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<H2>December 2001, Issue 73 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
Published by <I>Linux Journal</I></H2>
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<H1><font color="#BB0000">Table of Contents:</font></H1>
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<LI> <a HREF="lg_mail.html">The MailBag</A>
<LI> <a HREF="lg_tips.html">More 2-Cent Tips</A>
<LI> <a HREF="lg_answer.html">The Answer Gang</A>
<LI> <a HREF="lg_bytes.html">News Bytes</A>
<LI> <a HREF="alcidi.html">Linux User Caricatures</A> , <EM>by Franck Alcidi</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="arndt.html">The Art of Atari ST Emulation</A> , <EM>by Matthias Arndt</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="chung.html">Audio Processing Pipelines</A> , <EM>by Adrian J. Chung</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="dennis.html">Microsoft's New Briar Patch</A> , <EM>by Jim Dennis</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="field.html">Winning the Battle for the Desktop</A> , <EM>by Dennis Field</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="mauerer.html">Visual Debugging with ddd</A> , <EM>by Wolfgang Mauerer</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="mwaikambo.html">Installing Linux on Root Devices Unsupported by Your Distribution</A> , <EM>by Zwane Mwaikambo</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="okopnik.html">The Answer Gang's Posting Guidelines</A> , <EM>by Ben Okopnik</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="orr.html">The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers</A> , <EM>by Mike "Iron" Orr</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="orr2.html">Free-Software Appreciation</A> , <EM>by Mike ("Iron") Orr</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="padala.html">Content Management with Procmail</A> , <EM>by Pradeep Padala and Prakash Bulusu</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="spiel.html">Writing Documentation - Part 1: POD</A> , <EM>by Christoph Spiel</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="zhaoway.html">Managing MP3 Playlists, The One UNIX Way</A> , <EM>by zhaoway</EM>
<LI> <a HREF="lg_backpage.html">The Back Page</A>
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<H3 ALIGN="center"><EM>Linux Gazette</EM> Staff and The Answer Gang</H3>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<STRONG>Editor:</STRONG> Michael Orr<BR>
<STRONG>Technical Editor:</STRONG> Heather Stern<BR>
<STRONG>Senior Contributing Editor:</STRONG> Jim Dennis<BR>
<STRONG>Contributing Editors:</STRONG>
Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Don Marti
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<A HREF="issue73.html">TWDT 2 (HTML file)</A><BR>
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This page maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
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<H1><A NAME="wanted"><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="" SRC="../gx/mailbox.gif">
The Mailbag</A></H1> <BR>
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<center><H3><font color="maroon">HELP WANTED : Article Ideas</font></H3></center>
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<P> Send tech-support questions, Tips, answers and article ideas to The Answer Gang
&lt;<A HREF="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com"
>linux-questions-only@ssc.com</A>&gt;. Other mail (including
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<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#wanted/1"
><strong>radius</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/2"
><strong>HTML/CSS question - useful for dicussion</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/3"
><strong>neighbour table overflow</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#wanted/4"
><strong>Ethernet: Slow download, fast upload</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="wanted/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">radius</FONT></H3>
Wed, 7 Nov 2001 00:41:46 +0200
<BR>hakan bilginer (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=hakanb@vestelnet.com&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20help%20wanted%20%231">hakanb from vestelnet.com</a>)
<P>
Hello,
</P>
<P>
I wonder if it's possible to make a radius server on linux to
authenticate the users on a remote mssql server 7.0 database.we use ms
radius server and want to try linux.and if it's possible which radius
server would you recommend for this job?
</P>
<P>
Thank you
</P>
<P>
Hakan Bilginer
</P>
<!-- end 1 -->
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<P> <A NAME="wanted/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">HTML/CSS question - useful for dicussion</FONT></H3>
27 Nov 2001 23:31:32 +0000
<BR>mike (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=mike@redtux.demon.co.uk&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20help%20wanted%20%232">mike from redtux.demon.co.uk</a>)
<P>
I am currently trying to write html which will insert page breaks for
printing, which is is CSS2, and just happens to be part of css2 not
implemented in mozilla.
</P>
<P>
Is any anyone aware of any solutions to this using HTML/CSS1
</P>
<!-- end 2 -->
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<P> <A NAME="wanted/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">neighbour table overflow</FONT></H3>
Tue, 13 Nov 2001 10:53:35 -0500 (EST)
<BR>Ian Berry (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=ian@wunh.org&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20help%20wanted%20%233">ian from wunh.org</a>)
<P>
Hi all,
</P>
<P>
I just set up a nice little p120 with 2-NICs and RedHat7.0 for my mom and
it is working great except for one thing which you have spoken of before,
the "neighbour table overflow" message being printed out to the console.
</P>
<P>
In a response to a letter from James Zhuang, Heather spoke of how ifcfg-lo
might be missing or that lo might not be up but on my system, ifcfg-lo is
there and appears correct and lo is up and running. Also JimD mentioned
that pump might be screwing up the loopback configuration and I am running
that as my dhcp client; how might i remedy this problem? I'd be happy to
provide more system information if it would help or if you have any other
ideas on where i might look i would appreciate it.
</P>
<P>
Thanks,
</P>
<P>
--
Ian Berry
</P>
<p><em>Old symptom, maybe a new problem. Anybody out there encountering
this too? Even better if you've got a Tip sized answer.
-- Heather</em></p>
<!-- end 3 -->
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<P> <A NAME="wanted/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Ethernet: Slow download, fast upload</FONT></H3>
Mon, 12 Nov 2001 17:47:29 +0100
<BR>Matthias Posseldt (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=matthi@gmx.li&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20help%20wanted%20%234">matthi from gmx.li</a>)
<P>
Hi all there,
</P>
<P>
I recently bought a OVIS Live FSH8R 10/100 MPS autosensing switch and a
Davicom 9102 network card (dmfe.c) (They deliver Linux drivers on disk!!)
So I cabled all together and connected to a friends notebook.
From my <A HREF="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</A> server he can download with speeds up to 9 MB/s, that's what
I expected. Now when I download files (big files to measure the
throughput) from his Apache (on Windows
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/unsmily.gif" ALT=";-("
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> or via smbmount/Samba,
I'll just get a rate of 2,5 MB/s. With iptraf (an ip traffic analyser, it's
very good, IMO) I get a lot of big packets (1400-1500 bytes), which are
the data packages. But my network interface also receives/sends alot small
(&lt;100 bytes) packages. These are confirmation packages, I assume.
</P>
<P>
Both network cards run at 100 Mps, changing switch ports did not help.
The switch has only two cables connected.
</P>
<P>
So, nice story
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";-)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">. The question:
Why can't I get a fast downlink, but only a fast uplink.
</P>
<P>
Thanks, Matthias
</P>
<!-- end 4 -->
<P> <hr> </p>
<a name="mailbag"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">GENERAL MAIL</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<!-- BEGIN GENERAL MAIL -->
<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#mailbag/1"
><strong>Diablo under Wine</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#mailbag/3"
><strong>Tnx Ben & Breen</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#mailbag/4"
><strong>re Nov issue - Dennis Field article</strong></a>
<li>Two readers address --
<em>RE:Battle for the Desktop: Why Linux Isn't Winning</em>
<br><A HREF="#mailbag/8"
><strong>Ian Carr-de Avelon</strong></a>
<br><A HREF="#mailbag/9"
><strong>Robin Rowe</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Diablo under Wine</FONT></H3>
18 Nov 2001 13:42:13 -0600
<BR>Charles R. Tersteeg (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?cc=aa0na@arrl.net&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20mailbag%20%231">aa0na from arrl.net</a>)
<P><STRONG>
I read your article in Published in issue 71 of Linux Gazette October
2001 where Jefferson said Diablo ran fine under Wine at LWE. Which
Diablo? I or II. I have II running fine, but I can't find anyone who
has Diablo I running.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
thanks,
<br>chuck
</STRONG></P>
<P>
I really don't recall whether it was I or II - but it was the honest to
goodness CD from the Windows software package.
</P>
<P>
It was in the <a href="http://www.transgaming.com/">TRANSGAMING.com</a>
booth; Transgaming makes ActiveX extensions for
<A HREF="http://www.winehq.com/">WINE</A>, and with those extensions,
many games run fine. -- Heather
</P>
<!-- end 2 -->
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<P> <A NAME="mailbag/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Tnx Ben & Breen</FONT></H3>
Thu, 1 Nov 2001 19:47:22 -0700
<BR>William Laing (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20mailbag%20%233">wmlaing from home.com</a>)
<P>
Ben &amp; Breen
<br>Thank you people who offered me help on loading modules, into the 6.2 system
I havent got it right yet, but learnt something for sure.
I dumped the system and will start from scratch again with a different card.
<br>Thanks agn bill
</P>
<!-- end 3 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">re Nov issue - Dennis Field article</FONT></H3>
Thu, 8 Nov 2001 10:21:37 -0500
<BR>Harold A. J. Isaacs (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20mailbag%20%234">chorales from ioip.com</a>)
<P><STRONG>
Would you kindly pass on to Mr Field that "Lunux Canada" seems to have
exactly what he is looking for. It is not free, but moderately (compared
with MS) priced. Certainly it is worth checking them out.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I found them at www.linuxcanada.com
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
They didn't have anything that interested me but they seem to have exactly
what Mr Field needs.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanks for your wonderful magazine.
</STRONG></P>
<P>
LG has received announcements from Linux Canada before about their POS
products. I sent the URL to Dennis, but I also noted that I couldn't
get into the site when I retested it. However, I can get into the site
now. I think Dennis is looking for more of a software solution, whereas
Linux Canada is more geared toward special hardware. But maybe Dennis
will find what he needs. -- Mike
</P>
<P><strong>
Thank you for your rapid reply.
</strong>
</P>
<P><strong>
So far as I know Linux Canada only sells software. There has (in the last 2
years) never been a suggestion of hardware sales or availability - only
accounting and point of sale SOFTWARE.
</strong>
</P>
<P><strong>
The only time I have had trouble getting into their website was when the
backbone was clogged, you could not even get anywhere in Canada then. You
may have had a similar problem.
</strong>
</P>
<P><strong>
Harold A. J. Isaacs
</strong>
</P>
<!-- end 6 -->
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<P> <A NAME="mailbag/8"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">RE:Battle for the Desktop: Why Linux Isn't Winning</FONT></H3>
Mon, 5 Nov 2001 15:33:25 +0100
<BR>Ian Carr-de Avelon (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?cc=ian@emit.pl&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20mailbag%20%238">ian from emit.pl</a>)
<!-- sig -->
<P>
There are a whole series of relatively common problems related in this article,
like applications software which does not run smoothly on all distributions
and hardware which is not suported by a distribution, or sometimes by any
Linux driver at all.
</P>
<P>
The real point is what can be done about this, and who should do it. The
author, Dennis Field, seems to put the blame with the Linux distribution
he chose. He, or his employer, paid them good money and so Linux should do
what he needs it to do. There is nothing wrong with the logic of this,
but the prospect of all distributions, or the most comercial distributions,
or even one Linux distribution running out of the box on all old and
new PCs is pritty well nill. Also even if that did happen, it would not get
Mr Field to his goal of using Linux for the whole bookshop in one giant
leap.
</P>
<P>
The problems which would need to be fixed
even in this one "case study" are spread accrose the developers of:
Linux kernel, X windows, StarOffice, and the distribution's firewall.
Each of these have nowhere near the resources or assistance from hardware
designers which Microsoft has, and yet they produce software which
(on other criteria than out of the box installation on all PCs) far
outperforms Microsoft's products. They have a right to pride in their
work and respect from others, and simply calling for any of
these teams to work harder till the problems nolonger exist would really
mean accepting that Linux has lost, because even if the developers gave
up all their free time, the extra improvement could never have the kind
of impact which the author desires.
</P>
<P>
I have writen <A HREF="http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/15359/84340"
>elsewhere</a> (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/15359/84340)
how I would generally advise SMEs to move towards
Linux, but given the evidence of interest in building fairly complex
systems at low cost, maybe we need a business by business (Bookshops,
Chemists, Garages) Linux forum to give system integration with Linux
the kind of boost which <A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/">Linux Documentation Project</A> (LDP) and sourceforge have done in other ways.
</P>
<P>
Yours
<br>Ian
</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
[Dennis also has <A HREF="field.html">another article</A>
in this issue. -Iron.]
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- end 8 -->
<!-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -->
<P> <A NAME="mailbag/9"><HR WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Re: Battle for the Desktop: Why Linux Isn't Winning</FONT></H3>
Fri, 9 Nov 2001 15:22:51 -0800
<BR>Robin Rowe (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?cc=&Robin.Rowe@MovieEditor.comsubject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20mailbag%20%239">Robin.Rowe from MovieEditor.com</a>)
<P>
Dennis,
</P>
<P>
It is unfortunate that you had trouble installing Linux on your ThinkPad.
You don't say what distros you tried, and each distro works a bit
differently. Since installation troubles are really the domain of the distro
and not the operating system itself it seems unfair that you name the
problem as Linux but avoided naming the distros that actually caused you the
trouble.
</P>
<P>
Have you tried <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> Linux? This is a very popular distro, supported
entirely by volunteers. You could download the boot/root floppy images from
debian.org, copy them on to two floppies, then boot and install a minimal
Debian Linux OS. This is usually quite easy. After configuring your Linux
network settings and adjusting your sources.list to point to the Debian
download site you could then use dselect or apt-get to install the rest of
whatever you want automatically over the Internet.
</P>
<P>
That you would have the troubles you did isn't too surprising. Most Windows
users would have trouble in the similar circumstances trying to install
Windows on their own for the first time without ever having used it before.
A more realistic approach when installing Linux for the first time is to
enlist the aid of other Linux users. Most Linux users groups host monthly
installfests for this reason, so that new users get the install help they
need from experienced hands. Had you done that I expect you would have had
an operational Linux laptop within minutes. Another approach is to join the
debian mailing list where anybody usually gets answers to install problems
within a few minutes.
</P>
<P>
Your analogy comparing Linux to a Ferrari with no wheels is unjust. The
wheels are right there, you just had a problem with your "Some Assembly
Required" situation. You were not picking up your new Ferrari at the dealer,
were you? If you were buying a new Thinkpad purchased from IBM with Linux
already pre-installed (look under "personal systems" at www.ibm.com/linux)
you should have no installation problems whatsoever.
</P>
<P>
Please let me know if I can be of any help to you installing Debian Linux on
your laptop.
</P>
<P>
Cheers,
<br>Robin
</P>
<!-- end 9 -->
<P> <hr> </p>
<a name="gaz"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">GAZETTE MATTERS</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<!-- BEGIN GAZETTE MATTERS -->
<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#gaz/1"
><strong>Re: new LG article: The Art Of Atari ST Emulation</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#gaz/2"
><strong>Issue 13</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="gaz/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">The distinction between Tips and Articles</FONT></H3>
Mon, 5 Nov 2001 12:15:23 -0800
<BR>Mike Orr (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20gazette%20matters%20%231"><em>LG</em> editor</a>)
<br>Part of a discussion with Matthias Arndt about his article this month
<p>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
Articles go to <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com"
>gazette@ssc.com</A> in HTML format. Tips, tech-support questions
and tech-support answers go to <A HREF="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com"
>linux-questions-only@ssc.com</A> in text format.
</P>
<P>
Basically, a tip covers just one simple topic in a screenful or two (or less).
An article covers several subtopics under separate headings and/or is more than
a couple screenfulls.
</P>
<p><em>... and Tips rarely involve more than one Answer Gang member's comments.
I do like to use this rule of thumb: would the answer (possibly without
explanation) fit in a .sig block? If not, it's probably not small enough to
make a good Tip.
</em></p>
<p><em>
When the discussions get going even a short thread might go into TAG, and
some of the better long answers in TAG still aren't as long as a standard
article. I'd also like to remind people that for article submissions, we
prefer simple HTML to the font-laden stuff automatically generated by most
web browsers when "mail as HTML" is turned on.
-- Heather</em></p>
<!-- end 1 -->
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<P> <A NAME="gaz/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Issue 13</FONT></H3>
Mon, 12 Nov 2001 11:26:28 +0100
<BR>Russell Coker (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%20gazette%20matters%20%233">russell from coker.com.au</a>)
<P>
The following section isn't displayed correctly because you don't use &amp;lt;
and &amp;gt; for the &lt;stdio&gt; part.
</P>
<pre>
#include
main()
{
printf("test\n");
fflush(stdout);
}
They will not echo what I print.
</pre>
<p><em>Thanks Russell. We don't generally go through the back issues
to correct things like this; things have gotten a lot better
since then, and I'm proud to say that things have to be sneakier
that that to put bugs into our HTML code these days
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
-- Heather</em></p>
<!-- end 3 -->
<P> <hr> </p>
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<H5 align="center">This page edited and maintained by the Editors
of <I>Linux Gazette</I>
<a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
>Copyright &copy;</a> 2001
<BR>Published in issue 73 of <I>Linux Gazette</I> December 2001</H5>
<H6 ALIGN="center">HTML script maintained by
<A HREF="mailto:star@starshine.org">Heather Stern</a> of
Starshine Technical Services,
<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
</H6>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<center>
<H1><A NAME="tips"><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="" SRC="../gx/twocent.jpg">
More 2&cent; Tips!</A></H1> <BR>
<!-- BEGIN tips -->
Send Linux Tips and Tricks to <A HREF="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</A></center>
</center>
<UL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<li><A HREF="#tips/1"
><strong>Command-line calculator</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/2"
><strong>Apache startup script improvement</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/3"
><strong>Re: De-enhancing text</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/4"
><strong>Fun with chroot jails</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/5"
><strong>Password list</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/6"
><strong>DNS</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/7"
><strong>using m-w online dictionary.</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/10"
><strong>PacHell DSL w/LINUX</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/11"
><strong>How we fixed "FW-I/LINUX kmalloc" problem</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/12"
><strong>DSL Drivers for USB</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/13"
><strong>gtkmm-config problem</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/25"
></a>newbie question --or--
<br><A HREF="#tips/25"
><strong>Linux equivalent for Active Directory?</strong></a>
<li><A HREF="#tips/29"
><strong>Re: [LG 72] 2c Tips #4 translated oddly</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</UL>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Command-line calculator</FONT></H3>
Wed, 31 Oct 2001 22:40:27 -0500
<BR>Ben Okopnik (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%231"><em>LG</em> Contibuting Editor</a>)
<P>
One of the things I've always found amusing is watching people working at a
PC suddenly stop and go digging through their desk for a calculator. I
mean, good grief - all that processing power, and they have to go back to
the Stone Age! Well, if you're one of those unfortunates, suffer no more.
Just put the following lines in your "~/.bash_profile":
</P>
<BLOCKQuote><Pre>
calc(){ perl -wlne'print eval'; }
export -f calc
</Pre></BLOCKQuote>
<P>
The next time you log in (or if you source "<tt>.bash_profile</tt>"),
the function will be available to you.
</P>
<Pre>
ben@Baldur:~$ calc
3.141592653*6**2 # What is the area of a circle 6 meters across?
113.097335508
( 3 - 117 ) % 7 # If today is Tuesday, what day was it 117 days ago?
5
sqrt(115) * 1.34 # Hull speed of a ship with a load waterline of 115'
14.3698990949832
ben@Baldur:~$
</Pre>
<P>
Note that I actually typed those comments into "calc"; it chews and
swallows them without a problem.
</P>
<P>
"calc" is actually a 'gateway' into Perl (via the "eval" mechanism); that
makes it into quite a powerful gadget. It supports all the math/trig/etc.
operations that are built into Perl - functions like "abs", "atan2", "cos",
"exp", "hex", "int", "log", "oct", "sin", "sqrt", and even "rand" (rolling
dice, anyone?)
</P>
<Pre>
ben@Baldur:~$ calc
print int rand(6) + 1 for 1..20 # Roll 20 6-sided dice
6
1
6
5
3
5
3
5
1
1
6
4
6
3
3
4
1
1
1
4
</Pre>
<P>
"calc" can be as simple as you like - or provide you with the kind of power
that calculators just can't match. It's all in what you choose to do with
it. By the way, be aware: there's nothing in "calc" that restricts you to
"math-only" commands; if you type "unlink my_important_file", Perl will
happily obey your orders (i.e., delete that file.) So, as with everything
in Linux, be careful - and have fun.
</P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
[Python's interactive mode can also be used as a calculator. -Iron.]
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- end 1 -->
<!-- gremlins spotted and shot. You're welcome, Ben :D -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Apache startup script improvement</FONT></H3>
Mon, 19 Nov 2001 08:54:27 -0500
<BR>Allan Peda (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=allan.peda@verizon.net&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%232">allan.peda from verizon.net</a>)
<P><strong>
Every thime I setup <A HREF="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</A> I add two lines to the startup script to
parse the config file for the variable containing the name of the file to
store the PID at.
</strong></P>
<P><strong>
It seems logical to me to automate this, since the script has an entry
for the pidfile,
but really should also "knows" the location of the config file,
why not parse any redundant information from it and remove the risk of
conflicting
parameters.
</strong></P>
<P><strong>
Here is what I add to the /etc/init.d/apache start|stop script:
</strong></P>
<blockquote><pre>CONFIG_FILE=/etc/apache/httpd.conf
PIDFILE=`sed -e '/^PidFile /!d; s/PidFile //' $CONFIG_FILE`
</pre></blockquote>
<P><strong>
or for you bashers:
</strong></P>
<blockquote><pre> PIDFILE=$(sed -e '/^PidFile /!d; s/PidFile //' $CONFIG_FILE)
</pre></blockquote>
<P><strong>
Also, I usually pass the name of the config file to apache explicitly,
so that
it's obvious via "ps ef" what configuration is currently being used.
</strong></P>
<P><strong>
Seems to make sense to me. In fact, I'd hope this makes it into the
scripts included
in the distro.
</strong></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[JimD]
It's a good suggestion.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Personally I think the start-up (rc) scripts from most distributions
are a bit lacking. For example I've always thought that it was
remiss of the start up script that mounts the <TT>/proc</TT> filesystems fails
to check that the mount point is a properly empty directory.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
In the case of your suggestion, you are eliminating what I call
a "moving part" (an opportunity for different configuration elements
from different sources to get out of sync with one another).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Of course there are many other failure opportunities which could be
mitigated with additional tests. For example: what if there are
multiple PidFile directives? what if the case doesn't match your
sed expression (doesn't <A HREF="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</A> tread PidFile as equivalent to PIDFile,
etc)?
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[Ben]
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The usual way that <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> does it is also fairly sensible. This is from
"<TT>/etc/init.d/skeleton</TT>" (the template that you're supposed to use when
writing an "init.d" script under Debian), by Miquel van Smoorenburg and Ian
Murdock:
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<p align="center">See attached <tt><a href="misc/tips/apache.init-d-fragment.txt">apache.init-d-fragment.txt</a></tt></p>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Any daemon, when started via this mechanism, gets an individual pidfile.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
[JimD]
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
I think you miss his point. Debian's rc scripts are no better than
<A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A>'s in this respect. If one changes the PidFile directive
in the .conf file, then Apache's notion of its PID file location
disagrees with Debian's startup/shutdown scripts.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
That could be reported as a bug to the maintainer --- but it's
unclear how far we should go in making the rc scripts more dynamic.
It would be a bit absurd to do comprehensive failure-mode analysis
and mitigation for all of the rc scripts. At some point we must
just give up (maybe calling on logger -s to emit and error message).
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The problem with making foolproof systems is that the universe
keeps creating more ingenious fools.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- end 2 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Re: De-enhancing text</FONT></H3>
Fri, 9 Nov 2001 12:16:23 -0800 (PST)
<BR>Thomas Adam (The <em>LG</em> Weekend Mechanic)
<br>and Peter Dzimko (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=dzimko@yahoo.com&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%233">dzimko from yahoo.com</a>)
<p>Richard Bly sent us:</p>
<P><strong>
Just in case you were not aware, the utility colcrt will take a man page
output and format it without all the weird stuff.
The underlining is put on the next line so both the text and the underline
are visable.
</strong></P>
<blockquote> [Thomas Adam]
Why not just use the following......:
</blockquote>
<blockquote><Pre>
man manname | col -b &gt; ./mymanpage.man
</Pre></blockquote>
<blockquote>
where "manpage" is the man page (obviously). The "<tt>col</tt>"
command in this case (with the <tt>-b</tt> flag) will filter
reverse line feeds.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
There is also the option of using "man2html" for the
adventurous......
</blockquote>
<P>
Guys,
</P>
<P>
I think that following method is much simpler:
</P>
<Pre>
man thttpd | col -bx
</pre>
<P>
Regards
<br>Peter Dzimko
</P>
<!-- end 3 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Fun with chroot jails</FONT></H3>
Tue, 30 Oct 2001 13:21:58 -0500
<BR>Heather Stern (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2334">The Editor Gal</a>)
<p>Ben asked:</p>
<P>
There's one you could write up (assuming you ever got the time to do
it, that is) - creating those "chroot" jails. That's something I'd love to
have the specifics of; I understand the concept well enough, but having
never implemented one, I'm short on the actual mechanics.
</P>
<blockquote>
There's a fairly current <A HREF="http://www.freshmeat.net/">Freshmeat</A> entry called "cage". Initial release.
Not my stuff, but it's exactly the right idea - some support for a bash-shell
centered chroot jail, so you can jail more complex apps a little more safely,
e.g. make chroot a one way trip, nicking off a few linux-privs along the way.
</blockquote>
<P>
Sounds like cool fun; I'll definitely check it out.
</P>
<blockquote>
In the "barely enough to run an app" category, there's a helpful document for
BIND, and a different one for Postfix, iirc, but I don't have their URLs
memorized and I'm trying to avoid getting -too- distracted. (too late!)
</blockquote>
<P>
&lt;grin&gt; I'll search for those some time this coming week...
</P>
<blockquote>
There are a few patches and at least one kernel module (capsel) around now,
that offer to stop the <TT> chroot()</TT> call from happening more than once, preventing
the usual script-kiddy method of getting out of one, among their other helpful
efforts.
</blockquote>
<P>
Uh... what's the usual script-kiddy method? I mean, I know I can type
'exit' if I've started a regular 'chroot' without specifying a prog...
but... maybe I'm not visualizing it right. I'm seeing a chroot jail as a
"system within a system" - if you exit, you end up at a login prompt.
That's it. Real "root" is only available via a different IP; in effect,
you're logging into a different system. Correct?
</P>
<blockquote>
Minimum Mechanics:
<ol>
<li> blank hard disk
<li> install parent level with syslog, cron, ssh, sudo.
<li> create subdirs for jail areas (e.g. <TT>/home/HTTPD-jail</TT>, <TT>/home/MAIL-jail</TT>, etc.)
<li> run installer again, using "already mounted directory". Once per jail of
course.
<br>Mhm. I wonder how hard it would be to create a stripped-down installer just
for the purpose. Might make a nice project, don't you think?
<li> tweak each jail like it was a seperate machine you could boot into normally
that was dedicated to the purpose. Each jail's ssh must be on a unique
IP address/port number combo.
<li> grafting - setup top level so it runs services out of their jails, already
chrooted there.
<li> time to make an IPL backup
<li> stripping - take more stuff out of the jails, that they will NEVER need
because they are really not the top level after all. e.g. fsck, copy of
the kernel and modules. This may require some brutal adjustments to the
packaging systems so they won't get put back if you choose to upgrade the
jails later. Possibly make it so there should never be a need to be
root inside the jail anyway. etc.
<li> time to make IPL backup #2, on a different media from #1. Allows for
return to this point, or to decide you went overboard and try shaving that
differently by starting again from #1.
</ul></blockquote>
<P>
Eh... you lost me there on #6; that's the part I'm not seeing. What's the
interaction mechanism between the two levels? How does the "top" see the
"bottom" without the "bottom" seeing the "top"?
</P>
<blockquote>
I usually run a lot of things from <tt>/etc/inittab</tt> so they can be
respawned if they die.
</blockquote>
<P>
For #8 I agree, that's the way I would do it - since root can twiddle anything
on the mounted filesystems, there shouldn't even be root access in there.
Although I would set up some sort of an "admin" account, with carefully decided
powers.
</P>
<blockquote>
Might be helpful to have more hard disks, or seperate partitions for each jail.
I gotta stop procrastinating like this ;&gt;
</blockquote>
<P>
I'm glad you did.
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> Thanks - I'll dig
into it some more!
</P>
<!-- end 4 -->
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<P> <A NAME="tips/5"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Password list</FONT></H3>
Tue, 30 Oct 2001 08:49:40 -0500
<BR>Ben Okopnik (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%231"><em>LG</em> Contibuting Editor</a>)
<P>
OK, so this is straight out of any security FAQ: whatever you do, _don't_
keep a list of your passwords on your machine. Right? Right.
</P>
<P>
Now, since you're going to do it anyway...
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
Here's a somewhat safer way
to do it - note that I did not say "safe", just "safeR". The way I see it,
those of you who don't keep one won't be affected, and those of you that do
will notch up the security just a tad.
</P>
<P>
To make this work, you'll need something to keep your secrets for you:</p>
<p align="center">See attached <tt><a href="misc/tips/pass.bash.txt">pass.bash.txt</a></tt></p>
<p>
Here's what you do: put this script in a
directory that's in your path, say "<TT>/usr/local/bin</TT>", then set the ownership
and permissions as follows:
</P>
<Pre>
chown root:root /usr/local/bin/pass # You must be root to do this
chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/pass # And this, too
</pre>
<P>
You now encrypt the file that contains your list of hosts, usernames, and
passwords, one per line:
</P>
<Pre>
www.cia.gov JohnDoe cRYpTo
www.kgb.ru IvanIvanov bOLsh0isEkRET
www.mossad.il PloniAlmoni sHiN8eT
kempeitai.jp NanashiNoGombe haITTeM0ikEmAsEN
www.mybroker.com FulanoMengano QuIenSaBE
www.mybank.bm MattiMeikalainen sAipPUakAuPPIAs
www.centralbank.an JanModaal fInanCIeeL
</pre>
<p>...with a command like:</p>
<Pre>
crypt My1SecretPasswD &lt; mysecrets &gt; ~/pass
</Pre>
<P>
Move the original ("mysecrets") to a floppy and put it somewhere safe (yes,
that usually means where nobody - not even you will ever find it again.
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">.
Remember to update it once in a while. As to the encrypted file, all anyone
is going to see when they look at it (you did set its permissions to 0600,
right?) is a bunch of binary-looking gobbledygook.
</P>
<P>
Now, let's say you want to see what the combo is for "mossad". Easy enough:
</P>
<Pre>
spy@Hideout.com:~$ pass mossad
Enter password (screen echo disabled):
www.mossad.il PloniAlmoni sHiN8eT
spy@Hideout.com:~$
</pre>
<P>
If you want to edit the file, just type "<tt>pass -e</tt>";
this will invoke your
editor ("<tt>$EDITOR</tt>" - "vi" by default)
on the decrypted version of the file.
</P>
<P>
"grep"-related tip: if you want to just see the entire file, call it as
</P>
<Pre>
pass $
</Pre>
<!-- gremlins forced to cough up their copy of the script. -->
<!-- end 5 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/6"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">DNS</FONT></H3>
Sun, 11 Nov 2001 12:21:43 -0900
<BR>Heather Stern (The Editor Gal)
<br>and Faber Fedor (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%236">The Answer Gang</a>)
<p>David Menegat asked us the following:</p>
<P><STRONG>
I am trying to set up a name server on my mandrake 8 system and I
believe I installed the dns package I just don't know how to configure
it do you know where there is a faq or have any advice for me. I just
bought a domain name and this is the last piece in the puzzle before
the final configuration and I transfer the name to my machine.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thank you
David Menegat
</STRONG></P>
<Blockquote> [Faber]
Well, there's always the HOWTOs:
<A HREF="http://www.linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/DNS-HOWTO.html"
>http://www.linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/DNS-HOWTO.html</A>
</blockquote>
<EM>
<blockquote> [Heather]
There's also the absolutely marvelous resaources of "Ask Mr. DNS".
</BLOCKQuote>
<blockquote>
Although Acme Byte and Wire was bought by Network Solutions, there still
exists his marvelous archive of detailed answers to how DNS works:
</BLOCKQuote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<A HREF="http://www.acmebw.com/askmrdns"
>http://www.acmebw.com/askmrdns</A>
</BLOCKQuote>
</BLOCKQuote>
<blockquote>
If that doesn't answer what you need, you can also ask him questions
directly at his current email address... which I won't tell you, you'll have to
read his archive first
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
BTW as far as I can
tell, he only answers questions for DNS sites which he can access, so he can
see what things are resolving like.
</BLOCKQuote>
<blockquote>
We hope it helps! Let us know if Linux itself has any extra questions for
you, or there's a spot in the DNS-HOWTO we can explain a bit better for
you. We want it to make sense
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":D"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</BLOCKQuote>
</EM>
<p>To which David replies:</p>
<P><strong>
Thank you very much I'm sure I'll have no problem now
<br>thank you
<br>David Menegat
<strong></P>
<!-- end 6 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/7"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">using m-w online dictionary.</FONT></H3>
Mon, 19 Nov 2001 21:30:59 -0500
<BR>Matt Giwer (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=jull43@tampabay.rr.com&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2331">jull43 from tampabay.rr.com</a>)
<P>
looking up words in the m-w dictionary. I thought you carried this
about a year ago.
</P>
<P>
create a file named def containing
</P>
<Pre>
# def &lt;word&gt; goes to Mirriam Webster page of it definition
lynx "<a href="http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=$*"
>http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&amp;va=$*</a>"
</pre>
<P>
used as
</P>
<Pre>
def word
</Pre>
<!-- end 7 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/10"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">PacHell DSL w/LINUX</FONT></H3>
Sat, 24 Nov 2001 20:47:32 -0800
<BR> (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2310">j_on_e from sbcglobal.net from sbcglobal.net</a>)
<BR> (linux-questions-only@ssc.com)
<P>Johny asked us ... in quoted-printable, and in HTML:</P>
<P><STRONG>
Im a newbie to Linux but want to lear really bad. Im tired of the
limitations in Windows. Anyway, I just installed OpenLinux eDesktop2.4
<A HREF="http://www.caldera.com/">Caldera</A> Systems and want to know
how to configure it for use with my
PacBell DSL using an Efficient Networks SPEEDSTREAM Modem.
<br>a.. 5260 ADSL (ITU Annex A)
<br>a.. 5260: G.DMT, G.Lite, T1.413 (ADSL)
<br>I cannot find a driver or figure out where to configure or how to
configure all of this to work so that I can get my linux online. Please
help or forward this to anyone and everyone who may be able to help me
out. Thank you very much for your time and I hope I can get this going
very soon.
</STRONG></P>
<blockquote>
First, please send mail in text format rather than text+HTML.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
External DSL modems (that connect to an ordinary Ethernet card via an
Ethernet cable) work fine on Linux. Internal DSL modems are iffy,
especially if they're USB. It all depends on whether the manufacturer
provides Linux drivers or gives us enough of the card's specs to enable
us to write a driver or expand one of our existing drivers.
Unfortunately, there are so many different types of DSL modems and none
of them are as widely used as the different analog modems, so drivers
are less likely.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Also, there are analog modems called "Winmodems" that are marketed as
real modems but they actually have part of their hardware missing.
The missing portion is handled by the Windows driver. These didn't run
under Linux for several years, until some Linuxers reverse-engineered
them enough to make drivers for at least some of them. I don't know
whether DSL modems have an equivalent to these "Winmodems", but you have
to watch out for that possibility. Especially if the DSL provider
"supports only Windows".
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
If your modem is new enough that you can return it and get an external
modem instead, that's your best bet. It may cost $100-200 more, but it
will be worth it because the modem will be more standards compliant,
meaning fewer headaches in the future when you upgrade, move or switch
systems.
</blockquote>
<p><em>I'm not sure if DSL has fallen victim to the "sahave off chips to save
a few cents a motherboard" craze. On the other hand, there's PPP over
Ethernet (pppoe) to run away from. Even though you in theory would get
full ethernet bandwidth, in practice that protocol slows you down to
PPP speeds deliberately. Some very knowledgeable sysadmins I know go
directly into "rant mode" when just hearing the acronym. -- Heather</em></p>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/11"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">How we fixed "FW-I/LINUX kmalloc" problem</FONT></H3>
Thu, 1 Nov 2001 17:36:28 +0200
<BR>Vitaly Karasik (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=&vkarasik@ndsisrael.comsubject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%231">vkarasik from ndsisrael.com</a>)
<P>
It may be too small for article and too big for letter, but I hope it will
useful for LINUX/FW-1 administrators and provide a good example of OSS
advantages.
</P>
<P>
Regards,
</P>
<P>
Vitaly Karasik
Unix System Administrator
Israel
</P>
<blockquote><font color="#001F3F">But it's perfect for a 2 Cent Tip.
-- Iron</font></blockquote>
<P>
----
We've tried to replace our NOKIA FW-I box with LINUX one [FW-I v4.1 SP4 +
RedHat 6.2 2.2.19 kernel].
</P>
<P>
Installation was pretty strainforward, but every time when we tried to
install policy from our management station we got few messages in
/var/log/messages:
</P>
<blockquote><pre>/var/log/messages.4:Oct 5 14:29:42 fw kernel: kmalloc: Size (786540) too
large
/var/log/messages.4:Oct 5 14:29:42 fw kernel: kmalloc: Size (786636) too
large
/var/log/messages.4:Oct 5 14:29:42 fw kernel: kmalloc: Size (789660) too
large
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
Our policy contains about 90 rules &amp; 400 objects with few VPN.
</P>
<P>
Short search with Google pointed us to a few letters with the same
problems, but didn't help to solve the problem.
