Linux-Misc Digest #176, Volume #21 Mon, 26 Jul 99 22:13:08 EDT
Contents:
Linux backups & available drivers (JEFF PFOHL)
Re: 3 redhat 6 annoyances (Ed Wilts)
Re: Numbering Xterms? (Philip Brown)
Re: Personal Folloup on CIA Assasination Thread (Philip Brown)
Re: HELP needed urgent: removed getty from inittab?!? (Jeroen de Haas)
Redhat 6 and postscrip printing..... !@#$*! (RH6 user)
Re: Hot weather causing crashes? (Robert Heller)
Re: redhat vs suse (Philip Brown)
Re: Where can I get a pre-installd Linux box for $250? (Christopher Browne)
Re: backing up system (Robert Heller)
Re: Which frigging version????? (Ed Wilts)
Re: Bootable Cd for Linux (Peter Buelow)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (JEFF PFOHL)
Subject: Linux backups & available drivers
Date: 26 Jul 1999 23:52:10 GMT
I've recently purchased 2 machines on which I'vve installed Red Hat
Linux 5.2. One is a HP Vectra VL Pentium 2 with 64MB. It is an IDE
machine. The other is a Dell Workstation 410 Pentium 2 with 512MB. It
must be SCSI. (work requires that an office space with 2 computers
have one IDE and one SCSI so all the media are incompatible [don't
ask]).
I'm looking for ways to do backups on each machine (hard drives are 4
to 9 GB each). I am used to using 8mm tapes with a tar -cv command. So
I'm thinking of using an 8mm on the HP IDE machine and a 4mm on the
Dell SCSI machine. They must be incompatible so data cannot be
transferred between machines.
So my question is, is this possible?? Does someone make the
appropriate hardware/drivers which will allow me to pull this off?? If
so who? Do you have an alternate suggestion?
Thanks!
PS I do have ONE old Sun 8mm tape drive. Model #411 but am led to
believe that this is incompatible with the PC platform.
--
JEFF PFOHL
E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PHONE : (505) 844-7033 work
(505) 299-9516 home
(505) 844-6729 fax
http://nucalf.physics.fsu.edu/pfohl
"My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people:
Those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to
try to be in the first group; there was much less competition."
- Indira Ghandi, the late Prime Minister of India
------------------------------
From: Ed Wilts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: 3 redhat 6 annoyances
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 00:11:15 GMT
Chad Cunningham wrote:
>
> I recently upgraded a staff memebers computer from redhat 5.0 to redhat
> 6.0 and a few things have been causing problems...
>
> 1) Can't start modem
>
> This is the biggie. suexecing /usr/sbin/pppd and then trying it gives an
> error that the user does not have permission to access /dev/ttyS2.
> suexecing /dev/ttyS2 gives an error that the user doesn't have
> permission to use /usr/sbin/pppd. A nice circle, and I can't figure out
> how to break out of it...
Go into Linuxconf and select the PPP/SLIP/PLIP option. Select your
interface. Select the option that allows all users to activate the
interface.
> 2) Can't shutdown w/o password
>
> I have been unable to find a way to let a user shutdown the machine
> without entering their password. I've put the user in the root group,
> the wheel group, the shutdown group, and I've enabled all the privilage
> options in linuxconf, all to no avail.
Go into linuxconf, select the user account information, select
privileges, and check off that the user can shutdown the system.
>
> 3) rm no longer asks for confirmation
in .bashrc:
alias rm 'rm -i'
.../Ed
--
Ed Wilts
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Philip Brown)
Subject: Re: Numbering Xterms?
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: 27 Jul 1999 00:05:06 GMT
On Sun, 25 Jul 1999 17:52:04 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>Is there a way to have you xterm title show a different number for each
>new xterm? Like 'xterm[1], xterm[2]'. I have the string to put the
>hostname and current directory on the title but numbering them would
>work better for me.
>
>I know KDE does this with it's terms, I just don't know the variable or
>whatever it is.
some window managers notice that you have duplicate windows with the same
name, and give you numbered subscripts to differentiate between them.
Most do not.
--
[Trim the no-bots from my address to reply to me by email!]
[ Do NOT email-CC me on posts. Pick one or the other.]
