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1008 lines
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Draft//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD><TITLE>Linux Weekend Mechanic, February 1997</TITLE></HEAD>
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<BODY BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF>
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more lovable!</I>"
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<IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE SRC="../gx/heart.gif"> </H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<CENTER>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/wkndMech.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM WIDTH=397 HEIGHT=150>
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<H1>Welcome to The Linux Weekend Mechanic!</H1>
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<H2>Published in the February 1997 Edition of the Linux Gazette</H2>
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<FONT SIZE="2"><B>
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Copyright (c) 1997 John M. Fisk <fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu><BR>
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The Linux Gazette is Copyright(c) 1997 <A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/">
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Specialized Systems Consultants Inc.</A>
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</B></FONT>
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</CENTER>
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<P><HR>
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<H2>Time To Become... <I>The Linux Weekend Mechanic!</I></H2>
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<TABLE>
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<TR>
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<TD ALIGN=TOP>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/mechanic.gif" ALIGN=BOTTOM WIDTH=147 HEIGHT=66>
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<TD ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP>
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You've made it to the weekend and things have finally slowed down. You
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crawl outa bed, bag the shave 'n shower 'cause it's Saturday, grab that
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much needed cup of caffeine (your favorite alkaloid), and shuffle down
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the hall to the den. It's time to fire up the Linux box, break out the
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trusty 'ol Snap-On's, pop the hood, jack 'er up, and do a bit of
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overhauling!
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</TABLE>
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<P><HR><P>
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<!-- TABLE OF CONTENTS ================================================ -->
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<H2>Table of Contents</H2>
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<UL>
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<LI><A HREF="#welcome">Welcome To the Weekend Mechanic!</A>
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<LI><A HREF="#supermount"><I>Supermount</I> for 2.x Kernels!</A>
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<LI><A HREF="#dosemu"><I>DOSEMU</I> and WP 6.1 for DOS...</A>
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<LI><A HREF="#wallpaper">X Window Wallpapering...!</A>
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<LI><A HREF="#closing">Closing up Shop...</A>
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</UL>
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<!-- END TABLE OF CONTENTS ============================================ -->
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<P><HR><P>
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<!-- WELCOME SECTION ================================================== -->
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<H2><A NAME="welcome"><IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/attndant.gif" WIDTH=129 HEIGHT=99>
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Howdy! Welcome to the Weekend Mechanic</A></H2>
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<P>
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Phew! It's good to be back!
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<P>
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So how's everyone doing? How are things going? I had a great semester
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this past Fall -- got my 4.0 and everything :-) Still, things got rather
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hectic toward the end of classes and I'm <EM>still</EM> trying to get myself
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shoveled out from beneath a pile of backlogged email. I managed to survive
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six finals, the usual glut of "end-of-the-semester projects",
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a flight to Washington D.C. and a drive from there to N.Y. with my brother,
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his wife, and three small boys to visit our parents for Christmas, a new HD
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installation and complete system re-installation (the story of my life...),
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AND I actually managed to show my face at work once or twice before classes
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started again. If you're wondering why you haven't heard back from me,
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hang in there, I'm coming... :-)
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<P>
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And is it only me, or does it seem that the 'ol Linux Gazette has really
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taken on quite a nice face lift since <b>Marjorie Richardson</b> took the
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helm...? I have to admit, the LG looks GREAT -- new graphics, better
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organization, a search engine, and so forth. Having worked on the LG in
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the past I know how much time and effort goes into each issue and I know
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that Marjorie has worked hard on this. I know that a lot of folks have
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taken the time to drop a note (the Mail section is as busy as it always
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was... :-) but if you haven't, you really need to! Here, let me make it
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easy for all of you with mail-capable browsers...
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<H2><a href="mailto: gazette@ssc.com">Dear Marjorie...</a></h2>
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<P>
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See! that wasn't so bad, and the reality of it is that demonstrated interest
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and ongoing support are what keeps this 'ol ezine going in the first place!
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Remember: "The <EM>masses</EM> may vote with their feet, but hackers
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vote with both hands! (...unless you're able to type with your toes or are
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gifted with a prehensile tail or something... :-)"
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<P>
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Anyway, drop Marjorie a note, she'll really appreciate it.
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<P>
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<!-- END WELCOME SECTION ============================================== -->
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<P><HR><P>
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<!-- ARTICLE ================================================ -->
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<H2><A NAME="supermount"><IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/toolchest.gif" WIDTH=60 HEIGHT=48
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ALIGN=BOTTOM><I>Supermount</I> for 2.x Kernels!</A></H2>
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<P>
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I don't know about you, but one of the things that I <I>really</I> missed
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after doing the kernel 2.0 upgrade was being able to use <B>supermount</B>.
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For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, supermount is a program
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(in the form of a kernel patch) written by <b>Stephen Tweedie</b> that,
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in effect, allows you to insert, take out, and re-insert removable media
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such as floppies and CDs without going through all the rigmarole of using
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<b>mount</b> and <b>umount</b>. For those of us who are converts from
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the DOS era who are perpetually forgetting to umount a floppy before popping
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it out of the drive, this comes as blessed succor.
