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Linux Frequently Asked Questions with Answers
August 30, 1998
This is the list of Frequently Asked Questions about Linux, the fre
Unix for just about every computer hardware platform on the planet.
Originally written for 386/486/586 Intel/ISA bus machines, versions
are available for Alpha, MIPS, ARM, 680x0 and PPC processors, and m
others. (See the question, "What is Linux? " below.) This
document should be read in conjunction with the Linux Documentation
Project's HOWTO series. ("Where can I get Linux material by FTP?
" and "Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation? ")
The INFO-SHEET and META-FAQ, which are found in the same place, als
list sources of Linux information. Please look at these documents,
"You still haven't answered my question! " before posting your
question to a news group. See "Formats in which this FAQ is
available. " for details of where to get the PostScript, HTML, and
plain ASCII versions of this document.
1. Introduction and General Information
* 1.1 What is Linux?
* 1.2 Where do I start?
* 1.3 What software does Linux support?
* 1.4 Does Linux run on my computer? What hardware is supported?
* 1.5 What ports to other processors are there?
* 1.6 How much hard disk space does Linux need?
* 1.7 How much memory does Linux need?
* 1.8 How much memory can Linux use?
* 1.9 Is Linux public domain? Copyrighted?
2. Network sources and resources.
* 2.1 Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation?
* 2.2 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for Linux stuff?
* 2.3 What newsgroups are there for Linux?
* 2.4 Where can I find out about Linux and the Millennium (Y2K)
bug?
* 2.5 Where can I get Linux material by FTP?
* 2.6 I don't have FTP access. Where do I get Linux?
* 2.7 I don't have Usenet access. Where do I get information?
* 2.8 What mailing lists are there?
* 2.9 Are the newsgroups archived anywhere?
3. Compatibility with other operating systems.
* 3.1 Can Linux share my disk with DOS? OS/2? 386BSD? Win95?
* 3.2 How do I access files on my DOS partition or floppy?
* 3.3 Does Linux support compressed ext2 file systems?
* 3.4 Can I use my Stacked/DBLSPC/etc. DOS drive?
* 3.5 Can I access OS/2 HPFS partitions from Linux?
* 3.6 Can Linux access Amiga file systems?
* 3.7 Can Linux access BSD, SysV, etc. UFS?
* 3.8 Can Linux access SMB file systems?
* 3.9 Can Linux access Mac file systems?
* 3.10 Can I run Microsoft Windows programs under Linux?
* 3.11 How can I boot Linux from OS/2's Boot Manager?
* 3.12 How can I share a swap partition between Linux and MS
Windows?
4. Linux's handling of file systems, disks, and drives
* 4.1 How can I get Linux to work with my disk?
* 4.2 How can I undelete files?
* 4.3 Is there a defragmenter for ext2fs etc.?
* 4.4 How do I format and create a file system on a floppy?
* 4.5 I get nasty messages about inodes, blocks, and the
suchlike.
* 4.6 My swap area isn't working.
* 4.7 How do I remove LILO so my system boots DOS again?
* 4.8 Why can't I use fdformat except as root?
* 4.9 My ext2fs partitions are checked each time I reboot.
* 4.10 My root file system is read-only!
* 4.11 I have a huge /proc/kcore! Can I delete it?
* 4.12 My AHA1542C doesn't work with Linux.
5. Porting, compiling and obtaining programs
* 5.1 How do I port XXX to Linux?
* 5.2 What is ld.so and where do I get it?
* 5.3 Has anyone ported / compiled / written XXX for Linux?
* 5.4 Can I use code or a compiler compiled for a 486 on my 386?
* 5.5 What does gcc -O6 do?
* 5.6 Where are linux/*.h and asm/*.h?
* 5.7 I get errors when I try to compile the kernel.
* 5.8 How do I make a shared library?
* 5.9 My executables are (very) large.
* 5.10 Does Linux support threads or lightweight processes?
* 5.11 Where can I get `lint' for Linux?
* 5.12 Where can I find kermit for Linux?
6. Solutions to common miscellaneous problems.
* 6.1 free dumps core.
* 6.2 My clock is very wrong.
* 6.3 Setuid scripts don't seem to work.
* 6.4 Free memory as reported by free keeps shrinking.
* 6.5 When I add more memory, the system slows to a crawl.
* 6.6 Some programs (e.g. xdm) won't let me log in.
* 6.7 Some programs let me log in with no password.
* 6.8 My machine runs very slowly when I run GCC / X / ...
* 6.9 I can only log in as root.
* 6.10 My screen is all full of weird characters instead of
letters.
* 6.11 I have screwed up my system and can't log in to fix it.
* 6.12 I've discovered a huge security hole in rm!
* 6.13 lpr(1) and/or lpd(8) don't work.
* 6.14 Timestamps on files on msdos partitions are set
incorrectly.
* 6.15 How do I get LILO to boot the vmlinux file?
7. How do I do this or find out that ... ?
* 7.1 How can I get scrollback in text mode?
* 7.2 How do I switch virtual consoles? How do I enable them?
* 7.3 How do I set the time zone?
* 7.4 What version of Linux and what machine name am I using?
* 7.5 How can I enable or disable core dumps?
* 7.6 How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel?
* 7.7 Can I have more than 3 serial ports by sharing interrupts?
* 7.8 How do I make a bootable floppy?
* 7.9 How do I remap my keyboard to UK, French, etc.?
* 7.10 How do I get NUM LOCK to default to on?
* 7.11 How can I have more than 128Mb of swap?
* 7.12 Miscellaneous information and questions answered.
* 7.13 How do I program XYZ under Linux?
* 7.14 What's all this about ELF?
* 7.15 What is a .gz file ? And a .tgz ? And ... ?
* 7.16 What does VFS stand for?
* 7.17 What is a BogoMip?
* 7.18 What is the Linux Journal and where can I get it?
* 7.19 How many people use Linux?
* 7.20 How should I pronounce Linux?
8. Frequently encountered error messages.
* 8.1 Unknown terminal type linux and similar.
* 8.2 lp1 on fire
* 8.3 INET: Warning: old style ioctl... called!
* 8.4 ld: unrecognized option '-m486'
* 8.5 GCC says Internal compiler error.
* 8.6 make says Error 139
* 8.7 shell-init: permission denied when I log in.
* 8.8 No utmp entry. You must exec ... when I log in.
* 8.9 Warning--bdflush not running.
* 8.10 Warning: obsolete routing request made.