--------------------------------------------------
The word of the day is mispergitude
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Philip Brown)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Personal Folloup on CIA Assasination Thread
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: 27 Jul 1999 00:12:02 GMT
On Fri, 23 Jul 1999 09:25:51 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>..... If somebody doesn't like
>Microsoft, or Apple or anything monopolized? Well, this is a capitalist
>country(I mean US), your
>welcome to try and do better! Of course, the first response from you all
>will be,
>that everything is set-up and microsoft(or any other monopoly) will not let
>your ideas survive,
>well "HAVE YOU EVER TRIED, DAMN IT?" Linux seems to be doing fine...
[Okay, this has been said before, but I'll try to do it in one clean post
and not leave any loopholes for this troll to go further]
Linux is surviving IN SPITE OF capitalism. For the most part, it is in fact a
highly evolved form of communism/socialism. Sharing labor, with no additional
benefit to yourself. [It helps that you can "share your labor", without
having any less benefit to yourself either ;-) ]
If linux started out as a commercial [== CAPITALISM] venture, it would not
have survived. Proof positive: "Coherent" was in many ways, the capitalism
form of linux. A small version of linux, a decade or so ago.
[Okay, fairly differnt, but basically small, cheap UNIX, with a homey feel]
But without people freely donating their efforts to improve it, Coherent
eventually got swamped by the wave of Linux, and is now essentially dead.
People are now making money off linux, but only because the communist drive
to "improve Linux for the common good" still exists. And because microsoft
is finding it difficult to combat something that can be gotten for free.
Their own browser war tactics used against them. Wonderfully poetic justice.
--
[Trim the no-bots from my address to reply to me by email!]
[ Do NOT email-CC me on posts. Pick one or the other.]
--------------------------------------------------
The word of the day is mispergitude
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jeroen de Haas)
Subject: Re: HELP needed urgent: removed getty from inittab?!?
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 13:07:44 GMT
On Sun, 25 Jul 1999 12:45:09 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Jeroen de Haas)
wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I stupidly commented out getty from the inittab.
>Now I cannot get to my system anymore,
>because it won't show the login prompt.
>
>Is there a way to undo my stupidity or do I need to reinstall 4 months
>of hardwork:(:(?
>
>Thx,
>
>Jeroen de Haas
Solved the problem
Via the debian 2.1 setup cd I was able to mount my linux partition
and change the inittab.
Thx anyway.
Jeroen de Haas
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (RH6 user)
Subject: Redhat 6 and postscrip printing..... !@#$*!
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 00:34:33 GMT
hi
I have Redhat 6 and i cant seem to get postscript printing to work.
When i run printtool both the ASCII tests run ok;
but the postscript test just dumps out a blank page.
Staroffice 5.1 just dumps out a blank page and so does netscape and
xemacs. GIMP though can produce a printer output.
Is there a problem with the ghostscript?
Printer is HP deskjet 660C which ran fine with 5.2 before i upgraded to 6.
Any ideas suggestions on what problem may be would be appreciated.
Regards
Rumpole
===================================================================
Please remove 's' in email address to reply..
.a precaution against spammers who
harvest email address's from newsgroups.
===================================================================
------------------------------
From: Robert Heller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Hot weather causing crashes?
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 00:33:00 GMT
reid@maxwell . astro . utoronto . ca (Rob Reid),
In a message on Mon, 26 Jul 1999 16:18:07 GMT, wrote :
RR> Hi,
RR>
RR> At home I use a 7 year old 50 MHz 486 which over the last few
RR> months has started occasionally spontaneously rebooting, usually when
RR> I'm editing something. It seems to happen on hot nights, so I thought
RR> split second blackouts from too many air conditioners might be the
RR> cause, but nothing else (i.e. clocks) seems to be affected, and if I
RR> try restarting Linux right after one of these crashes, it gets just
RR> past the fscking before crashing again, making me think that the CPU
RR> might be too hot, even though all my fans are working (at least when I
RR> watch them).
Is there a fan on the processor? Is IT working?