(for instance, "[FW1] Strange things in RH62 + Fw1-41-Sp2( kmalloc: Size
(275548) too large )" thread on
<A HREF="http://www.firewall-1.org/2001-01/maillist.html"
>http://www.firewall-1.org/2001-01/maillist.html</A>)
</P>
<P>
According to skl1314 from Check Point SecureKnowledge, "solution is
currently not available. Issue under investigation".
</P>
<P>
But this search helped me to understand what is exactly the problem:
FW-1 call "kmalloc" function in order to get block of memory. But linux's
kmalloc [kernels 2.2.x &amp; 2.4.x] knows to allocate memory in blocks 2K,4K,
... 128K only.
And FW-1 in our case wants to get ~800 K memory.
</P>
<P>
The solution:
</P>
<P><BLOCKQuote>
I fixed slab.c in order to increase kmalloc limit from 128K to 1280K.
Diff from orig slab.c for kernel 2.2.19 is below:
</BLOCKQuote></P>
<blockquote><pre>298c298
&lt; #define SLAB_OBJ_MAX_ORDER 8 /* 32 pages */
---
&gt; #define SLAB_OBJ_MAX_ORDER 5 /* 32 pages */
301c301
&lt; #define SLAB_MAX_GFP_ORDER 8 /* 32 pages */
---
&gt; #define SLAB_MAX_GFP_ORDER 5 /* 32 pages */
345,347d344
&lt; {262144, NULL},
&lt; {524288, NULL},
&lt; {1048576, NULL},
370,374c367
&lt; "size-131072",
&lt; "size-262144",
&lt; "size-524288",
&lt; "size-1048576"
&lt;
---
&gt; "size-131072"
</pre></blockquote>
<P>
After compiling &amp; installing new kernel we're able to install fw policy
without any problem.
</P>
<!-- end 11 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/12"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">DSL Drivers for USB</FONT></H3>
Mon, 5 Nov 2001 13:18:19 -0500
<BR>Andy Fore (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=arfore@valdosta.edu&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2312">arfore from valdosta.edu</a>)
<P>
This is in answer to the question about USB DSL drivers for Linux.
</P>
<P>
There are drivers out there for the Alcatel SpeedTouch USB. The
SpeedStream 4060 is actually made by Alcatel.
</P>
<P>
I have setup the SpeedTouch in RedHat 7.1 and gotten it to successfully
work on my home network.
</P>
<P>
Andy Fore
<br>Computer Services Specialist III
</P>
<!-- end 12 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/13"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">gtkmm-config problem</FONT></H3>
Mon, 26 Nov 2001 07:09:04 -0500
<BR>Dann S. Washko (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2313">The Answer Gang</a>)
<DL><DT>
When testing the gtkmm hello world code on this page I get errors:
<DD><A HREF="http://gtkmm.sourceforge.net/tutorial/sec-gettingstarted.html"
>http://gtkmm.sourceforge.net/tutorial/sec-gettingstarted.html</A>
</DL>
<Pre>
bash-2.05$ g++ test.cc -o test `gtkmm-config --cflags --libs`
In file included from /opt/gnome/include/gtk--/base.h:34,
from /opt/gnome/include/gtk--/object.h:30,
from /opt/gnome/include/gtk--/widget.h:32,
from /opt/gnome/include/gtk--/container.h:27,
from /opt/gnome/include/gtk--/bin.h:27,
from /opt/gnome/include/gtk--/button.h:27,
from test.cc:2:
/opt/gnome/include/gtk--/proxy.h:6: sigc++/signal_system.h: No such file
or directory
/opt/gnome/include/gtk--/proxy.h:7: sigc++/bind.h: No such file or
directory
/opt/gnome/include/gtk--/proxy.h:8: sigc++/convert.h: No such file or
directory
test.cc:4: `#include' expects "FILENAME" or &lt;FILENAME&gt;
</pre>
<P>
For some reason (I believe) something is not getting passed to look for
the <tt>sigc++</tt> headers in <TT>/opt/gnome/include/sigc++-1.0/sigc++</TT>.
</P>
<P>
I was getting more errors about not being able to find <tt>sigc++</tt> headers
before I added <tt>-I/opt/gnome/include/sigc++-1.0/sigc++</tt> to the
gtkmm-config file. Without this line or taking off the <tt>sigc++</tt>
directory, produces more errors about not being able to find the headers
in <tt>sigc++</tt>.
</P>
<P>
The sigc-config file looks just right.
</P>
<P>
Furthermore, this all started when I tried to compile quickedit. During
the configure process I received and error that gtk-- was not installed
correctly and/or I should edit the gtkmm-config script to correct anything
off in there. Viewing the config.log shows the same error as above.
</P>
<p><em>... after a bit of fighting with it ...</em></p>
<P>
The problem must have been with gtkmm-config or the gtkmm packages I had
originally installed. I compiled gtkmm from the sources and everything
appears fine. Quickedit compiled without complaint. I noticed the one
line in the new gtkmm-config that was not in the old was
-I/opt/gnome/lib/sigc++-1.0/include. I had mistakenly put this in the
libs area instead of the cflags. I'm not sure whether this was the whole
crux of the problem though.
</P>
<P>
--
Daniel S. Washko
Lehigh Valley Linux Users Group
www.thelinuxlink.net/lvlinux
get slack (www.slackware.com ) and get happy
</P>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/25"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Linux equivalent for Active Directory?</FONT></H3>
Tue, 30 Oct 2001 11:39:30 -0800 (PST)
<BR>Craig Baker (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=ctbaker78@yahoo.com&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2325">ctbaker78 from yahoo.com</a>)
<P>
Ok Im just learning Linux so bare with this
question...I know in Windows 2000 Server you can
create a Active Directory and install a Distributed
Files system...what would be the Linux counterpart to
this be? I've poored over alot of FAQs but I must not
be looking for the correct terminology. So far the
closest Ive found is NIS/NIS+ with NFS.
</P>
<blockquote>
Take a look at LDAP (i.e., where Microsoft got the original idea) -
OpenLDAP &lt;<A HREF="http://www.openldap.org"
>http://www.openldap.org</A>&gt; has some good info on their site; their
"General LDAP FAQ" is worth a read. As well, Jeff Hodges "LDAP Roadmap"
&lt;<A HREF="http://www.kingsmountain.com/ldapRoadmap.shtml"
>http://www.kingsmountain.com/ldapRoadmap.shtml</A>&gt; is an excellent resource.
Novell with their NDS (Novell Directory Services) had an early jump at the
idea of abstracting the directory structure from the FS; chances are pretty
high (I'm making a guess here - I don't know <A HREF="http://www.caldera.com/">Caldera</A> that well) that
Caldera, being a Novell "sister" company, supports it. To confuse the
tangled skein a bit more, Novell has released the JLDAP (the LDAP class
libraries for Java) to the world - I haven't done Novell stuff in years,
but I would guess that LDAPv3 is what they're using these days. There might
be other implementations of the idea, but the key words, rather than
"Active Directory", would be "LDAP" (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)
and "X.500" (the protocol that defines LDAP.)
</blockquote>
<!-- end 26 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<P> <A NAME="tips/29"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
<FONT COLOR="navy">Re: [LG 72] 2c Tips #4 translated oddly</FONT></H3>
Mon, 19 Nov 2001 11:31:10 -0800
<BR>Marcelo E. Magallon (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=marcelo.magallon@bigfoot.com&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2073%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2330">marcelo.magallon from bigfoot.com</a>)
<P>
Hi,
</P>
<P>
I think the translation of the original message is wrong. The original
poster is asking about a content manager, not an editor. Here:
</P>
<BLOCKQuote>
informaci&oacute;n acerca de algun manejador de PHP con el cual pueda
modificar los archivos de p&aacute;ginas de internet bajo Linux <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A> 7.1
</BLOCKQuote>
<P>
Even if the Spanish translation of several computer terms varies wildly
across countries, I can't imagine a place where an 'editor' would be
called 'manejador'. This word means 'manager'. Even if it's not clear
what the original author actually wants or needs, I think he's thinking
of something along the lines of Midgard, available at
<A HREF="http://www.midgard-project.org"
>http://www.midgard-project.org</A>.
</P>
<P>
If the original author does mean an editor, Heather is right on the
spot: vim, in particular vim 6, has some nice features, like improved
syntax definitions and folding, that make editing of HTML and PHP files
much easier.
</P>
<P>
HTH,
<br>--
Marcelo
</P>
<P><em>
Thanks Marcelo.
The original querent never wrote back to tell us what he
was looking for, even after we asked him. So I'm inclined to think he's
either already found what he needs, or it's his fault if we
misunderstood it. But we've published your tip for other readers. -- Iron
</em></P>
<!-- end 30 -->
<P> <hr> </p>
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<H5 align="center">This page edited and maintained by the Editors
of <I>Linux Gazette</I>
<a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
>Copyright &copy;</a> 2001
<BR>Published in issue 73 of <I>Linux Gazette</I> December 2001</H5>
<H6 ALIGN="center">HTML script maintained by
<A HREF="mailto:star@starshine.org">Heather Stern</a> of
Starshine Technical Services,
<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
</H6>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
<center>
<H1><A NAME="answer">
<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)"
border="0" align="middle">
<font color="#B03060">The Answer Gang</font>
<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)"
border="0" align="middle">
</A></H1>
<BR>
<H4>By Jim Dennis, Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Breen, Chris, and the Gang,
the Editors of Linux Gazette...
and You!
<br>Send questions (or interesting answers) to
<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a>
</H4>
<p><em><font color="#990000">There is no guarantee</font></em>
that your questions here will <b>ever</b> be answered.
<em><font color="#990000">Readers at confidential sites</font></em>
must provide permission to publish. However,
<em><font color="#990000">you can be published anonymously</font></em>
- just let us know!
</p>
<p>TAG <a href="tag/bios.html">Member bios</a>
| <a href="../tag/members-faq.html">FAQ</a>
| <a href="../tag/kb.html">Knowledge base</a></p>
</center>
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
<p><hr><p>
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<dl>
<dt><a href="#tag/greeting"
><strong>&para;: Greetings From Heather Stern</strong></A></dl>
<DL>
<!-- index_text begins -->
<dt><A HREF="#tag/1"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>clock setting</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/2"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>device drivers</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/3"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>fine-grained delay in shell scripts</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/4"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>Serial Programming on an i486 in Linux</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/5"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>Shut down when turn computer off</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/6"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>slib installation</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/7"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>SuSE 7.1 installation CD not recognized</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/8"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>Installing tulip.o in 6.2</strong></a>
<dt><A HREF="#tag/9"
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
alt="(?)" border="0"
><strong>Just wondering</strong></a>
<!-- index_text ends -->
</DL>
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/greeting"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/hbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(&para;) " border="0"
>Greetings from Heather Stern</H3>
<!-- begin hgreeting -->
<p>
Hi everyone and welcome! This month I hope you like the threads I've
selected for you, nice, juicy, full of meat...
</p><p>
Hmm, I wasn't expecting to make that sound like the turkey dinner I had
last week. Oh well! I hope you had a good Thanksgiving, and of course we
all wish you the best for the winter season too.
</p><p>
Now on to the nitpicking
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
By a <em>HUGE</em> margin the Peeve of the Month is poor use of the
subject line. It so happens that we had really high traffic on our
administrative list -- something to do with the
<a href="../tag/members-faq.html">new FAQ</a> and knowledge
base getting posted, everybody give a big hand to Ben and Chris!
-- but, we actually got more
slices of mail with useless subjects, totalling about a fifth of
the overall mail for the month.
</p><p>
What do I mean? Well, I'll put it the same way Ben does. You have
only 40 characters (in most mailers). Don't waste them on things like
"Help me" (why else would you be mailing us? Hoping to frame our most
creative flames?) and "Linux problem" (good, you have the OS we know
best) or even, cheerful though it makes us, "Hi <em>Gazette</em>"
(yep, that's us, you reached the right place).
</p><p>
Even worse is people who have no subject at all. Now it's true that with
so many helpful souls in the Gang a lot more of the questions get answered
nowadays. But, my statistics show that about two-thirds of the messages
with no subject were utterly ignored. Not even a worn out match starting
a flame. Nada, zip, zilch. So you really hurt your chances of getting
anything more than a lump of coal in your stocking by not having a real
subject on your questions for The Answer Gang.
</p><p>
So, the trick is, make sure your subject contains at least one noun or
verb that relates directly to the question. "SuSE install" or "wheelmouse
woes" or something, so we can guess if that message is something we know
about, so we can leap into the fray.
</p><p>
Okay, now what can I say about Linux? Well, let's see. It'd
be a great x-mas present to see that 2.4 kernel stabilize now that 2.5 is
properly set up. (I'd go for "peace on earth" but it seems to be making
a nasty hole in the stocking, darn it.) I already lost my bet that it'd be
2.4.14 that would win. What I really want is one of those 21" studio LCDs
but, I'm broke this season, so I'll probably have to make "21 inch diagonal"
my New Year's Resolution. &lt;brickbats appear from offstage&gt; hey!
watch it! You trying to break my old monitor? That's it for now. Whatever
you do this season don't forget to <em>Make Linux A Little More Fun</em>.
</p><p>
Jim and I will be at the annual Large Installation System Administrators
conference in San Diego, the first week of December.
<a href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a> always has a great seminar track,
plus a lot of the developers we've gotten to know personally are regulars.
If you can afford it, I highly recommend going. If you are going, perhaps
we'll see you there.
</p><p>
Failing that, see you next year...
<p>
<!-- end hgreeting -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/1"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 1 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>clock setting</H3>
<p><strong>From Bryan Henderson
</strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<!-- sig -->
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Bryan Henderson
</strong></p>
<blockquote><em><font color="#000066">By this odd chance, the Gang get to be the querents, and we have a real
guru to answer our clock questions at hand. Thanks Bryan!
-- Heather</font></em></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
As the maintainer of the main Linux hardware clock managing program,
Hwclock, I found the Answer Gang discussion and survey of daylight
savings time switches and other hardware clock issues enlightening.
I'd like to add some important information.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John Karns]
Thanx for your contribution! I for one really appreciate it.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
First thing, Bryan - thank you for the info, as well as for the very useful
job that you're doing!
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Mike]
Yes, Bryan, thanks for taking the time to write that explanation, and
for offering to debug distribution-caused problems.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
First, let me state that the _only_ sane reason to keep your hardware
clock in local time is if you sometimes run Windows on the machine.
Windows isn't capable of using a hardware clock in any other format.
Unfortunately, local time is Hwclock's default and the default that
<A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A> and I believe other major distritbutions ship.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
How about time zones where daylight savings doesn't apply?
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Then it's less insane to keep your hardware clock in local time, but still
not sane.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
I certainly appreciate it; I'm sure that a number of
our readers do as well. One of your tips in here - the persistence of "UTC"
- has already let me figure out why my localtime was "backwards" (i.e., 5
hours earlier instead of later) if I set the hardware clock to UTC. I don't
use Windows, but I do travel quite a lot, which means I have to keep
changing time zones; do you have any advice or pertinent info for doing
this
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
First of all, of course, keep your hardware clock in UTC format.
Whenever you enter a new timezone, do a quick 'ln' command to link
<TT>/etc/localtime</TT> to the descriptor for your new timezone.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Ah, <EM>so</EM>. Actually, I've often thought of writing up a "Mobile Linux"
article - a sort of a HOWTO for traveling with Linux - and you've just
cleared up one of the last pieces of the puzzle. <EM>Tres</EM> cool. For those
folks who need to bounce around as I do, here's something that'll be
useful:
</STRONG></P>
<p align="center">See attached <tt><a href="misc/tag/chzone1.bash.txt">chzone1.bash.txt</a></tt></p>
<P><STRONG>
This script will present you with a menu of choices for the Eastern,
Central, Mountain, and Pacific timezones. Pick one, and you're set.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
The <TT>/usr/share/zoneinfo/US</TT> directory may be more appropriate here.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Odd. The entire "tz*" suite (tzselect, tzconfig, etc.) uses the "America"
version. &lt;looking at the contents of 'US'&gt; Ah. OK, that seems to make sense
- at least you'd be setting the timezone by name (
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT="&lt;grin&gt;"
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> I'd spent a few
minutes hopscotching through "tzselect", back and forth, back and forth, to
figure out which cities it used for which zones.) So, here's an updated
version of "chzone" - this one actually covers a wider range but keeps the
choice list down to the actual zones rather than the (possibly confusing)
list of cities:
</STRONG></P>
<p align="center">See attached <tt><a href="misc/tag/chzone2.bash.txt">chzone2.bash.txt</a></tt></p>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
The C library (GNU libc 2) looks at <TT>/etc/localtime</TT> for the description
of the local timezone. That can be a symlink to the relevant timezone
descriptor in <TT>/usr/share/zoneinfo.</TT> (I use US Pacific
Standard/Daylight time, so I link to <TT>/usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific</TT>).
If you don't have descriptors for every timezone known to man in
<TT>/usr/share/zoneinfo</TT> (5 MB of them come with glibc -- having them all
installed appears to be "normal"), you'll have to install them per
your distribution. Sometimes they are in <TT>/usr/lib/zoneinfo.</TT>
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Note that changing timezones doesn't cause any time discontinuity.
You aren't changing the clock, only the language your system uses to
communicate to humans about what time it is.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
... (hopefully, without screwing up "<TT>/etc/timeadj</TT>") other than setting the
TZ to the appropriate value? Are there any non-obvious issues with the
clock that I should be aware of when I do this?
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
You change your hardware clock to UTC by adding the --utc option to
any clock-setting 'hwclock' command. You only have to do it once,
because your choice gets saved in <TT>/etc/adjtime</TT> and becomes your default
in the future.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
The major practical drawback to keeping your hardware clock in local
time is that in most locales, local time jumps an hour twice a year.
The hardware clock is incapable of implementing that. So you have to
explicitly reset the hardware clock twice a year. Windows does that
automatically. In Linux, you can do it with a startup script and/or
cron job, but I'm not aware of any Linux distribution that does it out
of the box. If you're running both Linux and Windows, though, I think
both would make the adjustment!
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
In my case, the time doesn't change, as I'm near to the equator.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Actually, the time doesn't change for anybody; only the local time
representation does.
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
OK, but I think you understand what I'm saying - daylight savings time
doesn't exist here.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Mike]
Where do you live? Indiana?
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Why are there not timezone configurations for those locations, and if
they're not, how hard is it to copy one and modify it to disable the
DST?
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
He said it's near the equator, and he didn't say he can't do timezones
the normal way (in fact, he probably does). He just pointed out that
it isn't as advantageous to him as it is to most the world to keep his
hardware clock in UTC format, because one of the advantages of UTC
format is that you don't have to reset your hardware clock for DST
changes.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
Also,
the Linux based distributed network I'm setting up, at this time is all
contained within one time zone. Thus, I haven't felt compelled to leave
my hw clock set for utc. I did try it once on my personal laptop, (sans
the --utc option though - I probably used hwclock to set the time, but
can't remember all the details) but didn't like the fact the timestamps on
my files (ls) were not in agreement with the time as displayed by the
'date' command
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
The hardware clock format doesn't affect ls and date displays --
unless there's a bug in the system, of course. I do often see people
configure their machines for the wrong time zone and then keep the
hardware clock set to the wrong time to compensate. This causes some
displays to be correct, but always causes something else to be broken.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
I've never done that or even considered doing it, as I can see where it
could really distort parts of the system and create havoc. What I'm
trying to say here is that, well let me give an example:
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><BLOCKQuote>
<UL>
<LI> Local time is 1pm
<LI> I create a file
<LI> I do an ls, which shows the file with a date-stamp that's skewed e.g., 6 hrs from local time.
</UL>
</BLOCKQuote></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thus I constantly have to do mental arithmetic to figure relate these
times to my frame of reference, which is local time. It's particularly
undesirable when those 6 hrs spans midnight, so the date-stamp shows a
different day.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
And every once in a while you see a program that chooses to display
times in UTC (because it's easy). If you lie to your system about
what time it is, you can trick that program into displaying local
time! But that breaks other programs. If you then lie about what
time zone you're in, those other programs start appearing to work, but
still other things break. It usually falls apart as soon as you try
to communicate to the rest of the world, for example email timestamps.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
- it tends to make things a little bit confusing. So I
changed things back to local time.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I do also run Windows but mostly via VMWare on a Linux host. Do you have
any info or input in regards to that scenario?
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
My main concerns are these:
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><BLOCKQuote>
The distributed net that I'm setting up could eventually span outside of
the local time zone. When and if that happens, it might make sense to use
utc.
</BLOCKQuote></STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
If we're still talking about the hardware clock internal format (UTC
vs local time), I don't think the issues change when you expand into
multiple time zones. Using local time shouldn't be any worse than
with one time zone, since Hwclock does all the work of converting
between Unix standard format and hardware clock format.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
I have read about the Unix standard format and more or less know what it
is, but don't really understand the big picture here - how all the parts
fit together.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
But if you mean set the timezone on all the machines to UTC so that
displayed times are the same on all systems, that's a separate
question.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
But the LANs are a heterogeneous mixture of W9x and Linux clients
with a Linux server providing application sharing and Internet gateway
services. I wish to use samba for W9x file sharing and login <TT>/</TT> user
profile control, as well as run a batch file to sync the clocks on the w9x
clients to the server clock. In short, I want to have all clocks more or
less synchronized.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I don't quite follow you here - "displayed times"? .. what about syslogd?
My concern is mostly with file date-stamps, and system logs. Lets say I'm
examining a system log of a remote system located in a different time
zone. I would like to avoid confusion about when specific events may have
happened in relation to my local time - and this would be my principal
motivation for using UTC. For example, I will have a "master server"
which will be doing telephone dialup to remote hosts to exchange mail,
collect system logs, etc. I would like to have the master server log
timestamps of the dialup session agree with those of the remote system
logs, rather than all be skewed one or two hours. Same with file creation
&amp; modification timestamps. I will likely have a Perl or bash script run
via cron on remote systems to collect all files of interest having a
date-stamp falling within a certain time period.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
My understanding prior to the test I did at least a year ago when I set my
hw clock to UTC, was that such date-stamps would be shown (e.g., via ls)
as local time, but UTC would allow for a standard that would put all
systems using it on an equal level, and would help to eliminate confusion
regarding date-stamps on files between different systems. But that didn't
seem to be the case - it simply added more confusion.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
The usual way to do that is with an ntp network (run ntpd on all the
systems. Have a master ntp time server that gets time from some
higher authority and distributes it down to everyone else). Don't use
Hwclock at all (I mean it -- if you set the hardware clock manually
even once, the system won't maintain it automatically after that).
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
That's what I have been thinking - sync the "master server" clock via NTP
(ADSL has just recently been introduced here, so now a full time Internet
connection is possible); then use a system util such as ntpdate or rdate
(samba logon batch files for the other OS) to sync all other clocks to the
master. Since my "WAN" will be mostly dialup, using the NTP daemon an all
servers is not possible or practical.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I still have questions about UTC re: W9x and other flavors under VMWare.
I guess a little experimentation is in order.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I hope that I haven't rambled too much, and thanx for your input.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Any thoughts you might care to express about this would be greatly
appreciated.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Regardless of in what format you keep your hardware clock, the display
of the time by 'date', 'ls', etc. is controlled by the time zone
settings as defined by the C library (e.g. the "localtime" function).
Remember, the time does not change each Spring and Fall -- only what
we call the time changes. Properly configured, the C library routines
generate daylight savings time in Summer and standard time in Winter.
The underlying clock is oblivious.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Is the above configuration anything that needs to be done by the local
admin/user, or does the above mean "properly configured by the
author/maintainer/etc of the C library"?
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
It's C library installation options, like the <TT>/etc/localtime</TT> setup
mentioned above.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Hm. All I can do is hope - now that my hardware clock presumably resembles
something normal - that the <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> installation options are right. Heck,
I'll even go so far as to disable my "spring forward, fall back" cron jobs.
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> I'm a brave soul, I am.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
The original querent was having trouble with Ls displaying times in
UTC instead of local time in Red Hat 6.1. I've dealt with those messy
time zone problems (There was a totally different way of doing time
zones before Red Hat 6.0, by the way, and the conversion wasn't
perfect) many times, and I'd be happy to debug this problem for anyone
who is having it.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
I'm a bit fuzzy on this issue too. What is the expected <TT>/</TT> intended system
behavior in this regard? If I set my clock to UTC, and specify hwclock's
--utc parm as you have suggested, then the system should compensate in
such a way that the ls command would show timestamps reflected as *local
time* - or UTC?
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I suppose that the system always stamps the files in accordance with the
Unix standard format, and it is up to the various parts of the system (ls,
tar, and the like) to do conversions in relation to either UTC or local
time. What I interpret you as saying is that there have been instances
where these various progs are not in agreement concerning the method with
which these conversions are done. Am I Correct? I guess it's time for
another try at setting one of my boxes to UTC to find out what.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I think this was what I was experiencing as well (<A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> 6.4).
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
A very cool offer indeed - you can't get much better than that if you're
having problems with the above. I'm not, but - Bryan, my job takes me to
the Bay area on a fairly regular basis; I'd be more than happy to stand you
a beer if you're interested, on behalf of all the folks that need and
appreciate your help.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
I'd love to.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Excellent - I'll be up there, let's see &lt;rummaging&gt; the first week of next
month &lt;waving at Jim and Heather&gt;. See you then!
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
(Hmm, perhaps the "beerware" concept is outdated. If all of us bought beers
for all the authors and maintainers, there wouldn't <EM>be</EM> any more authors
or maintainers - not sober ones, anyway. And where would we be then?
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</STRONG></P>
<blockquote><em><font color="#000066">Down at the pub, nursing a few sharp ginger beers, or root beers if you like
them better, until the Guiness wears off and we're safe to drive home.
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT="8)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
-- Heather</font></em></blockquote>
<!-- end 1 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 2 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>device drivers</H3>
<p><strong>From ranjeet k s
</strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<!-- sig -->
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Dan Wilder, Udo Puetz, Mike Orr
</strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
to sir,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
thanks for reply i wanted to know information regrading linux device
drivers books or manuals pages from net and tcp/ip for professional people.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
thanks
ranjeet
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan]
You've reached a mailing list administrative address. I'm forwarding
your query to the &lt;<A HREF="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com"
>linux-questions-only@ssc.com</A>&gt; mailing list.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
You might try a search for
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>linux device drivers
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
on <A HREF="http://www.google.com"
>http://www.google.com</A>
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
I just tried it and got 304,000 matches, of which most of the matches
in the first two pages (as far as I got) looked worthwhile to visit.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Udo]
Hi!
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
You could download "writing linux device drivers" on the oreilly
web-page (www.oreilly.com) some time ago (I think 2-3 months
ago). This was not the last release, but hey, it's for free and online
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Mike]
There was an article about writing device drivers recently in LG:
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="../issue69/mathew.html"
>http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue69/mathew.html</A>
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
This article is about a PC speaker driver, but it serves as a general
example. Republished from Linux.com with theirs and the author's kind
permission. I requested this article for LG because we had a need for
articles on device-driver programming.
</blockQuote>
<!-- end 2 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 3 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>fine-grained delay in shell scripts</H3>
<p><strong>From Ben Okopnik
</strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Thomas Adam, Mike Orr, John Karns
</strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
So, you're writing a shell script, and you want to add a little pizzazz:
you know, a little blinking indicator, or a slow display that prints out
"Please wait" one letter at a time or something. You look around, and the
only choices you've got are a) "sleep" (a minimum 1-second delay), or
various strange things involving loops and "cat"ting large files (which
makes you CPU usage shoot up into the 90% range.) Blechhh. What's a poor
but honest scripter to do?
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Farm the job out, of course.
</STRONG></P>
<p align="center">See attached <tt><a href="misc/tag/nap.pl.txt">nap.pl.txt</a></tt></p>
<P><STRONG>
It doesn't get much simpler. "nap" will give you a delay in milliseconds,
plus a tiny machine-dependent fudge factor for starting Perl. Here, as an
example, is that famous "rotating dash" indicator, using "nap":
</STRONG></P>
<pre><strong>while :; do for x in - \\ \| /; do printf "%c\b" $x; nap 100; done; done
</strong></pre>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas Adam]
Tut tut Ben. For this kind of use, I <EM>always</EM> tweak
the millisecond usage of the command:
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
"usleep"
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Then I can use a for i in....loop and a usual "echo"
in Bash.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Works everytime.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
But, I prefer your script!!
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
OK, I'll admit my ignorance - what's a "usleep"? There's nothing like that
on my system, or indeed in the <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> "Contents-i386.gz" file list. Please
enlighten me. (I do seem to _vaguely_ remember something like that in C,
but that's less than helpful.)
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
But, I prefer your script!!
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT="&lt;grin&gt;"
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> Well, you got _something_ useful out of it. That's a plus.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Mike]
..From "man 3 usleep": "The <TT> usleep()</TT> function suspends execution of the
calling process for usec microseconds."
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
It looks like it's available only as a C function. Somebody should wrap it
up in a command.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
&lt;smirk&gt; I did.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
....and they did just that
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">. I <EM>believe</EM> that on
RedHat systems, it was supplied as part of the
"initscripts" rpm, thus:
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="http://www.rpmfind.net//linux/RPM/redhat/7.2/i386/initscripts-6.40-1.i386.html"
>http://www.rpmfind.net//linux/RPM/redhat/7.2/i386/initscripts-6.40-1.i386.html</A>
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>/sbin/usleep
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
is where <EM>my</EM> copy resides (despite the fact im
running <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> 7.1 professional).
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Hope that helps
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [John K]
No such animal on my SuSE 7.2 install ...
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
jkarns@jkInsp8000:~ &gt; locate usleep
/home/jkarns/Dwnlds/Linux/XScreenSavers/xscreensaver-3.32/utils/usleep.c
/home/jkarns/Dwnlds/Linux/XScreenSavers/xscreensaver-3.32/utils/usleep.h
/home/jkarns/Dwnlds/Linux/XScreenSavers/xscreensaver-3.32/utils/usleep.o
/usr/share/doc/packages/mod_php/doc/function.usleep.html
/usr/share/doc/packages/phpdoc/manual/function.usleep.html
/usr/share/man/allman/man3/usleep.3.gz
/usr/share/man/man3/usleep.3.gz
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
As I'd mentioned, it's not part of Debian - whereas Perl is in every
distro. I'm sticking with portability.
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> Besides, when would you ever need
microsecond precision in a shell script?
Even milliseconds is splitting it frog-hair fine.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Mike]
You don't, but sometimes you want to delay for a quarter second or half
a second.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
BTW, "usleep" isn't described in "libc.info.gz", either - although there's
an interesting-looking "nanosleep".
</STRONG></P>
<!-- end 3 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 4 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>Serial Programming on an i486 in Linux</H3>
<p><strong>From V Sreejith
</strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<!-- sig -->
<!-- sig -->
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Chris Gianakopoulos, Ben Okopnik, Heather Stern
</strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
hi all,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
This is my first posting.
Here I have a problem related with linux serial
programming
in C.Hope u can help me in this.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I have a C program that communicates with a remote
terminal
unit via serial port.The program uses termios
structure to initialise
the port.
The program works as expected in kernel
version 2.4.2-2 on an i686 macine.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
This same program when tested on a 586 (Kernel
2.2.14-12 on an i586)
machine fails to read the port properly.
Writing to the port was working properly.
The setserial and stty commands produced the same
result on both machines.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
What does "failing to read the port properly" mean? Do the data look
rather odd? Does it look garbled?
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Later i found that minicom(communicating with
hyperterminal in windows) also
showed the same problem while reading the port on the
486 macine.
Writing to the port was working properly.
Communication was proper when hyperterminal was used
on
both sides.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Here is the o/p of the setserial command.
</STRONG></P>
<pre><strong>/dev/ttyS0, Line 0, UART: 16550A, Port: 0x03f8, IRQ: 4
Baud_base: 115200, close_delay: 50, divisor: 0
closing_wait: 3000
Flags: spd_normal skip_test
</strong></pre>
<P><STRONG>
and here is the settings on the port using stty
command while my program is
running.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
I am guessing that your baud rate is 115200 baud.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
</STRONG></P>
<pre><strong>speed 9600 baud; rows 0; columns 0; line = 0;
intr = ^C; quit = ^\; erase = ^?; kill = ^U; eof = ^D;
eol = &lt;undef&gt;;
eol2 = &lt;undef&gt;; start = ^Q; stop = ^S; susp = ^Z;
rprnt = ^R; werase = ^W;
lnext = ^V; flush = ^O; min = 1; time = 0;
-parenb -parodd cs8 hupcl -cstopb cread clocal
-crtscts
-ignbrk -brkint -ignpar -parmrk -inpck -istrip -inlcr
-igncr icrnl ixon -ixoff
-iuclc -ixany -imaxbel
opost -olcuc -ocrnl onlcr -onocr -onlret -ofill -ofdel
nl0 cr0 tab0 bs0 vt0
ff0
isig icanon iexten echo echoe echok -echonl -noflsh
-xcase -tostop -echoprt
echoctl echoke
</strong></pre>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
I am guessing that your baud rate is 9600 baud.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
If anybody knows what is creating the problem...
please do help..
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
regards,
sree
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
Hey Sree,
Are you running both sides of the link at the same data rate? The
parameters that you displayed give me the indication that the data rates
are not the same.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
When you type on one terminal, do you see anything displayed on the other
terminal? If they are different, one cause could be mismatched baud rate.
Your stty parameters seem okay -- if they are not, someone else will
probably jump in and correct me.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Get back to me (at you convience of course), and let me know what you see
on the displays.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
I hope that this helps,
Chris Gianakopoulos
</blockQuote>
<HR width="10%" align="left"><P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
hi chris,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I think this isn't the problem of the code
as this same code is working as expected in an
i686 machine.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
I agree with you here, Sree; if "minicom", etc. are having problems, then
your programming isn't what's at fault - it's "lower down". That could
still mean that there are problems with the baud rate, however - the "lower
down" part means anything from the serial port settings, through hardware
initialization, to actual hardware problems (the last of which you've
eliminated by trying it in Wind*ws.)
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
So it couldn't be the problem
of baudrate,parity etc.
Ofcourse my baudrate is 9600 and
the stty command showed that i have initialised
the port as expected.stty command showed the same
o/p for i686 and i586(not i486 ..sorry for the
mistake).
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
That's ok. If you are at the same baud rate, you might expect things to
work.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Why the "of course"? I almost always set my port speed to 115200. One of
the few exceptions is when I'm reading from my Minolta Dimage V camera: it
will not work with anything past 38400.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Have you tried your program on another 586, preferably a different make and
model? It could be that the serial hardware on that specific machine is
wonky, or that it's sufficiently strange that the serial driver is having
problems. I would also urge you to study the "setserial" man page; if
indeed the driver is having problems, "setserial" gives you _tons_ of
configuration options, and you might be able to "configure the problem
away."
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
My problem(in an i586) is that i can't read from the
port properly.I could get the no of bytes available
on the port with an ioctl call.The program fails
to read that bytes..
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Sometimes it reads correctly a few bytes..
But most of the time the read function returns with
Zero bytes read even if bytes are available on the
port.
Writing was working properly(verifying..by the return
value of write function)
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Earlier i thought it could be some problem
with my code.Later minicom also showed the same
problems.That is, whatever was typed on my keyboard
was displayed on hyperteminal on the windows machine
on the other side correctly.But when i typed something
on the
other side(in hyperterminal) it was not reaching here
properly.That is, once it displayed some ..2 or 3
characters correctly and failed to show the rest.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Hmmm... that _does_ sound like a speed problem. If the port on the other
machine was set to, say, 57600, and this machine was set to 9600, it would
"miss" most of the characters sent to it (although the classic speed
problem shows up as random garbage mixed with a few of the characters being
sent.)
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
When hyperteminal was used on these side also
..everything was ok. So i guess..there is no problem
with the serial port.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Could this be some problem with the serial driver in
linux.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
i think the problem is more clear now...
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
sree
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Wind*ws, depending on the version, sets the serial port speed to 57600 or
115200, if I remember correctly.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
Hi sree,
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
You have got an interesting problem here. First, let me mention that I
read Ben Okopnik's response, therefore, I will attempt to provide
information that does not overlap his response. Take his response into
consideration.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Let's pretend that your baud rates are the same on both sides. When you
type on your Linux machine, the characters appear on the Hyperterminal
display. So, you Linux machine can send, and your Hyperterminal machine
can receive.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Now, when you type on your Hyperterminal machine, I get the impression,
that the first few characters that you type appear on the Linux machine
(my assumption may be wrong -- correct me if I am wrong). After that,
when you type any more characters on your Hyperterminal machine, the
Linux machine displays nothing. My first guess would be that flow is
enabled on your Hyperterminal machine, and you are using a 3-wire
connection.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Flow control being enabled would seem like a logical cause for your
problem except for one thing. I get the impression that if you type ten
characters on your Hyperterminal machine (excluding the enter key), that
your <TT> ioctl()</TT> returns a value of ten. The results seem contradictory. I
believe that you are telling me the truth -- therefore I am now
confused.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
One trick that I use to test a serial port on a computer is to test each
serial port one at a time. Go ahead and remove the cable that connects
your two computers. On your Hyperterminal computer, connect a serial
cable to it, but, do not connect the other end of the cable to your
Linux machine. On the cable, connect pins 2 and 3 together. This will
connect your transmit data line to your receive data line. Bring up
Hyperterminal and start to type characters. If things are working, you
should see whatever you type appear on the display.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Do the same thing on your Linux machine. That is, connect a serial
cable to the serial port of your Linux machine, and connect pins 2 and
3, of the connector, together. Bring up minicom, and go ahead and type
characters on your Linux machine. If things are working, you should see
whatever you type appear on the display of your Linux machine.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
In both cases, we are performing a loopback test. If you do not see a
proper display, you have isolated the machine for which a problem exists
on a serial port.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
If you do see proper display, I would expect the following causes:
1. Mismatched baud rates between the two computers (maybe not)
2. Problems with your RS-232 drivers (voltage level problems).
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
If you don't see proper display on each machine, I would expect the
following causes:
1. Problems with your RS-232 drivers.
2. Flow control enabled (you could disable flow control)
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Try Ben's suggestions too. My analysis may be incomplete.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Let me know what happens, and good luck,
Chris Gianakopoulos
</blockQuote>
<HR width="10%" align="left"><P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Hi chris amd ben,
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Sorry for the delay in replying as there was
some problem with our mailserver.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
No problem.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Now, when you type on your Hyperterminal machine, I get the
impression,
that the first few characters that you type appear on the Linux
machine
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Not always...it appeared rarely...
