961 lines
34 KiB
HTML
961 lines
34 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>More 2 Cent Tips & Tricks LG #33</title>
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</head>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#A000A0"
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ALINK="#FF0000">
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<!--endcut ============================================================-->
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<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!-- QUICK TIPS SECTION ================================================== -->
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<center>
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<H1><A NAME="tips"><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="" SRC="../gx/twocent.gif">
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More 2¢ Tips!</A></H1> <BR>
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Send Linux Tips and Tricks to <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">
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gazette@ssc.com
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</A></center>
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<p><hr><p>
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<H3>Contents:</H3>
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<ul>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#hammel">
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Newbie Help Redux (1)</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#greene">
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Re: Help Wanted : newbie (2)</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#christopher">
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Clearing the Screen (1)</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#eisen">
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Re: simultaneous versions of kernels</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#hammel2">
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Question about your Linux Gazette post</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#brown">
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COBOL Compilers for Linux</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#david">
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Resetting the term (2)</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#smith">
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Re: Help Wanted : newbie (3)</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#clapp">
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2c tip -- more fun with pipes</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#collver">
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2 cents tip: Un-tar as you download</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#mcnamara1">
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Re: Help Wanted: Looking for an Xwin Server software that runs under Win95/NT</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#mcnamara2">
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Re: Help wanted for a (Cheap) COBOL combiler for Linux</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#ramos">
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Re: Clearing the Screen (3)</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#blenk">
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Unix Tip</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#lambard1">
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rc.local Tip</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#kang">
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Yet another method of resetting scrambled terminal after dumping binary data.</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#smith2">
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Rick's quick and dirty screen-saver</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#malyshkin">
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MS Word & Netscape</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#burns">
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Pulling Files from NT</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#hammel3">
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Re: The wisdom of US West...</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#ferney">
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RE: Clearing the Screen (4)</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips33.html#andreas">
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Re: Keeping track of your config files</a>
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</ul>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="hammel"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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Newbie Help Redux (1)
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</H3>
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Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 10:50:21 -0500<BR>
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From: Mike Hammel, <A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@fastlane.net">
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mjhammel@fastlane.net</A>
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<P>
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Quick answers to get you started:
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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1. I have grown fat and lazy with Win 98 and find myself looking for
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"Display Properties" and such. I'm very familiar with C and such and am
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not afraid of hacking scripts or the like, but my problem is thus: Where
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is a (succinct) list of what gets run when, from where, and why. I'd
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love to tweak everything if only I could find it.
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</font>
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<P>
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A. Take a look at /etc/rc or possibly /etc/rcX.d, where X is 1,2,3,
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etc. I don't have RH5.1 but I think it uses the System V init system,
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so these directories should exist. If so, this is where you find the
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scripts that get run at boot time. For more details, you should look
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into the "init" tool. I suspsect this is covered in depth in some of
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the newer Linux system management texts. It's not hard to understand,
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really. There are different run levels, and scripts for specific run
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levels get run at start up to get things going and again at shutdown to
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bring them down again.
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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2. I have something called an "Ensoniq Audio PCI" sound card with
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"legacy emulation" I don't even know how to begin to get this thing
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working. What are the first steps in enabling hardware?
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</font>
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<P>
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A. Commercial solution: http://www.4front-tech.com. This is a
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commercial sound driver but don't fret - it's only $20 and works like a
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champ right out of the box. I have it and have had zero problems. I've
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suggested it to a few other folks and they all seemed to like it too.
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There is a non-commercial version of this same set of drivers available
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for Linux too. But I punted on it when I heard about the commercial
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driver.
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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3. Where do I get information on mounting drives?
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</font>
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<P>
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A. mount -t fat32 /mount_pt_dir or possibly mount -t vfat
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/mount_pt_dir. I don't use MS on my box so can't remember which one of
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these works with FAT32 partitiions but I'm fairly sure one of them
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does. In any case, other folks are likely to respond with more detailed
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answers on this one.
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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4. I think my printer works (at least text does), but how do I print
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things (man pages)?
