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Slackware FAQ, last revised: 5 November 1994
These are questions people ask me quite often. Hopefully now that they're
answered here that won't be the case. :^)
-----
Q: When I installed Slackware, the system could see my CD-ROM just fine. But,
when I try to boot using LILO or the bootdisk the system doesn't find the
CD-ROM drive anymore! How can I fix this?
A: The problem is probably that you used a bootkernel disk with support for your
CD-ROM drive, but didn't install a kernel with support. If you have a
non-SCSI CD-ROM drive, or a SCSI CD-ROM drive on a controller with alpha
(experimental) support, then you may need to use a kernel from the Q disk
series that contains the proper support.
You can use the same bootkernel disk you installed the system with to get
into your machine. Use a command like this on the LILO prompt, but replace
the root device name with the one you used on your machine:
mount root=/dev/hda
Once you're logged in, you need to install a new kernel. Use pkgtool or
installpkg to install it:
cd /cdrom/slakware/q4 (or possibly another directory with kernel packages)
installpkg mitsumi.tgz (this one has Mitsumi CD support)
You'll need to install LILO, build a bootdisk, or have Loadlin boot the new
kernel before it will work. See the question below about "I just built a
new kernel..." (The kernel packages install the kernel as /vmlinuz, not
zImage, so use /vmlinuz wherever the answer mentions zImage.)
NOTE: for the best possible results, you need to compile a kernel that only
contains drivers for the hardware you have. If you're ready to tackle that
task, zless /usr/doc/faq/howto/Kernel-HOWTO.gz on your installed system.
-----
Q: I got a PROBLEM_WITH_INEWS_DOMAIN_FILE!
A: Then set your hostname in /etc/NNTP_INEWS_DOMAIN.
-----
Q: Why do I get "network unreachable" under Slackware?
A: There are a couple of possibilities. For most users, things work right out
of the box. However, if you're running into this problem here are two
workarounds you can try:
1. Reverse the broadcast and netmask arguments (and their variables)
in the call to ifconfig in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1. Make sure you are
not trying to route your own IP address - you shouldn't have to.
2. Make sure /etc/networks is properly configured.
3. You may want to try the 'netconfig' script (in the package netcfg.tgz).
It's not perfect, but does a pretty good job.
4. Make sure the kernel you're using supports your hardware. Most of the
kernels provided with Slackware include a /boot/config.in file where you
can look up the compilation options.
-----
Q: Why the $%#@! isn't my UltraStor SCSI detected? It works under DOS!
A: Set the I/O address to 0x340 instead to 0x330.
For any hardware that doesn't work, a good rule is to try playing around
with the IRQ and I/O settings on it to see what happens. If your system
is up and running and you're having problems with a CD-ROM or tape or
something like this, you can always look around for the driver source in
/usr/src/linux/drivers... really, it won't bite! Often, the source
contains important documentation, such as the default IRQ settings for
that type of device, and the major number for the entry in /dev. Also,
try other bootkernels and see if that helps.
-----
Q: My large (> 1/2 gig) IDE drive reports more than 16 heads, and as a
result Linux won't install on it. What can I do?
A: See the file EIDE.TXT for instructions on how to make it work. (Thanks to
Bob DiMarco for forwarding this to me, and Patrick LoPresti for compiling
the information in the first place)
Note that newer kernels (> 1.1.40) will do this translation for you
automatically, and thus make the workaround unnecessary. Once these new
kernels make it into the Q series, you should probably use one of them if
you have an EIDE drive and want to avoid the whole problem.
-----
Q: How do I make a Slackware bootkernel disk with this new kernel I made?
A: OK, well you grab an existing one like the "bare.gz", put it on a floppy,
and do this:
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt (this mounts it)
cat zImage > /mnt/vmlinuz (put the new kernel in place)
rdev -R /mnt/vmlinuz 0 (mount read-write)
rdev /mnt/vmlinuz /dev/fd0H1440 (use that drive, or /dev/fd0h1200)
rdev -r /mnt/vmlinuz 1440 (set the ramdisk size, or use 1200 with 1.2 meg)
lilo -r /mnt (reinstall lilo)
umount /mnt (that's it! you're done! :^)
If you want it to stop and give the message to switch disks, you'll need the
ramdisk.c patch in /pub/linux/slackware/kernels on ftp.cdrom.com. I have no
idea if this will still patch into the newest kernels. Otherwise, you don't
really need it if you're brave enough to just switch the new disk in as soon
as you see the "Uncompressing Linux..." message. It's always worked for me.
-----
Q: I just built a new kernel. Now how to I go about replacing my existing
kernel with this new zImage file?
A: First, you must prepare the new kernel. If you're using UMSDOS, you'll want
your system to boot read-write. Otherwise, you'll want it to boot read-only
so your filesystems can be safely checked. So, do this:
For UMSDOS:
rdev -R zImage 0
For any other filesystem type:
rdev -R zImage 1
Then, you'll need to set the root partition. For example, if your root
Linux partition is /dev/hda2, you'd do this:
rdev zImage /dev/hda2
Then, you can set a video mode if you like. As an example, this sets normal
80x25 console mode:
rdev -v zImage -1
Other modes include: -3 = Prompt, -2 = Extended VGA. You might need to
remove a line in your /etc/lilo.conf that forces normal video if you use
LILO and wish to try an extended video mode.
Next, you need to install the kernel. If you boot from a floppy disk, you
can simply stick a formatted floppy into your drive and write the zImage
to it like this:
cat zImage > /dev/fd0
If you use lilo, you should copy the zImage to where your lilo.conf expects
it to be and then reinstall lilo. This should work if you used Slackware's
liloconfig script to set up LILO. (this is the script setup uses)
cp zImage /vmlinuz ; lilo
You may wish to back up your existing /vmlinuz first.
If you use Loadlin, copy the kernel to your DOS partition where Loadlin can
see it (if you use UMSDOS, you won't need to do this). Then, start Linux
from DOS like this:
c:\loadlin\loadlin.exe c:\linux\vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2
That should do it.
-----
Q: Why can't I cut and paste from elvis (vi) in an xterm?
A: Later versions of elvis use the mouse for cursor positioning instead. If
you want to cut and paste, hold the left shift key down while you use the
mouse.
-----
Q: Why doesn't my bus mouse work? The kernel, selection, the
X server and test-mouse all say "no such device."
A: The kernels distributed with Slackware don't have the drivers for
busmice compiled in. Last time I tried to include all of them there
were horrible driver conflicts -- better to leave them out if they
can't coexist. Obviously, it's not feasible for me to provide
versions of every precompiled kernel for each type of busmouse. I
only have a 386. ;^)
The solution is to get the kernel sources, configure the kernel to
support the your type of mouse and no other mouse devices, and rebuild
it. Documentation on how to do this is included in the kernel
source, i.e. the kernel.tgz package found in the D series. You will
also need at least the gcc.tgz, include.tgz, libc.tgz, and binutils.tgz
packages from the D series to rebuild the kernel.
-----
Q: I see my SoundBlaster/Panasonic CD-ROM detected at boot, but I can't
install from it or mount it. What's going on?
A. Try setting to drive's ID to 0. This is expected by the install disks.
There should be a jumper on the back of the drive that selects this --
just move it to the leftmost position.
-----
Q: I'm using UMSDOS and would like to use the same swapspace under Windows
and Linux. Can this be done?
A: If you want to share a Linux-UMSDOS swapfile with MS-Windows, you can
do the following:
1. Create PERMANENT(!) swap file in MS-Windows with size NNNN kbytes.
2. In /etc/rc.d/rc.local add the following lines:
rm -f /DOS/windows/spart.par <--- Needed in order to suppress
Windows complain on next start!
mkswap /DOS/386spart.par NNNN
sync
swapon /DOS/386spart.par
3.In /etc/rc.d/rc.0 add "swapoff" for this file.
-----
Q: What's the password for root on the install disk?
A: There isn't one. If you're asked for one, it usually means that you
don't have enough memory to install.
To help work around this, look in your CMOS settings and make sure you don't
have any ROM shadowing enabled. ROM shadowing wastes memory and won't
improve the performance of Linux. Also, make sure you're using the smallest
bootkernel disk you can. For example, you don't need to use "scsinet" if
you're not installing to a SCSI drive via NFS. Use something small -- the
"bare" disk if you can get away with it. Some people mistakenly think they
need to use a bootkernel disk with network drivers if they plan to use
networking after installation. Not so! The drivers on the bootkernel disk
have no impact on what you can use *after* installation -- in almost all
cases you won't be running the same kernel on your installed system as
you used to install it.
-----
Q: How can I install and remove software now that the Slackware Linux
distribution is installed on my machine?
A: To remove packages, type "pkgtool" and follow the prompts. Pkgtool will
also allow you to add packages that are in the current directory.
The preferred way to install software is with the "setup" script.
When you do your initial installation, setup puts a copy of itself in your
/sbin for future use. You can also add software to your machine using the
boot/install disk, if you really want to.
When adding software to a running system via NFS, it is preferable to
mount the partition yourself and then use the 'install from a mounted
directory' feature of setup.
There are also command line utilities that allow you to create, install,
and remove packages. For these, you should refer to the manpages:
installpkg(8), removepkg(8), makepkg(8), explodepkg(8). A simple example
of how you would install a package with installpkg:
installpkg package.tgz
-----
Q. How do I know what files setup/pkgtool/installpkg is putting where ?
A. Look around in /var/adm/packages.
Similarly, you can find installation scripts for each package in
/var/adm/scripts.
-----
Q: I set my partitions to "Linux native" but Slackware still won't detect
them! What can I do?
A: This problem is rare and I still don't know what causes it.
[ Note that this is not the same problem that usually affects the IBM PS/1,
Thinkpad, and similar machines that do not detect the harddrive. If you've
got one of these machines, and fdisk is giving you problems, your answer is
still ahead :^) ]
Here's a workaround you can use to install anyway:
1. Start tty12 or tty144 using one of the bootkernel disks.
2. Make and format partitions for Linux.
3. Mount the target partitions under /mnt.
4. Type "setup -target_mounted"
5. Follow the rest of the instructions to install.
6. Type "vi /mnt/etc/fstab" and enter an appropriate fstab.
As an example, here's what mine contains:
/dev/hdb2 swap swap defaults
/dev/hda2 / ext2 defaults
/dev/hda3 /usr xiafs defaults
/dev/hda1 /dos msdos defaults
/dev/hdb1 /os2 msdos defaults
none /proc proc defaults
To give you some more info about this file, the first field is the
partition to be mounted, the second is where it should be mounted, the
third is the filesystem type, and the last field is the options to use.
Unless you're a Linux wizard, just set this to "defaults".
Other things to remember about this file:
- Make sure that you list the root partition before any other partitions
that are mounted beneath it.
- Add the /proc line, or "ps", "w", etc, won't work.
- It's a good idea to put a blank line at the end of the file, as I've
had reports that partitions listed on the last line might not be
mounted.
7. Once you've made and saved this file you can reboot with ctrl-alt-delete.
-----
Q: I have a (PS/1 || Valuepoint || Thinkpad), and can't install because fdisk
can't see my hard drive. How can I get around this?
A: You'll need to enter your drive parameters at the bootkernel prompt. You
can even specify the geometry for your second IDE drive by supplying a
second hd= parameter right after the first one.
When you boot the bootkernel disk, you'll see more information about the
format used to pass your drive parameters to the kernel at the LILO prompt
and allow your drive to be recognized.
You'll have to edit your lilo.conf file to add a similar hd= flag if you
want LILO to work. Add this as the TOP line in the file:
append="hd=cyl,hds,secs"
Where "cyl", "hds", and "secs" are the number of cylinders, sectors,
and heads on the drive.
If you have two IDE drives, specify both drives (like this):
append="hd=967,13,31 hd=944,14,40"
-----
Q: Why do my /etc/issue and /etc/motd keep resetting themselves at boot time?
A: The /etc/rc.d/rc.S resets them out every time you boot after figuring out
which kernel you're running -- otherwise the kernel version printed at login
might not stay current.
If you want to write your own /etc/issue and /etc/motd, you need to comment
out that part of /etc/rc.d/rc.S.
-----
Q: Emacs dumps core, complains of a missing library, or lacks X11 support! Why?
A: The GNU Emacs series includes your choice of a version with X11 support, or
one without. Make sure you have the right binary for your machine.
The binary supporting X11 is installed as part of a package on the first
disk that you'll need to install whether you want X11 support or not. If
you DO NOT want X11 support, install the package 'emac_nox.tgz' on the last
disk of the Emacs series.
If you just install all of the disks, you don't get X11 support. It had to
be one way or the other, so if you're not paying attention when you install
at least this way it will run no matter what.
-----
Q: Why do my compiles sometimes die with 'signal 11: internal compiler error'?
A: This indicates a hardware problem in about 99% of the cases. It can usually
be fixed by increasing the number of wait states in the CMOS settings. It
can almost always be fixed by turning off the RAM cache, but this should be
your last resort since it will cause a noticeable slowdown.
-----
Q: How can I change (or get rid of) the color ls?
A: Read the man page, and check out the file /etc/DIR_COLORS. You can
configure the colors any way you like, or shut them off entirely. Also, you
can copy /etc/DIR_COLORS into your home directory as '.dir_colors' to
override the global defaults on a user by user basis.
-----
Q: I start X with "openwin" and it works OK, but I can't switch virtual
consoles. Why?
A: On a Linux text screen, you switch virtual consoles with Alt-F1 through
Alt-F8. Under XFree-86, you must use Ctrl-Alt-F1 through Ctrl-Alt-F8.
Another useful 'secret' key combination is RightShift-PgUp/PgDown for
scrollback. (a random amount ranging from none to a few pages, depending
on the state of your video text buffer memory)
-----
Q: Why can't I use the new ghostscript with X?
A: Make sure you have gs_x11.tgz from disk XAP1 installed.
-----
Q: I can't get anything to work at all! What's the deal?
A: If you seem to suffer catastrophic failure (!), then check the file FILE_LIST
on ftp.cdrom.com in /pub/linux/slackware against the contents of your disks
and make sure you're not missing any files.
