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Editor: Michael Orr
Technical Editor: Heather Stern
Senior Contributing Editor: Jim Dennis
Contributing Editors: Michael "Alex" Williams, Don Marti, Ben Okopnik
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TWDT 1 (gzipped text file) TWDT 2 (HTML file) are files containing the entire issue: one in text format, one in HTML. They are provided strictly as a way to save the contents as one file for later printing in the format of your choice; there is no guarantee of working links in the HTML version. | |||
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http://www.linuxgazette.com/This page maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com
Copyright © 1996-2000 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc. | |||
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Write the Gazette at gazette@ssc.com
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Send tech-support questions, answers and article ideas to The Answer Gang <linux-questions-only@ssc.com>. Other mail (including questions or comments about the Gazette itself) should go to <gazette@ssc.com>. All material sent to either of these addresses will be considered for publication in the next issue. Please send answers to the original querent too, so that s/he can get the answer without waiting for the next issue.
Unanswered questions appear here. Questions with answers--or answers only--appear in The Answer Gang, 2-Cent Tips, or here, depending on their content.
Before asking a question, please check the Linux Gazette FAQ to see if it has been answered there.
No unanswered 'help wanted' letters this month.
Fri, 3 Nov 2000 09:39:41 -0000
From: Arthur G S Wilkinson <agswilk@servalan.org>
Subject: LG FTP listings have bogus "@" signs in them
I have noticed that the Linux Guides FTP site at ftp://ftp.ssc.com returns the directory listing in a format which appears garbled in some versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Using the Windows command line FTP program the unix user and group ID's appear with @'s in them this appears to confuse IE.
Can anything be done about this?
[This was an artifact of our upgrade of wu-ftpd from 2.6.0 to 2.6.1 following advisories against version 2.6.0. As near as I can tell, "@" in the directory listings resulted from a defect in this new version of wu-ftpd. For this reason and because wu-ftpd was now experiencing segvs, indicating possible buffer overflows or memory allocation problems, we've retired it in favor of a relative newcomer, muddleftpd: http://www.arach.net.au/~wildfire/muddleftpd/mailing.html From the netnoise I've found so far, this daemon is well-recommended. The configuration is very simple and covers our needs nicely. Take a look and give us some feedback if you like. -Dan.]
Sun, 5 Nov 2000 11:19:15 EST
From: <Yestonight@cs.com>
Subject: suggestion
would help if content had a concise statement of what each article holds. sentence could appears only when cusor passes over.
[Regarding the first part (a concise abstract for each article), we'll consider that the next time we revise the Gazette's layout. The current Table of Contents doesn't have room for it, and we really want all the article links visible with as little scrolling as possible.What should the concise statement contain that isn't already in the title? I try to make the title as descriptive as possible, so that readers will not miss an article about something they're concerned about simply because they didn't realize the article would be about that.
Regarding the second part (making the sentance appear only when the cursor passes over it) would require Javascript, and we have preferred to keep the site free of Javascript, style sheets, etc--anything which might cause problems for some browsers. Perhaps in the future we'll revisit the question of Javascript now that it has a browser-neutral standard (ECMAscript).
Thu, 9 Nov 2000 16:36:35 -0600
From: THE MAGE <mage1@hehe.com>
Subject: Getting all the FTP files in one file
Dear editor, I would like to know if there is any way I could download all the issues in HTML format within a tar.gz or .zip file. I know that I could download each issue alone,but it would be very helping if you could tell me a way to download all the magazine's issues together.
[There is no single file that contains all the issues. However, you can have a program download all the files at once without human intervention.
- ftp
- ncftp
- rsync
- See http://www.linuxgazette.com/faq/index.html#rsync
- mirror
- I don't know the options...
I personally would use ncftp for a one-time download, or rsync to set up something which would regularly via cron, or rsync on demand via a simple shell script. The beauty of rsync is that it downloads only the portions of files that have changed, saving time and bandwidth, especially if your Internet access is expensive. -Mike.]
Fri, 10 Nov 2000 19:29:16 -0500
From: Andy Kinsey <ak47@pioneeris.net>
Subject: Kudos
Just a note regarding one of your 2-cent tip submissions:
I attempted to perform the 2-cent tip, from the March 2000 Linux Gazette that places a weather screen on the desktop. I was having difficulty, so I e-mailed the author, Matthew Willis. Matt not only replied quickly to my question, but suggested a way to fix the problem, which worked. Thanks to Matt's assistance (which he did not have to do), I discovered the problem and learned something new in the process. Matt is a credit to Linux Gazette, and I'll be looking forward to many more tips from him and others like him.
Sun, 12 Nov 2000 01:16:01 EST
From: Mike Cathcart <mike_cathcart@hotmail.com>
Subject: dmesg explained
I just finished reading the article
'dmesg explained'. Good article, although
I thought you might like to know that some of the excerpts from dmesg that are
shown are not visible in Konqueror. Basically, any excerpt that did not include
a <BR>
tag are not rendered. This can be fixed by adding a to the end of
those excerpts, which will not change the appearance in other browsers. I'll
be filing a bug report with
kde.org, but I thought you might want to 'fix'
the page in the meantime.
You mean all the <PRE> blocks need a
<BR> just before the </PRE>? Or they
need it on every line?
Actually, they just need a <BR> anywhere inside the
<PRE>...</PRE>, it doesn't really matter where or how
many. Kinda weird, but that seems to do it.
[I added a<BR>tag inside the manual page excerpt. Does it look all right in Konqueror?I'm not interested in putting
<BR>tags in other articles, for this browser bug. I suppose if it were Netscape or IE, I'd have to. -Mike.]
Sun, 12 Nov 2000 01:16:01 EST
From: BanDiDo <bandido@drinkordie.com>
Subject: Kudos for LG
LG is awesome, if you charged for it I would subscribe. When I get some free time one of these I hope to pen a few articles and such.
With appreciation for a fine publication
BanDiDo
Thanks. Linux Gazette was established as a free zine and we firmly intend to keep it that way. There are already paid magazines out there (we publish one of them :), but LG fills a unique niche. No other e-zine I know of (Linux or otherwise) is read, not just through a single point of access, but in large part via mirrors or off-line (via FTP files, CD-ROMS, etc).
Also, because LG's articles are written by our readers, you (readers) are truly writing your own magazine. I only put things together and insert a few comments here and there, and occasionally write an article. If it weren't for our volunteer authors, there would be no Linux Gazette. When I first took over editing in June 1999, I used to wonder every month whether there would be enough articles. But every month my mailbox magically fills with enough articles not just for a minimal zine (5-10 technical articles), but for a robust zine with 15+ articles covering a variety of content (for newbies and oldbies, technical articles and cartoons). A year ago, we never predicted there would be cartoons in the Gazette, but the authors just wrote in and offered them, and it's been a great addition. It is truly a privilege to work with such a responsive group of readers, and years from now when I'm retired (hi, Margie!), I'm sure I will remember fondly what an opportunity it was.