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<P>
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And the good news is: <B>IT'S BACK!</B>
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<P>
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Actually, it probably wasn't gone all that long, truth be known. I've been
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periodically checking in at the favorite <i>sunsite.unc.edu</i> mirror site
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and peeking around the /pub/linux/kernel/patches/ subdir for a newer version
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of supermount. No luck. Then recently, I saw a note posted by Stephen in
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response to someone's query that the program was available for the 2.0
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kernels. To break the suspense, here's the URL:
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<H2><a href="ftp://linux.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/linux/kernel/supermount/">
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ftp://linux.dcs.ed.ac.uk/pub/linux/kernel/supermount/</a></H2>
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<P>
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There's a patch for kernel versions 2.0.0 and 2.0.23 and a README file that
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outlines the fairly simple steps to applying the patch, recompiling the kernel
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(and speaking of forgetting to do things, if you don't do a 'make zlilo' then
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DON'T FORGET TO RERUN LILO if you install the new kernel), and setting up the
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needed /etc/fstab entry to start using it. For those of you who've used
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supermount in the past, you'll be pleased to know that the installation and
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setup haven't changed since the kernel 1.2.13 version -- you should be able to
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use your old /etc/fstab (if it's still lying around somewhere) and have things
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come up working like they did in the Good Old Days!
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<P>
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Also, I wrote a short article on supermount several months ago for the LG and
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mentioned that I'd had a lot of trouble getting it to work correctly with the
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SoundBlaster 2X CD-ROM that I was using at the time. I was able to change CDs
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but the directory listing simply wasn't being updated correctly. Well, after
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the system upgrade this past Fall, I've switched to a Toshiba 8X CD and it
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works fine with this. Which reminds me...
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<P>
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If you want to use supermount with a CD-ROM, at least with the ATAPI type drive
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that I've got, then you'll likely want to make a small change to one of the
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kernel files to allow the CD-ROM drive door to be opened when the drive has
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been mounted. As most of you probably have noticed, once you mount the CD
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drive, the door is locked -- you have to umount the drive in order to open it
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and change CDs. Obviously, this doesn't work well if the point to using
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supermount is NOT having to do this type of this. So, to disable door
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locking, and PRESUMING YOU'RE USING AN ATAPI TYPE CD-ROM, then edit the file:
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<PRE>
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/usr/src/linux/drivers/block/ide-cd.c
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</PRE>
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<P>
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Look for the following section which is near the beginning of the file:
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<PRE>
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/* Turning this on will disable the door-locking functionality.
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This is apparently needed for supermount. */
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#ifndef NO_DOOR_LOCKING
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#define NO_DOOR_LOCKING 0
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#endif
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</PRE>
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<P>
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Change that '0' to a '1' after the <b>NO_DOOR_LOCKING</b> and you'll be all
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set. This, as the quick-witted will have already surmised, does what it
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implies: it disables door locking so you'll be able to change CDs. How
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about that for easy, eh?
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<P>
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So, to summarize what you'll need to do, here's the brief rundown:
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<ol>
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<LI>get your hands on the supermount patch (I'll help you with this one in
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a minute...)
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<LI>apply the patch to the kernel:
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<PRE>
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$ cd /usr/src/linux
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$ cp "path-to-patch"/supermount-0.4c-for-2.0.diff .
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$ patch -s -p1 < supermount-0.4c-for-2.0.diff
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</PRE>
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<LI>edit the /usr/src/linux/drivers/block/ide-cd.c file to disable door
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locking
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<LI>recompile your kernel AND RERUN LILO (ever get the idea that I've
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forgotten to do this myself once or twice... :-)
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<LI>edit your /etc/fstab to enable mounting of floppy or CD-ROM drives via
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supermount
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<LI>reboot the system to load the new kernel and enable supermount
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<LI>Enjoy!!
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</ol>
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<P>
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Now, for the trusting (or merely lazy like myself... :-), here's a copy of the
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patches and the README file:
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<P>
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<H2><a href="./misc/supermount-0.4c-for-2.0.23.diff">
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supermount-0.4c-for-2.0.23.diff</a></H2>
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<H2><a href="./misc/supermount-0.4c-for-2.0.diff">
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supermount-0.4c-for-2.0.diff</a></H2>
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<H2><a href="./misc/supermount.README">
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supermount.README</a></H2>
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<P>
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If you're the suspicious or just plain cautious type then go ahead and get the
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files from the URL above. Also, you might want to check there for updates or
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newer releases.
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<P>
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One thing that I've not really tried yet is seeing what happens if the CD-ROM
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drive is mounted via supermount and you attempt to play an audio CD. I've not
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had the nerve to try this. In this case, it's probably safe to go ahead and
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umount the drive, play the CD, and then mount the drive once again -- since
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there's an entry for the CD-ROM drive in /etc/fstab, all you should have to do
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is something like:
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<PRE>
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mount /cdrom
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</PRE>
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presuming that /cdrom is where you normally mount your CD.
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<P>
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The other thing that I've not tried is using supermount with BOTH ext2 and
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MS-DOS type floppies. I suspect that it would cause a bit of trouble but,
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again, I've not been daring (or foolish...?) enough to try this little
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maneuver.
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<P>
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Anyway, I hope that give supermount a try! The README file is pretty helpful
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in terms of answering basic setup and usage questions and he includes a copy
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of his /etc/fstab file as an example. Hope you enjoy!
