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<title>The Answer Guy Issue 23</title>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0020F0"
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<!--endcut ========================================================= -->
<H4>&quot;Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>&quot;
</H4>
<P> <hr> <P>

<!-- =============================================================== -->
<center>
<H1><A NAME="answer">
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>
The Answer Guy
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>
</A></H1> <BR>
<H4>By James T. Dennis,
<a href="mailto:answerguy@ssc.com">answerguy@ssc.com</a><BR>
Starshine Technical Services, <A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">
http://www.starshine.org/</A> </H4>
</center>

<p><hr><p>
<H3>Contents:</H3>
<ul>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#monitor">Running Multiple Instances of X</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#madness">VC Madness</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#ospf">Linux and OSPF</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#pop">Security Problems with pop3</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#crypt">Cryptographic System</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#ref">An Interesting De-Referencing Problem</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#remind">Reminder!</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#pcmcia">pcmcia ide Drives</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#kde">KDE BETA 1</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#program">Compression Program</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#loadlin2">loadlin</a>
<li><a HREF="./lg_answer23.html#wipe">WipeOut</a>
</ul>

<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="monitor"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
Running Multiple Instances of X on One Video/Monitor (VCs)
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: Guillermo S. Romero <a href="mailto:famrom@ran.es">famrom@ran.es</a><br>
</B><P><B>


Hello,<br>
I have tried to run multiple X servers with only one card and one monitor.
Is this possible, or is it normal that the second X server does not
run?
I used <tt>startx display :0</tt> the first time, and <tt>:1</tt> the second.
I have a 1024K video board (#9GXE64 PCI, S3 864), and normal config is 8
bpp, 1024*768 virtual desktop, running on a remix of RedHat 4.0, 4.1 and
4.2, with XFree86 as server.
Maybe I did not understand the man page (English is not my first languaje).
Any suggestion?


</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

The normal way this is done is using the form:

<pre>	startx -- :0 &
		startx -- :1 &</pre>

<P>	... The -- is used by startx and xinit to separate an optional
	set of client parameters from the set of display/server
	options and parameters.

<P>	If you ran the command:

<pre>	startx xterm -e myprog -- :1 &</pre>

<P>	... it would start X Windows with a copy of xterm which
	would be running 'myprog' (whatever that might be). The
	remainder of the line informs the X server to use display
	number one (which would be VC -- virtual console -- number
	eight on most Linux systems).

<P>	(On my systems it would start on VC#14 -- accessed with the
	{Right Alt}+{F2} key combination. I routinely configure
	mine with 24 VC's -- the first twelve of which have
	"getty's" (login prompts) and the next eleven of which are
	available for X (xdm's or otherwise), using 'open' commands,
	or for dumping status output from a process (like 'make' or
	'tail -f').

<P>	Read the man pages for startx and xinit one more time.
	I'm pretty sure that the man pages have all been translated
	into Spanish -- so you might want to hunt those down.

<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
Thanks!!!

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>
Read the man pages for startx and xinit one more time.


<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

Sure, and with a dictonary. ;]

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

I'm pretty sure that the man pages have all been translated
into Spanish -- so you might want to hunt those down.

<P>Try:
<P>man-pages-es-0.2-1.src.rpm:
<a href="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/SRPMS/man-pages-es-0.2-1.src.rpm">ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/SRPMS/man-pages-es-0.2-1.src.rpm</a>


<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

The Spanish Howto is small, too global, sure it does not cover that.
And I still have problems with my ntilde chars and acents, Spanish is not
supported a lot (Linux or another OS, always late and bad)... The system
explained in that howto does not work (but thats another question, whose
solution maybe... magic? real support?).
GSR

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	I'm afraid I'm completely ignorant of internationalization
	issues with Linux. I do know that there is quite a bit of
	work done on Linux boxes in Japan, Germany, Italy and,
	naturally enough, Finland (where Linus comes from).

<P>	As bad as it seems -- Linux' support for other languages is
	probably the best in the world. Unfortunately I don't have
	the skill or resources to point you to the support and
	resources you need.

<P>	Since your English is clearly adequate to discuss these issues
	with me -- you might consider contributing some of your time
	to a translation effort (get the LIGS, NAG, and SAG portions
	of the Linux Documentation project translated, and "beef up"
	(improve) the Spanish-HOWTO.

