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Contents:

Newbie Help Redux (1)

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 10:50:21 -0500
From: Mike Hammel, mjhammel@fastlane.net

Quick answers to get you started:

1. I have grown fat and lazy with Win 98 and find myself looking for "Display Properties" and such. I'm very familiar with C and such and am not afraid of hacking scripts or the like, but my problem is thus: Where is a (succinct) list of what gets run when, from where, and why. I'd love to tweak everything if only I could find it.

A. Take a look at /etc/rc or possibly /etc/rcX.d, where X is 1,2,3, etc. I don't have RH5.1 but I think it uses the System V init system, so these directories should exist. If so, this is where you find the scripts that get run at boot time. For more details, you should look into the "init" tool. I suspsect this is covered in depth in some of the newer Linux system management texts. It's not hard to understand, really. There are different run levels, and scripts for specific run levels get run at start up to get things going and again at shutdown to bring them down again.

2. I have something called an "Ensoniq Audio PCI" sound card with "legacy emulation" I don't even know how to begin to get this thing working. What are the first steps in enabling hardware?

A. Commercial solution: http://www.4front-tech.com. This is a commercial sound driver but don't fret - it's only $20 and works like a champ right out of the box. I have it and have had zero problems. I've suggested it to a few other folks and they all seemed to like it too. There is a non-commercial version of this same set of drivers available for Linux too. But I punted on it when I heard about the commercial driver.

3. Where do I get information on mounting drives?

A. mount -t fat32 /mount_pt_dir or possibly mount -t vfat /mount_pt_dir. I don't use MS on my box so can't remember which one of these works with FAT32 partitiions but I'm fairly sure one of them does. In any case, other folks are likely to respond with more detailed answers on this one.

4. I think my printer works (at least text does), but how do I print things (man pages)?

A. xman will print the pages as postscript but you need to set up a print spooler using Ghostscript. A print spooler is just a locical printer name that accepts print requests, processes them with some filters and then feeds them to the printer of choice. Ghostscript will translate Postscript input into the printer command language for your printer. I keep forgetting where the Ghostscript FAQ (including download info) is at, but you can find it by searching on Yahoo. That's what I always do.

The hard way to set up printers is to learn about configuring /etc/printcap. However, my RH4.2 system has a fairly decent printer configuration utility so I suspect 5.1 has an even better one. The bad news is I can't remember the program's name (it's in my fvwm2rc at home and I never type it by hand). Check the documentation that came with the CD. I know it's mentioned in there.

Best of luck.

Michael J. Hammel

Re: Help Wanted : newbie (2)

Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 07:37:43 +0200
From: "Anthony E. Greene", agreene@pobox.com

From: Dennis Lambert, opk@worldnet.att.net
I have grown fat and lazy with Win 98 and find myself looking for "Display Properties" and such. KDE (http://www.kde.org/) is supposed to be a more integrated desktop environment, and Gnome (http://www.gnome.org/) is coming along. I'm very familiar with C and such and am not afraid of hacking scripts or the like, but my problem is thus: Where is a (succinct) list of what gets run when, from where, and why. I'd love to tweak everything if only I could find it.

Linux is a complex OS, so the list isn't succint. There's a description of the boot process in the System Administrator's Guide. If you're new to Linux, I'd recommend you give the SAG a good browse. There's *lots* of useful information there. You should have an HTML copy installed in /usr/doc/LDP/sag.

The Network Administrator's Guide (/usr/doc/LDP/nag) is also good to have, but the HOWTO's are better if you just need "cookbook" style docs. The HOWTO's are in /usr/doc/HOWTO. You should fire up Midnight Commander (mc) from the command line and take a look around /usr/doc.

I have something called an "Ensoniq Audio PCI" sound card with "legacy emulation" I don't even know how to begin to get this thing working. What are the first steps in enabling hardware?

There is a PCI-HOWTO and a Sound-HOWTO.

Where do I get information on mounting drives (FAT 32 especially)

In the Config-HOWTO or the archives of the Red Hat mailing lists.

I think my printer works (at least text does), but how do I print things (man pages)

Text and postscript are easy. Fortunately most things are convertable to postscript. In this case use: 

 
	man -t CommandOrSubject | lpr
This is covered in the man page.

If you haven't joined any of the Red Hat mailing lists, you might consider doing so. Be warned though; they tend to be busy lists (http://www.redhat.com/support/).

Welcome to Linux...

