Linux-Misc Digest #566, Volume #24 Tue, 23 May 00 02:13:02 EDT
Contents:
Re: How to install Mandrake over existing Red Hat installation? (David Efflandt)
Re: Modem recommendations (David Efflandt)
Re: how to enter a bug report against linux? (John Hasler)
Re: Weaknesses of Red Hat? (Christopher Browne)
Re: Convert HTML to CGI (G. Asch)
Re: Q: how to set up my sound card? (David Efflandt)
Re: Need ideas for university funded project for linux ("Peter T. Breuer")
Re: Need ideas for university funded project for linux (Leslie Mikesell)
Re: Sendmail migration ??? ("Peter T. Breuer")
Re: Rack-mounting machines ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Linux printer problems (Bill Unruh)
Mouse problem ("Peet Grobler")
Re: assigning IRQs? (Vladimir Florinski)
Re: how to enter a bug report against linux? (CAguy)
Re: afio backup to jazz problems (Leslie Mikesell)
Re: Need ideas for university funded project for linux (Christopher Browne)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David Efflandt)
Subject: Re: How to install Mandrake over existing Red Hat installation?
Date: 23 May 2000 04:14:32 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Sun, 21 May 2000, J. J. Ramsey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>I have access to a Linux-Mandrake 7.0 CD that my dad just got from a
>Linux expo of some kind. Currently, I have a dual boot installation of
>Win98 and Red Hat 6.2, and I'd like to basically install Mandrake in
>place of my Red Hat installation, mostly for the experience; I'd like to
>see what it's like to have the default X setup be KDE rather than FVWM,
>with a graphical login to boot. (When I first installed Red Hat, it was
>version 5.2.)
>
>What preparations, aside from of course backing up my data, should I
>take before installing Mandrake in place of my current installation?
One little peculiar thing is that you have to have the CD already in the
drive when the kernel boots because it tries to auto mount it, and if that
fails will not try that device again. So either make sure your system is
set up to boot from floppy first (not cdrom) and insert the CD before
shutting down to start the install, or insert it quickly at the boot:
prompt.
I just installed it on my laptop this evening over RH 6.1 and it was
effortless (I did a new install, not an update). I would suggest Custom,
Normal install. I tried Custom, Server on my desktop earlier and many
programs I assumed would be there were not.
--
David Efflandt [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.de-srv.com/
http://www.autox.chicago.il.us/ http://www.berniesfloral.net/
http://hammer.prohosting.com/~cgi-wiz/ http://cgi-help.virtualave.net/
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David Efflandt)
Subject: Re: Modem recommendations
Date: 23 May 2000 04:22:03 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Mon, 22 May 2000 13:10:51 -0400, Dave Rolfe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Tomorrow is the first meeting of the Rhinebeck HS LUG! In preparation
>for this meeting I have been thinking about modems. My suspicion is that
>many of the kids have winmodems and so will be needing to purchase
>external modems. Do any of the readers of this group have
>recommendations about brands and models of modems to purchase?
>I have a US Robotics external modem that works great. But these modems
>tend to be a bit pricey. Any thoughts???
My Diamond SupraExpress 56 external has worked flawlessly with Linux and
FreeBSD without having to use any init strings, even when my ISP switched
to equipment that caused my old Zoom internal modem to lock up solid in
any OS (requiring reboot to reset it).
--
David Efflandt [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.de-srv.com/
http://www.autox.chicago.il.us/ http://www.berniesfloral.net/
http://hammer.prohosting.com/~cgi-wiz/ http://cgi-help.virtualave.net/
------------------------------
From: John Hasler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: how to enter a bug report against linux?
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 03:26:13 GMT
jorion writes:
> Linux is about coding. get that. we need no stinkin bug track system.
> you find a bug, shoot an email to someone. or post it on the net.
> period. this is how linux always worked, and how the coders want it to
> stay.
Speak for yourself (BTW, what is the name of your package?)
> bug tracking is for those who want to get control on things, and no one
> will ever control linux, cause linux is free.
So is Debian, but it has a bug tracking system.
> you find a bug, fix it yourself, if you can't let someone else do it. all
> what a bug tracking system will do is slow people down to have to enter a
> bug on some site.
"Site"? I type 'bug packagename', type in a description, hit a few more
keys, and off goes the bug report to the Debian BTS.