Our biggest thanks go to The Answer Gang, especially Heather and Jim, who each spend 20+ hours a month _unpaid_ compiling The Answer Gang, 2-Cent Tips and The Mailbag. This has really made things a lot easier for me.
We look forward to printing some articles with your name on them. See the Author Info section at http://www.linuxgazette.com/faq/index.html#author
And you other readers who haven't contributed anything yet, get off your asses and send something in! Write a letter for the Mailbag, answer a tech-support question, join The Answer Gang, do a translation for our foreign-language sites, or write an article. What do *you* wish the Gazette had more of? *That's* what it needs from you.
Would be lovely if you guys established an EFNET irc channel :)
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Contents: |
Submitters, send your News Bytes items in PLAIN TEXT format. Other formats may be rejected without reading. You have been warned! A one- or two-paragraph summary plus URL gets you a better announcement than an entire press release.
December 2000 Linux Journal
The December issue of Linux Journal is on newsstands now. This issue focuses on System Administration. Click here to view the table of contents, or here to subscribe. All articles through December 1999 are available for public reading at http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/mags.html. Recent articles are available on-line for subscribers only at http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/.
ASP Linux
Caldera
OREM, UT-November 1, 2000: In a follow up to last month's item, Caldera Systems announced its Linux management solution (formerly code-named "Cosmos") has been named Caldera Volution. The product, currently in open beta, is still available for download from Caldera's Web site at www.calderasystems.com/beta Volution is a browser- and directory-based management product for Linux systems that utilizes the strengths of LDAP directories. Using Volution, network administrators can create policies and profiles to manage a half dozen or thousands of Linux systems, without having to individually manage/touch each.
OREM, UT-November 6, 2000: Caldera Systems, Inc. announces its upcoming Linux/Unix Power Solutions Tour 2000 which runs from November 14th through December 12th. The 12-city tour targets those who develop and deploy on Linux and Unix-including VARs, ASPs, ISVs, developers, resellers, consultants and corporate IT professionals. This tour presents Caldera's vision of the future for Linux and UNIX and Linux training. Each presentation on the tour includes two sessions: a morning business briefing and an afternoon Linux Essentials course with hands-on training, including for-sale software and solutions guides. You can get more details from www.calderasystems.com/partners/tour, or call toll-free on 1-866-890-8388.
NeoLinux
Storm
Storm sent us some links which may be of interest to those wanting to find out about this distribution...
Upcoming conferences and events
Courtesy Linux Journal. For the latest updates, see LJ's Industry Events page.
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USENIX Winter - LISA 2000 | December 3-8, 2000 New Orleans, LA www.usenix.org |
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Pluto Meeting 2000 | December 9-11, 2000 Terni, Italy meeting.pluto.linux.it |
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LinuxWorld Conference & Expo | January 30 - February 2, 2001 New York, NY www.linuxworldexpo.com |
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ISPCON | February 5-8, 2001 Toronto, Canada events.internet.com |
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Internet World Spring | March 12-16, 2001 Los Angeles, CA events.internet.com |
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Game Developers Conference | March 20-24, 2001 San Jose, CA www.cgdc.com |
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CeBit | March 22-28, 2001 Hannover, Germany www.cebit.de |
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Linux Business Expo | April 2-5, 2001 Chicago, IL www.linuxbusinessexpo.com |
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Strictly e-Business Solutions Expo | May 23-24, 2001 Location unknown at present www.strictlyebusinessexpo.com |
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USENIX Annual Technical Conference | June 25-30, 2001 Boston, MA www.usenix.org |
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PC Expo | June 26-29, 2001 New York, NY www.pcexpo.com |
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Internet World | July 10-12, 2001 Chicago, IL events.internet.com |
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O'Reilly Open Source Convention | July 23-26, 2001 San Diego, CA conferences.oreilly.com |
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LinuxWorld Conference & Expo | Conference: August 27-30, Exposition: August 28-30, 2001 San Francisco, CA www.linuxworldexpo.com |
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Linux Lunacy Co-Produced by Linux Journal and Geek Cruises | October 21-28, 2001 Eastern Carribean www.geekcruises.com |
OEone and Tatung Join Forces
Toronto, ON - October 31, 2000: A joint agreement has been announced between Ottawa-based OEone and Tatung Co. of Canada. The two companies will be working together to bring fully-integrated, Linux-based Internet Computer solutions to leading OEM customers. The core of this deal is an exclusive arrangement between the two parties to fully integrate OEone's Linux-based Operating Environment and web applications with Tatung's All-In-One plus additional custom computer designs.
SGI and ePeople Linux support
The agreement also allows the more than 200 SGI open source operating system support technicians to join the ePeople marketplace to provide fee-based Linux support to anyone who needs it. SGI also offers Web-based service incident packs, called WebPacks, from its Online Helpdesk. WebPacks are prepaid service agreements available in quantities of 5, 10 or 20 incidents, (e.g. a 5-incident WebPack costs $449 (U.S. list)).
Clarksville Linux Users Group
Our Editor, Mike, recommends looking up GLUE (Groups of Linux Users Everywhere) for anyone interested in finding like-minded individuals in their area, or in publicising new groups.
IBM/KDE League and Voice Technology
November 15, 2000 (Las Vegas, Nevada): Further to their existing support for Linux, IBM are now joining the KDE League, and integrating their Via Voice technology into KDE. IBM's ViaVoice is currently the only voice recognition software commercially available for the Linux operating environment.
The KDE League is a group of industry leaders and KDE developers formed to focus on facilitating the promotion, distribution and development of KDE. The League will not be directly involved in developing the core KDE libraries and applications, but rather will focus on promoting the use of KDE and development of KDE software by third party developers.
Linuxcare and Eazel partner
SAN FRANCISCO Nov. 7, 2000: Linuxcare and Eazel announced a partnership geared toward speeding Linux development.
Under the agreement, Linuxcare will provide email support services to customers of Eazel's Network User Environment which includes Eazel Services and the Nautilus client for Linux systems which can be downloaded at www.eazel.com. Linuxcare will also maintain a Linux knowledgebase support site at Eazel.com by capturing documentation and software updates, as well as managing and updating support FAQs. Linuxcare's services will support the preview of Eazel's Internet services and Nautilus client that is being integrated with the GNOME 1.4 windowing system.
Training Pages (UK's Largest Online Training Directory) Reaches 10,000 Courses
Training Pages runs entirely on open source software, including the Linux operating system, the Apache web server, the MySQL database and the PHP scripting language.
Announcing Release 0.9.2 of the Computer History Graphing Project
Version 0.9.2 of the Computer History Graphing Project has now been released. The project aims to graph all of computerdom in one large family tree. This version contains an updated version of the unified parser program, parsech. It can now optionally output a DBM hash containing the parsed data. The documentation has also been updated, in addition to the data trees. More specifically, the NeXT, Palm, Windows, and Apple Darwin trees have all been updated. The project's web site is located at comp-hist.sourceforge.net.
