9072 lines
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9072 lines
346 KiB
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<TITLE> Linux Gazette Table of Contents LG #77</TITLE>
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<H2>April 2002, Issue 77
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Published by <I>Linux Journal</I></H2>
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<A HREF="../index.html">Front Page</A> |
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<A HREF="../index.html">Back Issues</A> |
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<A HREF="../lg_faq.html">FAQ</A> |
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<A HREF="../tag/kb.html">The Answer Gang knowledge base</A> (your Linux questions here!) <!-- | --><BR>
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<!--=================================================================-->
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<!-- H1><font color="#BB0000">Table of Contents:</font></H1 -->
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<!-- *** BEGIN toc *** -->
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<UL>
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<LI> <a HREF="lg_mail.html">The MailBag</A>
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<LI> <a HREF="lg_tips.html">More 2-Cent Tips</A>
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<LI> <a HREF="lg_answer.html">The Answer Gang</A>
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<LI> <a HREF="lg_bytes.html">News Bytes</A>
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<LI> <a HREF="collinge.html">Help Dex and Qubism</A> , <EM>by Shane Collinge and Jon "Sir Flakey" Harsem</EM>
|
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<LI> <a HREF="kollar.html">Working with Micro-Distributions, or Linux in Your Pocket</A> , <EM>by Larry "Dirt Road" Kollar</EM>
|
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<LI> <a HREF="krishnakumar.html">Writing Your Own Toy OS (Part I)</A> , <EM>by Krishnakumar R.</EM>
|
||
<LI> <a HREF="lechnyr.html">Network Security with /proc/sys/net/ipv4</A> , <EM>by David Lechnyr</EM>
|
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<LI> <a HREF="pitcher.html">Linux Line Printing Daemon for Mainframe Application "Print-to-Email"</A> , <EM>by Lew Pitcher</EM>
|
||
<LI> <a HREF="sunil.html">Setting Up a Linux-based PPP Callback server</A> , <EM>by Sunil Thomas Thonikuzhiyil</EM>
|
||
<LI> <a HREF="taneja.html">Displaying Real Time System information on a LCD Display using LCDproc & lcdmod</A> , <EM>by Gaurav Taneja</EM>
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<LI> <a HREF="lg_backpage.html">The Back Page</A>
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<!--=================================================================-->
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<H3 ALIGN="center"><EM>Linux Gazette</EM> Staff and The Answer Gang</H3>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
|
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<STRONG>Editor:</STRONG> Michael Orr<BR>
|
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<STRONG>Technical Editor:</STRONG> Heather Stern<BR>
|
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<STRONG>Senior Contributing Editor:</STRONG> Jim Dennis<BR>
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<STRONG>Contributing Editors:</STRONG>
|
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Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Don Marti
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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there is no guarantee of working links in the HTML version.
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<center>
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<I>Linux Gazette</I><img alt="[tm]" src="../gx/tm.gif">,
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<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/">http://www.linuxgazette.com/</A><BR>
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This page maintained by the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>,
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<A HREF="mailto: gazette@ssc.com"> gazette@ssc.com</A>
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<P>
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<H5>Copyright © 1996-2002 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.</H5>
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<!--=================================================================-->
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<center>
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<H1><A NAME="wanted"><IMG ALIGN=MIDDLE ALT="" SRC="../gx/mailbox.gif">
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The Mailbag</A></H1> <BR>
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<!-- BEGIN wanted -->
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</center>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<!-- =================================================================== -->
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<center><H3><font color="maroon">HELP WANTED : Article Ideas</font></H3></center>
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<P>
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<P> Send tech-support questions, Tips, answers and article ideas to The Answer Gang
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<<A HREF="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com"
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>linux-questions-only@ssc.com</A>>. Other mail (including
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questions or comments about the <EM>Gazette</EM> itself) should go to
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<<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A>>. All material
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sent to either of these addresses will be considered for publication in the
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next issue. <EM>Please send answers to the original querent too, so that s/he
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can get the answer without waiting for the next issue.</EM>
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<P> Unanswered questions might appear here. Questions with
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answers--or answers only--appear in The Answer Gang, 2-Cent Tips, or here,
|
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depending on their content. There is no guarantee that questions will
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<em>ever</em> be answered, especially if not related to Linux.
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<P> <STRONG>Before asking a question, please check the
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<A HREF="../faq/index.html"><I>Linux Gazette</I> FAQ</A> (for questions about the
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Gazette) or <A HREF="../tag/kb.html">The Answer Gang Knowledge Base</A> (for
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questions about Linux) to see if it has been
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answered there.</STRONG>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<!--====================================================================-->
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<!-- BEGIN HELP WANTED : Article Ideas -->
|
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<UL>
|
||
<!-- index_text begins -->
|
||
<li><A HREF="#wanted/1"
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||
><strong>Please help - private email setup</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#wanted/2"
|
||
><strong>Video Card and OpenGL</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#wanted/3"
|
||
><strong>vpn</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#wanted/4"
|
||
><strong>who's linked?</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#wanted/5"
|
||
><strong>serial programming in linux</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#wanted/6"
|
||
><strong>external modem problem</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">Please help - private email setup</FONT></H3>
|
||
Sat, 2 Mar 2002 17:11:10 +0200
|
||
<BR>Cheryl (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=cherylj1@freemail.absa.co.za&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20help%20wanted%20%231%20private%20email">cherylj1 from freemail.absa.co.za</a>)
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||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hi there
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I would like to know how to set up my email on my home network with
|
||
win98 outlook express and Linux.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I would like to set it up so that I can email anybody else
|
||
in the house on the network and email via the internet when
|
||
needed.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Thank You
|
||
<br>Cheryl
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 1 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="wanted/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">Video Card and OpenGL</FONT></H3>
|
||
Mon, 4 Mar 2002 17:28:27 -0500 (EST)
|
||
<BR>Daniel S. Washko (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=dann@thelinuxlink.net&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20help%20wanted%20%232%20OpenGL%20video%20card">dann from thelinuxlink.net</a>)
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
First, some recommendations for a video card (other than Nvidia) that works
|
||
very well with Mesa and other standard OpenGL apps. I'm considering Ati
|
||
Radeon, but would like to hear input from others.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Second, I have a TNT2 and run the Nvidia drivers and Nvidia GLX. I have
|
||
had random success compiling OpenGL based programs in the past. Today, I
|
||
learned that Nvidia's headers are not placed in <TT>/usr/include/GL</TT>
|
||
so as not to
|
||
override the defaults that are installed with your system. I'm not sure
|
||
whether this was a recent addition to the Nvidia readme, or I just missed it
|
||
all those times in the past. I run slack 8.0 and often create packages from
|
||
the sources I compile to be used on other systems. If I switch to using the
|
||
nvidia OpenGL headers will this cause problems with systems not running
|
||
Nvidia GL?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Thanks for considering my issues.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 2 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="wanted/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">vpn</FONT></H3>
|
||
Sat, 16 Mar 2002 10:57:09 -0400
|
||
<BR>Medina (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=malexp@cotas.com.bo&cc=fbarousse@piensa.com&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20help%20wanted%20%233%20FreeSWAN">malexp from cotas.com.bo</a>)
|
||
<br>Translation by Felipe Barousse (<A HREF="mailto:fbarousse@piensa.com">fbarousse from piensa.com</A>)
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Multiple translators offered one; I have selected Felipe's as being the most
|
||
faithful to the original text.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Anyone who feels inclined to answer this, it's okay to answer in English,
|
||
just copy our translator so the querent can get a copy in Spanish, and
|
||
the <i>Gazette</i> so I can post the follow-up in a later issue.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Alternatively, <A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeswan/">FreeS/WAN</A> has been growing in popularity, and anybody who
|
||
has an interest in writing a "setting the FreeS/WAN VPN up from scratch"
|
||
article, possibly even comparing the effort against other tries for your
|
||
own VPN (virtual private network) setup. would surely earn a great many
|
||
virtual beers.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Normally the gang razzes people who want us to do their homework for them.
|
||
But the truth is that the most useful thing the <EM>Gazette</EM> has
|
||
to say for this subject is that you can buy one from
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> (News Bytes, issue 74). See
|
||
our author guidelines if interested:
|
||
<A HREF="../faq/author.html"
|
||
>http://www.linuxgazette.com/faq/author.html</A>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><DL><DT>
|
||
Make sure to refer to current FreeS/WAN docs:
|
||
<DD><A HREF="http://www.freeswan.org/freeswan_trees/freeswan-1.95/doc/index.html"
|
||
>http://www.freeswan.org/freeswan_trees/freeswan-1.95/doc/index.html</A>
|
||
</DL></P>
|
||
|
||
<hr width="40%" align="center">
|
||
<P>
|
||
les agradeceria mucho que la información fuera en español
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hola quiero realizar una trbajo para la materia de redes me pueden ayudar
|
||
gracias
|
||
como creo una vpn con dos pcs con suse linux 7.0 y freeswan 1.4
|
||
como configuro los archivos ipsec.conf e ipsec.secrets, ademas quiero ver
|
||
si funciona la conexión haciendo ping y telnet con y sin cifrado de una pc
|
||
ala otra y usando ehterreal como se si ese paquete esta cifrado o no
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
quiero hacerlo usando primero direccion fija y luego direccion dinamica
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
primero con direccion fija
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
la pc1 tiene la ip 1.2.3.225 y la pc2 la ip 1.2.3.226 y el gateway la ip
|
||
1.2.3.1 como configuro esto con freeswan.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
segundo con direccion ip fija en la pc1 y dinamica en la pc2
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
la pc1 tiene la ip 1.2.3.225 y la pc2 la ip x.x.x.x y el gateway de la pc1
|
||
con la ip 1.2.3.1 como configuro esto con freeswan.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
ESQUEMA DEL LABORATORIO A REALIZAR
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
COMO HAGO PARA CONFIGURAR ESTOS ESQUEMAS CON FREESWAN
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
ESQUEMA PARA LAS DIRECCIONES IP FIJAS
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre> __________
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||
|INTERNET|
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||
----------
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||
|
|
||
|
|
||
_______
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||
|modem|
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||
-------
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
______
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||
|router| ip=1.2.3.1
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||
------
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||
|
|
||
|
|
||
________
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||
| switch |
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||
----------
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||
/ \
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||
/ \
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||
pc1 pc2
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||
ip=1.2.3.225 ip=1.2.3.226
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||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
ESQUEMA PARA LA DIRECCION IP FIJA DE LA PC1 Y DINAMICA PARA LA PC2
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre> __________
|
||
|INTERNET|
|
||
----------
|
||
| \
|
||
| \
|
||
_______ PC2
|
||
|modem| IP=X.X.X.X
|
||
-------
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
______
|
||
|router| ip=1.2.3.1
|
||
------
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
________
|
||
| switch |
|
||
----------
|
||
/
|
||
/
|
||
pc1
|
||
ip=1.2.3.225
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
|
||
<hr width="40%" align="center">
|
||
<h4>Translation</h4>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
Hello:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I am doing my homework for the "Networking" class, if you can help me
|
||
I'd appreciate it.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
How do I create a VPN with two PC's using Linux 7.0 and Freeswan 1.4 ?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
How do I configure the files ipsec.conf and ipsec.secrets ? Besides, I
|
||
want to find out if the connection works using ping and telnet with and
|
||
without encryption from a PC to the other and, lastly; using Etherreal,
|
||
how can I verify if a packet is or is not encrypted. ?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I want to do all this using first fixed IP addresses and later on
|
||
dynamic IP addresses; let me show you the example with a fixed IP first:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
PC1 has ip 1.2.3.225 and PC2 has ip 1.2.3.226, gateway has ip 1.2.3.1.
|
||
How do I configure this with Freeswan ?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Second, with fixed IP on PC1 and PC2 has IP x.x.x.x, gateway remains the
|
||
same with ip 1.2.3.1. How do I configure this with Freeswan ?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The LAB DIAGRAM to comply with is as follows: How do I make to configure
|
||
all this with Freeswan ?:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
DIAGRAM FOR FIZED IP ADDRESSES
|
||
</p><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
[first diagram shown above]
|
||
</BLOCKQuote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
DIAGRAM FOR FIZED IP ON PC1 and DYNAMIC IP ON PC2
|
||
</P>
|
||
<BLOCKQuote>
|
||
[second diagram shown above]
|
||
</BLOCKQuote>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 3 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="wanted/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">who's linked?</FONT></H3>
|
||
Wed, 13 Mar 2002 20:19:41 -0500
|
||
<BR>Heather Stern (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=pea@ahlquist.org&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20help%20wanted%20%234%20very%20dynamic%20linking">The Editor Gal</a>)
|
||
<br>answer offered by Paul E Ahlquist Jr
|
||
|
||
<P><strong>
|
||
In Issue76 [Heather] mused....
|
||
</strong></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
...a way to ask a program which libraries it is potential-linking
|
||
as well as dynamic-linking to, ...
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Paul Ahlquist answered with this basic Tip:
|
||
<br>If your system lib's deity of choice is "ld", then "ldd" should
|
||
answer the burning question.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hmm, I guess I wasn't entirely clear what I was really asking:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
dynamic-linking: as in not static, see 'ldd'. Binaries which are dynamically
|
||
linked will fail if the library is not present. This is what almost every
|
||
program on the planet does, because nobody wants to waste the memory space
|
||
for extra copies of glibc, at least without a good reason.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
potential-linking: as in "if this library is not present I won't shed a
|
||
tear, but if it <EM>is</EM> I'd like to use GTK please", see ... ?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Such a binary would have to somehow check that the library was somewhere
|
||
it had access to, then use <TT> dlopen()</TT> to request loading the one
|
||
it found. 'strings' might reveal it, but I'm not sure how reliable it is
|
||
for this, thus the question.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I suppose not very many people code potential-linking into their programs,
|
||
so it's not the first thing that leaps to mind; still... since I mention
|
||
"dynamic linking" in the same sentence as this other sort, one would have
|
||
thought I meant <EM>something</EM> different?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Anybody know a reliable way to ask a program about the library-load
|
||
requests it <EM>hopes</EM> to make? (as opposed to <EM>has to</EM> make)
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
But while I'm at it, another question:
|
||
if anyone knows a reliable way to ask a binary which libraries it has been
|
||
statically-linked to, that'd be nice too. 'strings' usually <EM>does</EM>
|
||
reveal this, but... anyone know how reliable or complete it is?
|
||
</P>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 4 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="wanted/5"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">serial programming in linux</FONT></H3>
|
||
Tue, 19 Mar 2002 00:29:23 -0500
|
||
<BR>Chenfeng Song (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=cs2bs@cms.mail.virginia.edu&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20help%20wanted%20%235%20serial%20programming">cs2bs from cms.mail.virginia.edu</a>)
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hi, dear Heather,
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
This is Clement from University of Virginia. I am working
|
||
on a project involving serial port programming under linux.
|
||
I am new in the linux world and don't quite know where to
|
||
start.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I have read most of the Serial-HOWTO online but none gave
|
||
me the information that I needed.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I came across the linuxgazette.com and saw your discussion
|
||
on serial programming. I am wondering if you can give me
|
||
some pointers here. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Things that I am trying to do:
|
||
I want to connect the 9DB RS232 on my linux box to a
|
||
Ericsson Bluetooth module. At the same time, I want to use
|
||
one of unused pins, RI or CD pin for instance, to serve as
|
||
a trigger to another circuit. Therefore, I need to be able
|
||
to turn that specific pin to high and low at desired time.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
My questions are:
|
||
</p><ol>
|
||
<li> How can I control a specific pin?
|
||
<li> What are the header files I shall be looking at? (I have
|
||
been using termios.h and fcntl.h along with some other
|
||
files. However, I found it very hard to understand. )
|
||
</ol>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Thank you very much. I am looking forward to hearing from
|
||
you.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Clement Song
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 5 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="wanted/6"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">external modem problem</FONT></H3>
|
||
Sun, 10 Mar 2002 17:31:31 +0800 (CST)
|
||
<BR>amitava maity (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?cc=amaity@vsnl.net&subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20help%20wanted%20%236%20modem%20or%20dialup%20qmail">amaity from vsnl.net</a>)
|
||
<br>Answer offered by Ben Okopnik
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Two questions - one hardware matter, <EM>probably</EM> not linux. The other, a
|
||
good question, especially in the general form, and would make an excellent
|
||
article.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
I have an V90/K56flex external modem that I use to connect with my ISP via
|
||
a dial-up line. The modem obeys the Hayes command set. Now the point to
|
||
note is that I have make a long distance call or STD call as we call it here in
|
||
India, to establish a connection. This might seem a very expensive
|
||
thing to do but I have no other option. Now each time I establish a
|
||
connection using kppp the modem waits for almost 40secs inbetween
|
||
transmission of packets whose duration is approximately 5secs. Thus after
|
||
establishing a connection the modem activity is as follows:
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
40secs-no TD/RD, 5secs-TD/RD, 40secs-no TD/RD, 5secs-TD/RD, ........
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
Is this normal or is something wrong? Do you think there is something
|
||
wrong with some configuration somewhere?
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I suspect that there <EM>is</EM> something wrong... but it's most likely not
|
||
configuration, at least not software-wise; it's either your modem, or your
|
||
ISP.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
The same thing happens in Windows too.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
So... it's got nothing to do with Linux, then.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Try using another modem, preferably with a different computer, from your
|
||
location. If the problem persists, it's your ISP. If it goes away, it's
|
||
your computer and/or modem.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- sig -->
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Thanks for your prompt reply. I have been trying out your suggestions.
|
||
Unfortunately there aren't any Linux boxes in my locality. Changing the
|
||
computer does not seem to improve the performance of the modem. As for
|
||
trying out another ISP, I don't have any options.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Are there any parameters in the Hayes set that could affect the TD/RD rate
|
||
of the modem?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Finally may I add another question? Could someone point me to an article
|
||
or HOWTO about setting up qmail in a stand-alone home computer for
|
||
transfering mail to an ISP mail server over a dial-up line. The
|
||
documentation with the package isn't of much help.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- amitava maity
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 6 -->
|
||
<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>Modules in /boot bad idea?</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">Modules in /boot bad idea?</FONT></H3>
|
||
Sat, 16 Mar 2002 11:55:48 -0700
|
||
<BR>Dave Anselmi (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20mailbag%20%231%20modules%20in%20boot">anselmi from americanisp.net</a>)
|
||
|
||
<p><em>I considered putting this in TAG - it's a mite large for Tips - but
|
||
since I've given the nod to our readers rather eloquently, I put it here
|
||
instead. Thanks to all our fans -- Heather</em></p>
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Hi,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I was disturbed to read Heather's suggestion to put kernel modules on a
|
||
<TT>/boot</TT> partition ("booting multiple linux distributions" TAG #5, Issue
|
||
76). My question is, why would you bother to do this? It seems error
|
||
prone to me.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Because on triple boot systems where all three are Linux, it means they
|
||
can all use the kernels. As soon as the symlinks are established it works
|
||
marvelously - personal experience.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I didn't recommend it as the only thing one could do; just a possibility
|
||
among many, and part of an answer to a question asking "which partitions
|
||
can be shared?"
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
To summarize: <TT>/tmp</TT>, swap, and ... if you are careful ... <TT>/home</TT> and <TT>/boot.</TT>
|
||
If "error prone" are the kind of words that scare you from even trying
|
||
something, or learning what "careful" means for your context, you should
|
||
share neither <TT>/home</TT> nor <TT>/boot.</TT>
|
||
</P>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Unlike the kernel itself(1), modules are read through the filesystem so
|
||
their visibility does not depend on which partition they are on. In
|
||
fact, putting them on <TT>/boot</TT> means they are not available until <TT>/boot</TT> is
|
||
mounted, which is noticably after the kernel is loaded. This
|
||
complicates the boot process by adding a dependency that <TT>/boot</TT> must be
|
||
mounted before any modules are loaded. (Normally <TT>/boot</TT> doesn't need to
|
||
be mounted at all unless building kernels or modifying lilo).
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The kernel wouldn't load sanely if a module were needed to mount <TT>/boot</TT>
|
||
successfully. In my philosophy <TT>/boot</TT> is always mounted read-only because
|
||
I keep its symbol map there, and a copy oof the .config I used to make it.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
But of course, I build kernels all the time, it's something I do for clients
|
||
as well as myself.
|
||
</P>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Further, there is more chance of causing collisions between distros in
|
||
the modules tree. Presumably multi-boot systems use a separate /
|
||
partition for each distro. This means that each will have its own
|
||
<TT>/lib/modules</TT> tree with subtrees for each kernel version. Moving each of
|
||
these to <TT>/boot</TT> means that each distro shares modules with the others. I
|
||
would guess that usually that won't be a problem, but if it is then it
|
||
would probably be hard to debug.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
kernels are not distro specific and anybody who tries to tell you so needs
|
||
to be whapped a good one. The only thing about them that even <EM>approaches</EM>
|
||
it is that some distros are kind enough to package kernel-and-module kits
|
||
for you. For each distro:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><CODE>
|
||
ln -s /lib/modules /boot/modules
|
||
</CODE></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
There, now they are all happy. "complicated" ? no. "error prone" ? only
|
||
if you're foolish enough to trust a packging system to remove kernels for
|
||
you. The only one I even let <EM>try</EM> is debian, and then only when I have
|
||
known good kernels that LILO knows about already.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
mounting <TT>/boot</TT> earlier in a startup sequence may be needed for some distros.
|
||
If one such distro is among your dual-or-more Linux mix, then I heartily
|
||
recommend initrd so you'll never need to worry about that.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
But it works fine for mixing <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> with RedHat, as of a few revisions ago
|
||
on both of them.
|
||
</P>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
The only advantage I can see to putting modules on <TT>/boot</TT> is being able
|
||
to share disk space for them between distributions.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
Gawd yes.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
But the
|
||
complication of having several distros mucking with each other's modules
|
||
seems to outweigh that.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
I don't let package managers "muck" with my kernels and you shouldn't either.
|
||
As soon as you know enough about what you want in kernels to care this deeply
|
||
then you should not be worrying about packaged kernels anymore - roll your
|
||
own, make it match your real hardware, and use the same, well behaved kernel
|
||
no matter which userland you select to run today.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I don't follow Heather's assertion that running
|
||
a 2.4.x kernel package and a 2.5.x kernel built from source is simplier
|
||
with this scheme - the modules are already kept separate in <TT>/lib/modules</TT>
|
||
by separate version directories. Am I missing something more
|
||
significant?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
Ohhh, you had some sort of delusion that I was taking (for instance) 2.2.18
|
||
modules, 2.4.12 modules, 2.4.19-pre3 modules, and throwing them all in one
|
||
directory together? <EM>That</EM> certainly wouldn't work.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Certainly this method can be made to work, but I would guess it is only
|
||
for sophisticated users with specific circumstances. That's not typical
|
||
of readers of The Answer Gang, is it?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
There is no such thing as a "typical" reader of The Answer Gang. We get
|
||
complex questions, simple questions, complex phrasings of simple questions
|
||
(ugh), and simple phrasings of complex questions (yay!). We get discussions
|
||
about the deep magic of programming and how to properly use the "date"
|
||
program. And everything in between.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
If you assume that by having a worldwide audience we are always going to
|
||
play to the dumbest possible reader, sorry but that's not so. Every member
|
||
of the Gang will answer any given question their own way; when all is said
|
||
and done, I'm mostly just turning a conversation originally written "radio
|
||
reciever" style (everybody gets their say in big paragraphs) into a more
|
||
readable "group conversation" style.
|
||
</P>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
In <EM>my</EM> case, by the time someone is considering triple booting anything,
|
||
they are sophisticated enough to consider options such as these that I
|
||
have used.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
But a good point to bring up is: distros do change over time. Something
|
||
that worked very nicely a year ago may be all wrong now, or very complicated
|
||
now, or just have a much easier answer at hand now. As with maps, the
|
||
picture and the advice are not the territory itself.
|
||
</P>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Dave
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
(1) Boot loaders like lilo need to load the kernel as disk blocks using
|
||
bios calls. There was a period when disk sizes were large enough that
|
||
the bios could not address the entire disk. On such a system, it is
|
||
convenient to make a <TT>/boot</TT> partition at the beginning of the disk so
|
||
lilo will be able to load the kernel. On smaller disks or with newer
|
||
bios, this work around isn't necessary.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
But may be handy if you have a disk disaster, to know that kernels were
|
||
nearer to the front than the back of the drive.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Of course if you fear this, give up on LILO and switch to a boot loader
|
||
which will seek out kernels wherever they happen to live on the disk.
|
||
(Advice good for PC users only. Sparc's SILO already does that.)
|
||
</P>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
P.S. <TT>/lib/MOVING</TT> can be deleted safely before rebooting. Although
|
||
directory information will be removed immediately, open files will not
|
||
have their inodes freed until they are closed. That's why <TT>/lib/modules</TT>
|
||
can be replaced by a symlink while the system is running in the first
|
||
place.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
If one is going to be complicated, it pays to keep an eye on the details.
|
||
In this case it cautions one, and may even comfort one, that you have not
|
||
deleted the original directory until you actually make that choice, as a
|
||
sysadmin, and after your new boot sequences are tested.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.toms.net/rb/">Tom's rootboot</A> is good to have around too.
|
||
</P>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
|
||
<hr width="40%" align="center"
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Thanks for the reply Heather. I'm amazed how quickly you guys turn questions
|
||
around. I used to be an avid LG reader and just picked it up again this month.
|
||
Now I remember why I liked it so much
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</P>
|
||
<p><em>I don't let package managers "muck" with my kernels ... roll your
|
||
own ... and use the same, well behaved kernel no matter which userland you
|
||
select to run today.
|
||
</em></p>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Ahh, I see. I had assumed you had different kernels for different distros
|
||
but of course the first time I found myself building the same kernel on two
|
||
different distros I'd realize they should be shared. I guess I don't use
|
||
enough different distros at the same time to run into that, which is why I
|
||
asked about it.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Thanks for enlightening me.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<p><em>...no such thing as a "typical" reader of The Answer Gang. ... more
|
||
readable "group conversation" style.
|
||
</em></p>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Well, I appreciate that immensely. It's always nice to have something
|
||
intriguing to think about even though the overall topic may be well known
|
||
(if not to beginners). You do a great service to your readers when you
|
||
throw in a little something over their heads. It gives them something
|
||
further to explore rather than making them think everything has been
|
||
said (never the case, of course).
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Count me a fan!
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Dave
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 3 -->
|
||
<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: Job Announcements</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#gaz/2"
|
||
><strong>Another round in the spam war</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#gaz/3"
|
||
><strong>Now we're trying to look Really Cool rather than just plain</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">Re: Job Announcement</FONT></H3>
|
||
Wed, 20 Feb 2002 12:06:53 -0800
|
||
<BR>Multiple recruiters (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20gazette%20matters%20%231%20job&20postings">anonymous</a>)
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
We got a handful of a requests for job postings this month. Here's the
|
||
policy.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<HR width="10%" align="center"><P>
|
||
LG doesn't publish job listings because they are temporary in
|
||
nature.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
LG is for more permanent material. Job openings change so frequently
|
||
that by the time the next issue is published, the job could well be filled.
|
||
And if we publish one job listing, we'd have to publish them all.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
We do not currently have any other place to post job listings, so I
|
||
suggest you try another site such as
|
||
<a href="http://mojolin.com/">mojolin.com</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://dice.com/">dice.com</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://monster.com/">monster.com</a>, etc.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Mike Orr
|
||
</P>
|
||
<em>
|
||
<p>Sadly jobs.osdn.com closed down, but they recommend (in addition to some
|
||
of the above) <a href="http://www.hotlinuxjobs.com/">hotlinuxjobs.com</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.brassring.com/">Brass Ring</a>, and
|
||
<a href="http://www.jobpenguin.com/">JobPenguin</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Attending any of the related user groups in the region to make your
|
||
announcement may also be valuable. It may be useful to consider if you
|
||
need someone who already has the skills, or if you'd gladly settle for
|
||
someone talented enough that they can become the person you seek to hire.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<p>
|
||
SSC, our host, also hosts a "Groups of Linux Users Everywhere" resource
|
||
listing a lot of LUGS worth visiting:
|
||
<br><A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/glue"
|
||
>http://www.linuxjournal.com/glue</A>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Good luck in your quest.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Heather
|
||
</P>
|
||
</em>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 1 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="gaz/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">Another round in the spam war</FONT></H3>
|
||
Wed, 13 Mar 2002 11:01:50 -0800
|
||
<BR>Lew Pitcher (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20gazette%20matters%20%232%20refused%20connections">lpitcher from sympatico.ca</a>)
|
||
|
||
<p><em>...after some effort to get Mike his article submission...</em></p>
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
PS: I'm trying a roundabout route to get this email to you; it seems
|
||
that your email server doesn't like my ISP's email server and has
|
||
rejected my last two attempts at emailing this to you. Since my ISP is a
|
||
large Canadian provider, it may take some time to persue and correct the
|
||
mutual email problems, and in the mean time, I'm trying this end-run to
|
||
get the article to you.
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Our sysadmin Dan Wilder verified we're refusing mail connections from
|
||
sympatico.ca because they're refusing mail connections from us. Or rather, the
|
||
connection times out when we try to reach them. This causes a load on our
|
||
mail server because the message sits on our outgoing queue for several days as
|
||
it keeps trying to send it. Ask your ISP whether their mail server is
|
||
blacklisting ssc.com. If not, we'll turn off the lock. But you may mention
|
||
that we're still unhappy about the large amount of spam we receive from
|
||
sympatico.ca.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Setting up a mail server in send-only mode is a common tactic by spammers.
|
||
Not saying that sympatico is doing this, because they need to receive mail
|
||
for their users. But that's why we block out any site that sends us mail but
|
||
consistently refuses connections from us. They do it because those "1 million
|
||
e-mail address" lists have a large number of obsolete addresses that cause
|
||
bounces, and their mail server couldn't handle the bounce traffic. (Or maybe
|
||
it could, but that would slow down their spam-sending.
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> )
|
||
Which is exactly what's happening: sympatico users send spams to fifty
|
||
or a hundred accounts here that have been deactivated or never existed, and our
|
||
mail server bogs down trying to send back the bounce messages--which they
|
||
refuse. But probably what sympatico has is a misconfigured mail server. Our
|
||
error message tells who to call if their postmaster cares. From
|
||
/etc/postfix/access:
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<p><TT>sympatico.ca 550 You refuse our connections so we refuse yours: 1-206-782-8808
|
||
if you have corrected the problem.
|
||
</TT></p>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I'm cc'ing your sympatico address with this letter to see if it gets through.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Mike Orr
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="gaz/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/envelope.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">how we're trying to look Really Cool rather than just plain</FONT></H3>
|
||
Wed, 20 Feb 2002 12:06:53 -0800
|
||
<BR>Linux Gazette (<a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%20gazette%20matters%20%231%20job&20postings">The Editors</a>)
|
||
|
||
<p>Please see the <a href="lg_backpage.html">Back Page</a> for details.</p>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 2 -->
|
||
<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 ©</a> 2002
|
||
<BR>Published in issue 77 of <I>Linux Gazette</I> April 2002</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¢ 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>Hard Disk: BadCRC errors from dma_intr on bootup...</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/2"
|
||
><strong>[LG 76] wanted #7 lockups after upgrade</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/3"
|
||
><strong>[LG 76] mailbag #2 make install</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/4"
|
||
><strong>xtraceroute question in the Mailbag</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/5"
|
||
><strong>.dat files</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/6"
|
||
><strong>information on catching a packet through network</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/7"
|
||
><strong>debian pictures</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/8"
|
||
><strong>[LG 76] wanted #4 DHCP</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/9"
|
||
><strong>Dial in access with PPP</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/10"
|
||
><strong>DOSEMU Help!!</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/11"
|
||
><strong>Dos linux partition access</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/12"
|
||
><strong>INSTALLING RED HAT 7</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/13"
|
||
><strong>[TAG] Recompiling of a linux kernel</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/14"
|
||
><strong>[TAG] Linux NEC printer problem</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/15"
|
||
><strong>Memory Mapping</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/16"
|
||
><strong>what is NET4?</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/17"
|
||
><strong>NFS mount permission</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/18"
|
||
><strong>Mandrake 8.1 and nVidia</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/19"
|
||
><strong>Don't Like Your ISP's Choice of Name Servers?</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/20"
|
||
><strong>share the directory</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/21"
|
||
><strong>Machine Check Exception!</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/22"
|
||
><strong>[TAG] two monitors</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/23"
|
||
><strong>winux?</strong></a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="#tips/24"
|
||
><strong>xfree86 4.2</strong></a>
|
||
<li><i>Linux Journal</i>'s Weekly News Notes <a href="#tips/lj">Tech Tips</a>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="#lj/1">E-mail stats via Python</a>
|
||
<li><a href="#lj/2">Tech Tips: Hotkeys</a>
|
||
<li><a href="#lj/3">Imposing a minimum font size on Mozilla</a>
|
||
<li><A HREF="http://noframes.linuxjournal.com/subscribe/lja-sub.html"
|
||
>subscribe to</a> <I>Linux Journal's</I> Weekly News Notes
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<!-- 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">Hard Disk: BadCRC errors from dma_intr on bootup...</FONT></H3>
|
||
Mon, 18 Mar 2002 07:37:02 -0500
|
||
<BR>lf11 (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%231%20bad%20CRC">lf11 from jaos.org</a>)
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
I had this exact same problem.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Try disabling HDD S.M.A.R.T. in the BIOS. Worked for me. Dunno why,
|
||
though!
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-Chris
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 1 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/2"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">[LG 76] wanted #7 lockups after upgrade</FONT></H3>
|
||
Sat, 2 Mar 2002 22:19:30 -0600
|
||
<BR>ABrady (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%232%20lockups%20after%20upgrade">kcsmart from kc.rr.com</a>)
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
I would still suggest ram, even if it didn't cause problems before.
|
||
Everything has to have a first time failure. I had a ram board that
|
||
would work merrily along for days before suddenly locking up. I presume
|
||
it would have shown itself sooner had I changed to something needing
|
||
more ram to work well.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Secondly I'd look at heat. Is this machine in a warm place? A hot CPU is
|
||
a grumpy CPU. Video players can put a strain on them.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Third, power supply. RH7.2 requires more resources than 6.2 required.
|
||
More resource needs will put a strain on the power supply. Not
|
||
necessarily a likely problem, but the symptoms certainly suggest it as a
|
||
possibility.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Video cards can do this, as can sound as you suggested.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Finally, I've had problems with this myself, all caused in the past by
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</A>, gnome and screensavers. I have a friend that turned of f the
|
||
screensavers in gnome and ran xscreensaver and his crashes stopped. He
|
||
did the same in KDE and, again, crashes disappeared. This would also
|
||
suggest a relationship between video boards, libraries, compile-time
|
||
options, etc. Since most people use "outta the box" RPMs, the compile
|
||
options aren't necessarily optimized to work with their other hardware.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Alan Brady
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 2 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/3"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">[LG 76] mailbag #2 make install</FONT></H3>
|
||
Thu, 14 Mar 2002 19:52:40 +0100
|
||
<BR>Jean-Claude Ben (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%233%20make%20install">jean-claude.ben from wanadoo.fr</a>)
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
You're right
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
That's after the make that you must become root (you need to be root to
|
||
install the files but not to compile them
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 3 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">xtraceroute question in the Mailbag</FONT></H3>
|
||
Sun, 03 Mar 2002 21:13:41 -0700
|
||
<BR>Will Wesley (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%234%20xtraceroute">willwesleyccna from yahoo.de</a>)
|
||
<br>asked by Mike "Iron" Orr, <em>LG</em> Editor
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
There's a program in <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> unstable called xt (xtraceroute). It's
|
||
supposed to plot the traceroute path on a picture of the earth.
|
||
However, it doesn't seem to have enough location coordinates in its
|
||
database to do anything. Has anybody used this program? Did you
|
||
have to enter your own coordinates for all the hosts you traceroute
|
||
from and to?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I am not subscribed to the list, or however it works, so please forgive
|
||
me if this is going to the wrong adress, I did my best to accertain that
|
||
this was the one. In anycase, I believe I can give an answer.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Many routers, and other end nodes, can be configured to know what thier
|
||
geographical location is in longitude and latitude coordinates. This
|
||
allows diagnostic information, and the curious, to find where on earth a
|
||
particular device is located. However, network administrators may be too
|
||
lazy to look up and configure such information, and/or not really care
|
||
to. There really isn't any good reason to do this, except for satisfying
|
||
the curious people.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 4 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/5"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">.dat files</FONT></H3>
|
||
Wed, 20 Mar 2002 13:24:52 +0100
|
||
<BR>Robos (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%235%20play%20dat">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<br>asked by Elliot (32009318 from snetmp.cpg.com.au)
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
does linux support the playback of .dat files and what are the
|
||
recommended (easiest/most powerfull/stable) player
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hi!
