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

Answers to these questions should be sent directly to the e-mail address of the inquirer with or without a copy to [email protected]. Answers that are copied to LG will be printed in the next issue in the Tips column.

Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 10:47:38 +0100 (MET)
From: Jan-Hendrik Terstegge,
Subject: Korn Shell FAQ

I'm looking for a good Korn Shell FAQ, because I dislike reading the Manpages. Does anyone know a good Internet Address of a FAQ?

Thanks in advance

--
Jan-Hendrik

Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 15:13:18 -0500
From: "Jim Coleman", Subject: Windows program replacements

I'm making the move from Windows to Linux and am in the process of tracking down Linux programs to replace anything in Windows that I feel I cannot do without. It's a short but stubborn list. Presently, I'm trying to locate a Linux Family Tree program (I'm using Family Tree Maker in Windows) and also need a Linux program that can import the contents of several Cardfile databases.

I've heard of and have downloaded the Unix based LifeLines program but have not yet tried it. Though it comes highly recommended, even the author admits that it's somewhat dated. I was hoping a more recent program was available. Not necessarily freeware, by the way.

Suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks,

Best Regards,
--
Jim Coleman

Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 14:45:12 -0800
From: "Michel A. Lim",
Subject: RH5.2 and Intel EtherExpress Pro/10+ ISA NIC

I am a Linux newbie, with some computer experience, trying to install my intel etherexpress pro/10+ isa card on my new Linux box (Macmillan RH 5.2, kernel 2.0.36-0.7). I have read several newsgroup postings regarding this network card, but I could really use a step-by-step guide.

The card did work when the OS was win98. Linux is now the only OS on this computer. The Linux install was successful except that it did not recognize my network card. I disabled the plug and play function of the card using the intel configuration software (softset2), and then tried re-installing Linux and passing the IRQ and I/O settings (7 and 320-32Fh respectively) but that also did not work. I then tried to add the following lines to /etc/conf.modules:

alias eth0 eepro
options eth0 io=320-32Fh irq=7

Any help would be very appreciated, just please be detailed as I am not a guru by any stretch of the imagination.

thank you. --
michel a. lim

Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1999 18:30:50 -0200
From: "Eliane Aureliana de Sousa",
Subject: We do not relay...

Could you help me? I have Red Hat Linux installed and I have sendmail and a pop server running but when I try to send and receive mail via Netscape what I receive is this mensage: We do not relay..... and there is neve any msg in my mail box.

I've read as many how-to as I could, but I couldn't find nothing about my problem. Send mail is already running, I need to know how to set the permissions to let my users send and receive mail.

Thanks, Eliane Aureliana de Sousa Uberlandia - Brazil

Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 16:28:52 +0100
From: Kristoffer Andersson,
Subject: Help wanted -- article ideas

I'm having a sort of luxorius problem. In the building where I live we have a 24-7 ethernet connection two the Internet - so long every thing is fine - the problem is that this connection goes through a masquerading-server and as a result it is almost impossible to connect to your computer from a computer outside my building.

To go around this limitation I have set up a small script that uses ssh to forward a few ports (21, 22 and 80) to a computer outside the building. This is fine as long as you and your friends now to wich computer the ports have been forwarded to.

A more fancy solution would be to use ssh to tunnel ppp! The problem is that I dont now of an ISP that would let me to use PPP over the Internet instead of over their modem-pools.

--
Kristoffer Andersson

Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 10:35:02 -0200
From: Silvia,
Subject: DOS Emulations

How does the DOS emulation through the serial ports works?
What is the default terminal emulation?
How can we change this?
We need to use 25 lines 80 columns and the key combinations ALT+F1, ALT+F2, ..., ETC.

Regards
--
Silvia

Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 04:52:35 +0100
From: JVA,
Subject: Sound card with radio on it

I am intending to install Red Hat 5.0 to myP 166: PC and my question is that I have a ISA sound card (SF16-FMI) with radio on it, it's 100% SB compatible,and has a IDE connection on it and it's not PnP will it be able to work and in particular the radio please help I enjoy listening to radio.

--
Jva

Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 15:42:19 -0800
From: Jay Xia,
Subject: MS words to Postscript conversion

From time to time, people e-mail me documents in Microsoft Words format. Do you know where I can find an utility to convert the MS Words documents into Postscript format so that I can view/print them in Linux?

Thanks.