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<P>
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John<BR>
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Nashville, TN<BR>
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Mon Jan 20 10:26:51 CST 1997
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<!-- END ARTICLE ================================================ -->
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<P><HR><P>
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<!-- ARTICLE ================================================ -->
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<H2><A NAME="dosemu"><IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/toolchest.gif" WIDTH=60 HEIGHT=48
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ALIGN=BOTTOM><I>DOSEMU</I> and WP 6.1 for DOS...</A></H2>
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<P>
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I hesitate to even bring this up... :-)
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<P>
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One of the more common USENET postings in almost <i>any</i> of the linux
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groups these days is some newbee who innocently ventures a question such as
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"Is there a word processor for Linux like Word for Windows...".
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After the poor bloke gets flamed to a crisp with ardent admonitions to eschew
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such <i>lollipop-ware</i> and use a <i>real</i> text-processing system such as
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LaTeX or GROFF, there usually ensues a heated debate over the virtues of one's
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favorite system for getting something into print...
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<P>
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I think I'd like to avoid such debate... :-)
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<P>
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I would, however, like to humbly offer one possible solution to the need for a
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word processor under Linux -- especially if you're either unfamiliar with
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LaTeX or find that it doesn't completely meet your text-processing needs. And
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that is, using <b>DOSEMU</b> and one of the common word processors available
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for DOS. Now, if you already have a system working for you then by all means
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stick with it! However, if you still find yourself rebooting to DOS, OS/2, or
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Windows to do a bit of word processing then this might be one possible
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alternative.
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<P>
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But before I go on...
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<P>
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Let me quickly mention that I'm well aware that the usual business apps which
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have long been available for the <i>other OS's</i> -- the word processors,
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spreadsheets, desktop publishing packages, PIMs, and so forth -- are starting
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to appear as <i>Linux-native applications!</i> This is great news and I
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certainly welcome and support such efforts to bring these much-needed tools to
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the the Linux OS! Thing is, what I've tried so far really hasn't been helpful
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for <i>me</i>. To wit:
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<ul>
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<li><b>LyX</b> -- a VERY nice, near-WYSIWYG front-end to the LaTeX text
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processing system. I've just now started to spend some time with this.
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One of the things that I've really liked about this is that it uses a
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system that is <i>native</i> to Linux and UNIX -- LaTeX. It means that
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the documents are portable and render in a reliable manner. For my own
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tastes, the fonts sometimes appear a bit old, but that's <i>strictly</i>
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my own tastes. I think this holds a lot of promise.
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<P>
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<li><b>StarOffice</b> -- I think that this also holds a LOT of promise. It's
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currently freely available as beta software and has a very modern
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installation routine and very handsome UI (to my conceits). My own pet
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peeve about it is the frequency in which I get warnings about the version
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expiring and the (admittedly minor) irritation of having to download a
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whole new set of files and doing the installation all over again.
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<P>
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My other fairly minor complaint with it is the look of the output -- I've
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not been terribly impressed with the set of default fonts that come with
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it. Again, this is strictly a matter of taste, but the output hasn't been
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exactly what I'd hoped for..
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<P>
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<li><b>EZ</b> -- The EZ word processor is part of the <b>Andrew User
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Interface System</b> (aka, AUIS) and really is a fairly easy to use word
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processor. Overall, I've been pleased with its ease of installation and
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use and the output is generally quite acceptable. The range of fonts is
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a bit limited, but for short notes and memos it's quite useful. I've not
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spent enough time with this to really ascertain the full extent of its
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customizations. I suspect that it's capable of more than I'm currently
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doing if I only knew how...
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<p>
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<li>I've also played around some with a few of the other available word
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processors -- <b>SciTeXt</b>, <b>Thot</b>, and <b>Papyrus</b>. They all
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seem to be "works in progress" and show promise. Still, I've
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not found that the output equals what I've been able to achieve using the
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usual DOS, OS/2, Win, or Mac apps.
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<p>
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Sorry, call me a heretic... :-)
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<p>
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</ul>
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<P>
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I really don't want to get mired down in a review of all the possible word
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processor tools out there -- I mention these in order to say, "I've given
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them a a try..." Two other applications that really deserve to be
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mentioned include the <b>Caldera's WordPerfect for Linux</b> and the
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<b>Applixware Suite available through Red Hat Software</b>. I've not had a
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chance to try either of these out, although I've read a good deal of pro's and
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con's about each of them in the linux USENET hierarchy. A buddy at school
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just got a copy of the academic version of Applixware and I'm pretty
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interested in seeing this in action. So far, he's been pretty pleased with
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it, so I definitely need to stop by and give this a try!
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<p>
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Anyway, what I've found is working quite well for me is a combination of
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DOSEMU and WordPerfect 6.1 for DOS. If you happen to have an old (or new)
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copy of WP for DOS available to you, and you're willing to give DOSEMU a
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whirl, let me urge you to give this a try.
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<P>
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At this point, I'm going to do something I swore to myself I'd never do -- I'm
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going to weenie out on you a NOT go through the entire process of setting up
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DOSEMU. The reason for this is that, although I've gotten it up and running
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on my own box at home here, I really don't feel terribly comfortable with
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being able to walk anyone else through the process. I ended up tinkering
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around with it and, through an admittedly haphazard process of trial &
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(mostly) error, got the thing to work. There are still several things about
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it that I don't understand and so I won't inflict my ignorance upon you.