Also, I've noticed that most of the reports of kernel panics and system
hangs have come from people with 4MB. If you're running into these types
of problems I'd suggest forking over the $$$ for 4 more meg. I have 8 MB of
RAM and never have crashes. (well, only when I really push my luck)
If you don't want to do that, then go through your /etc/rc.d/rc.* files and
get rid of any daemons you don't use, like crond, lpd, or selection.
If you've got 4 MB and you're getting 'virtual memory exceeded in new'
warnings, make sure you set up and activate a swap partition before running
setup. If you're really hard up on memory, you can boot a rootdisk using
'editroot' instead of one of the usual boot kernels. This will mount the
floppy in the root drive, and you'll have to install from the other drive
or from the hard drive. You will also not be able to create any kind of boot
disk, so you'll have to install LILO and take your chances. I only suggest
using this approach if a swapfile will not work.
-----
Q: How do I make a bootkernel disk that uses a custom kernel?
A: Look in the ./kernels subdirectory. You'll find complete instructions
on how to make them in there.
-----
Also - at ftp.gwdg.de:/pub/linux/install-mount/slack-info are some more
networking hints.
In addition, the LDP people have put out an excellent set of manuals that I
may include in a future Slackware release. These are available on
sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/docs/LDP.
---
Patrick Volkerding
volkerdi@mhd1.moorhead.msus.edu
volkerdi@ftp.cdrom.com
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From: frac@ksc.au.ac.th (Fric)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Subject: Hardware Compatibility Howto update
Followup-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Date: 13 Dec 1994 17:56:04 +0200
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Keywords: HOWTO, hardware, compatibility
LINUX HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY HOWTO
==================================
Last updated: December 6, 1994
Welcome to the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO. This file will
hopefully list most of the hardwares supported by Linux and help you
locate the necessary drivers. If you know of any Linux hardware
(in)compatibilities not listed here please let me know. Thanks.
Sections marked =others= list hardwares with alpha or beta drivers in
varying degrees of usability or other drivers that aren't included in
standard kernels. Also note that some drivers only exist in alpha
kernels, so if you see something listed as supported but isn't in your
version of the Linux kernel, upgrade. For driver availability, check
the Linux Software Map, follow the pointers in here, or check the html
version of this file at <http://ksc.au.ac.th:8000/hardware.html>.
[Hmm, my net provider is still having problems so the page might be
unreachable at times. You would think anyone can get a system in working
order in three months. And I'm stuck with them too, not much competition
for Internet providers here. Grumble.]
Well, due to all the requests I got all the locations and filenames
are now listed out. Some of the names can get pretty long so the sites
are coded as follows:
* [1] - sunsite.unc.edu
* [2] - tsx-11.mit.edu
Comments, additions, changes, etc., send mail or find me on irc.
FRiC <frac@ksc.au.ac.th>
_________________________________________________________________
1. Computers/Motherboards/BIOS
2. Laptops
3. CPU/FPU
4. Video cards
5. Controllers (hard drive)
6. Controllers (SCSI)
7. Controllers (I/O)
8. Controllers (multiport)
9. Network adapters
10. Sound cards
11. Hard drives
12. Tape drives
13. CD-ROM drives
14. Optical/WORM/CD-R/Floptical/Removable drives
15. Mice
16. Modems
17. Printers/Plotters
18. Scanners
19. Others
20. Incompatibilities
21. Acknowledgments
_________________________________________________________________
1. Computers/Motherboards/BIOS
ISA, VLB, EISA, PCI (but read the PCI HOWTO)
PS/2 and Microchannel (MCA) is not supported in the standard kernel.
ALPHA test PS/2 MCA kernels are available but not yet recommended
for beginners or serious use.
_________________________________________________________________
2. Laptops
Some laptops have unusual video adapters or power management, it is
not uncommon to be unable to use the power management. 2.88 meg floppy
drives are supported.
PCMCIA drivers currently support Databook TCIC/2, Intel 82365SL,
Cirrus PD67xx, and Vadem VG-468 chipsets.
Adrian Clark maintains a web page with detailed information on running
Linux on IBM ThinkPads.
* APM
[2] /pub/linux/packages/laptops/apm/
* PCMCIA
ftp://cb-iris.stanford.edu/pub/pcmcia/
* non-blinking cursor
[1] /pub/Linux/Incoming/noblink-1.4.tar.gz
* power savings (WD7600 chipset)
[1] /pub/Linux/system/Misc/low-level/pwrm-1.0.tar.Z
_________________________________________________________________
3. CPU/FPU
Intel/AMD/Cyrix 386SX/DX/SL/DXL/SLC, 486SX/DX/SL/SX2/DX2/DX4, Pentium.
Basically all 386 or better processors will work. Linux has built-in
FPU emulation if you don't have a math coprocessor.
A few very early AMD 486DX's hang in some special situations. All
current chips should be okay and getting a chip swap for old CPU's
should not be a problem.
ULSI Math*Co series has a bug in the FSAVE and FRSTOR instructions
that causes problems with all protected mode operating systems. Some
older IIT and Cyrix chips may also have this problem.
There is a patch to enable cache and a patch for software cache
control for Cyrix processors.
_________________________________________________________________
4. Video cards
Linux will work with all video cards in text mode, VGA cards not
listed below probably will still work with mono VGA and/or standard
VGA drivers.
If you're looking into buying a cheap video card to run X, keep in
mind that accelerated cards (ATI, S3) are MUCH faster than
unaccelerated or partially accelerated (Cirrus, WD) cards. S3 801
(ISA) and 805 (VLB) based cards and ATI Graphics Wonder (Mach32) are
good low-end accelerated cards.
Historically Diamond video cards were not supported by XFree86.
However, as of September 27, 1994, Diamond has verbally agreed to
provide The XFree86 Project, Inc. with detailed information about
Diamond products.
32 bit color means 24 bit color aligned on 32 bit boundaries. Modes
with 24 bit packed pixels are not supported, so cards that can display
24 bit color in other OS's may not able to do this in X. These cards
include Mach32, Cirrus 542x, S3 801/805, ET4000, and others.
SVGALIB
* VGA
* EGA
* ATI Mach32
* Cirrus 542x
* OAK OTI-037/67/77/87
* Trident TVGA8900/9000
* Tseng ET3000/ET4000/W32
XFREE86 3.1
Accelerated support (8 bpp unless noted)
* ATI Mach8
* ATI Mach32 (16 bpp - does not work with all Mach32 cards)
* Cirrus Logic 5420, 542x/5430 (16 bpp), 5434 (16/32 bpp), 62x5
* IBM 8514/A
* IBM XGA, XGA-II
* IIT AGX-010/014/015/016
* S3 911, 924, 801, 805, 928, 864, 964
+ S3 801/805, AT&T 20C490 (or similar) RAMDAC (16 bpp)
Actix GE 32, Orchid Fahreneht 1280+, STB PowerGraph
+ S3 805, S3 GENDAC (16 bpp)
Miro 10SD VLB/PCI, SPEA Mirage VLB
+ S3 805, Diamond SS2410 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip
Diamond Stealth 24 VLB
+ S3 928, AT&T 20C490 RAMDAC (16 bpp)
Actix Ultra
+ S3 928, Sierra SC15025 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip (16/32 bpp)
ELSA Winner 1000 ISA/VLB/EISA
+ S3 928, Bt485 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip
STB Pegasus VL
+ S3 928, Bt485 RAMDAC, SC11412 Clockchip (16 bpp)
SPEA Mercury VLB
+ S3 928, Bt485 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip
#9 GXE Level 10/11/12
+ S3 928, Ti3020 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip
#9 GXE Level 14/16
+ S3 864, AT&T 20C498 or STG1700 RAMDAC, ICD2061A or ICS9161
Clockchip (16/32 bpp)
ELSA Winner 1000 PRO VLB/PCI
+ S3 864, STG1700 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip (16/32? bpp)
Actix GE 64 VLB
+ S3 864, 20C498 RAMDAC, ICS2595 Clockchip (16 bpp)
SPEA Mirage P64 DRAM
+ S3 964, AT&T 20C505 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip (16/32 bpp)
Miro Crystal 20SV PCI
+ S3 964, Bt485 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip (16/32 bpp)
Diamond Stealth 64
+ S3 964, Ti3020 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip
ELSA Winner 2000 PRO PCI
+ S3 964, Ti3025 RAMDAC, Ti3025 Clockchip (16/32 bpp)
#9 GXE64 Pro VLB/PCI
* Tseng ET4000/W32/W32i/W32p
* Weitek P9000 (16/32 bpp)
+ Diamond Viper VLB/PCI
+ Orchid P9000
* Western Digital WD90C31/33
Unaccelerated
* ATI VGA Wonder, 18800*, 28800*, 68800*, 88800 (Mach64)
* Avance Logic AL2101
* Cirrus Logic 6420
* Compaq AVGA
* Genoa GVGA
* MCGA (320x200)
* MX MX68000/MX68010
* NCR 77C22, 77C22E, 77C22E+
* OAK OTI-067, OTI-077
* Trident TVGA8800, TVGA8900, TVGA9xxx (not very fast)
* Tseng ET3000, ET4000AX
* VGA (standard VGA, 4 bit, slow)
* Video 7 / Headland Technologies HT216-32
* Western Digital/Paradise PVGA1, WD90C00/10/11/24/30/31/33
Monochrome
* Hercules mono
* Hyundai HGC-1280
* Sigma LaserView PLUS
* VGA mono
=others=
* Chips & Technologies
[1] /pub/Linux/X11/X-servers/chips-3.1.tar.gz
Work in progress
* ATI Mach64 accelerated support
* Compaq QVision
* Number Nine Imagine 128
No, I do not know when support for these cards will be finished,
please don't ask me. If you want support for these cards now get
Accelerated-X.
OTHER X SERVERS
Commercial X servers may provide support for cards not supported by
XFree86, and might give better performances. Only cards not supported
by XFree86 are listed here. Contact the vendors directly or check the
Commercial HOWTO for more info.
Accelerated-X ($199, X Inside, Inc., info@xinside.com)
* ATI Mach64
* Compaq QVision 2000
* Matrox MGA-I, MGA-II
* Number Nine I-128
16 bit support for ATI Mach32, ATI Mach 64, Cirrus 542x/543x, IBM
XGA, IIT AGX-014/015, Matrox MGA, #9 I-128, Oak OTI-077/087, S3
cards, ET4000, ET4000/W32 series, Weitek P9000, WD90C30/31
32 bit support for ATI Mach64, Cirrus 5434, Matrox MGA, #9 I-128,
S3-928/864/964, ET4000/W32p, Weitek P9000
Next version of Accel-X will support 24 bit packed pixel modes.
Metro-X ($150, Metro Link, sales@metrolink.com)
* Matrox MGA-I, MGA-II
* TI 34020
16 bit support for some S3 cards and Mach32
32 bit support for some S3 cards and Matrox MGA
_________________________________________________________________
5. Controllers (hard drive)
Linux will work with standard IDE, MFM and RLL controllers. When using
MFM/RLL controllers it is important to use ext2fs and the bad block
checking options when formatting the disk.
ESDI controllers that emulate the ST-506 (that is MFM/RLL/IDE)
interface will also work. The bad block checking comment also applies
to these controllers.
Generic 8 bit XT controllers also work.
There is a patch for Enhanced IDE device support.
_________________________________________________________________
6. Controllers (SCSI)
It is important to pick a SCSI controller carefully. Many cheap ISA
SCSI controllers are designed to drive CD-ROM's rather than anything
else. Such low end SCSI controllers are no better than IDE. See the
SCSI HOWTO and look at UNIX performance figures before buying a SCSI
card.
* AMI Fast Disk VLB/EISA (works with BusLogic drivers)
* Adaptec AVA-1505/1515 (ISA) (use 152x drivers)
* Adaptec AHA-1510/152x (ISA)
* Adaptec AHA-154x (ISA) (all models)
* Adaptec AHA-174x (EISA) (in enhanced mode)
* Adaptec AHA-274x (EISA) / 284x (VLB) (AIC-7770)
* Always IN2000
* BusLogic (all models)
* DPT Smartcache (EATA) (EISA)
* DTC 329x (EISA) (Adaptec compatibility mode)
* Future Domain TMC-16x0, TMC-3260 (PCI)
* Future Domain TMC-8xx, TMC-950
* NCR 53c7x0, 53c8x0 (PCI)
* Pro Audio Spectrum 16 SCSI (ISA)
* Qlogic / Control Concepts SCSI/IDE (FAS408) - ISA/VLB/PCMCIA, does
not work with PCI (different chipset). PCMCIA cards must boot DOS
to init card
* Seagate ST-01/ST-02 (ISA)
* SoundBlaster 16 SCSI-2 (Adaptec 152x) (ISA)
* Trantor T128/T128F/T228 (ISA)
* UltraStor 14F (ISA), 24F (EISA), 34F (VLB)
* Western Digital WD7000 SCSI
=others=
* Adaptec ACB-40xx SCSI-MFM/RLL bridgeboard
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/scsi/adaptec-40XX.tar.gz
* Adaptec AHA-2940 (PCI) (AIC-7870)
ftp://ftp.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/pub/systems/linux/aha274x/prerelease/
* Acculogic ISApport / MV Premium 3D SCSI (NCR 53c406a)
[2] /pub/linux/ALPHA/scsi/
* Always AL-500
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/scsi/al500_0.1.tar.gz
* EATA-DMA protocol compliant SCSI (DPT/NEC/AT&T) (ISA and EISA)
ftp://ftp.uni-mainz.de/pub/Linux/Drivers/SCSI/EATA/
* Iomega PC2/2B
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/scsi/iomega_pc2-1.1.x.tar.gz
* New Media Bus Toaster PCMCIA
ftp://lamont.ldeo.columbia.edu/pub/linux/bus_toaster-1.5.tgz
* Ricoh GSI-8
[2] /pub/linux/ALPHA/scsi/gsi8.tar.gz
* Trantor T130B (NCR 53c400)
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/scsi/53c400.tar.gz
AMI is writing a driver for their Fast Disk VLB Cache SCSI Controller.
