Jolt-Freak
(Only playing with the prompt)

Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 13:04:39 +0200
From: Izbaner (lizbaner@alfa.c-map.pl)
Subject: set_multmode {Error 0x04}

I have a problem with hard disk (Seagate 4.3MB). On the start appears the kernel message:

hda: set_multmode 0x51 {DriveStatus SeekComplete Error}
error 0x04 {DriveStatusError}

It appears in all kernel's versions and distributions, which I have (SuSE 5.3, 6.0, 6.1; RedHat 5.1, 6.0; kernel from 2.0.34 to 2.2.9). After that I can work in text mode, but in X Window some applications hang up the system (no key work, no actions, no way to exit or shutdown the system...).

Help me, please!!!

__________________
Lucas z Izbanerowic

Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 14:12:04 +0200
From: rakeshm@za.ibm.com
Subject: FAT32 and Linux

Hi everyone...

I just got a new PC and it came with Win 98 (and FAT32) pre-installed. I also recently read an article saying that Linux does not get along with FAT32. =&gr; LILO can;t be loaded on FAT32. Is this correct ?

I plan on installing Red Hat Linux 6.0 on a seperate slave drive, and having a dual boot. I need to keep my Win98 as well as everyone in the family uses it, and likes Games. Has anyone had any problems with Win98 and Linux ? Is there anything that I have to watch out for ?

Thanks
Regards
Rakesh Mistry

Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 07:51:20 +0800
From: Haji Mokhtar Stork (znur@pl.jaring.my)
Subject: Installation of REDHAT with Win98

By now you would have become the fifth person I have tried to contact over the above mentioned subject. The closest I got was to a detailed description on how to partition and install Dos/Win95/OS-2, but when I tried contacting the person through his e-mail, apparently it no longer exists. So I am back to square one.

I have purchased REDHAT 6.0 at a local Linux fair. Unfortunately I go not get them to partition and install it on my computer for free as I was leaving for China the next day. Now I am trying to do so with great hardship. The material I have downloaded from Linuz.com and metalab.unc.edu etc does not serve my needs, so I need your expertise in detail on how to go about it.

I have formatted my HardDisk 4.5GB.
It has a DOS 6.2 pre-partition of26%
The Extended partition is 74%
Logical Drives E: and F: are each 37%
Drive E: has Win98. F: is for Linux.
I have a second slave Hard Disk as D:

Problem arise when I boot REDHAT 6.0, its an auto generated process which guides me through. First question: SCSI [select: No/Yes?Back]. When selecting Yes, a selection is provided but on choosing and going to auto verification, all proposals are rejected because my system has an Adaptec AVA-1502 SCSI Host Adaptor. I can't go any further!

First, I have gone about the right partitioning?

I can't read the README file on my REDHAT CD Rom because I cannot get it started.

Please kindly assist me. Thank you.

Haji Mokhtar Stork
Malaysia.

Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 03:20:09 PDT
From: Marek fastcom (mfastcom@hotmail.com)
Subject: LINUX Ghostscripts *.DWG into *.EPS

Are there any LINUX scripts (Ghostscripts) available for converting *.DWG into *.EPS alternatively JPG, TIF,etc.

Regards.
Marek

Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 07:14:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Allen D. Tate" (computermantate@yahoo.com)
Subject: Dell Optiplex GX1 and the PS/2 Mouse

I have a Dell OptiPlex GX1, Pentium II w/64 MB RAM and I'm trying to get XWindow up and running but when I run startx, I get no response from the mouse. Has anyone ran into a similar problem? If so how did you fix it? I tried changing the mouse settings in the X86Config file but it didn't seem to help. Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Allen Tate
Evansville, Indiana

Hello to all in the linux community, I would like to ask anyone who might have some idea on how to mount a cdrom in linux, when I go into the /mnt directory and type mount cdrom the response I get is something like Linux does not recognise hdc as a block device. I am running linux 6.0 and I have no idea what manufacturer or driver my cdrom drive is, can anyone help ???

thanks
Dave

Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 23:41:38 +0200
From: Thomas H (thomas@snt.nu)
Subject: Cable modem problems + graphical ftp client

Hi!

I am a new GNU/Linux user (coming from the OS/2 world). I find the Linux programs powerful, although it often is quite frustrating to learn to use all of them.

It's a shame to say, but I write this from a Windoze machine. The reason is that my cable modem provider (Telia in Sweden) pops out my connection in 175 seconds when using dhclient under SuSE Linux 6.0. Anyone got a solution?

Another question I would be very grateful to have an answer to regards FTP. Which good FTP-programs for X do you recommend? I need one that supports the PASV (passive) mode. I also would like to have a program that can sync files between my /home/thomas and my ftp server. I have heard about "rsync" but don't know anything about it.

Thanks for any help!

Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 00:17:25 -0700
From: Ricky Deitemeyer (ricky@mediabase.premrad.com)
Subject: FAT Compatibility

At work I have a Linux (Redhat 6.0) workstation and at home I have a WinnNT machine. What are some good utils that I could use to write to a disk with a FAT fs under Linux? (I'm assuming that this would be easier than trying to get NT to read ext2...)

Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 12:52:38 +0100
From: Network Management (Netman@fastnet-systems.com)
Subject: Netflex3 cards on RedHat 5.2

I am a new user to Linux and am running a Compaq Deskpro (for my sins). I have seen several mails about using the integrated Netflex3 cards but have not seen any replies which mean anything to me. Can someone please send me instructions on how to find and install a driver for this card.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help.
Andy

Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 17:45:17 +0200
From: Horacio Antunez (hantunez@ippt.gov.pl)
Subject: Installation problems

While trying to install RedHat 6.0, after checking CDROM and Floppy disk I got the message

scsi : 0 hosts
scsi : detected total
Partition check
VFS: Cannot open device 08:21
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:21

Configuration:
Dell Precision 610, P.III Xeon 500 MHz, 1GB RAM, NT 4.0
HD: 2x 9 GB SCSI
M.O. drive (also with SCSI controller)

The thing is that I had no problems on an identical machine except for: 256MB RAM, only 1 HD 9GB SCSI, no M.O. drive.

Is there any upper limit for RAM?

Does Linux support:

• more than 1 hard disk?,
• magneto-optic drives?

TIA for any help
Horacio Antunez

Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 13:53:51 -0500
From: Gregory Buck (GBuck@sbsway.com)
Subject: Tseng Labs

Does Tseng Labs have an e-mail address I can get in touch with them through? I have been to their web site and e-mailed them at: 'financial@tseng.com' and 'prodsupp@tseng.com' (both addresses generate an "unknown e-mail address" type of error).

Thank you for your help.
Gregory Buck

Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 17:00:48 -0600
From: Bryan Anderson (byran@sykes.com)
Subject: Compiling problems

I am currently running redhat 4.2 for SPARC on a SPARC IPC. I have been programming C and C++ for about four years now, but this problem has me stumped. I am trying to port a few apps over from i386 linux to Sparc linux. I downloaded the source files and untarred them just fine, but from then on the horrors begin. I have read the docs for each app and followed the instructions meticulously, and even tried some of my own homebrewed fixes to try and get the sources to run, but I still can not get anywhere. The problems seem to lie in not the source itself, but in the libs installed on my machine. I get tons of warnings and one error that seems to stand out. The error is transcribed as something like this:

/usr/include/time.h:58 -- Parse error for fd_func

The only other problem I have found is on perusal of the *.h files, I have found numerous references to header files in directories that don't EVEN EXIST!!! Is this a standard thing, or just on the SPARC port for linux? For example, I am looking inside my /usr/include/sys/time.h and find references to a linux/time.h, when there is not a linux directory anywhere!! Is this a standard? If it is, it seems that someone got a little sloppy in their porting. I have managed to fix this problem by going in and removing references to files that don't exist or redirecting them to files that do exist, but the error above has definitely stumped me. Does anyone have experience with this error and how it can be fixed? I don't have much experience in building my own header files, but when I did do it, I never saw that error. I would be much obliged to anyone who could provide some guidence in this issue.

Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 01:17:20 +0200
From: "Bgsoft" (maximiliam@agarde.it)
Subject: Info sulla Red Hat!

Spett.le Direttoredel Linux Gazzette,

Mi chiamo Nino Brando, e dato che ho visto in edicola una promozione(se si può chiamarla così) della red hat di linux, contenente 4 CD.

Vengo al nocciolo, e possibile che ci sia il sistema operativo Linux? Anche perchè il prezzo non supera le £.25.000, e poi la Red Hat è un sistema operativo?

Chiedo scusa per la mia ignoranza ma è da poco che vorrei entrare nel mondo Linux, sarei lieto di una risposta ed anche di qualche consiglio.

La ringrazio,
distinti saluti
Nino Brando

(Can somebody who speaks Italian please help this person? He sent me an English version but I couldn't understand it either. :) I think he saw a Red Hat disk set and is wondering if it's the real Linux. --Ed.)

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 23:20:31 PDT
From: junainah sarian (ainina76@hotmail.com)
Subject: Installing Linux in Windows 98

I've difficulties in installing the Linux. Can you help me in solving this matter?

Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1999 14:50:21 +0300
From: vintze (vintze@libertatea.ro)
Subject: help me please!

I'm from Romania. I install linux in my PowerPC but i can't print. I have a 8600/200 Power Mac and a HP 4MV printer. Please HELP me. my e-mail addres is vintze@libertatea.ro

Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 09:24:45 +1000
From: Zubin Henner (zubinh@one.net.au)
Subject: Help! Compatibility problems between linux and windows filesystems; StarOffice 5.1; Graphics settings

Hi Linuxsters, I am a current Win98 user trying to switch to Linux, but I have run into a few little problems!

Firstly, after successfully partitioning my HDD and installing Red Hat Linux 5.2, I wanted to reinstall Win98 as it was getting rather slow. So I mounted my (FAT32) C: drive in Linux (mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/c:) and backed up my essential files onto the Linux partition.

After reinstalling Windows I copied the files back, only to discover that some seemed to be corrupted by the Linux filesystem. Some self-extracting programs like WinZip 7.0 and WinBoost 1.24 will not execute, giving errors like "Permission denied" or "This is not a Win32 application". This is not a drama as I can simply download these again, however many of my important compressed "zip" files containing Word documents are corrupt and some files cannot be extracted. What is the sitch? Can these files be "fixed"? Should I completely avoid mixing the two filesystems in future? Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

Another problem I had was installing StarOffice 5.1 Personal Edition for Linux - it freezes on page 2 of setup where it asks for the registration key number. I downloaded the program from download.com and therefore don't have a number. Even if I did it would be no use as the program freezes anyway. Also I have since realised that it is probably because I only have 15MB RAM (1MB for built-in video card) and not the minimum requirement of 32MB (duh!). Which poses the question, "Why does MS Office happily run on my system with the flaw-ridden inefficient Windows OS, while StarOffice won't?" Please excuse me, I am only new to Linux! I plan to upgrade my RAM soon so hopefully this won't be a problem - just curious, you know?

I am also having problems getting the appropriate graphics settings happening on Linux. I have a Socket 7 M571 motherboard with a built-in 64-bit VGA chip. It is a 1 to 4MB chip and I have set it to 1MB (in BIOS) due to my pathetic RAM situation. In Windows I can easily go to 800x600 and 1024x768 with 16- and 24-bit colour. During Red Hat Linux 5.2 installation I selected "VGA16" video card and "Custom: Non-interlaced SVGA; 800x600@60Hz, 640x480@72Hz" monitor type. But it won't go above 640x480 resolution without going into virtual mode. The colour settings are also not right. What do I do?

And finally (!) every time I exit "X", I get an error message "FreeFont count is 2; should be 1; Fixing..." What does this mean and how do I fix it? (do I need to?)

I love the idea of leaving Windows behind but I can't while I have these problems! Could I ask that any responses be reasonably basic as I am totally new to Linux (or should I say "Linux is totally new to me!"). All help will be greatly appreciated! Thank you...

Zubin.

Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 02:49:34 PDT
From: javafun@excite.com
Subject: linux in algeria

I would thank for your good job, i installed red hat linux 5.1 without much trouble except for xwindow my video card is sis 5597 i wonder if it's supported under linux.

friendly mimoune

Date: Wed, 30 Jun 1999 12:48:10 +0100
From: "ian baker" (ian@pncl.co.uk)
Subject: Question!

Hi,

I am growing to like the idea, philosophy behind Linux. I am a home user, reasonable non-technical, is this a good move? and what is the difference between Redhat and Suse. I hope I'm sending this to the right place and hope that you'll give me an answer.

Many thanks
Ian Baker (UK)

Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 18:15:14 -0400
From: "Pierre Abbat" (phma@oltronics.net)
Subject: Garbled HTML in Linux Gazette

I found a reliable way to crash KFM: look at the front page, follow the link to the current issue, then follow the front page link. A few people have reported KFM crashes. I ran Amaya to check the page for errors and found the following:

*** Errors in http://www.linuxgazette.com/ temp file: /home/phma/.amaya/1/www.linuxgazette.com
   line 53, char 51: Unknown attribute "NOSAVE"
   line 57, char 22: Unknown attribute "color-"#BB0000""
   line 107, char 73: Unknown tag </table<
   line 114, char 7: Tag <table> is not allowed here

Please fix them (I suspect the </table<, but it might be something else). phma

(These tags were related to the old search engine. I took them out and it works now with my KFM. Please let me know if you have any further problems. --Editor)

Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 12:15:34 -0600
From: Coran Fisher (salyavin@verinet.com)
Subject: Setting up mail for a home network using exim

I was just reading the article "Setting up mail for a home network using exim" in issue 42 and I noticed one possible problem. In the suggested .forward file any mail that contains Emily in the To header will go to emi's mailbox, if someone was to send a message with several addresses in the To field one to jbloggs and one address had Emily in it (weather Emily be the Emily on the local network or some other Emily). If a person sent mail with only one To address and bcc'd or cc'd the rest that problem wouldn't exist but alas not all email is sent that way (at least to me). You could probably cut down on the possibility of this a bit by having it look for Emily's first and last name.

Regards,
Coran

(A revised version of the article appears in this issue. --Ed.)

Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 14:30:47 +1000 (EST)
From: corprint login <'corprint@mail.netspace.net.au'>
Subject: LG Issue 42 - email article

I was most impressed with the following article in Linux Gazette 42, June 1999: "Setting up mail for a home network using exim"

I followed Jan's suggestions on a RedHat 5.1 Linux system and it eventually worked. You may care to note the following comments and pass them on to the author (as no email address was offered).

1. The "exim" package as supplied with RedHat Linux does not include "eximconfig". I pinched a copy from a Debian distribution using ar and tar. The configure file is too hard to setup without it.
2. The perl script "outfilt" as published, fails on my system. The '@' character in the script should be '\@'.
3. As I do not use a Smarthost for email, I found that taking out the reference to it in the ROUTERS CONFIGURATION section of the exim configure file, worked fine. (Note that Debian uses exim.conf whereas the RedHat version of exim uses the file 'configure').

I have seen many requests for interfacing MS Internet Mail (???) to Linux mail facilities on the Linux User Group discussion lists and this article is most timely.

Thank you for a great magazine.
Frank Drew

"Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"

Contents: News in General Software Announcements

August 1999 Linux Journal

The August issue of Linux Journal will be hitting the newsstands in mid-July. This issue focuses on Graphics with an article about flight simulators one about game ports at Loki, and one about Motif/Lesstif application development. Linux Journal now has articles that appear "Strictly On-Line". Check out the Table of Contents at http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue64/index.html for articles in this issue as well as links to the on-line articles. To subscribe to Linux Journal, go to http://www.linuxjournal.com/ljsubsorder.html.

For Subcribers Only: Linux Journal archives are now available on-line at http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/

EDUCAUSE news

News from EDUCAUSE: Edupage, 26 May 1999

A federal judge has indicated that he may rule in favor of Sun Microsystems in the company's copyright battle with Microsoft , allowing Sun to keep control of its Java programming language. The ongoing legal battle between Sun and Microsoft arose from concerns that Microsoft violated its licensing agreement with Sun for use of Java's source code by altering Java to run more effectively on the Windows operating system. U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte wrote that he will most likely rule in favor of Sun, preventing Microsoft and other companies from changing Java to run certain software products better than others. Some analysts speculate that the court loss may not deter Microsoft, but will instead provide the company with incentive to stop using Java or even to develop an alternative. (Los Angeles Times 05/26/99)

IBM plans to adjust its AIX operating system to support Linux applications. This will allow IBM customers to store all of their Web applications on one server, the company says. IBM's Robert LeBlanc says, "As more customers move to the Web, they'll need to integrate applications." Enabling AIX to run Linux will help customers simplify and manage growing networks, says LeBlanc. IBM's modified version of AIX will be released by the end of this year, the company says. Analysts say IBM and Sun, which modified Solaris to support Linux, are ensuring that they will be able to take advantage of any Linux Web applications that may become popular in the future. In addition to the AIX changes, IBM plans to ship its DB2 software with Pacific HiTech's TurboLinux version of Linux. Pacific HiTech will package IBM's WebSphere software with TurboLinux by the end of 1999, says IBM's Dick Sullivan. (Bloomberg 05/25/99)

Ecrix's VXA-1 Tape Drive to Ship with Penguin Computing's Linux Servers

Boulder, CO - June 8, 1999 - Ecrix Corporation today announced a key partnership with Penguin Computing Inc., the Linux reliability leader and the nation's largest and fastest-growing company focused exclusively on turnkey Linux solutions. According to the agreement, Penguin will offer Ecrix's highly reliable VXA-1 tape drive on all of its Linux servers, providing an exciting new data backup and restore option for its customers. Based on Ecrix's groundbreaking VXA technology, the VXA-1 tape drive delivers major advances over conventional tape technology, offering users unprecedented data restore capabilities. The VXA-1 tape drive is the price/performance leader in its market, with 66GB of capacity, 6MB/second data transfer speed, and an MSRP of $1,295. The partnership with Penguin Computing enables Ecrix to begin penetrating the fast-growing Linux market, and provides Penguin's customers with leading-edge tape drive products.