Linux Links
Adobe beta tested a Linux version of FrameMaker, then decided not to release a product. Linux Weekly News speculates why.
Is the Internet in China, rather than heralding an age of open communication, actually solidifying Big Brother's control? Linux Journal author Bryan Pfaffenberger argues so in his web article The Internet in China.
Tips on getting that darned mouse wheel to scroll under X.
Links from The Duke of URL:
Open source software is NOT free! Rick Lehrbaum examines the hours and sweat invested by individuals and companies in creating, testing, and maintaining it.
The open-source life The author of an important development tool for Linux programmers, writes about his project (the LTT) and complex GPL copyright issues.
The coders' collective: FreeDevelopers.net is seeking to reinvent the way companies produce software. Is the world ready for a democratically-elected software company?
Open-source rumble? A look at the rivalries in the open source community, and the effect on software development.
MSNBC have a good report from COMDEX 2000, focusing on the rise of embedded Linux systems.
A look at Gnutella, and possible legal implications.
Open-source developer's agreement (clauses for the contract between developers and their employers)
Slashdot review of a book explaining the Open Source revolution to non-tekkies.
From Linuxworld, an article alleging that MS is using Linux code in the latest Windows versions to make their product more stable.
Traceroute Java Servlet sources (under Linux) are now available for free downloading from the http://cities.lk.net/trdownload.html
IBM Small Business Suite for Linux
Somers, NY, November 6, 2000 . . . IBM today announced the industry's first Linux-based integrated software solution for small businesses. It delivers the tools necessary to help customers with messaging and collaboration, productivity, Web site creation and design, and data management. IBM also includes a fully integrated install program.
"This offering provides small businesses, and the Value-Added Resellers (VARs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) that serve them, everything they need to do serious e-business on Linux.," said Scott Handy, director, Linux solutions marketing, IBM Software. "The IBM Small Business Suite is first-of-a-kind for Linux and delivers the three most requested servers: database, e-mail and Web application server software, delivering a great solution at a great price."
The suite is available for US$499 at www.ibm.com/shopibm. Site licenses are also available. Supported distributions include Caldera, Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux. The installer program and desktop software are available in ten European and Asian languages.
The Small Business Suite for Linux includes the following software:
Wolfram Announces Mathematica 4.1
Product details are available at www.wolfram.com/products/mathematica/newin41.
Omnis Studio 3.0 now brings business solutions to the web even faster
Omnis Software has announced the release of Omnis Studio 3.0, the latest version of their 4GL rapid application development (RAD) program. The new release incorporates extensive changes to their web server and Web ClientT technologies, significantly speeding up web-based business applications. It also includes a range of other enhancements to make the development experience more intuitive, easier to use, and more powerful.
Omnis Studio is a high-performance visual RAD tool that provides a component-based environment for building GUI interfaces within e-commerce, database and client/server applications. Development and deployment of Omnis Studio applications can occur simultaneously in Linux, Windows, and Mac OS environments without changing the application code.
A demonstration copy of Omnis Studio 3.0 can be downloaded from the web site: www.omnis.net and more details of the new version are available at: www.omnis.net/v3.
Backup Utility Integrated into Linux NetworX Evolocity Clusters
The reliability of tape device technology today is extremely high, but the potential for errors on the tapes following the writing of the archive can still occur in some cases. BRU has the ability to effectively detect and recover from errors when reading a tape to allow successful completion of the restore.
Evolocity cluster systems include computational hardware, ClusterWorX(TM) management software, RapidFlow(TM) 10/100 and Gigabit Ethernet Switch, applications, and storage, including the BRU backup utility.
Tribes(tm) 2 Coming to Linux: Beta Testers Needed
Tustin, California - November 9, 2000: Loki Software, Inc., publisher of commercial games for the Linux operating system, announces an agreement with Sierra Studios(tm) to bring the highly-anticipated Tribes(tm) 2 to Linux.
Loki is porting this first-person action game alongside the Windows development, and is now accepting beta tester applications for the Linux version. Interested participants should visit www.lokigames.com and complete an online registration form.
Mahogany 0.60 GTK+/Win32 mail client with Python scripting
A new release of the `Mahogany' e-Mail and News client has been made. Mahogany is an OpenSource cross-platform mail and news client. It is available for X11/Unix and MS Windows platforms, supporting a wide range of protocols and standards, including POP3, IMAP and full MIME support as well as secure communications via SSL. Thanks to its built-in Python interpreter it can be extended far beyond its original functionality.
Source and binaries for a variety of Linux and Unix systems are available at http://mahogany.sourceforge.net/ and http://sourceforge.net/projects/mahogany/
Binaries for Win32 systems and Debian packages will also be made available shortly.
Opera for Linux Beta2
The latest beta of Opera for Linux is available at Opera.com.
Announcing GtkRadiant 1.1 Beta for Linux and Win32
Loki Software, Inc. and QERadiant.com are pleased to release GtkRadiant 1.1 beta for Linux and Win32. GtkRadiant is a cross-platform version of the Quake III Arena level editor Q3Radiant. GtkRadiant offers several improvements over Q3Radiant and many new features.
For more information, please visit http://www.qeradiant.com/gtkradiant.shtml.
Open Source Development Toolkit from Epitera
LAS VEGAS - November 15, 2000: AbsoluteX, a new Open Source development toolkit, was officially launched at COMDEX 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. AbsoluteX is an X-Window developer toolkit created by Epitera ( http://www.epitera.com ) to streamline and facilitate the process of developing customized GUIs (graphical user interfaces) for Linux. It is available for free download at ( http://www.absolutex.org ). Epitera believes AbsoluteX will help get Linux out of the exclusive IT world and into the mainstream desktop world of home, work and novice users.
Open Motif available on IA64 TurboLinux
Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc. have announced the first port of Motif to the upcoming IA64 platform from Intel. ICS says that this is important for the Linux community, because most of the existing Enterprise applications written for UNIX platforms (e.g., Suns, HP, SGI, etc.) use Motif as a GUI toolkit. Without the port of Motif to the IA64, it will be difficult and expensive for Enterprises to migrate to Linux.
A full press release is available. The software is also available for download from: http://www.motifzone.net/download/dldform.php
The Answer Gang
Caldera Names Linux Management Product Volution --or--
Windows NT Event Log on a Linux Box
Two OS
Best Linux Distro For A Newbie...?
newbie installation question
PPP protocol stack modification
What IS "The Internet" anyway?
Classified Disk - Low-level Format
GPM is interfering with x...