Parallel port SCSI adapters are not supported.
Non Adaptec compatible DTC boards (327x, 328x) are not supported.
_________________________________________________________________
7. Controllers (I/O)
Any standard serial/parallel/joystick/IDE combo cards.
Linux supports 8250, 16450, 16550, and 16550A UART's.
Will Hayward says... "I work for a company that resells computers. A
recent client of mine specified that he "must have the 16550A UART and
not the 16550 UART". Since I had not heard of the 16550A, I proceeded
to search for a source of one. After much searching with no luck, I
finally went to the real source - National Semiconductor - the
manufacturer of these UARTs. A representative there said that there is
no difference between the 16550 and the 16550A. In fact, 16550A is an
old part number. The current name for the chip is really PC16550D but
can be shortened to just 16550. The "D" refers to the current
revision."
_________________________________________________________________
8. Controllers (multiport)
* AST FourPort and clones
* Accent Async-4
* Bell Technologies HUB6
* Boca BB-1004, 1008 (4, 8 port) - no DTR, DSR, and CD
* Boca BB-2016 (16 port)
* Boca IO/AT66 (6 port)
* Boca IO 2by4 (4S/2P) - works with modems, but uses 5 IRQ's
* PC-COMM 4-port
* STB 4-COM
* Twincom ACI/550
* Usenet Serial Board II
=others=
* Cyclades Cyclom-8Y/16Y (8, 16 port)
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/serial/cyc.1.33.tgz
* DigiBoard COM/Xi - contact Simon Park <si@wimpol.demon.co.uk>
* DigiBoard PC/Xe (ISA) and PC/Xi (EISA)
ftp://ftp.skypoint.com/pub/linux/digiboard/
* Specialix SI0/XIO (modular, 4 to 32 ports)
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/serial/sidrv0_5.taz
* Stallion Technologies EasyIO / EasyConnection 8/32
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/serial/stallion-0.1.0.tar.gz
_________________________________________________________________
9. Network adapters
Ethernet adapters vary greatly in performance. In general the newer
the design the better. Some very old cards like the 3C501 are only
useful because they can be found in junk heaps for $5 a time. Be
careful with clones, not all are good clones and bad clones often
cause erratic lockups under Linux.
* 3Com 3C501 - obsolete and not recommended
* 3Com 3C503, 3C505, 3C507, 3C509 (ISA) / 3C579 (EISA)
* AMD LANCE (79C960) / PCnet-ISA/PCI (AT1500, HP J2405A, NE1500/NE2100)
* Allied Telesis AT1700
* Cabletron E21xx
* DEC DEPCA and EtherWORKS
* HP PCLAN / PCLAN PLUS
* Intel EtherExpress
* NE2000/NE1000
* Racal-Interlan NI5210 (i82586 Ethernet chip)
* Racal-Interlan NI6510 (am7990 lance chip) - doesn't work with more
than 16 megs RAM
* PureData PDUC8028, PDI8023
* SMC Ultra
* Schneider & Koch G16
* Western Digital WD80x3
EISA and onboard controllers
* Ansel Communications AC3200 EISA
* Apricot Xen-II
* Zenith Z-Note / IBM ThinkPad 300 built-in adapter
Pocket and portable adapters
* AT-Lan-Tec/RealTek parallel port adapter
(From the CD-ROM HOWTO)
Any SCSI CD-ROM drive with a block size of 512 or 2048 bytes should
work under Linux; this includes the vast majority of CD-ROM drives on
the market.
* Kotobuki/Matsushita/Panasonic
* Mitsumi
* Sony CDU31A/CDU33A
=others=
* Aztech CD268A
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/cdrom/drivers/aztech/
* LMS/Philips CM 205/225/202 (does not work with CM 206)
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/cdrom/lmscd0.3c.tar.gz
* NEC CDR-260, Wearnes CDD-120 (EIDE CD-ROM drives)
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/cdrom/nec260-0_3.tgz
* NEC CDR-35D (old)
[1] /pub/Linux/Incoming/linux-neccdr35d.patch
* Sony CDU-535/CDU-531
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/cdrom/sony535-0.6.tar.gz
PhotoCD (XA) is supported.
All CD-ROM drives should work similarly for reading data. There are
various compatibility problems with audio CD playing utilities.
(Especially with some NEC drives.) Some alpha drivers may not have
audio support yet.
Early (single speed) NEC CD-ROM drives may have trouble with currently
available SCSI controllers.
_________________________________________________________________
14. Optical/WORM/CD-R/Floptical/Removable drives
All SCSI based drives should work if the controller is supported.
Linux supports both 512 and 1024 bytes/sector optical disks.
Iomega Bernoulli and LaserSafe drives attached to their proprietary
PC2/2B SCSI adapters will work if the driver is installed.
_________________________________________________________________
15. Mice
* Microsoft serial mouse
* Mouse Systems serial mouse
* Logitech Mouseman serial mouse
* Logitech serial mouse
* ATI XL Inport busmouse
* C&T 82C710 (QuickPort) (Toshiba, TI Travelmate)
* Microsoft busmouse
* Logitech busmouse
* PS/2 (auxiliary device) mouse
=others=
* Sejin J-mouse
[1] /pub/Linux/Incoming/jmouse.1.1.70-jmouse.tar.gz
Newer Logitech mice (except the Mouseman) use the Microsoft protocol
and all three buttons do work. Eventhough Microsoft's mice have only
two buttons, the protocol allows three buttons. The mouse port on the
ATI Graphics Ultra and Ultra Pro use the Logitech busmouse protocol.
(See the Busmouse HOWTO for details.)
_________________________________________________________________
16. Modems
All internal modems or external modems connected to the serial port.
A small number of modems come with DOS software that downloads the
control program at runtime. These can normally be used by loading the
program under DOS and doing a warm boot. Such modems are probably best
avoided as you won't be able to use them with non PC hardware in the
future.
PCMCIA modems should work with the PCMCIA drivers.
Fax modems need appropriated software to operate.
* Digicom Connection 96+/14.4+ - DSP code downloading program
[1] /pub/Linux/system/Serial/smdl-linux.1.02.tar.gz
* ZyXEL U-1496 series - ZyXEL 1.4, modem/fax/voice control program
[1] /pub/Linux/system/Serial/ZyXEL-1.4.tar.gz
_________________________________________________________________
17. Printers/Plotters
All printers and plotters connected to the parallel or serial port
should work.
* HP LaserJet 4 series - free-lj4, printing modes control program
[1] /pub/Linux/system/Printing/free-lj4-1.1p1.tar.gz
* BiTronics parallel port interface
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/misc/bt-ALPHA-0.0.1.tar.gz
Many Linux programs output PostScript files. Non-PostScript printers
can emulate PostScript Level 2 using Ghostscript. Ghostscript supports
these printers (and compatibles):
* Apple Imagewriter
* C. Itoh M8510
* Canon BubbleJet BJ10e, BJ200
* Canon LBP-8II, LIPS III
* DEC LA50/70/75/75plus
* DEC LN03, LJ250
* Epson 9 pin, 24 pin, LQ series, Stylus, AP3250
* HP 2563B
* HP DesignJet 650C
* HP DeskJet/Plus/500
* HP DeskJet 500C/520C/550C color
* HP LaserJet/Plus/II/III/4
* HP PaintJet/XL/XL300/1200C color
* IBM Jetprinter color
* IBM Proprinter
* Imagen ImPress
* Mitsubishi CP50 color
* NEC P6/P6+/P60
* Okidata MicroLine 182
* Ricoh 4081
* SPARCprinter
* StarJet 48 inkjet printer
* Tektronix 4693d color 2/4/8 bit
* Tektronix 4695/4696 inkjet plotter
* Xerox XES printers (2700, 3700, 4045, etc.)
=others=
* Canon BJC600 and Epson ESC/P color printers
ftp://petole.imag.fr/pub/postscript/
_________________________________________________________________
18. Scanners
* A4 Tech AC 4096
ftp://ftp.informatik.hu-berlin.de/pub/local/linux/ac4096.tgz
* Fujitsu SCSI-2 scanners
contact Dr. G.W. Wettstein <greg%wind.UUCP@plains.nodak.edu>
* Genius GS-B105G
[2] /pub/linux/ALPHA/scanner/gs105-0.0.1.tar.gz
* Genius GeniScan GS4500 handheld scanner
[2] /pub/linux/ALPHA/scanner/gs4500.tar.gz
* Logitech Scanman 32 / 256
[2] /pub/linux/ALPHA/scanner/logiscan-0.0.2.tar.gz
* Mustek M105 handheld scanner with GI1904 interface
[2] /pub/linux/ALPHA/scanner/scan-driver-0.1.8.tar.gz
_________________________________________________________________
19. Others
* VESA Power Savings Protocol (DPMS) monitors
* Joysticks
[1] /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/console/joystick-0.7.tgz
* ProMovie Studio
[1] /pub/Linux/Incoming/PMS-grabber.tgz
* VideoBlaster, Rombo Media Pro+
[1] /pub/Linux/apps/video/vid_src.gz
* WinVision video capture card
[1] /pub/Linux/apps/video/fgrabber-1.0.tgz
* APC Back-UPS (Read the Back-UPS HOWTO)
* Mattel Powerglove
[1] /pub/Linux/apps/linux-powerglove.tgz
_________________________________________________________________
20. Incompatibilities
Both the Pro Audio Spectrum-16 and the Adaptec 1542 use 16-bit DMA so
they may have trouble working together. A program called SCSISEL.EXE
may fix this. Check the Sound HOWTO for details.
_________________________________________________________________
21. Acknowledgments
Thanks to all the authors and contributors of other HOWTO's, many
things here are shamelessly stolen from their HOWTO's; to Zane Healy
and Ed Carp, the original author and maintainer of this list; and to
everyone else who sent in updates and feedbacks. Special thanks to
Eric Boerner for the sanity checks.
_________________________________________________________________
--end
Trademarks are owned by their owners. No warranties.
--
Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu
PLEASE remember Keywords: and a short description of the software.
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0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
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In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
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Appendix: How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) 19yy <name of author>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may
be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
Public License instead of this License.
Index
Section 1. Introduction and General Information
Q1.1 What is Linux ?
Q1.2 What software does it support ?
Q1.3 Does it run on my computer ? What hardware is supported ?
Q1.4 What ports to other processors are there ?
Q1.5 How much hard disk space does Linux need ?
Q1.6 Is Linux PD ? Copyrighted ?
Section 2. Network sources and resources
Q2.1 Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation ?
Q2.2 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for Linux stuff ?
Q2.3 What newsgroups are there for Linux ?
Q2.4 How do I install Linux ?
Q2.5 Where can I get Linux material by FTP ?
Q2.6 I don't have FTP access. Where do I get Linux ?
Q2.7 I don't have Usenet access. Where do I get information ?
Q2.8 What's this mailing list thing at niksula.hut.fi ?
Q2.9 Are the newsgroups archived anywhere ?
Section 3. Compatibility with other operating systems
Q3.1 Can Linux coexist with DOS ? OS/2 ? 386BSD ? Minix ?
Q3.2 How do I access files on my DOS partition or floppy ?
Q3.3 Can I use my Stacked/DBLSPC/etc. DOS drive ?
Q3.4 Can I access OS/2 HPFS partitions from Linux ?
Q3.5 Can I access BSD FFS, SysV UFS, Mac, Amiga, etc filesystems ?
Q3.6 Can I run Microsoft Windows programs under Linux ?
Q3.7 How can I boot Linux from OS/2's Boot Manager ?
Q3.8 How can I share a swap partition between Linux and MS Windows ?
Section 4. Linux's handling of filesystems, disks and drives
Q4.1 How can I undelete files ?
Q4.2 Is there a defragmenter for ext2fs etc. ?
Q4.3 How do I format and create a filesystem on a floppy ?
Q4.4 I get nasty messages about inodes, blocks, and the suchlike
Q4.5 My swap area isn't working.
Q4.6 How do I remove LILO so my system boots DOS again ?
Q4.7 Why can't I use fdformat except as root ?
Q4.8 Is there something like Stacker or Doublespace for Linux ?
Q4.9 My ext2fs partitions are checked each time I reboot.
Q4.10 I have a huge /proc/kcore ! Can I delete it ?
Q4.11 My AHA1542C doesn't work with Linux.
Section 5. Porting, compiling and obtaining programs
Q5.1 What is ld.so and where do I get it ?
Q5.2 Has anyone ported / compiled / written XXX for Linux ?
Q5.3 How do I port XXX to Linux ?
Q5.4 Can I use code or a compiler compiled for a 486 on my 386 ?
Q5.5 What does gcc -O6 do ?
Q5.6 Where are <linux/*.h> and <asm/*.h> ?
Q5.7 I get errors when I try to compile the kernel.
Q5.8 How do I make a shared library ?
Q5.9 How do I make my executables smaller ?
Q5.10 Does Linux support threads or lightweight processes ?
Section 6. Solutions to common miscellaneous problems
Q6.1 Setuid scripts don't seem to work.
Q6.2 Free memory as reported by free keeps shrinking.
Q6.3 When I add more memory it slows to a crawl.
Q6.4 Some programs (e.g. xdm) won't let me log in.
Q6.5 Some programs let me log in with no password.
Q6.6 My machine runs very slowly when I run GCC / X / ...
Q6.7 I can only log in as root.
Q6.8 My screen is all full of weird characters instead of letters.
Q6.9 I have screwed up my system and can't log in to fix it.
Q6.10 Emacs just dumps core.
Q6.11 I've discovered a huge security hole in rm !
Q6.12 lpr and/or lpd aren't working.
Section 7. How do I do this or find out that ... ?
Q7.1 How can I get scrollback in text mode ?
Q7.2 How do I switch virtual consoles ? How do I enable them ?
Q7.3 How do I set the timezone ?
Q7.4 What version of Linux and what machine name am I using ?
Q7.5 How can I enable or disable core dumps ?
Q7.6 How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel ?
Q7.7 Can I have more than 3 serial ports by sharing interrupts ?