> and what if the site is down?
I don't believe that the Debian servers have ever been down long enough to
bounce email.
> ...and who will manage the database?
One of the Debian maintainers does so as a small part of his duties.
Volunteers to manage a kernel BTS would not be hard to find. Compared to
the Debian BTS a kernel BTS would be a piece of cake.
> linux was build to be free and open and bazzar type of programming, do
> not try to bring organization to it or processes that will only drive
> programmers away from hacking the code and will slow us down.
A bug tracking system makes decentralized development and debugging easier.
> bug tracking systems is for the people who do not know how to code. if
> you want to use bug tracking, go code in windows and leave us alone.
So I guess you figure that the Debian developers don't know how to code?
A bug tracking system would be a damn good idea.
--
John Hasler
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, Wisconsin
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Christopher Browne)
Subject: Re: Weaknesses of Red Hat?
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 04:24:01 GMT
Centuries ago, Nostradamus foresaw a time when David M. Cook would say:
>On Tue, 23 May 2000 02:22:10 GMT, Faheem Mitha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>3) Also, I thought they were far too commercialised.
>>
>>So, I started looking around for alternatives, and I settled on SuSE,
>
>You see SuSE as less commercialized than Red Hat?
They haven't IPOed, so obviously they're less commercialized.
:-).
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] - <http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/lsf.html>
[In response to deprecations of the use of <linux/*.h>] ...I prefer
code that only compiles on Linux... I really don't care to help other
operating systems grow.
-- Albert D. Cahalan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Convert HTML to CGI
Reply-To: G. Asch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: G. Asch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 19 May 2000 12:17:14 -0400
joselfs411 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
yes, there is a script, and it was published somewhere by Randall
Schwartz on his october 88 column if I remember correctly. It is
available on the web.
j> I am making a website and I want to imbedded it into some cgi
j> scripts to make it more flexible but i don't want to recopy the
j> code and convert it line by line.
j> does anybody know ANY software that will do that on linux? if not,
j> i have a win98 machine in the house, its just much less convinient
j> but please tell me if you ahve a solution that uses win98
j> -- Posted via CNET Help.com http://www.help.com/
--
_________________________________________________________
Gabriel Asch
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
!!! Note: to foil spammers,
if you reply by email, your message must either contain a
proper Reference header or you must quote !this line!
"in a sense, you are already dead"
J. L. Borges
________________________________________________________
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (David Efflandt)
Subject: Re: Q: how to set up my sound card?
Date: 23 May 2000 04:30:01 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Sun, 21 May 2000 19:18:26 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Hi, all:
>
>I would like to hear any suggestions to my Mandrake 6.1 set-ups on my
>sound card.
>
>I have a ESS1868 card (PnP, and I want to keep it PnP for Windows 95).
>I have used "/usr/sbin/sndconfig" to set the parameters, I have got the
>hardware "activated" notice, but the system always tells
>that "<IORESCHECK>" finds errors.
>
>I know I have to check with my I/O port, but I have tried all possible
>configurations provided by /usr/sbin/sndconfig, and yet can not correct
>this error.
>
>Can someone kindly tell me what is going wrong and how I can do with it?
I am not familiar with pnp sound cards, but I wonder if they need to be
set up with isapnp. See 'man isapnp' and see if 'pnpdump' shows you any
info about your soundcard. If you create /etc/isapnp.conf then isapnp
will be run automatically during boot.
--
David Efflandt [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.de-srv.com/
http://www.autox.chicago.il.us/ http://www.berniesfloral.net/
http://hammer.prohosting.com/~cgi-wiz/ http://cgi-help.virtualave.net/
------------------------------
From: "Peter T. Breuer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Need ideas for university funded project for linux
Date: 23 May 2000 05:10:58 GMT
In comp.os.linux.misc [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
: "Anthony W. Youngman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
:> I am led to believe (in other words I may well be wrong...) that rpms
:> basically have a required/not-required status. If the system MAY require
: I don't really understand how this can be so. If the required bit is
: set, the package is required; if it's not, it's not. Even the most
That's the problem. RPMs only have these two states. You can't have
conditionally required RPMs. There are no modal operators, such as
"necessary on mondays" ;-).
