[SLUG] newbie Q's -- The mini Sequel
Hi sluggers, 2 questions that just cropped up my mind. 1) what's the difference between module 'compiling into kernel'? My intuition is that module is 'called' the kernel is trying to access a particular hardware, while 'compiling into kernel' is including the module into the kernel. Right? 2) Since Mandrake's 8.2 installation takes care detection of all hardware automatically, now that I need to change a new pcmcia card, how do I do it? This questions leads to, since pcmcia is hot-swappable even when the system is on, do I need to 'switch off' the device before removing it or do I simply physically the card? 3) Which particular office program that m$ office 2k is most compatible with? Previous message, someone mentioned that Sun's StarOffice isn't that good after all (I'm being generic here since I don't know the details about it). TIA once again. Rgds, Henry Powered by telstra.com -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's -- The mini Sequel
$author = Henry T Wijaya ; 1) what's the difference between module 'compiling into kernel'? My intuition is that module is 'called' the kernel is trying to access a particular hardware, while 'compiling into kernel' is including the module into the kernel. Right? compiled in - this functionality is loaded at boot and is available all the time... module - this is dynamically loaded when required. only uses memory when loaded. can cause problems if the boot kernel can't access modules for one reason or another (a common catch 22 is to have filesystem support for the partition that has the modules compiled as a module. you can't mount the filesystem without the module, can't load the module because the filesystem isn't mounted). 2) Since Mandrake's 8.2 installation takes care detection of all hardware automatically, now that I need to change a new pcmcia card, how do I do it? This questions leads to, since pcmcia is hot-swappable even when the system is on, do I need to 'switch off' the device before removing it or do I simply physically the card? i am not sure about this, but issuing a 'restart' to pcmcia services would get it to notice the change in cards... 3) Which particular office program that m$ office 2k is most compatible with? Previous message, someone mentioned that Sun's StarOffice isn't that good after all (I'm being generic here since I don't know the details about it). try star office, open office, abiword (word), gnumeric (excel)... YMMV... marty -- Skirwan - And if pigs can fly, and I can ride one, and they fly me to hell, and it just froze over, and we all have ice cream... [1] talonyx - I really need to stop reading Slashdot while on codeiene... [2] [1] - http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=28984cid=3113144 [2] - http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=28984cid=3113355 -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's -- The mini Sequel
Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] uttered the following thing: $author = Henry T Wijaya ; 1) what's the difference between module 'compiling into kernel'? My intuition is that module is 'called' the kernel is trying to access a particular hardware, while 'compiling into kernel' is including the module into the kernel. Right? compiled in - this functionality is loaded at boot and is available all the time... module - this is dynamically loaded when required. only uses memory when loaded. can cause problems if the boot kernel can't access modules for one reason or another (a common catch 22 is to have filesystem support for the partition that has the modules compiled as a module. you can't mount the filesystem without the module, can't load the module because the filesystem isn't mounted). Or in other words, comiled in means its all sitting in your vmlinuz kernel file and cant be removed without recompiling. For modules, think in terms of a .so or a .dll - it's a file that contains the code for that driver. insmod module is the way to load it (or modern distros use modprobe or some such - but dont ask me about them as I'm one of those that still 'ifconfig's interfaces and uses rc.local) 2) Since Mandrake's 8.2 installation takes care detection of all hardware automatically, now that I need to change a new pcmcia card, how do I do it? This questions leads to, since pcmcia is hot-swappable even when the system is on, do I need to 'switch off' the device before removing it or do I simply physically the card? i am not sure about this, but issuing a 'restart' to pcmcia services would get it to notice the change in cards... cardctl eject cardctl insert Some cards require preparation, such as unmounting flash disks first, other cards (serial, ethernet) you can generally just unplug at will. My newbie help for the day :) -- Ben Buxton - Random Network Person -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's -- The mini Sequel
