Re: Can anyone help me
On Tue, 12 May 1998, Crispixbull wrote: > Just for more fun and confusion I have a little more info. First of all I > should tell you that I am a cadet at the United States Air Force Academy and > consequently I was issued (I bought it, but it was deducted from my pay and > given to me like every other one of my classmates) my computer. I tried to > do as you said with the gpm, however, it said that there was no such device > as /dev/psaux. Also, on the back of my computer (all my documentation is > photocopied by the company that mass produced these machines for us and does > not include everything I'd like) the port that my mouse is plugged into is > labeled COM1 not that that necessarily means anything. > > Anyway if someone has anymore ideas or could help me, I'd be extremely > grateful. Hi, Try /dev/ttyS0 instead of /dev/psaux. For /dev/ttyS0 to work, you need to have the serial module loaded. For /dev/psaux to work, you need to have the ps2 module loaded. If you run gpmconfig as root, you can configure gpm interactively and even test the configuration before saving it. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Can't boot up from resc1440tecra.bin
On Thu, 14 May 1998, Masamichi Goudge wrote: > Hello. > Now I'm trying to install hamm into IBM Thinkpad 380ED with using > *1440tecra.bin, but resc1440tecra.bin freezes at "Loading linux.." > Does anyone know the reason? Have you tried entering the following parameter at the boot promt: linux floppy=thinkpad > P.S. When I tried to install bo into this machine with using bo's tecra > install disks, then I saw color/mono select image. Why? Did the floppy work when you booted with the bo disks? I never got it to work. I'm afraid that this is all that I can suggest you try. IMHO the ibm thinkpad 380 is not a great linux machine anyway, as the video chipset is IIRC not supported by xfree86. There's probably more obscure/proprietary hardware weirdness in these beasts. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: problem with mouse
On Fri, 15 May 1998, Roman Ferreiras wrote:
> i 'm trying to stard up X86Free
> i download linux and X86Free by ftp
> i config the system
> but i don't know how i can config my serial mouse
> i type X, and system say that /dev/mouse not exist
> i check /dev and i find /dev/smouse , but this dev don't work too
> i try with MAKEVEV -c -v mouse , but this don't work too
Hi,
These are the Debian packages you need to install:
- xlib6
- xbase
- xfntbase
- xfnt75
- xfnt100
- xserver-vga16
- xserver-
You specifically need the package xserver-vga16, even if you don't intend
to run X11 in 16 color vga mode. The reason for installing is that it
provides "XF86Setup", an easy utility to set up X11 for your machine. If
you use "XF86Setup", it will probably find your mouse and autodetect what
settings to use.
Some more points:
If you don't install X11 as Debian package, but install from the XFree86
raw tar.gz instead, you'll generally have a hard time - certainly as a
beginner. Stick with the packages. And use the "dselect" program to
select and install packages.
The mouse driver doesn't actually use /dev/mouse. You either have a serial
mouse, in which case the mouse device is /devttyS0 (COM1:) or /dev/ttyS1
(COM2:) or you have a ps/2 mouse, in which case the mose device is
/dev/psaux. In both cases, the /dev/mouse "device" is only a symlink to
the real device ("man ln" tells you what a symlink is.) I think that when
you set up X11 with "XF86Setup", it will just use the real device and you
won't even need a /dev/mouse symlink.
In order for a serial or ps/2 mouse to work, the driver has to be present
in the kernel. The default Debian kernel has support for both types of
device, but they are not loaded by default, you have to insert their
module for the mouse driver to actually work. For a serial mouse, the
command would be "modprobe serial" and for a ps/2 mouse it would be
"modprobe ps2".
There are two ways to start X11: the "startx" command and the xdm X
Display Manager. xdm is nicer once it works, but it can make your machine
inacceesible if something goes wrong with it. So, you'll want to make sure
that everything works fine with "startx" first.
Cheers,
Joost
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Re: Deselect locks computer -HAMM
On Tue, 19 May 1998, Eddie Seymour wrote: > When running "dselect" in the "install-upgrade" function, the > installer scans down the software list and when it gets to: > "Skipping deselected package hello" > "Skipping deselected package ical" > it hangs up and refuses to doanything or let you break out of the > program. This fault is repeatable every time. Takes a hard reset to > get out. Any pointers to locate fault greatly appreciated. dpkg can be pretty memory-hungry. How much memory (real+swap) do you have? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: More Ethernet card problems.
[Dale, IMHO debian-user is the appropriate list] Hi, On Wed, 2 Jun 1999, Dale Scheetz wrote: [hassle with peecee hardware] Maybe it's an interrupt conflict. I've actually seen interrupt problems with 3c509 cards a couple of times. Interrupt problems are often spurious and give you a hard time figuring out where the problem lies. They are one of the main reasons why PC hardware sucks, PnP is in fact an attempt to alleviate the pain (turns out PnP is often a pain itself, oh well.) Had the PC been specified in the early eighties to use edge-triggered interrupts instead of level-triggered interrupts, you'd have no more interrupt conflicts or shortages. > I suspected that the card had, somehow, gotten back into PnP mode, so I > ran the 3c5x9setup program again to make sure. All output from this > program was the same as before, with no errors. Are you sure, you've got a true PnP 3c509 card? The ones I've come accross had a "jumperless mode" which is some 3com-proprietary variant of PnP and not really the same. It is sometimes possible that buggy firmware doesn't really disable the PnP or jumperless mode and still listens to PnP commands. It is unlikely however. It is really my guess that you have an interrupt conflict. The situation would then be that some other hardware is trying to use the same interrupt as the 3c509. This confuses the hardware, the driver or even both. Do you run isapnp during boot? Did you set up any PnP cards in /etc/isapnp.conf? If so, then it might be the case that the PnP hardware, before getting configured by isapnp, uses some of the resources the 3c509 is trying to use as well. You can check this by taking out the potentially conflicting hardware or moving the 3c509 to a system without potentially conflicting other hardware. > On the possibility that it could be the Windows '95 machine that was at > fault (the hub reports all cards active once the Debian box appears to be > configured properly), I booted up the Sparc, which is also on the hub, and > was able to ping the '95 box, but not the Debian one. If the interrupts are messed up, the kernel never knows when it should let the 3c509 driver talk to the hardware, eg. to respond to ICMP (ping) packets. > Even though the card tells the hub it is active, and seems to be > functional from the point of view of the driver, ifconfig, route, and the > kernel, I can't ping out with it, and the rest of the net can't ping into > it. Ifconfig and route and all such tools merely read and write to kernel state tables, there is no actual communication with the card or the network. Ping, traceroute, telnet etc. all do actually generate traffic and it is very well possible that some packets actually get out, you're just not seeing them back. Actually, the card could be seeing them, it just doesn't know how to tell the kernel. You can check this condition by verifying that the light on the back of the card is on, it is a sort of carrier detect flag. If it's on, the card works physically on the network side. > I have my son getting me another Ethernet card, so I can swap out and > verify that the card _is_ bad, but this is not the most desirable > solution. (specially when he tells me that the card I got in the kit, with > two cards and a hub for a bit over $100, will cost over $100 all by > itself!) Tsss... Get a cheap ne2000 clone. Should be no more than $10 nowadays. At 10% of the cost, you get 10% of the hassle compared to 3Com ISA cards. Or even better, get a PCI ne2000 clone, should cost no more than the ISA one and you no longer have even potential interrupt problems, since the PC designers learned after more than 10 years and designed the PCI bus to use edge-triggered interrupts, so the different slots can share interrupt lines. Cheers, Joost
replacing the standard mta with qmail (Re: Question about dselect)
Hi, On Sun, 7 Nov 1999, Bastard Operator From Hell wrote: > I recently replaced exim with qmail as that is what I have to administer at > work and I would rather glitch something up at home vs on-the-job. There is some additional effort required to install qmail, you have to compile your own debs, as the licence prohibits distributing those. Because of this, dselect doesn't know about the qmail debs in the same way as it knows about the regular debs from the debian archive. > Slight problem though, when I removed exim, dselect also wanted to remove > all of my MTA and mail related packages (i.e.: af, anacron, at, elm-me+, > fmirror, logrotate, mailx and mutt), so of course, I exited the Select > phase of dselect with the "Q" option to force it to ignore the depends. You should not use dselect to replace your mta. Dselect is a great tool to manage dependencies, but in this case, you really want to _work_around_ dependencies, making dselect the wrong tool for this particular job. You can not (easily anyway[1]) use dselect to install qmail, because there is no archive containing pre-built qmail.deb. [1] Okay, so you can actually use dselect with non-regular archives, but it's not worth doing in this case anyway. This is what you want to do: 1. get qmail source and build a deb: apt-get install qmail-src cd qmail-src-* fakeroot debian/rules binary cd .. ( 1a. maybe do the same for ucspi-tcp-src:) 2. carefully remove the old mta, while disregarding other packages dependencies: dpkg --force-depends --remove exim 3. install the qmail.deb (perhaps also ucspi-tcp*deb): dpkg --install qmail*deb That's all there should be to it. Now, you can continue using dselect for all you daily updates and standard package installations and removals. The only package that it cannot update automatically is qmail, because there is no qmail.deb in the archive. If you decide however to keep qmail-src.deb installed on your system, you will be able to notice every update of that package. You can then rebuild a local qmail.deb and install it manually. This time, there are no "force" flags needed to dselect. Notice that when you run dselect, it will show the "installed" status of the qmail package, but it knows only the installed version, not the available version, because there is no "official archive" version of the qmail.deb. For the same reason, dselect classifies the package as "Obsolete/local Unclassified packages without a section". This is nothing to worry about. > Imagine my surprise when deselect informed me that it would be removing > the packages that I _thought_ I had forced to stay installed. Are you sure that wasn't _apt_ telling you that? Apt has a mind of its own (which is usually a good thing) about resolving dependencies and conflicts. It makes similar calculations about package dependencies as dselect, because it has to know in what order best to install the downloaded packages. Most of the time, this behaviour is a feature. In your case, it interferes with what you're trying to do. At least dselect will let you override dselect's opinion of packages to be (de)selected, apt is more strict in these things and won't be overridden AFAIK[2]. [2] Then again, I didn't read all of the apt documentation that meticulously yet, YMMV > Now, this doesn't hurt me too badly as I am capable of manually installing > software, but it does mean that the automatic check for critical updates, etc. > that dselect does are now unavailable on this system. This is unnecessary when done right. You only lose the ability to automatically update qmail.deb. All other packages (including qmail-src.deb) will still be upgradable using dselect, as usually. > I'm posting to the devel list since this seems to be a problem with dselect > rather than operator error (or at least the RTFM on the man pages, HOWTO's and > user/devel list archives didn't turn up anything usefull). I'm adding debian-user to the cc:, since I figure this isn't the first time and probably isn't the last time either that dpkg/dselect/apt confuse people, not in the least because many aspects aren't very well documented. Cheers, Joost
Re: dpkg thinks my pentium is an i486 ?