<P>	I highly recommend that you find or start a Linux user's group
	in your area. This is the best way to help yourself and to
	improve the situation for all of your compatriots.
<P>
--
Jim

			 
<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="madness"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
VC Madness
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: <a href="mailto:frees@technologist.com">frees@technologist.com</a><br>
</B><P><B>


Hi<br>
I have an application that uses its own .cshrc and .bashrc to fire up
and this is done by using its own login account.
Now what I would really like is for this to say select VC8 to run on
and then have my normal X on VC7 as usual.
Can this be done? and if so how?
<br>
--Phil

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

<pre>	open -c 8 -- su - $PSUEDOUSER</pre>

<P>	... where PSUEDOUSER is the psuedo users whose .*shrc
you want to run. Naturally you can convert the .*shrc
into a normal shell script and do whatever you like with
it. You have to run this as root -- (so 'su' doesn't prompt
for a password) though there are ways to get around that
'runas' is available at the sunsite.unc.edu archive site and
	its mirrors). If launch this from another UID you'll need to
	ensure that this users (the launching user, not necessarily the
	psuedo-user) has write access to /dev/tty8 (group +w should be
	sufficient).

<P>	If you want to have the console visually switch to this
	application's VC you can just add the -s switch like so:

<pre>	open -c 8 -s -- ....</pre>

<P>	... where the "--" marks the end of 'open's' arguments
	so that the command that follows it can unambigously get
	its own arguments.

<P>	Without the -c switch the 'open' command will select the
	next available VC. Any subsequent 'startx' commands or
	other 'open' commands would then pick later ones (unless
	the others were freed back up).

<P>	You can have two or more copies of X running on different
	VC's as well. For example the command:

<pre>	startx -- :1</pre>

<P>	... will create a second X session on the localhost:1
	display (the first one is addressed as localhost:0 or
	simply :0). These X sessions can be run under different
	UID's and have completely different client configurations
	(colors, window managers, etc). There is also an 'Xnest'
	command that works similarly -- allowing one X session to
	run "within" (as through a window on) one of your existing
	X sessions.

<P>	You can also set the terminal settings and colors using
	normal redirection of the form:

<pre>stty erase ^? > /dev/tty8</pre>

	<P>... and:

<pre>setterm -background blue -foreground yellow -bold on -store \
		> /dev/tty8</pre>

<P>	This last command would set and store a new set of default
	screen colors for the VC. The setterm command can also be
	used to control the Linux VC screen blanker's timeout
	(a value of 0 means "never blank").

<P>	Naturally you may want to read the man pages for all of these.

<P>	If you want to ensure that a given process will *always*
	be running (and will automatically be respawned when it
	dies) you can add it to your /etc/inittab -- so that the
	init process will watch over it. This is how new 'getty'
	processes are spawned on your first six (or so) VC's when
	you boot and are respawned when you logout. Likewise if
	you use 'xdm' to keep a graphical (X based) login prompt
	on one or more of your VC's.

<P>	As you can see, its possible to do quite a bit with Linux
	VC's. I run 12 VC's with getty (as login consoles), have
	one 'xdm', one devoted to syslog, and ten more available for
	other purposes (such as 'startx' and 'open' commands and to
	to use for 'tail -f' commands when need to monitor the
	end of a status or log file -- from a 'make' or whatever.

<P>	The second set of 12 VC's is accessed with the *right*
	{Alt} key. (In case you'd never noticed, the default
	keyboard settings of Linux only allow you to use the
	*left* {Alt} key for switching VC's). I set syslog to
	use VC number 24 with an entry in the /etc/syslog.conf
	file that reads:

<pre>	*.*			/dev/tty24</pre>
	
<P>	This puts a copy of *every* syslog message on to that
	VC -- which is what I switch to for a quick glance and
	try to switch to when I leave any of my systems unattended.
	(That way when one does lock -- as rare as that is -- I have
	some idea of what the last throes of the system were).

<P>	I set that to bright red on black with the following command
	in my rc.local file:

<pre>setterm -foreground red -bold on -store > /dev/tty24</pre>

<P>	(I also do the same to /dev/tty12 which I customarily use
	only for root login's).

<P>	Hope all of that helps. 
<P>
--
Jim


<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="ospf"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
Linux and OSPF
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: Jose Manuel Cordova-Villanueva <a
href="mailto:jcordova@amoxcalli.leon.uia.mx">jcordova@amoxcalli.leon.uia.mx</a>
</B> <P><B>

Dear Sr.<br>

Recenty I had my first contact with the Linux G. and is a big source of
information, can you inform me if there are a program that can talk ospf
because our ISP, is changing from RIP to OSPF and we have a linux box
in one of our links, for our cisco no problem but for our Linux box??


