Visit Our Sponsors:		Table of Contents: The MailBag News Bytes Distro News News in General Software Announcements The Answer Gang , by The Linux Gazette Answer Gang More 2-Cent Tips HelpDex , by Shane Collinge ssh suite: sftp, scp and ssh-agent , by Matteo Dell'Omodarme Kaptain - A Dialog Creator , by Paul Evans Mean Thoughts on the Linux Router Project , by Mark Fevola The GNU GRUB Boot Loader , by Jaswinder Singh Kohli Displaying CVS Version Control Numbers in Webpages , by Mark Nielsen Learning Perl, part 2 , by Ben Okopnik Setting Up an International Keyboard with Xmodmap , by Juraj Sipos The Back Page About This Month's Authors Not Linux

Linux Gazette Staff and The Answer Gang

Editor: Michael Orr
Technical Editor: Heather Stern
Senior Contributing Editor: Jim Dennis
Contributing Editors: Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Don Marti

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Linux Gazette, http://www.linuxgazette.com/ This page maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com Copyright © 1996-2001 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.

Send tech-support questions, answers and article ideas to The Answer Gang <linux-questions-only@ssc.com>. Other mail (including questions or comments about the Gazette itself) should go to <gazette@ssc.com>. All material sent to either of these addresses will be considered for publication in the next issue. Please send answers to the original querent too, so that s/he can get the answer without waiting for the next issue.

Unanswered questions might appear here. Questions with answers--or answers only--appear in The Answer Gang, 2-Cent Tips, or here, depending on their content. There is no guarantee that questions will ever be answered, especially if not related to Linux.

Before asking a question, please check the Linux Gazette FAQ to see if it has been answered there.

• Email and News Access for Linux from a Server requireing NTCR authorization?
• telecommunication in a hospital
• Q: Initialising secondary video card under XFree86 4.0
• Linux PPP route question
• Linux-based companies

Email and News Access for Linux from a Server requireing NTCR authorization?

Hi,

I have a problem trying to setup Linux to access the servers at the University of Phoenix. The servers (Microsoft IIS) require a "log on using Secure Password Authentication" under Microsoft Outlook Express. I understand that this requires a email and news reader to authenticate using the WindowsNT Challenge/Response (NTCR) protocol [a really bad use of the http protocol]. The school does have a website to get to the email and news groups but it is timed and is very particular and seems to like rejecting Netscape Navigator access. The UOP Tech group's pat answer is that they only support Outlook Express under Windows, I want a Linux answer.

Is there any program or daemon that I could run to allow me to authenticate using this protocol so I could use Linux based email and news readers? I have tried using pine, staroffice, and leafnode and several others which are common under KDE/RedHat 6.2.

Thanks,
K. Woodward

telecommunication in a hospital

Dear LG readers

I am a doctor working in a hospital in Sri Lanka. I am thinking of connecting several computers in the hospital eg: one in the ward with the operating theatre, the pathology laboratory etc. The cheapest wasy would be via an internal modem and the use of the intercom telephones which work via the telephone exchange in the hospital. Is there a way of email/ file transfer which would allow say the doctor in the ward to download the results from the biochemistry department? I have read about C-kermit and UUCP but they are too confucing for us mere doctors. I have used RedHat Linux, but am hoping to use Corel Linux and Star Office in the hospital as they are more user friendly. Is there a simple, preferably GUI based communication tool which can do the above? Can StarOffice do it? If one can see the other desktop and click and download the file or email say with "ward 29 results on 26 January 2001" after connecting up - that is a dream come true!

Dr Nandalal Gunaratne

Q: Initialising secondary video card under XFree86 4.0

Hi there

I have two graphics cards in my machine:

1:0:0 AGP 3DFX Voodoo3 2000 16Mb 2:0:0 PCI 3DFX Voodoo3 2000 16Mb

I am running XFree 4.0 under kernel 2.2.17 with SuSE 7.0

The problem is that I cannot get X to run on the second graphics card, either in multihead or regular mode. My BIOS allows me to specify which card is initialised as primary (the PCI or AGP card) and, depending on which one I select, X will only run on that card. It runs perfectly on each respective card when it is primary. I am trying to do multihead, but I can't get the secondary card to work either way. It does initialise (ie the monitor receives a signal) when I try to start X on the secondary card, but the screen remains blank. I am forced to do a cold reboot and watch fsck go through its motions every time.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Mark Tigwell

Linux PPP route question

The following is a message I posted last night on redhat.networking.general, I thought I'd send it to you guys as well since you always seem to be able to provide good answers...

I'm trying to set up a demand-dialed PPP link to my employer's LAN. I've got it mostly working, except for one thing. I'd like to be able to just do 'ifup ppp0' (or have it done at boot) and then be able to bring up the link on demand. The problem is, I need to 'route add -net 172.18.0.0/16 ppp0' so that traffic from my machine to and address on the work LAN brings up the link (DNS is not an issue, I'll be accessing the machines by numeric IP address). The route command has to be done after pppd has started and the ppp0 interface exists, but before the link is actually dialed. None of the 'ipup-post' processing helps me, because it doesn't get executed until after the link is dialed. It's sort of a chicken-and-egg problem, eh? If I do the ifup and then the route commands manually, everything works beautifully. I just need a way to automate it better.

Also, it would be nice to be able to make a few mods to my ipchains ruleset when the ppp0 interface comes up, but that's easier to work around because I can set an ipchains rule for an interface which isn't up yet.

If anyone has a nice elegant solution to this, please let me know. By elegant I mean better than throwing the route command in rc.local - that's going to cause problems if I ifdown and later ifup the interface, because it won't get executed again.

Incidentally, this is on RedHat 7.0 with all the latest updates (except kernel 2.2.17 - haven't gotten around to that yet). In addition to the ppp0 I have eth0 (home LAN) and eth1 (cablemodem internet, and the reason that pppd's 'defaultroute' option doesn't help me either).

Thanks,
Brian Smith

Linux-based companies

Hi.