* 8.11 EXT2-fs: warning: mounting unchecked file system.
* 8.12 EXT2-fs warning: maximal count reached.
* 8.13 EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached.
* 8.14 df says Cannot read table of mounted file systems.
* 8.15 fdisk says Partition X has different physical/logical
...
* 8.16 fdisk: Partition 1 does not start on cylinder boundary
* 8.17 fdisk says partition n has an odd number of sectors.
* 8.18 mtools says cannot initialize drive XYZ
* 8.19 At the start of booting: Memory tight
* 8.20 My syslog says `end_request: I/O error, ...'.
* 8.21 You don't exist. Go away.
9. The X Window System.
* 9.1 Does Linux support X Windows?
* 9.2 Where can I get an XF86Config for my system?
* 9.3 xterm logins show up strangely in who, finger.
* 9.4 I can't get X Windows to work right.
10. Questions applicable to very out-of-date software.
* 10.1 fdisk says cannot use nnn sectors of this partition.
* 10.2 GCC sometimes uses huge amounts of virtual memory and
thrashes.
11. How to get further assistance.
* 11.1 You still haven't answered my question!
* 11.2 What to put in a request for help.
* 11.3 I want to mail someone about my problem.
12. Administrative information and acknowledgements.
* 12.1 Feedback is invited.
* 12.2 Formats in which this FAQ is available.
* 12.3 Authorship and acknowledgements.
* 12.4 Disclaimer and Copyright.
1. Introduction and General Information
1.1 What is Linux?
Linux is the free Unix written from scratch by Linus Torvalds with
assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers from across the
Internet. Linux aims towards POSIX compliance, and has all of the
features you would expect of a modern, fully-fledged Unix: true
multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading,
shared, copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, and
TCP/IP networking.
Linux 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
(See "What ports to other processors are there? ")
See the Linux INFO-SHEET for more details. (See "Where can I
get the HOWTOs and other documentation? ")
The Linux kernel is distributed under the GNU General Public Licens
(See, "Is Linux public domain? Copyrighted? ")
1.2 Where do I start?
There are a handful of different Linux distributions. For informati
about them, and how they are installed, see Matthew Welsh's
Installation and Getting Started, or IGS for short. It's located at
the Linux Documentation Project Home Page,
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP.
There is also an Installation HOWTO at the LDP Home Page.
Most of the distributions are available via anonymous FTP from vari
Linux archive sites. See "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
needs.
1.3 What software does Linux support?
Linux supports GCC, Emacs, the X Window System, all the standard Un
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 (available at
tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/dosemu) which can run DOS itself
and some (but not all) DOS applications. Be sure to look at the REA
file to determine which version of dosemu you should get. Also, see
the DOSEMU-HOWTO (slightly dated at this point--it doesn't cover th
most recent version of the program), which is located at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.
Work has been progressing on an emulator for Microsoft Windows
binaries. (See "Can I run Microsoft Windows programs under
Linux? ")
iBCS2 (Intel Binary Compatibility Standard) emulator code for SVR4
and SVR3.2 COFF binaries can be included in the kernel as a
compile-time option. See the file
tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/BETA/ibcs2/README.
For more information see the INFO-SHEET, which is one of the the
HOWTOs (See "Where can I get the HOWTOs and other
documentation? " See also "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. (See "Are the newsgroups archived
anywhere? ")
1.4 Does Linux 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 Linux. To do anything useful, more RAM is needed. ("
How much memory does Linux need? ")
VESA Local Bus and PCI are supported.
MCA (IBM's proprietary bus) and ESDI hard drives are mostly support
There is further information on the MCA bus and what cards Linux
supports on the Micro Channel Linux Web page,
http://glycerine.itsmm.uni.edu/mca.
Linux runs on 386 family based laptops, with X on most of them. The
is a relevant Web page at
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/.
For details of exactly which PC's, video cards, disk controllers, e
work see the INFO-SHEET and the Hardware-HOWTO. (See "Where can
I get the HOWTOs and other documentation? ")
There is a port of Linux to the 8086, known as the Embeddable Linux
Kernel Subset (ELKS). This is a 16-bit subset of the Linux kernel
which will mainly be used for embedded systems. See
http://www.linux.org.uk/Linux8086.html for more information.
Linux will never run fully on an 8086 or '286, because it requires
task-switching and memory management facilities not found on these
processors.
Linux supports multiprocessing with Intel MP architecture. See the
file Documentation/smp.tex in the Linux kernel source code
distribution.
See the next question for a (probably incomplete) list of hardware
platforms that Linux has been ported to.
1.5 What ports to other processors are there?
There is a reasonably complete list of Linux ports at
http://www.ctv.es/USERS/xose/linux/linux_ports.html, and at
http://www.linuxhq.com/dist-index.html.
A project has been underway for a while to port Linux to suitable
68000-series based systems such as Amigas and Ataris. The Linux/m68
FAQ is located at www.clark.net/pub/lawrencc/linux/faq/faq.html.
The URL of the Linux/m68k home page is www.linux-m68k.
There is a linux-680x0 mailing list. (See "What mailing lists
are there? ")
There is (or was) a FTP site for the Linux-m68k project on
ftp.phil.uni-sb.de/pub/atari/linux-68k, but this address may no
longer be current.
Debian GNU/Linux is being ported to Alpha, Sparc, PowerPC, and ARM.
There are mailing lists for all of these platforms. See
http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe.
One of the Linux-PPC project pages has moved recently. Its location
http://www.linuxppc.org, and the archive site is
ftp.linuxppc.org/linuxppc.
There is a Linux-PPC support page at www.cs.nmt.edu/~linuxppc/.
There you will find the kernel that is distributed with Linux.
Apple now supports MkLinux development on Power Macs, based on OSF
the Mach microkernel. See
http://www.mklinux.apple.com.
A port to the 64-bit DEC Alpha/AXP is at
http://www.azstarnet.com/~axplinux/. There is a mailing list at
vger.rutgers.edu. (See "What mailing lists are there? ")
Ralf Baechle is working on a port to the MIPS, initially for the R4
on Deskstation Tyne machines. The Linux-MIPS FTP sites are
ftp.fnet.fr/linux-mips and
ftp://ftp.linux.sgi.com/pub/mips-linux. Interested people may
mail their questions and offers of assistance to
[email protected].
There is also a MIPS channel on the Linux Activists mailserver and
linux-mips mailing list. (See "What mailing lists are there?
