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Archive-name: Fido-Linux-faq
Version: $VER: Linux FAQ v9910-0.43
Posting-Frequency: almost monthly
URL: http://www.telematique.org/ft/linuxfaq.htm
LINUX FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Original author: Francois Thunus
Current maintainer: Francois Thunus
Oct99 - v0.43
Welcome to the FAQ for the Linux fidonet echo.
Table of Contents is below.
Questions and constructive comments are welcome.
Send them to me at: 2:270/25.2 or linuxfaq@telematique.org
IMPORTANT NOTE: this document does not contain many
software-specific infos, otherwise the FAQ would be huge.
I have also tried to keep each section short, simple and easy.
After all, it is intended for newbies. I therefore have
sometimes cut corners. I know it. Correct me only if you
really feel I'm oversimplifying :-)
_________________________________________________________________
Contents
I. DISCLAIMER
II. CREDITS
III. COPYRIGHT
IV. FAQ UPDATES
V. WHERE CAN I GET THIS FAQ?
VI. NETIQUETTE
1. INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION
1.1 What is Unix
1.2 What is Linux
1.3 Where can I get it
1.4 Which one should I take
1.5 Repartitioning
2. HARDWARE
2.1 What is the minimum configuration needed
2.2 Known hardware problems & solutions
2.2.1 Wacom art pad II and Debian 1.3.1
2.2.2 Sound Blaster configuration
2.2.3 1024 cylinders problem
3. SOFTWARE TIPS & TRICKS FOR GENERAL USE
3.1 What is
3.2 How do I mount a floppy/drive/zip
3.3 How can I modify / customize my system
3.4 How can I change my printer's settings
3.5 How do I know... ?
3.5.1 What system I have ?
3.5.2 What libraries are installed on my system ?
3.5.3 What's in my environment ?
3.5.4 What's wrong with my pc ?
3.5.5 What modules are loaded ?
3.5.6 How much free space I have ?
3.5.7 Where a file is ?
3.5.8 What processes are running
3.6 How do I change the typematic settings
3.7 Can I upgrade my configuration and how ?
3.8 How do I copy a file from the floppy
3.9 Quick DOS/Linux map
3.10 How do I get ls in colors ?
3.11 Is there a Norton Commander Clone ?
3.12 How do I get out ? !
3.13 How do I format a floppy ?
3.14 How do I set the date/time ?
3.15 How do I shutdown properly ?
3.16 What do I do with a .tar.gz or .tgz archive ?
3.17 The output of the program flashes by... ?
3.18 Known software problems and solutions
3.18.1 Red Hat 5.0 (X) configuration problems
3.18.2 Red Hat 5.0 CD problem
3.19 Font problem
3.20 Applying patches
3.21 NumLock
3.22 VI survival guide
4. RESOURCES
4.0 Read the Manual
4.1 Fidonet echoes / usenet newsgroups
4.2 Internet: web / ftp
4.3 Books
5. CONNECTING
5.1 Fidonet
5.1.1 A fidonet system
5.1.2 a good fidonet editor
5.1.3 a simple point setup
5.1.4 FrontDoor / Golded
5.1.5 Offline readers (QWK and other)
5.2 Internet
5.2.1 How do I get ppp to connect to my ISP automatically?
5.2.2 What do I need for PPP ?
5.3 BBSes
5.3.0 Where to find more info
5.3.1 DayDream/Linux
5.3.2 BBBS
5.3.3 Tick/Raid/Allfix
5.3.4 Sauron BBS
5.3.5 FreeWorld BBS
5.3.6 Falken
5.3.7 Synchronet
5.3.8 MBSE
5.3.9 Alexia
5.3.10 FreeBBS
5.3.11 Citadel/UX BBS
5.4 Serial and Network
5.4.1 How to set the serial port ?
5.4.2 TCP/IP Network configuration
5.4.3 X windows
5.4.4 NFS network configuration
5.4.5 Fax configuration
6. EMULATORS
6.1 Limitations & bugs
6.2 DOSEMU
6.3 WINE - WABI
6.4 AMIGA
6.5 Macintosh
7. PROGRAMMING
7.1 Overview of development possibilities
7.2 Books / resources
_________________________________________________________________
I. DISCLAIMER
This document is provided "as is" without any express or implied
warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy
of the information contained in this document, neither the authors, the
maintainer or the contributors will assume responsibility for errors
or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information
contained herein. This document is compiled in spare time for free,
and I cannot check all of its contents. However,I am interested in
making the FAQ as good as it can be, so your constructive feedback is
welcome.
This FAQ is *NOT* intended as a replacement of the User Guide /HowTos
which comes with Linux. Be sure to read that first and - most important
- please double read the manual and this FAQ before posting any
questions to the echo!
II. CREDITS
The original skeleton was based loosely on the Psion FAQ currently
maintained by Daniel Pfund. Apart from that, Francois Thunus reviewed
the echo activity of the Linux fidonet echo as well as several
Linux-related newsgroups and used that to modify/recreate a FAQ
structure, then populated it with extracted wisdom from the news
traffic in various echoes. So a lot of information here is provided
by the echo/newsgroup contributors, who are too numerous to credit
individually. Insofar as possible, the name of the original
contributor is listed alongside the contribution.
If you have a question which is not answered in the actual FAQ, please
Email it to me (Francois Thunus, see address at the top of this FAQ),
otherwise if you want more information from one specific section of
this FAQ, ask :-).
III. COPYRIGHT
I assert copyright on this document. I encourage you to distribute it
widely, but only in its complete and original form and if you do not
make any money out of it.
IV. FAQ UPDATES
For the time being, I (Francois) am the keeper of the FAQ. If you have
comments or suggestions, corrections, or you have some information you
want to see added or a request that I find some new answers, please
let me know. Please contact me via the Email address at the top of the
FAQ.
V. WHERE CAN I GET THIS FAQ?
You're reading it aren't you? SAVE it :-).
