Debian menus I am lost
I do not understand the debian menu system. Based on what I read in the manual /usr/doc/menu/html/ch4.html and other sources I took the following steps as a user (not as root) 1. Created ~/.menudirectory 2. in ~/.menu created the following file ?package(local.staroffice): needs=x11 section=Apps/Misc title=Staroffice command=/home/tjm1/Office50/bin/soffice 3. This file was saved as ~/menu/staroffice. I also tried saving as local.staroffice. The permissions on the file are 664 4. ran update-menus 5. Looked for a staroffice entry in the menu. It was not there. 6. reran update-menus as root ( just in case) no effect 7 restarted X no effect 8. rebooted no effect The manual seems to be very good at explaining how to work with the menu system if you are a programmer or a debian package maintainer. It is really not very good at explaining how to use and configure menus to the end user or system admin. There are many things that may appear intuitive to a developer, who already has a high degree of familiarity, which are in fact not. If anyone can help me to understand the debian menu system I will be very appreciative. And once I understand the subject I will write something to be included in the manual. Thank you
Re: Debian menus I am lost
Thanks for the help. The backslash plus fixing a few loose quotation marks did the trick. I am punishing myself by writing on a blackboard 100 times Syntax is my friend I am now one big step closer to actually understanding the menu system, but I think I will delay my plans to teach myself C. Thanks again Tom
Key board and mouse lockup
Every once in a blue moon, when I am in X my keyboard and mouse lockup. I am forced to turn the computer off. This is bad. Is there a log file that I could look at that might help me to figure out what the problem is? Also is there a particular grep syntax that I should us on the log file. Thanks Tom
Re: Protecting root security
Thanks to everyone for such informative responses. This list is like a school for System Administration. I hope that one day I able to pass on the knowledge I have gained here. Thanks again
Protecting root security
Doesn't the fact that I can go to any Linux box with an install disk or cd and gain root access mean that the all Linux systems are fundamentally insecure? Perhaps the install process could be changed so that root password, or some other verification system is required, before a reinstall is permitted. It is true that compromising a system this way requires unfettered access to the box. However as Linux is used more and more in commercial environments this issue will need to be addressed.
Re: icewm-gnome config files
Hi Tim Thanks for the help. Perhaps I was not clear [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Well what you want to look at, is the menu of the gnome panel :-) That will contain StarOffice. This is correct. Staroffice does appear in the menu of the gnome panel. I added it using the gnome menuing utility. However Staroffice does not appear anywhere when I use icewm-gnome. icewm-gnome is a version of icewm preconfigured to run gnome. It is a separate deb and a separate manager from regular icewm. This must mean that gnome runing in icewm-gnome must be reading a different config file from regular gnome. fvwm+gnome has staroffice, fvwm2+gnome has staroffice, windowmaker+gnome has staroffice icewm+gnome has staroffice etc. icewm-gnome does not have staroffice. icewm-gnome must be reading a differnet menu file. Running as root, I issued the following command find / -name ice* | most I found no icewm-gnome config files I'm not sure where the ICEWm menu is stored, probably in the ~/.icewm directory :-) There is no ~/.icewm or ~/icewm-gnome directory I can live without this. I am actually using windowmaker now. It seems pretty cool I looked briefly at enlightenment. It is quite hedious, but that another story. I just don't like when I don't understand stuff that should be pretty simple. Anyway thanks again for the help
icewm-gnome config files
I added Staroffice to the Gnome menu, but it does not appear when I use icewm-gnome as my window mangager. It does appear if I run gnome with other window managers including icewm. icewm-gnome must be reading a different config file or something. Can anyone tell me how to get it to do what I want? Thanks Tom
finding and using applications
Suppose you have a Debian Gnu/Linux system set up and fully loaded with applications. A new user appears who is going to use the system. The new user is a unix novice. He/she knows enough basic commands to get by. Is there a simple way for that user to find every available application on the system, what the application does, and how to use it? I really don't think so. Remember apropos only scans man pages. Looking in /usr/bin isn't much help for finding a tool to do a specific job unless you already know about it. I really believe that any user should be able to step up to the machine and quickly and easily find if an application to do what they want is available. Yes this is available for many applications, but not for all. I believe that this serious problem, which is an impediment to Linuxes mass acceptance could easily