Linux-Misc Digest #732, Volume #26 Sat, 6 Jan 01 13:13:02 EST
Contents:
Re: Where's my memory?! (Chris J/#6)
Re: Partition overlapped ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: problme with printing from mac to linux via TCP/IP (Dave Pooser)
Remote Kiosk Web Application Administration (Knowledge Seeker)
Re: Setting Up Several Apache (Tim Haynes)
lltostr() in Linux ? (Chet Vora)
Re: what news reader do you use? (Steve)
Re: Where's my memory?? (Steve)
Re: lltostr() in Linux ? (Ben Pfaff)
Re: problme with printing from mac to linux via TCP/IP ("Henry Broekhuyse")
Re: Linux into a blank PC (Karel Venken)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Chris J/#6)
Crossposted-To: linux.redhat.misc
Subject: Re: Where's my memory?!
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: 6 Jan 2001 16:51:14 -0000
In article <WYw56.122133$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
blix <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>I have 128MB RAM in this Linux RH7.0 box. When I first bootup 'top' shows
>that there is 47MB used already! That is without x windows.
>
>After I run X for a while, with KDE, or sometimes just TWM ... 'top'
>shows all 128MB is used!
>
Look at the memory lines of top closely:
Mem: 62768K av, 61132K used, 1636K free, 34948K shrd, 1308K buff
Swap: 333572K av, 72636K used, 260936K free 29316K cached
Specifically take note of the values for buff (buffer) and cached. Linux
caches and buffers files and data so if they are needed often, they can
be fetched quicker than going back to disk. The buffer and cache dynamically
change depending on what the current memory requirements are. If you load
a large program, the buffer and cache will be flushed until there is room
to load the program.
Taking the above, I apparently only have 1646K free...but in reality I have
1636 + 1308 + 29316 = 32260K free.
Another utility that may show this clearer is 'free':
[111%][infinitum][chris] >free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 62768 61396 1372 38052 1324 28252
-/+ buffers/cache: 31820 30948
Swap: 333572 72708 260864
[112%][infinitum][chris] >
Look at the line "-/+ bufferes/cache:" ... this is how much memory you
actually have available and used.
Chris...
--
Chris Johnson \ "If not for me then, do it for yourself. If not
[EMAIL PROTECTED] \ for then do it for the world." -- Stevie Nicks
www.nccnet.co.uk/~sixie/ ~---------------------------------------+
Redclaw chat - http://redclaw.org.uk - telnet redclaw.org.uk 2000 \______
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To: linux.redhat.install,linux.redhat.misc
Subject: Re: Partition overlapped
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 17:11:48 GMT
In article <Q9H56.12523$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"Eric en Jolanda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > fdisk -l /dev/hda >partition.table and see if the partitions
overlap
> > on
> > > that.
> >
> > hmm, no, seems to be quite right:
>
> Then look better:
>
> >
> > # fdisk -l /dev/hda
> >
> > Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2491 cylinders
> > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
> >
> > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> > /dev/hda1 1 64 514048+ 83 Linux
> > /dev/hda2 65 319 2048287+ 83 Linux
> > /dev/hda3 * 320 1057 5927985 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
> > /dev/hda4 1058 2491 11518605 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
> > /dev/hda5 * 2085 2491 3269196 b Win95 FAT32
> > /dev/hda6 1058 2084 8249314+ 83 Linux
> >
> > Confusing, right?
>
> Not really. I just don't get it how people keep creating logicals like
this.
It was in right order, but when I tried to delete / recreate it with
parted, the order is changes.
> > Ahh, got a more presise error message while trying cfdisk:
>
> Not more precise, just reported more explicit
>
> > Does it ring the bell to anybody? not me. :-)
> >
>
> delete partitions hda5 and hda6 , and recreate them in the right
order.
> print the EXACT CHS values of these partitions on to a piece of paper.
> If you recreate them with these numbers (with hda5 and hda6
switched!) you
> won't even lose data. A typo is disastrous though. Therefor backup
what you
> can before you begin this operation.
yeah, I was wondering how can change the order back. which tool do you
recommend that can do this trick? I know using M$ tools will definately
wipe everything...