If you don't have reliable Usenet access, you can also retrieve the
FAQ by:
File Request
1:13/25 magic name : Linuxfaq
1:202/745 magic name : Linuxfaq
1:340/204 magic name : Linuxfaq
2:206/145 magic name : Linuxfaq
2:270/25 magic name : Linuxfaq
2:2802/285 magic name : Linuxfaq
2:293/2219 magic name : Linuxfaq
2:301/118 magic name : Linuxfaq
3:640/891 magic name : Linuxfaq
FTP
ftp://ftp.telematique.org
ftp://ftp.idkent.com
EMail
Send e-mail to <jim@idkent.com> with 'Linuxfaq' in the subject.
The autoresponder will immediately ship out a copy.
WWW
http://www.telematique.org/ft/linuxfaq.htm (Note that
there is no "l" at the end of "htm", this is not a typo!)
Please use the telematique site for any reference from your
own web pages because it is under my direct control and easily
changeable. It also contains links to numerous Linux resources.
http://www.idkent.com/~linux
Please do NOT Email me or anybody else mentioned in this FAQ for the
latest version. We simply cannot handle such matters effectively.
If the date at the top of this FAQ is more than a couple months old,
there is probably a new version available online.
VI. NETIQUETTE
1. READ THE FRIENDLY MANUAL (RTFM) and then the FAQ before posting
any questions! Remember that this group is here to help you out
but only if the answer can't be found by yourself. Also remember
that each time you're posting a question to the group, hundreds
(if not thousands) of people will read your question. If the same
questions come up again and again, people will just get bored and
not answer anymore...
2. DON'T BE RUDE. Obvious? Apparently not. Say it nicely or don't
say it at all. If you need to be uncomfortably direct, do it in
personal mail - don't post it.
3. When responding to a post, most editors will give you an edit pad
with the original post inserted. Delete most of this, leaving only
the part which will set the context for your reply. This is more
effective communication, it cuts down on crud to scan through, and
reduces phone bills for those that pay them.
4. Consider whether you should be mailing or posting. PING-PONG
personal dialogues may - or may not - be of interest to others. If
not, please don't post.
_________________________________________________________________
1. INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION
1.1 What is Unix ?
Unix is one of the first portable operating system that was created.
It was based on a project called "Multics" in the late 60's. The
first Unix version was created in 1969 at the ATT labs. Unix is
therefore a mature OS which has been around for about 30 years. The
OS itself is text-based, but it includes a graphical layer, called
X Window. The OSes that were developed afterwards more or less
heavily borrowed on the features of Unix. Unix was multi-task,
multi-users from the beginning. Other popular OSes includes DOS,
MacOS, OS/2, NeXT, TOS, or Windows NT. X was developed by Project
Athena at the MIT and DEC. The current version is 11, revision 6
(X11R6) since April 1994. The X Window System is the property of
the X Consortium, but a free clone (XFree86) is distributed with
Linux.
1.2 What is Linux
Linux is _a_ free Unix-like system. Unlike FreeBSD or 386BSD which
are based on the Berkeley distribution of Unix, Linux started its
life based on Minix, a free Unix implementation for the Intel
platform. Version 1.0 was released in may 1994. The current release
is 2.2.12. The numbering scheme works like this: first digit is the
major, second digit is the minor, third digit are bugfixes. If the
second digit is even, it's a stable version, if it is odd it is a
development version. Current development is 2.3.18.
Linux now exists in various stage of development for the DEC Alpha,
SGI, the PowerPC, the Motorola 680x0 chips, and many other systems.
Consequently, it means you can make Linux run on a PC, but also on
a Mac, an Amiga, or an Atari machine. There is a special version of
Linux called ELKS that will work on Intel machine with a 8088 /
80186 / 80286 chip (Linux itself needs a 80386), a Linux port
for the USR palmtop, and another one for the Psion 5.
The Linux project was started by Linus Torvalds, from Finland,
hence the name.
Linux is free and comes with the source code.
1.3 Where can I get it
There is a multitude of sources for Linux. Many magazines include one
version or another, once in a while, on their accompanying CD. Many
shops carry Linux on CDs, which may be easier for a start. Otherwise
there is the internet, or some BBSes (see relevant section for
addresses). LinuxCentral.com is cheap and reliable. It also features
a 4-CD archive which saves hours of internet hunting and downloading.
1.4 Which one should I take
This is probably the hardest question of them all. Linux is free, and
the difference between packages is usually the install procedure, and
the number of ready-to-run applications provided. The best
distribution for you depends on what you intend to do with your copy
of Linux. Here is a totally incomplete list of various Linux
distributions, and their good points.
DOSLINUX: this one is listed first, because it comes as a Dos archive
and was meant for DOS users who want to try Linux without changing
anything to their current configuration. Just decompress in a \linux
directory, start the linux.bat, and off you go. A great and simple
way to discover Linux, with no risk at all.
FIREMYST: same principle as DOSLinux, different choice of software.
DLX: Unix on a floppy. This is a minimalist approach, but it does
give you a taste of unix. You can happily play with this without fear
of destroying anything.
Tom's rootboot: another Unix on a floppy. This one is my favorite. It
includes LOADS of stuff, including simplified man pages. My own
rescue floppy is a modified version of this one.
Slackware: the first historic Linux distribution, and therefore used
to be the most widely used. still uses .tgz-no dependency check.
Debian: 100% free. The interesting point of the Debian distribution
is the .deb packages. They are the most numerous, and allow easy
installation of software. Moreover, the installing package also does
a variety of check for dependencies.
RedHat: commercial. Has a .rpm system which is broadly the same as
the .deb in the spirit. Probably the easiest to install for a
complete beginner. RedHat has an official French version made by
kheops. Comes with the commercial Metro-X server. As of 5.1 with
linuxconfig, is getting more and more user friendly.
