Linux-Misc Digest #379, Volume #24 Sat, 6 May 00 14:13:02 EDT
Contents:
Linux Frequently Asked Questions with Answers (Part 2 of 6)
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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Crossposted-To: news.answers,comp.answers
Subject: Linux Frequently Asked Questions with Answers (Part 2 of 6)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 06 May 2000 18:03:31 GMT
Archive-Name: linux/faq/part2
URL: http://www.mainmatter.com/
Reply-to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Posting-Frequency: weekly
Last-modified: 05/06/2000
_________________________________________________________________
3. Network Sources and Resources
3.1. Where Can I Get the Latest Kernel Version?
Make that versions. The 2.0. series kernels are still available for
older machines. Following Linus's even/odd versioning scheme, the
latest production kernel is 2.2.x. The updates to this kernel are bug
fixes. Active development is proceeding on the 2.3.x versions of the
kernel, and a feature freeze has recently been announced for the 2.4
series production kernels.
Linux kernel version 2.2. was released on January 25, and a bug fix
version 2.2.1 was released several days later. New versions are always
being released. The kernel contains numerous improvements in features
and performance compared to the kernel versions 2.0.x.
Among the 2.2 kernel's many improvements are a video frame buffer,
faster (although bigger) memory management, support for more hardware
devices, improved security, and improved POSIX compatibility. The
Linux kernel, in many of these instances, is superior to commercial
OS's.
To read more about the features in kernel version 2.2.x, the
unofficial, draft press releases are located at
http://www.tip.net.au/~edlang/linux/linux2.2pr.html.
If you want to download the source code, FTP to ftp.xx.kernel.org,
where "xx" is the two-letter Internet domain abbreviation of your
country; e.g., "us" for United States, "ca" for Canada, or "de" for
Germany. Kernel versions 2.2.x are archived in the directory
pub/linux/kernel/v2.2, as are patches for the prerelease versions. The
kernel source code is archived as a .tar.gz file, and as a .tar.bz2
file.
Follow the instructions in any of the standard references to compile
the 2.2 kernel, as you would with any other custom kernel. The
Documentation subdirectory also contains information by the authors of
various subsystems and drivers, and much of that information is not
documented elsewhere.
If you want to participate in kernel development, the latest 2.3
version kernels are available from ftp.kernel.org as well. Make sure
you sign on to the linux-kernel mailing list to find out what people
are working on. ("What Mailing Lists Are There?")
There is a story about the features of the 2.4 series kernels at
http://features.linuxtoday.com/stories/8191.html.
_________________________________________________________________
3.2. Where Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation?
Look in the following places, and the sites that mirror them.
* http://www.linuxdoc.org/
* ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/OS/Linux/doc/HOWTO/
* ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/docs/HOWTO/
* ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/
For a list of Linux FTP sites, see, ("Where Can I Get Linux Material
by FTP?")
If you don't have access to FTP, try the FTP-by-mail servers at
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], or
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED].
A complete list of HOWTO's and Mini-HOWTO's is available in the file
HOWTO-INDEX in the docs/HOWTO directory at the FTP sites, and on the
Web at http://www.linuxdoc.org/, but here is a (probably incomplete)
list of topics:
3Dfx AI-Alife AX25
Access Alpha Assembly
Bash Prompt Belgian Benchmarking
Beowulf BootPrompt Bootdisk
Busmouse CD Writing CDROM
CVS RCS Chinese Commercial
Config Consultants Cyrillic
DNS DOS/Win to Linux DOSEMU
Danish Diskless Distribution
Ecology Emacs Beginner Emacspeak
Esperanto Ethernet Finnish
Firewall Framebuffer Ftape
GCC German Glibc2
HOWTO Hardware Compatibility Hebrew
Hellenic INFO-SHEET IP Masquerade
IPCHAINS IPX IR
ISP Hookup Ingres II Installation
Intranet Server Italian Java-CGI
Jaz Drive Kernel KickStart
