program for Linux ?
When I use the SCO FoxPlus on Linux with <TT>iBCS</TT> module running,
it can not read the data files.
<br><br>
Thanks,
<br>Jyh-shing Chen
</font></em>
<br><br> Michael "Mookie" Kepler
<br><br>Ha! Dream on! I'm decloaking and posting just because I'm
glad to meet another living dinosaur. I, too, have too much
experience with and an irrational attachment to FoxPlus.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I presume Fox-Plus is an xBase product related or
similar to FoxPro. If so you might look at WorkGroup
Solutions "Flagship"
(<A HREF="http://www.wgs.com/fsad.html">http://www.wgs.com/fsad.html</A>).
<br><br>
This is a full dBase compatible system, and xBase
compiler. (Actually I think it does a "compile to
C" --- then you'd use <TT>gcc</TT> to actually produce your
binaries. That makes it more portable I suppose).
<br><br>
You could also look at Christopher B. Browne's
incredible annotated link farm of Linux business and
productivity applications:
<blockquote><code><A HREF="http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/"
>http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/</A>
</code></blockquote>
... which has a page specifically one xBase dbms packages
for Linux at: <A HREF="http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/rdbms05.html"
><TT>http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/rdbms05.html</TT></A>
<br><br>
Oddly enough Christopher doesn't mention
<A HREF="http://www.versasoft.com/">Versasoft</A>'s dbMan
(dbMan IV or dbMan 5.x). Perhaps the product has been
discontinued. I couldn't find any URL for it though there
are a number of references. I just guessed at "versasoft.com"
and glanced at their web site, which only mentions one
product (VersaTOOLS; a FoxPro add-on?). I've blind-copied
the one e-mail address listed thereon, so that he can
respond with any info on the fate of dbMan, if he feels so
inclined.
<br><br>
So in answer to your question:
<br><br>
Yes! Dream on! There are dbms apps for Linux,
and you DON'T have to use SQL.
<br><br>
(Also, if you ever want to work with a dbms package that's
less like "DOS" and xBase, nothing like SQL and more like Unix
shell script programming, look at Revolutionary Software's
package: <A HREF="http://www.rdb.com/"><TT>/rdb</TT></A> -- they have a
Linux version. Apparently this <TT>/rdb</TT> is related to Rand/Hobbs
RDB -- <A HREF="http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/rdbms07.html"
>Christopher's pages</A> talk about this a little bit.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
I made my living pushing the limits of Sco FoxPlus for five
years, starting in 1989, making it do things it was never
meant to do. It is frustrating that so many people think
that SQL and Relational are synonyms, and that Relational
and XBase are mutually exclusive. Every database application
I created with FoxPlus conformed to the Relational data
model. There is nothing in FoxPlus to prevent this.
<br><br>
Please let me know if you find anything FoxPlus-esque that
works under Linux. I've been looking myself and have found
nothing comparable. If they would just release the source
code, we could get somewhere. Whenever I encounter a trivial
programming task, especially ones involving tabular data, I
always think of how much quicker and easier it would be to
turn it out in FoxPlus than 'C', or _<EM>shudder</EM>_ PlSql (yuck!).
</strong></p>
<p><hr width="40%" align="center"></p>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">From Thomas Good on the L.U.S.T List on 5 Jun 1998
<BR><BR>
Jim - I have the opposite problem. I want to lose foxpro in favour
of SQL. I run an odd mix of dbs including Postgres, Progress and FoxPro.
The foxpro is sitting on a dos box and is need of extinction. It is
(obviously) single user and so the person who sits on the box has to do
all of the data input and answer the phone - doing queries as requested.
<br><br>
I am moving her data onto a linux box and I want to shift the code from
foxpro to SQL. Any converters out there? Front end is not too important
as I will use <TT>perl</TT> (5 with DBI 0.91 and DBD-Pg 0.69). I just need to
rework the existing queries...thanks!
<br><br>
Tom
<br><br>
----------- Sisters of Charity Medical Center ----------
<br> Department of Psychiatry
<br>Thomas Good, System Administrator
<br>North Richmond CMHC/Residential Services
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Look at Christopher's web pages (I cited it in my
longer message but it's at: <A HREF="http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/"
>http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/</A>)
<br><br>
Specifically he lists a some conversion utilities and
.DBF libraries at: <A HREF="http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/rdbms05.html"
>http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/rdbms05.html</A>
<br><br>
Also don't forget to check the LSM (Linux Software Map).
Here's a couple of entries from there (not listed on CBB's
pages):
<pre>
.......
Title: Light DBF client/server dbms (LDBF)
Version: 0.9.9 beta
Entered-date: 17NOV95
Description: This is client/server dbms that operate with
DBF files and compatible with Foxpro CDX indexes.
Clients connecting with server via TCP/IP
and works with databases as on local machine.
Supports transactions,multi-user operation,
stored procedures,triggers,
password security,logging all operations,
flexible configuration.Implemented main suite of
xBase operators.
Includes DLL of LDBF API for Windows.
Keywords: LDBF,ldbf
Author: vlad@torn.ktts.kharkov.ua (Vlad Seriakov)
Maintained-by: vlad@torn.ktts.kharkov.ua
Primary-site: sunsite.unc.edu (<A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming/">/pub/Linux/Incoming</A>)
707 Kb ldbf-0.9.9.tar.gz
930 b ldbf.lsm
Alternate-site: ftp.kiae.su ( <A HREF="ftp://ftp.kiae.su/linux/misc/">/linux/misc</A> )
Original-site:
Platforms: Linux 1.2.0 or later with IPC support
Copying-policy: Freeware
.......
Title: dbview
Version: 1.0.0
Entered-date: 20APR96
Description: dbview is a little tool that will display dBase III and
IV files. You can also use it to convert your old .dbf
files for further use with Unix.
Keywords: database dbase view convert
Author: joey@infodrom.north.de (Martin Schulze)
Maintained-by: joey@infodrom.north.de (Martin Schulze)
Primary-site: sunsite.unc.edu <A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/databases/">/pub/Linux/apps/databases</A>
10kB dbview-1.0.0.tar.gz
Original-site: ftp.infodrom.north.de <A HREF="ftp://ftp.infodrom.north.de/pub/Linux/Devel/dbview/">/pub/Linux/Devel/dbview</A>
10kB dbview-1.0.0.tar.gz
Copying-policy: GPL
.......
Title: libdbf
Version: 1.4
Description: Tools for manipulating dBase files
Keywords: unix dbase
Author: beacker@sgi.com
Maintained-by: Nobody to my knowledge
Primary-site: Wherever you put it.
Original-site: news::comp.sources.misc
Platforms: Unix (This copy linuxified)
Copying-policy: No commercial use, no charging for distribution (see README).
Entered-date: 01JAN96
</pre>
<br><br>
Those were all found just using the "dbf" search string
on a local copy of the LSM (just a text file I keep around
since I do so much Linux support work).
<br><br>
There's are several Linux Software Map search engines
and searchable Linux Software Database sites out on the
web. I don't even have a "favorite" one any more.
<br><br>
Try:
<dl><dt>Linux Search Database
<dd><A HREF="http://www.egypt.pca.net/LSDB/lynx.html"
><TT>http://www.egypt.pca.net/LSDB/lynx.html</TT></A>
</dl>
... which found this one:
<br><pre>
Title: AppGEN
Version: 0.2 alpha
Entered Date: 11JUL96
Description: Database application generator and 4GL for Postgres95 and
HTTPD. DBase DBF file to SQL Convertor.
Key Words: Application Generator 4GL SQL Web WWW Forms Postgres95 DBF
Author: Andrew Whaley
Primary Site: sunsite.unc.edu <A HREF="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/databases/postgres/">/pub/Linux/apps/databases/postgres</A>
appgen-0.2-alpha.tar.gz
Alternate Site: GPL'ish End
</pre>
<br><br>
... or try:
<dl><dt>Linux Links (by Goob!) at:
<dd><A HREF="http://www.croftj.net/~goob/"
><TT>http://www.croftj.net/~goob/</TT></A>
</dl>
(The search engine is not too hot, but the hierarchy of
links is <EM>great</EM>). There is a reference there to a
semi-free package called X2c (the portable xBase compiler).
X2c seems to have some features for creating binary CGI
interfaces to your DBF databases. Which might be an alternative
to converting it to SQL, if you aren't worried about some
of the concurrency and integrity and business rules enforcement
that are associated with SQL --- or even if you just need a
quick interim solution to use while you're doing the xBase to
SQL port.
<br><br>
Another place to check into is:
<dl><dt>The #LinuxOS Webpage: Linux Software Search Engines and Indices
<dd><A HREF="http://www.linuxos.org/Lsoftsearch.html"
><TT>http://www.linuxos.org/Lsoftsearch.html</TT></A>
</dl>
As the name suggests that site is maintained by principals
of the #LinuxOS IRC channel on EFNet and it contains a list
of Linux link farms, search engines and indices (what a
surprise!).
<br><br>
So, I'd say there's plenty of places to look.
</blockquote>
<p><hr width="40%" align="center"></p>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0">From Michael Kepler on the
L.U.S.T List on 5 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<br><br>
I'd just like to thank you (Jim Dennis) for your very comprehensive and
helpful responses to the XBase question. I had no idea there were so
many database options available for Linux. I joined this conversation
out of idle personal interest, but now I think I see some possibilities
for solutions for current needs we have at our company.
<br><br>
Thanks again,
<br><br>
Michael Kepler
<br>VP Systems Development
<br>Metro One Telecommunications
</p></strong>
<A NAME="tag_vacation"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">auto response for email ?</H3>
<p><strong>From Ted via the
<A HREF="http://www.ch4549.org/lust/lusthome.html">L.U.S.T</A> List
on 04 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
Whatever you do, don't do this if you are on a mailing list. Think about
the consequences...
<br><br>
Ted the Lurker
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Ted, when replying to L.U.S.T. messages,
please remove the extraneous quoting.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><em><font color="#003366"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
Hi,
<br><br>
How does one set up <TT>sendmail</TT> for automatically responding to an email
indicating that one is out of the office and will be responding to
the incoming emails at a later date ?
<br><br>
Thanks,
<br>Jyh-shing Chen
</font></em></strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Normally one doesn't set up '<TT>sendmail</TT>' to do the
automated response. Normally one would put in a
<TT>.forward</TT> file with something like:
<blockquote><code> "| /usr/local/bin/vacation...."
</code></blockquote>
(or something like that).
<br><br>
There is an old program named "<TT>vacation</TT>" (written by
Eric Allman, author of <TT>sendmail</TT>) which can be used for
this purpose. You can read the man page for it if you
like. It does some checks to prevent replies to
mailing lists (looks for a "<TT>Precedence: bulk</TT>" header
line) and system accounts (Mailer-Daemon, Postmaster,
etc). It also maintains a "cache" of addresses to which
the "vacation message" (or other auto-response) has been
sent to prevent spurious (and very annoying) duplicate
responses to the same address.
<br><br>
(In other words, if you really are "on vacation" and
someone routinely copies you on some sort of mail, usually
as part of a workgroup list, they only need to hear about
it once. I think <TT>vacation</TT> defaults to an eight day limit
between responses).
<br><br>
That would be one way one <EM>might</EM> do it.
<br><br>
However, this is Linux and there are even better ways.
Most Linux distributions default to '<TT>sendmail</TT>' as the
MTA (mail transport agent) and use <TT>procmail</TT> as the MDA
(mail delivery agent). (You presumably use <TT>elm</TT>, <TT>pine</TT>,
<TT>MH</TT>, or whatever you like as your MUA --- mail user agent).
<br><br>
'<TT>procmail</TT>' is a "mail processing package" consisting of a
few small programs that you call upon via your own <TT>.procmailrc</TT>
scripts. I wrote an
<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue14/">article</A>
about them for Linux Gazette about a year ago. You can still find it,
and some hot links, at the
<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/">http://www.linuxgazette.com/</A>
web site.
<br><br>
The <TT>procmail</TT> documentation is a bit confusing so let me offer
a couple of quick notes: <TT>procmail</TT> is a very simple scripting
language. A <TT>procmail</TT> program consists of a list of "recipes"
When an item arrives (is delivered via <TT>procmail</TT>) the
<TT>procmail</TT> binary traverses the script from the top, scanning
for the beginnings of recipes (usually starting with a line
like):
<blockquote><code>:0
</code></blockquote>
... or
<blockquote><code>:0 B
</code></blockquote>
(where <TT>B</TT> is a "flag" --- and there are several of those which
mean different things).
<br><br>
The rest of each recipe consists of some number of "conditions"
(patterns) and <EM>one</EM> "action" (disposition). Each of the
condition lines is of the form:
<blockquote><code>* ^From:.*foo...
</code></blockquote>
... where <TT>^From:.*foo...</TT> is a regular expression that is
checked against portions of the mail message that is currently
"in hand" (as it were). Usually your patterns will only be
applied to the messages headers. If you use the <TT>B</TT> flag on the
recipe line or you can put flags on your condition lines
using a syntax like: <TT>* B ?? $PATTERN</TT> (where you replace
<TT>$PATTERN</TT> with the regex for your pattern).
<br><br>
All of the conditions which are logically AND'ed for each
recipe --- so something like:
<blockquote><code>:0
<br>* ^From: joe.*
<br>* ^Precedence: bulk
</code></blockquote>
... would match mail that was from joe (in this case <EM>any</EM>
joe at <EM>any</EM> address) AND had a header indicating that is
was of "bulk" precedence.
<br><br>
After any/all of your condition lines, in a given recipe
you have an action line. The actions you can take are:
<dl><dd>"file it"
<br>"forward it"
<br>"pipe it into a program" (such as an autoreply 'bot).
</dl>
To "forget it" you just "file it" to <TT>/dev/null</TT>. In general
any filename on the action line will be consider to be a
mail folder. Any filename with no path elements will be
considered standard mbox (elm/pine compatible) folder under
your <TT>~/Mail</TT> directory (??). (Normally you'll have a
<TT>MAILDIR</TT> variable set. You can assign and reference variables
in <TT>procmail</TT> in pretty much the same ways as in <TT>sh</TT>
(Bourne shell)).
<br><br>
A name that refers to a directory will cause <TT>procmail</TT> to
write each message into a separate file in that directory
(this is called a "directory folder"). If you use a folder
of the form: <TT>foo/.</TT> then procmail will write the messages
into the <TT>$MAILDIR/foo/</TT> directory using an MH compatible name
and format.
<br><br>
To forward your mail you start the action line with a "<TT>!</TT>"
(bang) and simply give it an address. Be <EM>very</EM> careful
about forwarding to any address that might have its own
<TT>procmail</TT> or other forwarding agent attached. Otherwise
you'll create a mail loop. For this reason most <TT>procmail</TT>
wizards never use the "<TT>!</TT>" forwarding operator --- they
pass the message to a pipe, adding their own headers and
formatting the message to the new address (still forwarding
it -- but with some checks and changes in the headers).
<br><br>
So, here's how you pipe the message (to forward or autoreply)
You start your action line with a <TT>|</TT> (pipe) symbol and
the rest is just the command line. The procmail suite comes
with a program called '<TT>formail</TT>' (FORmat some MAIL headers).
<br><br>
So if you pipe mail to <TT>formail</TT> with the "<TT>-r</TT>" switch
it will format a "reply" and if you add the <TT>-A</TT> switch it will
"Add" a custom header line (replacing any previously matching header).
<br><br>
Here's an example:
<blockquote><code>:0
<br>* !^FROM_MAILER
<br>* !^FROM_DAEMON
<br>* &lt; 10000
<br>* ^Subject: info
<br>* !^X-Loop: info@starshine.org
<br>| ((formail -rk -A "Precedence: junk" \
<br>-A "X-Loop: info@starshine.org" ; \
<br>echo "Info Request received on:" `date`) \
<br>| $HOME/insert.doc -v file=$DOC/general.info) | $SENDMAIL -t -oi -oe
</code></blockquote>
... note this one is unusually complex since I am "keeping"
the senders message, checking if the whole thing is over
10K, appending the date on which I received the message,
and inserting (via a two line awk script named "insert.doc")
a response. Also those "<TT>FROM_MAILER</TT>" and "<TT>FROM_DAEMON</TT>"
patterns are a couple of "magic" patterns that <TT>procmail</TT>
recognizes --- they are actually expanded to some hefty
regexes internally.
<br><br>
... in other words, this action line is doing alot more than
most auto-reply. The point is that I can use <TT>formail</TT> to
create the reply headers (which it gets by filtering the
header as <TT>procmail</TT> passes the header and body of the mail into
the pipe). I can then ship the results of that to some
other process (to do other processing on the body or whatever)
and finally passing that all to a copy of <TT>sendmail</TT> (the
full, local path to which is conveniently stored in the
<TT>$SENDMAIL</TT> variable). The <TT>-t</TT> switch on
'<TT>sendmail</TT>' means:
"Take the 'to' addresses from the headers on your standard
input" --- this is the safest and cleanest way to pipe
messages into <TT>sendmail</TT>.
<br><br>
That's a short course on <TT>procmail</TT>. The tutorial I wrote for
Linux Gazette is even more basic than that --- so if I rattled
through some of that too fast: go read it.
<br><br>
One last note: There are 5 man pages on <TT>procmail</TT>, one for
the binary, one on the rc file syntax (the programming language)
one that's full of examples, and another on the "weighted
scoring" extensions (which allow you to add and subtract
values to a "weight" using various conditional patterns,
which can be sensitive to how many times a pattern appears
in a message --- so you could automatically descriminate
against messages that were more than have "quoted" lines).
<br><br>
The weighted scoring stuff is high wizardry --- I don't use
it. The examples are mostly suitable for cut and paste.
<br><br>
Keep in mind that you can call all sorts of programs,
not just '<TT>formail</TT>' --- so you could write a simple
<TT>procmail</TT> script call on a "<TT>sendpage</TT>" program when
someone really important sends you mail about something "really
important"
<br><br>
Also '<TT>formail</TT>' has the <TT>-D</TT> switch, which means one
thing if used in conjunction with -r (the combo means,
"Don't duplicate" our reply -- like vacation; where it checks
for the ). It means something else when used without the <TT>-r</TT>
(don't deliver to this folder if this is a duplicate according
to the <TT>Message-ID:</TT> header line). Both meanings have
quite a bit to do with "duplication" --- but are much different
in usage.
<br><br>
If you subscribe to lists, like L.U.S.T, I suggest <TT>procmail</TT>
for auto sorting your mail. When you want to add auto replies
--- even if you're just going to call on Eric's '<TT>vacation</TT>'
program, you should add that as a recipe <EM>after</EM> any
procmail sorting (and spam filtering) and <EM>with</EM> the
<TT>* !^FROM_</TT> and <TT>X-Loop:</TT> patterns. That will prevent
auto-replies to mailing lists that don't put in their
"<TT>Precedence: Bulk</TT>" line, and that might be from daemons and
mailers (other auto responders) that '<TT>vacation</TT>' doesn't "see"
('<TT>procmail</TT>' and '<TT>formail</TT>' are more
recent and benefit from a few more years of experience with
Internet "standards drift").
<br><br>
One of these days I may write a whole book on procmail.
It would be pretty short (like the O'Reilly '<TT>vi</TT>' book, or
their one on "termcaps"). It's a very powerful utility that
currently is passed on as an "oral tradition" among sysadmins
and Unix hacks. I think I heard that
<A HREF="http://www.imada.ou.dk/~blackie/dotfile/">TDG</A> (the
dotfile generator)
provides a menu-driven (GUI?) front end to creating <TT>.procmailrc</TT>
files --- among many others. That would probably be a good
place to look for more info. <em>[He may have read about it in
<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue17/dotfile.html"
>issue 17's article</a> -- Heather]</em>
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_nullmodem"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Connecting Linux to Win '95 via Null Modem</H3>
<p><strong>From Chris Gushue on 04 Jun 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
I have two systems, a 486 and a K6, and I was wondering how (if) I could
connect them using a serial (null modem) cable. One system will be running
Windows 98, the other running Linux. I can't seem to find any info on the
LDP or other webpages. Thanks.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Certainly you can connect them for some purposes.
<br><br>
I don't know anything about Win '98 but I presume it
comes with some sort of terminal emulation package
(like the Hyperterm that MS licensed from Hilgreave for
Win '95, or that cheesy old "Terminal" that they used to
ship with Windows 3.x).
<br><br>
You could also get any of several shareware, free, or
commercial communications packages such as Telix (Windows
or DOS), Kermit (DOS) or K95 (Windows), etc.
<br><br>
All of these should have a "direct" or "null modem" option
listed among their "connection/modem" types.
<br><br>
This will give you a basic, character modem terminal login
to your Linux box. This not a networking connection --- it
is just like connecting a dumb terminal to the machine (which
still gives you access to most of the applications and almost
all of the utilities and programming tools on your Linux system).
<br><br>
If you want <EM>networking</EM> between these two systems, over the
serial line; that's a different story. You should be able to
establish a SLIP or PPP connection between the two. Once you've
done that you could run any of the TCP/IP protocols over the
line. However, it's much trickier to do that --- and I have
no idea how Win '98 will handle it.
<br><br>
(Under early revisions of Win '95 I remember complaints that
the supplied PPP drivers and their user interface was
configured to work with MSN (Microsoft Network --- their
ISP) and that it required some utility from the "Plus Pack"
to allow one to create and maintain a "chat" script --- a
way to log in and configure/establish a PPP session with
any other ISP.
<br><br>
It seems that MS also added features in their NT 4.x (RAS?,
RRAS?) that allow these systems to act as recipients of the
stock Win '95 MS-CHAP authentication method. I guess this was
a bid to convince ISP's to adopt Windows NT for their work.
<br><br>
Meanwhile Gert Doering (and others?) released the AutoPPP
extensions or patches to '<TT>mgetty</TT>.'
<br><br>
'<TT>mgetty</TT>' is Gert's very popular "modem getty" line that allows
a modem line to be shared between terminal, fax, network and
even voice (with some modems) for both incoming and outgoing
use. One of the features of '<TT>mgetty</TT>' is that it can be
configured to recognize certain login strings ("user name
patterns") as a directive to use an alternative '<TT>login</TT>' program.
<br><br>
Thus you can configure you modem line to use ppplogin when
given a "user" name of the form: Pmaryjoe, and to use a
traditional '<TT>login</TT>' when presented with others.
<br><br>
I personally haven't set up AutoPPP. However, a quick
Yahoo! search on the string: "<TT>+mgetty +autoppp</TT>" gives
about 450 Alta Vista hits. Most of these are from the
Linux ISP mailing list. I didn't spot any that covered
AutoPPP over a null modem.
<br><br>
Trying a search string like:
<CODE>+ "null modem" +mgetty +win + "95"</CODE>
<br><br>
... didn't help either. Though it did return a bunch of
links to Linux Gazett mirror sites carrying issues 18,
25, and 28 (false hits in this case)
<br><br>
Somewhere on the Linux ISP mailing list archives
I found a thread about "null serial" that was on target
but not very informative. Someone mentioned that the
Win '95 PPP couldn't handle direct connection --- and
suggested Trumpet Winsock (a third party TCP/IP suite for
Windows --- and DOS --- for years before MS had ever heard
of TCP/IP).
<br><br>
So, it may not be easy to get networking configured over
a null modem line so long as Win '9x is on one end of it.
However, I bet it would be possible. You should probabl
create a "modem emulation" driver for Linux that would
allow the Win '9x box to work as though it were sending
AT commands to a modem. The "modem emulation" driver
could implement a small AT command subset (responding to
every valid &lt;pause&gt;+++&lt;pause&gt;AT sequence with "<TT>OK</TT>" or
the appropriate response).