S.u.S.E: commercial. With YAST, another install system, very
efficient. Suse comes in English or German, Greek, etc and with many
demos of commercial software. They have a very good doc (a 500 page
man) which is homemade (ie not the usual stuff presented otherwise),
and a nice install program. Nice X configurator too (SaX).
Mandrake: Based on RedHat, but comes with KDE pre-installed and
many applications installed.
Caldera: commercial. exists in various flavours, from basic to
advanced, and is designed as a turnkey unix system. Caldera also
commercializes the commercial windows emulator, WP for Linux, etc.
Real no-brainer. stable and everything. I haven't played much with
it, but I was impressed by the setup system.
Corel: the new player in the game. Based on Debian.
* Note about commercial software: due to the GPL License covering Linux,
there is always a free version available for download from the internet.
1.5 Repartitioning
(Matthew Day)
The best way to run linux is to install it on its own disk partition.
If you don't want to do that, several distributions are ready to be
installed in a normal \linux directory under dos.
If you do repartition, there are several methods:
1) back up and repartition with fdisk: this method will destroy the
content of your disk, hence the need to backup first.
2) use a utility to reclaim unused space on the disk:
a) buy Partition Magic or
b) use FIPS supplied with the distributions
2. HARDWARE
2.1 What is the minimum configuration needed
Linux needs a 386 with 4 megs memory. If you want a unix system on a
8088->80286, you have to use Elks or Minix. However, this is the
minimum to have a running system. It doesn't mean that it is actually
_fun_ to work with. In particular if you intend to work with
X Window, you will need to have more RAM if possible, or at least a
big swap file.
2.2 Known hardware problems & solutions
2.2.1 Wacom art pad II and Debian 1.3.1
(orion)
Include in XF86Config:
Section "Module"
Load "xf86Wacom.so"
EndSection
Section "XInput"
SubSection "WacomStylus"
Port "/dev/ttyS0"
DeviceName "WacomStylus"
Mode Absolute
AlwaysCore
EndSubSection
SubSection "WacomEraser"
Port "/dev/ttyS0"
DeviceName "WacomEraser"
EndSubSection
When declaring the mouse, use a different port.
Gimp supports the Wacom pad, but not the pression sensitivity. They're
working on it.
2.2.2 Sound Blaster configuration
(Erik Forsberg)
I have no problems getting my SB Pro (8 bit stereo power !) work..
I just modprobe sb io=<io> irq=<irq> dma=<dma>
2.2.3 1024 cylinders problem
(Francois Thunus)
JP> Having got through the initial steps, drive partition, and actual
JP> loading I was informed on booting that linux was unable to support
JP> hd's with over 1024 cylinders and so it refused to boot.
It is a design fault in the bios. Any system which is not
contained in the 1024 cylinder limit will not be loaded at boot
time. period.
Several possibilities: if your bios supports some kind of
cheating (also known as remapping :-) to make the bios believe it
has less than 1024 cylinder, turn it on. it's either LBA or CHS.
alternately (but this is a quick fix): copy your kernel image on
your c:\ disk (/dev/hda1 ?), for example in a \linux directory.
get a copy of loadlin (should be on your distribution disk) and
create a batch that says something like
loadlin <yourkernelimagename> boot=/dev/hda6
(or wherever your linux disk is)
That's it. You can now launch linux via dos.
3. SOFTWARE TIPS & TRICKS FOR GENERAL USE
3.1 What is
As a general rule, the Help command under unix is "man". When stuck,
typing "man xxx" where xxx is what you are trying to figure out,
should bring you a step closer to heaven. Many programs also come
with built-in help, albeit rudimentary, which can be summoned by
progname --help or progname --h. If that fails, try the usual
cocktail of /h /? -h -? --?, etc. Another help system is "whatis", ie
"whatis ls" or "apropos" ie "apropos ls" or "info".
3.2 How do I mount a floppy/drive/zip ?
one of the most difficult things to grasp for unix beginners is the
disappearance of "Drives as we know Them" (Tm). Each peripheral must
be hooked onto the system (mounted), and unhooked when gone (ex:
floppy). The command is called "mount". Used by itself, the command
will list the available "drives", give the name of the physical
device, the mount point, and the file system type.
To read a floppy, you have to mount it first:
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
this calls for several comments:
/dev/fd0 is the generic name of the A: device. Depending on your
distribution, you may or may not have this device. As a general
rule, have a look at the /dev directory. Anything starting with
hd is a hard drive (usually; exception: IDE cdrom), anything
starting with fd is a floppy drive. fd0 is A:, fd1 is B:, etc.
The floppy may be qualified: fd0H1440 or fd0h1440 is the usual
1.4 mb floppy. This is also valid for hard drives except that
the system is letter-based, and that the logical numerical order is
not followed when you have an extended (in dos partition terminology)
partition. A first disk with a 300megs fat/dos partition and an
extended logical partition for Linux may look like /dev/hda1
(c:) /dev/hda6 (d:)
/mnt/floppy is the name of a directory that must exist. You can
mount any device anywhere, but if something is already mounted, it
won't be visible anymore, ie if you have /dev/hda1 mounted on
/mnt/hd and you then mount /dev/hda2 on /mnt/hd, you'll no longer
be able to access /dev/hda1
3.3 How can I modify / customize my system
Unfortunately, each distribution assumes a different
organization. As a general rule, here is how it works:
(original description: Ed Suda)
(+Francois Thunus + Sune Stjerneby)
/bin/ "Required" binaries
/boot/ Various files used during booting including
the kernel
/dev/ Device "files" (used for I/O)
/etc/ Assorted configuration files
/etc/rc.d/ more assorted configuration files related to
system initialization.
/home/ Users' home directories go in here
/lib/ System libraries
/proc/ Contains "files" with information on running
processes
/root/ Root's home directory
/sbin/ System binaries to be run only by root
But most (if not all) can be useful to users as
well (e.g. 'mount' to see mounted drives,
/sbin/ping etc.)
/tmp/ For temporary files (often deleted during booting)
/usr/ binaries and other files used in multiuser mode.
