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Contents: |
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 22:30:26 -0700
From: Wood Ellis woodswrk@erols.com
Subject: Newbie Needs More Definitive Article on Parallel Port Tape Drives
The various leads which can be followed from the parport home page tend to indicate that it's just not worth all the hassle to try to operate a tape on the parallel port, unless you are an expert and maybe want to program it yourself. I just cannot believe that it is that difficult.
I would appreciate it if you were to provide an article which, in simple, newbie language, tells how to do it. The article should include definitive solutions for every brand of parallel port tape drive which is commonly available. Mine is an HP-1000 travan-1. My system is Redhat 4.1. One can imagine that some linux devotees enjoy the abstruseness of things new and difficult and exclusive. Contrary to that viewpoint, I believe that we all should strive to make linux easier and more available to the relatively uninformed. Probably you share my feeling. That's as close as I can come to a flaming request right now. I really appreciate all the good stuff in the Gazette.
Thank you,
Date: Sun Jul 6 16:35:46 1997
From: Takkala, takkala@highstar.com
Subject: Please help me....
Recently, ever since I upgraded to Slackware 3.2/Redhat 4.1, I have noticed that my modem has been behaving rather erratically. My modem is a Motorola ModemSurfr 28.8. Now, when I type 'ppp-on' to initiate a ppp session, many times, the modems TR led lights up, and then nothing happens, until the computer times out 45 seconds later and aborts the ppp session. Normally, when I type 'ppp-on' the modem almost immediately begins dialing up my isp, and connecting, but most of the time, it would just sit there, until I killed the process and tried again, it may take up to twelve or more tries for the modem to dial, but sometimes it will dial on the first try. This erratic behavior only began occurring (from what I can tell, I'm not sure) ever since I upgraded to redhat 4.1, and now slackware 3.2. My modem does work fine in windows 95, and also if I use DIP, or minicom to try and connect. So I was wondering if this may be a timing error somewhere in the ppp-on script. Has anyone else had similar problems? I myself tried tweaking some of the abort timeouts, but that didn't help.
Someone please help me!
Thanks for any help suggestions...
Jari
Date: Mon, 07 Jul 1997 01:00:35 -0700
From: Paul M., pmarcano@saltspring.com
Subject: Deluxe Paint IIe
Don't mean to come out of the blue but... I was searching the net for some reference to Deluxe Paint IIe for the PC and ended up here... Can you send me any information you can about how I might get a hold of a copy of this program which I assume is discontinued. I come from an Amiga background and still feel there are some redeeming features to this program that I would like to use on my PC...
Thanks for any information you can impart!
Paul Marcano
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 16:57:33 -0300
From: Annette Sahores annette@invap.com.ar
Subject: Problem with adaptec 2940U
I'm trying to install linux red hat 2.0.x in a machine with an Adaptec 2940U host adapter an a scsi external 4x cdrom. The problem is that the bootdisk does not recognize the host adapter, so I can't set the linux and swap partitions. may be the problem is that the driver aic7xxx is old and doesn't work whith the 2940 ultra.
Thank You
Annette Sahores
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 97 15:01:00 PDT
From: Mark Mangolas mmango01@gsg.eds.com
Subject: Linux on a ThinkPad
Hello,
I am writing this in hopes that you can help me with my Linux
configuration. I have Linux Slackware 3.2 running on an IBM 760E Thinkpad
and I can't get X to run properly. It scrunches the screen when I fire up
X and then scrambles everything when I exit forcing me to reboot. I've
tried almost all of the video cards, chipsets, etc. in XF86Setup and
nothing helps. Any help would be greatly appreciated......thank you,
Mark Mangolas
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 15:01:49 -0400
From: Scott Fowler scorpi04@earthlink.net
Subject: Pnp Modem and mouse
Help I have a plug and pray modem and mouse, actually my mouse is a ps/2 mouse, will the program isapnptools fix all the pnp problems?
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 10:43:54 -0600
From: Doug Milligan, Red Hat Linux User doug@nwrks.com
Subject: Disk deferag?
I'm new to Linux, but like it very much having recently installed RedHat 4.2 via FTP. In looking through utility software I have not run accross any disk defragmentor programs nor have seen references to them in any Linux books that I have consulted. Is disk degragmentation not needed in maintaining a Linux file system?
Thanks,
Doug Milligan
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 18:58:20 +0200 (SAT)
From: Abraham vd Merwe ixion@ilink.nis.za
Subject: Chown Problem
Hi!
You can make anybody the owner of your files right? At least that is w hat I always thought, but take a look at this:
% whoami ixion % cat /dev/null > ChownTest ; chmod 0777 ChownTest ; ls -l ChownTest -rwxrwxrwx 1 ixion users 0 Jul 19 18:10 ChownTest % cat /etc/passwd | grep fakeuser fakeuser:x:1005:100:Nobody:/home/fakeuser:/bin/bash % chown fakeuser ChownTest chown: ChownTest: Operation not permitted
I've tried it on various systems and it turns out that I can't make an ybody the owner of my files when I'm a user (root obviously can). Why? I'd b e very grateful if you can explain how to do it or if not possibly, at l east why I can't do it...
Thanks
Abraham
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 04:40:56 +0100
From: Emmet emmet@indigo.ie
Subject: Firewire and DV
Hi,
I've nearly got my brother converted to Linux, except he's interested
in using firewire cards and whatever software to edit video from
a DV camera. After some web-searching, and a several sites, it
seems that there are no firewire drivers or spiffy DV software for
Linux.
Even worse, Adaptec, who manufacture what appears to be becoming a very popular card, are only supporting MS and Mac platforms. To add insult to injury, their FAQ, in response to a question about the possibility of drivers for Un*x, etc., contains the single word "No", no explanation or euphemisms, just "No".
At this point in time, horror of horrors, it looks like I'm going to wind up with my brother using NT. Frankly, I'd rather have a sister in a whorehouse than a brother using NT. Check out Mitch Stone's excellent site at http://www.vcnet.com/bms for why.
Does anybody know different? Are there any plans afoot in this direction? Maybe somebody in a position of influence could lean on some firewire card manufacturers to make their driver software available for porting to Linux? Maybe the Linux community could email sales@adaptec.com or support@adaptec.com asking them to reconsider making drivers available?
Any information about the possibility of DV editing software or firewire drivers would be most appreciated. I'll help if I can.
Thanks,
Emmet.
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 22:24:44 -0500
From: Ben and Nick nbwbolen@bstream.com
Subject: cpu Speed
I was wondering if you could tell me where I could get a listing of
bogomites? bogomytes? on different cpu's and computers?
Thanks Ben
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 15:56:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jon Lewis jlewis@inorganix5.fdt.net
Subject: Linux Uptimes
Do you have any idea what the longest uptime on a linux system is? I have a system with over 14 months of uptime, and am wondering if its heading for some kind of record. I've been told that with the 1.2.x kernels, uptimes longer than about 16.4 months are thought to be impossible due to jiffy counter wrap.
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 19:12:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Greg Roelofs newt@pobox.com
Subject: Re: Changing video modes
A friend of mine wants to know how to change video modes without restarting X, and I noticed you say you can do that on your Linux page. How can this be done? (I'm using XFree86, he's using MkLinux)
Just changing *modes* is easy: use ctrl-alt-gray+ and ctrl-alt-gray- to cycle between the resolutions defined in your XF86Config file. I have the following defined:
Modes "1280x1024" "1536x1152" "1600x1200" "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768"To run multiple X servers is a little trickier, and I've been meaning to write up a Linux Gazette or Linux Journal article on that. Assuming you use startx instead of xdm, the basic trick is to do something like this:
startx -- :4 -bpp 32 &My default (16-bit mode) command is this:
startx -- :1 -bpp 16 &You can switch between them via ctrl-alt-F7 through F10, typically-- F1 through F6 tend to be normal text-mode Linux consoles.
It's really best to alias these things and make sure the screen numbers (:0 or :2 or whatever) don't collide; if they do, the second X server will "steal" the number from the first, and you won't be able to start any more windows or even restart the window manager under the first server.
The special 320x200 game mode is even more complicated, and I won't even try to explain that here. It can be done with a second XF86Config or with additional lines in the main one under some circumstances.
I don't know how AccelX and XiGraphics and MetroX handle these things.
Date: Mon, 07 Jul 1997 10:27:46 -0700
From: James Gilb p27451@am371.geg.mot.com
Subject: *2+ Processing
Check out the Linux SMP page at http://www.uk.linux.org/SMP/title.html and get a new distribution. I think that SMP became part of the standard kernel at 2.0, so 2.0.?? might be a good choice (check out the SMP page, I think some patch levels are broken with respect to SMP).
If you are pretty good a Linux installs (and from the multiplicity of your OS's is sounds like you are), you could pick up a RedHat distribution for less than USD $10. I can't help you with availability in Sweden, but check out Caldera, RedHat, Craftworks, SuSE and Yggdrasil (sp?), I think most of them support SMP. If you need pointers to their web pages, try http://www.linuxmall.com, http://www.linux.org, or http://www.ssc.com/ (had to put a plug in for the sponsor of the excellent LG).
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 1997 09:10:32 -0700
From: Robert Christ rchrist@mcis.washington.edu
Subject: Spam Counter Attack
In Linux Gazette #19 you say:
SPAM Counter Attack! If you'd like to have your voice heard regarding
SPAM mail, why don't you consider writing a letter to your
representative?
I would just like to add a counter point that I would prefer that my congress person not attempt to regulate any aspect of the net. I have the tools and skills to prevent spamming all by myself. Laws regulating behavior seems to set a dangerous precedent..
thanks for your time,
Rob
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 21:25:48 -0600 (MDT)
From: Michael J. Hammel mjhammel@csn.net
Subject: User-Level Driver For HP ScanJet 5p?
To: lersch@thene.informatik.uni-bonn.de
You asked about HP Scanjet 5P support in Linux. Check XVScan at http://tummy.com. It supports this scanner and is a commercial product.
If you're looking for drivers for other scanners check out my review of scanners in my Graphics Muse column in the March 1997 Linux Gazette (that is in issue 15) at http://www.ssc.com/lg/.
Hope this helps.
Michael J. Hammel
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 21:21:08 -0600 (MDT)
To: smalenfant@cablevision.qc.ca
Subject: Problems with XFree86
You wrote to the Linux Gazette:
I'm a new user to Linux and the problem still XFree86! So then I tried to know want can I do to Linux community. In Issue #16, you said that the problem is not video card and is Monitor balancing. So why Windows 95 can have all these preset on monitor and Linux don't have? Why we can't use the stuff in the Microsoft Lib to transfer it into the database of XF86Setup or something like that. Cause that's real that the dotclock and all this is very scrambled! Why not just resolution and Virtual Refresh, that's all we need to know, the program could do the rest! We don't have to know what horizontal frequency and dotclock it is!