Graphics Programming for Printing / Faxing
networked machine goes to sleep
Internet server specifications --or--
'neighbour table overflow'
Networking
DSL on Linux Information
sticky notes
Greetings from Heather SternHello, everyone, and welcome to issue 60... that means the whole 'zine has
been here for 5 years now? That's just amazing to me. In fact I'm coming
up on 3 years as the HTML wizardess for TAG in only a few months. Y2K
is almost over and all the usual questions are still here. The only thing
different is that politics grow more boneheaded every year
I don't care. I
have my own plans for the season - what a fun Xmas this is going to be!
This seems to be the season that I get to help my friends who are only now getting into Linux (computing at all, in one case) get themselves all tucked in and snug in their distros. With any luck enough of you out there are doing the same, and we'll see a new blush on some HOWTOs in the LDP project which have gotten a bit dusty. (If you might want to work on that, see the thread "newbie installation question" below) For one of these pals, I'm not even sure which distro we are going to end up using... only that she can't bear to see a poor old 486 trapped under the yoke of Redmond any longer... (For a dissertation on selecting distros, see the thread "Best Linux Distro for a Newbie" where I recycled more than my fair share of electrons babbling about it.)
We just got a sweet little toy for ourselves here in the Starshine network, specifically, an NIC (New Internet Computer) from ThinkNIC.com. It comes with a CD, Linux based, and you just plug it in (power, modem or ether, it comes with speakers and keyboard), add a monitor and off you go. Errr, it didn't like our really old VGA monitor. I wonder just how long it's been since any of our machines have used that monitor for graphics at all... um, where was I? Oh yeah. It took a little while to find ssh and VNC in there, but it's a pretty useful setup. Nonetheless, we're going to see if we can run any other CD based distros on it too. This will make for hours of fun.
Now I suppose it's possible that you would be thinking of candied yams
and duck dinners and the large fellow with the sack of toys about now.
In our household it's more likely to be Bootable Business Card stocking
stuffers (er, after we shave the contents down a bit - the RW business
cards Jim got me are a bit small - but I'm sure you can find a dozen
places selling 'em if you go to Google with the search keys
business card and CDRW.
Depending on the nerdiness factor in your household, the CDRW's might
make a great stuffer even if left blank
As for the meal of the season, since Jim and I are heading out to LISA 2000 in New Orleans, the annual sysadmin's conference, we are going to enjoy some jazz and jambalaya. We'll also have a chance to hear Illiad as a keynote speaker. BOFH meets Dust Puppy? Oh my. This is gonna be fun...
Wherever the season takes you, and whatever it happens to bring, remember
we're all here to make Linux a little more fun!
LDAP users: look to Caldera.From Caldera
As a followup to the LDAP discussions that have been answered here:
Caldera Systems' Linux management solution (formerly code-named "Cosmos") has been named Caldera Volution. The product, currently in open beta, is available for download from Caldera's Web site at
http://www.calderasystems.com/beta
More details can be found in our News Bytes (Distribution section).
Windows NT Event Log on a Linux BoxAnswers by: Dmitriy M. Labutin, César A. K. Grossmann, Niek Rijnbout
Hi,
You can dump NT event log with dumpel utility (it comes with WindowsNT Resource kit) into flat file.
Cheers
- http://www.eventreporter.com/en
...for a $25 application to send the NT log to a syslog host.
Regards
The app Nick mentions also appears to deal well with Win2000 and offers email as well as syslog transfer of the events. -- Heather
Two OSFrom Juan Pryor on Tue, 7 Nov 2000
Answered by: Heather Stern
I'm pretty new to Linux and I was wondering if there is a way in which I
can have two OSes working at the same time. I mean, I've had some trouble with the people at my house since they want to go back to Win98 and I only have one PC. Is there any win98 program that reboots and starts in Linux and then when the computer reboots it starts in win98 again? Any help will do.
It's very common for Linux users to have their systems setup as dual-boot, sometimes up in MSwin, sometimes running Linux. Some distributions even try to make it easy to turn a box which is completely Windows into a half and half setup (or other divisions as you like).
There is a DOS program named LOADLIN.EXE which can easily load up a Linux kernel kept as a file in the MSwin filesystem somewhere - my friends that do this like to keep their Linux parts under c:\linux so they can find them easily. Loadlin is commonly found in a tools directory on major distro CDs. Of course, you do have to let Windows know that Loadlin needs full CPU control. In that sense, it's no different than setting up a PIF for some really cool DOS game that takes over the box, screen and all. Anyways, there's even a nice GUI available to help you configure it, called Winux, which you can get at http://www.linux-france.org/prj/winux/English ... which, I'm pleased to add, comes in several languages.
It's also possible to setup LILO so that it always prefers to boot MSwin (the option is often called 'dos') instead of Linux... in fact, I recommend this too, unless you want to not be able to boot Linux from anything but a floppy if MSwin should happen to mangle its drive space too far.
Now this is kind of different from "two OSes working at the same time"... It is possible to run VMware, and have a couple of different setups running together, but doing this might be rather confusing to family who are not used to anything but Windows. They might accidentally hit some key combination that switches to the other environment that's running, and think they broke something even if it's all running perfectly.
To finish off - it's also possible to find really friendly boot managers; I've been looking over one named GAG (don't laugh, it's just initials for Spanish words meaning "Graphical Boot Manager") that looks like it might be fun, at http://www.rastersoft.com/gageng.htm. It was just updated, too. Anyways, it can boot up to 9 different choices and has nice icons to use for a lot of different OSs you may have on a system. Unlike LILO and some other boot managers that only replace the DOS "master boot record", though, it takes over a fair chunk of track 0.
Best Linux Distro For A Newbie...?From Michael Lauzon to tag on Tue, 14 Nov 2000
Answers by: Dan Wilder, Ben Okopnik, Heather Stern
I am wondering, what is the best Linux distro for a newbie to learn on (I have been told never to ask this question or it would start a flame war; I of course don't care)...so in your opinion: what is the best Linux distro for a newbie?
--- Michael Lauzon
Slackware. Beause by the time you really get it installed and running, you know a lot more about what's under Linux's hood, than with any other common distribution!
</troll>
--
Dan Wilder
Darn those trolls anyway. They're eating the dahlias now!
<Great Big Troll With Heavy Steel-Toed Boots>
Debian, of course. Not only do you get to learn all the Deep Wizardry, you get all the power tools and a super-easy package installer - just tell it which archive server you want to use, and it installs everything you want!
</GBT>
(The Linux Gazette - your best resource for Linux fun, info, and polite flame wars...
Learning linux is a big definition, some people mean learning the unixlike features that they've never encountered before; some people mean learning to use the same things in Linux that they already know how to use in other systems. These are, to say the least, rather opposite needs...
If you want to goof off learning Linux but are very afraid of touching your hard drive's data, there are a few distributions designed to run off of a CD, or out of RAM. One pretty good one that runs directly from a RAMdisk is Tom's rootboot (http://www.tons.net/rb). While a lot of people use it merely as a rescue disk, Tom himself lives in it day to day. But, it's not graphical. And, it's libc5 based, so it's a little strange to get software for. It uses a different shell than most major distributions, but the same kernels. It's not exactly aimed at "just surfing the web and doing email" which I often hear newbies say that they'd be happy with. Linux Weekly News (http://www.lwn.net) has recently sorted their distributions, so you could find a CD based distro that meets these more mainstream desires fairly easily there.