/usr/lib/kbd/ keyboard configuration file+system fonts plus keymaps.
/var/ Variable data. The idea was/is: only '/var'
needs to be mounted read-write. What about
'/home' I hear someone scream? Well, /var/users
was/is also a location used for user homes.
A good way to start is to look at /etc/inittab which will give you
the boot sequence, and from there follow the track. Other interesting
places include /etc/profile and /etc/rc.d/
On RH5.1 use linuxconfig, on SuSE use YaST.
3.4 How can I change my printer's settings
WW> I would like to change my printer port (parallel port) from IRQ 7 to
WW> lets say 5. I can do this in BIOS, and I can print just fine in Win95,
WW> but, how do I tell Linux that my printer is now on IRQ 5?
(Rajesh Dhawan)
Pass the following as an option to the kernel through LILO/LOADLIN
command line:
lp=port,irq
e.g. If you use LILO add this at the top of /etc/lilo.conf
append="lp=0x378,5"
where 0x378 should be replaced with your printer port address and
5 with the intended irq.
RTM if you use LOADLIN.
Also check which of /dev/lp0, /dev/lp1, /dev/lp2 work for you.
Then make a softlink /dev/lp to that one adn you should be through.
(Pablo Saratxaga)
You must compile all parallel or related drivers as module, in
/etc/conf.modules put the lines :
options lp io=0x.... irq=...
options plip io=0x... irq=...
Note however that module ppa (Zip // driver) doesn't has a parameter to
tell it the irq. If that is annoying to you ask the ppa.o author
(Grant R. Guenther, grant@torque.net) to add that feature.
3.5 How do I know... ?
(L. Lucier)
3.5.1 What system I have ?
uname -a for version
3.5.2 What libraries are installed on my system ?
ldconfig -v
3.5.3 What's in my environment ?
env | grep DISPLAY
env | more for page mode
3.5.4 What's wrong with my pc ?
cat /proc/cpuinfo and you'll know which bugs your PC has.
3.5.5 What modules are loaded ?
lsmod #lists loaded modules
3.5.6 How much free space I have ?
df #disk space free
free #memory and swap space used/free
3.5.7 Where a file is ?
find / -name <filename>
whereis <filename>
locate <filename>
3.5.8 What processes are running ?
(F. Thunus)
ps -fax
(L Lucier)
top #to exit top: type q #for top help type h
cat /proc/meminfo
3.6 How do I change the typematic settings
kbdrate -r {2-30} -d {250|500|750|1000}
3.7 Can I upgrade my configuration and how ?
If you intend to change configuration, there are at least 2 ways: if
your system allows upgrade (like RedHat), then by all means use it.
Otherwise, it is often easier to save the relevant config file and do
a reinstall. This is particularly true if you switch configuration,
because the defaults used by Debian are not the same as the ones of
Slackware, which are different from Caldera and RedHat... Generally
speaking, you may want to back up the /etc directory.
(Albert Janssen)
if using Red Hat:
I suggest go play with RPM, (did you look at RPM-sections of the
RH-Usersguide ? )
I'll make a short summary (upgraded :-) :
rpm -ivh foo-1.0.i386.rpm (installing package)
rpm -Uvh foo-1.1.i386.rpm (upgrading ..)
rpm -ev (removing ..)
rpm -q foo (prints packagename, version, release number)
rpm -qa (show all packages installed)
rpm -qa | grep lesstif (do I have LessTif installed ?)
FuzzyVibe:~# rpm -qa | grep lesstif
lesstif-0.80-2
Yes, oh well, what is it ? ;-)
rpm -qi lesstif
What files does the package contain ?
rpm -qs lesstif
Oh, where's the LessTif-FAQ, if any ?
rpm -qs lesstif | grep -i "faq"
3.8 How do I copy a file from the floppy
> I'm a newbie to Linux. How do I transfer a file called xrmp-2.1-
> 2.i386 from my A: floppy drive to my a home
cp /floppy/xrmp-2.1-2.i386 $HOME
That is assuming that /floppy exists. If not, make it:
mkdir /floppy
Do all this as root. It can be made easier if you put entries into
/etc/fstab. It is required that you unmount any removable media
BEFORE doing the removing: umount /floppy
3.9 Quick DOS/Linux map
(Pasi Jaernstedt)
DOS COMMAND: LINUX COMMAND:
------------------- ------------------------
ASSIGN mount and ln
ATTRIB chmod and chown
BACKUP tar and cpio
CALL sh <script> or only the scripts name if it has
"running license" (ie "x" attrib with chmod)
CD cd
CHCP mapscrn
CHKDSK fsck
CLS clear
COMP diff, cmp
COPY cp
DATE date
DEL rm
DELTREE rm -R <directory> Be careful with this one!
DIR ls, find
DISKCOMP dd and diff or cmp
DISKCOPY diskcopy
DO do
ECHO echo
EDIT vi (emacs, pico, jed, mcedit, etc.)
ERASE rm
EXIT exit, logout
FC diff, cmp
FIND grep
FOR for
FORMAT fdformat and mkfs
GOSUB separately defined function call
GOTO ---
HELP man and info
IF if and test
KEYB loadkeys
LOADHIGH you won't need this one in Linux
MD mkdir
MEM free, top, procinfo
MKDIR mkdir
MORE more and less (less is better)
MOVE mv
PATH PATH= + export
PAUSE doesn't exist (dialog would much more)
PRINT lpr
PROMPT PS1=
QUIT exit
RD rmdir Be careful with this one!
REM #
REN mv
RESTORE tar, cpio
RMDIR rmdir Be careful with this one!
