Linux-Misc Digest #436, Volume #27 Sat, 24 Mar 01 16:13:02 EST
Contents:
tape drive problems (Kevin C. Redden)
Older CDR drive - how to install? (Kevin C. Redden)
Re: Tandy Model 100 as linux terminal (Kevan Smith)
Re: tape drive problems (Joshua Baker-LePain)
GDM errors ("Chakravarthy K Sannedhi")
Re: tape drive problems (John-Paul Stewart)
Re: Shutdown permissions (Jean-David Beyer)
Re: ALSA problems (Dave Phillips)
Re: How to switch user id for shell script? (Vilmos Soti)
Re: GDM errors ("mari-k")
Re: Best E-mail Client? (John Beardmore)
Re: Libtools vs. ldconfig and scripts ("mark")
Re: Best E-mail Client? ("mkarl")
Re: Older CDR drive - how to install? (Stefano Ghirlanda)
scripting with screen ("kid_ego")
Weird Delay (Charlie)
Re: Weird Delay ("kid_ego")
restricted bash shell question (Dave)
Re: Installing KDE 2.1 RPMs must be easier than this
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kevin C. Redden)
Subject: tape drive problems
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 18:40:06 GMT
Hi all: I've got an unusual problem with linux. Since being very new,
I thought I'd ask you first. I reciently tried to use my tape drive
with linux, and found that it's not mounted, or even exists in my /dev
directory.
>From what I read, it should be either a st (SCSI drive) or a rft (ones
using the diskette controllers.) However, I've got an *IDE tape
drive.* (Seagate 8 gb int hornet tr4 drive (according to my invoice)
How do I install this? I'm using Redhat 7.0
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kevin C. Redden)
Subject: Older CDR drive - how to install?
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 18:45:15 GMT
I'm very new to Linux, and hoping that you all can help.
I've got an old 2x CDR drive, Sony I believe, and according to the
manual, it's a: CDU33a, w/an interface card.
Windows 98se can use this drive easly, but I haven't got it to work in
RedHat 7 linux yet. About 3 years ago, when I first started working
with Linux, a version of Slackware could access it. But no longer.
Does anyone know if drivers still exist for this CDR drive? It's a
perfectly good CDR drive, and I hate tossing it, just cause it's old.
I have the user's guide, with specifications, and such incase that's
needed.
------------------------------
From: Kevan Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.sys.tandy,comp.os.linux.powerpc
Subject: Re: Tandy Model 100 as linux terminal
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 11:53:22 -0600
On Sat, 24 Mar 2001 08:51:36 -0500, Rick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Is it possible to use a Tandy model 100 as a terminal on a Linux
>machine?
>
>If so, how might I do this? I want to be able to log into my desktop and
>kill X when netscape or something else locks up X.
>
>Any and all help appreciated.
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/terabyte/933/
Check this out -- linux on a tandy 1000 EX. The principles for your
machine should be the same. I plan on doing it with mine, which can be
seen at http://home.sport.rr.com/cuthulu/tandy/ .
--
Kevan Smith
http://www.shreve.net/~cuthulu/
------------------------------
From: Joshua Baker-LePain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: tape drive problems
Date: 24 Mar 2001 19:08:10 GMT
Kevin C. Redden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> From what I read, it should be either a st (SCSI drive) or a rft (ones
> using the diskette controllers.) However, I've got an *IDE tape
> drive.* (Seagate 8 gb int hornet tr4 drive (according to my invoice)
mt -f /dev/nht0 stat
man mt
--
Joshua Baker-LePain
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Duke University
------------------------------
From: "Chakravarthy K Sannedhi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: GDM errors
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 13:07:39 -0600
Hello everyone,
I recently rebooted my Red Hat 6.2 machine. From then onwards it is giving
the following strange error on the terminal(I rebooted my machine into
runlevel 3).
gdm_config_parse : Authdir /var/gdm is not owned by user gdm, group gdm.
Aborting.
This message is getting outputted for every half a minute. It is no way
avoiding me from executing the commands apart from bothering with it's
frequent apperance. Infact the /var/gdm directory is owned by the user gdm
and group gdm. This directory got proper pemissions too.