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
Hmmmmmm.....
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
(my assumption may be wrong -- correct me if I am wrong). After
that,
when you type any more characters on your Hyperterminal machine, the
Linux machine displays nothing. My first guess would be that flow is
enabled on your Hyperterminal machine, and you are using a 3-wire
connection.
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Hardware Flow Control is enabled in hyperterminal(That's the default..)
That is set in minicom also.I changed only the baudrate.
(I am in doubt about this cable whether it is using 3 pins only or more)
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
But the cable I use in my program uses the rts,cts pins and uses them
in data transmission since the rtu expects that.Everything is working fine
in 686 machine.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
Flow control being enabled would seem like a logical cause for your
problem except for one thing. I get the impression that if you type
ten
characters on your Hyperterminal machine (excluding the enter key),
that
your <TT> ioctl()</TT> returns a value of ten. The results seem contradictory.
I
believe that you are telling me the truth -- therefore I am now
confused.
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I haven't checked the ioctl call with hyperterminal.I am
using minicom with hyperterminal.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
Understood.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
The ioctl call is used in my program that communicates with an rtu
through serial port.
I am sending some data to the port and expecting some data in return.
The ioctl call returns the no of bytes available on the port.
But the read function fails to read them and returns zero bytes.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
By using hyperterminal on both computers communication is perfect.
So that proves there is no problem with port or cable.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
I agree.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
If there is some problem with the settings mismatch in hyperterminal
and minicom ...how is the communication working correctly in one direction?
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
The direction that is not working would be the one that is not getting
the proper handshake -- if my flow control idea is valid.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
I will check with flow disabled in hyperterminal.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I want to know whether this is a problem of linux?
I am asking this because ..when hyperterminal was used on both
sides communication was working.
Have anybody encountered this type of problem in 586.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
That is what is odd. A serial port is not really associated with a
processor -- Ok, ok, some embedded microprocessors do have lots of
serial devices incorporated into their package.
I would think that you are using something like a 16450, 16550, 8251, or
someother UART or USART. It is
just a device that is addressed by the Intel processor in I/O space. I
understand what you mean, though.
When you say 586, you are referring to your particular 586 motherboard
with its oddly behaving serial interface (as far as its behavior with
Linux is concerned).
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
I am waiting to check this problem with another 486 machine.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I wan't to know more about the flow control aspect.
What is its significance?
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
That's "ready to send" and "clear to send". One system says it wants
to .. has data ready to go... and the other system has to give it the
thumbs up... clear, you can send now.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
When you want to send, you assert rts. Your system will monitor cts,
and it will not send the data unless cts is asserted (when I say
asserted, I mean set to an active state). If the computer, at the other
end of the link, does not activate the cts line, your system will never
send the data byte. It will be flow controlled. As a quick test, you
could make a cable that jumpers rts to cts. That would be pins 7 and 8
on your db9 connector.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
I am using the rts/cts pins in my program. I do it like this..
I will make the rts pin high before writing and wait for cts to become low.
Only when cts becomes low will i write to the port.
However i am not using any setting/resetting
while reading the port.
Everything is working fine in 686.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
bye
sree
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Chris G.]
Okay. You seem to be troubleshooting things in a good manner. Don't
forget to look at Ben O's suggestions, too.
</blockQuote>
<!-- end 4 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/5"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 5 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>Shut down when turn computer off</H3>
<p><strong>From pclouds
</strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Richard Adams, Frank Rodolf, Mike Orr
</strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
What I think he is talking about is that with some computers (dell is
the only one I know) that are running windowsNT if you hit the power
button on the front of the pc they begin to do a software shutdown.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thats what he is asking how can he set it up so when he hits the power
button that the machine notices this and goes into a software shutdown..
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Richard]
Well look at it this way, by depressing the power button on the computer you
start a shutdown, ok yes i now know what wa meant, what Linux has that no
windows software has is "ctrl-alt-del" invokes the defined call in
<TT>/etc/inittab</TT> by default its in short, "shutdown -r now" that one can change to
use 'poweroff' 'shutdown' or 'reboot'.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
So instead of pressing the power button on the machine itself, hit
ctrl-alt-delete, advantage of that is no need to streach to reach the machine
as the keyboard is right in front of you.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Mike]
There is also a POWERFAIL signal Linux uses to signal the detection of an
imminent power failure. It's meant for emergencies, but maybe you can somehow
latch onto that infrastructure. But an option like 'ctrlaltdel' in
'<TT>/etc/inittab</TT>' would be more ideal.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
ATX-style computers have a momentary on/off switch that can (somehow) be
made to trigger the "shutdown" command -- maybe. I'm not sure how it's done.
Look through "man inittab", "man init" and the kernel documentation, and
maybe you'll get an idea.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
This won't work with older AT-stype cases and motherboards because they have
a true 2-position switch. When you turn the switch off, it cuts the power
mechanically, and Linux doesn't know about it. Even if Linux did know about it,
there's not enough processor cycles left for Linux to do a clean shutdown
before it dies.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Frank]
I did some quick lookup... It seems acpid can do this - should be
available with your distribution, or otherwise you can easily find it
online.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
If not, there is also something called "Linux PowerSwitch Driver",
which is meant exactly for what you want... You can find it at:
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="http://deadlock.et.tudelft.nl/~joris/powerswitch"
>http://deadlock.et.tudelft.nl/~joris/powerswitch</A>
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Hope this helps you!
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Thanks for all advices. I have got powerswitch. It work very well!
</STRONG></P>
<!-- end 5 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/6"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 6 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>slib installation</H3>
<p><strong>From Dann S. Washko
</strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Ben Okopnik
</strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
While compiling gnucash I needed to install the slib libraries. I grabbed
the latest files from SLIB site and looked over the install information.
I initially put the slib files in <TT>/usr/lib/slib</TT>, but this was not working,
g-wraper kept puking saying it could not find require.scm. Looking at the
path's listed, I moved slib to <TT>/usr/share/guile/1.4.</TT> I reconfigured
g-wraper and ran make with no errors.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Is this where slib belongs?
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Just a datapoint: on my (<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A>) laptop, "slib.scm" is in
<TT>/usr/share/guile/1.3.4/ice-9/.</TT> It sounds like the right neighborhood.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Yeah, that is where it is on my slack system. The g-wrapper program was
looking for it in <TT>/usr/share/guile</TT>, so that is where I put it. I managed
to compile gnucash successfully. It puked on the first run saying I
should run it as root. Again, this was an issue with the slib libraries.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
strace gnucash showed some issues with opening slib.cat, but after running
it as root once, I was able to run it as a user.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Hm. That makes me wonder if it creates some sort of a config file that it
relies on in a place wher you normally don't have write permissions.
&lt;Shrug&gt; Just a wild guess.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
This makes me wonder if my placement of slib is not 100% correct.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
I would think that if it wasn't, it would continue to fail. Either way,
it's working now, right?
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Thanks for your reply, Ben.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
You're welcome, Daniel; little enough that it was, I'm glad that it was of
use to you.
</blockQuote>
<!-- end 6 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/7"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 7 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>SuSE 7.1 installation CD not recognized</H3>
<p><strong>From Tom Zabosky
</strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<!-- sig -->
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Dan Wilder, Karl-Heinz Herrmann, Jim Dennis
</strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
Good day
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
I came across the undermentioned question to yourselves and it is the
identical problem I have been having.
Could you please send me the answer given to this question.
Thanking you in advance for your kind consideration in this matter.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
yours
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Tom Zabosky
</STRONG></P>
<TABLE WIDTH="95%" BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFCC"><TR><TD>
<p align="center">...............</p>
<P><STRONG>
<A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> 7.1 installation CD not recognized
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><CODE>
ram son - Tue, 3 Apr 2001 09:52:50 -0700 (PDT)
</CODE></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
My knowledge of Linux systems isn't very extensive but
I have been checking out different systems by
downloading ISO's from ftp sites.Because SuSE 7.1
live-evaluation is only an image and uninstallable, I
downloaded from a mirror the folders and files I
thought might be needed by duplicating the layout from
version 7.0 --which seems to be the same as the ftp
layout. Unfortunately I ended up with an unbootable
CD...So I made a boot floppy and get started only to
get a message saying " unable to find SuSE 7.1
Installation CD 1..." It then switches to manual
installation and I am able to install using
yast1...But I actually wanted to check all the new
stuff included in Yast2 and the partitioning
improvements -- aside from the curiosity factor to
find out what actaually went wrong. If I use the cd
from 7.0 the boot floppy works fine and I get yast2. I
also compared the layout and files in the two versions
and was not able to solve the problem. I searched many
sites and all I get are bits and pieces that did not
help me much.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
The questions are: What is missing from my cd that it
is not recognized as the installation cd? What is it
that linuxrc looks for to get Yast2 started? and more
importantly where in the tree is it supposed to be?
I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer me
..preferably with a direct answer or at least point me
to where the answer could "actually" be found and save
me the link-chasing.
</STRONG></P><p align="center">...............</p>
</TD></TR></TABLE>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan]
I'd suggest you ask SuSE this question.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [K.-H.]
I agree with Dan on this -- SuSE would be the place to ask.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
If you didn't fetch a boot disk as well and burned the CD explicitly as
bootable CD with that disk-image of course it can't be bootable.
See cdrecord man pages and README's for details or move to a search engine of
your choice and type "burn bootable CDR" or something similar.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
The partitioning improvements of yast2/7.1 are that you still cant choose
any more complicated layout than a continous part of a HD. (seems to have
improved with 7.3).
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
SuSE/yast requires a list of packages and lots of information for
administration of the system. probably you forgot that.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
You've <EM>no</EM> problem with filesystem type/extensions on the CD? like all caps
filenames instead of lower case ones?
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
I guess SuSE put something there so it's not that easy to just bake your
Installation CD yourself where lots of needed stuff might be needed. Aren't
there CD images which would even be bootable?
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [JimD]
Actually it's probably a replay of the old question:
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
I downloaded a .ISO image and it doesn't work after I
burn it to a CD
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
(i.e. the user/querent is using CD burning software that is
not recognizing the target file as a pre-mastered ISO image).
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
The best answer to this question seems to at the LinuxISO web
page:
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="http://www.linuxiso.org/cdburninginfo.html"
>http://www.linuxiso.org/cdburninginfo.html</A>
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
... where one can also find ISO images of over twenty Linux
distributions, as well as <A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</A>, <A HREF="http://www.netbsd.org/">NetBSD</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</A> (which
I usually call *BSD or {Free,Net,Open}BSD for brevity's sake).
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
What I particularly like about this page is that they used to have
a Javascript animation that showed a sequence of dialogs and
options in "Easy CD Creator" that selected the appopriate "Options,
Track Type" settings for burning pre-mastered ISO images.
(Even though that seems to have disappeared, the information is
still there; MS Windows users just have to READ it and find the
</blockQuote>
<!-- end 7 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/8"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 8 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>Installing tulip.o in 6.2</H3>
<p><strong>From William Laing
</strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<!-- sig -->
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Ben Okopnik, Breen Mullins
</strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
hello
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Can someone instruct me how to install the module/ driver in Linux 6.2 .for
the Linksys networking card.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
The following module came with the card on a floppy and I was able to load
it in as follows as per the instructions.
I have tulip.o loaded in at this location.
</STRONG></P>
<pre><strong># locate tulip.o
/lib/modules/2.2.17-14/net/old_tulip.o
/lib/modules/2.2.17-14/net/tulip.o
</strong></pre>
<P><STRONG>
Does the old file require to be deleted or may it stay ?
I am be having some fun, but not making any headway on insmod.At this point
I cant go ant further.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thanking you.
Bill
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Did you try loading the module that was already on your system? I would do
that before using the new one, by preference - consider that to be your
fallback position if the new one fails, or gives you any problems.
Presumably, you're using the 2.2.17 kernel; all you have to do is type
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>insmod tulip
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
If the module loads without errors, check to see if the system actually
"sees" the card as it should:
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>ben@Baldur:~$ ifconfig eth0
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:4C:69:6E:75:79
inet addr:192.168.0.3 Bcast:192.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
BROADCAST PROMISC MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x200
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
Note that your numbers may not be the same as mine; in fact, the line
starting with "inet addr" will most likely be absent. This is normal.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Truth to tell, I'm a little surprised at the fact that the manufacter
included a module: they're normally compiled for a given kernel, and
will error out (although they can be force-loaded) when pushed onto a
different one.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
The old module (I assume, from the above, that you renamed the original to
"old_tulip.o") does not need to be deleted. If you want to test the system
with it instead of the new one, you should just be able to type
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>insmod old_tulip
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
Don't try to load more than one of them at a time; unload the one that you
don't want with
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>rmmod &lt;module_name&gt;
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
You can always see what's loaded by typing
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>lsmod
</pre></blockquote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Ben
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Thank you for Clear instructions, much apprecated.
The following happens while using the commands you suggested.
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
Presumably, you're using the 2.2.17 kernel; all you have to do is type...
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Yes a 2.2.17-14 kernal
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><CODE>
insmod tulip
</CODE></em></font></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Yeilds as follows:
</STRONG></P>
<pre><strong>Using /lib/modules/2.2.17-14/net/tulip.o: init_module:
Device or resource busy Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect
module parameters including invalid I0 or IRQ parameters.
</strong></pre>
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
That sounds like it's looking for parameters. This can also be caused by
I/O or IRQ conflicts, but ...
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Breen]
The tulip cards are all PCI and you shouldn't attempt to
specify either IRQs or IO addresses for them. The system assigns
these for a PCI device, not the driver.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Right. Check "<TT>/proc/pci</TT>".
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
><CODE>
insmod old_tulip
</CODE></em></font></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Yields the same as the new one. I believe I am guilty of copying both
modules myself to the linux box.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
It sounds like either one will work, once you have the correct parameters.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
><CODE>
lsmod
</CODE></em></font></STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Yeilds:
</STRONG></P>
<pre><strong># lsmod
Module Size Used by
#
</strong></pre>
<P><STRONG>
With nothing listed.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
This is fine.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Both machines can ping each other while Window applications are installed
suggesting the network path is funtional.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Good - knowing that will narrow down any troubleshooting that you may do.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Ben, Breen
</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>
Agn thank you people for you kind assistance.
The results of your suggestions follow.
(It is a bare bones machine text only.)
</STRONG></P>
<blockquote><code><font color="#000033"><br>The kernel is a 2.2.17-14
<br>The card is a Linksys LNE Ver.4.1 TAIMAG HE-012D
</font></code></blockquote>
<P><STRONG>
I do have other D-Link Cards I have tried, using RTL8139, but the results
were the same.
</STRONG></P>
<pre><strong># /var/log/dmesg
Permission denied
#
</strong></pre>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
Erm, you're supposed to read it - not execute it. "<TT>/bin/dmesg</TT>" will print
out the contents; for a bit more scrolling control, try
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>more /var/log/dmesg
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
Reading "daemon.log" and "messages" in "<TT>/var/log</TT>" would be of even more use
- they would tell you what happened when you tried to load the module.
A quick look at the available parameters for "tulip.o" tells me that
there's a "debug" option, enabled by
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>insmod tulip debug=value
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
Where "value" is 1-6 (I just took a quick look through the code, and the
tests for "tulip_debug" max out at 'if (tulip_debug &gt; 5)...') This should
print much more info to the logs.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Breen]
As Ben said, you're supposed to read the file. But you won't find the
detection message we're looking for in dmesg; I realize that you need
to look in <TT>/var/log/messages.</TT>
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Try this:
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre># grep tulip /var/log/messages*
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
You'll be looking for a line similar to this:
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre>messages.3:Oct 8 13:17:41 archy kernel: tulip.c:v0.91g-ppc 7/16/99
becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
That tells us the version of the tulip driver you're using. Mine is
old but so is the card I'm using.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Instead of Ben's suggestion of
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre># insmod tulip
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
you may want to try
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre># modprobe tulip
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
(Some versions of the tulip driver need a shim driver to load first.
modprobe will pick that up.)
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
If that doesn't work, try getting the latest drivers from Donald
Becker's site:
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
<A HREF="ftp://ftp.scyld.com/pub/network/netdrivers-3.0-1.src.rpm"
>ftp://ftp.scyld.com/pub/network/netdrivers-3.0-1.src.rpm</A>
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Become root and install the rpm:
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre># rpm -i netdrivers-3.0-1.src.rpm
# cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS
# rpm -bb netdrivers.spec
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
That will build the latest set of drivers.
</blockQuote>
<blockquote><pre># cd ../RPMS/i386
# rpm -Uvh netdrivers-3.0-1.i386.rpm
(you MAY have to use a --force flag with that -- you'll know if you do.)
# depmod -a
# modprobe tulip
</pre></blockquote>
<blockQuote>
Which should get you up and running.
</blockQuote>
<!-- end 8 -->
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
<A NAME="tag/9"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
<!-- begin 9 -->
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
>Just wondering</H3>
<p><strong>From andrew
</strong></p>
<p></strong></p>
<!-- sig -->
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Jim Dennis, Faber Fedor
</strong></p>
<P><STRONG>
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Faber]
First off, this is a major no-no around these here parts. Please send
your emails as text only, NOT as HTML. Most of us will refuse to read
HTML (because we don't use Outlook, Netscape, etc.). We even have one
guy here who carries around a riffle for people who send MIME formatted
emails!
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";-)"
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
I'll answer your Q this time, but any more that come in as anything
other than text only will be ignored (at least by me).
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [JimD]
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Note that his message was in text <EM>and</EM> HTML. This is more of a
venial sin; though MIME handling of some text mode MUAs isn't all
that good and both sections seemed to be in MIME parts (one text/plain
and one text/html).
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
Hello,
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Faber]
Hi.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
I am wondering if you could help.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Faber]
We try our best.
</blockQuote>
<P><STRONG>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
>
My question is if i was to buy a Redhat 7.2 CD
&amp; choose the Upgrade will i expect my major services to break or will
this upgrade be able to make it as painless as possible.
</STRONG></P>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Faber]
Yes, it will be as painless as possible and yes it <EM>will</EM> break things.
It all depends on what you are running. If you save your configuration
files (the Upgrade promises to do that, and I beleive it but I don't
trust it), you should have minimal problems. <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A> will save your
config files as config_file.rpmsave, so you'll still have to go in and
"fix" stuff.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Outside of that, the only problem I've had upgrading a system is when
the 2.4 kernel didn't have a driver/module for the RIAD controller and
we had to drop back to the 2.2 kernel and it broke DNS because the
BIND on the CDs is looking for a specific 2.4 kernel feature. Outside
of that, they've all gone well.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [JimD]
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Personally I prefer the "scorched disk" upgrade method. That's
where we do a fresh installation to a new disk and copy our data
and configuration over.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Obviously this works best if you have (at least temporary use of) a
whole system on which to perform your staging.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
<A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> is the only system that I regularly upgrade from one major
release to the next without "scorching the earth" beneath it. In
other cases I've just seen too many artifacts and quirks in other
operating systems when upgrading core libraries and system components.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
An advantage to the "scorched disk" approach is that you have an
obvious back of the entire system throughout the process. You can
easily switch back to the old system. So it represents a lower risk
than the typical "boot from the new distribution CD, cross you fingers
and pray" process (herein-after referred to as the "boot and pray"
technique).
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
If you don't have a whole system to spare then get a spare hard disk.
Most systems have a spare interface/channel to which a third or fourth
IDE device can be attached (and PCs with SCSI subsystems almost always
have spare IDs <EM>and</EM> spare IDE interfaces). Care should be taken
when connecting a new IDE hard drive to an IDE chain with any
other IDE device already on it. (I once wiped out a system by
accidentally configuring two drives as masters --- the pinouts on
those used to be harder to figure out; bad documentation. Luckily the
customer's backups were good and recent).
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
After you get the new drive in place and make it bootable, be sure
to mount the old filesystems in read-only mode during the transition.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
When your done with all of the data and configuration transfer you can
put the drive on a shelf for a few weeks, months, or whatever. When
the filesystems on the old drive are so far out of date that you wouldn't
use them in the worst case --- then the drive is ripe for putting into
a new system.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Of course its possible to do this using tapes, CDR, DVD-RAM or whatever
removable media you normally use for your regular backups. However,
the mismatch between the sizes of most production filesystem and
removable filesystem media make this convenient. Tapes are big enough
but they must be accessed using archiving utilities which is also
inconvenient.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
So it is best to use an extra drive where you can.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
The hardest thing about any upgrade is knowing when you're done.
How confident can we be that <EM>everything</EM> is working? This is
one of the challenges to professional systems administration that
remains largely unsolved.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
Ideally we should be able to run an automated test suite which
would test each service and application on our system(s) (locally
and from remote systems, including some from "out on the Internet" for
public servers). Recently I've been reading about "Extreme
Programming" which advocates the continuous creation and
maintenance of automated test suites which are integrated into
the sources and makefiles of a software system. I've come to the
conclusion that sysadmins need to adopt similar practices. We
need something like an <TT>/etc/systest/Makefile</TT> what launches these
checks for a given host.
</blockQuote>
<blockQuote>
However, that's work for another time -- an article of its own.
For now you'll just have to muddle through and test your newly
(upgraded) system using whatever procedures you normally use to
</blockQuote>
<!-- end 9 -->
<P> <hr> </p>
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<li><a HREF="#links">Linux Links</a>
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December 2001 <I>Linux Journal</I>
</font>
</H3>
<IMG ALT="[issue 92 cover image]" SRC="misc/bytes/lj-cover92.png" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=268
ALIGN="left" HSPACE="20">
The December issue of <A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/"><I>Linux
Journal</I></A> is on newsstands now.
This issue focuses on System Administration. Click
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=NS-lj-issues/issue92&file=index">here</A>
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<P>
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<BR CLEAR="all">
<a name="leg"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">Legislation and More Legislation</font></H3></center>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">European Legislation
</FONT>
</H3>
Bad news from the European Patent office. It appears that they are just
itching to get a piece of the software-patents action their American
colleagues have been hogging.
<a href="http://www.eurolinux.org/news/coup01A/">Eurolinux</a> have
<a href="http://www.eurolinux.org/news/coup01A/">
reported</a>
that the president of the European Patent Office has, "in preemption of political
decisions to be taken by European governments, decreed a regulation that
authorises patent claims to computer programs". The updated rules are
<a href="http://www.european-patent-office.org/legal/gui_lines/e/c_iv_2.htm">
available online</a> along with a
<a href="http://www.epo.co.at/news/pressrel/2001_10_05_e.htm">
related memo</a>.
<p>
The outrage at this stems
both from strong feeling against software patents per se, and from the
undemocratic nature of their introduction. As
<a href="http://interactif.lemonde.fr/article/0,5611,2866--246575-0,FF.html">
reported</a> by the French daily, Le Monde, European governments had
already made a decision to postpone changes to the articles in question
until further study had been done into the potential ramifications.
<p>
A
<a href="http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/papri/bmwi-fhgmpi01/indexen.html">
study</a> commissioned by the German Federal Ministery of Economy and
Technology (BMWi) found that introduction of software patents would be
likely to put many currently successful software companies out of business
and slow down innovation in the software field (perversely, that report
then went on to <i>recommend</i> the introduction of these patents).
A European Commission
<a href="http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/indprop/softanalyse.pdf">
consultative report</a> [pdf]
found that 91% of respondants where opposed to software patents. However,
it appears that the "economic majority" was in favour of patents. So much
for democracy.
<p>
There are several fine online resources available if you want to
familiarise yourself about the issues regarding software patents.
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://www.eurolinux.org/news/coup01A/">Eurolinux</a> is a leading
opponent of these "advances". Their
<a href="http://petition.eurolinux.org/">
Petition for a Software Patent Free Europe</a> is supported by 80000
signatures. Why not add your own?
<li>
The
<a href="http://www.ffii.org/indexen.html">
Federation for a Free Informational Infrastructure</a> also have a wide
range of news and information on these issues. In particular, there is a
<a href="http://swpat.ffii.org/stidi/epc52/indexen.html">guide</a> to the
Interpretation and Revision of the crucial Article 52.
<li>
<a href="http://www.aful.org/">
AFUL</a>
(Association Francophone des Utilisateurs de Linux) have a moderate traffic
<a href="http://www.aful.org/mailman/listinfo/patents">
mailing list</a> where a range of opinions are expressed. The archives are
available
<a href="http://www.aful.org/pipermail/patents/">
online</a>, and are worth reading (multilingual).
</ul>
<p>
<hr width="20%" noshade>
<p>
Slashdot
<a href="http://slashdot.org/yro/01/11/09/1322254.shtml">
reported</a> on the signing of the new
<a href="http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/cadreprojets.htm">
European Cybercrime Treaty</a>. The final version is available
<a href="http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/projets/FinalCybercrime.htm">
here</a>. It is effectively a template to be used by signatory countries
when framing laws concerning crime committed using computers.
As
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4306273,00.html">
reported</a> by The Guardian, the treaty: "...outlines common definitions
of computer-related crimes, defines the methods for criminal investigations
and prosecution and establishes methods of international communication
between law enforcement officials."
<p>
Though some
<a href="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011121/wr/crime_internet_dc_1.html">
comment</a> has been favourable, many civil rights groups have
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1651000/1651381.stm">
condemned</a> the treaty on the grounds that it grants excessive powers to
police forces while eroding privacy. One consolation (as noted last
month) that Bruce Schneier has
<a href="http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram-0108.html#8">
highlighted</a> is the explicit statement in the treaty of the legitimacy
of using "hacking/cracking" tools in
<a href="http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2001/11/15/scanning.htm">
security work</a> (as opposed to using them to rob banks!).
Nevertheless, there is still strong cause for concern as the provisions for
extradition and cross border action could be subject to tragic abuse.
<p>
<hr width="20%" noshade>
<p>
In a final titbit of European news, The Register
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22819.html">
recently reported</a>
that the EU Microsoft probe hearings should take place December, with a
verdict early 2002. It appears Competition Commissioner Mario Monti is not
giving much away about how this will pan out or what the ultimate aim is.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">UK Developments
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
The European Cybercrime treaty will not be of much interest to the United
Kingdom Government, as they seem to have implemented many of the most
draconian measures already. In the current climate of terrorist fear,
things are being locked down even more tightly. New measures being
introduced by David Blunket (UK Home Secretary) will give law enforcement
bodies access to records of all UK telephone and internet users. This was
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4293489,00.html">
reported</a> in The Guardian. This access will not only be available for terrorism
investigations, but also for investigations regarding minor crimes and tax
issues.
This is basically an extension/clarification of the
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/19276.html">
much criticised</a>
<a href="http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ripa/ripact.htm">
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000</a> which gave the government
unprecedented powers to monitor communications with very little outside
scrutiny or even the need for a court order. Apparently, it is
"inappropriate" to involve judges in the process where issues of national
security or economic well-being are involved. An article in <i>Criminal Law
Review</i> described this assertion as
<a href="http://www.cyber-rights.org/documents/crimlr.pdf">
"wholly spurious"</a>.
<p>
The <a href="http://www.fipr.org/">
Foundation for Information Policy Research</a> (FIPR)
and
<a href="http://www.magnacartaplus.org/">
Magna Carta Plus</a>
have a lot of information regarding this and related issues.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Judge Refuses Adobe Injunction Against Reseller of OEM Software
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
In a case that impacts the questions of (1) whether software is
"licensed" or "sold" and (2) the validity of End User License Agreements
(EULAs), a US district judge has
<a href="http://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/CACD/RecentPubOp.nsf/bb61c530eab0911c882567cf005ac6f9/574aa79ff518021188256aed006ea2dc/$FILE/CV00-04161DDP.pdf">
denied</a> [pdf]
Adobe a preliminary injunction
against SoftMan Products Company for reselling Adobe software that was
originally bundled with computers in OEM fashion but that the computers'
owners did not want.
<P> The judge rejected Adobe's claim that the bundled copy was a "license"
rather than a "sale". Thus, the First Sale doctrine applies, meaning
Adobe cannot control the subsequent transfer of the the software
after the initial sale.
The court also found that SoftMan was not bound by the EULA because it
had never assented to it. The validity of EULAs was also questioned
as the terms were not fully disclosed prior to the sale.
Linux Journal has more
<a href="http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5628">
details</a>.
<P>
Linux Weekly News also has an informative
<a href="http://lwn.net/2001/1108/">
editorial</a>
that examines how this ruling might affect other cases. One implication is
that it should be possible (if the principle of first sale now applies) to
resell e-books or unwanted OS installations. The ruling may also be
important to the
two DeCSS cases (the famous one and another one). These cases
"depend, partly, on
the claim that a commercial DVD package was 'improperly' reverse
engineered. It is the software's EULA that prohibits that
reverse engineering. If the code is reverse engineered without
installing it and agreeing to the EULA (by, say, disassembling it on a
Linux system), the EULA may not apply".
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Lawrence Lessig
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>There is an
<a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_novdec_2001/lessig.html">
article</a> by Lawrence Lessig at
<a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/">Foreign Policy</a>
on the evolution of the Internet, transforming
communication relations from controlled to free, and the very real
threat that much of it may become controlled again.
<P> He makes some interesting comments about who invented various important Internet
protocols and services and on the vested interests vying for control.
"Policymakers around the world must recognize that the interests most
strongly protected by the Internet counterrevolution are not their own.
They should be skeptical of legal mechanisms that enable those most
threatened by the innovation commons to resist it."
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Judge Rejects French Jurisdiction Over Yahoo's Auction of Nazi Artefacts
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
<P> US District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel has
<a href="http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7815683.html?tag=mn_hd">
refused</a> [cnet.com]
to enforce a French court's
order barring Yahoo from auctioning Nazi memorabilia on a US site that
was accessible to French citizens.
<P> LG wonders what the judge would think if the situation were reversed,
given the current attempts by US companies to get their US patents and
DMCA copyright rights recognized overseas.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Good and Bad DeCSS News
</FONT>
</H3>
Slashdot
<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/01/1953236&mode=nested">
reported</a>
that in the California DeCSS case, a
court of appeal overturned the injunction
imposed by a lower court. Quoting: 'In the case
of a prior restraint on pure speech, the hurdle is substantially
higher [than for an ordinary preliminary injunction]: publication must
threaten an interest more fundamental than the First Amendment
itself. Indeed, the Supreme Court has never upheld a prior restraint, even
faced with the competing interest of national security or the Sixth
Amendment right to a fair trial.' This is obviously a very positive
development, though there is a long road still to be travelled.
<p>
<hr width="20%" noshade>
<p>
Less positively, in the New York MPAA v. 2600 case, the court of appeals
decision has gone in the favour of the MPAA. There are reports on the
judgement available
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/23084.html">
here</a> [TheRegister.co.uk] and
<a href="http://www.eff.org/effector/HTML/effect14.37.html#III">
here</a> [EFF.org]. Cryptome.org has a very through
<a href="http://cryptome.org/cryptout.htm#DVD-DeCSS">
collection</a>
of documents relating to both cases, including the
<a href="http://cryptome.org/mpaa-v-2600-cad.htm">text of the ruling</a>.
The judge accepted that computer code can be protected as a form of speech
under the first ammendment. He then decided that the target of the
injunction was not the <i>speech</i>, but the functional component (i.e.
the use the code can be put to: decrypting DVD's). In these circumstances,
the injunction can be granted as long as it is "content neutral", and the
impact on the speech component is incidental. The judge
writes:
<blockquote>
This type of regulation is therefore content-neutral, just as would be a
restriction on trafficking in skeleton keys identified because of their
capacity to unlock jail cells, even though some of the keys happened to
bear a slogan or other legend that qualified as a speech component.
</blockquote>
The other part of the rationale is that the Government's interest in the
prevention of unauthorised access to copyrighted material "is
unquestionably substantial". Thus, the injunction is upheld. A similar
argument is used relating to the injunction against linking to web pages
containing DeCSS.
<p>
Claims against the injunction based on the principle of fair use were
dismissed on the grounds that although the user is allowed to make fair use
(say, by quoting from a copyright work) she is not automatically entitled
to make that use with a preferred technology. CSS may prevent you taking a
still image from a movie, but it does not stop you from photographing your
monitor/television screen. Thus, your fair use rights are not affected.
<P>
The issue as to whether or not DeCSS is really a piracy tool was relegated
to footnote 5. The footnote correctly states that piracy is entirely possible
without DeCSS, but contends that DeCSS is a substantial aid to the process.
Many would
<a href="http://www.opendvd.org/journalists.php3">
contend</a> that the piracy issue is actually a canard (=bogus), but
it is the most respectable argument the MPAA can come up with.
<p>
Note: I am not a lawyer (as they always say on Slashdot), and
this interpretation is based on a quick reading of the ruling just before
this month's deadline. However, I believe that the summary above is a fair
representation of the major points. As to the correctness of the ruling/opinions,
you must make up your own mind. Personally, some of the distinctions seem
a touch specious. The separation of speech and function with regard to
computer code is not as clear as in the case of the logo on a key, or a
poem written on a gun. Also, the issue of fair use regarding the
<i>playing</i> of legally purchased DVD's on Linux was summarily dismissed,
apparently on the basis that you have the right to watch, not decrypt,
DVD's you purchase, thus subsection 1201(a)(3)(A) of the
<a href="http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=105_cong_bills&docid=f:h2281enr.txt.pdf">
DMCA</a> still applies.
<CITE>-- MC</CITE>
<hr width="20%" noshade>
<p>Slashdot has an
<A HREF="http://slashdot.org/features/01/11/30/1739226.shtml">eyewitness
account of the Felten vs RIAA hearing</A>. As you remember, Professor
Felton write a paper describing weaknesses in the CSS encryption used on
commercial DVDs. RIAA threatened to sue him if he presented the paper at a
scientific conference. But they didn't sue him, and after a public outcry
they withdrew their objection to him presenting the paper. Meanwhile, Felten
filed a lawsuit of his own, claiming that RIAA's action encourages researchers
to censor themselves to avoid legal liability that may or may not be
legitimate. The judge dismissed the suit,
saying that he cannot rule on a potential issue (RIAA threatening to sue
Felten), but only on an actual issue (if RIAA sued him, which they didn't).
He said he is not allowed to rule on Constitutional issues (whether Felton's
free-speech rights were violated) in a non-criminal case without a compelling
reason, and there is no compelling reason in this case. He also said this case
is like "night and day" compared to Dmitry Sklyarov's case, since Dmitry <EM>was</EM>
charged with a criminal violation of infringing for commercial gain.
<CITE>-- Iron</CITE>]
<P>
<hr width="20%" noshade>
<P>
Dmitry's trial date is now expected to be April 15, 2002, assuming the case isn't
dismissed in the meantime.
<P> More information about most of these issues is on the <A
HREF="http://www.eff.org/">Electronic Frontier Foundation</A> home page.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Bad News for Napster
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
In less positive news,
The Electronic Frontier Foundation published a
<a href="http://www.eff.org/Intellectual_property/P2P/Napster/20010226_rgross_nap_essay.html">
white paper</a>
on the US appeals court decision confirming that Napster was
liable for its users sharing copyrighted files.
The court agreed that the file-sharing technology in itself is not
illegal, but the minute its developers and users receive reasonable
knowledge that specific infringing files are servable on the system
(e.g., if they receive a "cease and desist" letter), they must
immediately delete these files or they, and possibly their ISP and so on
upline, will be liable. Knowledge of infringing uses overshadows
whatever non-infringing uses the server may also be performing. In
practice, this will have the effect of deletion through intimidation, or
deleting files that are alleged to infringe but may not. It also forces
sysadmins to become their own police for the benefit of the content
companies, or face liability. Technologies such as
<a href="http://freenet.sourceforge.net/">
Freenet</a> that are
unable to police user access may have an advantage under this ruling.
<a name="links"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">Linux Links</font></H3></center>
<P>
<a href="http://lwn.net/">
LWN</a> have the following links which you might enjoy:
<ul>
<li>
<a href="http://lwn.net/Gallery/">
LWN penguin gallery</a>
<li>
<a href="http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/ns62/relnotes/62.html">
Release notes</a>
on the new Netscape 6.2
<li>
A
<a href="http://www.ghostscript.com/images/743_100dpi_JPEG_r.jpg">
Cartoon</a>
about a truly terrifying experience installing ghostscript
<li>
LWN has also
<a href="http://lwn.net/2001/1108/kernel.php3">
summed up</a> the main points of the Virtual Memory ex-controversy in
Linux 2.4.
</ul>
<P>
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk">The Register</a> have reported
<ul>
<li>
Microsoft's
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22670.html">
bootloader concession</a>
could boost Linux, BSD. They also report on how
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22971.html">
difficult</a> it is to buy a pre-installed Linux system from any of the
major PC builders.
<li>
Red Hat
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22953.html">
offer</a>
to provide open-source software "in every school district in the United States
free of charge" (dig aimed at Microsoft?)
<li>
Linux fans
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/28/22837.html">
'hack'</a>
Windows XP advert. In a similar vein comes this
<a href="http://mirrors.meepzorp.com/xpsucks/">
photo</a>.
</ul>
<P>
CNet wonders whether the Open Source model be
<a href="http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-202-7926093.html">
killed</a>
by hard times?
