476 lines
16 KiB
HTML
476 lines
16 KiB
HTML
<!--startcut ==========================================================-->
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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 #41</title>
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</head>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0000AF"
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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><font color="#CC0000">New Tips:</font></H3>
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<ul>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#primes">
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motd $0.02 tip
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</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#grace">
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IP Addresses
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</a>
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</ul>
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<H3><font color="#CC0000">Answers to Mail Bag Questions:</font></H3>
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<ul>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#brown">
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LG39 - Dodgy Hard Drive
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</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#crane">
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Linux, PalmIII, and Email
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</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#olaf">
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Uninstalling Software
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</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#derek">
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KDE - so what?
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</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#crane2">
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What is a *.ajr file?
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</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#francois">
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CD Autoloader
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</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#leroy">
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RE: Problem with the proxy
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</a>
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<li><a HREF="./lg_tips41.html#hawkins">
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Re: what is my dialup (ppp) IP number?
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</a>
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</ul>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="primes"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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<font color="navy">
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motd $0.02 tip
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 01:53:44 PDT<BR>
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From: primes, <A HREF="mailto:primes@hotmail.com">primes@hotmail.com</A>
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<P>
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For many Linux home boxes, the message-of-the-day file (/etc/motd)
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serves no real purpose. I've instead used it to display ascii art,
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something like a splash screen, which changes every hour. i've found
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this to be a welcome change from the normally blank motd at each
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login, at least visually.
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<P>
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Just create a new directory, say /etc/splash and dump all your ascii
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art files there. next as root, add an hourly cron job with the
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following script. This script cycles through each ascii file
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alphabetically and the sed command works using gnu sed. Different
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versions of sed might require slight changes.
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<PRE>
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#!/bin/sh
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# Different splash screens (motd) every hour.
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cd /etc/splash/
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[ -f .splash ] &&
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SPLASH=`/bin/cat .splash`
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[ -z "$SPLASH" ] ||
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[ ! -f "$SPLASH" ] &&
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SPLASH=`/bin/ls | /bin/sed -n '1p'`
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/bin/cp "$SPLASH" ../motd && {
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/bin/ls | /bin/sed -n '1h;/^'$SPLASH'$/{${x;p;q;};n;p;}' >.splash
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}
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</PRE>
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You can also replace the ascii files with more informative motd files
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to be displayed each day of the week by issuing daily cron jobs
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instead of hourly. This can be done for example to remind me of the
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things i'm supposed to do for the day.
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<P>
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--<BR>
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primes
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="grace"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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<font color="navy">
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IP Addresses
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 02:52:34 +0000<BR>
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From: Allen Grace, <A HREF="mailto:a.grace@mailbox.uq.edu.au">
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a.grace@mailbox.uq.edu.au</A>
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<P>
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In your New Tips section you've published a tip describing a method of
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finding the IP address for a PPP session with a Perl script.
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<P>
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There is a simpler way, which you may like to append to his tip. Under
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bash:
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<PRE>
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IPADDR=`/sbin/ifconfig | \
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grep P-t-P | \
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awk 'BEGIN{FS=" "} {print $2}' | \
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awk 'BEGIN{FS=":"} {print $2}'`
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</PRE>
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And then you do whatever you like with $IPADDR.
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<P>
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This will work for the same ifconfig output as the gentlemen who
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submitted the Perl script.
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<P>
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N.B. There are formatting issues here. The command list must be enclosed
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in backquotes, but the font used for Netscape mail doesn't seem to have
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a backquote character, as it has substituted the forward quote.
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<P>
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Cheers and many thanks for the enjoyable reading.
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<P>
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--<BR>
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Allen
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<H4><font color="maroon">
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Tips in the following section are answers to questions printed in the Mail
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Bag column of previous issues.
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</font></H4>
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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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ANSWER: <font color="navy">
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LG39 - Dodgy Hard Drive
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 17:11:59 +0200<BR>
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From: Nick Brown, <A HREF="mailto:Nick.BROWN@coe.fr">
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Nick.BROWN@coe.fr</A>
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<P>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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hda: SAMSUNG SV0644A, 6105MB w/490kB Cache, CHS=778/255/63, UDMA
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hdb: FUJITSU MPC3064AT, 6187MB w/0kB Cache, CHS=838/240/63, UDMA
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hdc: ST34321A, 4103MB w/128kB Cache, CHS=8894/15/63, UDMA
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</font></blockquote>
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<P>
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I hit a related but different problem after a BIOS upgrade, which led me to
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the kernel sources. There is a routine in there which gets old-style (lots
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of heads, fewer cylinders) info for the first two HDs only. If you have
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partitioned the disk with, say, FDISK, or possibly even with Linux when it
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was hda, then you will have old-style head/cyl counts in the partition
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tables. You'll probably find that fdisk, lilo, etc, are complaining about
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your disk's geometry as well.