--
jay

Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 01:32:18 +0100
From: bonis,
Subject: problema

ciao, mi chiamo cris ho red hat 5.0 e devo collegarmi a internet... con netscape communicator.. ..non ci riesco :)..sono abbonato a tin...e ho un modem esterno da 33.6 ...ho provato di tutto..ma non riesco propio :) aiuto :) grazie. ps. ho installato Linux Red Hat da 3 giorni :)..e mai prima.. :)

--
bonis

Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 20:58:10 +0530
From: "Mukul Jain",
Subject: Configuring Linux as mail server

I want to configure Linux as my off-line mail server. What all I want is that I want it to aceept my mail and when I dial to my ISP it just sends the collected mail and then recieves the mail from my domain. and distributes according to Linux user accounts.

I've done the following setting in sendmail.cw; I've added my domain entry.

In sendmail.cf I've changed the DS to my ISP server DSgg.vsnl.net.in

and at DM added my domain also changed OHoldExpensive=True

Well and then changed settings for the mailers expensiver

Now still I get an Error 'We do not relay mail'

HELP!

--
Mukul

Date: Fri, 12 Feb 1999 11:06:49 +0100 (Ora solare Europa occidentale)
From: Bruno Falconi,
Subject: primo approccio

finalmente ho trovato un link interessante per chi vuole inoltrarsi in Linux.

Ho cercato di installare Linux (Red Hat 5.2) sul mio pc che gia gira con windows 98. ho tre dischi (10gb, 2gb e 1.5gb). ho incontrato mille difficolta' e alla fine non sono riuscito ad installarlo, non solo, ma ho perso anche Windows 98. Ho ripristinato poi i dischi ed windows, ma prima di riprovarci gradirei qualche dritta per fare una cosa seria.

grazie
--
Bruno Falconi

Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 12:35:03 -0500
From: "Jeff Moore",
Subject: Converting to Linux

Was told that I can do lot more with this Linux, where it be with 286 or 386 so on, and to be able develop the full capabilities a Service provider to community, schools, business, residential. Would consider this task is a must see how it can be done. O f course now one would have to have a great deal old hardware, software all ready and surely this person would no just go out and buy old equipment with this intent in mind. Instead work with students with a great of old equipment that we are upgrading- Using what we have an looking for conversions that would act like they up-to-date? any suggestion ?

--
Jeff Moore

Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 01:05:56 +0800 (SGT)
From: "Jayasuthan ......",
Subject: Clear Up Corrupted Files

I having problem with my filesystem lately. I believe it caused by Linux Kernel 2.2.0 with hdparm -m8 option on my hard disk. Lucky its not very serius. But now the problem is cleaning up those file which corrupted. I do have file in /lost+found folder and thats not an issue but files like this :-

br-Sr-S---   1 25449    28015     99, 105 Nov 26  2031 System.map
br-srwS-wT   1 29813    23328      9,  10 Jan 19  2026 System.old
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root         1024 Feb 15 23:07 beta/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     bin          2048 May  8  1994 bin/

Please help me out here.

Thank You,
--
Jayasuthan

Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 13:20:29 +0200
From: "yossi",
Subject: Linux & Win95/98/NT clients

Well, I am system administrator in colleage (about 200 machines). Mostly they're running Win95/98 and some of them running NT4.0 Workstation. We don't use yet Linux as a server ( but I use it a lot for java-development). We use NT4.0. So my question is : I'd like to install Linux as a file-server & keep on him images of hard-disks from classrooms(i.e every classroom has own "master" with all the programmes installed on it). So if something goes wrong with one (or more) of a computers in the classroom I'd like to keep this "masters" on Linux server & connect to them somehow from this computer and take the "image" off to my win95/98/nt client. Somehow - I mean I have to have a boot-diskette that does the work. The second point is that I'm not sure in possibility that in-the-same-time I can use the "image" on Linux with multiple connections... Sometimes the "image" has to be requested by 20-25 clients(in the same time).=20 If somebody can help me it's really great coz' this way I can install first-Linux-server in our network ( I really like this OS.... but it doesn't depend on me :) ) Any information will be appreciated. Thanx.

--
Daniel Mester

Date: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 18:23:55 -0700 (MST)
From: "Dale M. Snider",
Subject: Re: Trap float divide-by-zero and NaN

Can someone tell me how to turn on a gcc compile option to trap a divide by zero and NaN with type float or double. I can get the divide-by-zero trap with type int. Is this a trap that can be done on the kernal level? The signal SIGFPED only works on integers?? I am using Red Hat 5.2 installation.