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</font>
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<P>
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A. xman will print the pages as postscript but you need to set up a
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print spooler using Ghostscript. A print spooler is just a locical
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printer name that accepts print requests, processes them with some
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filters and then feeds them to the printer of choice. Ghostscript will
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translate Postscript input into the printer command language for your
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printer. I keep forgetting where the Ghostscript FAQ (including
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download info) is at, but you can find it by searching on Yahoo. That's
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what I always do.
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<P>
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The hard way to set up printers is to learn about configuring
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/etc/printcap. However, my RH4.2 system has a fairly decent printer
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configuration utility so I suspect 5.1 has an even better one. The bad
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news is I can't remember the program's name (it's in my fvwm2rc at home
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and I never type it by hand). Check the documentation that came with
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the CD. I know it's mentioned in there.
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<P>
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Best of luck.
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<P>
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Michael J. Hammel
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="greene"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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Re: Help Wanted : newbie (2)
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</H3>
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Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 07:37:43 +0200<BR>
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From: "Anthony E. Greene", <A HREF="mailto:agreene@pobox.com">
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agreene@pobox.com</A>
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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From: Dennis Lambert, opk@worldnet.att.net <BR>
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I have grown fat and lazy with Win 98 and find myself looking for
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"Display Properties" and such.
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KDE (<A HREF="http://www.kde.org/">http://www.kde.org/</A>) is supposed to be a more integrated desktop
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environment, and Gnome (<A HREF="http://www.gnome.org/">http://www.gnome.org/</A>) is coming along.
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I'm very familiar with C and such and am
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not afraid of hacking scripts or the like, but my problem is thus: Where
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is a (succinct) list of what gets run when, from where, and why. I'd
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love to tweak everything if only I could find it.
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</font>
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<P>
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Linux is a complex OS, so the list isn't succint. There's a description of
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the boot process in the System Administrator's Guide. If you're new to
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Linux, I'd recommend you give the SAG a good browse. There's *lots* of
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useful information there. You should have an HTML copy installed in
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/usr/doc/LDP/sag.
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<P>
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The Network Administrator's Guide (/usr/doc/LDP/nag) is also good to have,
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but the HOWTO's are better if you just need "cookbook" style docs. The
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HOWTO's are in /usr/doc/HOWTO. You should fire up Midnight Commander (mc)
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from the command line and take a look around /usr/doc.
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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I have something called an "Ensoniq Audio PCI" sound card with "legacy
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emulation" I don't even know how to begin to get this thing working.
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What are the first steps in enabling hardware?
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</font>
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<P>
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There is a PCI-HOWTO and a Sound-HOWTO.
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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Where do I get information on mounting drives (FAT 32 especially)
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</font>
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<P>
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In the Config-HOWTO or the archives of the Red Hat mailing lists.
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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I think my printer works (at least text does), but how do I print things
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(man pages)
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</font>
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<P>
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Text and postscript are easy. Fortunately most things are convertable to
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postscript. In this case use:
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<PRE>
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man -t <i>CommandOrSubject</i> | lpr
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</PRE>
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This is covered in the <tt>man</tt> page.
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<P>
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If you haven't joined any of the Red Hat mailing lists, you might consider
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doing so. Be warned though; they tend to be busy lists
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(http://www.redhat.com/support/).
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<P>
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Welcome to Linux...
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<P>
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Tony
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="christopher"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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Clearing the Screen (1)
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</H3>
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Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 11:56:53 -0700<BR>
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From: Anthony Christopher, <A HREF="mailto:anthonyc@blarg.net">
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anthonyc@blarg.net</A>
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<P>
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I have seen a lot of hints for restoring a trashed screen or window, but
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none of them mention the <tt>reset</tt> and <tt>clear</tt> commands.
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Are these commands
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deprecated, do they have unwanted side effects, or are they
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ineffective in certain situations?
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<P>
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When I have cat'ed an executable, I usually just type: <tt>reset <ENTER></tt>
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and let the garbage scroll off the screen.