If you want to learn about things from their raw parts, the way some kids like to learn about cars by putting one together themselves, there is a Linux From Scratch HOWTO stored at the LDP site (http://www.linuxdoc.org).
If the newbie's native language isn't English, he or she probably wants a localized distro, that is, one that installs and whose menus, etc. are in their language. (I'm guessing that such a newbie wouldn't be you - your .sig links were to purely English websites.) You can find a bunch of those at LWN too, but you'll have to go looking at home pages to be sure what languages are covered.
Otherwise, you probably want a "normal" linux, in other words, a major distro. Newbies generally want to be able to ask their local gurus for help, rather than wonder if some random wizard on the internet will ever answer them. If your local techie pals have a favorite, try that - they'll be better at helping you with it than stuff they don't know as well. I could be wrong of course - some techie folks prefer to learn stuff the same time you do, and you can get a great sense of energy by sometimes figuring out a thing here and there faster than they do. But by and large, gaining from someone else's experience will make things smoother, a smooth start will generally be more fun, and enjoying your first experiences will make you more willing to experiment later.
If you like to learn from a book, there are a fair number of books that are about a specific distro, and have a CD of that distro in the back. These are good, but not usually aimed at people who want to dual boot. Just so you know.
The big commercial brands usually try to push that they're an easy install. What they don't push so much is their particular specialty, the market they are aiming for. I've heard good things about Corel (esp. for dual boot plans), I've seen good things with both SuSE and Storm. Mandrake and Debian have both been a little weird to install - not too bad, but I'm experienced, and enjoy wandering around reading the little notes before doing things ... if you want the computer to be bright enough to do it all by itself, these might not be for you. (note, my Mandrake experience is a version old. And they compile everything Pentium optimized, so if things go smoothly, it will usually be a lot faster system.) Several of the brands are now pushing a "graphical installer" which is supposed to be even easier. However, if you have a really bleeding edge video card, it would also make the distro a real pain to install. Storm and RedHat favor graphical over non-graphical installs. LibraNet has a nongraphical install that still gives Debian a somewhat friendlier setup. I hear that Slackware is fairly friendly to people who like to compile their own software, and I never hear anything about their installer, so maybe it is really incredibly easy. Or maybe my friends don't want to tell me about their install woes once they get going, I dunno
If RedHat (6.2, I have to say I haven't tried 7 yet) is where you're going, and their graphical install is a bummer for you, use their "expert" mode. Their "text" mode is almost useless, and they really do have lots of help in expert mode, so it's not as bad as you would think.
In any case, I would recommend backing up your current system if there's anything on it you want to keep, not because the installs are hard - they're nothing like the days before the 1.0 kernel - but because this is the most likely time to really mangle something, and you'll just kick yourself if you need a backup after all and don't have one.
The next thing to consider is your philosophy. Do you want to be a minimalist, only adding stuff that makes sense to you (or that you've heard of), and then add more later? If so, you want a distro that makes it really easy to add more later. Debian and its derivatives are excellent for this - that includes Corel, Libranet, and Storm. SuSE's YaST also does pretty well for this, but they don't update as often... on the other hand, they don't get burned at the bleeding edge a lot, either. If most of the stuff you'll add later is likely to be commercial, RedHat or a derivative like Mandrake might be better - lots of companies ship RedHat compatible rpm's first, and get around to the other distros later, if at all.
If you have a scrap machine to play on, try several distros, one at a time; most of them are available as inexpensive eval disks from the online stores.
If you'd rather install the kitchen sink and take things back out later, any of the "power pack" type stuff, 3 CDs or more in the set, might work for you. Most of these are still based on major distros anyway, there's just a lot more stuff listed, and you swap a couple of CDs in. Umm, the first things you'll probably end up deleting are the packages to support languages you don't use...
A minimal but still graphical install should fit in a gigabyte or so - might want 2. A more thorough setup should go on 6 Gb of disk or so (you can, of course, have more if you like). It's possible to have usable setups in 300 to 500 Mb, but tricky... so I wouldn't recommend that a newbie impose such restrictions on himself.
To summarize, decide how much disk you want to use (if any!) and whether you want to go for a minimal, a mostly-normal, or a full-to-the-brim environment. Consider what sort of help you're going to depend on, and that might make your decision for you. But at the end, strive to have fun.
WITBLD = "What Is The Best Linux Distro"
Well, I bought Caldera OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4, so I am looking for
people who have had experience with OpenLinux. I still haven't
installed it on a computer yet, as I need to upgrade the computer;
but once I do that I will install it (though i do plan on buying
other distros to try out).
--- Michael Lauzon
newbie installation questionFrom vinod kumar d
Answers by: Heather Stern, Ben Okopnik
Hello I'm about to install Redhat Linux as a dual boot on my machine running win98 that came preconfig'd to use my 30 gigs all for windows, and for all the browsing i did through red hat's online docs, i could'nt figure out one basic thing: should i have an unallocated partition to begin installation, or will disk druid/fips do the "non-descructive repartitioning" as part of the install?
No, RedHat does not do non-destructive repartitioning. Yes, you do need to have another partition (or at least unallocated space on the drive) for the installation - in fact, you should have a minimum of two partitions for Linux, one for the data/programs/etc., and the other one for a swap partition (a max of 128MB for a typical home system.) There are reasons for splitting the disk into even more partitions... unfortunately, I haven't found any resources that explain it in any detail, and a number of these reasons aren't all that applicable to a home system anyway.
if i do need the unallocated partition, which is the
best partition software to use cos i have stuff that i
dont want to lose.
It's also what comes in CorelLinux...
If you're more into Linux than MSwin and comfortable with booting under a rescue environment, I'm pleased to note that gparted (the GNU partition editor) deals well with FAT32 filesystems. Tuxtops uses that.
If you're feeling cheap, FIPS is a program that can do the drive division after booting from a DOS floppy, which you can easily make under the MSwin you already have. I'm pretty sure a copy of FIPS is on the redhat CD as a tool, so you could use that. It doesn't do anything but cut the C: partition into two parts. You'd still use disk druid later to partition the Linux stuff the way you want.
(Of course mentioning buying a preloaded dual boot from one of the Linux vendors like Tuxtops, VA Linux, Penguin, or others is a bit late. I'm sure you're fairly fond of your 30 Gb system with the exception of wanting to set it up just a bit more.)
None of these repartitioners will move your MS Windows swap file though. In the initial setup MS' is as likely to have the swap near the beginning of the drive, or the end. I recommend that you use the control panel advanced system options to turn off the swap file, and your favorite defragmenter, and then run a nice solid backup of your windows stuff before going onwards.