I have been paying attention to your magazine and web site quite a bit in the past couple of months and have learned from and enjoyed the information. If you ever want to publish an article on companies that are running successfully on open-source and/or Linux we would embrace the opporuntity to be featured. We are a custom software development company who run all Linux work stations (including Marketing/Sales, Operations, Programmers, Art, Human Resources, etc). We are also dependent on Linux for our servers, network, etc. We have even gone as far as developing apps internally that have proven to be very useful.

Have you thought of doing a monthly profile (like a quarter page column) on companies that run mostly or all Linux products? You could just build a Q&A and companies could fill in the blanks. i.e. "What desktop programs do you use?" (or) "What are the biggest benefits/problems you've encountered?" -- Just an idea.

I look forward to hearing from you. Keep up the great work.

Regards,
Trent M. Carlyle

• cocky arent we?
• Reference to Progeny
• Classified Disk - Low-level Format
• Alternative to "software released on the basis..."
• Good Atomic Clock Source (Cheap Hardware)
• geforce card
• Fw: Booting Problem after compiling kernel 2.4.0
• Re Spf for Linux
• Thank you
• Comment
• RH 7.0 update problems
• symlink

cocky arent we?

i just came across your website and was looking up bad clusters also.i've seen some of your replies to theses people and you seem pretty cocky. you sound like a total dick, like you dont have the time to just be nice and say geesh im sorry but you have to look elsewhere.

You've reached an entire group of people. It used to be one, renowned as an expert in Linux, and I know it will sound weird, but the "chip on the shoulder" you're complaining about is how he gained the renown.

It's our practice to be cocky and to give people useful answers, if they ask questions which aren't too vague. Often they need to know WHERE elsewhere, just "go away" would in fact, be rude.

The "Answer Gang" column has become a tradition in our magazine and we have written many times in the past about why we maintain the style. If you want either politically correct "cleaned up" speeches or formal listings of questions and answers, go to formal and commercial entities, or go look in the Linux Documentation Project HOWTOs (http://www.linuxdoc.org). But if you want to stomp into the nearest Techy Bar and see if the alpha geek has a real answer for your question, you've come to the right Answer Gang.

is it their fault that they use a search engine that brings up your webpage and hoping for help ---they get you (unfortunatly).

This project is part of the Linux Documentation Project as well, and translated into many languages. Therefore yes, it will be found in a lot of search engines. This isn't a bug -- it's a feature!

Maybe these people you are talking who are "hoping for help" will either

1. use the Linux Gazette specific search engine at
   http://www.linuxgazette.com//search.html
    
   (pretty easy to get to really, just hit "search" off our home page) ...and look at all the other past articles in there (not all by the same fellow, either).
    
   or
    
2. Actually ask us a Linux question we can answer! You didn't!

LG is all volunteer work, though. If you think that's unfortunate that we hand out freebie answers with a little roughhousing in them -- your loss, dude, get a new 'tude...

dude...lighten up a bit will ya? it happens....
Lee

Let us know when you have a Linux question, Lee, maybe we'll be able to help. Meanwhile, have a nice day

-- Heather Stern

Reference to Progeny

In the latest issue of The Linux Gazette, the following appeared:

[Heather] Well, then, keep an eye on the Progeny project - Ian Murdoch himself and a handful of trusted friends, are working on putting together a new debian based distro which is really aimed at desktop users >more than the server and hardcore-linuxer crowd, yet is aware of the "standard" debian project enough to >allow a smooth transition.

[Bruce Byfield, Director of Marketing and Communications, Progeny Linux Systems]
I wanted to mention that appearances are deceiving. In many ways, Progeny Debian has taken on an unexpected life of its own, with many features for the desktop market. However, that's only what everyone is seeing right now.

In the long term, Progeny Debian is the foundation for Progeny's Linux NOW (Network of Workstations) project, and therefore aimed squarely at the server market.

Not that I'm complaining, you understand. Any coverage is good coverage, and all that. However, because Progeny Debian is the first Progeny project that will released, people are getting a distorted view of what the company is about, and we don't want anyone to feel that Progeny is misrepresenting itself.

So the "Linux NOW" will be a clustering project, while the present "Progeny Debian" is the side effect of work on a good installer system for the project overall? (just want to make sure that when I'm updating my view of it, I'm getting it right this time.)

Yes, you're basically right. That's not to say that desktop refinements won't be added, but Progeny plans to be more of a provider of services than a seller of software.

However, maybe I should add that, in the strictest sense, Linux NOW isn't a clustering project. Although it could loosely be called that, Progeny is avoiding the term to prevent misunderstandings (to say nothing of criticisms). Instead, it's being called a network of workstations or a networking computer solution. I suspect, though, that it would be a welcome edition to a clustering solution.

Thank you very much for correcting us in this regard. I do like what I am seeing and I suspect that when you roll out the big guns on the server issues that a lot of netadmins will also be very happy with it. -- Heather

Thank you!

[Mike] Bruce, our last announcement about Progeny was http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue57/lg_bytes57.html (search for "Progeny"). If you have any more material to add, send it to LG.

Classified Disk - Low-level Format

Classified Disk - Low-level Format

Add my comment,

I was so impressed with that one line command at writing 7 times to the hard drive, I included it in my article (though I only discovered it after it got submitted to LG). I left it as an option for someone to uncomment the command.

http://www.gnujobs.com/Articles/14/Wipe_It.html

Mark

Alternative to "software released on the basis..."

Heather,

In your answer in the latest Linux Gazette to the question concerning the HSP (et al) modems, you requested a new word/name: (Can someome out there please spin up a new buzzword for "software released on the basis that you get no tech support" so we can go back to using "unsupported" for meaning "doesn't work" ?)

I have two suggestions: On-your-own-ware or noware

Dave Forcey

Good Atomic Clock Source (Cheap Hardware)

Check out http://www.parallaxinc.com, they make microcontrollers and hobby kits for electronics. They offer a radio to serial device that receives atomic clock broadcasted updates via radio waves, and outputs data to the a serial port. It can also be polled.

Ross K. Jacobs

geforce card

Hi.
Nvidia has released drivers for geforce 2 cards with opengl support. Visit his web. http://www.nvidia.com . I read on the documentation of that drivers that Xfree 4.0.2 has support for this card. I have a tnt2,the same drivers for geforce cards, working perfectly with nvidia drivers on a redhat 6.1 with Xfree 4.0.1. There is a mini howto called Nvidia-OpenGL howto that covers this stuff very well , I would recommend you to download it

Later,
Jorge

Fw: Booting Problem after compiling kernel 2.4.0

Hello,

What do I do ??