Henry T Wijaya wrote: 3) Which particular office program that m$ office 2k is most compatible with? Previous message, someone mentioned that Sun's StarOffice isn't that good after all (I'm being generic here since I don't know the details about it). I use Sun's SO to read in MS Word files and convert them. It is pretty good. Why I say pretty good is that it is not perfect and you will not find any office suite that is perfect at converting all word files, especially newer ones. The reason for that is that the format of MS Word files must be 'reverse engineered' by those writing the conversion routines for OpenOffice, Star Office, Abi word, Word Perfect etc. Yes even Word Perfect Corporation and Corell after the took it over weere not privy to the format of MS Word files. The short of it is then that attributes like bold, italic etc, basic formatting and simple basic tables and figures will come out of the conversion fine. But a complex document will get stuffed up and rerarranged to some degree. Generally SO is a good office suite for those that like office suites (unlike me) Mike LaTeX RULES :-) -- Michael Lake University of Technology, Sydney Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: 02 9514 1724 Fx: 02 9514 1628 Linux enthusiast, active caver and interested in anything technical. UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER = This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. = -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
On 24 Mar 2002 18:52:23 +1100 Tony Green [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: mount -t smbfs -o username=tgreen,passwd=mypass //windowsbox/windows share /mnt/windowsbox For security, reasons, you can leave out putting the ,passwd=mypass bit and it will ask you passwd on the fly when you actually run the command. Otherwise, sensitive passwords are/can be stored in the bash history. Also if you haven't created a folder under mnt to mount it, do so eg. mkdir /mnt/windowsbox Chris -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
On Sun, 2002-03-24 at 23:18, Christopher Booth wrote: On 24 Mar 2002 18:52:23 +1100 Tony Green [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: mount -t smbfs -o username=tgreen,passwd=mypass //windowsbox/windows share /mnt/windowsbox For security, reasons, you can leave out putting the ,passwd=mypass bit and it will ask you passwd on the fly when you actually run the command. Even better: Newer versions of samba let you store usernames and passwords in external files, referenced with the credentials option: mount -t smbfs -o credentials=/path/to/credentials //machine/share /mnt/share Where a credentials file contains: username = peter password = supersecret This means you can mount Windows shares at boot time without storing passwords in /etc/fstab, which is readable by anyone. -- Pete [EMAIL PROTECTED] And now it seems there are lots of other worlds as well. When I think I might die without seeing a hundredth of all there is to see it makes me feel, well, humble, I suppose. And very angry, of course. -- Twoflower the tourist. (Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 07:22, Peter Hardy wrote: This means you can mount Windows shares at boot time without storing passwords in /etc/fstab, which is readable by anyone. or you can make /etc/fstab rw by root only, which is a lot simpler but probably not as secure. Dave. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 08:24, David Fitch wrote: On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 07:22, Peter Hardy wrote: This means you can mount Windows shares at boot time without storing passwords in /etc/fstab, which is readable by anyone. or you can make /etc/fstab rw by root only, which is a lot simpler but probably not as secure. That's actually not very secure at all, as mount options are visible just using the mount command. $ grep hda5 /etc/fstab /dev/hda5 / ext3defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1 $ mount | grep hda5 /dev/hda5 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro) I'm not sure, but I think doing that would also cause problems with the user option, which lets regular users mount/unmount partitions. -- Pete [EMAIL PROTECTED] I assure you the thought never even crossed my mind. Indeed? Then if I were you I'd sue my face for slander. -- Rincewind and the Patrician (Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