This isn't because Linux installs might be worse than you think (though there's always a chance) but because Windows is fragile enough on its own, and frankly, backups under any OS are such a pain that some people don't do them very often, or test that they're good when they do. (I can hardly imagine something more horrible than to have a problem, pat yourself on the back for being good enough to do regular backups, and discover that the last two weeks of them simply are all bad. Eek!) So now, while you're thinking:
"cos i have stuff that i dont want to lose."
is a better time than most!
FIPS does indeed force you to do a few things manually (such as defragmenting your original partition); I've come to think that I would rather do that than let PM or others of its ilk do some Mysterious Something in the background, leaving me without a hint of where to look if something does go wrong. Make sure to follow the FIPS instructions about backing up your original boot sector; again, I've never had it fail on me, but best to "have it and not need it, rather than need it and not have it."
In regard to the Windows swap file, the best way I've found to deal with it is by running the defrag, rebooting into DOS, and deleting the swapfile from the root directory. Windows will rebuild it, without even complaining, the next time you start it.
i really tried a lot of faq's before asking you, so
could you go easy if you're planning to:
a) flame me about rtfm'ing first.
If we should do this we generally are at least kind enough to say which F'ing M's to R. Which brings another thought to mind. FAQs and HOWTOs are okay, but they are sort of... dry. Maybe you could do an article for Linux Gazette about your experience, and "make linux a little more fun" (our motto) for others who are doing the dual boot install their first time out.
Unfortunately it's really sad that the FAQs and HOWTOs aren't as useful to everyone as they could be
If one of them was pretty close and just plain wasn't quite right, or wasn't obvious until you already went through it, give a shot at improving it a little, and send your notes back to the maintainer. If he or she doesn't answer you in a long time (say a month or two) let us know, maybe get together with some friends and see if you can become its new maintainer.
To be the maintainer of a Linux project doesn't always mean to write everything in it, just sort of to try and make sure it stays with the times. Linus himself doesn't write every little fragment of code in the kernel - though maybe he reads most of it :D - he maintains it, and keeps it from falling apart in confusion. This is really important. Documents need this too.
Because these things are not meant to be ground in stone, they're written to be useful and yeah, sometimes it happens that the fella who first wrote a given doc has moved on to other things. Meanwhile folks like you join the linux bandwagon every month and still need them, but Linux changes and so do the distros.
But, it's ok if you personally can't go for that. It's enough if we can find out what important HOWTOs could stand some improvement, since maybe it will get some more people working on them.
b) ignoring me totally.
btw really liked your answers in the column (well
here's hoping some old fashioned flattery might do the
trick
)
thanks in advance...
vinod
PPP protocol stack modificationFrom David Wojik
Answered by: Heather Stern, Paul MacKerras
I need to modify the PPP daemon code to enable dynamic requests to come in and renegotiate link parameters. I also need to make it gather packet statistics. Do you know of any textbooks or other documentation that explain the structure of the PPP protocol stack implementation? The HowTos only explain how to use Linux PPP, not how to modify it.
Thanks,
Dave
Still, renegotiating the link sounds interesting (I'm not sure I see what circumstances should cause it ... your modem renegotiating a speed is not at all the same thing). Anyways, if for some reason the source code of the PPP daemon itself isn't enough, your best bet would probably be to start a conversation with Paul Mackerras, the ppp maintainer for Linux. After all, if you really need this feature, there are likely to be others out there who need it too. I've cc'd Paul, so we'll see what he has to say.
Hi Heather,
Thanks for responding so promptly. My problem is that the product I'm working on uses Linux PPP to communicate between routers not modems. My software needs to be able to do things dynamically like take down the link, start an echo test, or change the mru.
The
PPP protocol provides for dynamic renegotiation of link parameters but
since Linux PPP was written primarily for modems connecting to ISPs, the
PPP daemon is designed to take all of the parameters on the command line
when it is invoked; after that it locks out any new input. My software
also needs to count all of the different LCP packet types (Config-Ack,
Config-Nak, etc.) and provide an interface to retrieve them.
The PPP Protocol Stack implementation consists of thousands of lines of
code. So what I am hoping to find is some high level documentation that
will help me to determine how to modify only the parts I need. Even
better would be to find some software that already does this as you
suggest.
Thanks again,
Dave
As you say, the Linux pppd doesn't currently let you change option values and initiate a renegotiation (not without stopping pppd and starting a new one). It should however respond correctly if the peer initiates a renegotiation. I have some plans for having pppd create a socket which other processes can connect to and issue commands which would then mean that pppd could do what you want. I don't know when I'll get that done however as I haven't been able to spend much time on pppd lately. As for counting the different packet types, that wouldn't be at all hard (you're the first person that has asked for that, though).
-- Paul Mackerras, Senior Open Source Researcher, Linuxcare, Inc.
Linuxcare. Support for the revolution.
What IS "The Internet" anyway?Between Bryan Henderson and Mike Orr
In answering a question about the role of an ISP in making one's cable-connected computer vulnerable to hackers, Mike Orr makes a misstatement about the Internet that could keep people from getting the big picture of what the Internet is:
The cableco or telco connects you to your ISP through
some non-Internet means (cable or DSL to the
cableco/telco central office, then ATM or Frame
Relay or whatever to the ISP), and then the ISP takes
it from there. Your ISP is your gateway to the
Internet: no gateway, no Internet.
The Internet is a huge web of links of all different kinds. T3, T1, Frame Relay, PPP over V.34 modem, etc.
The network Mike describes that all the ISPs hook up to (well, except the ones that hook up to bigger ISPs), is the Internet backbone, the center of the Internet. But I can browse a website without involving the Internet backbone at all (if the web server belongs to a fellow customer of my ISP), and I'm still using the Internet.
I would agree that you're not on the Internet if you don't have some path to the Internet backbone, but that path is part of the Internet.
[Mike]
It depends on how you define what the Internet "is". My definition is,
if a link isn't communicating via TCP/IP, it's not Internet. (IP isn't
called "Internet Protocol" for nothing.) This doesn't mean the link
can't function as a bridge between Internet sites and thus hold the
Internet together.
Internet hops can be seen by doing a traceroute to your favorite site. The listing doesn't show you what happens between the hops: maybe it's a directly-connected cable, maybe it's a hyperspace matter-transporter, or maybe it goes a hundred hops through another network like ATM or Frame Relay or the voice phone network. Traceroute doesn't show those hops because they're not TCP/IP--the packet is carried "somehow" and reconstructed on the other side before it reaches the next TCP/IP router, as if it were a direct cable connection.
Of course communicating with another user at your ISP is "Internet communication", provided the ISP is using TCP/IP on its internal network (as they all do nowadays, not counting a parallel token ring network at an ISP I used to work at, where the mailservers were on the token ring). And of course, the distinction is perhaps nitpicky for those who don't care what precisely the network does as long as it works.