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Well, probably you mean vcd (video-cd) data files (there is the actual
|
||
movie data in there). If anything is related in some way to movie,
|
||
<EM>always</EM> take mplayer (mplayerhq.hu). I follow their mailing-list
|
||
closely and mplayer plays (nearly) every movie format you throw at it,
|
||
for example *avi (divx), mpeg1/2, divx5, fli, film (from sega game cd)
|
||
roq (id film sequences, for instance from quake 3 or rtcw), qt kinda,
|
||
rm kinda, asf streaming even, wmv ....
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
So, take a look, it works great.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Robos
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- 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">information on catching a packet through network</FONT></H3>
|
||
Wed, 20 Mar 2002 00:21:15 -0800 (PST)
|
||
<BR>Chris Gianakopoulos (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%236%20packets">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<br>asked by bharath kumar
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
hi,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
we are working on a project which involves
|
||
playing with the network for capturing the packets.
|
||
Right now we are stuck because we only know about
|
||
SKBUFF i.e. socket buffer.But we are not able to
|
||
track any detailed information about how to use it.
|
||
Everywhere there is a brief introduction to the
|
||
SKBUFF functions but not on how to use it.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
If your team can help us in
|
||
directing to a site or some other source through
|
||
which we can capture each & every packet traversing
|
||
through the network into our own Queues(userspace)
|
||
it would be a great help to us.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
We would be very grateful to u if u can help us
|
||
in this matter.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Thanking you.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Regards
|
||
Bharath Kumar
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hi Bharath Kumar,
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I'm not sure about the SKBUFF functions, but you have at least three tools
|
||
available for just viewing network traffic and saving the data to files for
|
||
later playback.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
You have tcpdump, ethereal, and tethereal. Ethereal gives
|
||
you a GUI-based package where you could collect packets and view the stuff
|
||
later with a detailed dissassembly of the packets. Tethereal gives you a
|
||
text based equivalent version of ethereal.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Tcpdump is the old standby program which is yet another command line
|
||
application. You get dumps of packets to the display, you get filtering
|
||
capability, and you could save the dumps to a file. I should mention that
|
||
ethereal also lets you filter the data. I have not tried filtering with
|
||
tethereal.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Regards,
|
||
Chris Gianakopoulos
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
man tcpdump, and the related software, like the pcap packet capture
|
||
library. You might find that just letting tcpdump will be good enough
|
||
for you; if not, the sources will likely serve as a hint.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Cheers,
|
||
-- jra
|
||
</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">debian pictures</FONT></H3>
|
||
Wed, 20 Mar 2002 11:11:37 -0800 (PST)
|
||
<BR>John Karns, Heather Stern (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%237%20debian%20wallpaper">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<br>asked by Elliot (32009318 from snetmp.cpg.com.au)
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
i have a cd of a <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> distrobution, is it posible to find the
|
||
background folder and copy it to my mandrake 8.1 box, so that i can use
|
||
the debian swirl as a background to Gnome and <A HREF="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</A>,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
thanks from elliot
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I'm sure that it's possible, if not very easy. You would have to find the
|
||
file in question and copy it from the CD to the appropriate dir of your
|
||
mandrake system. The trick is finding the file. I don't use kde or
|
||
gnome, so I can't be of much help with very specific information.
|
||
However, if you have midnight commander installed (if you don't, then you
|
||
should!) you can probably get the file you need - it will require also
|
||
having "dpkg-deb" installed. That will allow you to open the Debian pkg
|
||
file where the kde <TT>/</TT> gnome backgorind of interest is, and copy it to your
|
||
system. It is probably a little beyond the level of neophyte though, so
|
||
would require some reading up & digging for info on your part as to the
|
||
whereabouts of those files under kde <TT>/</TT> gnome.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- John Karns
|
||
</P>
|
||
<em>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Someone forcing you to use Mandrake and you want to show your debian colors?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hmm, other than that it seems highly wierd to put a debian swirl on a
|
||
Mandrake box (doesn't someobdy have a sufficiently cool magic hat and
|
||
wand?) ... you might check in what is called the "propaganda" collection
|
||
of wallpapers. I think it usually ships with large K setups anyway, but
|
||
it has a repository on the net.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Also there are lots of themes at themes.org - probably the ol' Progeny theme
|
||
is up there, and that probably has the Great Swirl on it.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Heather
|
||
</P>
|
||
</em>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 7 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/8"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">[LG 76] wanted #4 DHCP</FONT></H3>
|
||
06 Mar 2002 00:03:54 +0100
|
||
<BR>Eduardo Perez Esteban, Bill Barber (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%238%20dhcp">edu.perez from eresmas.net, bbarber from attbi.com</a>)
|
||
<br>asked by dwulkan from earthlink.net
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Answer by Eduardo Perez Esteban:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Yes, you can tell DHCP to answer requests coming only from a specified
|
||
set of MAC adresses. Use the "deny unknown-clients" flag for this.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Note that this is a very weak security enhacement: an attacker only
|
||
needs to know the network address you are using and try several IPs
|
||
until he finds an empty one.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Regards,
|
||
Edu.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<HR width="10%" align="center"><P>
|
||
Answer by Bill Barber:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
This would be my suggested entries to <TT>/etc/dhcpd.conf</TT>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:01; represents your MAC addresses and the belief would be
|
||
if the MAC address is not in the list, it would not get an assigned IP
|
||
address, I do these type of entries for my servers, but I also have
|
||
non-MAC-specified hosts, so I don't know if it would refuse with just that.
|
||
I think if you dropped the subnet portion, you would get an error.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<p align="center">See attached
|
||
<a href="misc/tips/dhcpd.conf.txt">dhcpd.conf.txt</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 8 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/9"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">Dial in access with PPP</FONT></H3>
|
||
Tuesday 05 March 2002 10:13 pm
|
||
<BR>Neil Youngman, Karl-Heinz Herrmann (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%239%20dialin">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<BR>asked by Jody Story (jstory from shortgrass.net)
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
I am trying to setup a dial in connection to pc's in the field. they =
|
||
have dedicated phonelines to them and i can't get PPP to setup correctly =
|
||
on them. I have failed in every attempt. can you help me with this.
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
What tools are you using?
|
||
What have you tried?
|
||
What error messages are you getting?
|
||
How are the PCs set up?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
-- Neil Youngman
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
And you could have a look at mgetty from mgetty+sendfax -- does what you
|
||
want, i.e. answering the phone, deciding if it's a data connection and
|
||
initiating a login process (and pppd if you want, look at auto pppd).
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
K.-H.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 9 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/10"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">DOSEMU Help!!</FONT></H3>
|
||
Mon, 4 Mar 2002 10:49:39 -0500
|
||
<BR>Didier Heyden (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2310%20dosemu">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<BR>asked by Jacqueline Faherty
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
Alright I am getting close with running <A HREF="http://www.dosemu.org/">DOSEMU</A> but I have run
|
||
into a glitch. It loads and runs MSDOS but I can't get Himem.sys to
|
||
install properly.
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I have added the proper lines to my msdos config.sys file. Here is
|
||
what it reads:
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<Pre><STRONG>
|
||
DOS=HIGH,UMB
|
||
BUFFERS=30
|
||
FILES=50
|
||
STACKS=0,0
|
||
LASTDRIVE=Z
|
||
|
||
device=c:\dos\himem.sys
|
||
devicehigh=c:\dos\emm386.exe ram
|
||
</STRONG></Pre>
|
||
<P>
|
||
You mean that this is the adequate setup for your applications under
|
||
`true' ms-dos, right? If so, can you check what the `mem' command
|
||
says once you have booted your machine into a real-mode dos session?
|
||
It'll be a good starting point to determine what your memory
|
||
requirements actually are (see below).
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Then the config.sys within freedos reads:
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<Pre><STRONG>
|
||
DOS=UMB,HIGH
|
||
lastdrive=H
|
||
files=20
|
||
rem buffers=10
|
||
device=c:\dosemu\himem.sys
|
||
devicehigh=c:\dosemu\emm386.exe ram
|
||
rem devicehigh=c:\dosemu\cdrom.sys
|
||
shell=c:\command.com /e:1024 /p
|
||
</STRONG></Pre>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
But when I start dosemu I get the following messages:
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<Pre><STRONG>
|
||
HIMEM: DOS XMS Driver, Version 3.10 - 09/30/93
|
||
Extended Memory Specification (XMS) Version 3.0
|
||
Copyrigth 1988-1993 Microsoft Corp.
|
||
|
||
ERROR: An Extended Memory Manager is already installed.
|
||
XMS Driver not installed
|
||
</STRONG></Pre>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Yep. This is caused by the `himem.sys' line for sure.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Since an extended memory manager is already integrated in dosemu's
|
||
core, you don't actually need `himem.' All the necessary XMS
|
||
functions are available upon startup even without it -- hopefully.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
EMM386 not installed - protected mode software already running.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The original `emm386' won't run if the CPU is not in real-mode (as
|
||
opposed to protected/virtual mode). Linux being run in protected mode,
|
||
this is the reason why an alternative `ems.sys' is shipped with dosemu.
|
||
Normally this replacement expanded memory manager should provide the
|
||
same facilities to dos programs as its MS counterpart.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The largest part of EMS memory management code is probably hidden deep
|
||
within dosemu itself (ems.sys is only a few hundred bytes in size!)
|
||
Advantage: more memory available for dos programs
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I know emm.sys comes with DOSEMU but I need to load emm386.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Mmm... What makes you think so?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
AFAIK the only tunable settings regarding the memory management in
|
||
dosemu are:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li> The amount of `conventional' memory seen by dos (normally 640 Kb).
|
||
<li> The location of the EMS page frame in (low) memory.
|
||
<li> The amount of memory to reserve for XMS, EMS and DPMI respectively.
|
||
<li> A set of locations/ranges of hardware RAM zones (none by default).
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<P>
|
||
All this is controlled by the dosemu built-in memory managers.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
By using the output of the abovementioned `mem' command in a `true' dos
|
||
session, you should be able to set up the relevant parameters in your
|
||
dosemu.conf file and get your application programs happy; e.g.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre>C:\>mem
|
||
|
||
Memory Type Total Used Free
|
||
---------------- -------- --------- --------
|
||
Conventional 640K 69K 571K
|
||
Upper 90K 40K 50K
|
||
Reserved 384K 384K 0K
|
||
Extended (XMS) 97,190K 598K 96,592K
|
||
---------------- -------- --------- --------
|
||
|
||
Total Expanded (EMS) 32M (33,947,648 bytes)
|
||
Free Expanded (EMS) 32M (33,554,432 bytes)
|
||
|
||
Largest executable program size 571K (584,672 bytes)
|
||
Largest free upper memory block 50K (51,152 bytes)
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
In your dosemu.conf file the corresponding settings would be:
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre>$_dosmem = (640) # in Kbyte, <= 640 (default)
|
||
$_xms = (98304) # in Kbyte (instead of the default 1024 Kb)
|
||
$_ems = (32768) # in Kbyte (instead of the default 2048 Kb)
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
In fact you should not give such high values to dosemu. 16 megabytes
|
||
for each (or even less) may still meet your actual requirements.
|
||
Begin with large enough values then decrease them and retry until you
|
||
find the optimal setup.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
If this method doesn't succeed, well... I don't know. Maybe the apps
|
||
you're trying to run do not comply with the EMS official specs.
|
||
Aren't there Linux ports or equivalent programs?
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Oh, and don't forget to replace the himem and emm386 lines in
|
||
your config.sys with:
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre>device=c:\dosemu\ems.sys
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
(or devicehigh=...)
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Help would be...um..helpful
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Indeed
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> So I hope this does.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<HR width="10%" align="center"><P>
|
||
...Didier found a more helpful tidbit to throw in...
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Begin with large enough values then decrease them and retry until you
|
||
find the optimal setup.
|
||
.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
And in fact the system won't let you do that unless you increase the
|
||
kernel SHMMAX setting (amount of IPC shared memory available for user
|
||
processes) as well. The Linux kernel (2.4.x) default value is 32
|
||
megabytes. In the above example you would need at least 96 + 32 = 128
|
||
Mb of shared memory.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
For in such a case, dosemu would complain about being unable to satisfy
|
||
the user's memory settings (see the boot.log file). Assuming you have
|
||
enough RAM in your system, you'd have to issue (as root) a command like:
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre>echo 134217728 > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The actual value -- expressed in <EM>bytes</EM> -- would depend on the total
|
||
amount of memory (XMS + EMS + DPMI) set up in your configuration file.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
However strangely enough the 2.2.x kernel doesn't seem to impose such
|
||
restrictions (although the <TT>/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax</TT> entry is present).
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Regards,
|
||
Didier Heyden.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 10 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/11"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">Dos linux partition access</FONT></H3>
|
||
Thu, 14 Mar 2002 15:45:34 +0100
|
||
<BR>Robos, Jay Ashworth, Heather Stern (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2311%20dos%20ext2fs%20support">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<BR>asked by Brian J Binkley (BinkleBJ from ltc.tec.oh.us)
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Is there any dos program that would allow dos to read and write to
|
||
a linux partition? if so is there a free version out there?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Thank You
|
||
<br>Brian Binkley
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hi Brian!
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
There is "explore2fs", but thats under win, don't know if it runs
|
||
under dos too:
|
||
<A HREF="http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm"
|
||
>http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm</A>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Robos
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The owner has a big fat (no wait, ext2 <img src="../gx/dennis/smily.gif"
|
||
alt=":D" align="botton">) WARNING: that write support is
|
||
at the moment very, very risky. Which I guess puts it in the same boat as
|
||
Linux' NTFS support...
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Peter van Sebille wrote FSDEXT2 as a standard MSwin filesystem driver (Jay
|
||
found it too. "Hi Jay!" she says waving cheerily), but it does not write
|
||
at all; he had "0.16" stable and "0.17" dev (the dev
|
||
one under GPL)... but another fellow Gerald Shnabel seems to have taken up
|
||
the torch, at least enough to make it work on his win98 systems, and
|
||
released version 0.163. For you license fans out there, he derived it
|
||
from the license-unknown 0.16, but explicitly put copyrights and announced
|
||
that it's under the GPL:
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.schnabel-online.de/fsdext2.html"
|
||
>http://www.schnabel-online.de/fsdext2.html</A>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Way back in 1995 the Linux Gazette mentioned ext2tool, and since I found it
|
||
mentioned in the dosutils directory on my <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> 7.3 stuff, I guess the thing
|
||
still exists. Too bad SuSE only provided the sources (eep) so it makes me
|
||
really wonder how long it's been since they were last tested...
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Heather
|
||
</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">INSTALLING RED HAT 7</FONT></H3>
|
||
Sat, 9 Mar 2002 17:00:19 +0000
|
||
<BR>Neil Youngman (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2312%20RH%207">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<BR>Harvey Hunt (RV from RIVER77.FSLIFE.CO.UK)
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I am trying to automatically install redhat 7. The message I keep
|
||
getting is not enough disk space (there is). Do I need to partition the
|
||
disk? I want a dual boot system my current op is windows xp and the
|
||
filing system is ntfs. If I need to partiton the disk is there some
|
||
very, very, very simple info on how to do it available.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Yes you need at least one partition for Linux, preferably several. There's
|
||
some info at <A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+WinNT.html"
|
||
>http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Linux+WinNT.html</A>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
If you don't want to reinstall from scratch your best bet is to buy/borrow a
|
||
copy of PartitionMagic and use that to shrink your XP partition and make
|
||
space for Linux partitions.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
It is possible to run Linux off just one partition, but well chosen multiple
|
||
partitions make it more robust, as filling one partition won't bring the
|
||
whole system down.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
As a minimum you need a root partition and it's rare to run Linux without a
|
||
swap partition as well. There are some recommendation for partition sizes in
|
||
the Answer Gang Knowledgebase at
|
||
<A HREF="../issue58/tag/11.html"
|
||
>http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue58/tag/11.html</A> and you may also want to
|
||
browse <A HREF="../tag/kb.html#fs"
|
||
>http://www.linuxgazette.com/tag/kb.html#fs</A>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
My pleasure, but please turn off that HTML crap in your email.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Sincerely
|
||
<br>Neil Youngman
|
||
</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">[TAG] Recompiling of a linux kernel</FONT></H3>
|
||
Thu, 21 Mar 2002 16:57:34 +0100 (MET)
|
||
<BR>Karl-Heinz Herrmann (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2313%20kernel%20options">The Answer Gnag</a>)
|
||
<BR>asked by halblas from weos.de
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Hi! All
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Does anyone know of a linux site which gives a brief description of each &
|
||
every option given in the "xconfig screen"
|
||
while recompiling a linux kernel.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Besides the help button next to each of them which <EM>have</EM> useful information
|
||
in most of the cases -- no I don't know websites having a full list.
|
||
Also the ones difficult to choose are not the standard options which have
|
||
very helpful entries in the "help" anyway. Mostly the problem is with short
|
||
lived hacks which are there for some few kernel versions and disappear again.
|
||
It would be rather difficult to keep a website up to date.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
A look into the kernel source is always helpful (for example one could search
|
||
recursively through all *.c and *.h file in the kernel tree where the
|
||
OPTION_FLAG is actually used and have a look in that file. Some of the
|
||
sources are extensively commented, especially the details of some hacks or
|
||
the consequences of using/not using certain options. I remember lot of
|
||
configurable (and documented!) options directly in the source of the aic7xxx
|
||
SCSI module which now gradually moved over to xconfig entires.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
There are webpages (like www.kernel.org) where you can have annotated kernel
|
||
source, browse it and have direct access to the changelog files which also
|
||
are helpful in some cases for choosing kernel options.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
K.-H.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 13 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/14"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">[TAG] Linux NEC printer problem</FONT></H3>
|
||
Mon, 04 Mar 2002 09:38:11 +0100 (MET)
|
||
<BR>Karl-Heinz Herrmann (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2314%20NEC%20printer">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<BR>asked by Leo M. Pascua (leo from cyberlink.net.ph)
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Sir,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I have been unable to print with my Printer (NEC PinWriter 5300) I
|
||
am using RH 6.0 and my printer is an (old) NEC pinwriter. I'll already
|
||
email the manufacturer of this Printer then they told me used Epson
|
||
LQ850. I use the Epson LQ850 driver with Windows. Where i can get the
|
||
postscript of this printer. I checked all the How-To but I am still
|
||
clueless. Could you please help?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I recommend visiting <A HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org"
|
||
>http://www.linuxprinting.org</A>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I cant find the specific pinwriter, but the epson LQ850 is there, reported as
|
||
working perfectly with the ghostscript driver lq850
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><DL><DT>
|
||
see:
|
||
<DD><A HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=63360"
|
||
>http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=63360</A>
|
||
</DL></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
So you have to setup your printing with the lq850 driver. To check if it's
|
||
supported by your ghostscript run:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><CODE>
|
||
gs --help
|
||
</CODE></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
it seems not to be compiled into the standard ghostscript (coming with <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A>
|
||
Linux [67].?) so you may have to recompile ghostscript and put the driver
|
||
lq850 in the right makefile/includefile. See the README and INSTALL coming
|
||
with ghostscript.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
K.-H.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 14 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/15"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">Memory Mapping</FONT></H3>
|
||
Wed, 27 Mar 2002 07:00:43 +0000
|
||
<BR>Neil Youngman (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2315%20mmap">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Hi friends,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I have tried using the mmap function
|
||
in linux and succeeded.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
The Info Pages say about a particular flag in calling mmap.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
`MAP_ANON'
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
This flag tells the system to create an anonymous mapping,
|
||
not connected to a file. FILEDES and OFF are ignored, and
|
||
the region is initialized with zeros.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Anonymous maps are used as the basic primitive to extend the
|
||
heap on some systems. They are also useful to "share data
|
||
between multiple tasks without creating a file".
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I want to know how 'mmap' can be used to "share data between
|
||
muliple tasks without creating a file" as is said above.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
See section 14.9 of "Advanced programming in the Unix Environment" by W
|
||
Richard Stevens. To summarise briefly, if this is used together with
|
||
MAP_SHARED, this region can be shared by the creating process and any child
|
||
processes created with fork. According to section 12.9 memory mapped regions
|
||
are not inherited across an exec.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Neil Youngman
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 15 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/16"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">what is NET4?</FONT></H3>
|
||
Sat, 2 Mar 2002 08:30:04 -0600
|
||
<BR>Chris Gianakopoulos (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2316%20net4">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<BR>asked by Ming Kin Lai (minglai from hotmail.com)
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Someone told me that Linux uses a TCP/IP suite called Net4. What is that?
|
||
for example, how is its TCP different from TCP-Reno?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hi Ming,
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Linux Net4 is based on Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039. The
|
||
TCP/IP protocol suite, TCP-Reno is Berkeley code (the BSD stuff). It is
|
||
my belief that Net4, although it may be influenced by other protocol suites,
|
||
was written from scratch (other than being derived from NET3.)
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Regards,
|
||
Chris G.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 16 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/17"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">NFS mount permission</FONT></H3>
|
||
Sun, 10 Mar 2002 01:44:35 +0100
|
||
<BR>Robos (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2317%20NFS%20permissions">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I have an NFS mount problem here.
|
||
I am doing all this as root.
|
||
I have mounted a remote nfs filesystem on
|
||
a directory on my machine. I want that
|
||
directory to be accesible by a
|
||
particular user on my system.
|
||
For that after mounting to that directory
|
||
I tried to make that user the owner of the directory,
|
||
but it is not happening ("error : operation not permitted")
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
What is the correct way of doing this?
|
||
sree
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hi Sree!
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I don't know for sure (like most of the time) but something along:
|
||
-specifying user-pid in <TT>/etc/fstab</TT> behind the nfs-mount
|
||
-adding that particular user to a group that can read the drive
|
||
I've done the upper one some time ago, it worked, but now I forgot
|
||
... and am lazy right now
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Robos
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
ISTR that you can't do this sort of thing remotely. If you want to muck about
|
||
with ownership you need to do it on the exporting server. I forget the
|
||
details but essentially you are only root for local filesystems, thus
|
||
limiting the damage that remote hosts can do on exported filesystems.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Neil Youngman
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 17 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/18"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">Mandrake 8.1 and nVidia</FONT></H3>
|
||
04 Mar 2002 11:32:52 +0200
|
||
<BR>Johan H (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2318%20nvidia">jhg from ucs.co.za</a>)
|
||
|
||
<P><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
we have all the linux gazette on the school intranet and from reding the
|
||
artcles i find myself hooked on linux, i have one question though does
|
||
installing Nvidia drivers for a Geforce 2 GTS overwrite Xfree 4.0.? or
|
||
are drivers and xfree different as i would like to play quake and unreal
|
||
on mandrake 8.1 Kernel 2.4.? but xfree 4.0.? is only 2D and xfree 3.36
|
||
with experimental 3D is very Poor.
|
||
HI,
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The nvidia drivers are just modules that plug into XFree86-4.
|
||
Installing the nvidia drivers will not overwrite the Mandrake X drivers.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The reason being... the nvidia drivers are closed source, and there is
|
||
only a binary distribution available from nvidia. There is an
|
||
opensource project that writes open drivers (The ones installed by
|
||
Mandrake)
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
In the XF86Config-4 file (edit with care in mandrake) the drivers are
|
||
named "nv" for the open source ones and "nvidia" for the closed source
|
||
ones.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The closed source drivers are far superior with very good 3d support.
|
||
You will not win any brownie points from RMS for infecting your system
|
||
with these.... but boy they run.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
On the nvidia web site there is RPMs compiled for Mdk8.1, they work very
|
||
well.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The "nvidia" drivers need a kernel module called "NVdriver", that has to
|
||
be compiled agains the kernel headers for your current kernel. This is
|
||
a non event with a standard Mandrake install, if you have downloaded
|
||
that spunky new 2.4.18 kernel and tweaked it... download the source
|
||
release for the NV_Kernel module from nvidia and recompile against the
|
||
new kernel headers.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Some of these steps are tricky, if you are unsure, let me know... I have
|
||
done this a couple of times.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Kind Regards
|
||
Johan H.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 18 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/19"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">Don't Like Your ISP's Choice of Name Servers? A 2 Cent Tip</FONT></H3>
|
||
Tue, 5 Mar 2002 23:03:17 -0600
|
||
<BR>Chris Gianakopoulos (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2319%20wvdial%20DNS">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
I use a dialup account with my ISP. Many times, I get a good connection
|
||
with respect to data rate. But, my IP traffic throughput is not so good.
|
||
For example, several seconds to reach my favorite sites with ping
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/unsmily.gif" ALT=":("
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
One cause was the name servers that were handed to my system during the PPP
|
||
authentication phase (I know -- that's really DHCP, not PPP). I use wvdial
|
||
for my Internet dialer. Here's how to force your own choice of name servers.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
In your <TT>/etc/wvdial.conf</TT> file, make an entry like this:
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
Auto DNS=0
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Create a file called <TT>/etc/resolv.conf.</TT> Put a couple of name server entries
|
||
that you know works. For example (<TT>/etc/resolv.conf</TT>):
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre>nameserver 192.6.1.194
|
||
nameserver 198.6.100.194
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<P>
|
||
That's it!
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Regards,
|
||
Chris G.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
P.S. How can I disable the Link Quality Requests when using PPP with wvdial?
|
||
I would look on the wvdial site, but their documentation did not even
|
||
mention the "Auto DNS" configuration entry.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 19 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/20"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">share the directory</FONT></H3>
|
||
Mon, 11 Mar 2002 13:19:14 +0100 (MET)
|
||
<BR>Karl-Heinz Herrmann (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2320%20share%20directory">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<BR>asked by palash (palash_kar from hotmail.com)
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hi,
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
we have a lan setup of about 6-7 computers in our hostel. My problem is
|
||
that i want to access files on other computers which have booted in
|
||
windows, through linux.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I guess you found the button in win where you "share the directory"
|
||
This is in windows what samba does for linux (actually samba implements the
|
||
windows protokoll for file sharing).
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
we have got over the problem the other way round
|
||
by configuring samba. can you help me on this.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
looking forward to your reply
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Search for linneighborhood using your favorite search engine.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
linneighbourhood seems to be a frontend for all the smb tools to use windows
|
||
shared in Linux. smbclient and smbmount are the most interesting ones to have
|
||
a look at for first experiments.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
K.-H.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 20 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/21"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">Machine Check Exception!</FONT></H3>
|
||
Fri, 15 Mar 2002 13:13:00 +0000 (GMT)
|
||
<BR>Thomas Adam, Karl-Heinz Herrmann, Ben Okopnik (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2321%20check%20exception">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Hi Answer Gang,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
<Howdy!>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I'm a Linux Newbie, and I had some funny (maybe not
|
||
so funny) problems
|
||
with my system -
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I'm running <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> Linux 7.1 (Kernel 2.2), on an Intel
|
||
Pentium-II(450 Mhz) box.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hey -- you're running exactly the same distro and
|
||
version as me. We also happen to be running the same
|
||
kernel version. I think it's time we re-compiled our
|
||
kernel using the latest sources!!
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Thomas Adam
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
It used to hang all of a sudden, usually with a beep
|
||
or two, and the
|
||
keyboard, mouse and display would freeze.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I noticed the following message on my xconsole:
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
message from <A HREF="mailto:syslogd@shankha"
|
||
>syslogd@shankha</A>:
|
||
shankha kernel: CPU0 Machine Check Exception 0000000000000004
|
||
shankha kernel: Bank 1: b200000000000115<0>
|
||
kernel panic: CPU context corrupt
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Do you happen to have Memory with parity? I've never seen a message like
|
||
yours -- but this looks like a detected unrecoverable memory fault. (this
|
||
bank 1 line gives me the hint).
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
grab memtest86 from somewhere and run it as long as it needs to throw the
|
||
memory errors at you. Could be over night.....
|
||
Check if the memory modules are sitting tight in their sockets and repeat.
|
||
Exchange the memory modules and test again. If still errors occur throw it
|
||
away and get a new one.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- K.-H.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
If you've got, say, four modules, do this: swap 1 and 2. If the error
|
||
address doesn't change, then the problem is not in those; if it does, then
|
||
swap 1 and 3. If the address doesn't change after that, the error is in #2;
|
||
otherwise, it's in #1. I'm sure you can figure out the rest of the
|
||
troubleshooting method from there.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
-- Ben Okopnik
|
||
</P>
|
||
<em>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Plus get an air cannister and while you have the machine off, scare all the
|
||
dust bunnies out of your boards and fans. Maybe there's some static charge
|
||
catching up on something.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<p>-- Heather</p>
|
||
</em>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 21 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/22"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">[TAG] two monitors</FONT></H3>
|
||
Mon, 18 Mar 2002 10:31:06 +0100 (MET)
|
||
<BR>Karl-Heinz Herrmann (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2322%20two%20monitors">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<br>asked by Elliot (32009318 from snetmp.cpg.com.au)
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
i have a 32 mb geforce 2 GTS running with a 21" monitor under mandrake
|
||
8.1 using xfree86 4.1.0 and latest nvidia drivers at 1600x1200
|
||
my question is can i run this resolution and put a 32mb tnt2 PCI
|
||
graphics card in aswell to run at 800x600 i have run two montiors before
|
||
on my windows box but both cards have to be at the same resolution, i am
|
||
asking this as i have a spare graphics card and old 15" monitor laying
|
||
around and want to put them to good use
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><DL><DT>
|
||
I guess this release notes could give a hint:
|
||
<DD><A HREF="http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.0/RELNOTES4.html#17"
|
||
>http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.0/RELNOTES4.html#17</A>
|
||
</DL></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I myself run the NVdriver on a laptop -- but there use the nvidia TwinView
|
||
option and it's one card with two screens. It rather convienient to define
|
||
different resolutions and relations of the two screens (like the small one is
|
||
s specific part of the large one for presentations where you can have
|
||
additional shell windows nobody else is seeing on the beamer
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> or you can
|
||
tell it that the CRT is left (or right, above,...) the Laptop.
|
||
Then the two screens act as one huge one. The same "restrictions" as in the
|
||
XFree link apply: most Window managers just don't care about the screens and
|
||
open the windows where ever they please -- which might be right across both
|
||
screens.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The "normal" (i.e. not xinerma or Twinview) mode is to run two X-displays on
|
||
the two screens. Then you can't just cross from one screen to the other
|
||
dragging some window. You have to give it a "-display :0.0" or :0.1 as display
|
||
name and the window will go there.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Since you've got the cards how about trying ? PCI ad AGP cards should be able
|
||
to share or rearrange their resources so the can coexist.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
K.-H.
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 22 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/23"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">winux?</FONT></H3>
|
||
Wed, 27 Mar 2002 07:16:44 +0000
|
||
<BR>Neil Youngman (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2323%20winux">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<BR>asked by Elliot (32009318 from snetmp.cpg.com.au)
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
after reading my favourite computer mag i became interested in one main
|
||
topic of their ramblings
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
that was that there may be a operating system available soon called
|
||
winux
|
||
that can run linux and windows programs natively, i am unsure of who is
|
||
trying to make this or wether it will go ahead, perhaps you know
|
||
something about this new OS, because it seems quite interesting.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I think that's LindowsOS, see <A HREF="http://www.lindows.com"
|
||
>http://www.lindows.com</A>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Neil Youngman
|
||
</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 23 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/24"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy">xfree86 4.2</FONT></H3>
|
||
Mon, 11 Mar 2002 08:22:23 -0800 (PST)
|
||
<BR>Karl-Heinz Herrmann, Heather Stern (<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com?subject=%20Re%3A%20%5BLG%2077%5D%202c%20Tips%20%2324%20xfree86">The Answer Gang</a>)
|
||
<br>asked by Blandin de Chalain (blandin from hotkey.net.au)
|
||
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
On 10-Mar-02 Blandin de Chalain wrote:
|
||
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
would you please stop sending a hml-copy of everything? thanks.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
For the record, yes we're a webzine, but no, your HTML does not help the
|
||
web-editor's job in the slightest.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
ive just found out about xfree86 4.2
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
me not. what's the special improvement to 4.1?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><DL><DT>
|
||
Well, hmm, maybe www.xfree96.org would have a good set of notes:
|
||
<DD><A HREF="http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.0/RELNOTES2.html#2"
|
||
>http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.0/RELNOTES2.html#2</A>
|
||
</DL></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Among other things the newer code is now less idiotic regarding the
|
||
perfectly good S3 family cards I have around my place. However I'm not
|
||
jumping from working X 3.3.6 for that alone. Lots of other new drivers
|
||
to clue in on either older cards, or bleeding-edge-new cards. The mice
|
||
drivers are sparter now. Gamers and other GL fans will be pleased to know
|
||
Mesa got merged. Other cool things. PEX and XIE extensions are deprecated
|
||
and SuperProbe was removed (waaaah, I liked being able to ask the darn thing
|
||
what it thought it was finding, seperately of a startup attempt).
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
One of the beauties of free software, as well as the "everything is parts"
|
||
UNIX-like philosophy, is that (drum roll please) you do <EM>not</EM> have to upgrade
|
||
to the latest-and-greatest all the time just to make a few major apps work.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
i am currently using version 4.01 on linux mandrake 8.1 and have =
|
||
downloaded the nvidia drivers for my geforce 2gts
|
||
i am unsure of what files i need to download as i cannot see a single =
|
||
file, all i see is confusion as i am very new to linux,
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
the nvidia site is somewhat confusing there, I agree. But then it's only a
|
||
very long list of binary distributions -- you want to get one of them only if
|
||
it's matchings yous exactly.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Otherwise take the generic source tgz packet and compile yourself. The README
|
||
contains the steps necessary to install them. It's long and goes through all
|
||
of the various packages for all the distributions so you need to read only
|
||
some part up front and then the specific part for the package you actually
|
||
got.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Generally you will need the GLX-package and the kernel package.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
can i install the nvidia drivers on xfree 4.01 and upgrade to xfree 4.2 =
|
||
later.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
no idea -- I'm running the 1.1514 nivida drivers right now and that does not
|
||
require 4.2, so I didn't bother upgrading a running system.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hmm, 4.2 says it released late January, so maybe if my more experienced eyes
|
||
surf over to nVidia...
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hmm, "Drivers" at the top of the Nav, "Linux" last among the bullets, new
|
||
driver release posted March 7. (wow, only a few days ago) Not that hard
|
||
to find, at all.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The part more likely to be confusing to newbies is that the driver comes in
|
||
two parts -- a component to be added to your X server, and a component to be
|
||
added to your kernel source before building a fresh kernel. That means you'll
|
||
want to have sources around for X (oh dear, building X isn't for novices) and
|
||
for your kernel (make menuconfig is pretty easy to use).
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Or, if you happen to use one of the two distros the nVidia people themselves
|
||
use, you can get <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A> or Mandrake packages... no <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A>, eh? that sucks.
|
||
I seem to recall nVidia doesn't want other folks shipping their binaries?
|
||
(clicking open that "Legal Info" link) hmm, standard corporate "this is ours
|
||
not yours and you're licensed for one copy at a time" stuff. That would
|
||
suggest that I'm right in this regard. Checking <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A>, there's a package
|
||
'nvidia-glx-src' which builds it for you, but the version in testing is
|
||
(no big surprise to me) not the one posted a few days ago. Which is ok since
|
||
it still has xfree 4.1 in it too.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
also how can i boot to console mode to install the nvidia drivers, or =
|
||
can you just do it from an rpm installer in x.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
nVidia notes that they have an NVchooser script you can use, and it will get
|
||
you the right rpm.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
You may be able to upgrade from X -- overwriting the former X drivers present.
|
||
On reboot this could get you in trouble if your default is a graphical login.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I <EM>really</EM> would have X turned off while you update it. And I <EM>really</EM> would
|
||
back it up, since if your X already works it's a running setup, and if the
|
||
new stuff doesn't work so happily, you'd lose your GUI. Which is even worse
|
||
than annoying if you use a GUI login prompt
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/unsmily.gif" ALT=":("
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
Anyways the real reason it's important is that file handles for any old parts
|
||
which are open, will not be re-opened to clue in. To be sure you did that
|
||
you'd need to stop X anyway. Safer to <EM>know</EM> it all got tweaked at once, then
|
||
turn it back on...
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
You could try typing (as root):
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><CODE>
|
||
init 1
|
||
</CODE></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
on the commandline of a shell which would bring you down to a text-login
|
||
screen in single user mode. To test the news drivers you could try "startx"
|
||
to get an X-screen back.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
You might have to turn networking back on... single user mode strips a lot
|
||
more than most people want. Me, I favor keeping a text mode runlevel around;
|
||
that'd usually be telinit 3.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
One of the few things that gives me a headache in Debian is that when you add
|
||
new bits that darned thing tends to add them to ALL the runlevels.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
If it's ok end it again and issue "init 3" or 5 (?) to get back to the
|
||
graphical login.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
traditionally it's been 5, but you <EM>really</EM> have to check your own system's
|
||
init sequence to be sure. Before you start poking around in single user
|
||
you can run the command 'runlevel' and it will tell you where you're at
|
||
already. For me <TT>/sbin/runlevel</TT> generates
|
||
N 3
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
meaning, I didn't have a "previous" runlevel, and I'm currently at runlevel
|
||
3 (consistent with me preferring text logins).