On Fri, 27 Feb 1998, joost witteveen wrote: > Isn't this because we want packages built on Intel systems to be the > same? If dpgk were to report "Pentium", and some compiler is going > to create real Pentium code (that doesn't run on i386), then you > wouldn't be able to build Intel packages on your pentium any more. Hmm, I'm confused even more now. I thought that all standard debian intel packages are built for i386? Some time ago, I built an i486 kernel and it wouldn't boot on an i386, I had to rebuild it for i386. Returning to my question, this would mean that a package that I build on an i586 wouldn't run on an i386 because it is built for i486? Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: disabling remote xdm logins
On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Ossama Othman wrote: > Hi, > > I am trying to disable remote xdm logins from terminals and from some > remote xdm login widgets. I tried to modify the Xaccess file according to > the docs and then restarting xdm but I still can't seem to get xdm to stop > broadcasting to the rest of the machines on the same subnet that it is > accepting xdm logins. > > Could someone please explain how I can configure my debian system to stop > accepting xdm logins from remote machines? Look at the file /etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess, it is full of comments that describe the file's function and format: # The first form tells xdm which displays to respond to itself. # The second form tells xdm to forward indirect queries from hosts matching # the specified pattern to the indicated list of hosts. # The third form tells xdm to handle indirect queries using the chooser; # the chooser is directed to send its own queries out via the broadcast # address and display the results on the terminal. # The fourth form is similar to the third, except instead of using the # broadcast address, it sends DirectQuerys to each of the hosts in the list You are probably mostly interested in the first form. On my machine, where I haven't changed it, the first form entry reads: * #any host can get a login window If you change the "*" to "localhost" then I guess that would stop xdm from responding to any display (xserver) but the one on your console. Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
dselect (Re: Using dpkg for a custom installation from cdrom media)
On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Henry Hollenberg wrote: > I have a particular list of packages I would like to install saved in > a file and am using a 3 CD-ROM Debian 1.3.1 set I got with Dale Scheetz's > book as my media. > > I imagine I need to mount the cdrom and use dpkg --get-selections and > dpkg --set-selections and maybe cd to the cdrom stable directory then do > some sort of dpkg -R command No, you just need to use the dselect program. > but I have no idea how to hang all these steps together. Dselect takes care of most of the detail work. > Anybody know how to do this?type/talk slowly so I can see your > lips move. First become superuser (root) to be able to make system-level changes; you do this with the command "su -" and typing in root's password at the prompt. Next, type the "dselect" command. Now, read slowly what messages dselect shows on screen, or you might get confused at a later stage about the purpose of the questions dselect asks you and what keypresses are at your disposition to instruct dselect. Generally, every time dselect comes up with a screen of informative text, read it thoroughly before hitting the "space" key. Another valuable piece of knowledge is that pressing the "?" key brings you to a help screen, where you can find out about the general purpose and setup of dselect (more or less what I'm typing here) and about specific keybindings. The first time you are going to use your cd, you'll have to set the "Access method". If you have installed the system from cd, then it probably isn't necessary set the access method again and you can skip this step. Every time you insert a new cd, you have to "Update the available list", so that the dselect engine (called dpkg) knows what packages are available for installation. If you just want to add a package from a cd that you have previously used, then you can safely assume that dpkg still knows what's available and skip this step. Next comes the "Select" part. This is often the most difficult and confusing part because it requires the most user interaction. You're first shown an informative text. Read it. When you're finished, you arrive at the list of available packages. The list shows a lot of information at once, so don't be confused. If you are not sure about the meaning of symbols, just press "?" and read the on-line documentation. Because there are so many available packages (more then you would ever want - or even could - install on your system,) it is the easiest to find a package by its name if you know a part of that. Press "/" and type a part of the package's name and hit "enter". If that gives a result that is not quite right, press "\" (yes, I know, this isn't the most intuitive key for the job) to search for the next match until you find what you're looking for. To mark a package for installation, you move the selection bar to the line that lists the package. You can also mark a group of packages by putting the selection bar on the group's header in the list, but I don't advise you to do this until you understand all about the dependency mechanism as explained below. Selecting a lot of packages at once is very likely to cause a bunch of dependency conflicts between packages at once and this is very confusing, even to the initiated. There are a couple of keybindings to mark a package for installation, I always use "insert", but that doesn't always work when I login remotely over the net, so you might want to check all the possibilities. Just press the "?" key and lookup the keybindings. Assuming you have found the package you want to add to your system, mark it for installation. This will not install it yet, it just tells dselect that you want dpkg to install it in a later phase. One reason to do things this way is to allow the dselect program to check your wishes against package dependencies. Some packages conflict, you can't have them installed at the same time. Others depend, you must have one to install the other. The dpkg engine won't install packages until these dependencies are resolved. This is what dselect is good at, it tries to help you along in resolving the dependencies. When you change a package's status, by marking or unmarking it, dselect will look for dependency issues and if it detects cinflicts, it steps in and presents the (in)famous dependency screen. This is one of the things that has so many people confused, while it is in fact one of the best things since sliced bread. It is (apart from the high standards and strong consistency of the distribution) the big difference between Debian's packaging tools and The Others. What happens when dselect finds a dependency unresolved is that it first shows you an informative message. Read it. Next, you see a sublist of the entire packages list with only those packages that are in some way or another involved in the dependency. Dselect has already suggested a marking for each package involved, but you can still change the suggested markings
Re: dselect (Re: Using dpkg for a custom installation from cdrom media)
On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Henry Hollenberg wrote: > Hello Joost and thanks for the reply. > > I've been tinkering with dselect and I think I've figured out enough to > get it to do what it can for me..as far as that goes. Oh, sorry, I didn't quite get that. > But I'm trying to do a "custom" install with alots of selected packages > for a bastion host/firewall. This would be cumbersome to do by hand on > the three machines that would make up the firewall. > therefore I believe dselect just will not have the functionality required > for this project and that is why I'm looking into dpkg. You're probably wrong about that: - theoretically because: dselect builds on dpkg; it provides extra functionality that dpkg doesn't have and calls upon dpkg to do what dpkg can. - practically because: see suggestions below; > It looks as if dpkg can probably pull it off.I'm just not sure how to > use it in this complex scenario.I've used it for simpler stuff and it > works great.installing a kernel dselect couldn't find for instance > (2.0.33). Was that a kernel you brewed yourself with kernel-package? Then it probably wasn't mentioned in a "Packages" file. How would dselect know about your package then? Dselect's standard way of getting to know what packages are available in an archive is to run dpkg --update-avail on the Packages file that comes with the archive. You could have made a Packages file yourself, with dpkg-scanpackages and put that in a DIY archive and use it with dselect (making a custom archive). You'll have to make an "override" file too, to get dpkg-scanpackages to add sections to the packages entries in the Packages file. You can find examples in the ftp.debian.org /debian/indices/ directory. Or (not using an archive at all) you could have used dpkg --avail custom-kernel.deb. I'm afraid you'd have to put the .deb on a floppy to use it with dselect, because that's the only way it knows how to deal with a non-archive. In this simple case, dpkg -i by hand is more convinient of course. > so my question remains, what are the steps? Another solution is to build a package with dependencies on all the packages you want to install. Create an archive that contains that package, the packages it depends on and packages that those depend on. Since you want to build a firewall, you'll probably want to put in a _lot_ of conflicts as well ;-). Use dpkg-scanpackages to generate a Packages file. Burn it on a cd or put it on your ftp site and it should work fine with dselect and deity. If you're really serious about creating your own cd, then dselect is definately the way to go. Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: dselect (Re: Using dpkg for a custom installation from cdrom media)
On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Henry Hollenberg wrote: > > Was that a kernel you brewed yourself with kernel-package? Then it > > probably wasn't mentioned in a "Packages" file. How would dselect know > > about your package then? > > It's one from Herbert Xu that's not showing up in stable or bo-update: > > http://cgi.debian.org/www-master/debian.org/Packages/unstable/devel/kernel-source-2.0.33.html > > not sure why it's in unstable/devel since it looks like a stable (even > number) release. Stable and unstable kernel releases have nothing to do with stable and unstable debian distribution trees. The Debian unstable tree always has stable kernels for instance. The stable and unstable debian distribution tree have different Packages files though. Since the kernel included with "stable" has no major bugs that needed to be fixed, it hasn't been changed in the bo tree and neither in bo's Packages file. Maybe that explains why you didn't see it; you're looking at the Packages file from bo. Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: dselect (Re: Using dpkg for a custom installation from cdrom media)
On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Henry Hollenberg wrote: > > > Henry Hollenberg [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Joost Kooij wrote: > > > On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, Henry Hollenberg wrote: > > > > > > Was that a kernel you brewed yourself with kernel-package? Then it > > > > probably wasn't mentioned in a "Packages" file. How would dselect know > > > > about your package then? > > > > > > It's one from Herbert Xu that's not showing up in stable or bo-update: > > > > > > http://cgi.debian.org/www-master/debian.org/Packages/unstable/devel/kernel-source-2.0.33.html > > > > > > not sure why it's in unstable/devel since it looks like a stable (even > > > number) release. > > > > Stable and unstable kernel releases have nothing to do with stable and > > unstable debian distribution trees. The Debian unstable tree always has > > stable kernels for instance. > > > > The stable and unstable debian distribution tree have different Packages > > files though. Since the kernel included with "stable" has no major bugs > > that needed to be fixed, it hasn't been changed in the bo tree and neither > > in bo's Packages file. Maybe that explains why you didn't see it; you're > > looking at the Packages file from bo. > > What would point dselect at this particular kernel then? (2.0.33) > > unstable? Yes, but since there's a big difference between current stable and unstable (libc5 vs. libc6) there's slightly more to it than pointing dselect at the unstable tree. Testing is currently being done to make the transition as smooth as possible (another great thing of Debian; other distributions require you to scrap your existing setup and reinstall completely.) You can move to unstable too, but you'll have to read the HOWTO on the subject and follow the advice pretty closely, because it's a big thing to go from one libc major version to another. You'll be better off with a fast net connection too, because almost all packages have newer versions (linked against different libs and a lot of newer versions.) If you're on a 14k4 modem link, better wait a month or two until the debian 2.0 cd's are in the shops . You can find the upgrade-HOWTO at http://taz.net.au/autoup/libc5-libc6-Mini-HOWTO.html Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: dpkg thinks my pentium is an i486 ?
On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Marcus Brinkmann wrote: > Sorry, I missed the beginning of the thread, but these are the facts: > > "uname -a" will report your machine type, the same as in "cat /proc/cpuinfo". > > Then, when you compile, you can specify an architecture. This can be i386, > i486, i586 for intel. BUT all compiled programs by gcc will run on every > architecture. If you compile for i586, you still can run it on i386. The > only difference is the order of tha machine instructions. By default, no > i486 or i586 specific instructions will be used, it is all about > optimization. The programs may differ in speed and memory usage. Apparently, if you build a kernel for other than i386 (say, i486), it won't run on i386 > If I missed the topic of the thread, please tell. Maybe I also know the > answer of the original question ;) Well, I was experimenting with builing packages from source and I noticed that they were compiled for i486. The rules file calls dpkg --print-gnu-build-architecture to determine the machine. I wondered why it sees my i586 as a i486. Don't confuse this with the architecture which is i386, even for PentiumII I guess. Cheers, Joost $ dpkg --print-gnu-build-architecture i486 $ dpkg --print-architecture i386 $ dpkg --print-installation-architecture i386 $ cat /proc/cpuinfo processor : 0 cpu : 586 model : Pentium 75+ vendor_id : GenuineIntel stepping: 12 fdiv_bug: no hlt_bug : no f00f_bug: yes fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid : yes wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr mce cx8 bogomips: 66.56 $ uname -a Linux pc47 2.0.33 #1 Fri Feb 13 16:21:19 CET 1998 i586 unknown -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: dpkg thinks my pentium is an i486 ?
On Tue, 3 Mar 1998, joost witteveen wrote: [A very interesting and informative expose, thanks Joost!] As it works now (as I understand) the rules makefile effectively tries to make the build independent of the actual machine it is built on. Of course this is great for maintainers who create a binary for distribution. It would also be nice to have an easy way to rebuild a package as user and have the building optimized for the particular machine that the user has. If the rules file could take standard parameters like the cc to use, optimization flags to use, another architecture altogether than the machine on which is built etc., that would be a nifty thing to have. Oh well, Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: installing packages
On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, ANDREW INFANTE wrote: > How do you go about installing packages that are gzipped, and don't > have .deb extensions? Ouch! You can't just do that, you need to install Slackware first :-) But IIRC Slackware is not available as a .deb yet. Maybe someone is working on it. No, seriously: you don't need to install tarballs (the "hip" name for a .tar.gz archive) because.. you can't. They don't fit into the debian scheme. What you can do with them, is to unpack them with "tar zxf filename" and compile the source that comes out of the tarball on your system yourself. The binaries that are produced are best placed in /usr/local/bin so you keep apart what you put on the system and what dpkg puts on the system. Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: many many segfaults
On Tue, 17 Mar 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Perhaps the log files can give you a hint ? > > > One of my debian boxes is becoming increasingly unstable, with general > > protection faults and segfaults almost every day now. > > > > I checked the RAM a couple of weeks ago with the memtest utility included > > with hwtools (i think), and it didn't find any faults -- but I know this > > doesn't mean the RAM's not at fault. Is there anything else I should be > > considering? It's a 2 1/2 year old machine on an Intel Endeavor > > motherboard, P166, 2940 host adapter. Diagnostics are a bit tricky as I'm > > on the other side of the atlantic from the machine. > > > > Suggestions from people experienced in these matters welcomed... Last year, after running hamm quite stable for a while, it also happened to me: a lot of segfaults. I got a lot of kernel messages too about bad directory entries. I too ran the memtest from hwtools all night long and the memory appeared to be fine. I'm not sure when it began to happen and what was the exact cause, though I'm sure that it was after I installed the x server built with libc6 and possibly after an upgrade in libc6. I don't believe that it was related to a specific kernel version, as I tried many, some known good. The problem turned out to be a hardware conflict: the xserver (not sure if it was the svga or the w32 server) used a wrong memory aperture setting. Telling it to use the right settings for a vesa localbus solved all my problems. In your case, a vesa localbus won't be the problem, as Endeavour motherboards have a pci bus. They do however have a built in soundblaster, maybe it is causing troubles (never had any myself)? Maybe it is the 2940 that isn't working well. Good luck, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Microsoft mouse in X11
On Fri, 20 Mar 1998, Paul Bernays wrote: > Okay, I'm a complete beginner in Linux and I really need help in trying > to configure the X-windows system. I can't configure the mouse to work > at all. What have you tried to do? Did you run XF86Setup (included in the package xserver-vga16)? The XF86Setup program is a graphical utility that lets you choose different types of mice and try if it suits your hardware. If you have a standard "Microsoft mouse" then that should be easy, as it is the default setting. If there is something weird with the mouse and you can't get it working within 30 minutes, consider going to the shops and buying a cheap 3-button mouse. These things will almost always work as "Microsoft" mouse. The small amonut of money will almost certainly be worth the time you'll save. As a beginner, you're making much better use of your time reading eg. the bash manpage than all the more technical xfree86 docs. Oh, another tip: Ctrl-Alt- and Ctrl-Alt- change the resolution of the xserver (when it is running). You can also make a certain mode the default by putting it in front of the line in /etc/XF86Config that lists the modes. > I read on XFree's site that I needed to download the gpm1-13 > package and use the mouseman protocol. Unfortunately, this requires > libc6. I already have libc5 installed, and libc6 conflicts with this > package. However, libc5 is required by too many other packages. Do I > have to upgrade the libc5 package? How do I work around this problem? Two things: - gpm is the textmode mouse driver; you should almost never have to use it to get the mouse working in X11. If you have a mouse that is badly supported by X11, get a new one unless you're quite a bit of a guru. - stay with libc5 for a while until 2.0 is out. 2.0 will only be released when the upgrade mechanism from libc5 to libc6 is working under all circumstances. Right now there are still some problems that you might encounter when you upgrade. > I should also add that the libc6 and gpm1-13 packages were from the > unstable catagory, whereas the libc5 package was a stable one. Could > this be a problem? Yes, quite definately so. You'd have to install a lot of new packages, essentially you would relace the guts of your system. It is better to wait a month until a fully automated mechanism is provided. In the mean time, there is nothing wrong with libc5-based Debian 1.3. It is very stable and you should be able to get things working fine with it. Some more tips: Install the package dwww; it is an interface to the documentation, manpages and info documents that come with Debian packages. You'll also need to install apache (a web server) and lynx (a web browser) to use it. In X11 you can use Netscape instead of lynx, but it is bulkier and slower and there are no pretty pictures or javascript in dwww anyway. If you run X11, install the package menu. It automatically puts pacages that you install in the window-manager's (try fvwm2 for starters) menu. You should also consider buying a book about Linux, like "Running Linux" by Matt Welsh or the book about Debian written by Dale Scheetz titled "Debian Linux user's guide." Both can also be read online, the latter one can be found at www.linuxpress.com O'Reilly has a variety of linux and unix oriented books. I can recommend "Linux in a nutshell" and "Learning the bash shell." Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: netscape: locale 'C' not supported
On Fri, 20 Mar 1998, Chris Hall wrote: > anyways, on 3/19/98, i ran dselect in order to update my Debian 2.0 (hamm) > system...everything has been kosher up until this point. i noticed > several packages were listed as being obsolete but had never really paid > any attention to them until now when i decided that since they were marked > obsolete it would be okay to get rid of them, now i don't know exactly which > ones, but i did manage to get a partial list from another co-worker who > has not removed these packages. i realize it was an idiotic move to do this > but didn't realize it until after-the-fact...so please be kind... Uh-oh! The archive was a little fscked lately, due to several reasons. But that's why unstable is called unstable - it is the distribution that is being worked on. You'll have to know a little what you do and how to cope if you decide to run unstable. > this is what i have so far...please let me know if there are others... > > base 1.1.0-14 IIRC this package has been obsolete for a long time? It has been replaced by base-files and should no longer appear in dselect's list. > dlltools 2.17.14 > giflib3g 3.0-4.1 > gnome-icons 0.12-1 > libmagick 3.9.0-1 > modutils 2.0.0-11 > qtg1-dev 1.31-1.3 > svgalibg1 1.2.13-1 > xlib6 3.3.1-2 These packages had bugs and were temporarily removed from the "frozen" unstable distribution to stress that they should be fixed before release. > now, i went ahead and removed the obsolete packages from my system and all > hell broke loose. i managed to find xlib 3.3.1-2 package and reinstalled it > which solved numerous lib problems but i still get the following error when > running netscape: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~> netscape > > netscape: locale ' not supported. > > i tried reinstalling netscape (4.04), no effect Did you use the wrapper package to install Netscape? It has all the proper depends on packages that Netscape needs and makes that chance that Netscape crashes minimal. The installer also tells you what to set XNLSPATH to. > i tried installing the locale package, but no effect Did you try installing the "locales" package? It has superceded the old "locale" package. Good luck, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: Microsoft mouse in X11
On Fri, 20 Mar 1998, Ionut Borcoman wrote: > Using the XF86Setup I have choosed the MouseSystem mouse with ClearDTR. This > way my mouse works very well and I can use all the 3 buttons of it. If you buy a cheap Logitech or Genius mouse, those are only slightly more expensive than the bottm=om-line noname rodents, you'll probably have no problems to get the 3rd button to work by default. Maybe it is the ClearDTR directive that fscks up gpm. If you can only find the noname mice, there is a way with many of those to make them talk mousesystems instead of microsoft. It involves soldering one of the pins of the ic inside the mouse to 0V or +5V (I forget which one exactly.) There used to be a 3-button mouse mini-HOWTO that describes this. > And one tip from me, too: > use > > $ startx -- -bpp 16 > > to start to X in 16 bit mode (or with -bpp 24, for true color). Or add "DefaultDepth 16" to /etc/XF86Config Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Complex lilo setup for starters: use loadlin
On Sat, 21 Mar 1998, Martin Schulze wrote: > Please answer this guy. Hi cal1, What you want to do is not really very standard. You can do it with lilo, but it is just quite complicated and requires a reasonably good insight into the workings of the computer's boot process, master boot records (there are more functional alternatives to the microsoft one) and the way lilo works. I advise you to look into loadlin. Loadlin is a dos program that allows you to boot a linux kernel image placed in a directory on your dos partition. That way you can keep win95's mbr untouched. To boot into linux, you'd go to dos (I'm not sure if only a dos box suffices) and type something like CD \LINUX LOADLIN VMLINUZ assuming that C:\LINUX\VMLINUZ is the kernel image and that that particular image knows that its root partition is on /dev/hdb1. This can be given as a commandline option or (better) written to the image with the rdev command. You'd have to do the latter while in linux of course. Cheers, Joost > I hope I have the right area, my problem is thta I cannot seem to get Lilo > to work with Win95 and Debian. Here's my setup; > 3.2 gig Quantum with 2-1.6 gig partions (one fow Win95 and one for > games) > these take up drive letters C,D > 1.6 gig Quantum which I use fully for Linux-Debian which is drive E > > Now when I installed Debian and asked it to make my drive E drive bootable > (hdb1) it says it cannot boot from a secondary hard drive (or something to > that effect) and that I would need to use a boot floopy. Is there a way to > configure it so I can use Lilo as my boot manager and boot into either Win > 95 or Debian (or do you all prefer just Linux). I tried it myself and wound > up messing up my MBR on my Drive C:, I was able to boot into Debian fine > but Win95 was gone (the drive was invalid). I tried the Fdisk /MBR switches > from a dos disk but no luck, luckily I had a Ghost image on my system (god > I love Ghost). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Netscape claims to move yet closer to DFSG
Read it on: http://www.mozilla.org/NPL/ or find the same link + comments from the other nerds on: http://slashdot.org/slashdot.cgi?mode=article&artnum=1021 They say: "We believe this license satisfies the Debian Free Software Guidelines, which provide a commonly accepted definition of ``free software,'' Well, I'm not a laywer and I can't really judge how DFSG compliant this version of the NPL is, but it's really nice to see how Netscape pays tribute to Debian's foundations. Must give the Debian developers a good feeling, especially Bruce Perens. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Files in 2 or more packages
On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, Brandon Mitchell wrote: > On Sun, 22 Mar 1998, Luiz Otavio L. Zorzella wrote: > > > When I try to upgrade my wu-ftpd, it fails because there's a manpage > > that is also present in another package. What's the case? Wasn't that > > supposed to be normal? Why does it fail? What's the correct procedure > > now? > > --force-overwrite is no longer on by default. I don't know why. To make people report these duplications. A lot of bugs have been submitted and many of those have been fixed now. The result will be that there will be a lot less of these imperfections in hamm when it is released. When it is released, --force-overwrite is supposed to be turned on again (and off again on the next upload to the new unstable.) Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: more or less Newbies?
