Linux-Misc Digest #786, Volume #20 Fri, 25 Jun 99 14:13:17 EDT
Contents:
Re: mounting floppy read-only problem (Scott Lanning)
Re: SSH (J.H.M. Dassen (Ray))
RIVA TNT supports Virtual Desktop under X !!!! (mj)
Re: Can't boot linux anymore from HD (guest)
Re: Bash script question: how to modify PATH? (Ding-Jung Han)
Re: Lost Linux boot on my portable system. (Cameron L. Spitzer)
Screen fonts size in console view (Knarf)
Which linux distribution/kernel for quad xeon/raid server (George Young)
Re: Editor for Unicode files (J.H.M. Dassen (Ray))
Re: Alice in UNIX Land (Scott Lanning)
Re: RH 6.0 Upgrade Well Behaved? One more (guest)
Re: vfat question (Cameron L. Spitzer)
Conveting plain-text username and password files ("Kerry J. Cox")
Re: Secure backups with tar (Barry Margolin)
Re: Linux 2.2.10 does not know make zImage?? (Johan Kullstam)
Re: NT the best web platform? (Anthony Ord)
Re: Don't encourage them! (Kevin Breit)
Re: Linux balkanization a potential blessing (Peter Seebach)
Re: Linux on a 486? (Andre Poenitz)
Re: Linux balkanization a potential blessing (Tom Christiansen)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Scott Lanning)
Subject: Re: mounting floppy read-only problem
Date: 25 Jun 1999 15:58:21 GMT
Marat Ruvinov ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: /etc/fstab entry has:
: "/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy ext2 noauto 0 0"
You are mounting with -t msdos, but the filesystem table
says /dev/fd0 is -t ext2. Change "ext2" to "msdos".
Other bits of fstab trivia (man 'mount' and 'fstab'):
* Because the entry contains "/mnt/floppy", it's unnecessary
to specify that option when mounting; the same goes for "msdos".
Consequently,
mount /dev/fd0
is sufficient to mount the floppy.
* You may remove the last two numbers "0 0" because that is the
default. Another default is that filesystems are mounted
read-write (rw).
* The "noauto" option indicates that fd0 won't be mounted by
the "mount -a" command (which is given by init on bootup and mounts
all filesystems in /etc/fstab). There is another option, "user",
which allows ordinary (non-root) users to mount the filesystem.
Thus,
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy msdos user,noauto
lets any user use the command
mount /dev/fd0
to mount an msdos filesystem on a floppy which isn't mounted
on startup. If you're lazy like me, you put the following aliases
in, say, /etc/bashrc
alias mfd='mount /dev/fd0'
alias umfd='umount /dev/fd0'
--
Scott Lanning: [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://physics.bu.edu/~slanning
"One should not confuse this craving for change and novelty with the
indifference of play which is in its greatest levity at the same time
the most sublime and indeed the only true seriousness." --Georg Hegel
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (J.H.M. Dassen (Ray))
Subject: Re: SSH
Date: 25 Jun 1999 13:39:44 GMT
Edward Ned Harvey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Can anybody tell me where to get a SSH terminal client program?
ftp://ftp.cs.hut.fi/pub/ssh/
HTH,
Ray
--
ART A friend of mine in Tulsa, Okla., when I was about eleven years old.
I'd be interested to hear from him. There are so many pseudos around taking
his name in vain.
- The Hipcrime Vocab by Chad C. Mulligan
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mj)
Subject: RIVA TNT supports Virtual Desktop under X !!!!
Date: 25 Jun 1999 15:24:21 GMT
Good news for RIVA TNT owners:
RIVA TNT supports Virtual Desktop in Hardware under XFree86 v3.3.3.1 (i am
using 800x600 viewport and 1600x1200 virtual desktop). My Windows drivers
(ELSA Erazor II) don't support virtual desktop, but XSVGA does !!!
Add "Virtual 1600x1200" to your Screen > Mode section in XF86Config file, to
use 1600x1200 virtual desktop.
Have fUN!
BYE.