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<P>
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Still with me... :-)
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<P>
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Thing is, there's a very helpful little file that comes with DOSEMU called
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"QuickStart" that goes through the setup process step-by-step. If a
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Neanderthal like me can get this working, I'm confident that you can too!
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<P>
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What I would like to do is present a brief synopsis of my experiences with
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this in the hopes that it might be helpful to someone trying the same things.
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Again, let me emphasize that this represents <i>strictly</i> my own
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experiences. As the old saying goes, "your mileage may vary..."
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<H3>DOSEMU Setup</H3>
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<P>
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After upgrading to kernel 2.0 I found it necessary to upgrade a number of
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packages, including DOSEMU. At the time, I picked up the most recent version
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which was dosemu-0.63.1.36. The configuration, compilation, and installation
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were as simple as:
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<PRE>
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$ ./configure
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$ make
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$ make install
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</PRE>
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This defaulted to including DPMI support, requiring the emumodule and
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syscallmgr modules to be loaded before being able to use DOSEMU. DPMI support
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allows you to try your hand at booting up Windows under DOSEMU. Over the past
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few months I've had mixed success at best in doing this. Also, since this is
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not currently supported by the DOSEMU folks, you're completely on your own if
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you want to venture into this! :-)
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<P>
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After compiling and installing the binaries, I used the QuickStart file as a
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guide and created the needed /etc/dosemu.conf and /etc/dosemu.users files.
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DOSEMU comes with a <i>heavily</i> commented configuration file -- dosemu.conf
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-- that let's you customize in a rational manner. For the curious, here's my
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current working version of dosemu.conf:
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<H2><a href="./misc/dosemu.conf">/etc/dosemu.conf example file</a></H2>
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<P>
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Let me make a couple comments about this before going on:
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<ul>
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<li>I set <b>rawkeyboard</b> to on. This allows the full use of all the
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WP keystroke combinations. I found that without this, some of the usual
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key combinations simply weren't working. I was able to use the menus
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without any problem at all, but I still wanted to be able to keep my hands
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on the keyboard.
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<P>
|
|
Be aware that if you do this, there's a chance that if DOSEMU crashes it
|
|
will not correctly reset the keyboard and could potential require a cold
|
|
boot (or a remote 'kbd_mode -a' to reset it). See the comments in the
|
|
dosemu.conf file about this.
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<li>I also wanted to get mouse support working. I found that the internal
|
|
mouse driver that comes with DOSEMU worked fine for most programs but
|
|
didn't seem to work for WP. You'll notice that I commented that section
|
|
out and set up the Serial stuff so that I could load my own mouse driver
|
|
from DOS.
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<li>Under the Video section, I found that I was able to get decent
|
|
text-mode AND graphics-mode support using the S3 chipset support. I've
|
|
got a Diamond Stealth 64 Video VRAM with 2MB of memory and this has worked
|
|
great. There are a number of warnings in this section of dosemu.conf and
|
|
it would be advisable to read carefully through them.
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<li>Finally, I really needed to have printer support if this was to be a
|
|
viable solution at all. I've been using the <b>apsfilter</b> program for
|
|
some time now and really love this a LOT. One of the printer modes that
|
|
it sets up is 'raw' mode and I found that this was the key to being able
|
|
to print from DOS. Printer support uses lpr, and by using the
|
|
"-Praw" option I was able to get printing to work. I also set
|
|
up raw access to the lpt1 port.
|
|
<P>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
After doing all of this (in an incremental fashion) I found myself with a
|
|
working version of DOSEMU and a functional WP program!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
I also decided to load the emumodule and syscallmgr modules at boot time so
|
|
that I could use DOSEMU more easily. To do so, you'll probably want to the
|
|
use 'insmod' program that gets compiled with the rest of the DOSEMU files.
|
|
The easy way to do this is to use the 'load_module.sh' script in the root DOSEMU
|
|
directory. I found that by editing the first couple lines of the script I was
|
|
able to call it from any directory: just add the correct path names at the
|
|
top:
|
|
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
#!/bin/bash
|
|
MODULESDIR=/usr/local/lib/dosemu-0.63.1.36/0.63.1.36/modules
|
|
BINDIR=/usr/local/lib/dosemu-0.63.1.36/bin
|
|
[...]
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
|
|
and then add a stanza to /etc/rc.d/rc.local such as:
|
|
|
|
<PRE>
|
|
if [ -x /usr/local/lib/dosemu-0.63.1.36/load_module.sh ]; then
|
|
echo "Loading DOSEMU 0.63 modules..."
|
|
. /usr/local/lib/dosemu-0.63.1.36/load_module.sh
|
|
fi
|
|
</PRE>
|
|
|
|
The modules use up very little memory and the convenience of not having to
|
|
remember to load them is probably worthwhile.
|
|
|
|
<H3>Installing WordPerfect 6.1 for DOS</H3>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
There really isn't an awful lot of startling news here -- if you're used to
|
|
installing DOS programs then this is pretty much a "no-brainer".