On Mon, 23 Mar 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Quite honestly I can't think of any DOS, Windows or OS/2 text file viewer > program I've used over the last 10 years that didn't have the simple > features of search and page up/down and backscroll. I couldn't believe my > > senses weren't playing tricks on me the first time I installed Debian Linux > > and found out the default file viewer didn't include page up/down! Let me see, 10 years ago. Must be a file viewer under dos then. Uhmm, like: c:\COMMAND\MORE.COM ? Yes, what a featureful pager. More is a lot older and is far more useful than you are suggesting. Actually, if you had tried to press "?" in more, you would have seen the help screen. And indeed, it should be possible to page backwards in more. It even supports searching for "regular expressions". Try to get a windows program to do that for you. If you use the more program on a plain file, it will behave as it should and it will allow you to page backwards. The fact that it doesn't seem to work right as a pager for man (at least that's what it looks like on my system) is a bug, maybe in more, maybe in man. Please don't make a little bug like this into a big issue. Instead, try to find out if it is a bug indeed (i.e. read manpages etc. to check if you actually know what you're doing.) Try to find out what, where and how about the bug and if you are unable to fix the bug, you can still be helpful to the Debian project by registering the bug to the bug tracking system at www.debian.org/Bugs. > I don't mean to be rude here, but quite honestly this sounds like > something that may have applied years ago when running resource and > hardware limited systems. I'll repeat my original statement "> > Quite > honestly I can't think of any DOS, Windows or OS/2 text file viewer > program I've used over the last 10 years that didn't have the simple > features of search and page up/down and backscroll. " If it takes a > second floppy disk to round out a decent set of emergency programs then > what's the big deal about that? In fact, IMHO, the benefits gained by > having access to page up/down/search far outway the limitations > inflicted by using a text file viewer that will only read in one > direction, ESPECIALLY in emergency conditions. You know, newbies are not really expected to be able to solve complicated emergency situations. That would be unrealistic and unreasonable to ask. But of course, you are perfectly free to develop a set of fancy, easy-to-use emergency diskettes. Nobody will want to stop you and they would be very welcome in the archive undoubtedly. You should also consider that since nobody has done it before, there might be reasons why people feel they haven't needed so far. > Quite honestly if these are the best reasons for not including less as > the default, IMHO you are deluding yourself as to whether or not you > know how to use your tools. this..my experience with dos, windows and OS/2 over the years shows > clearly that this reasoning is bogus and outdated. ) There are other good reasons why /bin/more is the default: more is the one true historical pager. While this reason may sound outright silly to you, there is in fact a lot of sense to this: as a historical tool, it is a least common denominator of many other derived tools. Many things in unix work like this: you take a couple of "least common denominators" and combine them into a bigger utility. Sometimes you'd take fancier version A as a building block, sometimes B. But everytime, it is pretty clear what the building blocks are and thus what is actually happening. In the unix world, this is generally considered a Good Thing(tm). For instance, take the vi editor (another fine unix creature that newbies^H^H^H^Hcomers can't stop complaining about.) To be able to really appreciate and harness the power of vi editor (the "visual", screen-oriented editor,) you'd have to learn how to use the ex editor (the line-oriented counterpart of vi) first. But then you'd have to learn the ed editor (the one true line-editor) before that. And then, when you know ed, learning sed (the "scripted" editor) is just another sidestep, although it also takes you to a whole new dimension of tools. And if you know sed, you know everything about grep, which means "g/re/p", "Globally search for Regular Expression and Print it," literally just another sed command. And awk is just the next station along the way. Do you see how unix is more than just a computer system? It is almost a cultural experience ;-) Did I mention that most navigation keys in more, less and most (another pager) are borrowed from vi? If you know your way around with the above mentioned tools, you're quite a poweruser. You'll be able to do things in minutes that would take days in a windows setting. One can really waste his energies on a mouse. And believe me, if you've done dos, you might know what a command line is, but you don't know w
Re: xdm, X, fvwm2 : newbie questions
On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, Gabor Kontur wrote: > What i simply did was copy the file /etc/init.d/xdm.dpkg-dist to > /etc/init.d/xdm. > Is that all there is to it ? Is this script complete as it is now? Lets hope so. You can have a look at the script's contents and if inside it looks like a real script, just trust that it is ok. You also have to have a line "start-xdm" in /etc/X11/config and in /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers a line ":0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X" for xdm to work. Last but not least, the xserver must actually work; if startx doesn't work, you're in for trouble. First get "startx" to work reliably, then see if you can get "/etc/init.d/xdm start" (as root) working and only then edit /etc/X11/config. > Is there a way to influence the typematic delay of the keyboard? Characters > start to duplicate themselves when i keep a key pressed longer than about > one fifth of a second. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/home/kooij> $ apropos typematic typematic: nothing appropriate. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/home/kooij> $ apropos keyboard dumpkeys (1) - dump keyboard translation tables getch (3ncurses) - get (or push back) characters fromcurses terminal keyboard getstr (3ncurses)- accept character strings fromcurses terminal keyboard kbd_mode (1) - report or set the keyboard mode kbdrate (8) - reset the keyboard repeat rate and delay time keytables (5)- keyboard table descriptions for loadkeys and dumpkeys loadkeys (1) - load keyboard translation tables setleds (1) - set the keyboard leds setmetamode (1) - define the keyboard meta key handling showkey (1) - examine the scan codes and keycodes sent by the keyboard setxkbmap (1x) - set the keyboard using the X Keyboard Extension xkbcomp (1x) - compile XKB keyboard description xkbprint (1x)- print an XKB keyboard description [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/home/kooij> $ dpkg -S kbdrate util-linux: /sbin/kbdrate util-linux: /usr/man/man8/kbdrate.8.gz So, util-linux has a tool kbdrate, I've never used it myself though. Also, in X11 "xset" lets you control a lot of things like the keyboard, mouse and monitor properties. With the "-r" option you can apparently set some keyboard options. Better read the manpages yourself. > I did a silly thing, which is "cat /proc/kcore" > ( but then they say you have to try everything once in life ). > After a while all the characters on that tty became gibberish and i found > no way of fixing the problem but i am sure the solution is simple even > though unknown to me. (rebooting solved it but there must be a nicer way > of doing it) This happens because there are 8-bit characters in /proc/kcore. The terminal driver interprets those as commands and it can get confused. Use reset to clean up the terminal's state. You can read about this in the "tset" manpage (reset is a sort of alias for tset.) > When i start ae in an xterm window i cannot use the arrow keys to scroll. > They work fine with other programs though. Hmm, ae, yes.. well, ae seems not to work very well in xterm. If you want an easy editor, try joe. Or learn vi. You're advised to learn ed and ex too if you want to be a vi power-user. > Does cdwrite or a similar program support drives with an ATAPI interface ? I believe the latest and greatest versions of either cdwrite or cdrecord (probably the latter) do this. Another option is to let the kernel (also a very recent version - probably even recent 2.1.x) do scsi emulation for ide devices. > Mouse support > The file /etc/gpm.conf has the following entries: > device=help > responsiveness=help > type=ps2 > append="" > > the script /etc/init.d/gpm produced the following message at startup: > gpm -m help -t ps2 -r help/usr/sbin/gpm: help: No such file or directory > My mouse is indeed PS2 and at startup i get this message as well: > PS/2 auxiliary pointing device detected. driver installed > The mouse works fine with X so i simply scratched the useless call to > /etc/init.d/gpm. > The question is: how do i adjust the responsiveness of the mouse which is > rather slow at the moment ( meaning that the distances the mouse travels on > my mouse pad are too large). This looks like an incomplete setup. Mine (a ps2 mouse) has: device=/dev/psaux responsiveness= type=ps2 append="-l \"a-zA-Z0-9_.:~/\300-\326\330-\366\370-\377\"" (I admit not to know what the append string is all about.) Try running gpmconfig as root. It is a nice script (you can read in /usr/sbin/gpmconfig what it does) that takes you by the hand when setting up gpm. If you still have a hard time, spell out the gpm and gpm.conf manpages and try again. Never just delete scripts from /etc/init.d . That is a senseless thing to do, because it isn't necessary at all. All that is needed is to delete the link to /etc/init.d/gpm in /etc/rc*: [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/home/kooij> $ find /etc/rc* -type l -
Re: Some odd errors / compatibility questions.
On 24 Mar 1998, Timothy J. Miller wrote: > The system is a home-built; PCI IDE motherboard housing a Cyrix > 6x86-233, 32Mb EDO RAM, Acer 24x CDROM and a modem. You name the brand of the cdrom, but the motherboard goes unnamed. I'd rather buy a quality motherboard than a cdrom. Remember, the quality of the motherboard is vital to all parts of your system. BTW, if you're running a Cyrix 233, be sure that cooling is absolutely superior (ie. spend the difference in price with an Intel/AMD on cooling.) Hot processors can also be a cause of memory problems. The cache on the board might be crappy too. Or just badly seated. > On the initial compile I started having problems with GCC dumping > out on unexpected signals (11). From what I've read in the past, this is > indicative of memory problems, particularly with non-parity SIMMS. So I > pulled a second set of 2-16Mb EDO fast RAM SIMMs from a running system > (*not* running Linux) and swapped them for mine. Look at http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/ to read more about possible causes of the problems. > No dice. If anything, things are worse-- occasional messages > indicating the kmem is freeing non-kmapped(?) memory. Once I work my way > to a successful compilation of 2.0.30, the system fails to boot it (I'm > back booting the 2.0.29 default kernel). Every so often something abends > with a "kernel unable to handle dereference of NULL pointer". > Compilations still breaking on unexpected signals. > > Now, this all *still* sounds like bad memory to me, but I'm on my > second set of sticks here from 2 different sources (one set in fact was > pulled from a running system). I find it hard to swallow that *both* > sets are worthless. You might also want to try removing every card from the computer that you can spare from the system while keeping it running. Swap the vga card with a different, known-working one. Even try swapping the cpu. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: install troubles continue
On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Wolf Logan wrote: > I've now stripped all the equipment out of the machine, except the Diamond > 3D 3000, and reset all the CMOS options to their absolute most conservative. > I've also tried rewriting the boot floppy, and using other floppies. > > It still reboots while trying to start up off the Rescue disk. Before also trying to swap out the video card for another (simpler) one, you might get things working with the "tecra" bootdisks that are in a subdirectory of the directory where you find the normal bootdisks. This has something to do with the kernel being a zImage vs. a bzImage. I can't explain you what the difference is though. Please tell us what the brand and type of your motherboard is and what bios it has (including version.) If you cannot find any way to get your machine to boot from the rescue floppy, someone may be willing to brew a kernel tailored to your specific hardware. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: RESC1440.BIN
On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Bill Leach wrote: > You are right in that it call for an option in the docs (though the > option is 'bs=512'). However, I have pretty much always just specified > the 'if', 'of' and they work. Here's another one, I have never had any problems with: cat /vmlinuz > /dev/fd0 Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: xdm, X, fvwm2 : newbie questions
On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Gabor Kontur wrote: > I have your setup now. Works fine except that the responsiveness has not > changed in X. I've never seen the advantages of using /dev/gpmdata as I have never had any problems getting my mouse to work correctly in X11. YMMV though. I think not using the gpmdata method makes it simpler anyhow. About the mouse responsiveness: you've obviously not read the xset manpage very thoroughly yet as it explainss it all (I think.) > When i try to remedy the situation by starting a login bash that will run > my regular profile scripts, i cannot login as root: Invalid (or incorrect) > login. The password is strictly alphanumeric and i couldn´t possibly > misspell it a dozen times. Also, CAPS LOCK is not activated ( or otherwise > i would login as ROOT and not as root ). > I can login as another user just fine. This sounds really weird. I can't help you very much I'm afraid. I don't think so, but maybe you fiddled with /etc/securetty or /etc/login.defs? What command do you use to become root, su or login? I'm not sure if you got this right: - if you start bash as a login shell, it will read ~/.bash_profile - if you start bash as a (sub)shell, it will read ~/.bashrc Cheers, Joost PS: If you want to make changes to the /etc/rc.? setup, have a look at the update-rc.d manpage which documents the Debian interface for this. If you use update-rc.d, packages will respect your changes when they get upgraded (otherwise, they might reinstall links that you removed.) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How to design a LAN network
On Wed, 25 Mar 1998, law rebecca wrote: > Hello there, i would like to get some help for the solution on design a > LAN network for a company which have the following situation : (the > design must suite it present and future need) [snip] > 8)Please include the benefits/drawbacks of each. The interconnection > with the subsidiaries is not part of the task but, clearly must be > considered. Please include an estimate of the amount of money you are prepared to pay for consulting and the amount you want to spend on implementation (plus necessary hardware.) Please take notice that this is a mailinglist about free software. If too many people start abusing this forum as a possible alternative to comp.networking.consultancy.forsale, some subscribers might get upset. Cheers, Joost PS: are you trolling us? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: xdm, X, fvwm2 : newbie questions
On Wed, 25 Mar 1998, Bill Leach wrote: > With a ps2 style mouse, it is either use gpm for both consoles and X or > kill gpm to run X (for whatever reasons they will not co-exist on a ps2 > style mouse). > > > I've never seen the advantages of using /dev/gpmdata as I have never > > had any problems getting my mouse to work correctly in X11. YMMV > > though. I think not using the gpmdata method makes it simpler anyhow. Really, this has never been a problem for me. The only problem I had with X11 and a ps2 mouse is related to StarOffice4. It freezes when you click on the menus with a ps2 mouse. Stardivision has released a patch now, but I haven't tested it, because I found a Logitech 3-button serial mouse. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Win95 as a terminal
On Wed, 25 Mar 1998, Linux admin at alv wrote: > Is there a better solution for using my Linux resources from Win 95 computer? > Notice: no network card. Only null modem. It's not proven, but I think that there's two ways to do this: - the hard way: make sure that the modems either have init strings passed to them that put them in "fixed link" (maybe there's a better name for it?) mode or have it programmed in their cmos (if available.) Next, hack a windows modem driver and cut out all the modem talk/response strings. There's a driver somewhere on the net that has just that. AFAIK that is the only way to have a true (compatible :-) ) nullmodem connection in windows. Linux doesn't care, it's even easier as you don't have to write a chat script at all to massage the link before attemting to start ppp on it. - the easy way, which is also a nice hack: write a chatscript that doesn't talk _to_ a modem, but instead talks _like_ a modem. Unset the timeout while it waits for windows to start dialling. I'm not sure if it is enough, but I think that basically echoing "OK" to everything windows says is enough. Finally, echo "CONNECT" and start pppd. You must wire the RTS and CTS lines correctly, so you'll be able to do hardware handshaking (faster transfer than xon/xoff.) Also make sure that the serial ports on both sides get the DCD signal, or else both computers may think that the "line" is dropped. > Can I, for instance, use my dial-up internet connection thru Linux computer on > Win 95? Yes, just set windows to use the linux host as the gateway and configure linux to route all packets. Maybe you want to setup ip-aliasing and firewalling too, unless you have real ip numbers. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: NFS client for win95?