Answer: Xi Graphics AcceleratedX 3.1. It does pretty much what you're asking for here. See http://www.xi.com.
Michael J. Hammel
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 21:18:18 -0600 (MDT)
To: dmandel@transport.com
Subject: CD Burners, Scanners, Digital Cameras, etc.
You asked the following in the July Linux Gazette:
1.Will a Sony CDU926S burner work with xcdroast? Don't know about this one, but I may have to find out soon. I'd like to create a CD full of graphics tools, but I've never tried to do anything like this before. If I do find info I'll probably write it up in my Graphics Muse column in the Gazette.
2. What is a good, but cheap flatbed scanner to use? (Good means 24 bit color and >= 300dpi optical resolution.) What software (in Linux) supports the scanner?
Answer: Check my March 1997 Graphics Muse column. I did a review of the scanners currently supported (at that time). A good place to look (which is listed in that issue of the Muse) is the SANE Project.
3.I can't afford one, but... Are there any 35mm slide scanners on the market with Linux support?
Answer:I haven't seen any announced yet. I get info like this alot due to my work with Graphics Tools for Linux, but so far no one has pointed out any web pages or ftp sites for such drivers.
4.And as long as I'm asking dumb questions... Does Linux have support for any digital cameras yet?
Answer:Don't waste your money on these just yet, even if a driver exists (I haven't seen one of these either). Even the vendors have been saying this technology is too new and they haven't established the "rules of the game" for standards or formats. Many are using ordinary JPEG formats, but getting the data to your PC is variable and depends on the makers choice of protocols, connectors and so forth.
Hope this helps a little.
-- Michael J. Hammel
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 21:09:06 -0600 (MDT)
To: rpragana@acm.org
Subject: Interfacing Genius Color Page-CS Scanner
You asked about using your Genius Scanner with Linux. I don't know if a driver is available although in a survey of scanners I did for the Graphics Muse Column (March 1997, Issue 15) of the Linux Gazette there was info on the Genius GS-B105G, Genius GS4500 and probably the GS4000 and GS4500A. Also, there is work being done on generic scanner support for the GIMP and other Linux applications via the SANE project.
I suggest you either look for the author of the Genius scanners to see if support for your particular scanner is forthcoming (assuming yours is from the same manufacturer as his). You should also check with the SANE Project to see if they have any ideas. Both should have pointers on how to write drivers and get info the specs for that scanner if they don't already have it.
One other place to look is http://tummy.com. This is the site for XVScan, a front end to xv that primarily supports HP scanners. They can also write the driver for a fee. XVScan is a commercial product.
-- Michael J. Hammel
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 1997 20:56:53 -0600 (MDT)
To: cricci@cpiprogetti.it
Subject: Matrox Mystique support
You wrote to the Linux Gazette:
Is there a chance to correctly configure a Matrox Mystique with 4MB RAM under X or I must throw away it ?
Answer: Xi Graphics AcceleratedX 3.1. I use it with my Matrox Mystique with 4MB RAM. There is a slightly annoying effect you'll see when moving windows (sort of like snow on a TV screen) but its minor and I hardly notice it anymore. They know about it and are working on a fix.
-- Michael J. Hammel
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 13:51:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ade Bellini AdeBellini@aol.com
Subject: Re: *2+ Processing
Thank you for your interest and help, i am most pleased to have had so many
helpful replies, this just goes to show how many friendly and informed
readers the Linux gazette has (? blatant plug for the LG !).
I am sorry this reply is in the form of a "shotgun" approach, but i really
couldn't reply individually to so many, but to all of you that mailed me --
MANY THANKS.
I have "solved" 1/2 the problem - i rebuilt the kernel ( to install sound
blaster support) and some how (G-D knows how !) i can now run on *2 cpu but
only drawing the affects of 1 !. tur i ur tur as they say in Sweden ! (luck
in bad luck !!!).
Again thanks for the help and keep on hacking !:
Yours ade.
Ade Bellini
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 12:24:41 -0700 (MST)
From: Joel Hardy deeng@nwcdh.inficad.com
Subject: Descent 3 for Linux?
Linux has always been the perfect platform for games, it's just very few developers (id and Crack.com are the only two worth mentioning that I know of) know that. Interplay and Parallax are developing the third game in their Descent series, and they're accepting ideas, so I think the Linux community should inform them of the benefits of supporting a Linux version. There have already been several (last estimate I heard was 90) people who have suggested that they support Linux, and they probably will if they're convinced enough people would buy it, so if you're interested in having the best DOS game ported to Linux, see http://www.interplay.com/descent/ideas and suggest Linux support.
-- Joel Hardy
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More 2¢ Tips!
Boot Information Display
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 18:18:11 -0400
From: Jon Cox jcox@cx.tufts.edu
I saw an article in July's LG that talked about using watch as a better way to monitor ftp downloads -- there 's an even BETTER way: Check out ncftp. It works much like ftp, but shows a progress bar, estimates time to completion, and saves bookmarks of where you've been. I think ncftp is pretty standard on all distributions these days.
-Enjoy Jon
Consider Glimpse Instead of Grep
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 18:18:11 -0400
From: Jon Cox jcox@cx.tufts.edu
While grep works as a tool for searching through a big directory tree
for a string, it's pretty slow for this kind of thing & a much better
tool exists --Glimpse. It even has an agrep-style stripped down
regexp capability for doing "fuzzy search", and is astonishingly fast.
Roughly speaking:
glimpse is to grep as
locate is to find
I believe the latest rpm version is glimpse-4.0-4.i386.rpm You can find it in any site that mirrors Red hat's contrib directory.
Enjoy!
-Jon
Copy
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 18:18:11 -0400
From: Wim Jongman dblyuiam@xs4all.nl
I have hacked a helpful utility. Please have a look at it.
Regards,
Wim Jongman
I have been a satisfied diald user for quite some time. one of the things that were on my list of favorites was the possibility to activate the link from another location. I have written a small shell script that waits for activity on my telephone line.
If activity has been detected the script submits the ping utility which causes diald to set up a link to my ISP. If activity is detected from the inside (diald does the dialing) then the ping is also performed but there can be no harm in that.
My /etc/diald.conf looks like this:
mode cslip
connect /usr/local/bin/connect
device /dev/cua2
speed 115200
modem
lock
crtscts
local local.ip.ad.dres
remote ga.te.way.address
mtu 576
defaultroute
ip-up /usr/local/bin/getmail &
ip-down /usr/local/bin/waitmodem &
include /usr/lib/diald/standard.filter
The first time the link goes down, the program waitmodem is submitted. The script for /usr/local/bin/waitmodem is:
#!/bin/bash
# This script waits for data entering the modem. If data has arrived,
# then a host is pinged to allow diald to
# setup a connection (and you to telnet in.)
if test -f /var/locks/waitmodem
then
exit 0
else
touch /var/locks/waitmodem
sleep 5
read myvar < /dev/cua2
ping -c 10 host.com >
/dev/nul & > /dev/nul
rm /var/locks/waitmodem
exit 0
fi
If the diald decides to drop the link, the ip-down keyword activates the waitmodem script. This creates a lock in /var/lock(s) and sleeps for five seconds to allow the modem buffers to flush. Then the modem device is read and if activity occurs, the ping is submitted. Change the italic bits in the scripts. The lock is removed and diald dials out. This allows you to access your machine. I guess you have to have a static ip for it to be useful.
Regards,
Wim Jongman
A New Tool for Linux
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 18:18:11 -0400
From: Jordi Sanfeliu mikaku@arrakis.es
hi !
This is my contribution to this beautiful gazette !! :))
tree is a simple tool that allows you to see the whole directory tree on your hard disk.
I think that is very cool, no?
The Mailbag!
#!/bin/sh
# @(#) tree 1.1 30/11/95 by Jordi Sanfeliu
# email: mikaku@arrakis.es
#
# Initial version: 1.0 30/11/95
# Next version : 1.1 24/02/97 Now, with symbolic links
#
# Tree is a tool for view the directory tree (obvious :-) )
#
search () {
for dir in `echo *`
do
if [ -d $dir ] ; then
zz=0
while [ $zz != $deep ]
do
echo -n "| "
zz=`expr $zz + 1`
done
if [ -L $dir ] ; then
echo "+---$dir" `ls -l $dir | sed 's/^.*'$dir' //'`
else
echo "+---$dir"
cd $dir
deep=`expr $deep + 1`
search # with recursivity ;-)
numdirs=`expr $numdirs + 1`
fi
fi
done
cd ..
if [ $deep ] ; then
swfi=1
fi
deep=`expr $deep - 1`
}
# - Main -
if [ $# = 0 ] ; then
cd `pwd`
else
cd $1
fi
echo "Initial directory = `pwd`"
swfi=0
deep=0
numdirs=0
zz=0
while [ $swfi != 1 ]
do
search
done
echo "Total directories = $numdirs"
Have fun !
Jordi
Hex Dump
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 10:15:26 -0700
From: James Gilb p27451@am371.geg.mot.com
I liked your gawk solution to displaying hex data. Two things (which people have probably already pointed out to you).
-v: The -v option causes hexdump to display all input data. Without the -v option, any number of groups of output lines, which would be identical to the immediately preceding group of output lines (except for the input offsets), are replaced with a line comprised of a single asterisk.
00000000: 01df 0007 30c3 8680 0000 334e 0000 00ff ....0.....3N.... 00000010: 0048 1002 010b 0001 0000 1a90 0000 07e4 .H.............. 00000020: 0000 2724 0000 0758 0000 0200 0000 0000 ..'$...X........ 00000030: 0000 0760 0004 0002 0004 0004 0007 0005 ...`............ 00000040: 0003 0003 314c 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ....1L.......... 00000050: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 2e70 6164 .............pad 00000060: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0014 ................ 00000070: 0000 01ec 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 ................ 00000080: 0000 0008 2e74 6578 7400 0000 0000 0200 .....text....... 00000090: 0000 0200 0000 1a90 0000 0200 0000 2a98 ..............*.
(I don't suppose it is surprising that emacs does this, after all, emacs is not just and editor, it is its own operating system.)
Hard Disk Duplication
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 11:54:48 +0200
From: Jerko Golubovic jerko.golubovic@public.srce.hr
A comment on article "HARD DISK DUPLICATION" written by mcablec@ucsd.edu in Linux Gazette #18 (June 97).
What I did at my place is following:
I SetUp root-NFS system to boot usable configuration over network. I just need a floppy with appropriate kernel command-line and system brings up.
When system brings up I mount as /root NFS volume where I store compressed images. In that way I have them readily available when I log-in.