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I'm not running mandrake so I can't give you too much specifics on the init
|
||
levels they use or if there is something like startx.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
K.-H.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
I believe they still have a directory structure similar to RH in that regard.
|
||
I haven't encountered distros without startx in a loooong time, but, if you
|
||
use a GUI login that's not how you're normally launching it, but gdm or its
|
||
cousins tend to use the same xinitrc under the hood.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<p>-- Heather</p>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 24 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<P> <A NAME="tips/lj"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A> <P>
|
||
<H3><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/lil2cent.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="navy"><i>Linux Journal</i>'s Weekly News Notes Tech Tips</FONT></H3>
|
||
|
||
<a name="lj/1"><h4>E-mail stats via Python</h4></a>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
You can use Python to extract stats from mail.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<pre>
|
||
$ ./mail-predictor.py richard@ssc.com Mail/inbox Mail/richard
|
||
798 total messages from richard@ssc.com, 31 in this hour of the week.
|
||
Predicted activity level in the next hour: 6.526316
|
||
</pre>
|
||
|
||
<p align="center">See attached
|
||
<a href="misc/tips/mail-predictor.py.txt">mail-predictor.py.txt</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<hr width="10%" align="center">
|
||
|
||
<a name="lj/2"><h4>Tech Tips: Hotkeys</h4></a>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
Press Alt-F2, then enter ##make for the GNU Info page on make.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p>
|
||
Shift-Insert pastes the last thing from Klipper into Konsole.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p>
|
||
Use Control + to select files in Konqueror by shell pattern.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<hr width="10%" align="center">
|
||
|
||
<a name="lj/3"><h4>Imposing a minimum font size on Mozilla</h4></a>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
If fonts are coming out too small on Mozilla, and you want to block
|
||
the browser from ever setting fonts below a certain size, just put
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><code>user_pref("font.minimum-size.x-western", 13);</code></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
in your <tt>user.js</tt>. (If you don't have a <tt>user.js</tt>,
|
||
read "Customizing Mozilla":
|
||
<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html"
|
||
>http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html</a>.)
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
This option has changed from previous Mozilla versions; check out this
|
||
bug report page:
|
||
<a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30910"
|
||
>http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30910</a> for details.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<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 ©</a> 2002
|
||
<BR>Published in issue 77 of <I>Linux Gazette</I> April 2002</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...
|
||
(<a href="tag/bios.html">meet the Gang</a>) ...
|
||
the Editors of Linux Gazette...
|
||
|
||
and You!
|
||
<br>Send questions (or interesting answers) to
|
||
The Answer Gang
|
||
for possible publication
|
||
(but read the <a href="../tag/ask-the-gang.html">guidelines</a> first)
|
||
</H4>
|
||
</center>
|
||
<!-- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -->
|
||
<p><hr><p>
|
||
<H3>Contents:</H3>
|
||
<dl>
|
||
<dt><a href="#tag/greeting"
|
||
><strong>¶: 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>CRC errors on floppy disks</strong></a>
|
||
<dt><A HREF="#tag/2"
|
||
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
|
||
alt="(?)" border="0"
|
||
><strong>Can't See Boot Messages Even Though RedHat 7.2 Boots OK</strong></a>
|
||
<dt><A HREF="#tag/3"
|
||
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
|
||
alt="(?)" border="0"
|
||
><strong>The euro symbol</strong></a>
|
||
<dt><A HREF="#tag/4"
|
||
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
|
||
alt="(?)" border="0"
|
||
><strong>ntfs clobbered my ext3fs!!</strong></a>
|
||
<dt><A HREF="#tag/5"
|
||
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
|
||
alt="(?)" border="0"
|
||
><strong>Newbie seeking advice</strong></a>
|
||
<dt><A HREF="#tag/6"
|
||
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
|
||
alt="(?)" border="0"
|
||
><strong>Postfix name resolution fails, dig doesn't</strong></a>
|
||
<dt><A HREF="#tag/7"
|
||
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
|
||
alt="(?)" border="0"
|
||
><strong>Themes in Linux</strong></a>
|
||
<br>a game of win-upsmanship
|
||
<dt><A HREF="#tag/8"
|
||
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
|
||
alt="(?)" border="0"
|
||
><strong>gaming in linux</strong></a>
|
||
<dt><A HREF="#tag/9"
|
||
><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
|
||
alt="(?)" border="0"
|
||
><strong>linux questions</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="(¶) " border="0"
|
||
>Greetings from Heather Stern</H3>
|
||
<!-- begin hgreeting -->
|
||
<p>It's a party, by
|
||
<a href="http://freshmeat.net/projects/jove/">Jove</a>!
|
||
<a href="http://ben.hartshorne.net/aargh/">aargh</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://truereality.emuhq.com/unix/index.shtml">TrueReality</a>
|
||
strikes, he's caught in a
|
||
<a href="http://www.owlriver.com/projects/trainwreq/">trainwreq</a>
|
||
and can't host.
|
||
<a href="http://linux.ctyme.com/man/man1725.htm">nice</a>
|
||
that
|
||
<a href="http://www.amanda.org">Amanda</a>
|
||
can be his backup,
|
||
<a href="http://www.muhri.net/pronto/">Pronto!</a>
|
||
The gals
|
||
<a href="http://www.vamphq.com/resources.html">Rachel</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://nadja.sourceforge.net/">Nadja</a>, and
|
||
<a href="http://www.lysator.liu.se/~unicorn/hacks/molly/">Molly</a>,
|
||
help her
|
||
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/jumpstart/">jumpstart!</a>
|
||
<a href="http://www.coreyo.net/projects/brunhilde/index.php">Brunhilde</a>,
|
||
and
|
||
<a href="http://edna.sourceforge.net/">edna</a>
|
||
handle the
|
||
<a href="http://music.ons.ca">MUSIC</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://astwww.chemietechnik.uni-dortmund.de/~deparade/sonstiges/">Thomas</a>'
|
||
brother gives out directions, and with my
|
||
<a href="http://www.bestlinux.net/">Best</a>
|
||
<a href="http://www.effortlinux.com.br/">Effort</a>
|
||
I don't get lost.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<a href="http://www.everybuddy.com/">everybuddy</a>
|
||
from the
|
||
<a href="http://www.tarball.net/postoffice/">PostOffice</a>
|
||
was there,
|
||
<a href="http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/">Cyrus</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://althea.sourceforge.net/">Althea</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://ishmail.sourceforge.net/">Ishmail</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.fentun.com/">Fentun</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.vanja.com/tools/">Virge</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.dillivision.com/felix/">Felix</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.csua.net/~mjm/buffy">Buffy</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://linux.ctyme.com/man/man0139.htm">biff</a>
|
||
and their
|
||
<a href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</a>.
|
||
The old
|
||
<a href="http://www.hpc.uh.edu/majordomo/">majordomo</a>
|
||
greeted us; the
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxhq.com/kernel/v2.4/doc/sound/Maestro.html">Maestro</a>
|
||
was in the
|
||
<a href="http://www.all-day-breakfast.com/rosegarden/">rosegarden</a>
|
||
by the
|
||
<a href="http://www.lilypond.org/">lilypond</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/joe-editor/">joe</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.kde.org/kate/">kate</a>,
|
||
and
|
||
<a href="http://linux.ctyme.com/man/man0442.htm">ed</a>
|
||
were full of
|
||
<a href="http://vim.sourceforge.net/">vim</a>.
|
||
<a href="http://davis.sourceforge.net/">DAVIS</a>
|
||
<a href="http://and.sourceforge.net/">and</a>
|
||
<a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/james/">JAMES</a>
|
||
brought out the
|
||
<a href="http://www.speech.kth.se/snack/">snack</a>
|
||
tray:
|
||
<a href="http://sawmill.sourceforge.net/">sawfish</a>
|
||
and
|
||
<a href="http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/">bluefish</a>
|
||
with
|
||
<a href="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~ian/sauce/">SAUCE</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://freshmeat.net/">freshmeat</a>
|
||
with
|
||
<a href="http://sal.kachinatech.com/Z/1/SPICE.html">SPICE</a>
|
||
(<a href="http://mmondor.rubiks.net/software.html">ginseng</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://oregano.codefactory.se/">Oregano</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://salt.sourceforge.net/">SALT</a>,
|
||
and
|
||
<a href="http://www.tele.ucl.ac.be/PEOPLE/DOUXCHAMPS/ieee1394/coriander/">coriander</a>, using a
|
||
<a href="http://bnt.kourakos.com/~awk/tenderizer/">tenderizer</a>),
|
||
plus a
|
||
<a href="http://wgz.org/chromatic/jellybean.html">Jellybean</a>
|
||
bowl.
|
||
<a href="http://www.openje.org/jasper/jasper/docs/manuals/en/index.html">Jasper</a>
|
||
handed out
|
||
<a href="http://www.cups.org/">CUPS</a>
|
||
of
|
||
<a href="http://juicy.sourceforge.net/">juice</a>,
|
||
<a href="news:comp.os.linux.announce">c.o.l.a</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.winehq.com/">WINE</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://java.sun.com/j2se/">Java</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.jcorporate.com/html/products/expresso.html">Espresso</a>,
|
||
plus all the
|
||
<a href="http://liw.iki.fi/liw/texts/linux-anecdotes.html">virtual beer</a>
|
||
we could drink.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
All is not
|
||
<a href="http://www.win.tue.nl/~gino/solid/">Solid</a>
|
||
in the
|
||
<a href="http://uncensored.citadel.org/citadel/">citadel</a>
|
||
though. Things got
|
||
<a href="http://zjuul.net/~jules/loco/">loco</a>
|
||
--
|
||
a <a href="http://kaptain.sourceforge.net/">Kaptain</a>
|
||
asked me into the
|
||
<a href="http://www.conferenceroom.com/products/productshome.shtml">ConferenceRoom</a>
|
||
so we could
|
||
<a href="http://www.speakfreely.org/main.html">SpeakFreely</a>.
|
||
"The
|
||
<a href="http://www.comanche.org/">Comanche</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://everythinglinux.org/Mohawk/">Mohawk</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://aurora.esi.uem.es/~alo/?action=cherokee">Cherokee</a>,
|
||
are making a
|
||
<a href="http://www.f00f.net/~bdamm/projects/martyr/index.html">Martyr</a>
|
||
of the
|
||
<a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a>,
|
||
somebody's
|
||
<a href="http://www.venge.net/wagon/wagon.html">Wagon</a>
|
||
almost squished the
|
||
<a href="http://dillo.sourceforge.net/">Dillo</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://tavi.sourceforge.net/">Wikki Tikki Tavi</a>
|
||
is holding the
|
||
<a href="http://www.python.org/">python</a>
|
||
and
|
||
<a href="http://www.boa.org/">boa</a>
|
||
at bay, the
|
||
<a href="http://jsno.arafuraconnect.com.au/proj_linux/nighthawk.html">nighthawk</a>
|
||
and our cat
|
||
<a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/X11/demos/">oneko</a>
|
||
are both chasing the
|
||
<a href="http://cricket.sourceforge.net/">cricket</a>,
|
||
the
|
||
<a href="http://anteater.drzoom.ch/">Anteater</a>
|
||
ate
|
||
<a href="http://www.theory.org/software/ant/">Langton's Ant</a>
|
||
and I'm afraid the
|
||
<a href="http://basilix.org/">BasiliX</a>
|
||
is about to turn them all into lawn ornaments. To top it off that
|
||
<a href="http://prometheus.zerodivide.net/apps/pimp/">pimp</a>
|
||
won't lose his
|
||
<a href="http://freshmeat.net/projects/smirc/">smirc</a>.
|
||
<a href="http://w1.404.telia.com/~u40435244/mamamua/">Mama Mua</a>,
|
||
what a
|
||
<a href="http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/Maelstrom/">Maelstrom</a>..."
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
"Don't
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxquake.com/">Quake II</a>
|
||
much." I had a
|
||
<a href="http://www.bitrot.de/plan.html">plan</a>.
|
||
Put a
|
||
<a href="ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt">crafty</a>
|
||
<a href="http://chat.spin.de/">SPiN</a>
|
||
on it and I
|
||
<a href="http://phorecast.org/">Phorecast</a>
|
||
these
|
||
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/folk/">FOLK</a>
|
||
would avert
|
||
<a href="jcomm.uoregon.edu/~stevev/Linux-DOOM-FAQ.html">Doom</a>
|
||
and have a
|
||
<a href="http://kxl.hn.org/games.html">Grande</a>
|
||
<a href="http://linux.ctyme.com/man/man2823.htm">time</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
We should
|
||
<a href="http://www.definitelinux.com/">Definite</a>ly
|
||
do this again next
|
||
<a href="http://www.lls.se/~johanb/august/">August</a>.
|
||
</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"
|
||
>CRC errors on floppy disks</H3>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>From "David"
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Dan Wilder, Heather Stern, John Karns
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Thankyou for taking the time to read this. I am marked down as one of
|
||
the university
|
||
geeks, and it is coming around to the time to hand in
|
||
essays/dissertations etc.
|
||
Many people have put misplaced faith in the reliability of floppy disks.
|
||
Is there any tool for linux, which will allow me to ask the floppy
|
||
driver in the kernel to keep trying, so I can put together the
|
||
statistically "best" hex dumps,or extract raw text from Word docs etc.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Dan]
|
||
'Fraid I can't offer any way to recover the data once it's
|
||
lost to bad sectors, tho no doubt some way is possible.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Instead I'd like to offer the format script I use for floppies
|
||
before I'll trust 'em with my data. It culls out a lot of
|
||
floppies, and I find that floppies which once passed, after sitting
|
||
a few years on the shelf, will often no longer do so.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
User who runs this must have write permission to <TT>/dev/fd0h1440.</TT>
|
||
Requires mtools. Watch out, some distributions may obsolete
|
||
fdformat in favor of superformat.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<p align="center">See attached <tt><a href="misc/tag/goodfloppy.sh.txt">goodfloppy.sh.txt</a></tt></p>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Today I resuced a 6 page essay 10hrs before it was due,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
The easiest way to do this sort of thing (I used to do it too) is
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
1. use dd to extract a raw image of floppy disks. This is sufficiently
|
||
reliable that it's now the <EM>normal</EM> way I mount floppies on my laptop.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><CODE>
|
||
dd if=/dev/fd0 of=/usr/local/floppy/student-name-ddmmyy.144 bs=18k
|
||
</CODE></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
In case you're curious 18k is the standard blocksize of a single track,
|
||
so this is the "native" amount of bits the floppy read heads want to read
|
||
anyway. It should be fastest and have the best chance of getting all the
|
||
rescuable bits.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I already take a copy, as I am not the only geek with enough time, and I
|
||
don't want to write anything back to a damaged floppy. Thanks for the
|
||
advice with bs=18k I will use that next time.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Yep, it's about 8 times faster with that set.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
2. the rescue
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<ol type="a">
|
||
<li> See if Linux will mount the raw image - as it may be more reliable
|
||
than a floppy whose cookie got slow (in other words a straight read
|
||
is better than lots of little seeks)
|
||
|
||
<li>
|
||
if not, use 'strings' on the resulting file, noting that some of the
|
||
ASCII bits will just be raw strings of letters from headers and things
|
||
(e.g. "GIF89A")
|
||
</ol>
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Ugly but better than nothing during Finals Week.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Most disks that I have come across mount OK, but if all else fails, I
|
||
have all night, a copy of Peter Nortons PC Programmers Bible (plenty on
|
||
disk structure, FAT layout etc), and the promise of as much beer as I
|
||
can drink from the hapless author.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
I got a full case of Henry Weinhardt's Root Beer once. The gal knows I
|
||
don't normally drink alcohol. No wait, that wasn't in college, that
|
||
was in the corporate world. I got some cool coffeecups... uh no, that
|
||
was in the corporate world too. Nevermind
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";P"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
...but the 200
|
||
words held on the bad sectors were well and truly gone.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Sorry. Once there's scratch marks there, they lose.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
This is not so good, what I was really after is someway to attempt to
|
||
make best guesses for what is in those bad-sectors. I know that it
|
||
sounds difficult, but I am looking for something between Scandisk for
|
||
windows, and professionals in a clean-room!
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
We have dosfsck, of completely unknown reliability, but you're welcome
|
||
to try it too. What the heck.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Short of trying the floppy again in a floppy bay with different alignment,
|
||
basically you either got the bits, or you didn't. And indeed, you could
|
||
try that (though it submits the poor dented floppy to N more visits by
|
||
drive gear) and see if the md5sums of any of the dd images are different.
|
||
If so, scour the tweaked ones for anymore bits you can rescue also. Don't
|
||
hold your breath, but you'll have earned the extra brewskies if it works.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Clean-room efforts are basically able to micro-position the heads in the
|
||
hopes of seeing the last two to five major writes. Ontrack does such
|
||
recovery, but I dunno if they do floppies at all. I suspect not.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Is there
|
||
anything better than dd conv=noerror, that will allow me to access these
|
||
dodgey disks from linux. I am kind
|
||
of looking for something like Spinrite by Steve Gibson, but I would like
|
||
to have it
|
||
for linux, and for free.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
spinrite worked on IDE drives, not floppies.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
If you want a hex editor in the spirit of Norton Disk Editor, try lde, but
|
||
frankly, I'd use 'hexedit' (a curses-terminal program) on a dd image of the
|
||
floppy before I'd consider that ... to reduce the amount of usage tried on
|
||
an already poor-condition floppy.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Oh yeah, and much as ZIP and LS-120 bays are less popular, their cartridges
|
||
are <EM>much</EM> more reliable than standard floppies, and CD-RW even more so
|
||
(but sadly CD-RW cannot be written to directly, just burned as a complete
|
||
image -- and DVD-RAM drives are still not in the normal-consumer price range,
|
||
plus they're rare even in the Silicon Valley).
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Forget DVD-RAM <TT>/</TT> CD-RW. Most people use floppies to move work between
|
||
computer labs with internet, and our rooms without. Nobody in college
|
||
has administritave access to the networked PC's, and the amount of
|
||
people who simply use a floppy to avoid copying files around is scary.
|
||
We have just got new ZIP-250's, so things should look up for next term!
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Well, definitely looking up there!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Oh yeah, remind people not to leave their floppies (or cartridges) lying
|
||
around in the noonday sun on the car shelf, or other places where they
|
||
would get toasty and you wouldn't put VHS tapes. It's basically the same
|
||
type of media with the same type of susceptibility to heat damage.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [John]
|
||
I usually keep floppies in the box they came in or in a small plastic bag.
|
||
If you examine one, you'll see that they have an open slot at the top edge
|
||
where the sliding metal access door is. When left out in the open air,
|
||
floating particles enter and adhere to the surface of the plastic disk
|
||
inside.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Zip disks don't seem to have such a comparatively large opening in the
|
||
housing as floppies, which may a reason they fare better. But one is very
|
||
well advised to keep all magnetic media, including tapes, in a protective
|
||
case or other dust barrier. I've noticed that plastic materials seem to
|
||
act like magnets for carbon dust, which when smudged leaves a grease spot
|
||
on the plastic material.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
I am reminded of a time that we posted somebody's ruined floppy to the
|
||
student-center wall... pried loose of its plastic envelope so the round
|
||
disc was revealed, dent and all. Caption: "Don't do this to
|
||
your floppy". I forget exactly what did it. The crease wasn't much -
|
||
maybe someone sat on it, I dunno. But it was definitely dead.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I don't know if your policies are about guest-level access only or you
|
||
create actual accounts for people there. If the latter then some sort of
|
||
share server (samba or perhaps one of those file-appliance boxes that have
|
||
gotten so popular) which looks like the same drive letter on all networked
|
||
boxes, would get people to use that instead. I like H: for "home" but
|
||
your tastes may vary. Combined with the permissions-by-login behavior
|
||
samba can provide it's not too bad. You might not want to make it automatic
|
||
or perhaps people will abandon logged in machines and mess up each other's
|
||
space. And not everyone would use it, perhaps they want to take some work
|
||
back to the dorm with them. They might even get them out of sync. (I think
|
||
the MSwin buzzword for doing it the right way is "My Briefcase" but don't
|
||
quote me, I could be wrong these days. Here in linux we use rsync, and have
|
||
to be careful about the commands we give it, too.) In other words it has
|
||
its own headaches... but it's not as unreliable at the bits level as floppies
|
||
are.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I think that's about as much as Linux can really do for throwing software
|
||
against what is basically a hardware and a clue-ware problem, but there
|
||
ya go. Best of luck in the efforts!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Thanks in advance
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
David
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
P.S. If you publish my e-mail can you obscure it somehow. My uni acct is
|
||
so far spam-free and I would like to keep it that way.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Yes, we can anonymize you. If this stays short enough for Tips we'll put
|
||
"anonymous" instead of your email, and if enough of the Gang chime in it
|
||
may be a TAG thread, where emails are not published at all unless directly
|
||
related to the solution (e.g. project maintainers).
|
||
</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"
|
||
>Can't See Boot Messages Even Though RedHat 7.2 Boots OK</H3>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>From Bill Rust
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Thomas Adam, Heather Stern
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Hi,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I'm at a bit of a loss. When I install RedHat Linux 7.2, I get the Grub
|
||
menu, and after I select Linux, the screen goes blank.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
This happens on my "oh so wonderful" laptop
|
||
occasionally. I know this may seem strange, but does
|
||
the blank screen go, if you press any key on your
|
||
keyboard????
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I can see the
|
||
hard disk accessing, and after a couple of minutes X starts, and life is
|
||
good.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
That really depends as to whether or not you like
|
||
using X-Window (X11). Personally, I am much more
|
||
comfortable at the console.
|
||
<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"
|
||
>
|
||
When I check my dmesg and <TT>/var/log</TT> messages file, I see no error
|
||
messages on the boot. I also noticed that when I boot for the install
|
||
and to boot in rescue mode, I not only get messages, I get the picture
|
||
of Tux in the upper left corner of the display.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
BINGO!! The fact that Tux appears in the upper left
|
||
hand corner of your screen immediately suggests that
|
||
you are using Framebuffers for your display. What this
|
||
does, is it forces the console to display at a certain
|
||
resolution, such as 800x600. It is particularly suited
|
||
to laptop users. But why you should have FB when
|
||
loading the "rescue" mode is strange......
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I've searched high and low in Google (web and groups), and your archives
|
||
and can't seem to find an answer. Any help would be appreciated.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Hardware:
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><code><font color="#000033"><br>Athlon 1.33GHz (clocked at 1.33, at least for now)
|
||
<br>ATA 100 UDMA Promise (motherboard) IDE
|
||
<br>IBM 7200 RMP 40GB HD
|
||
<br>Geforce 2 TI/AGP w/64DDR
|
||
<br>SB Live value
|
||
<br>52x CDROM
|
||
<br>12/10/32A Plextor CDRW
|
||
</font></code></blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I am dual booting with Win98SE (for games)
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Things I've tried:
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
|
||
<UL>
|
||
|
||
<li> Booting with LILO instead
|
||
<li> Setting vga=ask in lilo.conf
|
||
<li> Removing 'message=/boot/message' from lilo.conf
|
||
<li> Installing the Geforce drivers from their website (they worked great
|
||
by the way, and I was able to run GL stuff very fast indeed!)
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
</UL><blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
Since you have already changed your lilo.conf file to:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
vga=ask,
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
then perhaps we can rule out the this cannot be a FB
|
||
(FrameBuffer) problem???
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Probably the modelines it is calculating for "text mode" are not quite
|
||
in your monitor's range. The nice thing is since X works you can use
|
||
xvidtune or even capture the console messages to find out which modeline
|
||
it is using, and there is some utility out there which can convert X
|
||
modelines to framebuffer values. Unfortunately I don't recall what it is,
|
||
But fbset would be the tool you'd use with the resulting knowledge of a
|
||
good horizontal sync, vertical refresh, and dotclocks rate.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Telling LILO to use vga=ask is only half of the troubleshooting -- you
|
||
also need to know what to answer, because the nice graphical-text modes
|
||
will <EM>not</EM> be listed there. Here's the table from the Linux sources
|
||
<TT>/Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt</TT> file:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre> | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
|
||
----+-------------------------------------
|
||
256 | 0x301 0x303 0x305 0x307
|
||
32k | 0x310 0x313 0x316 0x319
|
||
64k | 0x311 0x314 0x317 0x31A
|
||
16M | 0x312 0x315 0x318 0x31B
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
But, oh no, it warns that LILO cannot handle hexadecimal, you have
|
||
to change them to decimal, 771 for instance.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Try any of these until one of them makes your system happy, then tell LILO
|
||
to use it all the time instead of asking any more.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
(You did remember to run:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><CODE>
|
||
lilo
|
||
</CODE></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
after you updated the lilo.conf file
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">??? )
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Other than trying my suggestions already mentioned, I
|
||
don't know what else I can do.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Perhaps you could send us a copy of the command:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><CODE>
|
||
dmesg &> ~/dmesg.txt
|
||
</CODE></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
output???
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Kind Regards,
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Thomas Adam
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
P.S. I like the structure of this e-mail. It clearly
|
||
states the problem, and what the querent has tried to
|
||
do in order to solve it -- well done!!!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Ben's article is working.......
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 2 -->
|
||
<!-- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -->
|
||
<HR WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center">
|
||
<!-- begin 2 -->
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Thanks for the quick response!
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> All part of the service!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
OK, I tried the keyboard thing after the screen went
|
||
blank; no such
|
||
luck, same behavior
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
Oh well. It was always a "shot in the dark" (do excuse
|
||
the pun!)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I tried setting my initdefault to 3 instead of 5 in
|
||
the <TT>/etc/inittab</TT>
|
||
file. It still went blank immediately after the grub
|
||
menu goes away,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Oh dear, I don't know how to tell it to use other VGA modes
|
||
in grub. With any luck it's just an extra option that the
|
||
kernel itself acceopts,
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
but interestingly enough, I never got a prompt after
|
||
what I can only
|
||
presume was the end of the boot process.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
Thats because you don't usually get "a prompt" (well,
|
||
you do, but....).
|
||
By prompt, I assume that you mean a login prompt??
|
||
What happens when
|
||
you change your defaulr inittab to 5 is that your
|
||
login prompt does
|
||
appear in text, but is immediately switched to tty7
|
||
where a graphical
|
||
one takes its place.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I know this may seem strange, but you should "listen"
|
||
to your monitor as
|
||
it boots up into init 5. If you hear a series of
|
||
clicks then it is booting
|
||
into a graphical display ok.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Since I'm working blind here,
|
||
I can assume one of two things
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
1) my console is not functioning
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
No....its functioning ok. You said it yourself, that
|
||
you can get a prompt
|
||
if you do a CTRL-ALT-FX key sequence.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
or 2)
|
||
the system is hung. I suspect the latter, because
|
||
when I try to bring
|
||
up another terminal (CTRL-ALT F2, F3, etc), I still
|
||
get nothing - by the
|
||
way, CTRL-ALT F2 does work when I boot level 5. I
|
||
used the CD in rescue
|
||
mode to reset my inittab back to 5, and here I am up
|
||
and running again
|
||
(still have the blank screen tho).
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
You know, I have had this situation before. In some
|
||
displays, there is a
|
||
problem of getting the text to display itself when at
|
||
the console.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
What you could try, is the following:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><CODE>
|
||
[ ** I do not know how the init structure (i.e.
|
||
<BR>location of files is
|
||
<BR>organised under RedHat. But, if it is anything like
|
||
<BR><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A>, then the init
|
||
<BR>files should be in "/etc/init.d" -- as per the LSB
|
||
<BR>standard ** ]
|
||
</CODE></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
You should have on your system, a file called:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
boot.local
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
into this file, add the following command:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><CODE>
|
||
setfont &
|
||
</CODE></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
That might, un-blank your screen, it works on my
|
||
laptop, and might just
|
||
solve your problem.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I forgot to mention that I tried the 'nofb' argument
|
||
after reading the
|
||
bootprompt HOWTO. I'm not ready to rule out the
|
||
frame buffer, however.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Maybe the answer would be to try to get it to work.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Any pointers as to
|
||
where I could find a HOWTO??
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
Aye....you could have a peek at the following website:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.linuxdocs.org"
|
||
>http://www.linuxdocs.org</A>
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
With regards to the lilo question. Yes, I did run
|
||
lilo after the
|
||
changes. The reason I am referring to the Grub
|
||
screen now is because I
|
||
eventually had a boot problem.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
What kind of boot problem?? Lilo has been the de-facto
|
||
boot loader for
|
||
Linux, for years, and is adept and handling most
|
||
things in my opinion.
|
||
And it now offers nice colourful menus, which it did
|
||
not before.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Since, I couldn't see the screen, I
|
||
couldn't see an error message. I was then able to
|
||
use the rescue mode
|
||
on the CDROM, but I couldn't find anything in
|
||
the <TT>/var/log/messages</TT>
|
||
file. I also did an 'ls -lrt' in the log directory
|
||
to see if there were
|
||
any newly updated files from the same day, but didn't
|
||
see anything. I
|
||
eventually gave up and reinstalled Linux.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
Hum....this is a very interesting problem Bill.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I have attached the dmesg text. Thanks for the tips;
|
||
I hope we can get
|
||
this mystery solved!
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
I'm trying
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I looked over your dmesg output...nothing out of the
|
||
ordinary there.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Keep at it. I hope I have been of some help. Do let me
|
||
know if my
|
||
suggestion succumb or not.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Kind Regards,
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Thomas Adam
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><font color="#000066"><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] Unfortunately that dmesg output was lost from the threads visible to me.
|
||
However, I post this note here, with my additional comments about selecting
|
||
framebuffer modes, and in the hopes that someone amongst our readers may
|
||
be able to shed some light on his monitor's darkness.
|
||
</font></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"
|
||
>The euro symbol</H3>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>From Mark McGrath
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Jay R Ashworth, Mike "Iron" Orr, Yann Vernier, Ben Okopnik, Andreas Daab
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Here's an interesting question that I thought you
|
||
might take a look at. IT applies more to the Europeans
|
||
among us but then maybe the wider community might
|
||
benefit if it were broadened to the wider question of
|
||
dealing with different fonts!
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
How is it possible to view the euro symbol on programs
|
||
running on linux machines, programs like netscape,
|
||
emacs, mutt, etc., etc.,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Thanks in advance.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Slán,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Mark.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
I quoted all of that for a reason.
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
This is a good one, and one that's cropping up on several of the mail
|
||
lists in which I participate, as well. It's a multi-faceted problem.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Using non-ASCII characters (I was going to say "on a PC", but that's
|
||
sort of obvious) requires several things:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<UL>
|
||
|
||
<li> A way to type them in.
|
||
<li> A way to ensure that the OS you're using knows which character set
|
||
they're in. (A character set is a mapping of bytes to glpyhs, a glyph
|
||
being a picture of a character in a font. You can have many fonts in
|
||
the same character set.)
|
||
<li> The program has to be equipped to handle incoming characters in
|
||
arbitrary character sets, and either to retrieve the mapping
|
||
information from the OS, or be told it itself.
|
||
<li> If the program interacts with other programs, there has to be a
|
||
standardized way of tagging which information is in which character
|
||
sets.
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
and finally
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
<li> A way to get them back out on the screen so you can read them.
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
</UL><blockQuote>
|
||
Each of these is handled, in Linux, by different things, and you need
|
||
to make sure that all the pieces are in place. Frankly, I wouldn't be
|
||
surprised at all to see an amendement to X3.64, the ASCII standard
|
||
(which I think is also ISO 10646), to include the Euro character.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Actually, I'm surprised it's not there already.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Iron]
|
||
There aren't any empty slots in ASCII. You'd have to replace something like
|
||
the backslash or the pipe symbol, and that would wreak havoc on situations
|
||
that don't expect these glyphs to change, like ASCII art, shell scripts and
|
||
Windows pathnames.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Well, no, I think you could find some other character to replace. I
|
||
should clarify that I really don't mean USASCII (the 7 bit character
|
||
set), what I really mean is "the most common 8-bit extended version of
|
||
ASCII" -- though admittedly I don't know what that is. ISO-8859-0?
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Yann]
|
||
-1, for western europe. -2 is eastern europe. Euro variants are -15 and
|
||
-16 respectively, I think. The replaced character is €, which is an
|
||
ancient sun symbol that also means "currency". It has the high bit set.
|
||
Swedish people got lucky in that some odd person decided to put that
|
||
character on our keyboards long ago - it's at Shift+4, with $ at
|
||
AltGr+4. However, this also means that our keys are now marked with both
|
||
"sol" (sun in swedish) and "Euro" (AltGr+E), but in different positions,
|
||
and either one may or may not work.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Iron]
|
||
Although I think character 35 (# or number sign) shows up as L (pound sterling)
|
||
on British screens and other currency symbols in other places, no?
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Yeah, it tends to...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
An answer to this question of the Euro has, probably not all that
|
||
surprisingly, been written already; it's the Euro Character Support
|
||
miniHOWTO:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Euro-Char-Support"
|
||
>http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Euro-Char-Support</A>
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
...but it's sort of weak, and may be specific to Finnish.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Iron]
|
||
As it says, new charsets have been added to the LATIN-x series containing
|
||
the euro symbol. Are these high-bit characters? If so, they'll have the
|
||
usual problem with non-ASCII characters: they show up differently depending
|
||
on which charset is loaded on the recipient's computer, and whether the program/
|
||
console can switch charsets according to the document or portion of the
|
||
document.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Yeah. But there's a pretty standard default 8-bit set these days,
|
||
isn't there? Even if it's just "IBM Code Page 437/850".
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Yann]
|
||
Code pages 437 and 850 are incompatible, which annoyed people here no
|
||
end as letters in our alphabet are different in the two. The "pretty
|
||
standard" set is Latin 1, or ISO 8859-1, which happens to coincide with
|
||
codepage 850 quite a lot.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
There doesn't actaully seem to be a general HOWTO on using non-ASCII
|
||
character sets with Unix that I can find at the moment [spots
|
||
opportunity
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">], but some of the specific ones inlclude those for
|
||
Belarussian, Danish, Hebrew, and the Unicode one -- which is probably
|
||
where we should all be headed anyway... though the idea of security
|
||
holes in the <EM>character set</EM> worries me a touch...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Hope this helps at least a little bit; you're correct; it's a weak
|
||
spot.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Iron]
|
||
"ASCII" means characters 0-127, which have been standardized since the 1960s.
|
||
(See "man ascii", also a good idea if you need to look up a character, or to
|
||
convert decimal/hex/octal/character.) Characters 0-31 are nonprintable control
|
||
codes, 32-127 are adequate for English and programming languages. On older
|
||
computers, the high-bit characters (128-255) weren't avaiable because the OS
|
||
used the bit for something else (e.g., Apple ][ used it to represent "inverse
|
||
video character"). (Actually, I also remember reading something about the
|
||
Apple ][ using the high bit as a strobe bit, meaning a character was received.
|
||
It's been twenty years; my memory is faulty.)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
To support other languages, various 8-bit charsets were introduced. The
|
||
ISO-8859-x series ("man iso_8859_1") is the most common on UNIX. -1 (aka
|
||
LATIN-1) covers Western Europe (Germanic/Romance languages), -2 (aka LATIN-2)
|
||
covers Eastern Europe (Slavic languages), -3 (aka LATIN-3) covers miscellaneous
|
||
Europe (and Esperanto
|
||
<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"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
<narrowed eyes behind the dark glasses> You thought I'd miss that, didn't
|
||
you? The Revolution Never Sleeps.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Iron]
|
||
No, I knew you'd never miss that. You had extensive training, comrade.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
The higher-numbered series cover Cyrillic, Greek,
|
||
Turkish, Celtic, etc. New series were added to address deficiencies in previous
|
||
series for certain languages, and to add the Euro symbol.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
LATIN-1 is the default charset for the Linux console and xterm, following
|
||
widespread UNIX precedent, and because it was convenient for Linus and
|
||
most of the original Linux users.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Codepage 850 and the like are from the DOS world, and do the same thing but in
|
||
an incompatible way.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Russia is in an unusual situation because a native charset, KOI8-r, competes
|
||
with ISO-8859-5 and Codepage ???. One advantage of KOI8 is that if the high
|
||
bit gets lost, it degenerates cleanly into readable ASCII, and can easily be
|
||
converted back by restoring the missing bit. Unfortunately, the makers of
|
||
ISO-8859-5 and Codepage ??? didn't think about just adopting the KOI8
|
||
character positions. Blame it on the Cold War. Some Russian web sites have
|
||
a switch link to switch between the four most common charsets.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
All 8-bit charsets have the disadvantage that they can display only one other
|
||
language family + English. If you need to write in two other language families,
|
||
you have to use ASCII for one, because the console, xterm and text documents
|
||
cannot change charsets in mid-document.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Unicode, being a 16-bit charset (or more), solves all these problems, but on
|
||
Linux it hasn't reached the stage of no-brainer setup or universal support by
|
||
all applications.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 3 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<HR WIDTH="40%" ALIGN="center">
|
||
<!-- begin 3a -->
|
||
<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif"
|
||
height="50" width="60" alt="(!) " border="0"
|
||
> [Andreas Daab]
|
||
Hi!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
No Problem with <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A> 7.2 and euro under console, <A HREF="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</A> and konsole.
|
||
I"m from Germany and have to put the following settings in
|
||
/etc/sysconfig/i18n:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre>LANG="de_DE@euro"
|
||
SUPPORTED="de_DE@euro:de_DE:de"
|
||
SYSFONT="lat0-sun16"
|
||
SYSFONTACM="iso15"
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Okay, this gives me the euro symbol on the console.
|
||
For X and kde remember to use the iso8859-15 charset, your correct language
|
||
and country settings. If the euro symbol works in X, set it as curreny symbol
|
||
in KDE.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
If you wan't the euro for konsole, use unicode as fontset.
|
||
Mozilla shows the euro, if you use the iso8859-15 charset with all fonts and
|
||
as default character coding (Preferences/Navigator/Character Coding).