On Wed, 25 Mar 1998, Rob Goodwin wrote: > does anybody know of a client for win95 that will allow me to map a linux > drive across the network? perferably something that is a free download. AFAIK there are only commercial implementations of nfs on windows. Of course, Microsoft didn't invent (and proprietarize) it so don't expect it to work seamless and easy on windows. You can make linux behave as a Lan Manager server (aka "windows networking") if you run samba on it. This probably does exactly as you want. It's just like as if the linux box were a NT server, only a lot cheaper (and a lot more stable.) Have a look at http://samba.anu.edu.au/samba It is also available as a binary .deb package. Cheers, Joost X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: DB726D820AFBD011A2664445535444763E00 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 [Part 2, Application/MS-TNEF 2.1KB] [Cannot display this part. Press "V" then "S" to save in a file] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: xdm, X, fvwm2 : newbie questions
On Wed, 25 Mar 1998, Bill Leach wrote: > I don't even know 'how far back' this was (bo, rexx?) but I do know that > at one time, I had to 'kill' gpm to run X and there was a note somewhere > in the gpm stuff about the problem. Umm, yeah, I think you're right about that. IIRC that was around "buzz" (1.1) times actually that I read something like that when I first set up X11. I didn't have a ps/2 mouse at that time, so I never bothered about it. When I did get a ps/2 mouse, I remembered the warning, but tried to get it to work "straight" and it just did. It has always done so since, on several different systems and mice. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: more or less Newbies?
On Tue, 24 Mar 1998, Marcus Brinkmann wrote: > PS: After learning awk and shell cripting, you get perl nearly for free. > > PPS: I removed ls from my system and have an alias "ls" -> "echo *" ;) > > PPPS: I also have an alias "emacs" -> "cat >" Oh, no! What have you started? Now it's time to post this part of /usr/lib/emacs/19.34/etc/JOKES again! :-) PS: we should have something like this for perl too. I bet Larry Wall would appreciate it. Cheers, Joost - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Patrick J. LoPresti) Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (News system) Subject: The True Path (long) Date: 11 Jul 91 03:17:31 GMT Path: ai-lab!mintaka!olivea!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!patl Newsgroups: alt.religion.emacs,alt.slack Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 95 Xref: ai-lab alt.religion.emacs:244 alt.slack:1935 When I log into my Xenix system with my 110 baud teletype, both vi *and* Emacs are just too damn slow. They print useless messages like, 'C-h for help' and '"foo" File is read only'. So I use the editor that doesn't waste my VALUABLE time. Ed, man! !man ed ED(1) UNIX Programmer's ManualED(1) NAME ed - text editor SYNOPSIS ed [ - ] [ -x ] [ name ] DESCRIPTION Ed is the standard text editor. - --- Computer Scientists love ed, not just because it comes first alphabetically, but because it's the standard. Everyone else loves ed because it's ED! "Ed is the standard text editor." And ed doesn't waste space on my Timex Sinclair. Just look: - -rwxr-xr-x 1 root 24 Oct 29 1929 /bin/ed - -rwxr-xr-t 4 root 1310720 Jan 1 1970 /usr/ucb/vi - -rwxr-xr-x 1 root 5.89824e37 Oct 22 1990 /usr/bin/emacs Of course, on the system *I* administrate, vi is symlinked to ed. Emacs has been replaced by a shell script which 1) Generates a syslog message at level LOG_EMERG; 2) reduces the user's disk quota by 100K; and 3) RUNS ED!! "Ed is the standard text editor." Let's look at a typical novice's session with the mighty ed: golem> ed ? help ? ? ? quit ? exit ? bye ? hello? ? eat flaming death ? ^C ? ^C ? ^D ? - --- Note the consistent user interface and error reportage. Ed is generous enough to flag errors, yet prudent enough not to overwhelm the novice with verbosity. "Ed is the standard text editor." Ed, the greatest WYGIWYG editor of all. ED IS THE TRUE PATH TO NIRVANA! ED HAS BEEN THE CHOICE OF EDUCATED AND IGNORANT ALIKE FOR CENTURIES! ED WILL NOT CORRUPT YOUR PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS!! ED IS THE STANDARD TEXT EDITOR! ED MAKES THE SUN SHINE AND THE BIRDS SING AND THE GRASS GREEN!! When I use an editor, I don't want eight extra KILOBYTES of worthless help screens and cursor positioning code! I just want an EDitor!! Not a "viitor". Not a "emacsitor". Those aren't even WORDS ED! ED! ED IS THE STANDARD!!! TEXT EDITOR. When IBM, in its ever-present omnipotence, needed to base their "edlin" on a UNIX standard, did they mimic vi? No. Emacs? Surely you jest. They chose the most karmic editor of all. The standard. Ed is for those who can *remember* what they are working on. If you are an idiot, you should use Emacs. If you are an Emacs, you should not be vi. If you use ED, you are on THE PATH TO REDEMPTION. THE SO-CALLED "VISUAL" EDITORS HAVE BEEN PLACED HERE BY ED TO TEMPT THE FAITHLESS. DO NOT GIVE IN!!! THE MIGHTY ED HAS SPOKEN!!! ? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Debian Linux Problem
On Thu, 26 Mar 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hi Debian Users ! Hi Neil, First: I hope you're subscribed to debian-user, because I'm not going to edit your antispam stealth email address. I hate spam, but I don't think that it would be a good solution to the problem if everybody uses an obfuscated email address which you had to edit every time you reply to someone. I you're receiving that much spam, figure out a receipe with procmail, or convince your ISP to use RBL on their mailservers. > VGA and the board was something I can't remember. Anyway, the final > question was if I wanted to start the x-server now, and answered Yes. > The problem begins now: The system boots up properly, but when it > gets to : > > Debian GNU/Linux 1.3 onyx tty1 > > onyx login: _ > > The system goes crazy and the screen goes off, then turns on as > ScreenSaver mode, then flashes the login screen, and then restarts the > cicle. The times this happens is : > > login screen : 0,5 seconds > off screen : 1,0 seconds > saver screen : 1,0 seconds What you probably did is to make your computer run xdm. Xdm then runs the xserver and you have to login to xdm before it gives you a session on the server. In your case, it seems that the xserver is dying prematurely and then restarted again and again by xdm. This situation locks you pretty much out of the virtual consoles to fix the problem, because every time xdm starts a new xserver, you're thrown into the virtual console where the xserver runs on. You might try to stop xdm from respawning xservers by hitting Ctrl-R until it stops your screen from flashing or until your finger hurts too much. When you succeed at that, you can kill off xdm completely by typing "/etc/init.d/xdm stop", but you'll probably have to login as root first. If that still doesn't work, you'll have to boot in single mode - rescue mode is a lot more drastic, I don't think that's necessary. You can do that by typing "linux single" at the lilo prompt. If you don't know what lilo is, just take out the installation bootdiskette (also called "rescue disk" for exactly this kind of purpose) and at the first prompt type "linux single." Next, the system will come up only in single-user mode and there will be no xdm running. You can log in as root on the console and then edit the file /etc/X11/config. change the line "start-xdm" in "no-start-xdm" and logout. The system will change to a default runlevel (multi-user) and this time, xdm is not run. Now it's time to fix your real problem: the xserver doesn't run properly and you have to diagnose and fix it. Begin by starting the xserver manually until it runs reliably without errors (hint: there are a lot of man pages you can read and also some fine README's in /usr/doc/X11. You can always try XF86Setup, which is a nice GUI tool.) Only when you have an xserver working make it be run by xdm again (I think you can guess what it takes to make it be run again.) If you're all set, you don't need to reboot to make xdm start (this isn't windoze,) just type "/etc/init.d/xdm start". BTW /etc/init.d/xdm is just a script, you can have a look at it with more (or less ;-) ) to see what it does. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Debian Linux Problem
On Thu, 26 Mar 1998, Ossama Othman wrote: > then edit whatever you need to disable xdm temporarily. For example, you > could temporarily move /etc/init.d/xdm to /etc/init.d/xdm.orig. This is not the right way. You should edit /etc/X11/config so that it doesn't have a line that matches the regexp "^start-xdm". Prepending "no-" to that line accomplishes that, while keeping it easy to undo the change (just remove the "no-" part again.) Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Debian Linux Problem
Oops! made a mistake: On Thu, 26 Mar 1998, Joost Kooij wrote: > If you don't know what lilo is, just take out the installation > bootdiskette (also called "rescue disk" for exactly this kind of purpose) > and at the first prompt type "linux single." If you boot from the rescue disk, you'll want the kernel to use the root filesystem on your harddisk instead of the ramdisk image on the floppy, because there's not much to repair on the floppy ;-) . To make the kernel do that, you'll have to tell it on what device it can find the root filesystem with the "root=" boot parameter. Assuming your linux root partition is on /dev/hda1, the correct bootstring would then be: linux single root=/dev/hda1 I'm sorry for the wrong initial information. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: debian not working on a PC without math copro
On Thu, 26 Mar 1998, Alain Toussaint wrote: > a friend of mine was trying to install debina but unfortunately he > couldn't because her machine didn't have a math coprocessors,do you know > if there's installation disk for this,here's the spec of his machine: This shouldn't be too hard: at the loadlin prompt, enter the magic words linux no387 That should do it. When you install lilo, you may have to put a line append="no387" in /etc/lilo.conf to avoid having to type the parameter on every reboot. Maybe a special kernel config option is enough too, I don't know. > It has a microsoft mouse compatible trackball built into the keyboard. If it doesn't look to linux like it's connected to your serial port, you might have a problem getting the thing to work as a mouse. YMMV. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: LILO woes.
On Fri, 27 Mar 1998, Nathan C. Burnett wrote: > I have a non-fatal albeit annoying problem. I'm running debian 1.3 and I > absolutly cannot get LILO to work properly. When the machine starts to > boot the 'LI' shows up the the machine locks (have to use the reset button > ctrl-alt-del doesn't work). The LILO is version 19. > > I'm running a Cyrix 6x86MX, with a 2.1 GB samsung (I think) HD on a > Matsonic MS-5120 motherboard, which incidentally came with a really weak > manual so I don't know what IDE chipset it uses... > > When I had RedHat 5 installed on this machine LILO 20 worked fine. > > > My lilo.conf looks like: > > > boot=/dev/hda1 > root=/dev/hda1 > compact > install=/boot/boot.b > map=/boot/map > vga=normal > prompt > timeout = 50 > > image=/vmlinuz >label=Linux >read-only > image=/vmlinuz.old >label=old >read-only > > > Any ideas? Try putting "linear" in. My machine here (a Digital Venturis FX 5166) wouldn't boot until I did that (it barfed: LI01010101010101010101010) I also have "compact" commented out, but I can't recall if I did that on purpose. You may want to experiment with that. Also, there's quite an exhaustive explanation of lilo's output in case of problems in the lilo documentation that you can find in /usr/doc/lilo. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: LILO woes.
On Sat, 28 Mar 1998, Hamish Moffatt wrote: > Well, when it changes you've left an old LILO in your MBR, which is > why it doesn't work. The new one is in your boot sector instead. > You should be able to disk "FDISK /MBR" in DOS to reinstall a standard > MBR, or install the mbr package I think, to replace it, then set your > Linux root partition active. IIRC just installing the mbr package doesn't fix your MBR. You have to do what the /usr/sbin/liloconfig script would otherwise do for you (you can do it with the script anyway I think.) To install a pristine MBR on /dev/hda type this: dd if=/boot/mbr.b of=/dev/hda bs=444 count=1 After that you'll want to activate a partition. That is the partition that holds the lilo partition boot sector. This can either be done interactively with fdisk or on the command-line with the command /sbin/activate that comes with the lilo package. To activate the first partition of /dev/hda type this: /sbin/activate /dev/hda 1 Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: SAMBA w/ TCP/IP
On Tue, 31 Mar 1998, Leonardo Ruoso wrote: > I've heard about SAMBA! SAMBA uses NetBeui to do "Network > Neighborhood"? > > If uses my wokgroup will be based on NetBeui and I'll get colised > again. If what i want is use only TCP/IP in my Network... SAMBA'S > NetBeui woks encapsuled on TCP (IP os UDP)? > > When I get to configure my Windows95/NT Network Clients i will use the > Microsof Network Client in the same way I even do? Yes. With samba, you can get everything (and more) that windows95's peer-to-peer networking does. You can get almost everything (but also more) that windows nt does. Install the samba package and read the docs in /usr/doc/samba and read the lot of docs that come with the package. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: URGENT: Problems with bash_2.01.1-1_i386.deb pkg.
