Thomas Mueller wrote:
>
> I suppose BasicLinux assumes no Linux file systems
> on any actual disk?
The BasicLinux filesystem (in the ramdisk) is ext2
(the standard Linux filesytem). It is also able
to mount minix, umsdos, msdos, vfat, iso9660, hpfs
and nfs partitions. You can always find out what
types a Linux kernel understands by doing this:
---------------------
cat /proc/filesystems
---------------------
BasicLinux can also mount affs, ufs, smbfs, xiafs, ncpfs
and sysv filesystems, but you need to install the relevant
module first (insmod). These modules can be found on
the Slackware 3.5 site under /modules/2.0.34/fs. You
will also find several NLS codepages there, which also
can be installed in BasicLinux.
> Would data to be saved be written to a DOS partition?
Linux determines what kind of filesystem it is on when
it mounts the partition, and it automatically saves
data in the correct format. Therefore, you can freely
copy files from ext2 to DOS and from DOS to ext2. Or
to/from any other filesystem that the kernel knows about.
> You mention joe and e3. I think joe is a text editor,
> never heard of e3.
Type e3 when you are in BasicLinux and you will get a
Wordstar-type editor. It is only 6kb in size, so I
included it as an alternative to the default BasicLinux
editor (pico).
> What about email and (Usenet) news in BasicLinux?
BasicLinux has fetchmail (used to retrieve mail), but
there's no easy way to send mail or read news. However,
BasicLinux does have telnet, FTP and netcat, so perhaps
a clever person might be able to do something with these.
It would be possible to install mail and/or news packages
from Slackware 3.5 (although I doubt whether there is
sufficient room in the default BasicLinux ramdisk). I
have never done this myself, so I can't be much help.
However, I do know of a small IRC client that works with
BasicLinux. Let me know if you want it.
Cheers,
Steven