SET set,<variable>=, export<variable>
SORT sort
SUBST mount ja ln
SYS lilo, cp<kernel> <device/file>
TIME date
TREE ls -R, du
TYPE cat
UNDELETE ---
VER uname
VERIFY ---
XCOPY cp
3.10 How do I get ls in colors ?
(John Burton)
Enter the following in your /etc/profile
eval `dircolors -b`
(Francois Thunus)
if your shell allows it, and your "ls" supports it, use
alias ls 'ls --color=auto' or
alias ls="ls --color=auto"
(L. Lucier)
Edit /etc/DIR_COLORS, then export `dircolors -b /etc/DIR_COLORS`
Do a 'dircolors -p' >/etc/DIR_COLORS
3.11 Is there a Norton Commander Clone ?
(F. Thunus)
MC (midnight commander): Probably the most complete.
you'll find it anywhere, and for any platform (dos, OS/2, Linux, etc).
GIT: had the big advantage of being smaller and hence to fit on a
rescue floppy (4.3.7: 181k, 4.3.17: 310k !).
YTREE: more a xtree-gold clone, only 181k. very nice too, and smaller than
recent version of GIT.
3.12 How do I get out ? !
(L. Lucier)
CTRL + Z
Q for man pages
<esc>q! for vi
F10 for programs like MC etc
To exit from X windows, use the CTRL - ALT - Backspace combination.
Make sure you have any running programs closed so that they don't
get killed when you log out of the X server. Normally you close via
the file manager option.
Ctrl-C will send an abort signal to a running process.
(F. Thunus)
Ctrl-x Ctrl-c for emacs
3.13 How do I format a floppy ?
(L. Lucier)
mke2fs /dev/fd0 1440 (or whatever file system you chose)
(F. Thunus)
using SuperFormat on /dev/fd0H1720 with a minix file system
makes great emergency floppies :-)
3.14 How do I set the date/time ?
(L. Lucier)
type this: date 09=month 04=date 0430=time <=== this is an example!
(F. Thunus) to use bios time with RedHat, set UTC=false in
/etc/sysconfig/clock
3.15 How do I shutdown properly ?
(L. Lucier)
shutdown -r now
su -c 'init 0' (For use when in user account rather than root.
It then prompts you for the root password.)
(F. Thunus)
shutdown -hf now #as root
reboot #ditto
3.16 What do I do with a .tar.gz or .tgz (tz) archive ?
before the days of .rpm and other .deb, software was stored on
tape. TAR makes Tape ARchives, although today they can be stored
anywhere. Gnu ZIP (Gzip) has taken over from compress, the original
compression scheme. A .tgz archive is thus nothing more than a .tar
file which has been zipped.
first unzip: gzip -d my.archive.tar.gz (or gunzip < myfile.tgz)
then untar : tar -xvf my.archive.tar
if you machine supports it: tar -xzvf < my.archive.tar.gz will
combine both operation, as will gunzip < my.archive.tar.gz | tar xvf -
3.17 The output of the program flashes by... ?
Most of the time you can redirect the output of a program to a file
to peruse at leisure later:
myprog > myfile
you can suppress the output by sending the result to the great bit
bucket: myprog > /dev/null
Unix knows at least 2 channels for output: standard (1) and error
(2). Some terminals force you to explicitly redirect standard output
to a file: myprog 1&> file.
to get both standard and error messages sent to a file:
myprog > myfile 2>&1 (| less) [bash]
myprog >& myfile [csh]
3.18 Known software problems and solutions
3.18.1 Red Hat 5.0 (X) configuration problems
(Francois Thunus)
1) mouse on com2 (/dev/cua1) correctly detected during install
but noted down in config as com1 (/dev/cua0)
2) logitech mouse needs to be defined as "Microsoft" in XF86Config.
3.18.2 Red Hat 5.0 CD problem
>>> the same machine on which I have been testing packages
>>> from a cdrom now _refuses_ to mount the CDrom
>>> and says "type iso9660 not supported by kernel" !
(G. O'Donnel)
Yeah, had the same problem myself an hour after putting on
RedHat 5.1 Figured out that it was a bug in the rc.sysinit file,
fixed it, then found out that there was a new RPM file off the
errata (www.redhat.com/errata/) page that fixed it.
As a general rule, avoid RH 5.0. They switched C libraries from
4.2 to 5.0 and many applications are broken by the change.
5.1 is way better in that respect.
3.19 Font problem
(Erik Cumps)
Have you tried using another console font? Like:
setfont /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts/cp850-8x16
3.20 Applying patches
(Per Lundberg)
mr> How do I apply the patches to the Linux kernel?
cd /usr/src/linux ; zcat patch-2.0.34.gz | patch -p1
3.21 Numlock
(Thunus F.) add to your rc.local:
for tty in /dev/tty[1-9]*;
do
setleds -D +num <$tty>/dev/null
done
3.22 VI survival guide
(Thorbjoern Ravn Andersen)
Regardless of which editor you normally use, you should know
enough about the "vi" editor to be able to do minimal editing of
a file. Consider it equivalent to first aid knowledge. Note: In
the following, the case of the characters is significant!
In vi you are normally in one of three modes:
You can move the cursor around with:
"h" (left), "j" (down), "k" (up), and "l" (right) (no quotes).
You normally return to movement mode with the "Esc" key.
When in doubt, press Esc until you get a beep.
Additionally, you can delete the character under the cursor with
"x", and delete a whole line with "dd". You can go to a
given line with "I<linenumber>G" (no number means end of
file).
By typing "i" at a given place in the text, you enter edit
mode. All characters entered from here are inserted in the text.
Return to movement mode with Esc.
By typing ":" (colon) the cursor is temporarily moved to the
bottom line, where you can enter an ed-command at the colon
prompt, which is executed when Return is pressed. You are
returned to movement mode.
Possible sequences are ":wq" (write and quit), ":q!" (quit
without saving, PLEASE).
The few commands (which is just a very small selection of the
full set) allow you to do a minor edit of a file. There are
many more commands, and even though the above looks very
illogical, the full set is not so. The vi clone "vim" has an
excellent vi tutorial included in the online ":help".
Note: ed is the original Unix editor, which vi is built upon.