")
There are currently two ports of Linux to the ARM family of
processors. One of these is for the ARM3, fitted to the Acorn A5000
and it includes I/O drivers for the 82710/11 as appropriate. The ot
is to the ARM610 of the Acorn Risc PC. The Risc PC port is currentl
in its early to middle stages, owing to the need to rewrite much of
the memory handling. The A5000 port is in restricted beta testing.
release is likely soon.
For more up-to-date information, watch the newsgroup
comp.sys.acorn.misc. There is a FAQ at
http://www.arm.uk.linux.org
The Linux SPARC project is a hotbed of activity. There is a FAQ
available from Jim Mintha's Linux for SPARC Processors page,
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/sparclinux.html. The SPARC/Linux archives
are at vger.rutgers.edu/pub/linux/Sparc.
There is also a port ("Hardhat") to SGI/Indy machines. The URL is
http://www.linux.sgi.com.
1.6 How much hard disk space does Linux need?
About 10Mb for a very minimal installation, suitable for trying it
and not much else.
You can squeeze a more complete installation including X, into 80Mb
Installing almost all of Debian GNU/Linux takes around 500Mb,
including kernel source code, some space for user files, and spool
areas.
1.7 How much memory does Linux need?
At least 4MB, and then you will need to use special installation
procedures. Linux will run comfortably in 4MB of RAM, although X
Windows Apps will run slowly because they need to swap out to disk.
Some recent applications, like Netscape, require 64MB of physical
memory.
1.8 How much memory can Linux use?
A number of people have asked how to address more than 64 MB of
memory, which is the default upper limit. Place the following in yo
lilo.conf file:
append="mem=XXM"
Where "XX" is the amount of memory, specified as megabytes, for
example, '128M'. For further details see the lilo manual page.
1.9 Is Linux public domain? Copyrighted?
The Linux kernel copyright belongs to Linus Torvalds. He has placed
under the GNU General Public License, which basically means that yo
may freely copy, change, and distribute it, but you may not impose
restrictions on further distribution, and you must make the source
code available.
This is not the same as Public Domain. See the Copyright FAQ,
rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/law/copyright, for details.
Full details are in the file COPYING in the Linux kernel sources
(probably in /usr/src/linux on your system).
The licenses 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 shoul
be posted to gnu.misc.discuss and not to the comp.os.linux groups.
2. Network sources and resources.
2.1 Where can I get the HOWTOs and other documentation?
Look in the following places, and the sites that mirror them.
* ftp.funet.fi : /pub/OS/Linux/doc/HOWTO
* tsx-11.mit.edu : /pub/linux/docs/HOWTO
* sunsite.unc.edu : /pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO
For a complete list of Linux FTP sites, "Where can I get Linux
material by FTP? "
If you don't have access to FTP, try the FTP-by-mail servers at
[email protected],
[email protected] or
[email protected]..
A complete list of HOWTO's and Mini-HOWTO's is available in the fil
HOWTO.INDEX in the docs/HOWTO directory at the FTP sites, or on the
Web at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX.html, but
here is a (possibly incomplete) list:
AX25-HOWTO Access-HOWTO
Assembly-HOWTO Benchmarking-HOWTO
BootPrompt-HOWTO Bootdisk-HOWTO
CD-Writing-HOWTO CDROM-HOWTO
Chinese-HOWTO Commercial-HOWTO
Consultants-HOWTO Cyrillic-HOWTO
DNS-HOWTO DOS-to-Linux-HOWTO
DOSEMU-HOWTO Danish-HOWTO
Distribution-HOWTO ELF-HOWTO
Emacspeak-HOWTO Ethernet-HOWTO
Finnish-HOWTO Firewall-HOWTO
Ftape-HOWTO GCC-HOWTO
German-HOWTO HAM-HOWTO
HOWTO-INDEX Hardware-HOWTO
Hebrew-HOWTO IPX-HOWTO
ISP-Hookup-HOWTO Installation-HOWTO
Intranet-Server-HOWTO Italian-HOWTO
Java-CGI-HOWTO Kernel-HOWTO
Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO MGR-HOWTO
MILO-HOWTO Mail-HOWTO
NET-3-HOWTO NFS-HOWTO
NIS-HOWTO News-HOWTO
Optical-Disk-HOWTO PCI-HOWTO
PCMCIA-HOWTO PPP-HOWTO
Pilot-HOWTO Polish-HOWTO
Printing-HOWTO Printing-Usage-HOWTO
RPM-HOWTO Reading-List-HOWTO
SCSI-HOWTO SCSI-Programming-HOWTO
SMB-HOWTO Serial-HOWTO
Serial-Programming-HOWTO Shadow-Password-HOWTO
Slovenian-HOWTO Sound-HOWTO
Sound-Playing-HOWTO Spanish-HOWTO
TeTeX-HOWTO Thai-HOWTO
Tips-HOWTO UMSDOS-HOWTO
UPS-HOWTO UUCP-HOWTO
User-Group-HOWTO VAR-HOWTO
VMS-to-Linux-HOWTO XFree86-HOWTO
XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO
3-Button-Mouse
The following Mini-HOWTO's are available from
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/HOWTO/mini:
ADSM-Backup AI-Alife
Advocacy Backup-With-MSDOS
Battery-Powered Boca
BogoMips Bridge
Bridge+Firewall Clock
Colour-ls Comeau-C++
DHCPd Dial-On-Demand
Diald Dip+SLiRP+CSLIP
Diskless Dynamic-IP-Hacks
Ext2fs-Undeletion GTEK-BBS-550
HTML-Validation IO-Port-Programming
IP-Alias IP-Masquerade
IP-Subnetworking JE
Jaz-Drive Kerneld
Key-Setup LBX
Large-Disk Linux+DOS+Win95
Linux+DOS+Win95+OS2 Linux+NT-Loader
Linux+OS2+DOS Linux+Win95
Loadlin+Win95 Locales
MIDI+SB Mail-Queue
Mail2News Man-Page
Multiple-Disks-Layout Multiple-Ethernet
NFS-Root NFS-Root-Client
Netscape+Proxy Offline-Mailing
Online-Support PLIP
PPP-over-minicom Pager
Partition Print2Win
Process-Accounting Proxy-ARP
Public-Web-Browser Qmail+MH
Quota RCS
Remote-Boot Remote-X-Apps
SLIP+proxyARP SLIP-PPP-Emulator
Sendmail+UUCP Software-Building
Software-RAID Soundblaster-16
Soundblaster-AWE64 StarOffice
Swap-Space Term-Firewall
Tiny-News Token-Ring
Upgrade VPN
Virtual-wu-ftpd Visual-Bell
Win95+Win+Linux Windows-Modem-Sharing
WordPerfect X-Big-Cursor
XFree86-XInside Xterm-Title
Xterminal ZIP-Drive
ZIP-Install
In addition, translations of the HOWTO's are available from
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/translations and mirrors
worldwide. Translations in the following languages are available:
Chinese (zh) French (fr)
German (de) Hellenic (el)
Indonesian (id) Italian (it)
Japanese (jp) Korean (ko)
Polish (pl) Spanish (es)
Slovenian (sl) Polish (sv)
Turkish (tr)
The HOWTO's are also on the Web, at the Linux Documentation Project
home page,
http://sunsite.unc./edu/LDP.