SuSE Launches Business Partner Program

Nuremberg, Germany -- June 4, 1999 -- Today, SuSE GmbH, the parent company of SuSE Inc., began offering a Business Partner Program targeted specifically at Linux system integrators and consultants. This program is in addition to the recently-announced VAR and ISV Partner Programs launched at Spring Comdex '99 by SuSE Inc.

The Business Partner Program includes priority support, training, a moderated private on-line forum, and access to a knowledge base, among other features. Qualified Partners are those who seek to offer Linux services and want to benefefit from association with the SuSE brand.

Those interested in applying for the SuSE Business Partner Program should contact SuSE by sending e-mail to business-partner@suse.de or calling +49 911 740 53 56 (Europe). Those interested in the VAR and ISV programs should send email to info@suse.com or call 1-510-835-7873 (U.S.).

LinuxMall.com Partners with Workstation 2000

LinuxMall.com is pleased to announce our partnership with Workstation 2000. Workstation 2000 is a California-based provider of Linux workstations, notebooks and servers. Workstation 2000 combines high-quality hardware with the Linux OS to provide solutions for small business, corporations, educational institutions and personal use.

The Workstation 2000 Developer Station is the ideal workhorse for productivity under Linux. The Developer Station base system is equipped with a 400 MHz Pentium II processor, Intel SE440-BX motherboard, 64 MB of RAM and a 4 GB EIDE hard disk. All that horsepower is tucked into a quality mid-tower case with an 8 MB AGP video card, 10/100 Ethernet card and a 40x CD-ROM.

Learn more about the Workstation 2000 Developer Station: http://www.LinuxMall.com/products/01112.html

Magic Software to Send Linux Developers to Meet the Penguins

Magic Software Enterprises announced that it will award a free 10-day cruise for two to Antarctica to the developer who builds the best e-commerce solution for the Linux platform using Magic, the company's highly productive development technology. The contest, titled The Magic for Linux Really Cool Contest, runs from May 20, 1999 through October 15, 1999, with all entry forms due no later than September 30, 1999. Comp lete details on the contest can be obtained through the company's website, http://www.magic-sw.com.

Magic is also on the board of directors of Linux International.

Magic also announced new technology bringing interactive processing to web applications. They will be demonstrating it at Linux World in August.

UseNetServer.Com allowing Linux users free access to their NNTP servers

UseNetServer.Com has made the decision to convert our NNTP systems to Linux from MS Windows NT. In doing this we are opening up our servers to the Linux Community for propagation of important information. UseNetServer.Com is allowing all users interested in Linux newsgroup issues free access to our servers. Your login / password is linux / free connecting to Linux-news.usenetserver.com (207.153.76.21) or news2.usenetserver.com (207.153.76.19).

We have found several major bugs in the kernel which Alan Cox and Stephen Tweedie have quickly resolved for us. Allowing commercial grade news to the Linux community will speed the dissemination of Linux patches and problems. If you have any new news groups you would like added to the hierarchy drop me an email at usenet@exectech.net and we will include them. Joe Devita, and his crew of propeller heads at the Linux General Store (http://www.linuxgeneralstore.com) in Atlanta helped install and solve all of our problems. Please note we are still working Rob Fleischmann with BCandid (Highwind Software) to resolve some of their software issues with Linux.

UseNetServer is peering with all the major NNTP providers to include SuperNew, UUNet, SprintNet, and many other smaller providers. This provides a near real time feed of this information, so you don't have to wait on your slow local server for the data. I have added 70gb dedicated to just the Linux groups, this will spool up to a ton of information for you. If you are overseas, you can still connect to our servers as we are very well connected via NetRail a tier-1 internet provider. We have terrific speed to the UK and Asia which multiple DS-3s connected to MAE-East and MAE-West. Check us out. http://www.usenetserver.com, we're a small company trying to help out a big community. We look forward to your comments on this free access.

Linux certification exams

June 3, 1999, Raleigh, NC-- The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), an industry-wide group developing a professional certification program for Linux, is pleased to announce the creation of its corporate sponsorship program and a number of early sponsors. LPI also welcomes the addition of several new members to its Advisory Council, including IBM, ExecuTrain and CompUSA.

Two sponsorship plans, for corporations and individuals, have been introduced to allow anyone to assist the LPI in its goal of creating a high-quality, vendor-neutral program. LPI aims to deliver its first certification exams in July 1999.

"While we have heavily depended on the volunteer community in the spirit of other Linux projects, putting together a respected certification program requires a substantial investment," said Chuck Mead, LPI Director of Corporate Relations. "The financial support of the Linux community is crucial to our program's timeliness and credibility."

The LPI corporate sponsorship program allows for donations from $1,000 to more than $50,000. Individual sponsorships allow for donations from $100 to $1,000.

Current sponsors include Caldera, LinuxCare, SuSE, Digital Creations, Jon 'maddog' Hall, Richard Ames, and others.

A full description of sponsor benefits and other features of the program, can be found at http://www.lpi.org/sponsorship.html on the LPI website.

Sair - Weiley Linux and GNU certification program

New York, NY May 3, 1999 Global publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. today announced its partnership with Sair, Inc., to publish a series of test preparation guides for the Sair Linux and GNU Certification program.

Dr. P. Tobin Maginnis, noted Linux researcher and President and Founder of the Oxford, Mississippi-based Sair, Inc., has put together an advisory board of Linux industry leaders to develop an authoritative, non-proprietary certification program. The comprehensive, four-level training and testing program is aimed at information technology professionals in the private and public sectors. Students will acquire high-level skills and in-depth knowledge of Linux, the fastest growing open source operating system in the world.

http://www.linuxcertification.org.

German thin client developer opens office in Hong Kong

IGEL GmbH from Germany - expert developer of thin client technology (embedded systems) based on Linux OS - expands in the Asia Pacific market with the establishment of "IGEL Asia Limited" in Hong Kong, opening May, 1999.

IGEL GMBH is expanding in the Asia Pacific region to accommodate growth and a need to be closer to the major OEM production centers in Asia. CEO, Franz Hintermayr said that IGEL currently works with a large number of international clients, some of whom have strong ties as well as production in Asia. One of the aims of having an office in Hong Kong is to work more closely and effectively with these existing and potential partners in that region. Apart from the OEM business IGEL seeks to further develop ties with telecoms, ISP's and distribution channels for its range of products and services. IGEL products will also be localized, for which a local development team will be set up, to specifically target markets such as China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan; which use the double byte character set. The operation in Hong Kong will be managed by Mr. Jean Louis van der Velde, who has been active in the IT business in Asia for the past 12 years.

IGEL, established in 1989, is one of today's most innovative vendors of computer technology. These technologies include JNT for embedded systems, Etherminal Thin Client products, internet decoders, and IGEL clock soft-and hardware products for professional time synchronization. For more Information please refer to the IGEL web-site at www.igel.de or the mirror site www.igelasia.com

Renting software

Ottawa, Canada -- June 9, 1999 -- Corel Corporation is pleased to announce that it is joining forces with Channelware, a business unit of Nortel Networks to rent its award-winning software applications to customers. This initiative joins the first program involving distribution of Channelware's NetActive software through retail stores.

Corel Print House Magic 4 NetActive Version will be available for customers to rent at select Blockbuster locations in Austin, Texas, and Anchorage, Alaska, starting in June. "Channelware invented secure Software Activation and we are proud to be teaming up with them in this breakthrough initiative," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of Corel Corporation. "The dynamics of the computer world are changing rapidly, and we are keen to use this rental technology to allow our customers to access our products more easily - even without leaving their houses. This is an innovation in the software industry."

Channelware's NetActive technology will be embedded in the Corel software, making it possible for customers to rent the software for 72 hours. Once the customer brings the CD-ROM home and launches the application, the software will connect to the Channelware Activation Server. A one-time InstanceKey is then delivered over the Web in seconds. The key enables the customer to start using the software. The NetActive system keeps track of how long the customer uses the software, and offers the customer options for extended use.

Unlike standard video rentals, the customer will keep the software rental CD after the initial rental is over. After the rental period, the user has the option to: rent the software again; buy the right to use the rented software on a perpetual basis; or buy retail versions of Corel Print House Magic online and have the shrinkwrap versions of the product delivered to the door. The 72-hour rental has a suggested retail price (SRP) of US $5.99; re-renting costs US $3.99. Customers can buy Corel Print House Magic 4 NetActive Version on a perpetual basis for US $29.95*.

Free Linux training materials

GBdirect, Europe's leading provider of Linux training, today announced the release of free Linux training materials. Lecture notes for the first four modules of their ``Linux Systems'' training course are now available on the web (www.linuxtraining.co.uk). The cover:

1. An Overview of a Linux System
2. The Linux Filesystem
3. The Linux Command Line Interface
4. Basic Linux Tools

Each module consists of 20-25 pages of bullet-pointed lecture notes followed by graduated exercises. Experienced commercial instructors should be able to deliver the lecture notes in about 1 hour, leaving between 1 and 2 hours for practical work based on the exercises. In addition to good teaching skills, the users of these materials are expected to have sound knowledge of the Linux and UNIX operating systems.