------------------------------
From: guest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Can't boot linux anymore from HD
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 09:56:35 -0400
At the boot prompt you can also try
boot=/dev/hdA#
where A# is the letter & partition# of your linux root
If you can get into linux the use linuxconf, or the UACL lilo with the -
option that configs your kernals position. It sounds like your system
can't find the linux kernal so make sure that the path is correct in the
conf file.
HTH
David Previti
Brian Vicente wrote:
>
> You might try boot single user:
> lilio: linux single
>
> Thomas Ruedas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >Hello,
> >last saturday I suddenly could not boot Linux from the HD anymore. When
> >booting, LILO begins the boot process correctly, but after that first
> >line "Loading linux..........." is written to the screen, the PC reboots
> >immediately. However, it is still possible to boot from diskette (which
> >takes an eternity), and LILO also lets me boot into DOS correctly (DOS
> >is on my /dev/hda partition). After booting from diskette, I seem to be
> >able to work absolutely without problems. Also, I don't remember any
> >essential problems during the last sessions or the last shutdowns before
> >the problem appeared.
> >I'm using Debian Linux 2.0.34 on a P100 PC.
>
> >I would highly appreciate any suggestions concerning possible causes of
> >the failure or any advice at which parts of the system to look for
> >fixing the problem.
> >Thank you,
------------------------------
From: Ding-Jung Han <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Bash script question: how to modify PATH?
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 02:26:37 -0400
Ok. Just found out that there's no way to modify a parent's environment
in the child processes. I have to 'source' the script instead of running
it.
Cheers,
Ben
Ding-Jung Han wrote:
>
> I wrote a simple script to switch between two c compilers (egcs and
> pgcc); this involves changing a soft link /lib/cpp to the correct cpp
> program and set the correct path so that the version desired is
> guaranteed to be found out first.
>
> My only question is that, every time I execute the script the PATH
> variable in the current shell is not modified at all! I guess the EXPORT
> only modifies PATH in the child shell? Is there anything I missed?
> (script is attached below)
>
> TIA,
>
> Ben
>
> --- script "change-gcc"
>
> #!/bin/sh
> if [ -f /lib/cpp.egcs ]
> then
> mv /lib/cpp /lib/cpp.pgcc
> mv /lib/cpp.egcs /lib/cpp
> PATH=`echo $PATH | awk -F: '{printf("/usr/bin"); for (x=2;$x!="";x++)
> printf(":%s",$x);}'`
> else
> mv /lib/cpp /lib/cpp.egcs
> mv /lib/cpp.pgcc /lib/cpp
> PATH=`echo $PATH | awk -F: '{printf("/opt/pgcc/bin"); for
> (x=2;$x!="";x++) printf(":%s",$x);}'`
> fi
>
> ls -l /lib/cpp
> echo $PATH
> export PATH
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Cameron L. Spitzer)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.portable
Subject: Re: Lost Linux boot on my portable system.
Date: 16 Jun 1999 20:37:47 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Ronen Cohen wrote:
>This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
Pbbbbtt!
>[LILO overwritten by Win-98 MBR]
>
>Does anyone know how can I reinstall LILO and the boot sector without
>reinstall Linux from the beginning, and save Windows98 on my system.
Most Linux install disks give you a boot time option to specify
a root partition. Boot your install disk, and tell it root=/dev/hda2
(or whereever your root is.) You will usually have to give a kernel
image name and then the argument, e.g.:
LILO boot: linux root=/dev/hda2
this will boot the installation kernel but it will mount your
root instead of the installation ramdisk. Then you can make a
Lilo floppy and let Microsoft have its MBR until you are more sure
of yourself. A LILO floppy can boot nearly as fast as hard drive,
the trick is to put just the loader and map on the floppy and
put the kernel on HD. This is a much lower stress solution for
newcomers to Linux than risking a botched LILO install on HD.
See http://judi.greens.org/lilo/
Cameron
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Knarf)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Screen fonts size in console view
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 16:42:29 GMT
I would like to change the size of the screen font (make it smaller)
when I work in text editor (emacs) so I can have a larger view.
i have tried stty but with no success...
thanks
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (George Young)
Subject: Which linux distribution/kernel for quad xeon/raid server
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 16:54:38 GMT
I'm setting up a linux server with 4x 500MHz Xeon processors, 1GB ram,
Mylex extreme RAID 1100, 4 LVD U2W 10k RPM 9GB disks.