|
|
The one important point to make, however, has to do with video driver
|
|
installation. I discovered something quite valuable recently when I
|
|
re-installed my system over Christmas Break.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
The first time I set up WP 6.1 I installed only the S3 drivers (since
|
|
I'm using an S3-based Diamond card). I found that doing so provided
|
|
graphics mode support under DOS in resolutions up to 1280x1024. However,
|
|
I was keenly disappointed to find that the best graphics-mode resolution
|
|
I could get under DOSEMU was an abysmal 320x200. No matter how I poked,
|
|
prodded, wheedled, cajoled, threatened, and messed with it, that's all I got.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Serious Bummer... :-(
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Over Christmas, when I reinstalled the system, I noticed that one of the video
|
|
drivers was labeled simply "VESA" and so, on a whim, installed that
|
|
as well as the S3 drivers. This turned out to be quite fortuitous as although
|
|
the S3 drivers still did not give better than 320x200 resolution, the VESA
|
|
driver actually allowed me to get 1024x768 in 8-bit color. On a 17" monitor,
|
|
this is a very comfortable resolution and provides pretty good WYSIWYG
|
|
previewing.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
So, the moral of the story is -- if you're in doubt, give the VESA video
|
|
drivers a whirl.
|
|
|
|
<H3>Running WordPerfect 6.1 under DOSEMU</H3>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Once I got DOSEMU installed and properly configured (BTW, I also created the
|
|
/etc/dosemu.users file that simply has the word "all" as the sole
|
|
word on the first line -- this let's anyone (<i>i.e.,</i> me) to execute the
|
|
program) and WP 6.1 installed, I was quite pleased to discover that nearly all
|
|
the features available from running it under DOS were also available under
|
|
DOSEMU:
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>full mouse support
|
|
<li>full text mode support
|
|
<li>graphics mode for WYSIWYG editing and print preview to 1024x768 in 256
|
|
colors
|
|
<li>support for all keystroke combinations
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
The one feature that I haven't yet tried is fax support, although ostensibly
|
|
it should work.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
A feature of WP that is completely UNAVAILABLE under DOS is that I can be
|
|
editing a file in WP under DOSEMU and, using Ctrl-Alt-Fn, switch to another
|
|
virtual terminal and continue to work under Linux. Running X Window
|
|
concurrently also has shown no signs of causing problems.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Let me say this again since I get a chill just thinking about it...
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
I can run DOSEMU + WP 6.1 in a virtual terminal and have full editing and
|
|
printing capabilities while at the same time freely switch to another VT or
|
|
even to X Window and have all these processes running concurrently!!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
This is what makes Linux such a seriously cool OS!!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
This is way too cool... ;-)
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
The one caveat I'd mention is that of using WP in graphics mode. I don't know
|
|
about WP 5.1, but version 6.1 supports a fairly respectable graphics-mode that
|
|
provides WYSIWYG editing and print preview. On my system, the performance is
|
|
quite acceptable, although not quite as responsive as under DOS (but then
|
|
who'd want to run anything under DOS if they didn't really need to... :-)
|
|
However, switching to a VT or to an X Window session while in graphics mode
|
|
renders the system completely unusable -- the keyboard AND the console both
|
|
go into impenetrable lockup which only a cold boot fixes. This has, at least,
|
|
been my experience. However, I found that if I simply exited back to text
|
|
mode before switching to another VT then everything worked fine.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Finally, let me make one last comment about using WP under DOSEMU. One of my
|
|
ongoing complaints about many (though certainly not all) of the current
|
|
"word processors" available for Linux is the quality of the printed
|
|
output. The features that drew me to using WP were the familiarity with the
|
|
program and the quality of the final output. WP 6.1 supports, among other
|
|
things, TrueType fonts and having invested in a Corel Draw some time back (and
|
|
its 750+ TT fonts) I was pretty keen to being able to continue to use these.
|
|
I've been quite pleased that under Linux I can still do basic word processing
|
|
in a known environment with predictable output. That was the clincher for me.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Again, let me quickly add that this might not be at all what you want or you
|
|
might simply dislike the WP system itself. The thing about Linux is that it
|
|
give you a <i>choice</i> once again!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
And, for the skeptics out there, those who said, "it can't be
|
|
done...", here's a screen shot of WP 6.1 running under X...
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<img src="./gx/fisk/xdos.gif" align=bottom width=650 height=430
|
|
alt="screen shot of WP 6.1 running under xdos">
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Give this a try! If you like it, keep it. If not, delete it and have
|
|
a look at something else. Also, if you're looking for something to run
|
|
under X then you might be well served to give either the Applixware suite
|
|
or the Linux WordPerfect port a try. DOSEMU will run under X (as xdos)
|
|
but WP loses some of its functionality -- mouse support and keystroke
|
|
support can be a bit flaky and graphics-mode support is completely lost.
|
|
So, if X is where you spend most of your time, you might consider investing
|
|
in or investigating one of the native X programs.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Most of all, though...