<br><br>
In the long run it's probably far easier to buy a couple
of ethernet cards (less than $30 each) and a 10baseT
"cross over" cable (necessary if you're not going through
a hub, and sometimes necessary to cascade one hub off of
another). Not only is ethernet much faster than serial
--- it is currently much easier to configure and support
(for networking). Another advantage is that you can
later expand; buy a 4, 5 or 8 port ethernet hub and you
can wire up the whole house (actually I've almost filled
two 8 port hubs here --- but I'm a little different).
<br><br>
Conclusion: You can easily use the serial/null modem
for simple terminal access. You might be able to get it
working as a networking interface, but you might have
quite a bit of trouble convincing Win '9x to do PPP over
a "direct" or "null modem" connection. So you might have
to look for a third party PPP replacement (which may
need to be upgraded between the Win '95 and Win '98 versions)
--- or you might be able to write some weird "modem emulation"
on the Linux side. For networking it will be much easier
to buy a couple of ethernet cards.
</blockquote>
<p><hr width="40%" align="center"></p>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Linux help </H3>
<p><strong>From Chris Gushue on 04 Jun 1998
<br><br>
Thanks a lot for your thorough and quick response! It was just what I was
looking for, just a basic login to my Linux box to play around with it until
I get around to buying a hub and network cards. It kind of funny though,
using my K6/233 Win98 machine as a dumb terminal to my 486/100 Linux box
<img src="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" alt=":-)">
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I was using that VAResearch machine that I reviewed for
the Linux Journal ("<TT>betelgeuse</TT>": a 266Mhz PII with 64Mb of
RAM and a 4Mb Matrox Millenium video) as a dumb terminal to
my old 33Mhz 386 ("<TT>antares</TT>") for months. The old 386 was
where all my mail and news was. It's still the network hub,
mail and news server for the house (though now I use '<TT>fetchmail</TT>'
everything over to "<TT>canopus</TT>" a home built P166; the wife
mostly took over the PII).
<br><br>
The 386 is the most stable machine in the house -- it's the
only one on a UPS.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_lockups"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Hardware Lockups due to Graphics Load</H3>
<p><strong>From Brad Alexander on 30 May 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
Hi Jim,
<br><br>
This isn't Linux-specific, but I'm having a problem and I'm hoping you can
help me come up with a workaround that isn't going to cost a lot of money.
<br><br>
I have an Intel P-100 on an Amptron AM-7900 board with 64MB of EDO RAM (2
32MB sticks), a gob of hard drives (a 2.2MB Quantum Fireball IDE and a
FutureDomain SCSI controller with a 420MB Conner, a 1GB Seagate, 1GB
Micropolis and 1GB Quantum Empire), a Diamond Stealth 64 with 2MB DRAM, and
a SoundBlaster 16 Plug'n'Pray.
<br><br>
I'm running a heavily modified RedHat 5.0 machine with an 800MB DOS
partition on <TT>/dev/hda1</TT> and a 200MB win95 partition on
<TT>/dev/hda3</TT> (Linux's <TT>/+/usr</TT> is on <TT>/dev/hda2</TT>).
<br><br>
I have been seeing system lockups for quite a while now. I noticed them
when running xlock in random mode initially, then noticed that I was also
starting to have problems with some of my dos apps, like Jane's Longbow and
Duke Nukem locking up. Under Linux, I settled on using <TT>xlock</TT> in
galaxy mode, and the lockups dropped to every couple of weeks. (Note that
during this time, I upgraded memory from 4 8MB sticks to 2 32s.)
<br><br>
Everything went all right until I upgraded to RedHat 5.0, with XFree86
3.3.1. The lockups increased to about every 2 days. Once I upgraded to
XFree86 3.3.2, they dropped back down to about once a week.
<br><br>
I'm basically using you as a sounding board to see if I might have missed
something. I'm thinking its hardware, but where? The stealth? The lockups
seem to occur during graphics app use, <TT>xlock</TT>, or the <TT>gimp</TT>.
The motherboard? The chip? What can I start replacing without sinking a whole
bunch of money into it?
<br><br>
Thanks in advance,
<br>--Brad Alexander
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Well, the first thought would be to try a different video card.
I don't have too much confidence that the problem is truly
related to the video card's activity --- so it's just a
diagnostics start.
<br><br>
To see if this really is related to graphics, boot up the
system in text mode (don't run X, change your runlevel or
initdefault to one of the non-xdm modes if necessary). Now you
can run a couple of kernel builds on it (that's usually a
pretty good stress test. Try '<TT>make -j</TT>' to work it harder.
<br><br>
It would also be helpful to know what sort of lockup you're
getting. It may be that you could still login via a serial
port (using a null modem and a laptop or any other nearby
computer or terminal). Do do this simply add a line like
<blockquote><code>t1:23:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 38400,19200,9600,2400,1200 ttyS1 vt100
</code></blockquote>
... to your <TT>/etc/inittab</TT>. This should allow you to use one of
your serial lines to login. It is possible for the Linux X
Windows system and console to be dead while the kernel and
other processes are still up and running. Another test is to
ping it from another system (if you have an ethernet LAN
connected to this machine). Even if telnet doesn't work you
want to ping it to see if the kernel is still responding.
<br><br>
It's also probably worth trying the software watchdog timer
code in the newer kernels. These allow you to configure a
kernel module to emulate a hardware watchdog timer card. These
WDT devices are basically a "dead man's switch" for your
system. If the timer isn't periodically updated by the kernel
(or by some <EM>other thread in the kernel</EM>, in the case of the
emulated WDT) then the WDT triggers a system reset.
<br><br>
Obviously a software emulation of this isn't quite as reliable
as a hardware WDT --- since a completely hung kernel will
never get around to calling on that module's thread of
execution. However, it isn't too unlikely that the hang is in
some specific kernel thread and that some other thread
continues to execute after other parts have died.
<br><br>
Frankly I'm not sure what the difference between the kernel
watchdog emulation code and the boot "<TT>panic=</TT>" parameter. But
that's definitely another thing to try (just add something
like <TT>panic=60</TT> to your lilo "<TT>append=</TT>" directive, or
manually when you boot up your system). I guess that the difference
would be that there may be some conditions under which the
kernel could get into a comatose or unresponsive state without
panic'ing (if it got tricked into some really long timeout wait
or something). The <TT>panic=</TT> option forces the Linux kernel to
reboot after a "panic" (a critical error condition detected by
the kernel, usually a corrupted table that fails its consistency and
integrity checks).
<br><br>
Normally the kernel would just display a "panic" message and
sit there waiting for human intervention. These are very
rare (other than the old "VFS kernel panic, unable to mount
root" that occurs when you have your kernel misconfigured for
your arrangement of hard drives --- or when you change the
hardware setting of your disk drives without updating your
kernel (with the '<TT>rdev</TT>' command to set the root device flags)
and/or without updating your <TT>LILO</TT> or <TT>LOADLIN</TT> commands
(which are usually used to pass these flags to your kernel to
over-ride the compiled in defaults).
<br><br>
Other than that common case I think I've only seen one or two
Linux kernel panics in the last 6 years. I've only had about a
half dozen unexplained system lockups over that period --- and
that's on about fifty Linux machines that I've managed during
various portions of that time. These lockups might have been
panics in situations that were so bad the kernel couldn't even
display an error message, there's no way to know).
<br><br>
I've only had to reboot unresponsive Linux boxes about a dozen
or so times in all the years I've used it. This was only a
problem in the late .99 and early 1.0x kernels when I was
running a very busy FTP/Web server that was simply overloaded
-- the TCP/IP stack would get so congested that the system
would timeout between my login name and password --- at the
console (I'd've loved a working SAK --- secure attention key
back then). I was glad to see the major TCP/IP re-write in
between 1.2 and 2.x.
<br><br>
I'm not trying to tout Linux' horn here --- (well, maybe a
little). The point is that I don't get panics and lockups
often enough to see how the <TT>panic=</TT> parameter and the
softdog/watchdog code would work in those situations.
<br><br>
However, if you enabled the <TT>panic=</TT> and/or the softdog
kernel option, you may see that the machine reboots without a minute
or two after your lockup (wait for ten or fifteen). This tells
you that some part of the kernel was still running (and that
the hardware isn't completely wigged out).
<br><br>
Beyond that the things to do are to take out all non-essential
hardware (the sound card would be a great choice --- and the
SCSI card, since you mention that your Linux partitions are on
the IDE drives. As with most technical computing issues the it
eventually boils down to a matter of cost. You mentioned a
couple of times how you don't want to spend money on solving
this problem. Ultimately the time you spend fighting with it
translates to money --- and you'll have to eventually ask what
your time is worth.
<br><br>
(The deeper part of this question is that you may find that
your home machine isn't worth the time <EM>or the money</EM> and you
may content yourself to just use any machines that you
encounter at work, or whatever. Strange as that sounds I've
had friends who refuse to keep a computer around the house
specifically because they "spend enough time with them at work"
and feels that "home is for family time").
<br><br>
At the same time I don't recommend throwing replacement
components at the problem without understanding the nature of
the problem. However, it may be that the best solution is to
replace the motherboard and/or the video card and/or the RAM.
<br><br>
Troubleshooting computers is difficult work. Whole books have
been devoted to the subject (I like the Win L. Rosch Hardware
Bible personally --- read it years ago and should probably get
an updated copy). There are also parts of the process that
can't be gained from any book --- that you must learn by
experience and figure out through some combination of analysis
and intuition. As our computers become more sophisticated the
balance seems to lean more for the intuition.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_gzipC"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0"
>Compression Libraries to Link into a C Program</H3>
<p><strong>From Corne van Biljon on the linuxprog mailing list
on 30 May 1998</strong></p>
<!-- begin body -->
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
Hello
<br><br>
I would like to zip a file, specified by the user, from within a C
program. Currently I use the <tt>system()</tt> command to invoke
<tt>gzip</tt>. Is there a compression library or routines out there
somewhere, or is there a better way of doing this ?
<br><br>
Thanks
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I can understand your concerns.
<br><br>
The <tt>system()</tt>, and <tt>popen()</tt> calls are notoriously
insecure and can be used to subvert your program to the users' will.
<br><br>
I would have started with some
<a href="http://www.yahoo.com/">Yahoo!</a> and
<a href="http://altavista.digital.com/">Alta Vista</a> searches
(actually I used
<strong><font color="#66CC66">G</font><font color="#CC6666">o</font><font
color="#FFFF66">o</font><font color="#6666CC">g</font><font
color="#66CC66">l</font><font color="#CC6666">e</font></strong>
--- a new and interesting search
engine at Stanford University:
<a href="http://google.stanford.edu/">http://google.stanford.edu/</a>).
<br><br>
The obvious phrase would be "<tt>+free +compression +library</tt>"
(and reasonable variations).
<br><br>
I get a bunch of links to the
<a href="http://www.pkware.com/">PKware Inc.</a> pages (which are
presumably shareware and/or commercial) and then I find a link
to the zlib pages (which declare that they should <em>not</em> be
confused with the Linux
<tt><a href="http://zlibc.linux.lu/zlibc.html">zlibc</a></tt>
compression libraries).
<br><br>
The zlib home pages are at:
<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/"
>http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/</a>
</blockquote>
... and appear to be <tt>gzip</tt> compatible, and co-written by the
primary author/maintainer of <tt>gzip</tt>. However the impression I
got from this page is that <tt>zlib</tt> is not under a GPL or is
under an LGPL --- that your <tt>zlib</tt> linked code will not be
encumbered.
<br><br>
Naturally you'll want to read the licenses yourself.
<br><br>
This zlib home page also has numerous links to other
compresssion software and programming resources.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_newlook"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">LOVE THE NEW LOOK!!!!</H3>
<p><strong>From David Rudder on 28 May 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<br><br>
Heather,
<br><br>I love The Answer Guy's new look! Um, 'nuff said
<img src="/gx/dennis/smily.gif" alt=":)">
<br><br>
-Dave
<br><br>
No Trespassing
<br>4/17 of a haiku
</p></strong>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(!)" border="0">Glad you like it. I've been working
pretty hard on it this month, and I hope a lot of other people like
it too.
<BR><BR>
So folks, what do you think of the footer? Does the double-footer
on these questions (a nav area for hopping amidst Answer Guy
entries, and the regular LinuxGazette section footer) make sense?
Should they be combined? Should the sectional footer only be shown
at the Answer Guy index?
<BR><BR>
For this month, I'll make it the same
as last, because I kind of like it... but you, the readers, should
definitely let me know if it's giving you trouble. Thanks and cheers
are also welcome <img src="/gx/dennis/smily.gif" alt=":)" align="top">
<BR><BR>
<A HREF="mailto:star+tag@starshine.org">Heather Stern</A>
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_c500"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Linux PPC on the Umax C500 SuperMac:
Not A Good Idea</H3>
<p><strong>From Fahimy on 28 May 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
Hello, I'm a french girl beginning some computer studies.
I like Macintosh so I'm looking after a second hand macintosh or
clone in order to work and learn C, Java and Linux on it.
I'm perhaps about to buy an <a href="http://www.umax.com/">Umax</a> C500,
but I'm wondering whether it would be able to run linux. From a request to
<a href="http://altavista.digital.com/">altavista</a>, I found
you were in a similar situation some month ago.
Quoting a message you sent to the linux-pmac mailing list :
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Someone did send me a kernel that should be able
to boot that system. However I have had other things
to keep me busy.
<br><br>
More importantly I can't recommend the Umax Mac
clones at this point. They have announced that they
are discontinuing their whole line of MacOS clones.
So you'd be buying an orphan.
<br><br>
I'd suggest an Apple G3 based system --- though I'm
still disappointed about the lack of Mac clone
manufacturers. I don't believe Apple will survive
if it is the only supplier of its platform. On the
other hand the G3 is the fastest processor out there
in a commodity microcomputer. In addition I've heard
that IBM has demonstrated a 1.1Ghz (1100Mhz!) version
of the G3 architecture in their labs --- so there is
plenty of foreseeable future for this platform.
<br><br>
As usual we'll see. One nice thing about Linux (and
Unix in general) is that it doesn't constrain us
much in our choice of hardware. We can migrate to
a new hardware platform with little or no effect on
the majority of our utilities and applications ---
and a correspondingly modest learning curve.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_solprint"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Remote lpd from Solaris to Linux</H3>
<p><strong>From kuksi on 27 May 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
I like to print from Solaris to Linux.
The /etc/hosts.lpd file contents the sun IP address.
I have installed the Linux printer on the Sun by remote printer.
It works fine, but when i print to the remote linux printer, it is fail.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I presume you mean that it works fine "locally" but
fails from the remote clients.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
the contents of the <TT>/var/log/message</TT> file:
<BR><CODE>linux_machine_name kernel: lp1 at 0x0378, (polling)</CODE>
<br><br>
and the next time:
<BR><CODE>linux_machine_name lpd[number]: sun_machine_name recvjob
<BR>linux_machine_name lpd[number]: sun_machine_name request printjob
<BR>linux_machine_name lpd[number]: sun_machine_name request displaylong</CODE>
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I guess this is a hacked up excerpt from one of your
<TT>/var/log/</TT> files.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
But the printer in local mode on linux works fine.
(think i am <img src="/gx/dennis/smily.gif" alt=":-)">)
<BR><BR>kuksi
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Well, '<TT>lpd</TT>' is black magic to me. I've got my remote
printing working on one pair of systems but not on another.
Also '<TT>lpd</TT>' seems to be a security nightmare that's almost
as bad as the older '<TT>sendmail</TT>' releases.
<br><br>
One possibility would be to try installing <TT>LPRng</TT> (the
next generation of the lpr suite). I've printed out the
manual for it (over a hundred pages long) and worked
through a bit of it. It does seem to be an industrial
strength printing/queueing system. Aye, but there's the
rub, it may be overkill for your situation.
<br><br>
So, all I can suggest is that you make sure that you've
followed all of the steps and suggestions in the Printing
HOWTO and that you try to get more specific debugging data.
</blockquote>
<hr width="40%" align="center">
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
On Wed, 27 May 1998, Jim Dennis wrote:
<BR><FONT COLOR="#000040">So, all I can suggest is that you make sure that
you've followed all of the steps and suggestions in the Printing HOWTO and that you
try to get more specific debugging data.</FONT>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
Thanks for your e-mail. I have read many HOWTO about this, but I am going to
try everything.
<br><br>
(gondolom en <img src="/gx/dennis/smily.gif" alt=":-)">)
<br><br>
kuksi
</strong></p>
<A NAME="tag_vc1shell"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">User Shell on Virtual Console 1</H3>
<p><strong>From Todd Blake on 27 May 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
I like most people am the only person to use my linux system at home.
What I'd like to do is when my system is done booting to have me
automatically login as my main user account(not as root though) on one
virtual console(the first) and leave all other consoles and virtual
consoles alone, so that someone telnetting in will get a login prompt
like normal, just that I won't. I'd still like the other vc's have
login's for others to login and other reasons. I've tried just putting
<TT>/bin/sh</TT> in <TT>/etc/inittab</TT> and that didn't work, and I'm stumped. Does
anyone have any ideas on this?
<BR><BR>
Todd Blake
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
Almost right.
<br><br>
If you want this to "always" be running (i.e. when you
type "<TT>exit</TT>" from that shell the system "respawns" a
new shell under your UID -- you can use the '<TT>open</TT>' command
something like so:
<blockquote><code># Run gettys in standard runlevels
<br>## 1:12345:respawn:/sbin/mingetty tty1
<br>1:12345:respawn:/usr/bin/open -c 1 -w -- su -c - todd /bin/sh
</code></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_memleak"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">Linux Memory Usage vs. Leakage</H3>
<p><strong>From Kevin Monceaux on 27 May 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
Dear Answer Guy,
<br><br>
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
<br><br>
I really enjoy "The Answer Guy" column, and I hope you can help me with
this one. I'm running Linux 2.0.29. I've been using this version for
quite a while now. Up until now everything's been fine. A couple of
days ago the problem developed. What appears to be happening is that
when programs are run they are not deallocating the memory they used.
Upon first booting the system there is already almost 9 megs of RAM in
use. I've run free to check the memory usage, ran another command, such
as ls, then ran free again and the free memory decreases. I've noticed
that if I run the same command, such as <TT>ls</TT>, again the memory
usage stays the same. It's only when commands that haven't been executed
before are run that the amount of free memory decreases. It doesn't take long
before I'm out of memory and have to reboot. Any suggestions you could
give me with this problem would be greately appreciated.
<br><br>
Thanks in advance,
<br>Kevin Monceaux
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
If you suspect a memory leak I highly recommend getting
a log of your '<TT>free</TT>' or '<TT>vmstat</TT>' output before and
after a few commands -- several snapshots.
<br><br>
You can make a <TT>cron</TT> job to mail you a snapshot of this
every hour or so. You might want to append the output
of a <TT>ps</TT> command to each of these e-mail snapshots.
<br><br>
Unfortunately it isn't as easy to interpret the output of
these commands as it should be. It's entirely too easy
to misinterpret the output fields from them -- since Linux
normally uses most of the available memory for file
cache buffers -- and large portions of the shared libraries
and memory allocated to forked process is shared (the
memory manager uses "copy-on-write" and other techniques
to minimize the utilization of physical memory). This
makes correlating actual memory usage difficult.
<br><br>
You can also use '<TT>top</TT>' (which is a curses process viewer).
It can show you the current state of the system and sort by
memory (M) or CPU utilization (P). You want to isolate the
specific process(es) that is(are) causing the problem. Don't
leave '<TT>top</TT>' running unattended, however, since it is a bit of
a resource hog in its own right.
<br><br>
If you do isolate this to a particular program you'll want
to see if there are updates available for it, or for any of
the libraries it uses. You may also want to consider getting
a newer kernel --- such as 2.0.33 or (if it's ready by the
time you read this: 2.0.34).
<br><br>
Sorry I can't be more specific --- but you'll have to
narrow down the problem a bit before we can do more. Incidentally
you can start up in single user mode and manually start all of the
daemons and processes that you normally run your multi-user
(initdefault) mode. Do this slowly, one command/daemon at a
time, to see when the problem first appears. If it happens
right away then boot with the -b option to prevent the
execution of any of your boot up scripts and manually load
any kernel modules you're using one at a time.
</blockquote>
<A NAME="tag_tvcard"><hr width="70%" align="center"></A>
<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
align="left" border="0">tv cards and dual monitor</H3>
<p><strong>From Desperado on 27 May 1998
<!-- begin body -->
<BR><BR>
Hi!
<br><br>
Did you hear about TV cards in LInux? am I dreaming?
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I've heard about them. However, I don't have one to
play with and I haven't even found a decent
<A HREF="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/">HOWTO</A> or
website to explain what's required and what's broken
(if anything).
<em>[At press time, the
<a href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO-22.html#ss22.5"
>Hardware Compatability HOWTO section 22.5</a> mentions some
programs that support several TV tuner cards. It's mostly pointers
to tgz files, though, not real help with setup. -- Heather]</em>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
What about dual monitors? In WIndows 98 it needs at least a PCI bus, but
what about 486 users? I found something relative for Linux (<TT>multimon</TT> or
something like that) but It works with a black and white video card
(don't remember exactly), anything to work with two monitor in Linux,
using two ISA video cards?
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
As I've explained before, the classic situation with PC and
multiple monitors used to be that the you couldn't put two
VGA (actually any combination of two VGA/EGA) cards into the
same system. Thus you could put a monochrome video card
(text only or "Hercules" MGA) into a system to co-exist with
a VGA or EGA. Frankly I don't remember where CGA was in this
mess, though I could look it up if I really cared. I personally
never used CGA --- it was just the worst of all worlds.
<br><br>
The '<TT>multimon</TT>' patches for the Linux kernel are very old --
and probably haven't been updated to the 2.0.x (much less
the 2.1.x) kernels. I've never used them. I seem to recall
that it only applied to using a system with one VGA (or
EGA?) card and one "Hercules" MGA (monochrome graphics adapter)
or possibly an old MDA (text only monochrome display adapter ---
the original IBM video card).
<br><br>
Another approach that used to be possible was to use very
specialized adapters like the old TIGA (Texas Instruments
Graphics Array?) or DGA (?) cards. These were high resolution
graphics adapters that cost thousands of dollars and weren't
compatible with VGA or any other "standard" cards or software.
<br><br>
However I've never heard of Linux (XFree86) drivers for
TIGA or DGA cards --- and I'm not sure if they are still
in production. In fact I don't actually know anything about
these old beasts --- I just vaguely remember some discussions
I had with other nerds back in the late 80's where the
subject came up.
<br><br>
When I
<a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue17/answer.html#vidX"
>last discussed this in LG</a> (many moons ago) I didn't
know that some of the modern PCI video cards had the option
to be used in a "non-VGA" mode. Thus you can take some
PCI video cards configure them to co-exist in a system with
another VGA video card. I have heard that some of the
commercial X servers support multiple physical displays
on some cards. I don't seem to recall any of them for
XFree86 --- but a search of their web pages:
<blockquote><code><A HREF="http://www.xfree86.org/">http://www.xfree86.org/</A>
</code></blockquote>
...would provide a far more definitive answer.
<br><br>
The last I read none of the XFree86 servers support multi-headed
operation. This is from the following entry in their FAQ:
<blockquote><code><A HREF="http://www.xfree86.org/FAQ/index.html#TwoCards"
>http://www.xfree86.org/FAQ/index.html#TwoCards</A>
</code></blockquote>
I have yet to see anyone using this feature. One of these
days I might try it. However, not this month.
<br><br>
The Commercial vendors to check with would be:
<DL>
<DT> Xi Graphics (formerly X Inside):
<DD><A HREF="http://www.xig.com/">http://www.xig.com/</A>
</DL>
... and:
<DL>
<DT> Metrolink:
<DD><A HREF="http://www.metrolink.com/"
>http://www.metrolink.com/</A>
</DL>
(there may be others but these are the two that I think
of when I think of the commercial X servers for Linux).