Tony

Clearing the Screen (1)

Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 11:56:53 -0700
From: Anthony Christopher, anthonyc@blarg.net

I have seen a lot of hints for restoring a trashed screen or window, but none of them mention the reset and clear commands. Are these commands deprecated, do they have unwanted side effects, or are they ineffective in certain situations?

When I have cat'ed an executable, I usually just type: reset <ENTER> and let the garbage scroll off the screen.

If, for some reason, I find the garbage characters annoying, I follow this command by typing: clear <ENTER>

Anthony Christopher

Re: simultaneous versions of kernels

Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 22:01:22 +0200
From: Henner Eisen, eis@baty.hanse.de

Just my 0.02 Euro:

Most of the installation problems are caused by interaction with the linux distribution's default installation method. You can easily work around this by simply not installing your compiled kernel. Lilo and insmod support loading directly from the compilation directory.

Just unpack your kernel in an arbitrary directory, say /home/kernel/linux-test, apply any patches and compile: make [x|menu|old]config; make dep; make zImage modules. But do neither make install nor make modules_install.

Then add something like this to your /etc/lilo.conf: 

 
# Linux bootable partition config begins
# test new (not installed) kernel just compiled in directory
# /home/kernel/linux-test.
image = /home/kernel/linux-test/arch/i386/boot/zImage
root = /dev/hda3
label = test
append= " MODPATH=/home/kernel/linux-test/modules/ "
# Linux bootable partition config ends
#
and run lilo whenever you have recompiled your kernel image.

When booting, choose "test" from the lilo prompt. The kernel will pass MODPATH to the environment of init and any startup routines that insmod's kernel modules will fetch them automatically from the kernel compilation tree.

(If you additionally want to insmod some modules by hand from a root shell, MODPATH might be unset. But scripts can still extract that information from /proc/cmdline).

Henner

Question about your Linux Gazette post

Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 10:14:47 -0600 (MDT)
From: "Michael J. Hammel", mjhammel@fastlane.net

In a previous message, mjsendzi@engmail.uwaterloo.ca says: is there an url for this program?

No, not that I know of. A couple of people have asked this. It's part of the core set of files in my Red Hat 4.2 distribution. Units has been around so long, and is available on so many different Unix platforms, that I suspect most distributions have a copy of it somewhere. On my RH4.2 it's under /usr/bin. 

 
mjhammel(ttyp2)$ type units
units is /usr/bin/units

mjhammel(ttyp0)$ units
501 units, 41 prefixes

You have: 3 miles
You want: kilometers
        * 4.828032
        / 0.20712373
Michael J. Hammel

COBOL Compilers for Linux

Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 22:54:19 -0500
From: cbbrowne@hex.net

Concerning the following, recently posted in Linux Gazette:

I have a friend who is doing a refresher course in Cobol in a Unix environment. I have suggested that she run Linux, and pick up a cheap / shareware copy of a Cobol compiler for Linux from somewhere. Knowing absolutely nothing about either Linux or Cobol, am I dreaming, or is there a realistic alternative to the compilers I have seen retailing for ~$1,500 US? I'd really appreciate any help/advice anyone can offer.

There are several possible COBOL options in the Linux realm; for details see:
http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/languages07.html

There's not anything yet that could be considered 100% viable outside of (rather expensive) commercial options; obviously these sorts of things don't happen without there being a population of people who are interested enough to be willing to invest the time necessary to implement something.

cbbrowne@hex.net

Resetting the term (2)

Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 16:44:25 -0700
From: david, david@kalifornia.com

You posted a program to reset your console should the text become garbled. I thought I would mention that most distributions, Slackware notably, come with such a program that does this and more.

reset will clear your tty, restore sane tty settings, and perform general tty cleanups. You should find this little utility just about anywhere :)

David

Re: Help Wanted : newbie (3)

Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 22:46:15 +0200 (CEST)
From: rsmith@xs4all.nl

In anwser to your questions in the September issue of the Linux Gazette:
I recently purchased Red Hat 5.1 and got it running. Evidently I was lucky in that I have a fairly full FAT 32 Win 98 drive and kind of stumbled through the defrag / fips / boot to CD / repartition / full install with LILO process. Everything worked, but I'm a little nonplussed. A few topics I'd absolutely love to get feedback on... Turns out I have a lousy WinModem. I can see the feedback now, (Run it raid of hacking scripts or the like, but my problem is thus: Where is a (succinct) list of what gets run when, from where, and why. I'd love to tweak everything if only I could find it.

Linux is a complex OS, so the list isn't succint. There's a description of the boot process in the System Administrator's Guide. If you're new to Linux, I'd recommend you give the SAG a good browse. There's *lots* of useful information there. You should have an HTML copy installed in /usr/doc/LDP/sag.