Keyboard and Console Kiosk LDAP
Large Disk LinuxDoc+Emacs+Ispell META-FAQ
Loopback Encrypted File System MGR
MILO MIPS MP3
Mail Mail User Modem
Majordomo and MajorCool Multi-Disk
Multicast Mutt GnuPGP Networking
NIS Networking Overview Optical Disk
Online Troubleshooting Resources Oracle
PCI PCMCIA PLIP Install
PPP PalmOS Plug and Play
Parallel Processing Polish Portuguese
PostgreSQL Printing Printing Usage
Quake Reading List Root RAID
SCSI Programming SMB SMP
SRM Security Serbian
Serial Serial Programming Slovenian
Shadow Password Software Building Software RAID
Software Release Practice Sound
Sound Playing Spanish TclTk
teTeX Text-Terminal Thai
Tips Turkish UMSDOS
UPS UUCP Unicode
Unix and Internet Fundamentals User Group
VAR VME Vim Editor
VPN-Masquerade Virtual Services WWW
WWWmSQL Wacom Tablet XFree86
XFree86 Video Timings X Window User
The following Mini-HOWTO's are available from
http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/:
3 Button Mouse mini-HOWTO
ADSM Backup mini-HOWTO
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop (ADSL) mini-HOWTO
AI-Alife mini-HOWTO
Advocacy mini-HOWTO
Alsa Sound mini-HOWTO
Apache SSL PHP/FI frontpage mini-HOWTO
Automount mini-HOWTO
Backup with MSDOS mini-HOWTO
Battery Powered mini-HOWTO
Boca mini-HOWTO
BogoMips mini-HOWTO
Bridge mini-HOWTO
Bridge+Firewall mini-HOWTO
Bzip2 mini-HOWTO
Cable Modem mini-HOWTO
Cipe+Masquerading mini-HOWTO
Clock mini-HOWTO
Coffee mini-HOWTO
Colour ls mini-HOWTO
Cyrus IMAP mini-HOWTO
DHCP mini-HOWTO
DPT Hardware RAID mini-HOWTO
Diald mini-HOWTO
Ext2fs Undeletion mini-HOWTO
Fax Server mini-HOWTO
Firewall Piercing mini-HOWTO
GIS-GRASS mini-HOWTO
GTEK BBS-550 mini-HOWTO
Hard Disk Upgrade mini-HOWTO
IO Port Programming mini-HOWTO
IP Alias mini-HOWTO
IP Masquerade mini-HOWTO
IP Subnetworking mini-HOWTO
ISP Connectivity mini-HOWTO
Install From ZIP mini-HOWTO
Kerneld mini-HOWTO
LBX mini-HOWTO
LILO mini-HOWTO
Large Disk mini-HOWTO
Leased Line mini-HOWTO
Linux+DOS+Win95+OS2 mini-HOWTO
Linux+FreeBSD mini-HOWTO
Linux+NT-Loader mini-HOWTO
Linux+Win95 mini-HOWTO
Loadlin+Win95 mini-HOWTO
Mac Terminal mini-HOWTO
Mail Queue mini-HOWTO
Mail2News mini-HOWTO
Man Page mini-HOWTO
Modules mini-HOWTO
Multiboot using LILO mini-HOWTO
NCD X Terminal mini-HOWTO
NFS-Root mini-HOWTO
NFS-Root-Client mini-HOWTO
Netrom-Node mini-HOWTO
Netscape+Proxy mini-HOWTO
Netstation mini-HOWTO
News Leafsite mini-HOWTO
Offline Mailing mini-HOWTO
PLIP mini-HOWTO
Partition mini-HOWTO
Partition Rescue mini-HOWTO
Path mini-HOWTO
Pre-installation Checklist mini-HOWTO
Process Accounting mini-HOWTO
Proxy ARP Subnet mini-HOWTO
Public Web Browser mini-HOWTO
Qmail+MH mini-HOWTO
Quota mini-HOWTO
RCS mini-HOWTO
RPM+Slackware mini-HOWTO
RedHat CD mini-HOWTO
Remote Boot mini-HOWTO
Remote X Apps mini-HOWTO
SLIP-PPP Emulator mini-HOWTO
Sendmail Address Rewrite mini-HOWTO
Sendmail+UUCP mini-HOWTO
Secure POP via SSH mini-HOWTO
Small Memory mini-HOWTO
Software RAID mini-HOWTO
Soundblaster AWE mini-HOWTO
StarOffice mini-HOWTO
Term Firewall mini-HOWTO
TkRat mini-HOWTO
Token Ring mini-HOWTO
Ultra-DMA mini-HOWTO
Update mini-HOWTO
Upgrade mini-HOWTO
VAIO mini-HOWTO
Vesafb mini-HOWTO
VPN mini-HOWTO
Visual Bell mini-HOWTO
Windows Modem Sharing mini-HOWTO
WordPerfect mini-HOWTO
X Big Cursor mini-HOWTO
XFree86-XInside mini-HOWTO
xterm Title mini-HOWTO
ZIP Install mini-HOWTO
ZIP Drive mini-HOWTO
The following HOWTO's are not distributed in all formats because SGML
Tools cannot format their graphics and tables:
The High Availability HOWTO The Graphics mini-HOWTO
In addition, translations of the HOWTO's are available from
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/translations/ and mirrors
worldwide. Translations in the following languages are available:
Chinese (zh) Croatian (hr) French (fr)
German (de) Hellenic (el) Indonesian (id)
Italian (it) Japanese (ja) Korean (ko)
Polish (pl) Slovenian (sl) Spanish (es)
Swedish (sv) Turkish (tr)
More of these documents are always in preparation. Please get in touch
with Timothy Bynum, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], the HOWTO
coordinator, if you are interested in writing one. The file
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX contains guidelines
for writing a HOWTO. He has a Web page that lists current HOWTO
updates and additions at
http://wallybox.cei.net/~tjbynum/HOWTO/projects.