In the interests of good citizenship, the modules are distributed in low-bandwidth, open-source, formats.

GBdirect's primary motivation for releasing thse notes as open source software is to ensure their widest possible dissemination. A secondary motivation is the company's desire to `give something back' to the community which provides them with virtually all of their office software.

The company hope that others will contribute to the Linux Training Materials Project, by authoring their own lecture notes or by modifying those which GBdirect have contributed. To encourage such participation, GBdirect are releasing their materials under an open source licence derived from the Linux Documentation Project. This allows end-users to copy and distribute the lecture notes as the please, but protects the copyrights of their original authors.

Pacific HiTech renamed to TurboLinux

SAN FRANCISCO, June 8 -- Pacific HiTech, the leader in high-performance Linux, today announced it has officially changed its name to TurboLinux, Inc. The change in the corporate identity marks the next milestone in the company's ramp-up of its North American operations in the wake of recent major alliance announcements with IBM and Computer Associates.

"We are determined to be a key catalyst in fueling the adoption of Linux worldwide and have demonstrated our ability to do this successfully in the Pacific Rim," said Cliff Miller, CEO of TurboLinux. "Building on that success by extending our presence into the North American market and other global markets represents the logical next steps for us. Our name change reflects our larger, global role beyond the Pacific Rim."

TurboLinux is quickly emerging as a dominant, global player in the Linux industry with offices in the U.S, Japan, China and Australia. Its product is currently the fastest growing operating system platform in Japan, with more than two million units of TurboLinux distributed in the past 18 months via retail and wholesale channels, hardware OEM programs, and book and magazine bundling. When TurboLinux 3.0 was introduced in Asia in December, it outsold Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT (2000) at Japanese retail point of sale outlets, according to the high technology analyst firm Computer News. Further, the product was voted "Editor's Choice Award for 1998" by Byte Magazine in Japan.

The company's web sites is www.turbolinux.com or, in Japanese, at www.pht.co.jp.

TurboLinux also announced it will be the first Linux provider to sign an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) software agreement with Sendmail for Sendmail Pro. TurboLinux will integrate and bundle Sendmail Pro with an enterprise Linux mail server product to be introduced later this year. TurboLinux will provide Sendmail support to Linux customers in Japan.

TurboLinux 3.6 distribution released

SAN FRANCISCO, June 29 /PRNewswire/ -- TurboLinux, the leader in high-performance Linux, today announced it is shipping its newest English language offering, TurboLinux Workstation 3.6.

Based on the 2.2.9 Linux kernel, TurboLinux Workstation 3.6 retails for $49.95 and is currently available from the company's web site at www.turbolinux.com. It will be available in North America through retail outlets and resellers later this summer.

"TurboLinux is best known as the Linux leader in the Pacific Rim through our Japanese and Chinese language products," said Cliff Miller, president and CEO of TurboLinux. "TurboLinux Workstation 3.6 is the first of a series of forthcoming Linux offerings that are designed to meet the needs of high performance Linux users in North America and illustrate our ongoing commitment to this market. On TurboLinux Workstation 3.6 we've also improved the installer that Forbes Online and other reviewers described as the best in the market."

TurboLinux Workstation 3.6 includes Netscape's latest version 4.6 browser and an easy-to-install RPM version of Corel's popular WordPerfect 8 for Linux. Other popular office productivity software for Linux and a comprehensive suite of developer tools are also included. For increased flexibility, TurboLinux Workstation 3.6 users can choose between the default TurboDesk desktop environment or the latest GNOME or KDE windows managers.

TurboLinux Workstation 3.6 ships with an all-new, 300-page user's guide. In addition to the installation and source CDs, users also receive a Companion CD packed with popular Linux applications and utilities, including Tripwire, Staroffice 5.0 and X-win32. TurboLinux provides 60 days of free installation support.

Corel and Rebel.com Sponsor Ottawa Linux Symposium

Ottawa, Canada- June 15, 1999- Corel Corporation and Rebel.com are hosting the 1st annual Ottawa Linux Symposium in Ottawa from July 22 to July 24, 1999.

The Ottawa Linux Symposium, run by Achilles Internet Ltd., will provide the opportunity for Linux developers and system administrators to expand their knowledge of the Linux operating system. The event is for anyone who is interested in the technology behind Linux and will feature a number of prominent speakers from the Linux community. The keynote speaker for the event is Alan Cox, one of the primary Linux developers. Mr. Cox is the maintainer for the AC series of leading-edge Linux patches.

Achilles has invited 350 Linux developers from all around the world. The list of speakers is impressive, including: Pat Beirne of Corel Corporation; Alex deVries of The Puffin Group Inc.; Zach A. Brown of Red Hat Software Ltd.; Stephane Eranian of Hewlett-Packard; Miguel de Icaza of GNOME Support; Richard Guy Briggs of Free S/WAN; and Mike Shaver of Mozilla.org.

Benchmark specialist invites Red Hat and Microsoft to a rematch

Chicago, IL -(June 17 1999) - Neal Nelson, benchmark guru and founder of the world's largest independent client/server testing facility, has extended an invitation to Microsoft and Red Hat to participate in an open, public performance comparison between hot operating system rivals Windows NT and Linux.

Nelson issued the invitation as a result of a recently published study sponsored by Microsoft.* One of the conclusions of the study is that "Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 is 2.5 times faster than Linux as a File Server and 3.7 times faster as a Web Server."

Many have questioned the test results because different tuning levels were used for NT than those used with Linux. For example, NT was tested with NT tuning, benchmarking and technical support from Microsoft, as well as Internet Information Server 4.0 tuning information from the Standard Performance Evaluation Corp.

Linux however, received almost no additional tuning, support or involvement from Linux-based technical sources. The testing lab cited difficulty in obtaining tuning information from Linux knowledge bases, and a query with Red Hat ended up going through the wrong channels.

This has outraged the growing base of Linux supporters who are clamoring for an unbiased test, one that is not sponsored by either Microsoft or Linux.

*Study conducted by Mindcraft, Inc., a software testing company based in Los Gatos, CA

32BitsOnline.com Merges with Bleeding Edge Magazine

VANCOUVER, BC - June 17, 1999 - Medullas Publishing Company, parent company of 32BitsOnline Magazine (http://www.32bitsonline.com/) and Linux Applications (http://www.linuxapps.com/) today announced that it has acquired Bleeding Edge Magazine (http://www.gcs.bc.ca/bem/). Under the term of the agreement, Bleeding Edge will join 32BitsOnline Magazine as its news information source for software development.

Like 32BitsOnline, Bleeding Edge will continue to centrally focus on developing open source application for Linux. In addition to application development, Bleeding Edge will also focus in delivering articles on gaming development.

New site offers free personal file storage for linux users

Mill Valley, CA, JUNE//99 - Linux users can now get 25 Megs of free disk space for their files accessible from any computer on the Internet. FreeLinuxSpace.com, a new website service from FreeDiskSpace, offers subscribers free a virtual folders system, where they can upload, store and download all types of files into their personal secured area. "For Linux users this service alleviates the need for setting up floppy, zip, or hardware drives," it also gives business people and students the ability to store files securely and share files with colleagues worldwide", said Ari Freeman, CMO of FreeDiskSpace.

The FreeLinuxSpace folder service includes password protection, file descriptions, multiple file downloads, free trial versions of software programs and requires no FTP software. Folders can be upgraded to include high security protection through "https" and shared folder access to unlimited amount of users.

To get 25 free Megs of online file storage and to learn more about the sites. Go to FreeDiskSpace.com or FreeLinuxSpace.com.

Linux Press new series: Linux Resource Series

PENNGROVE, CA (June 29, 1999) - Linux Press today introduced its newest line of books, the *Linux Resource Series*. Designed to provide comprehensive documentation for the latest Linux distributions and concepts, the Linux Resource Series will enable users of all levels to access Linux information.

First in the series is The Installation and Getting Started Guides for Red Hat Linux 6.0. Based on Red Hat's latest Linux 6.0 distribution, the two user manuals have been combined into one handy volume. Also included are two Red Hat Linux 6.0 CD-ROMs that contain the Linux operating system, the source code and a selection of over 600 packages such as C/C++ compilers, programming languages, Internet Server, utilities, editors and much more. Bonus files include a commercial-grade backup program and disk partitioning tools.

"The Installation and Getting Started Guides for Red Hat Linux 6.0" provide information on the following significant subjects: Installation, Package Selection with RPM, System Administration, System Configuration, Latest Stable 2.2.x Kernel, Networking, GNOME and KDE Window Managers, and Enhanced Font Support.

Linux Links

Linux Knowledge Base: http://linuxkb.cheek.com/
(many forms of Linux documentation including the HOWTOs, Gazette articles, and third-party documentation.

The Linux Guide, a comprehensive compendium of Linux terms and definitions: http://www.linuxlinks.com/guide/

Red Hat's imminent IPO (stock offering): http://www.redhat.com/corp/press_ipo.html. Check the Red Hat home page for updates.