Q7.8 How do I make a bootable floppy ?
Q7.9 How do I remap my keyboard to UK, French, etc. ?
Q7.10 How do I get NUM LOCK to default to on ?
Section 8. Miscellaneous information and questions answered
Q8.1 What is a .gz file ? And a .tgz ? And ... ?
Q8.2 What does VFS stand for ?
Q8.3 What is a BogoMip ?
Q8.4 What is the Linux Journal and where can I get it ?
Q8.5 How many people use Linux ?
Q8.6 How should I pronounce Linux ?
Section 9. Frequently encountered error messages
Q9.1 During linking I get Undefined symbol _mcount
Q9.2 lp1 on fire
Q9.3 INET: Warning: old style ioctl(IP_SET_DEV) called!
Q9.4 ld: unrecognized option '-m486'
Q9.5 GCC says Internal compiler error
Q9.6 make says Error 139
Q9.7 shell-init: permission denied when I log in.
Q9.8 No utmp entry. You must exec ... when I log in.
Q9.9 Warning - bdflush not running
Q9.10 Warning: obsolete routing request made.
Q9.11 EXT2-fs: warning: mounting unchecked filesystem
Q9.12 EXT2-fs warning: maximal count reached
Q9.13 EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached
Q9.14 df says Cannot read table of mounted filesystems
Q9.15 fdisk says Partition X has different physical/logical ...
Q9.16 fdisk: Partition 1 does not start on cylinder boundary
Q9.17 fdisk says cannot use nnn sectors of this partition
Q9.18 fdisk says partition n has an odd number of sectors
Q9.19 mtools says cannot initialise drive XYZ
Section 10. The X Window System
Q10.1 Does Linux support X Windows ?
Q10.2 Where can I get an XF86Config for my system ?
Q10.3 xterm logins show up strangely in who, finger
Q10.4 I can't get X Windows to work right.
Section 11. Questions applicable to very out-of-date software
Q11.1 How can I have more than 16Mb of swap ?
Q11.2 GCC sometimes uses huge amounts of virtual memory and thrashes
Q11.3 My keyboard goes all funny after I switch VC's.
Section 12. How to get further assistance
Q12.1 You still haven't answered my question !
Q12.2 What to put in a posting to comp.os.linux.help
Section 13. Administrative information and acknowledgements
Q13.1 Feedback is invited
Q13.2 Formats in which this FAQ is available
Q13.3 Authorship and acknowledgements
Q13.4 Disclaimer and Copyright
===============================================================================
Section 1. Introduction and General Information
Q1.1 What is Linux ?
Q1.2 What software does it support ?
Q1.3 Does it run on my computer ? What hardware is supported ?
Q1.4 What ports to other processors are there ?
Q1.5 How much hard disk space does Linux need ?
Q1.6 Is Linux PD ? Copyrighted ?
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 1.1. What is Linux ?
Linux is a Unix clone written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with
assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across the Net. It aims
towards POSIX compliance.
It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix,
including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand
loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management and
TCP/IP networking.
It runs mainly on 386/486/586-based PCs, using the hardware facilities of
the 386 processor family (TSS segments et al) to implement these features.
Ports to other architectures are underway [Q1.4 `What ports to other
processors are there ?'].
See the Linux INFO-SHEET [Q2.1 `Where can I get the HOWTOs and other
documentation ?'] for more details.
The Linux kernel is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see
Q1.6 `Is Linux PD ? Copyrighted ?' for more details.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 1.2. What software does it support ?
Linux has GCC, Emacs, X-Windows, all the standard Unix utilities, TCP/IP
(including SLIP and PPP) and all the hundreds of programs that people have
compiled or ported for it.
There is a DOS emulator [Q3.1 `Can Linux coexist with DOS ? OS/2 ?
386BSD ? Minix ?']. Work is progressing on an iBCS2 (Intel Binary
Compatibility Standard) emulator for SVR4 ELF and SVR3.2 COFF binaries
(see the iBCS2 emulator source tree README file for details) and an
emulator for Microsoft Windows binaries [Q3.6 `Can I run Microsoft Windows
programs under Linux ?'].
For more information see the INFO-SHEET, which is one of the the HOWTOs
[Q2.1 `Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation ?']. See also
Q5.3 `How do I port XXX to Linux ?'.
Some companies have commercial software available, including Motif. They
announce their availability in comp.os.linux.announce --- try searching
the archives [Q2.9 `Are the newsgroups archived anywhere ?'].
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 1.3. Does it run on my computer ? What hardware is supported ?
You need a 386, 486 or 586, with at least 2Mb of RAM and a single floppy,
to try it out. To do anything useful more RAM and a hard disk are
required.
VESA local bus and PCI are both supported. A driver for the NCR SCSI chip
in many PCI machines is included in current alpha test release kernels.
There are problems with machines using MCA (IBM's proprietary bus), mainly
to do with the hard disk controller. There is a developers' release for
PS/2 ESDI drives on invaders.dcrl.nd.edu in /pub/misc/linux. Certain
kinds of SCSI controllers also work, I understand. Work is in progress to
create a suitable version of the Slackware distribution. I'm afraid I
don't have any further details; you could try asking Arindam Banerji
<axb@defender.dcrl.nd.edu>.
Linux is reported to run on 386 family based laptops, with X on most of
them.
For details of exactly which PC's, video cards, disk controllers, etc.
work see the INFO-SHEET and the Hardware HOWTO [Q2.1 `Where can I get the
HOWTOs and other documentation ?'].
Linux will never run on a 286, because it uses task-switching and memory
management facilities only found on 386 family processors.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 1.4. What ports to other processors are there ?
A project has been underway for around two years to port Linux to suitable
68000-series based systems such as Amigas and Ataris. This has now
reached beta test quality, but still lacks an X server. There is a 680X0
channel on the Linux Activists mailserver [Q2.8 `What's this mailing list
thing at niksula.hut.fi ?'], and a Linux/68K FAQ on the World Wide Web and
on tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/680x0/FAQ.
Work has just been started on a port to the PowerPC. Currently this will
be based on the PowerMAC architecture (on a political note, you might like
to know that the FSF disapprove of Apple - see /usr/lib/emacs/19.*/APPLE
on your system). Again, don't post asking about it unless you have
experience to offer, and don't hold your breath.
Jim Paradis <paradis@sousa.amt.ako.dec.com> or <jrp@world.std.com> is
working on a port to the 64-bit DEC AXP (the Alpha). This can currently
boot from a floppy disk or disk image loaded into a ramdisk at boot time.
Disk drivers are not yet available. Please email him of you have access
to an ISA or EISA-based Alpha AXP and wish to contribute to the project,
or have access to another class of Alpha and are willing to write drivers.
Ralf Baechle is working on a port to the MIPS, initially for the R4600 on
Deskstation Tyne machines. The Linux/MIPS FAQ is available on the WWW and
in the MIPS port area on ftp.waldorf-gmbh.de in /pub/linux/mips. There is
also a MIPS channel on the Linux Activists mailserver. Interested people
may mail their questions and offers of assistance to
<linux@waldorf-gmbh.de>.
None of these ports will be capable of running Linux/386 binaries.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 1.5. How much hard disk space does Linux need ?
10Mb for a very minimal installation, suitable for trying it out and not
much else.
You can squeeze a more complete installation including X Windows into
80Mb. Installating the whole of Slackware 1.2 takes around 200Mb,
including some space for user files and spool areas.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 1.6. Is Linux PD ? Copyrighted ?
The Linux kernel copyright belongs to Linus Torvalds. He has placed it
under the GNU General Public Licence, which basically means that you may
freely copy, change and distribute it, but that you may not impose any
restrictions on further distribution, and that you must make the source
code available.
Full details are in the file COPYING in the Linux kernel sources (probably
in /usr/src/linux on your system).
The licences of the utilities and programs which come with the
installations vary; much of the code is from the GNU Project at the Free
Software Foundation, and is also under the GPL.
Note that discussion about the merits or otherwise of the GPL should be
posted to gnu.misc.discuss and not to the comp.os.linux groups.
===============================================================================
Section 2. Network sources and resources
Q2.1 Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation ?
Q2.2 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for Linux stuff ?
Q2.3 What newsgroups are there for Linux ?
Q2.4 How do I install Linux ?
Q2.5 Where can I get Linux material by FTP ?
Q2.6 I don't have FTP access. Where do I get Linux ?
Q2.7 I don't have Usenet access. Where do I get information ?
Q2.8 What's this mailing list thing at niksula.hut.fi ?
Q2.9 Are the newsgroups archived anywhere ?
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.1. Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation ?
Look in the following places, and on sites that mirror them.
* ftp.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) : /pub/OS/Linux/doc/HOWTO
* tsx-11.mit.edu (18.172.1.2) : /pub/linux/docs/HOWTO
* sunsite.unc.edu (152.2.22.81) : /pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO
For a complete list of Linux FTP sites see Q2.5 `Where can I get Linux
material by FTP ?'.
If you don't have access to FTP try using the FTP-by-mail servers at
ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk or
ftp-mailer@informatik.tu-muenchen.de.
A complete list of HOWTO's is available in the file HOWTO.INDEX in the
docs/HOWTO directory at the FTP sites, but here is a (possibly incomplete)
list:
Linux INFO-SHEET Linux META-FAQ
BUPS HOWTO (regarding the Back UPS). Busmouse HOWTO
CDROM HOWTO Distribution HOWTO
DOSEMU HOWTO Ethernet HOWTO
Ftape HOWTO Hardware HOWTO
Installation HOWTO Japanese Extensions HOWTO
Keystroke HOWTO Mail HOWTO
MGR HOWTO NET-2 HOWTO
News HOWTO Printing HOWTO
SCSI HOWTO Sound HOWTO
Term HOWTO Tips HOWTO
UUCP HOWTO XFree86 HOWTO
More of these documents are always in preparation. You should check in
nearby directories on the FTP sites if you can't find the answer in one of
the HOWTOs. There are also a few mini-HOWTOs on sunsite.unc.edu in the
/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini directory.
The HOWTO.INDEX also contains information on how to write a new HOWTO.
The HOWTOs are coordinated by Matt Welsh, <mdw@sunsite.unc.edu>.
The `books' produced by the Linux Documentation Project are available in
/pub/Linux/docs/LDP on sunsite.unc.edu. Please read them if you are new
to Unix and Linux. Here is a list of those released so far:
* The Linux Documentation Project manifesto
* Installation and Getting Started Guide
* The Kernel Hacker's Guide
* Network Administration Guide
* Linux System Administrator's Guide
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.2. Where should I look on the World Wide Web for Linux stuff ?
Matt Welsh maintains the Linux Documentation Project Home Page, at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/linux.html.
This page refers to all the FAQs and HOWTOs, both those which are
available in HTML (WWW) format, like this FAQ, and those which aren't.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.3. What newsgroups are there for Linux ?
There are five international Usenet newsgroups devoted to Linux.
comp.os.linux.announce is the moderated announcements group; you should
read this if you intend to use Linux. Submissions for that group should
be emailed to linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu.
comp.os.linux.help, comp.os.linux.development, comp.os.linux.admin and
comp.os.linux.misc are also worth reading -- you may find that many common
problems are too recent to find in this FAQ but are answered in the
newsgroups.
Remember that since Linux is a Unix clone, most all of the material in
comp.unix.* and comp.windows.x.* groups will be relevant. Apart from
hardware considerations, and some obscure or very technical low-level
issues, you'll find that these groups are the right place to start.
Please read Q12.1 `You still haven't answered my question !' before
posting, and make sure you post to the right newsgroup. Crossposting is
rarely a good idea.
See also Q2.7 `I don't have Usenet access. Where do I get information ?'.
Other regional and local newsgroups also exist - you may find the traffic
more manageable there. The French Linux newsgroup is fr.comp.os.linux;
The German one is de.comp.os.linux. In Australia, try
aus.computers.linux.
There may well be Linux groups local to your institution or area - check
there first.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.4. How do I install Linux ?
There are several pre-packaged releases of Linux available, including the
MCC-Interim release, the TAMU release and the Slackware release. Each
contains the software you need to run Linux, ready to install and use.
The exact details of which software is included and how to install them
vary from release to release.
You should read the Installation HOWTO for more details on how to go about
installing Slackware. If you prefer a small, clean distribution to one
with everything but the kitchen sink you might like to try the MCC-Interim
release.
All of those releases are available via anonymous FTP from the Linux
archive sites [Q2.5 `Where can I get Linux material by FTP ?']. There are
also a large number of other releases which are distributed less globally,
which suit special local and national requirements (for example, better
internationalisation support).
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.5. Where can I get Linux material by FTP ?
There are three main archive sites for Linux:
* ftp.funet.fi (Finland, 128.214.6.100) : /pub/OS/Linux
* sunsite.unc.edu (US, 152.2.22.81) : /pub/Linux
* tsx-11.mit.edu (US, 18.172.1.2) : /pub/linux
The MCC-Interim release is available from ftp.mcc.ac.uk (US, 130.88.200.7)
in /pub/linux; the TAMU release is available from net.tamu.edu (US,
128.194.177.1) in /pub/linux.
The contents of these sites is mirrored (copied, usually approximately
daily) by a number of other sites. Please use one close to you -- that
will be faster for you and easier on the network.
* src.doc.ic.ac.uk : /packages/Linux (UK)
* sunacm.swan.ac.uk : /pub/Linux (UK)
* ftp.ibp.fr : /pub/linux (France)
* wuarchive.wustl.edu : /systems/linux (US)
* mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu : /pub/linux (US)
* ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de : /pub/comp/os/linux (Germany)
* ftp.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de : /pub/os/linux (Germany)
* ftp.dfv.rwth-aachen.de : /pub/linux (Germany)
* ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de : /pub/Linux (Germany)
* bond.edu.au : /pub/OS/Linux (Australia)
* monu1.cc.monash.edu.au : /pub/linux (Australia)
* ftp.sun.ac.za : /pub/linux (South Africa)
Not all of these mirror all of the other `source' sites, and some have
material not available on the `source' sites.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.6. I don't have FTP access. Where do I get Linux ?