This machine will be running ~50 pairs of (postgres) (DB+Motif) client and
DB server processes, and needs to have very snappy interactive response.
I'm a Linux newbie, but have been sysadmin/hacking other unixes for years.
I've been running RH5.1 on a small prototype machine to get code porting
underway. I find the rpm facility and docs nice, but not thrilling.
I am trying to decide which Linux distribution to use. I've heard that
recent kernels like 2.2.5 and 2.3.7 have much improved SMP and IO performance,
so it seems like a distribution that is aggressive about bleeding edge
kernels, drivers, etc. would be good. On the other hand, I don't mind
compiling/installing new kernels/modules into a more conservative dist, if
that is not too dangerous. I usually dig up and install the latest beta
version of *applications*, but I don't want my *kernel* randomly hanging or
scrambling data blocks...
Another slight plus would be inclusion/availability of nice excel/powerpoint
clones, (to show people that this is a real, useful computer ;-) ), but
that is much secondary to system performance.
Any hints, suggestions, sad tales, would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
George
--
George Young, Rm. L-204 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood St.
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420-9108 (781) 981-2756
--
George Young, Rm. L-204 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood St.
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420-9108 (781) 981-2756
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (J.H.M. Dassen (Ray))
Subject: Re: Editor for Unicode files
Date: 25 Jun 1999 14:06:36 GMT
[F'up set]
NJG <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Can anyone suggest an editor that can read/write Unicode files?
Yudit (http://freshmeat.net/appindex/1998/05/18/895520539.html).
>The files will initially contain just ASCII that has been padded. Quite
>honestly, a wide character vi would be sufficient.
Wide character patches (at least for Japanese) for vim and nvi are
available; see e.g. http://www.debian.or.jp/Packages/stable/editors/
and http://www.debian.or.jp/Packages/unstable/editors/
HTH,
Ray
--
PATRIOTISM A great British writer once said that if he had to choose
between betraying his country and betraying a friend he hoped he would
have the decency to betray his country.
- The Hipcrime Vocab by Chad C. Mulligan
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Scott Lanning)
Subject: Re: Alice in UNIX Land
Date: 25 Jun 1999 16:46:27 GMT
A D ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: began walking. Turning a corner, she found herself facing two
: fat little men, each with an arm round the other's neck. One had
: "POS" embroidered on his collar, and the other "NEG".
:
: "I know," said Alice, "you two are a transistor."
Shut the fuck up, Alice--they're a diode.
--
Scott Lanning: [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://physics.bu.edu/~slanning
"It showed a lady, with a fur cap on and a fur stole, sitting upright
and holding out to the spectator a huge fur muff into which the whole
of her forearm had vanished!" --From Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis
------------------------------
From: guest <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: RH 6.0 Upgrade Well Behaved? One more
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 10:02:04 -0400
Yup I agree with the last two posters.....
Don't listen to um... I did it last night. used the custom settings
/upgrade ran perfect... no probs had to change some perms but No big
prob. BTW no you don't HAVE to yet but the new KDL is VERY slick I
thought.. I was impressed
Good luck
David P.
N. Richard Caldwell wrote:
>
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dan Crooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >Just my two cents worth on the upgrade path...I upgraded from 5.2 to 6.0 RedHat
> >with no problems. Took about 20 minutes. Only thing I had to "fix" was
> >IPMasq...everything else
> >stayed in place and still works.
>
> Same here, 20 minutes, very few problems. I wouldn't pay $80 for the
> update. I used the Linux Systems Labs "free CD.
>
> --
> N. Richard Caldwell
> Lucent Technologies
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Cameron L. Spitzer)
Subject: Re: vfat question
Date: 17 Jun 1999 05:24:37 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Charles Wilkins wrote:
>How do you do a change directory to a vfat directory that has a space
>in it.
Space is a legal but slightly inconvenient character in a file name.
It's inconvenient because you have to remove its special meaning
(word separator) when you use the file name in a shell command
such as 'cd'.
>I do a ls -l and get a directory such as My documents.