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<P>
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If, for some reason, I find the garbage characters annoying,
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I follow this command by typing: <tt>clear <ENTER></tt>
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<P>
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Anthony Christopher
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="eisen"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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Re: simultaneous versions of kernels
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</H3>
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Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 22:01:22 +0200<BR>
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From: Henner Eisen, <A
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HREF="mailto:eis@baty.hanse.de">eis@baty.hanse.de</A>
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<P>
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Just my 0.02 Euro:
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<P>
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Most of the installation problems are caused by interaction with the
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linux distribution's default installation method. You can easily work
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around this by simply not installing your compiled kernel. Lilo and
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insmod support loading directly from the compilation directory.
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<P>
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Just unpack your kernel in an arbitrary directory, say /home/kernel/linux-test,
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apply any patches and compile: <tt>make [x|menu|old]config; make dep;
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make zImage modules</tt>. But do neither <tt>make install</tt> nor
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<tt>make modules_install</tt>.
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<P>
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Then add something like this to your /etc/lilo.conf:
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<PRE>
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# Linux bootable partition config begins
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# test new (not installed) kernel just compiled in directory
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# /home/kernel/linux-test.
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image = /home/kernel/linux-test/arch/i386/boot/zImage
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root = /dev/hda3
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label = test
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append= " MODPATH=/home/kernel/linux-test/modules/ "
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# Linux bootable partition config ends
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#
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</PRE>
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and run <tt>lilo</tt> whenever you have recompiled your kernel image.
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<P>
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When booting, choose "test" from the lilo prompt. The kernel will pass
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MODPATH to the environment of init and any startup routines that insmod's
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kernel modules will fetch them automatically from the kernel compilation tree.
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<P>
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(If you additionally want to insmod some modules by hand from a root shell,
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MODPATH might be unset. But scripts can still extract that information from
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/proc/cmdline).
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<P>
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Henner
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="hammel2"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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Question about your Linux Gazette post
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</H3>
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Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 10:14:47 -0600 (MDT)<BR>
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From: "Michael J. Hammel", <A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@fastlane.net">
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mjhammel@fastlane.net</A>
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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In a previous message, mjsendzi@engmail.uwaterloo.ca says:
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is there an url for this program?
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</font>
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<P>
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No, not that I know of. A couple of people have asked this. It's part of the
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core set of files in my Red Hat 4.2 distribution. Units has been around so
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long, and is available on so many different Unix platforms, that I suspect
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most distributions have a copy of it somewhere. On my RH4.2 it's under
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/usr/bin.
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<PRE>
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mjhammel(ttyp2)$ type units
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units is /usr/bin/units
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mjhammel(ttyp0)$ units
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501 units, 41 prefixes
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You have: 3 miles
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You want: kilometers
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* 4.828032
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/ 0.20712373
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</PRE>
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Michael J. Hammel
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="brown"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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COBOL Compilers for Linux
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</H3>
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Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 22:54:19 -0500<BR>
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From: <A HREF="mailto:cbbrowne@hex.net">cbbrowne@hex.net</A>
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<P>
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Concerning the following, recently posted in Linux Gazette:
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<P>
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<font color="navy">
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I have a friend who is doing a refresher course in Cobol in a Unix
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environment. I have suggested that she run Linux, and pick up a cheap /
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shareware copy of a Cobol compiler for Linux from somewhere. Knowing
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absolutely nothing about either Linux or Cobol, am I dreaming, or is there a
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realistic alternative to the compilers I have seen retailing for ~$1,500 US?
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I'd really appreciate any help/advice anyone can offer.
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</font>
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<P>
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There are several possible COBOL options in the Linux realm; for details
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see:<BR>
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<A HREF="http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/languages07.html">
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http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/languages07.html</A>
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<P>
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There's not anything yet that could be considered 100% viable outside of
|
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(rather expensive) commercial options; obviously these sorts of things don't
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happen without there being a population of people who are interested enough
|
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to be willing to invest the time necessary to implement something.