The easiest thing is probably to find a friend with FTP access. If there
is a Linux users group near you they may be able to help.
If you have a reasonably good email connection you could try the
FTP-by-mail servers at ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk or
ftp-mailer@informatik.tu-muenchen.de.
Linux is also available via traditional mail on diskette, CD-ROM and tape.
The Installation HOWTO, and the file /pub/Linux/docs/distributions on
sunsite.unc.edu, contain information on these distributions.
You could also try Zane Healy <healyzh@holonet.net>'s list of Linux BBS's,
which is posted regularly (1st and 15th of each month) to
comp.os.linux.announce and occasionally to the Fidonet and RIME UNIX
echoes.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.7. I don't have Usenet access. Where do I get information ?
Digests of postings to the comp.os.linux.* groups are available by
subscribing to the bidirectional gateway at
linux-*-request@news-digests.mit.edu, where * is one of announce,
development, help, misc or admin.
You are strongly advised to subscribe to at least
linux-announce-request@news-digests.mit.edu, as this carries important
information and documentation about Linux.
Please remember to use the -request addresses for your subscription and
unsubscription messages; mail to the other address is posted to the
newsgroup !
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.8. What's this mailing list thing at niksula.hut.fi ?
It's a multi-channel mailing list, mainly used by the developers of Linux
to talk about technical issues and future developments. Most of the
channels are not intended for new users to ask their questions on.
The ANNOUNCE channel is a digest of postings to comp.os.linux.announce,
for the benefit of those without Usenet access. However since
niksula.hut.fi is slow and overloaded I'd recommend subscribing to the MIT
digestifier instead [Q2.7 `I don't have Usenet access. Where do I get
information ?'].
There is also a NEWBIE channel where `no question is too stupid';
unfortunately it seems that few of the experienced users read that
channel, probably because of all the `stupid' questions !
If you want to subscribe to one or more of the channels at the
multi-channel list, send an empty mail message to
linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi and you'll receive the instructions
for operating the list subscription software.
If you want to unsubscribe send a mail message like this
From: you@domain.org
To: linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi
Subject: irrelevant
X-Mn-Admin: leave CHANNEL
to leave a channel called CHANNEL. Do *not* put an X-Mn-Key line in your
message - that will cause it to be posted to the list.
Note that you *must* remember to unsubscribe *before* you change your
email address, as due to a design flaw in the list server it is virtually
impossible to get yourself unsubscribed after such a change.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 2.9. Are the newsgroups archived anywhere ?
Yes. ftp.funet.fi and tsx-11.mit.edu contain archives of both
comp.os.linux.announce and the old group comp.os.linux, in their Linux
areas. The comp.os.linux.announce archives are mirrored from /usenet on
src.doc.ic.ac.uk (which also contains another archive of comp.os.linux).
===============================================================================
Section 3. Compatibility with other operating systems
Q3.1 Can Linux coexist with DOS ? OS/2 ? 386BSD ? Minix ?
Q3.2 How do I access files on my DOS partition or floppy ?
Q3.3 Can I use my Stacked/DBLSPC/etc. DOS drive ?
Q3.4 Can I access OS/2 HPFS partitions from Linux ?
Q3.5 Can I access BSD FFS, SysV UFS, Mac, Amiga, etc filesystems ?
Q3.6 Can I run Microsoft Windows programs under Linux ?
Q3.7 How can I boot Linux from OS/2's Boot Manager ?
Q3.8 How can I share a swap partition between Linux and MS Windows ?
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 3.1. Can Linux coexist with DOS ? OS/2 ? 386BSD ? Minix ?
Yes. Linux uses the standard PC partitioning scheme, so it can share your
disk with other operating systems.
Linux can read and write the files on your DOS and OS/2 FAT partitions and
floppies using either the DOS filesystem type built into the kernel or
mtools. There is a DOS emulator (look on tsx-11.mit.edu in
/pub/linux/ALPHA/dosemu) which can run DOS itself and some (but not all)
DOS applications.
Linux can also access Minix and System V UFS filesystems, and can read
(but not yet write) OS/2 HPFS and Amiga filesystems.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 3.2. How do I access files on my DOS partition or floppy ?
Use the DOS filesystem, i.e. type, for example:
mkdir /dos
mount -t msdos -o conv=text,umask=022,uid=100,gid=100 /dev/hda3 /dos
If it's a floppy, don't forget to umount it before ejecting it !
You can use the conv=text/binary/auto, umask=nnn, uid=nnn and gid=nnn
options to control the automatic line-ending conversion, permissions and
ownerships of the files in the DOS filesystem as they appear under Linux.
If you mount your DOS filesystem by putting it in your /etc/fstab you can
record the options (comma-separated) there, instead of defaults.
Alternatively you can use `mtools', available in both binary and source
form on the FTP sites -- see Q2.5 `Where can I get Linux material by FTP
?'.
A kernel patch (known as the fd-patches) is available which allows
floppies with nonstandard numbers of tracks and/or sectors to be used;
this patch is included in the 1.1 alpha testing kernel series.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 3.3. Can I use my Stacked/DBLSPC/etc. DOS drive ?
Not easily. You can access them from within the DOS emulator [Q3.1 `Can
Linux coexist with DOS ? OS/2 ? 386BSD ? Minix ?'], but not as a normal
filesystem under Linux or using mtools.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 3.4. Can I access OS/2 HPFS partitions from Linux ?
Yes, but it's only read-only at the moment. To use it you must compile a
kernel with support for it enabled [Q7.6 `How do I upgrade/recompile my
Question 3.6. Can I run Microsoft Windows programs under Linux ?
Not yet. There is a project, known as WINE, to build an MS Windows
emulator for Linux, but it is not ready for users yet. Don't ask about it
unless you think you can contribute; look out for the status reports in
comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine.
In the meantime if you need to run MS Windows programs your best bet is
probably to reboot when you want to switch environments. LILO (the Linux
bootloader) has the facility for a boot menu --- see its documentation for
more details.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 3.7. How can I boot Linux from OS/2's Boot Manager ?
1. Create a partition using OS/2's FDISK (Not Linux's fdisk).
2. Format the partition under OS/2, either with FAT or HPFS. This is so
that OS/2 knows about the partition being formatted.
3. Add the partition to the Boot Manager.
4. Boot Linux, and create a filesystem on the partition using mkfs -t ext2
or mke2fs. At this point you may, if you like, use Linux's fdisk to
change the partition type code of the new partition to type 83 (Linux
Native) -- this may help some automated installation scripts find the
right partition to use.
5. Install Linux on the partition.
6. Install LILO on the Linux partition -- NOT on the master boot record of
the hard drive. This installs LILO as a second-stage boot loader on the
Linux partition itself, to start up the kernel specified in the LILO
config file. To do this you should put
boot = /dev/hda2
(where /dev/hda2 is the *partition* you want to boot off) in your
/etc/lilo/config or /etc/lilo.config file.
7. Make sure that it is the Boot Manager partition that is marked active,
so that you can use Boot Manager to choose what to boot.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 3.8. How can I share a swap partition between Linux and MS Windows ?
See the Mini-HOWTO on the subject by H. Peter Anvin, <hpa@eecs.nwu.edu>.
It is available on sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/docs.
===============================================================================
Section 4. Linux's handling of filesystems, disks and drives
Q4.1 How can I undelete files ?
Q4.2 Is there a defragmenter for ext2fs etc. ?
Q4.3 How do I format and create a filesystem on a floppy ?
Q4.4 I get nasty messages about inodes, blocks, and the suchlike
Q4.5 My swap area isn't working.
Q4.6 How do I remove LILO so my system boots DOS again ?
Q4.7 Why can't I use fdformat except as root ?
Q4.8 Is there something like Stacker or Doublespace for Linux ?
Q4.9 My ext2fs partitions are checked each time I reboot.
Q4.10 I have a huge /proc/kcore ! Can I delete it ?
Q4.11 My AHA1542C doesn't work with Linux.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.1. How can I undelete files ?
In general, this is very hard to do on Unices because of their
multitasking nature. Undelete functionality for the ext2fs is being
worked on, but don't hold your breath.
There are a number of packages available that work by providing new
commands for deletion and sometimes copying that move deleted files into a
`wastebasket' directory instead; they can then be recovered until cleaned
out automatically by background processing.
Alternatively you can search the raw disk device which holds the
filesystem in question. This is hard work, and you will need to be root
to do this.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.2. Is there a defragmenter for ext2fs etc. ?
Yes. There is a Linux filesystem defragmenter for minix, old-style, ext2,
and xia filesystems available on sunsite.unc.edu in
system/Filesystems/defrag-0.6.tar.gz.
Users of the ext2 filesystem can probably do without defrag since ext2
contains extra code to keep fragmentation reduced even in very full
filesystems.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.3. How do I format and create a filesystem on a floppy ?
For a 3.5 inch high density floppy:
fdformat /dev/fd0H1440
mkfs -t ext2 -m 0 /dev/fd0H1440 1440
For a 5.25 inch floppy use fd0h1200 and 1200 as appropriate. For the `B'
drive use fd1 instead of fd0. Full details of which floppy devices do
what can be found in the Linux Device List [Q2.1 `Where can I get the
HOWTOs and other documentation ?']. If you don't have the fsutils package
you'll have to run mke2fs instead of mkfs -t ext2. The -m 0 option tells
mkfs.ext2 not to reserve any space on the disk for the superuser ---
usually the last 10% is reserved for root.
The first command low-level formats the floppy; the second creates an
empty filesystem on it. After doing this you can mount the floppy like a
hard disk partition and simply cp and mv files, etc.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.4. I get nasty messages about inodes, blocks, and the suchlike
You probably have a corrupted filesystem, probably caused by not shutting
Linux down properly before turning off the power or resetting. You need
to use a recent shutdown program to do this --- for example, the one
included in the util-linux package, available on sunsite and tsx-11.
If you're lucky the program fsck (or e2fsck or xfsck as appropriate if you
don't have the fsutils package) will be able to repair your filesystem; if
you're unlucky the filesystem is trashed and you'll have to reinitialise
it with mkfs (or mke2fs, mkxfs etc.) it and restore from a backup.
NB don't try to check a filesystem that's mounted read-write - this
includes the root partition if you don't see
VFS: mounted root ... read-only
at boot time.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.5. My swap area isn't working.
When you boot (or enable swapping manually) you should see
Adding Swap: NNNNk swap-space
If you don't see any messages at all you are probably missing swapon -av
(the command to enable swapping) in your /etc/rc or /etc/rc.local (the
system startup scripts), or have forgotten to make the right entry in
/etc/fstab:
/dev/hda2 none swap sw
for example.
If you see
Unable to find swap-space signature
you have forgotten to run mkswap. See the manpage for details; it works
much like mkfs.
Check the Installation HOWTO for detailed instructions of how to set up a
swap area.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.6. How do I remove LILO so my system boots DOS again ?
Using DOS (MS-DOS 5.0 or later, or OS/2), type FDISK /MBR. This will
restore a standard MS-DOS Master Boot Record. If you have DR-DOS 6.0, go
into FDISK in the normal way and then select the `Re-write Master Boot
Record' option.
If you don't have DOS 5 or DR-DOS you need to have the boot sector that
LILO saved when you first installed it. You did keep that file, didn't
you ? It's probably called boot.0301 or some such. Type
dd if=boot.0301 of=/dev/hda bs=445 count=1
(or sda if you're using a SCSI disk). This may also wipe out your
partition table, so beware ! If you're desperate, you could use
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1
which will erase your partition table and boot sector completely: you can
then reformat the disk using your favourite software; however this will
render the contents of your disk inaccessible --- you'll lose it all
unless you're an expert.
Note that the DOS MBR boots whichever (single!) partition is flagged as
`active'; you may need to use fdisk to set and clear the active flags on
partitions appropriately.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.7. Why can't I use fdformat except as root ?
The system call to format a floppy may only be done as root, regardless of
the permissions of /dev/fd0*. If you want any user to be able to format a
floppy try getting the fdformat2 program; this works around the problems
by being setuid to root.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.8. Is there something like Stacker or Doublespace for Linux ?
Currently none of the Linux filesystems can do compression in the
filesystem.
There is a transparently uncompressing C library, which is a drop-in
replacement for the standard C library. It allows programs to read
compressed (ie, GNU zipped) files as if they were not compressed. You
install it, and then you can compress files using gzip and have programs
still find them. Look on sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/libs. The author
is Alain Knaff <Alain.Knaff@imag.fr>.
There is a compressing block device driver that can provide
filesystem-independant on the fly disk compression in the kernel. It is
called `DouBle'. There is a source only distribution on sunsite.unc.edu
in /pub/Linux/utils/compress; the auther is Jean-Marc Verbavatz
<jmv@receptor.mgh.harvard.edu>. Note that since this compresses inodes
(administrative information) and directories as well as file contents any
corruption is quite likely to be serious.
There is also a package available called tcx (Transparently Compressed
Executables) which allows you to keep infrequently used executables
compressed and only uncompress them temporarily while you use them.
You'll find it on the Linux FTP sites [Q2.5 `Where can I get Linux
material by FTP ?']; it was also announced in comp.os.linux.announce.
Note - this is not the same as gzexe, which is an inferior implementation
of the same concept.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.9. My ext2fs partitions are checked each time I reboot.
See Q9.11 `EXT2-fs: warning: mounting unchecked filesystem'.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.10. I have a huge /proc/kcore ! Can I delete it ?
None of the files in /proc are really there - they're all "pretend" files
made up by the kernel, to give you information about the system, and don't
take up any hard disk space.
/proc/kcore is like an "alias" for the memory in your computer; its size
is the same as the amount of RAM you have, and if you ask to read it as a
file the kernel does memory reads.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 4.11. My AHA1542C doesn't work with Linux.
The option to allow disks with more than 1024 cylinders is only required
as a workaround for a DOS misfeature and should be turned *off* under
Linux. For older Linux kernels you need to turn off most of the "advanced
BIOS" options - all but the one about scanning the bus for bootable
devices.