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Hope this works for you.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Andreas Daab
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 3a -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<A NAME="tag/4"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
|
||
<!-- begin 5 -->
|
||
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
|
||
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
|
||
>ntfs clobbered my ext3fs!!</H3>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>From John
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<p></strong></p>
|
||
|
||
<!-- sig -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- sig -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Faber Fedor, Guy Milliron, Ben Okopnik, Robos, Karl-Heinz Herrman
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Hello,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Today I rebooted my happily working winXP/RH 7.2
|
||
system to a grub error 17. I can boot with a grub
|
||
floppy into windows (chainloader +1), but not Linux.
|
||
When I try to mount the linux partition in rescue mode
|
||
(booting a Redhat 7.2 CD) and mount the partition it
|
||
doesn't work.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Faber]
|
||
Partitioning problems! I <EM>like</EM> these!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
An error message here would be nice, but you did so well in the rest of
|
||
the message, I'll forgive you this time.
|
||
<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"
|
||
>
|
||
Here is the listing from fdisk -l:
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
|
||
<pre><strong>Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2482 cylinders
|
||
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
|
||
|
||
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id
|
||
System
|
||
/dev/hda1 1025 1723 5614717+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
|
||
/dev/hda2 1718 2416 5614717+ 83 Linux
|
||
/dev/hda3 2417 2481 522112+ 82 Linux swap
|
||
</strong></pre>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
If I run "fdisk <TT>/hda</TT>" and go (x)pert mode and then
|
||
(v)erify partition table I get "warning: partition 1
|
||
overlaps partition 2. 16466623 unallocated sectors"
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
And as you may have noticed in the fdisk listing, my
|
||
ntfs partition does indeed end after the beginning of
|
||
my linux partition.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Faber]
|
||
So? Un-overlap it!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
A flippant answer, you say? That's what I'm known for! But seriously,
|
||
let's think about this...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Somehow, someway, your partition table got flaky. Now, the overlap
|
||
occurs at the end of one parition and the beginning of another. What
|
||
are the chances that you have Windows data residing at the end of hda1?
|
||
If there is a good chance, then you're frelled, and you have learned why
|
||
you should never put your operating system, your user data, and your
|
||
application all on one partition.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
If you had, say, put <TT>/</TT> on hda2, <TT>/home</TT> on hda6 and <TT>/usr</TT> on hda7, then
|
||
in your scenario only <TT>/</TT> would be affected and that could be taken care
|
||
of with a re-install as a worse case. As it is, a re-install would end
|
||
up wiping out everything on hda2.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
However, if there is a low chance that there is data at the end of hda1,
|
||
you might/should be in good shape.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
So, I'm assuming there is no Windows data written to the end of hda1,
|
||
which means the Linux data is still on the hard drive (the partition
|
||
table is read by the computer to determine where the partitions start
|
||
and stop; there is no division done on the hard drive itself).
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
So I don't see why you can't fire up fdisk, and go in and set the end of
|
||
hda1 to block 1717. Write the changes to disk, shut down the machine,
|
||
sacrifice two chickens under a full moon (which it is tonight, so you're lucky
|
||
you don't have to wait another month) and restart the machine. If you
|
||
sacrificed the right kind of chickens (which is left as an exercise for
|
||
the reader), it will come back up.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
That actually occured to me, but I thought I could
|
||
only make things worse by manually toying with this
|
||
stuff.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
There's a far higher probability of making things worse by letting some
|
||
<EM>automatic</EM> process twiddle with it.
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> I'm afraid it doesn't usually get
|
||
resolved by divine intervention, so the manual method is what's left.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<em>Uninformed</em> manual twiddling is something to be afraid of. Dynamite is not
|
||
of itself dangerous; however, it becomes a terrifying thing when handled by
|
||
the ignorant. Knowledge is the key factor that makes all the difference.
|
||
Just to throw in my $0.02, Faber has hit this particular nail on the head.
|
||
Also, note that just changing the disk parameters as he has suggested is
|
||
fairly harmless, as long as you don't write any data to those partitions;
|
||
if you write down the current numbers, you can always revert to them in the
|
||
worst case (however, you already know that they're wrong, so that's not
|
||
much help.)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
One question though - what command under fdisk
|
||
do I use to set the end of a partition?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
'x' to get you into expert mode, 'c' to change the number of cylinders.
|
||
Again, writing down the current values is a good thing, even if it's of
|
||
marginal value in this specific case.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
When I try to fsck <TT>/dev/hda2</TT> I get "Bad magic number
|
||
in super-block while trying to open <TT>/dev/hda2</TT>"
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Faber]
|
||
That makes sense. fsck needs to read the super-block to do it's thing.
|
||
It assumes that the first super-block is at block...uh...1 *from the
|
||
beginning of the partition*. f that super-block is frelled, you can try
|
||
the backup superblocks; the first one is located at block 32 and the
|
||
others are located Ghu knows where on your system, but I'm sure we could
|
||
devise a way to find out if you pleaded very nicely.
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
My guess is that the first super-block is located in the overlap area,
|
||
so that wouldn't help you anyway.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
So try my suggestion <spooky music>if you dare</spooky music> and let
|
||
us know how it turns out.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Oh, and next time, make some backups...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I'm at the end of my rope here. There is a small
|
||
amount of data on the partition I'd really like to
|
||
retrieve. I can't think of anything unusual that I've
|
||
done recently to cause this problem - certainly
|
||
nothing with my partition tables.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Robos]
|
||
Hi!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Regarding the last sentences I have an idea: might it have been
|
||
windows doing some "defragmenting"? Someone quite recently told me
|
||
that win packs the stuff it intends to move to some other place
|
||
temporarily at the end of the partition since there is most of the
|
||
time some space left. This, in conjunction with your overlapping
|
||
partitions, might have been the end of that particular linux
|
||
partition (and might also not be saved by the methods destribed by the
|
||
others since they assume that the data in the linux part is still
|
||
intact...so I'd recommend 2 chicken, 2 ox and, if handy, a virgin...)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I appreciate any
|
||
help you guys can offer.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
-John Bronson
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
PS: Error 17 is described in the GRUB manual
|
||
(<A HREF="http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub-0.90/html_mono/grub.html"
|
||
>http://www.gnu.org/manual/grub-0.90/html_mono/grub.html</A>)
|
||
as "17 : Cannot mount selected partition: This error
|
||
is returned if the partition requested exists, but the
|
||
filesystem type cannot be recognized by GRUB."
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Guy]
|
||
I just wanted to say, Faber, very well done. Few people really understand
|
||
Partitioning so well.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I spent about a year working at STAC Electronics in SQA (Software Quality
|
||
Assurance - AKA Alpha Stage Testing) and nearly had intimate relations with
|
||
HD's and their functionality.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
For those lost in this conversation, Faber answered a question concerning
|
||
HD Partitioning very well. STAC Electronics writes a program called
|
||
Stacker (Double your disk capacity - Runtime/Real Time disk compression)
|
||
For DOS/W!n3.x-9x and OS/2. I was the lead tester for the software as it
|
||
came downstairs from the programmers.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Well, I still haven't been able to effect any
|
||
permenant change with fdisk. If I do "fdisk <TT>/dev/hda</TT>"
|
||
the (c)hange command described before wants to change
|
||
the number of cylinders on the whole disk.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
Hmm.... I don't know that "c" command, maybe that's what it does.
|
||
Were you in expert mode?
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
If I do
|
||
"fdisk <TT>/dev/hda1</TT>" and do that command
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
bad idea. the partition table you want to change is definitely at <TT>/dev/hda</TT>
|
||
and nowhere else.
|
||
I guess what you did change is a "partition table " at the beginning of hda1
|
||
(therefore changing the first block of hda1 which may or may not be
|
||
important, it's the Win boot sector IIRC).
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
it seems to ask
|
||
the right question "Number of cylinders? Default: 699"
|
||
...699 being about right. You get 698 when you
|
||
subtract 1723 from 1025 (See my fdisk listing).
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
If there is no size change command do in fdisk (norml mode, not expert):
|
||
p for the table
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
then delete the partition 1 (d or r ?)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
and create a new one wih the same start cylinder but the correct end cylinder
|
||
number. Then it's smaller. This <EM>only</EM> changes the data in the partiton talbe
|
||
and nothing on the drive itself and is simply a resizeing of the partiton.
|
||
The deletion in the partition table will not delete anything on the partition
|
||
itself.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Now, when I try to set it to a lower number (692 by my
|
||
subtraction) and (w)rite to partition table it calls
|
||
<TT>ioctl()</TT> etc. and does its thing, but the partition
|
||
table is still the same when I "fdisk -l"...Am I
|
||
missing something here?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Also, if the beginning of the ext3 partition have been
|
||
written to, are there no recovery tools to get the
|
||
data back? I know in FAT land, Norton Utilities has
|
||
saved my bacon more than once in similar situations.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Robos]
|
||
Concerning the last part, I one heard that the norton clone midnight
|
||
commander has some option to undelete stuff, alternatively there is an
|
||
undeletion howto at linuxdoc.org. But I never tried either of 'em...
|
||
Concerning the fdisk part:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre>sfdisk has four (main) uses: list the size of a partition,
|
||
list the partitions on a device, check the partitions on a
|
||
device, and - very dangerous - repartition a device.
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
This is the tool for the real "nerves made of steel" types. Never used
|
||
it (I'm such a sissy
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">) but a friend of mine uses it in cases like
|
||
yours.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
You can run e2fsck and it will do what it can -- but overwritten data at the
|
||
beginning of the drive is overwritten data. The problem is that you never
|
||
know which of your files got corrupted unless you can check then one by one.
|
||
You could try to keep the inode numbers e2fsck reports somewhere (logfile
|
||
option of e2fsck?) and there is an option to ls to show the inode numbers of
|
||
files and compare, but it's tedious work -- even to write the script/program
|
||
doing the work.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
if your NTFS has written over your ext3 partition it trashed all information
|
||
in the first part of hda2 -- including inode information, data blocks,...
|
||
So e2fsck in that part does not understand it's inodes anymore, maybe
|
||
misinterprets some of them causing even more problems. On the other hand you
|
||
may be quite lucky and it's not overwritten at all or e2fsck can repair the
|
||
rest of the partition without to much problems. You don't have the original
|
||
partition table around? Do you maybe remember with what "+500M" or whatever
|
||
size parameters you made them? That would help a lot in finding the real
|
||
cylinder border between hda1 and hda2.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I used DOS fdisk to make the first partition (later
|
||
converted to NTFS by WinXP) and Disk Druid to install
|
||
the rest of it. So I don't know what parameters were
|
||
used to create the table. Also, I don't have the old
|
||
partition table. Is that something I would keep around
|
||
if I were L33T? I guess it would be easy to print out
|
||
once the system is up and running.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
I don't know if I'm L33T, but I do keep printed (i.e. on paper) partiton
|
||
tables around or at least digital version on other computers.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I started with this behaviour when suddenly my partition table on a multi boot
|
||
system got messed up (NT 3.51 was told by me to install itself in a logic
|
||
partition where other logic partitions were used by Linux -- NT chose to
|
||
disregard this wish of mine.... This was evolutionary not a wise thing to
|
||
do, one NT down
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">. At that time fortunately I knew that I made my
|
||
partitions by giving Linux fdisk sizes in round numbers (like +500M) and
|
||
fdisk did indeed calculated the same cylinder boundaries. (Data fully
|
||
recovered, only the partition right after NT was clobbered -- which was /
|
||
and had no user data <TT>/usr</TT> and <TT>/home</TT> stayed untouched (but were gone in the
|
||
partition table)).
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
There's a tip for
|
||
the future.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
I think so, yes.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
As for the FAT -> NTFS conversion causing
|
||
this problem, I doubt it because that happened a
|
||
couple of months ago.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
So how dangerous to my winXP partition is this
|
||
operation? I will, at worst, lose some data if it
|
||
happens to be at the end of the partition, right? I
|
||
<em>probably</em> won't make the NTFS partition un-bootable,
|
||
right? (I use "probably" because I know nothing is
|
||
certain in this case)
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
Hmm.... NT usually had all important stuff at the beginning of the drive.
|
||
Win9X always shows some block at the partition end as "system and unmovable"
|
||
but on the other hand after that Partition Magic can resize the partition
|
||
easily. So I think neither Win Fileformat has usually important thing at the
|
||
end.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
So I think you should be reasonably save from damaging the XP partiton
|
||
completely. And if XP <EM>did</EM> increase its partition over its original size
|
||
there shouldn't be anything belongig to XP anyway.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
e2fsck has some option to just check but change nothing -- that could help
|
||
testing if by this partition change you <EM>can</EM> recover the Linux partition. If
|
||
this seems to work let it write and hope for the best.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
from man e2fsck:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre> -n Open the filesystem read-only, and assume an answer
|
||
of `no' to all questions. Allows e2fsck to be used
|
||
non-interactively. (Note: if the -c, -l, or -L
|
||
options are specified in addition to the -n option,
|
||
then the filesystem will be opened read-write, to
|
||
permit the bad-blocks list to be updated. However,
|
||
no other changes will be made to the filesystem.)
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 5 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<A NAME="tag/5"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
|
||
<!-- begin 6 -->
|
||
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
|
||
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
|
||
>Newbie seeking advice</H3>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>From David Bruce
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
|
||
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Jay R. Ashworth, Robos, Heather Stern
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I have an old IBM Aptiva (1996) with 30 MB of memory. I have
|
||
plenty of disk space (2 hard drives with 3 partitions, 1.2 GB, 2
|
||
GB, 1 GB)
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
I would like some advice on the best distribution to use, and the
|
||
windows manager which will run efficiently with my current low
|
||
amount of memory.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
I am not much good with hardware, and want the install to be as
|
||
automated as possible.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
I want a simple home user computer setup.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000099"><EM>
|
||
<BR>>While Linux is fairly adept at running in low-resource environments,
|
||
<BR>>they are not always by any means the most comfortable environments
|
||
<BR>>in which to work. If you really don't want things to be complicated
|
||
<BR>>and require work and thought, you should consider getting something
|
||
<BR>>more current. Computers got <EM>REALLY</EM> cheap last year -- a decent
|
||
<BR>>machine can be had -- new -- for under $400, if you shop really
|
||
<BR>>carefully.
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><FONT COLOR="#000066"><EM>
|
||
So you think I should get rid of my 486-33 sx laptop I'm writing
|
||
this mail on and get some newer hardware? I don't think so! In my...
|
||
</EM></FONT></STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Well, no, that's not what I said at all, now, is it?
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
And you are obviously <EM>not</EM> an unskilled user looking for a home
|
||
machine, so you're willing to put whatever time and extra effort might
|
||
be necessary into the job of running Linux (and X) on a low resource
|
||
machine.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Defenestration is my guess...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Buzzword Bingo: "defenestration" means being thrown out of windows.
|
||
(Or maybe an opening, like in all those old movies where someone is
|
||
tossed out of the saloon bodily.) So perhaps meta-defenestration should
|
||
mean throwing Windows(tm) out a window.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Robos]
|
||
Hiya again.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Well, I just wanted to make a point that it's perfectly possible to
|
||
use even old hardware. And you don't have to be a nasa-scientist to
|
||
install linux even on those machines.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
BTW, whats that machine exactly? Something in the range of pentium
|
||
133-233 I guess? I also have one machine like that at my parents
|
||
place, running even enlightenment (not extremly fast, but workable).
|
||
And something like windowmaker or icewm will run even fast on those
|
||
machines. And the installation: Dunno about the likes of redhat and
|
||
suse if they can apply their framebuffer thingy, so with debian he is
|
||
on the safe side (a nice way of saying their installer design sucks
|
||
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">. OK, it is harder than suse or redhat, but he already knows TAG
|
||
and if he takes a look at debianhelp.org (where I also hang around
|
||
some times) he will do just fine. Do you also know such things as
|
||
"OSIPs"? It's Open Source Install Party and we do it regularly at my
|
||
university for the freshmen. But also non-students are welcome. Where
|
||
was the original querent from and does such things exist in his area
|
||
too?
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
In my region we call it an Installfest. The BSD folk call theirs
|
||
Install-a-thons.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
My own recipe for running GUI mode on a low resource machine:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<UL>
|
||
|
||
<li> Use as wimpy a window manager as you can get away with. Fvwm's good.
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
Icewm's good. Enlightenment would depend on a theme with not too
|
||
many total bits in it to eat memory, but could do okay, even on a
|
||
486. Blackbox is good. K desktop is right out, Gnome too; there's
|
||
too many moving parts loaded in the desktops.
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
<li> Avoid running ANY servers you don't need to. 2 gettys are plenty.
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
inetd can go. cron and atd can go if you don't use them. Ditch lpd
|
||
until you plan to do a bunch of printing.
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
<li> Have good swap space.
|
||
<li> Use a solid-color background instead of a pixmap, even a tiled one.
|
||
<li> Build a perfectly tuned kernel for your hardware. Modules, no bloat.
|
||
<li> No desktop toys like cpu meters, xmas snow, screensavers.
|
||
<li> Avoid framebuffer, it's heavy on real CPU usage.
|
||
<li> In a worst case, less colors = less memory spent on screen efforts.
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
</UL><blockQuote>
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.libranet.com/">LibraNet</A>'s a good <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> variety, among rpm matters I favor <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> as it
|
||
lets me be picky fairly safely, and both updaters are well behaved. SuSE
|
||
has a text mode available if the GUI doesn't work out. Libranet is a full
|
||
screen but text mode installer.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
If it makes you feel better I had a perfectly happy install of Redhat 3.03
|
||
with GUI and all, on a Pentium-60 with not an incredible boatload of RAM
|
||
amd about 500 Mb of hard disk. X has gotten bigger, but with X 4 it has
|
||
also gotten modular amd that may improve things too. But there are always
|
||
floppy-based dustros that speak X - they can't assume they're going to be
|
||
running on the hot multimedia monster, so they cut all the corners to fit,
|
||
just like you need.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 6 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<A NAME="tag/6"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
|
||
<!-- begin 7 -->
|
||
<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif"
|
||
height="50" width="60" alt="(?) " border="0"
|
||
>Postfix name resolution fails, dig doesn't</H3>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>From Faber Fedor
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Yann Vernier, Jay R. Ashworth, Heather Stern
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Hey Gang!
|
||
You probably haven't noticed, but I've been a bit quiet the past few days. It's
|
||
certainly not by choice, however. I was recently switched over from @Home to
|
||
the lovely Comcast network. After a few birthing pains, everthing seemed to be
|
||
going well. However, I've sent out a few emails, including to the Gang, and
|
||
I've not seen them show up.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Looking into <TT>/var/log/maillog</TT>, I see, as an example, the following:
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
|
||
<pre><strong>Mar 7 22:52:25 uranus postfix/smtp[12586]: 0A9F2FE16:
|
||
to=<linux-questions-only@ssc.com>, relay=none, delay=28121, status=deferred
|
||
(Name service error for ssc.com (Host not found, try again) while looking up
|
||
the MX record.)
|
||
</strong></pre>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
and I see this for every email I've tried to send for the last few days.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
So I check my ability to do name resolution. I do a `dig ssc.com mx` and I get
|
||
the correct response. dig, ping, nslookup works for every email address I've
|
||
sent to in the pat few days, but no emails are sent because of "Host not found
|
||
while looking up MX record".
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Any ideas where to look next?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
===== Sincerely, Faber Fedor
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Den]
|
||
Maybe postfix has managed to latch in your old nameserver information.
|
||
You might try the command:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
postfix reload
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Yann]
|
||
Quite probable. Postfix also has a tendency to run as much as possible
|
||
in a chroot jail; to update the contents of that, you probably have to
|
||
run the <TT>/etc/postfix/chroot-setup-LINUX2</TT> script. This had me stumped for
|
||
a while after changing <TT>/etc/localtime</TT> but still getting american
|
||
timestamps in the mail.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Err, the Postfix FAQ has a point here and there of saying "oh, you want to
|
||
copy <TT>/etc/resolv.conf</TT> and <TT>/etc/services.switch</TT> down into the jail"
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Which would likely be true whether there is a script to help it do the
|
||
right thing or not.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
My familiarity with Postfix is no more than skin-deep, but if it follows
|
||
the Exim way of doing things (i.e., emulating Sendmail options), you might
|
||
be able to try some of the following:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre>sendmail -d11 -bt # Address testing mode
|
||
sendmail -d11 -bv # Address testing mode, skips "no_verify" routers
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
A debug level of 11 or above turns on DNS debugging (at least in Exim.)
|
||
Here's hoping that all this stuff is at least close... you might want to
|
||
read the Postfix manpage; if it's not the same options, they should at
|
||
least implement similar functionality.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Dan]
|
||
Sorry Ben, no direct debugging. Use syslog. Postfix isn't a monolithic
|
||
program,
|
||
but a cluster of cooperating daemons, with no protocol for centralizing
|
||
debugging info and having one of them dump to standard out. Rather than
|
||
reinvent the wheel, Wietse Venema has Postfix consolidate its log streams
|
||
via syslog.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Put it into verbose mode then tail -f whatever syslog puts
|
||
the various mail.* syslog streams into.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre> postfix -v reload
|
||
tail -f whatever_log_file
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
and in another window
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre> postfix flush
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
to make it retry all pending spool entries and log what it sees happen.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
All nameservers in your <TT>/etc/resolv.conf</TT>, or the nameservers assigned by DHCP
|
||
(see logs) are reachable, I presume.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
In a manner of speaking, yes. postfix uses
|
||
<TT>/var/spool/postfix/etc/resolv.conf</TT> for name resolution. I assume that
|
||
has to do with the chroot jail that Yann was refering to (although I
|
||
don't have a script in <TT>/etc/postfix</TT> that corrects the problem).
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I didn't see the message about <TT>/var/spool/postfix/etc/resolv.conf</TT> not
|
||
being the same as <TT>/etc/resolv.conf</TT> since that only shows up when you
|
||
start/stop the postfix (NOT when you reload, btw).
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
I think I'll go and find out why <TT>/var/spool/postfix/etc/resolv.conf</TT>
|
||
isn't (shouldn't?) be a symlink to <TT>/etc/resolv.conf.</TT>
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Either way, all better now!
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
-- Regards, Faber
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
Erm, 'cause it's a chroot jail (best as I can tell from your description.)
|
||
Assuming that '<TT>/var/spool/postfix</TT>' is your jail's '<TT>/</TT>', "postfix" won't be
|
||
able to see anything above that level once it's chrooted.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
My knowledge of chroot jails is limited - I keep promising myself to build
|
||
a few of the damn things and experiment, as soon as I have the time (yah,
|
||
shuuure...) - but it only makes sense. A link <em> _inside</em> the jail to
|
||
'<TT>/etc/resolv.conf</TT>' is going to point at the <em> _inside</em> version of
|
||
'<TT>/etc/resolv.conf</TT>' (a.k.a., "<TT>/var/spool/postfix/etc/resolv.conf</TT>" when seen
|
||
from the outside.)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
By my understanding of setting up ftp chroot jails, you can have
|
||
symlinks from inside the jail to the outside. This is A Bad Thing, of
|
||
course, because the entire purpose of a chroot jail is to keep the user
|
||
in a specific directory.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Now, I understand that symlinking libraries is a securoty breach, but I
|
||
don't see how symlinking a text file is a security breach. Can anyone
|
||
explain how an exploit like that would work?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Nope. Unless there's a bug.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
You can have <EM>hard</EM> links, though, but only between files, obviously.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
You can symlink <EM>into</EM> a chroot, but not out of it.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Or, more properly: you can make a symlink that <EM>looks</EM> like it points
|
||
to an external file, but when it's interpreted by a program inside the
|
||
chroot environment, it probably won't point anywhere useful.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
If you're wondering why it wasn't just automagically set up as a
|
||
hard link, it's not the way of distro's package folk
|
||
to assume they have any idea how your hardware is laid out, and hardlinks
|
||
only work on the same filesystem (for ext2/3 ... for other fs' you may
|
||
not have the ability at all).
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Besides, I don't think my postfix is chrooted; there's only one library
|
||
in <TT>/etc/var/postfix/lib</TT> and postfix has got to need access to more than
|
||
one library to function.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Dan]
|
||
Depends on how it was set up. The postfix source has a file called
|
||
INSTALL which discusses the pros and cons of chroot in some detail,
|
||
and gives procedures to establish it. Default (as of some time back)
|
||
was not to chroot.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Postfix comes in parts, some are jailed and some not; you have to look
|
||
at <TT>/etc/postfix/master.cf</TT> (a table describing features Postfix should apply
|
||
to its children) to be certain. And even then it's only for sure
|
||
if you recently reloaded postfix
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> It doesn't lurk on the file watching
|
||
for it to change.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 7 -->
|
||
<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
|
||
<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"
|
||
>Themes in Linux</H3>
|
||
<H4 ALIGN="center">a game of win-upsmanship</H4>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>From Elliot
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
|
||
<!-- ::
|
||
Themes in Linux
|
||
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
||
a game of win-upsmanship
|
||
:: -->
|
||
|
||
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Heather Stern, Jay R. Ashworth, Karl-Heinz Herrmann
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Elliot, John Karns
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
after reading a linux pocket book i found out that linux can have many
|
||
skins under gnome and kde, i am using mandrake 8.1 and would love to
|
||
download some like the windows 2000 and the matrix/x men themes do you
|
||
know of any good download spots thanks,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [star]
|
||
themes.org
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
You'll be able to surf from there to themes sub-hosts for the specific
|
||
Window Manager which you are running; we have several.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
ps i want the windows themes as part of a joke to a friend who is
|
||
running windows 2000, him and i are battling to who has the better
|
||
operating system i say linux he says windows 2000, he will come to his
|
||
senses some time soon.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
from elliot
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [star]
|
||
The strangest and silliest case of "which OS looks cooler" effects I did
|
||
was to run a copy of Windows For Workgroups 3.1 under DesqView, with WFW
|
||
running Norton Desktop for Windows and themed up to look as close to a Mac
|
||
as I could get. (Which was actually <EM>very</EM> close, I'm a decent graphic
|
||
artists and rather sneaky about using my apps' splash screens) I was
|
||
doing NDW tech support at the time; Linux was so new we were using
|
||
Soft Landing Systems, and boy, was that a painful download.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
There is a documented case, somewhere, of someone running <EM>5</EM> emulators
|
||
deep, though I no longer remember which ones they were. I'm pretty
|
||
sure it involved a Windows em, a Mac one, and a Commie, but I no longer
|
||
remember the details.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
In a later and less silly age I used Fvwm95 to good effect on <A HREF="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</A>
|
||
systems, to get folks with no Linux nor BSD experience to be able to use
|
||
our systems quickly. All I had to make sure was that "Settings" menu
|
||
sorted out in the right order. Nowadays better file managers would make
|
||
faking out the Control Panel pretty easy too. In a modern day I'd probably
|
||
start with Icewm because someone else already did most of the work, and
|
||
Icewm works well with K and Gnome.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Ahh, but none of those were Linux. My usual one-upsmanship call for a
|
||
UNIX derivate over an MSwin derivate, is that the Linux/UNIX philosophy
|
||
has many small parts that do things by operating together -- even in those
|
||
cases when things break down fairly badly, it's usually quite easy to slip
|
||
over to another console and merely 'kill -9' the offending process. The
|
||
GUI is just one more piece in this sort of puzzle, and in fact X, the
|
||
graphical system, can be run without a window manager at all if you really
|
||
need to squeeze those resources.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
But the times when I've hung X fairly hard (hey, I was working with some
|
||
locally built stuff I'd wired up wrong, mea culpa) I was able to ssh in
|
||
from another terminal, kill -9 the process family responsible, and init
|
||
cleaned up the memory mess. No nasty reboot necessary
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> It's <EM>possible</EM>
|
||
to dig yourself into trouble so deep only a reboot would escape, but <EM>much</EM>
|
||
more difficult. The principle that not every app gets godly powers on the
|
||
whole disk helps this out a great deal...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
The equivalent of the Windows BSOD is the Unix Panic. (Or the Linux
|
||
Oops...)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
In <EM>20</EM> years of working with *nix boxen, I've seen...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
10 panics.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
5 or 6 of those were my own machine, when the 1.0 kernel proved not to
|
||
be as resilient as the .99pl12f working with a WD 1007 ESDI controller.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<EM>All</EM> of the others were bad device drivers or bad hardware; I have
|
||
<EM>never in my life</EM> seen a Unix box lock up from userland software
|
||
problems.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
I've seen about 12 or 15 "device wedge" conditions. In themselves they don't
|
||
halt the system, but the wedged driver will never release its resources,
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Typically, this is a driver for a "fast" device, which turned out to be
|
||
slow. Slow device drivers are interruptable. "fast" ones aren't.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
and the condition usually requires an exceedingly careful manual shutdown --
|
||
which you want to do, instead of let a UPS discover it can't shut you down
|
||
correctly. Most especially you want to make sure the wedging condition isn't
|
||
part of the startup sequence or you are really in hot water. The usual
|
||
reason for this is when am incorrect driver succeeds in loading anyway, much
|
||
to its dismay. And mine. (For our loyal readers, if anybody is willing to
|
||
<EM>believe</EM> me when I say I have a PCMCIA-LS120 that doesn't work, and willing
|
||
to help make it work, please let me know. That kind of coding is not my
|
||
specialty.)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I've seen numerous "fatal embrace" conditions amongst 3 to 5 apps enough
|
||
times that I don't count them; not because they're common, but because I've
|
||
been doing this long enough I have better things to count. They can be killed
|
||
from other consoles -- the main reason X makes things a problem is that it
|
||
owns display and keyboard control -- thus it straddles userland and driver
|
||
space. If the X server or the X window manager cannot come to the foreground
|
||
because other apps are locked up, your directly-connected keyboard may be
|
||
unusable... whether or not those two are members of the lockup. Thus a quick
|
||
bout with 'ssh' and 'kill -9' is in order.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Occasional cases of someone passing incorrect hardware information to an app
|
||
which straddles userland and driverspace (PCMCIA, X, just about any emulator)
|
||
have led to frankly, expectable results. Debugging the smoking crater in
|
||
your foot, yes. D'oh!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
In the scope of laptops only, poor quality APM or ACPI support on either end
|
||
of the hardware/driver equation has led many on mailing lists to wail that
|
||
resuming from suspend is a game of musical chairs for them (sometimes you
|
||
lose) or worse (tell me again about these journaling filesystems, I think I
|
||
really need that stuff) but I have only seen that for myself... um, about
|
||
7 times. But bear in mind that this includes that I played "musical chairs"
|
||
with resuming for about a month before I learned enough about APM to use it
|
||
correctly on my own laptop. Ahh, that was a much younger me. I was so
|
||
excited about everything else in my new distros.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [John]
|
||
Any tips for the rest of us out here who would like to do the same? I
|
||
really don't use the suspend feature on my laptop, as the success rate is
|
||
only about 30% - 50%.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Yes.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockQuote><ol>
|
||
<LI>I later learned that I succeeded so well at it ... translation, I didn't
|
||
crash 92.3% of the time... because I had such decently good timing in my
|
||
BIOS. I love my little blue laptop. It's great.
|
||
|
||
<LI>Once I actually built a kernel for myself with APM support turned on
|
||
crashes changed from "fairly common" to "rare"
|
||
|
||
<LI>Once I actually loaded apmd as part of normal startup sequence (duh,
|
||
how silly I feel now) the crashes went away entirely. Nowadays I put it
|
||
in the load sequence even if I think the kernel has no apm - it's safe to
|
||
do that, it merely bails out with a note about it.
|
||
</ol></blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
To expand on (2), there are a handful of minor options that relate to what
|
||
APM sub-features are turned on, off, or hit over the head with a stick. You
|
||
may need to mess with some of them until you get a machine that stops being
|
||
crashy. Or <EM>mostly</EM> stops being crashy. If it never gets perfect and it's
|
||
a fairly new box (year 2000+) it may be worth trying ACPI instead.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
SMP's APIC behaviors give APM a nasty-bad case of indigestion, and so you
|
||
should not turn on "APIC for Uniprocessor" even if your CPU can use it,
|
||
when you stick with APM.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
To expand on (3), of course it's this userland daemon that allows things
|
||
like it turning of the pcmcia ports when I want to go to sleep, so the
|
||
unpowered ports don't block the interrupt request and result in immediate
|
||
wake again. Sound can do that too. Heh.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Hope that helps
|
||
<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]
|
||
Thanx a bunch. Although I have apmd being called from the init scripts
|
||
and enabled in the (2.2.x) kernel, I was having a heck of a time with it.
|
||
However, it's been some time since I've tried it - (probably not since I
|
||
upgraded to 2.2.20), so it may be time to do some experimenting.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
In general anything that crosses the blood/brain barrier, er, kernel and
|
||
userland space has potential to do "something wicked" (a real error message,
|
||
I saw it once) or scare an operating system ("Aieee! tried to kill init!").
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I shan't count people thinking their screensaver errors represent some dire
|
||
system failure. ("xplanet not found")
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Oh. I thought you meant the BSOD screensaver.
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":D"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
I can/could force it rather easily into complete crash (i.e. completely dead:
|
||
no net, no keyboard, no mouse actions).
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Eek.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [H.-H.]
|
||
Just switching fast between different screen resolutions X-screen textconsole
|
||
etc. will usually lock it hard at some point. Sometimes with running kernel
|
||
and network, but more often locked solid. Seems to happen with Matrox Mytique
|
||
graphic cards as well as a variety of more recent nvidia's.
|
||
When running <A HREF="http://www.dosemu.org/">DOSEMU</A> a long time agro (like 2-3 years) certain programs could
|
||
also lock me out completely because the keyboard was blocked. No ideas if the
|
||
net would have been still running.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Likely so.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
While we mention odd documented cases, someone managed to get themselves
|
||
a situation where the stack was still active after they called for init to
|
||
halt ... and then abused this to their advantage by using their machine as
|
||
a router, whose only purpose for a userland at all was to establish his
|
||
packet filters before "shutting down". Darn near bulletproof. I don't
|
||
think you can do that anymore without hacking the kernel a teeny bit.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
also starting vmware in fullscreen (with resolution change) locked an nvidia
|
||
card solid several times on the machine I'm just sitting at.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
All of these have one thing in common: direct hardware acess from more or
|
||
less userspace and hardware and/or keyboard locking going haywire. I try to
|
||
avoid that if at all possible. I also guess that dosemu by now is lots more
|
||
stable, but I somehow don't need it anymore.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Indeed. Yeah, direct hardware access is the commin factor, no doubt.
|
||
Userspace people <EM>just are not</EM> as careful as the kernel hackers in
|
||
general...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Some but not all distros also have some very smooth ways of keeping their
|
||
packages up-to-date; MS is a little slow on the uptake with security
|
||
updates, and some of those are worse than the disease since they can't resist
|
||
adding new functions in with it.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
What's more a decent <A HREF="http://www.winehq.com/">WINE</A> setup can run Windows apps within the Linux kit;
|
||
Mandrake's "gamers edition" has it all ready to go, plus Transgaming's
|
||
ActiveX support so most things run straight up.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Hey, Heather: is a P266 with X4 and 96M of RAM enough to run Wine at
|
||
all reasonably?