On Mon, Mar 25, 2002 at 08:38:14AM +1100, Peter Hardy wrote: On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 08:24, David Fitch wrote: On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 07:22, Peter Hardy wrote: This means you can mount Windows shares at boot time without storing passwords in /etc/fstab, which is readable by anyone. or you can make /etc/fstab rw by root only, which is a lot simpler but probably not as secure. That's actually not very secure at all, as mount options are visible just using the mount command. indeed but luckily not your samba passwd (doesn't even show up under ps) I'm not sure, but I think doing that would also cause problems with the user option, which lets regular users mount/unmount partitions. you'd be wrong, a non-root user can still mount cdroms at least on my box (but can't read /etc/fstab). After all it's the 'mount' command which has to read /etc/fstab not the person. Dave. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 09:57, David Fitch wrote: On Mon, Mar 25, 2002 at 08:38:14AM +1100, Peter Hardy wrote: On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 08:24, David Fitch wrote: or you can make /etc/fstab rw by root only, which is a lot simpler but probably not as secure. That's actually not very secure at all, as mount options are visible just using the mount command. indeed but luckily not your samba passwd (doesn't even show up under ps) Ah. I haven't actually tried it with an smb share. Cool. I'm not sure, but I think doing that would also cause problems with the user option, which lets regular users mount/unmount partitions. you'd be wrong, a non-root user can still mount cdroms at least on my box (but can't read /etc/fstab). After all it's the 'mount' command which has to read /etc/fstab not the person. Oh. mount is installed setuid. Back to my box, then. :-) -- Pete [EMAIL PROTECTED] Let's just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, then he'd be the sort to stand on a hilltop in a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting All gods are bastards. -- Rincewind (Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic) -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
On Mon, Mar 25, 2002 at 10:28:49AM +1100, Peter Hardy wrote: On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 09:57, David Fitch wrote: On Mon, Mar 25, 2002 at 08:38:14AM +1100, Peter Hardy wrote: On Mon, 2002-03-25 at 08:24, David Fitch wrote: or you can make /etc/fstab rw by root only, which is a lot simpler but probably not as secure. That's actually not very secure at all, as mount options are visible just using the mount command. indeed but luckily not your samba passwd (doesn't even show up under ps) Ah. I haven't actually tried it with an smb share. Cool. I just found it by accident - I really wanted it all mounted at boot just like nfs but really didn't want the passwd visible to all and sundry so was considering a tricky little script that runs at the end booting to mount it, supply the username,passwd etc etc etc but just as a temporary thing chucked it in the fstab and then noticed the passwd was hidden automatically, which I'm sure didn't used to happen under an older system I had. So yeah pretty cool. Dave. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
[SLUG] newbie Q's
Hi listers, just installed mandrake 8.2 on my laptop, the furthest progress on linux I've made so far after departing from slackware. was tinkering around and few newbie questions that cropped up I hope wouldn't take up much of your time, mind you that some questions would seem trivial. 1) when gnome is loading, a beep is emitted. yet, when trying to play an audio cd a wav file, no sound is heard. peeked into rpmdrake, and found gnome-audio package is installed. so where should I go poking next? 2) There're 3 other pc's using Win2k, and had some partitions shared. How do I access those shared partitions? What program do I use specifically? Do I simply mount them just like cdrom? 3) There's a black square-ish black box at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. What's that for? 4) Was tinkering around and add a clock panel. had it removed, instead of the rest of the icons filling up the empty space, it seems as if there's a ghost copy, thus gaps. how do I remove those gaps? 5) how do I mount a NTFS volume created by W2k, that's residing on the same hdd? 6) does licq able to use the data files used by windows version of icq2001b? 7) does Galeon able to use the mail data file created by windows versionn of Netscape 6.2? 8) I'm using a broadband router. The manual deals with Windows only and had instructions to fill in the address of DNS servers and the DNS suffix for this connection field under windows. Is there such equivalent field under linux? How do I add such entries? 9) Upon starting Gnome, it complains of my host isn't a valid entry. Does it refers the host as the name of this pc? I'd put in nsw.bigpond.net.au thinking that it's referring to DNS suffix. Obviously I'm wrong. 10) Lastly, installing StarOffice should be done under root, right? Thank in advance. Rgds, H T Wijaya -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