All of this is indistinguishable from the way frames get from one place to another even in the heart of the Internet.
The layers underneath IP might differ, as you say, but you seem to be singling out protocols used in the home-ISP connection as not real TCP/IP, whereas the links between ISPs are real TCP/IP. There's no material difference between them. If not for the speed and cost disadvantage, the Internet backbone could be built on PPP over 28.8 modems and POTS lines.
One way we used to see that the home-ISP connection really _wasn't_ the Internet was AOL. You would talk AOL language to an AOL computer which was on the Internet and functioned as a gateway. The AOL computer had an IP address but the home computer did not. But now even AOL sets up an IP link between the AOL computer and the home computer. It's via a special AOL protocol that shares the phone line with non-IP AOL communications, but it's an IP link all the same and the home computer is part of the Internet whenever AOL is logged on.
Classified Disk - Low-level FormatFrom Shane Welton
Answered by: Ben Okopnik, Heather Stern, Mike Orr
As you know the world has gone wild for Linux, and the company I work for is no acception. We work with classified data that can be some what of a hassle to deal with. The only means of formatting a hard disk is the analyze/ format command that comes with Solaris. That method has been ensured as declassification method.
I was hoping you could tell me if Linux offers a very
similar low-level format that would ensure complete data loss. I have
assumed that "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda" would work, but I need to be
positive. Thanks.
Based on what you've been using so far, here's something that would be even more secure:
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda
If you're concerned about spies with superconducting quantum-interference detectors <grin>, you can always add a "for" loop for govt.-level security:
for n in `seq 7`; do dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda; done
This would, of course, take significantly longer than a single overwrite.
Or, why security is a moving target: what is impossible one year is a mere matter of technology a few years or a decade later.
I'm not clear from the original request if they're trying to clear the main drive on a system, or some secondary data drive. If it's the main, I'd definitely want to boot from Tom's rootboot (a RAM based distro) so there'd be no chance of the system resisting getting scribbled upon, or failing to finish the job. Also continuing to multitask (Toms has 4 virtual consoles, you can read some doc files or something) will give /dev/urandom more noise sources to gather randomness from.
/dev/random would be faster - not as random, but at 7 times, it's (wince now, you know what I'm going to say) good enough for government work. MSwin doesn't have a /dev/urandom, it only has pseudorandomness. At least, last I looked.
Anyways our readers will have to decide for themselves whether they want 7 layers of pseudo-random, or if their system will be busy enough in different ways to get a nice batch of true randomness out of the "better" source.
Thanks for the help and the humor, I shall pass the information
on to our FSO in hopes that this will suffice. Again, thanks.
Shane M. Walton
GPM is interfering with x...From Dave
Answered By: Ben Okopnik
Hello Answerguy,
Since installing Debian a few days ago, I've been more than pleased with it.
However, I have run into a wee problem which I was hoping you could help me
with. Yesterday, I realised I hadn't installed GPM. I immediately got round
to installing using apt (a lovely painless procedure when compared to RPM).
All went great until I started to run X, at which point my mouse went insane
- just flying round the desktop at its own free will every time as I so much
as breathed on the hardware that operated it. I immediately killed GPM using
the GPM -k command, but to no avail. Then I shut down X, and restarted it
with no GPM running - the mouse refused to move at all. I then proceded to
uninstall GPM, and yet the pointer remains motionless :(. I'm using a PS/2
mouse.. Any suggestions?
I thank you for your time
-Dave-
In the Ages Long, Long ago (say, 3 years back), it used to be standard practice to configure two different ways to "talk" to the mouse: GPM for the console, and the mouse mechanism built into X. Nowadays, the folks that do the default configuration for X in most distributions seem to have caught on to the nifty little "-R <name>" switch in GPM. This makes GPM pass the mouse data onto a so-called "FIFO" (a "first in - first out" interface, like rolling tennis balls down a pipe) called "/dev/gpmdata" - which is where X gets _its_ mouse info. By removing GPM, you've removed the only thing that pays any attention to what the mouse is doing.
So, what's to do? Well, you could configure X to actually read the raw mouse device - "/dev/psaux" in most computers today, perhaps "/dev/ttyS0" if you have a serial mouse on your first serial port (or even "/dev/mouse", which is usually a symlink to the actual mouse device.) My suggestion is, though, that you do not - for the same reason that the distro folks don't do it that way. Instead, reinstall GPM - in theory, your "/etc/gpm.conf" should still be there, and if isn't, it's easy enough to configure - and make sure that it uses that "-R" switch (hint: read the GPM man page.)
Once you've done all that, you'll now need to solve the "jumping mouse" problem. In my experience, that's generally caused by the mouse type being set to the wrong value (usually "PS/2" instead of "Microsoft".) Here's the easy way to do it: from a console, run "XF86Setup"; tell it to use your current configuration when prompted. Once X starts up and you get the "Welcome" screen, tab to the "Mouse" button and press "Enter". Read the presented info page carefully: since you'll be using the keyboard to set the options, you'll need to know which keys do what. If you forget, "Tab" will get you around.
Make sure that the "Mouse Device" is set to "/dev/gpmdata", and try the various mouse protocols - these are obviously dependent on your mouse type, but the most common ones I've seen have been PS/2 and Microsoft. Remember to use the "Apply" button liberally: the changes you set won't take effect until you do.
Once you have the right protocol, the mouse should move smoothly. I suggest that, unless you have a 3-button mouse, you set the "Emulate3Buttons" option - you'll need it to copy and paste in X! Also, play with the resolution option a bit - this will set the mouse response. I've seen high resolution "lock up" a mouse - but by now you know how to use that "Tab" key...
Once you're done, click "Done" - and you're ready to fly your X-fighter.
Graphics Programming for Printing / FaxingFrom G David Sword
Answered By; Ben Okopnik, Mike Orr
I have a text file full of data, which I would like to turn into a
bunch of fax documents for automated faxing. I could simply parse
the file in perl, and produce straight text files for each fax.
Instead of this, I would like to be able to build up something which resembles a proper purchase order, or remittance, containing logos, boxes for addresses etc. Could I have an expert opinion (or six) on what would be the best method to use to achieve this - I have read a bit about LaTeX and groff, but I am not sure if they are the best solution or not.
Thanks in advance
G. David Sword
As a broader scope issue, learning LaTeX or groff is, shall we say, Non-Trivial. In my !humble opinion, neither is worth doing just to accomplish a single task of the sort that you're describing. SGML, on the other hand, is an excellent "base" format that can be converted to just about anything else - DVI, HTML, Info, LaTeX, PostScript, PDF, RTF, Texinfo, troff-enhanced text, or plaintext (as well as all the formats that _those_ can be converted into.) You can learn enough to produce well-formatted documents in under an hour (no fancy boxes, though) - "/usr/share/doc/sgml-tools/guide.txt.gz" (part of the "sgml-tools" package) will easily get you up to speed. If you want the fancy boxes, etc., check out Tom Gordon's QWERTZ DTD <ftp://ftp.gmd.de/GMD/sgml/sgml2latex-format.1.4.tar.gz>, or the LinuxDoc DTD (based on QWERTZ.) I haven't played with either one to any great extent, but they're supposed to do mathematical formulae, tables, figures, etc.