Electric clocks would not be affected much by power surges. Old mech.
ones use motors, which have a high reluctance, newer ones have DC power
supplies and are pretty much protected from power surges. A power surge
would be a one-shot deal -- you computer would re-boot and then be fine
-- it would not re-boot right away, unless things were really bad with
the power company. This crashing while booting, suggests something is
failing in your computer itself -- likely something is getting too hot
-- the CPU, the RAM, disk drives, etc.
RR>
RR> Has this happened to anyone else? Is there a cheap solution?
RR> Running with the case off is undesirable, since we have a cat and baby
RR> daughter who might poke their noses in when I'm not looking.
You could add more holes to the case. Additional fans.
Get yourself an electric drill and a couple of extra muffin fans...
Does the room with the computer have air conditioning? Moving hot air
over an overheated processor might not help much.
You might also want to get a power-conditioner (more than a 'surge
protector'). A power-conditioner contains a transformer+capacitor pair,
which form an AC regulator -- input can range from 80-180 VAC, output
is a *steady* 125VAC. This will help make sure the power is clean.
Your power supply could be having trouble with brown-out conditions,
which could be causing your processor, et. al. to be running with
out-of-spec power or the power-supply itself is cutting out -- an older
PS might have trouble staying 'lit' with out-of-spec source power, such
as a brown-out + surge from an ac unit switching on. The brown-outs +
surges could also be slowly toasting your power supply, making it
unreliable.
RR>
RR> TIA.
RR>
RR> --
RR> Robert I. Reid <reid@ astro . utoronto . ca>
RR> http://astro.utoronto.ca/~reid/ PGP Key: http://astro.utoronto.ca/~reid/pgp.html
RR> Remove the spaces to reply.
RR>
--
\/
Robert Heller ||InterNet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Philip Brown)
Subject: Re: redhat vs suse
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: 27 Jul 1999 00:16:52 GMT
On Sun, 25 Jul 1999 12:44:25 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>On 25 Jul 1999 01:31:13 GMT, Paul Trost <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>find SuSE more to my liking. Red Hat will cost about $80 and SuSE about
>>$29.
>
>I can't comment on SuSE, but where are you buying software that sells
>Red Hat for $80???
as someone pointed out somehwat obliquely:
With redhat, you're not just buying a CDROM and a book for $80. you're buying
a CDROM, a book, AND PHONE SUPPORT.
[and/or email support. presumably]
--
[Trim the no-bots from my address to reply to me by email!]
[ Do NOT email-CC me on posts. Pick one or the other.]
--------------------------------------------------
The word of the day is mispergitude
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Christopher Browne)
Subject: Re: Where can I get a pre-installd Linux box for $250?
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 00:38:50 GMT
On 26 Jul 1999 17:32:57 GMT, Nick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Hello,
>Is there any companies out there ont he web that are selling Linux
>boxes (Intel-based) running Redhat 6 for about $250? I heard somthing
>about some kind of consumer boxes being pushed by Prodigy sometime soon;
>but these sounded like more client boxes: I want to run a web and
>mail server.
>If not for $250, what's the cheapest boxes on the net?
These "incredible, low, low priced deals" do not buy you a fully
appointed Linux box for $250.
What they generally do is to provide you a (probably refurbished)
computer, for "$250 plus whatever you have to pay for a two year
subscription to their Internet service."
- If you want to use their ISP, this may be an acceptable deal.
- If you wind up with a "dud" of a computer out of the deal, don't be
overly surprised.
The URL below has a listing of sellers of "Linux boxes."
--
"In the long run every program becomes rococo - then rubble."
-- Alan Perlis
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/linuxvars.html>
------------------------------
From: Robert Heller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: backing up system
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 00:32:57 GMT
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Derek Ealy),
In a message on Mon, 26 Jul 1999 14:23:10 GMT, wrote :
DE> Hi,
DE>
DE> I have RedHat 5.1 upgraded to Kernel 2.0.36. I recently installed a
DE> 4mm DDS2 DAT drive on my linux box. I used "tar cvf /dev/st0 /" to
DE> backup my system but it didn't fit on a single 90M tape. The DU
DE> command reports that I have 2.6 gigs worth of data, and I believe I
DE> have compression enabled on the drive via a jumper. Normally I would
DE> expect at least 3 gigs to fit on a 90M tape with compression. Is there
DE> something that I'm supposed to do via software to tell the tape drive
DE> to compress the data? Or is tar just really inefficient in the way
DE> that it uses a tape?