It is most often encountered in the colon mode of vi, as well as
"sed" (stream editor) which is suited for doing text editing in a
command pipe.
4. RESOURCES
4.0 Read the manual
A little known fact is that any Linux distribution usually includes
many ready-to-print manuals: the "Linux User guide", the "System
Administrator guide" (also referred to as "sag" in some
distributions), the "Network Administrator guide" (referred to as
"nag"), etc. Those are on the distribution CD either as .ps
(postscript) file, or .dvi, or TeX. If you can't use those format,
you can get the latest version of all those guides in .pdf (Adobe
acrobat) platform independent format on the Linux Documentation Project
site: http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/.
4.1 Fidonet echoes /usenet newsgroups
4.1.1 Fidonet:
LINUX
LINUX_BBS
LINUX_TECH (Argentina)
R34.LINUX (Spain)
R20_LINUX (Sweden)
4.1.2 Usenet :
As of rev 0.41 of this FAQ, the list of newsgroups is no longer
included. The 0.41 will be kept available on the
ftp.telematique.org site if really you think you need it. The
simplest way is to check at your ISP what linux group are
available. There were about 300 at my ISP last time I checked, so
chances are that yours also carries at least a dozen :-)
4.2 Internet: web / ftp
Debian : http://www.debian.org
Dos Linux : ftp://wauug.erols.com/pub/people/kent-robotti/doslinux/
Kheops : http://www.linux-kheops.com [French Linux]
LinuxBerg : http://www.linuxberg.com
Linux Documentation Project http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/
L.Central : http://www.linuxcentral.com [Cheap CDs]
L. HQ : http://www.linuxhq.com
L. Internat'l : http://www.li.org/
L. Journal : http://www.linuxjournal.com/
L. Org. : http://www.linux.org/
L. Resources : http://www.linuxresources.com/
Mandrake : http://www.mandrake-soft.com/
Minix : http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html
OpenLinux : http://www.caldera.com
O'Reilly : http://www.ora.com/ [Unix/Linux Books]
RedHat : http://www.redhat.com
RPM repository: http://rufus.w3.org/linux/RPM/
Slackware : http://www.cdrom.com
SUSE : http://www.suse.de
SUSE : http://www.suse.com
Tom's rootboot: http://www.toms.net/rb
My own page of Linux links (telematique.org/ft/linux.htm)
is pretty complete :-)
4.3 Books
4.3.0 The Linux Documentation Project
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/ offers gazillions of books, tutorials,
FAQ, etc in html, sgml, ascii, pdf, and whatchimacallit format too.
Go there, get it, read it. Printing is optional.
4.3.1 General Unix books
4.3.1.1
A Student's Guide to Unix
by: Harley Hahn
Publisher: McGraw Hill
Edition: 1993
ISBN: 0-07-025511-3
4.3.1.2
Life with Unix - A Guide for Everyone
by: Don Libes and Sandy Ressler
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Edition: 1990
ISBN: 0-13-536657-7
4.3.1.3
Unix for the Impatient
by: Paul Abrahams and Bruce Larson
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Edition: 1992
ISBN: 0-201-55703-7
4.3.1.4
Unix Power Tools
by: Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly and Mike Loukides (and other)
Publisher: O'Reilly / Bantam
Edition: 1993
ISBN: 0-553-35402-7
4.3.1.5
Unix in a Nutshell
by: Daniel Gilly and O'Reilly staff
Publisher: O'Reilly
Edition: 2nd ed. 1992 (for System V and Solaris 2)
ISBN: 1-56592-001-5
4.3.2 Specific Linux books
4.3.2.1
Linux In A Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference
by: Jessica Perry Hekman
publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
ISBN: 1-56592-167-4
4.3.2.2
'Sams' Teach Yourself Linux in 24 Hours
(RedHat 5.0 - 2.0.32 included on CD +-$40)
ISBN 0-672-31162-3
4.3.2.3
Linux
(With CD +-$90)
ISBN 0-201-17809-5
4.3.2.4
Linux for Dummies
(RedHat 2.0.30 included on CD +-$50)
ISBN 0-7645-0275-1
4.3.2.5
Running Linux
by: Matt Welsh og Lar Kaufman
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates
ISBN: 1-56592-151-8
4.3.2.6
Doctor Linux
by: (The Linux Documentation Project/John Purcell)
Publisher: Linux Systems Labs/Red Hat Software Inc.
(5th Edition, 2032 pages)
ISBN: 1-888172-84-3
4.3.2.7
A practical guide to Linux
by: Mark Sobell
Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman
($38, www.awl.com) Reviewed in LJ,#49 (may 98)
ISBN: 0-201-89549-8
5. CONNECTING
5.1 Fidonet
5.1.1 A fidonet system
(Pablo Saratxaga)
> for fidonet look for ifmail
http://www.average.org/ifmail/ (official Eugene Crosser's version)
http://www.z2.fidonet.org/ifmail-tx/ (the "tx" version).
tx version offers better gating support (charset), various patches
this version is better for 8 bit fidonet and mandatory for fido.ger.*
(gatebau method), as well as telnet/vmodem support.
ifmail is the name of the whole package (and the email --> netmail
conversion program), the mailer is ifcico.
ifmail contains:
ifmail email-->netmail
ifnews news-->echomail (in fact it is a hard link to ifmail)
ifpack compresses pkt
ifunpack uncompress incoming paquets and feeds pkt to iftoss
iftoss convert pkt to email and/or news and feeds to sendmail/rnews
ifindex compiles the nodelist for ifcico to use
ifcico the mailer
nlpatch applies a nodediff to the nodelist
ifstat display stats about outbound
there is also a lot of configuration examples as well as
contribution tools (an areafix, a *.TIC manager, tools to manage
databases ifmail uses, a region/net extractor from nodelist)
making it a full package to run a fido node or point under linux
(you need also sendmail and INN (or cnews or smail) and a fido
able getty if you are a node)
(Paul Walker)
FidoGate (AIUI) converts between PKT format and news spool,
or something along those lines, so you can read/reply to
fido using a news reader
FEddy is a point reader/system that seems fairly popular
Binkley is available
GoldED (message editor) is also available for Linux
You can find links to most of those (and other programs)
from the FOTI website, http://www.craybbs.co.uk/foti
5.1.2 a good fidonet editor
Peter Marbaise, 2:2452/110.20 is the current Feddy-Maintainer
ftp://ftp.fido.de/pub/Feddy/FEddy-1.4.02.tar.gz rpm also.