With dmesg I find about geometry of the hard disk of the target system. Then, for taking a new image I do:
cat /dev/hda | gzip -9 > <somename>.gz
And for restore:
zcat <somename>.gz > /dev/hda
Of course, I don't have to use such system. It is enough to prepare one boot floppy containing just FTP client and network config. I made two shell scripts:
b: ---------------------- #!/bin/sh cat /dev/hda | gzip -9 r: ---------------------- #!/bin/sh gzip -d > /dev/hda Then, in FTP you do: put |./b <somename>.gz - to save image get <somename.gz> |./r - to restore image
ANY FTP server on ANY platform can be used for storage.
Not only that - you don't have to use FTP at all - you can use smbclient instead - and read directly from Win or Lanman shares - doing basically the same thing.
More on Grepping Files in a Directory Tree
Date:Tue, 1 Jul 1997 13:12:34
From: Gene Gotimer gotimer@cybercash.com
In Linux Gazette Issue 18, Earl Mitchell (earlm@Terayon.COM) suggested
grep foo `find . -name \*.c -print`
as a way to grep files in a directory tree. He warned about a command line character limit (potentially 1024 characters).
Another way to accomplish this, without the character limit, is to use the xargs command:
find . -name '*.c' -print | xargs grep foo
The xargs command accepts arguments on standard input, and tacks them on the end of the specified command (after any supplied parameters).
You can specify where in the command xargs will place the arguments (rather than just on the end) if you use the -i option and a pair of curly braces wherever you want the substitution:
ls srcdir | xargs -i cp srcdir/{} destdir/{}
xargs has a number of options worth looking at, including -p to confirm each command as it is executed. See the man page.
-- Gene Gotimer
More on Hard Disk Duplication
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 08:45:48 +0200
From: Jean-Philippe CIVADE jpcivade@cge-ol.fr
I've written an utility under Windows 95 able to copy from disk to disk in a biney way. It's called Disk2file. It's findable on my web site under tools. The primary purpose of this utility was to make iso images from a hard disk (proprietary file system) to record them on a cdrom. I've used it yesterday do duplicate a red hat 4.1 installed disk with success. The advantage of this method is this is possible to product a serial of disk very quickly. This utility is written to tranfert up to 10Mb /s. The duplication time for a 540 Mb is about 10 mins.
The way to use it is:
It's referenced as a shareware in the docs but I conced the freeware mode to the Linux community for disk duplication only.
-- Best Regards Jean-Philippe CIVADE
A Script to Update McAfee Virus
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 00:05:33 -0500 (CDT)
From: Ralph ralphs@kyrandia.com
Here is a script I hacked together (trust me after you see it I'm sure you'll understand why this is my first script hack I'm sure) to ftp McAfee virus definitions unzip then and run a test to make sure they are ok...now ya gotta have vscan for linux located at ftp://ftp.mcafee.com/pub/antivirus/unix/linux
the first one does the work of pulling it down unzipping and testing
#!/bin/sh
# =====================================================================
# Name: update-vscan
# Goal: Auto-update McAfee's Virus Scan for Linux
# Who: Ralph Sevy ralphs@kyrandia.com
# Date: June 19 1997
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Run this file on the 15th of each month to insure that the file gets
# downloaded
# ======================================================================
datafile=dat-`date +%y%m`.zip
mcafeed=/usr/local/lib/mcafee
ftp -n ftp.mcafee.com << !
user anonymous root@home.com
binary
cd /pub/antivirus/datfiles/2.x
get $datafile
quit
!
if [ -f $mcafeed/*.dat ]; then
rm *.dat
fi
unzip $datafile *.DAT -d $mcafeed
for file in $(ls $mcafeed/*.DAT); do
lconvert $mcafeed/*.DAT
done
uvscan $mcafeed/*
exit
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
CUT HERE
lconvert is a 3 line script I stole looking in the gazette
CUT HERE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/tcsh
# script named lconvert
foreach i (*)
mv $1 `echo $1 | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
CUT HERE
The last thing you want to do is add an entry to crontab to update your files once a month....I prefer the 15th as it makes sure I get the file (dunno really how to check for errors yet, its my next project)
# crontab command line # update mcafee data files once a month on the 15th at 4am * 4 15 * * /usr/local/bin/update-vscan
Its not pretty I'm sure, but it works
Ralph http://www.kyrandia.com/~ralphs
Handling Log Files
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 11:13:56 -0400
From: Neil Schemenauer nas170@mail.usask.ca
I have seen a few people wondering what to do with log files that keep growing. The easy solution is to trim them using:
cat </dev/null >some_filenameThe disadvantage to this method is that all your logged data is gone, not just the old stuff. Here is a shell script I use to prevent this problem.
#!/bin/sh # # usage: logroll [ -d <save directory> ] [ -s <size> ] <logfile> # where to save old log files SAVE_DIR=/var/log/roll # how large should we allow files to grow before rolling them SIZE=256k while : do case $1 in -d) SAVE_DIR=$2 shift; shift;; -s) SIZE=$2 shift;shift;; -h|-?) echo "usage: logroll [ -d <save directory> ] [ -s <size> ] <logfile>" exit;; *) break;; esac done if [ $# -ne 1 ] then echo "usage: logroll [ -d <save directory> ] [ -s <size> ] <logfile>" exit 1 fi if [ -z `find $1 -size +$SIZE -print` ] then exit 0 fi file=`basename $1` if [ -f $SAVE_DIR/$file.gz ] then /bin/mv $SAVE_DIR/$file.gz $SAVE_DIR/$file.old.gz fi /bin/mv $1 $SAVE_DIR/$file /bin/gzip -f $SAVE_DIR/$file # this last command assumes the PID of syslogd is stored like RedHat # if this is not the case, "killall -HUP syslogd" should work /bin/kill -HUP `cat /var/run/syslog.pid`Save this script as /root/bin/logroll and add the following to your /etc/crontab:
# roll log files 30 02 * * * root /root/bin/logroll /var/log/log.smb 31 02 * * * root /root/bin/logroll /var/log/log.nmb 32 02 * * * root /root/bin/logroll /var/log/maillog 33 02 * * * root /root/bin/logroll /var/log/messages 34 02 * * * root /root/bin/logroll /var/log/secure 35 02 * * * root /root/bin/logroll /var/log/spooler 36 02 * * * root /root/bin/logroll /var/log/cron 38 02 * * * root /root/bin/logroll /var/log/kernelNow forget about log files. The old log file is stored in /var/log/roll and gzipped to conserve space. You should have lots of old logging information if you have to track down a problem.
Neil
Exciting New Hint on xterm Titles
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 15:43:44 +1000 (EST)
From: Damian Haslam damian@srsuna.shlrc.mq.edu.au
Hi, after searching (to no avail) for a way to display the currently executing process in the xterm on the xterm's title bar, I resorted to changing the source of bash2.0 to do what I wanted. from line 117 of eval.c in the source, add the lines marked with # (but don't include the #)
117: if (read_command () == 0)
118: {
#119: if (strcmp(get_string_value("TERM"),"xterm") == 0) {
#120: printf("^[]0;%s^G",make_command_string(global_command));
#121: fflush(stdout);
#122: }
#123:
124: if (interactive_shell == 0 && read_but_dont_execute)
.....
you can then set PROMPT_COMMAND to reset the xterm title to the pwd, or
whatever takes your fancy.
cheers - damian
C Source with Line Numbers
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 1997 10:09:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: Tim Newsome drz@froody.bloke.com
Another way of getting a file numbered:
grep -n $ <filename>
-ntells grep to number its output, and $ means end-of-line. Since every line in the file has an end (except possibly the last one) it'll stick a number in front of every line.
Tim
Another Reply to "What Packages Do I Need?"
Date: Wed, 02 Jul 1997 20:17:26 +0900
From: Matt Gushee matt@it.osha.sut.ac.jp
About getting rid of X components, Michael Hammel wrote that "...you still need to hang onto the X applications (/usr/X11R6/bin/*)." We-e-ll, I think that statement needs to be qualified. Although I'm in no sense an X-pert, I've poked around and found quite a few non-essential components: multiple versions of xclocks (wristwatches are more accurate and give your eyes a quick break). Xedit (just use a text-mode editor in an xterm). Fonts? I could be wrong, but I don't see any reason to have both 75 and 100dpi fonts; and some distributions include Chinese & Japanese fonts, which are BIG, and which not everyone needs. Anyway, poking around for bits and pieces you can delete may not be the best use of your time, but the point is that X seems to be packaged with a very broad brush. By the way, I run Red Hat, but I just installed the new (non-rpm) XFree86 3.3 distribution--and I notice that Red Hat packages many of the non-essential client programs in a separate contrib package, while the Xfree86 group puts them all in the main bin/ package.
Here's another, maybe better idea for freeing up disk space: do you have a.out shared libraries? If you run only recent software, you may not need them. I got rid of my a.out libs several months ago, and have installed dozens of programs since then, and only one needed a.out (and that one turned out not to have the features I needed anyway). Of course, I have the RedHat CD handy so I can reinstall them in a moment if I ever really need them.
That's my .02 .
--Matt Gushee
Grepping Files in a Tree with -exec
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 09:46:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: Clayton L. Hynfield hynfiecl@mnemo.mcs.muohio.edu
Don't forget about find's -exec option:
find . -type f -exec grep foo {} \;
Clayton L. Hynfield
How Do You Un-Virtual a Virtual Screen?
Date: Mon, 07 Jul 97 15:08:39 +1000
From: Stuart Lamble lamble@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au
With regards to changing the size of the X screen, I assume you're using XFree86. XFree will make your virtual screen size the larger of: *the specified virtual screen size *the _largest_ resolution you _might_ use with your video card (specified in 'Section "Screen"').
Open your XF86Config file in any text editor (ae, vi, emacs, jed, joe, ...) _as root_. (You need to be able to write it back out again.) Search for "Screen" (this is, IIRC, case insensitive, so for example, under vi, you'd type:
/[Ss][Cc][Rr][Ee][Ee][Nn]yeah, yeah, I know there's some switch somewhere that makes the search case insensitive (or if there isn't, there _should_ be :), but I can't remember it offhand; I don't have much use for such a thing.)
You'll see something like:
Section "Screen"
Driver "accel"
Device "S3 Trio64V+ (generic)"
Monitor "My Monitor"
Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
Virtual 1024 768
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
Virtual 800 600
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
Virtual 640 480
EndSubsection
EndSection
(this is taken from a machine I use on occasion at work.)
The first thing to check is the lines starting with Virtual. If you want the virtual resolution to be the same as the screen size, it's easy to do - just get rid of the Virtual line, and it'll be set to the highest resolution listed in the relevant Modes line. (In this case, for 24bpp, it would be 640x480; at 16bpp, 800x600; at 8bpp, 1024x768.) Just be aware that if you've got a 1600x1200 mode at the relevant depth listed, the virtual screen size will stay at 1600x1200. You'd need to get rid of the higher resolution modes in this case.