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<P>
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cbbrowne@hex.net
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<P> <hr> <P>
|
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<!--================================================================-->
|
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|
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<a name="david"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Resetting the term (2)
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</H3>
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|
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 16:44:25 -0700<BR>
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From: david, <A HREF="mailto:david@kalifornia.com">
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david@kalifornia.com</A>
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<P>
|
|
You posted a program to reset your console should the text become
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garbled. I thought I would mention that most distributions, Slackware
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notably, come with such a program that does this and more.
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<P>
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<tt>reset</tt> will clear your tty, restore sane tty settings, and perform
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general tty cleanups. You should find this little utility just about
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anywhere :)
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<P>
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David
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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|
|
<a name="smith"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Re: Help Wanted : newbie (3)
|
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</H3>
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|
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 22:46:15 +0200 (CEST)<BR>
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From: <A HREF="mailto:rsmith@xs4all.nl">rsmith@xs4all.nl</A>
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<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
In anwser to your questions in the September issue of the Linux
|
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Gazette:<BR>
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I recently purchased Red Hat 5.1 and got it running. Evidently I was lucky in that I have a fairly full FAT 32
|
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Win 98 drive and kind of stumbled through the defrag / fips / boot to CD / repartition / full install with LILO
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process. Everything worked, but I'm a little nonplussed. A few topics I'd absolutely love to get feedback
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on...
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Turns out I have a lousy WinModem. I can see the feedback now, (Run it over with your car)
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</font>
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<P>
|
|
Yep. Buy a *real* modem.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
I have grown fat and lazy with Win 98 and find myself looking for "Display Properties" and such. I'm
|
|
very familiar with C and such and am not afraid of hacking scripts or the like, but my problem is
|
|
thus: Where is a (succinct) list of what gets run when, from where, and why. I'd love to tweak
|
|
everything if only I could find it.
|
|
</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Daemons, boot time initialization: see the man page for `init'.
|
|
There'll be an assortiment of scripts in /etc/rc.d or /etc/init.d and
|
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/etc/rcX.d (where X = 0 to 6) that do your system's boot-time setup.
|
|
<P>
|
|
For X, especially XFree86, you can fiddle with the XF86Config file,
|
|
which should reside somewhere in /etc. Or if you have an X server
|
|
running you can use `xvidtune'. The programs and window-manager started
|
|
by the X server are usually in a file called xinitrc or xsession.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
I have something called an "Ensoniq Audio PCI" sound card with "legacy emulation" I don't even
|
|
know how to begin to get this thing working. What are the first steps in enabling hardware?
|
|
</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
You'll probably need to compile a new kernel. The sound driver that
|
|
comes with the kernel supports this card. install your distribution's
|
|
kernel source package, cd to /usr/src/linux and read the README.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
Where do I get information on mounting drives (FAT 32 especially)
|
|
</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Read the manual for `mount' and `umount'. Make sure you have a kernel
|
|
with (V)FAT support compiled in.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
I think my printer works (at least text does), but how do I print things (man pages)
|
|
</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Use the <tt>lpr program</tt>. It is a print spooler. You might want to fiddle
|
|
with /etc/printcap to enable your printer to print PostScript (via
|
|
GhostScript).
|
|
<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
I'm not an idiot, not even a "dummy", but what is a good book to answer the basic questions? I have "Linux
|
|
in a Nutshell" and it has a very good command reference and a few other things, but doesn't help in
|
|
tweaking things.
|
|
</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
I haven't read many books on Linux, just *lots* of manpages and HOWTO's
|
|
(in /usr/doc/HOWTO). Ask around in linux newsgroups.
|
|
<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
I don't really expect anyone to answer all of these concerns, but any little help would be greatly
|
|
appreciated.