More of these documents are always in preparation. Please get in to
with Greg Hankins,
[email protected], the HOWTO coordinator, if
you are interested in writing one. The file
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX contains guidelines
for writing a HOWTO.
The Guide Series produced by the Linux Documentation Project is
available from
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP. Please read them if
you are new to Unix and Linux. Here is a list of those available so
far:
* The Linux Documentation Project Manifesto, by Matt Welsh.
* Installation and Getting Started Guide, by Matt Welsh.
* The Linux Kernel, by David Rusling.
* The Network Administrator's Guide, by Olaf Kirch.
* The Linux Programmer's Guide, by Sven Goldt, Sven van der
Meer, Scott Burkett, and Matt Welsh.
* The Linux System Administrator's Guide, Version 0.5, by Lars
Wirzenius.
* Text Processing with Linux, by Robert Kiesling.
2.2 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for Linux stuff?
Two Web pages in particular provide good starting point for general
Linux information: Linux International's Home Page, at
http://www.li.org, and the Linux Online's Linux Home Page at
http://www.linux.org/.
Both of these pages provide links to other sites, information about
general information, distributions, new software, documentation, an
news.
Greg Hankins,
[email protected], maintains the Linux
Documentation Project Home Page, at
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP.
This page refers to all the FAQs and HOWTOs, both those which are
available in HTML (WWW) format, and those which aren't.
2.3 What newsgroups are there for Linux?
There are a number of 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: it contains informatio
about software updates, new ports, user group meetings, and commerc
products. It is the ONLY newsgroup that may carry commercial postin
Submissions for that group should be emailed to
[email protected].
comp.os.linux.answers contains all the FAQs, HOWTOs and other
important documentation. You should subscribe to this group also.
Axel Boldt,
[email protected], noted that comp.os.linux.announc
is NOT archived on Dejanews or Altavista. The only archive for the
news group seems to be www.iki.fi/mjr/linux/cola.html.
Also worth reading are the other groups in the comp.os.linux.*
hierarchy--you may find that many common problems are too recent to
find in this FAQ but are answered in the newsgroups. These groups a
comp.os.linux.setup
comp.os.linux.hardware
comp.os.linux.networking
comp.os.linux.x
comp.os.linux.development.apps
comp.os.linux.development.system
comp.os.linux.advocacy
comp.os.linux.misc
Remember that since Linux is POSIX compatible, most all of the
material in comp.unix.* and comp.windows.x.* groups will be relevan
Apart from hardware considerations, and some obscure or very techni
low-level issues, you'll find that these groups are a good place to
start.
Please read "You still haven't answered my question! " before
posting. Crossposting between different comp.os.linux.* groups is
rarely a good idea.
There may well be Linux groups local to your institution or
area--check there first.
See also "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. In Croatia there is the moderated group
hr.comp.linux.m. In Italy, there is it.comp.linux.
2.4 Where can I find out about Linux and the Millennium (Y2K) bug?
The Debian/GNU Linux people have a statement on their Web site at
http://www.debian.org
Essentially, Linux uses libraries that store dates as 32-bit intege
which count the seconds since 1970. This counter will not overflow
until the year 2038, by which time the library programmers will
(hopefully) have upgraded the system software to store dates as 64-
integers.
This, of course, does not mean that applications are not susceptibl
to the millennium bug, if they do not use the standard library
routines.
The Free Software Foundation has a webpage about Y2K issues in GNU
software at
http://www.fsf.org/software/year2000.html
There is also a Usenet newsgroup, comp.software.year-2000, for gene
discussion of Y2K issues.
2.5 Where can I get Linux material by FTP?
There are three main archive sites for Linux:
* ftp.funet.fi (Finland) : /pub/OS/Linux
* sunsite.unc.edu (US) : /pub/Linux
* tsx-11.mit.edu (US) : /pub/linux
The best place to get the Linux kernel is
ftp.cs.helsinki.fi/pub/Linux_Kernel. Linus Torvalds uploads the
most recent kernel versions to this site.
Of the U.S. distributions, Debian GNU/Linux is available at
ftp.debian.org/pub/debian. Red Hat Linux's home site is
ftp.redhat.com, and Slackware's is ftp.cdrom.com.
The contents of these sites is mirrored (copied, usually approximat
daily) by a number of other sites. Please use one close to you--tha
will be faster for you and easier on the network.
* ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/linux/sunsite/ (South Africa)
* ftp.is.co.za/linux/sunsite/ (South Africa)
* ftp.cs.cuhk.hk/pub/Linux/ (Hong Kong)
* ftp.cs.cuhk.hk/pub/Linux/ (Hong Kong)
* ftp.spin.ad.jp/pub/linux/sunsite.unc.edu/ (Japan)
* ftp.nuri.net/pub/Linux/ (Korea)
* ftp.jaring.my/pub/Linux/ (Malaysia)
* ftp.nus.sg/pub/unix/Linux/ (Singapore)
* ftp.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/linux/ (Thailand)
* mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia)
* sunsite.anu.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia)
* ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia)
* ftp.univie.ac.at/systems/linux/sunsite/ (Austria)
* ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/UNIX/linux/ (Czech Republic)
*
ftp://sunsite.fri.uni-lj.si/pub/linux/ (Slovenia)
* ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/sunsite/ (Finland)
* ftp.univ-angers.fr/pub/Linux/ (France)
* ftp.iut-bm.univ-fcomte.fr (France)
* ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (France)
* ftp.loria.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (France)
* ftp.dfv.rwth-aachen.de/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Germany)
* ftp.germany.eu.net/pub/os/Linux/Mirror.SunSITE/ (Germany)
* ftp.tu-dresden.de/pub/Linux/sunsite/ (Germany)
* ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/MIRROR.sunsite/ (Germany)
* ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/mirrors/sunsite/ (Germany)
* ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/linux/mirror.sunsite/ (Germany)
* ftp.ba-mannheim.de/pub/linux/mirror.sunsite/ (Germany)
* ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/Mirrors/sunsite.unc.edu/ (Germany)
* ftp.uni-rostock.de/Linux/sunsite/ (Germany)
* tp.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/unix/systems/linux/MIRROR.sunsite
/ (Germany)
* ftp.uni-tuebingen.de/pub/linux/Mirror.sunsite/ (Germany)
* ftp.rz.uni-ulm.de/pub/mirrors/linux/sunsite/ (Germany)
* ftp.kfki.hu/pub/linux/ (Hungary)
* linux.italnet.it/pub/Linux/ (Italy)
* ftp.unina.it/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Italy)
* giotto.unipd.it/pub/unix/Linux/ (Italy)
* cnuce-arch.cnr.it/pub/Linux/ (Italy)
* ftp.flashnet.it/mirror2/sunsite.unc.edu/ (Italy)
* ftp.nijenrode.nl/pub/linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/ (Netherlands)
* ftp.LeidenUniv.nl/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Netherlands)
* ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Norway)
*
ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/Linux/sunsite.unc.edu/ (Poland)
* ftp.rediris.es/software/os/linux/sunsite/ (Spain)
* sunsite.rediris.es/software/linux/ (Spain)
* ftp.cs.us.es/pub/Linux/sunsite-mirror/ (Spain)
* ftp.etse.urv.es/pub/mirror/linux/ (Spain)
* ftp.etsimo.uniovi.es/pub/linux/ (Spain)
* ftp.luna.gui.es/pub/linux.new/ (Spain)
* ftp.switch.ch/mirror/linux/ (Switzerland)
* ftp.metu.edu.tr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Turkey)
* unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/sunsite/pub/Linux/ (UK)
* ftp.maths.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/
(UK)
* ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/Linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/ (UK)
* sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/ (UK)
* ftp.dungeon.com/pub/linux/sunsite-mirror/ (UK)
* ftp.io.org/pub/mirrors/linux/sunsite/ (Canada)
* ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/ (US)
* ftp.cdrom.com/pub/linux/sunsite/ (US)
* ftp.siriuscc.com/pub/Linux/Sunsite/ (US)
* ftp.engr.uark.edu/pub/linux/sunsite/ (US)
* ftp.infomagic.com/pub/mirrors/linux/sunsite/ (US)
* linux.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/
(Brazil)
* farofa.ime.usp.br/pub/linux/ (Brazil)
Not all of these mirror all of the other `source' sites, and some h
material not available on the `source' sites.
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 user's 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
[email protected],
[email protected] or
[email protected].
Linux is also available via traditional mail on CD-ROM. The file
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO, and the
file
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/distributions/Distribution-HOWTO
contain information on these distributions.
2.7 I don't have Usenet access. Where do I get information?
A digest of comp.os.linux.announce is available by mailing the word
"subscribe" (without the quotes) as the body of a message to
[email protected]. Subscribe to this
list is a good idea, as it carries important information and
documentation about Linux.
Please remember to use the *-request addresses for your subscriptio
and unsubscription messages; mail to the other address is posted to
the newsgroup!
2.8 What mailing lists are there?
The Linux developers now mainly use the Majordomo server at
[email protected]. Send a message with the word
"lists" (without the quotes) in the body to get a list of lists
there. Add a line with the word, "help," to get the standard
Majordomo help file which lists instructions for subscribing and
unsubscribing to the lists.
Most of the lists are used by the developers of Linux to talk about
technical issues and future developments. These are not intended fo
new users' questions.
There is a linux-newbie list where "no question is too stupid."
Unfortunately, it seems that few of the experienced users read that
channel. It does have very low volume.
2.9 Are the newsgroups archived anywhere?
The Usenet Linux news groups are archived at
http://www.dejanews.com,
http://www.reference.com and
http://altavista.digital.com
sunsite.unc.edu//pub/Linux/docs/linux-announce.archive contains
archives of comp.os.linux.announce. These are mirrored from
src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet, which also archives comp.os.linux,
comp.os.linux.development.apps, and comp.os.linux.development.syste
There is an "easy to access" archive of comp.os.linux.announce on
the World Wide Web at
http://www.leo.org/archiv/linux/archiv/ann_index.html. It
supports searching and browsing.
contents
3. Compatibility with other operating systems.
3.1 Can Linux share my disk with DOS? OS/2? 386BSD? Win95?
Yes. Linux uses the standard MS-DOS partitioning scheme, so it can
share your disk with other operating systems. Note, however, that m
of these other operating systems are rather picky. DOS's FDISK.EXE
FORMAT.EXE, for example, can overwrite data in a Linux partition,
because they sometimes incorrectly use partition data from the
partition's boot sector rather than the partition table.
In order to prevent programs like these from doing this, it is a go
idea to zero out--under Linux--the start of a partition you created
before you use MS-DOS--or whatever--to format it. Type:
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdXY bs=512 count=1
where hdXY is the relevant partition; e.g., hda1 for the first
partition of the first (IDE) disk.
Linux can read and write the files on your DOS and OS/2 FAT partiti
and floppies using either the DOS file system type built into the
kernel or mtools. There is kernel support for the VFAT file system
used by Windows 9x and Windows NT.
For information about FAT32 partition support, see
http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/fat32.html.
"What software does Linux support? " for details and status of
the emulators for DOS, MS Windows, and System V programs.
See, "Can Linux access Amiga file systems? " and, "Can
Linux access Mac file systems? " "Can Linux access BSD, SysV,
etc., UFS? " "Can Linux access SMB file systems? "
There are said to be NTFS drivers under development, which should
support compression as a standard feature.
There is also supposedly a Win95 driver that allows read-only acces
to Linux file systems, although I don't know the URL. Call Microsof
technical support.
3.2 How do I access files on my DOS partition or floppy?
Use the DOS file system; 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=
options to control the automatic line-ending conversion, permission
and ownerships of the files in the DOS file system as they appear
under Linux. If you mount your DOS file system by putting it in you
/etc/fstab, you can record the options (comma-separated) there,
instead of defaults.