There is also a LDP HOWTO page at http://howto.tucows.org/.
The Guide Series produced by the Linux Documentation Project is
available from http://www.linuxdoc.org/. Please read them if you are
new to Unix and Linux.
And, of course, a number of people have written documentation
independently of the LDP:
* Linux Administrators Security Guide, by Kurt Seifried.
http://www.freek.com/lasg/.
* Newbie's Linux Manual. http://www.linuxdoc.org/nlm/.
* One-Page Linux Manual. http://www.powerup.com.au/~squadron/.
* Short beginners' manual for Linux. Also available in Dutch.
http://www.stuwww.kub.nl/people/b.vannunen/linux-man.php3.
* Virtual Frame buffer HOWTO, by Alex Buell.
http://www.tahallah.demon.co.uk/programming/prog.html.
* X11 & TrueType Fonts, by Peter Kleiweg.
http://www.let.rug.nl/~kleiweg/.
There is a FAQ for Linux kernel developers at
http://www.tux.org/html/.
To find out about Linux memory management, including performance
tuning, see Rik van Riel's Web page at
http://humbolt.geo.uu.nl/Linux-MM/.
The Linux Consultants HOWTO has a directory of Linux consultants at
http://www.linuxports.com/.
Gary's Encyclopedia lists over 4,000 Linux related links. Its URL is
http://members.aa.net/~swear/pedia/index.html.
There is also a FAQ specifically for the Red Hat Linux distribution,
at http://www.best.com/~aturner//RedHat-FAQ/faq_index.html.
And the Home Page of this FAQ (by default, The Linux FAQ) is the
Mainmatter Press, http://www.mainmatter.com/.
_________________________________________________________________
3.3. Where Should I Look on the World Wide Web for Linux Stuff?
In addition to the Linux Documentation Project Home Page
http://www.linuxdoc.org/, there are many pages that provide beginning
and advanced information about Linux.
These two pages provide a good starting point for general Linux
information: Linux International's Home Page, at http://www.li.org/,
and the Linux Online's Linux Home Page at http://www.linux.org/.
Both of these pages provide links to other sites, information about
general information, distributions, new software, documentation, and
news.
The tutorial, Unix is a Four Letter Word..., is located at
http://www.linuxbox.com/~taylor/4ltrwrd/. It is a general
introduction to Unix operating systems and is not Linux specific.
Additionally, here is a certainly incomplete list of Web pages devoted
to Linux:
* AboutLinux.com. http://www.aboutlinux.com/.
* Adventures in Linux Programming.
http://members.xoom.com/rpragana/.
* Dave Central Linux Software Archive.
http://linux.davecentral.com/.
* Ext2 File System capabilities (draft).
http://pocket.fluff.org/~mrw/linux/ext2.txt.
* Free Unix Giveaway List. http://visar.csustan.edu/giveaway.html.
Lists offers of free Linux CDs. Also available via E-mail:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], with the Subject: send
giveaway_list.
* Information on Linux in corporate environments.
http://www.smartstocks.com/linux.html.