Compression only works for 'compressible' files. Many files do not
compress well: files that are already compressed (eg *.Z, *.gz, etc.),
image files (esp. when the graphics format has its own compression, like
GIF), movie files (which often include compression), executable files
also compress poorly. OTOH, I have seem 10:1 compression for some PostScript
files. Basically any file with 'random' bits won't compress much and
any file with lots of (long) repeated bit sequences will compress well.
Natural language text and program source code compresses well -- natural
language tends to have lots of *long* common 'bit sequences' (commonly used
words and phrases). Program text often has natural language in the
comments and also tends to have its own 'commonly used words and
phrases' (reserved words, common expression and statement sequences,
etc.). Machine code tends to only have *short* common 'bit sequences'
-- typically 16-bit opcodes, 32-bit addresses, but usually jumbled
around -- generally the compression will not find nice long repeated bit
sequences, so things will not compress much. Compression itself
produces files with only unique bit sequences (this is what compression
does), so compressed files don't compress further. Image data tends to
be 'noisy', and this devoid of long, common, 'bit sequences'.
DE>
DE> How do most people do backups on their linux machines? Both tar and
DE> cpio seem pretty damned crude. Even NT's included NTBackup program
DE> seems to be quite a bit more useful. Is there any decent backup
DE> program for linux other than BRU2000? If not how does BRU2000 compare
DE> to a serious backup program like Seagate's Backup Exec?
BRU2000 is wonderful, but costs. If you have the cash, go for it. I am
part owner of an InterNet server box and we (my partner and I) bought
BRU2000, and it works very well. Fast and easy to use.
While tar is rather 'crude' in many ways, tar archives are
cross-platform, which can be an advantage.
I have a DDS-1 drive (no hardware compression) and a 4+ gig disk, on my
home box. Since this machine is not a 'mission critical' box, I use tar
as my backup utility. I have the disk partitioned like this:
Disk /dev/sdc: 64 heads, 32 sectors, 4340 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 65 66544 83 Linux native
/dev/sdc2 66 130 66560 82 Linux swap
/dev/sdc3 131 1155 1049600 83 Linux native
/dev/sdc4 1156 4340 3261440 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 1156 1220 66544 83 Linux native
/dev/sdc6 1221 1477 263152 83 Linux native
/dev/sdc7 1478 2502 1049584 83 Linux native
/dev/sdc8 2503 3527 1049584 83 Linux native
/dev/sdc9 3528 4340 832496 83 Linux native
With these mount points:
sauron.deepsoft.com% df /dev/sdc{1,3,5,6,7,8,9}
Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/sdc1 64419 22330 38762 37% /
/dev/sdc3 1015672 676211 286981 70% /usr
/dev/sdc5 64419 18586 42506 30% /var
/dev/sdc6 254736 8118 233461 3% /var/spool
/dev/sdc7 1015656 667867 295310 69% /home
/dev/sdc8 1015656 88876 874301 9% /home2
/dev/sdc9 805669 97417 666628 13% /home3
This insures that no one file system will be larger than a typical tape
(60m DDS-1 is good for 1.3gig).
This is the once a month 'full' backup script (I use *two* tapes for
the fulls, both 90m, with a 2.0gig cap.):
sauron.deepsoft.com% more Backup/DoBackupF.csh
#!/bin/csh -fe
cd /
echo 'Insert the "main" tape, hit ENTER when read'
set ans = $<
mv -fv /home/BackupLists/BackupDates /home/BackupLists/BackupDates.old
tar --verbose --create --listed-incremental /home/BackupLists/BackupDates \
--file /dev/st0 --exclude dos --exclude slack30 --exclude proc \
--exclude home2 --exclude home3 .
tar tvf /dev/st0 |& tee /home/BackupLists/week$1_main.list
mt -f /dev/st0 offline
echo 'Insert the "home2-3" tape, hit ENTER when ready'
set ans = $<
tar --verbose --create --listed-incremental /home/BackupLists/BackupDates \
--file /dev/st0 --exclude dos --exclude slack30 --exclude proc \
.
tar tvf /dev/st0 |& tee /home/BackupLists/week$1_home23.list
mt -f /dev/st0 offline
I first make a full backup, excluding some file systems I don't backup
(my Dos 6.2 disk, my old Slackware 3.0 disk, and the /proc file system)
and two of the partitions on the main disk (/home2 and /home3). I then
switch to the second tape, and do a normal incremental, only excluding
the 'dead' storage. /home2 and /home3 get picked up at this time.