</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	The software you want is called 'gated' (for "gateway daemon").
	This is a Unix multi-protocol router package for Linux which
	includes support for OSPF and other routing protocols (BGP4,
	IGRP, etc).

<P>	 Here's a link to the top level 'gated' pages

<a href="http://www.gated.merit.edu/">Cornell Gated Consortium
Information</a>

<P>	I've heard that compiling 'gated' for Linux is not
	quite trivial so here is some other links that might help:

	Here's a link to a source RPM in the Red Hat contrib
	directory:

<a
href="ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/contrib/SRPMS/gated-R3_6Alpha_2-1.src.rpm">gated-R3_6Alpha_2-1.src.rpm</a>

<P>	Here's a threaded archive of the 'gated' users mailing list:

<a
href="http://nic.merit.edu/mail.archives/html/gated-people/threads.html">Gated-People
Archive</a>

	Here's an odd note about an alternative routing software
	package/project:

<a href="http://www.ra.net/route.server.html"> Route Servers -- RA.net:
routing arbiter project</a>

<P>	Hope that helps.
<P>
--
Jim



<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="pop"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
Security Problems with pop3 of Linux 2.1.29
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: Sam Hillman <a href="mailto:hillman@easyway.net">hillman@easyway.net</a><br>
</B><P><B>

Well I hope I'm posting to the right person. I have two questions, which
I hope you can answer.

1. How do I setup my linux machine as a POP3 server? I can't find any
FAQs or Howtos.

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>


	Usually you don't have to do anything extra to allow access
	to POP services.  Most Linux distributions include a pop server
	pre-installed and appearing in the /etc/inetd.conf and /etc/services
	files.

<P>	A quick test is to login to the system in question and type
	the command:

		<pre>telnet localhost pop-3</pre>

	... it should respond with something like:

	<pre>+OK your.hostname .... (some copyright info)</pre>

	... and you can type QUIT to get out of that.


<p>	If that doesn't work you'll want to make sure that the
	appropriate lines appear in your /etc/services and /etc/inetd.conf
	files like so:
<pre>
/etc/services:
pop-3		110/tcp	# PostOffice V.3
pop		110/tcp	# PostOffice V.3

/etc/inetd.conf:
pop-3   stream  tcp     nowait  root    /usr/sbin/tcpd	ipop3d</pre>

<P>	If they appear commented out -- remove the leading hash
	sign(s) (or paste these samples in) and restart your 
	inetd with a command like:

<pre>kill -HUP `cat /var/run/inetd.pid`</pre>


<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

2. When I log on to my ISP, I download my mail and it gets dumped to the
sendmail, this creates a situation where the mail is bounced back and
forth until it passes the hop limit and is dumped as an error message in
the postmaster box, and a nasty letter is send to the originator from
MAILER-DEMON... I think this maybe because I'm running a local area
network between my two machines, the IP address of the local net is
162.blah.blah... But I also have the IP address the ISP gave me in the
host file.

If the ISP's IP address is the problem can I remove it from the host
file, and just get a duynamic IP when I connect?

Thanks in advance!

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	This is a bigger problem.  First the 162.*.*.* is probably
	not what you want to use for you disconnected LAN.  There is
	an RFC 1918 (originally RFC 1597) which describes and reserves
	a set of addresses for "non-Internet" use.  These are guaranteed
	not to collide with any valid (routable) hosts on the 'net.

	Here's the list of those addresses:

<pre>	192.168.*.*  (255 class C address blocks)
		172.16.*.* through 172.31.*.* (15 class B address blocks)
		10.*.*.*  (one class A address block)</pre>

	... use those however you like.  Be sure to keep them behind your
	own routers (make any hosts with those go through an IP masquerading
	or NAT -- network address translation -- router, or through a 
	SOCKS or other proxy server).

<P>	The next problem is configuring sendmail for use on a 
	disconnected system.  You probably need to define your
	hostname (or an alias to your hostname) to match what your
	ISP has named you.  Each ISP seems to use a different way to 
	manage these "disconnected sendmail subdomains" -- with no
	standardization in site (which is why I use UUCP).

	I gather that some people use a scheme where they only run
	sendmail when they are connected.  The rest of the time 
	their MUA (mail user agents like elm, pine, mh-e, exmh, etc)
	just drop outgoing mail into the mqueue directory where
	'sendmail' will get to it later.