<br><br>
BTW: Metrolink didn't appear to have any online FAQ or
web site search engine. However Xi's FAQ lists a sample
configuration for use with two Matrox Millenium cards at
<A HREF="http://www.xig.com/support/faqs.servers.html#Anchor-a5"
>http://www.xig.com/support/faqs.servers.html#Anchor-a5</A>
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
What is <TT>inetd</TT>? when I am trying to install the ftp rpm, I get the
message "you need inetd", but in my Red Hat 5.0 CD, in the RPMS
directory there is nothing similar to that name.
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
That sounds wrong to me. I would expect that message from
the <TT>ftpd</TT> (the FTP Server package). The default ftp client
should be a part of the NetKit package (probably in the
base RPM).
<br><br>
'<TT>inetd</TT>' is a IP service dispatcher. It listens to
a list of TCP/UDP ports and dynamically launches programs
as connections are requested for the corresponding "well known
services" The mapping of ports to services is done via
the <TT>/etc/services</TT> file, and the mapping of programs (daemons)
to services that will be managed by inetd is in <TT>/etc/inetd.conf</TT>.
<br><br>
In all of the major Linux distributions most of the the
inetd services are configured to run <TT>tcpd</TT> (TCP Wrappers).
This utility will check the the IP address of the client that
is making the connection request against one or two lists
of rules (<TT>/etc/hosts.allow</TT> and <TT>/etc/hosts.deny</TT>).
'<TT>tcpd</TT>' also makes some sanity checks, for example to see
if the client's reverse mapping (a DNS request --- <TT>gethostbyaddr()</TT>
actually --- matches one of the addresses that's returned by a forward
mapping (<TT>gethostbyname</TT>). That's called a "double reverse
lookup" and is somewhat more difficult for an attacker to
"spoof" than just a reverse (<TT>in-addr.arpa</TT>) entry.
<br><br>
Are you trying to use an ftp client or a server (daemon)?
You might also try <TT>ncftp</TT> (Mike Gleason?) which is a nice
curses mode (full screen) client. You can also try <TT>lftp</TT>
which has some nice scripting features. In fact <TT>ncftp</TT>
also has some rather handy features for use in scripts.
<br><br>
Another option is to use <TT>mc</TT>'s (midnight commander) ftp
features. To do that just load the program and type
<TT>cd ftp://.....</TT> (the URL form of the ftp site's name).
<br><br>
Shortly thereafter you should see the files and directories
from your FTP site appear in one of <TT>mc</TT>'s navigation panels
--- you can than navigate the other site, tagging, copying,
and managing the remote files as though there were in a
local directory tree.
</blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
One thing more, what about download managers? I use Get Right, but there
is no version for Linux, well there is no Java Runtime Environment for
Linux. Any other good application for that?
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I presume you mean that you'd like to select a number of
files in an ftp client and have the system continue to
try downloading ('<TT>get</TT>'-ting) them until they are all
successfully retrieved. Perhaps you'd even like to just tag the files
and defer the actual download until later (say, late at night
when there's just less bandwidth in use all over the 'net).
<br><br>
I think there are many programs that can do this. I've used
'<TT>mirror</TT>' (Lee McLoughlin's Perl script) many times --- but that
is more of a programming utility and it has no interactive
front end. The best bet would be to search the Linux Software
Map (<A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/linux/apps.html"
>http://www.ssc.com/linux/apps.html</A>) with the words "<TT>ftp</TT>"
and "<TT>client</TT>"
<br><br>
I suppose it would be nice to have an FTP client that had
an option write all your file selections to a file and
execute the fetch later as an '<TT>at</TT>' job. Perhaps one of
our readers will know of one.
<br><br>
Also there is quite a bit of Java support for Linux. I don't
know about the JRE specifically but it appears to be supported
according to the canonical Linux/Java site
(<A HREF="http://www.blackdown.org/">http://www.blackdown.org</A>):
<dl>
<dt>Java-Linux: Javasoft(TM) Products
<dd><A HREF="http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux/products.html"
>http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux/products.html</A>
</dl></blockquote>
<p><strong><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(?)"
align="left" border="0">
Thank you for your help.
<br>Desperado
</strong></p>
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif"width="50" height="28" alt="(!)"
align="left" border="0">
I hope that helps. Look at the Blackdown.org site for
more info about Java under Linux.
</blockquote>
<!--================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
>Copyright &copy;</a> 1998, James T. Dennis <BR>
Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 30 July 1998</H5>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--================================================================-->
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ Table Of Contents ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ Front Page ]"></A>
<A HREF="./lg_bytes30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT="[ Back ]"></A>
<A HREF="./vrenios.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif"
ALT="[ Next ]"></A>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">CHAOS: CHeap Array of Obsolete Systems</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:">Alex Vrenios</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<H4>Introduction</H4>
<P>
If you are anything like me, you're probably not exactly sure how fast the latest processor
is. You probably didn't wait in line to buy the latest Windows upgrade, and the machine you use
to get your work done probably doesn't look too good next to even the $1000 specials. Maybe,
like me, you need a little spice in your computing time slice.
<P>
This article describes a year-long project to create a network of old PCs - a loosely
coupled multi-processor, if you will - all for the cost of a reasonably priced PC, a lot of my
personal time, and a little bit of luck.
<P>
Last year our vintage 1988 Deskpro 386s reached the limits of their upgradeability, and
they still couldn't run all the applications I use at work. It was time to buy new. My wife gets the
first new one this time, and I'll decide to wait a little while longer. The two old machines were
top of the line, in their day. I still have all the manuals, the original maintenance diskettes, and a
few spare parts. I'll be sorry to see them go.
<P> <HR> <P>
<H4>It Begins</H4>
<P>
With the new PC up and running I found myself reorganizing things. I went to my
favorite computer store for a cable. Being one to avoid paying for a new cable whenever I can, I
went into the back room - the salvage area - very much like a high tech junk yard. There, near the
corner, on a bottom shelf, were three Deskpro 386s, just like my old ones at home!
<P>
I moved closer. (Didn't want to cause a scene, you know.) Each was priced from $100 to
$150 and the stickers were yellow. The big sign on the wall said yellow means I can take another
20% off. I did some quick mental math and decided to offer him $300 for all three of them.
<P>
"Excuse me," I said. "The old Deskpro 386s in the corner?" "Twenty bucks apiece," he
said. I put my credit card on the counter and the PCs in my trunk. He even threw in three AC
cords. After the deed was done, I heard myself asking about others like them because I had to
build a home network. He even agreed to give them to me at the same rate!
<P>
I took them home, took them all apart, and blew out some nasty dust. The cases cleaned
up like new with a little spray cleaner. (Okay, a lot of spray cleaner.) They all had at least 40 MB
hard, and standard floppy drives, and some even had extra memory. Every one of them booted,
and all the hard drives reformatted properly. This was surely an omen.
<P>
The cheapest network cards I could find were NE2000 compatible 10Base2 at $29 each. I
got commercially made coax cables because I know what I can do to a BNC connector with a
soldering iron. Where was I going to put all this stuff?
<P><HR> <P>
<H4>The Plan</H4>
<P>
I have a desk, credenza, and a side table in my little office area at home. The side table
happens to be wide enough for three PCs to sit side-by-side under it, on floor pads. I cut a shelf
to fit under it and got two sliding keyboard drawers for the top. Two on top, with keyboards and
monitors, three on the shelf, and three on the floor makes eight - that's a nice sized network. I got
a pair of 1x4 data switches to connect the pair of VGA monitors and keyboards to each set of
four machines. Mice do not switch well, so only the top two machines have them. For what I
wanted to build, a lot of mice were not necessary anyway.
<P>
I found three more matching 386s and a very clean Deskpro 486 that I just couldn't pass
up. (It even had a CD-ROM drive!) My final configuration uses the 486 as the "build" machine,
seven 386s as the multi-processor test bed, and the eighth 386 as a spare. The two monitors,
keyboards, and mice look good up top. The matching PCs underneath look very natural. The rats
nest of wires are tucked out of site.
<P>
The Red Hat Linux version 4.2 box said it would work in character mode on a 40 MB
hard drive, but required 8 MB of RAM to run. I did some quick combinatorics and bought the
minimum number of memory chips that would bring every machine up to that standard. Time to
saddle up.
<P>
I used a DOS boot diskette to bring up each machine, establish the type codes for the hard
drives, and initialize the network cards. Each card came with a tee connector, and the coaxial
cables went together quickly.
<P>
I got a small label maker and named the 386s after the seven deadly sins. The 486 was
named omission. A local sysadmin friend said 192.64.9.1 through 192.64.9.8 would do fine for
my IP addresses. This was starting to look pretty good.
<P> <HR> <P>
<H4>The Installation</H4>
<P>
I've done my share of software installations, including a few operating systems. Red Hat
tries to make things as easy as possible for the reasonably experienced person, so I expected an
easy time of it. Not true.
<P>
In hind sight I guess it all makes perfect sense, but there were a few dark moments.
Asking for a "Default Gateway" and a "Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Nameserver" was a bit
over my head. (I got eight machines on a private network. I don't need no stinkin' nameserver...
Do I?) And a friend had to set me straight on how many partitions I really needed, explaining
how a single partition containing a swap "file" works fine under Linux. Oddly, the installation
program doesn't ask for NFS mounts if only one partition exists. (It seems to me like that's when you
need them most.) I had to add this information manually to the /etc/fstab file after the installation
was complete. I updated the /etc/hosts file and switched both accounts to use the C shell, while I was
at it.
<P>
I still haven't a clue how to create a Linux boot disk. Nor do I understand the "rescue"
mode on the installation boot floppies. When the network card "autoprobe" actually recognized
my NE2000 compatible, however, I knew this was all going to work out fine. And when the
second machine started reading the CD-ROM drive in the first one, I got a little smug.
<P>
When I got to one of the machines with a 40 MB hard drive, I discovered that a 40 MB
set of installation files doesn't fit. After frantic posts on the news groups and the mailing lists, I
discovered that I could de-select some of the software components that I didn't need and chip the
installation set size down to 35 MB, which fit nicely. With /home and /usr mounted through NFS
from the big 486, I had no fears of running out of work space. In addition to the root account for
maintenance, I created one user account for myself so I could do the ordinary stuff.
<P> <HR> <P>
<H4>The Network</H4>
<P>
With the evidence mounting, I still didn't really believe it all worked until I actually
switched to different systems and did pings back and forth. When I compiled a simple
client/server pair of test programs, started the server on one, and the client on another, I was
convinced. This is good.
<P>
So what, you might ask, am I going to do with an 8-PC network?
<P>
I've taken a few graduate courses in distributed and fault tolerant systems, and I read a lot.
There is something I find fascinating about a distributed algorithm: locally each of the individual
processes obeys the same set of rules, but globally the "system" exhibits an emergent behavior.
All these individual processes look like a single machine to the casual user.
<P>
With sophisticated software running on each of the seven machines, they can band
together to form a single computer that runs application software, taking advantage of the
overlap inherent in most algorithms, by running a piece of the whole on each machine, collecting
and combining results as each of them completes. The "sophisticated software" is called a
distributed operating system, and the application it runs has to be modified by hand in order to
realize any performance improvements. The January 1998 issue of Linux Journal is dedicated to
such systems. Beowulf clusters, discussed in that issue, are within my reach, now that Red Hat
released their Extreme Linux CD, with the associated NASA code and documentation.
<P>
Beyond number crunching clusters, there are database server clusters. The many
machines are used to distribute the client transaction loads so no one machine crashes from
overwork. If a process fails, an associated monitor process might restart it on the same, or some
other machine. And when one machine gets bogged down for whatever reason, some of its
processes might be intentionally stopped and restarted elsewhere just to redistribute the overall
load. This is leading edge fault tolerant research material.
<P>
Finally, there are dozens of simple distributed algorithms along with dozens of variations
on each. Without any add-on sophisticated software, one may use a C compiler and some UDP
socket programming to first imitate what has been done, then perhaps improve on it. I expect this
will be what I work on first. The seven 386s can each run a copy of the algorithm under test,
instrumented to write behavior trace records, and the 486 can monitor these traces, displaying the
global behavior in some way that makes sense to me.
<P> <HR> <P>
<H4>Conclusion</H4>
<P>
Whatever your computing interests, a hardware architecture must come first. The current glut
of high performance PCs provides us an opportunity to build a system that fits our needs, without
spending too much money. The Linux operating system provides a substrate upon which an interesting
software project may grow. I recognized that a small network of PCs would provide me with a platform
that fit well with what I think is fun. I hope my experience will encourage you to pursue your own.
<P>
My next step is to define and construct a framework for my 486 to become the monitor, sampling
and reporting the behavior of some distributed algorithm running on the other machines. Maybe that
will be the subject of my next article here.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Alex Vrenios <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./lg_answer30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./clue30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>&quot;
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center><H2>Clueless at the Prompt</H2>
<H4>By Mike List,
<a href="mailto:troll@net-link.net">troll@net-link.net</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<center><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE SRC = "../gx/list/gnub.jpg" ></center><p>
<h4>Welcome to installment 5 of Clueless at the Prompt:</h4>
<p>
How's it goin'? This month I'm going to go into some basic admin
ideas that you can use to make your home linux box a little
easier to deal with, especially in an emergency.
<p>
I'm also going to hit xdm on a couple of points, although I've got
the merest understanding of all the differences between it and
running from "startx"
<hr><p><h4>
*Boot/Rescue Disks:</h4> If you make a mockery of your filesystem
by typing for instance a space between "/" and the file you were
trying to rm as root, or your extraordinarily gifted child
discovers how to cold boot your computer while you're in X and have
a dozen windows open, or you accidentally kick the power strip
while you're stretching, or geez, need I go on? You may discover
one of the handiest things (two, actually) is a Boot/rescue/root
disk combo.
<p>
To use these , you simply reboot or cycle offthe computer as
"gracefully" as possible. Insert the boot disk, which can be your
install boot disk and start the bootup. instead of using your
install root disk, you drop a rescue disk in when prompted.
These disks can be gotten from your distribution's ftp site or
more conveniently, if you have linux on CDROM, guess where you
might get it, most likely wherever you got your boot image. You can
also roll your own, or use Yard to make a custom rescue disk. As a
side note, you can use this method to make a usable, if not very
flexible, minilinux system, something like xdenu.<p>
To use your rescue disk, boot up with your installation bootdisk,
and when you are prompted to insert root disk, just pop it in and
hold tight a second. when you get a prompt, you are almost ready to
fix your problems.You can run fsck on a disk partition without
mounting it, in fact that's the safest way to use it. If you
bollixed any init files, you can mount the /dev/?partition to "/mnt"
cd /mnt and using vi, edit the mistaken lines or even recreate them
if need be. One important note; your hard drive will be mounted
below /mnt, so don't do anything to "/" or you risk hosing your rescue
disk, not a nice thng to do when it's all that stands between you
and your linux system.There is even a defrag utility that you can
use after you fsck your filesystems, but you must make sure that
you only run it on UNMOUNTED filesystems or you'll be subject to a
REAL LEARNING EXPERIENCE!, as in learning to reinstall your box
from scratch, or practice on your backup routine.
<hr><p><h4>
*Xdm:</h4> If you ever thought it would be cool to be able to
start your linux box in X mode and logging in from an X screen, it
isn't too hard to do, using xdm, the X Display Manager. You can
easily start it by simply typing:
<pre>
xdm
</pre>
if you have X configured. It should start with a login screen, and
look like the twm window manager, tweed background and all, and
when you login for the first time, it probably will be twm,
particularly if you got your XFree86 distribution from xfree86.org,
although I'm really only accustomed to Slackware so another window
manager might come as default in say, RedHat or SuSe, or Debian
distributions. that can be changed, as can the tweed root window,
and the login message, and a great many other small details.
You should be aware that because of the way xdm invokes X, the path
will not be the same as if you run startx. That means that you must
either specify the full pathnames for executables or change your
path in the" " file.Your access to remote xhosts will be different
as well, a problem I haven't licked yet but by the time you finish
reading this I might(or you might, or we both might or ...).
<p>
Better yet break out your favorite editor, save your /etc/inittab file in
case of disaster and find the line that starts with id?:default
runlevel? and read the file down a few lines to where it describes
the runlevels and change to the one that describes X11R6 in Slackware
it would be runlevel 4, so change the id and the runlevel description
if you are a slacker, it may be different on other distributions,
since they mostly use BSD style init and have their rc.files directly
in /etc. That's enough to start Linux in a login screen.You could run
<pre>
locate xdm</pre>
to find the xdm files, and give them a good lookover. The files
you'll want to look at are the Xresources, Xsession, and Xsetup_0.
There are other files to work over but let's start with our local
desktop.
<p>
If you look at your Xsession file you'll see you need
these files in your home directory:.xinitrc and .Xresources. The
.xinitrc you may have in your home directory is a reasonable
default, and you can copy the system Xresources to your home
.Xresources. If you would like to use other files as your startup
and resources file, you'll need to specify them in the Xsession
file, at the lines that read:
<pre> startup=$HOME/.xinitrc
resources=$HOME/.Xresources
</pre>
you might use .openwin, instead of .xinitrc and .Xdefaults instead
of .Xresources, you'll have to lok at what X related dotfiles are
present in your home directory.
<p> Your Xsetup_0 fle can be used to start a background image in
the login screen using a command like:
<pre>
xv -root -quit /your/image/here
</pre>
assuming that you have xv installed on your system. You can use
other viewers to start the image, but you will have to read up on
the appropriate command line options for them. You can also enable
or disable the xconsole log, which can be used to notify you of
errors in execution, etc, by piping the xdm-errors file to it in
this file, although I haven't done it and am not real familiar with the
the specifics.
<hr><p><h4>
If you have any starting out type questions, or any tips you you
think would be handy for the newbie reader, please email me
at:</h4>
<center><a href="mailto:troll@net-link.net">troll@net-link.net</a><p>
<b>See you next month!</b></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1997, Mike List<BR>
Published in Issue 30 of the Linux Gazette, July 1997</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./vrenios.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back"></A>
<A HREF="./bennet.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">8 Reasons to Make the Switch</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:bbennet@mb.sympatico.ca">Bill Bennet</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
Here are 8 reasons to switch to Linux, the free OS:
<ol>
<li> It is free. Download from the Internet and install it now.
<li> Free upgrades. Find the Kernel on the Internet and download the
latest guts for the system.
<li> It runs Win3x,95,98,etc. Some programs, not all. Your programs will
run and look the same as in Windows. Find the Wine project. It is
trying to be 100% free of Microsoft code, in order to further promote
freedom of action on the PC. They use the API of Windows, and write
the code for free! When a Windows program won't run in WINE or WABI
the Linux system can be installed AFTER you install Windows. Then the
LILO bootloader can boot either Linux or Windows, without any upset
at all of your delicate and unstable Windows setup. A dual-boot PC is
able to run almost everything and it tastes great, but is not less
filling. Create with the GIMP, post it to the net, save it in DOS and
use it in your office suite.
<li> It runs DOS. Some programs, not all. See dual-boot, above. Your
programs will run using the Dosemu. It makes the programs see a DOS
system on your machine, and they go. Yes, even Warlords II will run
just fine. You just need a paid-for DOS version to install and a hard
disk partition is recommended.
<li> It runs Unix. Your Linux is a PC version of the powerful Unix OS.
The universities, NASA, the research institutes, computer scientists
and software developers are using it since the old days of computing.
You now have access on the Internet to thousands of programs. They
range from obscure utilities to fully developed productivity systems.
Oh, by the way, they are free to download and are written by the best
minds in the computer world. "Microserfs"(recruited by the monopoly),
are best left in their circular, singular limited world so that the
real free thinkers can write you great innovative, unlimited programs
that can solve real world problems.
<li> It runs Macintosh. Yes, you just get the emulator and your Mac
programs will see a Mac system on your PC. Playmaker Football, anyone?
<li> It is fast when used as a network server or for multi-tasking. The
ISP (Internet Service Provider) community is becoming a large growth
area for Linux, with over 20% of them using it. That percentage is
growing as the mainstream shrinks. The choice of Linux as your office
productivity system is really a no-brainer: Speed, Versatility, Price
(free), Upkeep (free), Support (free on the Internet) and Adaptation.
Your upgrades are free and you keep up with all the innovations in the
realm of computing by virtue of your ability to run all the different
operating systems and their software on one machine. Any questions?
<li> You contribute to the expression of freedom of thought and action
when you choose Linux, the free OS. By way of contrast, just ask
yourself 'How many times have I paid for an upgrade of my system?'. If
the answer is one or more, then you paid too much. Again, ask yourself
'Did I need to upgrade when the owners of the OS told me to upgrade?'.
If your software was running just fine when you were told to upgrade,
then who is running your life?
</ol>
<P>
Finally, ask yourself 'Does following the dictates of the
Windows-Intel monopoly make me an independent PC owner?'. If you can't
run a piece of software that sounds like it does what you want done,
because it is not available for your "operating system", then why do
you continue to let yourself be limited by the owners of the monopoly
"operating system"?
<P>
Switching to Linux lets you run the software that you hear
about and lets you choose which programs you want; which programs you
need; and most important, when to buy them.
<P>
Staying on Microsoft's schedule, for example, will have seen
you purchase four upgrades to your "operating system" in the last ten
years. DOS 6.22, Windows3x, Windows95 (DOS 7.0) and Windows98 have an
inevitable progression built into their "release" so that you give
your money to the richest man on the planet on a regular basis. That
regular flow of cash is keeping Microsoft solvent, paying the
investors and limiting choices for the 90% of PC users who are trapped
in the Microsoft endless loop of upgrades.
<P>
Why am I so adamant in my condemnation of the monopoly? The
reason is that in May of 1998, Microsoft "released" Windows98. That
caused a huge buying surge for Microsoft, because their captive users
were truly afraid of being left out of the "innovation" loop. At the
same time, a press release on the TV claimed that Windows98 had fixed
three thousand (3,000) bugs in the Windows95 "operating system". Only
a true monopoly would even let you know that you had been inflicted
with three thousand (3,000) bugs in your last software purchase. To
top off the irony, the United States government and 20 of their states
were taking Microsoft to court on anti-trust suits over their
exclusion of choices for consumers on which browser to use on the
Internet.
<P>
That left me with the logical question of whether you PC users
had a choice of how to run your PC and get only the programs that
you want or need. The answer is that the lawsuits are illogical, since
you the consumer can run Linux, use just the Microsoft programs you
want and run any browser you want and run any system you want, all on
one PC. Therefore, Microsoft can wedge their captives into any type of
mess that they wish, simply because you can choose to run Linux and
still be connected to the masses by virtue of your versatility.
<P>
Your business can run the same software as your contacts and
share the same type of files and be totally connected, even with the
extra 10% of the market that is not on Windows-Intel. You win and
you win with Linux.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Bill Bennet <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./clue30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./mueller.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Integrated Software Development with <I>WipeOut</I></font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:gerd@softwarebuero.de">Gerd Mueller</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
Programming under Linux means you have the choice between various powerful
development tools, such as <EM>gcc</EM>, <EM>gdb</EM>, <EM>make</EM> and a lot more. But most
of them are command-line tools and especially for beginners not easy to
handle. But this is only one side. The other important point is the source
code editor. Many people swear by <EM>vi</EM> (or one of its clones) - I don't
mind. But it's not enough to have a good editor, a compiler and a debugger.