* Jeanette Russo's Linux Newbie Information.
http://www.stormloader.com/jrusso2/index.html.
* JustLinux.com. http://www.justlinux.com/.
* LinuxArtist.org. http://www.linuxartist.org/.
* Linux Cartoons.
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~conradp/linux/cartoons/.
* linuXChiX.org. http://www.linuxchix.org/.
* Linux Educational Needs Posting Page.
http://www.slip.net/~brk/linuxedpp.htm.
* Linux in Business: Case Studies.
www.bynari.com/collateral/case_studies.html.
* Linux Inside. http://linuxinside.org/.
* Linux Links. http://www.linuxlinks.com/.
* Linux Memory Management Home Page.
http://humbolt.geo.uu.nl/Linux-MM/.
* Linux Newbie Project. http://kusma.hypermart.net/.
* Linux on the Thinkpad 760ED. http://www.e-oasis.com/linux-tp.html.
* Linux Parallel Port Home Page.
http://www.torque.net/linux-pp.html.
* Linux MIDI & Sound Applications. http://sound.condorow.net/.
* Linux Start. http://www.linuxstart.com/.
* Linux Tips and Tricks Page. http://www.patoche.org/LTT/.
* Linux Today PR. http://www.linuxpr.com/.
* My Linux Contributions by Richard Gooch.
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/.
* Micro Channel Linux Web Page. http://www.dgmicro.com/mca/.
* Parallel port scanners and SANE.
http://www2.prestel.co.uk/hex/scanners.html.
* PegaSoft Portal. http://www.vaxxine.com/pegasoft/portal/
* SearchLinux. http://www.searchlinux.com/.
* USB Linux Home Page. http://peloncho.fis.ucm.es/~inaky/uusbd-www/.
* VLUG: The Virtual Linux Users Group. http://www.vlug.com/.
_________________________________________________________________
3.4. What News Groups Are There for Linux?
Comp.os.linux.announce is the moderated announcements group; you
should read this if you intend to use Linux: it contains information
about software updates, new ports, user group meetings, and commercial
products. It is the ONLY newsgroup that may carry commercial postings.
Submissions for that group should be e-mailed to
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED].
Comp.os.linux.announce, however, is not archived on DejaNews or Alta
Vista. The only archive for the news group seems to be
http://www.iki.fi/mjr/linux/cola.html.
[Axel Boldt]
Also worth reading are the following other groups in the
comp.os.linux.* hierarchy--you may find many common problems too
recent for the documentation but are answered in the newsgroups.
* comp.os.linux.advocacy
* comp.os.linux.development.apps
* comp.os.linux.development.system
* comp.os.linux.hardware
* comp.os.linux.m68k
* comp.os.linux.misc
* comp.os.linux.networking
* comp.os.linux.setup
* comp.os.linux.x
Remember that Linux is POSIX compatible, and most all of the material
in comp.unix.* and comp.windows.x.* groups will be relevant. Apart
from hardware considerations, and some obscure or very technical
low-level issues, you'll find that these groups are good places to
start.
Please read ("You Still Haven't Answered My Question!") before
posting. Cross posting between different comp.os.linux.* groups is
rarely a good idea.
There may well be Linux groups local to your institution or
area--check there first.
See also ("I Don't Have Usenet Access. Where Do I Get Information?")
Other regional and local newsgroups also exist--you may find the
traffic more manageable there. The French Linux newsgroup is
fr.comp.os.linux. The German one is de.comp.os.linux. In Australia,
try aus.computers.linux. In Croatia there is hr.comp.linux. In Italy,
there is it.comp.linux.
_________________________________________________________________
3.5. What Other FAQ's Are There for Linux?
There are a number of special-interest FAQ's on different subjects
that are related to Linux administration and use. Here are a few of
them:
* A FAQ for new users.
http://homes.arealcity.com/swietanowski/LinuxFAQ/.
* GNU Emacs. http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/faq-body.shtml.
* GNU Linux in Science and Engineering.
http://members.home.net/scieng/.
* Gnus 5.x. http://www.ccs.neu.edu/software/contrib/gnus/.
_________________________________________________________________
3.6. Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?
There are three main archive sites for Linux:
* ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/OS/Linux/ (Finland).
* ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/ (US).
* tsx-11.mit.edu//pub/linux/ (US).