|
|
</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Hope this helps... :-)
|
|
<P>
|
|
Roland
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="clapp"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
2c tip -- more fun with pipes
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 11:59:49 -0400<BR>
|
|
From: Larry Clapp, <A HREF="mailto:lclapp@iname.com">lclapp@iname.com</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
After reading the "Un-tar as you download" 2-cent tip from
|
|
scgmille@indiana.edu in issue 32, I thought you might like this,
|
|
too.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Say you have a program with a large initial startup time. After
|
|
that, the program reads a line from a file, processes it, reads
|
|
the next line, processes it, etc, until EOF. You would like to
|
|
process a single line of data without suffering through the
|
|
initial startup each time. Try this:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
mkfifo input_fifo
|
|
rm input_file
|
|
touch input_file
|
|
tail -f input_file >> input_fifo &
|
|
long_program input_fifo &
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
When you want to feed it some data, say
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
echo data1 data2 data3 >> input_file
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
The tail will wake up, read the line, output it to the fifo (aka
|
|
"named pipe"), the program will wake up, read the data from the
|
|
pipe, process it, and go back to sleep.
|
|
<P>
|
|
(You only have to do the mkfifo once; after that, it sticks
|
|
around. On some systems (e.g. my Sun at work, where I came up
|
|
with this), instead of <tt>mkfifo <i>filename</i></tt>, use
|
|
<tt>mknod <i>filename</i></tt>
|
|
p".)
|
|
<P>
|
|
To shut things down, kill the <tt>tail</tt>. The program will get an EOF
|
|
condition, and shut down normally.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Of course, a better solution might be to rewrite the program to
|
|
read from stdin, and then say
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
tail -f input_file | long_program -
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
but you can't always do that. Also, neither of these ideas will
|
|
work if the program reads the whole file, and then processes each
|
|
line from an internal list.
|
|
<P>
|
|
-- Larry Clapp
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="collver"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
2 cents tip: Un-tar as you download
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 03:46:20 -0700<BR>
|
|
From: Ben Collver, <A HREF="mailto:collver@dnc.net">collver@dnc.net</A><p>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
<tt>tail -f --bytes=1m file-being-downloaded.tar.gz | tar -zxv</tt><BR>
|
|
<tt>tail -f --bytes=1m file.tar.bz2 | bunzip2 - | tar -xv</tt>
|
|
</font>
|
|
<p>
|
|
I've noticed that sometimes <tt>tail -f</tt> does not work reliably. An
|
|
alternative if you have lynx is:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
lynx -source http://www.url.dum/file.tar.gz | tee file.tar.gz | tar zxm
|
|
lynx -source ftp://ftp.url.dum/file.tar.bz2 | tee file.tar.bz2 | bunzip2 - | tar xm
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Ben
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="mcnamara1"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Re: Help Wanted: Looking for an Xwin Server software that runs under win95/nt
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 11:31:08 +0100 (IST)<BR>
|
|
From: Caolan McNamara, <A HREF="mailto:Caolan.McNamara@ul.ie">
|
|
Caolan.McNamara@ul.ie</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
From: Mark Inder, mark@tts.co.nz <BR>
|
|
We use a Red Hat 4.2 machine in our office as a communications server. This is
|
|
running well with the facility oftelnet connections for maintenance, diald for
|
|
PPP dial up - internet and email, and uucp for incoming mail.
|
|
I would like to run an X server on my windows PC to be able to use X client
|
|
software on the Linux PC over the local Ethernet. Does anyone know of a
|
|
shareware for freeware version which is available.
|
|
</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Try the list at <A
|
|
HREF="http://www.rahul.net/kenton/xsites.html#XMicrosoft">
|
|
http://www.rahul.net/kenton/xsites.html#XMicrosoft</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
this one is free for example
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.microimages.com/www/html/freestuf/mix/">
|
|
http://www.microimages.com/www/html/freestuf/mix/</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Caolan
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="mcnamara2"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Re: Help wanted for a (Cheap) COBOL combiler for Linux
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 11:27:20 +0100 (IST)<BR>
|
|
From: Caolan McNamara, <A HREF="mailto:Caolan.McNamara@ul.ie">
|
|
Caolan.McNamara@ul.ie</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
From: Andrew Gates, andrewga@fcf.co.nz <BR>
|
|
I have a friend who is doing a refresher course in Cobol in a Unix environment.
|
|
I have suggested that she run Linux, and pick up a cheap / shareware copy of
|
|
a Cobol compiler for Linux from somewhere. Knowing absolutely nothing
|
|
about either Linux or Cobol, am I dreaming, or is there a realistic alternative
|
|
to the compilers I have seen retailing for
|
|
$1,500 US? I'd really appreciate any help/advice anyone can offer.