Alternatively, you can use mtools, available in both binary and sou
form on the FTP sites--"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 us
this patch is included in the 1.1 alpha testing kernel series.
3.3 Does Linux support compressed ext2 file systems?
As of recently, it does. Information about them is located at
http://www.netspace.net.au/~reiter/e2compr/.
There is also a Web site for the e2compr patches. The code is still
experimental and consists of patches for the 2.0 and 2.1 kernels. F
more information about the project, including the latest patches an
the address of the mailing list, look up the URL at
http://debs.fuller.edu/e2compr/ This is according to Roderich
Schupp, who adds somewhat cryptically, "There is a program called
Zlibc ..."
Zlibc is actually a program that allows existing applications to re
compressed (GNU gzip'ed) files as if they were not compressed. Look
sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/libs. The author is Alain.Knuff@imag.
There is also a compressing block device driver that can provide on
the fly disk compression in the kernel. It is called, "DouBle" and
is written by Jean-Marc Verbavatz. The source-only distribution is
located on sunsite.unc.edu in the directory
/pub/Linux/patches/diskdrives. This driver compresses inodes and
directory information as well as files, so any corruption of the fi
system is likely to be serious.
There is also a package called tcx (Transparently Compressed
Executables) which allows you to keep infrequently compressed
executables compressed and only uncompress them temporarily when in
use. It is located on sunsite.unc.edu in the directory
/pub/Linux/utils/compress/.
3.4 Can I use my Stacked/DBLSPC/etc. DOS drive?
Until recently, not very easily. You can access DOS 6.X volumes fro
the DOS emulator ("What software does Linux support? "), but
it's harder than accessing a normal DOS volume via the DOS kernel
option, a module, or mtools.
There is a recently added package, dmsdos, which reads and writes
compressed file systems like DoubleSpace/DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.x a
Win95, as well as Stacker versions 3 and 4. It is available in the
archives on
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Filesystem/dosfs.
There is a module available for the Linux kernel which can do
read-only access of the compressed volume. Look in
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/dosfs for this
package.
3.5 Can I access OS/2 HPFS partitions from Linux?
Yes, but Linux access to HPFS partitions is read-only. HPFS file
system access is available as an option when compiling the kernel o
as a module. See the Documentation/filesystems/hpfs.txt file in the
kernel source distribution. "How do I upgrade/recompile my
kernel? "). Then you can mount HPFS partition, using, for example:
$ mkdir /hpfs
$ mount -t hpfs /dev/hda5 /hpfs
3.6 Can Linux access Amiga file systems?
The Linux kernel has support for the Amiga Fast File System (AFFS)
version 1.3 and later, both as a compile-time option and as a modul
The file Documentation/filesystems/affs.txt in the Linux kernel sou
distribution has more information.
See "How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel? ".
Linux supports AFFS hard-drive partitions only, though: floppy acce
is not supported due to incompatibilities between Amiga floppy
controllers, and PC and workstation controllers. The AFFS driver ca
also mount disk partitions used by the Un*x Amiga Emulator, by Bern
Schmidt.
3.7 Can Linux access BSD, SysV, etc. UFS?
Recent kernels can mount (read only) the UFS file system used by
System V; Coherent; Xenix; BSD and derivatives like SunOS, FreeBSD,
NetBSD, and NeXTstep. UFS support is available as a kernel
compile-time option and a module.
See "How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel? ".
3.8 Can Linux access SMB file systems?
Linux supports read/write access of Windows for Workgroups and Wind
NT SMB volumes. See the file Documentation/filesystems/smbfs.txt of
the Linux kernel source distribution, and "How do I
upgrade/recompile my kernel? " in this FAQ.
There is also a suite of programs called Samba which provide suppor
for WfW networked file systems (provided they're for TCP/IP).
Information is available in the README file at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/network/samba.
There is a SMB web site at samba.canberra.edu.au/pub/samba.
3.9 Can Linux access Mac file systems?
There is a set of user-level programs that read and write the
Macintosh Hierarchical File System (HFS). It is available at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management.
3.10 Can I run Microsoft Windows programs under Linux?
WINE, a MS Windows emulator for Linux, is still not ready for gener
distribution. If you want to contribute to its development, look fo
the status reports in the comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine newsgroup.
A commercial, working product known as WABI is said to provide full
Windows emulation under Linux. It was written by Sunsoft, Inc. The
Linux version is available from Caldera.
There is also a FAQ, compiled by P. David Gardner, at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/faqs/Wine-FAQ/.
In the meantime, if you need to run MS Windows programs, the best
bet--seriously--is to reboot. LILO, the Linux bootloader, can boot
of several operating systems from a menu. See the LILO documentatio
for details.
Also, LOADLIN (a DOS program to load a Linux, or other OS, kernel i
handy way to make Linux co-exist with DOS. LOADLIN is particularly
handy when you want to install Linux on a 3rd or 4th drive on a sys
(or when you're adding a SCSI drive to a system with an existing ID
In these cases, it is common for LILO's boot load to be unable to f
or load the kernel on the "other" drive. So you just create a C:\LI
directory (or whatever), put LOADLIN in it with a copy of your kern
and use that.
LOADLIN is a VCPI compliant program. Win '95 will want to, "shutdow
into DOS mode," to run it (as it would with certain other DOS
protected-mode programs).
Earlier versions of LOADLIN sometimes required a package called
REALBIOS.COM, which required a boot procedure on an (almost) blank
floppy to map the REALBIOS interrupt vectors (prior to the loading
any software drivers). (Current versions don't seem to ship with it
and don't seem to need it).
(Much thanks to Jim Dennis for this information.)
3.11 How can I boot Linux from OS/2's Boot Manager?
1. Create a partition using OS/2's FDISK.EXE (Not Linux's fdisk).
2. Format the partition under OS/2, either with FAT or HPFS. This
so that OS/2 knows about the partition being formatted. (This s
is not necessary with OS/2 "warp" 3.0.)
3. Add the partition to the Boot Manager.
4. Boot Linux, and create a file system on the partition using mkf
-t ext2 or mke2fs. At this point you may, if you like, use Linu
fdisk to change the 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 rec
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 from) in you
/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
There is a set of HOWTO's on the subject of multi-boot systems on t
LDP Home Page,
http://sunssite.unc.edu/LDP/.