The best place to get the Linux kernel is
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/. Linus Torvalds uploads the
most recent kernel versions to this site.
Of the U.S. distributions, Debian GNU/Linux is available at
ftp://ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/. Red Hat Linux's home site is
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/, and Linux Slackware's is
ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/.
The Small Linux distribution, which can run in 2 MB of RAM, is located
at http://smalllinux.netpedia.net/.
The contents of these sites is mirrored (copied, usually approximately
daily) by a number of other sites. Please use a site close to you--it
will be faster for you and easier on the network.
* ftp://ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/linux/sunsite/ (South Africa)
* ftp://ftp.is.co.za/linux/sunsite/ (South Africa).
* ftp://ftp.cs.cuhk.hk/pub/Linux/ (Hong Kong).
* ftp://sunsite.ust.hk/pub/Linux/ (Hong Kong).
* ftp://ftp.spin.ad.jp/pub/linux/ (Japan).
* ftp://ftp.nuri.net/pub/Linux/ (Korea).
* ftp://ftp.jaring.my/pub/Linux/ (Malaysia).
* ftp://ftp.nus.sg/pub/unix/Linux/ (Singapore).
* ftp://ftp.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/linux/ (Thailand).
* ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia).
* ftp://sunsite.anu.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia).
* ftp://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia).
* ftp://ftp.univie.ac.at/systems/linux/sunsite/ (Austria).
* ftp://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/UNIX/linux/ (Czech Republic).
* ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/sunsite/ (Finland).
* ftp://ftp.univ-angers.fr/pub/Linux/ (France).
* ftp://ftp.iut-bm.univ-fcomte.fr/ (France).
* ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (France)
* ftp://ftp.loria.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (France).
* ftp://ftp.dfv.rwth-aachen.de/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Germany).
* ftp://ftp.germany.eu.net/pub/os/Linux/Mirror.SunSITE/(Germany).
* ftp://ftp.tu-dresden.de/pub/Linux/sunsite/ (Germany).
* ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/MIRROR.sunsite/ (Germany).
* ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/mirrors/sunsite/ (Germany).
* ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/linux/mirror.sunsite/ (Germany).
* ftp://ftp.ba-mannheim.de/pub/linux/mirror.sunsite/ (Germany).
* ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/Mirrors/sunsite.unc.edu/(Germany).
* ftp://ftp.uni-rostock.de/Linux/sunsite/ (Germany).
* ftp.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/unix/systems/linux/MIRROR.sunsite/(Ge
rmany).
* ftp://ftp.uni-tuebingen.de/pub/linux/Mirror.sunsite/ (Germany).
* ftp://ftp.kfki.hu/pub/linux/(Hungary).
* ftp://linux.italnet.it/pub/Linux/(Italy).
* ftp://ftp.unina.it/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Italy).
* ftp://giotto.unipd.it/pub/unix/Linux/ (Italy).
* ftp://cnuce-arch.cnr.it/pub/Linux/ (Italy).
* ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/mirror2/metalab.unc.edu/ (Italy).
* ftp://ftp.nijenrode.nl/pub/linux/ (Netherlands).
* ftp://ftp.LeidenUniv.nl/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Netherlands).
* ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Norway).
* ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/Linux/metalab.unc.edu/ (Poland).
* ftp://ftp.rediris.es/software/os/linux/sunsite/ (Spain).
* ftp://sunsite.rediris.es/software/linux/ (Spain).
* ftp://ftp.cs.us.es/pub/Linux/sunsite-mirror/ (Spain).
* ftp://ftp.etse.urv.es/pub/mirror/linux/ (Spain).
* ftp://tp.etsimo.uniovi.es/pub/linux/ (Spain).
* ftp://ftp.luna.gui.es/pub/linux.new/ (Spain).
* ftp://ftp.metu.edu.tr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Turkey).
* ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/sunsite/pub/Linux/ (UK).
* ftp.maths.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/(UK).
* ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/Linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/(UK).
* ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/(UK).
* (UK)
* ftp://ftp.io.org/pub/mirrors/linux/sunsite/ (Canada).
* ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/ (US).
* ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/pub/linux/sunsite/ (US).
* ftp://ftp.siriuscc.com/pub/Linux/Sunsite/ (US).
* ftp://ftp.engr.uark.edu/pub/linux/sunsite/ (US).