	One problem I have with these configurations is that
	sendmail wants to look up these remote hosts.  This 
	seems to cause various problems for users of "disconnected" 
	or "periodically connected" (dial-up) systems.  

	So far the only solutions I've found are:

	   recompile sendmail without DNS support (there used to 
	   be a sendmail.cf switch that disabled DNS and reverse DNS 
	   activity in sendmail -- but that doesn't seem to work any more)

	   use UUCP.  UUCP was designed for disconnected (dial-up)
	   and polling systems.  It's what I use.  The disadvantage
	   to UUCP is that it's a bit hard to set up the first time
	   -- and you have to find a provider that's willing to 
	   be your MX/SMTP to UUCP gateway.  There are still some
	   people out there where will do this for free or at only
	   a nominal fee.  But they are increasingly hard to find.

	   I use a2i Communications in San Jose.  You could use 
	   a non-local provider if you want to use UUCP over TCP
	   as the transport mechanism (UUCP is pretty flexible 
	   about the underlying transports -- you could probably
	   use tin cans and string as far as its concerned).


<P>	There are several HOWTO's that try to cover this topic.
	Try browsing through some of these:
<UL>
<LI><a href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.html">ISP Hookup HOWTO</a>: Basic introduction to hooking up to an ISP.  
<LI><a href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Mail-HOWTO.html">Electronic Mail HOWTO</a>: Information on Linux-based mail servers and clients.
<LI><a href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/Mail-Queue">Mail Queue mini-HOWTO</a>: How to queue remote mail and deliver local mail.
<LI><a href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/Offline-Mailing">Offline Mailing mini-HOWTO</a>: How to set up email addresses without a dedicated Internet connection.
<LI><a href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/UUCP-HOWTO.html">UUCP HOWTO</a>: Information on UUCP software for Linux.
<LI><a
href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/Sendmail+UUCP">Sendmail+UUCP
mini-HOWTO</a>: How to use sendmail and UUCP together.
</UL><P>
--
Jim 

<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

Thanks so much for the detailed suggestions. We have installed a newer version of pop3 on our server for now and we will look into the feasibility of implementing some of your suggestions for a final cure.
Thanks again, James, we really appreciate it.

<br>-Sam Hillman, Service Manager, Easyway Communications.
</B>


<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="crypt"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
Cryptographic System
</h3>
<P> <B>
From:Emil Laurentiu <a href="mailto:emil@interlog.com">emil@interlog.com</a>
</B><P><B>
Hello Jim,

</B><P><B>Sorry for bothering you but I would apreciate a lot an answer
even a short one like 'no' :)
I am (desperately) searching a crypographic system for my Linux box.
I am already using TCFS but I'm not very happy with it for several
reasons: it is slow, I experienced some data loss, must use the
login password, cannot share encypted files with other users,
NFS - increses security riscs.
And the people in Italy seemed to have stoped work on this project
(latest version is dated february).

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

February doesn't seem that old.

<P>	Are you sure you're using the latest TCFS (v 2.0.1)?
	You can find that at: <a
href="http://pegaso.globenet.it/~ermmau/tcfs/">http://pegaso.globenet.it</a>
	(which is a web form leading to an HTTPS page -- so use
	and SSL capable browser to get there).

<P>	If you find it slow than any other decent encryption
	is also likely to be too slow for you.

<P>	You could look at <a
href="http://www.replay.com">http://www.replay.com</a> (in the Netherlands).
	This has the best collection of cryptography software I've
	seen anywhere.

<P>	The two fs level alternatives to TCFS are CFS (Matt Blaze's
	work, on which TCFS was based) and userfs (which support a
	few different user-level filesystem types including an
	experimental cryptographic one.
<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

I am wondering if you know anything about an encryption at the
file system level. Something like SecureDrive (from DOS :) which
did IDEA encryption on the fly at sector level for a partition and
was very fast.


</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	Are you sure SecureDrive is using IDEA? I rather doubt
	that.

<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

As an (almost) single user on my linux machine something like this
would be more apropriate.
Of course if I would not find one I'll finish by writing it by myself.
My only concern is that I've been a Linux user only for half a year
and I did not get the chance to study the kernel to well (this will
be a good opportunity :)


</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	Why not pick up on the TCFS or CFS work? Why not
	build on the userfs work (plugging in whatever encryption
	you like)?