3.12 How can I share a swap partition between Linux and MS Windows?
See the Mini-HOWTO on the subject by H. Peter Anvin,
[email protected]. It is available at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/Swap-Space.
contents
4. Linux's handling of file systems, disks, and drives
4.1 How can I get Linux to work with my disk?
If your disk is an IDE or EIDE drive, you should read the file
/usr/src/linux/drivers/block/README.ide (part of the Linux kernel
source code). This README contains many helpful hints about IDE
drives. Many modern IDE controllers do translation between `physica
cylinders/heads/sectors and `logical' ones.
SCSI disks are accessed by linear block numbers. The BIOS invents s
`logical' cylinder/head/sector fiction to support DOS.
DOS will usually not be able to access partitions which extend beyo
1024 logical cylinders, and will make booting a Linux kernel from s
partitions using LILO problematic at best.
You can still use such partitions for Linux or other operating syst
that access the controller directly.
It's recommend that you create at least one Linux partition entirel
under the 1024 logical cylinder limit, and boot from that. The othe
partitions will then be okay.
Also there seems to be a bit of trouble with the newer Ultra-DMA
drives. I haven't gottent the straight scoop on them--but they are
becoming a very common problem and the SVLUG installfests. When you
can get 8 to 12 Gig drives for $200 to $300 it's no wonder.
(Much thanks to Jim Dennis for this information.)
4.2 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 file sys
is being worked on, but don't hold your breath.
There are a number of packages available which instead provide new
commands for deleting and copying which move deleted files into a
`wastebasket' directory. The files can be recovered until cleaned o
automatically by background processing.
Alternatively, you can search the raw disk device which holds the f
system in question. This is hard work, and you will need to be logg
in as root to do this.
4.3 Is there a defragmenter for ext2fs etc.?
Yes. There is defrag, a Linux file system defragmenter for ext2, mi
and old-style ext file systems. It is available at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/defrag-0.70.tar.gz.
Users of the ext2 file system can probably do without defrag, becau
ext2 contains extra code to keep fragmentation reduced even in very
full file systems.
4.4 How do I format and create a file system on a floppy?
To format 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 t
`B' drive use fd1 instead of fd0.
The -m 0 option tells mkfs.ext2 not to reserve any space on the dis
for the superuser--usually the last 10% is reserved for root.
The first command performs a low-level format. The second creates a
empty file system. You can mount the floppy like a hard disk partit
and simply cp and mv files, etc.
Device naming conventions generally are the same as for other Unice
They can be found in Matt Welsh's Installation and Getting Started
Guide. (See "Where can I get the HOWTOs and other
documentation? ") A more detailed and technical description is Linu
Allocated Devices by H. Peter Anvin,
[email protected], which is
included in LaTeX and ASCII form in the kernel source distribution
(probably in /usr/src/kernel/Documentation), as devices.tex and
devices.txt.
4.5 I get nasty messages about inodes, blocks, and the suchlike.
You may have a corrupted file system, probably caused by not shutti
Linux down properly before turning off the power or resetting. You
need to use a recent shutdown program to do this--for example, the
included in the util-linux package, available on sunsite and tsx-11
If you're lucky, the program fsck (or e2fsck or xfsck as appropriat
if you don't have the automatic fsck front-end) will be able to rep
your file system. If you're unlucky, the file system is trashed, an
you'll have to reinitialize it with mkfs (or mke2fs, mkxfs, etc.),
restore from a backup.
NB: don't try to check a file system that's mounted read/write--thi
includes the root partition if you don't see
VFS: mounted root ... read-only
at boot time.
4.6 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 swapo
-av (the command to enable swapping) in your /etc/rc.local or
/etc/rc.d/* (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 manual page for details;
works much like mkfs.
Running, 'free' in addition to showing free memory, should display:
total used free
Swap: 10188 2960 7228
Check the Installation HOWTO for detailed instructions of how to se
up a swap area.
4.7 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 (which is
not documented). 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 MS DOS or DR DOS, you need to have the boot secto
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
This will erase your partition table and boot sector completely: yo
can then reformat the disk using your favorite software. But this w
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 flagge
as `active'. You may need to use fdisk to set and clear the active
flags on partitions appropriately.
4.8 Why can't I use fdformat except as root?
The system call to format a floppy can only be done as root,
regardless of the permissions of /dev/fd0*. If you want any user to
able to format a floppy, try getting the fdformat2 program. This wo
around the problems by being setuid to root.
4.9 My ext2fs partitions are checked each time I reboot.
See "EXT2-fs: warning: mounting unchecked file system.".
4.10 My root file system is read-only!
Remount it. If /etc/fstab is correct, you can simply mount -n -o
remount /. If /etc/fstab is wrong you must give the device name and
posibly the type too: e.g. mount -n -o remount -t ext2 /dev/hda2 /.
understand how you got into this state, see "EXT2-fs: warning:
mounting unchecked file system."
4.11 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 syst
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 r
it as a file the kernel does memory reads.
4.12 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 mos
of the "advanced BIOS" options--all but the one about scanning the
bus for bootable devices.
contents
5. Porting, compiling and obtaining programs
5.1 How do I port XXX to Linux?
In general, Unix programs need very little porting. Simply follow t
installation instructions. If you don't know--and don't know how to
find out--the answers to some of the questions asked during the
installation procedure, you can guess, but this tends to produce bu
programs. In this case, you're probably better off asking someone e
to do the port.
If you have a BSD-ish program, you should try using -I/usr/include/
and -lbsd on the appropriate parts of the compilation lines.
5.2 What is ld.so and where do I get it?
ld.so is the dynamic library loader. Each binary using shared
libraries used to have about 3K of start-up code to find and load t
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.
ld.so can be obtained from tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC
and mirror sites. The latest version at the time of writing is
ld.so.1.9.5.tar.gz.
/lib/ld-linux.so.1 is the same thing for ELF "( What's all this
about ELF? )" and comes in the same package as the a.out loader.
5.3 Has anyone ported / compiled / written XXX for Linux?
First, look in the Linux Software Map--it's at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/linux-software-map, and on the
other FTP sites. A search engine is available on the World Wide Web
http://www.boutell.com/lsm/.
Check the FTP sites "Where can I get Linux material by FTP? "
first--search the ls-lR or INDEX files for appropriate strings.
Also look at the Linux Projects Map,
ftp.ix.de/pub/ix/Linux/docs/Projects-Map.gz.
There's a search engine for Linux FTP archives at
http://lfw.linuxhq.com/
Also check out the Freshmeat Web site
http://www.freshmeat.org,
which is really cool.