/usr + /home is equal to 2gig, but /usr is never more then 70% full, so
worst case is /home + (/ + /usr + /var + /var/spool) is about 2.0 gig.
/home2 + /home3 is also about 2.0 gig. None of the disks are full --
these are *potential* full-disk conditions.
Every week, I do an incremental tape:
sauron.deepsoft.com% more Backup/DoBackup.csh
#!/bin/csh -fe
cd /
cp -fv /home/BackupLists/BackupDates /home/BackupLists/BackupDates.todays
tar --create --verbose --listed-incremental /home/BackupLists/BackupDates --file
/dev/st0 \
--exclude dos --exclude slack30 --exclude proc .
tar tvf /dev/st0 |& tee /home/BackupLists/week$1.list
mt -f /dev/st0 offline
This is generally to a 1.3 gig 60m tape.
The above works well on my system.
DE>
DE> Thanks in advance, Derek
DE>
DE> Remove nospam from my email address when replying to
DE> me. My email address is [EMAIL PROTECTED]
DE>
DE> Need consultants for Win32 C++ VB Java DCOM and Unix development?
DE> Check us out at http://www.grandprixsw.com
DE>
--
\/
Robert Heller ||InterNet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153
------------------------------
From: Ed Wilts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Which frigging version?????
Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 01:04:11 GMT
Zach wrote:
>
> As you might have guessed from the subject, I'm a major Linux newbie. I'm
> familiar with Unix to some degree - I used it for a while on Netcom, and
> even managed to set up a decent Procmail script, but the majority of my
> computer time for the last several years has been on either DOS or Windows.
> Lately, Linux has been looking more and more interesting...but there are so
> many choices!!! I'm having a hard time dealing with that - guess I've been
> using Windows for too long :)
>
> I've been reading whatever I can find on Linux, and there's almost an
> overwhelming amount of info out there. Where can I find a review or
> something of what all the different distributions offer? It's frustrating -
> each time I think I've settled on one, I find out something about another
> that makes it look like a better decision.
NOTE: Distributions are like religion - there is no right or wrong
answer, and they will be hotly debated forever. I don't think anyone
has killed anyone else yet though.
One thing you have to be aware of is that the distributions will
leapfrog each other. Say, for example, that Caldera has a better distro
than Redhat. The next release will likely have Redhat having a better
distro. Then Caldera will have another better release, and so on and so
on.
Since you're just getting started, probably the easiest thing to do is
to purchase the Redhat 6.0 release. It's what the majority of Linux
users use, and although it might always be the best at everything (every
distro has tradeoffs), you'll find the best support. If you don't want
to go with Redhat initially, go with Caldera.
What you're likely after now is a good stable release that you can play
with and learn with. Go with either Redhat or Caldera, and you won't go
to far wrong. Both are relatively easy to install if you have
compatible hardware. If you don't, they both can be aggravating, but
we'll try to help in the newsgroups.
.../Ed
--
Ed Wilts
Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Peter Buelow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Bootable Cd for Linux
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 20:18:52 -0500
Bruno Quesnel wrote:
> I'm interested in doing bootable images of custom distribution for the
> companies site for install and recovery plan.
>
> Can someone tel me of a piece of software or methode to make this
> possible.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> --
> Unix is user-friendly; it's just a little particular about which
> users it is friendly to.
>
> Bruno Quesnel [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Genie Electrique [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Electrical engineering VA2 BMG
> Ecole de technologie Superieure
>
Check out this URL, and then get the necessary software if your distro
didn't include them
http://www.guug.de/~winni/linux/cdr/html/
In my opinion, your best bet is cdrtoaster along with mkisofs, cdrecord,
and cdparanoia.
Sorry though, I haven't gotten as far as making bootable images yet.
Still can't get my HP7200e to work quite right. Good luck.
Peter Buelow
------------------------------
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