quote who=Henry T Wijaya 1) when gnome is loading, a beep is emitted. yet, when trying to play an audio cd a wav file, no sound is heard. peeked into rpmdrake, and found gnome-audio package is installed. so where should I go poking next? In the Control Centre, under Multimedia, then Sound. Make sure Enable sound server at startup is checked. 2) There're 3 other pc's using Win2k, and had some partitions shared. How do I access those shared partitions? What program do I use specifically? Do I simply mount them just like cdrom? Kinda, but like this: mount -t smbfs //windowsmachine/share /mnt 3) There's a black square-ish black box at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. What's that for? Not sure. Screenshot? (Please pop it up on a website, not attached to your email to the list.) 4) Was tinkering around and add a clock panel. had it removed, instead of the rest of the icons filling up the empty space, it seems as if there's a ghost copy, thus gaps. how do I remove those gaps? Middle-drag the other applets and icons along the panel. 5) how do I mount a NTFS volume created by W2k, that's residing on the same hdd? NTFS under Linux is pretty unstable. You can mount it read-only with the ntfs module, though. Same as anything else, you just have to specify the filesystem type: mount -t ntfs /dev/hd?? /mnt 6) does licq able to use the data files used by windows version of icq2001b? No. 7) does Galeon able to use the mail data file created by windows versionn of Netscape 6.2? Galeon doesn't handle your mail, it's just a web browser. You'll have to use Mozilla, and I believe it can use the mail files you use under Windows. 8) I'm using a broadband router. The manual deals with Windows only and had instructions to fill in the address of DNS servers and the DNS suffix for this connection field under windows. Is there such equivalent field under linux? How do I add such entries? /etc/resolv.conf: search nsw.bigpond.net.au nameserver ip.address.of.nameserver nameserver ip.address.of.nameserver 9) Upon starting Gnome, it complains of my host isn't a valid entry. Does it refers the host as the name of this pc? I'd put in nsw.bigpond.net.au thinking that it's referring to DNS suffix. Obviously I'm wrong. You'll need to add an entry to your /etc/hosts file. 10) Lastly, installing StarOffice should be done under root, right? Generally, no. - Jeff -- Broken hearts rarely come with Some Assembly Required stickers. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
Jeff Waugh was once rumoured to have said: quote who=Henry T Wijaya 10) Lastly, installing StarOffice should be done under root, right? Generally, no. Unless you want to install it properly[1]. As root, use: setup /net This puts a shared installation onto your system. Then log as your user, and run setup from the path you installed StarOffice into previously, and it'll install the user specific data into your home directory. C. [1] I don't believe in user-local software installation, especially for something as large as staroffice. -- --==-- Crossfire | This email was brought to you [EMAIL PROTECTED] | on 100% Recycled Electrons --==-- -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
On Sun, 2002-03-24 at 18:24, Henry T Wijaya wrote: Hi listers, just installed mandrake 8.2 on my laptop, the furthest progress on linux I've made so far after departing from slackware. was tinkering around and few newbie questions that cropped up I hope wouldn't take up much of your time, mind you that some questions would seem trivial. Thats what we're here for ;-) 1) when gnome is loading, a beep is emitted. yet, when trying to play an audio cd a wav file, no sound is heard. peeked into rpmdrake, and found gnome-audio package is installed. so where should I go poking next? Sound in gnome is done through a daemon called ESD (no comments on its efficency are requested or required!). You can go to a command prompt and type ps -ef | egrep esd You should see something like this tgreen@cavey:~$ ps -ef | egrep esd tgreen1018 1 0 Mar22 ?00:00:00 esd -nobeeps This means that user tgreen (me) is running esd. If its not running, make sure you're in the right group (audio on debian, I'm not sure about 'drake. Then check that you have 'Enable sound server at startup' turned on in the Gnome Control Center and restart your session (logout/login). You may also want to check that you have the volume turned up on the mixer (I know you got beeps, but the mixer settings may get clobbered during your session startup. 2) There're 3 other pc's using Win2k, and had some partitions shared. How do I access those shared partitions? What program do I use specifically? Do I simply mount them just like cdrom? You need to use a package called samba. There are a lot of howto's out there on this, but to give you an overview mount -t smbfs -o username=tgreen,passwd=mypass //windowsbox/windows share /mnt (the above is all one command) That should give you a place to start. If you get an error about smbfs not supported, check you have the samba package. 3) There's a black square-ish black box at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. What's that for? Possible load/network monitor (I have two, do they look like the ones in http://bandcamp.tv/misc/screenshots.html ?) If not, perhaps you could email ME (not the list) a screenshot 4) Was tinkering around and add a clock panel. had it removed, instead of the rest of the icons filling up the empty space, it seems as if there's a ghost copy, thus gaps. how do I remove those gaps? Right click on the applet and select 'move' (I think middle button works too). you can then slide them around. 