Trap on divide by zero: a=1., b=0., a/b=Inf

Trap on overflow: a=3.4e38, b=3.4e38, a*b=Inf

Trap on NaN: sqrt(-1)

I have included a small test code to illustrate the problem (question)..

To build sample code:

 
  cc -g tst.c -lm -o tst

Test code:

 
  #include <stdio.h>
  #include <math.h>

  main() {
   float a,b,c,d;
   int   ia,ib,ic;
   int   i;
  
   a=1.; b=0.;
   c=a/b;
   d=(float)sqrt((double)-a);
   printf("Float: a=%f b=%f a/b=%f d=sqrt(-a)=%f\n",a,b,c,d);
   ia=1; ib=0;
   ic=ia/ib;
   printf("Integer: ia=%d ib=%d ia/ib=%d\n",ia,ib,ic);
  }

 
  Float: a=1.000000 b=0.000000 a/b=Inf d=sqrt(-a)=NaN
  Floating point exception (core dumped)

Cheers

--
Dale

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 03:39:39 +0200
From: Jussi Kallioniemi,
Subject: business plan

Just a quick question (worth printing to next issue?)

Is there any (good) GNU licensed programs to help the creation of businessplans?

--
Jussi Kallioniemi

Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 23:50:54 -0800
From: "Snow Wolf",
Subject: Letter to the Editor ...

On the same day that I received my Linux Journal, I got a PC Connection periodical. It's a standard PC mail-order catalog, but it seems to assume that people are running Windows. Are there similar catalogs that cater to people running Linux/Unix. Like have non-PnP modems, cards that include drivers for other OSes besides Windows, etc., etc.

--
Charles Wheeler

Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 11:36:25 PST
From: "Jaap Wolters",
Subject: problem

Ik heb geprobeert jullie programma "LINUX" te downloaden, maar ik krijg geen toegang. hoe zou het toch kunnen? Op de t.v werd verteld dat het programma beter is dan Windows 98, Minder fouten en minder vastlopers. Is het programma windows compatible zodat ik mijn oude windows spellen kan doorspelen. Ik heb ZEER veel belang bij dit programma, maar aangezien me het niet lukt om het te downloaden zou ik graag uw advies willen.

Met vriendelijke groeten

--
J.Wolters

Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 12:21:53 -0500
From: "Nick Wilkens",
Subject: Making a Red Hat 5.2 CD

Hi, I downloaded the Red Hat/RPMS Red Hat/base directories from sunsite, along with the proper image files, etc... I also burn them to a CD in this same way under the Red Hat directory, is this proper? because when i try to do a CD install, it says invalid media no Red Hat tree found or something to that effect. Any suggestions?

--
Nick

Date: Sun, 21 Feb 1999 17:28:54 PST
From:
Subject: Installation Question

Since Linux was mostly used by x86, do you think it's OK if I install it on PII-300MHz computer?

--
helicon123

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 15:18:23 +0000
From: Austin,
Subject: Help wanted: Fax gateway

I'm toying with the idea of setting up a FAX gateway on a Linux machine. The machine is currently on a LAN, and has no modem, so I'll be wanting to stick a 56Kbps in there. I'm just after pointers, personal experience, web pages, and general advice on this, because I have no idea where to start :)

So far, I've discovered Hylafax. Is this what I should be using? Are there alternatives?

How do you go about installing a modem? What models are recommended?

Thanks for any help.

--
Austin

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 16:03:26 +0000
From: Keith,
Subject: Not Linux

three oaths:
1 of marriage
1 of truth
1 of leadership

1st one Rendered invalid by actions
2nd one destroyed by testimony
3rd one ?

lets not be lazy..lets not take a just get it over attitude...lets tell the Pop Press that we want news, not day to day hogwash...

People are made to tire of a subject, because the press forces every conceivable amount of data real or not about a subject down to us. This is known. This is planned.

No one has lost face. This is not a party issue. Let it continue. We need a answer. We need the Law. Whatever the outcome will be.

--
Keith

Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 18:24:34 +0100
From: Roger Irwin,
Subject: Closed software promotion

Launching into issue 37, I go straight to Software Announcements. And the first item is "New circuit design software", which goes on to describe itself as a spice front-end.