But still, even if I recreate it with the right order, it still won't
solve my problem -- Everything would be exactly the same as before I
tried parted. and vmware will sure fail to configure again.
Hmmm, still confused....
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
------------------------------
From: Dave Pooser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.os.linux,alt.uu.comp.os.linux.questions,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: Re: problme with printing from mac to linux via TCP/IP
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 11:35:50 -0500
In article <937i8a$t5$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Ingo Brand
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> printing via TCP/IP is my preferred solution, because
> AppleTalk is so slow.
That's a common misconception. AppleTalk, though a chatty protocol and
inferior for large file transfers, is actually a superior printing
solution because Apple's PAP (Printer Access Protocol) is superior to
LPR in a few ways.
For example, LPR does not have any way to identify what fonts are
already in the printer's memory from a previous job-- so it sends any
non-standard fonts again. Since a font is much larger than a typical
print job, that's a huge disadvantage. PAP allows the printer to tell
the computer whether it needs to send a font. PAP also includes some
convenience features like notification of paper status during printing.
--
Bubba Dave Pooser
"If life gives you lemons, grab a sniper rifle,
find a bell tower, and go buck wild!"
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Knowledge Seeker)
Crossposted-To:
alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.security,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.development.systems,comp.os.linux.hardware
Subject: Remote Kiosk Web Application Administration
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 17:40:00 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Need help with a new assignment. Company wants to distribute systems
(kiosk-like) to about 10,000 locations throughout the US. These
systems would include a printer as well as the CPU and monitor. The
systems would allow semi-captive audience customers to retrieve static
pages as well as video/audio stored locally (application is therefore
a fat client) of content pertinent to the customer interest (via a
nice easy to use menu). (Probably similar to systems available at
many public libraries but specific content would also be different
from libraries). In addition we want the kiosks to allow customers to
retrieve content not stored locally via the Internet. So the kiosks
need a (probably broadband?) connection to the net.
What issues should we expect to encounter?? What solutions exist to
those issues??
1. Permission for the placement of the kiosk is not a problem nor is
physical security at the sites.
2. What about electronic security??
3. Generation of pertinent content is not a problem but surely there
are issues surrounding delivery of said content (i.e. update of 10,000
remote locations)?? Content might change each week. What are
practical alternatives??
4. What are the communications issues?? How to solve them??
5. What are the hardware failure issues?? How to solve them??
6. What are the application software upgrade issues?? How to solve
them??
7. Hardware is intel based. Would Linux or NT/W2000 be the better
operating system for this kind of application??
8. If the operating system has a problem, how do we fix and reboot??
9. Since most of the content is static there does not seem to be a big
need for a big DB (at least for content). However, we do want to
capture customer demographics and store them in a DB at a central
host. Which DB?? And do all 10,000 kiosks "phone home" each night to
deliver data or does the host initiate a contact to each remote
station each night to pull data??
Other issues??
--
eCommerce Knowledge Seeker
------------------------------
From: Tim Haynes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: uk.comp.os.linux,tw.bbs.comp.linux
Subject: Re: Setting Up Several Apache
Date: 06 Jan 2001 17:45:13 +0000
Reply-To: Tim Haynes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"John Lyons" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Not sure what the posters reasons are but I'm using a server which is
> shared between three users and we each want to be able to have our own
> config files for apache, sendmail, and bind. (We're each running on our
> own IP addresses so we should each be able to use port 80 for apache.)
>
> The only thing that I couldn't work out was how much extra load would it
> place on the server to be running miltiple versions of the core packages?
OK, permit me some rambling :)
You've got a toss-up between a few potential setups there. You can either:
a) have /usr/local/apache{1,2,3}... each with complete setup;
or b) have /usr/local/apache/conf{1,2,3}, duplicating only the
configs;
(or c) have /usr/local/apache/ and loads of virtualhosts in httpd.conf,
and some front-end for editing only your own virthost;
or d) have one httpd.conf that includes a load of other sites'
httpd.confs, and make owners of each site only have write-access
to their own config)
In terms of installing several copies of the packages, it won't add to the
load, but it would be a horrendously ugly solution, just giving everyone
their own server directory (like "a").