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
I dunno, I haven't run WINE in a while ... and it's come a long way baby,
|
||
but I dunno if that means it uses more or about the same resources as it
|
||
did when I messed with it. Also for the record I've only seeing the
|
||
Transgaming stuff on other peoples' boxen, not my own.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I used a Pentium II. I'm pretty sure 96 MB is enough if you're the only
|
||
one abusing your workstation
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> "Reasonable" is totally subjective and
|
||
in my case is skewed heavily -- the only two remaining MSwin boxen around
|
||
here are a P130 laptop and a VMware session. The VMware session is molasses
|
||
compared even to the older boxen I was using back in my tech support days.
|
||
The P130 is reasonable.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
What Xfree86 version 4 adds to this puzzle I couldn't say.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
Cool.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Specifically, I need to run (and find a copy of) Corel Draw/Linux.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Run Corel Draw, or read its file format? Important distinction, that.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
I would, actually, like to run it; I didn't know anything was reading
|
||
.cdr files these days. There was a tuned port to Wine of either 8 or
|
||
9, but it's no longer a product.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
(back to Elliot here)
|
||
Which I suspect may answer about half of your other thread... For the other
|
||
half, run don't walk to your nearest search engine and type "linux 3d gaming".
|
||
That should get you lots to work with.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
On the flip side of one-upsmanship, so what if he wants to run MSwin? I mean,
|
||
I wouldn't go near that license they've got on XP with a 20 foot pole and
|
||
hazmat gear, but Win2k might be okay as a desktop system. I woldn't trust
|
||
it as a server, not because of the OS itself (others in the Answer Gang are
|
||
welcome to disagree, but I've no quibbles about proprietary bits here and
|
||
there in my life) but because many of the server apps are bug-ridden. If
|
||
I'm going to use <A HREF="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</A> and Sendmail anyway (they've been ported there long
|
||
since, and some effort is made to keep them updated) then I'd rather use
|
||
them on platforms they were built for first. In many contexts the BSD family
|
||
(<A HREF="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</A>, FreeBSD, and for non-PC use <A HREF="http://www.netbsd.org/">NetBSD</A>) can do better than both of us,
|
||
so it really comes down to what you expect to <EM>do</EM> with a system, before you
|
||
decided what OS will be best for it.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Document compatability is a different problem, but Wordperfect, Applix (no
|
||
wait, that was renamed) Anyware, StarOffice all exist for both platforms.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
BTW I've seen Gnome and Enlightenment-looking themes for MSwin. Maybe he'd
|
||
like to try them. You can both have a contest against the rest of your
|
||
colleagues to make them have trouble telling which machine is which
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> Once
|
||
upon an age ago I saw a "Windows to <A HREF="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</A> theme converter" but I'm pretty sure
|
||
it was for KDE 1, and may not have been updated. Still, you're welcome to
|
||
use <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net"
|
||
>http://freshmeat.net</A> (A linux applications search engine) to go looking
|
||
for it.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Enjoy...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<HR width="10%" align="left"><blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Jay]
|
||
... and a Commie, but I no longer remember the details.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Commodore 64's used hammers and sickles? Oh, now I know what type of terminal
|
||
is wired up to Ben's dark glasses ...
|
||
<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]
|
||
I knew it, I just knew it. Heather, get the car, call the dogs and the SWAT
|
||
team.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
The SWAT team is over here, drinking up my best rum.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
They obviously read the Answer Gang Members' FAQ
|
||
(<A HREF="http://ww.linuxgazette.com/tag/members-faq.html"
|
||
>http://ww.linuxgazette.com/tag/members-faq.html</A>); they couldn't stick with
|
||
the beers, you reserved 'em.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
The dogs have all
|
||
turned out to be total pet sluts, and are doing that hind-leg-twitch thing
|
||
while their bellies are being scratched. As to the car, i stole the battery
|
||
weeks ago.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
You are doomed.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Ben forgets, I have <EM>ways</EM> of getting around without cars. That little
|
||
fellow in Doom could definitely use a boost from a jet pack.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Which leads us straight back to the gaming thread, doesn't it?
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":D"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</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"
|
||
>gaming in linux</H3>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>From Elliot
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Karl-Heinz Herrmann, Heather Stern, Robos, Daniel S. Washko
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
i understand that you can download some patch to allow quake 3 Arena and
|
||
unreal tournament windows versions to run on linux,what do i need to
|
||
download to allow this,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
I thought there are <EM>native</EM> versions of these games for Linux...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Robos]
|
||
Well, in order to get Q3 to play under linux you need the *.pak files
|
||
and the linux binary of the game. This binary is available from id
|
||
itself, they have a "demo" version for linux. If you have the full
|
||
*.pak files this demo will grow to a full version (haven't done this,
|
||
I bought the linux version).
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
are there any other games that can do this such
|
||
as counter stkrike/half life soldier of fortune etc.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
There is a linux distribution coming with a specialized wine version which
|
||
seems to be able to run many popular windows games.
|
||
erm.... can't remember the name, sorry. Maybe search through linuxgazette --
|
||
I think I picked it up here some few months ago.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Mandrake Gaming Edition. Hmm, maybe they'd let him upgrade his regular
|
||
Mandrake over to it.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Robos]
|
||
Concerning Counter-Strike, three days ago I finally managed to get CS
|
||
to run with transgaming.com's WineX. You can check out their WineX at
|
||
their sourceforge-site for free (no support then of'cos). After
|
||
installation (I`m not entirely sure how's best: doing it their
|
||
Readme-way:
|
||
./tools/wineinstall
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
did not work for me, but at least this created all the necessary files
|
||
and dirs. When I did it with good'ol:
|
||
<TT>./configure</TT>, make depend, make, make install
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
it worked...) do a: wine hl.exe -- hl.exe --console --game cstrike
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
(you have to have the halflife dir in the "c" path). The menu works
|
||
<em>really</em> slow, but the game is normal speed. My sound is kinda broken,
|
||
but that is probably my bad onboard-sound...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
The transgaming-folks have a list of games running as well as a rate
|
||
how good somewhere on their site, take a look. As do the wine folks at
|
||
codeweavers.com.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
And there is a halflife-wine howto and others at linuxgames.com.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
i am currently running mandrake 8.1 and have xfree 4.1.0 and have just
|
||
installed the latest nvidia drivers,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Daniel]
|
||
Make sure you nvidia drivers are running properly: Fire up the gears screen
|
||
saver and verify they are not running at 1 fps. If they are, read the
|
||
Nvidia howto thoroughly.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
so it would be great to be able to use some games in linux,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
xpingus, tuxracer, bzflag, parsec,...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
Oh yeah, I didn't even go into how many "clone" games we have of popular
|
||
games - stopped counting how many minesweepers, tetris, and solitaire too.
|
||
We've more "asteroids" clones than you can shake a joystick at, too.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
But also: Lincity:Simcity :: Maelstrom:Asteroids :: crafty:Warcraft ... uh
|
||
or was that aleclome? Maybe I should check the <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A> "availables" list for
|
||
the word "clone". Or <A HREF="http://www.freshmeat.net/">Freshmeat</A>.net for it. Hmm, had to narrow it down to
|
||
"clone game" in order to get 61 projects show there, all of whom have a
|
||
very good likelihood of being playable stuff
|
||
<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"
|
||
> [K.-H.]
|
||
then there are many commercial ones from a company porting them to linux
|
||
(mostly 1st person ego shooters) and there is civilisation (call to power)
|
||
somewhere out there as well.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather]
|
||
I'm looking at Myth II and Terminus on my desk -- Myth II was a Loki project,
|
||
Terminus by Vatical says "PC - Mac - Linux" on the package front. In short
|
||
they don't care which OS we're running, let's just get to the gaming. An
|
||
excellent attitude, in my opinion.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
thank you in advance
|
||
from elliot,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
ps i have read that winex has just ported Max Payne to linux making it
|
||
the first ever direct x 8 game to be supported under winex.
|
||
that is great and hopefully this means that linux will soon be able to
|
||
equal windows in terms of games availabilty and entice a few more
|
||
newbies to linuxing..............
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<HR width="10%" align="left">
|
||
<blockquote><em><font color="#000066">So far, so good, you would think. About 4 of a gang of answerfolk had
|
||
the time as well as any past experience in the use of WINE to give him
|
||
some comment about how to get his games going. The same fellow also
|
||
got other threads, one in where I commented to Jay that by my admittedly
|
||
wimpy requirements, WINE runs acceptably on a mere Pentium II. It
|
||
certainly runs better than VMware -pretending- to be a P150. But, for
|
||
some reason, he decided to mail again.
|
||
</font></em></blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote><em><font color="#000066">Perhaps our mail wasn't as readable without the sort of threading I
|
||
added above?
|
||
-- Heather</font></em></blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
where would i find the excecutible files to run windows versions of
|
||
quake 3 arena, unreal tournament , i know i can use winex but ive read
|
||
in a linux pocket book that i can download a "linux patch" i have bean
|
||
told that if i download the linux quake 3 arena demo and i have the
|
||
windows pak files it will make it the full version
|
||
what games also allow me to do this counter strike perhaps?
|
||
and which type of file should i look for on the websites, they are
|
||
excecutible right?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
any help would be great as i have a pile of windows games that i would
|
||
love to run in linux but hoepfully not through winex or a windows
|
||
compatibility layer eg. win4lin/vmware
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
thanks from elliot.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Robos]
|
||
OK pal, have you even read what I've told you the last time you asked?
|
||
And it <EM>really</EM> isn't difficult to find the demo of q3-linux. Google:
|
||
q3 linux demo -> 9th hit.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Because of id's engagement for opengl their games are easy to port to
|
||
linux, macos and I even saw quake1 for neXt IIRC. But, those other
|
||
a**holes like to stick to win crap directx and since that is only on
|
||
win you're fscked. How about you don't write to us that you want to play
|
||
games under linux but rather to the ones that make the games? Then
|
||
they see that there is a market and will produce accordingly.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Concerning CS: if you would have tried what I told ye you would have
|
||
noticed that there is no performance loss (as far as I was concerned)
|
||
in the wine emulation, so whats the point?
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] There's two problems here, and their solutions do not really belong
|
||
in the same paragraph.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>If you want Linux to run a piece of software you already bought for
|
||
Windows - whether it's a game or something else - then you are almost
|
||
certainly going to find that WINE is part of your solution. This is
|
||
not about whether you are old enough to play with alcohol
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle"> WINE
|
||
is the way that UNIX-like operating systems these days, just happening
|
||
to include Linux at the forefront, run the MSwin "protected mode exec"
|
||
file format and answer MSwin library calls. Heck, sometimes it even
|
||
works pretty well. WineX helps because it means we can then answer
|
||
the library calls to that bare-metal abuse the MSwin developers call
|
||
"DirectX".
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>WINE home page:
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.winehq.com"
|
||
>http://www.winehq.com</A>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>DirectX support for WINE:
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.transgaming.com"
|
||
>http://www.transgaming.com</A>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>Sites specifically about gaming under Linux:
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.linuxgames.com"
|
||
>http://www.linuxgames.com</A>
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.linuxvoodoo.com/games"
|
||
>http://www.linuxvoodoo.com/games</A>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote></blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>There are occasionally people who will write readers for some data
|
||
normally sold on CD to MSwin users. One such example is Robert MIbus'
|
||
"ency", which reads the Star Trek Encyclopedia discs. You're more
|
||
likely to want one of the GUIs other people have wrapped around it,
|
||
but those are easy to find from his site. If you mail him how cool
|
||
it is, tell him his Comp Ops says "Hi!"
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>Star Trek Ency Reader:
|
||
<A HREF="http://users.bigpond.com/mibus/ency"
|
||
>http://users.bigpond.com/mibus/ency</A>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>If you want "purity" - a real Linux binary - in many cases like Quake
|
||
they exist. Go to linuxgames.com or freshmeat.net and look them up.
|
||
But if they do not, you will have to TELL THE MANUFACTURER that this
|
||
is something that you will spend money on at the mall. Otherwise every
|
||
time you buy an MSwin game just to run it under WineX they will tell
|
||
themselves they have another happy Win2000 customer. They just can't
|
||
tell by the Visa receipt that you use Linux, folks.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>And all of this aside, we have squadzillions of native games for Linux
|
||
that have never been in shrinkwrap. Not all of them are clones of
|
||
anything nor even available for Windows. ("Thomas T Tuxedo, A Quest
|
||
For Herring" comes to mind.) The index servers have troves of them. Some
|
||
of them are even GLitzy (okay, bad pun. OpenGL is very cool.) Go
|
||
forth and have fun!
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>Freshmeat, games and entertainment (almost 2000 projects when I looked):
|
||
<A HREF="http://freshmeat.net/browse/80"
|
||
>http://freshmeat.net/browse/80</A>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>TUCOWS, linux games index:
|
||
<A HREF="http://linux.tucows.com/games.html"
|
||
>http://linux.tucows.com/games.html</A>
|
||
</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"
|
||
>linux questions</H3>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p><strong>From zen maiku
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p align="right"><strong>Answered By Breen Mullins, mike martin, Ben Okopnik, Robos, Mike "Iron" Orr, Thomas Adam, Dan Wilder, Heather Stern
|
||
</strong></p>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Dear The Answer Gang,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
Hi, I just did a search on the Internet for a problem I was having, and
|
||
I was led to a site with an answer by "The Answerman" on it, and I
|
||
immediately thought he was great! Short, straightforward answers; to the
|
||
point, simple, and very helpful!
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
So, naturally, right away, I decided to come to him with my own
|
||
questions, and that's when I discovered that his E-mail may no longer exist.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
So now I am coming to you, The Answer Gang, who were mentioned as a
|
||
soon-to-be organized group of people, at the time of the article I was at.
|
||
(Linux Gazette Issue 55)
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
So, if you would please, I have some questions for you. I looked in
|
||
The Answer Gang Knowledge Base, but it didn't really give me the simple,
|
||
short and succinct answers I was looking for. There was some help in there,
|
||
but it was accompanied by a LOT of extra stuff. I'm writing in the hopes
|
||
that you can deliver as well as The Answerman did.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
Well, The Answer Guy is still here. We'll try to help though. Jim may
|
||
even toss in a suggestion or two.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
The reason you're not finding simple answers is that you're not asking
|
||
simple questions.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I'm thinking about switching over to Linux on my personal computer to
|
||
replace Windows.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
Good!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
I am not a seasoned Linux user, so I have encountered some
|
||
difficulty with a few aspects of its use.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
This is pretty common for newish Linux users.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Since it turns out that I have 12 questions total, and they are all
|
||
multi-part, AND because these questions are a serious impediment to my Linux
|
||
use, I have named them "The Linux Deadly Dozen". My questions, because I
|
||
can't seem to find too many straight answers online, are:
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<P><STRONG><BLOCKQuote>
|
||
1. I'm a home user who uses the Internet a lot, plays games, works with
|
||
music, and other average activities, and I have above-average computer
|
||
literacy - Which Linux distribution is the best choice for me? What are the
|
||
major differences between Mandrake, <A HREF="http://www.redhat.com/">Red Hat</A> and Best Linux? Are they the
|
||
three best distributions out there?
|
||
</BLOCKQuote></STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
I'm not familiar with Best. I use Red Hat; others here prefer <A HREF="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</A>
|
||
(which is probably NOT the best distribution for a new user). Mandrake
|
||
has a reputation for being easier on the new user. S.U.s.E is also very
|
||
well regarded. Other members of the Gang may have other favorites. The
|
||
best distro is the one that works for you. (I know, you wanted a simple
|
||
answer. There isn't one to this question.)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
Not heard of Best, I use RH myself but for a newbie Mandrake is probably
|
||
good, <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/">SuSE</A> is also fairly good
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
2. Does Mandrake, Red Hat, or Best Linux support USB ports? Is support
|
||
built in, or do I have to download a patch or something? If the ports
|
||
themselves work fine with Linux, then is it simply a matter of getting Linux
|
||
drivers for specific USB devices?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
USB support is pretty good with 2.4 kernels, which you'll get with a
|
||
recent distribution.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
Current versions have support built in
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] SuSE has had working USB support since kernel revision 2.2.14 or so.
|
||
Both 2.2.x and 2.4.x kernels will have USB support. There will be lots
|
||
of modules, but usbmgr should deal with all that under the hood stuff
|
||
for you...
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
3. Can I get Linux to support my Rockwell HCF 56k winmodem?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
Check on www.linmodems.org - Ithink they arenow supported
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
How about my
|
||
GeForce2 MX400 AGP video card, and my Soundblaster Live! Value sound card?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] Yes albeit weird (nVidia has two modules to add, one for the kernel and one
|
||
for X, but they are good), and probably. Creative Labs has been directly
|
||
on the bandwagon for awhile now.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
How about cable modems?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Iron]
|
||
linmodems.org is all for analog modems. A cable "modem" isn't really a modem.
|
||
External ones that connect to the computer via an ordinary Ethernet card have
|
||
a better chance of being Linux compatible than internal or USB ones. It all
|
||
depends on whether the modem requires a proprietary driver, and whether such
|
||
a driver exists for Linux.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
You should search Google for hardware compatibility information. (I'd
|
||
advise getting a real modem if you're even halfway serious about Linux.
|
||
Or even halfway serious about The Other System for that matter.)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
4. What are the differences between <A HREF="http://www.kde.org/">KDE</A> and Gnome,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
various but not that apparent to a convert
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
and why would I want to
|
||
use one over the other?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
Personal preference
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Do they both contain office suites?
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
KDE does and gnome contains some very classy apps, gnumeric (excel)
|
||
evolution (what outlook should be), and galeon (web browser)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Are they good,
|
||
or should I go with StarOffice? I want an office suite for word processing,
|
||
spreadsheets, and possibly web page building.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
This is a matter of personal preference. You should install both and try
|
||
them; then you'll know which is better for you from the strength of your
|
||
own experience.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
5. Should (can) I use Wine to run Windows programs like messengers and
|
||
games, or are there Linux versions of these things? I want to be able to
|
||
communicate with people on MSN Messenger and AIM,
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
Use everybuddy or gaim or AOL linux client
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
Messenger clients are a dime a dozen in Linux. You don't need an
|
||
emulator.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
and I want to play some of
|
||
the current popular games. What can Wine do for me that makes it a
|
||
must-have? (or is it a must-have?)
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
I'm not a gamer so I won't comment on whether emulation is
|
||
likely to be any good for your games.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
games are a problem
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
Let's see - I just finished a rousing round of Quake2, and was running
|
||
Heretic yesterday - and I'm not a big-time game maven. Admittedly, there
|
||
are not nearly as many games for Linux as there are for Wind*ws (although
|
||
that's changing fairly quickly), but dismissing it with "games are a
|
||
problem" is rather simplistic. Take a look at the "Linux games" section at
|
||
Tucows; I think you'll be amazed at what's available. Trust me, I'm <em>not_</em>
|
||
talking about yet another version of Tetris here. As well, take a look at
|
||
some of the stuff currently in development at <A HREF="http://www.freshmeat.net/">Freshmeat</A>/SourceForge; people
|
||
are coming up with distributed game systems that will make Wind*ws stuff
|
||
look totally <EM>passe</EM> within a year or so.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] See another thread on that topic, this issue.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
6. What are the most common Linux file types, and what are their Windows
|
||
counterparts? I notice Linux doesn't use .exe files? When I click on
|
||
certain files in Linux, it asks what I want to use to open them, but I have
|
||
no idea what to choose. Also, what are, and how do I use, RPM packages?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
I'm going to skip this one right now. I think you'll do better to
|
||
concentrate on some of your other questions first.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
linux does not have file types like in the windows world. Files are
|
||
ssociated with mime-types although there some conventions
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><code><font color="#000033"><br>.sh shell scripts
|
||
<br>.pl perl scripts
|
||
</font></code></blockquote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
That's incorrect. Wind*ws does not have file types - its associations are
|
||
based on the extension that a file has (which can lead to some rather funny
|
||
situations.) Files under Linux are not associated with mime-types - that's
|
||
a purely optional mechanism that is often used by mail clients and browsers
|
||
(and a few other odd things) - but the only way a file is going to <em> _have</em> a
|
||
mime-type is if one has been <em> _assigned</em> to it by a mail client, etc. Under
|
||
Unix in general, files are recognized by their "magic", usually the first
|
||
few bytes with which a file begins.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
These extensions are conventions "more honored in the breach than the
|
||
observance". I usually tell my students that unless they're writing Perl
|
||
on a Wind*ws platform, they should <EM>not</EM> use the ".pl" extensions - and
|
||
if they are, to use ".plx", since ".pl" is the correct extension for a
|
||
Perl _library._ Under Linux, it doesn't matter whether you use the
|
||
extension or not.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Iron]
|
||
... unless the program itself requires them. For instance, top-level Python
|
||
scripts that you run from the shell or by clicking an icon may have the .py or
|
||
not--it doesn't matter. But if it's a Python module you want to import from
|
||
inside another Python program, it better have the .py extension or it won't
|
||
work.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
Ben, surely file "extensions" are depreciated
|
||
nowadays, since what is the purpose of the she-bang
|
||
line??? -- of course as mike said, <EM>some</EM> languages do
|
||
need the extension.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
You're confusing filetype checking within the OS and <EM>filename usage</EM> in a
|
||
programming context. The OS, as per my earlier statement, does not care
|
||
about what extension you give the file - period. The fact that you can't,
|
||
for example, rename "<TT>/etc/resolv.conf</TT>" to "my_favorite_DNS_servers.really"
|
||
and have it work has nothing to do with this.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Dan]
|
||
Python compiles and saves modules at import time, and wants to
|
||
see the compiled module stored beside the source code, as file.py
|
||
and file.pyc.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Not having to wildcard the name or do a search possibly
|
||
shortens the "shall I compile this now" decision.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
I can't see how that bears on the issue at all. Libraries and modules in
|
||
Perl are also required to have extensions that identify them <EM>within Perl</EM>,
|
||
but this has nothing to do with file identification within the OS itself.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><pre>Baldur:/tmp$ cp /usr/lib/python2.1/uu.py .
|
||
Baldur:/tmp$ file uu.py
|
||
uu.py: a /usr/bin/python script text executable
|
||
Baldur:/tmp$ mv uu.py uu
|
||
Baldur:/tmp$ file uu
|
||
uu: a /usr/bin/python script text executable
|
||
Baldur:/tmp$
|
||
</pre></blockquote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
As far as identifying the file goes, the extension makes no difference.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Thomas]
|
||
Ultimately though the colour options passed to "ls -l"
|
||
make it much easier for me to identify a file type...
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
This <em> _still</em> does not use extensions. Actually, given the limited action of
|
||
the way it works, I suspect it just sets the colors based on the data in
|
||
the inode.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] Well, <EM>my</EM> set of /etc/DIR_COLORS definitely uses extensions; I like to see
|
||
that .jpg (and various permutations) .gif (likewise) .png (and so on) in a
|
||
given color to tell me that they are images, various permutations of tarball
|
||
(e.g. .tgz, .tar.bz2, .zip and its permutations, .deb, .rpm...) are packages,
|
||
and so on.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>I have a limited number of colors to play with but it's very helpful anyway.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>If ls knows how to read by magic rather than extensions it's news to me.
|
||
Of course it <EM>is</EM> useful to tell at a glance that I have the exec bit set,
|
||
or that a given item is a symlink and not a real directory.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
7. Where can I get great Linux freeware, like the great freeware I use on
|
||
Windows; to handle picture viewing and editing, compressed files, music and
|
||
video files, and other such things? What are the best programs?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
dont need it, most of the freeware programs for windows are either core
|
||
parts of the OS, and otherwise the web - loads of programs
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
<A HREF="http://sourceforge.net"
|
||
>http://sourceforge.net</A> will give you a list of more free programs than
|
||
you can shake a stick at.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Oh. The best? The usual answer: try some out. Start with the ones that
|
||
come with your distribution. My opinions won't match others anyway.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
8. Will a computer that's running Mandrake, Red Hat, or Best Linux with a
|
||
GUI like KDE or Gnome on it, be faster, slower, or about the same speed as a
|
||
computer running Windows 95? What about Windows 98, ME, XP? Will programs
|
||
and games load and run comparably?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
Too many variables here; I don't think there's a meaningful answer. I
|
||
haven't used Windows in years anyway.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
difficult to say, probably slower than w95 but comparable with full GUI
|
||
to others (but nicer)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] variable 1: linux native binaries may run much faster. variable 2: our GUI
|
||
is not just X itself but the Window Manager too. We have more major Window
|
||
Managers than fingers, and a lot of minor ones too. That's wihout counting
|
||
the desktop environments. variable 3: different apps need different
|
||
resources, and as we're multiuser you can run lots of apps at once. There's
|
||
more tools to look at resources than you can shake a stick at too.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>I could go on...
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
9. What are the GPL, GNU, and Freeware Licenses about? What are the
|
||
differences between them? Are there other similar licenses I am unaware of?
|
||
My interest is in ad-free, popup free, commercial free freeware only. I
|
||
do not like shareware, commercial software (some exceptions), or adware,
|
||
since the (best) freeware out there has often been superior anyway.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
Use the term Free software - big subject, pop into www.slashdot.org to
|
||
get a feel of the subject
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
What, in 50 words or less? Rivers of ink have been spilled over
|
||
licensing issues. I'm not going to even attempt to summarize. (Besides,
|
||
this is yet another way to start a flame war and I didn't wear my
|
||
asbestos undies today.)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] I wrote an editorial ranting a bit on this subject awhile back, easy to
|
||
find if you type "kosher" into the LG Search page.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
10. What's the deal with compiling libraries? What does it mean to do that,
|
||
why is it necessary, and how is it done? What is a compiler, and which one
|
||
is the best?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
Don't worry about this. You probably won't need to compile anything at
|
||
all for at least six months after you move into your Linux system.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
When you are starting it is NOT neccesary, but has dvatages when you get
|
||
into it. Most programs are available as rpm's
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
11. What is X Windows? Is it part of Linux or KDE or Gnome or something?
|
||
Is it a must-have component, or built-in one, or neither, or both?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
X is the underpinning of the graphical interface you're going to want to
|
||
use. Your distribution will install it; you probably won't need to worry
|
||
about it for, oh, six months.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
For all practical purposes a built in. gnome/kde run on top of X which
|
||
runs on top of Linux
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] From an end user view, it's the GUI. You don't need a GUI to do cool
|
||
things in Linux... but lots of people like to have one. As opposed to
|
||
MSwin, where the GUI cannot be reasonably removed and even if you thought
|
||
you wanted that (?!) there are so very few decent console mode apps.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
12. What is the best web browser to use on Linux? Do KDE and/or Gnome have
|
||
built-in web browsers? If so, are they good enough for most general purpose
|
||
Internet use, and eliminate the need to download anything else?
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Breen]
|
||
Boy, you're just trying to start a fight, aren't you? This is yet
|
||
another question without an answer. KDE and/or Gnome will install a
|
||
browser for you. Try one. Try several. Decide which one is best for you.
|
||
(I use and like one called Galeon. Another member of the Answer Gang
|
||
foams at the mouth when it's mentioned.)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [mike]
|
||
Galeon (gnome app), have heard konquerer and Opera are OK
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<blockquote><IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Heather] I use lynx, it may be text mode but it's the fastest thing on the planet...
|
||
some who also like text consoles may prefer links, or w3m. All these have
|
||
SSL support available too.
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<blockquote>You said you hate adware so I dunno if there's an Opera version you'll
|
||
like yet...
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<P><STRONG>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" ALT="(?)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
>
|
||
Thank you in advance for any help, and thank you for your time and effort.
|
||
</STRONG></P>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Robos]
|
||
Hi!
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Lots of questions there, and a tremendous amount of answers in the
|
||
net. Therefore I give you some pointers where to start
|
||
reading. Because this is in my opinion the main difference between win
|
||
and linux: you have to actually read stuff! Lots of stuff. But as a
|
||
consequence - you learn something
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
(had this with a friend of mine and me (both quite good in
|
||
linux-matters) when he bought a mac with OSX: we simply pushed buttons
|
||
- without reading the manual - because you're supposed to do this if
|
||
you have a gui, aren't you?)
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
So, the list:
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<UL>
|
||
|
||
<li> <A HREF="http://linuxdoc.org"
|
||
>http://linuxdoc.org</A> - lotsa nice stuff there
|
||
<li> <A HREF="http://linux-newbie.org"
|
||
>http://linux-newbie.org</A> (never taken a look...)
|
||
<li> very important: <A HREF="http://www.google.com/linux"
|
||
>http://www.google.com/linux</A>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=";-)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
<li> <A HREF="http://www.kde.org"
|
||
>http://www.kde.org</A> and <A HREF="http://www.gnome.org"
|
||
>http://www.gnome.org</A>
|
||
<li> <A HREF="http://freshmeat.net"
|
||
>http://freshmeat.net</A> very important for application questions
|
||
<li> taking a look at <A HREF="http://slashdot.org"
|
||
>http://slashdot.org</A> 15 to 20 times a day
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
isn't that bad either
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
<li> Since I use debian I can only point you to their list, maybe the
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
others can provide something for the other distros:
|
||
<A HREF="http://packages.debian.org/testing/allpackages.html"
|
||
>http://packages.debian.org/testing/allpackages.html</A> - available
|
||
programs with a short description
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
<li> For games:
|
||
<A HREF="http://appdb.codeweavers.com/appbrowse.php?catId=2"
|
||
>http://appdb.codeweavers.com/appbrowse.php?catId=2</A>
|
||
or
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.transgaming.com/dogamesearch.php?order=working&;showall=1"
|
||
>http://www.transgaming.com/dogamesearch.php?order=working&;showall=1</A>
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
<li> For office suits:
|
||
koffice.org
|
||
openoffice.org
|
||
<br>
|
||
|
||
</UL><blockQuote>
|
||
I think with these you will be happy for the next month or two,
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" ALT="(!)"
|
||
HEIGHT="28" WIDTH="50" BORDER="0"
|
||
> [Ben]
|
||
Robos is The Man.
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
I think that's one point that everybody, including me, forgot to make - and
|
||
it's possibly the most important one there is. Linux is <EM>not</EM> free. Oh, it
|
||
doesn't have to cost anything money-wise - you can download the complete
|
||
install, or borrow a CD from a friend (unlike dealing with Wind*ws, this is
|
||
actually <em> _encouraged</em> ) - but where it does cost is in the time invested in
|
||
learning it. Some people, however, see that as a very good thing indeed
|
||
(and I'm among them): not only do you get to have this nifty OS, but you
|
||
also get to understand it, woohoo! The thing is, you don't get to just lean
|
||
back and click on icons (unless you want just the basic functionality). As
|
||
soon as you want to get hold of some of the serious power that's available
|
||
with Linux, you've got to open the hood, reach under, grrrab those
|
||
high-voltage wires, and <EM>feel</EM> the power of Linux!... Oh, sorry - got a
|
||
little carried away there.
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Anyway, that's the big difference. When you want more out of Wind*ws,
|
||
well... you can pay lots of money and get, uh, something real pretty and
|
||
with lots of flash and neat sound-effects and stuff (functionality will be
|
||
included in the next release - no, REALLY!) With Linux, there's (usually)
|
||
no money involved and the power is available right now - but you <EM>do</EM> need
|
||
to sit down and <EM>study</EM>. If that trade-off sounds good to you... welcome to
|
||
Linux. You're in for a fun time.
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
<blockQuote>
|
||
Oh, and do be careful - those numbers on the speedometer are <EM>exponential</EM>
|
||
values.
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" ALT=":)"
|
||
height="24" width="20" align="middle">
|
||
</blockQuote>
|
||
|
||
<!-- end 9 -->
|
||
<P> <hr> </p>
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
||
<H5 align="center">This page edited and maintained by the Editors
|
||
of <I>Linux Gazette</I>
|
||
<a href=""
|
||
>Copyright ©</a> 2002
|
||
<BR>Published in issue 77 of <I>Linux Gazette</I> April 2002</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 *** -->
|
||
<H4 ALIGN="center">"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"</H4>
|
||
<HR>
|
||
|
||
<center>
|
||
<table cellpadding=7><tr><td>
|
||
<IMG SRC="../gx/bytes.gif" border=1 ALT="News Bytes">
|
||
</td><td>
|
||
<H3>Contents:</H3>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a HREF="#leg">Legislation and More Legislation</a>
|
||
<li><a HREF="#links">Linux Links</a>
|
||
<li><a HREF="#conferences">Conferences and Events</a>
|
||
<li><a HREF="#general">News in General</a>
|
||
<li><a HREF="#distro">Distro News</A>
|
||
<li><a HREF="#commercial">Software and Product News</a>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
</td></tr></table>
|
||
|
||
<STRONG>Selected and formatted by
|
||
<A HREF="mailto:michael.conry@softhome.net">Michael Conry</A></STRONG>
|
||
</center>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P> Submitters, send your News Bytes items in
|
||
<FONT SIZE="+2"><STRONG>PLAIN TEXT</STRONG></FONT>
|
||
format. Other formats may be rejected without reading. You have been
|
||
warned! A one- or two-paragraph summary plus URL gets you a better
|
||
announcement than an entire press release. Submit items to
|
||
<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A>.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
|
||
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
|
||
<font color="green">
|
||
April 2002 <I>Linux Journal</I>
|
||
</font>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
|
||
<IMG ALT="[issue 96 cover image]" SRC="misc/bytes/lj-cover96.png" WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=268
|
||
ALIGN="left" HSPACE="20">
|
||
|
||
The April issue of <A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/"><I>Linux
|
||
Journal</I></A> is on newsstands now.
|
||
This issue focuses on interoperability. Click
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=NS-lj-issues/issue96&file=index">here</A>
|
||
to view the table of contents, or
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/subscribe/">here</A>
|
||
to subscribe.
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
<FONT COLOR="green">All articles through December 2001 are available for
|
||
public reading at
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine.php">http://www.linuxjournal.com/magazine.php</A></FONT>.
|
||
Recent articles are available on-line for subscribers only at
|
||
<A HREF="http://interactive.linuxjournal.com">http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/</A>.
|
||
|
||
<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">SSSCA/CBDTPA
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
The US
|
||
<a href="http://cryptome.org/sssca.htm">
|
||
SSSCA</a>, so enthusiastically promoted by Senator Fritz Hollings,
|
||
has metamorphosed into the
|
||
<a href="http://cryptome.org/broadbandits.htm">
|
||
CBDTPA</a>: the Consumer Broadband and Digital
|
||
Television Promotion Act, which has now been introduced in the Senate.
|
||
Unfortunately, it has not become any more palatable during the transition.
|
||
The
|
||
<a href="http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51275,00.html">
|
||
direction of the bill</a>
|
||
is unchanged. If passed, it would mandate government-approved security
|
||
standards and "digital rights management" systems which would have to be
|
||
included in electronic devices. Import or interstate distribution of devices
|
||
not meeting these requirements would be illegal. Such
|
||
regulations would apply to software or hardware that reproduces, displays,
|
||
retrieves or accesses copyright work. Such a definition covers a staggeringly
|
||
broad range of devices and programs. Measures which would fulfil these
|
||
obligations could render even completely
|
||
<a href="http://hardware.earthweb.com/prodop/article/0,,12099_985991_,00.html">
|
||
legitimate procedures</a>
|
||
such as backups and disk optimisation impossible, or at least illegal.
|
||
<p>
|
||
(That "interstate distribution" clause is what allows the federal
|
||
government to get involved; they cannot interfere with in-state commerce.
|
||
However, this is small comfort, since most electronic products in the US are
|
||
imported from Asia, and few states have domestically-produced substitutes
|
||
available.)
|
||
<P>
|
||
Business support for the bill is not universal, and there were
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/24262.html">
|
||
heated exchanges</a>
|
||
between Hollings and Intel executive VP Leslie Vadasz at a recent hearing
|
||
before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
|
||
<a href="http://lwn.net/2002/0307/">
|
||
LWN's coverage</a>
|
||
provides some insight into the nature and conduct of this hearing.
|
||
Support for the proposed measures is strongest among "content providers"
|
||
such as Disney. The technology business naturally fears being hamstrung by
|
||
regulations which would diminish the usefulness of their products.
|
||
Following this apparently courageous stand by Vadasz, the
|
||
<a href="http://www.eff.org/">
|
||
Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>
|
||
requested that people mail Intel to express support and solidarity.
|
||
However, a subsequent
|
||
<a href="http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20020319aol_intel.htm">
|
||
joint statement</a> by AOL Time Warner and Intel painted a somewhat
|
||
different picture, critiqued by the EFF
|
||
<a href="http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/20020322_eff_aol-intel_critique.html">
|
||
here</a>. This statement "envisions a world in which corporate
|
||
negotiations decide consumers' rights, and government outlaws devices
|
||
falling outside a `consensus' imposed by Hollywood." It seems the
|
||
divisions are not only between companies, but also within. A Slashdot
|
||
<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/02/03/01/1423248.shtml?tid3">
|
||
comment</a> on the story indicated that this is perhaps really a power
|
||
struggle between the two industries, with the tech business trying to evade
|
||
regulation so as to gain leverage over the entertainment business. It
|
||
sounds plausible, especially when Disney starts
|
||
<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/04/1445216">
|
||
accusing</a>
|
||
Apple of aiding and abetting music piracy.
|
||
<p>
|
||
Naturally, this story has gained a lot of coverage in the tech press.
|
||
Slashdot had stories on
|
||
<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/02/03/01/1423248.shtml?tid3">
|
||
the hearing</a>,
|
||
the
|
||
<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/21/2344228">
|
||
introduction</a>
|
||
of the bill to the senate, and a
|
||
<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/22/2345249&mode=nested&tid=103">
|
||
follow up</a> to the same story.
|
||
Wired also ran a good
|
||
<a href="http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51274,00.html">
|
||
story</a>
|
||
or
|
||
<a href="http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,51245,00.html">
|
||
two</a>
|
||
following the debut of the bill in the Senate.
|
||
An
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5930">
|
||
excellent commentary</a> by
|
||
Doc Searls is available online at the Linux Journal website which comments
|
||
on the issues surrounding this case, and rebuts much of Hollings'
|
||
testimony to the clumsily titled
|
||
<a href="http://commerce.senate.gov/press/107-159.html">
|
||
Hearing on Protecting Content in a Digital Age-Promoting Broadband and the
|
||
Digital Television Transition </a>.
|
||
Another fine
|
||
<a href="http://lwn.net/2002/0328/">
|
||
commentary</a>, well worth reading, was published in Linux Weekly News.
|
||
<P>
|
||
Hopefully, after reading some of those links, one gets pretty angry about the
|
||
terrible laws some interests would like to control you with. This leads to the
|
||
question, what can be done? One important step is to stay informed about these
|
||
issues. As usual,
|
||
<a href="http://www.eff.org/">
|
||
EFF</a> have a
|
||
<a href="http://www.eff.org/IP/SSSCA_CBDTPA/">
|
||
page</a>
|
||
collecting various resources and documents surrounding this case. Also,
|
||
their
|
||
<a href="http://www.eff.org/cafe/">
|
||
CAFE (Campaign for Audiovisual Free Expression)</a>
|
||
webpage is a good source for info on this and related topics.
|
||
This
|
||
<a href="http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html">
|
||
EFF press release</a>
|
||
has some advice on specific measures which can be taken to help stop this
|
||
law. You are advised to:
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Send a letter to the senate, which has requested comments on the future
|
||
of digital media distribution. EFF provide a
|
||
<a href="http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html">
|
||
sample letter</a>,
|
||
though it would be best if you rephrased it yourself.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Use this
|
||
<a href="http://judiciary.senate.gov/special/input_form.cfm?comments=1">
|
||
webform</a>
|
||
to submit comments to the senate committee (closes April 8th, 2002).