<P>	Why write it "by yourself" when you can collaborate with
	other members of the Linux community as they have done
	to bring you Linux itself, and as the FSF and others have
	done to bring you the GNU packages which turn Linux into a
	full OS?

<P>	What you asking for doesn't need any support at the kernel
	level. userfs and CFS already have shown that. The Linux
	kernel already support a robust and open filesystems interface
	(which support more different filesystem types than any other
	-- with read-only support for HPFS, NTFS, BSD and Sun UFS/FFS,
	and support for HFS (Mac), ext2fs, xiafs, Minix, and many others.

<P>	If you're a competant programmer (which I am not, BTW) you
	should be able to trivially take the sources for any of the
	existing filesystem modules and hack together your own
	with the encryption support of your choice. How secure the
	result will be will be a matter of your skills -- and should
	be greatly improved by peer review (by publishing your work
	for all to see).

<P>	Naturally if you are in a free country you can share your
	work on cryptography with the world. However the USA doesn't
	appear to currently be free in this particular respect --
	please find a congress critter to vote out of office if this
	oppresses you.
<P>
--
Jim


<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="ref"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
An Interesting De-Referencing Problem
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: Kevbo <a href="mailto:simitar@lvnworth.com">simitar@lvnworth.com</a><br>

</B><P><B>Here's the brain teaser I read about and promptly forgot the solution
(because I thought it would never happen to me). How does one delete
a FILE named ".."  
I have the following at the root directory.
</B><ul>
<li>/.   	a dir (which is normal)
<li>/..	a dir (which is normal)
<li>/..	a file (which is not normal)
</ul>
<P><B>How this happened I don't know. How to remove this not-bothering-me file
has me stumped. Got an answer?


</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	I suspect that this file is actually named something
	like: "/.. " (note the trailing space!).

<P>	In any event you can remove this with a command like

<pre>	find / -type f -maxdepth 1 -name '..*' -print0 | xargs -0 rm
-i</pre>

<P>	Note: you must use the GNU versions of find, xargs, and rm
	to ensure that these features (-print0, -0, and -i) are
	available. (They may be available in other implmentations --
	but you must check first).

<P>	The find parameters here specify files (not directories,
	symlinks, device nodes, sockets, or FIFO's) and force it
	to only search the named directory (or directories if you
	list more than just /). The -print0 force it to be written
	as a null-terminated strings (thus the receive process on
	the other end of the pipe must be able to properly interpret
	null-terminated arguments -- which is what the -0 to xargs
	accomplishes).

<P>	As far as I know there is no way to legally get a NUL character
	into a Unix filename. (Using a hex editor might get one in there
	-- but fsck would probably complain on its next pass).

<P>	The <tt>-i</tt> on rm is just a little extra protection to prevent
	any other unexpected side effects. It forces rm to interactively
	inquire about each argument before removing it.
<P>
--
Jim

<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="remind"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
Reminder!
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: George Read <a
href="mailto:gread-berkeley@worldnet.att.net">gread-berkeley@worldnet.att.net</a><br>
</B><P><B>


I am a subscriber to caldera-users, but as a rank newbie, 99% of what
gets posted is irrelevant to my situation and over my head. In fact,
I'm looking for some real basic, preliminary information:

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	Perhaps you should consider some avenue of paid support.
	there are a number of consultants and even a 900 support
	line.

<P>	Also, if you have access to IRC there are a few #Linux
	"channels." (If you've never heard of IRC -- or Internet
	Relay Chat -- then think of it as an online CB system --
	similar to the "chatboards" and "chat lines" on various
	BBS' and online services (like CompuServe and AOL)). Granted
	IRC is a bear to figure out -- and 99.9% of what's written there
	is even less relevant or comprehensible than the traffic on
	this list. However the feedback is immediate and there are
	some people who will take time out from their usual chat
	aggenda to help.

<P>	There's also that pesky "Answer Guy" from Linux Gazette ;)
	(but he's too ornery and doesn't help with X Windows stuff
	at all).


<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
1. A way to create a primary Linux partition on a drive that is entirely
occupied by a dos active and a dos extended partition. The extended
partition has 400MB available that does not have any data on it, but LISA
2.3 does not wish to give it a primary partition.

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

You have three choices here. You can repartition the drive
	using traditional methods (backup your data, reformat, re-install
	DOS and all applications, restore data). You can repartition
	using FIPS (a non-destructives partitioning program for DOS --
	written by Linux or FreeBSD users from what I gather). If you
	use FIPS the process goes something like: do a backup, verify
	your backup, unfragment you DOS partitions, run CHKDSK and/or
	Norton Disk Doctor and/or SCANDISK, then run FIPS.