[Heather] Well, the startx text results from booting it under the other kernel, may give you an idea of some features to actually declare in your XF86Config file.

Look especially at the things that start with two dashes since those are things it decides on its own. If you succeed at declaring these in your config, the server should boot up the same way on 2.2.16 but the same features will change to being marked with two stars. Then you can try it under the new kernel and see if it straightens up and flies right.

I note that you may have a particularly old i810 server anyway, since XFCOM are the Xfree Compatible series, and according to http://www.xfree86.org the i810 is among their source tree. Defaulting to not building it, but it's in there So a smarter i810 server for 3.3.6 might be available from your distro vendor's updates area.

Xfree86 4 is reported to work with the i810's as well. The readme for its 810 support mentions that the Tyan Tomcat and some settop box (HappyPC) also work. That server includes the ability to declare a few features (such as the DAC) if they get misdetected or just missed. Switching from X 3.3.x to X 4 has been very happy for some, tweaky for others, so I have to leave that possibility up to you.

I figured out that I have to do some serious reading ( the kernel docs and the XFree86 docs , etc.) and then I will be more prepared to try out the tweakings you mentioned above ( specially the first suggestion ). Good thing I will learn a lot that way.

Last but not the least , I must say a big Thanks to You for carrying on the 'conversation' . I learnt a lot from you, specially how to go to the heart of the problem. Thanks again.

Here I dive into the Docs . . . .

Bye!

Regards,
Santanu Chatterjee

Re Spf for Linux

Hi Heather,

Just to let you know that Uneclipse Software Systems has released an SPF Editor for just $69.95 - http://www.uneclipse.com

Mike

Thank you

Thank you for your site. I found what I needed, very easily, and quickly about my Linksys Ether16 LAN Card. The Linksys web site was useless in comparison.

Regards,
Gerard Berthet

Comment

More AOL Instant Messenger Spying

From Jon Sandler on Mon, 11 Oct 1999

it is very important to me as well that i spy on other people's instant messages - seeing messages from both the sender and the reciever. your help would be greatly appreciated. and im not too in tune with the technical stuff, so a simple way would be good. thank you very much.

You are also "not too in tune" with ethics. You're also not too bright, and you're lazy (since I'm sure you know something about the basics of capitalization, et al).

U R my hero!!! THIS GUY NEEDS A LIFE. Good work. Sam

RH 7.0 update problems

Thank you for your quick response to my upgrade problems. After my two experiences with upgrades, your suggestion fills the bill on that situation. Don't upgrade, do a new installation. Especially with the hard drive resources and partitioning program available to work with.

Using Partition Magic for Linux, I created a fresh 10GB hard drive with anly unallocated space on it and used PM to copy the 6.1 installation to it and now have a 7.0 updrade on my other disk. Just as soon as I am happy with RH 7.0. I will run a complete new install on the 10gig disk.

The reason for the big disk was to allow me to experiment with different distributions and new kernels.

Your opinion is well valued and my experience bears out what you suggested.

Many thanks to you and the Answer Gang and the many hours of enjoyable reading and learning gained from the Linux Gazzette each month. It's nice to have people like you willing to share your knowledge and experience with us.

<Smile> Glad I could help, Bob. As far as I'm concerned, a well-documented story of things going wrong can be quite valuable; it may save someone else the trouble of trying the same route. Thanks for writing.

-- Ben Okopnik

symlink

Why the big fuss ?? I downloaded the 2.4 kernel untarred it in /usr/src symlinked it to linux configured and compiled it & have been using it for some time with no apparent problems. I use SuSE 7.0 pro on a 433celeron. Must admit I have not tried it on my other machine (a 233 cyrix)with redhat caldera,windows & turbolinux installed.(My apologies I did upgrade modutils and several other utilities first) Cheers

les

I finally came up with a much clearer way of expressing it, as a thread on a similar vein came through the debian-laptops mailing list:

According to the fellow who berated The Answer Gang about this (suggesting NOT moving around the include link -- Thanks Michal!) ... as passed through my tiny little "not a kernel hacker" brain ... the idea is that glibc has a certain set of the headers which it sort of generically expects to use when compiling userland apps.

Whereas the one inside the real linux sources is desperately needed to be from the kernel sources, when compiling the kernel itself. (Duh )

The problem we keep running into is with apps that "cross the blood/brain barrier" ... pcmcia as a prime example ... it probably would greatly prefer the "real" includes. But, you can't just move them -- most userland apps prefer the fakes! Er... older versions. The versions that were there when glibc was itself built. They're not at all fake.

Worse, when we start hopping entire kernel versions, or if you are someone who is developing kernel modules yourself. Newer versions have a link in /lib/modules called 'build' that says where it got its sources from, so that something smart can be done, however, I have no idea if gcc does The Right Thing with that yet.

Until then, in the debian distribution at least, /usr/include/linux contains its own copy of headers for userland compiles. Their docs for the libc6 package explain clearly to use:

gcc -I/usr/src/linux-X.Y.Z/include ...

...if you really need the headers from a specific kernel.

All this doesn't really help a poor user decide, but I hope it makes a lot more sense to you folks now.

Anyone who works in this magic at a deeper level is certainly welcome to chime in and improve our view of Linux physics. Send that techy stuff to linux-questions-only@ssc.com so the whole Gang can see it.

-- Heather

• Re: Earthquake - SSC is fine.

Re: Earthquake - SSC is fine.

The SSC people in Seattle survive, just a few broken windows.

This page edited and maintained by the Editors of Linux Gazette Copyright © 2001
Published in issue 64 of Linux Gazette March 2001

HTML script maintained by Heather Stern of Starshine Technical Services, http://www.starshine.org/

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

Contents: Distro News News in General Software Announcements

Selected and formatted by Michael Conry

Submitters, send your News Bytes items in PLAIN TEXT format. Other formats may be rejected without reading. You have been warned! A one- or two-paragraph summary plus URL gets you a better announcement than an entire press release.