You can either run one httpd per site, in which case where the httpds come
from on disk is neither here nor there (tidiness suggests b+d above), or
you can run one httpd for all the sites, in which case you lose out on
resilience - if one site crashes httpd: woops, and flexibility - you can't
HUP only one site's configs without doing the whole lot, see also
"resilience" for when a HUP causes them all to bomb out through syntax
errors in config files.
At a process level, you might gain some memory sharing advantage if you
have lots of servers (individual httpd PIDs) to cope with the number of
sites, but frankly the only things httpd is likely to share is its own
libraries, so having process groups isn't going to lose you that much,
especially for the other risks above.
In either case "a", "b" or "d", you're having to run httpd once per site to
use a different config file, but if you can resolve the `which modules?'
question[i], then you don't need a whole separate tree. httpd groks `-f'
and `-d' for a reason.
I suggest you pick and mix from the above: you've got file user & and group
permissions, so use them to your advantage. For all the difference, you
could commit multiple httpd.conf files to CVS as well.
~Tim
Footnotes:
[i] e.g. site1 doesn't want php3 and shouldn't be allowed to include it;
you could work around this by settnig up group-ownership on the modules and
starting each httpd as a different user, of course.
--
Crossing the river, caught in the rain |[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossing the rhythm, caught in the rain. |http://piglet.is.dreaming.org
------------------------------
From: Chet Vora <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development.apps,gnu.gcc.help,comp.lang.c
Subject: lltostr() in Linux ?
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 12:43:26 -0500
Hi all,
Sorry if this is not the right forum for this question.
What is the substitute for the C function lltostr() (provided on some
systems eg. Solaris) for conversion of a long long to string () ? I
couldnot find this function or anything similar on RH6.2 Linux.
Will appreciate any feedback.
TIA,
Chet
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Steve)
Crossposted-To: linux.redhat.misc
Subject: Re: what news reader do you use?
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 11:20:11 -0500
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
* Dances With Crows <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>| On Sat, 06 Jan 2001 04:19:22 GMT, blix staggered into the Black Sun and said:
>| >I am currently using PAN... it seems to be the closest to the newsreader
>| >I am used to on my Windows machine (MS Outlook Express).
>| slrn is nice. But then, I don't visit binaries groups or care about
>| having pretty buttons to click. Its utility adjunct "slrnpull" is
>| extremely nice if you're on a dialup connection, and lighter-weight than
>| leafnode. It's not quite as customizable as emacs, and you have to
>| write any scripts in S-Lang instead of Lisp, but there is a facility for
>| calling external commands.
>|
>| (Really, I use it because it was easy to change its default post editor
>| to vim...)
I'd recommend slrn to anyone who wants a powerful reader without all the
gui frills/overhead. As long as one doesn't need the binary ng's then it
will be probably the best newsreader one has ever used - IMHO. ;)
--
Steve - Toronto
Powered by Caldera Open Linux
11:17am up 20 days, 15:01, 7 users, load average: 0.08, 0.16, 0.16
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Steve)
Crossposted-To: linux.redhat.misc
Subject: Re: Where's my memory??
Date: Sat, 6 Jan 2001 11:22:39 -0500
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
* ASF <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>| Linux has a cache memory. This means that it keeps somewhere the last
>| datas you use so you can "reget" them more quickly. This doesn't really
>| use your RAM. Use the command called "free": you will see what I mean.
>|
>| Regards,
>|
>| ASF
>|
Conversely type 'top' from a terminal prompt. Gives one all kinds of
info regarding system resources, which are updated continously.
--
Steve - Toronto
Powered by Caldera Open Linux
11:21am up 20 days, 15:05, 7 users, load average: 0.09, 0.14, 0.15
------------------------------
From: Ben Pfaff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development.apps,gnu.gcc.help,comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: lltostr() in Linux ?
Date: 06 Jan 2001 12:59:48 -0500
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chet Vora <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> What is the substitute for the C function lltostr() (provided on some
> systems eg. Solaris) for conversion of a long long to string () ? I
> couldnot find this function or anything similar on RH6.2 Linux.
lltostr() is a nonstandard function. If it does what I expect it
does,
sprintf (string, "%lld", long_long_value);
is the proper standard equivalent.