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Fido/FEddy-1.4.02.tar.gz
5.1.3 a simple point setup
LXPoint-1.4.02.tar.gz [Peter Marbaise, 2:2452/110.20 ]
FiDO-Scanner/Tosser/Editor (for node- and pointsystems)
780kB LXPoint-@version.tar.gz, rpm also available.
ftp.fido.de/pub/FEddy or sunsite or http://www.fido.de/~pema/
5.1.4 FrontDoor / Golded
FrontDoor runs without problems in a dos box. There is a separate
FrontDoor-with-Linux-FAQ available from ftp.telematique.org (frodo.lnx).
There is a native Linux version of Golded.
5.1.5 Offline readers (QWK and other)
(Dane Beko)
There are a few, check Jim Hanoian's WWW site for links and
information:
http://www.alpha-one.org/readers.htm
There's ATP, MultiMail and SkyReader to name a few..
5.2 Internet
5.2.1 How do I get ppp to connect to my ISP automatically?
(John Burton)
Obtain and install diald. The home of diald is
http://www.dna.lth.se/~erics/diald.html
5.2.2 What do I need for PPP ?
(L. Lucier)
For PPP 2.2 the files are:-
____________________________________________________________________
/usr/sbin/pppd # the PPP binary
/etc/ppp/scripts/ppp-on # the dialer/connection script
/etc/ppp/scripts/ppp-on-dialer # part 1 of the dialer script
/etc/ppp/scripts/ppp-off # the actual chat script itself
/etc/ppp/options # the options pppd uses for all connections
/etc/ppp/options.ttyXX # the options specific to a connection on this port
If you use ppp-on, did you configure it to use your internet provider?
To see what happens when you use it, do: tail -f /var/adm/messages.
pppd -d -detach /dev/cuaX &
pppd CONNECT inetlogin.sh crtscts defaultroute noipdefault passive /dev/modem 38400
5.3 BBSes
5.3.0 Check out the LinuxBBS.faq for a more complete How-to
create your own bbs. It's available from ftp.telematique.org
or 2:270/25. There is also a fidonet LINUX_BBS echo.
5.3.1 DayDream/Linux
ported from AmigaOS. :) Totally free with sources
Telnet/FTP/FidoNet-support. New developper (06/99).
http://waura.pspt.fi/daydream/ or
http://www.cs.uku.fi/~hlyytine/
5.3.2 BBBS
telnet
http://www.bbbs.net
5.3.3 Tick/Raid/Allfix
>Needed: FTN mail tosser/tick/raid
(Jim Balcom)
Here's what works for me:
I got IFMAIL and set up ifcico to handle the phone lines and
to move files in and out. I use Fidogate for tossing mail.
Fidogate also has software for handling TICK and it seems to do
it quite well.
5.3.4 Sauron BBS
(Jonathan Roberts)
a telnetable BBS: Sauron BBS has recently been ported to
Linux (formerly DOS only). the author's web site is at
http://members.tripod.com/~HortonS/
5.3.5 FreeWorld BBS
(J Kinsley)
It's goal is to be the Ultimate Unix BBS, and completely free.
http://www.FreeWorldBBS.ORG.
5.3.6 Falken
(Eric Kilfoil)
Website: http://www.falkenbbs.com
Alt: http://bbs.ipass.net/falken-mirror
FTP: ftp://ftp.falkenbbs.com/pub/FalkenBBS/linux/FalkenBBS-current.tgz
Support: telnet://falkenbbs.com
5.3.7 Synchronet
(Jonathan Roberts)
http://www.weedpuller.com/synchronet or ftp to that address.
5.3.8 MBSE
(Michiel Broek 2:2801/16.1)
Complete BBS/mailer/tosser. URL: telematique.org/mbse
5.3.9 Alexia
Alexia: simple shell under GNU GPL Licence.
require a MTA, inn, ifmail/fidogate, mgetty, etc
Andrea Baldoni <baldoni@xcalnet.it>
Freq: alexia-1.0.tar.gz @ 2:332/512
http://keycomm.pluto.linux.it/~gaio/LinuxBBS/tools/alexia-1.0.tar.gz
5.3.10 FreeBBS
http://bbs.free.fr : set of perl scripts and stock linux system.
Mostly in french so far.
5.3.11 Citadel/UX BBS
http://uncnsrd.mt-kisco.ny.us/citadel
5.4 Serial and Network
5.4.1 How to set the serial port ?
(L. Lucier)
/bin/setserial -b /dev/ttyS2 IRQ 11 #sets IRQs and ports
/bin/setserial -b /dev/ttyS3 IRQ 15
setserial -a /dev/ttySx #displays type of UART installed
5.4.2 Network configuration
(W. McKemie + F. Thunus)
>I have two computers running Linux connected with ethernet cards
>and cable. How do I get TCP/IP networking started?
Assuming that your ethernet hardware is installed and configured
correctly, it's quite simple
a) make sure the drivers for the card are installed. Use either
insmod (possibly insmod /lib/modules/your.kernel.number/8390.o,
and most likely insmod /lib/modules/preferred/net/ne.o io=0x300
(irq=11) if you have a NE2000 compatible on 0x300 IRQ11),or put
them in the /etc/modules.config
b) chose an IP address for each computer. Use 192.168.x.x, that's
reserved for internal networks, fx 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2.
you can store those permanently in /etc/hosts under the form
#IP adress full name nickname
192.168.1.1 maincomputer.my.home.net main
192.168.1.2 portable.my.home.net portable
c) ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.1 up #substitute .2 for second computer
d) route add -net 192.168.1.0 eth0 #on both
That's it.