A Linux web camera: http://www.linuxcam.com/, http://www.musiqueplus.com/

Applix's new Linux division (newsalert.com article): http://www.newsalert.com/bin/story?StoryId=Cn2CHqbKbyteXotm

Free web-based e-mail, run on a Linux server: http://www.linuxmail.org/

Canadian Linux site, with links to lots of Linux information: http://www.linuxcanada.net

Server administration system for schools (kindergarten through high school): http://k12admin.cmsd.bc.ca/

Home Depot testing Linux for mushrooming PC volume (computerworld article): http://www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/CWFlash/990621B00E

Extensive IDG interview with Linus (SunWorld article): http://www.sunworld.com/swol-06-1999/swol-06-torvalds.html?0621a

TheLinuxStore Comes to www.onsale.com (Yahoo article): http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/990621/ca_onsale__1.html

C.O.L.A news

• Ganymede 0.99.2 - network directory management system
• Votes needed against upcoming European Software Patent Laws
• SkateNews - free news reader written in Java

Cygnus introduces Code Fusion IDE for Linux

PC EXPO, N.Y., June 21, 1999 - Cygnus Solutions, the leader in open-source software, today unveiled Cygnus Code FusionÔ for Linux, the industry's highest performance1, most complete Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Linux developers. Code Fusion IDE makes it possible for developers familiar with programming on Windows platforms to quickly become productive in developing for Linux.

The Code Fusion IDE is optimized for the Intel2 Architecture to provide developers the tools required for building the fastest applications possible. This complete Linux IDE tightly integrates C, C++, and Java3 programming languages with a robust graphical user interface (GUI) to enhance developer productivity and reduce software product time-to-market. Cygnus Code Fusion supports all major Linux distributions to offer Linux developers the most flexibility in development on and for Linux.

With Code Fusion, Cygnus combines the latest Cygnus-certified, open-source GNU tools release with an intuitive graphical IDE framework. The performance and functionality of the Code Fusion IDE -- featuring a C, C++, and Java tools project manager, editor, graphical browsers and the Cygnus InsightÔ debugger interface, is being demonstrated for the first time at PC Expo in the Linux Pavilion at the Cygnus Booth, 1525-27.

Cygnus Code Fusion for Linux will be shipped in July 1999 and is priced at $299. Code Fusion IDE features a simple installation of all necessary tools to develop software on Linux, including printed and on-line documentation and 30-day installation support upon registration. Code Fusion will be available for purchase online at www.cygnus.com/linux and through the Cygnus Partner Program.

Cygnus also announced plans to release the source code to Cygnus Insight, a graphical user interface (GUI) for the industry-standard GNU debugger, GDB. Known in programming circles as GDBtk, the Cygnus Insight GUI provides the technology for effective and efficient debug sessions by improving a software developer's ability to visualize, manage, and examine the status of a program as it is debugged. The source code for Cygnus Insight debugger will be available from Cygnus in July on http://sourceware.cygnus.com/gdb.

Cygnus launches subscription service for open source software

SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 8, 1999 - Cygnus Solutions, the leader in open-source software, today announced the immediate availability of SourcewareÔ CD, a subscription program for the open-source software projects hosted by Cygnus at http://sourceware.cygnus.com. The Sourceware CD provides convenient access to the latest open-source technologies, such as eCos (Embedded Cygnus Operating System), the EGCS compiler, GDB debugger, and Cygwin, which are currently available on the sourceware.cygnus.com Web site. Sourceware.cygnus.com is an open-source Web resource for software developers around the world that provides infrastructural software technologies intended to establish a common, open standard platform for software development. The Sourceware CD provides a complete snapshot of sources and selected binaries for:

· Cygwin - a UNIX API for Win32 systems,
· eCos - the Embedded Cygnus Operating System,
· EGCS Compiler project - features industry leading embedded compiler
technology,
· GDB - industry leading embedded and native debugger,
· Open-Source Tools for the Java  Language - a developer toolkit and
Mauve, a test suite for Java class libraries,
· binutils, libstdc++, GNATS, automake, autoconf and other open source
sponsored projects.

The Cygnus Sourceware CD is immediately available and is priced at $19.99 for a single snapshot, or $69.99 for an annual CD subscription (domestic customers only) that includes four quarterly shipments of the latest source code from all Sourceware projects. Sourceware CDs can be ordered immediately at www.cygnus.com/sourcewarecd or http://sourceware.cygnus.com/.

iServer: a Web/Application Server Written Entirely in Java

Kearny, NJ. - June 27, 1999 - Servertec today announced the availability of a new release of iServer, a small, fast, scalable and easy to administer platform independent Web/Application Server written entirely in JavaTM.

iServer is the perfect Web Server for serving static Web pages and a powerful Application Server for generating dynamic, data driving Web pages using Java Servlets, iScript, Common Gateway Interface (CGI) and Server Side Includes (SSI).

iServer is now more scalable than ever, it can use any JDBC accessible database to store users, groups, access rights and access control lists, as well as, log client requests, server events and errors. The release also features support for JSDK 2.1, invoker servlet, an expanded API, bug fixes and updates to administrator and documentation.

iServer preview release is available for free at http://www.servertec.com (connect-time charges may apply).

Compaq to Offer Linux Software Tools from Cygnus

VARVISION, San Diego, CA, May 26, 1999  Cygnus Solutions, the leader in open-source software, today announced that Compaq Computer Corporation plans to make available the Cygnus Professional Linux Developers Kit online to members of the Compaq Solutions Alliance (CSA).  Cygnus GNUPro Toolkit for Linux, Cygnus Source-Navigator for Linux, and future Linux software development products from Cygnus will be available to more than 3,500 independent software vendors, consultants and systems integrators who are members of the CSA program. Cygnus is also offering CSA members the industry=92s first Linux support package for GNUPro tools.  Given the growing demand for Linux products, any software developer, software consultant, or system integrator can evaluate Cygnus=92 Linux products at the CSA Test Drive New Technologies web site (www.compaq.com/csa/).  Members can then link to Cygnus to purchase the software at special pricing.

Canto Media Asset Management (MAM) solution

May 26, 1999 (Berlin)- Canto Software, creator of Cumulus, the award-winnin g Media Asset Management (MAM) solution, announced support for the Linux operating system to be made available by the end of this year. The company will expand what it already the broadest platform support for a media asset management solution.

http://www.canto.com

Linux STREAMS

Linux STREAMS (LiS) version 2.2 is now available.

Documentation: http://email.gcom.com/LiS/
Download: ftp://ftp.gcom.com/pub/linux/src/LiS-2.2/LiS-2.2.tgz

Support for 2.2.x kernels. Better loadable module support. Support for kerneld. Some bug fixes. Better documentation.

Xref-Speller v.93.4

Xref-Speller v.93.4 for Linux is now available at addresses:

Primary site: http://www.xref.sk/
Mirror site: http://guma.ii.fmph.uniba.sk/xref/

Xref-Speller is a source browsing and advanced editing package intended for C and Java software developers.

e-smith server and gateway

The e-smith server and gateway is a special distribution of Linux that installs on a PC in about 10 minutes, automatically converting it into a Internet thin communications server (SMTP, POP3, web, security, routing, etc. services). Installation is 100% automatic. A graphical user interface makes it very simple to configure the server and administer the network. We designed the product to be usable by enterprises without Linux expertise. It's an open source product, available for free download, or on CDROM with a manual for $40. We sell support contracts on it (ninety days for $195 / one year for $390).

http://www.e-smith.net

eSoft inks liscensing pact with HP for "redphish"

BROOMFIELD, Colo., June 21, 1999 - eSoft Inc. (NASDAQ Small Caps: ESFT), the company that develops Internet access solutions for small businesses, today announced it has entered into a software licensing agreement with Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), one of the world's leading computer corporations. This is the first agreement for redphish(tm), the Linux(tm) licensing program recently unveiled by eSoft and is expected to total up to $500,000 in development and licensing fees.

eSoft Inc. was founded in 1984 with headquarters in Broomfield, Colo. eSoft provides a family of Internet appliances and services that enable small to medium-sized business to harness the full power of the Internet. The TEAM Internet family of products is designed for businesses with up to 200 workstations and provides low-cost, LAN-to-Internet connectivity and includes a range of featus, irencluding e-mail, Web browsing, firewall security, a Web server, remote access and virtual private network (VPN) functionality. Contact eSoft at 295 Interlocken Blvd., #500, Broomfield, Colo., 80021, USA; 303-444-1600 phone; 303-444-1640 fax; www.esoft.com. TEAM Internet is a registered trademark of eSoft Inc.

Other Products

ACIS First 3D Modeling Engine To Offer LIN UX Port: http://www.spatial.com

NetBeans announces integrated EJB, CORBA and XML support in Java 2 Technology Development Suite: www.netbeans.com

Kaffe will be the first Java Virtual Machine to run Microsoft Java extensions on non-MS operating systems (newsalert.com article): http://www.newsalert.com/bin/story?StoryId=Cn2r:qbWbtLLnmdG3

SGMLtools 1.0.10 available for download: http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/~casantos/SGMLtools/
[Please download in the late evening to conserve bandwidth.]