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<P>
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One possibility is to try booting with the kernel option hdc=<c>,<h>,<s> -
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see the BootPrompt HOWTO. Another might be to completely zap the disk
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(writing 512 zeroes with dd to /dev/hdc should do it) and repartition it
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under Linux.
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<P>
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In my opinion, this "extra" treatment of just hda/hdb is a bug - the system
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should work out the "old-style" geometry of all the IDE drives in a
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consistent manner. Mark Lord, who maintains much of the IDE code, thinks
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that the old-style init code should be junked for 2.3.
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<P>
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I patched my kernel to fix my problem (which was causing the CHS numbers for
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hda to be overwritten by data for a SCSI drive), but it wouldn't work for
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yours. You might try editing ide.c in your kernel source tree and reducing
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the routine probe_cmos_for_drives() to an empty pair of {} braces.
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<P>
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--<BR>
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Nick
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="crane"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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<font color="navy">
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Linux, PalmIII, and Email
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 13:35:02 +0100BR
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From: Stephen Crane, <A HREF="mailto:scrane@flexicom.com">
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scrane@flexicom.com</A>
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<P>
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Hi Mark,<BR>
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If you have sendmail set up correctly from your
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Linux box to your ISP, the process should be
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transparent. When you sync email from the Palm
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(using PilotManager <A HREF="http://www.moshpit.org/pilotmgr/">
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http://www.moshpit.org/pilotmgr/</A>)
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it transmits the email from the Linux user-id (i.e.,
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the user-id under which you ran the sync) via sendmail
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or whatever MTA you've configured.
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<P>
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Hope this helps. If you need help on setting up
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email to your ISP, have a look at the Mail HOWTO.
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If you have to, there are very few lines in the
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standard /etc/sendmail.cf (from RedHat) which need
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to be changed.
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Cheers,
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<P>
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--<BR>
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Steve
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="olaf"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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<font color="navy">
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Uninstalling Software
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 12:43:01 -0400 (EDT)<BR>
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From: <A HREF="mailto:olaf.greis@iname.com">
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olaf.greis@iname.com</A>
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<P>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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Have you had any articles on uninstalling application
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software in Linux.
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</font></blockquote>
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<P>
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There is no such thing as a generalized uninstall method
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in linux. it really depends on the way you installed
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the software.
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<P>
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Two widespread package formats (.deb and .rpm) come
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with their own install utilities which are also able to
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uninstall packages. Please see your system documentation
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(or manpages) on the various options these installers
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offer.
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<P>
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If you just installed from a .tgz (or .tar.gz) archive
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containing the binaries your mostly lost, since tgz
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offers no uninstall mechanism at all. All you can do is
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watch the system at installation time and manually remove the files.
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<P>
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If you compiled the sources by yourself make sure to
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keep a copy of the makefile, since recent applications
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often come with a 'make uninstall' directive. If you
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don't have the makefile or the makefile doesn't offer a
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uninstall option your just as lost as with a .tgz binary
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<P>
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--<BR>
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olaf
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="derek"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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<font color="navy">
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KDE - so what?
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 08:49:26 +0100<BR>
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From: Derek, <A HREF="mailto:fountai@hursley.ibm.com">
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fountai@hursley.ibm.com</A>
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<P>
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Lou,
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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Am I just being obtuse, or does KDE feel like a heavy, bloated, resource-intensive desktop environment? If that's what I wanted, I would stay with M(I'm
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sorry, I can't say the word)t. Features and benefits be damned, FVWM2 comes real close to the type of responsiveness I feel should be expected of the
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desktop ... KDE doesn't even come close.
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</font></blockquote>
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You're not being obtuse, but you are missing the point. KDE comes in
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pieces, so if you don't want a particular feature bloating up your
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system and hogging your resources, comment it out of the startup script.
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Don't need the sound manager? Switch it off. Don't want the background
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manager? Switch it off. Don't need the panel? Switch it off. Of course,
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if you do that, you won't be using KDE anymore, and you won't get the
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benefits of the environment.
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<P>
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The "GUI tax" is something you have to pay if you want as nice
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environment. Pretty pictures and sounds cost memory, disk space and CPU
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time. With Linux and KDE you have a choice. Some would say that Fvwm2 is
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a complete resource hog, and why can't we all just use a CLI from a
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console? We can, but you don't have to. You pays yer money and takes yer
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choice. On this platform at least, that's an option, only you don't have
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to pay any money.
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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And WHY hasn't anyone else complained? At least, not in a forum that I've been aware of. Is it that everyone is so enamored of the acceptance that Linux has
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been getting that they are afraid to rock the boat?
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</font></blockquote>
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Because everyone else just makes a simple decision. "Does this do what I
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want at a cost I'm prepared to pay?" If it does, they use it. If it
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doesn't, they use something else which better matches their needs. Linux
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isn't about complaining. It's about solving problems. If you can write a
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desktop environment which does all the nice things KDE does within the
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resource constraints matched by Fvwm2, I'll use it.