Especially when you develop larger software projects you need a tool
to organize it efficiently, version control would be recommended and
for object-oriented languages a class browser is indispensable. Now you
have to get all these tools under one umbrella. I see mainly two ways to
resolve this problem: one is called <EM>(X)Emacs</EM> and the other is an <EM>
Integrated Development Environment</EM>. <P>
You can resolve nearly every problem with <EM>Emacs</EM> (may be in the near
future it will cook coffee for you ;)). It is not only an editor: you can
use it as mail tool, news reader, file system browser, debugger, compiler
and make tool. If you don't have a special feature it is possible to
extend <EM>Emacs</EM> to fit your needs. But in <EM>my</EM> opinion it does all these
things not very easily and intuitively. So I prefer the second way for
software development as mentioned above.<P>
In my understanding an <EM>Integrated Development Environment</EM> gives you a
graphical interface to the different tools and joins them in one environment.
The tools should help me to organize my projects and support the
code-compile-debug cycle. Advanced features are things like a GUI-builder,
documentation tool and maybe a CASE-tool like behaviour.<P>
Under Linux you have the choice between various IDEs. They are more or less
powerful and more or less expensive. In this article I'd like to introduce
one of them which is called <I>WipeOut</I>.<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4> History</FONT></B><P>
At the beginning there was just the idea to have some nice and easy to use
frontends for the main development tools of each C++-programmer under
Linux: <EM>gcc</EM>, <EM>gdb</EM> and <EM>make</EM>. We decided to use <EM>wxWindows</EM> [1] by
Julian Smart to program the GUI. The first versions of <I>WipeOut</I> were
developed with the OpenLook-variant of <EM>wxWindows</EM>. Later we changed to
<EM>wxXt</EM> by Marcus Holzem because most of the people didn't like
OpenLook. For basic data structures (container classes, strings, etc.) we
developed <EM>dmpack</EM> [2]. This library contains also features such as
streamable objects and remote method invocation, which are very important
to the communication between the various <I>WipeOut</I> components. The
communication part of <EM>dmpack</EM> is based on the <EM>socket++</EM>-library
by Gnanasekaran Swaminathan which provides an object-oriented interface to
sockets and pipes.<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4> Components and Features of <I>WipeOut</I></FONT></B><P>
Now <I>WipeOut</I> is a complete teamwork development environment for
C++, Java, Eiffel, Fortran and C projects. (Other languages may
follow.) At the present it consists of the following components:<P>
<UL>
<LI> <EM>Project Browser</EM> - the main window of <I>WipeOut</I>
<LI> <EM>Revision Browser</EM> - version control based on <EM>CVS</EM>, it supports remote repositories
and teamwork
<LI> <EM>e3-Editor</EM> - the central text editor with flexible syntax highlighting
<LI> <EM>Class Browser</EM> - supports Java and C++, used as source code navigator and
cross-referencer
<LI> <EM>Debugger</EM> - a frontend for <EM>gdb</EM>/<EM>jdb</EM>, supports threads
<LI> <EM>Make-Shell</EM> - a frontend for <EM>make</EM>, automatic makefile generation
<LI> <EM>Symbol-Retriever</EM> - a comfortable <EM>grep</EM> replacement for symbol searching in
a quantity of files
<LI> <EM>SurfBoard</EM> - our HTML-viewer to show help and man pages
</UL>
<P>
<I>WipeOut</I> is not a RAD-tool. This is because it's not a pure Java or C++
development tool. The editor, the project management, and the make shell work
also fine for other projects than C++ or Java. Besides it is hard to
decide for a special GUI-toolkit, which would be necessary for the C++
part. So we try to support the programmers with intuitive frontends for
various command-line tools and some important additional components, which
help for more effective programming.<P>
<I>WipeOut</I> is available for various platforms: <EM>Linux/i486</EM>, <EM>
Linux/m68k</EM>, <EM>Linux/Alpha</EM>, <EM>Solaris</EM>, <EM>HP-UX</EM>. All these
versions are fully compatible, so that you can use <I>WipeOut</I> for
multi-platform development. Furthermore there are porting activities for
<EM>LinuxPPC</EM> and <EM>Irix</EM>.<P>
Currently we provide <I>WipeOut</I> in two versions:<P>
<UL>
<LI> the free standard version: This version is free for non-commercial use, but it
has some restriction: there is no version control and a project can contain only
one module. All other components have the full functionality.
<LI> the <I>WipeOut</I><EM>Pro</EM> version: this version is unlimited and costs
$149 for commercial users and $79 for private users.
</UL>
<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4> Installation</FONT></B><P>
The Installation is not very difficult. To run <I>WipeOut</I> you need the following
packages:<P>
<UL>
<LI> wipeout-&lt;VERSION&gt;.tar.gz : this file contains <I>WipeOut</I> itself
<LI> wxxt-share.tar.gz : this is the GUI-library
<LI> wipeout-doc-&lt;VERSION&gt;.tar.gz : the <I>WipeOut</I> documentation
<LI> wipeout-tut-&lt;VERSION&gt;.tar.gz : the <I>WipeOut</I> tutorial
</UL>
<P>
You can obtain the packages from [4]. Then do the following steps:
<UL>
<LI> Create a new directory, where you want to install <I>WipeOut</I>
<LI> Copy the packages to this directory and unpack them with 'tar xvzf &lt;package&gt;'
<LI> Start the setup-program of <I>WipeOut</I> by typing './setup'. Follow the
instructions which the program will display. After finishing it will create
two small shell-scripts: You have to include 'wipeout.sh' with the 'source'-
command into your '.bashrc' or '.bash_profile' if you use <EM>bash</EM> or
'wipeout.csh' into your '.cshrc'-file if you use <EM>csh</EM>.
<LI> After opening a new shell, which uses the modified rc-file, you can
start <I>WipeOut</I> simply by typing 'wipeout'.
</UL>
<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4>First Steps</FONT></B><P>
After starting <I>WipeOut</I> you'll see the <EM>Project Browser</EM> to the left and the (empty)
editor to the right. The <EM>Project Browser</EM> is the central part of <I>WipeOut</I>. Here you
open the projects and start the other components.<P>
The first thing we do is to create a new project. Therefore we choose the
menu <B><I>'Project-&gt;New Root Module'</I></B>. A dialogbox opens and we have to
input the directory of the <EM>CVS</EM>-repository (see below) and the directory
of our new project. After confirming <I>WipeOut</I> asks us for adding the
'Makefile' and the '&lt;arch&gt;.def' file. We choose <B><I>OK</I></B>. What this files
mean we will see later. Now <I>WipeOut</I> creates a new module in the
repository and will initialize the project directory.<P>
After creating the new project we now have access to all the other
components. At first we will have a look at the <EM>Revision Browser</EM>.<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4>The <EM>Revision Browser</EM> - Part I</FONT></B><P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/rbw.gif"><BR>
<P>
The <EM>Revision Browser</EM> manages the modules and files of your project. A module
represents a directory and it groups the files logical. But a module can
contain submodules so that you can build a module hierarchy, which
represents your project.<P>
The <EM>Revision Browser</EM> shows this hierarchy in a GUI-element called <EM>browser box</EM>.
This box was inspired by a similar GUI-element of the <EM>NextStep</EM>-System
and it's a clever and easy way to display a hierarchy. Each listbox shows
one level of the hierarchy. The top of the hierarchy is shown in the most
left listbox. If you select an item the listbox to the right contains the
children of it. With the arrow buttons to the left and right of the box you can
scroll through the hierarchy.<P>
The files belonging to a module are shown in the right listbox. If you
double-click on an item the corresponding file will be shown in the editor.
To be exact: the file will be opened with the default application of
its category (see below). <P>
Every module has several properties. If you select a module and choose
<B><I>Edit-&gt;Info for File or Module</I></B> you get a dialog, where you can modify
the module properties. There are the following tabs:<P>
<UL>
<P>
<LI><B>Categories:</B> The files of a module are divided into categories. There
is an automatic assignment based on the file extension but you can do it
also explicitly. A file can be a member of more than one category. Categories
have mainly two meanings:<BR>
The first is, that each category represents a makefile symbol. All files of
a category are included in this symbol. In this way <EM>make</EM> knows how to
handle a file. An example is the default category 'CPP_source'. It includes
all files of the module with the extensions '*.C', '*.cc' and '*.cpp'. That
means normally they are C++-source code files. If you start to make a
module, all files of that category will be compiled with <EM>c++</EM> (as the
default C++-compiler).<BR>
As a second point you can assign one or more applications to a category. One
of them is the default application (this is normally the <I>WipeOut</I> editor
<EM>e3</EM>). If you double-click on a file in the filelist, this file will be
opened with the default application. If you select a file and click right
you'll get a small popup menu with all applications which are assigned via
the category to this file. By selecting one of them the file will be opened
with it.<P>
<LI><B>Directories:</B> Beside of its home directory you can assign other
directories to a module. These directories can have one or more of the
following meanings:
<UL>
<LI> Source : this is a directory where the debugger searches for source code
<LI> Header : this is a directory where additional header files are located, the
compiler will need this
<LI> Library : the compiler searches in this directory for libraries
<LI> Make : <I>WipeOut</I> starts a recursive make in this directory, when you
start to make the module
<LI> Browse : marks the directory for the <EM>Class Browser</EM> so that it will parse the
directory for classes
</UL>
The default properties of the module's home directory are 'Source' and 'Browse'.<P>
<LI><B>Options:</B> Here you can set some additional makefile options. If
you click on one of the buttons the editor shows the corresponding line of the
'&lt;arch&gt;.def'-file. You can set your compiler, compiler flags, include and
library paths, and libraries, which you want to link to your program.<P>
<LI><B>Tools:</B> Here you can set various tool properties. At present there
is only the make-command property: You can input here the make-command which
you like to use for making your project. The default is of course a simple
<TT>make</TT> but you may change it <TT>gmake</TT> or <TT>pmake</TT>.<P>
</UL>
<HR>
<B>WhatYouSeeIsWhatYouGet in <I>WipeOut</I></B><BR>
There is one point where <I>WipeOut</I> differs from many other programs: Mostly
settings will be persistent immediately, i.e. you don't need to save them
explicitly - real WYSIWYG. Just in some modal dialogs there are <B><I>OK</I></B>-
and <B><I>Cancel</I></B>-buttons, so that you have the choice to confirm or to cancel.
Furthermore you don't need to save property-changes you made for a module,
e.g. if you add a directory or category these items will be immediately visible
to all other components without saving and closing the dialogbox. We think
this kind of work is faster and intuitive.
<HR>
<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4>The aim of the game</FONT></B><P>
Now we know some things about modules and categories. It's time to turn back
to practice and produce a little chunk of code. In our example we will build
up a small <TT>String</TT> - class including the obligatory 'Hello World' - program.<P>
To create the source code for a module we have three possibilities:
<UL>
<LI> do it the old-fashioned and good way - open a new file in the editor
and hack the code into it
<LI> import existing files into the module
<LI> create class and method headers with the <EM>Class Browser</EM>
</UL>
<P>
We choose the last point, so that we can take a closer look at the <EM>Class Browser</EM>.
To open it just click on the third button of the <EM>Project Browser</EM>.<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4>The <EM>Class Browser</EM></FONT></B><P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/cbw.gif"><BR>
<P>
The <EM>Class Browser</EM> is bases on an incremental source code parser. That means your
code can be incomplete or wrong, but the <EM>Class Browser</EM> will scan it for classes,
methods, and members as good as possible. The <EM>Class Browser</EM> parses this project
directories which you marked as 'Browse' (see above). After building-up the internal
database the first time, only such files will be parsed again, which changed
or depend from changed files and new files. You have to tell the
<EM>Class Browser</EM> explicitly to update the class hierarchy with <B><I>Hierarchy-&gt;Update</I></B>
(or faster the corresponding toolbar button). But you must only update if
you changed a class or method declaration.<P>
Apart from the well-known browserbox, which is used here to show the class
hierarchy, the <EM>Class Browser</EM> has another <I>WipeOut</I>-standard GUI-element
- the <EM>panelbox</EM>.<P>
The development of the panelbox was necessary, because time after time there
were to many non-modal dialogs which showed important information. This
wasn't easy to survey. The panelbox is clearly structured and gives fast
access to various information without loosing survey. The panelbox consists
of one or more subpanels. You can assign the number and kind of the panels
with the small buttons in the top of it.<P>
The <EM>Class Browser</EM> has five different subpanels:
<UL>
<LI> Methods : shows the methods of the current class
<LI> Members : shows the members of the current class
<LI> Hotlist : shows the hotlist (see below)
<LI> All Classes : shows all classes of the hierarchy
<LI> All Methods : shows all methods of the hierarchy
</UL>
<P>
The hotlist is a collection of often used classes, methods and members, so
that you have fast access to them. With the menu item <B><I>Hotspots-&gt;Add
Hotspot</I></B> you can add the current class, method or member to the hotlist. A
double-click on a hotspot opens the corresponding file in the editor. This
is similar to all other listboxes. Beside of this you are able to control
the listboxes via keyboard: with the cursor keys, 'Home', 'End', 'PageUp'
and 'PageDown', but also with alpha-numerical keys. If you press a letter
the listbox cursor jumps to the first item beginning with that letter.<P>
But now we want to build our <TT>String</TT>-class: We do that with
<B><I>Edit-&gt;New Class ...</I></B>. We input the name of the class and press
<B><I>Insert In New File</I></B>. <I>WipeOut</I> will ask us several questions, but we
confirm all of them with <B><I>OK</I></B>. The editor shows us now a new header file
for our <TT>String</TT>-class. <P>
The next step is to add some methods. We do that with the <B><I>Edit-&gt;New
Method ...</I></B>-dialog. Simply input the method declaration as you know it
from C++/Java and set the editor cursor to the right places when <I>WipeOut</I>
asks you to do so. After writing some implementation code your source files
should look as follows:<P>
<B>Listing 1</B><P>
<PRE>
// $Id: issue30.html,v 1.3 2003/02/03 21:50:19 lg Exp $
// some comments ...
#ifndef _String_h
#define _String_h
class String {
protected:
char* _data;
public:
String(char *);
virtual String();
virtual String& operator= (char *);
virtual char* data() const;
};
#endif
</PRE>
<B>Listing 2</B><P>
<PRE>
// $Id: issue30.html,v 1.3 2003/02/03 21:50:19 lg Exp $
// some comments ...
#include <iostream.h>
#include <string.h>
#include "String.h"
String::String (char *data) {
_data = new char[strlen(data)+1];
strcpy (_data, data);
}
String::String() {
delete _data;
}
char* String::data() const {
return _data;
}
String& String::operator= (char* data) {
delete _data;
_data = new char[strlen(data)+1];
strcpy (_data, data);
return *this;
}
main() {
String str ("Hello ...");
cout &lt&lt str.data() &lt&lt endl;
}
</PRE>
Because we generated the class with the <EM>Class Browser</EM> we don't need to update the
class hierarchy explicitly. Beside of this the <EM>Class Browser</EM> added the files
'String.h' and 'String.cc' automaticly to the module in the <EM>Revision Browser</EM>.<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4>The <EM>Revision Browser</EM> - Part II</FONT></B><P>
Before we continue just a few words about version control for those of the
readers, who are not familiar with it. The repository (we set its directory
while creating the new project) is the central database of the version
control. All developers get the actual source code version from there. Each
developer has a local copy of this version (or a version of her/his choice)
and she/he can edit it.<P>
If the developer does a <EM>commit</EM> the local copy of the file goes into
the repository. Now all other developers have access to this new version of
the file. They have to <EM>update</EM> their local copy. If a developer made
changes at a file but didn't commit them yet and update this file now,
<EM>CVS</EM> merges the local copy and the actual version of the repository. The
developer will not loose his changes. After updating the local copy may
contain <EM>conflicts</EM>. That means the changes of the developer collide
with the changes from the repository version. The developer has to resolve
these conflicts (with support of the <EM>e3</EM>) before committing the file
again.<P>
If you take look at the file list of the <EM>Revision Browser</EM>, you will see there four
files: 'Makefile', '&lt;arch&gt;.def, 'String.h' and 'String.cc'. All these items
have a '[n]' at the beginning and empty parentheses at the end.
The signs within the brackets have the following meanings:<P>
<UL>
<LI>+ : the file is up-to-date
<LI>&lt; : you need to 'Commit' the file
<LI>&gt; : you need to 'Update' the file
<LI>x : there could be conflicts with other developers
<LI>X : there is a conflict within the file
<LI>n : the file was locally added
<LI>- : the file was locally deleted
<LI>? : no status information available
</UL>
<P>
Beside of the conflict symbols the signs have the same meaning for modules.<P>
The parentheses after the file name contain the version of the local copy.
If we select our module and commit it with <B><I>Revision-&gt;Commit File or
Module</I></B> the version numbers of the files change to '1.1' and the status
changes to '+'.<P>
Especially on team development the status of a file or module can change
every time. You have three possibilities to keep the <EM>Revision Browser</EM> up-to-date
(<B><I>Project-&gt;Module Properties</I></B>):
<UL>
<LI> on item select: status update each time you click on a file or module
<LI> on tool select: status update each time you select the first button
of the toolbar
<LI> timer interval: status update every <EM>x</EM> seconds
</UL>
<P>
Note that each status update causes a <EM>CVS</EM> command. If you work with
remote repositories but you have only a poor connection to it, it's
recommend to choose the second possibility.<P>
<I>WipeOut</I> has a lot other features for version control and team work, e.g.
you can create version branches for files and modules, you can merge
these branches again and you can assign symbolic names (tags) to versions.
You have various possibilities to import existing projects (with or without
<EM>CVS</EM>). All these things are described in the <I>WipeOut</I> documentation and
with a little patience it should be easy to find them out.<P>
Before we now compile our small project we'll take a look at the editor.<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4>The <EM>Text-Editor</EM></FONT></B><P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/e3.gif"><BR>
<P>
The editor is a central component of <I>WipeOut</I>. You use it for source code
editing and whenever another component needs to show a file or to know a
source code position it uses the editor. This is one of the basic concepts
of <I>WipeOut</I>: only one central text editor.<P>
This causes a very high integration of the editor into the development
environment. That's why it is not possible to use another editor within
<I>WipeOut</I>. This seems to be a great disadvantage because the most of the
developers have their own favourite editor and it's not easy to turn to another
one. But this way it is possible to integrate such features as the symbol
completion: If you press 'Ctrl-.' in the editor it will try to complete the
word you are writing currently. Therefor it uses the database of the
<EM>Class Browser</EM> and looks for a matching class, method or member name.<P>
Another nifty feature is the integrated man page viewer: If you select a
symbol in the <EM>Text-Editor</EM> and press 'Ctrl-m' the <EM>SurfBoard</EM> will show the related
man page if there is one. In the near future we will extend this to info
pages and external HTML-documentations.<P>
<I>Syntax Highlighting</I><P>
The highlighting of syntactical elements increases the readability of source
code. The <I>WipeOut</I>-editor uses <EM>regular expressions</EM> to do that. The
syntax is similar to the 'grep'-command. The documentation of <I>WipeOut</I>
contains a general overview of the meta-symbols. This kind of highlighting
slows down the editor a little bit but it gives you the flexibility to
create your own highlighting style.<P>
A <EM>style</EM> is a set of a regular expression, a file pattern, a color and
a font. Each style highlights a special syntactical element specified
by the regular expression in the given color and font, but only in those
files, which match the file pattern. You can create and edit styles with
<B><I>Properties-&gt;Highlighting</I></B>. <P>
The editor has default styles for C++, Java, Objective-C, LaTeX and HTML.
You can use this styles as they are, but you can also change them. There is
a lot of space for experiments.<P>
Beside the styles there are some other parameters: various colors, tabs,
undo-depth, font sizes, etc. Finally the editor is very easy to use, so
that there shouldn't be to big problems. <P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4>The <EM>Make-Shell</EM></FONT></B><P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/make.gif"><BR>
<P>
But now back to our mini-project: after creating files, adding them to a
module, working with the <EM>Class Browser</EM> and the <EM>Text-Editor</EM> it's time to compile the
program.<P>
<I>WipeOut</I> uses <EM>make</EM> to compile your projects. Normally all necessary
files will be created automaticly based on the module information. Each
module has three different parts for the makefile: <P>
<UL>
<LI> <EM>Makefile.inc</EM>: contains various symbol definitions, e.g. each
category gets a symbol, which contains the files of the category. The
makefile uses this symbols to determine, which files to compile for a
special target. This file will be updated continuously be <I>WipeOut</I> and you
should not edit it.
<LI> <EM>&lt;arch&gt;.def</EM>: contains platform depending parameters. '&lt;arch&gt;'
will be replaced by the OS-name, e.g. Linux. When you develop a project
with <I>WipeOut</I> across various platforms this file helps you to make the
platform specific compiler settings.
<LI> <EM>Makefile</EM>: This is the makefile itself. It includes 'Makefile.inc'
and '&lt;arch&gt;.def'. You can edit it for adding other than the default targets.
The <EM>Make-Shell</EM> will call <EM>make</EM> with this file. The makefile contains default
rules to compile C-, C++-, Java- and flex-sources. It has targets to
build C/C++- and Java-programs and static or shared libraries.
</UL>
<P>
To start <EM>make</EM> we open the <EM>Make-Shell</EM> with the 5th button of the <EM>Project Browser</EM>. This
dialog has only a few elements: the <B><I>Start</I></B>-button to start <EM>make</EM>, an
edit field to set a special target (an empty field means the default target -
'cplusplus') and two checkboxes. Normally <EM>Make-Shell</EM> shows only compiler errors
and warnings in the lower listbox after <EM>make</EM> has finished. If we check
'All Lines', we get all the <EM>make</EM> output in the listbox. If we check
<B><I>Progress Window</I></B>, a small output console opens while compiling and shows the
original <EM>make</EM> output.<P>
We compile our program simply by pressing <B><I>Start</I></B>. After finishing the
error listbox shows us a warning about a virtual constructor. We click on
the warning and the editor cursor jumps to the error line. We recognize
that the constructor should be a destructor and so we complete the
implementation and declaration with the tilde-letter. We compile again and
now everything should be okay.<P>
To test our program we open the shell of the <EM>Project Browser</EM> and input the name of our
module because this is the name of the program. The output is, oh wonder:<P>
<TT>Hello ...</TT><P>
As the next step we extend our project somewhat. Therefor we add two
methods:<P>
<B>Listing 3</B>
<PRE>
String& String::operator+= (const String& rhs) {
char* buf = new char[length()];
for (int i=0; i&ltlength(); i++)
buf[i] = data()[i];
for (int i=0; i&ltrhs.length(); i++)
buf[length()+i] = rhs.data()[i];
delete _data;
_data = buf;
return *this;
}
int String::length() const {
return strlen(data());
}
</PRE>
We modify the main function as follows:<P>
<B>Listing 4</B>
<PRE>
main() {
String str ("Hello");
str += String (" from WipeOut.");
cout << str.data() << endl;
}
</PRE>
After recompiling and running the program we now get a 'Segmentation fault'
and we have no idea why. This is the right time to use the debugger.<P>
<B>The debugger</B><P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/bugview.gif"><BR>
<P>
We start the debugger with the fourth button of the <EM>Project Browser</EM>. The interface
consists of similar elements as the <EM>Class Browser</EM>: the browserbox and the
panelbox. The panelbox has five different subpanels:<P>
<UL>
<LI> Breakpoints : shows all breakpoints
<LI> Stack : shows the current execution stack
<LI> Sources : shows all source related to the program
<LI> Expression : shows a special variable expression
<LI> Threads : used when debugging threads
</UL>
<P>
We arrange the panelbox for our needs: we add the 'Sources'-panel to the
two default panels 'Breakpoints' and 'Stack' by clicking on the small
'plus'-button.<P>
Now we load the program with <B><I>Session-&gt;Load Executable</I></B>. After that
the 'Source'-panel should show all source files related to the program.<P>
The browserbox is used to show variable values. The first listbox shows per
default all local variables. If you click on an item, the next level shows
the value or the components of it. This way you can easy browse classes,
structures and arrays. After every action the debugger refreshes the
variable values automaticly.<P>
If you like to inspect a variable, which is not shown in the browserbox at
the moment, just mark it in the editor and choose <B><I>Inspect Variable</I></B>
in the toolbar of the debugger. Now the first list of the browserbox
contains the variable.<P>
Normally the debugger resolves data structures automaticly, so that you
always get the correct values, e.g. it shows the content of a pointer and
not the pointer value itself. But sometimes this is not possible, e.g. if
you declared an array of integer-pointer as '<TT>int**</TT>'. To get the
items of the array you have to cast the type with <B><I>Inspect-&gt;Change/Cast
Variable</I></B>. <P>
With <B><I>Inspect-&gt;Move Variable to Top</I></B> it is possible to move a variable
from a lower level of the hierarchy to the top, so that you don't need to
browse through the whole hierarchy to get the value of the variable.<P>
Because we've got no idea what's wrong with our program, we simply start it
with <B><I>Run-&gt;Run</I></B>. This causes a 'Segmentation fault' again, but after
we have confirmed the messagebox the editor colors the error line with red.