One more thing is startx command is not getting executed. It is making xfs
to crash. When I gave startx command at the command prompt what all I can
see is blinking screen for three times and a 'Fatal server error'.
Can any one of you please suggest me what to do.
TIA
Chakravarthy K Sannedhi
------------------------------
From: John-Paul Stewart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: tape drive problems
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 19:13:21 GMT
"Kevin C. Redden" wrote:
>
> Hi all: I've got an unusual problem with linux. Since being very new,
> I thought I'd ask you first. I reciently tried to use my tape drive
> with linux, and found that it's not mounted, or even exists in my /dev
> directory.
>
> From what I read, it should be either a st (SCSI drive) or a rft (ones
> using the diskette controllers.) However, I've got an *IDE tape
> drive.* (Seagate 8 gb int hornet tr4 drive (according to my invoice)
>
> How do I install this? I'm using Redhat 7.0
If your kernel has ide-tape support (either compiled in or
as a module) your tape will be /dev/ht0 and/or /dev/nht0
(non-rewinding). You may have to make those devices in
/dev. I had to cd to /dev and do a './MAKEDEV ide' to get
those devices (and a bunch of others I don't really need).
If you need more help, post again or e-mail me. I'll try to
remember what I did to get my Seagate 20GB IDE drive going!
HTH,
John-Paul Stewart
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: Jean-David Beyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Shutdown permissions
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 14:24:29 -0500
Arctic Storm wrote:
>
> > We have a standalone PC at home running both Suse 7.1 Linux and Windows
> > ME. We use KDE on Linux, with the default graphical login manager.
> >
> > Since this is at home, it would be nice if pushing the "shutdown" button
> >
> > on the graphical login manager would allow anyone to shut the machine
> > down. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to do this. Pushing this
> > button requires entering the root password before shutdown will occur.
> >
> > /etc/shutdown.allow sounded like a good possibility, but it doesn't seem
> > to do
> > the job. The man page implies that you have to be logged in and have
> > permission in the shutdown.allow file. No one is logged in when the
> > graphical login manager is up.
>
> This is slightly off the topic, but there's no need to shut down the
> computer, especially when you run Linux. I used to turn off the computer
> when ever I was done with it. Then I began shutting down only once a day,
> just before I went to sleep; so I would turn on/off only once a day. Now,
> I keep the computer running continuously day/night. The computers don't
> wear out like cars. If the computer lasts you 5 years, then it was a good
> investment. Most people find it "intuitive" that something not in
> immediate use should be put away or turned off. That's true for most house
> hold products; TV, radio, cars, hammers, etc. At first, it was hard for me
> to keep the computer on continuously, but after a few days, you'll learn to
> enjoy the benefits. I have triple boot with Win98SE, Win2K, & Linux. I
> never touch the power button. The only time I touch the reset button is
> when I have to reboot from a crashed Win98SE.
> Try this; keep the computer running continuously for two weeks, and if you
> still feel that it's an overkill, turn it off. You will be an informed
> decision maker.
Though I keep my machine on 24/7, there is an ecological argument that
could be made against it. If you are not actually having the machine
doing something, you are wasting electrical power.
Of course I know people who boot their machines up, run it for 15
minutes, and turn it off (not Unix or Linux users). This may save some
electricity, but probably wears out the bearings in their fans and
hard drives. Now if you replace your hard drives every 2 or 3 years
because of this, instead of every 5 to 7 years by leaving them on,
that could add up to a lot of disk drives in landfills here and there,
not counting the pollution caused by the manufacture of those drives.
I know the SETI@home people are requesting their users in California
to turn off their machines if they would not otherwise be using them
because of the electricity shortage there.
I leave mine on, but I rationalize that I am running 2 instances of
setiathome on this machine and one on my other machine. Furthermore,
cron has them do their thing (logrotate, updatedb, update my
time-of-day clock, do my file system backups, run tripwire, and once a
month pick up a new db.cache file for my named. I do not want to be
interrupted by that stuff during the day.
--
.~. Jean-David Beyer Registered Linux User 85642.