<P>	Another approach -- and the only one I know of that doesn't
	involve repartitioning -- is to use MiniLinux or DOSLinux or
	XDenu. These distributions (of which DOSLinux is the most
	recent and must up-to-date) are designed to run on a UMSDOS
	partition (an MSDOS partition mounted under Linux with
	support for some Unix semantics). You would be running COL
	-- but you would be running Linux.

<P>	You can find information about DOSLinux at Kent Robotti's
	home page:
	
<a
href="ftp://wauug.erols.com/pub/people/kent-robotti/doslinux/index.html">ftp://wauug.erols.com/pub/people/kent-robotti/doslinux/index.html</a>

	(Kent is the creator and maintainer of DOSLinux).
<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

2. a workaround to a problem with RAWRITE3: I can't see my COL Base cdrom
on a Nakamichi MDR7 jukebox that is controlled by a BusLogic 946C, because
Autoprobe can't find anything and I can't get RAWRITE3 to write MODULES.IMG
to a floppy on A:.

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	Have you tried supplying the "max_scsi_luns=7" parameter
	to the kernel during the bootup sequence (at the LILO prompt).

<P>	Normal SCSI controllers support up to 7 devices. It is
	possible for these controllers to refer to "Logical Units"
	on any/all of these devices. These "logical unit numbers"
	or LUN's aren't very common -- but are used by CD changers
	(which is why most of them are limited to 6 or 7 CD's) and
	some tape changes (though those usually use a different
	mechanism to control tape changes and ejections) and some
	RAID subsystems and CD-ROM "towers."

<P>	I have a NEC 7 platter CD changer which requires this parameter.
	This suggestion assumes that the problem is isolated to the
	CD drive -- and that your kernel (LISA's) is seeing the BusLogic
	card. If the problem is that you can't even see the SCSI controller
	-- then you probably want to look for an alternative boot/root
	diskette set and boot from that.

<P>	One of the nice things about user's groups is that you can
	often have the phone numbers of some local Linux users that
	will cut you a custom kernel on request and let you pick up
	the floppy. I'd highly recommend finding (or starting)
	a local LUG. I've occasionally had people come over to my
	place where we could plug them onto my ethernet and suck
	all the free software they want across from one of my systems.

<P>	(Which reminds me -- I've been meaning to get PLIP working
	for a couple of years now -- I should really get around to
	that).
<P<B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

For these reasons, I ask: Is there any way to ask caldera-user users for
some help on these two questions, sent to my own email address, and not have
to read 20 or 30 messages that I can't profit from, at least until I get COL
up and running. I had hoped from the name that Post-Only might be such an
address, but I see that it is something very different.

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	Caldera has some support options. I think some of them are
	extra cost items. Have you called them about your Caldera
	specific questions?

<P>	At first blush it doesn't look like Caldera's COL is the
	best Linux distribution for your needs. If you're intent
	on using COL -- and particularly if you have a business
	need for Linux -- I'd recommend going out and buying an
	additional drive. For a couple hundred bucks (US) you can
	get a 2Gig external SCSI drive (www.corpsys.com if you don't
	have a suitable vendor handy).

<P>	Even if you're just experimenting with Linux and don't want
	to "commit" to it -- an extra external SCSI drive with
	a couple of Gig of space is a handy investment for just about
	ANY operating system. It's pretty convenient to connect
	the extra drive, and just make a copy of everything from your
	main system.

<P>	If your time is worth more than $20/hr you can easily make
	the case for buying a $200 to $300 hard drive. Doing full
	system and data backups, and verifying them prior to
	repartitioning can be pretty time consuming. Even if you
	already have a scheduled backup habit (let's face it --
	most don't) and even if you have a regular recovery test
	plan (which almost nobody bothers with -- often to their
	detriment!) -- doing a major system change (like repartitioning)
	almost requires an extra "full" backup and test cycle.

<P>	(I have customers who've run the cost vs. time numbers
	for their situations and justified buying a full system and
	hired me to do the configuration on the same basis. The
	"extra" system becomes part of the recovery plan for major
	system disasters).
<P>
--
Jim

<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="pcmcia"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
pcmcia ide Drives
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: Alan C. Sklar <a href="mailto:CS266446@wcupa.edu">CS266446@wcupa.edu</a><br>
</B><P><B>
I am trying to install a pcmcia drive through a kit I purchased.. I got
the drive all ready I formatted it with a desktop machine and bot my win
95 and linux partitions are defiend... But now when I go and boot linux
I send the commad ide2=0x170 and it loads it identifies the right drive
but I get all sort of errors... Can you help? <br>
C. Alan Sklar	

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	I don't have enough information to help with this one.
	Is this a laptop or a desktop with a PCMCIA adapter
	installed? In either event what is the make/model
	of the system?