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Contact your local elected representatives, and tell them how important
|
||
this issue is. EFF has
|
||
<a href="http://www.eff.org/congress.html">
|
||
guidelines</a>
|
||
on "Contacting Congress and Other Policymakers".
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Try to raise the visibility of this issue among people who would not
|
||
otherwise be aware of it.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p>
|
||
And before those in Europe start sniffing that this whole business is
|
||
typically American and couldn't happen here, they should take note of
|
||
<a href="http://lwn.net/2002/0307/">
|
||
LWN's warning</a>
|
||
that the European Commission is considering
|
||
<a href="http://lwn.net//2002/0307/ec-drm.pdf">
|
||
similar measures</a> [pdf].
|
||
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="green">Patents
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk">
|
||
The Register</a>
|
||
came up with a few good software patent stories over the last month.
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Symantec has been
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/24528.html">
|
||
awarded a patent</a>
|
||
on a heuristic technology used to detect viruses. This technique has
|
||
already been in use for some time.
|
||
<li>
|
||
</li>
|
||
Maz technologies have
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24557.html">
|
||
gained a patent</a>
|
||
on a "method of transparent encryption and decryption for an electronic
|
||
document management system". This would effectively put a lock on a
|
||
large part of the encryption industry, and has been preceded by
|
||
considerable prior art. It will be up to the companies being hassled
|
||
for licensing fees to challenge the validity of the patent.
|
||
<li>
|
||
</li>
|
||
The bizarre attempt by British Telecom to enforce a patent on
|
||
hyperlinks, has been
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/24440.html">
|
||
dealt a blow</a>
|
||
by a US Federal Court Judge who ruled that the patent in question might
|
||
not, after all, cover hyperlinks. This case is not over yet, though.
|
||
<li>
|
||
</li>
|
||
Finally, the Amazon 1-Click patent dispute with BN.com has finally
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/23/24345.html">
|
||
been settled</a>
|
||
out of court. This does nothing to challenge the daftness underlying
|
||
the patent.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<P>
|
||
<hr noshade width="20%">
|
||
<P>
|
||
The argument is often made by pro-patent apologists that patents are
|
||
essential to a growing economy. Historically, this has not been shown to
|
||
be the case.
|
||
<a href="http://www.monbiot.com">
|
||
George Monbiot</a>
|
||
has written an excellent
|
||
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,7369,665969,00.html">
|
||
article</a> in
|
||
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/">
|
||
The Guardian</a>,
|
||
which tells the story of how many of the companies now demanding
|
||
intellectual property rights were built without them. In particular,
|
||
patent free regions enjoyed exceptional growth, until political pressure
|
||
from patent enforcing nations lead to a change in policy.
|
||
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="green">GPL
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
<P>
|
||
The GPL
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24286.html">
|
||
almost made it to the courtroom</a>
|
||
during the last month. The circumstances concern a dispute ongoing between
|
||
MySQL AB and NuSphere Corp. In June 2000 NuSphere licensed distribution
|
||
and support rights for the MySQL Database, from MySQL AB; under a deal that
|
||
was also to see significant code contributions from NuSphere into the body
|
||
of MySQL. Relations soured between the two companies. MySQL accused
|
||
NuSphere of trademark infringement (for setting up the mysql.org web site),
|
||
of breach of contract, and of infringing the GPL. The Free Software
|
||
Foundation became involved in the case as an expert witness on behalf of
|
||
MySQL.
|
||
<p>
|
||
Regarding the alleged GPL infringement, the
|
||
<a href="http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-02-26-013-20-PR-LL">
|
||
contention</a>
|
||
of the FSF is that by statically linking their Gemini product against the
|
||
GPL'ed MySQL code, and then failing to distribute source code, NuSphere
|
||
violated the terms of the license. NuSphere
|
||
<a href="http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-02-27-016-20-PR-LL">
|
||
vigorously opposed</a>
|
||
these allegations, asserting that their product did not infringe the
|
||
licence terms, and pointing out that they also distributed the Gemini code
|
||
under the GPL (an earlier version was, however, distributed without source
|
||
code).
|
||
<p>
|
||
Though the FSF
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24219.html">
|
||
expected</a>
|
||
the case would serve as a test of the GPL, the judge's preliminary
|
||
injunction
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24286.html">
|
||
limited the terms</a>
|
||
of the case to the copyright infringement issue. She took the position
|
||
that since NuSphere appeared to be currently in compliance with the
|
||
licence, it is unlikely any irreparable harm is being done to MySQL
|
||
AB.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<a name="links"></a>
|
||
<p><hr><p>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<center><H3><font color="green">Linux Links</font></H3></center>
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Linux Weekly News has
|
||
<a href="http://lwn.net/2002/0314/security.php3">
|
||
drawn attention</a>
|
||
to several
|
||
security alerts which have come up all at once, affecting a broad area
|
||
of Linux code, including OpenSSH, PHP and zlib. If you are running a system it
|
||
is very important that you keep up to date with such security alerts.
|
||
LWN have thoughtfully provided links to most of the major distributions'
|
||
security advisories, so you have no excuse.
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
<a href="http://www.gentoo.org/news/20020225-guru.html">
|
||
Comments</a>
|
||
at Gentoo on some distributions' failure to pass patches upstream. If you
|
||
want to help, check out
|
||
<a href="http://kerneljanitors.org">
|
||
kerneljanitors.org</a>.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Newsforge ran
|
||
<a href="http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/03/28/0335245&tid=23">
|
||
a story</a>
|
||
on the LNX-BBC (Bootable Business Card) rescue disk project. This is a
|
||
descendant of the original Linuxcare BBC.
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Eric S. Raymond on how
|
||
<a href="http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,5105485,00.html">
|
||
Microsoft could have killed off the open-source movement in 1998</a>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
Linux on
|
||
<a href="http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=25200&a=24535,00.asp">
|
||
Big Iron</a>, saving big money.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
<a href="http://www.unixpunx.org/">
|
||
Unix punks</a>
|
||
"counter-culture music, counter-culture operating systems."
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Penguins around the World
|
||
<a href="http://www.siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/penguins/main.html">
|
||
fun & facts about penguins</a>.
|
||
|
||
<p>Some links courtesy of
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxtoday.com/">Linux Today</a>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxsecurity.com/articles/network_security_article-4528.html">
|
||
Network Security with /proc/sys/net/ipv4</a>,
|
||
a review some of the basic essentials of the /proc/sys/net/ipv4
|
||
filesystem necessary to add to the overall network security of a Linux
|
||
server.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/4078/1/">
|
||
'Between the Sheets'</a> Linux spreadsheets review.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/data/anw-28.02.02-006/">
|
||
Tux takes its seat
|
||
</a>
|
||
in Germany's federal parliamentary.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
IBM DeveloperWorks on
|
||
<a href="http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/esdd/articles/porting_linux/index.html?t=gr,l=335,p=PortSolaris2Linux">
|
||
porting from Solaris to Linux</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
An
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2002/0325.video.html">
|
||
article</a>
|
||
at LinuxWorld for people interested in starting to do video editing in
|
||
Linux.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxorbit.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=470">
|
||
Guide</a>
|
||
to dual booting Red Hat 7.2 and Windows XP.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www.machineofthemonth.org/articles/d2/index.html">
|
||
Guide</a>
|
||
to using CUPS with Gimp-print.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
An
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxorbit.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=168">
|
||
introduction</a>
|
||
to mini Linux Distributions.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
The population of Retail Point of Sale Terminals running Linux in North
|
||
America increased 80% according to
|
||
<a href="http://www.ihlservices.com/en/2002Press4.asp">
|
||
a new study</a>
|
||
released by IHL Consulting Group.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p>
|
||
Some stories featured on
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register</a>
|
||
over the past month:
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>
|
||
UK Government deal
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24258.html">
|
||
opens up</a>
|
||
2m desktops to MS rivals.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Eric Raymond says
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24245.html">
|
||
Linux kernel patching is in crisis</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
MS to offer Europe extra
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24400.html">
|
||
antitrust 'concessions'</a> and why
|
||
Microsoft's EU 'concession' is
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/24490.html">
|
||
no concession at all</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Cost the
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24397.html">
|
||
key factor</a>
|
||
in pushing business to open source.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Back Orifice for Unix flaw
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/24447.html">
|
||
emerges from obscurity</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Scientologists
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/24533.html">
|
||
gag Google</a>
|
||
using DMCA.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Bill's Xenix vision for the
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24504.html">
|
||
future of the PC, c1980</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<P>
|
||
A few interesting links from the O'Reilly stable of websites,
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Running an open source household, one family
|
||
<a href="http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2002/03/14/household.html">
|
||
tells their story</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Online
|
||
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/">
|
||
Directory of Linux Commands</a>
|
||
by the authors of Linux in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2000/06/29/hdparm.html">
|
||
Speeding up Linux</a>
|
||
using hdparm.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2002/03/21/linuxps2.html">
|
||
Opening up</a>
|
||
the PlayStation 2 with Linux.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Some links picked up from
|
||
<a href="http://slashdot.org">Slashdot</a>:
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www.digitalconsumer.org/">
|
||
DigitalConsumer</a>
|
||
is trying to get a consumers' Bill of Rights passed for digital
|
||
content.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
The
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxandmain.com/features/os2retro.html">
|
||
Sad Parable of OS/2</a>.
|
||
Why OS/2 failed, and some lessons for Linux.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Wall Street
|
||
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/home/2002/03/27/0327linux.html">
|
||
embraces Linux</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-tosatti/?t=gr,p=Tosatti">
|
||
Interview</a>
|
||
with Marcelo Tosatti, maintainer of the 2.4 Linux kernel.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www.robval.com/linux/2002/browsers.html">
|
||
Comparative review</a>
|
||
of web browsers available on Linux
|
||
(<a href="http://www.opera.com">Opera</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/embedding/examples/galeon.html">
|
||
Galeon</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/">
|
||
Mozilla</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.konqueror.org/">
|
||
Konqueror</a>
|
||
etc.,).
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://draco.mit.edu/teddyborg/">
|
||
Teddy Borg</a>: a teddy bear with a built-in Ethernet switch. The
|
||
cables come in through his feet, and his LED eyes flash as packets go
|
||
through.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_534847.html?menu=news.latestheadlines">
|
||
Ancient Domesday Book</a>
|
||
outlives 1986 electronic version.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
CNET
|
||
<a href="http://news.com.com/2010-1078-855155.html">
|
||
editorial</a>
|
||
by Bruce Perens that dismantles an earlier attack by Microsoft's Craig
|
||
Mundie on the GPL and the Liberty Alliance.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Loki, publisher of Linux games,
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxandmain.com/news/loki.html">
|
||
goes bankrupt</a>, fails to pay employee salaries,
|
||
while officers loot company assets.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Finally, it is perhaps worth mentioning that Slashdot has begun to
|
||
<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/03/01/1352200&mode=nocomment">
|
||
offer a subscription service</a>. The reward for subscribing is to
|
||
avoid advertisements.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Here is a collection of links to Linux Journal web articles which might be
|
||
of interest:
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Marco Fioretti
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5818">
|
||
announces a new project</a>,
|
||
RULE, that wants to create a
|
||
small, essentials-only distribution for non-techies.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
IBM Software Group's director of Worldwide Linux Solutions
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5822">
|
||
discusses</a>
|
||
the union of open-source programs and commercially licensed software in
|
||
current business environments.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5831">
|
||
Installing Libranet 2.0</a>.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
Linux
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5472">
|
||
storms Hollywood</a> visual effects industry.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
A
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5869">
|
||
look at</a>
|
||
the misconception that a network is safe simply because the machines
|
||
are connected to switches.
|
||
</li>
|
||
<li>
|
||
A
|
||
<a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=5905">
|
||
tutorial</a>
|
||
on mirroring web sites on your hard disk from within your web browser.
|
||
</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<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.php">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>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>Software Development Conference & Expo, West (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>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>O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (O'Reilly)</b><BR>
|
||
<td valign=top>May 13-16, 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>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>O'Reilly Open Source Convention (O'Reilly)</b><BR>
|
||
<td valign=top>July 22-26, 2002<BR>San Diego, CA<BR>
|
||
<a href="http://conferences.oreilly.com/" target="_blank">
|
||
http://conferences.oreilly.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>
|
||
|
||
<tr><td valign=top>
|
||
<b>Software Development Conference & Expo, East (CMP)</b><BR>
|
||
<td valign=top>November 18-22, 2002<BR>Boston, MA<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>
|
||
|
||
</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">Good News for Mozilla
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
It appears that following the recent
|
||
<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla0.9.9">
|
||
0.9.9 release</a>,
|
||
<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/">
|
||
Mozilla</a> is finally nearing the magical
|
||
<a href="http://www.mozilla.org/roadmap/mozilla-1.0.html">
|
||
1.0 release</a>. The development tree has
|
||
<a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=2176">
|
||
been closed</a> in preparation for the release.
|
||
<p>
|
||
Additionally, Newsforge has
|
||
<a href="http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/03/08/1957252&mode=thread">reported</a>
|
||
that AOL is to move closer to Linux and Mozilla, thus gaining more
|
||
independence from Microsoft and Internet Explorer.
|
||
The move
|
||
<a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=581&u=/nm/20020312/tc_nm/tech_aol_redhat_dc_1">
|
||
towards Linux</a>
|
||
appears to involve a support deal with Red Hat to deploy Linux in back-room
|
||
functions. However Mozilla appears destined to
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24441.html">
|
||
be deployed</a>
|
||
on the ubiquitous AOL CD's. Though this development will be welcomed by
|
||
many in the Free Software and Linux communities, some
|
||
<a href="http://www.msnbc.com/news/729918.asp?cp1=1">
|
||
are worried</a>
|
||
it might lead to wider enforcement of web standards.
|
||
We should be so lucky.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="green">HURD and Richard Stallman
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Richard Stallman, announced in a
|
||
<a href="http://www.idg.net/ic_829012_4394_1-3921.html">
|
||
recent interview</a>, that he expects
|
||
the
|
||
<a href="http://www.fsf.org/software/hurd/hurd.html">
|
||
GNU Hurd</a> to be ready for production release this year.
|
||
This story was
|
||
<a href="http://slashdot.org/articles/02/03/12/1236243.shtml?tid=117">
|
||
picked up</a> by Slashdot, and also received some
|
||
<a href="http://lwn.net/2002/0314/">
|
||
comment</a>
|
||
on Linux Weekly News.
|
||
<p>
|
||
While on the subject of Richard Stallman, you might be interested to note
|
||
that
|
||
<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/">
|
||
O'Reilly</a>
|
||
have published his biography, written by Sam Williams, entitled
|
||
<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/freedom/">
|
||
Free as in Freedom</a>. You can view the
|
||
<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/">
|
||
book contents</a> online, as well as
|
||
an
|
||
<a href="http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2002/02/28/williams.html">
|
||
interview</a> with the author. Naturally, the book is published under the
|
||
<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/appc.html">
|
||
GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)</a>.
|
||
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="green">Open Source PCI Bridge Soft Core
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
<a href="http://www.opencores.org/">
|
||
OpenCores</a> is
|
||
an organisation whose main objective is to design, reuse, and integrate IP
|
||
cores under the General Public License (GPL) helping the concept of freely
|
||
available, open-source hardware to emerge. OpenCores have recently
|
||
announced the immediate availability of the open-source, free, complete
|
||
33/66MHz 32-bit PCI Bridge Soft Core solution. The PCI Bridge Soft Core is
|
||
a complete, synthesizable RTL (Verilog) code that provides bridging between
|
||
the PCI and a WISHBONE (System-on-Chip) bus. The complete package includes
|
||
comprehensive specification and design documentation, a comprehensive
|
||
verification suite, and a test application.
|
||
<P>
|
||
Test application is a VGA card implemented using a Xilinx
|
||
Spartan II device on a PCI development board from Insight Electronics. PCI
|
||
bridge core is connected to a simple VGA controller core forming a
|
||
system-on-chip and comes with a Linux frame buffer device driver.
|
||
You can download the PCI Bridge Soft
|
||
Core from the
|
||
<a href="http://www.opencores.org/projects/pci">
|
||
OpenCores PCI Project Website</a>.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<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>
|
||
<P>
|
||
<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/">Debian Weekly News</a>
|
||
has
|
||
<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2002/13/">
|
||
reported</a>
|
||
that a new stable revision (2.2r6) is
|
||
<a href="http://master.debian.org/~joey/2.2r6/">
|
||
in preparation</a>.
|
||
The list of packages contains no less than 24 security uploads and
|
||
seven important updates currently. This revision should be out around
|
||
the beginning of April.
|
||
<P>
|
||
<hr noshade width="20%">
|
||
<P>
|
||
Also
|
||
<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2002/9/">
|
||
reported</a>
|
||
was a story on Debian as Aid Server. Matthew Grant from an
|
||
<a href="http://www.anathoth.gen.nz/">
|
||
organisation</a>
|
||
that hosts GNU/Linux Projects for Developing Countries
|
||
<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-0202/msg01786.html">
|
||
reported</a>
|
||
that they chose Debian to build an
|
||
<a href="http://linux-aid.anathoth.gen.nz/">
|
||
Aid Server</a>
|
||
whose purpose is to enhance communications for aid organisations and NGOs.
|
||
<P>
|
||
<hr noshade width="20%">
|
||
<P>
|
||
The
|
||
<a href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/securing-debian-howto/index.en.html">
|
||
Securing Debian Manual 2.0</a> has been released. Still a few FIXME's left
|
||
for people to help with, and translations are needed.
|
||
|
||
<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</a> have
|
||
<a href="http://www.mandrakeforum.com/article.php?sid=1959&lang=en">
|
||
announced</a>
|
||
the release of a fourth beta of the upcoming
|
||
Mandrake Linux 8.2.
|
||
<P>
|
||
In less happy news, Mandrake is also under a bit of a cash squeeze at the
|
||
moment, which has led the company to
|
||
<a href="http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/mdkfuture.php3">
|
||
launch</a>
|
||
a subscription based club, priced from $5 per month.
|
||
This development was commented upon both
|
||
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24395.html">
|
||
in The Register</a> and
|
||
<a href="http://lwn.net/2002/0314/">
|
||
in Linux Weekly News</a>.
|
||
ZDnet also covered the story,
|
||
<a href="http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-866870.html">
|
||
reporting</a> dissatisfaction among club members when it appeared
|
||
that the terms of membership were being changed. This change was the
|
||
result of an unexpected change in Sun's pricing structure for Star Office.
|
||
Mandrake has replied to these criticisms, in its official announcement of the
|
||
availability for club-members of
|
||
<a href="http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/staroffice-6.0.php3">
|
||
StarOffice 6.0 for Linux</a>.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="green">Sorcerer
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
<P>
|
||
There appears to be some feuding going on around the Sorcerer camp. An
|
||
unsigned webpage was
|
||
<a href="http://www.sorcerylinux.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=6&mode=thread&order=0">
|
||
posted</a> at
|
||
<a href="http://sorcerer.wox.org/">sorcerer.wox.org</a> alleging
|
||
that the distribution had effectively been stolen from its creator Kyle
|
||
Sallee. This page is no longer available, but can be read at this
|
||
<a href="http://www.sagelikefool.net/mark/sorcerer.wox.org-index.html">
|
||
mirror</a>.
|
||
These allegations were
|
||
<a href="http://www.sorcerylinux.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=7&mode=thread&order=0">
|
||
replied to</a>
|
||
by the guys at
|
||
<a href="http://www.sorcerylinux.org/">
|
||
http://www.sorcerylinux.org/</a>, who disagree with just about everything
|
||
in the original story. Interestingly,
|
||
<a href="http://sorcerer.wox.org/">sorcerer.wox.org</a>
|
||
does actually
|
||
<a href="http://sorcerer.wox.org/news.html">appear</a> to be operated by
|
||
Kyle. An interesting article to read in this context is
|
||
<a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-dist1.html">
|
||
Making the distribution</a> (this link appeared in a comment on
|
||
sorcerylinux.org).
|
||
|
||
|
||
<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>
|
||
has announced the launch of the eighth generation of their Linux
|
||
distribution to be available from software retailers from mid-April. This
|
||
releases features an almost fully automated installation routine and the
|
||
KDE 3 graphical desktop environment. Improved hardware detection greatly
|
||
facilitates the installation. The SuSE system assistant YaST2 (Yet another
|
||
Setup-Tool) detects existing Windows 95/98/ME partitions and makes useful
|
||
suggestions for allocating hard disk space and selecting software. The
|
||
fast installation finishes by simply entering a user name and password and
|
||
confirming monitor resolution. Even printer, sound card, and TV card are
|
||
installed automatically with a mouse click.
|
||
<P> SuSE Linux 8.0 will be available from software retailers from mid-April
|
||
2002. The recommended retail price for SuSE Linux 8.0 Personal (3 CDs, 2
|
||
manuals, 60 days of installation support) is EUR 49.90; SuSE Linux 8.0
|
||
Professional (7 CDs, 1 DVD, 3 manuals, 90 days of installation support) is
|
||
EUR 79.90.
|
||
|
||
<hr noshade width="20%">
|
||
|
||
<P>SuSE Linux has also announced that the latest version of its
|
||
enterprise operating system, the 64-bit SuSE Linux Enterprise
|
||
Server 7 for IBM eServer zSeries, will be available by the
|
||
beginning of May.
|
||
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="green">Yellow Dog
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
Terra Soft have
|
||
<a href="http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-03-28-005-26-PR-DT-DP">
|
||
announced</a> the release of
|
||
<a href="http://www.yellowdoglinux.com/ydl_home.shtml">
|
||
Yellow Dog Linux 2.2</a>.
|
||
Features of this Red Hat 7.2 based distribution include XFree86 4.2.0,
|
||
KDE 2.2.2 and Gnome 1.4 with Nautilus and Evolution.
|
||
<p>
|
||
In a NewsFactor
|
||
<a href="http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/17007.html">
|
||
article</a>
|
||
Terra Soft co-founder and CEO Kai Staats
|
||
said that in real-world
|
||
applications, Motorola's processors are better equipped for Linux than their
|
||
Intel counterparts. (Link courtesy Linux Today).
|
||
|
||
<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">Vim 6.1
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
Bram Moolenaar has
|
||
<a href="http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-03-27-007-26-NW-DV">
|
||
announced the release</a> of
|
||
<a href="http://www.vim.org/">
|
||
Vim</a> 6.1. It is principally a bugfix release.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="green">Micro Sharp Technology
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
<P>
|
||
<a href="http://www.netule.com">
|
||
Micro Sharp Technology, Inc.</a>
|
||
a technology provider of thin server solutions have
|
||
announced a way to head off virus attacks that are now making
|
||
their way into cellular phones.
|
||
Their solution is via
|
||
configuration of the Netule EM-I email server in conjunction with
|
||
a Netule FW-I enterprise firewall.
|
||
EM-I and FW-I are based on Linux, "an extremely powerful, stable and
|
||
reliable UNIX like operating system".
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<H3><IMG ALT=" " SRC="../gx/bolt.gif">
|
||
<FONT COLOR="green">Dossier
|
||
</FONT>
|
||
</H3>
|
||
|
||
The
|
||
<a href="http://www.ptf.com/dossier">
|
||
DOSSIER</a>
|
||
series now includes 14 volumes,
|
||
many of which are relevant to Linux systems. Current topics include C,
|
||
Email, File Systems, Kernel, PostgreSQL, Python, Security, and Text.
|
||
The demand-printed volumes may be ordered from
|
||
<a href="http://www.bsdmall.com">
|
||
BSDMall</a>.
|
||
The motivation and rationale for DOSSIER are
|
||
covered in
|
||
<a href="http://www.daemonnews.org/200201/dossier.html">
|
||
DOSSIER and the Meta Project (Part 1)</a>.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
<!-- =================================================================== -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
||
<P> <hr> <P>
|
||
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
||
Copyright © 2002, 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 77 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, April 2002</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">HelpDex and Qubism</font></H1>
|
||
<H4>By <a href="mailto:shane_collinge@yahoo.com">Shane Collinge</a>
|
||
and
|
||
<a href="mailto:sirflakey@core.org.au">Jon "Sir Flakey" Harsem</a>
|
||
</H4>
|
||
</center>
|
||
<P> <HR> <P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- END header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
|
||
[These cartoons are scaled down to fit into LG.
|
||
To see a panel in all its clarity, click on it. -Editor (Iron).]
|
||
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
|
||
<A HREF="misc/collinge/aarghnyetscape.jpg">
|
||
<IMG ALT="[cartoon]" SRC="misc/collinge/aarghnyetscape.jpg"
|
||
WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="240"></A>
|
||
<BR CLEAR="all">
|
||
|
||
<A HREF="misc/collinge/hd-flashingled1.jpg">
|
||
<IMG ALT="[cartoon]" SRC="misc/collinge/hd-flashingled1.jpg"
|
||
WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="240"></A>
|
||
<BR CLEAR="all">
|
||
|
||
<A HREF="misc/collinge/hd-flashingled2.jpg">
|
||
<IMG ALT="[cartoon]" SRC="misc/collinge/hd-flashingled2.jpg"
|
||
WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="240"></A>
|
||
<BR CLEAR="all">
|
||
|
||
<A HREF="misc/collinge/hd-whatpart.jpg">
|
||
<IMG ALT="[cartoon]" SRC="misc/collinge/hd-whatpart.jpg"
|
||
WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="240"></A>
|
||
<BR CLEAR="all">
|
||
|
||
<A HREF="misc/collinge/missing.jpg">
|
||
<IMG ALT="[cartoon]" SRC="misc/collinge/missing.jpg"
|
||
WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="240"></A>
|
||
<BR CLEAR="all">
|
||
|
||
PS. Those commands actually do that. Try them.
|
||
|
||
<A HREF="misc/collinge/mrelectron.jpg">
|
||
<IMG ALT="[cartoon]" SRC="misc/collinge/mrelectron.jpg"
|
||
WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="240"></A>
|
||
<BR CLEAR="all">
|
||
|
||
<A HREF="misc/collinge/marssurveyor.jpg">
|
||
<IMG ALT="[cartoon]" SRC="misc/collinge/marssurveyor.jpg"
|
||
WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="240"></A>
|
||
<BR CLEAR="all">
|
||
|
||
<A HREF="misc/collinge/qb-darthgates.jpg">
|
||
<IMG ALT="[cartoon]" SRC="misc/collinge/qb-darthgates.jpg"
|
||
WIDTH="640" HEIGHT="240"></A>
|
||
<BR CLEAR="all">
|
||
|
||
<P> All Qubism cartoons and recent HelpDex cartoons are
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.core.org.au/modules.php?name=Cartoons">here</A>
|
||
at the CORE web site.
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
|
||
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Shane Collinge</H4>
|
||
<EM>Part computer programmer, part cartoonist, part Mars Bar. At night, he runs
|
||
around in a pair of colorful tights fighting criminals. During the day... well,
|
||
he just runs around. He eats when he's hungry and sleeps when he's sleepy.</EM>
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Jon "SirFlakey" Harsem</H4>
|
||
<EM>Jon is the and creator of the Qubism cartoon strip and current
|
||
Editor-in-Chief of the
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.core.org.au/">CORE</A> News Site.
|
||
Somewhere along the early stages of
|
||
his life he picked up a pencil and started drawing on the wallpaper. Now
|
||
his cartoons appear 5 days a week on-line, go figure. He confesses to
|
||
owning a Mac but swears it is for "personal use".</EM>
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
||
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
|
||
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
||
|
||
Copyright © 2002, Shane Collinge and Jon "Sir Flakey" Harsem.<BR>
|
||
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
|
||
Published in Issue 77 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, April 2002</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">Working with Micro-Distributions<BR>
|
||
--or--<BR>
|
||
Linux in Your Pocket</font></H1>
|
||
<H4>By <a href="mailto:lkollar@despammed.com">Larry "Dirt Road" Kollar</a></H4>
|
||
</center>
|
||
<P> <HR> <P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- END header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<p>In these days of distributions that come on six CDs, it's
|
||
good to remember that a very functional Linux
|
||
fits on a Zip cartridge -- or even a couple of floppies.
|
||
|
||
<p>To prove the utility of a tiny Linux, I set up a two-floppy
|
||
system on a 486 and used it to write this article.
|
||
|
||
<h2>Introduction</h2>
|
||
|
||
<p>"It all" began when I was given a pair of PCs and one monitor.
|
||
The larger computer, an Aptiva, had a P133 CPU, a 2GB hard drive,
|
||
a CD-ROM drive, and no RAM at all.
|
||
The second computer was an HP Vectra 486/33N
|
||
with a 170MB hard drive, Windows 3.1, and 8MB of RAM (no CD).
|
||
Both systems had mice, but no keyboards.
|
||
A trip to Wal-Mart and $10(US) later, and I had a PS/2-compatible
|
||
keyboard.
|
||
Since the two computers both used 72-pin SIMMs, the first thing I
|
||
did was to swap the RAM into the Aptiva and see if anything useful
|
||
was on that big hard drive.
|
||
|
||
<p>I learned something valuable.
|
||
I learned what Window 98 chokes on insufficient RAM, ungraciously.
|
||
|
||
<p>I didn't happen to have any extra RAM lying around.
|
||
So I put the RAM back in the Vectra and dug up the RedHat 4.0 disks
|
||
I had... oops, they're CDs and this Vectra doesn't have a CD (and
|
||
no slots in the case to mount one).
|
||
Obviously, I needed another strategy.
|
||
|
||
<h2>Lookin' Mighty Floppy</h2>
|
||
|
||
<p><a href="http://lwn.net/daily/">Linux Daily News</a> is one of my
|
||
daily stops on the Web.
|
||
If LWN doesn't have the info you need, they have a link to it.
|
||
I pulled up the <a href="http://lwn.net/Distributions/">Distributions</a>
|
||
page and scrolled down to the floppy-based list.
|
||
|
||
<p>My first thought was everyone's favorite single-floppy rescue
|
||
distribution,
|
||
<a href="http://www.toms.net/rb/home.html">tomsrtbt</a>.
|
||
I have a Windows laptop at work, strictly secondary to my Mac G3,
|
||
but on occasion it actually makes itself useful.
|
||
Unfortunately, tomsrtbt uses some funky disk voodoo to pack
|
||
1.7MB onto a 1.44MB floppy, and IT had recently "up"graded the
|
||
laptop to Windows 2000.
|
||
W2K doesn't allow such shenanigans, and I don't have easy
|
||
access to another Windows system.
|
||
|
||
<p>Back to the list.
|
||
While poking around a few other resources, I found that
|
||
<a href="http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~ichi/baslinux.html">BasicLinux</a>
|
||
isn't really a CD-based distribution (like the LWN Distribution
|
||
page claims).
|
||
It comes in a single ZIP file, totalling 2MB, but the unpacked
|
||
files fit easily on two floppies and doesn't require you to
|
||
write an image (it uses LOADLIN.EXE to start from DOS).
|
||
Derived from Slackware 3.5, it sports a 2.0.34 kernel and libc5.
|
||
It also allocates only 4MB for its RAMdisk, allowing the Vectra
|
||
to get its first taste of free software.
|
||
|
||
<h2>Up and Away</h2>
|
||
|
||
<p>Despite differences in software vintage, disk format, and
|
||
intent, floppy-based distributions have a fairly similar startup
|
||
sequence:
|
||
|
||
<ol>
|
||
<li>Initialization, either at startup (LILO) or after DOS loads
|
||
(LOADLIN).
|
||
<li>The loader decompresses the kernel and starts it.
|
||
<li>The kernel creates a RAMdisk for its userland.
|
||
<li>The loader decompresses the userland and loads it into the RAMdisk.
|
||
<li>Booting proceeds as normal, with the RAMdisk mounted at root.
|
||
</ol>
|
||
|
||
<p>A disk image containing the userland (i.e. the contents of
|
||
the filesystem) usually
|
||
fits snugly on a 1.44MB floppy and expands to about 3MB.
|
||
Running from a RAMdisk, even a 486/33 feels pretty snappy.
|
||
|
||
<h3>Tradeoffs</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p>Wedging even a minimal Linux onto two floppies brings to mind
|
||
Heinlein's immortal observation "TANSTAAFL"
|
||
(There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch).
|
||
While it's possible to offer some basic utilities and even X11,
|
||
you won't find KDE, Gnome, or Mozilla.
|
||
Emacs addicts can just forget it (well, mostly).
|
||
|
||
<p>Even the basic commands and utilities, the things you expect
|
||
from any OS whose name ends in 'X,' are cut-back versions.
|
||
Actually, most of them are simply symbolic links to a program
|
||
called <a href="http://busybox.lineo.com/">BusyBox</a>.
|
||
Lineo developed this clever kit for embedded Linux systems,
|
||
but it has also found its way into the various rescue and
|
||
micro distributions.
|
||
It packs 54 of the essential commands into a single binary
|
||
of just over 110K.
|
||
Create a link (using ln -s) named <b>cp</b>, and when you
|
||
enter that command Busybox acts like a <b>cp</b> command.
|
||
When you run it as <b>mv</b>, it moves or renames files.
|
||
The <b>--help</b> option provides a brief description of
|
||
the command, eliminating an absolute need for manpages as well.
|
||
Without BusyBox, I dare say floppy-based distributions would
|
||
have to make even more compromises.
|
||
|
||
<h2>Working with BasicLinux</h2>
|
||
|
||
<p>BasicLinux is a compact but competent networking system.
|
||
Besides the essentials (via BusyBox), it provides network
|
||
connectivity through both Ethernet and dialup, and can
|
||
pull firewall duty using <b>ipfwadm</b>.
|
||
Utilities like <b>fetchmail</b> and <b>links</b> (not
|
||
<b>lynx</b>, that threw me) provide mail and web connectivity.
|
||
To keep seasoned Linux users comfortable as possible, it
|
||
provides the familiar <b>bash</b> shell.
|
||
The default inittab provides three console logins, more
|
||
than enough for my purposes (I sometimes use two consoles
|
||
at a time, one for me and one for root).
|
||
|
||
<p>Unlike some distributions, BasicLinux offers two text
|
||
editors, the tiny <b>e3</b> and the popular <b>pico</b>.
|
||
Taking advantage of some leftover space in the boot image,
|
||
and the historic
|
||
Slackware package archive, I replaced them both with
|
||
<b>joe</b>. Joe is an editor slightly larger than <b>pico</b>
|
||
but it can emulate <b>pico</b>, WordStar, and Emacs
|
||
(but without all the bloated Emacs hyper-functionality).
|
||
The result is a larger compressed image, but
|
||
one that still fits on a floppy.
|
||
|
||
<h3>Editing the Image</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p>The <b>readme.txt</b> file that comes with BasicLinux
|
||
is brief, but provides enough detail for anyone familiar
|
||
with a console to customize the system or create
|
||
a bootable floppy image.