On Tue, 31 Mar 1998, Damir Naden wrote: > Can I : > > a) install ash INSTEAD of the bash and remove the bash completely then > reinstall it fresh? If you can install _and_ properly run ash, then you could either: exec ash dpkg --purge bash dpkg -i bash.deb bash (see if it works now) or replace "bash" with "ash" in /etc/passwd and try to fix bash > b) if someone would be kind enough to send me their > /var/lib/dpkg/updates/bash.* files from 2.01-5 bash installation > ^^ I'm not sure this is right > since it appears this is where my problem is? I think you mean /var/lib/dpkg/info/bash.* ? If you still need those, mail me and I'll send you mine. I can also send you the appropriate bash and libreadline binaries if you want. Good luck, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: problem with 3Com 3509B: can send but can;t receive
On Tue, 31 Mar 1998, Nico De Ranter wrote: > I'm trying to install Debian on a Compaq Deskpro XL 566. > Since I couldn't get the onboard Ethernet board to work (I found > the HOW-TO but didn't succeed) I decided to plugin a 3Com 3C509B > 10Base-T board which I have lying around. I reinstalled Debian > (since I had some other trouble also) and included the 3C509B. > It gets loaded and configured at login just fine. My IP-address > is ok, the board is up. When I ping another machine on the same > network I see arp-packets arriving at the other machine (tcpdump) > and my second also sends answers back. However nothing arrives > on my Deskpro. Also when I do tcpdump on my Deskpro nothing is > going over the network so apparently I can send packets but cannot > receive antyhing. > > Any ideas on how to solve this? You can transmit, but you can't receive: that sounds like an interrupt not working/getting detected by the kernel. Maybe something on the board is eating the interrupt, or it is somehow disabled by the bios. Did everything work with the 3Com drivers floppy? I don't know how to fix it, but this may get you a little further. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: pam, ppp broken after dpkg-ftp hamm upgrade
On Tue, 31 Mar 1998, Britton wrote: > Is this the expected behavior? If so, what is the accepted way to tell > these packages to configure themselves, or each other, or whatever? > Thanks. Have you tried to put them on the same commandline like this: dpkg -i libs/libpam0g_0.57b-0.deb admin/libpam0g-util_0.57b-0.deb That way they both get unpacked before either attempts to configure. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Legal -> A4
On Wed, 1 Apr 1998, Oleg Krivosheev wrote: > i need to reformat my Latex paper from > legal(US) to A4. What i have to do in order to > get all stuff A4 aware: dvips, ghostscript, > magicfilter...? > > I already put [a4] modifier in latex > doc.class preambule > > ps i have latest frozen installed... Assuming you have libpaper installed (for unstable/frozen that would be libpaperg,) try "/usr/sbin/paperconfig" Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: mozilla.deb, get it while its hot
On Thu, 2 Apr 1998, Jules Bean wrote: > Actually, if you have a decent MIME-configured email reader, HTML mail > shouldn't give you a problem. No offense to you personally, but this argument is also used by the more braindead Microcronies: "If you'd used decent software, you could read the Excel sheet / Powerpoint presentation / Word97 document that I've just sent you by email. It's not my fault you're not conforming to standards." A lot of people confuse "Standard" with "Convenient To Me And My Whimsy." This kind of reasoning turns well-defined and commonly accepted standards that are very well fitted to the job at hand into a silly fringe thing, without any necessity or sensible reason. Very often this is stimulated by vendors of the "enhancements", who mostly try to lure you into their tarpit of proprietary protocols. The sort that you can easily buy into, but a lot harder out of. I like to think that by nature, efficient forms of communication seek a least common multiple among communicating parties to reduce potential misunderstanding and to increase the efficiency of the effort to communicate. Only when communicating parties can agree on a specific context, it makes sense to put additional factors into the common multiple to improve efficiency of communication. Please tell me how html-mail, microsoft-word-mail and, soon in a theater near you, activeX-mail improve general communication by email on the public internet. At some companies (like mine :-( ) people will startup MS Word to write an email of three lines. On average, I get at least one powerpoint presentation every week, generally consisting of say, 3 sheets, each with one and a half sentence on it. If all of these messages were sent as three lines of plaintext, the readability of it as an email would have been much better, even for those who do like to use various office software products. Now if people would start to use the time, spent on crafting powerpoint sheets, on content instead, some of it might even have been more sensible. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: mozilla.deb, get it while its hot
On Thu, 2 Apr 1998, Peter S Galbraith wrote: > At my lab, after installing MS-Outlook as the `corporate EMail system', > the Informatics guy send 200 users a document explaining that each user > had a 20 MB mailbox limit and explained how to automatically delete `old' > mail. > > His 1-page note was sent as a 1MB Word document filling up 5% of everyone's > mailbox, using up a lot of ressources to send in 200 copies! Well, I can tell you that where I work (not for Philips actually, don't blame them.) 15,000 other people work. And yes, we do get sent word documents by the mass. The address list they use for that purpose is split on alphabet. The result is that the word document is not the biggest part, the header is: 300KB just for the letter k. Add to that the size of the body and multiply by 15,000 Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: mozilla.deb, get it while its hot
On Thu, 2 Apr 1998, Jules Bean wrote: > An amusing story. I'm doubtful though... I've written long essays and > papers which aren't 1MB even in MS Word.. They do, if you include OLE objects, like bitmaps. OLE needs an enormous overhead (receipes to make word crash seem to always involve OLE objects.) Also, a lot of word users don't know this, Word includes a lot of information you might not want it to include at all, like: - the place on your harddisk where you saved it; - if you cleared the document by deleting the old text in an old document, it actually keeps that text. In my department (where there are lots of FreeBSD users) this was discovered when some manager sent a document around, ordering everybody to use Microsoft exchange. when it was "cat word.doc | strings | fmt | less", it also showed another text, which was quite embarrassing (yes, the content too.); - lots of superfluous stuff like font definitions that you didn't use; - dangerous macros (word viruses - a word document is actually a dynamic part of the word program); Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: linux debian installation preserving dos
On Mon, 6 Apr 1998, Valerie CAYOL wrote: > A old version of linux is already installed on my computer > and the disk is partitionned between linux and dos. > I would like to install a new version of linux (debian linux 131), keeping > my dos partition untouched. Is this possible and if so, could anyone tell > me how I can do that ? This should be no problem. Part of the installation procedure on the debian 1.3.1 install floppies is a cfdisk session. With cfdisk you can alter the parttioning scheme on the harddisk. In your case, just leave the dos partition as it is. It will stay the way it was. You may also want to keep the partitioning scheme of the linux partitions, if you are happy with the way you have set the harddisk for the previous installation of linux. But maybe you want to do it all over. In that case, simply remove (delete) the linux partitions (keeping the dos partition intact) and create new linux partitions in the free space. Don't forget to make a swap partition. When you're done with the partitions, whether or not you've changed the partition layout, the next step (after creating and adding swap space) is to create file systems on the partitions. Again, don't touch the linux partition (don't worry, the installer program will ignore the dos partition.) If you have a lot of files in your home directory and the home directories are on a separate partition (and you haven't erased that partition with cfdisk), you may want to choose to keep that home partition. In that case, don't initialize a filesystem on that partition, just let it be the way it was. You should reinitialize the other filesystems so that debian linux has clean filesystems to install its files on. Next, you'll have to mount the filesystems. First mount the root filesystem, then mount the other filesystems on top of that. If you have kept a previous home filesystem, mount that partition on /home. I am not entirely sure, but it is possible that the installation program even lets you mount the dos partition, you can mount it on /dos for example. When you've setup debian once, you'll never have to do this again if you later want to upgrade. Once you have debian running you can upgrade with dpkg and dselect while your system keeps running. No need to even reboot (except in exceptional cases.) Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Unable to start program
On Tue, 7 Apr 1998, Gabrie van Zanten wrote: > Hi, > > Sometimes I see a program (I think) but I can't run it, even though I'm > using root. Like this one: > -rwxr-xr-x XF86_S3V 2043768 > > I thought I could at least run it and get an error, but Linux says: command > not found. I had this too when installing fortune. After logging in as a > user I could run fortune, but not before as root (fortune was in the users > PATH, does it matter?). If its not in your $PATH, the shell won't find it. Unix, unlike dos, does not automatically consider the current directory ( $PWD ) to be part of $PATH, unless you explicitly set it so ( eg. add a dot to $PATH like so: export PATH=$PATH:. ) If you type ./commandname that will always work, because the shell sees an absolute path prepended to the command, just like as if you had typed /home/userx/somedir/command Of course, the commandname file must have the execution bit set ( chmod +x commandname ) Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: linux debian installation preserving dos
On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Valerie CAYOL wrote: > Thank you, It worked, I preserved my dos pqrtition and > I mounted new linux partitions. the dos partition is visble from > linux. However, lilo does not allow to boot on dos > anymore. Instead I have to boot on a floppy !!! Hi, Booting from floppy is a hassle, it's so much slower than booting from the harddisk. But you see how it is still convenient to have a boot disk available for situations like these. Now lets try to make lilo work, so you don't need the bootdisk all of the time. First, this is an excerpt from the lilo.conf(5) manpage; you can view it with the command "man lilo.conf": --- lilo.conf --- LILO.CONF(5) LILO.CONF(5) NAME lilo.conf - configuration file for lilo DESCRIPTION This file, by default /etc/lilo.conf, is read by the boot loader installer lilo (see lilo(8)). It might look as follows: boot = /dev/hda delay = 40 compact vga = normal root = /dev/hda1 read-only image = /zImage-1.5.99 label = try image = /zImage-1.0.9 label = 1.0.9 image = /tamu/vmlinuz label = tamu root = /dev/hdb2 vga = ask other = /dev/hda3 label = dos table = /dev/hda This configuration file specifies that lilo uses the Mas ter Boot Record on /dev/hda. (For a discussion of the var ious ways to use lilo, and the interaction with other operating systems, see user.tex from the lilo documenta tion.) --- lilo.conf --- As you can see, there is a section "other" in this lilo.conf. I bet that it is still missing in yours, because you have not added it yet. Let's suppose that your dos partition is on /dev/hda1. In that case, you would add to your /etc/lilo.conf: other = /dev/hda1 label = dos table = /dev/hda The above example also carries a line: delay = 40 Which specifies that you have 4 seconds to hit a key, at which point lilo will wait for you to type the name of the image to boot. If you hit Tab, it should print a list of possble images. Type dos and hit enter to boot dos. If you just hit enter or don't make lilo ask for a bootimage name, lilo will boot the deafualt image, that is the one that appears first in /etc/lilo.conf (can also be set with the "default = " keyword.) You can setup lilo to always prompt for a bootimage. If you want that, remove the "delay = " line and replace it with: prompt timeout = 300 This makes lilo always prompt and wait 30 seconds for you to hit a key before it boots the default image. If you leave out the "timeout = " keyword, it will never stop waiting for you to specify an image or hit enter. That also means that you can't do a remote reboot. To make the boot setup even more fancy, you can write a message to print to the screen before the prompt and create a simple bootmenu. Suppose you wrote the message to be printed to the file /boot/bootmessage.text, you would add the following line to lilo.conf: message = /boot/bootmessage.text After adding those lines to /etc/lilo.conf, rerun lilo (I usually run it like this: "lilo -v -v" so I get to see some details about lilo's actions.) Always, when you make a change to your lilo setup, rerun lilo, so the changes are incorporated in the map file and the partition tables. Not running lilo after you made changes is like forgetting to put the plug in: it's the most obvious mistake to make and for that reason the most difficult to diagnose. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: hanging on boot; NFS problem in 2.0
On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Geza Gyorgyi wrote: > The 2.0 rescue disk (both the February and the March versions) may have > an incorrect "mount", neither I nor the local Linux guru could install > the base system by NFS. Furthermore, it can be useful to have the FTP > option for installing the base system, like RedHat has. The nfs install doesn't work because the mount command as supplied with the rescue disk doesn't support nfs filesystems. By popular demand, the real mount utility will be included in the next beta-release of the boot floppies. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Debian linux and X11 installation
On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Oliver Elphick wrote: > Valerie CAYOL wrote: > >I have been desperatly trying to install linux debian > >on my pc. I am using a CD provided by the magazine dream, > >and so far I have performed the basic installation. > >Severall problems have appeared : > >1- in the section of the configuration called Configure device driver I was > >not able to find the internet card I am using. > >This card is compatible Ne 2000, at irq = 11 and io = \0xFF80. But > ^^ > That seems an unusual address. Is this hardwired, or can you change the > card to use a different address? Is this a PCI ne2000-compatible card? I have a couple of those and they can be a real pain. Later kernels than the one on the standard bootdisks of Debian's last release (that is probabbly what is on your CD) have better support for these PCI ne2000 network cards. If you can get the installation generally working, you can get a newer kernel from the ftp archive ftp.debian.org and maybe a newer kernel will recognize your network card. Even better is to compile a kernel yourself, with only drivers enabled for devices you have. Install package kernel-package and read the docs in /usr/doc/kernel-package. Basically, this helps you compile a kernel and turn the kernel into a .deb package, complete with installation and removal scripts. Very easy. > >specifying these values caused the installation to fail, > >so I did not give any devide driver and of course the network connection > >does not work. Does anyone know what I can do about that ? > >2- I don't unsderstand how dpkg works and how to start it. > >It is supposed to be simple so I really think I missed something. When > >writing simply dpkg I get a simple help. > > Typically: `dpkg -i _.deb'. You can do other things, but > in your current state of knowledge it may not be advisable. Use dselect. It's much better to work with if you want to install many packages. But there's two caveats: Caveat one: read the informative help screens that dselect pops up when it starts. Really do, because if you get confused and press the wrong buttons, dselect can be scary. Read the help screens and you'll have hardly any problems with the best package manager there currently is. Caveat two: don't install 100 new packages at the same time. You'll have a hard time keeping track of everything that's happening, assuming that you did not get lost in the dependency resolution parts of dselect. Dselect is a great tool for letting you do so many things with so little keystrokes, but there's a risk in that as well - don't push your limits. Be wise and stick with the default selection the first time you use dselect. When installing those was successful, install another 20 to 25 packages. Correct any problems by hand if necessary, either by quitting dselect and using "raw" dpkg or by simply marking the broken package for removal and running the "remove" step in dselect. > >3- Instead of using dpkg, I tried to use dselect to install x11, and then I > >was asked many questions I did not know the answer of : mouse devise, > >monitor resolution and frequency, > >etc ... Installing X11 can be very hard and it can be very easy. If you don't know where the mouse device is and what your monitor's scan frequencies are or what kind of videocard you have, you're in for a hard time. When I first installed X11, little more than a year ago, I read a lot of README's and man pages. That took me a day, but after that I generally knew what I was doing and found setting up X with xf86config quite easy. Nowadays, there is the excellent XF86Setup GUI tool, that makes life a lot easier than xf86config. The program is included in the xserver-vga16 package, so be sure to install both xserver-vga16 and the xserver that fits your videocard. In XF86Setup, you can select the mouse you have - with your mouse! The program will detect a lot, only if you choose a wrong mouse driver to try, you might have to choose the default with keyboard keys. It doesn't detect your card, you have to know that yourself. You might have to open up the computer case and look at the chip on the videocard. If there still is a partition with windows95 on the harddisk, you can boot windows to peek at the device settings to see what card you have. There is no way for XF86Config to know your monitor either. You'll have to set this yourself. You don't have to set frequencies anymore if you don't want to (but it gives more optimal results if you can.) If you know that your monitor can do at least 800x600, then you tell XF86Setup to use that settings. The program will then use the frequency setting it associates with that resolution, those are the most common and safe settings. Be careful not to experiment with the monitor settings without good detailed knowledge about the monitor's parameters. Setting the wrong values can really break your m
Re: Where/how can I get Staroffice?