<P>	Do you have PCMCIA support installed and built into the
	kernel? What modules do you have loaded? What does your
	/etc/pcmcia/config.opts file look like? What type of
	hard drive is this (make and model)?
<P>
--
Jim

<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="kde"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
KDE BETA 1
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: Eric Wood <a
href="mailto:eric@interplas.com>eric@interplas.com">eric@interplas.com</a><br>
</B><P><B>
This should be the most handy tip known to man!
If a certain application (I don't care what it is) complains about
missing a library and you know that
the library it's wanting is in a certain directory THEN:
</B>
<ol>
<li>Add *that* directory to the /etc/ld.so.conf file.
<li>Rerun /sbin/ldconfig
</ol>

<P><B>That's it. What is does is it tells Linux to search the directories
specified in /etc/ld.so.conf
for library files. Forget about the stupid LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable.
Everyone: Please read the
ld.so man page for further knowledge.
<br>
Eric Wood

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	I recently trashed my /etc/ld.so.cache file and
	had forgotten how to fix it (since the last time
	I'd had a damaged ld.so.cache was on an old Sun
	a couple of years ago -- and I've never had one on
	a Linux box before.

<P>	Post that to your tech support archives:

<P>		System hangs on boot -- even with -b and
		single switches -- or it gives messages
		like "unable to open ls.so.cache" in a
		seemingly endless stream:

<pre>		Run /sbin/ldconfig!</pre>
<P>
--
Jim

<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="program"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
Compression Program
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: Cygnus <a
href="mailto:caldera-users@rim.caldera.com">caldera-users@rim.caldera.com</a><br>
</B><P><B>

Anyone know of any programs for linux that decompress multi-part
(multi-disk) .zip archives? I can't find a one.

<br>-Cygnus

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	Most Linux distributions come with the free zip/unzip
	package. Here's the -L (license) notice from my Red Hat
	4.2

<P>"Copyright (C) 1990-1996 Mark Adler, Richard B. Wales, Jean-loup Gailly
Onno van der Linden and Kai Uwe Rommel. Type 'zip -L' for the software License.

<P>Permission is granted to any individual or institution to use, copy, or
redistribute this executable so long as it is not modified and that it is
not sold for profit."

<P>	I think there's a source package for "Info-zip" also floating
	around. I don't know if this is Info-zip or an independent
	version -- looking in /usr/doc/unzip*/COPYING I find Mr. Rommel
	listed -- and that document is definitely about Info-zip.

<P>	For the future you might try the 'locate' command -- which is
	fairly common among Linux distributions. The command:

<pre>		locate zip</pre>

<P>	... will quickly find every file with "zip" in the name or path
	that was on your system during the last "updatedb" run
	(which is typically a cron job that's run nightly).
<P>
--
Jim

<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="loadlin2"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
loadlin
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: Scott Williams<a href="mailto:scott@gyst.net">scott@gyst.net</a><br>
</B><P><B>
Answer guy,

To run LOADLIN I need to have a copy of the LINUX kernel on one of my
dos partitions, and an initial swap space. No where can I find an
actual explaination on how to do this correctly.

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	You don't need an initial swap space to run LOADLIN or
	to load the kernel. If you have 8Mb or more of RAM you
	don't "need" to have a swap space at all -- but you'll
	probably want one.

	You can swap to a file or a partition -- or even several
	of each. Assuming that you don't have Linux installed
	yet you can view man pages for most Linux/GNU commands,
	functions, packages, and configuration files at:
	<a href="http://www.ssc.com/linux/man.html">http://www.ssc.com/linux/man.html</a>

<P>	... in particular you want to read the mkswap(1) and the
	swapon(8).  The man pages there are accessed via a
	CGI script so you have to post data to a form to access
	the individual pages. Thus I can't give URL's directly
	to the pages in question. That's an unfortunate design
	decision by the web master at SSC -- it would be more
	convenient to access (and cause less server load and
	latency) if they used a cron job to periodically update
	a tree of static HTML pages and saved the CGI just for
	searching them.