Annalee Newitz at AlterNet
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11923">
doesn't think so</a>.
<p>
Alternet look at <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11947">
Network Admin Blues</a>
<P>
ZDNet ran a
<a href="http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2822789,00.html">
story</a> on the Virtual Memory issue. eWeek.com
<a href="http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D701%2526a%253D17813,00.asp">
covered it too</a>.
<p>
LinuxWorld have an
<a href="http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2001/1113.xterminal7.html">
article</a> on installing Debian over a network.
<P>
LinuxSecurity.com have a
<a href="http://www.linuxsecurity.com/feature_stories/feature_story-93.html">
report</a>
Hal Burgiss' new Linux security
quick-start guides: the
<a href="http://www.linuxsecurity.com/resource_files/documentation/QUICKSTART/index.html">
Security Quick-Start HOWTO for Linux</a>
and the
<a href="http://www.linuxsecurity.com/resource_files/documentation/QUICKSTART-Redhat/index.html">
Security Quick-Start HOWTO for Red Hat</a>.
<P>
At OReillynet.com Jerry Peek
<a href="http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2001/11/15/learnunixos.html">
explains</a>
why Unix and Macintosh users should learn
to use the command line.
<P>
BSD bug report in comic strip
<a href="http://beta.jerkcity.com/jerkcity1110.html">
form</a>.
From the
<A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/mailman/listinfo/atc">Aspiring to Crudeness</A> e-newsletter
.
<P>
There is an informative
<a href="http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2001/11/01/postmortem.html">
Article</a>
at
<a href="http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2001/11/01/postmortem.html">
linux.oreillynet.com</a>
about what a kernel Oops is and how to troubleshoot its cause.
<p>
<a href="http://www.rimbault.net/python/">
Here</a> is a large list of links to Python sites and resources. Lots and
lots of information, including a selection of links to French language
Python sites.
<p>
Deepak, from Bangalore, India, submitted a link to his
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/netmaniac00/stuffs.html">
webpage</a>
where he has a PowerPoint presentation available for download. The title of
the presentation is "The (R)Evolution of an OS", and it provides a very
thorough broad-based introduction to Linux for people who may be familiar
only with Windows.
The slideshow is "95% StarOffice compatible", but even if you don't have
Powerpoint or StarOffice, you can also see thumbnails and full-size jpegs
of the individual slides.
<P>
Ernesto Hernandez-Novich suggested that we plug the
<a href="http://www.linux.org.ve/">
Venezuelan Linux User's Group</a> and their
<a href="http://www.linux.org.ve/archivo">
mailing list archive</a>. Linux Gazette is always pleased to be able to
alert readers to public linux resources.
A great way to promote a new or existing Linux Users' Group (LUG)
is to register the LUG at
<a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/glue">
GLUE</a>
(Groups of Linux Users Everywhere).
<p>
<a href="http://www.linuxdevices.com/">
LinuxDevices.com</a> have a
<a href="http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT6553340334.html">
Review</a> of Sharp PDA running Linux. This was also
<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/05/2359227&mode=nested">
highlighted</a>
on Slashdot, which linked to an infoSync
<a href="http://www.infosync.no/show.php?id=1063">
story</a>.
<P> Not Linux, but <A HREF="http://www.gatt.org/">www.gatt.org</A> is a satire of the WTO
web site from the viewpoint of anti-globalization activists. The real WTO web site,
<A HREF="http://www.wto.org/">www.wto.org</A>, allegedly had a statement deploring this
pseudo-site. In a comical turnaround, the satire site now has an article (at the bottom of
the home page) titled "Fake WTO site misleading public", with a link to the "fake" site
that is actually the <EM>real</EM> WTO site!
<P>
There's neither pine nor apples in pineapples, no ham in hamburgers,
Look
<a href="http://iron.cx/writings/other/crazyeng.txt">
here</a> for further extracts from
the book <i>Crazy English</i>.
<a name="conferences"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">Upcoming conferences and events</font></H3></center>
<P> Listings courtesy <EM>Linux Journal</EM>. See <EM>LJ</EM>'s
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/events/">Events</A> page for the
latest goings-on.
<!-- *** BEGIN events table [this line needed by Linux Gazette events.py *** -->
<table cellpadding=5 border=0 width=100%>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>15th Systems Administration Conference/LISA 2001</b><BR>
<td valign=top>December 2-7, 2001<BR>San Diego, CA<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa2001/" target="_blank">
http://www.usenix.org/events/lisa2001</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Consumer Electronics Show (CEA)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>January 1-11, 2002<BR>Las Vegas, NV<BR>
<a href="http://www.cesweb.org/" target="_blank">
http://www.cesweb.org/</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Bioinformatics Technology Conference (O'Reilly)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>January 28-31, 2002<BR>Tucson, AZ<BR>
<a href="http://conferences.oreilly.com/biocon/" target="_blank">
http://conferences.oreilly.com/biocon/</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>COMNET Conference & Expo (IDG)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>January 28-31, 2002<BR>Washington, DC<BR>
<a href="http://www.comnetexpo.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.comnetexpo.com/</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>LinuxWorld Conference & Expo (IDG)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>January 30 - February 1, 2002<BR>New York, NY<BR>
<a href="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.linuxworldexpo.com/</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>The Tenth Annual Python Conference ("Python10")</b><BR>
<td valign=top>February 4-7, 2002<BR>Alexandria, Virginia<BR>
<a href="http://www.python10.org/" target="_blank">
http://www.python10.com/</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Australian Linux Conference</b><BR>
<td valign=top>February 6-9, 2002<BR>Brisbane, Australia<BR>
<a href="http://www.linux.org.au/conf/" target="_blank">
http://www.linux.org.au/conf/</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Internet Appliance Workshop</b><BR>
<td valign=top>February 19-21, 2002<BR>San Jose, CA<BR>
<a href="http://www.netapplianceconf.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.netapplianceconf.com/</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Internet World Wireless East (Penton)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>February 20-22, 2002<BR>New York, NY<BR> <a href="http://www.internetworld.com/events/weast2002/" target="_blank">
http://www.internetworld.com/events/weast2002/</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Intel Developer Forum (Key3Media)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>February 25-28, 2002<BR>San Francisco, CA<BR>
<a href="http://www.intel94.com/idf/index2.asp" target="_blank">
http://www.intel94.com/idf/index2.asp</A><BR>
</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>COMDEX (Key3Media)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>March 5-7, 2002<BR>Chicago, IL<BR>
<a href="http://www.key3media.com/comdex/chicago2002/" target="_blank">
http://www.key3media.com/comdex/chicago2002/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>BioIT World Conference & Expo (IDG)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>March 12-14, 2002<BR>Boston, MA<BR>
<a href="http://www.bioitworld.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.bioitworld.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Embedded Systems Conference (CMP)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>March 12-16, 2002<BR>San Francisco, CA<BR>
<a href="http://www.esconline.com/sf/" target="_blank">
http://www.esconline.com/sf/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>CeBIT (Hannover Fairs)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>March 14-22, 2002<BR>Hannover, Germany<BR>
<a href="http://www.cebit.de/" target="_blank">
http://www.cebit.de/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>COMDEX (Key3Media)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>March 19-21, 2002<BR>Vancouver, BC<BR>
<a href="http://www.key3media.com/comdex/vancouver2002/" target="_blank">
http://www.key3media.com/comdex/vancouver2002/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>FOSE</b><BR>
<td valign=top>March 19-21, 2002<BR>Washington, DC<BR>
<a href="http://www.fose.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.fose.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Game Developers Conference (CMP)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>March 19-23, 2002<BR>San Jose, CA<BR>
<a href="http://www.gdconf.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.gdconf.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Singapore(IDG)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>March 20-22, 2002<BR>Singapore<BR>
<a href="http://www.idgexpoasia.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.idgexpoasia.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Software Solutions / eBusiness World</b><BR>
<td valign=top>March 26-27, 2002<BR>Toronto, Canada<BR>
<a href="http://www.softmatch.com/soln20.htm#ssebw" target="_blank">
http://www.softmatch.com/soln20.htm#ssebw</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>SANS 2002 (SANS Institute)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>April 7-9, 2002<BR>Orlando, FL<BR>
<a href="http://www.sans.org/newlook/home.htm" target="_blank">
http://www.sans.org/newlook/home.htm</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Malaysia (IDG)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>April 9-11, 2002<BR>Malaysia<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.idgexpoasia.com/" TARGET="_blank">
http://www.idgexpoasia.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Dublin (IDG)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>April 9-11, 2002<BR>Dublin, Ireland<BR>
<BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Internet World Spring (Penton)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>April 22-24, 2002<BR>Los Angeles, CA<BR>
<a href="http://www.internetworld.com/events/spring2002/" target="_blank">
http://www.internetworld.com/events/spring2002/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (O'Reilly)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>April 22-25, 2002<BR>Santa Clara, CA<BR>
<a href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etcon2002/" target="_blank">
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etcon2002/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Software Development Conference & Expo (CMP)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>April 22-26, 2002<BR>San Jose, CA<BR>
<a href="http://www.sdexpo.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.sdexpo.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Federal Open Source Conference & Expo (IDG)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>April 24-26, 2002<BR>Washington, DC<BR>
<a href="http://www.idgworldexpo.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.idgworldexpo.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Networld + Interop (Key3Media)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>May 7-9, 2002<BR>Las Vegas, NV<BR>
<a href="http://www.key3media.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.key3media.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Strictly e-Business Solutions Expo (Cygnus Expositions)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>May 8-9, 2002<BR>Minneapolis, MN<BR>
<a href="http://www.strictlyebusiness.net/strictlyebusiness/index.po?" target="_blank">
http://www.strictlyebusiness.net/strictlyebusiness/index.po?</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Embedded Systems Conference (CMP)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>June 3-6, 2002<BR>Chicago, IL<BR>
<a href="http://www.esconline.com/chicago/" target=_"blank">
http://www.esconline.com/chicago/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>USENIX Annual (USENIX)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>June 9-14, 2002<BR>Monterey, CA<BR>
<a href="http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix02/" target="_blank">
http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix02/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>PC Expo (CMP)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>June 25-27, 2002<BR>New York, NY<BR>
<a href="http://www.techxny.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.techxny.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>USENIX Securty Symposium (USENIX)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>August 5-9, 2002<BR>San Francisco, CA<BR>
<a href="http://www.usenix.org/events/sec02/" target="_blank">
http://www.usenix.org/events/sec02/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>LinuxWorld Conference & Expo (IDG)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>August 12-15, 2002<BR>San Francisco, CA<BR>
<a href="http://www.linuxworldexpo.com" target="_blank">
http://www.linuxworldexpo.com</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Australia (IDG)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>August 14 - 16, 2002<BR>Australia<BR>
<a href="http://www.idgexpoasia.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.idgexpoasia.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top>
<b>Communications Design Conference (CMP)</b><BR>
<td valign=top>September 23-26, 2002<BR>San Jose, California<BR>
<a href="http://www.commdesignconference.com/" target="_blank">
http://www.commdesignconference.com/</A><BR>
<tr><td colspan=2><HR size=5 width=100% noshade align=center></td></tr>
</table>
<!-- *** END events table [this line needed by Linux Gazette events.py *** -->
<a name="general"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">News in General</font></H3></center>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Kernel News
</FONT>
</H3>
Kernel 2.4.16 has been released, fixing an
unmounting bug in 2.4.15 (released just recently) that causes fs
corruption. The changelog for the first pre-version of 2.4.17 is available
<a href="http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-11-28-015-20-NW-KN">
here</a>
2.4.x maintenance has been passed to Marcelo Tosatti. But the horrible
bug was Linus' fault, not his. ("I inherited this mess from the
previous administration," is what a US president would say.)
<p>
A new development series has been started, 2.5.x. However, 2.5.0 is
the same as 2.4.15, so it has the same horrible bug. In other words,
don't use it.
LWN have <a href="http://lwn.net/2001/1129/kernel.php3">reported</a> the
availability of a 2.5.1-pre3 prepatch that fixes this bug. No major changes
(cleanups and fixes mostly). This ends the over-a-year hiatus in which there
was no development kernel.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Amazon Saves $$ With Linux and MS vs Linux
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
<a href="http://news.cnet.com/">
CNet</a> recently
<a href="http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-7720536.html?tag=owv">
reported</a> that
"Amazon.com was able to cut $17 million in technology expenses in the
last quarter largely because of a switch to Linux." This was also
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/22576.html">
reported</a> at The Register who have links to Amazon's SEC filing.
<P>
Before everyone starts predicting the demise of Windows, its worth pointing
out that this gain was
<a href="http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=23086">
at the expense of</a> UNIX servers (WinInfo). Still it is certainly encouraging.
Especially so in light of The Register's report of a
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22770.html">
Microsoft memo</a> describing Linux as "<i>the</i> long-term
threat against our core business. Never forget that!". You should really
take a look at The Reg's report: the
original memo is included at the end of the page, complete with references
to butt-tattoos (don't ask!). The contents indicate that MS sees Linux as
being an obstacle to their plan of replacing UNIX servers with MS powered
(there's an oxymoron) servers. Sales folk are urged to identify UNIX
systems in their customer's organisations, and then focus on getting MS
into those functions (presumeably before some geek slips Linux in).
(Story also
<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/11/12/136243&mode=nested">
featured</a> on Slashdot.)
<p>
This brings to mind the
<a href="http://www.opensource.org/halloween">
Halloween memo</a> of 1998. To refresh your memory of the documents, and
also on the intervening history, take a look at LWN's
<a href="http://lwn.net/2001/1101/">
editorial</a>
revisiting the memos. They ask--and answer--the question "How many of the
predictions came true?"
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Microsoft PR Spin Continues While Browser Lockout Still in Effect
</FONT>
</H3>
Last month we briefly reported on the issue of
<a href="http://www.msn.com/">MSN</a> not working with non-Internet
Explorer browsers, and <a href="http://www.opera.com/">Opera Software</a>'s
comments on the situation. Since then, Opera have issued a
<a href="http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/20011101.html">
press release</a> detailing apparent inaccuracies/spin being fed into the
media by Microsoft spokespeople. Also, not all site features are made
available to non "MSIE 5" browsers. Seems the only way to get proper service
is to set the browser identity to "MSIE 5". These kinds of behaviour
(taking the Opera statement at face value) bode ill for the future of the
open internet.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Powers New Particle Discovery With 96-Processor Linux NetworX Cluster Supercomputer
</FONT>
</H3>
<p><a href="http://www.linuxnetworx.com">
Linux NetworX</a> have announced
that scientists at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab)
are using a Linux NetworX cluster to help identify new particles as part
of a worldwide scientific collaboration to find subatomic clues to reveal
the building blocks of the universe.
Fermilab scientists are studying the collisions of protons and
antiprotons in an effort to identify new particles that are produced as a
result of the collisions.
<P> Located in Batavia, Ill., Fermilab's 48-node cluster from Linux NetworX
includes 96 Pentium III 1.0 GHz processors, 48 GB of memory (RAM) and a
Fast Ethernet interconnect.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Linux Clusters
</FONT>
</H3>
The Register brought
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/22849.html">
the story</a> that
Compaq has followed through on its promise to GPL its NSC, or Non Stop
Clusters code (the
code that SCO licensed and co-developed as UnixWare Non Stop
Clusters). Compaq announced two projects - The CI Project (for the
infrastructure) and SSI.
"...and here with one blow is a pretty comprehensive applications platform:
Oracle can failover from node to node", Peter Braam.
<P>
On the commercial front,
<a href="http://www.ibm.com/">IBM</a> have introduced the world's first
pre-packaged Linux cluster, a powerful and scalable system that has been
optimized for e-business.
The IBM eServer Cluster meets the demand of corporate customers who
have neither the time nor inclination to "roll their own" Linux clusters
from a collection of mismatched piece parts. They want an easy-to-order
system delivered and supported by a single vendor.
IBM gave no link to the press release.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Linux is Number 1 at Lyris
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
<a href="http://www.lyris.com">
Lyris Technologies, Inc.</a>, developer of email
messaging and filtering software, have revealed that downloads of its
applications for Linux have surpassed all other Unix-based versions combined.
Lyris' core products include
<a href="http://www.lyris.com/products/listmanager/">
ListManager</a>
for opt-in email newsletters, and
MailShield for server-based protection against unsolicited email.
Linux versions of Lyris software have grown from 40% to
more than 60% of the company's Unix downloads since January 2001.
<a name="distro"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">Distro News</font></H3></center>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Debian
</FONT>
</H3>
The lates revision of the Debian 2.2 series of releases,
<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2001/20011105">
Debian 2.2r4</a>, has been unleashed. This release "mostly includes
security updates, along with a few corrections of serious bugs in the
stable distribution."
<hr noshade width="20%">
A vulnerability in the packages ssh-nonfree and ssh-socks has been
<a href="http://www.debian.org/security/2001/dsa-086">
reported</a>.
Migration to OpenSSH is recommended, but updated non-free packages have been
released.
<hr noshade width="20%">
Debian Weekly News
<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2001/31/">
reported</a> that Javier Fern<72>ndez-Sanguino Pe<50>a has contributed
a <a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-euro-support/">
Debian Euro HOWTO</a> to the Debian Documentation Project. This will be
important reading for anyone living in or doing business with the European
Union after January 1st.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">LynuxWorks / BlueCat
</FONT>
</H3>
<a href="http://www.lynuxworks.com">
LynuxWorks Inc.</a>,
a provider of open source and real-time embedded solutions, have
unveiled the latest version of its popular BlueCat Linux distribution.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Mandrake
</FONT>
</H3>
<a href="http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/">Mandrake Linux</a> have
announced
<a href="http://www.mandrakesoft.com/products/81/gaming-edition">
Mandrake Linux Gaming Edition</a>. This new edition comes on 4 CD's, and is
powered by TransGaming Technologies' portability layer. The distro comes
complete with Electronic Arts' <i>The Sims</i>.
Reports on the release are available
<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/20/1755210">
here</a> [Slashdot]
and
<a href="http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=29767">
here</a> [BluesNews].
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">SuSE
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
<a href="http://www.suse.de/en/">
SuSE Linux</a>
have announced SuSE Linux
<a href="http://www.suse.de/en/products/suse_business/connectivity/">
Connectivity Server</a>. The company's
latest business product is a pre-configured Linux network solution,
especially adapted to the requirements of SME and suitable for file and
print services in company networks as well as secure connections to the
Internet.
<hr noshade width="20%">
SuSE Linux, have made an agreement with IBM to
distribute IBM's entire line of software for Linux in Europe,
Middle East and Africa as a Value Added Linux Distributor.
<hr noshade width="20%">
FirstLinux.com have
<a href="http://www.firstlinux.com/articles/suse7.3/">
reviewed</a>
SuSE 7.3, which has also recently been released in its
<a href="http://www.suse.de/en/products/suse_linux/ppc/index.html">
PowerPC Edition</a>.
<a name="commercial"></a>
<p><hr><p>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<center><H3><font color="green">Software and Product News</font></H3></center>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">OpenSSH
</FONT>
</H3>
<p>
OpenSSH 3.0 has been
<a href="http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-11-07-001-20-PS">
released</a> (as reported by Linux Today). Go to their
<a href="http://www.openssh.com/">
homepage</a> for details and downloads (3.0.1 was later released on Nov.
15th).
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">XNotesPlus V3.4.0 Debuts
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>Michael J. Hammel, the Graphics Muse, is
pleased to announce the release of version 3.4.0 of XNotesPlus, a Personal
Information Manager for the Linux and Unix desktop. XNotesPlus includes
support for all major features on the Palm Pilot, including Memos, Todo
Lists, the Address Book and Calendaring. All data from each feature can be
downloaded from the Pilot, edited within XNotesPlus and uploaded back to
the Pilot. Additionally, backups and restores of a Pilot PDA can be
managed from within XNotesPlus.
<P> The release of XNotesPlus includes numerous bug fixes, many of which were
serious problems in earlier releases. Users of older versions are highly
encouraged to upgrade.
<P> XNotesPlus is available in both
<a href="http://www.graphics-muse.org/source/XNotesPlus/XNotesPlus-v3.4.0.tar.gz">
source</a>
and
<a href="http://www.graphics-muse.org/source/XNotesPlus/XNotesPlus-v3.4.0-Linux-gtk.tar.gz">
Red Hat Linux 7.0</a>
dynamically built binary distributions.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Creatures on Linux
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
Creature Labs Ltd and Linux Game Publishing Ltd have
announced that Creatures Internet Edition, the latest in the
breakthrough Creatures series, is to be released for Linux.
Creatures Internet Edition is a bundle of Creatures 3 and Creatures
Docking Station and it also includes 4 different Norn breeds (the
creatures within the game). The game allows interaction with other
players over the internet. For more information about Creatures
Internet Edition, please visit
<a href="http://ds.creatures.net/expansion/cie.pl">
http://ds.creatures.net/expansion/cie.pl</a>.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Rackspace Partners with Red Hat on E-commerce
</FONT>
</H3>
<a href="http://www.rackspace.com">
Rackspace Managed Hosting</a>
a provider of managed hosting services, and
<a href="http://www.redhat.com/">
Red Hat Linux</a> have launched E-Commerce Complete, a comprehensive,
hosted e-commerce solution. The offering features the Red Hat E-Commerce
Suite installed and pre-configured on a Rackspace hosting platform, and it
includes support and services from both companies to ensure complete
integration and smooth management of the application.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Sharp Goes for Opera in Embedded Software Solution
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>Opera Software today announced that Sharp
<a href="http://www.opera.com">
Opera Software</a>
have announced that Sharp will use its Opera 5 for Linux Web browser in the
Zaurus SL-5000D developer unit. The Zaurus SL-5000D is a robust
Linux/Java-based handheld. The Opera Web browser will be used as part of
<a href="http://www.lineo.com">
Lineo, Inc's</a>
powerful
software solution Embedix Plus PDA, launched at JavaOne in June this year.
Apart from Opera 5 for Linux, the Embedix Plus PDA solution contains Lineo's
Embedix Linux,
<a href="http://www.trolltech.com">
Trolltech's</a>
Qt/Embedded and QT Palmtop graphical user
interfaces, and
<a href="http://www.insignia.com">
Insignia Solution's</a>
Jeode PDA Edition.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Linux Application Appliance and Application Partner Program from Tricord
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
<a href="http://www.tricord.com">
Tricord Systems</a>,
developer of the IlluminaTM clustering software and
Lunar FlareTM NAS appliance-- have
<a href="http://www.tricord.com/appliance/aggregation?PID=detail.html&CID=7051ad7e699e436ea18a62bf5fd78096&DID=595eab195be04f09910c9e0d9e9e9afa">
announced</a> a new application appliance
series for independent software developers and systems integrators. The
Lunar Flare AA 1100 and AA 1200 support Linux-based applications,
consolidating them on an easy-to-manage, fault tolerant, scalable platform
with unique clustering and storage capabilities.
Tricord's application appliance series combines a high-performance Linux
server with built-in clustered storage, making it an optimal appliance
solution for content-hungry applications.
<p>
Additionally Tricord Systems,
and
<a href="http://www.tarantella.com">
Tarantella</a>,
have
<a href="http://www.tricord.com/appliance/aggregation?PID=detail.html&CID=7051ad7e699e436ea18a62bf5fd78096&DID=449ad8dd7d9e4b149ddf17bbe207b3ff">
announced</a> that Tarantella Enterprise 3 software has been
certified on Tricord's Lunar Flare Application Appliance (AA) platform.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">GUI Programming with Python
</FONT>
</H3>
<P> The Python/QT book; GUI Programming with Python: QT Edition is in final
edit and will be shipping by the end of the month. For those who are unaware
QT is the toolkit behind many powerful applications, including the KDE
Desktop for Linux/UNIX.
<P> The new book covers the use of Python and QT extensively, including the
Blackadder RAD environment for Windows and Linux.
For those interested please visit:
<a href="http://stage.linuxports.com/projects/pyqt">
http://stage.linuxports.com/projects/pyqt</a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Grey Zone Announces the 3 Minute Extranet with SecureZone 5
</FONT>
</H3>
<a href="http://www.greyzone.com">
Grey Zone</a>, a developer of
out-of-the-box Linux-based Web content management software, announces the
release of SecureZone 5. SecureZone 5 enables business users to create a
completely functioning extranet, including users and content, in as little as 3
minutes. SecureZone empowers non-technical professionals to rapidly spawn an
unlimited number of distinct Web sites from a single platform. The product
combines security, content management, and audience-based publishing
capabilities that simplify the Web publishing process, helping companies
rapidly and cost-effectively conduct business over the Web.
Although ease of use is a major priority, SecureZone is also very feature
rich. For more information consult
<a href="http://www.greyzone.com">
Grey Zone's web page</a>. SecureZone pricing begins at
$50,000.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">XML/PosgreSQL Application Server LXP 0.8
</FONT>
</H3>
<a href="http://www.commandprompt.Com"> Command Prompt, Inc.</a> announced the release of
<a href="http://www.commandprompt.com/products_lxp.lxp">
LXP</a>
version 0.8.0, Command Prompt's PostgreSQL application server.
The LXP application server provides easy access to the advanced features of
PostgreSQL. LXP offers a suite of services to assist the Linux web developer
produce easily managed, dynamic websites, data driven websites. Beyond the
LXP markup language you can also utilize the following languages through our
direct URI support: Java, PHP, C, C++, Python, and Perl. LXP also
offers a fast valid XML parsing engine, useful to support industry
standard DTDs such as RDF/RSS.
An example of LXP application can be
found at <A HREF="http://LinuxPorts.Com">LinuxPorts.Com</A>.
<P> <hr> <P>
<!-- =================================================================== -->
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
<FONT COLOR="green">Teamware Office 5.3 for Linux Edition 4
</FONT>
</H3>
<P>
<a href="http://www.teamware.com">
Teamware Group</a>, a Fujitsu subsidiary, have released edition 4 of
Teamware Office 5.3 for Linux, a complete set of ready-to-run groupware
applications for today's business professionals. In the new edition the
main emphasis is on web service enhancements.
Edition 4 is the first Teamware Office for Linux version with the main
focus on the browser side. The new look & feel for the web service client
templates has been developed according to extensive usability research and
customer requests.
Via the renewed web service Teamware Office modulescan be easily
accessed with standard web browsers. The service enables fixed www
addressing for any Teamware Office object over standard HTML templates
making integration with other web based systems as well as search engines
easy.
<p>Teamware Office can be purchased online through the Teamware web site at
<a href="http://www.teamware.com/linux"> www.teamware.com/linux</a>. Also
a free 90-day evaluation version can be downloaded at the site.
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <P>
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Michael Conry and
the Editors of <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com"><I>Linux Gazette</I></A>.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, October 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Linux User Caricatures</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:francka1@dingoblue.net.au">Franck Alcidi</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
<CENTER>
<IMG ALT="tux_monitors.jpg" SRC="misc/alcidi/tux_monitors.jpg" WIDTH="500" HEIGHT="363">
<BR CLEAR="all">
<P>
<IMG ALT="kfc_kernel.jpg" SRC="misc/alcidi/kfc_kernel.jpg" WIDTH="500" HEIGHT="408">
<BR CLEAR="all">
<P>
<SMALL><DIV ALIGN="left">
<STRONG>Hint:</STRONG> "kernel" is pronounced "Colonel" in English.
Colonel Sanders is the mascot of the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant chain.
</DIV></SMALL>
<P>
<IMG ALT="spikey_bsd.jpg" SRC="misc/alcidi/spikey_bsd.jpg" WIDTH="500" HEIGHT="431">
<BR CLEAR="all">
</CENTER>
<P>
Previous cartoons published in Linux Gazette:
<UL>
<LI> <A HREF="../issue72/alcidi.html">Linux User Charactures</A>, issue 72.
</UL>
<P> You can view my other artwork and sketches on my
<A HREF="http://www.ozemail.com.au/~geisha/projects.html">projects page</A>.
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Franck Alcidi</H4>
<EM>Franck is an artist in Australia. His home page ("Ausmosis") is
<A HREF="http://www.ozemail.com.au/~geisha/projects.html">http://www.ozemail.com.au/~geisha/projects.html</A>.</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Franck Alcidi.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 72 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, November 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">The Art of Atari ST Emulation</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:matthiasarndt@gmx.net">Matthias Arndt</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00010000000000000000">
Contents</A>
</H2>
<!--Table of Contents-->
<UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html16"
>Contents</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html17"
HREF="#SECTION00020000000000000000">1 Introduction</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html18"
HREF="#SECTION00030000000000000000">2 What is emulation?</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html19"
HREF="#SECTION00040000000000000000">3 Machine Facts</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html20"
HREF="#SECTION00050000000000000000">4 ST Emulation</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html21"
HREF="#SECTION00060000000000000000">5 ST Emulators for Linux</A>
<UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html22"
HREF="#SECTION00061000000000000000">5.1 Things common to all emulators</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html23"
HREF="#SECTION00062000000000000000">5.2 STonX</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html24"
HREF="#SECTION00063000000000000000">5.3 STEEM on Linux</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html25"
HREF="#SECTION00064000000000000000">5.4 Hatari</A>
</UL>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html26"
HREF="#SECTION00070000000000000000">6 TOS</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html27"
HREF="#SECTION00080000000000000000">7 Software for the ST</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html28"
HREF="#SECTION00090000000000000000">8 Community</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html29"
HREF="#SECTION000100000000000000000">9 Conclusion</A>
<LI><A NAME="tex2html30"
HREF="#SECTION000110000000000000000">About this document ...</A>
</UL>
<!--End of Table of Contents-->
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00020000000000000000">
1 Introduction</A>
</H1>
<P>
I'm quite an Atari ST fan. It was the computer that introduced me
to computing in the first place. It was a thrill that changed my life forever.
<P>
All those of you who prefer the Amiga, write your own article instead
of claiming the ST was or is crap.
<P> What? You don't know what the ST is? It's a late-80s, early-90s 16/32-bit
home and semi-professional computer system manufactured by Atari. The ST still
has many friends all over the world, the Atari ST community is very active on
the web due to the fact of emulation. Just visit the Little Green Desktop
(<A HREF="http://www.atari.st/">www.atari.st</A>)
or
<A HREF="http://www.atari.org">www.atari.org</A> to see what I mean.
<P>
This article concentrates on Atari ST emulation on Linux, describing
the available emulators and some useful information about ST emulation
in general.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00030000000000000000">
2 What is emulation?</A>
</H1>
<P>
Emulation tries to rebuild the behavior and performance of hardware
components with software. Practically this means to make your PC think
it is another computer with a different hardware architecture and
in most cases another OS, enabling you to run a great amount of software
written for the emulated system on your real box.
<P>
In our case, this means running software for the Atari ST on your
Linux box.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00040000000000000000">
3 Machine Facts</A>
</H1>
<P>
Anyone who is interested in emulation should at least know the hardware
facts of the emulated system. Here we go:
<P>
(all data refers to the standard ST, not the TT, Falcon or clones)
<P>
<UL>
<LI>CPU: Motorola 68000 running at 8MHz clock speed with a 32Bit wide
bus
</LI>
<LI>RAM: either 512K, 1MB, 2MB or 4MB (depending on model)
</LI>
<LI>ROM containing the OS: 192K or 256K (depending on model and OS version)
</LI>
<LI>Shifter video subsystem capable of the following video modes:
</LI>
</UL>
<OL>
<LI>320x200 pixels, 16 colours out of 512 (50 or 60Hz)
</LI>
<LI>640x200 pixels, 4 colours out of 512 (50 or 60Hz)
</LI>
<LI>640x400 monochrome running at 72Hz
</LI>
</OL>
<UL>
<LI>Yamaha sound chip playing 3 voices simultaneously
</LI>
<LI>build-in MIDI ports (In and OUT)
</LI>
<LI>ROM port to connect a 128K size cartridge
</LI>
<LI>optionally Hard disc
</LI>
<LI>up to 2 floppy drives, either SD or DD standard
</LI>
<LI>serial and parallel ports
</LI>
<LI>mouse
</LI>
<LI>Atari digital joystick support
</LI>
<LI>TV out (ordinary antenna connector) on the M and STE models
</LI>
<LI>OS: TOS (Tramiel Operating System) with builtin GEM
</LI>
<LI>models released up to 1992 (OS version and amount of RAM varies):
520ST, 520STM, 520STFM, 260ST, 520ST+, 1040ST, 1040STF, 1040STFM,
1040STE, 520STE, Mega ST1, Mega ST2, Mega ST4 and Mega STE
</LI>
</UL>
The STE models had advanced sound and graphic capabilities.
<P>
Always keep in mind that this machine was introduced in the spring
of 1985 and the masses were stunned. More capable than a Macintosh
of that period and much cheaper at that time.
<P>
Just as a little overview of what an emulator has to emulate.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00050000000000000000">
4 ST Emulation</A>
</H1>
<P>
The first attempt at emulating the ST was the Gemulator in 1994 or
1995. It was an emulator for DOS that needed a special hardware plug-in
card. Nowadays, all ST emulators are software-only solutions.
<P>
The ST Emulation boom started in 1997 with the DOS based emulator
PacifiST written by Frederic Gidouin.
<P>
Since then several other ST emulators have reached a very high niveau
such as WinSTon or STEEM. This applies partly to ST Emulation on Linux
as well. STEEM is now officially available for Linux, and STonX is
getting better and better at each release.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00060000000000000000">
5 ST Emulators for Linux</A>
</H1>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00061000000000000000">
5.1 Things common to all emulators</A>
</H2>
<P>
All ST emulators have the following things in common:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>They cannot use real ST floppy discs due to problems with floppy
controller programming.
</LI>
<LI>None of these emulators emulate the MIDI ports (STEEM perhaps, at
least in the Windows version).
</LI>
<LI>None of these emulators is able to run software from copy-protected
disks, so forget about your old originals.
</LI>
</UL>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00062000000000000000">
5.2 STonX</A>
</H2>
<P>
The famed STonX was the first and for a long time the only ST emulator
available for Unices. It now reached a really usable state, although
still not wonderful to play games and run demos on it.
<P>
A few quick facts:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>doesn't require much CPU power
to run it. A Pentium-class machine with 16MB RAM is sufficient
</LI>
<LI>either support for 4MB or 14MB of ST RAM
</LI>
<LI>supports all ST graphic modes but no overscan or rasters
</LI>
<LI>support for X and SVGALib output
</LI>
<LI>can run in window or full-screen
</LI>
<LI>support for emulated hard-drive, means; mounting of Linux directory
trees possible
</LI>
<LI>support for disk images in standard format (*.ST files found on
the net)
</LI>
<LI>support for extended ST graphic modes
</LI>
<LI>sound chip emulation
</LI>
<LI>buggy Joystick support (at least I couldn't make it work on my machine)
</LI>
<LI>supports all TOS versions but still prefers a TOS 2.x for best performance
</LI>
<LI>comes as GPLed source code
</LI>
<LI>easy to port to other Unices - STonX runs also on Solaris and AIX
</LI>
</UL>
STonX may not be the emulator of choice for games or demos but it
is definitely the emulator of choice for developing system-conformant
(meaning GEM) applications. It runs pretty fast and smooth. And I couldn't
make it crash in 6 months of operation (The emulated ST may still
crash but not the emulator program itself).
<P>
Really annoying at the moment are:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>Joystick support is buggy
</LI>
<LI>no .MSA disk image files
</LI>
<LI>no overscan
</LI>
<LI>too fast for games
</LI>
</UL>
But no program is perfect - STonX is definitely worth a try. It is
better than one might expect.
<P>
STonX can be found at: <A HREF="http://stonx.sourceforge.net/" TARGET="_blank">http://stonx.sourceforge.net/</A>.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00063000000000000000">
5.3 STEEM on Linux</A>
</H2>
<P>
This is a port of the STEEM emulator to Linux. It is not GPLed but
freeware.
<P>
STEEM is much better suited for games, since it features even STE graphics
and sound, overscan and raster effects included. It runs many demos
and most games.
<P>
STEEM facts are:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>STE emulation included
</LI>
<LI>can use both .ST and .MSA disk images
</LI>
<LI>Joystick support via keyboard
</LI>
<LI>sound support which sometimes seems to be out of sync (sound effects
playing half a second late)
</LI>
<LI>runs all versions of TOS except 1.62 which shouldn't be used at all
</LI>
<LI>nifty interface (remember, STEEM is also available for Windows)
</LI>
<LI>runs many but not all games (at least Super Cars 2 and Xenon work
<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="20" HEIGHT="24">)
</LI>
<LI>Freeware but not GPLed: only available as a binary distribution
</LI>
</UL>
STEEM is close to be perfect. Some features of the Windows version
are still missing but it runs pretty good. And its main advantage
over STonX: it runs games and demos!
<P>
STEEM can be found at: <A HREF="http://steem.atari.org/" TARGET="_blank">http://steem.atari.org/</A>.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="SECTION00064000000000000000">
5.4 Hatari</A>
</H2>
<P>
Hatari is a port of the WinSTon source code to Linux. It is still
in early alpha phase and unusable at the moment.
<P>
Check <A HREF="http://hatari.sourceforge.net/" TARGET="_blank">http://hatari.sourceforge.net/</A> for details.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00070000000000000000">
6 TOS</A>
</H1>
<P>
As stated above the TOS is the Atari ST's default operating system.
(You can run Minix, Mint and several other systems as well.)
<P>
Obviously, all ST emulators need a TOS ROM in order to work. It is
not included with the emulators and always keep the copyright in mind.
There are several places on the net to get TOS images, and there are
programs available that allow you to extract the TOS ROM of your ST
to a file.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00080000000000000000">
7 Software for the ST</A>
</H1>
<P>
There is still a large amount of ST software around on the net. FTP
sites carry public domain and freeware, and some sites have pirated ST games online.