* ftp://ftp.infomagic.com/pub/mirrors/linux/sunsite/ (US).
* ftp://linux.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/(Brazil
).
* ftp://farofa.ime.usp.br/pub/linux/ (Brazil).
Please send updates and corrections to this list to the Linux FAQ
maintainer, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Not all of these mirror
all of the other "source" sites, and some have material not
available on the "source" sites.
_________________________________________________________________
3.7. I Don't Have FTP Access. Where Do I Get Linux?
The easiest thing is probably to find a friend with FTP access. If
there is a Linux user's group near you, they may be able to help.
If you have a reasonably good email connection, you could try the
FTP-by-mail servers at mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED],
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], or
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED].
Linux is also available via traditional mail on CD-ROM. The file
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO, and
the file ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Distribution-HOWTO
contain information on these distributions.
_________________________________________________________________
3.8. I Don't Have Usenet Access. Where Do I Get Information?
A digest of comp.os.linux.announce is available by mailing the word
"subscribe" (without the quotes) as the body of a message to
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. Subscribing to
this list is a good idea, as it carries important information and
documentation about Linux.
Please remember to use the *-request addresses for your subscribe and
unsubscribe messages; mail to the other address is posted to the news
group.
_________________________________________________________________
3.9. What Mailing Lists Are There?
The Linux developers now mainly use the Majordomo server at
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. Send a message with the word
"lists" (without the quotes) in the body to get a list of lists there.
Add a line with the word, "help," to get the standard Majordomo help
file that lists instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing to the
lists.
Please do not post off-topic material to the mailing lists. Most of
them are used by Linux developers to talk about technical issues and
future developments. They are not intended for new users' questions,
advertisements, or public postings that are not directly related to
the mailing list's subject matter. Comp.os.linux.announce is the place
for all public announcements. This is a common Internet policy. If you
don't observe this guideline, there's a good chance that you'll be
flamed.
There is a linux-newbie list where, "no question is too stupid."
Unfortunately, it seems that few experienced users read that list, and
it has very low volume.
There are numerous Linux related mailing lists at
http://www.onelist.com/. Go to the categories page and choose
"Linux."
_________________________________________________________________
3.10. Where Are Linux Legal Issues Discussed?
On the linux-legal mailing list, of course. You can subscribe to it,
as with many of the other Linux related lists, by sending a message
with the word "help" in the body of the message to
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED].
_________________________________________________________________
3.11. Are the News Groups Archived Anywhere?
The Usenet Linux news groups are archived at http://www.dejanews.com/,
and http://altavista.digital.com/.
http://www.reference.com/ is unavailable until further notice,
apparently due to lack of support.
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/linux-announce.archive contains
archives of comp.os.linux.announce. These are mirrored from
src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/, which also archives comp.os.linux,
comp.os.linux.development.apps, and comp.os.linux.development.system.
There is an `easy to access' archive of comp.os.linux.announce on the
World Wide Web at http://www.leo.org/archiv/unix/linux/ which supports
searching and browsing.
_________________________________________________________________
3.12. Where Can I Find Out About Security Related Issues?
Look at http://www.rootshell.com/, which has information about
security problems and software.
_________________________________________________________________
4. Compatibility with Other Operating Systems
4.1. Can Linux Share My Disk with DOS? OS/2? 386BSD? Win95?
Yes. Linux uses the standard MS-DOS partitioning scheme, so it can
share your disk with other operating systems. Note, however, that many
other operating systems may not be exactly compatible. DOS's FDISK.EXE
and FORMAT.EXE, for example, can overwrite data in a Linux partition,
because they sometimes incorrectly use partition data from the
partition's boot sector rather than the partition table.
In order to prevent programs from doing this, it is a good idea to
zero out--under Linux--the start of a partition you created, before
you use MS-DOS--or whatever--to format it. Type:
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdXY bs=512 count=1
where hdXY is the relevant partition; e.g., /dev/hda1 for the first
partition of the first (IDE) disk.
Linux can read and write the files on your DOS and OS/2 FAT partitions
and floppies using either the DOS file system type built into the
kernel or mtools. There is kernel support for the VFAT file system
used by Windows 9x and Windows NT.
There is reportedly a GPL'd OS/2 device driver that will read and
write Linux ext2 partitions.
For information about FAT32 partition support, see
http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/fat32.html.