I would strongly recommend you make a backup of your XF86Config file before you mess around with it, though. It's working at the moment; you want to keep it that way :-)
All of this is, of course, completely incorrect for MetroX, or any other commercial X server for Linux.
Cheers.
File Size Again...
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 1997 13:13:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: Tim Newsome drz@froody.bloke.com
Since nobody has mentioned it yet: procps (at least version 1.01) comes with a very useful utility named watch. You can give it a command line which it will execute every 2 seconds. So, to keep track of file size, all you really need is: watch ls -l filename Or if you're curious as to who's logged on: watch w You can change the interval with the -n flag, so to pop up a different fortune every 20 seconds, run: watch -n 20 fortune Tim
syslog Thing
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 1997 14:50:08 -0400
From: Ian Quick ian@dot.superaje.com
I don't know if this is very popular but my friend once told me a way to put your syslog messages on a virtual console. First make sure that you have the dev for what console you want. (I run RedHat 4.0 and they have them up tty12). Then edit your syslog.conf file and add *.* <put a few tabs for format> /dev/tty12. Reboot and TA DA! just hit alt-F12 and there are you messages logged to a console.
-Ian Quick
Ascii Problems with FTP
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 1997 15:59:39 -0600 (CST)
From: Terrence Martin twm139@missing.link.ca
This is a common problem that occurs with many of our Windows users when they upload html and perl cgi stuff to our web server.
The real fix for this has been available for years in ftp clients themselves. Every ftp client should have support for both 'Binary or type I' and 'Ascii or type 2' uploads/downloads. By selecting or toggling this option to Ascii mode (say in ws_ftp) the dos format text files are automagically translated to unix style without the ^M. Note you definitely do not want to transfer binary type files like apps or programs as this translation will corrupt them.
Regards
Terrence Martin
Running Squake from Inside X
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 00:27:49 -0400
From: Joey Hess joey@kite.ml.org
I use X 99% of the time, and I was getting tired of the routine of CTRL-ALT-F1; log in; run squake; exit; switch back to X that I had to go through every time I wanted to run squake. So I decided to add an entry for squake to my fvwm menus. To make that work, I had to write a script, I hope someone else finds this useful, I call it runvc:
#!/bin/sh # Run something on a VC, from X, and switch back to X when done. # GPL Joey Hess, Thu, 10 Jul 1997 23:27:08 -0400 exec open -s -- sh -c "$* ; chvt `getvc`"Now, I can just type runvc squake (or pick my fvwm menu entry that does the same) and instantly be playing squake, and as soon as I quit squake, I'm dumped back into X. Of course, it works equally well for any other program you need to run at the console.
Runvc is a one-liner, but it took me some time to get it working right, so here's an explanation of what's going on. First, the open -s command is used to switch to another virtual console (VC) and run a program. By default, it's going to switch to the next unused VC, which is probably VC 8 or 9. The -s has to be there to make open actually change to that console.
Next, the text after the -- is the command that open runs. I want open to run 2 commands, so I have to make a small shell script, and this is the sh -c "..." part. Inside the quotes, I place $*, which actually handles running squake or whatever program you told runvc to run.
Finally, we've run the command and nothing remains but to switch back to X. This is the hard part. If you're not in X, you can use something like open -w -s -- squake and open will run squake on a new VC, wait for it to exit, and then automatically switch back to the VC you ran it from. But if you try this from inside X, it just doesn't work. So I had to come up with another method to switch back to X. I found that the chvt command was able to switch back from the console to X, so I used it.
Chvt requires that you pass it the number of the VC to switch to. I could just hard code in the number of the VC that X runs on on my system, and do chvt 7, but this isn't portable, and I'd have to update the script if this ever changed. So I wrote a program named 'getvc' that prints out the current VC. Getvc is actually run first, before any of the rest of the runvc command line, because it's enclosed in backticks. So getvc prints out the number of the VC that X is running on and that value is stored, then the rest of the runvc command line gets run, and eventually that value is passed to chvt, which finally switches you back into X.
Well, that's all there is to runvc. Here's where you can get the programs used by it:
/* getvc.c
* Prints the number of the current VC to stdout. Most of this code
* was ripped from the open program, and this code is GPL'd
*
* Joey Hess, Fri Apr 4 14:58:50 EST 1997
*/
#include <sys/vt.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
main () {
int fd = 0;
struct vt_stat vt;
if ((fd = open("/dev/console",O_WRONLY,0)) < 0) {
perror("Failed to open /dev/console\n");
return(2);
}
if (ioctl(fd, VT_GETSTATE, &vt) < 0) {
perror("can't get VTstate\n");
close(fd);
return(4);
}
printf("%d\n",vt.v_active);
}
/* End of getvc.c */
I hope this tip isn't too long!
-- see shy jo
Copying a Tree of Files
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 00:33:48 +0200 (SAT)
From: ixion@ilink.nis.za
Hi!
First of all, I want to congratulate you with your fine magazine. Although I've been around for quite some time and known about the existance of LG, I've never had the time (or should I say I have been to ignorant) to read it. Well, I finally sat down and started reading all the issues and I must say I'm impressed. Therefore I decided I would show my gratitude by showing you some of my 2c Tips. Enjoy...
# Quick way to copy a tree of files from one place to another
----< cptree <----
#!/bin/sh
if [ $# = 2 ]
then
(cd $1; tar cf - .) | (mkdir $2; cd $2; tar xvfp -)
else
echo "USAGE: "`basename $0`" <source_directory> <dest_directory>"
exit 1
fi
----< cptree <----
# Quick way to move a tree of files from one place to another
----< mvtree <----
#!/bin/sh
if [ $# = 2 ]
then
(cd $1; tar cf - .) | (mkdir $2; cd $2; tar xvfp -)
rm -rf $1
else
echo "USAGE: "`basename $0`" <source_directory> <dest_directory>"
exit 1
fi
----< mvtree <----
# Rename numeric files (1.*, 2.*, 3.*, etc.) to it's correct numeric
# equivalents (01.*, 02.*, 03.*, etc.). Useful to prevent incorrect wild
# card matching
----< fixnum <----
#!/bin/sh
if [ $# = 0 ]
then
FILELIST=`ls {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}.mp3` 2> /dev/null
MPFILE="empty"
chmod -x *
for MPFILE in $FILELIST
do
if [ -e $MPFILE ]; then mv $MPFILE "`echo "0$MPFILE"`"; fi
done
fi
----< fixnum <----
# This one strips the given file name from it's extension (i.e. "file.txt"
# would become "file"
----< cutbase <----
#!/bin/sh
if [ $# = 1 ]
then
dotpos=`expr index $1 "."`
if [ $dotpos -gt 0 ]
then
dotpos=`expr $dotpos - 1`
stripfile=`expr substr $1 1 $dotpos`
else
stripfile=$1
fi
echo $stripfile
else
echo " USAGE: `basename $0` <filename>"
exit 1
fi
----< cutbase <----
# If you're desperately looking for a file containing something and you
# don't have a clue where to start looking, this one might be for you.
# It greps through all the files in the given directory tree for the given
# keyword and list all the files. For example: grepall /usr/doc PAP secrets
----< grepall <----
#!/bin/sh
if [ $# = 0 ]
then
DIR="."
else
DIR=$1
shift
find $DIR -type f -exec grep -lie "$@" {} \; | less
fi
----< grepall <----
# You might have seen some of the xterm titlebar tips posted in LG. Here
# is my variation of the theme. I like my xterm to keep it's title that
# I've either specified on the command-line or the name of the program
# and after I've run programs like Midnight Commander, that's changes the
# titlebar, I want it restored to it's old value. Here is my way of doing
# it. Just put the code in /etc/profile or ~/.profile or whatever startup
# file you use...
----< Titlebar 2c tip <----
if [ $TERM = "xterm" -o $TERM = "xterm-color" -o $TERM = "rxvt" ]
then
function TitlebarString()
{
local FOUND=0
local PIDTXT=`ps | grep $PPID`
for WORDS in $PIDTXT
do
if [ $FOUND = 1 ]; then break; fi
if [ $WORDS = "-T" ]; then export FOUND=1; fi
done
if [ $FOUND = 0 ]
then
WORDS=`(for TMP in $PIDTXT;do echo -n $TMP" ";done) | cut -f5 -d" "`
if [ "`echo $WORDS | grep -i xterm`" != "" ]; then WORDS="xterm"; fi
fi
echo -n $WORDS
unset WORDS
}
if [ $COLORTERM -a $COLORTERM = "rxvt-xpm" ]
then
alias mc='mc -c;echo -ne "\033[m\033]0;`TitlebarString`\007"'
else
alias mc='mc -c;echo -ne "\033]0;`TitlebarString`\007"'
fi
fi
----< Titlebar 2c tip <----
# This is an add-on for du. It shows the total disk usage in bytes,
# kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes (I thought terabytes wouldn't be
# necessary (: )
----< space <----
#!/bin/sh
BYTES=`du -bs | cut -f1` 2> /dev/null
if [ $BYTES -lt 0 ]
then
KBYTES=`du -ks | cut -f1` 2> /dev/null
else
KBYTES=`expr $BYTES / 1024`
fi
MBYTES=`expr $KBYTES / 1024`
GBYTES=`expr $MBYTES / 1024`
echo ""
if [ $BYTES -gt 0 ]; then echo " $BYTES bytes"; fi
if [ $KBYTES -gt 0 ]; then echo " $KBYTES KB"; fi
if [ $MBYTES -gt 0 ]; then echo " $MBYTES MB"; fi
if [ $GBYTES -gt 0 ]; then echo " $GBYTES GB"; fi
echo ""
----< space <----
# A scripty to unzip all zipfiles specified or all those in the current
# directory and remove the orginal ones (Remember that GNU zip/unzip
# doesn't support wildcards)
----< unzipall <----
#!/bin/sh
if [ $# = 0 ]
then
ZIPLIST=`ls *.zip` 2> /dev/null
else
ZIPLIST="$@"
fi
ZIPFILE="garbage"
for ZIPFILE in $ZIPLIST
do
unzip -L $ZIPFILE
done
rm -f $ZIPLIST 2> /dev/null
----< unzipall <----
# Zip all the files in the current directory seperately and wipe the
# original files. Zip's them in a dos style (i.e. hungry.txt would
# be zipped to hungry.zip and not hungry.txt.zip)
----< zipall <----
#!/bin/sh
function stripadd ()
{
local dotpos=`expr index $1 "."`
if [ $dotpos -gt 0 ]
then
dotpos=`expr $dotpos - 1`
local stripfile=`expr substr $1 1 $dotpos`
else
local stripfile=$1
fi
echo $stripfile".zip"
}
function ziplist ()
{
zipfile="garbage"
for zipfile in "$@"
do
zip -9 `stripadd $zipfile` $zipfile
rm $zipfile
done
}
if [ $# -gt 0 ]
then
ziplist "$@"
else
ziplist `ls`
fi
----< zipall <----
Okay, now for some Window manager tips. Since '95 microsoft has launched a '95 keyboard campaign and in the process a lot of people (including me) have ended up with keyboards containing those silly, useless buttons. Luckily I've put them to good use. To give them the same functions in your window manager as in doze 95, just follow the instructions:
Edit ~/.Xmodmap and add the following lines: keycode 115 = F30 keycode 116 = F31 keycode 117 = F32
Now, edit your window manager configuration file and bind those keys. Here is the proper keybindings for fvwm95 and afterstep respectively
# Fvwm95 (edit ~/.fvwm2rc95) Key F30 A A CirculateDown Key F31 A A CirculateUp Key F32 A A PopUp "Utilities" # Afterstep (edit ~/.steprc) Key F30 A A CirculateDown Key F31 A A CirculateUp Key F32 A A PopUp "HotList"
Just remember that PopUp "Utilities" and PopUp "HotList" should be replaced by your actual popup menus. If you don't known what I'm talking about, just browse through your configuration file and read the comments - It'll become clear very soon.
