Linux Gazette MailBag Issue #13

| #### "Linux Gazette...making Linux just a little more fun!"
## The Mailbag! Write the Gazette at gazette@ssc.com | ### Contents: Help Wanted -- Article Ideas General Mail

| ### Help Wanted -- Article Ideas Date: Sun, 17 Nov 1996 18:49:56 -0600 Subject: a reply type thing... From: Glenn E. Satan, insipid@onramp.net
    > Subject: Xwindows depth
    > From: James Amendolagine uq274@freenet.victoria.bc.ca
    >
    > I have recently been messing with my x-server, and have managed
    > to get a depth of 16, ie 2^16 colors. This works
    > really nice with Netscape, but some programs (doom, abuse, and
    > other games) wont work with this many colors. Do
    > you know of a fix? I have tried to get X to support multiple
    > depths--to no avail. The man-page suggests that some
    > video cards support multiple depths and some don't. How do I know
    > if mine does.
    >
    > I would really like to see an article on this subject,
I would like to say, yes, please someone help.... thought maybe a reply would motivate someone a little more to write a article on this. (All right a second request for help in this area. Anybody out there with suggestions and/or wanting to write an article? --Editor) Date: Sun, 01 Dec 1996 00:20:12 +1000 Subject: Quilting and geometry From: Chris Hennessy, chenness@enterprise.powerup.com.au I liked your comment about quilting being an interest. We tend to forget that people have interests outside of computers in general (and linux in particular). Just like to say thanks for what is obviously an enormous effort you are putting into the gazette. I'm new(ish) to linux and I find it a great resource, not to say entertaining. Has anyone suggested an article on the use of Xresources? As I said I'm fairly new and find this a bit confusing... maybe someone would be interested in an example or three? Oh and with the quilting and geometry ... better make sure its not the 80x25+1-1 variety. (Thanks, LG is a lot of work, as well as a lot of fun. And yes, I do have a life outside of Linux. Anyone interested in writing about Xresources? Thanks for writing. It's always nice to know we are attracting new readers. --Editor) Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 13:33:26 +0200 (EET) Subject: security issue! From: Arto Repola, arepola@raahenet.ratol.fi Hi there! I was wondering that could you write in some Gazette something about Linux security...how to improve it, how to setup firewall,shadow password systems etc? I'm considering to build up my own linux-server and i really would like to make it as secure as possible! Nothing more this time! http://raahenet.ratol.fi/~arepola (And another great idea for an article. Any takers? --Editor) Date: Wed, 04 Dec 1996 08:08:06 -0700 Subject: Reader Response From: James Cannon, cannonj@jads.kirtland.af.mil Organization: JADS JTF Great Resource, I really like the resource Linux offers new users. I have already applied a few tricks to my PC. I wish some one would explain how to use the GNU C/C++ compiler with Linux. It is a tool resting in my hard drive. With commercial compilers, there is a programming environment that links libraries automatically. Are there any tricks to command line C/C++ programming with Linux?? Stay online! James Cannon (Thanks for the tip. Online is the best place to be. Anyone out there got some C++ help for this guy? --Editor) Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 23:27:21 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Linux InfraRed Support From: Hong Kim, kimh@domp04.adm.intelsat.int Hi, I have been so far unsuccessful in finding information for InfraRed support on Linux. I am particularly interested in hooking up Caldera Linux on a Thinkpad 560 using Extended Systems JetEye Net Plus. Caldera on Thinkpad I can handle but the JetEye allows connection to ethernet or token ring networks via IR. My searches of Linux Resources page come up negative. I have posted to USENET and also emailed any web master that has any mention of ThinkPad or IR on their pages. Still no answer. Can you help me to find information. If I am successful, I would be willing to write an article about it. Hong (I have sent your question on to Linux Journal's Tech Support Column. Answers from this source can be slow as author contacts companys involved. Sounds like you have covered all the bases in your search -- can anyone out there help him? If you write the article, I'll be happy to post it in the LG so next person who needs this information will have a quicker answer. --Editor) Date: Thu, 5 Dec 96 13:00:01 MET Subject: Linux networking problem ... From: Tauche%fbm%mfh@mfhdvzis.mfh-iserlohn.de Hi there, First I have to apologize for writing to this address with my problem, but I don't no where to search for an answer and university's network is so damned slow that surfing through the net searching for an answer makes no fun. Another reason is that I've got no access to Usenet... means can't post in comp.os.linux.networking... 