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Have Fun & Happy Linux'ing!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
John<br>
|
|
Nashville, TN<br>
|
|
Mon Jan 20 13:18:01 CST 1997
|
|
|
|
<!-- END ARTICLE ================================================ -->
|
|
|
|
<P><HR><P>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- ARTICLE ================================================ -->
|
|
<H2><A NAME="wallpaper"><IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/toolchest.gif" WIDTH=60 HEIGHT=48
|
|
ALIGN=BOTTOM>X Window Wallpapering...!</A></H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Well, here's a little nothingburger that comes pretty close to being a <i>bona
|
|
fide</i> FAQ -- the question arises from time to time as to how to
|
|
(automatically) wallpaper one's X Window session after starting X. For the
|
|
impatient, the short answer is:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
xv -quit -root image.gif
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
Presuming, of course, that the image that you wanted to use was in fact called
|
|
"image.gif" the above would use the ubiquitous <b>xv</b> program by
|
|
<b>John Bradley</b> to tile your root window with the specified window. The
|
|
"-quit" option causes xv to do its work and then quietly terminate.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
If you're using one of the 1.x versions of FVWM then just add a stanza such as
|
|
the following:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
Function "InitFunction"
|
|
Exec "I" exec /usr/X11/bin/xv -quit -root /usr/gx/image.gif &
|
|
[...]
|
|
EndFunction
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
That is, you simply add a stanza for xv to the "InitFunction" and
|
|
this is done automatically!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Since I've not upgraded to the newer FVWM 2.x version (nor FVWM-95, or any of
|
|
the other myriad new window managers) you're rather on your own with this one.
|
|
However, I suspect that a quick perusal of the manual page or the
|
|
configuration file should quickly point the way.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
At the moment, I'm using <b>olvwm 4</b> (with the 3.2 libraries) and added the
|
|
following to the /var/openwin/lib/Xinitrc file:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
#!/bin/sh
|
|
# Xinitrc executed by openwin script to display startup logo
|
|
# and restore desktop setup (saved using owplaces)
|
|
# Hereby placed into public domain by Kenneth Osterberg 1993.
|
|
|
|
[...]
|
|
|
|
# Start programs
|
|
<b>exec /usr/X11/bin/xv -quit -root /var/openwin/lib/marbleFlowers.gif &</b>
|
|
exec /usr/local/X11/bin/xcalendar -geometry 240x240+0+160 &
|
|
exec /usr/X11/bin/xclock -geometry 134x127+252+0 &
|
|
exec /usr/local/X11/bin/rxvt -ls -font 9x15 -geometry 80x32+500+195 &
|
|
exec /usr/local/X11/bin/rxvt -ls -font 9x15 -geometry 79x31+252+268 &
|
|
exec /home/fiskjm/bin/syslogtk -geometry +398+0 &
|
|
|
|
# Startup the OpenLook window manager
|
|
if [ ! -z "$WINDOWMANAGER" ]; then
|
|
exec $WINDOWMANAGER
|
|
else
|
|
exec $OPENWINHOME/bin/olwm
|
|
fi
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
This has the identical effect of tiling the root window before olvwm is
|
|
launched.
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
If you're interested in this, there are actually all sorts of nifty things
|
|
that you can play with along this line. Keep in mind that xv has a plethora
|
|
of options for setting the root window image interactively. To do so, simply
|
|
find an image that you'd like to play with, launch xv with the image filename
|
|
as the argument, and then select the "Root" button. I won't list
|
|
all the possible options -- try them out and amuse yourself!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Thing is, to really have a good time you need to have a few images to play
|
|
with and question is, where to get these little rascals...?
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Well...
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Here's a couple ideas to get you going:
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>If you're running Windows, Win95, or OS/2 then you have to look no
|
|
farther than your C: drive! XV is more than capable of handling the *.BMP
|
|
files from Windows and converting them to .GIF or .JPG (or any of several
|
|
other formats for that matter) files. I'll use this as an example in a
|
|
minute...
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<li>For those of you wanting to get rid of the... er... <i>Windows
|
|
motif</i> and if you're connected to the INTERNET, then the world is your
|
|
oyster, my friend!!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
There are all KINDS of great images out there that you can play with.
|
|
FWIW, the <a href="http://www.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/~gimp/">GIMP
|
|
home page</a> has a fantastic marble tile image on its front page. It's
|
|
wallpapering my desktop at this moment.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
You might also do a quick Yahoo, Alta Vista, or WebCrawler search for any
|
|
of the numerous Online Art Museums and Art Galleries. Or, for all you
|
|
60's Baby Boomers who grew up watching the Apollo flights and dreamt of
|
|
being an astronaut, check out NASA's huge collection of space related
|
|
images. If you're a Netscape user, simply click the right mouse button
|
|
over the image and save it to disk. Keep in mind that some images do have
|
|
copyright protection.
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
<li>For those do-it-yourself'ers out there with a bit of talent, you can
|
|
easily play around with programs such as <b>xpaint</b> and draw your
|
|
<i>own</i> or modify an image to your likings.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
One of the other fun programs to play with is <b>xfractint</b> which
|
|
generates fractal images. It will also SAVE those images in GIF format.
|
|
<P>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
Anyway, you get the picture. If you have a scanner, then you're golden :-)
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
So let's do a quick walk through on this.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
After I somewhat reluctantly installed Win95 this past Fall (I was taking a
|
|
Visual Programming class and you can guess as to which Visual language we had
|
|
to use...) I discovered a few new wallpaper images including one that I really
|
|
liked -- the Forest.bmp image. I happen to enjoy hiking around in the nearby
|
|
Great Smoky Mountains and grew up in the pine forests of upstate New York.
|
|
Anyway, I decided that I'd gotten a bit tired of the 'ol SteelBlue background
|
|
and was ready for a change. Here's what I did...