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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On the other hand, I suppose that we (the Linux user community) feel like we can pass this KDE thing off as a ready replacement for W(I'm sorry, but I can't
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say that word, either)s, given that it is so slow and bloated that W(you know)s users will feel right at home.
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Yeah, that's the ticket, we'll make 'em feel right at home.
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</font></blockquote>
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Nope, we're just offering another solution to user's problems. It might
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be, in your opinion, another slow, bloated solution, but it's faster
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than Windows, more stable, open source and free of charge. It suits a
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lot of people. If it doesn't suit you, fine. Use something else. No need
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to moan about it...
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<P>
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--<BR>
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Del
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="crane2"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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<font color="navy">
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What is a *.ajr file?
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 00:44:35 +0200<BR>
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From: Steve Crane, <A HREF="mailto:tux@datapro.co.za">
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tux@datapro.co.za</A>
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<P>
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Hans Jensen replied to an erlier 2c tip:
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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I think what you see here is the result of Win98 stumbling over a
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filename with multiple periods in it. I get a similar result on Win95,
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as well as on Win-NT4.0, only the name in my case is mangled into
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xxx_tar.tar. So when you have the dialog for the download on screen,
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you can simply change the name into something like xx.tgz, which is
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unpacked by e.g. WinZip with the same ease as if it were a real ZIP
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file. Note for LG: maybe this would be an alternative for the names
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you use on the website?
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</font></blockquote>
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This appears to have been a bug in one of the Internet access components
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used by Windows. The error occurred in files downloaded from both
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Internet Explorer and Netscape.
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<P>
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However, the bug appears to have been corrected as I have not seen file
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names being broken on downloads from either browser since I have
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installed Internet Explorer 5.
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<P>
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-- <BR>
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Steve
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="francois"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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<font color="navy">
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CD Autoloader
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 19:16:32 +0000<BR>
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From: Francois Desarmenien, <A HREF="mailto:desar@club-internet.fr">
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desar@club-internet.fr</A>
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<blockquote><font color="navy">
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I have Caldera OpenLinux 1.2 with 2.2.5 kernel installed.
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I need to know if the NEC 4X6 CD changer is supported under Linux, and
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so how do you set up
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Linux to access the 3 other platters?
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</font></blockquote>
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I'll suppose NEC 4x6 CD changer is an SCSI device.
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<P>
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If it is, it is made of two distinct SCSI devices:
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<ol>
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<li>A cdrom player
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<li>A medium changer robot
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</ol>
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which share the same SCSI id with 2 distinct LUNs.
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<P>
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Here is my idea (maybe it will require some hack, but maybe not):
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<P>
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Leonard N. Zubkoff ( lnz@dandelion.com ) wrote a piece of software that d rives a medium changer robot
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for DDS tape loaders. It is called MTX and can be found at www.dandelion.com/Linux . Works as a breeze.
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<P>
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As the notion of "medium changer devices" is well defined and very generic in SCSI RFCs, I suspect the
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SCSI inquiries for the cdrom changer should be very close to tape changer
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ones, so this code could
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probably do the job.
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<P>
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Unfortunatly, I have no such cdrom changers, so I haven't tried it. But I'm sure it is worth the test.
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<P>
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--<BR>
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Francois Desarmenien
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<H3>
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<font color="navy">
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Re: CD autoloader
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 09:47:54 PDT<BR>
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From: "Trenton Hergesell", <A HREF="mailto:lethalbyte@hotmail.com">
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lethalbyte@hotmail.com</A>
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<P>
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I should have added that it is an ATAPI compliant device ( IDE
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Primary channel, Slave drive). Thank you for your response. I have
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recently upgraded to Caldera 1.3, but I am having problems upgrading
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the Kernel.
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<P>
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--<BR>
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Trenton
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="leroy"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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<font color="navy">
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RE: Problem with the proxy
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Thu, 22 Apr 1999 12:41:19 -0500<BR>
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From: "Nicholas R LeRoy", <A HREF="mailto:nick.leroy@norland.com">
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nick.leroy@norland.com</A>
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<P>
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The socks5 package can be found at www.socks.nec.com. It works quite well.
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Linux is well supported, as well.
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<P>
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--<BR>
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Nick
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<a name="hawkins"></a>
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<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
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<font color="navy">
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Re: what is my dialup (ppp) IP number?
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</font> </H3>
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Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 19:10:40 +1000<BR>
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From: Matthew Hawkins, <A HREF="mailto:matt@mail.goldweb.com.au">
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matt@mail.goldweb.com.au</A>
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<P>
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pppd passes this to the ip-up script as the 4th argument.
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<P>
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man pppd.
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<P>
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-- <BR>
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Matt
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<center>Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 41, April 1999</center>
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