I guess that's all for now. I've got some other (more useful) scripts and tips, but they are either system specific or just to large to include here and if I don't stop now, you'll need a seperate issue just for my tips.
Cheers
ixion
Using shar + RCS to Backup Set of Source Files
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 09:28:24 -0300
From: Mario Storti mstorti@minerva.unl.edu.ar
Hi, RCS (see rcs(1)) is a very useful tool that allows to store versions of a file by storing only the differences between successive versions. In this way I can make a large amounts of backups of my source files but with a negligible amount of storage. I use it all the time, even for TeX files!! However, when you are working with a set of source files (*.c, shell or Perl scripts, I work mainly with Fortran .f and Octave *.m files) what I want is to make backups of the whole set of files in such a way that you can recover the state of the whole package at a given time. I know that there is a script called rcsfreeze around, but I know that it has problems, for instance if you rename, delete or create new files, it is not guaranteed to recover the same state of the whole set.
I found a solution that seems to be simpler and is working for me: I make a `shar' of the files and then a version control of the shar file. (see shar(1)). Shar is a file that packs a set of text files in a single text file. It has been used since a long time to send set of files by e-mail.
It would be easy to write a script for this, but I prefer to include the shell code in a Makefile. The commands to be issued each time you want to make a backup are:
$ co -l source.shar
$ shar *.m Makefile >source.shar
$ ci -m"save package" source.shar
Here *.m and Makefile is the set of files that I want to backup periodically.
(I want to point out that RCS version control is far beyond the simple fact of making backups: It serves to manage files to be worked by different people, etc... Here I'm using a very small subset of the utilities of RCS.)
Hope this could be of use for someone else. It would be nice also to hear of other solutions,
Mario
Learning Experience
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 15:53:31 -0500
From: Debie Scholz debie@sirinet.net
If you have a ps2 style mouse and the /dev/psaux gets deleted you must do a MAKEDEV busmice but it doesnt make a psaux it makes a psmouse so you must make a symbolic link to psaux.;
Debie Scholz
Sirius Systems Group, Inc.
LG #19, Grepping Files Comments
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 08:35:46 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Werner Fleck Werner.Fleck@prompt.de
Hi!
I have read all the 2c tips on grepping files in a directory tree but I think
all missed the ultimate tool for this: a perl script named ``mg''. With this
you can:
Although it is written in perl it is very fast - I used it now for many years and it works wonderful for me.
FTP search results
Hardware by Opticom ASA, ITEA and IDI. Network by UNINETT. This server is located in Trondheim, Norway
"Exact search" for "mg-2.16"
1 -r--r--r-- 38.8K 1996 Oct 2 ftp.nuie.nagoya-u.ac.jp /languages/perl/sra-scripts/mg-2.16 2 -rw-r--r-- 38.8K 1995 Nov 16 ftp.et-inf.fho-emden.de /pub/.mnt2/perl/sra-scripts/mg-2.16 3 -rw-r--r-- 38.8K 1996 Oct 3 ftp.hipecs.hokudai.ac.jp /pub/LANG/perl/utashiro/mg-2.16 4 -rw-r--r-- 38.8K 1997 Mar 4 ftp.st.ryukoku.ac.jp /pub/lang/perl/mg-2.16 5 -r--r--r-- 38.8K 1996 Oct 2 ftp.elelab.nsc.co.jp /pub/lang/perl/scripts.sra/mg-2.16 6 -r--r--r-- 38.8K 1996 Oct 3 ftp.sra.co.jp /pub/lang/perl/scripts/utashiro-scripts/mg-2.16 7 -r--r--r-- 38.8K 1996 Oct 3 ftp.sra.co.jp /pub/lang/perl/sra-scripts/mg-2.16 8 -rw-r--r-- 38.8K 1995 Nov 16 ftp.fujitsu.co.jp /pub/misc/perl/sra-scripts/mg-2.16 9 -r--r--r-- 38.8K 1996 Oct 2 ftp.eos.hokudai.ac.jp /pub/tools/sra-scripts/mg-2.16 9 reported hits 0.018 seconds prospero 0.018 seconds HTTP 0 partial writes. DONE
FTP search, Copyright © 1994-1997 Tor Egge
Greetings, Werner
|
Contents: |
SAL--Scientific Applications on Linux
If you are looking for a great collection of software information relating to science and engineering be sure to take a look at SAL -- the Scientific applications on Linux page. The page contains broad converage of different advancements adn points of interest in the Linux community. There are currently 1250 software entries at the SAL page! Luckily if you are looking for something specific, you may choose to search the Linux Applications. There are also sections which will help you find what you need. There are sections from Mathematics to Office Software and Numerical Analysis to Computer Graphics. Not only can you roam around the page looking at all of the applications, but you have a chance to make contributions of your own to the page. Don't miss the new and improved SAL at http://SAL.KachinaTech.COM. You'll be happy you visited.
Readers' Choice Awards
Vote in Linux Journal's 1997 Readers' Choice Awards!
Linux Journal, the Premier Linux Magazine, is conducting its annual poll of Linux users. Vote for your favorites in twenty different categories including: Most desired upgrade, favorite shell and most indispensible Linux book.
The voting will take place on the Linux Journal web site from July 11th through August 26th. To place your vote simply go to http://www.ssc.com/lj/readchoice.html and follow the directions there. Please do not submit more than one form because all duplicate entries will be deleted.
Results will be published in the December issue of Linux Journal (on newsstands early November).
Subscriptions to Linux Journal are available by calling our toll free number (in the US/Canada) 888 66 LINUX or over our web page at http://www.ssc.com/lj/.
Check Out This Site!
Take a look at http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz. This page contains a list of commercial sites that use Linux for business. Check out all of the Linux users at work!
Evolution Scheduler
Check out Evolution Scheduler. The Evolution Scheduler is based on Genetic Algorithms and Evolutionary Programming. This scheduler can live with original Linux priority scheduler. This means you don't have to reboot to change the scheduling policy. You may switch between them at any time just by a simple command, say,
esep -cp 3.
A manager program esep(Evolution Scheduling and Evolving Processes), with which you can do scheduling administration job is provided.
If you are interested, see http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel looking for "esep-1.2.tgz" and "esep-1.2.lsm" or visit Jinlong Lin's homepage at http://www.iit.edu/~linjinl/esep.html
Alien
Apache-SSL
GNU Midnight Commander
The GNU Midnight Commander is a Unix file manager and shell, useful to novice and guru alikes. Version 4.0 has many enhancements. See http://mc.blackdown.org/mc4 for the list of seventy download sites
GNU Midnight Commander is also included on most CD-ROMs containing GNU software and we expect the publishers of these CD-ROMs to include MC version 4.0 when they publish a next version of their CD-ROM.
See also the GNU Midnight Commander website at http://mc.blackdown.org/mc/
Watchdog
Watchdog is a daemon that checks if your system is still working. If programs in user space are not longer executed it will reboot the system.
A few new features in 3.0 include:
Watchdog is available from: tsx-11.mit.edu /pub/linux/sources/sbin sunsite.unc.edu /pub/linux/system/daemons ftp.debian.org /pub/debian/development/source/misc
As of the end of July, O'Reilly and Associates have the domain http://www.oreilly.com. The company figured it would be easier to remember than their previous domain. Check out their site!
The Answer Guy
Security Issues
From: Marcus Hufvudsson talos@algonet.se
Greetings Linux guru!
I recently read the Linux Journal May edition and some people had some serious security problems. I got some of them to, and in your answer to one you recommended the "Tripwire" program for more security. I hope you don't mind me mailing you (got the address from the article). Anyway you recommend ftp.cs.perdue.edu for downloading. But when I tried to connect it didn't respond. Do you know any mirrors or any other ftp that contains Linux security tools?
- talos (root today, gone tomorrow)
There was a typo in that article. It WAS supposed to be ftp.cs.purdue.edu -- but is now supposed to be at ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/pub/COAST (they've been moved).
Here's the full URL to Tripwire: ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/pub/COAST/Tripwire
You should definitely browse around and read some of the other papers -- and try some of the other tools out there at the COAST (computer operations and security tools?) archive.
Sadly it seems to be neglected -- the whole "tools_new" tree is dated "October, 1995" and is empty.
All of the good stuff there is under: ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix (including symlinks that lead back to the Tripwire package).
Apparently they don't do anything with the FTP site because the real work as gone into their web pages at: http://www.cs.purdue.edu/coast/archive/Archive_Indexing.html
Another more recent effort which will be of more direct interest to Linux admins is: http://skynet.ul.ie/!flynng/security/The Irish Computer Security Archives ... with the following being of particular interest: http://skynet.ul.ie/~flynng/security/bugs/linux/ ... and: http://skynet.ul.ie/~flynng/security/tools
Another good site (recently moved) is at: http://www.aoy.com/Linux/SecurityThe Linux Security WWW ... where I particularly like: http://www.aoy.com/Linux/Security/OtherSecurityLinks.html
One of these days I'm going to annotate the 600 or so links in my main lynx_bookmarks file and post it to my own web pages. But -- not this morning (3 am).
I spend so much time doing TAG (The Answer Guy) and other mailing list and newsgroup stuff that I never get to my own web pages. However the patch that I created to allow Tripwire to compile cleanly under Linux is on my ftp site and a link can be found somewhere under http://www.starshine.org/linux/ (I really have to organize those pages one of these days).
-- Jim
All Those Little % Thingies
To: Jonathan Albrecht albrecht@algorithmics.com
When setting your prompt or dates or app-defaults you sometimes need those little %N, or %d, or %m substitution thingies. What are they and where can I get a list of what they mean?