>then I do a cd My Documents and get an error.
cd My\ Documents
cd My" "Documents
cd "My Documents"
cd 'My Documents'
You can also match the file's name with a wildcard expression.
cd My?Documents
That's more dangerous (in general) because it would also match
My_Documents and My-Documents and My.Documents.
>
>I use a utility such as mc and it can move throught the directories
>with no problem.
That's because Midnight Commander doesn't use the unix shell word
separator convention.
Cameron
------------------------------
From: "Kerry J. Cox" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.perl.misc
Subject: Conveting plain-text username and password files
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 17:14:39 +0000
I'm assisting in helping some users go from plain-text username and
password files to Linux. Currently, all the users on this sytem (over
1000) have their login names and passwords in a simple flat-file
format. I need to provide some way to enter all these users onto a
Linux system without doing it by hand.
Does anyone know of a simple script that would go through a flat
file database and would then enter all the usernames and passwords onto
a Linux system? It would be RedHat 6.0.
Thanks. Please email me as well as I don't always have the time to
check these newsgroups.
KJ
--
.-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-.
| Kerry J. Cox Vyzynz International Inc. |
| [EMAIL PROTECTED] Systems Administrator |
| (801) 596-7795 http://www.vii.com |
| ICQ# 37681165 http://quasi.vii.com/linux/ |
`-------------------------------------------------------'
------------------------------
From: Barry Margolin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.admin,linux.admin,linux.redhat.misc
Subject: Re: Secure backups with tar
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 17:39:52 GMT
In article <7l0e4o$kjn$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Chris Hardin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>...
>>> and disabling the floppy in the BIOS. It strikes me that the weakest
>>> point, from a physical point of view is the tape backup. The tapes
>
>If you are giving untrusted people physical access to a machine, you
>can't expect high security. If people are willing to steal tapes,
>what's stopping them from stealing hard drives?
People are more likely to notice a missing drive, since the machine won't
run properly without the files online. But taking a tape doesn't have any
operational impact on the system.
>> Another way would be to perform a cpio backup to tape on the linux box (tar
>> is never a very good idea and the only reason it is still around is that
>> there is a lot of legacy support for it) and then share that drive with an
>> NT/Win95/98 box and copy the cpio file to a tape backup with password
>> protection and then erase the tape that has the cpio file.
>
>Is tar really that bad? I've never had any problems with it, but I
>haven't used cpio much, either.
Tar has some well-known limitations, such as 100-character pathnames (GNU
tar has a workaround for this, but I think it makes the tar files
incompatible with traditional implementations).
--
Barry Margolin, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
GTE Internetworking, Powered by BBN, Burlington, MA
*** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups.
Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group.
------------------------------
From: Johan Kullstam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux 2.2.10 does not know make zImage??
Date: 25 Jun 1999 12:55:18 -0400
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Georg Schwarz) writes:
> Marc Mutz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> >>
> >> why doesn't it know about make zImage? Is there anything missing?
> >make bzImage
> >2.2.x kernels are too big for zImage.
>
> I'm happily making zImage with 2.2.10 on Intel.
> On the Sparc, make bzImage does not work either, BTW:
on a decent cpu (read non-intel x86) you don't have to jump through
wacky hoops to boot using 16 bit code and 640k of address space.
--
johan kullstam
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Anthony Ord)
Crossposted-To: comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: NT the best web platform?
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 17:20:29 GMT
On Wed, 23 Jun 1999 22:49:55 -0700, "Doug McCrary"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Anthony Ord <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote > >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] --
>next time Mindcraft, try using 2 identical disks :-)
>> >
>> >They specifically said they didnt? That would be evil.
>>
>> Arrrgggghhhh. It's not like the page detailing this is
>> hidden very much...
>>
>> --- START INSERT ---
>> Disk
>> <snip>
>> Drive C/OS: 1 x 9 GB Seagate Cheetah, Model ST39102LC,
>> 10,000 RPM; two partitions - one for each OS
>> <snip>
>
>So, they were effectively on different disks. I wonder which OS went on the
>faster partition?
Well they didn't miss any other trick.
Regards
Anthony
--
=========================================
| And when our worlds |
| They fall apart |
| When the walls come tumbling in |
| Though we may deserve it |
| It will be worth it - Depeche Mode |
=========================================
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Don't encourage them!