TeX and troff both have a learning curve, and you have to balance this against how useful they will be to your present and future purposes. At best, they make a better temporary "output format" nowadays than a document storage format. SGML or XML is a much better storage format because it's more flexible, given the unpredictable needs of the future.
Actually, your "true" storage format will probably remain your flat file or a database, and then you'll just convert it to SGML or XML and then to whichever print format you want (via a generic SGML-to-something tool or your own home-grown tool).
I would look at XML for the long term, even if you don't use it right away. Perhaps someday you'll want to store your data itself in XML files rather than in the text files you're using. This does allow convenient editing via any text editor, and for new data, a program can create an empty XML structure and invoke an editor on it. And as time goes on, more and more programs will be able to interpret and write XML files. On the other hand, it is darn convenient to have that data in a database like MySQL for quick ad-hoc queries...
If you just want to learn a little bit of formatting for a simple document, troff is probably easier to learn than TeX.
You can always use the "HTML cop-out" one of my typesetting friends (Hi, johnl!) tells people when they ask him what's an easy way to write a formatted resume. Write it in HTML and then use Netscape's print function to print it Postscript.
networked machine goes to sleepFrom Bob Glass (with a bonus question from Dan Wilder)
Answered by: Ben Okopnik
Hi, everyone. I'm a newbie and need help with a linux machine that goes
to sleep and has to be smacked sharply to wake it up. I'm trying to run
a proxying service for user authentication for remote databases for my
college. That's all the machine is used for. The Redhat installation
is a custom, basically complete, installation of Redhat Linux 6.2. The
machine is a 9-month old Gateway PIII with 128MB of RAM. The network
adapter is an Intel Pro100+. My local area network is Novell 5.x and my
institution has 4 IP segments. I have not configured my linux
installation beyond defining what's needed to make the machine available
on the local network (machine name, hard-assigned IP address, default
gateway etc).
<Snip>
The problem I'm unable to deal with is: my proxy machine disappears from the network or 'goes to sleep.' At that point, I can't use a web browser to contact the proxy service machine, I can't telnet to the machine, and I can't ping the machine. However, if I go across the room to the proxy machine, open the web browser, go to an weblink (i.e., send packets out from the machine), then go back to my computer and test a link, ezproxy responds and all is well. However, usually in an hour or so, the proxy machine is unreachable again. Then much later or overnight, it will begin to respond again, usually after a 5-7 second delay.
Second: I've encountered a similar problem twice before. Once with sucky PPP in an older kernel (2.0.34, if I remember correctly), and one that involved a flaky network card on a Novell network (I've sworn off everything but two or three brands of cards since.) Perhaps what I'd learned from troubleshooting those may come in useful.
For consistently high throughput, by the way, I have not found anything to beat the Intels.
A good rule of thumb is that if the problem is happening at regular intervals, it's software; if it's irregular, it's hardware. Not a solution, but something to keep in mind.
I have turned off power management in the BIOS. I have stopped loading
the apm daemon. I have tried a different network adapter, 3Com509b. I
have even migrated away from another computer to the machine described
above. And still the machine goes to sleep ...!?$#@
What happens if you set this machine up as a plain workstation? No proxy server, minimum network services, not used by anyone, perhaps booted from a floppy with an absolutely minimal Linux system - with perhaps another machine pinging it every so often to make sure it's still up? If this configuration works, then add the services (including the proxy server) back, a couple at a time, until something breaks.This is known as the "strip-down" method of troubleshooting. If it works OK initially, then the problem is in the software (most likely, that is: I've seen NICs that work fine under a light load fall apart in heavy traffic.) If it fails, then the problem is in the hardware: NICs have always been ugly, devious little animals... although I must admit they've become a lot better recently; I can't say that I've had any problems with Intel Pros, and I've abused them unmercifully.(A related question: When you moved from one machine to the other, did you happen to bring the NICs along? This could be important...)
On Tue, Nov 07, 2000 at 11:37:46AM -0500, Bob Glass wrote:
Dear Mr. Okopnik,
Thanks so much for your suggestion about creating a cron job which pings a network device. I did just that, and now the problem is 'solved.' (finding a source which detailed how to set up a cron job to run every 15 minutes _and_ not e-mail the output to the root account was a bit of a challenge!) It's a measure of what a newbie I am that this didn't occur to me on my own!
I've talked to many people about this problem and have come to the conclusion that there's a weird mismatch between hardware and software at both the machine and network level (routers, switches, NICs, Linux, Novell who knows!@#$ I wish Novell would write network clients for Linux and Solaris. I have a Solaris machine which very occasionally has this same problem.) Having tussled with this for over a month and been shown a workaround which both works and causes no problems, I'm satisfied. And as director of my library, I've got to move on to other tasks.
Again, many thanks.
Bob Glass
Pinging the machine is a workable solution, and I'm glad that it mitigated the problem for you - but let me make a suggestion. If you do not have the time to actually fix it now (or even in the foreseeable future), at least write down a good description of the problem and the workaround that you have used. The concept here is that of a shipboard "deficiency log" - any problems aboard a ship that cannot be immediately resolved go into this log, thus providing a single point of reference for anyone who is about to do any kind of work. ("I'll just remove this piece of wire that doesn't look like it belongs here... hey, why are we sinking???") That way, if you - or another director/admin/etc. - have to work on a related problem, you can quickly refresh yourself on exactly why that cron job is there. A comment in "crontab" that points to the "log" file would be a Good Thing.
As I understand it, Caldera's OpenLinux promises full Novell compatibility/connectivity. I can't comment on it personally, since I have no experience with OpenLinux, but it sounds rather promising - Ray Noorda is the ex-CEO of Novell, and Caldera is one of his companies.
Web server/firewall hardware specifications, Apache and ZopeFrom John Hinsley
Answered by: Mike Orr
I want a web site, but it looks like I'll have to put together my own
server and put it on someone's server farm because:
I need to run Zope and MySQL as well as Apache (or whatever) in order to
be able to use both data generated pages via Zope and "legacy" CGI stuff
(and it's far easier to find a Perl monger when you want one rather than
a Python one!). If this seems remotely sensible, we're then faced with
the hardware spec of this splendid server.
<ADVOCACY LANGUAGE="python"> While it may be easier to find a Perl monger than a Pythoneer, us Python types are becoming more common. And anybody who knows any programming language will find Python a breeze to snap up. The programming concepts are all the same, the syntax is very comprehensible, and the standard tutorial is excellent. </ADVOCACY>
So, proposed spec:
Athlon 700, 3 x 20 GB IDE hard drives, 2 of which are sof
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