On Fri, 10 Apr 1998, Tristan Day wrote: > I hear everyone saying how good staroffice is but don't know where I can get > it. http://www.stardivision.de http://sunsite.uio.no/pub/unix/linux/packages/staroffice4/final/ > Also netscape won't install because it says it needs a .tar.gz file not a > deb file with netscape in. What do I do? If you installed debian 1.3, then you have to get a tarball from netscape's site, put it in /tmp and then install the netscape.deb. If you look at the .deb's size compared to the tarball, you'll undestand that it is only an installer that sets some defaults right so netscape doesn't coredump. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Need a little help
On Fri, 10 Apr 1998, Kendrick Myatt wrote: > 1) What are the best websites for info on how to do such-and-such > with Debian Linux? http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP has a link to many HOWTO's (and mirrors nearer to you.) > 2) Where do I get the "Enlightenment" X-Windows package that looks so > cool? This has been answered already. > 3) What do I need to use my 3Com Impact IQ ISDN TA for dialup PPP > access to my ISP? I have no experience with those. Read the ISDN-PPP HOWTO. > 4) How do I set up my Creative SB16 soundcard to work under Linux? I don't know if sound modules come with the default kernel. You might have to recompile the kernel yourself. Look at the kernel-package for instructions. There is a SOUND HOWTO as well. If your card is plug-n-pray, you have to install isapnptools to initialize it before you can use it. > 5) I have 36MB RAM on my system, how much of a swap partition do I > need, if any? That greatly depends on the amount of virtual memory you think you'll ever need. It may also depend on how big your harddisk is. I think 72 MB will get you a long way. > As these are pretty basic-sounding questions, a good answer to #1 > may be all I need :) I've been running Debian 1.3 for a while now, > and recently destroyed it trying to upgrade to the "frozen" code. No > worries, though... I'll just reinstall the base stuff from CD and > start over :) Thanks in advance for any help! Did you read the libc5 - libc6 upgrade mini-HOWTO (not on sunsite) before starting the upgrade? Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Staroffice: Nice links but no banana
On Sat, 11 Apr 1998, Tristan Day wrote: > Thanks for the links guys, but unfortunately they quickly brought me to a > very large download. Here in England there's no free local calls, and I'm > paying for my own, so when I see a 40 meg dnld, I quickly get the hell out > of there. That's annoying, because you can't get it on CD can you? Actually, yes you can. Look for pointers on the Stardivision website Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Adding programs to menu in Xwindows
On Sat, 11 Apr 1998, Gabrie van Zanten wrote: > Hi, > > I installed fvwm95-2 and noticed that there is just on menu item when > clicking the left mouse button. How can I add other programs to it ? Install the package menu. Restart the window manager to make it read the updated configuration files. Read the documentation included with menu. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: kernels
On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Hamish Moffatt wrote: > Can anyone suggest an easy way to ensure that I never download a debian > kernel package where I already have a custom kernel installed? > dpkg/apt/dselect > continually replace my kernel-package-2.0.33 with the standard one, > which doesn't suite my hardware at all of course (and causes random reboots > during startup in fact, as some kernels do --- bzImage problem I think). > > I guess I can always build mine with --revision 9 or something. > Is there an easier way? Is there an easy way to get dpkg or apt > to set packages to hold from the command line? I always build kernel.debs with these switches to kernel-package: make-kpkg --revision 3:custom.1.0 kernel_image The "--revision custom.x.y" should do it already, because "custom" is evaluated as a higher number than anything the kernel-image maintainer puts in the default package. Notice that I added an epoch (3:) to satisfy all lingering paranoia. Thi should not be necessary under normal circumstances, but there have been moments when the kernel-images in the distribution had an epoch (1:) too, thus replacing any home-crafted kernel-images with a custom version number. I assume that the kernel-image will never need an epoch of level three (knock knock.) Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: How can I get dselect to reinstall all installed packages?
On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Louis W. Erickson wrote: > I have a desire to get dselect to reinstall every package that I have > installed, from my known-clean CD-rom. > > (I've had a security issue arise, and don't know the extent of the > possible changes.) > > I don't want to have to remove every package, or to upgrade to a new > version of Debian; I'm very happy with the packages I have installed. > > Is there a way to get dselect to overwrite files with the same version, > instead of skipping them? Mount the cd, cd to main/binary-i386 and type: dpkg -iGROB stable/main/binary-i386 When dpkg is finished, do the same for contrib/binary-i386 (and non-free/binary-i386 if that's on your cd as well.) When you run dselect, it does something very much alike, but it runs dpkg with the additional switch -E aka --skip-same-version, which makes it skip packages that you've already installed. You can read some of these things in the dpkg manpage or by typing dpkg --help. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: HELP!!!
On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Stephen Carpenter wrote: [litany of problems snipped] > IDE and put in a ISA IDE controler, and it worked just fine I don't > hoeveer consioder this a solution becaus eit is a NEW motherboard which > i got Saturday Is it possible that the IDE controller is a buggy one or > of a weird chipset that will not work under linux? (installing bo so > kernel 2.0.29) > > the board is a BioStar 8500 TTD (it is a TX chipset) where can I find > this out? should I just return this borad and try to get a new board of > a diffetn model and company (I already returned this board once and got > it replaced...to no avail) My advice: run for the shop and get another board. Another brand and model. I don't know how you value your time, but I would certainly shell out some money if it would save me a week of hassle. I have had some hassle with linux now and then, but the time that I put in solving problems I have always found well-invested. I've always come out better and knowing more. With hardware, I find that problems are almost always intensely frustrating. The only thing I've ever learnt from hardware problems is that you're best choice is to look at it for no more than an hour and bring it back to the shop. Don't feel embarassed towards the shop personnel or yourself. If the shop only sells motherboards of the crappier^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcheaper sorts, go to another shop to buy the replacement. Hardware problems are my only reason for not buying stuff from mailorder companies, although they're usually much cheaper and often carry known good brands. On more than half the computers that I've bought (I regularly buy computers for friends and relatives) I had to go back to the shop to get a replacement or an upgrade. I don't expect any software to run stable on rotten hardware. Because I buy equipment for other people, I want the hardware to work 100% because I don't give support on Windows (people tend to take it as an excuse to not try to figure things out themselves anymore - besides, having to give windows support is a form of mental abuse anyway.) Good luck, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: ficticious login
On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Bob Nielsen wrote: > Occassionally running 'who' shows something like: > > nielsen ttyp1Apr 15 08:49 (:0.0) Are you logged in to X11 on the console? (using xdm maybe?) Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Mouse Failure in X
On Wed, 15 Apr 1998, Christopher J. McNicholas wrote: > Hi! > I'm using a Mouse Systems serial mouse. > When I startx, twm starts up fine, but as soon as I touch the mouse, > it disappears and I can see a little activity in the lower left > corner of the screen (the entire virtual desktop panned as though I > moved the mouse down there) However, the cursor seems to be stuck in > the corner. Clicking and moving doesn't do anything. X is *not* > locked up however, the focus is still on the login xterm, so "exit" > works to get out. No error messages are reported when I'm out of X. > What do I need to do to get "unstuck"? > This is my current config: > > Section "Pointer" > Protocol "MouseSystems" > Device"/dev/ttyS0" > Emulate3Buttons > Emulate3Timeout 50 > EndSection A quick fix: set the mouse type to "Microsoft" If that doesn't work: backup your X config like this: cp /etc/X11/XF86Config and run XF86Setup, a gui tool to setup X. It autodetects your mouse correctly in most cases. You can either use the config file it generates or just the info about the mouse. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Setting system time?
On Thu, 16 Apr 1998, Jonas Bofjall wrote: > How do I set system clock (the RTC) on a fairly standard, > however old, PC which is running Debian GNU/Linux? hwclock --systohc or hwclock --utc --systohc if your clock is set to GMT aka UTC Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: XDM-start when?
On Thu, 16 Apr 1998, Gernot Bauer wrote: > Hi, > > how can I start xdm automatically after booting? > > I remember that dpkg asked if I want to start xdm after booting - I > denied because X was not set up correctly but now Id like to change > this... > > Does anyone know which files to alter? Look at /etc/init.d/xdm: run_xdm=0 if grep -q ^start-xdm /etc/X11/config then run_xdm=1 fi So, first you have to change the line: no-start-xdm in /etc/X11/config to: start-xdm Next possible trap is less obvious: when /usr/bin/X11/xdm is started by /etc/init.d/xdm, it looks at the configuration file /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers to see what xservers should be started on which display by xdm. If it doesn't have a line: :0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X xdm will not start an xserver, making it seem like xdm is not working, while it is, in a sense. Very confusing stuff ;-) Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Telnet Proxy anyone?
On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Adrian Bridgett wrote: > On Tue, Apr 21, 1998 at 04:39:23PM +1200, Richard L Shepherd wrote: > > Has anyone heard of a telnet-proxy package (especially for linux and > > Debian of course)? > > > > We have some people who have (and want to keep) their subnet blocked for > > offsite access (so they do all their WWW browsing via a WWWcache which can > > then be billed for). I was wondering if there is something we can do like > > this for telnet. Any ideas? > > There is no such thing as telnet-proxy. What you are after is SOCKS - > socks4 is packaged already (I'm working on v5, but most people don't need > that - *I* don't need it either!) There is a telnet-proxy. It is part of the TIS firewall toolkit. IIRC there is no debianized version of TIS fwtk because of licencing issues, but you can get the TIS fwtk from their site and build it yourself. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: freshmeat repository
On Tue, 21 Apr 1998, Aria Prima Novianto wrote: > >From freshmeat page: > -- > freshmeat RPM repository > As you might already know, freshmeat tries to keep up with > the latest software releases and builds RPM packages for > them. All this work is done by Obituary, feel free to mail him > questions or comments. A change invented with the move > of freshmeat to the new location includes SRPMS to be > available as well as the i386 binary packages. > > Note: We are still looking for volunteers to build debian packages. Feel > free to contact me for details. > -- One of the prime qualities of the Debian distribution is the close adherence to the Debian Policy Guidelines of all of its packages. This ensures that the overall system is well-integrated and of a high quality. If you get Debian packages from a third-party, they'll be in debian format as far as packaging is concerned, but you get no guarantees with respect to integration in the Debian system. Of course, this doesn't necessarily have to be a problem and external packages can be of a high quality, but there will probably still be a difference in most cases. If somebody packages software and makes it conform to the Debian Policy, chances are that that person will already be or become an official Debian maintainer and then you'll find the packages in the official archive anyway. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Telnet Proxy anyone?
On Wed, 22 Apr 1998, Mark Phillips wrote: > One of my internet service providers (well actually, my university) only > allows access to the internet via a proxy server. So I can use netscape > to ftp (and I presume use telnet though I haven't tried this). However I > cannot use normal ftp programs and mirror etc, because I don't have direct > access to the internet. > > My question is, can you set up your system so that all ftping telneting > etc is automatically done via the proxy? In particular, can I set things > up so that mirror will work? IIRC, with the TIS fwtk (which apparently is included with debian) you would telnet to a telnet-proxy and get a prompt where you can specify the site that you want to telnet out to. With ftp, you would ftp to the ftp-proxy and open a connection to [EMAIL PROTECTED], where username would most often be anonymous or ftp. At least, that is the way I do it here. If you are good friend with the proxy administrator, you can also try to get some additional priviliges. If he allows you to use a ssl-enabled http-proxy to connect to arbitrary ports on the outside, you basically have an opening for a tunnel through the firewall. With a hack to ssh (well, it's not even a hack to ssh, with an option you can tell it to use another program to preconnect) you can redirect ssh connections through the webproxy. Next, you could setup ftp on your machine to connect through a ssh socket on your machine that in turn tunnels through the webproxy. Basically, you could use this to connect to any port on any outside machine. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: off-topic autofs permissions
On Thu, 23 Apr 1998, Fredrik Ax wrote: > In your /etc/group add a line (you can use any group-id, 108 is just an > example): > - > fat:x:108:userid1,userid2,userid3 > - > where useridX are the users that should have write access to the disk Better use: adduser Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: starting X at boot
On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Alain Toussaint wrote: > i was surfing on the internet and viewed some comments on enabling X at > boot,i tried the trick down there ( modify /etc/X11/config so the line > no-start-xdm look like start-xdm,backup /etc/inittab and modify so when > booting,it load into runlevel 5) but this hasn't worked,is there some > document i could read for enabling X at boot ( and i did read a lot of the > manpage sooner this week on this) ??? > > p.s.i put the backup inittab back into the /etc directory so it start back > in runlevel 2. You probably have to add a single line to /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers too: ---cut--- # $XConsortium: Xserv.ws.cpp,v 1.3 93/09/28 14:30:30 gildea Exp $ # # Xservers file, workstation prototype # # This file should contain entries to start the servers on the # local machine; if you have more than one display (not screen), # you can add entries to the list (one per line). If you also # have some X terminals connected which do not support XDMCP, # you can add them here as well. Each X terminal line should # look like: # XTerminalName:0 foreign # # X servers are automatically added to this file by the Debian # xbase and xserver configuration scripts. :0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X ---cut--- Look at the last line, I bet it is missing on your system. It tells xdm which xserver to run on what display. If there is no such line, xdm will still be running, you'll just not notice anything you would expect (like seeing the xserver you expect it to start.) Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: `From' line (Re: exim & mutt, weird)
On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Peter S Galbraith wrote: > Is it correct that mailers aren't supposed to change the header line > except to add `Received' line? > > I assume that my `corporate' NT servers between my Debian box and the > debian mailing lists server is at fault. Now, who do I convince them > of that!? If Exchange gets a foothold in your email environment, trust it to make all kinds of things go FUBAR. Exchange is a total horror story. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: staroffice
On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Richard E. Hawkins Esq. wrote: > 2) There are instructions for a multiuser install out there. Check out the > newsgroups on the server starnews.stardiv.com, or maybe someone around here > knows. I didn't bother, since noone else needs it here. http://www.waldherr.org/soffice4.shtml http://www.on-line.de/~michael.hoennig/soffice4-linux-faq-01.html Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: StarOffice
On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Alain Toussaint wrote: > on the subject of Star Office,does it can open XLS files (M$ excel),i > needed to open one and it hasn't worked,does anyone here has been able to > do so ??? I use StarOffice 4.0 exactly for this purpose. Works like a dream. Open Excel sheet, save as tab-delimited, process with perl. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: starting X at boot
On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Alain Toussaint wrote: > i think there other thing to play as well but dont know what. Oh. Too bad that it didn't help you then. What version of grep do you have there? Version 2.1-7 is broken, that might also be the cause. In any case, you can always look at /var/log/xdm-errors Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: StarOffice Install
On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Stephen Carpenter wrote: > -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- > > I am in need of some help installing StarOffice 4.0 > SInce I have a great setup at work and not at home.. (network wise) > I downloaded the staroffice 4 and gunzip'd and untar'd it > then I burnt it onto a CD (with a bunch of other stuff) > to bring home and have. > I can not seem to get it to work :( > the .deb for staroffice doesn't recognize my files (even if I copy them > to /tmp) and if I run the normal setup I have worst problems > (it installs..and runs...but as soon as I click on something like > "New Document" (or whatever it was called..you get the idea) > it exists with a seg fault :( > any ideas? AFAIK the .deb installer is for SO 3.1 I installed 4.0 from the tarball with the install script from Star Division (actually a slightly modified version that is more friendly to your dskspace in a multiuser setup) and it works fine that way. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: X-Windows
On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Jario Araujo Silva wrote: > Hi > > I need your help. > I don't know to config. xfree86. > Anyboby, can help me ? short method: su - [now type in root's password] XF86Setup longer (lasting) method: cd /usr/doc/X11 less * (or more * if you didn't install less) and man X man 5 XF86Config man XF86Setup Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: starting X at boot
On Sat, 25 Apr 1998, Alain Toussaint wrote: > i think i found the problem,if i do a cat /etc/init.d/xdm,there's nothing > who's writen on screen but if i do a cat /etc/init.d/xdm.dpkg-dist,then i > have this output (it will be shown after my message),does it's possible > that dpkg failed to update the /etc/init.d/xdm ??? Actually, I've had this happen before to me too. I don't remember what the exact circumstances were, so I didn't submit a bug report. Can you describe the exact procedure that led to this situation? Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: perl: problem with s/// and variable interpolation
On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, Yann Dirson wrote:
> I wrote a sample script whose behaviour seems strange to me. At least
> I can't find in the doc why it behaves so, nor what I should write to
> get the expected result.