They are "replaceable parameters" and are used by a variety
of shells and applications.
They differ for each shell or application. For example I use bash -- and my prompt is:
PS1=[\u@\h \W]\$
Which looks like:
[jimd@antares jimd]$
When I'm in my home directory and logged in as jimd and would look like:
[root@main local]#
If I was 'root' on the host "main" and in the /usr/local directory.
zsh, and tcsh also have similar "meta sequences" for their shell prompts. Just read the man pages for your shell and search for "prompt."
X app-default and other xrdb (X Windows resource database) entries are pretty mysterious to me. But I imagine that the info about these sequences is mostly in their man pages somewhere. I'm sure it's all in the sources.
The %d syntax is most often seen in the C programming language's printf() and scanf() functions. There are various "format specifiers" that dictate how a particular argument will be formatted. This includes information about whether a value will be displayed as a decimal number, a string, a hexadecimal value -- and how wide the field will be, whether it will be left or right justified -- etc. The \c syntax is also used in C for inserting "non-printing" characters -- like newlines, tabs, and for specifying ASCII characters by octal or hexadecimal value.
Since programmers are used to this syntax in their code they often use a similar syntax when they write scripting languages (shells) and when they design the configuration file syntax for their applications.
I'm sorry there's no "single source" or reference of all of these. However there isn't. You'll just have to hunt through the docs and man pages for easy of the apps and utilities that you're interested in.
Follow-up To NT and Linux Article
From: Cyrille Chepelov chepelov@rip.ens-cachan.fr
So far I've had the good sense to stay away from striping under NT and Linux. I've heard that the ccd code for FreeBSD is pretty stable, though.
Well, my linux partition is used <5% of the overall time, but sometime I need it to figure things -- once the "small" problem with disks ID was solved, there are no cohabitation problems between NT and Linux.
This sounds like a typically ignorant design decision.
It seems to say to the world:
"Standards are for weaklings -- we don't need to follow them -- even when we created them!"
Sure, even if they did it unilaterally, it was up to them to at
least loudly publicize what they did.
I disagree. "Unilateral" is completely anathema to
"Industry Standards." It is totally arrogant to speak
for an industry.
(We won't cover the issue of government regulatory bodies making determinations in a "unilateral" way -- since those aren't "industry standards" they are "government regulations").
Publicizing that you are violating industry standards doesn't improve interoperability. What other reason is there to create and publish a "standard" (even an ad hoc one).
If they think there's a real need to put proprietary information in the very first sector of the disk (the spot reserved for the MBR -- then perhaps they should announce that these disks won't have PC partitions at all. It then becomes a "all NT or nothing" decision for each disk.
I don't think there is such a need -- and I think their approach displays either a gross lack of consideration, creativity and foresight -- OR -- a deliberate act of hostility to those unruly customers who would dare use any "other" operating systems on "their" NT boxes (or maybe a little of each -- some from the programmers and some of the QA teams).
Microsoft can cop out with a line like: "We don't intend that NT Servers should be installed systems with other operating systems -- it is intended for dedicated systems."
It would irritate me. But I'm not one of their "important" customers anyway. Since most platforms outside of the PC market have an OS that's supplied by the vendor -- there isn't an expectation that those system will allow multiple operating systems to co-exist on the system (much less on the same drive).
However, in the PC market there is that expectation -- and has been for over fifteen years. IBM and Microsoft created that expectation (to co-exist with CP/M-86 and the UCSD p-system if my memory and reading of the history is correct).
Naturally the obvious place to put this sort of information would be in the logical boot record (what Unix/Linux refers to as a "Superblock"). This would only cost NT's code a few extra disk seeks at boot time -- seeks that it has to do anyway.
The reason (IMHO) why they put it in the MBR is that even an unpartitioned disk gets its ID. The ID is here for the disk, not the partition -- so it makes less sense to put it in the S-block (even if that sounds safer, cohabitation-wise. Those IDs are what they are -- disk IDs, not partition IDs.)
Classically an OS should ignore an unpartitioned disk. Why should the disk have an ID if it has no partition? If the purpose is to provide unique identification of filesystems so that the striping and mounting mechanisms won't fail as new drives are added to the system -- then you need a partition ID -- and you don't care about disk ID's at all. Additionally you want enough information stored in that ID to minimize the chance of inadvertent duplication and collision (for cases when we move a drive from one system to another).
Finally your mounting/mapping utilities should be robust enough to allow you to mount any of these stripe segments and get what you can off of them.
This sounds robust. NOT! Just what I want -- double the failure points for every volume.
Regardless of the OS, whenever you stripe, you double the possibility of not being able to mount. Not mounting at all (or mounting read-only) when something goes wrong can not be a blamable decision ! (and in the case of striped sets, mounting r-o makes little sense, since all structures are dispatched on both disks)
I can certainly "blame" a company for any deficiency
that I perceive in their software. I select software to
meet *my* requirements. Therefore I am the ultimate judge
of what is a "deficiency."
My requirements for striping say that the loss of one segment or element in a striped set should not entail the loss of the data on the remaining segments. If no currently available striping system meets that requirement I'll avoid the use of the technology.
This means that a striping system should distribute "superblocks" and inode and directory entries in such a way as to keep them localized to the same segment as the data to which they apply (or duplicated on all segments).
(I realize that duplicating directory information on all segments may be costly -- and I understand that data files may cross multiple segments. Those are implementation details for the author(s) of the file system).
Out of curiosity: How many different striping systems have you used? The phrase "Regardless of the OS" seems awfully broad.
I will plead complete inexperience with them. My take on the term is that it refers to any technique of making multiple drives appear as a single file system (or volume) that doesn't involve redundancy (RAID) or duplication (mirroring/duplexing).
Is there a standard that specifies more implementation details? (i.e. does my set of requirement some how NOT qualify as a "striping" system).
Well, now that Microsoft has "spoken" we're probably all stuck with this [expletive omitted] forever. Please consider mailing a copy of your message and your patches to the LILO and fdisk maintainers.
The problem is : where are they (I tried to send it once, a few month ago, to an address which was given me as W. Almesberger's, but to no avail).
In my fdisk man page I see the following (under Authors):
A.V. Le Blanc. v1.0r: SCSI and extfs support added by Rik Faith. v1.1r: Bug fixes and enhancements by Rik Faith, with special thanks to Michael Bischoff. v1.3: Latest enhancements and bug fixes by A. V. Le Blanc, including the addition of the -s option. v2.0: Disks larger than 2GB are now fully supported, thanks to Remy Card's llseek support.
So it would seem that Rik Faith, Mr. Le Blanc, Michael Bischoff would be good choices.
The address I see for Werner Almesberger is: almesber@bernina.ethz.ch (from the lilo (8) man page).
If that gets no response than I'd post notes to comp.os.linux.development to see who is maintaining the code.
--Jim
ActiveX for Linux/Unix
From: Anders Karlsson andersk@lysator.liu.se
Hi, I read an article in the Linux Gazette where the author hadn't found any evidence for the rumors about ActiveX for Unix. By mistake I found a press release from M$ about this.
I believe what I said was that I had heard the same rumor
-- but that the search engine at www.microsoft.com couldn't
find any reference to Linux at all.
I don't know who (if any) is interested in this, but you can find it on:
http://www.microsoft.com/corpinfo/press/1997/mar97/unixpr.htm
Yes. I see. This basically says that the job was
farmed out to Software AG (http://www.sagus.com)
which has a release schedule at:
DCOM Availability Schedule http://www.sagus.com/Prod-i~1/Net-comp/dcom/dcom-avail.htm
Let's hope that this isn't the beginning of a new M$-invasion,
against a new platform or market, our Linux.
Luckily there's not much MS can do about Linux. They can't
"buy it out." -- They can pull various stupid stunts
(like tossing new values into partition tables, trashing
ext2 filesystems, even exerting pressure on hardware
manufacturers to develop and maintain proprietary adapters
that require Microsoft written drivers). These will just
make them less interoperable. IBM tried stunts like this
in the early days of the PC cloning.
However I think the cat is out of the bag. All we as a community have to do is clearly continue our own work. When you buy a new computer -- as for Linux pre-installed (even if you plan on re-installing it yourself). If you don't plan to use Windows '95 or NT on it -- demand that it not be included in the price of your system and -- failing that -- VOTE WITH YOUR FEET!
Recently I saw an ad on CNN for Gateway. The ad went on about all the options that were available and encouraged me to call for a custom configured system. Since I'm actually looking at getting a small system for my mother (no joke!) I called and asked if they could pre-install Linux.
Now I will hand it to the sales dude -- he didn't laugh and he didn't stutter. He either knew what I was talking about or covered up for it.
Naturally the answer was: "No. We can't do that."
There are places that can. Two that come to mind are:
(Warning for Lynx users -- both of these sites use frames and neither bothers to put real content in the "noframes" section -- Yech!)
There are several others -- just pick up any copy of Linux Journal to find them.
Granted this is a small niche now. However, it's so much more than any of us back in alt.os.linux (before the comp.os.linux.* hierarchy was established) thought was possible just four years ago.
Even two years ago the thought of buying a system and putting Linux on it -- to send to my MOTHER (literally, NO computer experience) would have been totally absurd. Now it's just a little bit of a challenge.
What's exciting to me is the prospect that Linux may make it mostly irrelevant what hardware platform you choose. Linux for the Alpha, for SPARC, and mkLinux for PowerMacs gives us back choices -- at prices we can dream of.
It's easy to forget about the hardware half of the "Wintel" cartel. However, the hardware platform has had severe design flaws from the beginning. Hopefully we'll see some real innovation in these new hardware platforms. [The introduction of the IBM PC back in '81 caused the "great CP/M shakeout." It also caused me to take a 5 year hiatus from the whole industry -- out of disgust with the poor design of the platform. Even as a high school student I saw these flaws]
-- Jim
Mounting Disks Under RedHat 4.0
From: Bruce W. Bigby bbigby@frontiernet.net
Jim Dennis wrote:
The really important question here is why you aren't asking the support team at RedHat (or at least posting to their "bugs@" address). This 'control-panel' is certainly specific to Red Hat's package.
Well, I've tried communicating with RedHat and had problems. I
registered and everything and tried to get support via e-mail.
Something went wrong, although I followed their instructions, for
reporting problems, exactly. At the time, I was at work when I read
your web page and decided to give you a try. Thanks for all of the
information!
I hope it helped. I too have been unsatisfied with Red
Hat's level of support. Not that I expect alot of
complex personal attention for a package that only costs
$50 -- but I was calling representing the US Postal Service's
Data Processing Center -- and I was willing to put up about
$50/hr for the support call(s).
Alas they just didn't have the infrastructure in place.
Yggdrasil has a 900 line for support -- and Adam Richter has
been doing Commercial Linux longer than just about anyone
else (SLS might have been there earlier -- but I haven't
heard anything about Soft Landing Systems in years).