The Network Administrator's Guide (/usr/doc/LDP/nag) is also good to have, but the HOWTO's are better if you just need "cookbook" style docs. The HOWTO's are in /usr/doc/HOWTO. You should fire up Midnight Commander (mc) from the command line and take a look around /usr/doc.

I have something called an "Ensoniq Audio PCI" sound card with "legacy emulation" I don't even know how to begin to get this thing working. What are the first steps in enabling hardware?

There is a PCI-HOWTO and a Sound-HOWTO.

Where do I get information on mounting drives (FAT 32 especially)

In the Config-HOWTO or the archives of the Red Hat mailing lists.

I think my printer works (at least text does), but how do I print things (man pages)

Text and postscript are easy. Fortunately most things are convertable to postscript. In this case use: 

 
	man -t CommandOrSubject | lpr
This is covered in the man page.

If you haven't joined any of the Red Hat mailing lists, you might consider doing so. Be warned though; they tend to be busy lists (http://www.redhat.com/support/).

Welcome to Linux...

Tony

Clearing the Screen (1)

Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 11:56:53 -0700
From: Anthony Christopher, anthonyc@blarg.net

I have seen a lot of hints for restoring a trashed screen or window, but none of them mention the reset and clear commands. Are these commands deprecated, do they have unwanted side effects, or are they ineffective in certain situations?

When I have cat'ed an executable, I usually just type: reset <ENTER> and let the garbage scroll off the screen.

If, for some reason, I find the garbage characters annoying, I follow this command by typing: clear <ENTER>

Anthony Christopher

Re: simultaneous versions of kernels

Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 22:01:22 +0200
From: Henner Eisen, eis@baty.hanse.de

Just my 0.02 Euro:

Most of the installation problems are caused by interaction with the linux distribution's default installation method. You can easily work around this by simply not installing your compiled kernel. Lilo and insmod support loading directly from the compilation directory.

Just unpack your kernel in an arbitrary directory, say /home/kernel/linux-test, apply any patches and compile: make [x|menu|old]config; make dep; make zImage modules. But do neither make install nor make modules_install.

Then add something like this to your /etc/lilo.conf: 

 
# Linux bootable partition config begins
# test new (not installed) kernel just compiled in directory
# /home/kernel/linux-test.
image = /home/kernel/linux-test/arch/i386/boot/zImage
root = /dev/hda3
label = test
append= " MODPATH=/home/kernel/linux-test/modules/ "
# Linux bootable partition config ends
#
and run lilo whenever you have recompiled your kernel image.

When booting, choose "test" from the lilo prompt. The kernel will pass MODPATH to the environment of init and any startup routines that insmod's kernel modules will fetch them automatically from the kernel compilation tree.

(If you additionally want to insmod some modules by hand from a root shell, MODPATH might be unset. But scripts can still extract that information from /proc/cmdline).

Henner

Question about your Linux Gazette post

Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 10:14:47 -0600 (MDT)
From: "Michael J. Hammel", mjhammel@fastlane.net

In a previous message, mjsendzi@engmail.uwaterloo.ca says: is there an url for this program?

No, not that I know of. A couple of people have asked this. It's part of the core set of files in my Red Hat 4.2 distribution. Units has been around so long, and is available on so many different Unix platforms, that I suspect most distributions have a copy of it somewhere. On my RH4.2 it's under /usr/bin. 

 
mjhammel(ttyp2)$ type units
units is /usr/bin/units

mjhammel(ttyp0)$ units
501 units, 41 prefixes

You have: 3 miles
You want: kilometers
        * 4.828032
        / 0.20712373
Michael J. Hammel

COBOL Compilers for Linux

Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 22:54:19 -0500
From: cbbrowne@hex.net

Concerning the following, recently posted in Linux Gazette:

I have a friend who is doing a refresher course in Cobol in a Unix environment. I have suggested that she run Linux, and pick up a cheap / shareware copy of a Cobol compiler for Linux from somewhere. Knowing absolutely nothing about either Linux or Cobol, am I dreaming, or is there a realistic alternative to the compilers I have seen retailing for ~$1,500 US? I'd really appreciate any help/advice anyone can offer.