--
"I should killfile you where you stand, worthless human." --Kaz
------------------------------
From: "Henry Broekhuyse" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
alt.os.linux,alt.uu.comp.os.linux.questions,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: Re: problme with printing from mac to linux via TCP/IP
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 18:04:32 GMT
Dave Pooser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> In article <937i8a$t5$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Ingo Brand
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > printing via TCP/IP is my preferred solution, because
> > AppleTalk is so slow.
>
> That's a common misconception. AppleTalk, though a chatty protocol and
> inferior for large file transfers, is actually a superior printing
> solution because Apple's PAP (Printer Access Protocol) is superior to
> LPR in a few ways.
>
> For example, LPR does not have any way to identify what fonts are
> already in the printer's memory from a previous job-- so it sends any
> non-standard fonts again. Since a font is much larger than a typical
> print job, that's a huge disadvantage. PAP allows the printer to tell
> the computer whether it needs to send a font. PAP also includes some
> convenience features like notification of paper status during printing.
Agreed. Generally, if there is an Appletalk-protocol printer available for
network printing from a Mac, it is far better to allow the Mac to print
directly to the printer using Appletalk for all the reasons noted above.
A few years back there was a review of laser printers in one of the computer
magazines, comparing PPM speeds of the reviewed printers by (1) PCL over
ethernet from a PC, (2) Postscript over ethernet from a PC, and (3)
Postscript sent by Appletalk over ethernet. The speed difference between (2)
and (3) ranged from 0-1 PPM (Appletalk slower). The greatest speed
difference was usually between (1) and (2), usually from 1-2 PPM. The bottom
line is that unless you are doing high-volume printing, losing the benefits
of printing over Appletalk is probably not worth the performance increase by
going to TCP/IP.
------------------------------
From: Karel Venken <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux into a blank PC
Date: Sat, 06 Jan 2001 18:07:36 GMT
> Hello Karel,
>
> I am a real newbie when it comes to LINUX, I did not get any exposure
> to UNIX either. I grew up with the DEC PDP-6 and PDP-10 mainframe
> machines and have had to PCs with great sadness. Most of the present
> jargon that I hear on this and other NGs is to me about as
> unintelligible as ANCIENT SWAHILI. Things were simpler in the old
> days.
Wow! Linux exist 10 years now (1991, shouldn't we celebrate that?) and Unix, on
which it is based was conceived in 1969, long before DOS. ;-)
These postings might become long, but I decided to leave it in the newsgroup
and not doing this on private mail, so that others can comment as much as
possible. Anyway, feel free to email me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
OK, lets try to give you the joy of using Linux, without getting disappointed
and frustrated. And lets start from the beginning.
You have a number of PCs and because you are a newbie, I suppose they all run
Windows or something like that. One of your PC's is goining to become a server,
preferably under Linux for its stability. You probably have to provide me a lot
of stuff of your PC to fill the details in, so I make some guesses about what I
think what your PC might be.
First things first: Which Linux?
You will find plenty of discussions and everyone has its own idea, and
preferences. The only ones which I have been using is Slackware and Suse. I
have the RH but after installing it I removed it, so I have no experience with
it. There is no best distribution, all represent certain filosofies and
depending on your requirements, preferences one might be better then the other.
Currently I have on one PC Suse and on the other slackware. I don't advise this
because you have to learn the details of both which might be too much if you
just want to start.
I also would like to comment that you should not be bothered having an old
distribution. On the contrary (although others might strongly protest and I'll
give a hint why). The older the OS, the faster it is because there is less
fancy stuff in it. So my personal preference is use the oldest OS which just
fits your needs, and important, which just supports the hardware you are using.
The reason while this is not completedly correct is because newer OS has bugs
solved and is safer on the internet. So if you connect your server on the
internet as gateway, you have to be carefull, but lets skip this thing now.
Installation : booting in Linux:
You can "only" boot in Linux if your boot-sw is Linux. I suppose that your
older 486 does not allow to boot from CDROM. If it was, this would be great,
because then you only needed a bootable Linux CD. So you need bootfloppies, but
I think it's OK so far because you have repartioned your HD already.