<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

Every time I try to copy the kernel to a dos diskette, Linux overwrites
the formatting. DOS then cannot recognize the file from the LOADLIN
command.

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

It sounds like you're using 'dd' or RAWRITE.EXE to prepare
	these diskettes. That's fine for transferring boot/root images
	-- but has nothing to do with LOADLIN. To use LOADLIN.EXE
	you copy the kernel image to a plain old DOS file.
<P><B><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">

I haven't even gotten far enough to think about creating an initial swap
space...
Any advice on the subject?
	
<br>Scott

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	I'd consider getting a copy of DOSLinux from
	ftp://ftp.waaug.erols.com/pub/people/kent-robotti/doslinux.html
	(Yes there are still some people out there serving HTML
	pages via FTP -- nothing in the HTML spec *requires* that
	HTTP be used as the transport mechanism).

<P>	Kent Robotti has been working on this distribution for
	awhile. It takes about 32Mb of space on a DOS partition
	-- and comes as a set of six 1.44Mb files (so if fits on a
	half dozen diskettes). You then add a kernel for SCSI or
	IDE use.

<P>	Basically DOSLinux works like this. You get all the
	RAR files (RAR is a Russian Archiving Program like
	PKZIP, SEA ARC, ARJ, LHARC, ZOO, or whatever). The first
	image is a self-extracting file (an archive which is linked
	with a DOS binary of the decompression program -- a common
	DOS technique among archiving programs). You put these
	all in a given directory and run the self-extractor
	(DOSLNX49.EXE as I write this -- it was at "48" a couple
	weeks ago) from C:\.  It thenn extracts all of these images
	to C:\LINUX directory.

<P>	This provides a complete (though minimal) Linux distribution.
	It also shows how to configure a system to use LOADLIN with
	a UMSDOS root partition.

<P>	I realize that you may be intending on use something like
	Red Hat, Slackware, or Debian on a third hard drive, or a
	removable drive or some other device that LILO just can't
	see (because you BIOS can't "see" it). You can do that --
	and I've done in many times (I first used LOADLIN in about
	1994 for exactly that purpose -- with the magneto optical
	drive I still use). However, if the README's and examples
	that come out of the LOADLIN package aren't helping you
	use if for that purpose -- than installing DOSLinux may
	help get you rolling and serve as a vang DOSLinux may
	help get you rolling and serve as a valuable example.

--
Jim


<p><hr><p>
<!--================================================================-->

<a name="wipe"></a>
<h3><img align=bottom alt=" " src="../gx/ques.gif">
WipeOut
</h3>
<P> <B>
From: Falko Braeutigam <a
href="mailto:falko@softwarebuero.de">falko@softwarebuero.de</a>
</B><P><B>

Hi,

in Linux Gazette Issue 22 there was a question about the WipeOut IDE.
Your answer was that you never heard about WipeOut :-( Please check
ShortBytes of Issue #19 - there is an announcement of WipeOut.

WipeOut has nothing to do with xwpe. It _is_ an IDE for C++ and Java.
There is just a new release ->
<a
href="http://www.softwarebuero.de/index-eng.html">http://www.softwarebuero.de/index-eng.html</a>.

<br>Regards,<br>
Falko

</B><P>
<img src="../gx/ans.gif" alt="" border=0 align=middle>

	This definitely counts as my biggest flub in the
	10 months that I've been writing this column. I've
	gotten about 10 messages correcting me on this point.
<P>
--
Jim

<!--================================================================-->
<P> <hr> <P>
<center><H4>Previous "Answer Guy" Columns</H4></center>
<P> 
<A HREF="../issue13/answer.html">Answer Guy #1, January 1997</A><BR>
<A HREF="../issue14/answer.html">Answer Guy #2, February 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue15/answer.html">Answer Guy #3, March 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue16/answer.html">Answer Guy #4, April 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue17/answer.html">Answer Guy #5, May 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue18/lg_answer18.html">Answer Guy #6, June 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue19/lg_answer19.html">Answer Guy #7, July 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue20/lg_answer20.html">Answer Guy #8, August 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue21/lg_answer21.html">Answer Guy #9, September 1997</A><br>
<A HREF="../issue22/lg_answer22.html">Answer Guy #10, October 1997</A>
<P><HR><P>
<center><H5>Copyright &copy; 1997, James T. Dennis <BR>
Published in Issue 23 of the Linux Gazette December 1997</H5></center>

<P> <hr> <P>
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