South African vendor of Linux distributions: http://www.os2.co.za/software

Contents:

Greetings From Jim Dennis

Hey answer guy!!!

One more thing. --or--

Null Modems: Connecting MS-DOS to Linux as a Serial Terminal

RedHat 5.2 Kernel 2.0.36 --or--

Upgrade Breaks Several Programs, /proc Problems, BogoMIPS Discrepancies
A visit to "Library Hell"

Floppy/mount Problems: Disk Spins, Lights are on, No one's Home? --or--

Floppy Failure: mdir Works; mount Fails
Found the Culprit!

need your help --or--

Incompetance in Parenting

bad clusters --or--

Try Linux ... and Grammar

Duplicating / --or--

Out of Space....or Inodes? All Sparsity Lost?

RAID 1 solutions --or--

Arco Duplidisk: Disk Mirroring

Modem Help --or--

Searching for Days for a Linux Modem: The Daze Continues

Greetings from Jim Dennis

So, my LG activity for this month is pretty sparse. Does that mean that I haven't been involved in any Linux activity? Does it mean that I'm not getting enough LG TAG e-mail?

HARDLY!

However, my work at Linuxcare has been taking a pretty big bite out of my time. In addition the long drive up to the city (from my house in Campbell to Linuxcare's offices in San Francisco is about 50 miles) keeps me away from the keyboard for far too long. (Yes, I'm looking for cheap digs up in the city to keep my up there during the week).

Mostly I've been working with our training department, presenting classes on Linux Systems Administration to our customers and our new employees, and helping develop and refine the courseware around which the classes are built.

I've also been watching the Linux news on the 'net with my usual zeal.

The leading story this month seems to be "Mindcraft III --- The Return of the Benchmarkers." The results of the benchmarking tests aren't surprising. NT with IIS still fared better on this particular platform under these test conditions than the Linux+Apache+Samba combination. The Linux 2.2.9 kernel and The Apache 1.3.6 release seems to have closed almost half of the gap.

As I suggested last month, the most interesting lessons from this story have little to do with the programming and the numeric results. There were technical issues in the 2.2.5 kernel that were addressed by 2.2.9. I guess Apache was updated to use the sendfile() system call. These are relatively minor tweaks.

Microsoft and Mindcraft collaborated for a significant amount of time to find a set of conditions under which the Linux/Apache/ Samba combination would perform at a disadvantage to NT.

When MS and Mindcraft originally published their results the suite of tests and the processes employeed were thoroughly and quickly discredited. I've never seen such in-depth analysis about the value (or lack thereof) of benchmarking in the computing industry press.

Nonetheless, the developers of the involved open source packages shrugged, analyzed the results, did some profiling of their own, looked over their respective bits of code, devoted hours to coding tweaks, a few days worth to tests, and spent some time exchanging and debating different approaches to improving the code.

The important lessons from this are:

1. Just because a criticism is discredited, biased, and possibly dishonest doesn't mean that we can't find some clues to lead to real improvements. These developers could have stuck their heads in the sand and dismissed the whole topic as unimportant. They could have felt that the PR and advocacy responses would suffice.
    
   That "ostrich" approach is more commonly found in corporate and government circles than among freeware programmers. This is largely due to management. A development manager at a large corporation will tend to put as much energy into internal PR and "spin control" as to any real improvement in the product. Programmers often find themselves at odds with their own management.
    
   
2. When we choose to attend to criticisms, it's vital not to adopt their demonstration model as your objective. We must stay true to our own requirements.
    
   It would be easy to focus on "beating the Mindcraft benchmark" --- to insert special case code that exists solely to produce superior results under the specific conditions present in that suite of tests.
    
   This is referred to as "fraud."
    
   It would be technically easy for the kernel developers to write the code for this. However, it would be difficult to actually perpetrate this or any other fraud in any open source project (since the code is there for all to see --- and there are a number of people who actually read that code).
    
   So, the Linux, Apache, and Samba developers showed admirable focus on real improvements and seemed to have eschewed any temptation to commit fraud.
    
   (We can't know whether the competition has rigged their platform, since it is closed source and hasn't been thoroughly audited by reputable independents).

This leads us to a broader lesson. We can't properly evaluate any statistics (benchmark results are statistics, after all) without considering the source. What were the objectives (the requirements) of the people involved? Are the objectives of the people who took the measurements compatible with those of their audience. In large part any statistic "means" what the presenter intends it to "mean" (i.e. the number can only be applied to the situation that was measured).

Benchmarks are employed primarily by two groups of people: Software and hardware company marketeers, and computer periodical writers, editors and publishers. Occasionally sysadmins and IT people use statistics that are similar to benchmarks --- simulations results --- for their performance tuning and capacity planning work. Unfortunately these simulations are often confused with benchmarks.

• Interestingly the term benchmark probably stems from physical "marks" (scratches or grooves), in work benches used by woodworkers and other craftsmen to provide handy measurements for their productions.

Jim's first rule of requirements analysis is:

Identify the involved parties.

In this case we see two different producers of benchmarks and a common audience (the potential customers, and the readership are mostly the same). We also see that the real customers of most periodicals are the advertisers --- which work for the same corporations as the marketeers. This leads to a preference for benchmarks that is bred of familiarity.

Most real people on the street don't "use" benchmarks. They may be affected by them (as the opinions they form and get form others are partially swayed by overall reputations of the organizations that produce the benchmarks and those of the publications they read).

One of the best responses to the Mindcraft III results that I've read is by Christopher Lansdown. Basically it turns the question around.

Instead of interpreting the top of the graphs as "how fast does this go?" (a performance question) he looks at the bottom and the "baseline" system configurations (intended for comparison) and asks: "What is the most cost effective hardware and software combination which will provide the optimal capacity?"

This is an objective which matches that of most IT directors, sysadmins, webmasters and other people in the real world.

Let's consider the hypothetical question: Which is faster, an ostrich or a penguin? Which is faster UNDERWATER?

What Christopher points out is that a single processor PC with a couple hundred Mb of RAM and a single fast ethernet card is adequate for serving simple, static HTML pages to the web for any organization that has less than about 5 or 6 T1 (high speed) Internet lines. That is regardless of the demand/load (millions of hits per day) since the webserver will be idly waiting for the communications channels to clear whenever the demand exceeds the channel capacity.

The Mindcraft benchmarks clearly demonstrate this fact. You don't need NT with IIS and a 4 CPU SMP system with a Gigabyte of RAM and four 100Mbps ethernet cards to provide web services to the Internet. These results also suggest rather strongly that you don't need that platform for serving static HTML to your high speed Intranet.

Of course, the immediate retort is to question the applicability of these results to dynamic content. The Mindcraft benchmark design doesn't measure any form of dynamic content (but the c't magazine did - their article also has performance tuning hints for high-end hardware). Given the obvious objectives of the designers of this benchmark suite we can speculate that NT wouldn't fare as well in that scenario. Other empirical and anecdotal evidence supports that hypothesis; most users who have experience with Linux and NT webservers claim that the Linux systems "seem" more responsive and more robust; Microsoft uses about a half dozen separate NT webservers at their site (which still "feels" slow to many users).

This brings us back to our key lesson. Selection of hardware and software platforms should be based on requirements analysis. Benchmarks serve the requirements of the people who produce and disseminate them. Those requirements are unlikely to match those of the people who will be ultimately selecting software and hardware for real world deployment.

It is interesting to ask: "How does NT gain an advantage in this situation?" and "What could Linux do to perform better under those circumstances?"

From what I've read there are a few tricks that might help. Apparently one of the issues in this scenario is the fact that the system tested as four high speed ethernet cards.

Normally Linux (and other operating systems) are "interrupt-driven" --- activity on an interface generates an "interrupt" (a hardware event) which triggers some software activity (to schedule a handler). This is normally a efficient model. Most devices (network interfaces, hard disk controllers, serial ports, keyboards, etc) only need to be "serviced" occasionally (at rates that are glacial by comparison to modern processors).

Apparently NT has some sort of option to disable interrupts on (at least some) interfaces.

The other common model for handling I/O is called "polling." In this case the CPU checks for new data as frequently as its processing load allows. Polling is incredibly inefficient under most circumstances.

However, under the conditions present in the Mindcraft survey it can be more efficient and offer less latency than interrupt driven techniques.

It would be sheer idiocy for Linux to adopt a straight polling strategy for it's networking interfaces. However, it might be possible to have a hybrid. If the interrupt frequency on a given device exceeds one threshold the kernel might then switch to polling on that device. When the polling shows that the activity on that device as dropped back below another threshold it might be able to switch back to interrupt-driven mode.

I don't know if this is feasible. I don't even know if it's being considered by any Linux kernel developers. It might involve some significant retooling of each of the ethernet drivers. But, it is an interesting question. Other interesting questions: Will this be of benefit to any significant number of real world applications? Do those benefits outweigh the costs of implementation (larger more complex kernels, more opportunities for bugs, etc)?