Peter
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell)
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system
Subject: Re: Need ideas for university funded project for linux
Date: 23 May 2000 00:16:15 -0500
In article <3P3W4.67733$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Christopher Browne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>Dunno. I've just heard very bad things about some of the installers,
>>namely that they either work perfectly or not at all. And, of course,
>>we should be able to turn off the easy-to-use installer and get our
>>hands dirty.
>
>Actually, all you need to do to get at _that_ is to try installing
>Linux on a non-IA-32 platform. It gets _real_ easy at that point to
>need to get away from the "pretty, barnified installers."
Hate to disappoint you but RedHat 6.2 installs exactly the
same on a Sparc as on a pentium. Boot the CD in your
choice of graphic or text modes, fill in the forms and
let it chug away for a few minutes...
>I'm far more concerned with there being a solid basis underneath than
>there being a pretty veneer on top.
>
>Unfortunately, RPM seems a bit weak in terms of supporting
>construction of well-managed _sets_ of packages, in comparison with
>the set of dpkg tools.
Yes, the concept of sets seems to only exist in the installer.
You can boot it back up, pick the upgrade option and select
some other groups of things to install even if nothing is
newer on the CD, but it would be nicer if there was a way
to do this during normal operation.
>Frankly, part of what I'd like to see happen is for some of this stuff
>to get scripted in automated fashion.
>
>I've got an hourly process that runs:
> apt-get update
> apt-get -q -y -d upgrade
>which checks to see if there is anything out there needing to be
>upgraded.
>
>That's not going to automagically _do_ the upgrades; it merely
>downloads the updated packages. I get to run dselect [which needs a
>prettier face in these modern times...] to actually _install_ them.
There is something called autorpm, which I think does basically
the same thing. However much of the interesting stuff isn't
an update - it is an entirely new package. The only way
I've found time to even look at these things is to do
an 'everything' install of the new RH and Mandrake releases
and poke away at the menus to see what new things they
included.
>In effect, the friendliest user interface for system administration is
>the user interface that you don't _need_ to use because the computer
>did the Right Thing on your behalf.
In theory you can do an 'update' with the next RH release - and
it usually really works when you go from an x.1 to an x.2 version.
However, you won't get any of the new good stuff if you just
update what you have installed.
>You overspeak, _slightly._
>
><http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/> reports:
> "This archive hosts 64126 RPMs representing 99304 MBytes of data"
>
>Much of these represent duplicates, whether via being different
>versions, or versions for different RPM-based istributions.
>
>In contrast, Debian has somewhere around 5000 packages these days.
>With the _significant_ upside that they are each, at least initially,
>required to have an identifiable maintainer.
Most useful stuff can be found on the RH base and Powertools
set, and/or the Mandrake and VALinux variations.
>I would speculate that the same is true for Linuxconf; the site
><http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/linuxconf/modules.hc> only lists a limited
>number of third party modules.
Linuxconf appears to be an all-or-nothing situation in terms
of controlling the entire computer. If you change any single
thing with it, it examines and tries to 'fix' everything.
For example, if you fix your sendmail to run as a non-root
user, then do something like adding a user through linuxconf
it will change your sendmail queue directory ownership back
to root. It is configurable, of course, but having to configure
linuxconf sort of defeats the purpose...
>Contrast with WebMin, which combines a large number of standard
><http://www.webmin.com/webmin/standard.html> and third party
><http://www.webmin.com/webmin/third.html> modules. Admittedly, the
>wish list <http://www.coastnet.com/~ken/webmin/wish.html> is rather
>large...
Webmin is often handier to control a single item, but a browser
is only a so-so interface. It would be nice if there were
a real X GUI that could be used locally with the browser
interface optional for when you are working remotely from
a non-X platform.
Les Mikesell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: "Peter T. Breuer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Sendmail migration ???
Date: 23 May 2000 05:26:46 GMT
Benson Lei <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: anybody knows how to migrate the sendmail & all personel mails from a
: machine to another ???
Cp your persoal folders across. Then copy sendmail.cf and the aliases
file. I doubt you personalized more. Take the whole of /etc/mail
if it's all below there. Check the mod dates of files in your /etc
dir to be sure.
Peter
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Rack-mounting machines
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 05:21:27 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Ioannidis) wrote:
> What's the current wisdom on good-quality rack-mounted enclosures for
> ATX motherboards? The place I had gotten my last batch a couple of
> years ago is no longer in business. My main requirements are:
>
> * high-quality power supply
> * lots of ventilation
> * at least three external bays for disk drives
You might want to take a look at www.rackmount.com.