Well, I design electronic circuits, and immediately hit the link. What I found was that the spice front-end was a plug-in for the 'visio' package. No mention was made of Linux, but the announcement said it would work on any version of Visio. So, I would need the Linux version of visio.

So then I followed the link to Visio, and looked to see 'platform requirements'. It said this:

"We've thought long and hard about what you'll need from a business diagram program. That's why we've designed our software to work on most desktops. Chances are, the computer you already use will be fine for running Visio Standard."

Great, another program designed to run on as many platforms as possible? Not quite, it will run on W95, W98 & Windows NT4.0. Period. Another company who thinks the only OS that should be run on a desktop is Windows, and Linux Gazette is helping to promote this.

Well done, keep up the good work...............

Bill will be so proud of you.

--
Roger

(Sorry to let that one slip by me. I tend to assume if they send the announcement to me, it works for Linux. And of course, I knew SPICE works for Linux. Wish I had time to chase every announcement down, but I don't. Anyway I removed it after getting a couple of letters telling me. --Editor)

Date: Tue, 02 Feb 1999 10:24:33 -0800
From: jeff godden,
Subject: under software announcements, SpiceLink is not a Linux product

As usual, Linux Gazette remains one of my favorite sources of net-gleaned Linux information. Thank you!

Under software announcements of issue #37 there is a link to SpiceLink which i was very thrilled about to see such a graphical support for spice under Linux. But alas, even through it's linked from Linux Gazette this software cannot run under Linux. From the president of the SpiceLink following an inquiry:

You're right about SpiceLink; it's for Visio and therefore Windows.

Many thanks!

--
jeff

(Always appreciate hearing when I lapse so I can get it corrected. Thanks for doing it in such a nice way. That announcement has been removed. -- Editor)

Date: Tue, 02 Feb 1999 12:54:29 -0500
From: Darren,
Subject: RE: What is a 'high crime'

A "High crime" is not necessarily what could be called a 'heinous' act. A 'High crime' is simply a 'crime' committed by a 'High' official (such as a senator, federal judge, or president.) Because of their unique positions, what would not be considered crimes for us, may be considered crimes for 'High' officials, hence the term 'common criminal' versus 'high criminal'. For instance, accepting bribes would, for private citizens outside of public office, not be considered a crime (immoral perhaps, but not criminal.) For high officials, bribery is most definitely a 'high' crime.

Some people feel that the questions that the president did not truthfully answer should not have been asked and were not relevant to governing. After all, even some of the framers of the constitution were known to have had 'improper relations'. But these same people seem to forget that we did not have laws relating to sexual harassment/discrimination back then. Also, the judgment by the courts pertaining directly to those 'irrelevant' questions was that the questions were relevant and proper at the time they were asked.

As to using the principle of 'acts related to governing', it would seem that these same people feel that R. Nixon should have been impeached - even though his alleged acts and deceptions had nothing to do with 'governing'. Using the Nixon precedent, W. Clinton should be held accountable for lies and deception even if they had little bearing on the act of 'governing'.

So then, we are left to ask, were the lies and deception in the courts by the president acceptable? I guess we all need to answer that for ourselves. If it is appropriate for the president to not tell the whole truth on those matters that the court has decided he should answer for and go unpunished for lying, then we should stop enforcing sexual discrimination cases altogether. Women should just accept their place as 2nd class citizens and let the rest of us get on with the job of making a living. Just think, if he had 'pleaded the fifth', we wouldn't be having this wonderful education on the constitutional process.

This may not be the populist view, but the moral high ground usually isn't. Witness the popularity of Howard Stern and Larry Flynt. I am not perfect. When I get caught breaking 'minor' laws, I should fully expect some sort of punishment. But just because I am not perfect, does that mean I should give up any expectation of holding myself and others to standards of common decency?

--
Darren

Date: Wed, 03 Feb 1999 14:27:08 -0800
From: James Guilford,
Subject: Thanks!

I've been experimenting with Linux (Red Hat flavor) but needed to remove it from a machine to install {gad} Windows. LILO wouldn't go away.

I found the answer on your Web site. Thanks for saving me a lot of trouble!

--
James Guilford

Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1999 14:08:43 -0600
From: "John W. Burgoon",
Subject: J. W. Pennington's article about Doubt

I read Pennington's article with considerable interest and look forward to more. As a web developer (trained in Physics and Chemistry) I have to point out the word that the hard sciences use in place of Mr. Pennington's "doubt": we call that "skepticism". Not cynicism, which many folks use as a way to protect their ego. (Failure is more common than success, so cynics just predict failure all the time to get their winning %age).