/V\ Registered Machine 73926.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 2:15pm up 21 days, 21:18, 3 users, load average: 2.17, 2.36,
2.34
------------------------------
From: Dave Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: ALSA problems
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 14:56:11 -0500
Peter Petersen wrote:
> Each and every system boot resets the mixer channels to "mute", since
> alsasound complains that no soundcard "snd-card-0" is found, more
> exactly it is alsactl that gives that message and that it cannot set
> any mixer settings therefore.
>
> But despite this "no soundcard found" message, I do have sound!?
> Only that each and any time the channels get muted again.
Yes, that is the default behavior for ALSA. Jaroslav believes (and I
agree) that it's much safer than supposing some average setting for each
and every soundcard. It also prevents naive users from inadvertently
blowing up their speakers. :)
I think what you want to do is: Open your system, unmute and set your
channels, then run 'alsactl store'. That will set your changes
permanently.
Btw, I note that your /etc/modules.conf includes a 'alsactl restore'
statement. You may want to remove that if the problem persists.
> I now wrote my own workaround:
> I use nmixer (which is part of mp3blaster), because this one works; I
> call it from inside /etc/rc.d/alsasound with all the channels unmuted
> and output of the call passed to /dev/null. Well, this works, so I
> should be satisfied.
>
> But isn't there a clean way to get alsactl etc. behave all right
> (finding and recognizing the soundcard without any error message)?
See above.
> A second problem is that ALSA doesn't give me sound in any of the
> quake games (except quakeforge's quakeworld which I could compile for
> SDL sound output). Furthermore, midi doesn't work directly, only by
> intervention of timidity, but I can live with that.
See the README in the driver package:
Sound Blaster 16/AWE
====================
Quake and other OSS/Free programs should abort with 'Segmentation
fault' or other errors. This is due to ALSA driver isn't able support
8-bit or 16-bit sample wide for mmaped (direct) access at some time
(this depends if some other application isn't using record or playback
direction). For normal access ALSA driver does sample width conversions.
You can try use different sample width for these programs.
(END)
That might have something to do with it ? I'm sorry, I don't know
anything about your soundchip, but if it's an SB-compatible that could
be
the problem.
When you say that MIDI doesn't work directly, what do you mean ? I
notice from your reports that you have MPU-401 capability, that means
you have a working external MIDI port. Or does your chipset have an
on-board synth that you wish to access ? If that's the case, ALSA may
not yet support it. You're right though, TiMidity is a fine solution for
such cards.
> Please, don't recommend the 2.4.2. kernel modules instead of ALSA...
I wouldn't dream of it... ;)
I hope that helps somewhat. If you continue to have difficulties with
the driver I suggest joining the ALSA users mailing list. Details are on
the ALSA site.
Best regards,
== Dave Phillips
The Book Of Linux Music & Sound at
http://www.nostarch.com/lms.htm
The Linux Soundapps Site at http://sound.condorow.net
------------------------------
Subject: Re: How to switch user id for shell script?
From: Vilmos Soti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 19:35:42 GMT
Jeremiah DeWitt Weiner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>> I want to execute a shell script under another user id, and I
> (snip)
>> I run linux 2.2.13, bash 2.03.0(1)-release, where is the problem,
>> how I may shell script suid?
>
> You can't. The kernel does not honor the setuid bit on shell
> scripts. (Which makes sense, actually: the shell script is just a bunch of
> lines of text that get run by a shell. OK, so the text file has the setuid
> bit on it; so what? The shell doesn't, and it's what's actually running.)
>
> I'm starting to think this is a Unix FAQ...anyway, there are a few
Isn't it only a Linux thing? Don't other Unices honor the suid bit on
shell scripts?
Vilmos
------------------------------
From: "mari-k" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: GDM errors
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 19:41:57 GMT
In article <99irbp$hm5$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Chakravarthy K
Sannedhi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> I recently rebooted my Red Hat 6.2 machine. From then onwards it is
> giving the following strange error on the terminal(I rebooted my
> machine into runlevel 3).
No need to rebbot!!! You only reboot linux:
1. add hardware
2. compile/upgrade kernel
3. power outage.