Finally, the ST community on the net is very supportive when looking
for ST software.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00090000000000000000">
8 Community</A>
</H1>
<P>
There is a large Atari community on the net, several IRC
channels, bulletin boards and a hierarchy of Usenet news is available.
<P>
A few useful tips:
<P>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.atari.st/" TARGET="_blank">http://www.atari.st/</A> - The Little Green Desktop (primary ST emulation
site) has a forum and an incredible games archive - go check it out.
</LI>
<LI><A HREF="http://www.atari.org/" TARGET="_blank">http://www.atari.org/</A> - The main portal of the Atari community features
news, forums and lots of links. 90% of the ST related sites on the
net can be found here in the Links archive.
</LI>
<LI>comp.sys.atari.st and other newsgroups are available
</LI>
<LI>#atari on IRC may help as well
</LI>
</UL>
At the time of this writing, November 2001, the Little Green Desktop
is still in a redesign phase but that may change by the time this
article is online.
<P>
<H1><A NAME="SECTION000100000000000000000">
9 Conclusion</A>
</H1>
<P>
The Atari ST is still alive - and you can support this development
on Linux. Join us by running an Atari ST emulator. Even if you never
had an ST, it is worth a try.
<P>
Take me for example, I never had a C64, VCS2600 or ZX Spectrum, but
I run emulators for all of them.
<P>
Always remember: Atari will never die!
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Matthias Arndt</H4>
<EM>I'm a Linux enthusiast from northern Germany.
I like plain old fifties rock'n'roll music, writing
stories and publishing in the Linux Gazette, of course.
Currently I'm studying computer science in conjunction with
economics.</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Matthias Arndt.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<CENTER>
<H1><FONT color="maroon">Audio Processing Pipelines</FONT></H1>
<H4>By <A href="mailto:ajchung@email.com">Adrian J. Chung</A></H4>
</CENTER>
<P> <HR> <P>
<P>
For decades experienced Unix users have employed many text processing
tools to make document editing tasks much easier. Console utilities
such as <TT>sed</TT>, <TT>awk</TT>, <TT>cut</TT>, <TT>paste</TT>, and
<TT>join</TT>, though useful in isolation, only realise their full
potential when combined together through the use of pipes.
<P>
Recently Linux has been used for more than just processing of ASCII
text. The growing popularity of various multimedia formats, in the
form of images and audio data, has spurred on the development of tools
to deal with such files. Many of these tools have graphical user
interfaces and cannot operate in absence of user interaction. There
are, however, a growing number of tools which can be operated in <EM>batch
mode</EM> with their interfaces disabled. Some tools are even designed to
be used from the command prompt or within shell scripts.
<P>
It is this class of tools that this article will explore. Complex
media manipulation functions can often be effected by combining simple
tools together using techniques normally applied to text processing
filters. The focus will be on audio stream processing as these
formats work particularly well with the Unix filter pipeline paradigm.
<H3>Sound Sample Translator</H3>
<P>
There are a multitude of sound file formats and converting between
them is a frequent operation. The sound exchange utility <TT>sox</TT>
fulfills this role and is invoked at the command prompt:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.wav sample.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
The above command will convert a WAV file to AIFF format. One can
also change the sample rate, bits per sample (8 or 16), and number of
channels:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -r 8000 -b -c 1 low.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
<TT>low.aiff</TT> will be at 8000 single byte samples per second in a
single channel.
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -r 44100 -w -c 2 high.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
<TT>high.aiff</TT> will be at 44100 16-bit samples per second in stereo.
<P>
When <TT>sox</TT> cannot guess the destination format from the file
extension it is necessary to specify this explicitly:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.wav -t aiff sample.000
</PRE></B><BR>
The "<TT>-t raw</TT>" option indicates a special headerless format that
contains only raw sample data:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.wav -t raw -r 11025 -sw -c 2 sample.000
</PRE></B><BR>
As the file has no header specifying the sample rate, bits per sample,
channels etc, it is a good idea to set these explicitly at the command
line. This is necessary when converting from the <TT>raw</TT> format:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox -t raw -r 11025 -sw -c 2 sample.000 sample.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
<P>
One need not use the "<TT>-t raw</TT>" option if the file
extension is <TT>.raw</TT>, however this option is essential when the
raw samples are coming from standard input or being sent to standard
output. To do this, use the "<TT>-</TT>" in place of the
file name:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox -t raw -r 11025 -sw -c 2 - sample.aiff < sample.raw
</PRE></B>
<B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -t raw -r 11025 -sw -c 2 - > sample.raw
</PRE></B><BR>
Why would we want to do this? This usage style allows <TT>sox</TT> to
be used as a filter in a command pipeline.
<H3>Play It Faster/Slower</H3>
Normally <TT>sox</TT> adjusts the sample frequency without altering
the pitch or tempo of any sounds through the use of interpolation. By
piping the output of one <TT>sox</TT> to the input of another and
using unequal sample rates, we can bypass the interpolation and
effectively slow down a sound sample:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - |
sox -t raw -r 32000 -sw -c 2 - slow.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
or speed it up:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -t raw -r 32000 -sw -c 2 - |
sox -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - fast.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
<H3>Simple Editing</H3>
Suppose one wants a sample consisting of the first two seconds of some
other sound file. We can do this using <TT>sox</TT> in a command
pipeline as shown here:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - | head -c 352800 |
sox -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - twosecs.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
The input file <TT>sample.aiff</TT> is converted to 44.1kHz samples,
each two bytes in two channels. Thus two seconds of sound is
represented in 44100x2x2x2 = 352800 bytes of data which are stripped
off using "<TT>head -c 352800</TT>". This is then converted
back to AIFF format and stored in <TT>twosecs.aiff</TT>
<P>
Likewise to extract the last second of a sample:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - | tail -c 176400 |
sox -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - lastsec.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
and the third second:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - | tail -c +352801 |
head -c 176400 | sox -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - lastsec.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
Note that with 16-bit samples the argument to "<TT>tail -c
+</TT><EM>N</EM>" must be odd, otherwise the raw samples become
misaligned.
<P>
One can extract parts of different samples and join them together into
one file via nested sub-shell commands:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
(sox sample-1.aiff -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - | head -c 176400
sox sample-2.aiff -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - | head -c 176400 ) |
sox -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - newsample.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
Here we invoke a child shell that outputs raw samples to standard
output from two different files. This is piped to a <TT>sox</TT>
process executing in the parent shell which creates the resulting
file.
<H3>Desktop Sound Output</H3>
<P>
Sounds can be sent to the OSS (open sound system) device <TT>/dev/dsp</TT>
with the "<TT>-t ossdsp</TT>" option:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -t ossdsp /dev/dsp
</PRE></B><BR>
The <TT>sox</TT> package usually includes a platform-independent
script <TT><B>play</B></TT> that invokes <TT>sox</TT> with the appropriate
options. The previous command could be invoked simply by
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
play sample.aiff
</PRE></B><BR>
<P>
Audio samples played this way monopolise the output hardware. Another
sound capable application must wait until the audio device is freed
before attempting to play more samples. Desktop environments such as
GNOME and KDE provide facilities to play more than one audio sample
simultaneously. Samples may be issued by different applications at
any time without having to wait, although not every audio application
knows how to do this for each of the various desktops. <TT>sox</TT>
is one such program that lacks this capability. However, with a
little investigation of the audio media services provided by GNOME and
KDE, one can devise ways to overcome this shortcoming.
<P>
There are quite a few packages that allow audio device sharing. One
common strategy is to run a background server to which client
applications must send their samples to be played. The server then
grabs control of the sound device and forwards the audio data to it.
Should more than one client send samples at the same time the server
mixes them together and sends a single combined stream to the output
device.
<P>
The Enlightened Sound Daemon (ESD) uses this method. The server,
<TT>esd</TT>, can often be found running in the background of GNOME
desktops. The ESD package goes by the name, <TT>esound</TT>, on most
distributions and includes a few simple client applications such as:
<UL>
<LI><TT><B>esdplay</B></TT> - plays sound samples stored in one of the
more popular file formats (WAV, AU, or AIFF)
<LI><TT><B>esdcat</B></TT> - submits raw sound samples to the server.
This tool is a natural fit for terminating a pipeline of sound
filters.
</UL>
This command will play the first second of a sample via ESD:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.aiff -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - | head -c 176400 | esdcat
</PRE></B><BR>
One can also arrange to play samples stored in formats
that ESD does not understand but can be read by <TT>sox</TT>:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.cdr -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - | esdcat
</PRE></B><BR>
In some cases samples can sound better when played this way. Some
versions of ESD introduce significant distortion and noise when given
sounds recorded at a low sample rate.
<P>
The Analog RealTime Synthesizer (ARtS) is similar to ESD but is often used
with KDE. The background server is <TT>artsd</TT> with the
corresponding client programs, <TT>artsplay</TT> and <TT>artscat</TT>.
To play a sample:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
sox sample.cdr -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - | tail -c 352800 |artscat
</PRE></B><BR>
<P>
Both ESD and ARtS are not dependent on any one particular desktop
environment. With some work, one could in theory use ESD with KDE and
ARtS with GNOME. Each can even be used within a console login
session. Thus one can mix samples, encoded in a plethora of formats,
with or without the graphical desktop interface.
<H3>Music as a Sample Source</H3>
<P>
Having covered what goes on the end of an audio pipeline, we should
consider what can be placed at the start. Sometimes one would like to
manipulate samples extracted from music files in MP3, MIDI, or module
(MOD, XM, S3M, etc) format. Command line tools exist for each of
these formats that will output raw samples to standard output.
<P>
For MP3 music one can use "<TT>maplay -s</TT>"
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
maplay -s music.mp3 | artscat
</PRE></B><BR>
The <TT>music.mp3</TT> must be encoded at 44.1kHz stereo to play
properly otherwise <TT>artscat</TT> or <TT>esdcat</TT> will have to be
told otherwise:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
maplay -s mono22khz.mp3 | esdcat -r 22050 -m<BR>
maplay -s mono22khz.mp3 | artscat -r 22050 -c 1
</PRE></B><BR>
Alternatively one can use "<TT>mpg123 -s</TT>". Additional
arguments ensure that the output is at the required rate and number of
channels:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
mpg123 -s -r 44100 --stereo lowfi.mp3 | artscat
</PRE></B><BR>
<P>
Users of Ogg Vorbis may use the following:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
ogg123 -d raw -f - music.ogg | artscat
</PRE></B><BR>
Piping is not really necessary here since <TT>ogg123</TT> has built-in
ESD and ARtS output drivers. Nevertheless, it is still useful to have
access to a raw stream of sample data which one can feed through a
pipeline.
<P>
Music files also can be obtained in MIDI format. If (like me) you
have an old sound card with poor sequencer hardware, you may find that
<TT>timidity</TT> can work wonders. Normally this package converts
MIDI files into sound samples for direct output to the sound device.
Carefully chosen command line options can redirect this output:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
timidity -Or1sl -o - -s 44100 music.mid | artscat
</PRE></B><BR>
The "<TT><B>-o -</B></TT>" sends sample data to standard
output, "<TT><B>-Or1sl</B></TT>" ensures that the samples
are 16-bit signed format, and "<TT><B>-s 44100</B></TT>"
sets the sample rate appropriately.
<P>
If you're a fan of the demo scene you might want to play a few music
modules on your desktop. Fortunately <TT>mikmod</TT> can play most of
the common module formats. The application can also output directly
to the sound device or via ESD. The current stable version of
<TT>libmikmod</TT>, 3.1.9, does not seem to be ARtS aware yet. One can
remedy this using a command pipeline:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
mikmod -d stdout -q -f 44100 music.mod | artscat
</PRE></B><BR>
The <TT><B>-q</B></TT> is needed to turn off the curses interface
which also uses standard output. If you still want access to this
interface you should try the following:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
mikmod -d pipe,pipe=artscat -f 44100 music.mod
</PRE></B><BR>
Only the later versions of <TT>mikmod</TT> know how to create their
own output pipelines.
<H3>Effects Filters</H3>
Let us return to the pipeline friendly <TT>sox</TT>. In addition to
its format conversion capabilities, there is small library of
effects filters. Here are some examples:
<UL>
<LI>Add echo
<B><PRE>
play sample.aiff echo 1 0.6 150 0.6
</PRE></B><BR>
<LI>Add vibration
<B><PRE>
play sample.aiff vibro 20 0.9
</PRE></B><BR>
<LI>Add severe distortion
<B><PRE>
play sample.aiff flanger 0.7 0.7 4 0.8 2
play sample.aiff phaser 0.6 0.6 4 0.6 2
</PRE></B><BR>
<LI>Band pass filter -- sounds like a bad phone connection:
<B><PRE>
play sample.aiff band 3000 700
</PRE></B><BR>
or listening through a thick blanket:
<B><PRE>
play sample.aiff band 0 700
</PRE></B><BR>
<LI>Make a chorus of sounds from one sample:
<B><PRE>
play sample.aiff chorus 0.7 0.7 20 1 5 2 -s
</PRE></B><BR>
<LI>Hidden messages? Play it backwards:
<B><PRE>
play sample.aiff reverse
</PRE></B><BR>
<EM>Warning: Depending on the size of the sample, this can use up a
lot of memory and/or disk space</EM>
</UL>
<H3>Putting It All Together</H3>
The major components of an audio command pipeline have now been
covered. Let us see how they can be combined together to perform
a few non-trivial functions:
<UL>
<LI>
Play a music module on the KDE desktop with a chorus effect:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
mikmod -d stdout -q -f 44100 music.xm |
sox -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - -t raw - chorus 0.7 0.7 80 0.5 2 1 -s |
artscat
</PRE></B><BR>
<LI>
Play a song in Ogg Vorbis format with the first 4 seconds removed:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
ogg123 -d raw -f - music.ogg | tail -c +705601 |artscat
</PRE></B><BR>
<LI>
Convert a MIDI file to Ogg Vorbis format introducing a little added echo:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
timidity -Or1sl -o - -s 44100 music.mid |
sox -t raw -r 44100 -sw -c 2 - -t raw - echo 1 0.6 80 0.6 |
oggenc -o music.ogg --raw -
</PRE></B><BR>
The pipeline has been terminated with the Ogg Vorbis encoder,
<TT>oggenc</TT>, configured here to accept raw sample data from
standard input.
<LI>
Convert a 32kHz mono MP3 file to 44.1kHz stereo Ogg Vorbis file,
lowering the volume in the process:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
maplay -s mono32.mp3 |
sox -v 0.5 -t raw -r 32000 -sw -c 1 - -t raw -r 44100 -c 2 - split |
oggenc -o music.ogg --raw -
</PRE></B><BR>
<LI>
Concatenate all AIFF files in the current directory into a single WAV file:
<BR><BR><B><PRE>
for x in *.aiff
do sox $x -v 0.5 -t raw -r 8000 -bu -c 1 -
done | sox -t raw -r 8000 -bu -c 1 - all.wav
</PRE></B><BR>
</UL>
<P>
Hopefully these examples hint at what can be accomplished with the
pipeline technique. One cannot argue against using interactive
applications with elaborate graphical user interfaces. They often can
perform much more complicated tasks while saving the user from having
to memorise pages of argument flags. There will always be instances
where command pipelines are more suitable however. Converting a large
number of sound samples will require some form of scripting.
Interactive programs cannot be invoked as part of an <TT>at</TT> or
<TT>cron</TT> job.
<P>
Audio pipelines can also be used to save disk space. One need not
store a dozen copies of what is essentially the same sample with
different modifications applied. Instead, create a dozen scripts each
with a different pipeline of filters. These can be invoked when the
modified version of the sound sample is called for. The altered sound
is generated on demand.
<P>
I encourage you to experiment with the tools described in this
article. Try combining them together in increasingly elaborate
sequences. Most importantly, remember to have fun while
doing so.
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Adrian J Chung</H4>
<EM>When not teaching undergraduate computing at the University of the West
Indies, Trinidad, Adrian is writing system level scripts to manage a network
of Linux boxes, and conducts experiments with interfacing various scripting
environments with home-brew computer graphics renderers and data visualization
libraries.</EM>
<P> <HR>
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright <20> 2001, Adrian J. Chung.<BR>
Copying license <A href="../copying.html" target="_blank">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <I>Linux Gazette</I>, December 2001</H5>
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Microsoft's New Briar Patch</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:jimd@starshine.org">Jim Dennis</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
By now most of use with an interest in the software industry and/or in
the free software movement have probably heard of Microsoft's latest
legal maneuvers, an offer to settle the remaining local antitrust cases
(brought by many state's attorneys general) by <b>providing computers and
software</b> to U.S. public schools.
</p><p>
<blockquote>
&quot;Please don't put me in de <b>bre'r patch</b>! Anything
but that!&quot;<CITE>-- Uncle Remus</CITE>
</blockquote>
<p>
I can't believe that I'm alone in seeing this as playing into
Microsoft's hands. If practically all of our children are raised
running nothing but Microsoft software, then that's what they'll expect
in college and throughout their careers.
</p><p>
Microsoft should be paying dearly to gain such a lucrative franchise.
This is a far cry from punishment or remediation. Indeed, it is
antithetical to restoring competition to the software industry.
</p><p>
As a Linux user and enthusiast, I don't care about Microsoft. I never
believed that the Federal antitrust case would be effective; and I
see the various state and private suits as being mere echos to that.
The Europeans might see more effective measures taken by their EC,
but that is unlikely. However, as an observer of the software industry,
and a veteran in various segments of that market I have to re-iterate my
views on the matter.
</p><p>
The only effective and fair remedies in this case must relate to the
software. Specifically Microsoft must be required to publish source
code to complete and working reference implementations of each protocol,
API, and file format that they use in any of their applications and
operating systems. They must be forbidden from distributing new software
until the reference implementations are published. The reference
implementations must be in the public domain (freely usable by all for
free and commercial works).
</p><p>
In other words, given that Microsoft has become the standard in the
industry (at least in part through illegal and anti-competitive means)
then they bear the burden of providing enough information to everyone
else to <b>ensure</b> interoperability.
</p><p>
We could argue endlessly about the adequacy of documentation, and the
need to publish "internal" programming interfaces or "administrative"
protocols. This would be a miscarriage of justice. Requiring a reference
implementation for a set of command line primitive utilities, in
ANSI standard C and/or C++ (no MSC or MFC entanglements) provides an
unambiguous standard for their compliance. Either the requisite reference
tools can perform the designated (minimal) functions over their protocols,
on their target files, or calling their OS/library components, or MS is
fined and enjoined from further distribution.
</p><p>
Note that this approach does not force MS to publish the sources to their
OS or their applications. They are free to create an independent reference
implementation. Of course that would be a expense to them; the cheapest
path to compliance would be for them to engineer their software with a
core (that would separately constitute the reference suite) and then
add their UI elements on top of that.
</p><p>
However, it is vital that they be prohibited from releases new software
until the reference suite is shown to provide the requisite interoperability.
It's also critical that the remedy encompass protocols, APIs, and file formats.
</p><p>
Any less is just another example of government and big business posturing
to the public while cutting their own backroom deals to line the pockets
of the politicians and lockout the "little guy" businesses.
</p></body></html>
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Jim Dennis</H4>
<EM>Jim Dennis
is the proprietor of <A href="http://www.starshine.org">
Starshine Technical Services</A>.
His professional experience includes work in the technical
support, quality assurance, and information services (MIS)
departments of software companies like
<A href="http://www.quarterdeck.com"> Quarterdeck</A>,
<A href="http://www.symantec.com"> Symantec/
Peter Norton Group</A>, and
<A href="http://www.mcafee.com"> McAfee Associates</A> -- as well as
positions (field service rep) with smaller VAR's.
He's been using Linux since version 0.99p10 and is an active
participant on an ever-changing list of mailing lists and
newsgroups. He's just started collaborating on the 2nd Edition
for a book on Unix systems administration.
Jim is an avid science fiction fan -- and recently got
married at the World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim.</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Jim Dennis.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Winning the Battle for the Desktop</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:dfield58@earthlink.net">Dennis Field</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
<P>Last month
(<A HREF="../issue72/field.html">Battle for the Desktop: Why Linux Isn't Winning</A>, issue 72),
I recounted my misadventures in trying to install Linux onto an IBM ThinkPad, and
called several unnamed venders to task for failing to provide adequate documentation and/or
customer support. Or testing their software before releasing it, but that's a different story . . .</P>
<P>Well, I actually sold that laptop to a fellow writer (who is perfectly happy with it running
WordPerfect under W*ndows 98 Second Edition). I am currently looking for a slightly newer ThinkPad that will support
booting directly from a CD. I haven't found one yet, because I'm on a tight budget and, given my
previous experience, I want to get something that is at least marginally capable of running
Windows XP. Yes, I know I just used the "W" word again (for those wishing to stone me, there's
a pile of rocks to your left. Anyone wishing to lynch me, however, must supply their own rope).</P>
<P>As far as distributions go, I'm waiting for the latest version of Libranet Linux (due at the end of
the month, although they've already delayed the release once - apparently wishing to make sure it
works before they ship it. What a novel idea!). They are the one vender from last month's article
that actually bothered to answer my email, or to publish their hardware requirements.
Meanwhile, I downloaded their old version so I can try it out on my desktop before purchasing
the new release. Libranet is based on Debian, and I have heard that Debian actually provides
some of the documentation I keep ranking about. If any other venders are already providing the
documentation and support I'm referring to, then please understand that this article is directed at
those venders who aren't - which is the majority of them, in my experience.</P>
<P>Windows XP is now out, and I continue to be amazed at the opportunity that Linux venders have
squandered. After I couldn't find a functional version of Linux (remember, that pile of rocks is
to your left), I was forced to upgrade my home PC to XP. XP doesn't really do anything 98
wasn't supposed to be able to do, although I've been running it for almost three weeks now and
only had it crash twice (a record for a Microsoft product!). Both times it even rebooted itself
without locking up. But Microsoft's infamous Product Activation and obnoxious attempts to
hijack everything in the world even vaguely related to computers have continued to sour people
on the idea of even trying XP. If any Linux vender had a functional OS, packaged with a good
suite of business applications, they could be eating Microsoft's lunch right now.</P>
<P>The first and foremost step in winning the battle against Microsoft will be to introduce a concept
which is apparently entirely unknown in the Linux community. This revolutionary new strategy
is called Customer Service. No, by this I do not mean the customer is always right (I work in a
retail store, remember?). Nor do I mean that Linux should be made into an
idiot-proof, one-size-fits-all Windows clone that does all your thinking for
you - whether you want it to or not. What I mean is that the objective, goal
and overall attitude of those wishing to advance Linux should be
<EM>to meet their customer's needs.</EM> Listen closely here, because there's something that a lot of Linux
people are currently not understanding: The objective is <STRONG><EM>not</EM></STRONG><EM></EM> to get the software on the CD. <EM>The
objective is for the customer, i.e.; the end user, to be able to successfully use that software in his
business, life, Conquest of the Galaxy. Whatever.</EM></P>
<P>In the late Douglas Adam's science-fiction satire <EM>Life, the Universe and
Everything</EM>, he introduces a whimsical invention called the "SEP Field"
(chapter 3). He begins by explaining that to make something (say, a mountain)
truly invisible is both infinitely complex and requires fantastic amounts of
energy. But if you erect a cheap and simple SEP Field around the mountain, "then
people will walk past the mountain, around it, even over it and simply never
notice the thing is there. An SEP is something that we can't see, or don't
see, or our brain won't let us see, because we think that it's somebody else's
problem. That's what SEP means. Somebody Else's Problem. The brain just edits
it out; it's like a blind spot. If you look at it directly you won't see it
unless you know precisely what it is."</P>
<P>Well, apparently there are a lot of Douglas Adams fans in the world of Linux. Because the single
most common response I got from those who objected to last month's article was that I was
blaming vender's for things beyond their control. This is a view that is certainly shared by the
venders themselves: Your software doesn't install? That's not our problem! There are no
instructions telling you how to configure our firewall? Too bad! The software works, but you
can't get it to do what you want? Well, figure it out yourself! What? You want us to tell you if
Linux will work with your hardware before you buy it? Well, that's certainly not very reasonable
of you to expect that level of service!</P>
<P>Now, for the record, I will concede that if it's an obscure printer that only 3 people in the world
are using, then it's probably never going to get supported. In which case, you should at least be
able to tell your customers that it's not supported, so they won't waste their time trying to get it to
work. But the real bottom line is that this doesn't solve the user's problem. And if you're honest
you will have to admit that the attitude of dismissing users valid problems as being Somebody
Else's Problem covers a whole lot more than just print drivers in the world of Linux.</P>
<P>Am I being unreasonable in expecting venders to actually solve their
customers problems? Many of you have said that the Linux venders are not
responsible for third-party problems. Well, let me tell you a little story:
Last year, everyone in our office chipped in and got our boss a Handspring
Visor for Christmas. The first week he had it, he installed some third party
software that wiped out the USB connection in his Windows box. We called the
third party vender and they denied all knowledge of the problem and had no idea
how to fix it. We then called Handspring and explained that the Visor connected
just fine until we installed Somebody Else's software, and now it wouldn't
connect at all. We'd already tried uninstalling the third party software, we'd
tried reinstalling the Windows USB drivers, we even deleted all references to
the bad software from the Windows registry. Still no USB connection. Did
Handspring have any ideas? Their response was: "No problem, we've done this
before". Their phone tech then preceded to lead my boss, step by step, thru
opening the Windows registry, finding an obscure entry and editing it. The tech
then cheerfully waited while the computer was rebooted to make sure that the
problem was fixed. Now, Handspring is <EM>not</EM> responsible for Windows, and
they are certainly not responsible for the third party software that caused the
problem. <EM>But Handspring knows that the value of their product depends upon
being able to connect it to a PC.</EM> So they make it a point to know
how to fix connection problems instead of just blaming them on someone else.
The last that I heard, Handspring was selling Visors as fast as they could
build them, largely to business people. These same business people won't take
a copy of Linux for free. So which approach do you think is more effective? Let
me give you a hint: We now have a total of six Visors in our office, and zero
Linux boxes.</P>
<P>Wait! Stop. I can already hear your screams of protest. Every Linux vender on the planet is now
getting ready to email me to explain that they don't have the resources to do that! Maybe IBM
can afford to have world-class Customer Service, but the poor little Linux venders and software
companies can't even afford to have anyone answer the phone now. How are they supposed to
provide support for their customers? Well, I have a solution for them. You see, there's this
newfangled invention called the "Internet". People can build something called a "website" and
post information on it. What? You've already got a website? Well, let's give it a little test: Go to
ibm.com, look up a model of computer and see how much information IBM provides to help
their customers use it. Now go to a couple of Linux sites and see how much information they
provide. Oops. I hear more screams of protest. You are now yelling "Do I have any idea what it
costs to build and maintain a professional quality website like IBM's?" Well, perhaps not
(although if IBM has more money to spend on website development than you make, then they
must be doing <EM>something</EM> right &lt;g&gt;). But I do know a way the smallest Linux vender can
compete with IBM in terms of information available, if not polish and web graphics.</P>
<P>Again, the key to IBM's website is not that they manufacture their own servers. The key is that
IBM is concerned with making sure that their customers have <EM>whatever it takes to use the
products</EM>. IBM doesn't just say "Well, we built a perfectly good laptop, it's not our problem if you
can't get it to work". IBM makes sure that you <EM>can</EM> get it to work. In like manner, I propose that
Linux venders build support websites with two key features:</P>
<P>1) The vender should post current information on their distribution's file structure, boot
options, port assignments, common command line switches, etc. This should also include
professional HOWTO's on installing a new X server, recompiling the kernel, trouble shooting
network problems and any other common difficulties. Isn't this all available on the net? Yes, and
every HOWTO on the net includes the disclaimer "This works with SUSE, but I don't know about
Red Hat" or "I tried this with version 5.1, but 5.2 does it differently". The vender is the one who
knows both the file structure and correct procedures for that <EM>specific</EM> version. And that is the
information people <EM>need</EM> to have. One of the great strengths of Linux is that you can work on it
yourself. But if you were trying to fix the engine in a '96 model Mercedes, how would you feel if
the Mercedes factory sent you a repair manual for an '84 model Ford along with a note that said
"Well, this is pretty close, maybe you can just figure out the differences"?</P>
<P>2) But the venders can't possibly test every piece of hardware, or know every different
network configuration! So they shouldn't even try to offer user support, right? WRONG! The
second feature that needs to be on the vender's website is an area where users can post HOWTO's of
their own. Again, this information needs to be version specific. Not just how to install <EM>some</EM>
printer under <EM>some</EM> version of Linux, but detailed, step by step instructions for how to install a
Canon BJC250 with distribution 6.5. That way the first person with a BJC250 can pass the
correct settings on to everyone else (otherwise everybody is forced to reinvent the wheel). But
the Internet is already loaded with Linux HOWTOs. Why add more? Several reasons. Aside from
version specific information, having the HOWTO's submitted to the vender for posting means the
vender can, if not test each one, at least visually inspect all HOWTO's for apparent errors before
posting them. Which at least prevents some joker from telling newbies that the first step in
installing a printer is to reformat the hard drive &lt;g&gt;. This would also represent a tremendous
research tool for the venders. By adding a couple of radio buttons for user feedback, each HOWTO
could be rated (on a scale of 1 to 5) on both whether the HOWTO addressed the user's problem and
also how well it solved the problem. That way if a vender gets only 5 hits a month on how to
handle MP3 files, but 200 hits on how to burn CD's, then the vender can tell what to improve or
add in the next version. And if only half of the people trying to burn CD's actually succeeded,
then maybe that problem needs to be fixed. This feedback would also make the HOWTO's
self-correcting. HOWTO's that consistently solve people's problems could be made a permanent
part of the vender's documentation, possibly even be put into the man pages. Any HOWTO reported
as unhelpful or counter productive could be dropped.</P>
<P>If I were a vender, I would carry this idea one step further. Whenever anyone submitted a HOWTO
that got positive user feedback, I would send the person who submitted it token of appreciation
(a toy penguin, or a pen with the company logo, or a baseball cap with "Linux Software Team"
embroidered on it). Does anyone doubt that in less than a month there would contests among
your more technically inclined customers (notice I didn't say Computer Geeks ) to see who could
collect the most pens, caps, whatever. As a vender, I would encourage this by giving a special
prize (T-shirt, jacket, Handspring Visor) to whoever submitted the best written and/or useful
HOWTO each month. Wouldn't that cost a lot of money? Well, let's see. If someone spends 10
hours researching and solving a problem for your customers, and you give them a $5 baseball
cap, then you've gotten expert technical support for 50 cents an hour. </P>
<P>Many of you are now saying that I'm just being silly. After all, there are all kinds of Linux users
groups, mailing lists and clubs already out there. Why should a vender waste his precious time
hosting one more? The answer is: Because of your customer, that's why. Imagine for a moment
that you are the CEO of amazon.com and you've just learned that your server has crashed. You
call the head of your IT Dept. and ask "What happened? How soon can we be back up?" The
head of your IT Dept. tells you "Beats me. I have no idea what happened. But I'll start asking
around with some friends of mine, and maybe one of them can think of something in a few
days?" How long do you think the head of that IT Dept would have a job? Allow me to let you in
on a secret: If some little one man operation with a single printer is using your software to make
a living, then keeping that lone printer running is just as important to him as amazon.com's web
server is to them. Users groups are wonderful resources for learning, sharing solutions to
problems, etc. But the bottom line is that it's the venders who are responsible for keeping their
product working. And if the customers can't trust the venders to take that responsibility
seriously, then they're not going to buy the software.</P>
<P>And unless I'm mistaken, the people who are now yelling that they don't have time to build a
useful website were the same ones who were yelling a few minutes ago that they can't keep up
with the Customer Service demands they've already got. Well, everybody that can find the
information they need on your website is one less person phoning your understaffed Customer
Service Dept.. And if the customer does phone anyway, then which takes less time: Explaining
something to him on the phone (and hoping he takes good enough notes to actually do it), or
looking it up on your own site and emailing him printed directions to solve his problem? And as
for not being able to afford to provide Customer Service? Well, several of the larger commercial
venders are now charging for Customer Support. Unfortunately, what none of them have figured
out yet, is that you have to actually <EM>provide</EM> the support in order for customers to be willing to
pay for it! </P>
<P>In closing I would like to say, for the record, that I am NOT attacking Linux. I like Linux (and
will probably enjoy it even more once I find a distribution that actually works &lt;g&gt;). And I think
everyone would be better off if Microsoft had some serious competition. But so far, the best
explanation that I can come up with for the behavior of most Linux venders is that they are
secretly owned by Bill Gates. Because Microsoft couldn't come up with a better strategy to
protect it's market share than what many Linux venders are already doing!</P>
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Dennis Field</H4>
<EM>My first encounter with a computer was when my high school got an
old IBM 1130 (which had a whopping 8k of main memory!), and I've been
playing with computers off and on since then. My first home computer was as
Amstrad, which ran C/PM and came complete with a revolutionary 3" floppy
disk drive (yes, you read that right<g>). Although I've had one college
course each in both C and Linux, I still consider myself a Linux newbie.
<P> The author is currently in hiding at a secret location, after having
narrowly escaped an angry mob of torch-waving penguins.</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Dennis Field.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Visual Debugging with ddd</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:wolfgang@mynetix.de">Wolfgang Mauerer</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
<H1>
Overview
</H1>
To err is human. Programmers are humans. Therefore programmers err.
The overwhelming complexity and unsurpassable logic inherent in those
little words may well be the cause for several years of discussion in the
philosophers' department, but holds without further doubt one timeless
truth, when it's brought down to earth again: <EM>All programs written by
human programmers are full of errors.</EM> Although the belief
is still alive in some places that
programming is just a more or less mechanical and stupid exercise
that can be fulfilled without making any mistakes if only enough care
is taken and planning is applied, a more sensible way of thinking seems
to be devastating for programmers at first: Nothing works, all
programs are full or error, the specs are wrong, and the implementation
does the opposite as expected. But this is noting against programmers,
in fact the fully opposite is the case: Programming is a very complicated
and challenging task, and errors are therefore unavoidable, even for the
best programmers - only easy things can be done without fault.
The importance of errors or better: the way how to <I>find</I> and <I>fix</I>
those errors
in the lifecycle of a software product is a task whose importance cannot be
stressed enough over and over. Finding errors is not
just an unavoidable part in the development cycle, but a vital part of every
software system's lifespan.
<P>
It seems clear that bugs in software systems must be found, and
that good tools are needed to assist the programmer in this complicated
task. As most of you might know, there is
a very capable debugger available as free software from (who else?)
the GNU project. Since the GNU people are responsible for the
most important compiler under linux, the gnu c compiler, both
programs form a bodacious and capital team when it comes to kill
nasty bugs in your programs. Those of you who have already used the debugger
know its spartan interface: It's not bad, but not
too good either. Even if one is a friend of the command line and text-based
utilities (as the author certainly is),
using this form of debugger interaction is not always
hilarious and can be a quite poignant exercise, especially when
larger systems with complex data structures are debugged.
The text interface may be well suited for single-stepping through
programs, checking simple values or testing certain conditions, but
it is certainly not the optimal choice for modern, effective and
easy-to-do debugging of structures deeply connected with each other.
Other interfaces (like the emacs gud-mode or the new tui interface
for gdb) offer slightly more comfort, but are not ideal as well.
<P>
We need a graphical interface therefore, and again the GNU project
offers a very good possibility: DDD, the data display debugger.
DDD is a graphical interface written by Andreas Zeller
and Dorothea Luetkenhaus (and the help of many other programmers
from the free software community) and made into a GNU program
some time ago (although it was GPLed already before that). If debugging
weren't such a sometimes very hard job, we would nearly
be tempted to say that debugging with ddd is mere fun.
<P>
What does ddd offer compared to the pure gdb interface or to other
debugger front ends like the emacs gud-mode? The main point is not
just DDD's normal debugging functions (e.g., stepping through your
source file line by line, setting breakpoints and watchpoints, changing
the values of program variables), which are supported by ddd (in a
very convenient and much simpler way compared to the traditional
gdb interface), but that DDD can also display
data structures graphically. What does this mean? Consider a linked
list in C, as we will use it in one of our later examples. The data
structure basically consists of several data fields together
with one or more pointer fields to other structures of the same type,
that together form an interconnected network. The network is made up of the values
of the pointer variables. It could in principal by reconstructed
by their hexadecimal contents, giving the memory location of the previous
or following elements, but this is neither a very convenient
nor comfortable task. It is very difficult to produce a concise overview
about the situation this way, and even if the programmer succeeds in
that laborious task, there is a major drawback: Since memory
locations change in the next program run (or when a different
input dataset etc. is used), the work is quickly rendered useless.
DDD overcomes this limitation by automatically creating diagrams
from the memory contents, allowing a simple and appealing visual
view to complex structures.
<P>
But the ability to draw program structures graphically is not the
only enhancement offered by ddd compared to classical dialog-based
debugging methods:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>The ability to switch between multiple source files automatically.
</LI>
<LI>A convenient view of the whole program text (and not just some few
lines surrounding the actual statement).
</LI>
<LI>Different back-end debuggers are supported. This means that
ddd can not only
run with gdb as back-end debugger process, but can use debuggers
for the Python and Perl scripting languages, sun's java debugger
or dbx and ladebug (on systems other than GNU/Linux) as well.
</LI>
<LI>Multiple languages are supported. This is not just a result of
the multi-debugger ability, but also a benefit of the gdb support
for different source languages (C, C++, Objective C, Fortran, Java, ...)
</LI>
<LI>The same interface is used for all languages supported by the
underlying debuggers.
</LI>
</UL>
<P>
Let's see how all these things look in practice by debugging a simple
example program.