be fixed. Debian should not include application that are not fully documented ie have manpages, info pages etc Also some frontend appliction for finding applicatons would be helpful Somethnig based on he code for dselect would probably work fine. Please don't suggest that I write it. I can't. I am only commenting on a feature I would like to see. Please don't ask what type of applicaton I am looking for so you can help me find it. I am not looking for an application. But I would like to be able, and have any users be able, to know what applications are available on my system and how to use them. I would like to be able to get that informantion exclusivly from my computer and not depend on this list, irc, usenet, my big pile of tech books, or any external source. I am root for heavens sake. Strictly from a System administration perspective, There should be a simple way for users to know what apps are available to them. If you know one please let me know it
Re: debian-user-digest Digest V99 #802
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Gary L. Hennigan I'm a little confused about what you're (Tommy) asking here. I will try to be explain. I am sitting in my imaginary system administrators office. One by one users come in and ask the same basic question; What application can I use to do foo. I should remember everyone of the thousands of programs on the system. After all I did install them. But I really can't. I am just to stupid. Wouldn't it be nice if I could tell the following to everyone to type command keyword or command string, and a list of applications related to that keyword or string would be provided. Perhaps the location of documentation could also be listed. This way when I am trying to convince a friend that Linux is better than MS and they ask but, can it do foo?, I can do a search and quickly and easily say yes try any of these applications to do foo. Personally I have sometimes found an application on the system long after I actually needed or wanted it. Much time is wasted in needless frustration. Tom
Basic networking info
After a long delay I am finally ready to put together a small training network in my apartment. First I have some basic questions. There are 3 machines one AMD 586 133 /64 mg (my primary machine) and 2 Intel 486 66 /8 mg. All have ISA NE2000 cards 1. Can I live with 8 mg in the 486s? 2. How much of Debian/Gnu Linux do I actually need to install on the 486s? For example only one machine in the network should have the MTA, or be a DNS server. But if I only install the bare minimum how is that differnt than just setting up a terminal. 3. Come to think of it how do you just set up mutiple terminals? Do I need special video cards? 4. What is the best way to simulate user activity on a training network when there is really only one person? 5. I have a couple of other operatiing systems lying around.(Freebsd, Solaris7, win311, I could probably borrow 95 or NT) Can I mix and match them on the network. How do you do that? Any recommeded reading material is appreciated. Thanks for any help Tom PS number two is the most important question at this time
Fonts is X and Linux
What is the best information source to learn about the use of fonts in Linux and X? To be perfectly honest I have no idea how to use the many fonts that are available to me under X. I have xfontsel installed and have looked at it, but I am not sure how to use it to change default screen fonts and stuff like that. Changing fonts should be fairly simple, and probably is, but it does not seem that intuative. Could someone point me in the right direction. Thank you.
Re: Fonts is X and Linux
Person, Roderick wrote: What window manager are you using? Most have a configuration util that allows you to set different fonts. I use WindowMaker and I can set fonts either with WMPrefs or wmakerconf. I switch my window mangers every now and then but mostly use fvwm2 (olvm olvwm) or icewm. ( I use that now) And I should correct myself because I do know how make some font changes to X. but those are usually changes to the application boxes and not the applications themselves. What I want to learn to do is to make global font changes at the application level. Suppose the default font on most applications is difficult to see. So you want to change it to one that is easier. There should be a way to do that for all applications you use, rather than editing the config file for each one. xfontsel sounds like it should be able to do that, at least for the current desktop. I just can't figure out how?
netscape plugins
I notice that on my system Netscape 4.51 lists certain common applications as unavailable. I can't imagine that I need a plugin for perl or tcl when these are available on my system already. Can I direct Netscape to /bin/sh for all applications or do I have to specify each one? Since I call perl or tk or any app from a shell it seems that that directing everything to /bin/sh would be a simple solution. Is there any problem with this? Thanks
Solaris 7 dual boot
Has anyone here looked at Solaris 7 for Intel? Is there any problem setting up a dual boot? Can you make any comparisons to Debian Gnu/Linux? Thanks
The real world .. (was RedHat=MS...)