===============================================================================
Section 5. Porting, compiling and obtaining programs
Q5.1 What is ld.so and where do I get it ?
Q5.2 Has anyone ported / compiled / written XXX for Linux ?
Q5.3 How do I port XXX to Linux ?
Q5.4 Can I use code or a compiler compiled for a 486 on my 386 ?
Q5.5 What does gcc -O6 do ?
Q5.6 Where are <linux/*.h> and <asm/*.h> ?
Q5.7 I get errors when I try to compile the kernel.
Q5.8 How do I make a shared library ?
Q5.9 How do I make my executables smaller ?
Q5.10 Does Linux support threads or lightweight processes ?
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.1. What is ld.so and where do I get it ?
ld.so is the new dynamic library loader. Each binary using shared
libraries used to have about 3K of start-up code to find and load the
shared libraries. Now that code has been put in a special shared library,
/lib/ld.so, where all binaries can look for it, so that it wastes less
disk space, and can be upgraded more easily.
It can be obtained from tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/packages/GCC and
mirror sites thereof. The latest version at the time of writing is
ld.so.1.4.4.tar.gz.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.2. Has anyone ported / compiled / written XXX for Linux ?
First, look in the Linux Software Map (LSM) --- it's in the docs directory
on sunsite.unc.edu, and on the other FTP sties.
Check the FTP sites (see Q2.5 `Where can I get Linux material by FTP ?')
first --- search the find-ls or INDEX files for appropriate strings.
Check the Linux Projects Map (LPM), on ftp.ix.de in
/pub/Linux/docs/Projects-Map.gz.
If you don't find anything, you could either download the sources to the
program yourself and compile them -- see Q5.3 `How do I port XXX to Linux
?' -- or, if it's a large package which may require some porting, post a
message to the newsgroup.
If you compile a largeish program please upload it to one or more of the
FTP sites and post a message to comp.os.linux.announce (submit your
posting to <linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu>).
If you're looking for an application-type program the chances are someone
has already written a free verson. Try reading the FAQ in
comp.sources.wanted for instructions on how to find sources.
You should also check the Projects-FAQ, available in
/pub/Linux/docs/faqs/Projects-FAQ on sunsite.unc.edu.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.3. How do I port XXX to Linux ?
In general Unix programs need very little porting. Simply follow the
installation instructions. If you don't know and don't know how to find
out the answers to some of the questions asked during or by the
installation procedure you can guess, but this tends to produce buggy
programs. In this case you're probably better off asking someone else to
do the port.
If you have a BSD-ish program you should try using -I/usr/include/bsd and
- -lbsd on the appropriate parts of the compilation lines.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.4. Can I use code or a compiler compiled for a 486 on my 386 ?
Yes.
The -m486 option to GCC, which is used to compile binaries for 486
machines, merely changes certain optimisations. This makes for slightly
larger binaries which run somewhat faster on a 486. They still work fine
on a 386, though, with little performance hit.
GCC can be configured for a 386 or 486; the only difference is that
configuring it for a 386 makes -m386 the default and configuring for a 486
makes -m486 the default; in either case these can be overriden on a
per-compilation basis or by editing /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i*-linux/n.n.n/specs.
GCC does not currently know how to do optimisation well for the 586,
because Intel won't release the necessary information except under
nondisclosure. Don't buy a Pentium or wait for people to reverse-engineer
the required optimisations.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.5. What does gcc -O6 do ?
Currently the same as -O2; any number greater than 2 currently works just
like 2. The Makefiles of newer kernels use -O2, and so should you.
GCC 2.6 adds optimisation level -O3. However, GCC 2.6.0 and several of
the following versions are known to have some problems with Linux, though
these will hopefully be solved soon. In any case you should not use -O3
on a program until you're sure it doesn't create any problems.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.6. Where are <linux/*.h> and <asm/*.h> ?
These are in the directories /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm.
However they should be symbolic links to your kernel sources in
/usr/src/linux and not real directories.
If you don't have the kernel sources download them --- see Q7.6 `How do I
upgrade/recompile my kernel ?'.
Then use rm to remove any garbage, and ln to create the links:
rm -rf /usr/include/linux /usr/include/asm
ln -sf /usr/src/linux/include/linux /usr/include/linux
ln -sf /usr/src/linux/include/asm /usr/include/asm
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.7. I get errors when I try to compile the kernel.
Make sure that /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/asm aren't actual
directories but instead symbolic links to /usr/src/linux/include/linux and
/usr/src/linux/include/asm respectively.
If necessary, delete them using rm and then use ln -s to make the links as
in Q5.6 `Where are <linux/*.h> and <asm/*.h> ?'.
Remember that when you apply a patch to the kernel you must use the -p0 or
- -p1 option: otherwise the patch may be misapplied. See the manpage for
patch for details.
If you're using a kernel more recent than 1.1.44 you should find that
there are new directories /usr/src/linux/include/asm-i386. The directory
asm there should be removed, as should the directory asm. The symlinks
Makefile target will make these be symbolic links to asm-i36 and
arch/i386/boot respectively. The easiest way to make sure all this gets
done is not to try to patch 1.1.44 to make 1.1.45, but to download
linux-1.1.45.tar.gz instead.
ld: unrecognised option `-qmagic' means you should get a newer linker,
from tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/linux/packages/GCC.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.8. How do I make a shared library ?
Get tools-n.nn.tar.gz from tsx-11.mit.edu, in /pub/linux/packages/GCC/src.
It comes with documentation that will tell you what to do.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.9. How do I make my executables smaller ?
The most common cause of large executables is the -g compiler flag. This
produces (as well as debugging information in the output file) a program
which is statically linked, i.e. one which includes a copy of the C
library instead of using a dynamically linked copy.
Other things that are worth investigating are -O and -O2 which enable
optimisation (check the GCC documentation) and -s which strips the symbol
information from the resulting binary (making debugging totally
impossible).
You may wish to use -N on very small executables (less than 8K with the
- -N), but you shouldn't do this unless you understand its performance
implications, and definitely never with daemons.
Using QMAGIC binaries also can reduce the size of binaries, especially
small ones. Don't worry about this unless you know what QMAGIC is; Linux
is moving to QMAGIC as a default.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 5.10. Does Linux support threads or lightweight processes ?
As well as the Unix multiprocessing model involving heavyweight processes,
which is of course part of the standard Linux kernel, there are several
implementations of lightweight processes or threads, most of which are
generic packages for any Unix:
* In sipb.mit.edu:/pub/pthread or ftp.ibp.fr:/pub/unix/threads/pthreads.
Documentation isn't in the package, but is available on the World Wide
Web at http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/proven/home_page.html.
* In ftp.cs.washington.edu:/pub/qt-001.tar.Z is QuickThreads. More
information can be found in the technical report, available on the same
site as /tr/1993/05/UW-CSE-93-05-06.PS.Z.
* In gummo.doc.ic.ac.uk:/rex is lwp, a very minimal implementation.
* In ftp.cs.fsu.edu:/pub/PART, an Ada implementation. This is useful
mainly because it has a lot of PostScript papers that you'll find useful
in learning more about threads. This is not directly useable under
Linux.
Please contact the authors of the packages in question for details.
===============================================================================
The remainder of the FAQ is in the next part ...
Section 6. Solutions to common miscellaneous problems
Q6.1 Setuid scripts don't seem to work.
Q6.2 Free memory as reported by free keeps shrinking.
Q6.3 When I add more memory it slows to a crawl.
Q6.4 Some programs (e.g. xdm) won't let me log in.
Q6.5 Some programs let me log in with no password.
Q6.6 My machine runs very slowly when I run GCC / X / ...
Q6.7 I can only log in as root.
Q6.8 My screen is all full of weird characters instead of letters.
Q6.9 I have screwed up my system and can't log in to fix it.
Q6.10 Emacs just dumps core.
Q6.11 I've discovered a huge security hole in rm !
Q6.12 lpr and/or lpd aren't working.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.1. Setuid scripts don't seem to work.
That's right. This feature has been deliberately disabled in the Linux
kernel because setuid scripts are almost always a security hole. If you
want to know why read the FAQ for comp.unix.questions.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.2. Free memory as reported by free keeps shrinking.
The `free' figure printed by free doesn't include memory used as a disk
buffer cache - shown in the `buffers' column. If you want to know how
much memory is really free add the `buffers' amount to `free'.
The disk buffer cache tends to grow soon after starting Linux up, as you
load more programs and use more files and the contents get cached. It
will stabilise after a while.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.3. When I add more memory it slows to a crawl.
This is quite a common symptom of a failure to cache the additional
memory. The exact problem depends on your motherboard.
Sometimes you have to enable caching of certain regions in your BIOS
setup. Look in the CMOS setup and see if there is an option to cache the
new memory area which is currently switched off. This is apparently most
common on a 486.
Sometimes the RAMs have to be in certain sockets to be cached.
Sometimes you have to set jumpers to enable the caching.
Some motherboards don't cache all the RAM if you have more RAM per amount
of cache than they expect. Usually a full 256K cache will solve this
problem.
If in doubt, check your motherboard manual. If you still can't fix it
because the documentation is inadequate you might like to post a message
giving *all* the details - make, model number, date code, etc. so that
other Linux users can avoid it.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.4. Some programs (e.g. xdm) won't let me log in.
You are probably using non-shadow-password programs but are using shadow
passwords.
If so, you have to get or compile a shadow password version of the
program(s) in question. The shadow password suite can be found in
(amongst other places):
tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/sources/usr.bin/shadow-*
This is the source code; you will probably find the binaries in
.../linux/binaries/usr.bin.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.5. Some programs let me log in with no password.
You probably have the same problem as in Q6.4 `Some programs (e.g. xdm)
won't let me log in.', with an added wrinkle:
If you are using shadow passords you should put an asterisk in the
password field of /etc/passwd for each account, so that if a program
doesn't know about the shadow passwords it won't think it's a passwordless
account and let anyone in.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.6. My machine runs very slowly when I run GCC / X / ...
You may not have any swap enabled. You need to enable swapping to allow
Linux to page out bits of data programs aren't using at the moment to disk
to make more room for other programs and data. If you don't Linux has to
keep data in memory and throw away in-memory copies of programs (which are
paged straight from the filesystem) and so less and less program is in
memory and everything runs very slowly.
See the Installation HOWTO and the Installation and Getting Started Guide
[Q2.1 `Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation ?'] for details
of how to set up a swap partition or swapfile; see also Q4.5 `My swap area
isn't working.'.
Alternatively you may have too little real memory. If you have less RAM
than all the programs you're running at once use Linux will use your hard
disk instead and thrash horribly. The solution in this case is to not run
so many things at once or to buy more memory. You can also reclaim some
memory by compiling and using a kernel with less options configured. See
Q7.6 `How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel ?'.
You can tell how much memory and/or swap you're using by using the free
command, or by typing
cat /proc/meminfo
If your kernel is configured with a ramdisk this is probably wasted space
and will cause things to go slowly. Use LILO or rdev to tell the kernel
not to allocate a ramdisk (see the LILO documentation or type man rdev).
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.7. I can only log in as root.
You probably have some permission problems, or you have a file
/etc/nologin.
If the latter put rm -f /etc/nologin in your /etc/rc or /etc/rc.local.
Otherwise check the permissions on your shell, and any filenames which
appear in error messages, and also the directories containing these files
all the way back up the tree to the root directory.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.8. My screen is all full of weird characters instead of letters.
You probably sent some binary data to your screen by mistake. Type echo
^V^[c (that's e c h o space control-V escape c return) to fix it. Many
Linux distributions have a command reset that does this.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.9. I have screwed up my system and can't log in to fix it.
Reboot from an emergency floppy or floppy pair, for example the Slackware
boot- and root-disk pair (in the install subdirectory of the Slackware
mirrors) or the MCC installation boot floppy. There are also two diy
rescue disk creation packages on sunsite.unc.edu in
/pub/Linux/system/Recovery. These are better as they'll have your own
kernel on them, so that you don't run the risk of missing devices,
filesystems, etc.
Get to a shell prompt and mount your hard disk with something like
mount -t ext2 /dev/hda1 /mnt
Then your filesystem is available under the directory /mnt and you can fix
the problem. Remember to unmount your hard disk before rebooting (cd back
down to / first or it will say it's busy).
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.10. Emacs just dumps core.
You probably have the X version of Emacs that comes with SLS. It doesn't
work without the X libraries. The solution is to install X Windows or get
a newer Emacs binary without any X Windows support.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.11. I've discovered a huge security hole in rm !
No you haven't. You are obviously new to Unix and need to read a good
book on it to find out how things work. Clue: ability to delete files
under Unix depends on permission to write the directory they are in.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 6.12. lpr and/or lpd aren't working.
Check the Printing HOWTO [Q2.1 `Where can I get the HOWTOs and other
documentation ?'].
===============================================================================
Section 7. How do I do this or find out that ... ?
Q7.1 How can I get scrollback in text mode ?
Q7.2 How do I switch virtual consoles ? How do I enable them ?
Q7.3 How do I set the timezone ?
Q7.4 What version of Linux and what machine name am I using ?
Q7.5 How can I enable or disable core dumps ?
Q7.6 How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel ?
Q7.7 Can I have more than 3 serial ports by sharing interrupts ?
Q7.8 How do I make a bootable floppy ?
Q7.9 How do I remap my keyboard to UK, French, etc. ?
Q7.10 How do I get NUM LOCK to default to on ?
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.1. How can I get scrollback in text mode ?
With the default US keymap you can use Shift with the PageUp and PageDown
keys (NB these must be the grey ones, not the ones on the numeric keypad
!). With other keymaps check the maps in /usr/lib/keytables; you can
remap the scroll up and down keys to be whatever you like --- for example,
in order to remap them to keys that exist on an 84-key AT keyboard.
You can't increase the amount of scrollback, because of the way it is
implemented using the video memory to store the scrollback text, though
you may be able to get more scrollback in each virtual console by reducing
the total number of VC's --- see <linux/tty.h>.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.2. How do I switch virtual consoles ? How do I enable them ?