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
After mounting my Win95 partition and copying the c:\win95\Forest.bmp file to
|
|
my home directory I used xv to have a look at this rascal and convert it to a
|
|
GIF image. XV allows you to save an image as any number of different formats
|
|
and I chose GIF, Full Color. That done, I had a suspicion that this might be
|
|
a bit of a color resource hog -- a suspicion that was confirmed by another
|
|
handy little program, <b>xli</b>.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Xli is a graphics manipulation program that is easily found at any of the
|
|
<a href="ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/X11/">sunsite mirrors</a> in the
|
|
X11 directory under the graphics viewers subdirectory. One of its handy
|
|
features is the "identification" mode that it can run in. To get
|
|
information about an image (from the command line) simply type in:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
xli -ident image.gif
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
and assuming that the image you were interested was, in fact, named
|
|
"image.gif" then it would print out a useful one-liner. Doing this
|
|
to the Forest.gif image that we just created using xv, we find:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
$ xli -ident ~/Forest.gif
|
|
/home/fiskjm/Forest.gif is a 256x256 GIF87a image with 256 colors
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
Hmm... the size is OK, but with 256 colors this will definitely burn out my
|
|
color map quicker than you can say Netscape! Now, enter the next useful
|
|
program to our arsenal of image tools -- <b>ImageMagick</b>.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
ImageMagick is one of those seriously cool, Must-Have programs if you're
|
|
playing around with images very often. I recently found the latest version
|
|
(nicely pre-compiled, thank you...) at the
|
|
<a href="ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/Incoming">GA Tech</a> sunsite
|
|
mirror (ImageMagick-3.7.9-tgz) along with the needed libraries
|
|
(libIMPlugin-1.0-tgz). Installing the precompiled bin's was a no-brainer and
|
|
I was up and running in no time flat.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
One of the programs that is included with ImageMagick (it's actually a suite
|
|
of programs) is <b>convert</b>. <b>convert</b> allows you to quickly and
|
|
easily convert images from one format to another and to optionally set its
|
|
various attributes. You need to have a look at the manual page (which is
|
|
included with the binaries) to really appreciate all the things this is
|
|
capable of doing. For what I was trying to do, all I needed was to set the
|
|
size of the color map to something a bit more sane.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Using the "-colors" option I was able to set the "preferred
|
|
number of colors" to something that was a bit more X friendly:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
convert -colors 32 ~/Forest.gif ~/forest.gif
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
Doing this and running xli on it once again, we find that it has, in fact,
|
|
been stripped down to a more lean 32 colors:
|
|
|
|
<pre>
|
|
xli -ident ~/forest.gif
|
|
~/forest.gif is a 256x256 interlaced GIF89a image with 32 colors
|
|
</pre>
|
|
|
|
That's a bit better. Now I suppose that I could have used an even smaller
|
|
number but 32 colors gave an image that differed visually from the original
|
|
image very little.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Anyway, that was it! I now had a 256x256 image with 32 colors that no longer
|
|
threatened to burn out my entire color map! I added a stanza to the Xinitrc
|
|
file and <i>voila!</i>, instant wallpaper!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Keep in mind that this is <i>hardly</i> the only way to do this. There are
|
|
several other nifty programs out there that provide similar functionality.
|
|
Try scrounging around in the X11/graphics/ subdirectory of any of the sunsite
|
|
mirrors or at <a href="ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/">ftp.x.org</a> in its contrib
|
|
subdirectory.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Another program that I'll mention before closing this up is the truly awesome
|
|
<b>xearth</b> program. If you're looking for a truly impressive, animated X
|
|
wallpaper program, look no further. This is one way too cool program! I
|
|
don't have a screen shot of it to show you but believe me, it's worth setting
|
|
it up and giving it a whirl! At the moment, you should be able to find it in
|
|
the <a href="ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/X11/xapps/graphics/">
|
|
/X11/xapps/graphics/</a> subdirectory of any of the sunsite Linux mirrors.
|
|
The file to look for is <b>xearth-1.0.tgz</b>.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Anyway, hope this gets you going! I admit that it's been a bit of a
|
|
smorgasbord of suggestions, but you might be able to find something useful
|
|
here! :-)
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
As usual, hope you enjoy!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
John<br>
|
|
Nashville, TN<br>
|
|
Mon Jan 20 21:08:25 CST 1997
|
|
|
|
<!-- END ARTICLE ================================================ -->
|
|
|
|
<P><HR><P>
|
|
|
|
<!-- CLOSING UP ================================================ -->
|
|
<H2><A NAME="closing"><IMG SRC="../gx/fisk/desklamp.gif" WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=100
|
|
ALIGN=BOTTOM>Closing Up Shop...</A></H2>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Well, as usual, things around here have been busier than I'd hoped and I just
|
|
don't have the time to do all of the writing that I'd like to. Also, I'm
|
|
trying to keep this page to a reasonable size :-) (those of you who've been
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|
hanging around here for a while might remember those 160K+ size pages...).