We've got an error in the method <TT>String::operator+=</TT>.<P>
Before we correct the error we should kill the program with <B><I>Run-&gt;Kill</I></B>.
To know what's going on in the method we want to find out what the
method <TT>data</TT> does. We use the <EM>Class Browser</EM> as <EM>cross-referencer</EM> to find
the implementation of this method. Therefore we mark <TT>data</TT> and choose
<B><I>Edit-&gt;Search Symbol</I></B> in the <EM>Class Browser</EM>. Now the editor shows the source
code of the method <TT>data</TT>. We see, that the method doesn't do anything
exciting, only returning the <TT>_data</TT>-pointer. We go back to the
<TT>String::operator+=</TT> method, take a closer look on it and recognize
that we've allocated not enough memory for <TT>buf</TT>. So we modify the
first line as follows:<P>
<PRE>
char* buf = new char[length() + rsh.length()];
</PRE>
We compile and run the program again and everything is fine. But we can't
see the output. We resolve the problem with <B><I>Inspect-&gt;Program Console ...</I></B>.
This opens a small console and after starting the program again, we see
the output:<P>
<TT>Hello from WipeOut.</TT><P>
The debugger has of course a lot of more features than explained above. Besides
of <B><I>Next</I></B>, <B><I>Step</I></B> and setting breakpoints it supports also threads.
It is recommended again to read the documentation about it.<P>
Beside of the <EM>Symbol-Retriever</EM> and the help browser <EM>SurfBoard</EM> now you touched all the
components so that you've got a first impression the way <I>WipeOut</I> works.
Of course we develop <I>WipeOut</I> with <I>WipeOut</I> and we find that it very
increases our productivity and makes it easier to program than just using
a simple text editor. Finally some words about extending <I>WipeOut</I>.<P>
<img src="./gx/mueller/blue_ball.gif"><B><FONT SIZE=4>Writing own <I>WipeOut</I> components</FONT></B><P>
At this time <I>WipeOut</I> contains only the most important components of our
opinion. There may be a lot of other possibilities, e.g. many people may
wish a GUI-builder. We can't and we don't want to do all that alone. So we
have created the <EM>WDK</EM> - the <I>WipeOut</I> Development Kit, which allows you
to develop your own components. This interface gives you access to
important functions of <I>WipeOut</I>, e.g. showing a file in the editor or
adding a file to a module.<P>
If you like to program such components you only need to download the
<EM>WDK</EM>-package from [4]. Apart from the documentation the package contains
<EM>DmPack2</EM>, <EM>socket++</EM>, the <EM>wxXt</EM> header files, a simple
example component and <EM>SpellMaster</EM> - a frontend for <EM>ispell</EM>. <P>
I hope you've got a rare overview about <I>WipeOut</I> and its possibilities. If
you have questions, comments or wishes, write us.<P>
<TABLE>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=5>Resources</FONT></TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=LEFT>
[1] <A HREF="http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin">http://web.ukonline.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin</A> -
wxWindows/wxXt by Julian Smart and Marcus Holzem</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=LEFT>
[2] <A HREF="ftp://ftp.virginia.edu">ftp://ftp.virginia.edu</A> - socket++ by Gnanasekaran Swaminathan</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=LEFT>
[3] <A HREF="http://www.softwarebuero.de/dmpack2.html">http://www.softwarebuero.de/dmpack2-eng.html</A> - DmPack2</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN=LEFT>
[4] <A HREF="http://www.softwarebuero.de/wipeout.html">http://www.softwarebuero.de/wipeout-eng.html</A> - <I>WipeOut</I></TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Gerd Mueller <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./bennet.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./nelson.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Install New Icons in Caldera's Looking Glass Desktop</font></H1>
<H4>By <A HREF="mailto:nelson@er.doe.gov">David Nelson</A></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
Looking Glass, or <TT>lg</TT>, is a pleasant GUI desktop included in
Caldera's commercial Linux releases (not the lite versions.) However, its
setup procedures and documentation can be very unpleasant. Deciphering
how to add or change icons makes cracking the Enigma code machine look
easy. If you enjoy puzzles and have plenty of time, read <TT>/usr/doc/html/Caldera_Info</TT>,
specifically the Desktop User's Guide, Chapters 9 and 11. If you prefer
some help, read on.
<P>I wanted to place an icon on the <TT>lg</TT> desktop to launch Applixware,
an office suite available from RedHat. To do this I had to create an icon
with a paint program, import it into the <TT>lg</TT> icon gallery, edit
the "source file for file type definitions," create a new "LG_rulebase
file," and update the <TT>lg</TT> data directory. Makes a certain commercial
desktop look pretty friendly, what?
<P>Actually, it wasn't as bad as it sounds, and the new icon looks good
and works well. This article will guide you through the process. Here is
your very own free Applixware <A HREF="./gx/nelson/applix.gif">icon</A> ready to install
in <TT>lg;</TT> please don't complain about my artistry. You can use the
same process to install any program's icon.
<P>The first step is to create the icon. I tried to use the <TT>lg</TT>
icon editor but found it crude and prone to crash. Xpaint works well and
is probably already on your system; to be sure, execute the command
<PRE>locate xpaint</PRE>
I used Applix Graphics, in part to learn more about Applixware, with final
touch-up in the <TT>lg</TT> icon editor. Whatever program you use, the
resulting icon should be about 40x40 pixels, stored in either GIF or PPM
format.
<P>The next step is to import the icon. At the top of the <TT>lg</TT> desktop,
click on Run, then Icon Editor. When the editor opens, click on Galleries,
then System Icon Gallery. When the gallery window opens, click on Icon,
then New. You will see an emphasized (black) area with a blank icon picture,
probably labeled icon1. At the top of the gallery window, click on Icon,
then Import. A file window opens. Navigate to where your GIF or PPM file
is. Click on the file, then click on load in the file window. If the icon
is just the right size, it will import directly into the emphasized area
in the system gallery. If not, a window will appear that contains your
icon. If part is cut off, drag on the lower right corner to enlarge the
window and show your whole icon. (I'm assuming your icon ended up somewhat
bigger that 40x40.) Click the radio button "Scale," then "Filter on Scale."
This latter button smooths the image as you resize it. You should see a
little box at the upper left of your icon picture. Drag the corners to
cover your icon. Your final icon now appears in a smaller box at the upper
right of the window. Click Apply; the gallery window puts your icon into
the blank icon picture and changes the name to that of your icon file.
<P>To give the icon the right name, click on Icon in the gallery window,
then Rename. In the New Name box, type APPLIX_PRG and click on OK. If you
want to do some final "fat bits" touch-up, click Icon, Edit, and have at
it. I suggest that you save your work frequently, because the editor crashed
on me. Don't bother editing the mask. It gives a 3D appearance to a selected
icon, and the default mask is good enough. When done with the editor, click
File, Close, and your final icon appears in the gallery. In the gallery
window, click File, Close, and say yes to save your work. One last warning.
Even though the icon editor lets you export the completed icon for other
purposes, this feature seemed broken. All graphics programs I tried complained
that the exported icon file was unreadable.&nbsp; (Did I mention that the
<TT>lg</TT> editor seems to have problems?)
<P>Now you have to tell <TT>lg</TT> how to use the icon. Change directory
to <TT>/usr/visix/lg/default/lg_ftc</TT>. Open <TT>prog.loc.ftc</TT> in
your favorite editor. This source file defines local file types and their
associated icons. Insert the following text at the beginning, after the
two "include" lines:
<PRE>DEFINE TYPE Applix
ICON APPLIX_PRG
FILE_DESCRIPTION "Applix desktop suite program"
BINARY_EXECUTABLE
AND NAME "applix"
INHERIT_COMMANDS BinExNativeClass
END</PRE>
No, I don't know what it all means. I adapted it from other program entries.
But, hey, it works, and most of it is obvious. If your icon is for a different
program, edit accordingly. Save the file. At the command line in the same
directory, type<TT> make all </TT>and<TT> make install</TT>. Quit and restart
the <TT>lg</TT> desktop.
<P>We're almost done. In the <TT>lg</TT> window click on Windows, then
Open Directory. Navigate to <TT>opt/applix</TT> (or wherever <TT>applix</TT>
is stored) and you should see your beautiful icon designating your program.
Drag the icon out of the directory window and onto the desktop window.
Park it in an aesthetically pleasing place. Launch your program by doubleclicking
your new icon. Congratulations. Doesn't this make you want to read the
rest of the <TT>lg</TT> documentation? Actually, you might want to learn
about file associations and other wonders of <TT>lg.</TT> Then you can
write an article for lg (that's Linux Gazette here) telling the rest of
us how you did it.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, David Nelson <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./mueller.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./pagey.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Installing Microsoft & Linux</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:pagey@home.com">Manish P. Pagey</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
This is a story about my struggles setting up a new laptop computer to
boot two different operating systems. And how I discovered the extent to
which Microsoft and IE4 are lacking. Hopefully, someone will learn from this
experience and think twice before installing IE4 on there machine.
<P>
The first operating system that I wanted to install on the machine was
Linux (a free, UNIX like operating system which can teach Microsoft a
million or two things about what a stable operating system is supposed
to be like). I booted the computer using the Linux boot disks, inserted
the Linux CD-ROM into the CD drive and finished the installation in less
than thirty minutes. Everything was up and running including the network
using a PCMCIA network card. Linux comes with a program called LILO
which allows one to decide which operating system to boot when the
system is powered up. This was also installed without any problems.
<P>
The next task was to install Windows 95 on another partition of the same
disk. That is where my nightmare began. (Of course, you may ask why I
wanted to do this in the first place. Because I am stupid, thats why).
The developers at Microsoft have no regard for other operating systems
and have been living in their shells for so long that they could not
imagine having two operating systems on the same computer. In any case,
after booting from the Windows 95 setup disk, the setup program kept
insisting on destroying all partitions from the disk before installing
the "operating system". It gave me only two choices: Let it partition
the disk again or Exit setup.
<P>
My first choice was to exit setup and try to trick it into installing
Win95 on a DOS partition that was already present. So, I went to the
"A:>" prompt (LOL) and fired up fdisk. I could see the DOS partition and
hence I could format the "C:" drive. I was hoping that after I format
the "C:" drive and then try installing Win95 from "Disk 1" instead of
the "Setup Disk", everything will work fine. So, I formatted the C:
drive and started the "setup" program from "Disk 1". Everything seemed
to work fine till the third disk and once again the setup program
refused to proceed; this time because of a similar reason which I do not
recall.
<P>
I was kinda stuck at this point because if I let the Win95 setup program
to repartition the disk, it will gobble up the whole disk and would not
leave any space for the second operating system. The other option was to
use the DOS fdisk utility to destroy all partitions on the disk and
create a new partition for installing Win95 and install Win95 before
installing Linux. That is the path I took.
<P>
So, I destroyed my perfectly working Linux partition and installation
and created a new partition to install Win95. This time, the setup
program worked without any problems and installed the Win95 operating
system on the first partition on the disk. In a few minutes after that I
had Linux running once again on the second partition and reinstalled
LILO to choose the operating system during startup.
<P>
As before, I had no trouble getting the network up and running on the
Linux OS. So, I decided to setup the networking on the Win95 side. Guess
what, the driver that Win95 installed to access the PCMCIA cards was not
working properly. I had to try different drivers (and reboot the machine
every time I selected a new driver) and get the correct one by trial and
error. (I did the obvious things such as look up the documentation for
the computer and install the driver corresponding to the documentation,
but that did not work. I had to use a driver that conflicted with the
documentation in order for Win95 to access the PCMCIA cards correctly.
On the other hand, the driver that Linux was using was consistent with
the documentation). Finally, after a long struggle and several million
reboots, I got Win95 to see my PCMCIA cards. Linux came with the driver
for the Ethernet card that I was using but Win95 had to use the floppy
disk provided by the manufacturer (and they say that Win95 supports more
hardware).
<P>
I have been exposed to all this hype about IE4.0 and such. So, I decided
that instead of using the good old Netscape Communicator, I will give
IE4.0 a test drive. (Once again, you may ask why I would do such a
stupid thing. Now that I have gone through this torture that I am
describing, I must say that I will never attempt to give a Microsoft
product a test drive just because Microsoft says its good. What was I
thinking ?). I have a fast connection to the Internet and hence, the
obvious way to install IE4.0 was to download it from the Microsoft home
page. You would love what happened next.
<P>
My local network is behind a firewall. In order to access the Internet,
we need to use SOCKS proxy service provided by the local gateway
machine. This is not something that is very uncommon in the present
corporate networks (in fact, this might even be the most common
configuration). Coming back to my attempt at installing IE4.0, I clicked
on "The Internet" icon sitting on the desktop and went through the
process of setting up the network properties for the machine. After all
the setup was done, I was hoping for it to bring up a browser window for
me. But I realized that the first time you click on this program, it
only performs the setup. You have to run it again to start the browser.
I am not sure why it was set up this way, but I will ignore this for the
time being as there are more important things for me to complain about.
After bringing up this ancient version of Internet Explorer, I wanted to
setup the address of the proxy server so that I could access the
Internet and go to Microsoft's home page. Aha !! The Internet Explorer
that was packaged with my version of Win95 does not understand proxies.
This meant that sitting there I had no way to access the Internet
through my proxy server. I knew that Netscape could do this. So the only
way to get IE4.0 on my machine was to install Netscape first !!!!! Even
getting Netscape was not easy from within Win95. I had to reboot the
machine into Linux. Since Linux came with client programs to access
Socks proxy servers, I could get to the Netscape FTP site and download
the Communicator for Win95. I rebooted the machine into Win95 and
installed Netscape without any problem. I set the preferences for
Netscape so that it knew about my proxy server and everything was
running fine as far as accessing the Internet is concerned.
<P>
I used Netscape to download the "ie4setup" file from the Microsoft home
page and fired it up. I will give you one guess to tell me if it worked.
You are right !!! It did not even come close to working. The ie4setup
file does nothing more than connecting to another server and downloading
a bunch of files that are required to install IE4.0. Since I am behind a
firewall, it could not find the server. It would be fine if it returned
back in a few seconds and told me that it could not find the server. But
that would be the right thing to do and Microsoft just cannot do any
such thing. Instead, the ie4setup program made me glare at a rotating
globe for fifteen minutes before giving up the search for the server.
After not finding the server, the programmer had half a brain cell to
ask the user for the address of a proxy server. However, this feature of
the setup program does not support SOCKS proxy (I tried putting the
address of my proxy server but it did not work). Thanks to the people at
NEC not all was lost yet.
<P>
I remembered reading about the program SocksCap32 which allows Win95
programs to access the Internet though a SOCKS proxy server. So I fired
up Netscape again and downloaded/installed SocksCap32. After starting
ie4setup through SocksCap32, it could access the servers and started
downloading the rest of the files that are necessary to install IE4.0.
Just before starting to download these files, it gave me an option of
either saving these files on disk or directly installing IE4.0. I had
little patience left at this time, so I chose the latter. The ie4setup
downloaded all the files correctly and started the installation process.
<P>
The installation process continued correctly until about 75% of
installation was complete. At this point, I had to leave the computer
and go away for several hours. I was hoping that when I come back, this
installation will be over. (I am sure you are laughing at me right now).
<P>
I came back after about three hours and the installation process had
reached 78% !!!!!!! I waited for a few minutes to see if it was doing
anything. There was no disk activity and hence I concluded that the
program had crashed or hung up. So I clicked on the "Cancel" button to
stop the installation. It came up with a window which said that the
"cancellation" process will take several minutes and that I should not
reboot the machine because that might leave the machine in an
inconsistent state (whatever that means). So I waited for it to finish
the job. There was no disk activity for half an hour which is also when
my patience ran out. I rebooted the machine. When it came up in Win95,
it had installed IE4.0 but not many of its components. I was not sure
what was going on but soon realized that since the ie4setup was run
under SocksCap32, it must have started the rest of the setup under
SocksCap32 too. And, knowing Microsoft, it may not have been designed to
work under the SocksCap32 libraries.
<P>
This meant that I should have stored the files downloaded by ie4setup on
the disk and started the setup without using SocksCap32. So, I fired up
ie4setup through SocksCap32 once again and downloaded all the files to
my disk. After that, I started the setup program from these downloaded
files and IE4.0 was installed on the machine without any more problems
in just a few minutes. Whew.
<P>
Great. Now that I have IE4.0 and Outlook Express 98 installed on my
machine, I should start using them. I started up IE4.0 and set it up to
use the proxy server. It worked just fine and I could access the
Internet. So far so good. Now, I needed to setup my mail account. So, I
clicked on the "Mail" button which started up Outlook Express. It asked
me for my email address, mail server name etc. in order to setup the
mail account. After that, I tried to check for new mail. And nothing. It
brought up a window in which it displayed a message that it was trying
to connect to my mail server but stopped in a minute with an error
saying that the connection to the server had failed !! My POP3 mail
server is outside the local network. Which means that one has to get to
it through the SOCKS server. Netscape has no problem doing this but at
this point, I have not found any way to setup Outlook Express to do
this. And this is when I decided to give up completely on IE4.0/Outlook
Express/Win95. I am back to using good old reliable Netscape.
<P>
I am not sure if anyone in the Linux community will benefit from this but I am
sure some of the people "on the other side" can learn something from it.
<P>
--Pagey
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Manish P. Pagey <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./nelson.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./jacobowitz.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Linux Expo a Smashing Success! </font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:normj@aa.net">Norman M. Jacobowitz</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
For three days of May (28, 29, 30), the normally tranquil Duke University
Campus was transformed into a raucous playground for geeks and hackers
as the Fourth Annual Linux Expo was held at Duke's Bryan Center.
<p>
By all accounts, this year's Expo was a smashing success. Red
Hat's Marketing Director, Lisa Sullivan, deserves special thanks for organizing
and directing the event. Many others, from Key Note Speaker Linus
Torvalds to the blue-shirted Duke University catering staff, were instrumental
in making it a memorable three days.
<p>
According to Sullivan, approximately 1500 visitors were registered as
paid attendees, while another 350 to 500 were registered as speakers, VIPs
or other gratis attendees. Attendees ranged from as far away as
Korea, Finland, Colombia and Alaska. Some 34 exhibitors
showed their products and services.
<p>
Some of the speakers included:
<p>
<ul>
<li> Eric S. Raymond gave an inspired, scholarly overview of hacker
motivation in his ``Homesteading the Noosphere'' speech.
<li> Miguel de Icaza, despite troubles with the overhead projector, shared
much about the technical details and future features of ``GNOME, The GNU
Network Object Model Environment'' GUI.
<li> Mark Mathews described his success as a consultant and Linux programmer
in his talk, ``Developing Linux Software for Fun--Turns into
Profit''.
<li> Jon ``maddog'' Hall described his encounters with Linux users worldwide
during ``Linux Around the World''.
</ul>
Some exhibitors included:
<p>
<ul>
<li> Corel Computer Corporation displayed their new Linux-based NetWinder
Network Computer.
<li> Digital Equipment Corporation exhibited their latest generation Alpha
processors.
<li> Linux Hardware Solutions showed off some of their line of, well,
Linux hardware solutions.
<li> Caldera, Red Hat and Turbo Linux were there presenting their latest
Linux distributions.
</ul>
Of course, the single most popular event was Friday evening's keynote
address by Linus Torvalds. An estimated 1000 to 1200 folks were on
hand. In his typically unpretentious, casual and brutally honest
style, Linus filled us in on his future vision for the Linux kernel.
Linus first took a moment to thank everyone who has helped him with
the stable kernel releases, especially Alan Cox. Linus went
on to say he is happy with the way Linux is going, especially with
the way new markets are opening up and new applications are being
made available.
<p>
Here are some highlights of Linus's views on important topics for the
future of the Linux Kernel:
<p>
<ul>
<li> The 2.2 release: look for a code freeze in about a month with the
next stable release, Kernel 2.2, to follow as soon as late July or early
August.
<li> SMP: Symmetrical Multi-Processing is currently one of Linus's favorite
features of the kernel; expect continued development and enhancement of
SMP in future releases.
<li> Merced: Linus is not particularly impressed with or concerned about
Intel's upcoming 64-bit processor, code-named Merced--he actually prefers
DEC's Alpha architecture. He did say porting Linux to Merced should
be no problem once GCC is optimized for Merced.
<li> Java: While Linus would like to see an officially supported Java Development
Kit from Sun, he is still not impressed with Java and would prefer to stay
out of the Microsoft/Sun clash over Java purity.
<li> Emulation: Linus would prefer to see native Linux applications and
does not like the idea of emulating other operating systems for the purpose of running
applications.
</ul>
Of course, Linus had much more to say, but the gist of his speech was
that with more time and some more good luck, Linux will continue to move
towards complete world domination.
Judging from the air of excitement and the buzz of optimism pervading
this year's Linux Expo, Linus is exactly right.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Norman M. Jacobowitz <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./pagey.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./raymond.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Linux Expo Editor Wars!</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com">Eric S. Raymond</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
Thursday night's epic paintball tournament was easily one of Linux
Expo's most eagerly anticipated and talked-about events. The theme
was ``Emacs versus vi and may the best editor win!'' At the appointed
time, the would-be warriors trooped off to a patch of woods south
of Durham and donned team T-shirts donated by O'Reilly & Associates. By
happy coincidence, the 61 fighters split as exactly as possible
down the middle, 30 on the Emacs team and 31 on vi's.
Ominously, however, all three of the experienced paintballers in the
crowd elected to fight for vi.
<p>
As we waited for mysterious rituals to complete in the paintball shed,
there was much humorous analogizing--vi fans claiming that Emacs's
guns ought to take forever to load, countered by Emacs partisans opining
that vi fighters should be unable to move and fire at the same time.
``You shall feel the power of the Lisp side of the Force!'' declaimed
one black-masked Emacs fan a la Darth Vader, met by hoots of derision
and yells of ``vi rules!''
<p>
Additional humor was provided by the boss paintball referee, who
understood neither our theological disputes nor the lemur and gnu
emblems on our team shirts. He gave up early and started referring to
the teams as ``monkeys'' and ``cows'', much to the amusement of both sides.
<p>
Eventually, not too long after the official start time, we listened to
a safety lecture, picked up our guns, face masks and
glycerin-capsule ammunition and marched into the woods. Each team
got a fortified fire base; the game was elimination, with the last man
standing winning for his team.
<p>
Telling friend from foe turned out to be a bit of a problem, as both
teams were wearing white T-shirts with black emblems and the colored
arm bands we'd been issued were not really conspicuous--some truly
valiant hackers were hit by friendly fire. There were heroic
charges and stealthy ambushes, sniping duels and stand-up fights. The
paintballs flew thick and fast, and the woods resounded with cries of
``Out! Out!'' as pigment-splotched casualties exited the field, guns
held over their heads.