They have large selections of rackmount chassis including 1U/2U boxes.
http://www.rackmount.com/PrdGuide.htm
Eric -
>
> Any hints?
>
> Thanks
>
> /ji
>
> --
> /\ ASCII ribbon | John Ioannidis * Secure Systems Research
> Department
> \/ campaign | AT&T Labs - Research * Florham Park, NJ 07932
> /\ against | "Intellectuals trying to out-intellectual
> / \ HTML email. | other intellectuals" (Fritz the Cat)
>
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bill Unruh)
Subject: Re: Linux printer problems
Date: 23 May 2000 05:31:51 GMT
In <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
]Hello,
]I installed linux-mandrake 7.0 and really like it so far. Video, sound,
]etc. all work fine except my printer. It is a xerox xjc6, tried to set it
]as ascii printer but it will only spit out a line of weird looking
]comments. How can I change it to text only printer?
??
Anyway, from the Printer Database
http://www.picante.com/~gtaylor/pht/printer_list.cgi
Driver: Postscript: -sDEVICE=cdj550 -r300x300 # (300x300 Color)
Driver: Ghostscript: -sDEVICE=cdj550 # (1200x600 Color)
Driver: Ghostscript: -sDEVICE=cdj550 -r300x300 -dBitsPerPixel=1 # (600x600 BW)
black-only
Driver: Ghostscript: -sDEVICE=cdj550 # (1200x600 Color)
Driver: Ghostscript: -sDEVICE=cdj550 # (1200x600 Color)
Use the printtool to set up the printer. (Deskjet 550).
------------------------------
From: "Peet Grobler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Mouse problem
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 07:37:33 +0200
Hello.
I've got a Pentium running Mandrake Linux 7.0. Okay, it was working fine,
until I moved last weekend, since then I've got this peculiar problem:
Once I run gpm or startx, the keyboard lock up. I cannot use anything. This
seems to be a mouse problem. I've got a PS/2 style mouse (worked
previously), on /dev/psaux. /dev/mouse is soflinked to it.
I used to have a serial mouse plugged in as well, though I never used it
(except with Win95, which I removed).
Might this be the problem?
Cheers,
Peet
------------------------------
From: Vladimir Florinski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: assigning IRQs?
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 22:14:50 -0700
Janet wrote:
>
> Robert Herzog <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > > OK, so I just want to make sure I understand setpci. lspci -v -n returns
> > >
> > > 00:09.0 Class 0200: 11ad:0002 (rev 20)
> > > Subsystem: 2646:f002
> > > Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 11
> > > I/O ports at e800
> > > Memory at eb001000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
> > >
> > > 01:05.0 Class 0300: 10de:0101 (rev 10)
> > > Subsystem: 107d:2822
> > > Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 248, IRQ 11
> > > Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
> > > Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable)
> > > Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 1
> > > Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0
> > >
> > > The first is the ethernet card, and the second is the video card. So, if
> > > I wanted to change the IRQ of the video card to, say, 10, could I do
> > >
> > > setpci -d 10de:0101 interrupt_line=0a
> > >
> > > Would I need to change any other parameters? Oh, and do I need to do this
> > > before the video drivers are loaded? Also, is it OK to pick any free IRQ?
> > > (Sorry, I know nothing about hardware.)
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Janet
> >
> > I did'nt know the existence of setpci. Seems useful... But I see that
> > the I/O ports of both cards are at e800 (mentioned I/O for the net card
> > and memory for the vga). And this is also to be changed if at all
> > possible. I would even try to change this first, rather than the IRQ...
> > But does setpci allow to change this ? (It could be the parameters
> > IO_BASE or MEMORY_BASE)
> > Probably the author could assit you here : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Hrm, OK. So what should I change the I/O port to be? (I mean, I can't
> just pick some random number, right? *grin* How do I know what valid port
> numbers are?)