From: Kevin Breit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 16:52:22 GMT
Enkidu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> In another thread someone was sugesting that Linux was suitable for
> 4 year olds....
>=20
> DON'T LET THEM!!
>=20
> Do you realise what this would mean? We would be raising a generation
> that would be AT HOME in Linux! It would hold no terrors for them! It
> would seem natural to them. They'd be at home with it, and there would
> be no mystique in it for them.=20
>=20
> There would be nowhere for us to congregate and discuss our computing
> esoterica, because it would be commonplace! As commonplace as=20
> Windows is these days.
>=20
> We need to maintain the mystery, to cloak things in an inpenetrate
> haze of acronyms and esoteric commands. We need to beat back the
> HORDES!
>=20
> Cliff
No, let us get as big as we possibly can. This way we can get M$ out of =
there.
Let everyone who wants to use it, use it.
Kevin
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd.misc,gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: Linux balkanization a potential blessing
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Peter Seebach)
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 17:26:15 GMT
In article <7kvv04$at7$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Cameron Hutchison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>command line programs. I use them myself everyday. But I disagree that it
>cannot be done equally well or better with a GUI. Just because it hasn't
>been dont it doesn't meant it cant.
No; but, because it can't, it hasn't been, isn't being, and won't be done.
The only way to get the flexibility that the command line tools offer is
to provide a command-line tool. As soon as you've done that, you've admitted
the command-line tools are necessary. Until you've done that, you are missing
crucial flexibility: The ability for the user to script around your
documentation format, which is what people do with man pages.
(For instance, I actually directly use the 'man' command less than once a
month, even though I check and read man pages probably a dozen times a day.)
-s
--
Copyright 1999, All rights reserved. Peter Seebach / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
C/Unix wizard, Pro-commerce radical, Spam fighter. Boycott Spamazon!
Will work for interesting hardware. http://www.plethora.net/~seebs/
Visit my new ISP <URL:http://www.plethora.net/> --- More Net, Less Spam!
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Andre Poenitz)
Subject: Re: Linux on a 486?
Date: 25 Jun 1999 16:43:51 GMT
9wands ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
: > > I personally love the idea of Linux, but it sounds as the X-windows
: > > system is just too resource intensive for this spec of machine.
Surely not. I have a eight-year-old 486/33 with 8MB of RAM (anybody out
there who has some 4-MB-SIMMs to spare? ;-)), running X and Fvwm2.
I had Win 3.1 on the same machine. In the same ballpark speedwise I dare
say...
Of course you have to nuke all those fancy little things like 'biff'
and you tend to get a bit picky about what editor to run (200kB or 500kB)
and you probably won't try to use Netscape's latest patch...
Anyway. Xdvi & ghostview is running quick enough to get some work done.
It probably really depends on what you want to do.
Andre'
PS:
: > > MS Win3.1/MS Word 2.0 - rather than try to get a similar system with
: > > Linux/X-Windows/Linux WordProc (sorry, don't know of any Linux WordPs).
If you are a bit flexible: Vi + LaTeX. It's not a WordProc exactly...
--
Andre' Poenitz, TU Chemnitz, Fakultaet fuer Mathematik
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ... +49 3727 58 1381
------------------------------
From: Tom Christiansen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd.misc,gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: Linux balkanization a potential blessing
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tom Christiansen)
Date: 25 Jun 1999 11:28:04 -0700
[courtesy cc of this posting NOT mailed to cited author :-]
In gnu.misc.discuss,
Ketil Z Malde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
:(I don't know who in their right mind considers mailing annoying
:copies of their news postings 'courtesy'.)
People who aren't as net savvy as the denizens of the current set of
newsgroups. These people still appreciate it. Also, this started ten
or fifteen years ago before we had good propagation. It still takes
several days for some people's postings to went their to me though.
I think it's on their end, though.
:Could you please be a bit more specific about who, exactly is
:exhibiting this perceived 'Linux mentality'? It may be just me, but
:it looks like you're only trying to wage a pointless flame war based
:on your own inaccurate prejudices.
That's an honest question, and you deserve an honest answer.