|
||
|
||
<p>As I write this section of the article, I have the
|
||
BasicLinux files on the C: drive of a 486 that would
|
||
otherwise be running MS-DOS.
|
||
Customizing the image is simple:
|
||
|
||
<ol>
|
||
<li>Use <b>gunzip</b> to decompress the image.
|
||
<li>Mount the image on a loopback device.
|
||
<li>Make changes as desired.
|
||
<li>Unmount the image.
|
||
<li>Gzip the image.
|
||
</ol>
|
||
|
||
<P> I've written up a <A HREF="misc/kollar/loopback.html">separate page</A> describing
|
||
the loopback device.
|
||
|
||
<h2>Migrating to the Hard Drive</h2>
|
||
|
||
<p>This isn't difficult, if you're willing to wipe out everything
|
||
on the hard drive.
|
||
The Vectra had Windows 3.1 and a pile of applications,
|
||
nothing that I particularly needed to keep.
|
||
|
||
<p>Before plunging forward, I did a little research and backed
|
||
up the MS-DOS directory onto floppy (using a zip compressor that
|
||
was already on the computer).
|
||
With a 160MB hard drive and 8MB of RAM, I figured I would have
|
||
enough room to build a capable system without being tempted to
|
||
overload it.
|
||
|
||
<p>A Google search for partition resizing programs turned up
|
||
the free
|
||
<a href="http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/">FIPS</a>
|
||
(First non-destructive Interactive Partiton Splitting program).
|
||
Following the instructions, I put FIPS on a boot floppy and
|
||
used it to shrink the C: partition.
|
||
I wanted to reduce it to 10MB, but FIPS (for whatever reason)
|
||
would not go below 16MB.
|
||
After wiping out all the Windows 3.1 stuff and defragmenting
|
||
the hard drive, I had less than 5MB on C: so I'm not sure
|
||
what happened.
|
||
Oh well.
|
||
|
||
<p>Now I started Linux again and used the <b>fdisk</b>
|
||
utility that came with BasicLinux to create a 32MB swap
|
||
partition and dedicate the rest of the drive to root.
|
||
Running <b>mkswap</b>, <b>mke2fs</b>, and <b>e2fsck</b>
|
||
prepared the new partitions for use.
|
||
Finally, I unpacked the BasicLinux <b>instl2hd.zip</b>
|
||
archive and followed the instructions that came with it
|
||
to load my RAMdisk image (and some extras) onto the
|
||
hard drive.
|
||
From there, it was a simple matter of editing /etc/fstab
|
||
to point to the new root and swap partitions.
|
||
One more reboot, and I was running from the hard drive.
|
||
Life is good.
|
||
I copied my article to the Linux partition and continued
|
||
writing.
|
||
|
||
<h2>Caught in the Net</h2>
|
||
|
||
<p>With the console-based system using less than 5MB of
|
||
RAM, and leaving 3MB of RAM free, I set
|
||
my sights a little higher.
|
||
In short, I wanted to add:
|
||
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>groff (the GNU troff formatter)
|
||
<li>vim (first-class text editing)
|
||
<li>rogue (kill some monsters, break the mental block)
|
||
<li>X11 (display draft documents)
|
||
<li>gcc (at least temporarily, to compile groff and rogue)
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p>Fortunately, the Vectra came with an SMB-Ultra network card.
|
||
It didn't take long to find the proper module, and the BasicLinux
|
||
documentation told me to load the 8390 module first.
|
||
Since I already have my Mac G3 running a NAT firewall
|
||
(ipchains) under Linux to share the dialup, adding the
|
||
Vectra to the network was mainly a matter of carrying it
|
||
into the room with the LAN and plugging in a cable.
|
||
After some fiddling and reading the <b>route</b> manpage
|
||
several times, I finally figured out the incantations
|
||
needed to get Skeeter (as I started calling the Vectra)
|
||
talking to the LAN then through the G3's gateway and into
|
||
the outside world.
|
||
|
||
<p>Downloading the X11 packages reminded me that there are
|
||
even slower network links than my dialup.
|
||
This was one of the few times I was glad to not have
|
||
broadband; I would have felt cheated.
|
||
But eventually, I got them all onto the hard drive,
|
||
then set about configuring X11.
|
||
Poking around on the net for help, I learned that
|
||
the SuperProbe utility would tell me what the Vectra's
|
||
on-board video was, and that my monitor was
|
||
strictly 640x480.
|
||
On my second evening, I got the GUI running and switched to
|
||
the recommended <b>icewm</b> for a window manager.
|
||
<b>Icewm</b>'s pager and small size made the cramped
|
||
screen tolerable if not palatable.
|
||
But to be fair, a 35-line <b>rxvt</b> window beats a 25-line
|
||
console screen for writing, so overall I'm satisfied.
|
||
|
||
<h3>The Rest</h3>
|
||
|
||
<p>With the network and GUI working, it was now time to
|
||
finish out the build.
|
||
At this point, the entire system weighed in at just under
|
||
21MB of hard drive space (out of 113MB available).
|
||
Adding the compiler packages took this up to 35MB.
|
||
|
||
<p>Adding the packages needed to compile
|
||
<a href="http://groff.ffii.org/">groff</a> and
|
||
<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/gawk.html">gawk</a>,
|
||
plus the compiled applications themselves, went over 60MB used.
|
||
After installing the programs and deleting the build directories,
|
||
I was satisfied with the 57MB in use.
|
||
|
||
<p>Having dealt with sharing a printer over a LAN via
|
||
<b>lpr</b> before, it wasn't long before I was able to
|
||
run a few test <b>groff</b> documents and have them
|
||
print to the G3's USB laser printer.
|
||
At this point, Skeeter is doing everything I'd planned for it.
|
||
I'd like to put a larger monitor on it (800x600 at least),
|
||
and perhaps compile Chimera 1.x for use as a graphical
|
||
web browser, but neither of these are absolute necessities.
|
||
|
||
<h2>Finding its Own Niche</h2>
|
||
|
||
<p>Besides being available for writing articles like this one,
|
||
Skeeter can connect to MUDs for recreation (imagine three
|
||
people sharing a dialup -- since two are using <b>telnet</b>,
|
||
and the third is just reading email in a browser, nobody
|
||
complains about the connection being slow).
|
||
Rogue captivated my teenage son and his friend -- the friend
|
||
marvelled at how a game without graphics could be so fun!
|
||
|
||
<p>Skeeter has also made itself useful as a sort-of remote
|
||
floppy drive.
|
||
The iMac (now running MacOS X) has no floppy, and the G3's
|
||
drive is somewhat dodgy.
|
||
So if we need to read or write a floppy, we call on Skeeter.
|
||
Skeeter may become a print server in the future as well.
|
||
|
||
<p>In the end, I deem the experiment a success.
|
||
An investment of $10
|
||
plus a little sweat equity gave me another useful
|
||
computer and some new skills.
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
|
||
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
|
||
<P>
|
||
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Larry Kollar</H4>
|
||
<EM>Larry's job title is "Technical Writer," but he secretly dreams of
|
||
being a BOFH some day. At work, he manages to find time to
|
||
write scripts, set up departmental Linux servers (on Macs, of
|
||
course), and fend off hordes of jealous IT staffers who want
|
||
his G3. At his home at the bottom of the Georgia mountains,
|
||
he does what he can to keep a wife, two kids, and four computers
|
||
healthy and happy.</EM>
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
||
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
|
||
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
||
|
||
Copyright © 2002, Larry "Dirt Road" Kollar.<BR>
|
||
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
|
||
Published in Issue 77 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, April 2002</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 Your Own Toy OS (Part I)</font></H1>
|
||
<H4>By <a href="mailto:krishnakumar_r@bharatmail.com">Krishnakumar R.</a></H4>
|
||
</center>
|
||
<P> <HR> <P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- END header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<EM> This article is a hands-on tutorial for building a small boot
|
||
sector. The first section provides the theory behind what happens at the
|
||
time the computer is switched on. It also explains our plan. The second
|
||
section tells all the things you should have on hand before proceeding
|
||
further, and the third section deals with the programs. Our little startup
|
||
program won't actually boot Linux, but it will display something on the screen.</EM>
|
||
<HR>
|
||
<H2><A NAME="s1">1. Background</A></H2>
|
||
|
||
<H2>1.1 The Fancy Dress</H2>
|
||
|
||
<P>The microprocessor controls the computer. At startup, every
|
||
microprocessor is just another 8086. Even though you may have a brand
|
||
new Pentium, it will only have the capabilities of an 8086. From this
|
||
point, we can use some software and switch processor to the infamous
|
||
<EM>protected mode </EM>. Only then can we utilize the processor's full power.
|
||
|
||
<H2>1.2 Our Role</H2>
|
||
|
||
<P>Initially, control is in the hands of the <EM>BIOS</EM>. This is
|
||
nothing but a collection of programs that are stored in ROM. BIOS
|
||
performs the <EM>POST</EM> (Power On Self Test). This checks the
|
||
integrity of the computer (whether the peripherals are working properly,
|
||
whether the keyboard is connected, etc.). This is when you hear those beeps
|
||
from the computer. If everything is okay, BIOS selects a boot device. It
|
||
copies the first sector (boot sector) from the device,
|
||
to address location <EM>0x7C00</EM>. The control is then transferred
|
||
to this location. The boot device may be a floppy disk, CD-ROM, hard
|
||
disk or some device of your choice. Here we will take the boot device to be
|
||
a floppy disk. If we had written some code into the boot sector of the
|
||
floppy, our code would be executed now. Our role is clear: just write
|
||
some programs to the boot sector of the floppy.
|
||
|
||
<H2>1.3 The Plan</H2>
|
||
|
||
<P>First write a small program in 8086 assembly (don't be frightened;
|
||
I will teach you how to write it), and copy it to the boot sector of the
|
||
floppy. To copy, we will code a C program. Boot the computer with that
|
||
floppy, and then enjoy.
|
||
<P>
|
||
<H2><A NAME="s2">2. Things You Should Have</A></H2>
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
<DL>
|
||
<DT><B>as86</B><DD><P>This is an assembler. The assembly code we write
|
||
is converted to an object file by this tool.
|
||
<DT><B>ld86</B><DD><P>This is the linker. The object code generated by
|
||
as86 is converted to actual machine language code by this tool. Machine
|
||
language will be in a form that 8086 understands.
|
||
<DT><B>gcc</B><DD><P>The C compiler. For now we need to write a C program to transfer our OS to the floppy.
|
||
<DT><B>A free floppy</B><DD><P>A floppy will be used to store our
|
||
operating system. This also is our boot device.
|
||
<DT><B>Good Old Linux box</B><DD><P>You know what this is for.
|
||
</DL>
|
||
|
||
as86 and ld86 will be in most of the standard distributions. If not, you
|
||
can always get them from the site
|
||
<A
|
||
HREF="http://www.cix.co.uk/~mayday/">http://www.cix.co.uk/~mayday/</A>.
|
||
Both of them are included in single package, bin86. Good documentation is available at
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Assembly-HOWTO/as86.html">www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Assembly-HOWTO/as86.html</A>.
|
||
|
||
<H2><A NAME="s3">3. 1, 2, 3, Start!</A></H2>
|
||
|
||
<H2>3.1 The Boot Sector </H2>
|
||
|
||
<P>Grab your favourite editor and type in these few lines.
|
||
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
|
||
<PRE>
|
||
entry start
|
||
start:
|
||
mov ax,#0xb800
|
||
mov es,ax
|
||
seg es
|
||
mov [0],#0x41
|
||
seg es
|
||
mov [1],#0x1f
|
||
loop1: jmp loop1
|
||
</PRE>
|
||
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
||
|
||
<P>This is an assembly language that as86 will understand. The first
|
||
statement specifies the entry point where the control should enter
|
||
the program. We are stating that control should initially go to label
|
||
<EM><CODE>start</CODE></EM>. The 2nd line depicts the location of the label
|
||
<EM><CODE>start</CODE></EM> (don't forget to put ":" after the start). The
|
||
first statement that will be executed in this program is the
|
||
statement just after <EM>start</EM>.
|
||
|
||
<P>0xb800 is the address of the video memory. The # is for representing
|
||
an immediate value. After the execution of
|
||
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
|
||
<PRE>
|
||
mov ax,#0xb800
|
||
</PRE>
|
||
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
||
|
||
register ax will contain the value 0xb800, that is, the address of the
|
||
video memory.
|
||
Now we move this value to the <EM><CODE>es</CODE></EM>
|
||
register. <EM><CODE>es</CODE></EM> stands for the extra segment
|
||
register. Remember that 8086 has a segmented architecture. It has segments
|
||
like code segments, data segments, extra segments, etc.--hence the segment
|
||
registers cs, ds, es. Actually, we have made the video memory our extra
|
||
segment, so anything written to extra segment would go to video memory.
|
||
|
||
<P>To display any character on the screen, you need to write two bytes
|
||
to the video memory. The first is the ascii value you are going to
|
||
display. The second is the attribute of the character. Attribute has
|
||
to do with which colour should be used as the foreground, which for the
|
||
background, should the char blink and so on. <EM><CODE>seg es</CODE></EM>
|
||
is actually a prefix that tells which instruction is to be executed next with
|
||
reference to <EM><CODE>es</CODE></EM> segment. So, we move value 0x41,
|
||
which is the ascii value of character A, into the first byte of the
|
||
video memory. Next we need to move the attribute of the character to
|
||
the next byte. Here we enter 0x1f, which is the value for representing a white
|
||
character on a blue background. So if we execute this program, we get a
|
||
white A on a blue background. Finally, there is the loop. We need to stop the
|
||
execution after the display of the character, or we have a loop that
|
||
loops forever. Save the file as <EM><CODE>boot.s</CODE></EM>.
|
||
|
||
<P>The idea of video memory may not be very clear, so let me explain
|
||
further. Suppose we assume the screen consists of 80 columns and 25
|
||
rows. So for each line we need 160 bytes, one for each character and one
|
||
for each character's attribute. If we need to write some character to
|
||
column 3 then we need to skip bytes 0 and 1 as they is for the 1st column;
|
||
2 and 3 as they are for the 2nd column; and then write our ascii value
|
||
to the 4th byte and its attribute to the 5th location in the video memory.
|
||
|
||
<H2>3.2 Writing Boot Sector to Floppy</H2>
|
||
|
||
<P>We have to write a C program that copies our code (OS code) to first
|
||
sector of the floppy disk. Here it is:
|
||
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
|
||
<PRE>
|
||
|
||
#include <sys/types.h> /* unistd.h needs this */
|
||
#include <unistd.h> /* contains read/write */
|
||
#include <fcntl.h>
|
||
|
||
int main()
|
||
{
|
||
char boot_buf[512];
|
||
int floppy_desc, file_desc;
|
||
|
||
|
||
file_desc = open("./boot", O_RDONLY);
|
||
read(file_desc, boot_buf, 510);
|
||
close(file_desc);
|
||
|
||
boot_buf[510] = 0x55;
|
||
boot_buf[511] = 0xaa;
|
||
|
||
floppy_desc = open("/dev/fd0", O_RDWR);
|
||
lseek(floppy_desc, 0, SEEK_CUR);
|
||
write(floppy_desc, boot_buf, 512);
|
||
close(floppy_desc);
|
||
}
|
||
</PRE>
|
||
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
||
|
||
<P>First, we open the file <EM><CODE>boot</CODE></EM> in read-only
|
||
mode, and copy the file descripter of the opened file to variable
|
||
<EM><CODE>file_desc</CODE></EM>. Read from the file 510 characters or
|
||
until the file ends. Here the code is small, so the latter case occurs. Be
|
||
decent; close the file.
|
||
|
||
<P>The last four lines of code open the floppy disk device (which mostly
|
||
would be /dev/fd0). It brings the head to the beginning of the file using
|
||
<EM><CODE>lseek</CODE></EM>, then writes the 512 bytes from the buffer
|
||
to floppy.
|
||
|
||
<P>The man pages of read, write, open and lseek (refer to man 2) would give
|
||
you enough information on what the other parameters of those functions
|
||
are and how to use them. There are two lines in between, which may be
|
||
slightly mysterious. The lines:
|
||
|
||
<P>
|
||
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
|
||
<PRE>
|
||
boot_buf[510] = 0x55;
|
||
boot_buf[511] = 0xaa;
|
||
</PRE>
|
||
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
||
|
||
This information is for BIOS. If BIOS is to recognize a device as a
|
||
bootable device, then the device should have the values 0x55 and 0xaa
|
||
at the 510th and 511th location. Now we are done. The program reads the
|
||
file <EM><CODE>boot</CODE></EM> to a buffer named boot_buf. It makes the
|
||
required changes to 510th and 511th bytes and then writes boot_buf
|
||
to floppy disk. If we execute the code, the first 512 bytes
|
||
of the floppy disk will contain our boot code. Save the file as
|
||
<EM><CODE>write.c</CODE></EM>.
|
||
|
||
<H2>3.3 Let's Do It All</H2>
|
||
|
||
<P>To make executables out of this file you need to type the following
|
||
at the Linux bash prompt.
|
||
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
|
||
<PRE>
|
||
as86 boot.s -o boot.o
|
||
|
||
ld86 -d boot.o -o boot
|
||
|
||
cc write.c -o write
|
||
</PRE>
|
||
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
||
|
||
<P>First, we assemble the <CODE><EM>boot.s</EM></CODE> to form an object
|
||
file <EM><CODE>boot.o</CODE></EM>. Then we link this file to get the
|
||
final file <EM><CODE>boot</CODE></EM>. The <EM><CODE>-d</CODE></EM> for
|
||
ld86 is for removing all headers and producing pure binary. Reading
|
||
man pages for as86 and ld86 will clear any doubts. We then compile the C program
|
||
to form an executable named <EM><CODE>write</CODE></EM>.
|
||
|
||
<P>Insert a blank floppy into the floppy drive and type
|
||
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
|
||
<PRE>
|
||
./write
|
||
</PRE>
|
||
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
|
||
|
||
Reset the machine. Enter the BIOS setup and make floppy the first boot
|
||
device. Put the floppy in the drive and watch the computer boot from your
|
||
boot floppy.
|
||
|
||
<P> Then you will see an 'A' (with white foreground color on a blue
|
||
background). That means that the system has booted from the boot floppy we
|
||
have made and then executed the boot sector program we wrote. It is now in the
|
||
infinite loop we had written at the end of our boot sector. We must now reboot
|
||
the computer and remove the our boot floppy to boot into Linux.
|
||
|
||
<P> From here, we'll want to insert more code into our boot sector program, to
|
||
make it do more complex things (like using BIOS interrupts, protected-mode
|
||
switching, etc). The later parts (PART II, PART III etc. ) of this article will
|
||
guide you on further improvements. Till then GOOD BYE !
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
|
||
<P>
|
||
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Krishnakumar R.</H4>
|
||
<EM>Krishnakumar is a final year B.Tech student at Govt. Engg. College Thrissur,
|
||
Kerala, India. His journey into the land of Operating systems started with
|
||
module programming in linux . He has built a routing operating system by name
|
||
GROS.(Details available at his home page:
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.askus.way.to">www.askus.way.to</A> ) His other
|
||
interests include Networking, Device drivers, Compiler Porting and Embedded systems.</EM>
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
||
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
|
||
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
||
|
||
Copyright © 2002, Krishnakumar R..<BR>
|
||
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
|
||
Published in Issue 77 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, April 2002</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">Network Security with /proc/sys/net/ipv4</font></H1>
|
||
<H4>By <a href="mailto:david@lechnyr.com">David Lechnyr</a></H4>
|
||
</center>
|
||
<P> <HR> <P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- END header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<i>In additional to firewall rulesets, the /proc filesystem offers some significant
|
||
enhancements to your network security settings. Unfortunately, most of us are
|
||
unaware of anything beyond the vague rumors and advice we've heard about this
|
||
beast. In this article, we'll review some of the basic essentials of the /proc/sys/net/ipv4
|
||
filesystem necessary to add to the overall network security of your Linux server.
|
||
</i>
|
||
|
||
<p>Perhaps one of the more frequently neglected areas of firewall configuration
|
||
involves the /proc filesystem. The pseudo file structure within proc allows
|
||
you to interface with the internal data structures in the kernel, either obtaining
|
||
information about the system or changing specific settings. Some of the parts
|
||
of /proc are read-only, while others can be modified. It is often referred to
|
||
as a <i>virtual</i> filesystem in that it doesn't take up any actual hard drive
|
||
space; files are created only on demand when you access them. In this article,
|
||
we will be focusing specifically on /proc/sys/net/ipv4.</p>
|
||
<p> In order to benefit from the use of the /proc filesystem, you'll need to enable
|
||
two settings when building your kernel. CONFIG_PROC_FS is the setting that allows
|
||
you to access and view the /proc filesystem, and CONFIG_SYSCTL is the bit that
|
||
actually allows you to modify /proc entries without requiring a reboot of the
|
||
system or a recompile of the kernel. Settings are only available at boot time
|
||
after the /proc file system has been mounted. </p>
|
||
<h3>ICMP Specific Settings</h3>
|
||
<p>Ping scanning is typically used to determine which hosts on a network are up.
|
||
Typically this is done by sending ICMP ECHO request packets to the target host.
|
||
This is seemingly innocent behavior, however often network administrators will
|
||
block such traffic to increase their obscurity. The choices involve blocking
|
||
ICMP ECHO requests to broadcast/multicast addresses and directly to the host
|
||
itself. The respective commands to disable protection are:</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p><code>echo "0" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_broadcasts<br>
|
||
echo "0" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_all</code></p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>ICMP redirect messages can also be a pain. If your box is not acting as a router,
|
||
you'll probably want to disable them:</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p><code>echo "0" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/accept_redirects</code></p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>Sometimes you will come across routers that send out invalid responses to broadcast
|
||
frames. This is a violation of RFC 1122, "Requirements for Internet Hosts
|
||
-- Communication Layers". As a result, these events are logged by the kernel.
|
||
To avoid filling up your logfile with unnecessary clutter, you can tell the
|
||
kernel not to issue these warnings:</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p><code>echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_ignore_bogus_error_responses</code>
|
||
</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<h3>IP Specific Settings</h3>
|
||
<p>Ironically, IP forwarding of packets between interfaces is enabled by default
|
||
on many systems in their startup scripts. If you're not intending for your box
|
||
to forward traffic between interfaces, or if you only have a single interface,
|
||
it would probably be a good idea to disable forwarding. Note that altering this
|
||
value resets all configuration parameters to their default values; specifically,
|
||
RFC1122 for hosts and RFC1812 for routers. As a result, you'll want to modify
|
||
this one before all other /proc settings.</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p><code>if [ -r /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward ]; then<br>
|
||
echo "Disabling IP forwarding"<br>
|
||
echo "0" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward<br>
|
||
fi </code></p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>If instead you decide to enable forwarding, you will also be able to modify
|
||
the rp_filter setting; something which is often misunderstood by network administrators.
|
||
The rp_filter can reject incoming packets if their source address doesn't match
|
||
the network interface that they're arriving on, which helps to prevent IP spoofing.
|
||
Turning this on, however, has its consequences: If your host has several IP
|
||
addresses on different interfaces, or if your single interface has multiple
|
||
IP addresses on it, you'll find that your kernel may end up rejecting valid
|
||
traffic. It's also important to note that even if you do not enable the rp_filter,
|
||
protection against broadcast spoofing is always on. Also, the protection it
|
||
provides is only against spoofed <i>internal</i> addresses; external addresses
|
||
can still be spoofed.. By default, it is disabled. To enable it, run the following:</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p><code>if [ -r /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/rp_filter ]; then<br>
|
||
echo "Enabling rp_filter"<br>
|
||
echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/rp_filter<br>
|
||
fi</code></p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>You may have also noticed the "all" subdirectory in this last example.
|
||
In <code>/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf</code> there is one subdirectory for each interface
|
||
on your system along with one directory called "all". Changing specific
|
||
interface directories only affects that specific interface, while changes made
|
||
to the "all" directory affects all interfaces on the system.</p>
|
||
<p> If you have compiled your kernel with CONFIG_SYNCOOKIES, you will be able
|
||
to <i>optionally</i> turn on or off protection against SYN flood attacks. Note
|
||
the emphasis, as compiling the kernel with this value does not enable it by
|
||
default. It works by sending out 'syncookies' when the syn backlog queue of
|
||
a socket overflows. What is often misunderstood is that socket backlogging is
|
||
not supported in newer operating systems, which means that your error messages
|
||
may not be correctly received by the offending system. Also, if you see synflood
|
||
warnings in your logs, make sure they are not the result of a heavily loaded
|
||
server before enabling this setting. They can also cause connection problems
|
||
for other hosts attempting to reach you. However, if you do want to enable this
|
||
setting, perform the following:<br>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p><code>if [ -r /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_syncookies ]; then<br>
|
||
echo "Enabling tcp_syncookies"<br>
|
||
echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_syncookies<br>
|
||
fi</code></p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>Normally, a host has no control over the route any particular packet takes
|
||
beyond its first hop. It is up to the other hosts on the network to complete
|
||
the delivery. IP Source Routing (SRR) is a method of specifying the <i>exact</i>
|
||
path that a packet should take among the other hosts to get to its destination.
|
||
This is generally a bad idea for the security conscious, as someone could direct
|
||
packets to you through a trusted interface and effectively bypass your security
|
||
in some cases. A good example is traffic, such as SSH or telnet, that is blocked
|
||
on one interface might arrive on another of your host's interfaces if source
|
||
routing is used, which you might not have anticipated in your firewall settings.
|
||
You'll probably want to disable this setting with:</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p><code>if [ -r /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/accept_source_route ]; then<br>
|
||
echo "Disabling source routing"<br>
|
||
echo "0" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/accept_source_route<br>
|
||
fi </code></p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p>Packets that have source addresses with no known route are referred to as "martians".
|
||
For example, if you have two different subnets plugged into the same hub, the
|
||
routers on each end will see each other as martians. To log such packets to
|
||
the kernel log, which should never show up in the first place, you'll need to
|
||
issue:</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p><code>if [ -r /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/log_martians</code><code> ]; then<br>
|
||
echo "Enabling logging of martians"<br>
|
||
echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/all/log_martians</code><code><br>
|
||
fi </code></p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<h3>Additional Resources</h3>
|
||
<p>For more information regarding the /proc filesystem, you may want to refer
|
||
to the documentation that comes with the Linux kernel source. Of specific help
|
||
is <STRONG>Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt</STRONG>
|
||
by Bowden, Bauer & Nerin. Additionally, you can refer to <STRONG>Documentation/networking/ip-sysctl.txt</STRONG>
|
||
by Kuznetsov & Savola.</p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
|
||
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
|
||
<P>
|
||
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">David Lechnyr</H4>
|
||
<EM>David is a Network Administrator at the Human Resources department
|
||
of the University of Oregon. He holds a Master's Degree in Social Work along
|
||
with his MCSE+I, CNE, and CCNA certifications. He has been working with
|
||
Linux for the past five years, with an emphasis on systems security, network
|
||
troubleshooting, PHP scripting, and web/SQL integration.</EM>
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
||
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
|
||
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
||
|
||
Copyright © 2002, David Lechnyr.<BR>
|
||
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
|
||
Published in Issue 76 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, March 2002</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 Line Printing Daemon for Mainframe Application "Print-to-Email"</font></H1>
|
||
<H4>By <a href="mailto:lpitcher@sympatico.ca">Lew Pitcher</a></H4>
|
||
</center>
|
||
<P> <HR> <P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- END header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<dl>
|
||
<dt><h2><font color="green">Introduction</font></h2></dt>
|
||
<dd><p>In the middle months of 2000, a colleague came to me with a question. He wanted to know
|
||
if there was any way that we could have our mainframe host systems email their reports to selected
|
||
email addresses. After some investigation, I had to tell him that, with existing, approved tools,
|
||
there was no way that we could arrange to have a mainframe application send email.
|
||
<i>"However,"</i> I said, <i>"there is a way to do this through the back door."</i>
|
||
I explained that the mainframe supports various modes of printing, and that with suitable arrangement,
|
||
it could be persuaded to direct print output to a Unix system that could then email the data as it
|
||
saw fit.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Although this back-door approach was not acceptable to the situation that he was investigating at
|
||
the time, the idea stayed with me. A year later, the question came up again, but this time the
|
||
situation was not as critical and I was given some latitude to investigate the possibilities. My
|
||
co-workers (Rob Corr and Phil Robson) and I crafted two "proof-of-concept" implementations,
|
||
one using tools that, while they weren't approved for our use, were built to provide mainframe application
|
||
access to email, and the other being the 'back-door' approach that I had suggested the previous year. This
|
||
paper describes how we implemented our 'back-door' proof-of-concept mainframe "print-to-email"
|
||
using a spare Linux box, some simple tools, and a bit of knowledge.
|
||
</p></dd><!-- end of the Introduction section -->
|
||
|
||
<dt><h2><font color="green">Beginnings</font></h2></dt>
|
||
<dd><p>Our goal was to be able to have host output, generated from an IMS transaction, a CICS
|
||
transaction, or a batch job, routed to an arbitrary, application selected email address. As there
|
||
was no direct route from the host online systems to our email service, we decided to try an indirect
|
||
route through a spare Linux box on our LAN. This proof-of-concept was not meant to be a production-ready
|
||
facility, but instead was intended simply to assist in determining what problems would have to be
|
||
resolved, and how a production-ready facility would have to be built.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>At our disposal were:
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>an MVS/JES2 Operating System and the facilities and systems within it (IMS, CICS, batch)</li>
|
||
<li>the VPS mainframe print spooling package, and it's associated Windows NT protocol converter,</li>
|
||
<li>LAN-based Linux facilities, including Unix Line Printing Daemon (lpd) and Unix email client
|
||
(fastmail and sendmail), and</li>
|
||
<li>connectivity to the Internet through the corporate firewall</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p>In theory, it should have been possible to "print to email" using these existing MVS/JES and
|
||
Unix facilities. The process would be:
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>Application generates a printed report which is written to a JES2 print spool,</li>
|
||
<li>the JES2 print spooler 'prints' the report on a JES2 printer, which is implemented in software
|
||
on the MVS system</li>
|
||
<li>The MVS software printer (a pseudo-printer) uses (in our case) VPS to transmit the print data
|
||
to a Unix 'lpd' (RFC1179-compliant) print spooler (implemented on a Linux system),</li>
|
||
<li>The Linux lpd daemon processes the print data through other unix tools to email the print to an
|
||
arbitrary email userid</li>
|
||
<li>Linux email (sendmail) sends the print data email to the target email address</li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p>In general, the flow of print data from sending application to receiving
|
||
client looks like
|
||
<A HREF="misc/pitcher/flowchart.png">this diagram</A>.
|
||
</dd><!-- end of the Beginnings section -->
|
||
|
||
<dt><h2><font color="green">Linux</font></h2></dt>
|
||
<dd><p>Our Linux system was a minimal installation of Slackware 7.0 on a spare Pentium 90 processor.
|
||
We had used this system for a number of proof-of-concept tests and it was sitting idle and available
|
||
for our print-to-email trial. We configured the system to accept lpd spool requests from the host
|
||
(indirectly, from the NT "protocol converter" system), process the print into emailable
|
||
text, and email the text according to the requirements embedded in the print
|
||
data's <a href="misc/pitcher/Jes_Flash_Page.html#flashpage">JES2 flash page</a><p>
|
||
|
||
<p>In order to permit the Windows NT protocol converter access to the Linux lpd resources, we had
|
||
to add the NT system to the lpd security files. Since the NT system was assigned a DHCP IP address
|
||
but no dynamic DNS (dDNS) hostname, we included it's IP address to the
|
||
<a href="misc/pitcher/Files_in_etc.html#hosts"><tt>/etc/hosts</tt></a> file along with a fake hostname, and added the
|
||
fake hostname to the <a href="misc/pitcher/Files_in_etc.html#lpdhosts"><tt>/etc/hosts.lpd</tt></a></p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Next, the lpd printer 'jesprt' was defined in the <a href="misc/pitcher/Files_in_etc.html#printcap"><tt>
|
||
/etc/printcap</tt></a> file. This definition includes details on the spool directory
|
||
(<tt>/var/spool/lpd/jesprt</tt>) and spool filter program (<tt>/var/spool/lpd/jesprt.filter</tt>) to be used
|
||
to process print to email.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Finally, the print filter
|
||
(<a href="misc/pitcher/Print_Filter_Files.html#filter"><b><tt>/var/spool/lpd/jesprt.filter</tt></b>)</a>
|
||
and it's support programs were written. jesprt.filter respooled the print data to a temporary file,
|
||
then extracted the destination email address and other details from the spooled data. Once all the
|
||
particulars had been established, the temporary file was emailed to the destination and the local
|
||
copy was deleted.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>I wrote four support modules for this filter:
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="#collapse"><tt>/usr/local/bin/collapse</tt></a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#mailto"><tt>/var/spool/lpd/tools/jesprt.mailto.awk</tt></a></li>
|
||
<li><a href="#subject"><tt>/var/spool/lpd/tools/jesprt.subject.awk</tt></a>, and</li>
|
||
<li><a href="#notice"><tt>/var/spool/lpd/tools/jesprt.notice.text</tt></a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
<p><a name="collapse"><a href="misc/pitcher/Print_Filter_Files.html#collapse">
|
||
<b><tt>/usr/local/bin/collapse</tt></b></a> took the print data prepared by the NT
|
||
"protocol converter" program and reformatted it into text lines. This was necessary
|
||
because the protocol conversion generated large print files where <a href="misc/pitcher/Jes_Flash_Page.html#od">
|
||
each print line consisted of many lines overprinting each other</a>. As the print filter extracted
|
||
information from the print data, this overprinting had to be 'collapsed' into single print lines.
|
||
Additionally, the protocol conversion performed a unique form of overprinting, where each pair of
|
||
blocks of overprint were positioned 1 character to the right of the previous pair., which, if not
|
||
accommodated, would lead to errors in the resulting print data.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a name="mailto"><a href="misc/pitcher/Print_Filter_Files.html#mailto">
|
||
<b><tt>/var/spool/lpd/tools/jesprt.mailto.awk</tt></b></a> looked through the leading flashpage,
|
||
and extracted a destination email address from the data. It checked in three places for the target
|
||
email address:
|
||
<ol>
|
||
<li>Stand-alone in the flashpage, prefixed with a "<tt>EMAIL</tt>" sentinel text, or
|
||
<li>as the first line of the "<tt>ADDRESS: </tt>"line, prefixed with a "<tt>EMAIL:</tt>"
|
||
sentinel text, or
|
||
<li>derived from the username that follows the "<tt>USERID:</tt>" sentinel text.
|
||
</ol>
|
||
|
||
<p>The "<tt>USERID:</tt>" username was fixed at MVS/JES2 job submission time. However,
|
||
the "<tt>EMAIL:</tt>" email addresses were dynamically assigned through one of four
|
||
<tt>ADDRESS</tt> parameters passed to the JES2 print spooling system. The two possibilities
|
||
accounted for in the awk script accommodated the placement of the email address in the first
|
||
or the second and subsequent <tt>ADDRESS</tt> parameters. If the email address text was passed through
|
||
the <i>first</i> <tt>ADDRESS</tt> parameter, then that text would be found in the flash page as part of
|
||
the first line of the "<tt>ADDRESS:</tt>" line, and prefixed with a "<tt>EMAIL:</tt>"
|
||
sentinel text. However, if the email address text was passed through a subsequent <tt>ADDRESS</tt> parameter,
|
||
then the email address would be found in the flash page as a stand-alone line and prefixed with a
|
||
"<tt>EMAIL:</tt>" sentinel text.
|
||
|
||
<p>Finally, no email address text were passed in any of the <tt>ADDRESS</tt> parameters, then the email
|
||
address would default to the MVS LOGONID for the job, which was found as the username that follows the
|
||
"<tt>USERID:</tt>" sentinel text in the flashpage.