> gdm_config_parse : Authdir /var/gdm is not owned by user gdm, group
> gdm. Aborting.
> This message is getting outputted for every half a minute. It is no
> way avoiding me from executing the commands apart from bothering with
> it's frequent apperance. Infact the /var/gdm directory is owned by the
> user gdm and group gdm. This directory got proper pemissions too. One
> more thing is startx command is not getting executed. It is making xfs
> to crash. When I gave startx command at the command prompt what all I
> can see is blinking screen for three times and a 'Fatal server error'.
> Can any one of you please suggest me what to do. TIA
> Chakravarthy K Sannedhi
>
------------------------------
From: John Beardmore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.networking
Subject: Re: Best E-mail Client?
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 19:40:03 +0000
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Dowe Keller
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes
>On Fri, 23 Mar 2001 13:20:17 GMT, Grant Edwards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>In a world with LaTeX, SGML and Texinfo, why do some people still
>insist on doing things the *HARD WAY*?
The LaTeX world sounds like rather hard work compared to WISIWIG.
What's the SGML scene like ? What's the over all aim and to what extent
is it achieved ?
Does SGML offer a tidy way to author for the web and paper from the same
'source code' ? If so, where do you start ?
Cheers, J/.
--
John Beardmore
------------------------------
From: "mark" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Libtools vs. ldconfig and scripts
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 19:43:42 GMT
dunno what you talking 'bout.. my libs do it automatically
------------------------------
From: "mkarl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Best E-mail Client?
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.networking
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 19:44:51 GMT
netscape-mail
p.s. what is with the crossposting bitch?
------------------------------
From: Stefano Ghirlanda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Older CDR drive - how to install?
Date: 24 Mar 2001 20:45:10 +0100
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Kevin C. Redden) writes:
> I'm very new to Linux, and hoping that you all can help.
>
> I've got an old 2x CDR drive, Sony I believe, and according to the
> manual, it's a: CDU33a, w/an interface card.
The CDROM_HOWTO says you need to use the cdu31a driver. Probably it is
not currently compiled in the kernel, that's why you can't access it
now.
--
Stefano - Hodie nono Kalendas Apriles MMI est
------------------------------
From: "kid_ego" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: scripting with screen
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 20:17:26 GMT
Hello. I have a rather difficult problem here.
I am starting a game server as a certain user with:
/bin/su - $USER -c "$COMMAND1"
however, i need to use screen to be able to retrieve the console of this
game from the background.
Has anyone ever done any scripting like this with screen?
Interactively the keystrokes are:
screen ./hlds_run -game cstrike +maxplayers 18 +map de_dust = command to
start game
CTRL-a , z = thow the screen in the background.
Any ideas?
Thank you!
Terry
------------------------------
Subject: Weird Delay
From: Charlie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 20:29:24 GMT
On my Cobalt Qube 2 (Kernel 2.0), there is a delay of near a minute whenever
I try to telnet/SSH/http to it. Once connected, it works fine and is as
responsive as usual, and continues like this until I attempt to relogin. I
know that theres probably hundreds of things that could be wrong, but I'd
like to try to narrow it down a little. If ya need any more specifics, just
tell me.
P.S. - The only real difference is that I upgraded the HD, which shouldn�t
be a problem as I kept it under the 32 gig limit imposed by Linux 2.0
------------------------------
From: "kid_ego" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Weird Delay
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 20:38:52 GMT
I would say ident requests or reverse lookups are failing causing the delay.
"Charlie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> On my Cobalt Qube 2 (Kernel 2.0), there is a delay of near a minute
whenever
> I try to telnet/SSH/http to it. Once connected, it works fine and is as
> responsive as usual, and continues like this until I attempt to relogin. I
> know that theres probably hundreds of things that could be wrong, but I'd
> like to try to narrow it down a little. If ya need any more specifics,
just
> tell me.
>
> P.S. - The only real difference is that I upgraded the HD, which shouldn�t
> be a problem as I kept it under the 32 gig limit imposed by Linux 2.0
>
------------------------------
From: Dave <dave@???.com>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.powerpc,comp.os.linux.security
Subject: restricted bash shell question
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 13:38:23 -0700
I'm using LinuxPPC 2000; kernel 2.2.17; redhat-type file system, for
those not familair with LPPC2k.