One day, I was looking for a color scanner. I found a "gcolorsel"
program in my path, which worked just fine. But I couldn't get any
information about it. In fact, there are a lot of completely
undocumented /^gnome/ programs in my path. Here are some
/usr/bin/gnome_segv
/usr/bin/gnome-linuxconf
/usr/bin/gnome-help-browser
/usr/bin/gnome-info2html
/usr/bin/gnome-man2html
/usr/bin/gnome-edit-properties-capplet
/usr/bin/gnomecc
/usr/bin/gnome-edit
/usr/bin/gnome-help-caller
/usr/bin/gnome-session
/usr/bin/gnome-smproxy
/usr/bin/gnome-terminal
/usr/bin/gnomepager_applet
/usr/bin/gnome-stones
/usr/bin/gnomine
/usr/bin/gnome-bug
/usr/bin/gnome-config
/usr/bin/gnome-dump-metadata
/usr/bin/gnome-gen-mimedb
/usr/bin/gnome-moz-remote
/usr/bin/gnome-name-service
/usr/bin/gnome-ppp
/usr/bin/gnome-ppp-chat
/usr/bin/gnome-ppp-cmd
/usr/bin/gnome-sync
/usr/bin/gnomecal
/usr/bin/gnomecard
/usr/bin/gnome-run
/usr/sbin/gnome-pty-helper
1) gcolorsel's insidious [ABOUT] button didn't do anything.
2) "man gcolorsel" failed. Hello?
3) "gcolorsel -?" brought up an obnoxiously but perhaps
unavoidably message, from which I inferred that this
was a Gnome program. I tried to find out more about
gnome, but "apropos gnome" also completely failed.
4) I then tried "apropos gtk", and found nothing but this:
GPC (3) - GTK Plug-in Convenience library
gEdit (1) - GTK+ based text editor
gnp+ (1) - gnotepad+, a GTK-based notepad/text editor
gtk-config (1) - script to get information about the installed
version of GTK+
5) I then tried "locate".
% locate gcolor
/home/tchrist/.gnome/gcolorsel
/usr/bin/gcolorsel
/usr/share/gnome/apps/Utilities/gcolorsel.desktop
Still no docs.
6) Realizing that not everything can be fully explained in man,
nor perhaps should it be, I then when to /usr/doc/ to see what gnome*/
docs might be there. With the exception of the libs, it was
completely sparse, with no more information than the incredibly
annoying [ABOUT] button.
gnome-audio-1.0.0:
README
gnome-core-1.0.3:
AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog NEWS README
gnome-games-1.0.1:
AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog NEWS README
gnome-libs-1.0.3:
AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog NEWS README
gnome-media-1.0.1:
AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog NEWS README
gnome-network-1.0.1:
AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog NEWS README
gnome-objc-1.0.1:
AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog NEWS README
gnome-pim-1.0.3:
AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog NEWS README
gnome-users-guide-1.0.4:
ChangeLog README
gnome-utils-1.0.1:
AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog NEWS README
gnorpm-0.7:
AUTHORS NEWS README
gnotepad+-1.1.2:
AUTHORS ChangeLog NEWS README TODO
gnumeric-0.18:
AUTHORS COPYING ChangeLog NEWS README TODO
7) I then filed a bug report with the gnome folk, which the
ever-genial Miguel answered. He essentially said that yes, it
was a problem, and yes, they were working on it. He's written a
stub top-level gnome manpage, and I'm expecting that the library
functions will show up in man3 where they belong. Part of his answer
made me think that the rpms were broken and that I should have had
those already. But there's still a lot more.
I just get the feeling that most of these guys didn't think of documenting
their stuff. An alpha release is one thing, but this was a 1.0 release
after all! Englightenment has similar problems, although they at least
still call it an 0.xx version, and are working on it.
I simply can't stand not being able to search, print, or index
documentation. It doesn't have to be in man format, especially for
long tutorials. Witness the USD docs (/usr/share/doc/usd) on BSD,
for example. But something needs to be there.
Mind you, I don't mean that docs for a program should never be available
through the program itself. I'm just saying that when that's all
there is, this is fundamentally Evil and Rude � la ESR, per my previous
explanation.
--tom
--
s = (char*)(long)retval; /* ouch */
--Larry Wall in doio.c from the perl source code
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