>
> Thanks,
> Janet
No, if you noticed, while the I/O port for the ethernet card is e800, the AGP
card doesn't even list one (the memory range is a completely different thing). I
suggest you change the interrupt for the ethernet however (11 is kind of
standard for video even if these interrupts are often unused, such as with my
Matrox G200). Besides, if you change the IRQ for the video card, your computer
might freeze. Beyond that, I cannot tell for sure, your example seems correct
(replace the device ID), but it may take some experimenting. Before issuing
setpci, make sure the relevant module (I don't know which one you use - you seem
to have a somewhat uncommon network card) is UNLOADED (you should also bring
down the corresponding eth* interface). Check with lspci - does it show IRQ 10
now? Then reload the module again - it is supposed to pick up the new IRQ
automatically. At boot time, setpci must PRECEDE all network initialization, a
good place would be just after isapnp cards are configured.
--
Vladimir
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (CAguy)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: how to enter a bug report against linux?
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 05:49:03 GMT
On 22 May 2000 19:23:13 -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>Linux is about coding. get that. we need no stinkin bug track system.
>you find a bug, shoot an email to someone. or post it on the net.
>period. this is how linux always worked, and how the coders
>want it to stay. bug tracking is for those who want to get
>control on things, and no one will ever control linux, cause
>linux is free.
>
>you find a bug, fix it yourself, if you can't let someone else
>do it. all what a bug tracking system will do is slow people down
>to have to enter a bug on some site. and what if the site is down?
>and who will manage the database?
>
>linux was build to be free and open and bazzar type of programming,
>do not try to bring organization to it or processes that will only
>drive programmers away from hacking the code and will slow us down.
>
>bug tracking systems is for the people who do not know how to code. if
>you want to use bug tracking, go code in windows and leave us alone.
>
>//jorion
Well, with billions of dollars now riding on the success of linux...I
think it's about time they kicked the kiddies off kernal development,
and start using a more professional development process.
James
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Leslie Mikesell)
Subject: Re: afio backup to jazz problems
Date: 23 May 2000 00:47:35 -0500
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Nick Garigliano <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>I'm trying to do an afio backup of my redhat 6.2 system to a 1 gb scsi
>jazz drive. Here are the steps that I'm using:
>
>- cfdisk to create a primary Linux partition (use entire disk)
>- mke2fs to create an ext2 fs on the disk. Disk mounts and can copy
>to it.
>- from root dir "find . -path '/proc' -prune -o -print | afio -o -z
>-Z -v /dev/sdb1"
^^^^^^^
Shouldn't you be writing to a file under the mount point
where you mounted the jazz instead of the raw partition?
>One thing that seems odd is that cfdisk (and fdisk) will not let me
>change the partition fs type to ext2. After mke2fs it is listed as
>ext2, but after trying the backup it is listed as Linux again. I
>haven't tried tar yet because I've developed a serious fixation on afio
>and need help!!
You are wiping out the filesystem by writing directly to
the device partition.
Les Mikesell
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Christopher Browne)
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system
Subject: Re: Need ideas for university funded project for linux
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 05:57:25 GMT
Centuries ago, Nostradamus foresaw a time when Leslie Mikesell would say:
>In article <3P3W4.67733$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
>Christopher Browne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>>Dunno. I've just heard very bad things about some of the installers,
>>>namely that they either work perfectly or not at all. And, of course,
>>>we should be able to turn off the easy-to-use installer and get our
>>>hands dirty.
>>
>>Actually, all you need to do to get at _that_ is to try installing
>>Linux on a non-IA-32 platform. It gets _real_ easy at that point to
>>need to get away from the "pretty, barnified installers."
>
>Hate to disappoint you but RedHat 6.2 installs exactly the
>same on a Sparc as on a pentium. Boot the CD in your
>choice of graphic or text modes, fill in the forms and
>let it chug away for a few minutes...
Uh, oh...
>>I'm far more concerned with there being a solid basis underneath than
>>there being a pretty veneer on top.
>>
>>Unfortunately, RPM seems a bit weak in terms of supporting
>>construction of well-managed _sets_ of packages, in comparison with
>>the set of dpkg tools.
>
>Yes, the concept of sets seems to only exist in the installer.
>You can boot it back up, pick the upgrade option and select
>some other groups of things to install even if nothing is
>newer on the CD, but it would be nicer if there was a way
>to do this during normal operation.
>
>>Frankly, part of what I'd like to see happen is for some of this stuff
>>to get scripted in automated fashion.
>>
>>I've got an hourly process that runs:
>> apt-get update
>> apt-get -q -y -d upgrade
>>which checks to see if there is anything out there needing to be
>>upgraded.