>
> The sample script
> #!/usr/bin/perl
>
> $TRANSLATION = '\1;$2';
> $str = "ab";
> $str =~ s{(.)(.)}{$TRANSLATION};
[snip]
Have you tried wrapping the substitution statement with an "eval"
construct yet? I think that should make it work.
Cheers,
Joost
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Re: Compiled new Kernel now I can't boot
On Tue, 5 May 1998, Keith wrote: > I compiled a new kernel and now I can't boot. It stops with a message > like this: > > Kernel Panic: VFS: unable to mount root fs on 03:01. > > I can boot my old kernel from a floppy, so can I fix it or am I screwed? > Any help would greatly be appreciated. Did you compile support for ext2 filesystem in the kernel? You cannot modularize the filesystem type of your root filesystem, because the kernel needs to be able read the modules before it can load them. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: -I- where? is source for sshd?
On Tue, 5 May 1998, Carroll Kong wrote: > I am sorry, I usually can find these things on my own, but i searched > with www.linuxhq.com, and sunsite.unc.edu is down for me right now, and I > searched the debian packages via www and I ran through dselect.. i could not > find the source for sshd. Can someone please tell me the main ftp site where > sshd is located? Thanks in advance. ftp://nonus.debian.org/pub/debian-non-us or similar. There is a source directory where you can find the original tarball and there is a binary directory where you can find the .deb. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: changing a users group
On Fri, 8 May 1998, Hamish Moffatt wrote: > On Fri, May 08, 1998 at 08:03:51AM +0100, Joop Stakenborg wrote: > > Matthew D. Myers wrote: > > > How do you change a users group assignments without manually editing the > > > passwd and group and also shadowed files. > > use vipw for editting your password file and vigr for the group file. > > Which is just the same as manually editing them. Is there a good > reason to use vipw, instead of just "vi /etc/passwd"? AFAIK vipw is supposed to lock the password file or at least perform the edits on a scratch copy of the original file and merge in the changes with the real /etc/passwd (which may have changed while you were editing) when you're ready. Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: cleaning up bad configuration
On Fri, 8 May 1998, Thomas J. Malloy wrote: > Lets suppose I go out to pub one night and come reeling home after 8 or 9 > pints of stout. Now when I get home I decide this would be fine time to > make some configuration changes on my system. ( in this particular case it > was changing the ppp settings for my new isp) So I sit down, login as root > and start blissfully banging away on the key board. When I awaken the > next day the application I had configured doesn't work correctly at all. > ( What a suprise!) Not with the old isp and not with the new. I have tried > on and off for several weeks to fix this, but have had no success. Since I > am not really sure what I changed, I would like to remove all files that > relate to ppp and then reinstall the whole thing from scratch. Deselect > seems to leave the old config files. How would I remove everything using > dselect, or dpkg, or If I have to do it by hand what files should I remove? > Thanks for any help and I hope we have all learned an important lesson > from my sorry tale. dpkg --purge ppp Purging removes all conffiles and configuration files (whatever the difference may be.) Cheers, Joost -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: we need to start setting up for a new computer
On Thu, 4 Dec 1997, Fuzzy wrote: > and want to install debian 1.3.1 (bo) on a new 6x86 p200+ based system > that will be a server. > > I have the 2 CD distribution from lsl.com and the contents of the > stable/non-free directory from an ftp mirror on a ez135 disk, (yes the > new system also has a ez135 drive). > > (1) > since I dont have access to a dos system, can I use DD to > create the boot/root diskettes (or whatever Debian calls > the 'starter system' diskettes)? Yeah, that ought to be fine. cat should do it equally well, like cat resc1440.bin > /dev/fd0 But you should really try to use the cd, it's bootable if it is an "official debian cdrom". Set the bios to boot from the cdrom, put the cd in and turn the pc on. Tadaa! > (2) > is there a doc/faq/other text file someplace that has basic steps > to create enough of a system to start to use the tools actually > install a runable system. I want to have a non-module kernel, (unless > I'm forced by plug-and-pray to module some driver for hardware). I'm > unsure how/what one does with plug-and-pray devices and PnP BIOS to > associate IRQ's with cards/slots so that it is aware of jumpered > selections of ISA controller/interface cards and doesn't select a > conflict. There is some documentation on the cd and on www.debian.org. It's nice to have around during installation, so print it. It's not critical though. Just follow the installation steps. If you're apt enough to know what's inside your system, then it can't be much of a problem. After the kernel has been installed, you'll be asked what modules you need. Just install the ones you really need to get your system through the install and when you've been through all of the installation steps, reboot. > (3) > from what I've seen so far I'm guessing the floppy system > installs a base system, then that is used to dselect the rest > of the packages to make a runing system, is that correct? One of the first things that happens is that dselect comes up. Tell it where to find your cdrom, update the packages list, select the package you want on your system and install them. but: READ THE HELP SCREEN ABOUT DSELECT'S KEYBINDINGS BEFORE DOING ANYTHING IN THE SELECT SCREEN! or else you risk a dselect-fobia. Once you know 10 keystrokes, you'll love dselect. If you don't you can get pretty confused. Be careful though, don't try to install everything at once! It is probably best to take dselect's initial selection for granted and install the defaults (unless you insist on sendmail instead of smail, in that case do change the selections now, because it's a little harder later on.) Next, when dselect is finished installing and configuring, reenter the selection screen and select kernel-source,gcc and kernel package and everything else these packages suggest/depend upon. Once you finish dselect, do: cd /usr/src/linux make-kpkg clean make menuconfig make-kpkg --revision 3:custom.1.0 kernel_image cd /usr/src dpkg -i kernel-image* Maybe you''l want to check on the lilo configuration and redo that, but that is all it takes to compile a kernel on debian. You make a package and install that. Presto! > (4) > we currently use PPPD run from inittab to keep our 'dedicated' > PPP link active. if it dies, init respawns it. there seem to > lots of PPP rlated packages, but we are unsure if they are > meant for dial-on-demand setup vs a always connected setup. > since Debian uses a different init and it wants things in > different places than slackwares init does, can I still > use init to run pppd (with all its options in /etc/ppp/... > or some other location that Debian's PPPD is aware of)? Sure you can, just install ppp and read the docs to be certain, ppp setup might be slightly different from Slackware's, but I believe it's pretty standard in Debian. BTW. all packages install their documentation in /usr/doc/. Tip: install dwww, it provides a very nice web interface to that documentation, all manpages and info (yes! no need to use the info browser!) Another goodie: if you are going to use x11, also consider installing package menu, which provides menus to your window manager for each package that you install. Good luck, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: we need to start setting up for a new computer
On Thu, 4 Dec 1997, Fuzzy wrote: > and want to install debian 1.3.1 (bo) on a new 6x86 p200+ based system > that will be a server. > > I have the 2 CD distribution from lsl.com and the contents of the > stable/non-free directory from an ftp mirror on a ez135 disk, (yes the > new system also has a ez135 drive). > > (1) > since I dont have access to a dos system, can I use DD to > create the boot/root diskettes (or whatever Debian calls > the 'starter system' diskettes)? Yeah, that ought to be fine. cat should do it equally well, like cat resc1440.bin > /dev/fd0 But you should really try to use the cd, it's bootable if it is an "official debian cdrom". Set the bios to boot from the cdrom, put the cd in and turn the pc on. Tadaa! > (2) > is there a doc/faq/other text file someplace that has basic steps > to create enough of a system to start to use the tools actually > install a runable system. I want to have a non-module kernel, (unless > I'm forced by plug-and-pray to module some driver for hardware). I'm > unsure how/what one does with plug-and-pray devices and PnP BIOS to > associate IRQ's with cards/slots so that it is aware of jumpered > selections of ISA controller/interface cards and doesn't select a > conflict. There is some documentation on the cd and on www.debian.org. It's nice to have around during installation, so print it. It's not critical though. Just follow the installation steps. If you're apt enough to know what's inside your system, then it can't be much of a problem. After the kernel has been installed, you'll be asked what modules you need. Just install the ones you really need to get your system through the install and when you've been through all of the installation steps, reboot. > (3) > from what I've seen so far I'm guessing the floppy system > installs a base system, then that is used to dselect the rest > of the packages to make a runing system, is that correct? One of the first things that happens is that dselect comes up. Tell it where to find your cdrom, update the packages list, select the package you want on your system and install them. but: READ THE HELP SCREEN ABOUT DSELECT'S KEYBINDINGS BEFORE DOING ANYTHING IN THE SELECT SCREEN! or else you risk a dselect-fobia. Once you know 10 keystrokes, you'll love dselect. If you don't you can get pretty confused. Be careful though, don't try to install everything at once! It is probably best to take dselect's initial selection for granted and install the defaults (unless you insist on sendmail instead of smail, in that case do change the selections now, because it's a little harder later on.) Next, when dselect is finished installing and configuring, reenter the selection screen and select kernel-source,gcc and kernel package and everything else these packages suggest/depend upon. Once you finish dselect, do: cd /usr/src/linux make-kpkg clean make menuconfig make-kpkg --revision 3:custom.1.0 kernel_image cd /usr/src dpkg -i kernel-image* Maybe you''l want to check on the lilo configuration and redo that, but that is all it takes to compile a kernel on debian. You make a package and install that. Presto! > (4) > we currently use PPPD run from inittab to keep our 'dedicated' > PPP link active. if it dies, init respawns it. there seem to > lots of PPP rlated packages, but we are unsure if they are > meant for dial-on-demand setup vs a always connected setup. > since Debian uses a different init and it wants things in > different places than slackwares init does, can I still > use init to run pppd (with all its options in /etc/ppp/... > or some other location that Debian's PPPD is aware of)? Sure you can, just install ppp and read the docs to be certain, ppp setup might be slightly different from Slackware's, but I believe it's pretty standard in Debian. BTW. all packages install their documentation in /usr/doc/. Tip: install dwww, it provides a very nice web interface to that documentation, all manpages and info (yes! no need to use the info browser!) Another goodie: if you are going to use x11, also consider installing package menu, which provides menus to your window manager for each package that you install. Good luck, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: The GIMP problems
On Mon, 8 Dec 1997 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I reinstalled gimp 0.99.14-1 and the gimp-data-extra, gimp-data-min, and > gimp-non-free packages of this version. I also installed the up-to-date > libgtk1. Get the older libgtk (971109-1) back while you can still find it on a mirror. The newer one (971201-1) has several problems. I could not enter text in dialogs with the newer libgtk, apparently it is quite unstable. Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: New gv does not find Xaw3D-libs
On Mon, 8 Dec 1997, Frank Barknecht wrote: > Hi all, > recently I completed my libc6-upgrade with no further problems but > now I cannot start gv anymore. It gives me: > > $ gv > gv: error in loading shared libraries > libXaw3d.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory > > And ldd shows: > > $ ldd /usr/bin/X11/gv > libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4000f000) > libXaw3d.so.6 => not found > libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6 (0x40028000) > libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6 (0x4003a000) > libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6 (0x40082000) > libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6 (0x4008b000) > libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x400a) > libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x400ae000) > libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40151000) > /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x4000) > > I am using the gv-package gv_3.5.8-.1.deb form unstable and > I do have this xaw stuff installed: > > $ dpkg -l | grep xaw > ii xaw-wrappers0.11 allow use of programs with xaw replacements > ii xaw3d 1.3-6.1Adds a cute 3d to X apps using the athena > wi > ii xaw95 1.1-4.1Windows 95-like look for X apps using the > At > > Could anyone give me a pointer what's wrong here? I've also seen problems like these with the replacement widgets after switching to libc6. What does /etc/ld.so.conf look like on your machine? And the output of ldconfig -v (as root)? Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: Gimp doesn't accept text input
On Wed, 10 Dec 1997, Marcelo E. Magallon wrote: > Hi, is anybody else having this problem? The Gimp no longer accepts text > input... I mean, I can't type in text boxes. It may have something to do > with libgtk1, which is something I upgraded before the problem showed up. > > Package: gimp Version: 0.99.14-1 > > Versions of the packages gimp depends on: > gimp-data-min Version: 0.99.14-1 > xfnt75Version: 3.3.1-2 > xfnt100 Version: 3.3.1-2 > libc6 Version: 2.0.5c-0.1 > libgtk1 Version: 971201-1 This is the culprit; Look at the bugslist, the maintainer bugged himself for it. Apparently the upstreams release is rather flaky. If you're lucky, you can still find the older version, which does work. > libjpegg6a Version: 6a-7 > libmpeg1Version: 1.2.2-1 > libpng0gVersion: 0.96-3 > xlib6gVersion: 3.3.1-2 > zlib1gVersion: 1:1.0.4-7.1 > > > Marcelo Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: Debian Linux and Cirrus
On Thu, 11 Dec 1997, Alex Yukhimets wrote: > > > > I would like to know if the Debian Linux Distribution support the Cirrus > > > > 5446 Chipset ? > > > In short: YES. > > > > Thanks a lot for such a quick answer. I have another question... > > I have got a CDD2600 CD Recorder and a Pioneer 12x SCSI CDROM on an Adaptec > > 1505. Could I have any problem to use them on the Debian distribution ? I > > promise that it is my last question :-) > > Is CD-recorder also SCSI? If yes, then there is only a question > whether SCSI host adapter is supported. Adaptec is generally not the > best choice for Linux, but this particular card seems to be supprted > for already some time and I would not expect a problem with it. > > Refer to SCSI-HOWTO for more information. The Philips CDD2600 works fine for me (on a symbios/ncr810.) It is autodetected by cdwrite. If you have problems writing cd's, investigate into the controller, the wiring and termination. IIRC my CDD2600 is jumpered to terminate the SCSI bus. You may want to change that if the Pioneer already does that (or change the Pioneer.) Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: Wow, and some questions
On Sat, 14 Jun 1997, Alan Woo wrote:
> Hi,
> i was amazed at the help i got from you people at this list, i got a
> message about 20 minutes after i asked a question. That was amazing,
> thanks to all who helped. Anyways, things will hopefully soon be sorted
> out, and i will soon be a new linux user.
>
> I have very little knowledge of linux though, so i have a few questions.
> (i'm going to buy a book soon).
>
> 1) I am incredibly knowledgable in Win95/NT. will i be able to run both
> Operating Systems if i partition my hdd?
Sure, just don't install lilo the first time if you are not sure what it
does. Instead, use a floppy to boot the linux root partition from (you
could even put a lilo bootsector on a floppy.)
When you've got linux installed, read the lilo documentation in
/usr/doc/lilo (gotta install lilo first of course) and make a
/etc/lilo.conf to suit your needs. There are many ways to set up a
booting scheme, you can use a lilo partition boot sector and boot NT or
win95 (or actually their boot sector) from lilo or you can use loadlin to
boot linux from dos or ldlinux.sys from config.sys or you can add the
linux partition with a lilo bootsector to the NT bootloader setup.
> 2) how do i install it (just a quick overview, i've read over the
> installation a lot, and it is really difficult to understand, for me...)