In text mode, press (Left) Alt-F1 to Alt-F12 to select the consoles tty1
to tty12. To switch out of X windows you must press Ctrl-Alt-F1 etc;
Alt-F5 or whatever will switch back.
Your kernel probably doesn't have all 12 compiled in; the default is 8.
This is controlled by NR_CONSOLES in linux/include/linux/tty.h.
If you want to use a VC for ordinary login you need to list it in
/etc/inittab, which controls which terminals and virtual consoles have
login prompts. NB: X needs at least one free VC in order to start.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.3. How do I set the timezone ?
Change directory to /usr/lib/zoneinfo; get the timezone package if you
don't have this directory. The source can be found on sunsite.unc.edu in
/pub/Linux/system/Admin/timesrc-1.2.tar.gz.
Then make a symbolic link named localtime pointing to one of the files in
this directory (or a subdirectory), and one called posixrules pointing to
localtime. For example:
ln -sf US/Mountain localtime
ln -sf localtime posixrules
This change will take effect immediately - try date.
Don't try to use the TZ variable - leave it unset.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.4. What version of Linux and what machine name am I using ?
Type:
uname -a
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.5. How can I enable or disable core dumps ?
Since 0.99pl14 Linux has had corefiles turned off by default for all
processes.
You can turn them on or off by using the ulimit command in bash, or the
limit command in tcsh. See the manpage for the shell for more details.
That command affects all programs run from that shell (directly or
indirectly), not the whole system.
If you wish to enable or disable coredumping for all processes by default
you can change the default setting in <linux/sched.h> - see the definition
of INIT_TASK.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.6. How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel ?
See the README which comes with the kernel release on ftp.funet.fi, in
/pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus and mirrors thereof. Try to get it from a
closer site if possible; ftp.funet.fi is a very busy site and therefore
slow -- see Q2.5 `Where can I get Linux material by FTP ?'. You may
already have a version of the kernel source code installed on your system,
but if you got it as part of a standard distribution it is likely to be
somewhat out of date (this is not a problem if you only want a
custom-configured kernel, but it probably is if you need to upgrade.)
Remember that to make the new kernel boot you must run LILO after copying
the kernel into your root partition -- the Makefile in recent kernels has
a special zlilo target for this; try make zlilo.
Russel Nelson posts summaries of what changes in recent kernel patches to
comp.os.linux.development, and these are archived on ftp.emlist.com in
/pub/kchanges.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.7. Can I have more than 3 serial ports by sharing interrupts ?
Not without some trickery. This is a limitation of the ISA bus
architecture.
See the Serial HOWTO for information about how to work around this
problem.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.8. How do I make a bootable floppy ?
Make a filesystem on it with bin, etc and lib directories -- everything
you need. Install a kernel on it and arrange to have LILO boot it from
the floppy (see the LILO documentation, in lilo.u.*.ps).
If you build the kernel (or tell LILO to tell the kernel) to have a
ramdisk the same size as the floppy the ramdisk will be loaded at
boot-time and mounted as root in place of the floppy.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.9. How do I remap my keyboard to UK, French, etc. ?
For recent kernels, get kbd*.tar.gz from the same place as you got the
kernel source. Make sure you get the appropriate version; you have to use
the right keyboard-mapping package to go with your kernel version. The
latest at the time of writing is kbd-0.85.tar.gz, which works with kernel
versions from 1.0.
For older kernels you have to edit the top-level kernel Makefile, in
/usr/src/linux.
You may find more helpful information in the Keystroke FAQ, on
ftp.funet.fi in /pub/OS/Linux/doc/kbd.FAQ.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 7.10. How do I get NUM LOCK to default to on ?
Use the setleds program, for example (in /etc/rc.local):
for t in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
do
setleds +num < /dev/tty$t > /dev/null
done
setleds is part of the kbd-0.8x package (see Q7.9 `How do I remap my
keyboard to UK, French, etc. ?').
Alternatively, patch your kernel. You need to arrange for KBD_DEFLEDS to
be defined to (1 << VC_NUMLOCK) when compiling drivers/char/keyboard.c.
===============================================================================
Section 8. Miscellaneous information and questions answered
Q8.1 What is a .gz file ? And a .tgz ? And ... ?
Q8.2 What does VFS stand for ?
Q8.3 What is a BogoMip ?
Q8.4 What is the Linux Journal and where can I get it ?
Q8.5 How many people use Linux ?
Q8.6 How should I pronounce Linux ?
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 8.1. What is a .gz file ? And a .tgz ? And ... ?
.gz (and .z) files have been compressed using GNU gzip. You need to use
gunzip (which is as a symlink to the gzip command which comes with most
Linux installations) to unpack the file.
.taz and .tz are tarfiles (made with Unix tar) compressed using standard
Unix compress.
.tgz (or .tpz) is a tarfile compressed with gzip.
.lsm is a Linux Software Map entry, in the form of a short text file.
Details about the LSM and the LSM itself are available in the docs
subdirectory on sunsite.unc.edu.
The file command can often tell you what a file is.
If you find that gzip complains when you try to uncompress a gzipped file
you probably downloaded it in ASCII mode by mistake. You must download
most things in binary mode - remember to type binary as a command in FTP
before using get to get the file.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 8.2. What does VFS stand for ?
Virtual File System. It's the abstraction layer between the user and real
filesystems like ext2, minix and msdos. Amongst other things, its job is
to flush the read buffer when it detects a disk change on the floppy disk
drive:
VFS: Disk change detected on device 2/0
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 8.3. What is a BogoMip ?
`BogoMips' is a contraction of `Bogus MIPS'. MIPS stands for (depending
who you listen to) Millions of Instructions per Second, or Meaningless
Indication of Processor Speed.
The number printed at boot-time is the result of a kernel timing
calibration, used for very short delay loops by some device drivers.
As a very rough guide the BogoMips will be approximately:
386SX clock * 0.14
386DX clock * 0.18
486Cyrix/IBM clock * 0.33
486SX/DX/DX2 clock * 0.50
586 clock * 0.39
If the number you're seeing is wildly lower than this you may have the
Turbo button or CPU speed set incorrectly, or have some kind of caching
problem [as described in Q6.3 `When I add more memory it slows to a
crawl.'.]
For values people have seen with other, rarer, chips, see the BogoMips
Mini-HOWTO, on sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/docs/howto/mini/BogoMips.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 8.4. What is the Linux Journal and where can I get it ?
Linux Journal is a monthly magazine (printed on paper) that is available
on newsstands and via subscription worldwide. Email <linux@ssc.com> for
details.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 8.5. How many people use Linux ?
Linux is freely available, and no one is required to register their copies
with any central authority, so it is difficult to know. Several
businesses are now surviving solely on selling and supporting Linux, and
very few Linux users use those businesses, relatively speaking. The Linux
newsgroups are some of the most heavily read on the Net, so the number is
likely in the hundreds of thousands, but firm numbers are hard to come by.
However, one brave soul, Harald T. Alvestrand
<Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no>, has decided to try, and asks that if you
use Linux, you send a message to <linux-counter@uninett.no> with one of
the following subjects: `I use Linux at home', `I use Linux at work', or
`I use Linux at home and at work'. He will also accept `third-party'
registrations - ask him for details.
He posts his counts to comp.os.linux.misc each month; alternatively look
on aun.uninett.no in /pub/misc/linux-counter.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 8.6. How should I pronounce Linux ?
This is a matter of religious debate, of course !
If you want to hear the Linus himself say how he pronounces it download
english.au or swedish.au from ftp.funet.fi (in
/pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/SillySounds). If you have a soundcard or the
PC-speaker audio driver you can hear them by typing
cat english.au >/dev/audio
The difference isn't in the pronunciation of Linux but in the language
Linus uses to say hello. The English version was parodied very well by
Jin Choi as "Hi, my name is Leenoos Torvahlds and I pronounce Leenooks as
Leenooks."
For the benefit of those of you who don't have the equipment or
inclination: Linus pronounces Linux approximately as Leenus, where the ee
is as in feet but rather shorter and the u is like a much shorter version
of the French eu sound in peur (pronouncing it as the u in put is probably
passable).
When speaking English I pronounce it Lie-nucks (u as in bucket) --- this
is an anglicised pronunciation based on the analogy with Linus' name,
which in English is usually pronounced Lie-nus (u as in put). It is of
course quite acceptable and common to modify the pronunciation of a proper
noun when it changes languages.
I think I can safely say that the pronunciation Linnucks (short i as in
pit, short u as in bucket) is wrong in English, as it is not the original
Swedish pronunciation, not a sensible direct anglicisation of it, and not
based on the anglicised version of Linus' name.
===============================================================================
Section 9. Frequently encountered error messages
Q9.1 During linking I get Undefined symbol _mcount
Q9.2 lp1 on fire
Q9.3 INET: Warning: old style ioctl(IP_SET_DEV) called!
Q9.4 ld: unrecognized option '-m486'
Q9.5 GCC says Internal compiler error
Q9.6 make says Error 139
Q9.7 shell-init: permission denied when I log in.
Q9.8 No utmp entry. You must exec ... when I log in.
Q9.9 Warning - bdflush not running
Q9.10 Warning: obsolete routing request made.
Q9.11 EXT2-fs: warning: mounting unchecked filesystem
Q9.12 EXT2-fs warning: maximal count reached
Q9.13 EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached
Q9.14 df says Cannot read table of mounted filesystems
Q9.15 fdisk says Partition X has different physical/logical ...
Q9.16 fdisk: Partition 1 does not start on cylinder boundary
Q9.17 fdisk says cannot use nnn sectors of this partition
Q9.18 fdisk says partition n has an odd number of sectors
Q9.19 mtools says cannot initialise drive XYZ
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.1. During linking I get Undefined symbol _mcount
This is usually due to a bad interaction between a brokenness in SLS and
the C library release notes. Your libc.a has been replaced by the
profiling library. You should remove libc.a, libg.a and libc_p.a and once
again install the new libraries (following the release notes, of course).
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.2. lp1 on fire
This is a joke/traditional error message indicating that some sort of
error is being reported by your printer, but it isn't offline or out of
paper. It may be that you have some kind of I/O or IRQ conflict - check
your cards' settings. Hopefully it isn't really on fire ...
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.3. INET: Warning: old style ioctl(IP_SET_DEV) called!
You are trying to use the old network configuration utilities; the new
ones can be found on tsx-11.mit.edu in
/pub/linux/packages/net/net-2/binaries.
Note that they cannot be used just like the old-style programs; see the
NET-2 HOWTO for instructions on how to set up networking correctly.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.4. ld: unrecognized option '-m486'
You have an old version of ld. Install a newer binutils package -- this
will contain an updated ld. Look on tsx-11.mit.edu in
/pub/linux/packages/GCC for binutils.tar.z.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.5. GCC says Internal compiler error
If the fault is repeatable (ie, it always happens at the same place in the
same file --- even after rebooting and trying again, using a stable
kernel) you have discovered a bug in GCC. See the GCC Info documentation
(type Control-h i in Emacs, and select GCC from the menu) for details on
how to report this -- make sure you have the latest version though.
Note that this is probably not a Linux-specific problem; unless you were
compiling a program many other Linux users also compile you should not
post your bug report to any of the comp.os.linux groups.
If the problem is not repeatable you are very probably experiencing memory
corruption --- see Q9.6 `make says Error 139'.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.6. make says Error 139
Your compiler driver (gcc) dumped core. You probably have a corrupted,
buggy or old version of GCC --- get the latest release. Alternatively you
may be running out of swap space --- see Q6.6 `My machine runs very slowly
when I run GCC / X / ...' for more info.
If this doesn't fix the problem you are probably having problems with
memory or disk corruption. Check that the clock rate, wait states and
refresh timing for your SIMMs are correct. If so you may have some dodgy
SIMMs or a faulty motherboard or hard disk or controller.
Linux, like any Unix, is a very good memory tester --- much better than
DOS-based memory test programs.
Reportedly some clone x87 maths coprocessors can cause problems; try
compiling a kernel with maths emulation [Q7.6 `How do I upgrade/recompile
my kernel ?']; you may need to use the no387 kernel command line flag on
the LILO prompt to force the kernel to use it, or it may be able to work
and still use the 387, with the maths emulation compiled in but mainly
unused.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.7. shell-init: permission denied when I log in.
Your root directory and all the directories up to your home directory must
be readable and executable by everybody. See the manpage for chmod or a
book on Unix for how to fix the problem.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.8. No utmp entry. You must exec ... when I log in.
Your /etc/utmp is screwed up. You should have
> /etc/utmp
in your /etc/rc or /etc/rc.local. See Q6.9 `I have screwed up my system
and can't log in to fix it.' for how to be able to do this.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.9. Warning - bdflush not running
The development kernel series now uses a better strategy for writing
cached disk blocks. In addition to the kernel changes, this involves
replacing the old update program which used to write everything every 30
seconds with a more subtle daemon (actually a pair), known as bdflush.
Get bdflush-n.n.tar.gz from the same place as the kernel source code [Q7.6
`How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel ?'] and compile and install it; it
should be started before the usual boot-time filesystem checks. It will
work fine with older kernels as well, so there's no need to keep the old
update around.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.10. Warning: obsolete routing request made.
This is nothing to worry about; it just means that the version of route
you have is a little out of date compared to the kernel. You can make the
message go away by getting a new version of route from the same place as
the kernel source code [Q7.6 `How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel ?'].
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.11. EXT2-fs: warning: mounting unchecked filesystem
You need to run e2fsck (or fsck -t ext2 if you have the fsutils package)
with the -a option to get it to clear the `dirty' flag, and then cleanly
unmount the partition during each shutdown.
The easiest way to do this is to get the latest fsck, umount and shutdown
commands, available in Rik Faith's util-linux package [Q2.5 `Where can I
get Linux material by FTP ?']. You have to make sure that your /etc/rc
scripts use them correctly.
NB don't try to check a filesystem that's mounted read-write - this
includes the root partition if you don't see
VFS: mounted root ... read-only
at boot time. You must arrange for to initially mount the root filesystem
readonly, check it if necessary, and then remount it read-write. Read the
documentation that comes with util-linux to find out how to do this.