Bootfloppies
=============
In slackware it is the following :
You format a floppy (in DOS or WIN) and then go to the \slakware\bootdisk.144
directory on the CDROM. In this directory you execute rawrite. This program
asks you a filename which is your bootSW, typically net.i if you want to use
the network,...
Same stuff for a second floppy, go into the directory \slakware\rootdisks
execute rawrite and choose eg. color.gz
Boot with the bootfloppy, it will tell you something and then it asks you to
enter the rootfloppy. The you login as root.
You can then execute fdisk to partition.
then execute setup and choose different stuf and the packages you need.
The rest of the installation, mereley is a matter of defining where your Linux
distribution is located and "selecting the packages"
In RH you make a boot disk and a modules disk. Same in Suse. Installation
starts automatically after boot.
Installation : from floppy:
=========================
Slackware : You find a directory slakware (or you can download it from the
internet ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/pub/slackware ) and under this directory
you'll find all kinds of directories A1 A2 ... AP1 D1 ... X1... XAP1... These
are the so called packages You just copy the contents of such a directory on a
floppy. Carefull, this is a DOS floppy (Linux will be able to read this dos
floppy) and the contents of the diectory A1 are placed in the ROOT-directory of
the floppy! So do not make a directory structure on your floppies, but make
sure you know which floppy is waht, because the sequence/number is important.
Which packages do you need? The basic system is A-series : A1 up to A..
depending on version, and you always need this.
Mostly I add a few thing from AP.
You want a server so you defenitively need N-series.
If you don't bother about fancy and graphical stuff that is all you need.
However, cfg and so on will be more difficult. Eg. you'll have to use vi, which
will be an interesting experience.
So you don't need to setup X-windows, but most people do. A GUI is so
intresting isn't it? Anyway, in a first trial you might want to skip it. If you
want to set it up anyway, then you need to realize that there are plenty of
graphical boards and monitors which all need certain settings to function. In
Linux - contrary to Win- you need to define these yourself.
With this minimum you can set up a simple basic web, ftp, mail, dns, nfs, nis,
telnet,... - server. If your other PC's are running Win95, they can use it but
not yet the specific Win-stuff , file and printsharing eg. and remote printer
on your Linux box. For this you need to install the samba package, but you can
do this later. There are also a lot other things you might want to add, but as
a start it could be helpfull to try this.
RH : these are the rpms files in the directory Redhat/rpms, but some of them
are largere then 1.4 MB so I suppose you can not install from floppy.
Installation : CD procedure:
============================
Should be clear and the preferred solution if you have this option. Mostly,
just booting from a Linux floppy, should allow you to install from CD. I
suppose RH (as does Suse) automatically start the installation procedure, in
slackware you run setup to start it.
Installation : network procedure:
================================
installation of Linux : as before, the only thing is you select as source an
ftp or nfs server.
Now, this could be a difficulty.
First you need a PC which can hold your distribution, and is connected to the
network. Again, to start with, an older distribution is smaller, which means
that it probably better fits on your 486 disks (How large are they?)
Second, you need an ftp or nfs server on it. I suppose your PC's are running
DOS or Win95, In the first case I can not help you, in the second case I have
very small programs which are great servers. (NFS less then 1 MB and ftp less
then a few) So together with a minimum Win95 it is all smaller then 60 MB,
which leaves the rest for the distribution. If you have plenty of PCs you might
just want to loose one for this purpose.
Installation : Harddisk:
======================
If it all seems difficult, make a dos partition on which you copy your linux-CD
(from within DOS), and the boot with the linux floppy and install from this HD
partition.
Hint
.....
If you feel up to it..
Next to the main Linux native partition, and the Linux swap partition, I
usually have another small Linux native partition. Then
I install Linux on the first partition, normal procedure and forget the last
partition to use.
After everything is setup and configured I install a small minimum Linux even
without network support on this last partition just to repair the main linux
partition if this is required. The advantage is you can add a few tools to make
this repair easier.
Again, read the how-to's. Even if you have now experience, and they seem not to
make much clear, it is worth going through them.
Feel free to ask questions, even on my personal email.
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Misc Digest
******************************