<p>
The teams' combat styles were allegorically perfect. The vi guys were
fast, aggressive and sloppy; the Emacs team was slow, tried to think
things out and play tactically. Result? The vi guys waxed the Emacs
team, winning three out of four games. Evidently (as many on both
sides later agreed, amid much laughter) paintball rewards different
virtues than programming.
<p>
The event was a success, and general kudos went to Mike Maher of Red Hat
from whose brilliant and obviously twisted mind the concept originally
sprang. Next year perhaps we'll tackle Perl vs. Python or Red Hat
vs. Every Other Distribution or some other chronic flame war--and,
hopefully, get different-colored shirts so we can tell each other
apart!
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Eric S. Raymond <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./jacobowitz.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./penland.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">The Fourth Annual Linux Expo</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:dpenland@mindspring.com">David Penland</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<A HREF="./photos1.html">Photo Album</A>
<P> <HR> <P>
This year, Red Hat Software decided to hold the fourth annual Linux Expo
at Duke University's Bryan Center in Durham, North Carolina. The event was
scheduled over three days from April twenty-eighth to the thirtieth. In
addition to the normal vendor displays and conference, the Linux Expo web
site promised such diverse attractions as a quake fest and a paintball
tournament. I arrived at the Center at seven-thirty on Thursday to find
over one hundred people already ahead of me in line. Registration wasn't
until eight o'clock. Apparently I was not the only Linux fanatic champing
at the bit.
<P>
The doors did not actually open until a little past eight, and I did not
get in to register until about eight forty. As a pre-registered attendee, I
received a Linux Expo tote bag bearing the Expo logo, as well as logos of
Expo sponsors. Inside I found a bound copy of the proceedings, a VAResearch
tee shirt, a Red Hat cap, an issue of SysAdmin, and a Caldera flashlight, as
well as flyers advertising specials at Expo vendor booths.
<P>
Prominently placed in front of the entrance was the Red Hat booth. Their
booth featured the new Red Hat Linux 5.1, due to be released the following
Monday. Also on the upper floor was the Caldera, Linux Hardware solutions,
Linux International, Solid, and RHAD Labs booths, as well as the Expo store,
and the Softpro Bookstore.
<P>
Because of registration delays, the tutorials and technical conference
fell thirty minutes behind schedule, and remained out of sync with the business
track for the rest of the day. The Extreme Linux tutorial was kicked off by
Mad Dog Hall, who explained the name Extreme Linux, and the snow
boarding penguin logo. Basically, Extreme Linux is Linux with an attitude
Although Mad Dog said that the project's founders do not want to tie.
the commodity cluster idea to a single operating system, he urged people
to use the name Extreme Linux when referring to clusters of Linux machines.
<P>
After Mad Dog finished, Peter Beckman explained how Extreme Linux
cluste rs were used at Los Alamos' Advanced Computing Labs. Several members of
his team talked about their experiences with the system, and the problems
they had solved. The talk featured the Linux Expo cluster, a four node cluster
set up especially for the show. The cluster consisted of 4 dual 333
MHz Pentium two's, each with 256 megabytes of ram and a four gigabyte disk
drive. The cluster was tied together with a Myrinet network. After putting the cluster through its paces with modeling programs, Beckman decide
to bring out a "practical application", the Extreme Linux monster truck.
<P>
Although it had been a radio shack remote control toy in a previous
life, the monster truck had undergone an "Extreme" transformation. The body had
been removed, and the truck's circuit board hacked. For vision, the monster
truck had a Connectix quickcam with a custom mount to allow panning.
Mounted on top was a Toshiba Libretto with a wireless Ethernet connection
to the cluster. An operator sat at the console of the cluster, controlling
the truck as it cruised across the floor observing the crowd with
its quickcam. The operator's console was projected on a screen, and the crowd
could see themselves from the truck's point of view thanks to the quickcam.
Beckman assured us that the truck had a practical use, pulling network
cables under the raised floor at Los Alamos. Without a doubt, the truck
stole the show. For more information see http://www.Extremelinux.org/.
<P>
After the tutorial, I decided to make my way to the vendor area on the
lower level. Strategically placed at the entrance to the vendor area was Cobalt
Microserver Inc. They were showing the inexpensive Cobalt Qube microserver, a
blue 7.25"x7.25"x7.75" cube with powerful intranet server capabilities. This
little box will be near the top of every Linux geek's Christmas list.
<P>
Inside the door I found Stay online, a retailer of inexpensively priced
computer components. The vendor area was so jammed with Linux enthusiasts
that I had a hard time getting to every booth. Linux Mall was once again
on hand offering great deals on everything. I picked up Red Hat Linux 5.
1 for twenty-five dollars and Star Office Commercial for fifty dollars. Sun
Microsystems was a very noticeable new addition to the Expo this year,
showing off complete Ultrasparc computers as well as Ultrasparc based
motherboards for building your own homebrew ultrapenguin machine. Alta
Technology and Paralogic, two vendors of pre-built Extreme Linux clusters
were also present. At another entrance, Jim Paradis of Digital Equipment
Corporation entertained a mass of power hungry linuxers with a new smp alpha
machine.
<P>
Cobalt wasn't the only company with miniature gee-whiz computers.
CorelComputer was showing off their soon-to-be released Netwinder computers.
These little boxes (9.5"x6"x2") have everything you could want in an
intranet/internet client, and can be used as web servers as well. The
Netwinder could be serious competition for the Qube, but I think many customers might choose a mixed environment of both.
<P>
Another major attraction was the RHAD Labs booth, which featured a
couple of computers running gnome. The booth was staffed by members of the RHAD Labs development team, and Miguel de Icaza made occasional appearances.
At just about any point in time, people were lined up three deep to get
a look and gnome and ask the developers questions. One of the gnome computers
had a camera attached to it, and some interesting pictures from the Expo
have been posted on http://www.gnome.org/.
<P>
Toward the end of the second day of the Expo, I got an unexpected
surprise which made the show immensely better than I had expected. While
looking through the popular tee shirts offered by Xunilung, I overheard
someone proclaiming that Linux was a misnomer, and that the correct name of the
system was Gnu-Linux. This was a position I had heard before. I stepped
back from the tee shirts to peek around people who had gathered around a table
placed perpendicularly to Xunilung's. Sure enough, the gnu-linux admonishment
was coming from Richard Stallman. For those who are not familiar with rms,
as Stallman is often called, he is the person who started the gnu project in
1983 to provide a free version of Unix for anyone who wanted it, unencumbered
by proprietary licensing restrictions. Stallman is responsible for the Free
Software foundation, and the general public license.
<P>
Although I do not really agree with him about the naming of Linux, I
firmly believe Linux could not have been developed without the tools provide
d by the FSF. Stallman has been a hero of mine since before Linus discovered
Minix, so I was somewhat speechless when I saw him there unannounced.
I stood back and watched for a while as young hackers got autographs and
bought gnu tee shirts, CD-ROMs, and books. Occasionally Stallman would place
the platter from an old disk pack on his head. With this "halo" in place, he
became Saint Richard, patron saint of the Church of Emacs, and he would bless
the young hacker's computers provided they did not have any proprietary
software on them. When it was my turn to talk to Saint Richard, I thanked
him for the work he had done, and bought two Emacs books. He signed the books
happy hacking, and happier hacking, Richard Stallman.
<P>
After my encounter with rms on the second day of the Expo, I found my
way to the auditorium where Linus would be giving the keynote speech. I
was lucky, I found a seat about fifteen rows back from the stage. Less
fortunate fans continued to file in for another fifteen minutes, and by the
time Linus got on stage, people were standing and sitting in the aisles. An
overhead projector indicated the theme of Linus' talk, titled Ramblin'
Linus. Linus took the microphone and said "I'm Linus, and I am your god",
at which point the crowd responded with deafening applause. Linus thanked
various people for their work, in particular Alan Cox who has taken over
the normally thankless job of maintaining the stable kernel for the last
year or so. Some of the topics covered were the current state of the
development kernel, the upcoming release of the 2.2 kernel, and future
directions of kernel development. Linus spent about twenty minutes answering
questions from the audience, and then everyone filed out for a southern
style barbecue dinner in the university yard.
<P>
Conference talks were the main focus of the Expo for me. Unfortunately
there were so many talks offered, I had a hard time making up my mind about
which ones to attend. Extreme Linux is the only tutorial I made it to,
but there were eleven more, on subjects as diverse as programming with gtk+,
Python, hacking the Linux kernel, LinuxConf, and a demonstration of the Coda
filesystem.
<P>
The conference was broken up into a business track and a technical
track. The technical track auditorium was where I spent most of my time, but
I did make it to several interesting business talks. Robert Hart of Red
Hat Software gave a talk on linux certification dealing with what certification
meant, and who should try to get it. He also encouraged the audience to
drop off resumes at the Red Hat booth, which I did. I am still wait
ing on your call Robert. Mad Dog gave an anecdotal talk on how Linux is
used around the world, and Tim Bird of Caldera filled us in on the COAS
project. COAS is a project to develop an integrated administration tool for
Linux and possibly other unices, they are looking for volunteers, so drop
them a line. The last talk in the business track was actually a panel which
discussed free software licensing. The panel consisted of Eric Raymond,
Richard Stallman, and Bruce Perens, who moderated. Raymond's and Stallman's
views were not exactly in sync, so some very interesting discussion concerning
the state of free or open source software licensing took place.
<P>
The technical track started earlier, and ran longer than the business
track all three days. Unfortunately, registration problems, and technical
difficulties threw the schedule off the first two days, and technical talk
s were out of sync with business talks which made it hard to move freely
between tracks. David Miller gave a very technical talk on optimizing the
Cobalt Microserver. Peter Braam of Carnegie Mellon University gave two
informative talks on the new VFS interface, and the Coda distributed files
system. The Coda team has made a lot of progress, and the filesystem is so
mething worth looking into. Peter also mentioned that the team is looking
for a good system programmer who likes interesting work, but doesn't mind
being poor.
<P>
Bruce Perens and Daryll Strauss both gave talks on the use of computers
to make movies. Strauss showed us how a pile of alphas running Linux help
ed with the making of Titanic. During a short video presentation, he pointed
out some amazing effects that were computer generated. Bruce went over
some basics of computer animation in Toy Story, and showed an experimental
piece by Pixar called Gerry's Game. The auditorium was packed for both talks.
<P>
Miguel de Icaza discussed the gnome project to a very large crowd. Due
to technical problems with his laptop, the talk ran over by about thirty
minutes. Fortunately, Miguel is a very entertaining speaker, and he kept
the audience's attention while half of the RHAD Labs team and a concerned
member of the audience fretted over his computer. Lars Wirzenius presented
his Linux Anecdotes, a history of the linux system from someone who was
right there when it was created. Lars shared an office with Linus at the
University of Helsinki, and was the first person to actually run Linux
on his computer. Alan Cox, a fixture at Linux Expo, gave a talk about the
trials and tribulations of porting Linux to the Apple Macintosh 68K. His
talk was titled "I don't care if space aliens ate my mouse". The title
comes from an old Apple document, apparently the only official document
ever written on the apple mouse.
<P>
These were only a few of the talks given at the Expo, a complete list
can be found on the Linux Expo web site: http://www.linuxexpo.org . In
addition to vendors and talks, there were other things to keep Expo attendees
busy. A quake fest ran all day every day on the lower level, with deathmatches
every fifteen minutes. Prizes were awarded for the highest body count from
each match up. Birds of a Feather sessions were offered throughout
the three days on a variety of topics, and an "email garden" was set
up to allow attendees to get access to the net for checking their email.
On Thursday, the age old question of which editor, Emacs or vi, is superior
was finally answered. Obviously, the only way to resolve the issue was
through brute force, so the Expo hosted Editor Wars, a paintball tourname
nt. When the CO2 propelled paint mist settled, the vi team emerged from the
field victorious.
<P>
Wrapping up the show Saturday evening was the second annual Linux Bowl.
Mad Dog was the host, and the teams consisted of conference speakers and
audience participants. Rasterman, of RHAD Labs, and audience members were
the judges. Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond were two of the contestants.
Some of the questions asked were: what lilo option is used to list currently
mapped files(answer: -q), what was the first kernel tar.gz to exceed
ten megabytes ( to which Bruce Perens promptly replied Microsoft NT. The
correct answer was 2.1.88), which movie featured the Red Hat Office building
(one contestant replied Debbie does Durham, and Mad Dog felt compelled
to award one point. The correct answer was Kiss the Girls), why was the
Beowulf project named Beowulf( answer: it sounded cool), and a trick question,
what was the first system to run UNIX ( answer: a pdp7).
<P>
The Fourth Annual Linux Expo was a tremendous success, and I think every
one went home happy. The show organizers deserve a big round of applause
for their efforts, and if this year's turn out is any indication of things
to come, they had better get a bigger building next year.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, David Penland <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./raymond.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./wuest.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">LinuxCAD Impressions</font></H1>
<H4>By <A HREF="mailto:rwuest@sire.ddns.org">Robert Wuest</A>
</H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<h3><u>Friday, June 12</u></h3>
<P>I started calling Software Forge first thing this morning. NT had crashed
yesterday and hosed it's own installation. I had no rescue disk. The day was
starting real bad because I had an instrument design project getting behind. I
needed to work on the mechanical layout. I'm sick of problems with microsoft
operating system products.
<P>I've been using AutoCAD for over 14 years and have seen it turn into a fairly
decent CAD package. I use R13 and have used everything back to around 2.0.
<h3><u>Getting It</u></h3> <P>Boot into Linux. It always works. There's a
reasonably priced cad package I'd seen news posting after news posting
advertising itself. Supposed to be like AutoCAD. I'm just going to breakdown
and buy it and do the design in that. Start Netscape and head to the <A
HREF=http://laulujoutsen.pc.helsinki.fi/~mjr/linux/cola.html>cola
archives</a>. It's moved it's home, so I change the bookmark, search for
LinuxCAD <A
HREF=http://laulujoutsen.pc.helsinki.fi/~mjr/linux/cola.archive/1998-06/mjr.1998-06-03.010>(the
archive)</a> and find Software Forge's home, <A
HREF=http://www.linuxcad.com>http://www.linuxcad.com</A>. All it has is an <A
HREF=mailto:sales@softwareforge.com>E-mail address</A> and a phone number,
(847) 891-5971, in Chicago, Illinois.
<P>Screen-shots are there, check them out. I guess, from the numerous copies
of the ad I had seen, I was expecting something that acted like AutoCAD.
Notice the first window shows the columbia drawing, <A
HREF=http://www.softwareforge.com/linuxcad/mini_columbia.gif>columbia.dwg</A>,
and the <A HREF=http://www.softwareforge.com/linuxcad/avtocad1.gif>second
window</A>, that it's title is "AvtoCAD-SoftwareForge".
<P><A HREF=http://www.softwareforge.com/linuxcad/pricing.html>http://www.softwareforge.com/linuxcad/pricing.html</A> says this:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
"LinuxCAD is a true open software product and as such it has been ported to all
major UNIX platforms. The pricing of LinuxCAD for platforms other than Intel
depends from the number of copies you have chosen to purchase , the more copies
the lesser price. All ports retain full original functionality and are fully
compatible with original LinuxCAD for Linux for Itnel and with AutoCAD".
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>"True open software product"? Where's the source? The license is in no way open
and the source is no where to be found. Meaningless buzzwords.
<P>I call and call all day: someone finally answers the phone about mid afternoon
and sells me a copy. I'm a little confused as to who was serving who after
that conversation, but I did manage to buy a copy and download it off of their
ftp site with no problem. And she told me that there have been over 100 copies
sold. So now I've forked out the $$$ for this thing and what follows is what
I experienced.
<P>The readme file (on the ftp server) said to put the archive in the directory
where you want to install it and untar it. Enough for those who know their way
around Linux pretty well. I go to the file with TkDesk and my pop-up menu isn't
right for the file :-0. This file is unconventionally named slk96_tar.gz, not
slk96.tar.gz like it should be, so I promptly renamed it.
<P>Examining the contents, I see a straight collection of 25 files, no
directories, no man pages, info pages or html docs. There are several .dxs,
.mnu, .scr and .txt files. I make a directory linuxcad, moved the archive in
there and run extract off the tkdesk pop up.
<P>&lt;aside&gt;<BR>
A lot of users will be lost from those very brief instructions. This is what I
finally did to install properly, IMO:
<P>As root, I made a directory, /usr/local/lib/linuxcad and moved all of the files
there. In my /usr/local/bin directory, I created symlinks:
<PRE>
$ ln -s ../lib/linuxcad/lcad lcad
$ ln -s ../lib/linuxcad/linuxcad linuxcad
</PRE>
<P>There should at least be a makefile included to do this as "make
install".<BR>
&lt;/aside&gt;
<P>The readme file also has this <em>bombshell</em>:
<PRE>
" Optional LinuxCAD extensions
================================
1) Print option:
Hardcopy to DeskJet , LaserJet
and to MSWindows based LinuxCAD printserver
---------------------
$100
2) Plot option:
To HP-GL compatible plotters
---------------------
$100
3) DXF Import option
---------------------
$100
4) Customization option:
Includes
4.1 Hot keys menu and user programmable pull down
menu.
4.2 GNU C/C++ programming interface.
---------------------
$200
5) 3D design option
---------------------
$200"
</PRE>
<P>This is not a $75 package, <em>it's a $775 package</em>.
<h3><u>First Impressions</u></h3>
<P>Double clicking (back in TkDesk) the executable I saw that it ran, produced no
window and exited with status 0. It had spit out out an error message, which
came out on my login vc:
<PRE>
LinuxCAD v 1.53
Portable Computer Aided Design program for Linux and Unix.
Usage:
linuxcad &lt;name of new or existing .dxs file&gt;
</PRE>
<P>But I didn't see that until I started an xterm and ran it from there. So I
gave it a filename this time and it ran. Here's the command I used:
<PRE>
$ ./linuxcad test.dxs
</PRE>
<P>It puts itself in the background. I exited immediately and it gave me a dialog
asking if I wanted to save my changes. What changes? I had just started and
exited. I'm not even going to read the docs. Just see what I can learn by
fiddling with it a bit. I can immediately see that this needs polish.
<PRE>
$ ./linuxcad test.dxs # again.
</PRE>
<P>The "line" command worked, but "l" didn't. "Move" worked and "w" selected entities
by window, but the "m" command didn't work. OK, it doesn't have command
aliases. Oh, they're $200.
<P>I draw a few lines. "line", click, click, &lt;CR&gt;. Oops, still drawing the line.
OK, right click. The line is placed, but in the text area, all that's there is:
<PRE>
Command aborted !
Command:
</PRE>
<P>There are no scroll bars and no handle to resize the command area. There are 3
lines of command area stretching across the bottom of the window. I can scroll
back by using X-selection, but that doesn't give very good control.
<P>Line editing is very poor. My arrow keys do nothing, The backspace key
works, but &lt;HOME&gt;, &lt;END&gt;, any extended key does nothing. I start a
command and can't find a key that cancels it. The right mouse button will, but
why doesn't &lt;CR&gt;, &lt;ESC&gt; or ^-c work. Let's try all the keys
:-). ^-z, ^-x, ^-c, etc. ^-j causes a "point expected !" message. After a
lot of keys, it crashes. Looks like a buffer overrun to me. Restart. It
crashes every time and work is lost. No core dump or error to the parent
shell.
<P>^-m opens a command history window with both scroll bars, but I can't type a
command in it. It just beeps at any key except the cursor control keys now
work! The cursor is not visible, but &lt;PGUP&gt; and &lt;PGDN&gt; do what they're
supposed to and &lt;UP&gt; and &lt;DN&gt; seem to.
<P>That command history window insists on staying over the drawing area. I use
my M-&lt;PGDN&gt; (which I have defined in ~/.fvwmrc to lower a window) and the
window goes away. If I do any window manager operation that brings the window
to the top, the history window ends up over the drawing area. It has an "Exit"
button, so I press it.
<P>There is no coordinate display in the main window. "Pline" doesn't work. "c"
doesn't work to close multiple line segments.
<PRE>
Command:line
From point:0,0
To point:1000,1000
To point:
</PRE>
<P>No way to end it with keys. Have to right click again. Too man unnecessary
linefeeds wasting vertical screen space. No "Zoom" command.
<P>After about an hour of playing:
<EM><CENTER>********** This is not AutoCAD **********</CENTER></EM>
<P>This program does not have an AutoCAD interface, which, based on all of the
comparisons made by SoftwareForge to AutoCAD, it should have. There are
commands to zoom: "zoomw", "zoomall". "Zoom" should use the acad interface.
Other commands do. And there is no equivelant to the "x" option. I do this
often in acad:
<PRE>
z e z .9x
</PRE>
<P>If you don't know acad, that will give a 90% zoom factor scaled to the display
window (everything is visible with a little border anound the outside).
<P>The top of the screen has six menu items and 6 buttons. Draw/line starts line
drawing. The edit menu has no undo. "Undo" doesn't seem to work. Undo is
under "Edit/Edit../Undo/Set mark" and "Edit/Edit../Undo/Undo to last mark" It
looks like one has to set marks and can't just walk backwards undoing actions
one at time.
<P>3D'll run another $200 (item 5). Draw/Draw 3D.../Sphere gets me this message:
<PRE>
"This is an optional feature of LinuxCAD
Please check the readme files to see the current pricing
for the optional features.
Command:"
</PRE>
<P>Drawing area and window display area aren't the same. You must
"Options/Settings/Screen Extents/..." on the menu. This is something I really
don't like right away.
<P>No short commands. Looks like they cost $200 (item 4.1).
<P>Bad command line area with virtually no editing in it.
<P>Changed zoom interface.
<P>No .xyz filters.
<P>Keyboard focus moves to buttons in menu area. You have to click in the
command area after using a button before you can type another command.
<P>"U" doesn't undo the last line segment while drawing lines.
<P>"Undo" requires setting a mark.
<P>No tooltips.
<P>No coords display.
<P>No coords display.
<P>I know AutoCAD very well, but still, I have to read the documentation :-0.
<P>Print only to a bitmap. And who wants to print to a microsoft print server?
Another $100 (item 1) for printing. There is no postscript printing at all.
<P>No cut, copy and paste between multiple instances of the program.
<P>You can't edit with only the keyboard.
<h3><U>Some Techy Details</U></h3>
<P>I'm not sure what toolkit was used. Ldd linuxcad reveals the following on my
system:
<PRE>
libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6 (0x4000b000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x4004d000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x400e3000)
libg++.so.27 => /usr/lib/libg++.so.27 (0x400ed000)
libm.so.5 => /lib/libm.so.5 (0x40121000)
libc.so.5 => /lib/libc.so.5 (0x4012a000)
libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x401e6000)
libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x401ef000)
libstdc++.so.27 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.27 (0x40203000)
</PRE>
<P>Searching the executable doesn't help, either. Searching with
<PRE>
$ strings linuxcad | grep -i copy
</PRE>
<P>only finds a couple Software Forge copyright strings (and the word "copy" a
bunch).
<P>Multiple instances run fine.
<PRE>
$ ps -m 3638 3636 # shows the memory usage:
PID TTY MAJFLT MINFLT TRS DRS SIZE SWAP RSS SHRD LIB DT COMMAND
3638 p6 383 195 1080 1920 3000 0 3000 2176 0 206 linuxcad cab1.dxs
3636 p6 425 200 1140 1976 3116 0 3116 2288 0 207 linuxcad test.dxs
</PRE>
<P>Startup time is about 2 seconds each on P100/48 Meg. system.