March/April 2001 Embedded Linux Journal

The March/April issue of SSC's newest publication, Embedded Linux Journal, will hit the streets March 2nd. ELJ focuses on the use of Linux and other open-source software to increase efficiency, economy and stability in embedded design and development.

Free subscriptions are available to qualified individuals in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Paid subscriptions to other countries are also available. Visit the ELJ web site at http://embedded.linuxjournal.com to subscribe, read articles on-line and post your comments.

March 2001 Linux Journal

The March issue of Linux Journal is on newsstands now. This issue focuses on Consulting. Click here to view the table of contents, or here to subscribe.

All articles through December 1999 are available for public reading at http://www.linuxjournal.com/lj-issues/mags.html. Recent articles are available on-line for subscribers only at http://interactive.linuxjournal.com/.

SuSE

SuSE Linux has announced the availability of SuSE Linux 7.1, with the newly released Kernel 2.4, in both Personal and Professional editions. SuSE will continue shipping the reliable 2.2 series kernels parallel to Kernel 2.4. For more information, please visit SuSE's product web page.

The Duke of URL has recently posted a review of the very recently superceded SuSE Linux Professional 7.0. It will certainly give you a feel for the spirit of SuSE's distribution, although of course there will be some extra features/updates in 7.1.

SuSE Linux and IBM Global Services have signed a worldwide technical support agreement, covering various platforms, including IBM eServers. IBM Global Services will use SuSE's expertise to help address customers' technical Linux concerns. Since the announcement of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server for zSeries (formerly S/390) in October, SuSE is the only company delivering a worldwide Linux distribution for IBM xSeries, pSeries and zSeries eServers. At this time, SuSE supports more IBM server platforms than any other commercially available Linux distribution.

SuSE Linux has also announced the new SuSE Linux Knowledge Portal. The service can be accessed and searched on the Web at SuSE's German, UK and US web-sites. Topics covered are wide-ranging, and the site is aimed at both Linux desktop newcomers and experienced system administrators. Much of the information is not distro-specific.

Upcoming conferences and events

Steeleye and Linux Networx Partnership

SteelEye Technology, Inc. have announced an OEM agreement with Linux NetworX, Inc.. Linux NetworX will offer SteelEye's LifeKeeper for Linux platform in the solutions it provides to eBusiness customers. The agreement also includes co-marketing and joint technical support activities. SteelEye's LifeKeeper monitors system and application health to maintain client accessibility and provide uninterrupted data access. LifeKeeper automatically restores application services by either restarting them locally or relocating them to another server in the cluster.

AMD Showcases First VirtuHammer Simulator

AMD announced at LinuxWorld events in New York and Paris the first public demonstration of "VirtuHammer," the tool developed by AMD and Virtutech to allow software developers to write and test 64-bit programs for AMD's next-generation "Hammer" family of processors. AMD, along with SuSE have reported significant progress in the Open Source community's efforts to port Linux to AMD's x86-64 technology. The x86-64 technology extends the x86 instruction set to enable 64-bit computing and is the backbone behind AMD's planned 64-bit processor family, code-named "Hammer." AMD's "Hammer" family is planned for commercial introduction in the first half of 2002. For additional information on the x86-64 instruction set, visit http://www.x86-64.org

LUGFEST IV

The Simi-Conejo Linux Users Group will be holding LUGFest IV on April 21st and 22nd, 2001, in Simi Valley, California. The LUGFest is intended to be an opportunity for Linux users to demo Linux (or other Open Source operating systems), Linux applications, attend seminars, and BOF (Birds Of a Feather) sessions. Additionally, Linux vendors may participate and show off their wares. For more info, to register for LFIV, or to volunteer to do a demo, contact gareth@wiked.org, or visit the LUGFest web-site.

CLIQ 2001 Conference and Exhibit

Colorado Linux Info Quest - CLIQ have announced sponsorship from Hewlett Packard, XFree86 and GNOME (among others) for CLIQ2001 (March 30th). Daryll Strauss (VA Linux, XFree86) and Havoc Pennington (Red Hat, GTK+ and GNOME) have agreed to speak at the event which will take place March 29th-30th at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. All scheduled talks and the exhibit floor are scheduled for the 30th, with early registration and a few smaller informal events expected on the 29th.

Linux Links

The Duke of URL has some links which may appeal to you:

• A review of Connectiva Linux 6.0, featuring the new APT mechanism for RPM (to take care of dependencies), kernel 2.2.17, XFree86 4.0.1
• A look at Unreal Tournament, GotY edition for (among others) Linux.
• The Linux Buyer's Guide #8 with a focus on working with Kernel 2.4.1 and XFree86 4.0.2. Systems are studied at 4 price points.
• OpenBSD 2.8 is reviewed.
• Plus, a review of a selection of technical books that may be of interest.

• An article looking at the latest Bind Vulnerabilities. Probably serious if you are affected since there is a known exploit (though perhaps not in the wild, YET). You have been warned! Also check-out the Security Focus article on the subject.
• On a lighter note, there is the story on an assembler coded in Bash.
• And the duelling hackers story of the DirecTV hacker game.

Three articles on The Register which may be of interest:

• A report on the change of ownership of Egroups to Yahoo, and the new terms/conditions being imposed.
• The news that Microsoft have partially outsourced their DNS servers to a firm (Akami) that appears to be using Linux for the job. I suppose all companies get things right from time to time!
• And, information on the new LinuxDisk software developed by Peter Braam. The driver allows a Linux system running commodity hardware to appear to the network as a storage device, much like a low-end SAN.

Userlocal.com offer a site focusing mostly on Slackware Linux, though much of the information is useful for all Linux users.

OSOpinion take a look at MS .net and Linux: whether Microsoft will have Corel port .NET to Linux, and how the possible antitrust split of MS may affect this. The hurried sale of the shares reported by Linux Today and discussed on Slashdot, just makes the story more fascinating. One to watch.

Rainer Gerhards has written an article on integrating Windows NT into a Unix syslog based management system (having Windows reporting to Unix via Syslog).