Another obvious criticism of the whole Mindcraft scenario is the use of Apache. The Apache team's priorities relate to correctness (conformance to published standards), portability (the Apache web server and related tools run on almost all forms of UNIX, not just Linux; they even run on NT and its ilk), and features (support for the many modules and forms of dynamic content, etc). Note that performance isn't in the top three on this list.

Apache isn't the only web server available for Linux. It also isn't the "vendor preferred" web server (whatever that would mean!) So the primary justification for using it in these benchmarks is that it is the dominant web server in the Linux market. In fact Apache is the dominant web server on the Internet as a whole. Over half of all publicly accessible web servers run Apache or some derivative. (We might be tempted to draw a conclusion from this. It might be that some features are more important to more web masters than sheer performance speeds and latencies. Of course that might be an erroneous conclusion --- the dominance of Apache could be due to other factors. The dominance of MS Windows is primarily and artifact of the PC purchasing process --- MS Windows comes pre-installed, as did MS-DOS before it).

So, what if we switch out Apache for some other web server.

Zeus (http://www.zeustech.net/products/zeus3/), a commercial offering for Linux and other forms of UNIX, is probably the fastest in existence.

thttpd (http://www.acme.com/software/thttpd/) is probably the fastest in the "free" world. It's about as fast as the experimental kHTTPd (an implementation of a web server that runs directly in the kernel -- like the kNFSd that's available for Linux 2.2.x).

Under many conditions thttpd (and probably kHTTPd) are a few times faster than Apache. So they might beat NT + IIS by about 100 to 200 per cent. Of course, performance analysis is not that simple. If the kernel really is tied up in interrupt processing for a major portion of it's time in the Mindcraft scenario --- then the fast lightweight web server might offer only marginal improvement FOR THAT TEST.

For us back in the real world the implication is clear, however. If all you want to do is serve static pages with as little load and delay as possible --- consider using a lightweight httpd.

Also back in the real world we get back to other questions. How much does the hardware for a Mindcraft configuration cost? How much would it cost for a normal corporation to purchase/license the NT+IIS configuration that would be required for that configuration? (If I recall correctly, Microsoft still charges user licensing fees based on the desired capacity of concurrent IIS processes/threads/connections. I don't know the details, but I get the impression that you'd have to add a few grand to the $900 copy of NT server to legally support a "Mindcraft" configuration).

It's likely that a different test --- one whose objectives were stated to more closely simulate a "real world" market might give much different results.

Consider this:

Objective: Build/configure a web service out of standard commercially/freely available hardware and software components such that the total cost of the installation/deployment would be cost a typical customer less than $3000 outlay and no more than $1000 per year of recurring expenses (not counting bandwidth and ISP charges).

Participants will be free to bring any software and hardware that conforms to these requirements and to perform any tuning or optimizations they wish before and between scheduled executions of the test suite.

Results: The competing configurations will be tested with a mixture various sorts of common requests. The required responses will include static and dynamic pages which will be checked for correctness against a published baseline. Configurations generating more than X errors will be disqualified. Response times will be measured and graphed over a range of simulated loads. Any service failures will be noted on the graph where they occur. The graphs for each configuration will be computed based on the averages over Y runs through the test suite.

The graphs will be published as the final results.

The whole test could be redone for $5000 and $10000 price points to give an overview of the scalability of each configuration.

Note that this proposed benchmark idea (it's not a complete specification) doesn't generate a simple number. The graphs of the entire performance are the result. This allows the potential customer to gauge the configurations against their anticipated requirements.

How would a team of Linux/Apache and Samba enthusiasts approach this sort of contest? I'll save that question for next month.

Meanwhile, if you're enough of a glutton for my writing (an odd form of PUNishment I'll admit) and my paltry selection of answers, rants and ramblings for this month isn't enough then take a look at a couple of my "Open Letters" (http://www.starshine.org/jimd/openletters). By next month I hope that my book (Linux Systems Administration) will be off to the printers and my work at Linuxcare will have reached a level where I can do MORE ANSWER GUY QUESTIONS!

Hey answer guy!!!

From Nate Brazell on Mon, 31 May 1999

Wow!

I really didn't expect a response. And certainly not one as detailed as this!!!

Thanks Dennis.

I do have questions regarding this part:
>> mount $NEWFS /mnt/tmp (Mounting my new FS)
>> cp -pax $OLDDIR /mnt/tmp (Copying all data to /mnt/tmp)
>> umount /mnt/tmp (unmounting /mnt/tmp? Where does my data go?)

Your data stays both in $OLDDIR and on the filesystem that you had mounted on /mnt/tmp and which you'll be mounting over a new (empty) mount point which has the same name as the directory that contains the original copy of your data).

See the next couple of commands:
>> mv $OLDDIR $OLDDIR.old (Moving directories)
>> mkdir $OLDDIR (recreating directory)
>> chmod $OLD_DIR_PERMS $OLDDIR (Setting perms)
>> mount $NEWFS $OLDDIR (Mounting new FS)

Using these commands you now have two copies of your data. One copy is named .../$OLDDIR.old and the other is a new filesystem mounted on .../$OLDDIR

After you've verified, to your satisfaction, that everything is alright after your change, you can remove the old copy with 'rm -fr $OLDDIR.old'

In general there are two ways to transparently migrate data from one filesystem to another under UNIX.

The method I've describe moves the data onto a new filesystem that's mounted directly under the old location. Another method is to create a new filesystem on an arbitrary mount point (conventionally /u1, /u2, etc). and the original directory is replaced with a symlink to point to a directory under that new fs.

In either case it's possible that some differences will not be entirely transparent. In particular some files might have had hardlinks that crossed the boundary of the directory tree. Those links would now be broken (resulting in two separate files where formerly you had one file with two or more links. This is rarely a problem. However you could test for this case with a bit of scripting and editing.

Mainly you generate a report using 'find'. Use something like:

find $FSROOT -xdev -not -type d -links +1 \
	-printf "%i %p\n" | sort -n

... where $FSROOT is the root of whichever filesystem houses the directory tree that you're trying to migrate.

This prints a list of files sorted by their inodes. Any set of hard links to a given file have their device number and inode pair in common. You can then manually seach the resulting list (usually fairly short). For any even file you don't have to worry at all if all of its links, or none of its links, are under the subdirectory tree that you are moving. Probably there will be none that have this problem. For those that do, simply replace one set of the hard links with symlinks. In other words, all of the hard links that are inside the target directory tree should be converted to symlinks, or vice versa.

It's very unlikely that this will cause any problem. If you ever see a case where a UNIX or Linux program suffers from "transplant shock" I'd like to hear about it.

Where is the old data that needs to go back into the newly created $OLDDIR?

You copied it with the 'cp -pax'

Null Modems: Connecting MS-DOS to Linux as a Serial Terminal

From phax on Mon, 31 May 1999

Would the terminal program start the null modem connection or would you have to have it be connected before hand through DOS (I don't know a whole lot about DOS)? I know Linux will be looking for a terminal on ttyS0 but will a terminal emulator show up as a terminal connected on that port? Sorry to be such a nag,

Richard Mills

Linux will look for terminal connections on a line (/dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1, whatever) if it it has a "getty" process running on that port.

You set up a getty process by modifying your /etc/inittab and adding a line like:

d1:23:respawn:/sbin/agetty -L 38400,19200,9600,2400,1200 ttyS1 vt100

... where you can use agetty, uugetty, mgetty, or getty_ps (but not mingetty). The syntax and additional configuration of each of these other getty packages differs slightly. Search through old issues of the Answer Guy for more detailed explanations and examples.

[ Issues 16, 17, 18, 21, 22, and 23 mention getty, and more recently, issues 34 and 37 describe using X over serial lines. -- Heather ]

As far as the DOS side of this, you generally just have to start up your terminal emulation package and configure it for "direct" or "null-modem" use.

Upgrade Breaks Several Programs, /proc Problems, BogoMIPS Discrepancies

A visit to "Library Hell"

This refers to Upgrade breaks several programs... in Issue 42.

From Peter Caffall on Mon, 31 May 1999

Jim:

Thanks you for your detailed reply. Since I wrote, I resolved (although not yet solved) the problem. I had a free partition on my disk, which I made bootable, and installed (from scratch) the new RedHat 5.2. This came up with no real problems. Then I began moving some of the stuff from the old partition to the new. Everything works. When things settle down, and I've got everything from the old slice that I need, I will just wipe it out, and free it up.

The reference to libc.so.5.4.33 was due to a reference on another page to problems with Netscape.

Thanks again
Pete Caffall

Glad you got it working. If you have the disk space (on a second drive or extra partition) you could do a fresh installation of Red Hat 6.0 and then selectively migrate your configuration and data files from your old filesystems. It's sort of a slow laborious way to do upgrades, but it's one that works for me.

Floppy Failure: mdir Works; mount Fails

From Tim Baverstock on Fri, 25 Jun 1999

Hi.

I came across this page where someone'd asked you a question, apparently identical to something a (non-techie) friend of mine is now experiencing, except that his Linux is a vanilla RedHat 5.1 install (although with Star Office, and RedHat 5.2 Ghostscript and ppp).