<H1>
Generating debugging information
</H1>
Binary programs normally don't contain any information about the source
file; they solely perform the codes intended task in terms
of machine instructions. It is therefore necessary to include so-called
<I>debugging symbols</I> in the object code before advanced
features of a debugger can be used (without this, it would be possible
to step through the program in single machine instruction steps, but
since there is no direct connection with the source code any more, this
is not very helpful). There are several different debugging formats
floating around in the Unix world, but we do not want to dive deeper into this
subject, since it is mostly important for compiler programmers. Instead,
we will concentrate on the GNU/Linux platform using the GNU C compiler using
standard settings.
<P>
The standard option to include debugging information in a program is
to use the switch <TT>-g</TT> when calling <TT>gcc</TT>:
<P>
<DIV ALIGN="LEFT">
<TT>
[wolfgang<code>@</code>jupiter wolfgang]$ gcc -g fac.c -o fac
<BR></TT>
</DIV>
<P>
This will create a binary file <TT>fac</TT> which is bigger in size
than the normal executable.
Obviously, this is not a big surprise: Since additional data (like assignments
between blocks of machine instructions and line numbers in the source code
etc.) are stored in the code now, the size must increase.
<P>
It is important to note that gcc offers a feature quite rare
among competing compilers: Debugging information can be generated even
if optimizations are turned on, e.g. <TT>gcc -g -O2 fac.c fac</TT>
will work, producing a binary file that is optimized <I>and</I> contains
debugging information. Although this can be quite handy in some cases,
there are some well hidden trap doors behind this approach (like
optimizing away several lines of code), so we won't cover these combinations
here.
<P>
The source file for <TT>fac.c</TT> has the following contents:
<P>
<PRE>
#include&lt;stdio.h&gt;
int main() {
int count;
int fac;
for (count = 1; count &lt; 10; count++) {
fac = faculty(count);
printf("count: %u, fac: %u\n", count, fac);
}
return 0;
}
int faculty(int num) {
if (num = 0) {
return 1;
}
else {
return num * faculty(num - 1);
}
}
</PRE>
<P>
As you can see, the program just performs some really simple calculations:
We loop over a range of integer values from 1 to 9 and call a function
to calculate the number's faculty in every loop step. It's
perfectly clear that this could be done in a much more efficient way,
but it serves as a good example for general debugging techniques.
By the way: It will not run correctly, since it contains an error.
You can check this by executing it in a normal shell, without an attached
debugger (binaries with included debugging symbols run like
normal programs, they are just a little bit slower): The only thing
you get is a core dump that happens due to a segmentation fault.
So let's put the program into the debugger and find out what's wrong!
<H1>
Stepping through programs
</H1>
<H2>
Opening a program to debug
</H2>
ddd is started by typing
<P>
<DIV ALIGN="LEFT">
<TT>
[wolfgang<code>@</code>jupiter wolfgang]$ ddd&amp;
<BR></TT>
</DIV>
<P>
at your prompt; the file name of the program that shall be debugged can
be supplied as an optional argument. If ddd is not installed on your
system, this can almost certainly be done using your favorite
package management system (like apt-get, rpm etc.), since ddd binaries are
supplied with all major distributions. In case there is no binary package
for your system (or if you want to compile ddd from scratch for some
reasons), get the source distribution from <TT>ftp.gnu.org</TT> (or
preferably one of it's mirrors) and follow the instructions in the
<TT>INSTALL</TT> file accompanying it.
<P>
If you did not supply the file name on the command line, you can select
it via the <code>File-&gt;Open</code> Program menu entry via a dialog box. ddd then
loads this program, parses the debugging symbols (or, to be precise:
lets the back-end debugger parse the symbols)
and loads the main source file afterwards. Your display should show
a window similar to figure 1</A>.
<P>
<P></P>
<DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="sshot1"></A><A NAME="40"></A>
<TABLE>
<CAPTION ALIGN="BOTTOM"><STRONG>Figure 1:</STRONG>
The ddd main window</CAPTION>
<TR><TD><IMG
WIDTH="603" HEIGHT="619" BORDER="0"
SRC="misc/mauerer/img1.png"
ALT="\begin{figure}\begin{center}
\epsfig{file=sshot1.eps, scale=0.3} \end{center}\end{figure}"></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</DIV><P></P>
<P>
The ``Command Tool''-Subwindow is very important for our later work. By
default, it is shown in the main window's right area, offering
several buttons to perform diverse actions with our
code (in case you should close the window incidentally, you can reopen
it either via <TT>F8</TT> or the <code>View-&gt;Command Window</code> menu item).
<P>
<H2>
Step and Next
</H2>
Let's step through the program line by line, watching precisely
what happens during its execution. To do this, we need to start the program,
but we also need to set a so-called breakpoint in order to prevent the whole
program from finishing before we have a chance to interrupt it.
A breakpoint suspends the program execution on a certain source line,
giving the opportunity to interact with the debugger and perform debugging
actions. Point your mouse on the left side of the source window on
the line <TT>int count;</TT>, press the right mouse button and select
``Set Breakpoint'' from the popup menu. This creates a red stop sign
on the corresponding line, meaning that the program execution will stop
once it reaches this point.
<P>
Now we can get the ball rolling: Select ``run'' from the command tool,
which will instruct the debugger to start the code. The program
doesn't run very long, since our breakpoint is located at the very beginning
of the file; we are now in a debugger interaction mode. The green
arrow to the left of the source lines shows us the line that will be
executed <I>next</I> in the source file.
<P>
There a two possibilities to step through a source code: While ``next''
takes you line by line, but omits procedure calls (and just presents you the
result of the call), ``step'' will dig through the subroutine's code when
it is called. As we want to see what's wrong in our program (since the
error is a very common one, experienced programmers will have seen it
already certainly), we decide to ``step'' through the program.
Press the button, and you will find the green source line pointer right
in the beginning of the faculty subroutine. This is what we intended,
so you can press ``step'' another time, leading the green arrow directly
into the else-branch of our conditional decision. This is all right again.
What would we expect now? Since <TT>num</TT> had the value 1 when we entered
the subroutine, it should be 0 when we enter the subroutine again recursively,
resulting in an immediate return of the value 1, which should again result
in returning 1*1=1 from our first call of faculty, leading us back to the
main program. Let's check whether this is what actually happens by pressing
``step'' for another time: The green pointer moves again to the beginning
of the function, but enters the else-branch again in the next step!
Obviously, something went wrong: We need to check <TT>num</TT>'s value.
<P>
There are several possibilities to show the value of simple variables
(e.g. variables of simple types like int, long, float etc.). The most
common one is to keep the mouse pointer over the variable in the source
window, waiting until a tooltip with its contents appears on the screen.
Alternative ways are to press the right mouse button right over the identifier
and select <TT>Print num</TT> from the popup menu or to mark the identifier
and select the <code>Data-&gt;Print()</code> menu entry. With the last two methods,
the value is displayed in the gdb output window in the lower region
of the main window.
<P>
Regardless of the method used, we receive 0 as <TT>num</TT>'s value.
Why has the second branch been taken, although
num is 0? Using step for another time confirms your possible assumption
about the error case:
If we look at the value of <TT>num</TT> right at the beginning of the function,
we see that it is -1, but in the next step (again the second branch of
the if-conditional), it is 0 again: The error is a forgotten <TT>=</TT>
in the if-clause, resulting in an assignment rather than a comparison!
Although this is a very common error in C programs, it can cause considerable
delay to the program's development if it is only well enough hidden.
Since we won't receive any meaningful result from this incorrect
program, we can kill it with the ``kill''-Button in the execution window.
<P>
Correct the error by exchanging the "=" with a "==", recompile the
program (don't forget to include debugging symbols again!) and reload
it into ddd via the "File"-menu. As you can see, out breakpoint
is conserved, so we can start the program again from the very beginning.
If we step through the faculty call now, everything works alright.
The faculty function is completed, and the green source line pointer
is now in the <TT>printf(...)</TT>-line. We need to be careful: If we
select ``step'' for another time, ddd will try to step through the
print call, which is not possible, since the function is taken from
the standard C library which is normally not compiled with
debugging symbols (although it's possible to). We therefore prefer
``next'' in this case. ``Step'' would
give us an error message about several missing source files; it would take
a bunch of ``next''-clicks to get the green pointer back to our source
code again.
<P>
<H1>
Visualizing data structures
</H1>
<H2>
Simple structures</A>
</H2>
In our first, simple example, ddd is similar
to other interfaces like the emacs gud-mode
(except for the increased comfort). But here's a unique and marvellous
feature of ddd: The ability so display
nested structures graphically. In order to demonstrate
the corresponding features, we need a new example program,
<TT>list.c</TT>:
<P>
<PRE>
#include&lt;stdio.h&gt;
int main() {
typedef struct person_struct {
/* Data elements */
char* name;
int age;
/* Link elements */
struct person_struct *next;
struct person_struct *prev;
} person_t;
person_t *start;
person_t *pers;
person_t *temp;
char *names[] = {"Linus Torvalds", "Alan Cox", "Rik van Riel"};
int ages[] = {30, 31, 32};
int count; /* Temporary counter */
start = (person_t*)malloc(sizeof(person_t));
start-&gt;name = names[0];
start-&gt;age = ages[0];
start-&gt;prev = NULL;
start-&gt;next = NULL;
pers = start;
for (count=1; count &lt; 3; count++) {
temp = (person_t*)malloc(sizeof(person_t));
temp-&gt;name = names[count];
temp-&gt;age = ages[count];
pers-&gt;next = temp;
temp-&gt;prev = pers;
pers = temp;
}
temp-&gt;next = NULL;
printf("Data structure created\n");
return 0;
}
</PRE>
<P>
Although you might know the names used in the example, they are not
important. The ages are chosen at random!
<P>
The code defines a double linked list of person-elements that stores two
personal properties (name and age) together with two pointers (to
the next and previous person in the list). Since this is one of the
most important structures in C, every programmer should have seen
something like this already several times before, normally in a
more complete fashion. As before, our program does not perform a too
important job: It just builds a data structure in memory
and then exits, but this is sufficient for our purposes. As usual,
the program must be compiled with debugging symbols included and then
loaded into ddd.
<P>
For this time, we set our first breakpoint in line 28 (the beginning
of the <TT>for</TT>-loop) and start our program afterwards. Place the
mouse pointer over the <TT>start</TT>-identifier: ddd will show you
in the value tooltip appearing after a small amount of time that it is
a pointer to an instance of <TT>struct person_t</TT> at a certain
memory location given in hexadecimal notation. A perfect candidate
for graphical visualisation!
<P>
Pop up the context menu by pressing the right mouse button over the
start identifier and select "Display *start" - the star is needed so
that ddd automatically dereferences the pointer and shows the structure's
contents. A new section in the
upper part of the ddd window will show up, containing a figure
visualising <TT>start</TT>'s contents: <TT>name</TT> and <TT>age</TT>
are set to the values assigned a few lines before, and <TT>next</TT>,
<TT>prev</TT> contain <TT>NULL</TT> pointers as expected. Figure 2
shows the box that you should see on your display (the char pointer's
hexadecimal value may vary on your system, though).
<P>
<P></P>
<DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="sshot2"></A><A NAME="73"></A>
<TABLE>
<CAPTION ALIGN="BOTTOM"><STRONG>Figure 2:</STRONG>
Visualisation of a data structure</CAPTION>
<TR><TD><IMG
WIDTH="603" HEIGHT="619" BORDER="0"
SRC="misc/mauerer/img2.png"
ALT="\begin{figure}\begin{center}
\epsfig{file=sshot2.eps, scale=0.3} \end{center}\end{figure}"></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</DIV><P></P>
<P>
This is already a pretty amazing feature, isn't it? But let's execute
our program a little further, seeing how our data structure is built up
in memory. Use the ``next''-button to step through the for loop's body
until line 34 (<code>pers-&gt;next = temp</code>) is reached: The second person's data
structure is built and connected with the first person by then.
When you watch the graph display afterwards, you can see that the
<TT>next</TT>-field of our first person has a value different than
0 now, meaning that it points to another structure: The clou: If you
double-click
on this value, a new box with the second person's structure opens, and
the pointer from person 1 to person 2 is automatically displayed as an
arrow between the boxes.
<P>
We take a different way to create the third person's data structure,
because it is inconvenient to step through all single lines of a code
just to see the result. Let's apply another breakpoint in line 39 which
contains the <TT>printf(...)</TT>-statement. Pressing ``cont'' continues
the program flow until another breakpoint (our fresh set one) is reached.
<P>
We can display the third person's data structure in the usual way.
But now, we do not just want to see the pointers from person <tt>n</tt>
person <tt>n+1</tt>, but also the backward pointers! Double click, for example,
on the <TT>prev</TT>-field in the second graph: Another box pops up,
duplicating the first person's box in the display! The same thing happens
for the <TT>prev</TT>-pointer of the third person. This is obviously not what
we want, because the same structure should not be displayed twice. We
have to tell ddd to take care about this.
<P>
Ddd uses a feature called <I>alias detection</I> in order to achieve this,
which can be activated by activating the <code>Data-&gt;Detect</code> Aliases menu
entry. The display should look like figure 3 now.
<P>
<P></P>
<DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="llist"></A><A NAME="87"></A>
<TABLE>
<CAPTION ALIGN="BOTTOM"><STRONG>Figure 3:</STRONG>
A linked list of persons</CAPTION>
<TR><TD><IMG
WIDTH="571" HEIGHT="57" BORDER="0"
SRC="misc/mauerer/img5.png"
ALT="\begin{figure}\begin{center}
\epsfig{file=list.ps, scale=0.7} \end{center} \end{figure}"></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</DIV><P></P>
<P>
All pointers are shown in the correct manner, giving us a quite good
impression of the data structure in memory. Sadly, alias detection
especially with tight connected structures has
the drawback of slowing down ddd, since several memory locations
must be compared after every program step in order to see which structures
in the display represent the same memory location, compacting the graph
respectively. Additionally, alias detection is
only available with source languages that allow the back-end debugger to
provide addresses of arbitrary objects, limiting the possible choices to
C, C++ and Java at the moment.
<P>
<H2>
A more complicated example
</H2>
Let us take a look at a slightly more complicated example (at least
in relation to the created data structure) in order to demonstrate
ddd's graph layout capabilities. The source code used from now on is
the following (<TT>arith.c</TT>):
<P>
<PRE>
#include&lt;stdio.h&gt;
/* Create a binary tree structure representing an arithmetic expression */
enum operator { plus, minus, times, div };
typedef struct tree_struct {
struct tree_struct *left;
struct tree_struct *right;
union {
int op:2;
int val;
} opval;
} tree_t;
int main() {
tree_t *node;
tree_t *root = (tree_t*)malloc(sizeof(tree_t));
root-&gt;opval.op = times;
node = (tree_t*)malloc(sizeof(tree_t));
node-&gt;right = NULL;
node-&gt;left = NULL;
node-&gt;opval.val = 7;
root-&gt;right = node;
node = (tree_t*)malloc(sizeof(tree_t));
node-&gt;opval.op = plus;
root-&gt;left = node;
node = (tree_t*)malloc(sizeof(tree_t));
node-&gt;left = NULL;
node-&gt;right = NULL;
node-&gt;opval.val = 5;
root-&gt;left-&gt;left = node;
node = (tree_t*)malloc(sizeof(tree_t));
node-&gt;left = NULL;
node-&gt;right = NULL;
node-&gt;opval.val = 3;
root-&gt;left-&gt;right = node;
printf("Tree created\n");
return 0;
}
</PRE>
<P>
The program creates a tree representing a arithmetic expression in
the way compilers see them after the completion of the parsing process:
Parentheses are superfluous in this form, since the graph structure
contains this information intrinsically. Each node contains either
an arithmetic operator (plus, minus, times or div, as defined by the
enumeration <TT>operators</TT>) or a certain (integer) value. In explicit
notation, the expression represented by the data structure is
<tt>(5+3)*7</tt>
<P>
Run the program (after setting a breakpoint before the end, but after
building the data structure),
display the root element and open all subsequent members via double-clicking
on the <TT>left</TT>/<TT>right</TT>-members of the structure. You
can get all information about the memory structure, but it does not
look very nice. We want to achieve a look like in figure 4:
<DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="tree1"></A><A NAME="102"></A>
<TABLE>
<CAPTION ALIGN="BOTTOM"><STRONG>Figure 4:</STRONG>
Simple arithmetic expression represented by a tree</CAPTION>
<TR><TD><IMG
WIDTH="524" HEIGHT="325" BORDER="0"
SRC="misc/mauerer/img7.png"
ALT="\begin{figure}\begin{center}
\epsfig{file=tree.ps, scale=0.7} \end{center} \end{figure}"></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</DIV><P></P>
<P>
One change compared to the picture produced by simply unfolding the
tree is obvious: All elements are layed out in a ordered manner. This can
certainly be achieved by using the mouse to drag the elements to their
respective locations, but is not very convenient: A much simpler method
(at least for the user) is the automatic layout capability provided by
ddd. To use it, we simply need to select the menu entry
<code>Data-&gt;Layout Graph</code> (or use the shortcut <TT>ALT+Y</TT>). ddd
layouts the graph in the manner shown afterwards.
<P>
Note that another manual change was applied to the graph. Since we
use a union structure to represent either a value or an operator
in every node, ddd displays both possibilities at a time. This may
be somewhat confusing and should be avoided. The rules are
clear: If both <TT>left</TT> and <TT>right</TT> pointer are set to
<TT>NULL</TT>, the node represents a number, otherwise an operator.
Select ``Undisplay'' from the context menu
accessible with the right mouse button to delete the unwanted entry. Ddd will
ask if the action should be applied to all fitting structures or just
the present one; since we want to delete different values from different
boxes, the second alternative must be selected.
<P>
Ddd offers some additional features dealing with graph layout
in the data menu. The reader will surely figure
out how to use them very quickly since they are quite intuitive
and self-explaining.
<P>
<H2>
Multi-linked structures
</H2>
As a last example (and to demonstrate the great possibilities ddd offers
once again), take a look at figure 5: It shows a graph produced
by the program <a href="misc/mauerer/poly.c.txt"><tt>poly.c</TT></a> which implements a
representation for a
certain polynomial (3*x^2+zy-3xz^3) using a data
structure presented in the all-time classic work on computer science,
<I>Fundamental Algorithms</I> (from the Series
<I>The Art of Computer Programming</I>) by Donald Knuth. You are not
assumed to understand the graph's meaning instantaneously...Just let
you impress by the possibility to visualise quite complicated structures
that would merely be <EM>un</EM>-understandable from the program source alone.
Note that automatic layout wasn't used for this graph, since it produces
a correct, but not very informative visualisation: Too much
information about the idea behind the structure has to go into the layout.
<P>
<P></P>
<DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="poly"></A><A NAME="121"></A>
<TABLE>
<CAPTION ALIGN="BOTTOM"><STRONG>Figure 5:</STRONG>
A polynomial expression represented in memory</CAPTION>
<TR><TD><IMG
WIDTH="408" HEIGHT="888" BORDER="0"
SRC="misc/mauerer/img9.png"
ALT="\begin{figure}\begin{center}
\epsfig{file=poly.ps, scale=0.7} \end{center} \end{figure}"></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</DIV><P></P>
<P>
<H2>
Plotting datasets</A>
</H2>
Data structures are not the only things ddd is capable of drawing: Additional,
datasets stored in arrays can be visualised using the well known Gnuplot
program as helper. Since the generation of such datasets occurs quite
frequently in scientific programs, we will take a look at this convenient
feature.
<P>
Program <TT>valtab.c</TT> shows a program that
creates a value table for a certain function (in this case, a two dimensional
sine function). Note that you must compile this program
using the <TT>-lm</TT> switch in gcc in order to include the mathematical
library!
<P>
<PRE>
#include&lt;stdio.h&gt;
#include&lt;math.h&gt;
int main() {
float *val;
float sval[100];
float **threed;
int points = 100;
float period = 2*M_PI;
int count, count2;
val = (float*) malloc(points*sizeof(float));
for (count = 0; count &lt; points; count++) {
val[count] = sin(count * period/(float)points);
sval[count] = val[count];
}
threed = (float**)malloc(points*sizeof(float));
float x,y;
for (count = 0; count &lt; points; count++) {
threed[count] = (float*)malloc(points*sizeof(float));
for (count2 = 0; count2 &lt; points; count2++) {
x = count*period/(float)points;
y = count2*period/(float)points;
threed[count][count2] = 1.0f/(x+y)*sin(x+y);
}
}
/* Normally, we would write the generated data into a file or so. */
printf("Value tables created\n");
return 0;
}
</PRE>
<P>
Normally, most programs will deal with more complicated functions (or
acquire their data sets in a different way), but the basic principle
(filling some values into an array) remains unchanged in all cases.
<P>
We use three kinds of arrays in our sample program to demonstrate the
different methods for plotting data. The simplest possibility is
a static, one-dimensional array, as is <TT>sval</TT>. In this case,
we only need to highlight the identifier by clicking on it with the
right mouse button and pressing on the ``plot'' icon found in the upper zone
of the window - voila, a new gnuplot-window with the desired graph opens.
The graph's appearance can be customised with several menu entries;
figure 6 shows the output with the plot style changed to
``lines'' from the default value ``points'' by selecting <code>Plot-&gt;Lines</code>
in the menu.
<P>
<P></P>
<DIV ALIGN="CENTER"><A NAME="plot"></A><A NAME="135"></A>
<TABLE>
<CAPTION ALIGN="BOTTOM"><STRONG>Figure 6:</STRONG>
The plot window</CAPTION>
<TR><TD><IMG
WIDTH="600" HEIGHT="454" BORDER="0"
SRC="misc/mauerer/img10.png"
ALT="\begin{figure}\begin{center}
\epsfig{file=plot.eps, scale=0.3} \end{center} \end{figure}"></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
</DIV><P></P>
<P>
The situation is somewhat more complicated with dynamical created arrays, since
ddd cannot determine their lengths automatically. A workaround for this
is the use of so-called <I>array slices</I> that must be defined manually
in the debugger interaction part in the lower part of the ddd window.
<P>
The expression <code>graph display val[0]@points</code> creates such an array
slice, where the index-expression <TT>[0]</TT> denotes the lower and
<code>@points</code> denotes the upper bound for the used values (instead
of the memory value <TT>points</TT>, a simple integer number can
be used likewise). Plotting this graph is achieved in the same way as before
(by pressing the ``plot''-button) and gives (surprise, surprise) the same
result, since identical datasets are used.
<P>
Plotting three-dimensional graphs works pretty much the same way: The
identifier of static array needs just to be highlighted with the mouse
in order to apply the ``plot''-button afterwards, while an array slice has
to be created when dynamic allocated structures are used. The syntax for this
is <code>graph display threed[0][0]@points@points</code>, as the reader
will have expected.
<P>
Since the customisation features available
with gnuplot for three-dimensional graphs are not very well supported in
the ddd-interface, such plotting attempts will normally tend to give not
very good and meaningful results as with two-dimensional
plots.
<P>
<H2>
Printing graphs and plots
</H2>
In order to document programs, it can sometimes be convenient to have
graphical representations for their data structures handy, like the ones
produces by ddd. Ddd's printer interface offers
the possibility to create a Postscript version of graphs and plots therefor.
To print a graph, just select <code>File-&gt;Print Graph</code>. A menu pops up
offering some choices, and hitting the print button produces
either a file or sends the output directly to the printer.
<P>
The same approach may be applied for plots; the only difference
is that fewer options are available in the print dialog. While
graphs can be exported to Postscript as like as well as to the fig-format format
(as used by the classical Unix drawing tool <TT>xfig</TT>), plot printing
can be exported only to Postscript.
<P>
Ddd offers many more
features such as watchpoints, multiple language support etc. These are
beyond the topic of this article, since we do not intend to repeat the
excellent documentation coming with ddd.
(The documentation is available from <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/ddd">
http://www.gnu.org/software/ddd</a>.)
Instead, we encourage readers to explore ddd's rich set of features themselves,
debugging their own programs.
<P>
As a last remark, let's consider a quotation that ddd uses as one of
its "tips of the day", because it expresses the importance (and
limits) of debugging very well:
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The debugger isn't a substitute for good thinking. But, in some
cases, thinking isn't a substitute for a good debugger either. The
most effective combination is good thinking and good debugger.
<CITE>--Steve McConnell, Code Complete</CITE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Wolfgang Mauerer</H4>
<EM><A HREF="mailto:wolfgang@mynetix.de">Wolfgang</A>
has written several articles for both German and international
publications, is the author of a German book about text processing and
works as system administrator and programmer. His main interests
include programming language theory, operating system kernels (explicitly
not limited to Linux..), and (sometimes) physics. Besides, he is on a holy war
against monopolistic, proprietary software. He lives in London
at the moment.</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Wolfgang Mauerer.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Installing Linux on Root Devices Unsupported by Your Distribution</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:zwane@linux.realnet.co.sz">Zwane Mwaikambo</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
<P> I'm sure the vast majority of sysadmins out there have occasionally acquired
new server hardware that their latest Linux distribution
does not support. This is usually not a problem because
as long as you can install the base system you can then graft the other bits in
once it's running. The only exception is when your root device
isn't supported; that's when the excitement begins.
<P> The key here is that the hardware is not distro supported. Most of the time you'll
may find that the most recent kernels <EM>do</EM> support your hardware and hence, upgrading to
the newer kernel would solve your problem. But it's a chicken-and-egg situation
since you don't have a running system yet. With this article I hope to
alleviate some of the headaches of these problematic installations so that you
can get on with your usual duties sooner. The distribution i shall use as an
example is Red Hat 7.1 (hereupon referred to as RH7.1), and the server root device
is a RAID device on an Adaptec 2100 host adapter, but of course I will try to
generalise so that you will be able to adapt this advice for just about any
unsupported device (e.g. IDE RAID controllers or other SCSI HBAs).
<P> The kernel shipped with RH7.1 is 2.4.2-2, a 2.4.2-ac based kernel with extra
patches by Red Hat. My target kernel will be 2.4.10-ac1. I recommend "-ac" since
Alan Cox incorporates lots of experimental drivers in his kernels for testing
and hence usually has support for various devices first before the mainstream
Linus kernel , which he merges to later. In order to build the kernels you will
require an additional Linux box to do the compilations on (you might want to
read the kernel-HOWTO if you're a bit rusty) and to prepare the bootdisks. When
creating the bootdisk kernel image you can make good guesses based on the
kernel ring buffer output from <CODE>dmesg</CODE>). Size is the objective here since we have
to be able to fit the new kernel into the same space the original took, there
really isn't much leeway so we have to pick carefully. Here is a rough outline
of our new configuration with explanations. (Parts removed.)
<PRE>
CONFIG_X86=y
CONFIG_ISA=y
CONFIG_UID16=y
# Needed for newer drivers
CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL=y
CONFIG_MODULES=y
CONFIG_MODVERSIONS=y
CONFIG_KMOD=y
# Select your target CPU but skip SMP due to the size
# hit when enabled
CONFIG_MPENTIUMIII=y
# Even if you have over 1G of RAM, stick with no
# highmem for the installation
CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
CONFIG_NET=y
CONFIG_PCI=y
CONFIG_PCI_GOANY=y
CONFIG_PCI_BIOS=y
CONFIG_PCI_DIRECT=y
# This particular option just bloats the kernel
# no need for this during install
# CONFIG_PCI_NAMES is not set
CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y
CONFIG_SYSCTL=y
CONFIG_KCORE_ELF=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_ELF=y
CONFIG_BINFMT_MISC=y
# ACPI and APM are not required even for normal
# operation on desktop systems so skip it.
# CONFIG_PM is not set
# CONFIG_ACPI is not set
# CONFIG_APM is not set
# No need for parallel ports right now either
# CONFIG_PARPORT is not set
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_FD=y
# Some distributions use loop devices during
# installation
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=y
# Initrds are almost always used during installation
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM_SIZE=4096
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD=y
CONFIG_PACKET=y
# CONFIG_PACKET_MMAP is not set
# CONFIG_NETLINK is not set
# CONFIG_NETFILTER is not set
# CONFIG_FILTER is not set
CONFIG_UNIX=y
CONFIG_INET=y
# Any IDE devices? I usually have
# IDE cdroms
CONFIG_IDE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y
# Speeds things up by reading multiple sectors at
# a time
CONFIG_IDEDISK_MULTI_MODE=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y
CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ADMA=y
# You may require this if you're installing to
# a disk on an addon card
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_OFFBOARD is not set
# DMA is good to cut down that install time
# and general error checking
CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y
CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y
# If you've got one of those IDE-RAID cards
# you'll want to check this out.
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATARAID is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATARAID_PDC is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ATARAID_HPT is not set
CONFIG_SCSI=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD=y
CONFIG_SD_EXTRA_DEVS=40
CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN=y
# Of the low-level drivers, only pick the ones
# which you require doing installation
# I didn't select my aic7xxx based card
# since it only has a tape drive on it.
CONFIG_SCSI_DPT_I2O=y
# Increases kernel size, skip.
# CONFIG_SCSI_DEBUG is not set
# required for this specifc i2o based RAID
# card
CONFIG_I2O=y
CONFIG_I2O_PCI=y
CONFIG_I2O_BLOCK=y
CONFIG_I2O_SCSI=y
# We don't really need network card drivers
CONFIG_NETDEVICES=y
# You have to type somewhere ;)
CONFIG_VT=y
CONFIG_VT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS=y
CONFIG_UNIX98_PTY_COUNT=256
# We can use the "text" based installation
# CONFIG_MOUSE is not set
# CONFIG_PSMOUSE is not set
# CONFIG_82C710_MOUSE is not set
# CONFIG_PC110_PAD is not set
# You can be a BOFH later ;)
# CONFIG_QUOTA is not set
# If you're on a distribution with ext3 installation
# support you might want to enable this (ditto for Reiser).
# But try keep the number of filesystems supported low
# CONFIG_EXT3_FS is not set
# Some distributions require msdos fs
CONFIG_FAT_FS=y
CONFIG_MSDOS_FS=y
# For the installation media
CONFIG_ISO9660_FS=y
# CONFIG_JOLIET is not set
CONFIG_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_DEVPTS_FS=y
CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y
# Your regular PC partitions
CONFIG_MSDOS_PARTITION=y
# This might not be necessary but may break things
CONFIG_NLS_DEFAULT="iso8859-1"
# Console drivers
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
# No pretty penguins right now :)
# CONFIG_FB is not set
# Unless you have USB keyboards/mice skip this section
# CONFIG_USB is not set
</PRE>
After the kernel compilation is done, it's time to move the new kernel to the
previous installation kernel's location, we do this by mounting the bootdisk
used by the installation. You will require loopback block device support to do
this.
<PRE>
# cd /tmp
# cp /cdrom/boot/boot.img .
# mkdir bootdisk
# mount -t msdos boot.img bootdisk -o loop
# cp /usr/src/linux-2.4.10-ac11/arch/i386/boot/bzImage bootdisk/vmlinuz
</PRE>
An rdev isn't required because syslinux passes the appropriate root device (ie
initrd)
<PRE>
# umount bootdisk
# dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0
</PRE>
Lets compare sizes for this particular kernel build.
<PRE>
Original installation kernel : 652k
Custom installation kernel : 632k
Custom "normal" kernel : 951k
</PRE>
We obviously wouldn't be able to fit in a full-featured kernel onto our
bootdisk.
<P> Once that's done, we have a "new" installation disk with support for our root
device. We now use the bootdisk to start the installation. I recommend using
text-based installs since we removed framebuffer and mouse support to minimise
the kernel size. Upon completion of the installation you will have an installed
system but still won't be able to boot from the device. The reason
is that your distribution will install the kernel packages from its
installation medium, and not the one used during installation. We have to now go
back to the compile box and do the following to create a bootdisk.
<PRE>
# rdev bzImage /dev/sda1
# dd if=bzImage of=/dev/fd0
</PRE>
(Use your actual root device instead of /dev/sda1.)
<P> When that's done and you've booted to a shell, you can then unpack a new tarball
on your target computer/server and configure as required. You may want to take
the distribution config file and build on that by doing.
<PRE>
# cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.10-ac11
# cp /home/zwane/config-2.4.2-2 .config
# make oldconfig
</PRE>
Answer the prompted questions, then go through menuconfig to check the final
configuration before compilation:
<PRE>
# make menuconfig
# make dep bzImage modules modules_install
</PRE>
Copy the resulting image to your kernel location (e.g /boot/vmlinuz) and edit
your lilo configuration (or skip lilo if you're using grub ;) You will have to
do a final rdev to your new kernel, since the kernel build process "detects"
your current root device when compiling and sets it in kernels you build in
that session. Or you can edit the toplevel Makefile (e.g.
/usr/src/linux-2.4.10-ac11/Makefile) and change ROOT_DEVICE to your device.
<PRE>
# rdev /boot/vmlinuz /dev/sda1
</PRE>
You should be able to reboot now and enjoy the fruits of your labour!
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Zwane Mwaikambo</H4>
<EM>Zwane is a net/sysadmin in Swaziland for one of the
ISPs there (Realnet) until he starts University
sometime in 2002. He's router-hopping during the day
and hacking on Open Source Software at night (oh and
anyone for an LUG in Swaziland?).</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Zwane Mwaikambo.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">The Answer Gang's Posting Guidelines</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:ben-fuzzybear@yahoo.com">Ben Okopnik</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
This article describes the things that you need to do when posting to TAG
in order to maximize the chances of getting meaningful replies to your
inquiry. This should also prevent you from getting laughed at for being
lazy and trying to have others do work that you yourself should be doing.
It draws heavily on Tad McClellan's
<A HREF="http://mail.augustmail.com/~tadmc/clpmisc/clpmisc_guidelines.text">
Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc</A>
and the
<A HREF="http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc1855.html">Netiquette Guidelines RFC</A>.
<H2>Before Posting</H2>
<H4>You Must</H4>
<UL>
<LI> Check the LG and TAG FAQs
<LI> Check the list of HOWTOs for anything relevant
</UL>
<H4>You Really, Really Should</H4>
<UL>
<LI> Search previous issue of LG for relevant answers
</UL>
<H4>If You Like</H4>
<UL>
<LI> Check Other Resources (books, STFW, etc.)
</UL>
<H2>Posting to TAG</H2>
<UL>
<LI> Question should be about Linux, or of interest to Linux community
<LI> Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
<LI> Beware of saying "doesn't work"
<LI> Use an effective followup style
<LI> Provide enough, but not too much information
<LI> Do not post binaries, HTML, or MIME
<LI> If your message contains any "confidential" or "for recipient only" conditions
(these are sometimes added automatically on a site-wide basis), you must give us explicit
permission to publish in your e-mail. Otherwise we cannot answer you.
(But asking for your name not to be published <EM>is</EM> OK.)
</UL>
<P> As you would expect, The Answer Gang's discussions are usually technical in
nature; hence, there is a strong need to observe conventions for conduct in
these discussions.
<P> Checking the FAQs before posting is required in Net forums in general;
there is nothing TAG-specific about this requirement.
<P> There can be hundreds of messages in TAG in any given month. We all must
decide somehow which ones we are going to answer. Your post is in
competition with all the other posts. You need to "win" before a person who
can help you will even try.
<P> You have 40 precious characters of Subject in which to make your first
impression. Spend them indicating what problem we can expect to find in
your query. Don't waste them indicating "experience level" (guru,
newbie...) Don't waste them pleading (please read, urgent, help!...) Don't
waste them on non-subjects (Linux question, Could I ask a question?...)
<P> Part of the beauty of Net forum dynamics is that you can contribute to
the community with your very first post! If your choice of subject
leads a fellow searcher to find the thread you are starting, then even
asking a question helps us all.
<P> When composing a followup, quote only enough text to establish the
context for the comments that you will add. Always indicate who wrote
the quoted material. Don't quote the entire article.
<P> Intersperse your comments *following* the sections of quoted text that your
comments apply to. Failure to do this is called "Jeopardy" posting because
the answer comes before the question. Reversing the chronology of the
dialog (putting your response before the quoted text) makes it much harder
to understand; some folks won't even read it if written that way. For more
information on quoting style, see:
<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/nnqweb/nquote.html">http://www.geocities.com/nnqweb/nquote.html</A>
<P> Email is a <EM>text only</EM> medium. Don't post Word documents, vcards, HTML, or
MIME (unless MIME is necessary to preserve your language's specific
characters.) Many people will not be able to easily read your post, and
thus will not bother. Plain text is something everyone can read.
<P> Published answers benefit the entire community; this is what we do here in
TAG. If you have a "This is to be kept confidential" blurb in your post,
forget about having it answered: it just isn't going to happen. Don't
expect people to do one-on-one problem resolution unless you're willing to
pay for it.
<P> Beware of saying "doesn't work". This is a "red flag" phrase. If you find
yourself writing that, pause and see if you can't describe what is not
working without saying "doesn't work". That is, describe how it is not what
you want.
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Ben Okopnik</H4>
<EM>A cyberjack-of-all-trades, Ben wanders the world in his 38' sailboat, building
networks and hacking on hardware and software whenever he runs out of cruising
money. He's been playing and working with computers since the Elder Days
(anybody remember the Elf II?), and isn't about to stop any time soon.</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Ben Okopnik.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">Mike "Iron" Orr</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
"Foolish" is becoming an inappropriate title, since more and more of the submissions are
"interesting" rather than "foolish". But we'll stick with the title. The submissions
continue to pour in.
<H2>A baffling screen</H2>
By <A HREF="mailto:Courtney_Grimland@commdec.com">Courtney Grimland</A>
<P> I remember the very first time I installed Linux on a PC (or any computer,
for that matter). It was a Red Hat installation (6.2 I believe), and
everything went smoothly. Keep in mind this was my very first exposure to
anything ![DOS|Win9x].
<P> When time came to boot it up, I anxiously typed in my root password. Next
thing I know, I'm frantically digging through all of the documentation and
paperwork that came in the box, looking for my bash number. Sure am glad I
didn't call up Red Hat and ask for help with the registration process (which
is what I thought this was).