|
|
</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
I haven't ever used Cobol, but at <A
|
|
HREF="http://www.deskware.com/cobol/cobol.htm">
|
|
http://www.deskware.com/cobol/cobol.htm</A>,
|
|
there's a Cobol for Linux under development for download (for free I believe).
|
|
Might be good to check it out, and to find out if it's of any use yet.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Caolan
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="ramos"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Re: Clearing the Screen (3)
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 19:00:31 -0700<BR>
|
|
From: "Mark J. Ramos", <A HREF="mailto:mjramos@sprintparanet.com">
|
|
mjramos@sprintparanet.com</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
In the September issue you described some C code that can clear the
|
|
screen when it gets screwed up from binary dumps to the terminal. There
|
|
is a much easier way and it all it requires is the keyboard ;) Simply
|
|
type "echo control-v escape-c" where and hit enter. The "control-v"
|
|
allows you to type in the "escape-c" literally.
|
|
<P>
|
|
This has worked much better for me then some other methods such as
|
|
"reset" which comes with your favorite Linux distribution but like a
|
|
compiler it isn't always there. This key sequence is *always* available
|
|
on an ANSI terminal.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Mark Ramos
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="blenk"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Unix Tip
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 20:01:31 -0400<BR>
|
|
From: Ian C. Blenk, <A HREF="mailto:eicblenke@Neurotic.Intermedia.Com">
|
|
eicblenke@Neurotic.Intermedia.Com</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
As an addendum to Allan Peda's Tip in Linux Gazette issue 32,
|
|
here is a quick tip that applies to most DEC emulators (vtXXX):
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
echo ^V^O
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
That's echo, control-V, control-O. The control-V portion
|
|
escapes the control-O (terminal reset) from your shell.
|
|
The echo just puts the control-O right back to your terminal
|
|
emulator/dumb terminal (works great on true DEC terms too! :)
|
|
<P>
|
|
This works for most Unix flavors. No code. Easy to remember.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Ian Blenke
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="lambard1"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
rc.local Tip
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 14:24:07 -0700 (PDT)
|
|
From: Creede Lambard, <A HREF="mailto:fearless@moosylvania.net">
|
|
fearless@moosylvania.net</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
I've been reading the Linux Gazette for a couple of months now and I
|
|
think it's great, especially the tips.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Here's one for you to consider that was inspired by Dennis Lambert's "Help
|
|
Wanted" letter in issue #32. I hope it doesn't duplicate something you've
|
|
already published.
|
|
<P>
|
|
To those of us used to the warm, fuzzy DOS world of CONFIG.SYS and
|
|
AUTOEXEC.BAT, the complexities of the /etc/rc.d startup heirarchy can be
|
|
nothing short of intimidating. Well, I decided to make it a little less
|
|
so. I started by putting these lines at the top of /etc/rc.d/rc.local:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
echo "==============================================="
|
|
echo " "
|
|
echo "Now running rc.local"
|
|
echo " "
|
|
echo "==============================================="
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
Now, when I start up Linux I can tell just when my local configuration
|
|
starts to run, and if I'm having problems I can see whether they happen
|
|
before or after rc.local starts. You can learn other things, too -- I
|
|
learned that rc.sysinit gets run on startup and shutdown!
|
|
<P>
|
|
Unfortunately, especially if you have a fast system, you can miss error
|
|
messages as they scroll by and dmesg doesn't always echo the information
|
|
you need to solve a problem. I was seeing error messages in rc.local, but
|
|
I couldn't tell what they were because they went by too fast. So, I wrote
|
|
a Perl one-liner:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
perl -e "print 'Press ENTER to continue: '; $x = <:STDIN>;"
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
This prints a prompt, then waits for you to press ENTER before it
|
|
continues. (Yes, there's probably an easier way to do this with bash or
|
|
some utility, but I already know Perl and I'm still learning bash. [grin])
|
|
By putting this at the bottom of rc.sysinit I made the boot-up sequence stop
|
|
so I could see the error message, and of course once I saw it I knew
|
|
exactly how to fix it. I comment out the line unless I need it, of course
|
|
-- if everything is working right I want Linux to take me straight to the
|
|
login prompt!
|
|
<P>
|
|
Here's hoping this helps someone.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Creede Lambard
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="kang"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Yet another method of resetting scrambled terminal after dumping binary data.