Linux Today have an overview of Berlin (a possible future alternative to X). You can get a bit more info from TAG in our very own LG issue 61 here.

IBM Personalization Software for Linux Announced

IBM have announced that the latest version of its WebSphere Personalization software now supports Linux. This software enables businesses to focus their websites more precisely at their individual users through "personalization", and then to optimise this process through analysis of activity. For more information on Websphere and Personalization and IBM/Linux follow the links.

Partnership to create Comprehensive Motif GUI Solution on Linux for Enterprises

Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc. and Sitraka Software are entering into a partnership focusing on their BX PRO and XRT PDS Motif development products. ICS has developed a kit that allows integration of Sitraka's XRT PDS with their own BX PRO product, and have now arranged a Reseller agreement with Sitraka for XRT PDS. With this agreement, ICS can now claim to offer the largest selection of Motif development tools on UNIX and Linux systems. This solution is shipping on various platforms, including Linux (Intel).

2netFX and Linux NetworX to Offer Streaming Server Solution

The solution integrates the 2netFX ThunderCast Server and StreamRider Client Player software with Linux NetworX Evolicity clusters. The StreamRider client will be offered on the Linux NetworX Evolocity 1240s. Four independent CPUs will share the Web serving workload through a software-level load balancer. If one compute module should fail, the others continue providing services, providing maximum system uptime. Clustering technology offers advantages in redundancy and scalability.

Dell Linux Initiatives

VMware and the NSA Team to Build Advanced Secure Computer Systems

Arkeia Enterprise Backup Software Included in SuSE eMail Server II

Knox Software have informed us that the Free Version of their flagship product, Arkeia, is included into SuSE's 2nd Generation eMail Server II. The SuSE eMail Server II is an Open Source solution which administrates mail on a central server, and is in accordance with the IMAP standard. Arkeia 4.2 provides incremental and full backups, scheduled or on demand, and preserves directory structure, registry, symbolic links and special attributes.

Copyright © 2001, Michael Conry and the Editors of Linux Gazette.
Copying license http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html
Published in Issue 64 of Linux Gazette, March 2001

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

Contents:

¶: Greetings From Heather Stern

A Question About Answering Questions

Interrupt for Linux

Please help I am at wits end

Training?

Finding a tutor --or--

Looking for a Tutor

netscape bash function

More help with Linux Multimedia

Hope you can help! --or--

Readline Features in the Bash 'read' built-in

Moving System to another device --or--

Duping a Drive Under Linux

Fortran Compiler

Modules cannot load with kernel recompile

Installing Apps --or--

The "Now what" Experience: Using Apps After They're Installed

ISP and Internet.

virtual e-mail domain --or--

Virtual E-mail and POP Services with a Webmail Chaser

Question --or--

LILO: Password Protected Entries

Question in shell programming

qmail pain

Regarding backups

uninstall linux

Greetings from Heather Stern

There are folks out there who wonder about us open sorcerors :) Sometimes, they are ecstatic, and amazed: "How can you do all this for no pay?"

Others are not so nice: "well what do you expect for free. Humph."

The fact is that the programmers and documenters and we here of The Answer Gang who serve as some tech support for free software *do* get paid, and we tend to give a bit of effort in relation to our pay. What our detractors don't understand is that their gripes and grumps sure don't pay us, so why should we help *them*? They need to learn about...

The Coin of The Realm

The realm itself is the first thing that is confusing. This is the weekend neighborhood. The crunching of unbzipped tarballs hitting the disk and the tippity tap of new code being typed in and committed to builds is our buzzing of power saws in the garage workshop. The chore of making the documentation begin to describe the program it came with is handled with the same care as mowing the lawn on Sunday - some households are dutiful, sometimes a neighbor's kid will be helpful but only do a half job, some homes obviously hire someone to deal with it regularly, some tea gardens are clearly a well loved art... err, some just give up on having a lawn. It all got turned into workshop space. Sigh.

If it took extra help from the neighbors, we do things for each other. There's give and take, arguments here and there, and often an occasional lost hedge clipper. Sometimes a kindred spirit strolls through, helps a bit (or hinders?) and moves on. The debts that build up here from these little bits of lost balance aren't about money. "Pay back the net" is what I've seen said - once upon a time on BBS' and later on newsgroups and mailing lists and IRC channels. (Check out www.openprojects.net if you don't believe me. IRC doesn't have to be just for idle chatter. And tell lilo that the Editor Gal says Hi.) The loose change of knowledge gathered in your pockets - including the knowledge gained by mistakes - isn't considered worth much if you don't spill it back into circulation.

Like those weekend projects, our projects also vary in their degrees of completeness... and in their likelihood of ever being "done" in their author's eye. "Scratch your own itch" is a phrase I've heard a few times lately. If the neighborhood handyman has a problem to solve and the tools in his workshop, he'll likely solve it right there and never know a better answer was available at the corner store. (Or do it because the corner store wants an arm and a leg for what he could do himself.) For many it's done enough when it works for them, but they post it to public forums anyway.

Why? For many, what fun's a job well done if you can't show it off? Call it "bragging rights" or "a chip on his shoulder" or respect. We like to know whether the trophy we've posted could stand a better polishing or stood just fine on its own. Telling us it just rots isn't cool. Telling us what you tried to do (that didn't work) and what convinced you our stuff was going to work for you, that's what we want to know. And yes, an occasional housewife really might be good enough to go into the jam and spreads business, but it'll take a few neighbors saying so to convince her of it.

Okay, sometimes you find someone whose days in the garage are through. Rare is the time that he or she won't at least lend a hand briefly to someone who's willing to haul that old rattletrap to their own garage and keep plugging away at it. If you have in mind to take up the ropes to a dust covered project, give a shot at letting the old hands know you're interested. You'll never know what extra parts they might bring forward for you if you don't ask.

My editing peeve of the month is "confidential" signature blocks. If you don't want to discuss your problems publicly we understand, but, you're not paying in the coin of our realm if we can't share the results, so don't expect an answer here (unless by chance someone else asks the same question). Check the Consultants-HOWTO instead and find someone who will take your money and sell you their services in a timely fashion, too:

Money isn't bad - but it is the coin of another realm, that strange one called Real Life that keeps roofs over our heads and the bandwidth bills paid up. I'm glad to say that I see a lot of *our* sort of coin change hands here in the *Gazette* regularly. Thanks to everyone who sends thank you notes and especially those Two Cent Tips!