Yggdrasil also publishes _The_Linux_Bible_ and has a video cassette tutorial on Linux. Unfortunately I haven't installed a copy of their distribution, Plug and Play Linux, for a couple of years. Slackware and later Red Hat seem to have won the popularity contest in recent years -- and
Unfortunately I've never used Yggdrasil's tech support services. So I can't give a personal recommendation. They do have two pricing plans ($2.95/min. US or $100 (US) for one "guaranteed" issue resolved) and they do mention that the support is available to Linux users regardless of what distribution you're using.
Usually I've managed to bang my head on problems hard enough and long enough that they crack before I do. So I haven't needed to call yet. One would hope that -- with my "reputation" as "The Answer Guy" -- I'd be able to stump them. However Adam Richter has been at this a lot longer than I have -- and was selling Linux distributions before I'd even heard of Linux -- when I was barely starting to play with a used copy of Coherent. So, maybe the next time I have a headache I'll give them a call. I think I'm still entitled to one freebie for that subscription to Plug & Play from a couple of years ago.
Meanwhile, if anyone else has used this service -- or has been using any other dial-in voice support service for Linux -- please let me know. I'll try to collate the opinions and post them in an upcoming issue of LG.
For details look at: http://www.yggdrasil.com/Support/tspolicy.html
[Note: I don't have any affiliation with Yggdrasil or any other Linux vendor -- though several of them are located within a few miles of my home and I do bump into principals for a couple of them at local users groups and "geek" parties]
Another company that offers Linux (and general Unix) support and consulting is Craftworks I've worked with a couple of their consultants before (when I was a full time sys admin and they were providing some on site expertise to handle some overflow). They don't mention their prices up front (which forces me to suspect that they are at least as expensive as I am). I'm also not sure if they are available for short term (1 and 2 hour) "quickshots."
I suppose I should also mention that I'm the proprietor of Starshine Technical Services. My niche is providing support and training for Linux and Unix system's administrators. I also offer off site support contracts (voice, and dial-up or via the Internet using ssh or STEL). Normally I don't "push" my services in my contributions to Linux Gazette -- I just do this to keep me on my toes.
-- Jim
PPP Problems
From: Chris Bradford reynard@gte.net
I have tried and failed to get a fully working ppp link up with GTE Internet Services. When I start pppd manually after dialing in using MiniCom, it'll start the link, and ifconfig shows that it's up and running. However, when I try to ping any site other than the peer, I get a 'Network Unreachable' error on every single packet that ping tries to send out. I'm using Slackware 3.2 w/ pppd v2.2f on a 486SX w/ 8MB of RAM and a 14.4K bps modem on /dev/cua3.
What's your advice to me?
What does your routing table look like?
(Use the command netstat -nr to see that).
Your ppp options file (usually /etc/ppp/options) should have a default route directive in it. That will set the ppp0 link as your default route.
That's usually what "network unreachable" means.
You'll also need to have a proper value in your /etc/resolv.conf. This is the file that your "resolver libraries" use to figure out what DNS server they should ask to translate host/domain names into IP addresses. Basically all applications that do any networking under Unix are linked with the resolver libraries.
-- Jim
Z Protocol
From: Gregor Gerstmann gerstman@tfh-berlin.de
Hi Mr. Jim Dennis,
Thanks for your e-mail remarks in reply to my remarks regarding file
transfer with the z protocol in Linux Gazette issue17, April 1997. In
the meantime I received an e-mail that may be interesting to you too:
Hello!
I noticed your article in the Linux Gazette about the sz command, and really don't think you need to split up your downloads into smaller chunks.
The sz command uses the ZMODEM protocol, which is built to handle transmission errors. If sz reports a CRC error or a bad packet, it does not mean that the file produced by the download will be tainted. sz automatically retransmits bad packets.
If you have an old serial UART chip ( 8250 ), then you might be getting intermittent serial errors. If the link is unreliable, then sz may spend most of its time tied up in retransmission loops.
In this case, you should use a ZMODEM window to force the sending end to expect an `OK' acknowledgement every few packets.
sz -w1024 Will specify a window of 1024 bytes.
I'm familiar with some of the tweaking that can be done -- and the fact that it is a "sliding window" protocol. However I still maintain that Kermit is more reliable and gets better overall throughput over an unreliable connection.
Also ZModem is designed for use on 8-bit serial lines. Kermit can be used easily over TCP connections and on 7-bit serial connections. You could definitely use the C-Kermit package from Columbia University however. The Kermit implementations from other sources are usually reliable enough -- but slower than molasses compared to the "real" thing.
Video Cards
From: Pedro Miguel Reis reis@aaubi.ubi.pt
Hi Jim. I have a simple question to you :) ! How can i put my video card to work under Linux ? Its an Intel Pro-share. I would like to save a jpg pic every 1 or two secs.
Thx for your time.
The Intel ProShare is a video conferencing system. These
are normally not called "video cards" in the context of
PC's because the phrase "video cards" is taken to refer to
one of the cards that drives your video display for normal
applications and OS operations (i.e. a VGA card).
There are several framegrabbers that are supported under Linux. However it doesn't appear that the Intel ProShare is supported under any for of Unix. Of course that's just based on a few searches of their web site -- so it's not from a very reliable source on the subject. (I swear, the bigger the company the worse the support information on their web site. You'd think they'd like to trim some of the costs of tech support that their always griping about).
Naturally you should contact their support department to verify this (or be pleasantly surprised by its refutation).
Here's a couple of links I found that are related to video capture using CU-SeeMe (a competing technology to Intel's ProShare):
Basically CU-SeeMe uses "off the shelf" video cams -- like the Connectix QCam (which goes for about $100 in most places). It also uses any of several sound boards.
Unfortunately the simple answer to your question may bd desktop camera.
-- Jim
Linux and Zip Drives
From: midian@home.ifx.net
Can you tell me if it is possible to set up a Linux system on a Zip disk and where I could find info on doing this? I found a file that
It should be possible. I don't know where you'd
find the info, though. I'd start by looking at the
Linux HOWTO's collection. There is a HOWTO on Zip
Drives with Linux (even the parallel port version
is supported).
I'd look at putting DOSLinux on an MS-DOS formatted (FAT) Zip disk. DOSLinux is a very small distribution (about 20Mb installed) which is designed to be installed on a DOS filesystem. It uses LOADLIN.EXE (which I've described in other "Answer Guy" articles) which basically loads a Linux kernel from a DOS prompt -- and kicks DOS out from under itself.
You can find that collection of HOWTO's at: http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/ (and various mirrors).
You can also find a copy of DOSLinux at 'sunsite' and most mirrors.
I use DOSLinux on my laptop (an OmniBook 600CT) and my only complaint has been that it wasn't configured to support the power management features of my laptop.
Frankly I'm not even sure if Linux' APM support will work with the Omnibook at all. I've heard that the PCMCIA adapter is basically too weird for them (which is a real bummer to me).
You have to watch out if you get a copy of DOSLinux. The maintainer, Kent Robotti, has been making frequent sometimes daily changes to it (or was a couple of months ago).
describes this process IF you have a pre-existing Linux system to install from. I am running a Win95 system with absolutely no hard drive space available. Thanks for any info.
Are you sure you can't even squeeze twenty or thirty meg? With that you can get DOSLinux installed on your normal hard drive -- which is likely to offer much more satisfactory performance. The ZIP drive is likely to be a bit too slow at loading programs, share libraries and DREADFUL if you do any swapping.
Of course if you boot Linux from a Zip disk (or using the "live filesystem" offered by some CD's) you can mount your DOS (Windows '95) partition(s) and create a swap file there.
Although most people use swap partitions -- Linux will allow you to create swap *files* (see the 'mkswap' and 'swapon(8)' man pages for details).
Note: since you don't have a copy already installed I realize that you don't have the man pages handy -- however you can read those man pages by looking at: http://www.linuxresources.com/man.html
The 'swapon(8)' refers to the man page that's in section 8 (system administration tools) of the system. That's necessary because there's also a man page in section 2 (system calls) which the man command will normally display in precedence to the one you want. So you use a command of the form 'man 8 swapon' to tell the manual system which one you mean. This is unnecessary with most commands since most of the ones you'd be looking for -- most of the time -- would be the "user commands" in section one. Also most of the administrative commands, like mkswap, don't have functions with a conflicting name. This is just one of those quirks of Unix that old hands never think of while it gets novices climbing the walls.
When you use the online man pages at ssc.com (the publisher of the Linux Journal and the Linux Gazette) the form is a little confusing. Just check the "radio button" for "( ) Search for a command" and put "8 swapon" (a digit eight, a space, and the word "swapon") in the text field (blank). Ignore the "Section Index" and the section selector list below that.
Lastly, I'd like to make a comment about running Linux with "absolutely no disk space"
DON'T!
With hard disks as cheap as they are now it doesn't make any sense to try to learn an advanced operating system like Linux without plenty of disk space. Buy a whole hard disk and add it to your system. If you already have two IDE drives -- see if your controller will support four. Most EIDE controllers have two IDE channels -- which allow two IDE drives each on them. If you have a SCSI controller than it seems *very* unlikely that you'd have the whole chain full.
(My old 386 has an old Adaptec 1542C controller on it -- with three hard disks, a magneto optical, a DAT autochanger tape drive, a CD drive and a CD writer. That's full! But, while other people have been buying 486's, then DX2's, then Pentiums, and upgrading their copies of Windows and Office -- I've been filling out my SCSI chain -- so that's a five year accumulation of toys!)
If you really can't afford $200 on a new hard drive -- ask around. You might find a friend with a couple of "small" (200 Mb) drives around that they can't use. I have a couple myself (spare parts drawer).
If you try to run Linux with no disk space you probably won't be satisfied. You can install a base system (no X Windows, no emacs, no kernel sources, no dev. tools, no TeX) in a very limited disk space. That's fine if you know exactly what the system is going to be used for. It's perfect for routers, gateways, and terminal servers -- and I see people putting together a variety of custom "distributions" for these sorts of dedicated tasks. I've even heard that some X Terminals (diskless workstations) use Linux with etherboot patches. In ;login (the magazine for members of USENIX/SAGE -- professional associations of Unix users and Sys Admin's) someone described their use of Linux as a method for distributing software updates to their Win '95 boxes across their networks. Apparently they could squeeze just enough onto a Linux boot floppy to do the trick.
However, I'm guessing that your intent is to learn a new OS. For that you want a more complete installation -- so you can play with things.