<P>You see, after I logged in with root password, all I see is:
<PRE>
bash#
</PRE>
It kind of threw me. I didn't recognize it at the time to be a friendly
command prompt waiting for input (like <CODE>c:\</CODE>) that I was used to seeing
all of my life).
<P> I guess it wasn't really a foolish thing, but it shows how far I've come in
the last year and a half. I'm currently working on a device driver and
file-management software for my nifty little miniature MP3 player my
girlfriend bought in Hong Kong.
<H2>A story from Russia</H2>
By <A HREF="mailto:s_mage@land.ru">BaRoN!</A>
<P>
Hello gazette,<BR>
I read a Russian translation of your funny stories, and here is a
story about a friend of mine.<BR>
It was about 5 or 6 years ago... He had a 100Mb hard disk. And after
a half-year of working fine, it stopped being detected by BIOS. In the mid-1990s, tech
support was VERY BAD in Russia, and it was EVEN WORSE in the country. We
live in a small town (about 300.000 people) and in the mid-1990s, just
about 100 of families had got PC's. So, the seller said that the HDD
was damaged my friend and will not be replaced.<P>
A new 100Mb HDD was unaffordable to my friend, so we started to do
different things with it.<P>
Alex, my friend, took his HDD to show to one guy, and after he
brought it back to home, IT WAS DETECTED BY THE BIOS!<P>
We tried to partition it and then to format it, and IT PASSED OK!
But this paradise lasted for only one day.<P>
When it didn't work again, Alex tried a different strategy. He walked for 20
minutes with his HDD -- and was detected again! (It was winter, about
-25 degrees (Celsius)).<P>
I suggested he put his HDD into polyethalyne packet and put it in the freezer
portion of his refrigerator for fifteen minutes. That too :).<P>
So every morning before my friend went to school, he grabbed his hard drive and
put it in the freezer. :). It lasted for about 5 months,
until he could afford to buy new HDD.
<H2>Conclusion</H2>
Another interesting point is how many of the stories we've received can be
summarized as, "If anything goes wrong, try freezing, refrigeration or ice
cubes."
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Mike Orr</H4>
<EM>Mike ("Iron") is the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>. You can read what he has
to say in the Back Page column in this issue. He has been a Linux enthusiast
since 1991 and a Debian user since 1995. He is SSC's web technical
coordinator, which means he gets to write a lot of Python scripts.
Non-computer interests include Ska/Oi! music and the international language
Esperanto. The nickname Iron was given to him in college--short for Iron Orr,
hahaha.</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Mike "Iron" Orr.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Free-Software Appreciation</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">Mike ("Iron") Orr</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
<P> A letter linked on Slashdot got me thinking. It was written by Christoph
Pfisterer when he resigned from the Fink project.
(<A HREF="http://fink.sourceforge.net/">Fink</A> is an attempt to "bring
the full world of Unix Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X.") But
it's not Fink itself I want to focus on, but the fact that it's free software.
A developer is resigning from a free-software project because of the
unappreciative demands of its users.
He writes, "I'm tired of dealing with people who don't
appreciate what they get for free. I'm tired of dealing with people who
think they have a commercial-grade, 24/7, one hour turn-around time
support contract with Fink.... I'm tired of people who complain loudly
when something doesn't work, but fall silent when asked to help in
fixing it.... I'm tired of putting my professional future at risk by
neglecting my studies."
<P> Here's the original letter:
<A HREF="http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/SourceForge/11114/125/7038861/">
http://www.geocrawler.com/lists/3/SourceForge/11114/125/7038861/</A>
<P> This is one of the dangers every free-software developer faces. Have you
hugged your favorite free-software developer today? OK, I'm joking. But if
there's a free program you use a lot and really depend on, especially one that
doesn't get a lot of recognition or is maintained by one volunteer, tell them
how much you appreciate it. Consider giving a financial or in-kind donation to
them or to their favorite free-software organization or charity. Or send a
donation to the <A HREF="http://www.eff.org/">Electronic Frontier
Foundation</A> in their name. Love makes the world go round, and
recognition (and taking care of the developers' material needs) helps the
free-software world go round.
<P> Another way to show your appreciation is to become a contributing user.
You can code, write documentation, submit bug reports, or answer newbie questions.
Many projects have a TODO list showing work they'd like to do when they have time.
Are any of those goals things you can do? You may find that one of those TODO
items would actually benefit you too.
<P> As the adage goes, "If you can't code, write documentation." Are there parts
of the documentation you feel are lacking? Is there any documentation at all?
What advice did you wish you had when you first installed the program? Put it
in a HOWTO. LG has been running several articles about documentation in the
past couple issues, and January and February will bring even more.
<P> Some projects have a closed development team, meaning they don't accept code
from outside the core team. But even these sites are happy to receive bug reports
from users, especially if the reports include a proposed fix or at least some
research into what might be causing the problem and how to solve it. OK, maybe
"happy" isn't the right word, because it means more work for them. But this
additional work leads to a more bulletproof product.
<P> The more users actively contribute on a project's bugtracker and mailing lists,
the more the core developers will feel that their effort is worthwhile, and that
translates into better software.
<P> Also, participating in the development of your favorite software helps give you
a sense of ownership in it. Which gives you something to brag about to your friends.
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Mike Orr</H4>
<EM>Mike ("Iron") is the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>. You can read what he has
to say in the Back Page column in this issue. He has been a Linux enthusiast
since 1991 and a Debian user since 1995. He is SSC's web technical
coordinator, which means he gets to write a lot of Python scripts.
Non-computer interests include Ska/Oi! music and the international language
Esperanto. The nickname Iron was given to him in college--short for Iron Orr,
hahaha.</H4>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Mike ("Iron") Orr.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Content Management with Procmail</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:p_padala@yahoo.com">Pradeep Padala</a> and
<a href="mailto:pb2@cise.ufl.edu">Prakash Bulusu</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<I>"Small is beautiful" -- Unix Philosophy </I>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<H2>Introduction </H2>
<P>Ever wondered what it takes to create a web site that can be
completely managed by e-mail? Are you one of those e-mail buffs who wants to manage everything with mail? Are you the guy who wants something different? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, read on.... </P>
<p>Have you ever thought how a special correspondent for CNN reporting from the
remotest place on earth can cause a web page to change its content based on
the latest he is reporting ? Or how the Newspaper dot coms manage hundreds of
HTML pages every day ? The achieve this through a concept called a Content
Management System.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Content Management is one of the prominent issues every website has to deal with, from
lightly-loaded sites to very content-intensive sites). A very basic Content
Management System (CMS) at the very least should provide a user friendly
interface to modify the Web Content. A sophisticated CMS does much more than
that, not only providing management of creation, modification and deletion of
content but also services like revision control, roles hierarchy, multichannel
content management and delivery etc. In this article we talk about a relatively
new channel for Content Management very well known to readers:
e-mail! Though this particular channel has already been put to use by commercial CMS's like Vignette, they are rather very expensive and sold on a
per-feature basis.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If the above paragraph looked like <i>Greek</i> to you then you are an
Eligible Candidate to read this article. Carry on and you will learn the simplest ever
implementation of e-mail based Content Management System with Procmail.</p>
<P>Here we will show how a web page can be updated just by sending an e-mail. We
will use this <A href="http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~ppadala/procmail.html">test page</A>
(Javascript should be enabled to properly view this page).
All it contains is a streamer. We update the text of the streamer when we receive
mail with proper subject!!! </P>
<H2>procmail </H2>Now what's the connection to Procmail? Procmail follows the
UNIX philosophy that <I>a program accomplishes one task, efficiently </I>. Procmail is an extremely powerful mail filtering utility. All one has to do is write recipes which get executed when certain type of mail arrives. It is generally used to filter incoming mail into seperate directories. In the Procmail
developers' words,
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Procmail can be used to create mail-servers, mailing lists, sort your
incoming mail into separate folders/files (real convenient when subscribing to
one or more mailing lists or for prioritising your mail), preprocess your mail,
start any programs upon mail arrival (e.g. to generate different chimes on your
workstation for different types of mail) or selectively forward certain incoming
mail automatically to someone.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>If you don't understand any of those terms above, dont panic. Just sit back and relax. We will
show some basic examples on how it works and explain a cute method to update the
streamer on your web page. </P>
<H2>The intial blues </H2>
<P>Procmail is a mail filtering utility. It can be run on each mail sent to you
and process it accordingly. Say, you wanted to save all the mail with subject
<I>discuss </I>to a folder named discuss. Then you have to write the following
lines in the files specified. </P>In your home directory create a file named
<CODE>.forward</CODE> and put the following lines <PRE> &quot;|IFS=' ';exec /usr/local/bin/procmail USER=&lt;username&gt;&quot;
</PRE>Replace the username with your username and make sure that the path to the Procmail binary is set correctly. Don't worry about the details. We will dig deeper into them in the next
section.
<P></P>
<P>Create a file named .procmailrc in your home directory and add the following
lines
<PRE> :0
* ^Subject:.*discuss
discuss
</PRE>
<P>Create a directory named <code>discuss</code> in your home directory for
putting the mails with subject discuss.
</P>
Now try sending a mail to yourself which contains at least the word &quot;discuss&quot;
in the subject. This mail will automatically be moved into a directory discuss.
<P></P>
<P>Let's try to understand what's happening here. When a mail is sent to an smtp
server, it will be delivered to the corresponding user by a MDA(Mail Delivery
Agent) like sendmail. This program looks for a file named .forward; if it exists
it tries to execute the rules specified in the .forward file. Usually the .forward contains a mail address to
which one wishes to forward all mail. We may also write commands within this file to execute a program
like Procmail. This is exactly what the lines above in the .forward do.
For a detailed explanation of things to be put in .forward see
<A href=http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/users/reriksso/procmail/mini-faq.html#forward>
here</A>
Once Procmail is
executed, it looks for the file .procmailrc which contains mail processing directives - what actions have to be taken for different kinds of mail.
</P>
<H2>.procmailrc file </H2>
<P>The file .procmailrc contains rules for how to filter the mail. In above
example, the rule says that for all the mails with subject discuss, forward them to a
directory named discuss. General syntax for writing rules (called recipes in
Procmail jargon) is
<PRE> :0 [flags] [ : [locallockfile] ]
&lt;zero or more conditions (one per line)&gt;
&lt;exactly one action line&gt;
</PRE>
<P>You can ignore the first line for now. From the second line, you can start
writing conditions. A condition starting with '*' specifies an extended regular
expression to be matched. If it matches then the action line is executed. If the
action line starts with a '|' then it executes the program whose name follows the '|'. You can use the '!' character to forward to mail to another address. If the action line
doesn't start with either of these two characters or a '{', then it is assumed to be a
directory or file to which mail has to be delivered, as in the above example. </P>
<P>Another example will clear the mist.
<PRE>
:0 c
* ^Subject:.*discuss
discuss
:0
* ^Subject:.*discuss
! yourname@somewhere.com
</PRE>This recipe forwards the mail to the address yourname@somewhere.com and
keeps a copy in the directory discuss. The flag 'c' in the first stanza tells Procmail
to continue reading recipes even if this recipe matches. Normally Procmail stops after the
first match. The procmailrc manpage says 'c' generates a carbon copy of the message, but
it's easier to think of 'c' as meaning "continue". Either way amounts to the
same thing. Another useful but ill-named flag is 'D', which makes the match
expressions case sensitive.
<P></P>
<P>The following example shows the usage of '|' <PRE> :0
* ^Subject:.*discuss
| formail -I &quot;&quot; &gt;&gt; index.html
</PRE>If a mail with subject discuss comes, formail is executed. formail is a
small utility which can be used to format mail. The above action line extracts
the body from the mail and appends it to the file index.html.
<P></P>
<H2>Ready for action? </H2>
<P>You have seen some basic examples. There is a lot of information on Procmail
recipes on web. Refer to the section on resources for links. In the next few sections, we
will show how Procmail can be used to update a streamer on a web page. </P>We
put the following lines in .procmailrc. My procmailc at it stands now is
<a href=misc/padala/procmailrc.txt>here</a>
<PRE>
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
:0
* ^Subject:.*announce
| formail -s parse.pl announce;
:0
* ^Subject:.*notice
| formail -s parse.pl notice;
</PRE>
<P>
The first lines set some variables so that Procmail works properly. See
<A href=http://linux.ctyme.com/man/man2115.htm>procmailrc man page</A> for
details.
</P>
Here, mail containing the subject &quot;announce&quot; or &quot;notice&quot; is forwarded to formail.
formail parses the mail and each individual mail is given to a perl script named
parse.pl. The perl script updates the streamer with the string in the body of
message. The text version of the script is <a href=misc/padala/parse.pl.txt> here </a>
<P></P>
<TABLE width=450 bgColor=#c5c5c5>
<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD><PRE>#!/bin/perl
$option = $ARGV[0]; # Get the option
$my_html_dir = &quot;/cise/homes/ppadala/public_html&quot;; # My web directory
$tmp_file = &quot;/tmp/tmp.out&quot;;
$start = 0; #start would be false(0) until we get to a message beginning
$line = &quot;&quot;; #The streamer line
if($option eq &quot;announce&quot;) {
$line = &quot;ANNOUNCEMENTS:&quot;;
}
elsif($option eq &quot;notice&quot;) {
$line = &quot;NOTICE:&quot;;
}
else {
exit(1);
}
#Read the input. In this case the mails
#Parse the body and attach it to line
while(<STDIN>)
{ chomp;
if(/From.*/) {
$start = 0;
}
if($start == 1) {
chomp;
$line = $line . $_;
}
if($_ eq &quot;&quot;) {
$start = 1;
}
}
#Open the web page containing streamer
#and update it
$my_homepage_file = $my_html_dir . &quot;/procmail.html&quot;;
open(MY_FILE, &quot;&lt;$my_homepage_file&quot;) || die(&quot;Cannot open input file&quot;);
open(TMP, &quot;&gt;$tmp_file&quot;);
$replace = 0;
#Replacement is done just after the line
# //Replace strStreamer .....
while(<MY_FILE>)
{ if($replace == 1) {
print TMP &quot;var strStreamer = '${line}';\n&quot;;
$replace = 0;
next;
}
if(/\/\/Replace str.*/) {
$replace = 1;
print TMP $_;
}
else {
print TMP $_;
}
}
close(TMP);
close(MY_FILE);
system(&quot;mv $tmp_file $my_homepage_file&quot;);
system(&quot;chmod go+r $my_homepage_file&quot;);
</PRE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR>All the perl script does is update the
variable strStreamer in the web page. The web page contains a streamer written
in javascript. You can test it by sending <A
href="mailto:ppadala@cise.ufl.edu?subject=announce&body=LinuxGazetteTest">mail</A>
You can see the streamer at <A
href="http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~ppadala/procmail.html">http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~ppadala/procmail.html</A>.
It is magically updated when you send mail to <A
href="mailto:ppadala@cise.ufl.edu?subject=announce&body=LinuxGazetteTest">
my address </A>with a subject "announce" or "notice".
The text in the body goes to streamer.
<H2>Conclusion </H2>
<P>This is a small example of Content Management. Content Mangement is a huge
topic with a lot of ramifications. It requires well planned procedures for
updating web pages, keeping their style sheets intact etc.. We have shown a small
example of how easy it is to create a basic content management system with Procmail.
The permuatations are endless. As Descartes had said &quot;<B><I>It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well</I></B>&quot;. </P>
<H2>Resources </H2>
<UL>
<LI><A href="http://www.procmail.org/">Procmail.org website </A>
<LI><A href="http://pm-doc.sourceforge.net/">Procmail Documentation Project
</A>: Lot of resources
<LI><A href="http://pm-doc.sourceforge.net/pm-tips.html">Procmail Tips page
</A>: A must-see page
</UL>
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Pradeep Padala</H4>
<P>I am a master's student at University of Florida. I love hacking and
adore Linux. My interests include solving puzzles and playing board
games. I can be reached through
<a href="mailto:p_padala@yahoo.com">p_padala@yahoo.com</a> or <a
href="http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~ppadala">my web site</a>.</P>
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Prakash Bulusu</H4>
<EM>I am a master's student at the University of Florida.</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Pradeep Padala and Prakash Bulusu.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Writing Documentation - Part 1: POD</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:cspiel@hydra.hammersmith-consulting.com">Christoph Spiel</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
<a name="writing documentation"></a>
<p>The title, <em>Writing Documentation</em>, sounds somewhat formal. However,
in this article I refer to documentation a broad sense, not only to
documentation accompanying a particular piece of software, but to any related
textual pieces of information. This textual information could be as short as a
few lines and, for example, describe how to to start a program with all of its
command line options and environment variables set correctly. On the other
hand, the text could be several tens of thousands lines long, elaborating all
the tricks a group of users has learned over the years while using a large
software system.</p>
<h2><a name="introduction">Introduction</a></h2>
<p>With today's GNU/Linux distributions, the aspiring documentation writer
immediately finds herself in fat city: there are several systems to chose from!
Three documentation systems will be introduced in this article series. Here, I
start with POD. Next month I'll address LaTeX in conjunction with <strong>
latex2html</strong>, and in part 3 DocBook.</p>
<p>The systems cater different documentation needs and all have their highs
and lows. But before assessing the pros and cons of the different systems, let
me put up some requirements, which I want to impose on the documentation
systems.</p>
<p>The sources of the documentation should be:</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Portable">Portable</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>As of December&nbsp;2001, writing a "portable" file almost implies using
7-bit&nbsp;ASCII to encode characters. Today, 7-bit&nbsp;ASCII is the only
encoding that works on a huge number of computers. In the future, hopefully,
it will mean <a href="http://www.unicode.org/">Unicode</a>. Unicode can
represent many more characters than ASCII does and will be as portable.
<p>Requiring portability ensures that the texts' sources can be read and
modified on a wide variety of computer systems, thereby making the
documentation accessible to other programmers, which is what Open Source
Software is all about.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Searchable">Searchable</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Data on a computer is only as good as the access to it. -- Sounds like a
commonplace, but we easily forget that documentation ought to be maintained
just like source code is. We want to be able to search existing documentation
for, say, a particular term or identifier. Therefore, the source of the
documentation should at least be amenable to standard searching tools like,
for example, the grep family (<strong>grep</strong>, <strong>agrep</strong>,
<strong>rgrep</strong>, <strong>sgrep</strong>) of tools.</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Modular">Modular</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Unless we write a short note, it is desirable that the document sources
can be split into logical parts, for example sections, and the collection of
all the source files is still processed as a whole by the documentation
system.</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Easy_to_Read">Easy to Read</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>For documentation to be ``open'' (as in ``Open Source''), the source
should be easy to read, and the system to generate the final output should be
simple to learn. A documentation system will be better accepted if the writer
-- and later possibly the maintainer -- can concentrate on contents rather
than syntactic quirks or obscure tool chains.</dd>
</dl>
<p>Just as I require certain features in the documentation's source format, so I do
with the output.</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Multiple_Output_Formats">Multiple Output
Formats</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>The documentation system must be capable of producing different output
formats -- the more formats the better. At least HTML and PostScript (some
users prefer PDF) must be supported, one for on-screen reading, the other for
print outs.
<p>HTML support in turn requires ``hyperlinks'', this is, references between
documents or parts thereof that can be followed in a convenient way.
References also help to implement the <em>Modular Requirement</em> in my list
of source format features.</p>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Automatic_Reference_Generation">Automatic
Reference Generation</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>All references should be resolved automatically as far as this is
possible. For example, the system should resolve cross references within in
the document and should allow for footnotes or sidenotes to be placed and
numbered without the help of the writer. The index and bibliography also
should be generated automatically.</dd>
</dl>
<p>Let us now look at a particularly easy to use format: Perl's Plain Old
Documentation.</p>
<h2><a name="perl's plain old documentation (pod)">Perl's Plain Old
Documentation (POD)</a></h2>
<p>The ``Plain Old Documentation'' system that ships with every Perl
distribution is simplest documentation system in my selection. It is simple to
learn, simple to use, but -- and I hesitate to write therefore -- also the
most limited of the three. Anyhow, the article you are currently reading (yes
this one!) has been prepared with POD. If it is good for the goose, it can't
be bad for the gander...</p>
<p>The big advantages of POD are</p>
<ul>
<li>It comes with Perl. So you probably already have it on your Linux box. Try
<pre>
pod2man --help
</pre>
<p>to see if it is installed.</p>
</li>
<li>It offers a small and well-though-out set of document structuring and
markup instructions.</li>
<li>The POD translation tools render at least four different output formats:
HTML, UN*X manual pages, LaTeX (which serves as base for a further translation
into PostScript), and plain ASCII text.</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="syntax">Syntax</a></h3>
<p>The POD format defines three different kinds of paragraphs. Paragraphs are
separated from each other by one or more <EM>completely (!)</EM> empty
lines.</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Ordinary_Paragraph">Ordinary
Paragraph.</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Any line that does not start with at least four spaces or an equal sign is
considered ordinary text. Paragraphs are separated by one or more empty lines.
This means, the documenter simply writes one paragraph after the other with at
least one blank line between each pair.
<p>Ordinary paragraphs will be filled and justified (if the output format
allows for justification) when output.
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Verbatim_Paragraph">Verbatim
Paragraph.</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Lines indented by four or more spaces are considered verbatim text. They
are output exactly as typed. All formatting instructions that we will see
later, are disabled in verbatim paragraphs.</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Command_Paragraph">Command
Paragraph.</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Command paragraphs start with an equal sign ``<code>=</code>'' in column
zero, immediately followed by an identifier. Usually, command paragraphs
consist of single lines. Yet they are syntactically paragraphs, because they
are separated by blank lines before and after them.</dd>
</dl>
<h4><a name="sectioning">Sectioning</a></h4>
<p>Text is sectioned by <code>=head</code><em>N</em> commands, like</p>
<p><code>=head1</code>&nbsp;<em>primary_heading</em></p>
<p><code>=head2</code>&nbsp;<em>secondary_heading</em></p>
<p><code>=head3</code>&nbsp;<em>tertiary_heading</em></p>
<p>which also define the section headings <em>primary_heading</em>, etc.. How
many heading levels (this is largest <em>N</em> permitted) actually are
accepted, depends on the POD-to-something converter. For example, <strong>
pod2man</strong> allows only two levels, <strong>pod2html</strong> allows up
to six levels.</p>
<p>I have added line and column numbers to the source of the examples. The
line numbers do not appear in the real source. They are included here to point
out the empty lines that must separate the command paragraphs, this is, those
starting with an equal sign in column&nbsp;0. Additionally, I have added a
column-number ruler at the beginning of the next example to clarify where
column&nbsp;0 starts.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<pre>
1 2 3 4 5
0123456789012345678901234567890123456789001234567890
1 =head1 Hardware
2
3 The physical parts of your computer are called "hardware".
4
5 =head1 CPU
6
7 The CPU is the most important part of your computer.
8
9 =head1 Mass Storage
10
11 Mass storage devices store data permanently.
12
13 =head2 Hard Disk Drives
14
15 Hard disk drives provide fast random access to data.
16
17 =head2 Magnetic Tapes
18
19 Magnetic tapes provide slow sequential access to data.
20
21 =head1 Software
22
23 This is where the trouble starts ...
</pre>
<h4><a name="lists">Lists</a></h4>
<p>Itemized, enumerated or description lists are produced with</p>
<p><code>=over</code> <em>N</em></p>
<p><code>=item</code> <em>label</em></p>
<p><code>=item</code> <em>label</em></p>
<p>...</p>
<p><code>=back</code></p>
<p>where <code>=over</code>&nbsp;<em>N</em> starts a list that is indented at
least <em>N</em> spaces, and extends until <code>=back</code>. Depending on
the first <em>label</em> the POD-to-something translators generate an itemized
list (<em>label</em> = <code>*</code>), a numbered list (<em>label</em> =
<code>1</code>) or a description list (<em>label</em> starts with a
letter).</p>
<p><strong>Example:</strong> itemized list</p>
<p>Again, I have added line numbers to alert the reader of the (many) empty
lines used for separating the command paragraphs.</p>
<p>Source</p>
<pre>
1 =over 4
2
3 =item *
4
5 Fruit, particularly non-imported fruit like ...
6
7 =item *
8
9 Though not tasty, vegetables should make up a large part of your
10 daily diet.
11
12 =item *
13
14 Fish is much easier digestible than meat. Therefore, ...
15
16 =back
</pre>
<p>Result</p>
<ul>
<li>Fruit, particularly non-imported fruit like ...</li>
<li>Though not tasty, vegetables should make up a large part of your daily
diet.</li>
<li>Fish is much easier digestible than meat. Therefore, ...</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Example:</strong> enumerated list</p>
<p>Source</p>
<pre>
1 =over 4
2
3 =item 1.
4
5 Ensure that the power switch is in position "OFF".
6
7 =item 2.
8
9 Plug in the power cord.
10
11 =item 3.
12
13 Switch the power switch in position "ON".
14
15 =back
</pre>
<p>Result</p>
<ol>
<li>Ensure that the power switch is in position&nbsp;``OFF''.</li>
<li>Plug in the power cord.</li>
<li>Switch the power switch in position&nbsp;``ON''.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Example:</strong> description list</p>
<p>Source</p>
<pre>
1 =over 8
2
3 =item Robert
4
5 Lead singer
6
7 =item Jimmy
8
9 Lead guitar
10
11 =item John-Paul
12
13 Bass guitar
14
15 =item John
16
17 Drums and percussion
18
19 =back
</pre>
<p>Result</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Robert">Robert</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Lead singer</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Jimmy">Jimmy</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Lead guitar</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_John_Paul">John-Paul</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Base guitar</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_John">John</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Drums and percussion</dd>
</dl>
<h4><a name="inline markup commands">Inline Markup Commands</a></h4>
<p>Within Ordinary Text, several markup commands are recognized. All markup
commands start with a single capital letter and enclose their argument within
angle brackets: <em>LETTER</em>&lt;<em>argument</em>&gt;. The argument can
consist of multiple words, which can span more than one line.</p>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_I_argument">
I&lt;<em>argument</em>&gt;</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Render argument in italics. <code>I</code> corresponds to the HTML
tags&nbsp;<code>em</code> and <code>var</code>, thus it is primarily used for
emphasizing words or marking up variables.
<p>Examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>Do <em>not</em> remove your Linux kernel!
<p>is produced by</p>
<pre>
Do I&lt;not&gt; remove your Linux kernel!
</pre>
</li>
<li>Use <strong>cd</strong>&nbsp;<em>directory</em> to change your working
directory to <em>directory</em>.
<p>is generated with</p>
<pre>
Use B&lt;cd&gt; I&lt;directory&gt; to change your
working directory to I&lt;directory&gt;.
</pre>
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_B_argument">
B&lt;<em>argument</em>&gt;</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Render argument bold. <code>B</code> corresponds to the HTML
tag&nbsp;<code>b</code>. It is used to emphasize in text and to mark up
program names or switches.
<p>Examples:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Always</strong> shut down your machine before switching it off.
<p>comes from</p>
<pre>
B&lt;Always&gt; shut down your machine before switching it off.
</pre>
</li>
<li><strong>podchecker</strong> accepts the options <strong>-warnings</strong>
and <strong>-nowarnings</strong>.
<p>is the result of</p>
<pre>
B&lt;podchecker&gt; accepts the options B&lt;-warnings&gt;
and B&lt;-nowarnings&gt;.
</pre>
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_C_argument">
C&lt;<em>argument</em>&gt;</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd><code>C</code> marks up code or anything else which is to be taken
literally. The corresponding HTML tags is are <code>code</code>, <code>
samp</code>, and <code>tt</code>.
<p>Examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>Every C-program must have a function called <code>main</code>.
<p>is generated by</p>
<pre>
Every C-program must have a function
called C&lt;main&gt;.
</pre>
</li>
<li>Boolean false is represented by <code>[1 1 0]</code>, and boolean true by
<code>[1 1 1]</code>.
<p>is produced by</p>
<pre>
Boolean false is represented by C&lt;[1 1 0]&gt;,
and boolean true by C&lt;[1 1 1]&gt;.
</pre>
</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_L_reference_or_L_description_reference">
L&lt;<em>reference</em>&gt; or
L&lt;<em>description</em>|<em>reference</em>&gt;</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>Link to an existing <em>reference</em>. If <em>description</em> is
omitted, the link's text is <em>reference</em>, otherwise it is <em>
description</em>. Using <code>L</code> is a bit tricky. Therefore, I
have devoted the next section to it.
</dd>
</dl>
<h4><a name="cross references">Cross References</a></h4>
The <code>L</code>-command is distantly related to HTML's
&lt;a href = "<em>reference</em>"&gt;<em>description</em>&lt;/a&gt;, however,
in POD, <em>reference</em> is not a general unified resource locator (URL).
<p><em>reference</em> can only refer to (automatically by the POD-to-something
translator) generated labels. These labels are inserted for every <code>
=head</code> and <code>=item</code>. The label associated with <code>
=head</code> <em>heading</em> is <em>heading</em> downcased, but otherwise
unchanged, e.g.</p>
<pre>
=head1 A Multi-Word Heading (MWH)
</pre>
<p>automatically gets assigned the label</p>
<pre>
a multi-word heading (mwh)
</pre>
<p>The labels of <code>=item</code>s are prefixed by <code>item_</code>,
spaces are replaced by underscores, and non-alphanumeric characters are
replaced by their hexadecimal ASCII code prefixed by a percent sign. Anybody
expected an easy rule? So, one of the items in this article,</p>
<pre>
=item Automatic Reference Generation.
</pre>
<p>has the label</p>
<pre>
item_Automatic_Reference_Generation%2E
</pre>
<p>because the ASCII number of the period is 46 in decimal or 2e in
hexadecimal.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<p>Source</p>
<pre>
=head1 Introduction
</pre>
<pre>
Section L&lt;"concepts"&gt; introduces the basics of the field.
</pre>
<pre>
=head1 Concepts
</pre>
<pre>
...
</pre>
<pre>
=head1 Synchronization
</pre>
<pre>
=over 4
</pre>
<pre>
=item Deadlocks
</pre>
<pre>
=item Race Conditions
</pre>
<pre>
=item Recovering from Deadlocks
</pre>
<pre>
=back
</pre>
<pre>
How to cope with deadlocks was already discussed in
L&lt;Deadlocks|"item_Deadlocks"&gt;, and L&lt;Recovering from
Deadlocks|"item_Recovering_from_Deadlocks"&gt;.
</pre>
<p>Result</p>
<blockquote>
<h1>Introduction</h1>
<p>Section <a href="#concepts">concepts</a> introduces the basics of the
field.</p>
<hr>
<h1><a name="concepts">Concepts</a></h1>
<p>...</p>
<hr>
<h1><a name="synchronization">Synchronization</a></h1>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Deadlocks">Deadlocks</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Race_Conditions">Race Conditions</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Recovering_from_Deadlocks">Recovering from
Deadlocks</a></strong><br>
</dt>
</dl>
<p>How to cope with deadlocks was discussed in <a href="#item_deadlocks">
Deadlocks</a>, and <a href="#item_recovering_from_deadlocks">Recovering from
Deadlocks</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <code>L</code>-command is very limited in its use, for the writer
cannot insert places to refer to with an <code>L</code>-command; HTML-like
``anchors'' are missing.</p>
<p>A second limiting factor are some POD translators trying to be smart and
decorate link with additional text. For example, <strong>pod2latex</strong>
mangles both references to items in the above example:</p>
<blockquote>How to cope with deadlocks was discussed in <u>the</u>
\textsf{Deadlocks<u>$|$"item\_Deadlocks"</u>} <u>entry elsewhere in this
document</u>, and <u>the</u> \textsf{Recovering from
Deadlocks<u>$|$"item\_Recovering\_from\_Deadlocks"</u>} <u>entry elsewhere in
this document</u>.</blockquote>
<p>where I have underlined the words added by <strong>pod2latex</strong>.
Clearly, we want a better mechanism. The mechanism exists in format-specific
paragraphs.</p>
<h2><a name="formatspecific paragraphs">Format-Specific Paragraphs</a></h2>
<p>We have just seen that the <code>L</code>-command is somewhat difficult to
control. Why can't we simply use a HTML-reference? The terse answer, ``because
POD is not HTML'', leads to the solution. If we had a way to say ``this text
is for HTML, this line is for LaTeX, and this paragraph is for ''SnaFoo``, we
could use the specific markup provided by these formats.</p>
<p>The special command</p>
<p><code>=for</code> <em>format</em> <em>paragraph_of_text</em></p>
<p>tells a translator to look at <em>format</em> before processing <em>
paragraph_of_text</em>. If the translator feels responsible for handling <em>
format</em>, it transforms <em>paragraph_of_text</em> according to its own
rules, otherwise it completely ignores the paragraph. The second part of the
translator's name usually specifies which format it takes care of. For
example, <strong>pod2man</strong> transforms <code>=for man</code> paragraphs,
<strong>pod2html</strong> processes <code>=for html</code> paragraphs, and so
on.</p>
<p>As all command paragraphs, a <code>=for</code>&nbsp;<em>format</em>
paragraph ends at the first completly empty line that follows the introducing
<code>=for</code>.</p>
<p>A consistent document structure will show ``forks'' whenever specific
formats are used, because a <code>=for</code>&nbsp;<em>format</em> clause
ought to appear for each desired output format, otherwise we punch a logical
holes into the document.</p>
<pre>
This is an ordinary paragraph, which is processed by all
translators.
</pre>
<pre>
=for html &lt;p&gt;This paragraph only appears if the file is processed
with &lt;b&gt;pod2html&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</pre>
<pre>
=for latex This very paragraph is only treated by {\bf pod2latex}.
</pre>
<pre>
=for text I am a paragraph for the *pod2text* formatter.
</pre>
<pre>
We now continue with the ordinary text for all formatters.
</pre>
<p>The translators ignore unknown <em>format</em>s, which means we can invent
special paragraphs for our own purposes! For example, to ``comment out'' a
paragraph, write</p>
<pre>
=for comment Can someone clarify the next section?
</pre>
<p>Another popular use is the <code>emacs</code> format :-) To switch <strong>
emacs</strong> into text-mode when preparing a POD-file, start the file
with</p>
<pre>
=for emacs -*- text -*-
</pre>
<p>or end it with</p>
<pre>
=for emacs
Local Variables:
mode: text
End:
</pre>
<p>The emacs-users who are using the <a href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/hyperbole/">hyperbole</a> add-on can convert
their "dumb" POD-files into hyper-linked collections (well -- hyperbole can do
a lot more than that, but hyperlinks are a beginning) of files with</p>
<pre>
=for hyperbole &lt;(std-reference)&gt;
</pre>
<p>where <code>&lt;(std-reference)&gt;</code> is a hyperbole button taking you
to another file which holds the reference documentation of <code>std</code>
when you click the button in emacs.</p>
<h3><a name="programs that work with pod">Programs That Work With POD</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>pod2html</strong>, <strong>pod2man</strong>, <strong>
pod2latex</strong>, <strong>pod2text</strong>
<p>Translators from POD to HTML, UN*X manual pages, LaTeX and plain text
respectively.</p>
</li>
<li><strong>podchecker</strong>
<p>Simple syntax checker for POD files.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3><a name="pros and cons of pod">Pros And Cons of POD</a></h3>
<dl>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Pro">Pro</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>Simplicity</li>
<li>Conversion speed</li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt><strong><a name="item_Cons">Cons</a></strong><br>
</dt>
<dd>
<ul>
<li>Lack of tables</li>
<li>No program to generate an index supplied by default</li>
</ul>
</dd>
</dl>
<h3><a name="further reading">Further Reading</a></h3>
<p>Manual pages of perlpod(1), pod2man(1), pod2html(1), pod2latex(1),
pod2text(1), and podchecker(1).</p>
<p>Next month: LaTeX in conjuction with <strong>latex2html</strong>.</p>
</body>
</html>
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Christoph Spiel</H4>
<EM>Chris runs an Open Source Software consulting company in Upper Bavaria/Germany.
Despite being trained as a physicist -- he holds a PhD in physics from Munich
University of Technology -- his main interests revolve around numerics,
heterogenous programming environments, and software engineering. He can be
reached at
<A HREF="mailto:cspiel@hammersmith-consulting.com">cspiel@hammersmith-consulting.com</A>.
</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, Christoph Spiel.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--===================================================================-->
<center>
<H1><font color="maroon">Managing MP3 Playlists, The One UNIX Way</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:zw@debian.org">zhaoway</a></H4>
</center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!-- END header -->
<H2>Prelude</H2> Many cool, flashy MP3 players for Linux
have been around for quite some time, but none of them resemble the One
True UNIX Touch-n-Feel. They are all submissive to the shabby concept
of the so-called Gooey User Interface, and I refuse to mention their
names in this article that is dedicated to the One True UNIX Way of doing
things. After all, the listening experience usually does NOT
involve the eyes, so why not purge those graphical players
to give them a rest while we concentrate on our beautiful music?
<p> But of course, we are dedicated Linux users. (Oh, I heard you
ask why I say Linux instead of UNIX? Hmm, I appreciate careful
readers--hehe). This doesn't mean that we are not as newbie-friendly as
most of the other computer user groups. Absolutely not. So I will
first tell the uninitiated among you what that One True UNIX Way is.
Oh, wait! I heard some of you moaning about some other crappy, loony,
self-assured philosophical nonsense now. Okay, let's kick those
newbies, and I will show you the bread and butter of my
article. <i>Advice for newbies: just pretend you aren't one.</i>
<h2>Sweet Instruments</h2> First, we will look at a command-line MP3
player. Then I will introduce you to some flexible ways of managing MP3
playlists along with some very short shell script snippets and a small
C program to aid in the task. A very useful <code>rename</code> utility
that comes along with the standard <a href="http://www.perl.com">Perl</a>
distribution is briefed also.