Note that you need to specify the -n option to mount to get it not to try
to update /etc/mtab, since the root filesystem is still read-only and this
will otherwise cause it to fail !
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.12. EXT2-fs warning: maximal count reached
This message is issued by the kernel when it mounts a filesystem that's
marked as clean, but whose `number of mounts since check' counter has
reached the predifined value. The solution is to get the latest version
of the ext2fs utilities (e2fsprogs-0.5a.tar.gz at the time of writing)
from the usual sites [Q2.5 `Where can I get Linux material by FTP ?'].
The maximal number of mounts value can be examined and changed using the
tune2fs program from this package.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.13. EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached
Kernels from 1.0 onwards support checking a filesystem based on the
elapsed time since the last check as well as by the number of mounts. Get
the latest version of the ext2fs utilities [see Q9.12 `EXT2-fs warning:
maximal count reached'].
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.14. df says Cannot read table of mounted filesystems
There is probably something wrong with your /etc/mtab or /etc/fstab files.
If you have a reasonably new version of mount, /etc/mtab should be emptied
or deleted at boot time (in /etc/rc or /etc/rc.local), using something
like
rm -f /etc/mtab*
Some versions of SLS have an entry for the root partition in /etc/mtab
made in /etc/rc by using rdev. This is incorrect -- the newer versions of
mount do this automatically.
Other versions of SLS have a line in /etc/fstab that looks like:
/dev/sdb1 /root ext2 defaults
This is wrong. /root should read simply /.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.15. fdisk says Partition X has different physical/logical ...
If the partition number (X, above) is 1 this is the same problem as Q9.16
`fdisk: Partition 1 does not start on cylinder boundary'.
If the partition begins or ends on a cylinder numbered beyond 1024, this
is because standard DOS disk geometry information format in the partition
table can't cope with cylinder numbers with more than 10 bits.
This will cause DOS to be unable to access the partition correctly, and
will make booting a Linux kernel from that partition using LILO
problematic at best.
You can still use the partition for Linux or other operating systems that
use linear addressing (ie, number the disk blocks sequentially without
looking at heads, tracks and sectors).
I'd recommend creating at least one Linux partition entirely under the
1024-cylinder limit and booting off that; the other partitions will then
be OK.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.16. fdisk: Partition 1 does not start on cylinder boundary
The version of fdisk that comes with many Linux systems creates partitions
that fail its own validity checking. Unfortunately if you've already
installed your system there's not much you can do about this, apart from
copying the data off the partition, deleting and remaking it, and copying
the data back.
You can avoid the problem by getting the latest version of fdisk, from Rik
Faith's util-linux package (available on all good FTP sites).
Alternatively, if you are creating a new partition 1 that starts in the
first cylinder, you can do the following to get a partition that fdisk
likes.
1. Create partition 1 in the normal way. A p listing will produce the
mismatch complaint.
2. Type u to set sector mode and do p again. Copy down the number from
the "End" column.
3. Delete partition 1.
4. While still in sector mode recreate partition 1. Set the first sector
to match the number of sectors per track. This is the sector number in
the first line of the p output. Set the last sector to the value noted in
2. above.
5. Type u to reset cylinder mode and continue with other partitions.
Ignore the message about unallocated sectors - they refer to the sectors
on the first track apart from the Master Boot Record, which are not used
if you start the first partition in track 2.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.17. fdisk says cannot use nnn sectors of this partition
Originally Linux only supported the Minix filesystem, which cannot use
more than 64Mb per parition. This limitation is not present in the more
advanced filesystems now available, such as ext2fs (the 2nd version of the
Extended Filesystem) and xiafs (Qi Xia's filesystem).
If you intend to use ext2fs or xiafs you can ignore the message.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.18. fdisk says partition n has an odd number of sectors
The PC disk partitioning scheme works in 512-byte sectors, but Linux uses
1K blocks. If you have a partition with an odd number of sectors the last
sector is wasted. Ignore the message.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 9.19. mtools says cannot initialise drive XYZ
This means that mtools is having trouble accessing the drive. This can be
due to several things.
Often this is due to the permissions on floppy drive devices (/dev/fd0*
and /dev/fd1*) being incorrect --- the user running mtools must have the
appropriate access. See the manpage for chmod for details.
Most versions of mtools distributed with Linux systems (not the standard
GNU version) use the contents of a file /etc/mtools to discover which
devices and densities to use, in place of having this information compiled
into the binary. Mistakes in this file often cause problems. There is
often no documentation about this --- distribution packagers please note
that this is *evil*.
For the easiest way to access your DOS files (especially those on a hard
disk partition) see Q3.2 `How do I access files on my DOS partition or
floppy ?'. Note - you should never use mtools to access files on an
msdosfs mounted partition or disk !
===============================================================================
Section 10. The X Window System
Q10.1 Does Linux support X Windows ?
Q10.2 Where can I get an XF86Config for my system ?
Q10.3 xterm logins show up strangely in who, finger
Q10.4 I can't get X Windows to work right.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 10.1. Does Linux support X Windows ?
Yes. Linux uses XFree86 (the current version is 3.1, which is based on
X11R6). You need to have a video card which is supported by XFree86. See
the Linux XFree86 HOWTO for more details.
Some of the Linux releases -- MCC, for example -- don't come with X
Windows already included; however you can easily download and install it
from /pub/Linux/X11/Xfree86-* on sunsite.unc.edu and its mirror sites.
Read the XFree86 HOWTO for installation instructions.
Other releases -- Slackware, Debian, TAMU and SLS, for example -- come
with X Windows already included
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 10.2. Where can I get an XF86Config for my system ?
See the Linux XFree86 HOWTO.
You'll need to put together your own XF86Config file, because it depends
on the exact combination of video card and monitor you have. It's not
that hard to do -- read the instructions that came with XFree86, in
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc. The file you probably most need to look at is
README.Config.
Please don't post to comp.os.linux.help asking for an Xconfig.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 10.3. xterm logins show up strangely in who, finger
The xterm that comes with XFree86 2.1 and earlier doesn't correctly
understand the format that Linux uses for the /etc/utmp file, where the
system records who is logged in. It therefore doesn't set all the
information correctly.
XFree86 3.1 fixes this problem.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 10.4. I can't get X Windows to work right.
Read the XFree86 HOWTO - note the question and answer section.
Try reading comp.windows.x.i386unix -- specifically read the the FAQ for
that group.
Please don't post X Windows or XFree86 related questions to
comp.os.linux.help unless they are Linux-specific.
===============================================================================
Section 11. Questions applicable to very out-of-date software
Q11.1 How can I have more than 16Mb of swap ?
Q11.2 GCC sometimes uses huge amounts of virtual memory and thrashes
Q11.3 My keyboard goes all funny after I switch VC's.
The questions in this section are only relevant to users of software that
is at least 3 months old.
Please let me know if you find the answer to a problem you had here, as
unused questions in this section will eventually disappear [Q13.1
`Feedback is invited'].
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 11.1. How can I have more than 16Mb of swap ?
Use a recent kernel -- from at least 0.99.14 Linux can use swap partitions
of up to 128Mb.
If you use an older kernel which only supports swap area sizes up to 16Mb
you have to set up more than one swap partition or swapfile.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 11.2. GCC sometimes uses huge amounts of virtual memory and thrashes
Older versions of GCC had a bug which made them use lots of memory if you
tried to compile a program which had a large static data table in it.
You can either upgrade your version of GCC to at least version 2.5, or add
more swap if necessary and just grin and bear it; it'll work in the end.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 11.3. My keyboard goes all funny after I switch VC's.
This is a bug in kernel versions before 0.99pl14-alpha-n. Sometimes Linux
loses track of what modifier keys (Shift, Alt, Control etc.) are pressed
or not, and believes that one or more are pressed when they are not. The
solution is to press and release each of the modifier keys (without
pressing any other keys) --- this will ensure that Linux knows what state
the keyboard is actually in.
This problem often occurs when switching out of X windows; it can
sometimes be avoided by releasing Ctrl and Alt very quickly after pressing
the F-key of the VC you are switching to.
===============================================================================
Section 12. How to get further assistance
Q12.1 You still haven't answered my question !
Q12.2 What to put in a posting to comp.os.linux.help
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 12.1. You still haven't answered my question !
Please read all of this answer before posting. I know it's a bit long,
but you may be about to make a fool of yourself in front of 50000 people
and waste hundreds of hours of their time. Don't you think it's worth it
to spend some of your time reading and following these instructions ?
If you think an answer is incomplete or inaccurate, please mail Ian
Jackson at <ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>.
Read the appropriate Linux Documentation Project books - see Q2.1 `Where
can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation ?'.
If you're a Unix newbie read the FAQ for comp.unix.questions, and those
for any of the other comp.unix.* groups that may be relevant.
Linux is a Unix clone, so almost everything you read there will apply to
Linux. Those FAQs can, like all FAQs, be found on rtfm.mit.edu in
/pub/usenet/news.answers (the mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu can send you these
files, for those who don't have FTP access). There are mirrors of rtfm's
FAQ artchives on various sites - check the Introduction to *.answers
posting, posted, or look in news-answers/introduction in the directory
above.
Check the relevant HOWTO for the subject in question, if there is one, or
an appropriate old-style sub-FAQ document. Check the FTP sites.
Try experimenting --- that's the best way to get to know Unix and Linux.
Read the documentation. Check the manpages (type man man if you don't
know about manpages. Try man -k <subject> --- it often lists useful and
relevant manpages.
Check the Info documentation (type C-h i, i.e. Control H followed by I in
Emacs) --- NB this isn't just for Emacs; for example the GCC documentation
lives here as well.
There will also often be a README file with a package giving installation
and/or usage instructions.
Make sure that you don't have a corrupted or out-of-date copy of the
program in question. If possible, download it again and reinstall it ---
perhaps you made a mistake the first time.
Read comp.os.linux.announce --- this often contains very important
information for all Linux users.
X-Windows questions belong in comp.windows.x.i386unix, not in
comp.os.linux.help. But read the group first (including the FAQ), before
you post !
Only if you have done all of these things and are still stuck should you
post to comp.os.linux.help. Make sure you read the next question, Q12.2
`What to put in a posting to comp.os.linux.help', first.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 12.2. What to put in a posting to comp.os.linux.help
Please read carefully the following advice about how to write your
posting. Taking heed of it will greatly increase the chances that an
expert and/or fellow user reading your posting will have enough
information and motivation to reply.
Make sure you give full details of the problem, including:
* What program, exactly, you are having problems with. Include the
version number if known and say where you got it. Many standard
commands tell you their version number if you give them a --version
option.
* Which Linux release you're using (MCC, Slackware, Debian or whatever)
and what version of that release.
* The *exact* and *complete* text of any error messages printed.
* Exactly what behaviour you were expecting, and exactly what behaviour
you observed. A transcript of an example session is a good way of
showing this.
* The contents of any configuration files used by the program in question
sender's permission.
===============================================================================
Section 13. Administrative information and acknowledgements
Q13.1 Feedback is invited
Q13.2 Formats in which this FAQ is available
Q13.3 Authorship and acknowledgements
Q13.4 Disclaimer and Copyright
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 13.1. Feedback is invited
Please send me your comments on this FAQ.
I accept submissions for the FAQ in any format; All contributions
comments and corrections are gratefully received.
Please send them to <ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>.
By the way, if you wish to refer to a question(s) in the FAQ it's most
useful for me if you do so by the question heading, rather than the
number, as the question numbers are generated automatically and I don't
see them in the source file I edit.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 13.2. Formats in which this FAQ is available
This document is available as an ASCII text file, an Emacs Info document,
an HTML World Wide Web page, PostScript and as a USENET news posting.
The ASCII, Emacs Info, HTML and posted versions and a Lout typesetter file
(from which the PostScript is produced) are generated automatically by a
Perl script which takes as input a file in the Bizarre Format with No
Name.
The output files linux-faq.ascii, .info and .ps and a tarfile
linux-faq.source.tar.gz, containing the BFNN source and Perl script
converter, are available in the docs directories of the major Linux FTP
sites.
The HTML version of this FAQ is available as
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/iwj10/linux-faq/index.html.
The USENET version is posted regularly to comp.os.linux.announce,
comp.os.linux.help, comp.answers and news.answers.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 13.3. Authorship and acknowledgements
This FAQ was compiled by Ian Jackson <ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>, with
assistance and comments from others too numerous to mention. It was
loosely based on the original Linux FAQ by Marc-Michel Corsini.
Special thanks are due to Matt Welsh, who coordinates the HOWTOs and has
written substantial portions of many of them, and to Marc-Michel Corsini.
Thanks also to the contributors to the previous Linux FAQ, and to those
sent me comments about this FAQ, and who answered questions on the
newsgroup.
Last but not least, thanks to Linus Torvalds and the other contributors to
Linux for giving us something to write about !
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Question 13.4. Disclaimer and Copyright
Note that this document is provided as is. The information in it is *not*
warranted to be correct; you use it at your own risk.
Linux Frequently Asked Questions with Answers is Copyright 1994 by Ian
Jackson <ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>.
It may be reproduced and distributed in its entirity (including this
authorship, copyright and permission notice) provided that either:
* the distribution is not commercial (commercial means any situation in
which you benefit financially - directly or indirectly such as by
inclusion in a publication which carries commercial advertising), or
* the distribution is in machine-readable form (ie, a form intended to be
easily processed by a computer).
Note that this restriction is not intended to prohibit charging for the
service of printing or copying a document supplied by your customer.
Any distribution of a partial copy or extract, a translation or a
derivative work must be approved by me before distribution. Email me -
I'll probably be happy to oblige !
Exceptions to these rules may be granted, and I shall be happy to answer
any questions about this copyright --- write to Ian Jackson, Churchill
College, Cambridge, CB3 0DS, United Kingdom or email
<ijackson@nyx.cs.du.edu>. These restrictions are here to protect the
contributors, not to restrict you as educators and learners.
Ian Jackson asserts the right to be identified as the author of this work,
and claims the moral rights of paternity and integrity, in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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