Hi, all,
I have received airmail my copy of the GNU/Debian Linux Bible.
I think thios will be a great help. It provides a good 'howto' overview
of all the maim poits and processes and is suitable for a relative linux
beginner like myslelf/
Its title is misleading as I would not classify it as a bible in any way
as it does not go into any matter in real depth, rather just enough to ge
you on the road and going. It is not the poblem-solver's bible that I
had hoped for, but it is a lot better than not having anything.
I have given up sort of on getting the microcom modem going. I have the
14.4 internal one installed and will see if we can get email operational
over this weekend. I am going to look for one of those serial loop-back
connectors as have a dos programme that will test the port. I think that
maybe the problem is that it is a PnP onboard port and maybe is not being
allocated the address/irq that we think as there is no communication with
the modem (despite having set these manually in the bios). I see that
there are linux programmes for deciphering what happens at boot up to pnp
items, but they are complex and beyond my present capability/time
constraints.
(Brenda, I was using minicom to send the at command to the modem, and in
dos used bitfax with no more success)
The modem-HOWTO has put me on this track, and while this has been a help,
at 85 pages the author should not have complained about being unable to
find a book to recommend as he has written one. Something shorter, less
theoretical, and to the point with discrete problem-solving procedures
would be appreciated. That is not to say that it is not extremely
interesting to a technical person like self, but am in a hurry and a
HOWTO should be a HOWTO, not a detailed exposition of the theory and
internal workings of the items under discussion. Perhaps a different
arrangement with the bulk of the material in appropriately referenced
appendices would have been better.
It was pointed out that the state of the numlock is a bios function. The
point is that this was of course set, but the setting does not survive
the bootup/login process. I will look at this and be a little more
specific just now.
Now I have to run off to the shop, but this weekend will answer all the
suggestions given.
Regards
Ian
(& Jezebel)
Ian Balchin
Grahamstown, South Africa.