|
||
|
||
<p><a name="subject"><a href="misc/pitcher/Print_Filter_Files.html#subject">
|
||
<b><tt>/var/spool/lpd/tools/jesprt.subject.awk</tt></b></a></a>
|
||
looked through the leading flashpage, and extracted an email subject line from the data. It obtained
|
||
this information from the text that follows the "<tt>TITLE:</tt>" sentinel text in the flash
|
||
page. Any text populated to the <tt>TITLE</tt> parameter was placed here by JES2. For example, if the
|
||
host program set the <tt>TITLE</tt> to the text string "<tt>email subject goes here</tt>", JES2
|
||
would populate it to the flashpage, and <tt>/var/spool/lpd/tools/jesprt.subject.awk</tt> would extract
|
||
the text <b>"<tt>email subject line goes here</tt>"</b>from the flashpage. This text was then
|
||
be used to prepare the email subject line. If no text was found, the email subject line would just indicate
|
||
the source jobname, jobnumber, and system, as found on the flashpage.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p><a name="notice"><a href="misc/pitcher/Print_Filter_Files.html#notice">
|
||
<b><tt>/var/spool/lpd/tools/jesprt.notice.text</tt></b></a></a>
|
||
carried a notice text that is appended to the end of every report respooled by this print filter. This
|
||
allows us to add a "message of the day" to each print report indicating the processing performed
|
||
on it, if we desire.</p>
|
||
</dd><!-- end of the Linux section -->
|
||
|
||
<dt><h2><font color="green">NT Protocol Converter</font></h2></dt>
|
||
<dd><p>The VPS print spool package on the host communicated using SNA LU1 to a package running on a
|
||
Microsoft Windows NT system . This package reprocessed the print data using Window NT printer drivers
|
||
to communicate with the LAN-attached printers. We arranged for the owners of this system to setup the
|
||
connection between JES2 remote <b><tt>PTE01</tt></b> and our Linux <b><tt>jesprt</tt></b> lpd printer.
|
||
On the Windows NT side, this printer was configured as a <tt>"Generic" /
|
||
"Generic/Text Only"</tt> print driver using a local "Microsoft LPR" port connected
|
||
to printer <tt>jesprt</tt> on the Linux server.
|
||
|
||
<p>The Windows NT protocol converter was configured so as <i>not to</i> suppress the JES2 flashpages
|
||
(suppression is the default setting), so that the Linux side could retrieve the email subject and address
|
||
metadata from the JES2 flash page text. Host applications would be expected to generate their output and
|
||
direct it to a JES2 "SYSOUT". JES2 "SYSOUT"s act like pipes into the print spooling
|
||
system.
|
||
</dd><!-- end of the VPS Protocol converter section -->
|
||
|
||
<dt><h2><font color="green">JES2 Host Printing</font></h2></dt>
|
||
<dd><p>On the MVS/JES2 side, applications can use one of three different methods of spooling print output,
|
||
depending on their environmental requirements: BATCH print spooling, IMS "Spool API" print
|
||
spooling, and CICS "Spool API" print spooling.
|
||
|
||
<dl><dt><h4>BATCH Print Spooling</h4></dt>
|
||
<dd>
|
||
<p>MVS/JES2 supports a background processing system that uses <a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#Batch_JCL">
|
||
JCL (or "Job Control Language")</a> instructions to control the execution of programs and the
|
||
distribution of their print data. In this environment, print data is referred to as "SYSOUT", which
|
||
stands for "System Output".
|
||
<p>Any SYSOUT directed to (in our case) printer <tt>DEST=PTE01</tt> would be respooled (by JES2) to VPS,
|
||
and on to the lpd support on our Linux system. The JES2 OUTPUT JCL statement was used to set the email subject
|
||
line and target email address for the report.
|
||
<p>The format and use of the JCL <tt>OUTPUT</tt> statement is documented in <u>Chapter 22</u> of the
|
||
<a href="misc/pitcher/Bibliography.html#JCL_Ref">OS/390 V2R10 MVS JCL Reference</a>, while the format and use of the
|
||
<tt>DD SYSOUT</tt> is documented in <u>Chapter 12</u> of <a href="misc/pitcher/Bibliography.html#JCL_Ref">the same manual</a>.
|
||
</dd><!-- end of the BATCH SPOOL subsection -->
|
||
|
||
<dt><h4>IMS "Spool API" Print Spooling</h4></dt>
|
||
<dd><p>For our IMS transaction to print to the JES2 spool (and thus onwards to email), it had to perform DLI
|
||
<tt>CHNG</tt> and <tt>ISRT</tt> calls to <a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#IMS_PCB">a modifiable alternate
|
||
non-express PCB</a>.
|
||
|
||
<p>First, the transaction's application code prepared <a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#IMS_CHNG_WS">specific
|
||
<tt>WORKING-STORAGE</tt> variables</a> and <a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#IMS_CHNG_PD">performed a
|
||
<tt>CHNG</tt> call</a> to redirect the alternate modifiable non-express PCB (in this case PCB <tt>APM00001</tt>)
|
||
to the IMS Spool interface.
|
||
|
||
<p>Then, the application performed one or more ISRT calls to send print data to the PCB. The print data was
|
||
placed in <a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#IMS_ISRT_WS">a structure</a> which was passed through the IMS
|
||
<a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#IMS_ISRT_PD"><tt>ISRT</tt> call</a> to the JES2 print queue.
|
||
|
||
<p>This <a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#IMS_ISRT_PD"><tt>ISRT</tt></a> was repeated for each line of the text
|
||
to be emailed. The email would be released to the spool at the end of the Unit of Work (at <tt>COMMIT</tt>
|
||
or at the next <tt>GU</tt> on the <tt>IOPCB</tt>), or when the next <tt>CHNG</tt> call to the modifiable
|
||
alternate non-express PCB was executed.
|
||
|
||
<p><u>Appendix A</u> of the <a href="misc/pitcher/Bibliography.html#IMS_Design">"IMS Version 7 Application Programming:
|
||
Design Guide"</a> provides a technical overview of the IMS SPOOL API and it's use in a JES2 environment.
|
||
Sections <u>1.3.2</u> and <u>1.3.7</u> from the <a href="misc/pitcher/Bibliography.html#IMS_TM">
|
||
"IMS Version 7 Application Programming: Transaction Manager"</a> manual provides details on
|
||
the specific IMS DLI calls necessary to spool output to MVS, and section <u>1.56</u> of the
|
||
<a href="misc/pitcher/Bibliography.html#TSO_CL">TSO/E V2R5 Command Reference</a> manual provides the format and
|
||
values of the spool control parameters.
|
||
</dd><!-- end of the IMS SPOOL API subsection -->
|
||
|
||
<dt><h4>CICS "Spool API" Print Spool</h4></dt>
|
||
<dd><p>For a CICS transaction to print to the JES2 spool (and onward to email), it must use the CICS SPOOL
|
||
API. The documentation here in the "CICS Application Programming Reference" describes the
|
||
SPOOLOPEN/SPOOLWRITE/SPOOLCLOSE verbs that must be used to create a JES2-spooled report.
|
||
|
||
<p>First, the application must SPOOLOPEN the printer. This is a bit tricky because the SPOOLOPEN verb
|
||
requires the <a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#CICS_SPOOLOPEN_WS">print options parameter</a> to be an
|
||
indirect pointer to the print options list. To enable this, the program
|
||
<a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#CICS_SPOOLOPEN_PD">must execute logic to</a> GETMAIN some storage,
|
||
manipulate the returned pointer to the GETMAINed memory to conform with CICS requirements, move
|
||
<a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#CICS_SPOOLOPEN_WS">the print options list</a> into the GETMAINed memory,
|
||
use the GETMAINed area in the SPOOLOPEN verb, and FREEMAIN the print options storage once the
|
||
SPOOLOPEN is complete.
|
||
<p>Once this is done, the program can repeatedly load a <a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#CICS_SPOOLWRITE_WS">
|
||
print buffer</a> with text data and <a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#CICS_SPOOLWRITE_PD">EXECutes the SPOOLWRITE
|
||
function</a> to write each line of report data to the spool.
|
||
<p>When all the print data has been spooled, the program then
|
||
<a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html#CICS_SPOOLCLOSE_PD">EXECutes the SPOOLCLOSE function</a> to close the spool
|
||
and send the spooled output onward to the printer.
|
||
<p><u>Section 5.6</u> of the <a href="misc/pitcher/Bibliography.html#CICS_Guide">CICS TS for OS/390 V1R3 Application
|
||
Programming Guide</a> provides an overview of the CICS SPOOL API and examples of it's use, while
|
||
<u>Sections 1.227 through 1.231</u> of the <a href="misc/pitcher/Bibliography.html#CICS_Ref">CICS TS for OS/390 V1R3
|
||
Application Programming Reference</a> provides details on the specifics of the various EXEC SPOOLxxxx
|
||
calls necessary to spool output to MVS, while section <u>1.56</u> of the
|
||
<a href="misc/pitcher/Bibliography.html#TSO_CL">TSO/E V2R5 Command Reference</a> manual provides the format and
|
||
values of the spool control parameters used in the EXEC SPOOLOPEN call.
|
||
|
||
</dd><!-- end of the CICS SPOOL API subsection -->
|
||
|
||
</dl><!-- end of JES2 spool api list -->
|
||
</dd><!-- end of JES2 HOST PRINTING section -->
|
||
|
||
<dt><h2><font color="green">Conclusions</font></h2></dt>
|
||
<dd>In all, this exercise took about a month to go from inception to implementation, with most of that
|
||
time spent in the development of the CICS and IMS interfaces. Our tests of the 'print to email' process
|
||
proved that the facility worked well for our limited requirements. Volume testing was not performed, and
|
||
this print-to-email solution remains a proof-of-concept, for now.
|
||
<p>From this exercise, we not only established that a "print-to-email" facility <em>could</em> be built
|
||
without intrusion into the realm of MVS system programming, we also established that it was <em>easy</em> to
|
||
build such a system. Even if we shelve this project, the techniques we learned (IMS and CICS SPOOLING APIs,
|
||
JES2 printer setup, Linux and BSD LPD print spooler setup, etc.) can easily be applied to other projects in
|
||
our domain.
|
||
<p>For what it's worth, we learned a lot. We stood on the shoulders of giants
|
||
and saw further than we could have on our own. Perhaps we too have now given our
|
||
successors a footing from which to climb to greater heights.
|
||
<p>So, do you feel like doing a bit of climbing?
|
||
<p>
|
||
</dd><!-- end of Conclusions section -->
|
||
</dl><!-- end of the sectioned document -->
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<h4>Copyright (©) Lew Pitcher, March 2002</h4>
|
||
<hr>
|
||
<p>This article has several supplemental files which are linked extensively in the text.
|
||
For convenience, here's a listing of all the files:
|
||
<dl>
|
||
<dt><a href="pitcher.html">pitcher.html</a> and <a
|
||
href="misc/pitcher/flowchart.png">flowchart.png</a></dt>
|
||
<dd>This is the main page of the document, and its single illustration</dd>
|
||
<dt><a href="misc/pitcher/Files_in_etc.html">Files_in_etc.html</a></dt>
|
||
<dd>This page describes the files in /etc that were changed to enable the print-to-email
|
||
printer.</dd>
|
||
<dt><a href="misc/pitcher/Print_Filter_Files.html">Print_Filter_Files.html</a></dt>
|
||
<dd>This page describes the files that made up the linux print-to-email print filter.</dd>
|
||
<dt><a href="misc/pitcher/Jes_Flash_Page.html">Jes_Flash_Page.html</a></dt>
|
||
<dd>This page describes the format of the JES2 flash page that the email subject and address
|
||
were extracted from.</dd>
|
||
<dt><a href="misc/pitcher/JES2_Spooling.html">JES2_Spooling.html</a></dt>
|
||
<dd>This page describes the COBOL coding techniques needed in IMS and CICS to generate and
|
||
spool print to the print-to-email server.</dd>
|
||
<dt><a href="misc/pitcher/Bibliography.html">Bibliography.html</a></dt>
|
||
<dd>This page carries links to the reference documentation that we used in building this
|
||
print-to-email solution.</dd>
|
||
</dl>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
|
||
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
|
||
<P>
|
||
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Lew Pitcher</H4>
|
||
Canadian by birth, and living in Brampton, Ontario, I am a career techie
|
||
working at a major Canadian bank. For over 25 years, I've programmed on
|
||
all sorts of systems, from Z80 CP/M up to OS/390. Primarily, I develop
|
||
OS/390 MVS applications for banking services, and have incorporated
|
||
Linux into my development environment.
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
||
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
|
||
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
||
|
||
Copyright © 2002, Lew Pitcher.<BR>
|
||
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
|
||
Published in Issue 77 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, April 2002</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">Setting Up a Linux-based PPP Callback server</font></H1>
|
||
<H4>By <a href="mailto:suniltt@vsnl.com">Sunil Thomas Thonikuzhiyil</a></H4>
|
||
</center>
|
||
<P> <HR> <P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- END header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<h2><b>Introduction</b></h2>
|
||
<p> In a PPP dialin server setup, users dial in through a telephone line and
|
||
modem to establish a PPP connection with a remote server. It is possible to
|
||
make a Linux box call back the user who dialed the server. This document
|
||
describes the step-by-step procedure to set up a Linux-based callback
|
||
server.
|
||
<p><h2><b>Requirements</b></h2>
|
||
<p> My server runs Debian Potato with kernel 2.4.17. A modem
|
||
attached to ttyS0 serves as the dial in and callback modem. My
|
||
client machine runs both Debian Potato and Win98. An external modem is
|
||
attached to ttyS1. It is assumed that you have installed minimum software needed to dial out to an ISP on both server and client.
|
||
In addition to this you have to install mgetty+sendfax package on the server.
|
||
<p><h2><b>The idea</b></h2>
|
||
<p> The principle behind a callback server may be summarized as follows. First I (the client) dial the telephone number of my callback server's modem. The modem on the server is
|
||
configured to accept incoming connections. Once the connection
|
||
is established, the server prompts me back with a welcome message
|
||
and a login prompt. I login as a special callback user. The modem on the
|
||
server drops the connection and dials back a specified number
|
||
attached to my client machine. The modem on my client machine is
|
||
kept ready to accept the callback connection, and once the connection is
|
||
established I am again prompted with a login prompt. Now I log in as
|
||
a normal PPP user and the connection is completed.
|
||
|
||
<p><h2><b>Configuring the dialin Server</b></h2>
|
||
<p> The first step to achieve the above setup is to configure your
|
||
server to accept incoming PPP connection.
|
||
<p>Here is what I did on the server
|
||
<p>1) Create a new user called pppuser
|
||
<p> Change the /etc/passwd entry for pppuser to
|
||
<br>pppuser:x:1001:1001:,,,:/home/pppuser:/usr/sbin/pppd
|
||
<p>2) Add a line to your /etc/inittab so that serial port can accept incoming connection.
|
||
<p> T0:23:respawn:/sbin/mgetty ttyS0 -D /dev/ttyS0
|
||
<p> Restart init by typing 'init q'
|
||
<br> This enables the ttyS0 line to accept incoming connections
|
||
<p>3) Change directory to /etc/mgetty (This is where configuration
|
||
files for mgetty is kept. On Redhat distributions it is at
|
||
/etc/mgetty+sendfax)
|
||
<br> Edit login.config and add the following line to it
|
||
<p> /AutoPPP/ - a_ppp /usr/sbin/pppd file /etc/ppp/options
|
||
<p> Comment out all other lines
|
||
<p>4) Change /etc/ppp/options to the following
|
||
<pre>
|
||
-detach
|
||
asyncmap 0
|
||
modem
|
||
crtscts
|
||
proxyarp
|
||
lock
|
||
require-pap
|
||
refuse-chap
|
||
ms-dns 192.168.50.100 #put your dns server ip here
|
||
usepeerdns
|
||
</pre>
|
||
<p>5) Create a file options.ttyS0 in /etc/ppp with following content
|
||
<pre>
|
||
192.168.0.100:192.168.0.2
|
||
noauth
|
||
</pre>
|
||
<p>The two ip addresses above are the address of your server and
|
||
the address the client should receive from server. Change them according
|
||
to your IP numbering scheme. If your modem is connected to ttyS1 name
|
||
the above file as options.ttyS1
|
||
<p>6) Change permission of pppd (on some distributions pppd is already
|
||
suid)
|
||
<br>
|
||
chmod u+s /usr/sbin/pppd
|
||
<p>7) Add an alias for ppp
|
||
<br>
|
||
<p> Add the following lines to /etc/profile
|
||
<pre>
|
||
alias ppp=`/usr/sbin/pppd -detach'`
|
||
</pre>
|
||
<br>
|
||
<p> Now try dialing to the server from a client. For this if you are using MS
|
||
windows, click dial up networking and then select new connection and fill out various
|
||
fields. Login as pppuser and verify whether your dialin server is
|
||
working perfectly. Check the connection by pinging the server from client.
|
||
Also you can verify the ip address assigned to client by typing winipcfg on command
|
||
prompt.
|
||
<p><h2><b>Configuring callback</b></h2>
|
||
<p>Once the dialin server is ready, configuring callback is quite
|
||
easy
|
||
<br>
|
||
<p>Here is what I did.
|
||
<p>1) Create a new user named back.
|
||
<p>2) Create an empty file named callback.conf in /ete/mgetty/ . (You can add init strings for your modem in this file if needed. But generally an empty file will do)
|
||
<p>3) Add the following line to /ete/mgetty/login.config.
|
||
<p> back - - /usr/sbin/callback -S 2561
|
||
<p>The number on the above line after -S is the number to be
|
||
called back. Change it to the phone number attached to your client.
|
||
<p><h2><b>Configuring clients</b></h2>
|
||
<p> <h3>1) MS Windows 98</h3>
|
||
Open dialup networking and start a new connection.
|
||
Fill out the various fields. Right click on the newly-created icon and select
|
||
properties. Select modem-> Configure->connection->Advanced
|
||
options.
|
||
<br>Add &c0s0=1 to Extra settings
|
||
<br>Select options and tick the checkbox to bring the terminal window
|
||
after dialing.
|
||
<p> You can leave the user name and password field empty.
|
||
<p> Now start dialing the server. Once the dialing is over a terminal screen will popup and you
|
||
will be presented with a login screen from the server.
|
||
<br>
|
||
<p>Login as 'back' (the special callback user).
|
||
<p>Now the server side modem cuts off the connection, wait for a few
|
||
seconds and will call you back . Once the callback connection is established you will again be prompted with login prompt.
|
||
Type login name as pppuser and enter password. Press continue on the terminal screen . Now you will
|
||
be logged in. Again check your connection by pinging the server.
|
||
<br>
|
||
<p>It is possible to write a script for this but I have not tried it yet. For other versions of Windows the procedure is similar. The important thing to setup is the modem init string ( &c0s0=1)
|
||
<br>
|
||
<p><h3>2) Linux</h3>
|
||
<br>
|
||
<p>Configuring Linux client is little more trickier. Here is what I did on my Debian machine running kernel 2.4.17
|
||
<p>1) Create /etc/options file with following content
|
||
|
||
<pre>
|
||
lock
|
||
defaultroute
|
||
noipdefault
|
||
modem
|
||
115200
|
||
crtscts
|
||
debug
|
||
passive
|
||
asyncmap 0
|
||
</pre>
|
||
<p> 2) Create a file called pppcalback in /etc/ppp/peers/ with following
|
||
content
|
||
<pre>
|
||
ttyS1 19200 crtscts
|
||
connect '/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/chat-callback'
|
||
noauth
|
||
</pre>
|
||
<p> 3) Create a file called /etc/ppp/chat-callback with following
|
||
content
|
||
<pre>
|
||
ABORT BUSY
|
||
ABORT VOICE
|
||
ABORT "NO DIALTONE"
|
||
ABORT "NO ANSWER"
|
||
"" ATZ
|
||
OK ATDT2562 # Telephone number of server
|
||
CONNECT \d\d
|
||
ogin: \q\dback
|
||
TIMEOUT 90
|
||
RING AT&C0S0=1
|
||
ogin: \q\dpppuser
|
||
assword: \q\dpasswordforppuser
|
||
</pre>
|
||
|
||
<p>Properly change the lines above to reflect login names and passwords
|
||
for the accounts you have created.(Also refer to your modem's documentation for necessary init strings. May be you will have to replace ATZ with some thing like AT&FX2)
|
||
<br>
|
||
<p>4) Create a script called /usr/bin/pppcall with following
|
||
contents
|
||
<pre>
|
||
#!/bin/bash
|
||
/usr/sbin/pppd -detach call pppcall &
|
||
</pre>
|
||
<p> Make this script executable
|
||
<br>Now you can dial the server by calling the script pppcall
|
||
<p><h2><b>Related Information</b></h2>
|
||
<p>The following documents helped me to figure it out
|
||
<br> 1) <a href="http://linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Call-back.html">Callback
|
||
mini howto</a>
|
||
<br> 2 <a href="http://www.bdcol.ee/linux/callback.shtml">Linux
|
||
callback</a>
|
||
<br> 3) Man pages of pppd
|
||
<br> 4) <a href="http://www.leo.org/~doering/mgetty/">Mgetty+Sendfax
|
||
Archive/Documentation</a>
|
||
<p> If you find any problems in setting up callback servers don't hesitate
|
||
drop me a mail. Comments and suggestions for improvement of this document are most welcome.
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
|
||
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
|
||
<P>
|
||
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Sunil Thomas Thonikuzhiyil</H4>
|
||
<EM>I work as consultant information technology at the Kerala Legislative
|
||
Assembly Trivandrum India. I have been hooked on Linux since 1996. I have a
|
||
Masters in Computer Science from Cochin University. I am interested in all
|
||
sorts of operating systems. In my free time I love to listen to Indian
|
||
classical music.</EM>
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
||
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
|
||
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
||
|
||
Copyright © 2002, Sunil Thomas Thonikuzhiyil.<BR>
|
||
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
|
||
Published in Issue 77 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, April 2002</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">Displaying Real Time System information on a LCD Display using LCDproc & lcdmod</font></H1>
|
||
<H4>By <a href="mailto:tanejagaurav.hotmail.com">Gaurav Taneja</a></H4>
|
||
</center>
|
||
<P> <HR> <P>
|
||
|
||
<!-- END header -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<P>Being a System Administrator or a Linux enthusiast/user, we almost
|
||
always keep an eye on important system information like disk usage,
|
||
memory usage, cpu load, users logged in etc., now how about having
|
||
all this information on a sleek LCD Display kept next to your monitor
|
||
?</P>
|
||
<P>LCD or a Liquid Crystal Display is almost seen everywhere ranging
|
||
from digital watches to microwave ovens, from audio systems to PDA's
|
||
and even some high-end servers. There are several cheap commercially
|
||
available displays which can be controlled through the computer's
|
||
parallel port or the serial port(RS-232). LCDs are manufactured by
|
||
quite a few different companies. Units typically seen in the surplus
|
||
market come from Hitachi, Epson, Hewlett Packard, Optrex, or Sharp.
|
||
Common configurations are 16, 20, 24, 32, or 40 characters by 1, 2,
|
||
or 4 lines.</P>
|
||
<P>I have personally tried out Hitachi HD44780 compatible 16X2 LCD
|
||
display which are easily available from many display vendors and can
|
||
be controlled through the parallel port. Please do note that some
|
||
displays come with an option of backlight and others don't, the ones
|
||
with a backlight option have some more pins to control the backlight
|
||
and are bit more expensive, so the choice is yours!!</P>
|
||
<H2>A Word of Caution</H2>
|
||
<P>Before you embark on this exciting exercise beware that LCD
|
||
Displays are really sensitive to improper wiring and operate only on
|
||
specific voltages(typically 5V or 12V), if anything is messy they
|
||
burn up!! also before you buy a display make sure that you also
|
||
procure a pin configuration diagram and a technical data sheet along
|
||
with it so that you have all the information handy when required.</P>
|
||
<H2>What all do i need?</H2>
|
||
<P>Before you begin do make sure that you everything in the checklist
|
||
given below:</P>
|
||
<UL>
|
||
<LI><P>A HD44780 compatible LCD Display (don't worry about the
|
||
brand, just make sure from the vendor that it is Hitachi HD44780
|
||
compatible. by the way HD44780 is a display with an onboard
|
||
controller which understands some standard instructions(protocol) to
|
||
show characters on the screen from it's internally defined character
|
||
set)</P>
|
||
<LI><P>A Parallel Port (Centronics) connector with a cable
|
||
attached(make sure you have a long cable with loose wires on the
|
||
other end).</P>
|
||
<LI><P>A soldering iron with some solder & flux (ask any
|
||
electronic enthusiast friend of yours if you can't do this stuff
|
||
yourself).</P>
|
||
<LI><P>A power supply source (you'd typically require 5V or 12 V DC
|
||
power supply, a AC to DC adapter available at your local electronic
|
||
store will solve the purpose).</P>
|
||
<LI><P>LCDproc (can be downloaded at <A HREF="http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/download.php3">http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net</A>)
|
||
or/and lcdmod (available at <A HREF="http://lcd-mod.sourceforge.net/">http://lcd-mod.sourceforge.net</A>)</P>
|
||
</UL>
|
||
<P><BR><BR>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<H2>Let's get Wired!!</H2>
|
||
<P>Before you attempt to wire up the display with your computer
|
||
remember that you have to be pretty cautious with what you do here
|
||
otherwise you can damage either the display or your computer, so if
|
||
you are not aware of assembling simple electronic circuits, don't get
|
||
disheartened. just ask some electronics geek friend of yours.</P>
|
||
<P>I am taking an example of a HD44780 Display which i have connected
|
||
with the parallel port of my linux box as per the following wiring
|
||
diagram:</P>
|
||
<P><IMG SRC="misc/taneja/parlcd.png" ALIGN=LEFT WIDTH=398 HEIGHT=285 BORDER=0 alt="Wiring Scheme (HD44780)"><BR CLEAR=LEFT>
|
||
<BR><BR>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>This wiring scheme works fine for all HD44780 type displays and
|
||
should hopefully work fine with your setup too.you can check whether
|
||
your display is alive by adjusting the 'Contrast' resistor in the
|
||
diagram above, it should show dark bands on the display when the
|
||
resistor is at it's minimum value.</P>
|
||
<H2>Installing the Software</H2>
|
||
<P>I have taken examples for both LCDproc and lcdmod, you can install
|
||
either of these to test your display. If you are a newbie it's better
|
||
you check out LCDproc first.</P>
|
||
<P>Firstly extract the archive you've downloaded:</P>
|
||
<P><PRE>[root@Linux gaurav]# tar -zxvf lcdproc-0.4.1.tar.gz</PRE>
|
||
<P>Next configure LCDproc with your parameters
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
<PRE>[root@Linux gaurav]# cd lcdproc-0.4.1
|
||
|
||
<P>[root@Linux lcdproc-0.4.1]# ./configure --enable-drivers=curses,hd44780</PRE>
|
||
<P>This will configure and generate a Makefile so that you can test
|
||
your installation with a curses based preview as well as use your
|
||
HD44780 compatible display.</P>
|
||
<P>Let's now compile and finish our installation:</P>
|
||
<P><PRE>[root@Linux lcdproc-0.4.1]# make install</PRE>
|
||
<P>After you're done, we can test our installation with a check on
|
||
the console itself by issuing the command</P>
|
||
<P><PRE>[root@Linux lcdproc-0.4.1]# LCDd -d curses -f</PRE>
|
||
<P>This shows a nifty little curses screen on your terminal with
|
||
vital system information scrolling one by one. now for the real
|
||
thing!! you can connect your LCD display with it's power supply on
|
||
and start up the display by:</P>
|
||
<P><PRE>[root@Linux lcdproc-0.4.1]# LCDd -d hd44780
|
||
</PRE>
|
||
<P>[root@Linux lcdproc-0.4.1]# lcdproc C M T X
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>This should bring up your LCD Display to life and show something
|
||
like this:</P>
|
||
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0in"><IMG SRC="misc/taneja/lcdproc.png" ALIGN=LEFT WIDTH=121 HEIGHT=37 BORDER=0 alt="LCD Display"><BR CLEAR=LEFT>
|
||
<BR>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P STYLE="margin-bottom: 0in"><IMG SRC="misc/taneja/lcdproc2.png" ALIGN=LEFT WIDTH=121 HEIGHT=37 BORDER=0 alt="LCD Display"><BR CLEAR=LEFT>
|
||
<BR>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P><IMG SRC="misc/taneja/lcdproc3.png" ALIGN=LEFT WIDTH=121 HEIGHT=37 BORDER=0 alt="LCD Display"><BR CLEAR=LEFT>
|
||
<BR><BR>
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>By the time you've installed and configured LCDProc you must have
|
||
realized that this software is actually based on a client-server
|
||
model. The LCDProc server starts first with the client programs
|
||
connecting to it and displaying the information. infact you can
|
||
telnet to the LCDProc server (LCDd, the daemon process) and execute
|
||
the commands manually.But, what if you want a faster mechanism to
|
||
display and want to do away with all this socket thing. Well lcdmod's
|
||
here to the rescue.</P>
|
||
<H2>Lcdmod</H2>
|
||
<P>Lcdmod is a Character device driver for all HD44780 compatible
|
||
displays written by Michael McLellan.It's much more faster then
|
||
lcdproc and you can write stuff to the lcd as you are writing to any
|
||
other device.</P>
|
||
<P>Let's get going through the installation, i've assumed that you
|
||
have your lcd display properly wired up and tested with LCDProc.
|
||
</P>
|
||
<P>Firstly let's uncompress the source archive:</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
<PRE>[root@Linux gaurav]# tar -zxvf lcdmod-0.5.5.tgz
|
||
|
||
<P>[root@Linux gaurav]# cd lcdmod-0.5.5</PRE>
|
||
<P>Let's 'make' the source and install it:</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
<PRE>[root@Linux lcdmod-0.5.5]# make
|
||
|
||
<P>[root@Linux lcdmod-0.5.5]# make install</PRE>
|
||
<P>This creates a LKM(Linux kernel Module) & a device named
|
||
'lcd' that will point to your LCD hardware.</P>
|
||
<P>Insert the LKM we've bulit by issuing:</P>
|
||
<P>
|
||
<PRE>[root@Linux lcdmod-0.5.5]# insmod lcd io=0x378 disp_rows=2 disp_cols=16</PRE>
|
||
<P>This inserts the module specifying the i/o based address of your
|
||
parallel port (io), no. of rows(disp_rows) & no. of columns
|
||
(disp_cols) of your display.</P>
|
||
<P>Now let's confirm whether the module has really gone in:</P>
|
||
<P><PRE>[root@Linux lcdmod-0.5.5]# lsmod</PRE>
|
||
<P>This should show an entry of the lcdmod module along with any
|
||
other modules inserted (if any).</P>
|
||
<P>You can now display any text on your LCD by just issuing the a
|
||
single command. eg.,</P>
|
||
<P><PRE>[root@Linux lcdmod-0.5.5]# echo Hello > /dev/lcd</PRE>
|
||
<P>This displays 'Hello' on your display. The aim of this article was
|
||
to give you all the information to control an LCD display, so now it's
|
||
up to your creativity and skills that how you implement this
|
||
idea in your specific scenario. I've used a LCD Display for developing
|
||
an employee logging system with a custom keypad, with the whole thing
|
||
being web-enabled. ;-)</P>
|
||
<H2>More information</H2>
|
||
<P>More information about configuring and wiring schemes can be had
|
||
from <A HREF="http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/">LCDProc</A> &
|
||
<A HREF="http://lcd-mod.sourceforge.net/">lcdmod</A> Project Pages.</P>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
|
||
<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
|
||
<P>
|
||
<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Gaurav Taneja</H4>
|
||
I'm working with a Software MNC as a Technical Consultant in New Delhi,
|
||
INDIA and actively involved in open-source projects related to
|
||
Linux,Java,C/C++ with some projects hosted on
|
||
<A HREF="http://sourceforge.net/">SourceForge</A> also.
|
||
|
||
<P> In my spare time I work on developing computer interfacing circuits and
|
||
programs and developing software on Linux. I also run my own software
|
||
consulting company named
|
||
<A HREF="http://www.broadstrike.com">BroadStrike Technologies</A>.
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** END bio *** -->
|
||
|
||
<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
|
||
<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
|
||
<H5 ALIGN=center>
|
||
|
||
Copyright © 2002, Gaurav Taneja.<BR>
|
||
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
|
||
Published in Issue 76 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, March 2002</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>
|
||
|
||
<H2>LG to get a makeover and wants your help</H2>
|
||
|
||
<P> LG will be getting a facelift in the next month or two. A stylesheet,
|
||
revamped headers/footers, and perhaps a few more images. My biggest pet
|
||
peeve of the current layout is all the the extra whitespace the browsers put
|
||
around headers and <CODE><HR>s</CODE> (horizontal separators). Stylesheets make it
|
||
possible to squeeze out all that space, allowing more content to show on the
|
||
first screenful. Non-stylesheet browsers would still have the whitespace, but
|
||
at least they'd be no worse off than they are now.
|
||
|
||
<P> I'm actually thinking about an article header something like this:
|
||
<PRE>
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------
|
||
| LG LOGO LG LOGO Home > issue 77 (April 2002) |
|
||
| LG LOGO LG LOGO Title Title Title |
|
||
| LG LOGO LG LOGO Title Title Title |
|
||
| LG LOGO LG LOGO by Author |
|
||
| making Linux ... more fun (e-mail link) |
|
||
-----------------------------------------------------------
|
||
</PRE>
|
||
|
||
That's a smaller version of the LG logo, and no more <CODE><H1></CODE>
|
||
and <CODE><HR></CODE>
|
||
in the header. "Home > issue 77 (April 2002)" would be Yahoo-style links like
|
||
we've used on the <I>Linux Journal</I> site in the past.
|
||
|
||
<P> I also aim to revamp
|
||
the navigation links between pages, to cut down on questions like "Why doesn't
|
||
LG get a search engine or an index of all issues?" (It already has them.)
|
||
Or, "How do I send a question to The Answer Gang? Oh wait, I didn't know there
|
||
was an Answer Gang, so I just sent it to gazette. I looked on the author info
|
||
page, but I'm still not sure where to send my News Bytes entry." All these
|
||
links are available... if you know where to look. Making the links more
|
||
findable in the places people are likely to look will be the goal.
|
||
|
||
<P> The Answer Gang and I are looking for some more images to decorate the
|
||
site with. Don't worry--we're sticking to our "minimum graphics" philosophy.
|
||
Just loosening it up a bit. The success of the various cartoon series in LG
|
||
over the past year shows that we can increase the size of LG slightly without
|
||
incurring the wrath of those who find 200 KB an expensive download.
|
||
|
||
<P> So, to Leon Czechowicz and all those who have been asking <A
|
||
HREF="../issue76/lg_mail.html#gaz/5">Why we stay plain when we could look
|
||
Really Cool</A>, now's your chance. <STRONG>Send in your suggestions, images,
|
||
HTML fragments, stylesheet fragments, navigation flowcharts and wishlist items
|
||
to <A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A>.</STRONG> How would
|
||
you like LG to look? We'll probably make a decision (or start to think about
|
||
when to make a decision) around April 15th, so the sooner the better, or at
|
||
least send us an e-mail so we know something is coming. Any ideas or examples
|
||
we like but don't use we'll put into an article, so at least they'll get some
|
||
exposure.
|
||
|
||
<P> Those who follow LG closely know our general policies for layout. I've tried
|
||
to articulate them below, but no doubt have forgotten something or other.
|
||
|
||
<UL>
|
||
<LI> The site must be completely static so that it can be read from mirrors with
|
||
unknown webserver software, and from CD-ROMs and FTP files where there is no
|
||
webserver.
|
||
<LI> Each issue tries to be > 2 MB, and the number of shared files should grow
|
||
only modestly. This is for people with slow modems, or who pay per minute or per
|
||
megabyte for downloads.
|
||
<LI> It must look OK and navigate OK on a wide variety of browsers, both graphical
|
||
and text.
|
||
<LI> The page width is normally 600 pixels, but may expand to 630 or 750 occasionally.
|
||
The layout must look good anywhere from 600-750.
|
||
<LI> <STRONG>Images</STRONG> should be PNG (preferred) or JPG (not GIF due to
|
||
patent restrictions). Use a white background, no transparency (Netscape
|
||
displays PNGs with transparent pixels as solid boxes), and no animation.
|
||
Maximum image size should be around 200x100, something we can put around a
|
||
header or next to a paragraph.
|
||
<LI> <STRONG>Stylesheets:</STRONG> There will be one global stylesheet for all articles,
|
||
TOC pages and the home page. (Perhaps we'll use mixin stylesheets down the road, but
|
||
that's later.)
|
||
<LI> Javascript, frames and sidebars are anathema. Javascript may be
|
||
considered in very limited circumstances, such as to submit a form when
|
||
pressing Enter in a text field. That provides a slight convenience to the
|
||
Javascript user but no degradation to the non-Javascript user. But any
|
||
Javascript must be functional rather than just cosmetic.
|
||
<LI> No tables around the article text! Keep layout tables to a minimum.
|
||
(I'll have to use a table for the article header though, since non-stylesheet browsers
|
||
can't do style columnizing.)
|
||
<LI> I think we'll be switching to text buttons for the navigation links rather than
|
||
graphical buttons. In a table with colored cell backgrounds, unless we find a style
|
||
strategy that's suitable and looks OK on non-style browsers. Not only do text buttons
|
||
download faster, but they're easier to change later.
|
||
</UL>
|
||
|
||
<P> So put on your thinking caps and send in some ideas.
|
||
|
||
|
||
<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 © 2002, 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 77 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, April 2002</H5>
|
||
<!-- *** END copyright *** -->
|
||
|
||
|
||
</BODY></HTML>
|