There are several possible COBOL options in the Linux realm; for details see:
http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/languages07.html

There's not anything yet that could be considered 100% viable outside of (rather expensive) commercial options; obviously these sorts of things don't happen without there being a population of people who are interested enough to be willing to invest the time necessary to implement something.

cbbrowne@hex.net

Resetting the term (2)

Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 16:44:25 -0700
From: david, david@kalifornia.com

You posted a program to reset your console should the text become garbled. I thought I would mention that most distributions, Slackware notably, come with such a program that does this and more.

reset will clear your tty, restore sane tty settings, and perform general tty cleanups. You should find this little utility just about anywhere :)

David

Re: Help Wanted : newbie (3)

Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 22:46:15 +0200 (CEST)
From: rsmith@xs4all.nl

In anwser to your questions in the September issue of the Linux Gazette:
I recently purchased Red Hat 5.1 and got it running. Evidently I was lucky in that I have a fairly full FAT 32 Win 98 drive and kind of stumbled through the defrag / fips / boot to CD / repartition / full install with LILO process. Everything worked, but I'm a little nonplussed. A few topics I'd absolutely love to get feedback on... Turns out I have a lousy WinModem. I can see the feedback now, (Run it raid of hacking scripts or the like, but my problem is thus: Where is a (succinct) list of what gets run when, from where, and why. I'd love to tweak everything if only I could find it.

Linux is a complex OS, so the list isn't succint. There's a description of the boot process in the System Administrator's Guide. If you're new to Linux, I'd recommend you give the SAG a good browse. There's *lots* of useful information there. You should have an HTML copy installed in /usr/doc/LDP/sag.

The Network Administrator's Guide (/usr/doc/LDP/nag) is also good to have, but the HOWTO's are better if you just need "cookbook" style docs. The HOWTO's are in /usr/doc/HOWTO. You should fire up Midnight Commander (mc) from the command line and take a look around /usr/doc.

I have something called an "Ensoniq Audio PCI" sound card with "legacy emulation" I don't even know how to begin to get this thing working. What are the first steps in enabling hardware?

There is a PCI-HOWTO and a Sound-HOWTO.

Where do I get information on mounting drives (FAT 32 especially)

In the Config-HOWTO or the archives of the Red Hat mailing lists.

I think my printer works (at least text does), but how do I print things (man pages)

Text and postscript are easy. Fortunately most things are convertable to postscript. In this case use: 

 
	man -t CommandOrSubject | lpr
This is covered in the man page.

If you haven't joined any of the Red Hat mailing lists, you might consider doing so. Be warned though; they tend to be busy lists (http://www.redhat.com/support/).

Welcome to Linux...

Tony

Clearing the Screen (1)

Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 11:56:53 -0700
From: Anthony Christopher, anthonyc@blarg.net

I have seen a lot of hints for restoring a trashed screen or window, but none of them mention the reset and clear commands. Are these commands deprecated, do they have unwanted side effects, or are they ineffective in certain situations?

When I have cat'ed an executable, I usually just type: reset <ENTER> and let the garbage scroll off the screen.

If, for some reason, I find the garbage characters annoying, I follow this command by typing: clear <ENTER>

Anthony Christopher

Re: simultaneous versions of kernels

Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 22:01:22 +0200
From: Henner Eisen, eis@baty.hanse.de

Just my 0.02 Euro:

Most of the installation problems are caused by interaction with the linux distribution's default installation method. You can easily work around this by simply not installing your compiled kernel. Lilo and insmod support loading directly from the compilation directory.

Just unpack your kernel in an arbitrary directory, say /home/kernel/linux-test, apply any patches and compile: make [x|menu|old]config; make dep; make zImage modules. But do neither make install nor make modules_install.

Then add something like this to your /etc/lilo.conf: 

 
# Linux bootable partition config begins
# test new (not installed) kernel just compiled in directory
# /home/kernel/linux-test.
image = /home/kernel/linux-test/arch/i386/boot/zImage
root = /dev/hda3
label = test
append= " MODPATH=/home/kernel/linux-test/modules/ "
# Linux bootable partition config ends
#
and run lilo whenever you have recompiled your kernel image.

When booting, choose "test" from the lilo prompt. The kernel will pass MODPATH to the environment of init and any startup routines that insmod's kernel modules will fetch them automatically from the kernel compilation tree.

(If you additionally want to insmod some modules by hand from a root shell, MODPATH might be unset. But scripts can still extract that information from /proc/cmdline).

Henner

Question about your Linux Gazette post

Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 10:14:47 -0600 (MDT)
From: "Michael J. Hammel", mjhammel@fastlane.net

In a previous message, mjsendzi@engmail.uwaterloo.ca says: is there an url for this program?