<P>Here's a link to a listing of a blank drawing file, <A HREF=cab1.html>cab1.dxs</A>
<h3><u>Licensing</u></h3>
<P>The license is very restrictive. It's the basic single machine/single user
license. I'm not sure I can even include quotes from the documentation, the
way license.txt is written. It says I can't reproduce or distribute or even
revise the documentation. Does that mean if I removed some of the double
spacing or add notes through out the documentation that I am in violation of
it? In any case, I won't publish the license here. The high points:
<UL>
<LI> Install on a single computer for "your own individual use". Can my wife
and children use it?
<LI>You can make one copy for archival purposes.
<LI>The program can be transferred. Standard boiler plate. You can't keep a copy.
<LI>Software Forge is not liable for anything that goes wrong or any damage that the
program does to you, your computer or your mother.
<LI>It says there is some welcome screen with a copyright notice, but that is wrong;
there is no startup message (and it should stay that way unless it is a window
that pops up and then goes away once the program starts).
<LI>The user's guide specifically calls out that it cannot be released under the
GPL, which I think is kind-of a strange detail to add.
<LI>You can't reverse engineer the program.
<LI>If you violate the license, they'll try and throw you in jail.
</UL>
<h3><u>Conclusions</u></h3>
<P>First, I should include this quote (double spaced and all) from the
linuxcad.txt document included in the distribution:
<PRE>
" ATTENTION:
This product is still very fresh and is under development , it may
crash from time to time , do save often and please report all crash situations
to Software Forge Inc. by e-mail to: unixguy@aol.com
We add new features quickly and your input about what features you want is
valuable. "
</PRE>
<P>So make a demo available and send an announcement to cola everytime it is
upgraded. Heck, this is the demo version.
<P>So far, only the one crash I wrote about above. But this is not a $775
package. In its current state, it is not a $75 package, even with everything
thrown in.
<P>Upgrades are available for only six months. And this is by no means an
exhaustive list of missing features. Just what I found real quick.
<P>I'd suggest waiting.
<P>I now must get NT working first thing Monday morning. I still don't have a cad
package to do my work in Linux and then take it to acad to make a final drawing.
I'm still stuck using microsoft. :-(
<HR>
</pre>
<small>
<P>This document is copyright Robert Wuest, PE.<BR>
It is herby released into the public domain.<BR>
(except those portions copyright Software Forge, Inc.)</small>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Robert Wuest <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./penland.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./rooijackers.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<img align="right" src="./gx/rooijackers/2947f1.gif">
</center>
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Book Review: A Methodology for Developing and Deploying Internet & Intranet Solutions</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:Jan.Rooijackers@dsn.ericsson.se">Jan Rooijackers</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<ul>
<li>Authors: J. Greenberg and J.R. Lakeland
<li>Publisher: Hewlett Packard Professional Books by Prentice Hall
<li>E-mail: sales@prenhall.com
<li>URL: http://www.prenhall.com/
<li>Price: $39 US
<li>ISBN: 0-13-209677-3
</ul>
<P>&nbsp;
<P> <HR> <P>
The goal of <i>A Methodology for Developing and Deploying Internet &
Intranet Solutions</i> is to be a ``guide'' for project managers.
Almost all situations a project manager can
face--from project members to backup media to making time lines--are
described herein. The book consists of 11 chapters, plus appendices. Everything is
written as a story from the authors, who combined have more than 20 years of computer
experience. Every chapter contains small tips for the project manager.
<p>
In Chapter 1, the reader is introduced to employees of
a company that is used as a study case throughout the book.
<p>
In the next chapter a proposal is put forth, and all facets of handling
it from kick-off meeting to support organization to signing the contract are
described. In this book, the project manager makes use of the WBS (work
breakdown structure) model. This model breaks the project into phases and
sub-phases so that each can reach its own milestone.
<p>
Chapter 3 puts the reader into the place of a successful project
manager, who has convinced the ``customer'' to sign the contract.
The customer could be either internal (a department) or
external--imagine yourself as the consultant. This chapter begins with the internal kick-off
meeting. Roles and activities are assigned and given deadlines, so everyone
knows what to do when.
<p>
Discussion of the software development cycle begins in Chapter 4 with writing
an approach document. This chapter explains to the project manager what the
document must and must not contain--from requirements to education.
Also, some development methodologies are discussed.
<p>
Next, we get to the fun part (only 20 pages)--development. This is
familiar stuff which I face each working day with the Internet/Intranet.
The authors discuss creating HTML pages, internal, unit and system
testing and, last but not least, a checklist to see if everything is working.
<p>
The remaining six chapters (6 to 11) are short, averaging eight pages each.
Implementation is handled in Chapter 6; networking and backup are discussed
in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 covers the various applications and system testing at
a high level, so that you get a complete picture of how everything fits into the project.
The last three chapters are about putting the project on the user desk.
Also, two appendices are included, the first of which
is better: it is technical and briefly explains the
operating system layers and the Internet. While this information is not
presented in great detail,
what is here is quite interesting. The other appendix deals with project
management.
<p>
The book did not live up to my expectations. Too much of it is written in
the form of a diary or personal anecdotes for my tastes; not enough is
related to actual technical details of the Internet/Intranet.
<i>A Methodology for Developing and Deploying Internet & Intranet
Solutions</i> will bring no added value for persons who have already been
working for some years in the IT area. However, I do think it is a good
book for people who are new to the IT business, and who want to know more about
project management in order to become a project leader.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Jan Rooijackers <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./wuest.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./ayers1.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center><img alt="Blackbox title image" src="./gx/ayers/blackbox.gif"></center>
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">The Blackbox Window Manager</font></H1>
<h4>By <a href="mailto: layers@marktwain.net">Larry Ayers</a></h4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<center><h3>Introduction</h3></center>
<p>Someday (I fantasize) an academic specialty devoted to the taxonomy of
free software will arise, complete with abstruse journals filled with
hair-splitting analyses of the bloodlines, interbreeding, and evolution of
this ephemeral medium. I can imagine a future scholar publishing a paper in
which the various developmental strands of late-twentieth-century Linux
window-managers are analyzed, complete with photographs of the Sunsite digital
archaeology project, conducted amidst the ruins of ancient Chapel Hill.
<p>Returning to the present, two trends can be distinguished among the many
window-manager projects extant today. The first is either inspired by and/or
descended from Robert Nation's influential fvwm window-manager. Fvwm2,
Afterstep, and (to a lesser extent) WindowMaker are examples in this category.
These window-managers tend towards extreme configurability and typically are
able to load special-purpose modules such as desk-top pagers, CD-players, and
hosts of others. Configuration of this sort of manager can be a daunting
task, especially for Linux beginners, though the existence of well-thought-out
and esthetically pleasing "themes" (in this context meaning a package of
configuration files, backgrounds, and pixmap icons) and their availability on
the net can give a new user a head-start.
<p>Perhaps as a reaction to these complex and feature-laden window-managers
another sort of manager has been appearing lately. Marco Macek's icewm is
deliberately not as complex as the above "big" window-managers but nonetheless
has the most commonly needed features and a moderately configurable
appearance. Icewm has been through quite a few beta versions now and has
become remarkably stable. Another example is blackbox.
<p>Blackbox is a new window-manager written by Brad Hughes. Like icewm, it
was coded from scratch in C++. It's small (the source archive is just 50 kb.),
fast, and has a thoughtfully-designed and pleasing default appearance. This
latter feature has probably contributed to blackbox's transition from a personal
undertaking to an open source project which has received bug-fixes and
enhancements from several other programmers.
<center><h3>Impressions</h3></center>
<p>Like Windowmaker and icewm, blackbox uses workspaces rather than the
virtual desktop/pager combination familiar to fvwm users. The main difference
between the two methods of managing windows is that the workspace approach
lacks the miniature representations of the various desktops seen in the pager
window. It's really a psychological matter, and both methods work equally
well once habits have been formed. I surmise that the first virtual desktop
system (or even the idea of iconized windows and window-lists, which serve
much the same purpose) was developed by a programmer who just got tired of
shuffling through layered stacks of windows searching for a certain one.
<p>At the bottom of a blackbox desktop is an immovable multi-purpose bar, with
a workspace menu on the left and a digital clock on the right. In between is a blank
area, which had no function in the earlier betas but which now contains an
iconized window-menu. Here's what it looks like, with the default colors:<br>
<p><img alt="Blackbox toolbar" src="./gx/ayers/blackbox2.gif">
<p>The gradient shading of the titlebar and toolbar is a nice touch, a feature
usually found only in the more elaborate window-managers. All graphics
routines are handled internally so no extra image libraries are needed.
Blackbox is unusual in that it doesn't use the Xpm pixmap library, so the only
applications which will display an icon when minimised are those with icons
embedded in the executable, such as Netscape and xv.
<p>Unlike most window-managers the root-window menu is bound to the right
mouse button rather than the left, an arrangement which will be familiar to
icewm and OS/2 users. The menu-items are configured in a separate file; both
the menu and the overall configuration files are placed in the
<code>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults</code> directory, a traditional location
for X resource files. The menu-file's syntax is clear and easy to use. Here
is a screenshot of a menu I've been using:<br>
<p>
<center><img alt="Blackbox menu" src="./gx/ayers/blackbox1.gif"></center>
<p>The menu will remain "stuck" to the desktop if it is moved after it appears
and can be dismissed via a right-mouse-button click any time thereafter.
<p>Keyboard short-cuts are provided for various window operations, including
the Mac-like title-bar roll-up, as well as switching between workplaces. I am
pleased by the relative paucity of key-bindings in both icewm and blackbox.
Some of the larger window-managers have many key-bindings, some of which
conflict with common application bindings. I've used fvwm2 quite a bit, and
it always annoyed me that Netscape's <code>alt-left-arrow-key</code>
key-binding wouldn't work, as it evidently was reserved for some fvwm function
in my <code>~/.fvwm2rc</code> file, which I never did get around to tracking
down and disabling. You know how it is; this sort of minor configuration
isn't important enough to just drop everything and fix right now. It's a
minor annoyance, but I was grateful that icewm and blackbox included just a
few essential bindings.
<p>Blackbox is still a relatively young project and the window-manager isn't
completely stable yet. I've had it crash the X-server a few times, but I've
long been in the habit of saving work frequently (which is always a good idea
when running beta software!). Either icewm or wmx may be a better choice as a
lightweight window-manager if the need for stability is paramount, but
blackbox development seems to be progressing rapidly. More users trying it
out and reporting problems will doubtless speed the process.
<p>The blackbox <a href="http://linux.wiw.org/blackbox">web-site</a> is the
best source of further information and the latest source archives.
<hr>
<address><a href="mailto: layers@marktwain.net">Larry Ayers&lt;layers@marktwain.net&gt;</a></address>
<!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Sun 28 Jun 1998
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Larry Ayers <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./rooijackers.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./ayers2.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Lesstif: One User's Impression</font></H1>
<h4>By <a href="mailto: layers@marktwain.net">Larry Ayers</a></h4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
One of the main differences between Linux and the commercial Unix flavors
is that the commercial unices commonly come with one version or other of the
proprietary Motif libraries. Motif is basically a "widget-set", a set of
libraries and header-files which give X-windows applications a characteristic
look, including such features as dialog-boxes, menus, file- and
font-selectors, drag-and-drop support, etc.
<p>There are several free widget-sets which offer roughly the same
functionality, such as GTK, so Motif isn't a necessity for a Linux system
except for one factor. Many of the popular free-software projects come from
institutions such as universities or government agencies, with a few
originating in a commercial or corporate setting. These institutions often
use a commercial Unix and programmers tend therefore to use the Motif
development tools.
<p>A year or so ago I bought a copy of SWIM Motif from the <a
href="http://www.lsl.com">LSL</a> web-site. There were several software
packages I wanted to compile which required the Motif libraries and header
files, such as XEphem, NEdit, DDD and Vim. The price of a commercial Motif
package had been close to two hundred dollars, but the new SWIM version was
selling at that time for about sixty, so it seemed like a good deal. It's a
quality product and worked well for me until I decided to upgrade my Debian
system to Debian 2.0, which is based on libc6 (as are Redhat 5.0 and 5.1). I
used the handy <i>autoup.sh</i> script, which upgrades the core packages of
the distribution in the proper order. Everything was hunky-dory until I
realized that my proprietary Motif libs were based on libc5 and won't function
in a libc6 environment. The LSL company offers a thirty-dollar upgrade for
customers in my situation, but I felt that I'd spent enough on what isn't
really a necessary software package, and who's to say whether some future
changes in Linux might put me in the same situation again? Situations like
these really make me appreciate source-code availability!
<p>I'd been hearing favorable reports on the newer versions of Lesstif, a
free and open-source Motif 1.2 clone created by a team of developers
called the Hungry Programmers. The release of the Netscape source earlier
this year had attracted new Lesstif users, as Netscape needs Motif to
build. More users means more bug-reports and probably some additional
programming help; I can't help but think that the new Netscape situation was a
shot in the arm for Lesstif. The Lesstif releases seem to be more frequent
now, for whatever reasons.
<p>I really didn't know what to expect from Lesstif. I remembered reading
usenet postings concerning Lesstif's failures to work with this or that
application and numerous comments on display flaws and other bugs. These
comments were made over a year ago, which is approximately a decade in
"computer time", so I was hoping for at least a marginally useful product.
<p>The first release I tried was 0.83. To my surprise, it compiled and
installed as easily as any other quality GPL package. Feeling rather foolish
that I'd spent hard-earned cash on a commercial Motif implementation, I
proceeded to re-compile (over the course of a few weeks) every application
which I had previously linked with SWIM Motif. So far every one I've tried
has worked well with Lesstif; some packages needed the paths to the Lesstif
libraries and header-files specified in the Makefile, but this was the only
tinkering I've had to do. I was particularly pleased that NEdit now works
with Lesstif, as this editor's dependence on Motif has until now hindered its
widespread use by Linux users.
<p>The few bugs I've seen in the Lesstif version I'm using now (0.85) are
minor and have little effect on usability.
<p>One reason Lesstif is important for the Linux community is that its
existence and usability make it possible for the developers of distributions
to package Motif-linked applications without the necessity of dealing with
non-free software. The application developers can continue to use Motif,
while Linux users can still compile and run the programs without the
proprietary libraries.
<p>Jon Christopher, a member of the Lesstif team, has written an essay about
Lesstif's history and prospects which is well worth reading. It was originally
contributed to the Slashdot web-site, and is available
<a href="http://slashdot.org/features/9806051046213.shtml">here</a>. The
<a href="http://www.lesstif.org">Lesstif</a> web-site has the latest releases
and other news.
<hr>
<p>
<!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Sun 28 Jun 1998
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Larry Ayers <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./ayers1.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./ayers3.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Sabre: An Svgalib Flight Sim</font></H1>
<h4>By <a href="mailto: layers@marktwain.net">Larry Ayers</a></h4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<center><h3>Introduction and Disclaimer</h3></center>
<p>I haven't written about Linux games for the Gazette, mainly because I don't
play them much. Oh, every now and then while waiting for a download to
complete I'll play Xgalaga or XEmacs-tetris for a while, but for me the real
Linux amusement is figuring out how to compile, install, and use the numerous
software packages lurking out on the net, unpublicized and just waiting
to be explored.
<p>A couple of days ago I was reading the current <a
href="http://www.ntk.net">Need to Know</a> British WWW news site, and I saw a
mention of a Linux flight-simulator called Sabre. I ended up at the <a
href="http://sabre.cobite.com">Sabre web-site</a> and was impressed by the
evident humor and good-nature of the site's developer (check out the page
describing how to get sound working with the simulator!). Though I've seldom
used flight-simulators, I decided to give this one a try.
<center><h3>Back To The Korean War</h3></center>
The developers of Sabre (Dan Hammer, with assistance from Antti Barck and
David Mansfield) have chosen to confine their attention to the Korean War, so
the aircraft involved are mostly early jets with a smattering of WWII-era
propellor-planes. The graphics are well-done, with texture-mapped clouds and
landscapes. The general effect is reminiscent of a detailed cartoon (not
Hannah-Barbra style!).Here are a couple of scaled-down screenshots (Sabre can
even take its own screenshots while running; just press <b>e</b> and the
current scene will be saved to a ppm file):<br>
<p><img alt="Sabre screen 1" src="./gx/ayers/sabre1.gif">
<img alt="Sabre screen 2" src="./gx/ayers/sabre2.gif">
<p>The first public release of Sabre was in August of 1997, so it's a
relatively new project. Don't expect a state-of-the-art flight-sim like
the numerous commercial products available. Sabre is more similar to
better-quality DOS flight-sims of a couple of years ago. The up-side to this
is that expensive hardware (such as an ultra-fast processors or a 3DFX
video-card) isn't needed in order for Sabre to run acceptably fast. This is
an Svgalib console-graphics program so not even X is needed.
<p>Sabre can be run in a variety of resolutions and window-sizes. Naturally a
fast CPU will enable a larger and more detailed screen with minimal choppiness.
<p>Frankly, I probably never would have written this review if Antti Barck's
tremendously useful <b>dialog</b>-based script <b>RunSabre</b> hadn't been
included in the distribution. Flight-simulator veterans probably will be able
to learn to use Sabre without this script, but novices (like me) will find
this interface to Sabre invaluable. It provides a convenient way to set the
screen resolution, run various demo missions and flight scenarios, and access
the documentation (especially the key-binding doc) from one menu-based screen.
All of these tasks can be accomplished with command-line switches, but who
wants to learn these while still deciding whether it's worth devoting time to
learning a new application? Without this script, running Sabre can be a
frustrating sequence of short flights followed by re-reading the docs after
watching your jet crash yet another time.
<p>Sabre offers quite an extensive array of view-points from which to observe
your fighter-plane and the surrounding action. Naturally you can be in the
cockpit and see forward, to the side, and behind, but you can also become a
disembodied viewer off to one side. Even more interesting, a click of a key
will put you in the cockpit of one of the enemy planes.
<p>Your plane can be controlled with either a mouse, the keyboard, or a
joystick (assuming joystick support is compiled into your kernel). I found
controlling with a mouse difficult, whereas after some practice the keyboard
seemed to provide more accurate control. I don't have a joystick so I was
unable to try that method; I understand that flight-sim enthusiasts prefer them.
<p>The first scenario in the <b>RunSabre</b> menu is called <i>Just Fly</i>.
I was grateful for this choice; the last thing I needed while trying to figure
out the controls was harassment by MIG fighters intent on my destruction!
Several other flight scenarios are supplied, some involving aerial combat and
others ground attack missions. These scenarios are interactive; the demo
missions are more like short movies which display the variety of scenes Sabre
is capable of displaying.
<p>All in all Sabre is a quality piece of software. It compiled easily and I
found no obvious bugs. The source or pre-compiled binaries can be obtained
from the Sabre web-site linked at the beginning of this article.
<hr>
<p>
<!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Sun 28 Jun 1998
<!-- hhmts end -->
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Larry Ayers <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./ayers2.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./ayers4.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">SFM: A New GTK-Based Application</font></H1>
<h4>By <a href="mailto: layers@marktwain.net">Larry Ayers</a></h4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<center><h3>Introduction</h3></center>
<p>As the GTK GUI programming toolkit matures more developers have been
inspired to use it for the visual presentation of their programs. Pascal
Rigaux, a French programmer, has come up with a small file-manager he calls
sfm. Sfm isn't quite as simple as the name and initial appearance imply; it
has a remarkably full feature-set for such a small program.
<p>There has been a long succession of X Windows file-managers which use
various icons to represent different types of files. This approach can be
useful for people accustomed to a Macintosh or Windows environment, where this
type of file-manager is common. These icons do have drawbacks, though, as
fewer files will fit into a single display window which results in much more
scrolling to find a particular file. The impact on system resources is
considerable as well, as the X server is called upon to constantly update the
display, and memory usage is much greater than what is needed by a text-based
manager. In the end it's just a matter of preference.
<p>Sfm is unusual in that it is an X-only file-manager which is also
text-based (FileRunner is another). It also goes against the general trend
towards mouse-based applications in that the keyboard interface is
well-developed.
<center><h3>Appearance and Features</h3></center>
<p>The default window size is rather small; my first impression was that this
was a trivial application, probably a first GTK programming exercise without
much utility. As I explored further (and actually read the README file!) I
found that sfm's uncluttered appearance conceals an interesting and useful
approach to the perpetual effort to contrive a useful interface to the
<b>ls</b> utility. In the screenshot below I've enlarged the default window
by about one-third:<br>
<p><img alt="sfm window" src="./gx/ayers/sfm1.gif">
<p>The above window is rather plain. The interesting part is the
right-mouse-button menu which offers a plethora of actions which can be
performed upon the highlighted file, along with a submenu offering less-used
possibilities. I wanted a screenshot showing the basic sfm window with both
menus fanned out from it. I don't know whether it is an idiosyncrasy of sfm,
GTK, or xv (which I used for the screenshots), but while I was able to get
shots of either menu by itself, I couldn't get them all in one screenshot. So
here are the main menu and its submenu; try to imagine them connected to the
first screenshot above:<br>
<p><img alt="first sfm menu" src="./gx/ayers/sfm2.gif">
<p>This is the submenu stemming from the "more" item:
<p><img alt="sfm sub-menu" src="./gx/ayers/sfm3.gif">
<p>As you can see, the keyboard shortcuts for all of the various menu-items
are shown to the right of the action menu-entries. This is a great help in
learning the key-bindings, which are designed to be intuitive and similar to
those of many other programs. I especially like the Lynx-style left-and-right
arrow-key directory navigation (the mc file-manager offers this as an option).
<p>Multiple sfm windows can be opened at once and files can be easily copied
or moved between them.
<p>Sfm uses a configuration dot-file (<i>~/.sfm</i>) in order to determine the
action to take upon a highlighted file when either the enter key, the
right-arrow-key, or a single left-mouse-button click is received.
Surprisingly, this is one dot-file you won't have to edit, as it is
auto-generated. The first time you select, as an example, a text file, a
dialog box pops up asking what action you'd like to take, such as editing it
with your favorite editor. That preference is then recorded in the
<i>~/.sfm</i> file; the next time a text file is selected it will be loaded
into your editor. Sfm uses the standard Linux <b>file</b> utility to
determine file-types. This is quite a nice feature, especially for new Linux
users who have enough to do just becoming comfortable with the system without
constantly needing to chase down and edit config files.
<p>Sfm is still in its early days, but judging by the intelligent design of
the current version, it's likely that further improvements are in the offing.
The current version (1.4 as I write this) is available from the
<a href="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/file/managers">Sunsite</a>
archive; an alternate site is
<a href="http://www.geocities.com /SiliconValley/Horizon/8726">here</a>.
<hr>
<!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Sun 28 Jun 1998
<!-- hhmts end -->
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Larry Ayers <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./ayers3.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./starkey.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Portable GUI C++ Libraries</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:starkey@rmi.net">Sean C. Starkey</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
Most well-written, non-graphics C++ code is portable, but major
problems occur when one tries to write portable applications for
graphical user interfaces. On Linux, the X Window System is used as the major
graphical user interface. GUI code written on Linux will not work
on MS Windows. Even though we all know that Linux is the better of the two,
some Linux developers would like to also support MS Windows
with its large number of users.
<p>
With a portable GUI C++ library, source code developed under Linux and X
can be compiled for other platforms, including MS Windows. Quite
a few GUI C++ libraries are available at this time, including
MFC and OWL for MS Windows. Unfortunately, none of these libraries are
portable to both X and MS Windows.
<p>
Desirable features in a portable GUI library include the following:
<p>
<ul>
<li> Support for a large number of platforms
<li> Easy to use, with good documentation
<li> A good set of widgets (or
controls, in Microsoft-speak) to use in your interface
</ul>
Other desirable features which are not GUI related are portable network
functionality, file I/O capabilities and some good container classes.
<p>
What are some of the problems faced by a portable GUI library?