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 03:55:54 +0000<BR>
|
|
From: Sang Kang, <A HREF="mailto:sang@mocha.dyn.ml.org">
|
|
sang@mocha.dyn.ml.org</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Perhaps this is the simplist solution:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
echo '\017'
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
that's it.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Sang Woo Kang
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="smith2"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Rick's quick and dirty screen-saver
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 09:10:04 -0400<BR>
|
|
From: "R. Smith", <A HREF="mailto:riter311@gte.net">
|
|
riter311@gte.net</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Here's a shell script which cycles through jpgs:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
#!/bin/sh
|
|
|
|
# showjpg Rick's quick and dirty screen saver.
|
|
|
|
# Run from an xterm. Controll 'C' should get you out. Or run in
|
|
# background with '&' and use kill.
|
|
|
|
# forever
|
|
while [ 1 ]; do
|
|
# The path to your jpgs
|
|
for file in /usr/local/images/jpg/*.jpg
|
|
do
|
|
xsetbg $file
|
|
sleep 20
|
|
done
|
|
done
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
<tt>xsetbg</tt> is from the xloadimage package. It's the same as:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
xloadimage -onroot -quiet
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
Sleep is in seconds. Use <tt>convert</tt> from the
|
|
ImageMagick package to convert .gif or .bmp to .jpg.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Rick
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="malyshkin"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
MS Word & Netscape
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 07:58:56 -0400<BR>
|
|
From: Vladislav Malyshkin, <A HREF="mailto:mal@mail1.nai.net">
|
|
mal@mail1.nai.net</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
I wish to contribute 2 cents story.
|
|
<P>
|
|
One-click view of MSWord files in Netscape.
|
|
<P>
|
|
There is a sad fact, that some people use MSWord to exchange documents.
|
|
When one one gets such file in a mail on Linux (s)he can use MSWordView,
|
|
but this requires:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
Save file
|
|
Convert from .doc to .html
|
|
Start Netscape to view it
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
This 2 cents tip is about how to reconfigure netscape in order to view
|
|
MSWord documents in one click.
|
|
<P>
|
|
To do this:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Download and install MSWordView from
|
|
<A HREF="http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/docs/MSWordView.html">
|
|
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/docs/MSWordView.html</A>.
|
|
Usually it takes just <tt>./configure ; make ; make install</tt>
|
|
<li>Edit file .mailcap in your home directory (create it if it does not
|
|
exist). Add one line into this file:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
application/msword; ns="%s"\; nf="${ns}".html\; mswordview "${ns}" >"${nf}"\;\
|
|
netscape -remote 'openURL(file:'"${nf}"')' \; sleep 2 \; rm "${nf}"
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
Vladislav
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="burns"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Pulling Files from NT
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 23:29:10 +0000<BR>
|
|
From: Michael Burns, <A HREF="mailto:michaelburns@earthlink.net">
|
|
michaelburns@earthlink.net</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
Nothing groundbreaking here but, being a newbie to Linux and Samba I was
|
|
having a difficult time getting Samba set up and needed to get some
|
|
large files from an NT server to a Linux machine. I do not have any NFS
|
|
programs for NT but do have a Web/FTP server running on NT so my
|
|
temporary but quick solution was to put the files I needed into my NT
|
|
server's FTP directory and download them from there.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Michael Burns
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="hammel3"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Re: The wisdom of US West...