Although I do not agree that RedHat and ms are in many way the same. There are important things, for Debian, or any distribution, to learn from the comparison. The simple fact is that there is a direct correlation between name recognition and market share. Achieving substantial increased market share, especially outside the techie world, requires marketing the distribution. This is usually means advertising. Adverting costs money. Regular advertising requires a fairly high, predictable and regular income stream. For a noncommercial distribution like debian this means increasing donations. One way to do this is to develop new applications in house that have the debian name. And to specifically ask for donations to Debian from users of the application regardless of the distribution it runs on. Still keep it open and give it away, but include some notice like the following; Debian Good-bye World was developed by the Debian Project If you are able to make a contribution please do so or some such thing. Or even more simply to just ask for donations on regular basis There are also free ways to increase name recognition and market share of Debian. It may be a mistake to rely so heavily on internet support for the distribution. More localized user groups might make it easier for new users, and would increase Debian's presense in the local community. This obviously increases name recognition. Microsoft is a success because, rightly or wrongly, users associate that name brand with personal computers. If Red hat achieves dominance on the Linux platform. It will be for the same reason. Debian could remain/ become a smaller techie oriented distribution. That's fine with me. But, if Debian wants to to be a thriving distribution for the end user and business markets we should not waste time whining about it. We should accept these facts and act accordingly. Because this is the way things are in the real world
Debian and Kernel Releases
I was looking at the documentation for the latest stable debian release, and noticed that it is shipped with kernel 2.0.36. As we know kernel 2.2 is now released. So I am wondering what the relationship is between debian development and kernel development? Would it be better to develop debian around the latest kernel? I presume that developing and or compiling programs on a machine with the latest stable kernel must have some advantage over simply installing a precompiled binary on an updated kernel. This is not a criticism of Debian because obviously, debian releases can not follow exactly the latest kernel releases. There will always be some delay. I was just wondering about the relationship because 2.2 is a major kernel release. Or is this really not that significant?
fvwm2 module configuration
I am trying to get out of the habit of modifying my system as root and am attempting to modify fvwm2 as a user. I am having some problems. This is what I have done. copied /etc/x11/fvwm2/system.fvwm2rc to ~/fvwm2rcchown to user created ~/.fvwm2 directory copied /etc/x11/fvwm2/*.hook to ~/.fvwm2chown to user Started X I notice that my menus are doubled. For example under the usuall list of apps is another one. This would seem to indicate that fvwm is reading both system.fvwm2rc and ~/.fvwm2rc and not one or the other asa expected. Also when running the dotfile fvwm2 module I am using the import from dotefile option and am getting a error in TCL script message unexpected token. Is my procedure incorrect, and how do I fix these errors. Thanks
VB and Active X
Someone I know who is learning programming sent me a link to a web page they were working on that had VB and Active X controls. I couldn't see any of it in netscape. Why not? Is it possible to see this stuff on a Linux box? Are LInux users going to be cut off from web based application written in MS languages? Tom
Re: I can't believe this
In regard to debian's install being difficult for newbies, there seems a simple solution. At the beginning of the install process have a menu that asks what competency level the user is. (beginner, intermediate, advanced) Then have an install procedure suitable for that level. Some menus could ask questions of the beginning user and a recommended basic system could be installed and configured. Let the system automaticly setup partions, config ppp, setup xwindows, and some Office apps. I know there will be some arguments about what a basic system should be. Still all in all, this does not seem as if it would be that hard to do. For the record, my former school gave us shell accounts on solaris. For tech support I got a sheet of paper with about 25 unix commands on it. Being lazy I installed 4dos on my home pc and aliased the dos commands the unix ones. They became familiar more quickly that way. One day I found Debian on the net. I downloaded 0.93 and have been happy with Debian ever since. Debian Gnu/Linux is just not as hard as people believe. Tom