I've set up a user account with a restricted shell. I'm not sure I did
it right, but I couldn't find any docs on how to invoke the shell, so I
guessed.
What I did was create a script with '/bin/bash -r' as the only line in
the script. I then set the script as the users shell. It works in the
sense that when that account is logged in, the shell commands are
restriced (no cd, no / in commands, etc). The problem is I only want
this account to have access to a handful of commands. I've created a
~/bin directory and placed the commands I want this user to have access
to in there. I then set $HOME/bin as the only thing for PATH in
~/.bash_profile.
The problem is when I echo $PATH in this user account it comes up with:
/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin
When I echo $HOME it shows the correct home directory.
I've already gone through /etc/bashrc and /etc/profile to eliminate
anything that would point to these directories, but to no avail. I
also can't figure out why ~/bin is not there.
I'm wondering if my method to invoke the shell is causing this problem
(although I can't figure out how), or if there is just something about
the -r switch that creates an inability to limit $PATH.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks in advance!
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ()
Subject: Re: Installing KDE 2.1 RPMs must be easier than this
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 20:47:12 GMT
On Sat, 24 Mar 2001 16:10:34 +0000, Chris Gordon-Smith
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Chris Gordon-Smith wrote:
>
>> Fester wrote:
>>
>>> I saw Chris Gordon-Smith rant about the following:
>>> >I am trying to install KDE 2.1 onto my Mandrake 7.2 system (which
>>> >currently includes KDE 2.0).
>>> >
>>> >I am installing from a CD with binary RPMs. I've tried using GnoRPM,
>>> >KPackage and RPMDrake. Whatever I do I get dependency problems and
>>> >conflicts. I feel as though it should be much easier than this.
>>> >
>>> >Can anyone help?
>>>
>>> There's a specific order that you have to install them in.
>>>
>>> 1. Qt Libraries
>>> 2. KDESupport
>>> 3. KDELibs
>>> 4. All other KDE packages
>>>
>>> If that fails, I've found that the only failsafe method is to remove any
>>> previous version of KDE and Qt entirely, and install the 2.1 rpms from
>>> scratch.
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for this. I have been attempting to install in the order you
>> mention, but I get stuck at KDELibs with the message
>>
>> "kdelibs is needed by kdelibs-sound-2.0-5 mdk" (plus another similar one)
>>
>> I assume that what is happening is that rpm has detected that I am
>> removing kdelibs 2.0 and thinks that this will cause a problem for
>> kdelibs-sound.
>>
>> I am tempted to force the installation on the basis that:-
>>
>> * kdelibs 2.1 may be OK for kdelibs-sound-2.0
>> * I am going to upgrade kdelibs-sound anyway.
>>
>> However, I think this is potentially risky, so I'll take the route you
>> suggest: Uninstall the lot and then install the new version.
>>
>> I must say I think this is a weak point for KDE / Linux. Installation
>> should be far more straightforward if this (excellent) product is going to
>> have mass appeal.
>>
>> Chris Gordon-Smith
>> London UK
>>
>>
>>
>I've now done this. I had to override a message saying 'kedutils requires
>apmd'. I'll need to investigate this, but the KDE 2.1 basics are working
>fine.
>
>Chris Gordon-Smith
>London UK
>
>
You can batch install the rpms from a single directory using the
rpm command: rpm -Uvh --force --nodeps *.rpm
This eliminates dependency hell and other issues stemming from
the order of rpm installation; and in fact is
the rpm install method found in KDE's FAQ on their website.
rpm 3.0.x will occasionally bomb out during the batch install,
either hanging or giving you a "rebuilddb" error. In these cases,
do the "rpm --rebuilddb" command if necessary, then rerun the batch
command as above. It may take a two or three tries, but eventualy you make
it through the whole set. I haven't experienced a hang nor a
"rebuilddb" error with rpm 4.0, and this constitutes as good a reason to
upgrade rpm itself as any.
--Kevin
------------------------------
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End of Linux-Misc Digest
******************************