<h4>Command-Line MP3 Players</h4>
<p> There are many command-line MP3 players on the market. Oops, I
mean on the Internet. But I only will introduce my favorite one:
<code>alsaplayer-text</code>, which is packaged for <a
href="http://www.debian.org">Debian GNU/Linux</a> already. (The Debian
package name for it is just <code>alsaplayer-text</code>.) The usage
most interesting to us is, for example,
<p><nobr><code>% alsaplayer-text -l 85 -n some.mp3 &gt;/dev/null
2&gt;&amp;1;</code></nobr>
<p>The <code>-l</code> switch controls the volume, with possible values
ranging from 0-100. The <code>-n</code> switch tells it to start in
command-line mode. The ponytail <code>&gt;/dev/null 2&gt;&amp;1</code>
is a common trick to suppress the rubbish output. And remember, <i><CODE>man</CODE>
is your friend</i>. The above is enough for us to play with it
using shell scripts. And through shell scripts, we will gain maximum
flexibility in the One True UNIX Way.
<p> Next, we will look at a command-line ID3 tag editor. An ID3 tag is
a bit of information tucked within an MP3 music file that says
something about the MP3 song itself: its title, the artist who performed it,
etc. The ID3 tag editor we will look at is named <code>mp3info</code>, which
was packaged for Debian too. The Debian package name is just
<code>mp3info</code>, which means you can <code>apt-get install
mp3info</code> very easily. (That is, if you are fortunate enough to be
on a Debian GNU/Linux system.) Now let's see a usage scenario to end our
briefing on the command-line MP3 commanders:
<p>
<pre>
zw@q ~/mp3/chopin % mp3info chopin:revolutionary_etude:robin_alciatore.mp3
File: chopin:revolutionary_etude:robin_alciatore.mp3
Title: CHOPIN: "REVOLUTIONARY" ETUDE Track:
Artist: CHOPIN PIANO FAVORITES
Album: Year:
Comment: http://www.mp3.com/chopinpiano Genre: Blues [0]
zw@q ~/mp3/chopin %
</pre>
<p>Admittedly, the display isn't very flashy, and the information
presented isn't satisfying. (For example, for a classical piano work,
we want to know more than can be presented in a poor ID3 tag.) Readers
are invited to make their own improvements.
<h4>Prepare for Shell Scripts: Line Randomizer</h4>
<p> One often wants to play songs in a random order. For this purpose, we need a line
randomizer, presened here as <a href="misc/zhaoway/rand.c.txt">rand.c</a>, which can read
some lines (filenames) from <code>stdin</code> and randomize the order of the
lines, and then print them line by line on <code>stdout</code> like this:
<p>
<pre>
zw@q ~/mp3/chopin % ls
chopin:nocturne_in_c_minor:robin_alciatore.mp3
chopin:nocturne_in_db_major:elena_kuschnerova.mp3
chopin:nocturne_in_e_major:joerg_demus.mp3
chopin:nocturne_in_f#_major:john_bell_young.mp3
chopin:nocturne_in_g_minor:robin_alciatore.mp3
zw@q ~/mp3/chopin % ls|rand
chopin:nocturne_in_g_minor:robin_alciatore.mp3
chopin:nocturne_in_e_major:joerg_demus.mp3
chopin:nocturne_in_db_major:elena_kuschnerova.mp3
chopin:nocturne_in_f#_major:john_bell_young.mp3
chopin:nocturne_in_c_minor:robin_alciatore.mp3
zw@q ~/mp3/chopin %
</pre>
<h4>Prepare for Shell Scripts: Rename the MP3 File</h4>
<p> When downloading MP3 files from the Internet, you get a lot of
files with spaces in between the filenames, which is a disaster in
shell scripts. Of course, we could fiddle with the magic shell variable
<code>$IFS</code> but I will introduce a handy utility that comes with
the standard Perl distribution to rename a bunch of files
according to some Perl Regex (regular expressions). Ladies and
gentlemen, let's welcome the charming <code>/usr/bin/rename</code>.
<p>
<pre>
zw@q ~/mp3/u2 % ls
u2 all that you can't leave behind new york.mp3
u2 all that you can't leave behind peace on earth.mp3
u2 all that you can't leave behind stuck in a moment you can't get over.mp3
zw@q ~/mp3/u2 % rename 's/^(u2) /$1:/; s/(behind) /$1:/; s/ /_/g' *.mp3
zw@q ~/mp3/u2 % ls
u2:all_that_you_can't_leave_behind:new_york.mp3
u2:all_that_you_can't_leave_behind:peace_on_earth.mp3
u2:all_that_you_can't_leave_behind:stuck_in_a_moment_you_can't_get_over.mp3
zw@q ~/mp3/u2 %
</pre>
<p> <i>So you want to learn <a href="http://www.perl.com">Perl</a>
now?</i>
<h4>Use Hard/Symbolic Links to Simulate Playlists</h4>
<p> If you happen to open an MP3 playlist file (filename postfix
<code>*.m3u</code>) with a text editor, you will see that the contents of
the file are no more than some lines of full pathnames to your MP3
music file. So, why don't we get over it and use directories and hard
links or symbolic links to achieve the same effect as a playlist and
to let shell scripts process it more easily (for example, by just
using <code>ls</code>) than to parse a text playlist file?
<p> In our arrangement, you just make a new directory as a playlist
using <code>mkdir</code>, then link the MP3 files that you want
to place in that playlist into that directory by using
<code>ln</code>. If your MP3 file is not on the same filesystem as
your playlist directory, then you have to use symbolic links
(<code>ln -s</code>), but hard links have the advantage that when you
move around your original MP3 file, symbolic links (and traditional
playlists, i.e., those <code>*.m3u</code> files) go dead but
hard links still would work like a charm. Believe me, this feature is
very important. You just don't know how many times you'll want to
move around you MP3 files after they are downloaded from the Internet
or are ripped off a music CD!
<p>
<pre>
zw@q ~/mp3 % ls
chopin classical-all debussy fav nightly u2
zw@q ~/mp3 % find chopin
chopin
chopin/chopin:nocturne_in_db_major:robin_alciatore.mp3
chopin/chopin:berceuse:robin_alciatore.mp3
chopin/chopin:nocturne_in_db_major:elena_kuschnerova.mp3
chopin/chopin:nocturne_in_c_minor:robin_alciatore.mp3
zw@q ~/mp3 % find nightly
nightly
nightly/chopin:nocturne_in_db_major:robin_alciatore.mp3
nightly/chopin:berceuse:robin_alciatore.mp3
nightly/ravel:gaspard_de_la_nuit:elena_kuschnerova.mp3
nightly/chopin:nocturne_in_db_major:elena_kuschnerova.mp3
nightly/chopin:nocturne_in_c_minor:robin_alciatore.mp3
</pre>
<h2>In Concert</h2>
<p> With all of the preparations above, the following is a snippet
from my <code>~/.zshrc</code>. It should be very easy to adjust it to
your own favorite shell. There is plenty of room for
enhancements. One obvious thing to do is to use <code>mp3info</code>,
as mentioned above, to get the information about an MP3 song instead of
relying on a filename.
<p>
<pre>
PLAYLISTS=$HOME/mp3
# 1st arg is the playlist to be played
# 2nd arg is the volume to play with
play() {
# Install the ALSA song card driver.
if [[ -z ` lsmod | grep snd-card-cmipci ` ]]; then
sudo modprobe snd-card-cmipci;
fi
# Play our MP3 playlist.
while true; do
for i in ` find $PLAYLISTS/$1 -name '*.mp3' | rand `; do
j=` basename $i | sed -e 's/:/: /g; s/_/ /g; s/,/, /g; s/.mp3$//;' `;
echo -n "Playing $j ";
alsaplayer-text -l $2 -q -n "$i" >/dev/null 2>&1;
echo "DONE.";
done
done
}
</pre>
<p> In the above snippet, we first check if the ALSA sound card driver
for Linux is already loaded. If not, we load it by calling
<code>modprobe</code>. My sound card is a <code>C-Media 8738</code>,
the ALSA driver name for it is <code>snd-card-cmipci</code>. This is
probably different on your system. You may not even be using
the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) at all. In this article,
I cannot go much deeper on how to set up your sound system on
Linux. If you have difficulty setting up your sound system, or if you
are interested in ALSA, check the <a
href="http://www.linuxdoc.org">Linux Documentation Project</a> and the
<a href="http://www.alsa-project.org">ALSA</a> Project web pages for
help. (Or turn to your local guru.)
<p> The snippet above keeps playing a playlist and plays all songs
on it in a random order, like the following screenshot shows. While a
song is playing, you even can skip to the end of the song if you don't
like it and jump to the next song by pressing <code>Ctrl-C</code>. By
pressing <code>Ctrl-Z</code> to <code>kill</code> the process, you
can stop it (of course this is not a very elegant stop).
<p>
<pre>
zw@q ~ % play chopin 75
Playing chopin: nocturne in e major: joerg demus DONE.
Playing chopin: nocturne in db major: robin alciatore DONE.
Playing chopin: nocturne for violin and piano: alexander skwortsow, violin DONE.
</pre>
<p> You easily can write your own scripts to achieve your own
satisfaction, providing you use your imagination. Open sesame!
Now it's your turn, dear reader; thanks for coming with me along the One
UNIX Way! So long!
<p>Have fun and good luck!
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
<P>
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Zhaoway</H4>
<EM>Zhaoway lives in Nanjing, China. He divides his time among his
beautiful girlfriend, his old Pentium computer, and pure
mathematics. (He's teaching himself grad level math. If you have a few
precious stamps to spare and some used grad level math books sleeping
around, then feel free to send him a copy.) He is also a volunteer
member of the <a href="http://www.debian.org">Debian GNU/Linux</a>
project.</EM>
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, zhaoway.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
<H4 ALIGN="center">
"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
</H4>
<P> <hr> <P>
<H1><font color="maroon">The Back Page</font></H1>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="#wacho">Wacko Topic of the Month</a>
<li><a HREF="#nottag">Not The Answer Gang</a>
<li><a HREF="#spam">World of Spam</a>
<li><a HREF="#joke">Russian Joke of the Month</a>
</ul>
<a name="wacko"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">Wacko Topic of the Month</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
<H3 ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="green">How to be a hacker</FONT></H3>
<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Iron, Dan Wilder, Frank Rodolph, Heather Stern,<BR>Ben Okopnik, Huibert Alblas, Thomas Adam
</strong></FONT></p>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0">
<STRONG>
hi sir i want to lern hacking how i can do this please mail me and
eplain in simple words
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> Buy a weedwhacker. Become a prep cook. Take up golf.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan]
<P>
<A HREF="http://jc316.stormpages.com/diablo/ocnewbiehack.html">http://jc316.stormpages.com/diablo/ocnewbiehack.html</A><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.collegemarketplace.com/INsider/golf.html">http://www.collegemarketplace.com/INsider/golf.html</A><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.ai.mit.edu/lab/olympics/2000/events/mini-golf/">http://www.ai.mit.edu/lab/olympics/2000/events/mini-golf/</A><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.golf-haha.com/index.html">http://www.golf-haha.com/index.html</A><BR>
<A HREF="http://www.pgaprofessional.com/glossary/h.html">http://www.pgaprofessional.com/glossary/h.html</A><BR>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Frank]
<P> This site might be helpful... One might have to learn Japanese first
though...
<A HREF="http://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/hhkeyboard/">http://www.pfu.fujitsu.com/hhkeyboard/</A>
(The Happy Hacking Keyboard)
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> Here's an <A HREF="http://www.pfuca.com/products/hhkb/hhkbindex.html">English version of the Happy Hacking site</A>.
And an <A HREF="../issue35/dinsel.html">LG review of the original Happy Hacking keyboard</A>.
And an LJ review by The Answer Gang's own Don Marti on using
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=4787"><CODE>vim</CODE> with the
Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite 2</A>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
<P> 1. refer to a dictionary so you are sure which definition of "hack" you want
to use. There is a nice 2c Tip this month about visiting Mirrian Webster's
dictionary website, or you might find the
<A HREF="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/">Jargon File</A> (aka. The New Hacker's Dictionary) useful.
<P> 2. follow directions for the right definition.
<P> a. I recommend starting with a light axe and smaller pieces of firewood. As
you work on bigger pieces you may want to use a hammer and wedge. The
best thing is that poor practice results with the smaller wood leads to
kindling size pieces, which are also needed for a good fireplace setup.
<P> By all means, don't forget to seriously clean the flue before using your
fireplace the first time in a season. You can seriously smoke yourself
out if you forget that, and carbon monoxide, being invisible, is especially
dangerous.
<P> b. Most Linux distributions make it easy to find source code for its tools.
Start with things which are shell scripts. Then learn perl, and study
things which are perl scripts. Learning a minimal amount of C will allow
you to look at the source code of "small" programs like ls or cat. As
your talents grow you might feel inclined to look at the kernel, or other
large programs that everyone uses. All the while make your own practice
programs and try to do things which are useful for your own purposes. When
these things are useful patches or programs to others, post them to project
maintainers or start up your own thing (maybe at Sourceforge).
<P> If the terms in this description are not "plain english" to you, you are
not yet ready to be a code hacker.
<P> c. th11s 11z != a cr@ckERz d-N d00d! Find an IRC channel somewhere. Try not
to get caught doing anything the al-Qaeda would do. Expect a lump of coal
in your stocking if you manage to hurt anybody with your internet joyride.
<P> /me cackles wickedly while splitting the next email thread with a medium size
wedge and light axe.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> well u hammer get and move then strike computer as
needed then you get your hacked piece.
<P> simple is this enough good for u??
<P> ok doodz, u understand now m8??
<P> luvely....
<P> I remember when Jim Dennis (the God Father) :-)
answered a question similar to this way back in LG
issue 21??? --- he has a knack for this sort of thing
:-)
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> I assume Thomas is talking about this answer:
<A HREF="../issue32/tag_phreak.html">phreaking</A>.
<a name="nottag"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">Not The Answer Gang</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
<H3 ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="green">More about Ben's reputation</FONT></H3>
<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Ben Okopnik, Iron
</strong></FONT></p>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> I used to teach PC troubleshooting classes way back when. On the second
day, when everyone was at lunch, I'd hose their machines in different ways
(*OOOH* I was evil back then... &lt;waiting for a comment from Mike&gt; )
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> **Was** evil back then? What about now?
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> Ah. I'm basking in the glow of satisfaction; the world is complete, once
again.
<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="24" HEIGHT="24">
<P> As to your question, I shall ignore it with all the dignity I can muster.
Humph.
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
<H3 ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="green">A windoze weenie gets it</FONT></H3>
<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Thomas Adam, Iron, Ben Okopnik
</strong></FONT></p>
<STRONG>
I recently formated my machine and installed win 98 on it but now i got a
problem
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> Awww...I can *really* understand why.....I am so sorry you had to put Win98
onto your machine and not Linux :-((
<P>
<STRONG>
1)i am getting no sound.
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> It has been known that in the dead of night, computers such as those
running Windows98 do groan and moan about why they have such an awlful
operating system on them. Maybe you need to turn the speakers on (or connect
your internal speakers) to hear it
<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="24" HEIGHT="24">
<P>
<STRONG>
2)i cannot change from 16 to 256 colors or higher
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> Ha ha.....
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P>
<STRONG>
what shud i do or what driver shud i load i have
intel celeron and vintron motherboard 58 mb ram.
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> Driver??? Driver?? You must mean using the
following command:
<PRE>
insmod /lib/modules/kernel-version/some_file
</PRE>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> Using <CODE>modprobe</CODE> instead of <CODE>insmod</CODE> will
automatically load any driver this driver depends on.
<STRONG>
i tried intel 810-815... chipset vga driver fow
win98 but it did not work
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> Tell me Mr. [the querent], if you send an e-mail to an
address such as the following: <STRONG>Linux-questions-only at ssc.com</STRONG>.
Would that suggest to you "oh, maybe they know
something about Windows???" -- I should hope not.
It would be a great help if you actually READ the
e-mail address that you are sending it to.
<P> And now, I shall do Heather Stern's piece:
<PRE>
* * * * * * * THESE ARE NOT THE DROIDS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR * * * * * * *
Hi, you've reached the Linux Gazette Answer Gang....
Linux ::::::::: a modern operating system not much like any of:
--- DOS -- Windows -- Solaris -- MacOS -- alien starships ---
... except occasionally, an ability to run on the same hardware.
Gazette ::::::: published more regularly than "almanac." In our case:
--- a monthly web-based magazine, home: www.linuxgazette.com
Answer Gang ::: Not the "lazy college student's UNstudy group"
--- nor the "hey d00dz help me cRaK my neighBoorZ klub"
</PRE>
<P> Have a nice day :-)
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
<H3 ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="green">The great riffle caper</FONT></H3>
<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Thomas Adam, Ben Okopnik, Iron, Dan Wilder, Don Marti, Frank Rodolf
</strong></FONT></p>
<STRONG>
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> Tut tut, this question is in HTML format.
<P> Hey Heather....lets nab him!!
<P> &lt;In the distance a figure looking like Ben (with those
dark sun glasses), is pointing a riffle at the accused
Win98 user&gt;
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> I'm so sorry, Thomas; all my riffles are currently in use. Those darn
California gold-miners always have them out on rental... Besides, it's
fairly hard to point one: it kinda stays pointing the way you build it.
<P> Seriously, though - I'm not very much of a Linux zealot; other people are
welcome to run whatever they want. I know what works well for me, and I do
indeed attempt to proselytize those who are stuck with OSs that they hate -
but it's a big wide world out there, and
<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/ben-fuzzybear/acronyms.html#YKIOKIJNMK">YKIOKIJNMK</A> is one of my mantras.
<P>
<STRONG>
send me free linux cd then
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> --Hum, Do you know what the "Open Source Movement"
is?? I suggest you read the book "rebel code"....
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> And then after we decline to help him, he demands a free Linux CD?
No wonder his e-mail service is ToughGuy.net (run by PunkAss Enterprises
of Boston, MA, USA, an organization with no web site). I wonder if he's
a scr!pT K]dDiE too....
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan]
<P> Riffle? That's the fast water between pools in a stream.
<P> I'd be pretty scared if somebody was pointing a riffle at me;
Lessee, small stream, maybe 5m across, .25m average depth,
that's 1.25 m**2 cross section, if the riffle is 15m long
that's 18.75 m**3 of water, plus surrounding streambed. I wanna
be pretty well clear of anybody strong enough to lift that,
let alone point it!!!
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> It's also what you call a gold-separating trough, as well as the stuff at
the bottom of it (these days, a lot of folks use Astro-Turf. <shrug> Go
figure.)
<P> That was what I was riffing on... :)
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan]
<P> Yeah, I don't know anything about gold-separating troughs. Tho I can
see how it'd be called a "riffle" ... region of faster-moving water, with
maybe some bumps to it. Calling its bed a "riffle" seems like
taking some liberty with the term, but I guess you need to call it
something, and maybe "bed" doesn't sound obscure enough.
<H3>Then in another thread...</H3>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Frank]
<P> Lowering the case (S20hwclock -> s20hwclock) is used - as Mike pointed
out - to disable the execution of the script totally, without losing
the info about where it normally is...
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> As Ben pointed out.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Frank]
<P> Oops... Sorry guys... You just look so much alike... :)
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> Do you want a riffle sniper on your doorstep?
<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="24" HEIGHT="24">
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> ITYM "riffle snipper". Beware of the Snip of Doom.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> &lt;whines&gt;....
<P> My spelling is terrible, lol.....
<P> Thanks for picking that one out Dan. I'd be scared if
someone was pointing a river at me!!
<P> Also, I would just like to point out that you are
wrong about what a "riffle" is.
<P> Ehem.....having done A-Level Geography, a "riffle" is
created from turbulent flow, which only occurs within
meanders.....
<P> so that means that you'll be pointing a bendy river
<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="24" HEIGHT="24">
<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="24" HEIGHT="24">
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan]
<P> Try walking some trout streams. Mostly they don't meander,
at least in this mountainous part of the country, but you'll
find pools and riffles alternating nonetheless. Smooth
and turbulent flow.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> If I recall correctly from my trout-fishing days, "head-pool-run-riffle" is
the repeated structure that makes up a mature stream. The length of the
sequence is mainly dependent on the stream width and rate of flow. As Dan
says, most of them don't meander; this structure is a result of the water
carrying silt, building up a restriction where it settles, speeding up
through the restriction, and slowing down as it exits.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Heather]
<P> Oh, so <EM>that's</EM> where you get the trout cluebats to flog people
with.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan]
<P> Real streams are contingent things, at least at the scale of
human beings, full of rock outcrops, changes in the lie of the land,
slide debris, logs and other noise. And silt, carried predictibly by
faster water to deposit in slower water. Also gravel, cobbles, and
bolders, carried during the spate when the babbling brook becomes
the raging torrent, its flow influenced by factors ordinarily far above
its waterline. As it erodes slowly headward, carrying all to
lower ground, the things it can reach, first, the rest, later.
<P> Surprising how hard it is to get a model stream running on a
uniform substrate to behave according to the model. I've tried.
Enough to wonder to what extent the patterns we see in streams are
just our poor minds seeking to impose order where there lies only chaos.
<P> Though I must vouch for the repetition of the pool-and-riffle
pattern. With, as Ben says, each pool having head and tail,
each with their own implications for the behavior of the elusive
trout.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> Oh, definitely. Dan... you've got me thinking about four-pound test, and
turning over rocks for bait, and rationalizing that maybe the water isn't
all <EM>that</EM> cold yet. It just ain't fair, I tell ya... I've done close to
zero freshwater fishing in the past ten years; it's all been big-game
saltwater stuff - 1/4" nylon line, 6 feet of solid stainless steel wire for
leader, 7/0 forged SS hooks baited with a foot-long ballyhoo, and /sauve
qui peut/ once you hook into the big bastard. As much fun as that can be,
I've just realized how much I've missed the fine, subtle game that trout
fishing can be. Well... they _did_ just open a new Outdoor World near
here... I think I've got a field trip coming up tomorrow, with a bit of
local stream research thrown in. <grin>
<P> Oh, the weird and wonderful ways that discussions of Linux can go...
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> All this talk about pools and riffles (and trouts)
makes me think of the following song:
<P> Schubert, Trout quintet in A major (I played the piano
part in the Leder....lots of semi-quavers, quite
difficult).
<P> Of course he is singing about catching this
fish....which he does eventually. I wonder if he saw
these pools and riffles????
<P> What?????
<P> &lt;Here come the men in white coats....&gt;
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan]
<P> Yes, we've gotten pretty far afield, so to speak.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> This riffle discussion is perfect for The Back Page.
Heather, we'll need to split the thread cleanly somewhere.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> Just where the pool meets that enticing little backwater, slightly to the
left of that branch would be a good place.
<P> &lt;The line makes a 'shhhhhusshhh' sound as the tiny Panther Martin spinner
traces an arc through the still air above Loch Raven...&gt;
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
<H3 ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="green">Paul Revere</FONT></H3>
<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Thomas Adam, Ben Okopnik, Huibert Alblas, Iron, Don Marti
</strong></FONT></p>
<STRONG>
--- Walter asks:
<P> Why hasn't the Linux world come to the idea that WINDOWS is a good idea and
start making linux work just like MS windows without all the MicroDumb
BooBoo's. Do like Paul Revere did, he did not make the cooking pots different
he just made them better.
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Thomas]
<P> Now, now where is that axe??? Damn, don't tell me Ben
has borrowed it again to go on one of those
"trips"..... oh well.....
<P> Walter, Walter dear boy what's going on?? Are you mad?
I think you are. Linux is NOTHING like Windows and it
will remain that way. If you are after a Linux based
MS-Windows OS, then Microsoft released their own
version of Unix with MS apps embedded in it.....try
that.
<P> BUT, don't leave the land of Linux *just* yet......KDE
offers a "Windows" feel to it.
Also, FVWM95 has a near complete look and feel of
Windows.
The "IceWM" also provides a similar style to
Windows...
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> [A pregnant pause. Birds twitter in the trees; the sun shines; all seems
eerily normal, a calm that bears no hint of the edge-of-the-seat suspense.]
<P> ...
<P> AHEM!
<P> No comment.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Halb]
<P> Who is this Paul Revere guy? The only time I heard the name Paul Revere
was on the License To Ill Album from the Beasty Boys. The track is
called Paul Revere, but in the song text, its the name of a horse.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> <A HREF="http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/10919.html">http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/10919.html</A>
<P> "Revere became a figure of popular history and legend, however, because
of his ride on the night of Apr. 18, 1775, to warn the people of the
Massachusetts countryside that British soldiers were being sent out in
the expedition that, as it turned out, started the American
Revolution.... it is Revere who is remembered as the midnight rider,
chiefly because of the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow."
<P> <A HREF="http://eserver.org/poetry/paul-revere.html">Paul Revere's Ride</A>
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
Listen my children and you shall hear<BR>
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,<BR>
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;<BR>
Hardly a man is now alive<BR>
Who remembers that famous day and year.
<P> He said to his friend, "If the British march<BR>
By land or sea from the town to-night,<BR>
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch<BR>
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--<BR>
One if by land, and two if by sea;<BR>
And I on the opposite shore will be,<BR>
Ready to ride and spread the alarm<BR>
Through every Middlesex village and farm,<BR>
For the country folk to be up and to arm." ...
</BLOCKQUOTE>
The most famous quote here is, "One if by land, two if by sea."
<P> We learned the poem in elementary school. Although looking
back, there's no way we could have understood since I had
no concept of what Middlesex or a farm or a belfry was.
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> I believe that the correct term nowadays is "bisexual", and
any term that connotes "fence-sitter" is frowned upon.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> Of course, Middlesex is an area of Massechussetts, which was named after
a region in England.
Although, us Yanks never could understand how Brits can use terms like
Middlesex and Sussex while keeping a straight face.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> Oh, the people who named the towns in the US were no less obsessed.
<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="24" HEIGHT="24">
<PRE>
ben@Baldur:~/devel/geo$ grep -ci sex US_Concise.txt
326
</PRE>
Not to mention Intercourse, Pennsylvania and such...
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P> Paul Revere was also a silversmith, and there's still a line of
high-quality pots and pans ("Revere ware") named after him. He also
forged pewter utinsels, I think.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> Why, he never! Paul Rever, a forger? I won't believe it! I'm sure that his
pewter utensils were perfectly original. &lt;sniff&gt;
<P> (Note: Pewter is cast, not forged.)
<P> &lt;Smile&gt; I remember the '1 if
by LAN, 2 if by C' (erm... it _sounds_ right...) &lt;shrug&gt; I thought he
rode horses and yelled at people for a living, or something.
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
<H3 ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="green">1001 uses for a dead hard drive</FONT></H3>
<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Iron, Dan Wilder, Don Marti
</strong></FONT></p>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> Our sysadmin Dan Wilder suggests that a dead drive makes a
good weight for a fishing line....
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Dan]
<P> Can be used for taking depth soundings also.
<P> Another use for a dead drive: it contains a couple of magnets
that are GREAT for picking up small ferromagnetic items, such
as spilled machine screws or carpet tacks. Also useful for confining
map pins and paper clips to one corner of the desk drawer. I wouldn't
be without one! In fact I have a couple in my desk drawer, some
in each toolbox, and the kids each have a couple to play with.
<P> Just don't stick it on the fridge. Might be useful for holding small
piles of recipes, but don't stick it to the fridge without a generous
cushion or it may chip the paint.
<P> Many drives are assembled with odd drivers for the screwheads. To
disassemble, use a small drill to remove the screwheads, when you
find you don't have a suitable driver.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> This is also good info for the person who wanted advice on starting a
cybercafe. The chipped paint may make the health department inspectors
nervous.
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> &lt;shrug&gt; Then you'd just use the magnet to stick <EM>them</EM> to the fridge,
until they realize that chipped paint is wonderful, no, they have no
problems with it <EM>whatsoever</EM>, it was all a mistake...
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Don]
<P> Action Surplus in Sunnyvale, California has all the bastard spawn
"security through strange screwhead" drivers.
<P> Save the cheap Allen wrenches you get with stuff to assemble it -- you
can hammer an Allen wrench into some of those strange screws, then turn
it (if you don't want the screw afterward)
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Ben]
<P> &lt;Evil Genius laugh&gt; A Dremel tool with a steel-cutting disk makes a "flat"
screw out of any of those strange ones in about three seconds. I have
reason to know...
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Don]
<P> I've done this too but the ones on hard drives are countersunk
below the level of the drive frame. You could cut a slot if you
were willing to cut the drive frame too.
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
<H3 ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="green">Compare and contrast</FONT></H3>
<p align="right"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><strong>Answered By Iron
</strong></FONT></p>
<STRONG>
Compare and contrast the computer sytem to the manual system. Please heip me
out.
</STRONG>
<P>
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
> [Iron]
<P> The phrase "compare and contrast" raises warning bells because it sounds
like a homework question, so my instinctive answer is, "Figure it out
for yourself. That's why your teacher/professor gave you the question."
<P> However, we may feel inclined to give some amusing answers if you give
us more precise information. "The manual system" of what? Playing
chess on a computer vs a chessboard has a different impact than word
processing on a computer vs a typewriter, and both are different from
engineering with a computer vs engineering without, or building
animation movies on a computer vs in Walt Disney's day.
<a name="spam"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">World of Spam</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
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<P> Did you know... that your computer is spying on you?
Did you know for example that every click you make on Windows Start Menu is logged and stored permanently on a hidden encrypted database within your own computer?
Your PC is keeping frightening records of both your online and off-line activity.
<P> Any of the Web Pages, Pictures, Movies, Videos, Sounds, E-mail and Everything Else you or anyone else have ever viewed could easily be recovered - even many years later!
How would you feel if somebody snooped this information out of your computer and made it public?
Do your children or their friends use your computers?
What have they downloaded and tried to delete?
<P> You deserve a far more rewarding and safer Internet experience!
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
Are you ready to upgrade your web site for e-commerce or drastically improve
your current shopping cart system? Most on-line retailer's success or failure is largely
determined by the quality and flexibility of their e-commerce solution.
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
<STRONG>Subject: Confidence is now for sale</STRONG>
<P> Protect yourself against CRIME and TERRORISM! Experience the difference of
knowing you can protect yourself. Even if you never have to use that pe pper
spray or stun gun you are carrying, you will <EM> feel more secure and
confident</EM></b> knowing that it's there.
<UL>
<LI> Animal Repellers
<LI> Diversion Safes
<LI> Hidden Cameras
<UL>
<LI> Wired
<LI> Wireless
</UL>
<LI> Home Protection
<LI> Knives
<UL>
<LI> Butterfly Knives
<LI> Folding Knives
</UL>
<LI> Mace Spray
<UL>
<LI> Mace Pepper Foam
<LI> Mace Pepper Spray
<LI> Mace Triple-Action Sprays
<LI> Michigan-Approved Sprays
</UL>
<LI> Miscellaneous
<UL>
<LI> Blowguns
<LI> Crossbows
<LI> Garrett Super Scanner
<LI> Handcuffs
<LI> Kubotans
<LI> Safety Lights
<LI> Throwing Stars
<LI> Voice Changer
</UL>
<LI> Gas Masks
<LI> Pepper Spray
<UL>
<LI> Pepper Shot Pepper Spray
<LI> Wildfire 15%_Pepper_Spray
</UL>
<LI> Personal Alarms
<LI> Stun Guns
<UL>
<LI> Accessories
<LI> Stun/Alarm Flashlights
<LI> Stun Batons 300k-500kv
<LI> Stun Master 100k-300kv
<LI> Stun Master 625kv
<LI> Talon 80k-250kv
</UL>
<LI> Tasers
<UL>
<LI> Air Taser
<LI> M-18 Advanced Taser
</UL>
</UL>
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
Subject: Cofres funebres Colombianos - Funeral coffins
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
Ever wanted to gamble on-line? This is your chance to avoid shady casinos and
their practices. We have scrutinized 100's of on-line casinos so you won't
have to! All of these choice casinos offer promotions and bonus dollars to get
you started. Get up to $100 FREE.
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
[And they are not shady? -Iron.]
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
Subject: RE: My Password
<P>
THIS SITE IS THE NASTIEST F*%$#ING SITE YOU WILL EVER SEE<BR>
Our @#$%s will blow your mind and your co^%!
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
I believe we both have Internet businesses! Perhaps you'd be interested in
these freebies.
<P> All are free to join, no strings By joining the first you'll receive a lot of free
software for your business including an email address extractor.
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
Stock Alert Newsletter
<PRE>
[Company name]
Symbol: ^%$#
Exchange: OTCBB
Recent Price: $2.50
52 Week Range: $1.00 - 6.25
Shares Outstanding: 11.9 million
Estimated Float: 1.5 Million
</PRE>
On October 8, ^%$# announced that they were acquiring a California brokerage
called &amp;*( Securities. They expect to use &amp;*(&amp; as a vehicle to buyout other
stockbrokers while prices are currently depressed. Due to this aggressive strategy,
we believe that the company is about to make the turnaround into a well-known,
profitable firm.
<P> Since [company name] only went public in June, this is the first time they have been
featured in a stock market write up. This gives Stock Alert readers a GROUND FLOOR
opportunity.
<P> Disclaimer: The publisher of Stock Alert Newsletter has received a fee of 5000
shares of ^%$# from a shareholder, and may buy or sell shares at any time.
&amp;^* %^*^&amp; Services provides an e-mail delivery service on behalf of
securities issuers and publishers that circulate information about a company or
the company's securities. The publisher of this newsletter has agreed to pay
&amp;^* %^*^&amp; Services ten thousand dollars as payment to circulate this
newsletter via electronic mail to e-mail addresses contained in &amp;^*
%^*^&amp; Services database. To read entire disclaimer, please click here.
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
[If you don't see the scam, read the first sentance of the disclaimer again. -Iron.]
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
The GOVERNMENT thinks it OWNS you!
It thinks YOU are its PROPERTY!
<P> You can BREAK their grip on you, and TAKE CONTROL of
yourself and your property (including earnings) -- so
they can NEVER confiscate ANY of it, ever again! You
can learn how to:
<UL>
<LI> FORCE the IRS to pay any tax liabilities FOR you!
<LI> HALT Mortgage Foreclosures!
<LI> STOP Credit Card liens!
<LI> KILL Lawsuits!
<LI> TAKE CONTROL of any trial and force the Judge to give
YOU the Order of the Court.
<LI> and, much, much more!
</UL>
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
We are sending you this email because A) We are both members of the same Opt
in list, B) You submitted a classified link to one of our pages, C) You sent
an email to one of our addresses in the past. If you were not the intended recipient
of this message, please accept our apologies and delete.
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
This message uses a character set that is not supported by the Internet
Service. To view the original message content, open the attached message.
If the text doesn't display correctly, save the attachment to disk, and then
open it using a viewer that can display the original character set.
<PRE>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=3D"DEFAULT_CHARSET"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
</PRE>
STOP!<BR>
URGENT MESSAGE!<BR>
PLEASE READ COMPLETELY!<BR>
It is important that you read this message as soon as possible.
Again I urge you to read this message to its fullest! Last year
72% of bankruptcies could have been saved by an extra $200 a
month.
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
Save up to 80% on Dental Services!
Plan Includes Free Prescription, Vision and Chiropractic Plan
For only $11.95 Per Month for an individual membership $19.95
a Month for the entire Household.
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
[Considering that a normal inadequate dental plan in the US costs at least $25/month
for just one person, I don't think so. A normal cheapo plan will cover
$1000 worth of treatment a year. That rate was set thirty years ago when
$1000 </EM>could<EM> pay for a couple surgeries as well as regular checkups. Try having
two dental surgeries <EM>this</EM> year and see how far $1000 goes. (Hint:
you'll have to pay around $800 additional out of your own pocket.)
-Iron.]
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
We produce/export bamboo mats, bamboo flooring, wood flooring and multifarious
wooden massage implements, etc.
Please contact us if you are interested in any of our items.
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!--*********************** -->
Whether it is bad checks, or unpaid invoices, why not let a trustworthy
collection professional help you with your past due customers?
<P> What makes our company unique is that we will custom design a collection
program to suit your business needs. Here are just a few things we can do:
<UL>
<LI> 15-day Free Demand Letter- We will custom design a collection letter,
send it in your name, handle the call, and collect the debt. If the
account pays within 15 days of the letter sent date, we will not charge
you a fee. After 15 days, the account is subject to a low 33%.
<LI> Send a series of a collection letters at no additional charge. When you
refer accounts to %^&amp;*(* Protection Services, we will send a series of
collection letters to your customers as well as contact them by phone. RPS
does not charge its clients for letter series.
</UL>
<a name="joke"></a>
<P> <hr> <P>
<!--====================================================================-->
<center><H3><font color="maroon">Russian Joke of the Month</font></H3></center>
<P> <HR> <P>
<!--======================================================================-->
<P>
Quick translation of a Russian joke -
<BLOCKQUOTE>
The UN poses the following question to the assembled representatives of
different countries: "Please state your opinion about the lack of
sufficient food in other countries."
<P> Many of the representatives ran into insurmountable problems:<BR>
<UL>
<LI> No one in Africa knew the meaning of "sufficient food".
<LI> No one in Western Europe knew the meaning of "lack".
<LI> No one in Eastern Europe knew the meaning of "opinion".
<LI> No one in the US knew the meaning of "other countries".
</UL>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
Ben Okopnik<BR>
-=-=-=-=-=-
<HR> <!-- ************************************************************** -->
<P> Happy Linuxing!
<P> Mike ("Iron") Orr<br>
Editor, <A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/"><i>Linux Gazette</i></A>, <A
HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</a>
<BR CLEAR="all">
<!-- *** END Not Linux *** -->
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
<P> <hr> <P>
<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright &copy; 2001, the Editors of <I>Linux Gazette</I>.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 73 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, December 2001</H5>
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
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