Enjoy your stroll past our garage sales and half tended lawns

[The automobile images are from John Fisk's Weekend Mechanic column which appeared in 1997 and 1998 in LG. -Mike.]

A Question About Answering Questions

From Chris Gianakopoulos

Answered By Mike Orr, Heather Stern, Dan Wilder

Where do these questions come from. Is there a central location from which all of you retrieve these questions (a repository of some sort),

[Heather] I have to warn you that the volume is pretty high, but if you'd like to take a look at some of the stuff that came in the past month or two and are not yet answered let me know, and I can forward you a reduced mbox. Same offer is open to my fellow AnswerGuys.

or when questions are sent to linux-questions-only@ssc.com, does the message automatically get forwarded to the members of the Answer Gang?

[Mike] linux-questions-only@ssc.com is a mailing list. The subscribers are people who want to answer questions. The public sends in a question...

[Dan] Anybody in the world can post (which causes a certain amount of spam to clear the spam-filter), and postings are forwarded to all subscribers.

[Mike] ... all the TAG members see it. Anybody who feels herself/himself qualified will send an answer, both to TAG and to the querent. We try to include TAG and the querent on any follow-ups to the answer; e.g., if another TAG member wants to contradict it or add additional information.

At the end of the month, Heather sorts the questions and answers, selects threads to publish, and distributes them to the Mailbag, 2-Cent Tips and The Answer Gang columns.

Anybody is welcome to subscribe to TAG and offer answers. Send mail to tag-request@ssc.com with "subscribe" in the message body.

[Dan] the list admin may have to approve your subscription, and in any case the list server will send you a cookie in the mail with instructions for its return.

When the listserver gets your return mail (and maybe after the list admin approves your request), you're on.

List members are asked to copy list responses to the original poster.

[Heather] Which, thanks to the reply-to being forced to linux-questions-only@ssc.com so the querent won't accidentally take the whole thread private, is something you do have to pay attention to.

[Mike] There is also an "inner circle" of TAG volunteers who have a greater commitment to keeping TAG functioning and also offer other technical advice to the Gazette. These people are listed on the LG home page.

When I once asked a friend how I could ever pay him back for some side jobs that he gave (software stuff), he told me "Don't pay back -- pay ahead". So I am just attempting to pay ahead the gift of knowledge that all of those fine authors of textbooks, Linux Gazettes, and other stuff have given me.

[Mike] "Pay ahead" is exactly right, and I've never heard it expressed that way before--thank you. We all volunteer what we know so that somebody will help us when we need it.

P.S. Keep up the good work! Also, let me know if this email has been sent as clear text -- I have set up my Microsoft mailer to do that.

[Dan] It arrived as clear text.

[Heather] Yeah, now if you could give us the steps you did for that so we can put it into the FAQ.... hey Chris, welcome to the Gang!

Interrupt for Linux

From auejei

Answered By Mike Orr

I would lik to know about interrupt handle for Linux .

How dose it diffrence from another OS ?. And I would like to know interrupt vector for Linux .

Thank you S. Auejai(Thailand)

[Mike] This question is very general and so difficult to answer. What specifically do you want to know about the interrupt handlers and interrupt vectors?

Have you looked at the kernel source? Then you can see exactly what it's doing, and there may be some documentation in the Documentation/ directory as well. Find a kernel mirror close to you at www.kernel.org.

There are also two kernel guides at http://www.linuxdoc.org/guides.html that may answer your question.

Please help I am at wits end

From Spicer

Answered By Dan Wilder, Ben Okopnik, Heather Stern

I have Redhat 7 on my computer.

[Dan] First mistake. Try Red Hat 6.2. If you must use Red Hat.

Though by all accounts 7 usually installs OK. Your real troubles begin after that.

[Ben] I'm not as strongly spring-loaded as Dan against RH7, but if I was having problems with installing it and could borrow 6.2 anywhere, I'd probably try that, just to see if there's any difference. Getting the same error with a different distro would cause me to strongly suspect hardware.

I am relatively new to this so please bare with me. I first tried to insert disk and install, that didn't work I got the error below. So by suggestions of friends I first made a boot disk and fdisked the machine. Now that was ok I got into Bios and made it run from CD-Rom and it booted up the disk like it should but as soon as the machine tried to start formatting Swap Partition the error below once again popped up. So thinking this an error on my part I tried to fdisk it again.

[Ben] Well... I don't know exactly what you're using, but 'fdisk' can be relatively confusing, and (in my opinion) is more of an expert tool. For someone new to Linux, I'd recommend sticking with DiskDruid, 'cfdisk', or even - heaven forfend! - DOS's 'fdisk' (the failure mode there is not to do anything, and this is a Good Thing when you're not sure of what you're doing.) The nice thing with that last is that you can boot DOS in seconds, run 'fdisk', and be done quickly. I never could find a use for either the security features or the multitasking capabilities of Linux while fdisking a machine...

Since I have no OS at the moment I

[Dan] You don't have any idea why it is trying to make swap on /dev/hda12, do you? That'll be the eleventh (or something like that) usable partition on the disk. Unless you've got a huge hard drive and you're booting a half-dozen different OSs, that's probably not where you want to be.

[Heather] She may not have a choice (RH 6.2's anaconda likes swap to go last) but I agree, it sounds like too many partitions. I had a system with 14 but it was a triple boot with a strange partition layout.

decided to use fdisk Linux style. But when I do fdisk from CD rom and type in 'linux rescue' all seems well until I get:

/usr/bin/anaconda-runrescue: line 10: 37 Bus Error ln -s /mnt/runtime/etc/$i

Well, it does give me a prompt so I go ahead and type fdisk /dev/hda and get Unable to open /dev/hda and I get that with any variable of fdisk I try.

[Dan] That doesn't sound good. When I see something like that I begin to suspect hardware.

[Ben] Ooops. I'm in agreement with Dan, here: bus errors generally indicate hardware problems, or at the very least improperly configured BIOS settings. Not a good sign.