>>
>>That's not going to automagically _do_ the upgrades; it merely
>>downloads the updated packages. I get to run dselect [which needs a
>>prettier face in these modern times...] to actually _install_ them.
>
>There is something called autorpm, which I think does basically
>the same thing. However much of the interesting stuff isn't
>an update - it is an entirely new package. The only way
>I've found time to even look at these things is to do
>an 'everything' install of the new RH and Mandrake releases
>and poke away at the menus to see what new things they
>included.
Autorpm is, indeed, analagous. And, as you say, getting at substantive
"new stuff" requires a bit more than AutoRPM offers.
>>In effect, the friendliest user interface for system administration is
>>the user interface that you don't _need_ to use because the computer
>>did the Right Thing on your behalf.
>
>In theory you can do an 'update' with the next RH release - and
>it usually really works when you go from an x.1 to an x.2 version.
>However, you won't get any of the new good stuff if you just
>update what you have installed.
It's irritating how _necessary_ the RH x.0 to x.1 and x.1 to x.2
transitions are.
With SuSE, upgrading appears to be something you do because it is
_attractive_ as they have added in a boatload of new packages with
new functionality.
With RH, in contrast, you _need_ to move from x.0 to x.1 and then x.2,
as the earlier releases just aren't integrated right yet.
>>You overspeak, _slightly._
>>
>><http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/> reports:
>> "This archive hosts 64126 RPMs representing 99304 MBytes of data"
>>
>>Much of these represent duplicates, whether via being different
>>versions, or versions for different RPM-based istributions.
>>
>>In contrast, Debian has somewhere around 5000 packages these days.
>>With the _significant_ upside that they are each, at least initially,
>>required to have an identifiable maintainer.
>
>Most useful stuff can be found on the RH base and Powertools
>set, and/or the Mandrake and VALinux variations.
The problem is that the degree of "responsibility" drops off spectacularly
as you move away from the "base sets." It may prove impossible to get
anyone to respond to issues with contributed packages. Debian does
somewhat better than that...
>>I would speculate that the same is true for Linuxconf; the site
>><http://www.solucorp.qc.ca/linuxconf/modules.hc> only lists a limited
>>number of third party modules.
>
>Linuxconf appears to be an all-or-nothing situation in terms
>of controlling the entire computer. If you change any single
>thing with it, it examines and tries to 'fix' everything.
>For example, if you fix your sendmail to run as a non-root
>user, then do something like adding a user through linuxconf
>it will change your sendmail queue directory ownership back
>to root. It is configurable, of course, but having to configure
>linuxconf sort of defeats the purpose...
Urk.
I installed Postfix, and found that some Red Hat script wanted to have
/usr/lib/sendmail be setUID root, and would daily 'fix' that, thus
resulting in Postfix griping about it. Same sort of issue...
I found Linuxconf _somewhat_ useful:
a) It did a decent job of configuring a PPP connection;
b) Many of the permissions and such that it tried "fixing" were
fairly appropriate.
I don't mind the general idea of the system providing some ways of
cleaning up system configuration; if there are a good set of rules
to this end, that can be quite useful, particularly for helping
naive users to avoid accidentally introducing security holes.
I agree that managing this can be troublesome...
>>Contrast with WebMin, which combines a large number of standard
>><http://www.webmin.com/webmin/standard.html> and third party
>><http://www.webmin.com/webmin/third.html> modules. Admittedly, the
>>wish list <http://www.coastnet.com/~ken/webmin/wish.html> is rather
>>large...
>
>Webmin is often handier to control a single item, but a browser
>is only a so-so interface. It would be nice if there were
>a real X GUI that could be used locally with the browser
>interface optional for when you are working remotely from
>a non-X platform.
I can't decide; having one interface means not having to worry about
whether you can build a Lowest Common Denominator that is compatible
with all of the desired interfaces. On the other hand, it would be
attractive to get advantage of the powers of different interfaces.
There be dilemmas there...
--
[EMAIL PROTECTED] - <http://www.hex.net/~cbbrowne/lsf.html>
Rules of the Evil Overlord #127. "Prison guards will have their own
cantina featuring a wide variety of tasty treats that will deliver
snacks to the guards while on duty. The guards will also be informed
that accepting food or drink from any other source will result in
execution." <http://www.eviloverlord.com/>
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