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 19:30:16 -0600 (MDT)<BR>
|
|
From: "Michael J. Hammel", <A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@fastlane.net">
|
|
mjhammel@fastlane.net</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
Michael J. Hammel wrote:
|
|
I haven't checked, but doesn't IPv6 have 6 dot-values? And are they larger
|
|
than 8 bit values? Just curious. I haven't heard much about IPv6 in
|
|
awhile and wondered how we haven't run out of IP space yet without it.
|
|
</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
From: Jay Kominek, <A HREF="mailto:jay.kominek@colorado.edu">
|
|
jay.kominek@colorado.edu</A> <BR>
|
|
IPv6 addresses take the form of 'FEDC:BA98:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210'
|
|
8 16-bit hexadecimal chunks. All kinds of fun. Luckily, if you have a string
|
|
of zeros in your address, you can do something like 1080::8:800:200C:417A
|
|
<P>
|
|
To save yourself some typing.
|
|
<P>
|
|
I hope I'm not running some place's DNS when IPv6 becomes popularized.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Relevent RFCs:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>1883 Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification. S. Deering &
|
|
R. Hinden. December 1995. (Format: TXT=82089 bytes) (Status: PROPOSED
|
|
STANDARD)
|
|
|
|
<li>1884 IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture. R. Hinden & S. Deering,
|
|
Editors. December 1995. (Format: TXT=37860 bytes) (Obsoleted by
|
|
RFC2373) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)
|
|
|
|
<li>1886 DNS Extensions to support IP version 6. S. Thomson & C. Huitema.
|
|
December 1995. (Format: TXT=6424 bytes) (Status: PROPOSED STANDARD)
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="ferney"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
RE: Clearing the Screen (4)
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 1998 08:44:10 -0600<BR>
|
|
From: Robert Ferney, <A HREF="mailto:rferney@spillman.com">
|
|
rferney@spillman.com</A>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<font color="navy">
|
|
From: Allan Peda, allan@interport.net<BR>
|
|
A few days ago a classmate "accidentally" cat'ed a file to the screen.
|
|
He asked asked me what he could do to reset his confused vt100, as
|
|
<tt>clear</tt> wasn't sufficient.</font>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<tt>reset</tt> works very well for this.
|
|
The command <tt>reset</tt> will effectively reset the screen by sending it the
|
|
proper escape sequence. since <tt>reset</tt> looks up the escape sequence from
|
|
the terminfo library so it works on just about any terminal. If this
|
|
fails, sometimes a
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
$ stty sane
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
will do the trick.
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
|
|
<a name="andreas"></a>
|
|
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
|
Re: Keeping track of your config files
|
|
</H3>
|
|
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 22:30:58 +0200<BR>
|
|
From: Andreas
|
|
<P>
|
|
Your idea for keeping track of those files by linking
|
|
them to a central directory is good.
|
|
<P>
|
|
Another idea I am using frequently is keeping track
|
|
of the modifications by either employing SCCS or RCS
|
|
(or whatever derived utility available).
|
|
<P>
|
|
Combining both ideas means for SCCS based systems: Use e.g.
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
$ cd /
|
|
$ sccs -d/root/SCCS create etc/inittab
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
if you share a lot of these files across several systems, but there
|
|
are some files that may differ you probably like to type
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
$ sccs -d/root/SCCS -p`hostname` create etc/lilo.conf
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
Which results in the following tree:
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
/root
|
|
|-/SCCS
|
|
| |-etc
|
|
| | |-s.inittab
|
|
| | |-apollon
|
|
| | | |-s.lilo.conf
|
|
| | |-jupiter
|
|
| | | |-s.lilo.conf
|
|
...
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
For daily use I recommend to keep all the files 'checked-out',
|
|
i.e. 'sccs edit' always after 'sccs create' and otherwise 'sccs
|
|
deledit'.
|
|
The above commands should also be abbreviated by aliases.
|
|
<P>
|
|
For the RCS used admins I recommend 'cvs', but this
|
|
means a bit more work ....
|
|
<P>
|
|
Andreas
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
<!--================================================================-->
|
|
<center>Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 33, October 1998</center>
|
|
<P> <hr> <P>
|
|
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|
|
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<h5>This page maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
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<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A><BR>
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Copyright © 1998 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. </H5>
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