What that "unable to open /dev/hda" says is that Linux can't even see the 'hda' device - this is about as low in the chain as you can go. Sounds more and more like hardware, to me.

Try this: since, by your description, you're starting with a "bare" machine (no partitions, no info stored anywhere), go into the BIOS settings and restore them to the default ones - most BIOSes these days have such an option. If yours doesn't, you might have to call Dell and have their tech support people give you a couple of hints - I've found them to be helpful and knowledgeable in the past, unlike a number of other tech support departments.

What we're trying for here is elimination of any ugly possibilities; starting from scratch, so to speak. Write down the HD specifics - heads, cylinders, sectors - then, delete the info and have the BIOS redetect the drive. Now, try installing again. If you get the same error... it might be time to talk to Dell about replacing some hardware.

So when I try to boot it with disk I get Fdisk error( machine needs to be fdisked I assume) and I can't fdisk it.

[Ben] Actually, it's probably saying "I can't find anything to run 'fdisk' on!"

So I made a boot disk of Windows 98 and tried to fdisk it that way by booting up that boot disk and all was going well until I was told I couldn't fdisk primary logical drive with an ext dos, so obviously I went to try and fdisk ext dos but then it told me it couldn't fdisk with a primary logical drive. Which by the way there is no logical drives found when I look. I have discovered through the web looking for info my problem was that someone told me to when making the partitions to put everything left in / which I know now is not a good idea. 1024 I believe is the maximum. I have also tried EXDrive and various other efforts in my attempt to fix this.

[Dan] With current LILO, there's no longer a maximum number of cylinders for the boot drive, and the maximum for the root drive is 'way bigger than that.

I'm conservative and still arrange drives with three partitions: boot (usually 16M), swap (generally 64M), and root (all the rest).

You may run afoul of some limit I'm unaware of with an 80G drive. The biggest I've done that way is 20G.

[Ben] Hmm. Given some of the error messages below (like the fact that 'anaconda' is trying to make swap on hda12 (???)), I would be inclined to try 'flushing' the MBR (master boot record) on the drive, just in case something ugly - a virus, maybe? - has placed some weird partition info in there. Mind you, the above errors all point to hardware, but it would be interesting to find out - I've seen, in the past, virus-created stuff in the MBR that made it look as though the drive had failed (a combo of the oddities of the Compaq BIOS and a modified 'Stoned' virus gave a "Track 0" error. <shudder> . Boot DOS, type

lock c:

agree to the the horrific "You might destroy the world!!!" message, type

fdisk /mbr

That should clear the MBR; I actually prefer to go in there with Norton's Disk Editor and overwrite everything with zeroes (at least the partition table), but that requires a bit of special tooling.

So I can't by my knowledge fdisk it that way. I have run out of options as I sit here looking at a bright blue screen that keeps telling me "you may safely reboot your system". I would like any advise or directions to web sites on how I can get my computer running again and why that dang error is happening. I have included below my system stats and the error report.

Thank you, Stephanie

System stats:

DELL  Dimension 4100.
256MB SDRAM at 133MHz.
80GB  ultra ATA hard drive ( 5400 RPM )
Pentium III processor at 800 MHz.

............................................................................
.............

Exception Occured

Traceback (innermost last):
 File "/usr/bin/anaconda.real",
line 225, in ?
intf.run(todo, test == =
test)
File
"/tmp/lib/python1.5/site-packages/text.py",
line 1000, in run
rc == apply (step[1](), =
step[2])
File
"/tmp/lib/python1.5/site-packages/text.py",
line 572, in __call__
 if todo.doInstall ():
File
"/tmp/lib/python1.5/site-packages/todo.py",
line 688, in makeFilesystems
 raise RuntimeError, "error making =
swap on "=

+ device
RuntimeError: error making swap on hda12

Thank you so much, Stephanie

[Ben] That one really makes me wonder. On the one hand, it says that it can't see "/dev/hda", on the other, it says that there are 12 partitions on it... it's time for those low-level tools that I've described above; all the graphical stuff and specialized routines ('anaconda', etc.) are just getting in the way of seeing what's really going on.

A guy I used to work for, Mark Minasi, came up with an excellent way to gurantee that you blast out your MBR; I just did a web search, and - lo and behold! - Mark had messed around with a multi-OS install (including Linux) and got his MBR terminally confused. So, he went ahead and documented the method - thanks, Mark! - which only used to be available as a part of the course that we taught, a rather expensive affair. Here is the link:

http://www.winntmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=5327

Seems a bit strange, linking to "winntmag.com" from an LG article - but good info is good info, regardless of source...

Note that you'll probably still want to use 'lock', as above; Windows has nasty habits in regard to letting things write directly to cylinder 0.

I thank you so much for your help! It was excellent. I was able to fix the Linux and it is working now better than before because now I know more because of looking up this error in the first place. I really just wanted to say thanks.

[Ben] Hi, Stephanie -

I'm very glad to have been able to help... but can you give us some feedback on what actually worked for you? I believe that this information could be very useful to anyone struggling with an identical problem.

Training?

[Heather] If it helps any, when listing them on your resume' you could give their full names, followed by the short form in parentheses. RHCE is the Red Hat Certified Engineer program, so it expresses that Red Hat thinks that you are sufficiently versed as a Linux technician, because you have the skills (as expressed by the testing series you went through, real life may give you different mileage).

Doing a Google! search on the single keyword "RHCE" finds 42000 hits, one of the top of which is a review on Amazon for a book to help study for it. The reviewer states that "my boss wants me to take the RHCE exam!" and that by starting to delve into the book, he realized that he really wasn't ready yet.

In either the RHCE or LPI series, it's not a single test, and it's not a "rubber stamp". The RHCE tests include a hands-on exam (so it's not just "multiple guess" bubbled tests).

Any given employer may have heard of them; if they have, their interest may be in your actual skills, or in the ability to pit RHCE or LPI against college degrees and other buzzwords. The LPI has tried to be very scientific. The RHCE focuses on practical experience (with their distribution). This may help you pick which, if you're only planning to go for one and feel you will be competing with degrees and so on.

If they haven't, you still have the skills they tested for, and should be able to show that in your interview or regular review.