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<P>
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So what has everyone been up to? Found any new toys... :-)
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|
|
|
<P>
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|
Over Christmas, I <I>finally</I> started working on something that I'd been
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|
promising to do for ages: I've started to learn emacs! I have to say that
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|
this has been a bit of a paradigm shift after having used VIM for such a long
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|
time. However, I can see why the loyalties run so deep -- Emacs is a
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|
seriously cool and indisputably powerful editor. Truth is, however, that I've
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|
not taken the <I>purist</I> approach: I have to admit that I'm really using
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|
<b>XEmacs</b>. I also got my hands on an xemacs-derivative called
|
|
<b>infodock</b> which is another way-too-cool and VERY powerful editor.
|
|
|
|
<P>
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|
I'd hoped to write a bit on my initial experiences and impressions but I guess
|
|
that will have to wait for another month or so. Thing is, there are actually
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|
quite a number of GREAT editors out there to mess around with. And the more
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|
that I try out different ones (I've decided that I really am an "editor
|
|
junkie...") the more I'm convinced that the essence of the editor flame
|
|
wars that periodically erupt can be summed up in <I>preference</I>.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Not to throw a wet blanket on anyone's <I>jihad</I>, but...
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Although feature sets, user interfaces, resource utilization, performance
|
|
issues, and so forth are very valid issues when discussing the various merits
|
|
and liabilities of one's favorite editor, the bottom line is: you probably
|
|
use it because you like it! I have to admit that after using VIM for the past
|
|
couple years, emacs is something of an <I>acquired taste</I>. However, if
|
|
you've been using emacs for a while, then vi looks a bit stark and your
|
|
fingers feel bewildered.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Anyway, there's no accounting for taste and no apologies for it either. The
|
|
great thing about Linux is that "it restores the choice once again!"
|
|
Try everything out, use what is useful, keep what you like. And FWIW, those
|
|
of you using a VI clone like myself might be interested in giving the latest
|
|
iteration of VIM a test drive. As of a little bit ago, VIM 4.5 source was in
|
|
the sunsite Incoming directory. It can now be compiled, using the Motif
|
|
widget set, to have both a console-based and an honest-to-goodness X-based
|
|
interface. The X version is called <b>gvim</b> (for "Graphical
|
|
VIM") and I'm using it right now. It has all of the usual keystrokes
|
|
(for all you ten-fingered typers...) but has nice mouse support for cursor
|
|
positioning and cut-and-paste operations. It also sports a handsome
|
|
scrollbar, handles multiple windows with aplomb, and even touts a rudimentary
|
|
but useful menu bar. It has a very extensive online help system that is
|
|
vaguely hypertext-like: you can navigate from one "node" to another
|
|
using a keystroke similar to that with tags: Ctrl-] selects a node and Ctrl-t
|
|
returns you to the original location.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
With any luck, I'll have some time this next month and will try to put
|
|
something together -- mostly just chat, nothing terribly profound. I've got a
|
|
few screen dumps for the visually-oriented. Those of you who are considering
|
|
taking the leap and learning emacs might well be served to have a look at
|
|
this rascal. AND, keep in mind that it is NOT just an X Window app -- it'll
|
|
run in console mode just as easily as under X. Have a look at the XEmacs home
|
|
page for more info:
|
|
|
|
<H3><A HREF="http://www.xemacs.org/">www.xemacs.org</A></H3>
|
|
|
|
And while you're there, have a peek at the <b>infodock</b> stuff as well.
|
|
Finally, in this month's <b>Linux Journal</b> there's a very nice article by
|
|
an old LG regular: <b>Larry Ayers</b>, who has written a review comparing GNU
|
|
Emacs with XEmacs. For the curious, it's well worth having a look at what
|
|
Larry's impressions of the two were.
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Well, I've got a bit of work to get one tonight and so I'll wrap this up for
|
|
the month. I'm <I>still</I> trying to get out from underneath a pile of
|
|
email. Hang in there... I'm coming!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
Best Wishes and Happy Linux'ing!!
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
John M. Fisk<BR>
|
|
Nashville, TN<BR>
|
|
Monday, January 27, 1997
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|
|
|
<!-- END CLOSING UP ================================================ -->
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|
|
|
<P><HR><P>
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|
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<IMG SRC="./gx/fisk/mailbox.gif" ALIGN=MIDDLE WIDTH=38 HEIGHT=30> If you'd like,
|
|
drop me a note at:
|
|
<ADDRESS> John M. Fisk
|
|
<A HREF="mailto: fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu">
|
|
<fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu></A>
|
|
</ADDRESS>
|
|
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|
<P>
|
|
Version Information:<BR><B>
|
|
$Id: wkndmech.html,v 1.2 2002/10/09 22:24:17 lg Exp $
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|
</B>
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P><HR><P>
|
|
<center><H4>Previous "Weekend Mechanic" Columns</H4></center>
|
|
<P>
|
|
<A HREF="../issue11/wkndmech.html">Weekend Mechanic #1, November 1996</A><br>
|
|
<A HREF="../issue12/wkndmech.html">Weekend Mechanic #2, December 1996</A>
|
|
<P><HR><P>
|
|
<center><H5>Copyright © 1997, John M. Fisk <BR>
|
|
Published in Issue 14 of the Linux Gazette</H5></center>
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