He has a PCI PnP soundcard in his machine, which he's not managed to get working with W95 or with Linux, but the rest of the machine worked fine for both OSs, including the floppy.

All of a sudden, about a month ago, the floppy stopped mounting on Linux (works fine on W95).

Does writing to the floppy work under MS Windows?

I can `less -f /dev/fd0', to see the data on the floppy, and mdir/mcopy work fine.

Does 'mcopy' work in both directions (copying to the floppy as well as from it)?

The machine mounts his W95 C: drive as /mnt/dosC, and that works perfectly as well.

So we know that this kernel is compiled with FAT fs support (linked in directly or the loadable module support is working).

When I try `mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /tmp/floppy', the mount command goes into `D' wait in the `ps axf' output, as does the update demon. The floppy lights, spins, then stops, but no failure messages appear, and I can't kill the mount. Subsequent attepts to mount also block, and if I recall correctly, mcopy says it can't write to the device.

Nothing appears in /var/log/messages.

During shutdown, the umount -a line in /etc/rc.d/init.d/halt hangs too.

If you're interested in whether fiddling with the soundcard fixes the problem, I'll be happy to let you know, but since mcopy and mdir work, this seems unlikely.

Nothing's been added or removed within the machine's case, so I think the only thing that could have changed, which persists over powerdowns, is the CMOS, and hence (presumably) some aspect of PnP that W95 was fiddling around with.

I've only ever had isapnp work under RedHat 6.0, when Redhat did it all for me! For my earlier kernels, I used the cmgr patch.

Cheers,
Tim Baverstock.

What happens if you try mounting it in read-only mode?

It sure sounds like a hardware failure. I'd buy an extra floppy drive (about $20 US in most computer parts stores). I've asked questions to see if the problem is limited to the write functionality (since a careful reading of your messages seems to correlate to read-only vs. read/write access). When you mount a filesystem in rw mode under Linux --- I think the atime on the root of that filesystem will be updated (involving a write to the media). If it works when you try the 'mount -o ro' variation on the command --- that suggests that it is related to the write functions.

Found The Culprit!

From Tim Baverstock on Sun, 27 Jun 1999

Hi Jim.

Ach! Rats!

I forgot to email you the solution I discovered!

The drive wrote perfectly well under Windows, and worked without difficulty in both directions with mcopy. I should have made this clearer in my first email; my apologies for this.

The functionality of the drive, and the evident integrity of the msdos filing system module eliminated those subsystems from the problem, which was why I was so perplexed, and why I wrote to you.

The next day, I used strace on `mount' to try and find out where it hung. It hung on the actual mount() system call itself.

I noticed that the automounter was in `D' discwait on the process list during its own mount attempt, so I disabled it in the boot sequence while trying to find out what was going on (I wanted to strace the very first attempt to mount the floppydrive) but that cured the problem!

Further investigation (with strace) revealed that I'd earlier changed /etc/resolv.conf to include a domain search path while trying to set my friend up with an ISP account, and the DNS hang was causing automount to hang while trying to finagle those strange pseudo-NFS mounts of the local host it does (by the host's internet name, not as `localhost') for the floppy drive!

I fixed resolv.conf, and the problem went away, although I've left AMD disabled, because autofs does the same job, and was installed alongside it on RedHat; and because one day I'll get my friend's ISP working on Linux as well as Windows. I don't want this to repeat.

Many thanks for your response, and my apologies once more for not writing sooner,

Tim Baverstock.

Incompetance in Parenting

From Bernard Hahn on Fri, 25 Jun 1999

Hello my name is Bernie.

I have a 16 year old son that is heading for big trouble on the net while I am at work. I can not be in both places at the some time to keep an eye on him. Do you know if there are any programs that will run in Windows 98 that can copy the key board buffer to a file that would let me read in a text format. I would like the program to run at boot up and be able to copy the buffer all day long. I believe reading his keyboard buffer may be of some help to me.

Please help, thank you for any help you my have to offer,
Bernie in Los Angeles

First, I'm NOT the "I want to spy on my children's use of MS Windows" Guy! I'm the Linux Gazette Answer Guy.

Of course, if you used Linux it would be pretty easy to secure the system so that the Internet and the modem were inaccessible during specific times of day or until specific passwords had been typed. It would even be possible to configure filtering and access control (to monitor and limit web access). You'd probably need to invest in some cabinetry (physically securing a PC generally involves carpentry).

Your question has nothing to do with Linux.

More importantly your problem is much larger than any software can solve. No software in the world could possibly make your son more trustworthy. You cannot keep your kid out of "big trouble on the net" by spying on his keystrokes.

If the muddled thinking that leads you to the fundamentally flawed (and morally corrupt) notion that you should covertly spy on your own teenage child using such software is typical of your approach to parenting then its probably too late for Bernie Jr.

I don't know what kind of "big trouble" you're trying to protect the kid from. If it's porn, keep in mind that porn sites are generally accessed through a GUI browser --- which are conveniently configured for one-handed operation (point and shoot, so to speak). If you're afraid that the kid is "cracking" (sometimes erroneously referred to as "hacking") and/or phreaking than any attempts you make to lock him out of your Windows '98 PC will just be too pathetic. If you do successfully find out that he's been vising 'badboys.net' what do you plan to do? Confront him with your printouts? Ground him until he's 35?

So what do you think the kid will do when he knows he's been caught out? Will it be an contest: your computer skills and time against his? Can he detect and bypass your futre methods better than you can implement them? Will he go use some buddy's computer? Will he skip the virtual trouble of the 'net and go out to get into trouble of a more dangerous variety? What will it do for the kid's opinion of you that you don't have the balls to talk to him directly and that you have to resort sneaking around on him?

The whole think is disgusting.

If you can't trust the kid with the computer by himself --- lock the computer is some room when you're not home or get rid of it.

Try Linux ... and Grammar

From firefly on Mon, 14 Jun 1999

hi dont know if you can help me so ill run my problem by ya!

i just bought a8.4gig samsung drv i put it in as a slave and used partition magic to partition it 4k clusters......2gig/5gigand 1.4gig rebooted and installed win 95b

when itryed to use files form the hdd thsy had errors so i thought though ill format the drv and start again..... i removed all partitions and rebooted with a boot disk95ver and it started to format when it got too 27% it started saying. TRYING TO RECOVER FILE ALLOCATION UNITS now scandisk says ive got bad clusters...could you tell me whats happening here?

thanks g.lishman

Sounds like a bad drive, bad cable, or bad controller (not to mention a bad keyboard actuator).

It could be some incompatibility between the slave and master (some IDE drives cannot co-exist in some combinations on an IDE channel). Try running it on the other IDE channel that you'll find in most recent PCs. (Configure the new drive as standalone or as the master to your IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM if you have one on that channel). Make sure to try a fresh drive cable.

You might also try using some punctuation and capitalization in your messages. This is not IRC. When you ask volunteers (such as me) to provide the technical support that your vendor was supposed to have sold you, the least you can do is spend a little extra time on your message. It's best if you can give the impression that you've done a bit of research and made some attempt to find the answer on your own.

Naturally you could also try installing Linux on this drive. Linux has a neat utility called 'badblocks' which can be used by itself and which is called by our filesystem creation and filesystem check utilities (mke2fs and e2fsck among others). After all, I'm the LINUX GAZETTE "Answer Guy" not the "my Samsung IDE hard drive doesn't work with Microsoft Windows '95 rev B answer guy."

Out of Space....or Inodes? All Sparsity Lost?

From Derek Wyatt on Fri, 11 Jun 1999

Hi James,

I know this question has been asked before (i'v read the 'stuff' in the previous columns) but this one has an interesting wrinkle which i can't answer. I hope you can

I was copying a new slackware 4.0 installation from one disk to another. Incidently, i used two methods, using tar and find | afio, etc... It was the right way. I've done it many many many times before.

You might not have preserved allocation "holes" (the "sparsity") of the files as you transferred them.

When a program opens a file in write mode and does a seek() or lseek() to some point that is more than a block past the end of the file, the Linux native filesystems (ext2, minix, etc) will leave the unnecessary blocks unallocated. This is possible in inode based filesystems (not in FAT/MS-DOS formatted filesystems).

These filesystems treat reads into such unallocated regions of a file as blocks of NULs (ASCII zero characters).

So, you use normal read and write commands in sequence (like 'cp' and 'cat' to to copy files) then you'll expand any such "holes" in the allocation map (the inode's list of clusters) into blocks of NULs and the file will take more space than it used to.

One possibility is that you used to have such "sparse" files and that your method of copying them failed to preserve those "holes." You could use the GNU 'cp --sparse=always' option to restore the "holes" in selected files (or create new ones wherever there are blocks of NULs in the data).

Most files are not sparse --- in fact there are only a couple of old dbm style libraries that used to create them in normal system use (the sendmail newaliases command used to be a prime example).

I don't think this accounts for your whole problem (i.e. it's not wholly a "holey" problem).

Now, the problem is this: after the copy