It may be worthwhile to you to see if you can tell what kind of things your hoped-for employers already say they are looking for in their other hiring. That may give you a basis to guess if they care about such things. It's up to you to decide if you think they should care that you have these. If you think many people are competing for the job, you with an apparently valid certification may get past non-technical screeners more easily.

I don't have any good statistics(*) to determine how many employers have heard of these but think certifications are a waste of time, or that these certifications in particular aren't useful.

• okay, I don't have any bad statistics either, I didn't look.

I have the feeling that statistics about certification will be about how many people are taking the tests, not how many people are ignoring the results. You certainly shouldn't take my word as a very useful statistic! I encourage you to investigate for yourself.

See also the Two Cent Tips item this issue about books for your own crash course. -- Heather

Looking for a Tutor

Heather did some tutoring through the LAVCC (http://www.lavc.cc.ca.us) and some of her clients suggested that they'd be happy to pay her directly (the tutoring was sponsored by the college from what I gather). So she hung out her shingle; focusing primarily on computer related topics.

Over the years she and I have taken over the business whenever we weren't working a traditional position. I used it as a research vehicle while I was writing my book (specializing in sysadmin support and training).

Anyway, onto your question.

The obvious first step would be to search for "tutoring services" on the Google! Linux (http://www.google.com/linux) engine. I get 62 hits. Searching on just "training" gives us about 40,000 hits one of the first of which points at the Linsight/LinTraining (http://www.lintraining.com) portal. One of the first links therefrom gets us to Henry White's "Basic Linux Training" web-based courseware (http://www.basiclinux.hypermart.net).

I've referred people to the LinTraining and to Henry White's online courses before. These are the best online resources for free Linux training that I know of. Note that the Basic Linux Training course lasts for several weeks and courses start every other month. The LPI web site also refers interested parties to the LinTraining web site for information about training centers.

Of course there are always your local users groups and community colleges. I've also seen video tutorials in the local Fry's (computer stores in California, Arizona, and possibly some other western U.S. states.

netscape bash function

See attached misc/tag/ns.bash.txt

[Ben] One thing to be careful of, Allan: there is already a program called "ns" (/usr/bin/ns) that is part of the "dnsutils" package. It's a good idea to check for that kind of conflicts.

[Allan Peda] Thanks:

This is where the various packages / Unices get confusing, since I don't have this on my desktop PC RH7 system.

Thanks for the tip.

apeda]$ unset ns
apeda]$ ns
bash: ns: command not found
apeda]$ ll /usr/bin/ns
ls: /usr/bin/ns: No such file or directory
apeda]$

[Heather] If you do find a conflict, it's very easy to use capitals instead. For example, I gave my dad-in-law a bash alias named Elm which does some mail prep for him and then launches elm. So you could name your alias Ns and it is unlikely to bump heads... or even N, unless you like to use one character variables in your scripts a lot.

But definitely, thanks for the script!

More help with Linux Multimedia

I enjoyed the Linux Multimedia article in the February 1/2 2001 LinuxGazette. Though I was hip to most of what the author covered, I could use some help with another aspect of Linux multimedia.

I'm in the process of building a web site for a local non-profit organization I work with. Among other things, the web site will feature mp3s from several of the bands we've worked with over the years. Problem is, not every band can afford to have CDs of its music so I've got a fair number of cassette tapes to deal with. I hate the idea of leaving this music out by default but the fact is, I have zero experience transfering cassette tunes to a PC. I've found Linux tools to handle problems like sound level control but I've been unable to find software designed to assist in creating wav files from the tapes in the first place. Anyone familiar with such an animal? Any tips at all would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Ben] I did that a year or so ago. I used 'brec' (part of the 'bplay' package) to do the recording; I simply patched the output of my tape player to the input of my audio card and ran 'brec' with the appropriate options. I then split the huge resulting .WAV file into individual songs with 'mixviews' - that is one terrific, well-written program - and wrote them out to a CD. Pretty much a problem-free process.

Thank you, Ben! I'll be sure to give brec a spin. I've found lots of (Freshmeat) leads on software to convert the wavs to mp3 once I've got 'em on the system so I think I'll be all right in that department. I've got a 6GB drive installed just for this purpose... Can I presume that's going to be enough for serious work or should I pop in a 30GB? In other words, how large is a 9 or 10 minute wav gonna be? Thanks!

[Ben] If I remember correctly, the songs came out at ~ 20-40MB each, just like making WAV/RAW files from audio CDs; that would have meant ~ 200-250MB per tape side. 6GB should be plenty.

I did remember one quirk; in order to get good recording quality, I had to set the input level at 80% or so - any more than that, and I got horrendous distortion, whereas anything below 50% was silent - and do the fine adjustment with the tape player volume knob. Your Mileage May Vary, of course - it was probably related to the quality of my sound card - but if you get no output, check the input level.

Good luck with your project!

Readline Features in the Bash 'read' built-in

#!/bin/bash
tput cup 4 47	# position the cursor in a field for input
read afield

Duping a Drive Under Linux

Fortran Compiler

Anyway, the manager there explained to me that the engineers in his group all wanted to use this particular machine instead of their Sun UltraSPARCs, their HP's and their other RISC boxes --- because they had found that the best Fortran compiler for them was from NAG (Numerical Algorithms Group: http://www.nag.com). NAG makes a commercial Fortran compiler and a number of libraries and other software products.

So, yes. There are fortran compilers for Linux.

There is a GNU fortran compiler; which is called g77; this is a Fortran '77 compiler which produces an intermediate code and then uses gcc to produce the optimized machine binaries. (http://www.gnu.org/software/fortran/fortran.html). It's apparently considered to be part of the GCC (GNU compiler collection) at this point. I'm not qualified to comment on wether g77 is any good, or how closely it conforms to the 1977 ANSI specification or anything like that. I notice that some of the Fortran '90 enhancements are supported, so g77 is as archaic as the '77 might imply).

Thanks very much for your help! I was about to try that to see if it worked. I do not believe the g77 is installed on my system. I still have to apply the Errata updates, maybe then it will install the g77.

Yvonne

Modules cannot load with kernel recompile