Test: ping the IP of the other computer:
ping 192.168.1.2 (or ping portable) from computer #1.
Success is one new line on your display every few seconds.
Terminate ping with a <ctrl>c.
Next you can try a remote logon:
telnet 192.168.1.2 (or telnet portable) from computer #1.
the message displayed when you log on the other computer is
/etc/issue.net.
You can store all this in /etc/rc.d/rc.local once and for all:
insmod /lib/modules/[kernel.rev]/net/8390.o
insmod /lib/modules/[kernel.rev]/net/ne.o io=0x300
ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.<node#> up
route add -net 192.168.1.0 eth0
Per LundBerg adds:
This is not applicable when running kernel 2.2. The new kernel
adds routes for the network when setting an IP for an
interface.
5.4.3 X windows
>How do I run remote apps under X ?
(Thunus F.)
on machine1
type startx
run "xhost machine2" in a terminal
telnet to machine2
type export Hostdisplay="machine1:0"
launch the app you wish to run
exit
5.4.4 NFS network configuration (Thunus F.)
a) make sure your kernel supports nfs:
insmod /lib/modules/[kernel.rev]/fs/nfs
b) start daemons: rpc.mapportd, rpc.mountd and rpc.nfsd
c) any directory which will be exported to the network must be referenced
in /etc/export, with the name of the machine(s) it may be exported to,
or the adresses if your /etc/hosts isn't configured properly.
d) mount normally ie
mount remote:/whatever/is/exported -t nfs /local/directory
5.4.5 Fax configuration (Warren Hrach)
This is how I got efax and efix to work
A: Send:
1) Make a text test file
2) Run efix 'efix -ntest.%03d <test'.
3) Now you should have in your current dir 'test.001'.
4) To send it make sure to have your faxmodem set to include all the
fax stuff.
5) In the /dev dir make a symbolic link for fax to /dev/ttySx.
6) To send it 'efax -t(tel. number of fax machine) test.001'
B: Receive:
1) Run 'efax -aS0=1' to set the faxmodem to auto answer on first ring.
2) When an fax call comes in it should answer and save it in the current
dir as '(big number or something).001'.
3) You can use xv to view the fax you received and use the print option
to print it out on your printer.
Note:
In the efax package there is a script called fax that is an
interface to efax/efix. It makes operations easier, conversion
of files before sending too.
Anyway, files must be converted to a TIFF with Group 3 encoding format.
The syntax for efix is:
efix -i text -o tiffg3 namefile (if you convert a text file, otherwise
use ps instead of text for postscript files)
6. EMULATORS
6.1 Limitations & bugs
An emulator will never completely replace the real thing. As long as
you bear that in mind, you'll be able to live with them.
6.2 DOSEMU
Actually very good. Allows you to tap into the large amount of Dos
software. Many people use it to run a legacy BBS.
6.3 WINE - WABI
Wine is a Free Win16/32 emulation. It is far from being complete,
but a) it works, b) it's free and c) it's constantly being improved.
See www.winehq.org for current state. works pretty well for anything
but m$ software :-)
WABI is a commercial win311 emulation originally developed by SUN
for Unix. It has been ported to Linux by Caldera (Wabi 2.2).
Wabi is today all but dead, since Sun has announced it had
stopped development. Wabi copies are today pretty cheap (less than
$50/EURO45).
6.4 AMIGA
(Daniel Parreira)
The Amiga emulator is called UAE.
ftp.fok.hu/pub/UAE
You need the files "kick31.zip" and "wb311.zip" to get things started.
(Marco van den Bovenkamp)
> Is it possible to read/write Amiga-formatted diskettes with linux?
> (Redhat 5.0) How?
With some caveats, yes. Take a look at
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/filesystems/affs.txt.
(Sune Stjerneby)
kick and workbench: those files are copyrighted and has been the
subject of lawsuits before ;).
special note: -no- AT/ATX IBM PC floppy controllers are capable of
read/writing to AmigaOS floppies, due to mechanics/controller
differences, it requires special/hack-ish hardware. It is, however,
possible to use hd drives formatted in Amiga FastFileSystem with
Linux.
6.5 MacIntosh
Executor is _the_ MacIntosh emulator. It has several flavor (Unix,
Dos, OS/2,...) and does a pretty good job. A trial version is
available for download from the web site.
7. PROGRAMMING
7.1 Overview of development possibilities
7.1.1 Threads
> Can Linux run threads? (if so are they kernel threads or user threads?)
Yes. It isn't yet in the distribution kernel (because it isn't 100%
POSIX yet, only 99% :) ); look at
http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/proven/pthreads.html
http://www.aa.net/~mtp/PCthreads.html
ftp://ftp.cs.fsu.edu/pub/PART/PTHREADS
7.1.2 Compatibility
> Can I program to the POSIX standard and have the program run
> on Linux?
Yes. At least as well that the majority of the other OS claiming
POSIX compliance.
(Frederik Retsema)
http://linas.org/linux/threads-faq.html. Within this page are several
links to code and documentation of implementations of pthreads.
see also www.linux.org/help/faq.html.
7.2 Books / resources
7.2.1 Shell scripting:
7.2.1.1
> any good pointers to learning BASH-shell-scripting ?
samples: ftp.uu.net/published/oreilly/nutshell/bash/bash.tar.Z
(Mike Mcclain)
or /etc/rc.d/* :-)
7.2.1.2
Unix Shell Programming
by: Stephen Kochan and Patrick Wood
Publisher: Hayden
Edition: 1990
ISBN: 0-672-48448-X
7.2.2 Unix Programming
7.2.2.1
Advanced Programming in The Unix Environment
by: Richard Stevens
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Edition: 1992
ISBN: 0-201-56317-7
-------------- END OF LINUXFAQ ---------------
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