Skepticism is a firm belief in empirical or deductive fact coupled with a firm disbelief in personal perception. The good engineer is a skeptic; he wants to know some empirical fact before he allows himself to believe his perceptions. He tests the girder design before it goes into a bridge, and even then he over builds that bridge by a factor of 2 or 3 just in case the wind blows, or any army drives across with tanks, or an earthquake hits. And when it fails anyway, he shows up and figures out why.

Linux benefits from skepticism since we don't say "Ha, this is perfect" but rather we say, "weeellll, this works but so far we haven't looked at x/y/z".

Kudos to the good author for pointing out a fine generality in which Linux developers can take pride. Healthy old-fashioned skepticism kicks ass.

John W. Burgoon

(Mr. Pennington will return with part 2 next month. --Editor)

Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 04:37:32 -0800
From: Igor Markov,
Subject: Re: The Beauty of Doubt

It seems, you are really talking about *critical thinking*. *Doubt* is often caused by critical thinking, but shouldn't be explicitly cultivated, in my opinion. Many colleges offer classes on critical thinking, and the topic is not that new. It is true, of course, that commercial software developers are not as free to think critically about their work as FSC folks, hence the advantage of FSC.

Regarding the other three terms: *cooperation* seems too weak, free software developers *collaborate*."Cooperation" is what Microsoft does when it gets sued for a breach of contract ;-)

*Non-control (read: Freedom)* is vague. You probably mean *independent thinking* and, separately, *freedom to allocate personal resources*. For example, I may be interested in kernel hacking, just because I like the subject (not because I am paid for this) and may have new ideas, but not time/skill to implement them. Someone else, who has a month of vacation may pick them up and produce something useful.

"Rebellion"... how about "enthusiasm" or, better, "improvement drive". I would actually agree that many developers may be driven by a rebellion, but not the ones who are responsible for most innovation. "Rebellion" does not go well with incremental development models somehow.

Finally, the lack and, OTOH, the ease of several aspects of management is critical to the FSC as much as the above issues. This may need to be discussed as well.

well... so much for a non-native speaker. I guess, you will correct me if I messed up connotaions/meanings etc.

--
Igor

Date: Sun, 07 Feb 1999 21:17:27 +0000
From: Kevin Atkinson,
Subject: Did you know about Aspell?

I saw you article titled "ispell: Spelling Checker" in the Linux Gazette and was wondering if you knew of the existence of Aspell.

From the manual:

1.1.1.1 Features that only Aspell has

• Does a much better job with coming up with suggestions than Ispell does.
• Can learn from users misspellings.
• Is an actual library that others programs can link to instead of having to use it through a pipe.
• Is multiprocess intelligent. When a personal dictionary (or replacement list) is saved it will now first update he list against the dictionary on disk in case another process modified it.

• Support for detachable dictionaries so that more than one aspell class can use the same dictionary.
• Support for multiple personal dictionaries as well as support for special auxiliary dictionaries.

• Lower memory footprint
• Support for affix compression
• Support for spell checking Latex and Nroff files.

Granted that when your article was first published Aspell didn't exist.

More information can be found at http://metalab.unc.edu/kevina/aspell/.

--
Kevin Atkinson

Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 15:17:36 -0600
From: "Gray, Robert C",
Subject: Not Linux

No offense meant, but

Three states list perjury as a "High crime or misdemeanor" in their state constitution they are California, Texas, and Alabama. Three others call perjury an infamous crime (same as "High crime..." ?) they are West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Three others list perjury as an offense serious enough for removal from office they are Wyoming, Missouri, and Colorado.

All these states also list conviction of perjury as reason to preclude someone from ever holding public office.

In all 50 states perjury is a crime!

--
Robert Gray

Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 17:43:22 -0300
From: Gustavo Larriera,
Subject: Corrected version of my article NTloader+Linux

I would be pleased if this letter goes to the Mail Bag section.

I wish to thank the feedback I received for my article "Booting Linux with the NT Loader" (LG January 1999). Some readers pointed out my misinformation about the MBR-changed-means-NT-wiped-out affair :-) I've corrected the article, the revised version can be found at my home page [http://w3.cs.com.uy/u/gux/ntloadli2.htm].

Have a lot of fun,

--
Gustavo Larriera

This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette,
Copyright © 1999 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.