To intalll debian linux is remarkably simple: just boot from the
"rescue floppy" (or a "official debian cd" if your bios lets you
boot from a cd) and follow the menus in the install program. Doing it a
couple of times helps to understand better what you're doing . In
any case it isn't a bad idea to make a print-out of the installation
mannual that you can find on the www.debian.org site.
> 3) i'm in! it's AMAZING (i'm assuming), how do i set up communications
> for a win95 compatible modem? Now that i have it, can i download a web
> browser for it from win95 then open it in linux? or is disk format
> totally different?
> - if so, what do i do?
If it is a "win-modem", forget it - obscure interface, no drivers for
linux (these things are so braindead anyway that you don't want to use
them in windows either.) If it's a plug'n pray modem, it may give you some
hassles; jumper it for a fixed irq or prepare to study the use of
isapnptools - the linux pnp utility. Very recent kernels have native pnp
support, but they don't come with stable distributions.
Linux can read a lot of disk formats. you can mount dos floppies just fine
- read the mount manpage ("man mount") or just use the mtools suite - no
mounting needed. You can also mount your windows95 vfat partition (fat32
needs a kernel patch though) and you can read ntfs partitions.
4) What productivity software is available? (word processing etc)
StarOffice (version 3.0 comparable to msoffice4.x, the new version 4.0
seems pretty comparable to msoffice95/97)
WordPerfect 7/8 (not sure which one is out now)
Of course there is tex, which is free and lets you do totally amazing
things, though most people would find it harder to use initially than say,
msword or wordperfect (you have to "compile" your document to be able to
print it :-) It is very interesting to investigate though.
Programmers (at least a lot of them) love emacs, because it can be (and
has been) extended and adapted to almost every functional environment. You
can do a lot with vi too, but it is certainly less gothic than emacs.
Cheers,
Joost
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Re: Cron
Apache? IIRC there was a problem with apache and a "#-1" group. Look at what is in /etc/apache/httpd.conf, on my system the /etc/cron.daily/apache script runs awk on the files in /etc/apache to determine user. Alternatively, check /etc/dwww/dwww.conf On Sun, 14 Dec 1997, Matt Thompson wrote: > I've been getting these messages for a few days: > > Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 06:42:01 -0800 (PST) > From: Cron Daemon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Cron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> run-parts /etc/cron.daily > > chgrp: invalid group name `#-1' > chgrp: invalid group name `#-1' > chgrp: invalid group name `#-1' > chgrp: invalid group name `#-1' > chgrp: invalid group name `#-1' > chgrp: invalid group name `#-1' > > I've scoured all my crontabs, less'd and grep'd all the files in > /etc/cron.daily and looked everywhere else I can think of. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks. :) > > Matt Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] > MZI, Inc. v-206.430.3726 > 707 S. Grady Wayf-206.430.3420 > Renton, WA 98055 [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -- > TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > > -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: Core with pthread, libc6, and g++ in child processes..
On 15 Dec 1997, Dale Martin wrote: > Hi. Simply linking with libg++ and libpthread will cause this, because > libg++ isn't thread safe. The libstc++ that comes with egcs (a new > alternative to gcc/g++ based on gcc/g++ 2.8.0) is thread safe, and seems to > work OK in general. > > As far as I know, there is no egcs package yet, but ZI had no problems > installing it in /usr/local on my machine. Yes, there is. It's in experimental. Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: FTP install
On Mon, 15 Dec 1997, Dominique Jacquel wrote: > hi there, > > I really need to upgrade my GIMP 0.54 to the 0.99 version .. > unfortunatly it needs libc6 so I though I could go for the complete > Hamm instead but ... I'm hitting a wall! :-( > > I just subscribed this list just to ask this > question: Can HAMM be installed through FTP? > > I've been trying to install it with dselect through FTP and I have > this problem. If I select hamm or unstable from the /debian > directory, dselect can't find packages.gz. Now if I try from > /debian/dists/unstable .. deselect finds the packages but later on > tries can't get the .deb ... argh ... > The FTP install works fine with Bo though!! These are the settings that I use; I'm behind a firewall too, so don't get distracted by the "passive" setting and the username and such. You just want to use the $distribs settings. cat /var/lib/dpkg/methods/ftp/vars $ftpsite='ftp-proxy.nl.cis.philips.com'; $passive='0'; $username='[EMAIL PROTECTED]'; $password='[EMAIL PROTECTED]'; $ftpdir='/debian'; $distribs='dists/unstable/main dists/unstable/non-free dists/unstable/contrib'; $dldir='debian'; I think that you need the dpkg-dev in hamm to be able to do what you want, so you'll have to do a first part of the upgrade manually with dpkg using hand-downloaded packages. Oh, yeah: be very careful about upgrading to hamm. The upgrade is not tested very well yet. Reading the mini-HOWTO somewhere at www.gate.net/~storm helps. Beware that when you read this document, it assumes that you actually want to keep your basic libc5 environment and only want the bare-bones libc6 upgrade. Personally, I'd say that going all the way is better, unless you have a real reason to not want to start using the altdev packages for any libc5 development that you might still need to do. If you do wan t a total upgrade, then take my advice: using dselect, remove every package that ends in *-dev. They are replaced in hamm by *-altdev counterparts and the bo *-dev's conflict with much of the basic libraries in hamm. Then install the ldso, libc5 and libc6 in hamm. There will be more that conflicts with the packages you'll try to install by hand with dpkg (this is a moment to remember dselect and its virtues at resolving these problems before they arise.) Every time that happens, just start dselect, select the conflicting package (and everything that depends on it) for removal and remove it. Then try installing the new package again, all the way until you have done all the packages mentioned in the mini-HOWTO. When you've done all that, use dselect with the above dists line and prepare for a massive download, because there hardly isn't a package that doesn't have a newer version in hamm. Good luck, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: smail not starting on boot
On Mon, 15 Dec 1997, Richard E. Hawkins Esq. wrote: > After a few attempts, smail finally runs, but fails to start on boot as it is > supposedly configured to do. > > /etc/init.d/smail does exist. Is there something else I need to look at? That you can't find /etc/init.d/smail is right, because it is supposed to be started on demand by inetd. However, something bad seems to have happened to the smail postinst script, resulting in the smail entry getting commented out in /etc/inetd.conf. Uncomment the smtp line and it will work again (maybe you need to give inetd a HUP signal before it notices the change, not sure.) Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: RAMDISK boot error
On Mon, 15 Dec 1997, Aaron Walker wrote: > I just setup this experimental system to run Debian 1.3.1: > > 486SX/25 > 4MB RAM > CL3424 w/512K > > A real POWER-HOUSE!!! I just put this machine together to test Debian > 2.0 aka hamm. > Anyways... When I try to boot the rescue disk, I get the message: > RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0 > It hanges for ever when this message pops up. Could it be from > low-memory? I though you were able to run Debian w/4MB RAM. Please > HELP! Have you used the "lowmem" series of bootdisks? I think the difference is that those have a rootdisk on floppy, where the default "rescue" disk tries to load the rootdisk into ram (and then mounts its root from that ramdisk.) IIRC this is mentioned in the installation document. Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: installing xlib6g (libc6)
Using --force-depends is not necessary at all in this case; Just upgrade xlib6 to version 3.3.1-2 which is in directory oldlibs. Then you can install xlib6g version 3.3.1-2 without any problems. Don't use --force-depends unless you know very well what you are doing. It certainly isn't advisable to do this when moving from bo packages to hamm packages. You may get away with forcing to install certain apps, but be prepared to mess up your system seriously when forcing installation of libraries. On Mon, 15 Dec 1997, Dana M. Epp wrote: > I've had that problem quite a bit, where things require lib6g, or > standard lib6.. and I've had the other installed. (Depends which system > I'm on). > > Anyways... I have found you can force the install... and in every case > to date.. its worked fine. Try this... > > dpkg --force-depends -i package.deb > > So far.. I have been able to install all packages that require the > reciprical of what I have .. and I have yet to come across a problem. > Some die-hards will say this insn't all to clean, but as I have stated.. > it works fine on about 4 different machines I've done it on. > > Paolo M. Pumilia wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > I have made several attempts to install xlib6-dev_3.3-4.deb, > > yet i did not succed. > > dpkg complains: > > > . . . > > > dpkg: regarding xlib6g_3.3.1-2.deb containing xlib6g: > > > xlib6g conflicts with xlib6 (<< 3.3-5) > > > xlib6 (version 3.3-4) is installed. > > > dpkg: error processing xlib6g_3.3.1-2.deb (--install): > > > conflicting packages - not installing xlib6g > > > Errors were encountered while processing: > > > xlib6g_3.3.1-2.deb > > > > In fact xlib6 and xlib6-dev are installed, but version 3.3-4 seems > > to be the latest available one; it should not be considerd 'much less' > > than 3.3-5. > > In any case, where xlib6_3.3-5 and xlib6-dev_3.3-5 can be found? > > > > thank you > > > > Paolo Pumilia > > > > -- > > TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > > Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > > -- > Dana M. Epp > > Director > NetMaster Networking Solutions, Inc. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.netmaster.ca > > " Connecting networks to the Internet..." > > > -- > TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > > -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: CD-ROM Problem
On 16 Dec 1997, Carey Evans wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Robert C. Russell) writes: > > > I've been told by an IBM mainframe guy that Linux is for "hobbyists" and > > may never > > run. > > Just a few years ago you could say the same about any computer that > would fit on a desk. Oh, yeah IBM... Sure. Anybody still remember what they said about the PC in 1980? If IBM says these things about linux then it is definately time to get into linux. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: Problems with CD in Dselect
On Tue, 23 Dec 1997, Jan Francsi wrote:
> I have a little problem with the installation of Debian Linux.
> When I start dselect and go to the Access section, I can chose cdrom. My
> drive spinns up and the dialog beginns.
Ok, so you know what /dev your cdrom is!
> But now I could not chose the right Directory. Evrytime I do so, dselect
> says Dir don´t exists. I have checked under win95 and the dir´s are
> there on my cd it must be Debian/Local .
I don't know about the layout of your particular cdrom, but trying "/" and
"." as base dir sometimes works.
> when I check the cdrom Path (ls /cdrom) in a second shell, nothing was
> in it. Is this ok ?
Yes, because it is mounted as /var/lib/dpkg/methods/cdrom or something
like that.
> If not, how can I mount a CD and where do I find it ?
> Please help :-)
You can mount a cd (if it is not mounted already with a command like:
"mount -t iso9660 /dev/{your cdrom} /cdrom"
provided that you fill in the correct device for {your cdrom} and /cdrom
exists (it probably does.) It might even work when you leave out the "-t
iso9660" part, because it is the default fs type.
Unmount with:
"umount /cdrom" ,
provided you (or another user/process) are not in a directory beneath
/cdrom when you try to unmount (you'll get an error saying the device is
busy.)
In my /etc/fstab I have a line that says:
"/dev/scd0 /cdrom iso9660 user,noauto,ro 0 0"
With this, I can mount a cd a mortal user by typing "mount /cdrom".
Read about it in the "mount" and "fstab" manpages (oh, dang, you have to
install the manpages first - from your cdrom ;-)
Good luck!
Joost
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Re: Converting digests to indivual mail
On Thu, 1 Jan 1998, Mark W. Blunier wrote: > I am subscribed to a mailing list that only sends out messages > in a digest form. I would like to convert the digest back into > individual messages. I use procmail to seperate out the digest > from the rest of the mail. The format of the digest is Some stuff in the procmail package might interest you, like "formail". This comes from its manpage: -d Tell formail that the messages it is supposed to split need not be in strict mailbox format (i.e. allows you to split digests/articles or non-standard mailbox formats). This disables recognition of the Content-Length: field. So I guess it's supposed to be able to do the things you need to get done. Never used it myself though. Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: Panic - Re: libc5-libc6 Upgrade - Problem logging in with username in NIS
On Wed, 14 Jan 1998, Sudhakar Chandrasekharan wrote: > Also, I am in Panic Mode now. > * If I am unable to log in as root, how do I fix what I did to > nsswitch.conf? I was sensible enough to backup the old file before > making the changes. I am unable to locate my emergency disk (or > whatever it is called). Can I use the Debian 1.3 distribution's > installation boot disks, mount /dev/sdb3 as root and fix the problem and > then try rebooting with my regular custom boot disk? How? Yes, this is The Universal Way To Do It. It also explains why people wonder "Why did they call the installation bootdisk `rescue disk'?" Type at the lilo prompt "linux root=/dev/" If that doesn't work, try "linux emergency root=/dev/". Or if even that fails, just hit enter and goto the second virtual console with alt-F2 and mount the /dev/ on /mnt. You don't get to use emacs to edit the fsck'ed conffiles then though. > * Ideally, I'd prefer booting up into NT and being able to access the > ext2 partition. I remember reading somewhere that there is a device > driver for reading / writing into an ext2 partition for NT. AFAIK it's still rather beta and read-only. Good luck, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: Whiney little request
On Thu, 15 Jan 1998, Richard Wicks wrote: > P.S. I've just installed debian (good riddance to slackware) and beleive I > encountered a bug when trying to install netscape. Did anybody else > have a similar problem? I kept getting an error where dselect told > me that the the netscape.tar.gz file should be in my /tmp directory. > Does this sound familar to anybody? In anycase, netscape did not > install > so I picked it up from the netscape website via lynx. The netscape package that comes with debian is only an installer/wrapper. Before you install it, you need to have the netscape tarball in /tmp (or $TEMPDIR). Besides installing the netscape binaries in the right places and registering it to the package management system, the debian package also provides a wrapper for netscape to ensure that it doesn't crash because of version conflicts with your system libraries. Cheers, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: can't install buzz!
On Mon, 19 Jan 1998, Hamish Moffatt wrote: > I don't suppose anyone here is feeling nostalgic and can think of > any reason why the buzz (1.1) boot disk would hang on me? Kernel 2.0.0. > I get "eata_dma: no BIOS32, still needed" etc, then it hangs. This > is sometimes caused by NE2000 cards being probed, but I pulled mine > out completely and it still happens. I've left it for about 20 minutes > now and it hasn't changed. > > I remember that APM was a problem but it's disable as it can be in > the BIOS. I don't understand why this kernel is compiled with APM > support in if APM doesn't work properly, but still. It seems > to get passed that anyway. > > Any ideas? I want to install buzz to test the auto-upgrade. > Might have to use rex disks. All the hardware I have is an IDE > hard drive, a floppy drive, an ISA IDE controller, a Trident 8900CL > video card, and a 486DX2-66 overdrive chip, and 16mb RAM. > It doesn't seem to be crashing because of some hardware fault, > just a bad kernel probe. When testing bo when it was frozen, I encountered similar problems with a 486dx40 with 8 MB ram, a vesa-localbus Trident 9000, vesa-localbus ide interface + ide drive, a ne2000 and a matsushita cdrom interface + cdrom. IIRC it hung while the md driver was probing, but that's how I remember it, not how I understand it (I don't.) It's likely something that has to do with a vesa-localbus ide interface. Here at work I have a 486dx66 with a scsi interface + drive, no ide at all and the bo bootdisk worked just fine. I solved the problem by building a customized kernel and copying that onto the resc1440.bin disk (don't forget to compile initrd in and to set the root disk to ramdisk.) After that I had no more problems. Cheers, Joost P.S.: I managed to solve another vesa-localbus-related problem last week: since moving to libc6 I was getting lots of segfaults and on the console errors showed: "free_one_pwd: bad directory entry" or something. It turned out that the xserver for my mach32 videocard was using a wrong aperture setting. Since fixing this with a line "MemBase 0x0200" in /etc/X11/XF86Config, all problems have evaporated. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