5) how do I mount a NTFS volume created by W2k, that's residing on the same hdd? NTFS (if I remember correctly) is an experimental kernel option and is available as read only or as read write (I think writing was UBER dangerous last time I looked). Don't know if the options you need will be compiled into the default kernel (read only maybe, I doubt if r/w will). Try (If your NT partition is the first partition on your IDE drive) mount -t /dev/hda1 /mnt 6) does licq able to use the data files used by windows version of icq2001b? Eer, don't know about that one. I use gaim (you might like it too), it has plugins for MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, IRC etc etc etc 7) does Galeon able to use the mail data file created by windows versionn of Netscape 6.2? Galeon doesn't have a mail subsystem in it, mozilla (the grunt behind galeon) does and AFAIK it uses the same mail formats as the windows version (or it used to at least) 8) I'm using a broadband router. The manual deals with Windows only and had instructions to fill in the address of DNS servers and the DNS suffix for this connection field under windows. Is there such equivalent field under linux? How do I add such entries? In the file /etc/resolv.conf, you need to put entries in like this search this.domain.au nameserver ip.of.name.server 9) Upon starting Gnome, it complains of my host isn't a valid entry. Does it refers the host as the name of this pc? I'd put in nsw.bigpond.net.au thinking that it's referring to DNS suffix. Obviously I'm wrong. You could be missing an entry in your hosts file (/etc/hosts). The entry should match your machines name (try the hostname command) 10) Lastly, installing StarOffice should be done under root, right? If you want to do a multiuser install then you need to login as root and run 'setup /net' (I think). This will install the base system and allow 'normal' users to do workstation installs (at about 10mb). phew, is that it Let us know how you get on. Greeno -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
Re: [SLUG] newbie Q's
At 6:30 pm, Sunday, March 24 2002, Henry T Wijaya mumbled: just installed mandrake 8.2 on my laptop, the furthest progress on linux I've made so far after departing from slackware. was tinkering around and few newbie questions that cropped up I hope wouldn't take up much of your time, mind you that some questions would seem trivial. 1) when gnome is loading, a beep is emitted. yet, when trying to play an audio cd a wav file, no sound is heard. peeked into rpmdrake, and found gnome-audio package is installed. so where should I go poking next? See if: 1) a module is loaded for your sound card. (Not really needed, as I'm not sure about Mandrake's kernel config.) 2) Can you 'cat /dev/urandom /dev/dsp' and hear something like white noise? 3) Is esound running? (ps aux | grep es) 2) There're 3 other pc's using Win2k, and had some partitions shared. How do I access those shared partitions? What program do I use specifically? Do I simply mount them just like cdrom? Well, it depends on what kind of partition Win2k is using. If it's just vfat, you can just mount it, but NTFSv5 is more of a problem. 5) how do I mount a NTFS volume created by W2k, that's residing on the same hdd? Oh crap, answered my own question. You can't really, as the code for mounting NTFS partitions is really flaky. I haven't really keep up to date with the situation, but my feeling is that you can't mount NTFSv5, but can mount NTFSv4. 6) does licq able to use the data files used by windows version of icq2001b? No, they are completely incompatible. 7) does Galeon able to use the mail data file created by windows versionn of Netscape 6.2? I doubt it. 8) I'm using a broadband router. The manual deals with Windows only and had instructions to fill in the address of DNS servers and the DNS suffix for this connection field under windows. Is there such equivalent field under linux? How do I add such entries? The DNS servers, and DNS suffix are put in a file called resolv.conf: steven@broken:~$ cat /etc/resolv.conf search wedontsleep.org nameserver 192.168.66.1 nameserver 192.168.66.4 9) Upon starting Gnome, it complains of my host isn't a valid entry. Does it refers the host as the name of this pc? I'd put in nsw.bigpond.net.au thinking that it's referring to DNS suffix. Obviously I'm wrong. No idea, sorry. 10) Lastly, installing StarOffice should be done under root, right? StarOffice is a special case. From memory, you need to do an install of StarOffice, and then install it yourself as an ordinary user. Thank in advance. No problem! -- Steve ElectricElf Anyone have a favorite low-overhead remote filesystem protocol? (NFS and Samba are, of course, options) DanielS ElectricElf: it's like asking what is the least painful method of castration involving a rusty fishing wire msg21893/pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