8-(( I tried to find a news server near to Germany which allows posting without using that damned -> identd <- but found none, may be you know where to find a list with (free) news servers ? Here's the problem: I want to setup Linux in our University's LAN but ran into problems, because the LAN is VINES-IP based so that normal TCP/IP packet drivers won't work. The admin says I do need a driver which can tunnel the normal Linux TCP/IP packets into those VINES-IP packets, so that they can be send over the LAN to that box which has Internet connection.... Maybe you know if such thing is available and/or where I can get it. Or maybe you can give some Email-addresses for asking people which real knowledge 'bout Linux (maybe even that of Linus T. himself) and it's drivers. Hope you can help me 8-)) Thanks in advantage Stefan 8-)) (I've sent your problem on to Linux Journal's Technical Support column and will post it in Linux Gazette's Mailbag next month. Neither one will give you a fast answer. I did a search of LG, LJ and SSC's Linux Resources using VINES as the keyword. I found only one entry from an author's biography. It's old -- March 1995 -- and the guy was in the marine corp then so may or may not be a good address. Anyway here's what it said: "Jon Frievald ... manages Wide Area Network running Banyan VINES. ... e-mail to jaf@jaflrn.liii.com" Anyway you might give him a try for help ideas. For faster access to LG have you tried any of LG's mirror sites in Germany: http://www.cs.uni-dusseldorf.de/~stein/lg http://vina12.va.htw-dresden.de/lg http://www.fokus.gmd.de/linux/lg Please note that mirror sites wont help search time -- all searching is done on SSC site. --Editor)

| ### General Mail Date: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 20:35:17 -0600 (CST) Subject: Re: Slang Applications for Linux From: Duncan Hill, dhill@sunbeach.net To: Larry Ayers, layers@vax2.rain.gen.mo.us On Sat, 30 Nov 1996, Duncan Hill wrote: Greetings. I was reading your article in the Linux Gazette, and thought you might be interested to know that Lynx also has its own web site now at: http://lynx.browser.org/ It's up to version 2.6 now, and is rather nice, specially with slang included :) Duncan Hill, Student of the Barbados Community College (Thanks for the tip! I really appreciate responses from readers; confirms that there are really readers out there! --Larry Ayers) Date: Sat, 30 Nov 96 16:42:58 0200 Subject: Linux Gazette From: Paul Beard, paulb@id.co.zw Hello from Zimbabwe. Very nice production. Keep up the good work. Regards, Paul Beard. (Thanks. --Editor) Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 23:54:38 +0000 Subject: Thanks! From: Russ Spooner, russ1@rmplc.co.uk Organization: Kontagx Hi, I have been an avid reader of Linux Gazette since its inception! I would just like to say that it has helped me a lot and that I am really glad that it has become more regular :-) The Image you have developed now has come a long way and it is now one of the best organized sites I visit! Also I would like to thank you for the link to my site :-) it was a real surprise to "see myself up in lights" :) Best regards! Russ Spooner, http://www.pssltd.co.uk/kontagx Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 12:49:12 -0500 Subject: LG Width From: frank haynes, frank@vatmom.com Organization: The Vatmom Organization Re: LG page width complaint, LG looks great here, and I don't think my window is particularly large. Keep up the fine work. --Frank, http://www.mindspring.com/~fmh (Good to hear. --Editor) Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 10:30:32 +0000 Subject: LG #12 From: Adam D. Moss. adam@uunet.pipex.com Nice job on the Gazette, as usual. :) Adam D. Moss / Consulting ( :-) --Editor) Date: Tue, 3 Dec 1996 12:55:18 -0800 (PST) Subject: Re: images in tcsh article From: Scott Call, scall@ccnet.com Most of the images in the TCSH article in issue 12 are broken -Scott (You must be looking at one of the mirror sites. I inadvertently left those images out of the issue12 tar file that I made for the mirror sites. When I discovered it yesterday, I made an update file for the mirrors. Unfortunately, I have found that not all the mirrors are willing to update LG more than once a month, so my mistakes remain until the next month. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for writing. --Editor) Date: Fri, 06 Dec 1996 21:21:00 +0600 Subject: 12? why can you make so bad distributive????????????? From: Sergey A. Panskih, serg@cnti.chel.su i ftpgeted lg12 and untar.gz it as made with lg11. lg11 was read as is: with graphics and so, but lg12... all graphics was loosed. i've verified hrefs and found out that href was written with principial errors : i must copy all it to /images in my httpd server!!!! this a pre-alpha version!!! i can't do so unfixed products!!! i'm sorry, but you forgotten how make a http-ready distrbutions... :) Sergey Panskih P.S. email me if i'm not true. (I'm having a little trouble with your English and don't quite understand what "all graphics was loosed" means. You shouldn't have to copy anything anywhere: what are you copying to /images? There is one problem I had that may apply to you. Are you throwing away previous issues and only getting the current one? If so, I apologize most humbly. I was not aware until this month that people were doing this and when I made the tar file I included only new files and those that had been changed since the last month. To correct this problem I put a new tar file on the ftp site called standard_gifs.html. It's not that I've forgotten how to make http-ready distributions, it's that I'm just learning all the complexities. In the future I will make the tar file to include all files needed for the current single issue, whether they were changed or not. I am very sorry to have caused you such problems and distress. --Editor) Date: Mon, 02 Dec 96 18:13:48 Subject: spiral trashes letters From: jep@jephill.com It's clever and pretty, but the spiral notebook graphic still trashes the left edge of letters printed in the issue 12 Mailbag. Problem occurs using OS/2's Web Explorer version 1.2 (comes with OS/2 Warp 4.0). Problem does NOT occur using Netscape 2.02 for OS/2 beta 2 (the latest beta for OS/2). Problem occurs even while accessing www.ssc.com/lg Jep Hill (Problem will always occur with versions of either Microsoft Explorer or Netscape before 2.0. It is caused by a bug in TABLES that was fixed in the 2.0 versions. I don't have access to OS/2's Web Explorer, so I can only guess that it's the same problem. I'd recommend always using the latest version of your browser. --Editor) Date Mon, 9 Dec 1996 10:14:04 -0800 PST Subject: Background From: rayvd@shocking.com I run at a resolution of 1152x846 (a bit odd I suppose) and although the Gazette pages look very nice indeed, it is a bit hard to read when I have my Netscape window maximized. The bindings part of the background seems to be optimized for a width of 1024 and thus tiles over again on the right side of the page. This makes reading a bit difficult as some of the text now overlaps the bindings on the far right. I'm not sure if that's a great description of the problem, but I can easily make you a screenshot if you want to see what I mean. Anyhow, this is only a minor annoyance--certainly one I'm willing to live with in order to read your great 'zine. :) Ray Van Dolson -=-=- Bludgeon Creations (Web Design) - DALnet #Bludgeon -- http://www.shocking.com/~rayvd/ (Screen shot wont be necessary. When the web master first put the spiral out there, the same thing happened to me -- I use a large window too, but not as large as yours. He was able to expand it to fix it at that time. I notified him of your problem, but not sure if he can expand it even more or not. We'll see. Glad it's a problem you can live with. :-) --Editor) Date: Sat, 7 Dec 1996 22:16:55 +0100 (MET) Subject: Problem with Printing. From: fm@M1.whitespace.de Hi, This is just to let you people know, that there might be a slight problem. I want to point out and make it perfectly clear that this is NOT a complaint. I feel perfectly satisfied with the Linux Gazette as it is. However sometimes I prefer to have a printed copy to take with me. Therefore I used to print the LG. from Netscape. I'm using the new 3.1 version now. With the last two issues I have difficulties doing so. All the pages with this new nice look don't print too well. The graphics show up at all the wrong places and only one page is printed on the paper. The rest is swallowed. Did you ever try to print it? I had to use an ancient copy of Mosaic, that doesn't know anything about tables, to print these pages. They don't look too good this way too, and never did. I know this old Mosaic is buggy. At least it doesn't swallow half of the stuff. This could as well be a bug in Netscape. I know next to nothing about html. Anyway, have fun. Regards Friedhelm (No, I don't try to print it, but will look into it. Are you printing out "The Whole Damn Thing" from the TOC or trying to do it page by page? It is out there in multi-file format and so if you print from say the Front Page, the front page is all you'll get. "The Whole Damn Thing" is one single file containing the whole issue, and the spiral and table stuff are removed so it should print out for you okay. Let me know if this is already what you are printing, so I'll know where to look for the problem. --Editor) Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 04:02:37 +0200 Subject: Greetings From: Trucza Csaba, ctrucza@cemc.soroscj.roi To: fiskjm@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu Well, Hi there! Amazing. I've just read the Linux Gazette from the first issue to this one, the 12th (actually I read just the first 7 issues through, because the others were not downloaded correctly). It's 4 in the morning and I'm enthusiastic. I knew Linux was good, I'm using it for a year (this is because of the lack of my english grammar, I mean the previous sentence, well...), so I knew it was good, but I didn't expect to see something so nice like this Gazette. It's good to see that there are a WHOLE LOT of people with huge will to share. I think we owe You a lot of thanks for starting it. Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and keep it up! Trucza Csaba, Romania (Thanks, I will. -- Editor) Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 12:16:30 -0800 (PST) Subject: lg issue 12 via ftp? From: schwarz@monet.m.isar.de (Christian Schwarz) I just saw that issue #12 is out and accessible via WWW, but I can't find the file on your ftp server nor on any mirrors. (Sorry for the problems. We changed web servers and I went on vacation. Somehow in the web server change, some of the December files got left behind. I didn't realize until today that this had happened. Sorry for the inconvenience. --Editor) Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 00:31:45 -0500 Subject: Great IDEA From: Pedro A Cruz, pcruz@panixc.com Hi: I visited your site recently and was astounded by the wealth of information there. I have lots of bandwidth to read your site. I noticed that you have issues for download. I Think it will be a great service to the LINUX community if you consider publishing a CDROM (maybe from walnut creek cdrom) as a subscription item. pedro (Yes, that is a good idea. I'll talk to my publisher about it. --Editor) Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 20:24:51 -0600 Subject: Linux as router From: Robert Binz, rbinz@swconnect.net I have found myself trying to learn how to use Linux as a usenet server to provide news feeds to people, and to use Linux as a IRC server. Information on these topics are hard to come buy. If you have any sources on these subjects that you can point me to I would be most appreciative. But any how, I have found an article in SysAdmin (Jan 96 (5.1)) that is titled Using Linux as a Router, by johnathon Feldman. Is it possible to reprint this article or get the author to write a new one for you? TIA Robert Binz (I'll look into it. In the meantime, I've forwarded your letter to a guy I think may be able to help you. --Editor) Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 03:57:09 -0500 (EST) Subject: Correction for LG #12 From: Joe Hohertz, jhohertz@golden.net Organization: Golden Triangle On-Line Noticed the folowing in the News section. A couple of new Linux Resources sites: (Seems I had Joe's address wrong. Sorry. --Editor) Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 01:19:43 -0500 Subject: One-shot downloads From: David M. Razler, david.razler@postoffice.worldnet.att.net Folks: While I realize that the economies of the LINUX biz require that there be some method of making money even on the distribution of free and "free" software, I have a request for them of us who 1) are currently scraping for the cash for our Internet accounts and 2) would like to try LINUX. How about a one-shot download? I mean, oh, everything needed to establish a LINUX system in one ZIP'ed (or tar/gz'd, though zip is a more compatible format) file, one for each distribution? I'm currently looking to establish LINUX on my "spare" PC, a 386DX-16 w/4 meg and a scavenged 2500MB IDE drive, etc. It will be relatively slow, limited, lacks a CD-rom drive, but it's free, since the machine is currently serving as a paperweight. I could go out and buy a used CD-rom for the beast, or run a bastard connection from my primary, indispensable work machine and buy the CDs. But I am currently disabled and spending for these things has to be weighed against other expenses (admittedly, I am certainly lucky and not destitute, it would just be better) I could get a web robot and download umpteen little files, puzzle them out and put them together, though the load on your server would be higher. Or, under my proposed system, I could download Distribution Code, Documents, and Major accessories in one group, then go back for the individual bits and pieces I need to build my system. Again, I realize that running your site costs money, and that people make money, admirably little money, distributing LINUX on CDs, with the big bucks (grin) of LINUX coming in non-free software, support and book sales. But if the system is to spread, providing a series of one-shot downloads, possibly available only to individuals (I believe one could copyright the *package* and require someone downloading to agree to use it only on a single non-commercial system and not to redistribute, but I am not an intellectual properties lawyer), to make life easier for them of us who need to learn a UNIX-style system and build one on the cheap. dmr ##### This page written and maintained by the Editor of Linux Gazette, gazette@ssc.com Copyright © 1997 Specialized Systems Consultants, Inc.