See, ("What Software Does Linux Support?") for details and status of
the emulators for DOS, MS Windows, and System V programs.
See also, "Can Linux access Amiga file systems? ", "Can Linux access
Macintosh file systems? ", "Can Linux access BSD, SysV, etc., UFS? ",
and "Can Linux access SMB file systems? "
There are said to be NTFS drivers under development, which should
support compression as a standard feature.
_________________________________________________________________
4.2. How Do I Access Files on My DOS Partition Or Floppy?
Use the DOS file system, type, for example:
$ mkdir /dos
$ mount -t msdos -o conv=text,umask=022,uid=100,gid=100 /dev/hda3 /dos
If it's a floppy, don't forget to umount it before ejecting it!
You can use the conv=text/binary/auto, umask=nnn, uid=nnn, and gid=nnn
options to control the automatic line-ending conversion, permissions
and ownerships of the files in the DOS file system as they appear
under Linux. If you mount your DOS file system by putting it in your
/etc/fstab, you can record the options (comma-separated) there,
instead of defaults.
Alternatively, you can use mtools, available in both binary and source
form on the FTP sites. ("Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?")
A kernel patch (known as the fd-patches) is available which allows
floppies with nonstandard numbers of tracks and/or sectors to be used;
this patch is included in the 1.1 alpha testing kernel series.
_________________________________________________________________
4.3. Does Linux Support Compressed Ext2 file Systems?
As of recently, it does. Information about them is located at
http://www.netspace.net.au/~reiter/e2compr/.
There is also a Web site for the e2compr patches The code is still
experimental and consists of patches for the 2.0 and 2.1 kernels. For
more information about the project, including the latest patches, and
the address of the mailing list, look up the URL at
http://debs.fuller.edu/e2compr/.
[Roderich Schupp]
zlibc is a program that allows existing applications to read
compressed (GNU gzip'ed) files as if they were not compressed. Look at
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/. The author is Alain Knaff.
There is also a compressing block device driver, "DouBle," by
Jean-Marc Verbavatz, which can provide on-the-fly disk compression in
the kernel. The source-only distribution is located at
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/patches/diskdrives/. This driver
compresses inodes and directory information as well as files, so any
corruption of the file system is likely to be serious.
There is also a package called tcx (Transparently Compressed
Executables), which allows you to keep infrequently compressed
executables compressed and only uncompress them temporarily when in
use. It is located at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/compress/.
_________________________________________________________________
4.4. Can I Use My Stacked/DBLSPC/Etc. DOS Drive?
Until recently, not very easily. You can access DOS 6.X volumes from
the DOS emulator ("What software does Linux support? "), but it's
harder than accessing a normal DOS volume via the DOS kernel option, a
module, or mtools.
There is a recently added package, dmsdos, that reads and writes
compressed file systems like DoubleSpace/DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.x and
Win95, as well as Stacker versions 3 and 4. It is a loadable kernel
module. Look at
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/dosfs/.
_________________________________________________________________
4.5. Can I Access OS/2 HPFS Partitions from Linux?
Yes, but Linux access to HPFS partitions is read-only. HPFS file
system access is available as an option when compiling the kernel or
as a module. See the Documentation/filesystems/hpfs.txt file in the
kernel source distribution. ("How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My
Kernel?") Then you can mount HPFS partition, using, for example:
$ mkdir /hpfs
$ mount -t hpfs /dev/hda5 /hpfs
_________________________________________________________________
4.6. Can Linux Access Amiga File Systems?
The Linux kernel has support for the Amiga Fast File System (AFFS)
version 1.3 and later, both as a compile-time option and as a module.
The file Documentation/filesystems/affs.txt in the Linux kernel source
distribution has more information.
See ("How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My Kernel?")
Linux supports AFFS hard-drive partitions only. Floppy access is not
supported due to incompatibilities between Amiga floppy controllers
and PC and workstation controllers. The AFFS driver can also mount
disk partitions used by the Un*x Amiga Emulator, by Bernd Schmidt.
_________________________________________________________________
4.7. Can Linux Access BSD, SysV, Etc. UFS?
Recent kernels can mount (read only) the UFS file system used by
System V; Coherent; Xenix; BSD; and derivatives like SunOS, FreeBSD,
NetBSD, and NeXTStep. UFS support is available as a kernel
--
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