One is that GUI code on different platforms varies widely. To create
a new window, MS Windows uses a completely different command than X, even
though the code uses the same programming language in both. Another problem is
subtle changes in event handling. All GUI applications are event
driven, but the events are different on different platforms. The
portable GUI library must take all of these differences into
consideration and supply a common interface for all platforms.
<p>
I have reviewed three different GUI C++ libraries which support both
X and MS Windows. All are free of charge with no royalties.
The source code for these libraries is available on the web sites cited in
Resources.
<p>
Since these libraries are written in C++, you have all the
advantages of object-oriented design. To create a new window, you
derive your own window class from the main window class. After adding
the appropriate code to handle events in your window, it is
finished.
<p>
<h3>wxWindows</h3>
<p>
<b>wxWindows</b> is by far the most active of the libraries available.
wxWindows was originally developed by Julian Smart, but has received
contributions from many others. The version of wxWindows reviewed in
this article is 1.68B. Version 2.0, a major rewrite of the library, is
rumored to be available in ``the near future''.
<p>
<b>wxWindows</b> is a very modular project. The main version is
available on the web site. In addition to the main version, there are
also many subprojects. Some of these subprojects include additional
widgets, an Xlib library port, a Macintosh port and many others. These
subprojects are described on the wxWindows web site (see Resources).
<p>
Note that the main version of wxWindows requires the Motif
toolkit. Motif is not free; therefore, most Linux installations do
not include it. Lesstif, a popular Motif clone, compiles and
works with wxWindows. There is also a side project which uses only
standard Xlib libraries so that wxWindows does not need Motif.
<p>
<b>wxWindows</b> has many features. Figure 1 is a screen capture of
the sample program distributed with wxWindows running on a
Linux system. Notice all of the widgets available to the
programmer. More screen shots are available on the wxWindows web
site.
<p>
<center>
<img src="./gx/starkey/2630f1.gif">
</center>
<P>
<center><B>Figure 1</B> </center>
<p>
One of best features of wxWindows is the on-line documentation. The
documentation comes in HTML, LaTeX and MS Windows help format. There
is also a very active mailing list for wxWindows, where many questions
can be answered. Trying to learn all of these new classes can be
confusing, and wxWindows does a good job of describing them.
<p>
If you don't want to download all of the wxWindows source code,
a distribution on CD is available. See the web site for more details.
<p>
<h3>V</h3>
<p>
<b>V</b> is another freely available library, and was developed by Dr. Bruce
E. Wampler. [See ``V--A Free C++ GUI Framework for X'',
<i>Linux Journal</i>, December 1996.] It is able to compile on X and MS Windows.
It is a complete
library, but does not have all of the fancy controls that wxWindows
has. Although not as fancy, in my opinion, V's source code is better
written and easier to understand than wxWindows.
<p>
V does not require the Motif libraries to build and run. All V source
code uses pure Xlib library calls, so it should be able to compile on
any Linux system with no difficulty.
<p>
V has quite a few widgets available as well. Figure 2 is a screen shot
of an example program distributed with the library. This look
is consistent on all platforms.
<p>
<center>
<img src="./gx/starkey/2630f2.gif">
</center>
<P>
<center><B>Figure 2</B> </center>
<p>
<h3>YACL</h3>
<p>
Another library worth looking at is YACL (Yet
Another Class Library). The author, M. A. Sridhar, reports that YACL
can compile on X, MS Windows and OS/2. Unfortunately, it looks as if
progress on YACL has been nonexistent since late 1996. The current
version of YACL, 1.60, is close to complete with a good set of classes and
widgets.
<p>
<center>
<img src="./gx/starkey/2630f3.gif">
</center>
<P>
<center><B>Figure 3</B> </center>
<p>
Figure 3 shows a screen shot of an example program distributed with
the library. This example shows some of the graphics primitives
available with YACL. YACL also has all of your basic widgets,
such as buttons, menus, choices and radio buttons.
<p>
One of YACL's biggest drawbacks is a lack of documentation. There
is a book about YACL: <i>Building Portable C++
Applications with YACL</i>, Addison-Wesley, 1996. I would suspect this book has
more information than the documentation distributed with the
library.
<p>
If you would like more information on any of these libraries, please
see their web page listed in the Resources table.
<P>
<h3>Resources</h3>
<p>
<b>wxWindows</b>: http://web.online.co.uk/julian.smart/wxwin/
<p>
<b>V</b>: http://www.objectcentral.com/vgui/vgui.htm
<p>
<b>YACL</b>: http://www.cs.sc.edu/~sridhar/yacl/
<p>
<b>User Interface Software Tools</b>:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/bam/www/toolnames.html<br>
A good page for some other GUI libraries that are not necessarily
free, in C++ or supportive of the X Window System.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Sean C. Starkey <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./ayers4.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./koscielny.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Using Linux instead of an X Emulator</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:koscieln@interpath.com">Al Koscielny</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
Sometimes you must have X on the desktop--at work, that is.
At home, you would have several choices from your well-appointed
stable of Linux ponies. Work is another story--you have the corporately
sanctioned productivity tool running on your desktop, and adding an X
emulator application is going to cost somebody some money. You blew
your software budget for the year on compilers. So what are you going
to do now?
<p>
Today's typical work environment includes a desktop PC running a version
of the Windows operating system. If the job is writing memos and sending
around Word documents, that's a reasonably adequate solution.
If the job is developing and testing cross-platform GUI applications,
then running an X application from your desktop is an effective
way to get the work done.
<p>
<h3>The Trafvu Project</h3>
<p>
<b>Trafvu</b> is an application for displaying results from traffic
simulation models. Such models can be used for planning and design
purposes. For example, suppose the city fathers attract the Olympics for the
year 2004. What changes need to be made to the traffic system so that
the city does not suffer from massive gridlock during the Olympics?
<p>
Trafvu was developed in C++ to run on Windows and the X Window System,
with XVT being used as a cross-platform tool. For a software development
lab, we had several Pentiums running Windows 95 and NT and some Sun
workstations running Solaris 2.5. Generally, everyone on the project had
a desktop system, and the lab was used for collaborative efforts, such
as fixing bugs, and for design meetings. Several of the lab machines
were set up as file servers. The application source code was maintained
on a Windows NT server using the Mainsoft Sourcesafe software revision
control product. Typically, the project source code were extracted
to a local machine (lab or desktop), some source files checked out, and C++
code developed or modified and tested; then the modified files were
checked back in.
<p>
Initially, when porting code from Windows to X, files were transferred
to a UNIX workstation using FTP, followed by a repeat of the compile, link, test
and debug cycle. As the project progressed, SAMBA was installed on the
Sun workstation, so that developers could access their home directories
on the Sun workstation from the Windows browser. Then files could be
extracted directly to the file system on the workstation. Opening a
TELNET session from the Windows PC to the Sun workstation permitted
concurrent compilation and linking on both Windows and X.
<p>
At this point in the cycle, the source code had been modified,
compiled, linked and tested under Windows. Now we needed to test it on
the X Window System. We needed a way to run an X application from our
desktop PC.
<p>
<h3>X Emulator Options</h3>
<p>
There are several ways to provide X on the desktop. A few years
ago, X-terminals were very popular. An X-terminal typically has nice real
estate (i.e., a large screen), some memory, no local disk space and costs
about $1000 to $2000 (most of the expense is that nice monitor). At boot
time, it loads an OS from a boot server, so setting up the boot server
becomes the headache. As PC processors became cheaper and more capable,
the price of hard drives fell through the floor, so the PC desktop
became very popular. Typically, PCs run a version of the Windows operating
system. Using them as X terminals requires additional software for X
emulation. For example, with Hummingbird's Exceed, a typical X emulator,
you can run your favorite X application on a convenient UNIX workstation
and have X display on your desktop computer. X emulation products for
Windows generally cost a few hundred dollars per machine.
Currently,
network computers (NCs) are being pushed as a solution to the software
application configuration nightmare brought on by the proliferation of
desktop PCs, and typical prices seem to be about $700US per unit.
<p>
Several options are available and if a few hundred dollars is not
a concern, the X emulator application is probably the ticket. If, on
the other hand, no one will sign the purchase request or many machines
need the capability, then a cheaper option is needed.
<p>
<h3>Linux to the Rescue</h3>
<p>
With hardware prices falling and Windows applications becoming more
bloated, there's usually some older hardware sitting around unused.
Who wants to attempt to run Visual C++ 5.001a under Windows 95 on that 486/66
with a 1 GB hard drive? I won't volunteer. Next question--what
OS runs X quite comfortably on a 486 with 16MB of memory? The answer is Linux.
<p>
Thus, an alternative to the X emulation application is running Linux on the
PC. Set up the PC as a dual boot machine and simply boot Linux to run
X applications on the desktop. The advantage of using Linux is that no
purchase requests have to be signed. Just bring the CD-ROM from home,
find some free time and disk space and install it. The disadvantages
are finding the time to do the installation and the need to boot between
running Windows or X. The hurdles in the process are finding about 300MB
of spare disk space and a three-button mouse.
<p>
<h3>Setting up Linux</h3>
<p>
Initially, my company installed Linux 1.2.13 on a Gateway 486/66 and a
no-name clone 486/66. There are numerous resources on installing Linux,
if you need that information. However, having copies of books such as
<i>Running Linux</i> and <i>Linux Network Administrator's Guide</i> was essential
for us. Internet access for HOWTO documents can also be helpful.
Installing on the Gateway and no-name were mostly straightforward.
The Gateway did not have a CD-ROM drive, so the CD-ROM was exported from one
of the Sun workstations. The Slackware distribution has the option of
installing over a network and this worked well. Both the Gateway and the
no-name had SCSI cards, and additional SCSI disks were salvaged from
other machines for installing Linux. Setting up XFree86 on the no-name
was a chore because of the video card. Generally, the cheaper a PC,
the less documentation is provided with it. So putting up X on the no-name took
quite a bit of experimentation. The Linux multiple console capability
is very handy when installing XFree86.
<tt>ctrl-alt-F1</tt>
brings up the screen
used to start X (use <b>startx</b> command) to look for error messages.
<tt>alt-F7</tt> gets you back to your
X session, and <tt>ctrl-alt-F?</tt>,
where <tt>?</tt>=2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, gets another login session for
checking log files, etc.
<p>
Later in the project we installed Linux 2.0.0 on a SAG Electronics
dual-processor Pentium Pro 200 MHz with an Imagine Number Nine 128 Series
II video card with 4MB. The Pentium Pro came with a 4MB hard drive,
and a 400MB partition was allocated for Linux. Installation on the
Pentium Pro machine was more difficult because the hardware was so new.
Video drivers for the Number Nine card were in beta, and the generic SVGA
drivers wouldn't work. Upgrades to XFree86 took about 10-20MB of
downloading from http://www.xfree86.org/ and perhaps a couple of hours to install
and test. The three-button mouse on the Pentium Pro insisted on being
difficult, but this was remedied by the advice in the three-button mouse
mini-HOWTO.
<p>
I tried the two-button mouse emulation and found it to be just good
enough to get me in trouble. I would think I had the timings down,
roll into an xterm with the root prompt and paste the equivalent of <i>War
and Peace</i> in at the command line. (Gee, I hope I didn't do something
like <tt>rm<\!s>-rf<\!s>/</tt> in that session.) I did find coworkers who were willing
to trade a Logitech three-button mouse for my two-button mouse. Once one is used to
the X version of ``cut and paste'', it is very difficult to do without it.
<p>
The three PCs were set up with dual boot capability. Initially, we just
used a floppy boot disk for Linux, since making one is easily accomplished, and
the MBR (Master Boot Record) for Windows remains intact. Later, when Linux
had proven itself useful
and we were interested in convenience, we added LILO to the MBR. The PCs
were frequently used in Windows to edit documents, prepare spreadsheets,
etc. It was very handy to access these files without having to
boot Windows. Accessing Windows files while the PC is running Linux can
be done using SAMBA. For FAT file systems, set up a mount point in
/etc/fstab with a file system type of <tt>msdos</tt> in order to make the Windows
file system fully accessible while Linux is running. Install SAMBA on
the Linux machines, export the Windows file system through the smb.conf
configuration file, and then you can access the files through the Windows
browser (File Manager or Explorer, depending on your Windows flavor).
<p>
It's encouraging to see file system drivers for FAT and HPFS, since
accessing the files from the other operating systems is very convenient while running
Linux. However, with current hard drive sizes, FAT is outdated and
offers very little security. Microsoft offers some alternative file
systems, such as VFAT and NTFS. However, it appears that specifications
for these files will remain exclusively with Microsoft. So, although
work is in progress on the NTFS driver for Linux, I don't think
NTFS support under Linux will be available any time soon. Perhaps
a better design choice
is to minimize the usage of proprietary file systems on multi-boot machines.
<p>
Typically, the Linux PCs were used for an X-terminal login to the
Sun workstations. To make this convenient, the ``Goodstuff'' button bar
was used. The environment variable DISPLAYHOST was set in this way:
<p>
<pre>
export DISPLAYHOST=vader:0
</pre>
This environment variable is used when using rsh to get to an xterm on the Sun workstation. The .fvwmrc file with
the FVWM window manager has several samples, so just fill in appropriate
values for the remote host and the $DISPLAYHOST. Getting the GoodStuff
button to work can be a chore if something is wrong with the setup.
Start by testing with a simple command:
<p>
<pre>
rsh remote-host date
</pre>
Once this works, typing <tt>rsh xterm</tt> should also
work.
Having a single button set the DISPLAY variable and also start the remote
session prevents a nusiance console display when DISPLAY is set to the default
value of 0.0.
<p>
A side benefit of installing Linux is backing up the file system over the
network. A PC usually doesn't have a tape drive, whereas a more
backup-conscious Sun workstation may have a 5GB DAT drive. From the Linux PC,
the <b>dd</b> command with the appropriate arguments will back up your
hard drives to a tape drive on a remote workstation. A crontab entry
is good for this type of backup for nonwork hours, so that network bandwidth
impact is minimized.
<p>
<h3>Synopsis</h3>
<p>
There is a steep learning curve to installing Linux, and my initial
installation of Linux took several days. Recently, I installed Slackware
3.2 (2.0.29 kernel) in about two hours, which included bringing up X and
restoring home directories. Recent efforts at improving Linux's ease
of use have been well spent and make Linux a more viable
alternative for use at work.
<p>
A spare X terminal is very handy to have around when debugging an
application. It is possible to stop events from getting to the debugger
on the Sun workstation, so that the console is essentially locked.
However, if there's a free X display, set the DISPLAY variable
there before running a command-line debugger.
<p>
Booting multiple operating systems is an interesting twist on cross-platform
application development. If I could have built the <b>trafvu</b> application
using the GNU compiler (some issues with the Rogue Wave libraries
precluded this), I could have used a single PC for both Windows and X
development and testing.
<p>
We have used Linux and XFree86 on a daily basis for over a year and have
been impressed with the solid performance.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Al Koscielny<BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./starkey.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./mauck.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H4>
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">USENIX 1998</font></H1>
<H4>By Aaron Mauck</H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<A HREF="./photos2.html">Photo Album</A>
<P> <HR> <P>
Each year, the USENIX organization (http://www.usenix.org/) puts on a technical
conference dealing with UNIX and other UNIX-like systems. This year
they had an emphasis on free or Open Source operating systems, primarily
Linux and *BSD. The conference was held in New Orleans, Louisiana from June 15th to
the 20th.
<p>
<h3>Tutorials</h3>
<p>
Many day-long tutorials were offered on Monday and Tuesday including
``Inside the Linux Kernel'' by Stephen Tweedie, one of the EXT2
developers, and
several talks on Networking and Security. I attended ``Hot Topics in
System Administration'', taught by Treni Hein and Evi Nemeth.
They covered many topics including Samba, Packet Filtering and IPv6.
<p>
<h3>Vendor Expo</h3>
<p>
I found it refreshing to see a vendor exposition (albeit a small one) comprised
completely of UNIX-friendly companies. O'Reilly was there, displaying all of their
titles for sale at 20% off. Needless to say, this made it one of the most
popular booths. Most of the faces were familiar: Red Hat, Linux
International, InfoMagic, the three heads of BSD and others. Among
the unexpected participants was the FBI, just a short distance from the
Free Software Foundation. The whole
atmosphere of the exposition was quite relaxed, without the
hectic feel of Comdex and other large industry trade shows.
<p>
<h3>BOFs and Speeches</h3>
<p>
Each evening offered several talks by different people on a
wide range of subjects. I caught ``The State of Linux'' talk by Linus
Torvalds on Thursday afternoon. He set Aug/Sep 98 as a hopeful release
date for the 2.2 kernel. Another event that took place every evening was
the ``Birds
of a Feather'' (BOF) meetings, which were designed as a place for
people with common interests to come together and discuss their ideas and
goals. It was also a great place to rub
shoulders with some of the ``big names'' in the UNIX community,
such as Keith Bolstic, Eric Allman and Jon ``maddog'' Hall.
<p>
<h3>Terminal Room</h3>
<p>
What UNIX conference would be complete without a terminal room?
Luckily, Earthlink and openBSD donated machines and bandwidth and created a
room with thirty or so machines running openBSD, connected to a T1.
<p>
<h3>Summary</h3>
<p>
If I were to do it all over again (and I most definitely want to), I
would spend more time planning what I want to learn. I was
a bit overwhelmed by
the sheer number of talks/events, and therefore found it difficult
to focus on exactly what I wanted to get from the experience--I was
constantly spreading myself too thin.
For any UNIX, Linux, BSD etc. lover, USENIX is a must at least once in
a lifetime. It is a very friendly and co-operative environment and has
definitely earned its reputation as one of the hubs of the computing
community.
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1998, Aaron Mauck <BR>
Published in Issue 30 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, July 1998</H5></center>
<!--===================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif"
ALT="[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM SRC="../gx/homenew.gif"
ALT="[ FRONT PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./koscielny.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif"
ALT=" Back "></A>
<A HREF="./lg_backpage30.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/fwd.gif" ALT=" Next "></A>
<P> <hr> <P>
<center>
<H1><IMG SRC="../gx/backpage.gif" alt="Linux Gazette Back Page"></H1>
<H5>Copyright &copy; 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.<br>
For information regarding copying and distribution of this material see the
<A HREF="../copying.html">Copying License</A>.</H5>
</center>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_backpage30.html#authors">About This Month's Authors</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_backpage30.html#notlinux">Not Linux</a>
</ul>
<a name="authors"></a>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">About This Month's Authors</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Larry Ayers</H4>
Larry lives on a small farm
in northern Missouri, where he is currently engaged in building a
timber-frame house for his family. He operates a portable band-saw mill,
does general woodworking, plays the fiddle and searches for rare
prairie plants, as well as growing shiitake mushrooms. He is also
struggling with configuring a Usenet news server for his local ISP.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Jim Dennis</H4>
Jim is the proprietor of <A href="http://www.starshine.org">
Starshine Technical Services</A>.
His professional experience includes work in the technical
support, quality assurance, and information services (MIS)
departments of software companies like
<A href="http://www.quarterdeck.com"> Quarterdeck</A>,
<A href="http://www.symantec.com"> Symantec/
Peter Norton Group</A>, and
<A href="http://www.mcafee.com"> McAfee Associates</A> -- 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.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Norman M. Jacobowitz </H4>
Norman is a freelance writer and marketing consultant
based in Seattle, Washington. Please send your comments,
criticisms, suggestions and job offers to normj@aa.net.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Al Koscielny </H4>
Al is a Systems Engineer with Resource Solutions International.
In his spare time, he plays with Linux, reads Usenet, rides an ATB
(all-terrain bike) and
enjoys cooking. He wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Nacho,
a big yellow tabby, to this article. He can be reached at koscieln@interpath.com.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Mike List </H4>
Mike is a father of four teenagers, musician,
and recently reformed technophobe, who has been into computers
since April,1996, and Linux since July, 1997.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Aaron Mauck</H4>
Aaron is the System Administrator at SSC. He can be reached via
e-mail at aaron@ssc.com.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Gerd Mueller </H4>
Gerd's first computer was a Amiga 500, but since 1996 he works with
Linux. Few weeks ago he has finished his studies of computer science.
Currently he spends most of his time with developing WipeOut at
softwarebuero m&b. He can be reached at gerd@softwarebuero.de.
<p>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">David Nelson</H4>
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.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">David Penland</H4>
David has been using linux since he first encountered the sls
distribution in the Autumn of 1992. He works as an AIX systems administrator for
Unifi, INC. in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is married to Angel Penland, and
they share a house with 2 dogs and 4 cats. He can be reached at
dpenland@mindspring.com.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Eric S. Raymond</H4>
Eric is a semi-regular contributor to <i>Linux Journal</i>. You
can find more of his writings, including his paper ``The Cathedral and
the Bazaar'', at http://www.ccil.org/~esr/.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Jan Rooijackers </H4>
Jan is an employee at Ericsson Data Netherlands BV (DSN).
He came in contact with UNIX in 1991 and is now working in the Internet/Intranet
business. Outside work, Jan spends time with his family and computers. He can
be reached at Jan.Rooijackers@dsn.ericsson.se.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Sean C. Starkey </H4>
Sean has been a Linux user for over four years. His first Linux
system had 0 as the major version number and came on floppy disks.
If you would like to know more about Sean, feel free to visit his web site
at http://rmi.net/~starkey/. He can be reached at starkey@rmi.net.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Alex Vrenios</H4>
Alex is a Lead Software Engineer at Motorola and has his ows consulting
business. He is always taking some sort of class.
He just finished the class work toward a Ph.D.
in computer science, but only time will tell if it goes any further.
His wife, Diane, is certainly his best friend and biggest fan. He enjoys his
two Schnauzers, Brutus and Cleo, and his dozens of African Ciclids, too. He
is a licensed amateur radio operator, as is Diane, and they spend more than
a few nights together observing the skies through their 5-inch telescope.
They like to get out and stay active, to enjoy life together.
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Robert Wuest</H4>
Robert is an Electrical Engineer with Kemet Electronics in equipment
engineering. He lives in the US but works in Mexico. He plays with computers
there, developing software using Linux (for embedded 6809 systems). This article
results from his current project, an instrument which will use a PC104 computer
running Linux. He is building the chassis in AutoCAD using full 3D to place PC
boards, relays and a lot of connectors. He really wishes he could do that in
Linux. He uses Tango for DOS for circuit design and PCB layout. He wishes he
could do that in Linux also.
<a name="notlinux"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">Not Linux</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
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.
<P>
This last month I've just been working, working, working -- no time for
fun. Riley is off on our annual motorcycle trip without me; he's exploring
Utah and Arizona, all our favorite parks. So at least one of us is having
fun. :-)
<P>
Actually, I'm having fun too. Working on <I>LG</I> always seems more like
fun than work and the same is true for <I>Linux Journal</I>. I've also been
doing some exploring of areas surrounding Seattle with my father-in-law,
who just moved up to this area. We had a two hour ferry wait last Saturday
that was frustrating yet comfortable because of the company. I think having
nice in-laws is a definite plus in life. At any rate, we've seen some
beautiful scenery, including a trip to Snoqualmie Falls and one to the
Olympic Peninsula.
<P>
Have fun!
<P> <hr> <P>
<A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/ssc/Employees/Margie/margie.html">
Marjorie L. Richardson</A> <br>
Editor, <A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/"><i>Linux Gazette</i></A>, <A
HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</a>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<A HREF="./index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/indexnew.gif" ALT="[ TABLE OF
CONTENTS ]"></A>
<A HREF="../index.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/homenew.gif" ALT="[ FRONT
PAGE ]"></A>
<A HREF="./mauck.html"><IMG SRC="../gx/back2.gif" ALT=" Back "></A>
<p><hr><p>
<I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 30, July 1998,
<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/">http://www.linuxgazette.com</A><BR>
This page written and maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com"> gazette@ssc.com</A>
<P>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Reference in New Issue View Git Blame Copy Permalink