-- Jim
Red Hat CD Problem
From: Vivek Mukherji vivekmu@del2.vsnl.net.in
I bought a book on linux titled "Using Linux,Third Edition by Que Inc." It had Redhat CDROM with it, but when i tried to install it, it did not recognize the REDHAT CD though it previously made the boot disk and supp disk from the CD. It gave the following error after asking me for source of media i.e. from which drive or local CDROM or FTP or NFS I am going to install it.The error message was: "That CDROM device does not seem to contain Redhat CD in it "
There seems to be no damage on the CD i.e. no physical damage.I think there must be some other way to install it after all i have paid US$ 60 Dollars for that book. please reply me soon.
yours truly
Vivek Mukherji
When you select "CD-ROM" as your installation medium --
what interface are you having the setup program attempt
to use?
When you use the CD to create your boot and supplemental diskettes you are presumably using DOS -- which has its own drivers to access the CD.
There are many sorts of CD-ROM drives:
CD-ROM and tape drive support came a few years after the IDE interface became popular for hard drives. ATAPI is an ad hoc standard between those interfaces and these other types of drives. It is an "applications programming interface" to which the drivers must be written. Typically all support for ATAPI CD-ROM and tape drives must be done in software.
EIDE is a set of enhancements to the IDE spec. The most notable enhancement is the ability to support drives larger than 528Mb (which was the old BIOS limit of 1024 cylinders by 63 sectors by 16 heads). This is usually done via extended ROM's on the controller, or enhanced BIOS ROM's on the motherboard -- or possibly via software drivers (which are OS specific, naturally).
In addition to those to types of CD-ROM drive there are a variety of proprietary interfaces such as the Mitsumi (very popular for a while -- as it was the cheapest for a while), Sony, Wearnes/Aztech, and others.
Linux supports a very wide variety of these interfaces. However -- it's vital to know what you have. You also might need to know "where" it is. That is to say you might need to know I/O port addresses, IRQ's, DMA settings or parameters. You might also need to pass these parameters along to the kernel as it boots.
Another issue is the version of your distribution. Most books are printed in large batches -- so they have a long "shelf life." Most Linux distributions change a couple of times a year. Red Hat, in particular, seems to be putting out a new version every 2 or 3 months. Most of these include significant improvements.
So your money is probably much better spent on the distribution itself rather than trying to get a "bargain" in a book and CD combination. Specifically I recommend buying any book solely on it's merits. I don't approve of CD's full of software included with a book unless the software has been stable for some time.
CD's with sample code, HTML and searchable text copies of the books contents, clip art or fonts related to the book, even large bookmark files of related web sites, custom software by the authors -- those are all excellent ideas; otherwise it's shovelware that adds a buck to the production costs (fifty cents for the CD and another fifty cents for the little glue-on vinyl holder and the additional handling) -- and twenty bucks to the price.
So, another thing to try is a copy of the latest Red Hat (4.2) or Debian or whatever. In any event you really need to know the precise hardware and settings for your machine.
-- Jim
Cookies
From: Michael Sokolow mxs46@po.cwru.edu
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Given the previous discussion about cookies, could someone explain to me
(or point out a topic in help, URL, etc.) just what ARE cookies?
Search the Netscape web site.
Here's an independent answer courtesy of "The Answer Guy" (Linux Gazette's nickname for me):
In programming terminology -- specifically in discussions of networking protocols (such as HTTP and X Windows) a "cookie" is an arbitrary data token issued by a server to a client for purposes of maintaining state or providing identification.
Specifically "Netscape HTTP Cookies" are an extension to the HTTP protocol (implemented by Netscape and proposed to the IETF and the W3 Consortium for incorporation into the related standards specifications).
HTTP is a "stateless" and protocol. When your browser initiates a connection and requests a document, binary or header the server has no way of distinguishing your request from any other request from your host (it doesn't know if you're coming from a single-user workstation, or a multi-user Unix (or VMS, MVS, MPE, or whatever) host -- or the IP address that it sees as the source for this request is some sort of proxy host or gateway (such as those run by CompuServe and AOL).
Netscape cookies are an attempt to add and maintain state between your browser and one or more servers. Basically on your initial connection to a "cookie generating" site your browser is asked for a relevant cookie -- since this is your initial connection there isn't one -- so the server prefers one to your browser (which will accept it unless it's not capable of them, or some option has been enabled to prevent it or prompt you or something like that). From then on all other parts of that site (and possibly other hosts in that domain) can request your cookie and the site's administrators can sort of track your access and progress through the site.
The main advantage to the site is for gathering marketing statistics. They can track which versions of a web page lead to increased traffic to linked pages and they can get some idea how many new and repeat visits they're getting. (Like most marketing efforts at statistics there are major flaws with the model -- but the results are valid enough for marketdroids).
There are several disadvantages -- including significant privacy concerns. There are several tools available to limit the retention and use of cookies by your browser (even if you're using Netscape Navigator). PGP Inc (the cryptography company) has a link on their site to one called "cookie cutter" (or something like that).
About the only advantage to some users is that some sites *might* use cookies to help you skip parts of the site that you've already seen or *might* allow you to avoid filling in forms that you've already filled out.
Personally I think cookies are a poorly chosen way to do this -- client-side certificates (a feature of SSL v. 3.x) is a much cleaner method (it allows the user to get an maintain cryptographically strong "certificates" which can be presented to specific servers on demand -- this exchange of certificates involves cryptographic authentication in both directions -- so your browser knows it isn't authenticating to some bogus imposter of a server -- and the server knows that your certificate isn't forged.
SSL client certificates allow you to establish accounts at a web site and securely interact with that site. Cookies can't do that. In addition many people have a vague notion that "cookies" where "snuck in" under them -- so they have a well-deserved "bad press."
-- Jim
New Hard Disc
From: A Stephen Morse morse@sysc.eng.yale.edu
Dear Mr Dennis:
I currently own an IBM 560 with a one gig hard disc which
has both a win95 partition and a 200m Linux partition
running version 2.0. We plan to upgrade today to a 2gig
Is this one of their "ThinkPad" laptops?
hard disk which accepts its data from the old disc through
the PCMICA ports using a special piece of hardware. I believe the
drive is called Extreme Drive. We also have available versions 4.1 and 4.2
of Linux on floppies (by the way 2.0 = 4.0 above). So far we've not been
able to get any advice on how to proceed.
"...using a special piece of hardware."
I love that term "special." Sometimes you have to
say it with the right inflection
Any suggestions. We are not super strong with Linux etc.
I think the question is:
How do I backup my current drive and restore it to the new drive?
(with the implication that you'd like to use this "special" device and just "copy" everything across).
There are several ways of backing up and restoring a Linux system. If you have an Ethernet connection to a system with lots of disk space -- or to a system with a tape drive you can do interesting things of the form:
dump -0f - | rsh $othersystem "dd of=$path_or_device ..."
If you can borrow or purchase a PCMCIA SCSI controller that Linux supports on this system you can hook up an external hard drive or tape unit and use that.
Those are the most straightforward methods for getting *everything* across.
Another approach is to identify just your data (maybe you keep it all under your /home/ and /usr/local/ directory trees -- or maybe you *should*). Now you get your new disk, install it, get some upgrade of your favorite Linux distribution (I hear the new Debian 1.3 is pretty good), install and configure that and -- finally -- just restore the selected portions of your data that you want.
If you're concerned about the potential loss of data or down time from any of these methods you might also consider renting a system (desktop or laptop) for a week to use while you're straightening things out on your main system. This is advice to consider any time you're doing a major hardware upgrade to an "important" system.
Interesting question!
Do any of the computer rental services offer Linux systems?
(PCR, Bit-by-Bit -- who else is in that business?)
-- Jim
Random Crashes
From: sloth lsoth7@hotmail.com
hi. whenever i try to install linux (so far i have tried redhat, Slackware and Debian) the install program crashes at random times. I have tried removing all unnecessary hardware, ie sound cards etc, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I have a Intel p150mhz, triton VX main board, s3virge graphics card, 16mb ram and a 2.0gb quantum harddisk. Any help would be MUCH appreciated! cheers, sloth...
Have you had your memory thoroughly tested?
I would take out your memory (presumably they're SIMM's) and bring them into to a good repair shop for testing. I DON'T recommend software diagnostics for this (like AMIDIAGS, Norton's NDIAGS, "System Sleuth" etc).
Do you run any other 32-bit software on this system? (Win '95 and Windows 3.x don't count)
Can you install and run NT, Netware, or FreeBSD?
I've seen motherboards that just wouldn't handle any true 32-bit OS for sustained use (presumably buggy chipsets) -- that's why Novell and Microsoft have these "compatibility" lists of motherboards.
Have you tried taking out the fancy video card and putting in a simple VGA (no frills -- Paradise chipset)?
Most of the Linux install scripts and programs (different for each distribution) just use text mode. Therefore it's very unlikely that the video card *type* is a problem. However if your particular card has a defect it could be something that only affects your system under Linux or some other OS'. It's a long shot, and some EE (electronics engineer) might tell me it's impossible -- but I'd try it anyway.
(I keep a couple of spare old VGA cards and even an old Hercules -- monochrome graphics -- card around for just these sorts of testing).
What sort of hard disk controller are you using? (IDE? SCSI?)
Some IDE controllers have buggy chipsets (some of them are even supported by compile time options in the Linux kernel). However, IDE controllers are cheap -- so keeping an extra around for testing is a very small investment.
SCSI host adapters are somewhat touchier and more expensive. Some of them are nominally supported by Linux (and other OS') but aren't worth keeping in your system. For example the Adaptec 1542B was a piece of junk. At the same time I use Adaptec 1542C and 1542CF and the various 2940's without hesitation.
RAM is the most likely culprit. The motherboard chipset is another possibility. A defective video card or a buggy HD controller are next in line.
It's possible that you're system has some sort of bizarre "top memory" which requires an address range exclusion or that you need to "reserve" some I/O ports so Linux won't use them or probe into them for hardware. You could spend a career trying different "stripped down" kernels on boot floppies and learning all the idiosyncrasies of your hardware. However -- it's probably more profitable in the long run to replace any hardware that's causing trouble.
The advantage of PC hardware is that it's cheap and widely available. It's curse is that it's often *cheap* and the specs are *widely* interpreted. Now that Linux is becoming available on some other hardware platforms -- and especially now that we're seeing "clones" of SPARC, Alpha, and PowerPC systems for rates that some of us can afford -- we might see some advantages from stepping away from the hardware half of the WIntel cartel.
-- Jim
gcc and Slackware Question
From: Steven Smith ischis@evergreen.com
GNU's gcc is part of the slackware package that I have loaded on my system. I can and have compiled and linked C code.
I can compile the standard C++ code below (if I haven't miss entered the code but for some reason the C++ libraries will not link correctly (ie. i get and error):
#includ <iostream.h>
I think you mean
#include ...
main()
{
cout << "hello world\n";
}
Poor form. Unix programs should be
int main ( int argc, char * argv[] )
... or at least:
void main () ...
----------------
gcc -c program_name.C <-