No, not that I know of. A couple of people have asked this. It's part of the core set of files in my Red Hat 4.2 distribution. Units has been around so long, and is available on so many different Unix platforms, that I suspect most distributions have a copy of it somewhere. On my RH4.2 it's under /usr/bin. 

 
mjhammel(ttyp2)$ type units
units is /usr/bin/units

mjhammel(ttyp0)$ units
501 units, 41 prefixes

You have: 3 miles
You want: kilometers
        * 4.828032
        / 0.20712373
Michael J. Hammel

COBOL Compilers for Linux

Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 22:54:19 -0500
From: cbbrowne@hex.net

Concerning the following, recently posted in Linux Gazette:

I have a friend who is doing a refresher course in Cobol in a Unix environment. I have suggested that she run Linux, and pick up a cheap / shareware copy of a Cobol compiler for Linux from somewhere. Knowing absolutely nothing about either Linux or Cobol, am I dreaming, or is there a realistic alternative to the compilers I have seen retailing for ~$1,500 US? I'd really appreciate any help/advice anyone can offer.

There are several possible COBOL options in the Linux realm; for details see:
http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/languages07.html

There's not anything yet that could be considered 100% viable outside of (rather expensive) commercial options; obviously these sorts of things don't happen without there being a population of people who are interested enough to be willing to invest the time necessary to implement something.

cbbrowne@hex.net

Resetting the term (2)

Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 16:44:25 -0700
From: david, david@kalifornia.com

You posted a program to reset your console should the text become garbled. I thought I would mention that most distributions, Slackware notably, come with such a program that does this and more.

reset will clear your tty, restore sane tty settings, and perform general tty cleanups. You should find this little utility just about anywhere :)

David

Re: Help Wanted : newbie (3)

Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1998 22:46:15 +0200 (CEST)
From: rsmith@xs4all.nl

In anwser to your questions in the September issue of the Linux Gazette:
I recently purchased Red Hat 5.1 and got it running. Evidently I was lucky in that I have a fairly full FAT 32 Win 98 drive and kind of stumbled through the defrag / fips / boot to CD / repartition / full install with LILO process. Everything worked, but I'm a little nonplussed. A few topics I'd absolutely love to get feedback on... Turns out I have a lousy WinModem. I can see the feedback now, (Run it raid of hacking scripts or the like, but my problem is thus: Where is a (succinct) list of what gets run when, from where, and why. I'd love to tweak everything if only I could find it.

Linux is a complex OS, so the list isn't succint. There's a description of the boot process in the System Administrator's Guide. If you're new to Linux, I'd recommend you give the SAG a good browse. There's *lots* of useful information there. You should have an HTML copy installed in /usr/doc/LDP/sag.

The Network Administrator's Guide (/usr/doc/LDP/nag) is also good to have, but the HOWTO's are better if you just need "cookbook" style docs. The HOWTO's are in /usr/doc/HOWTO. You should fire up Midnight Commander (mc) from the command line and take a look around /usr/doc.

I have something called an "Ensoniq Audio PCI" sound card with "legacy emulation" I don't even know how to begin to get this thing working. What are the first steps in enabling hardware?

There is a PCI-HOWTO and a Sound-HOWTO.

Where do I get information on mounting drives (FAT 32 especially)

In the Config-HOWTO or the archives of the Red Hat mailing lists.

I think my printer works (at least text does), but how do I print things (man pages)

Text and postscript are easy. Fortunately most things are convertable to postscript. In this case use: 

 
	man -t CommandOrSubject | lpr
This is covered in the man page.

If you haven't joined any of the Red Hat mailing lists, you might consider doing so. Be warned though; they tend to be busy lists (http://www.redhat.com/support/).

Welcome to Linux...

Tony

Clearing the Screen (1)

Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 11:56:53 -0700
From: Anthony Christopher, anthonyc@blarg.net

I have seen a lot of hints for restoring a trashed screen or window, but none of them mention the reset and clear commands. Are these commands deprecated, do they have unwanted side effects, or are they ineffective in certain situations?

When I have cat'ed an executable, I usually just type: reset <ENTER> and let the garbage scroll off the screen.

If, for some reason, I find the garbage characters annoying, I follow this command by typing: clear <ENTER>

Anthony Christopher

Re: simultaneous versions of kernels

Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1998 22:01:22 +0200
From: Henner Eisen, eis@baty.hanse.de

Just my 0.02 Euro:

Most of the installation problems are caused by interaction with the linux distribution's default installation method. You can easily work around this by simply not installing your compiled kernel. Lilo and insmod support loading directly from the compilation directory.