If you don't find anything, you could either download the sources t
the program yourself and compile them. See "How do I port XXX
to Linux? " If it's a large package which may require some porting,
post a message to comp.os.linux.development.apps.
If you compile a large-ish program, please upload it to one or more
the FTP sites, and post a message to comp.os.linux.announce (submit
your posting to
[email protected]).
If you're looking for an application program, the chances are that
someone has already written a free verson. The comp.sources.wanted
has instructions for finding the source code.
5.4 Can I use code or a compiler compiled for a 486 on my 386?
Yes, unless it's the kernel.
The -m486 option to GCC, which is used to compile binaries for x486
machines, merely changes certain optimizations. This makes for
slightly larger binaries which run somewhat faster on a 486. They
still work fine on a 386, though, with a small performance hit.
However, from version 1.3.35 the kernel will use 486- or
Pentium-specific instructions if configured for a 486 or Pentium, t
making it unusable on a 386.
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 fo
486 makes -m486 the default; in either case these can be overriden
a per-compilation basis or by editing
/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i*-linux/n.n.n/specs.
There is an Alpha version of GCC which knows how to do optimisation
well for the 586, but it is quite unreliable, especially at high
optimisation settings. The Pentium GCC can be found on tsx-11.mit.e
in /pub/linux/ALPHA/pentium-gcc. I'd recommend using the ordinary 4
GCC instead; word has it that using -m386 produces code that's bett
for the Pentium, or at least slightly smaller.
5.5 What does gcc -O6 do?
Currently the same as -O2 (GCC 2.5) or -O3 (GCC 2.6, 2.7); any numb
greater than that currently does the same thing. The Makefiles of
newer kernels use -O2, and you should probably do the same.
5.6 Where are linux/*.h and asm/*.h?
These are in the directories /usr/include/linux and /usr/include/as
However, they should be symbolic links to your kernel sources in
/usr/src/linux, not actual directories.
If you don't have the kernel sources, download them--see, "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
/usr/src/linux/include/asm is a symbolic link to an
architecture-specific asm-arch directory--if you have a freshly
unpacked kernel source tree you must use make symlinks. You'll also
find that you may need to do make config in a newly-unpacked kernel
source tree, to create linux/autoconf.h.
5.7 I get errors when I try to compile the kernel.
See the previous question regarding the header files.
Remember that when you apply a patch to the kernel, you must use th
-p0 or -p1 option: otherwise the patch may be misapplied. See the
patch manual page for details.
ld: unrecognised option `-qmagic' means that you should get a newer
linker, from
ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC/, in the
file binutils-2.8.1.0.1.bin.tar.gz.
5.8 How do I make a shared library?
For ELF,
gcc -fPIC -c *.c
gcc -shared -Wl,-soname,libfoo.so.1 -o libfoo.so.1.0 *.o
For a.out, 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. Note that a.out shared libraries are a very
tricky business. Consider upgrading your libraries to ELF shared
libraries. See the ELF HOWTO, at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/
5.9 My executables are (very) large.
With an ELF compiler (see Q8.2 `What's all this about ELF ?') the m
common cause of large executables is the lack of an appropriate .so
library link for one of the libraries you're using. There should be
link like libc.so for every library like libc.so.5.2.18.
With an a.out compiler (see, "What's all this about ELF? ")
the most common cause of large executables is the -g linker (compil
flag. This produces (as well as debugging information in the output
file) a program which is statically linked, i.e. one which includes
copy of the C library instead of using a dynamically linked copy.
Other things worth investigating are -O and -O2 which enable
optimisation (check the GCC documentation) and -s (or the strip
command) which strip the symbol information from the resulting bina
(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.
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, th
are several implementations of lightweight processes or threads, mo
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 t
package, but is available on the World Wide Web at
http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/proven/home_page.html. Newer Lin
libcs contain the pthreads source; the GNU Ada compiler on
sunsite.unc.edu in
/pub/Linux/devel/lang/ada/gnat-3.01-linux+elf.tar.gz contains
binaries made from that source code.
* In ftp.cs.washington.edu:/pub/qt-001.tar.Z is QuickThreads. Mor
information can be found in the technical report, available on
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 implementatio
* In ftp.cs.fsu.edu:/pub/PART, an Ada implementation. This is use
mainly because it has a lot of PostScript papers that you'll fi
useful in learning more about threads. This is not directly usa
under Linux.
Please contact the authors of the packages in question for details.
5.11 Where can I get `lint' for Linux?
Roughly equivalent functionality is built into the GNU C compiler
(gcc) which is used by Linux systems. Use the -Wall option to turn
most of the useful extra warnings. Check the GCC manual for more
details (type control-h followed by i in Emacs and select the entry
for GCC).
There is a freely available program called `lclint' that does much
same thing as traditional lint. The announcement and source code ar
available at on larch.lcs.mit.edu in /pub/Larch/lclint; on the Worl
Wide Web look at
http://larch-www.lcs.mit.edu:8001/larch/lclint.htm
5.12 Where can I find kermit for Linux?
Kermit is distributed under a non-GPL copyright that makes its term
of distribution somewhat different. The sources and some binaries a
available on kermit.columbia.edu.
The WWW Home Page of the Columbia University Kermit project is
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit.
contents
6. Solutions to common miscellaneous problems.
6.1 free dumps core.
In Linux 1.3.57 and later, the format of /proc/meminfo was changed
a way that the implementation of free doesn't understand.
Get the latest version, from sunsite.unc.edu in
/pub/Linux/system/Status/ps/procps-0.99.tgz.
6.2 My clock is very wrong.
There are two clocks in your computer. The hardware (CMOS) clock ru
even when the computer is off and is used to when the system starts
and by DOS (if you use it). The ordinary system time, shown and set
date, is maintained by the kernel while Linux is running.
You can display the CMOS clock time, or set either clock from the
other, with /sbin/clock program--see "man 8 clock."
To set the time zone, some programs recognize the TZ environment
variable. The manual page for tzset describes setting the time zone
Recent, POSIX-correct systems have the time zone info in
/usr/lib/zoneinfo/. The soft link localtime points to the zone
information file for your time zone. The soft link posixrules point
to localtime.
There are various other programs that can correct either or both
clocks for systematic drift or transfer time across the network. So
of them may already be installed on your system. Try looking at or
adjtimex (corrects for drift), netdate and getdate (simply get the
time from the network) or xntp (accurate fully-featured network tim
daemon).
6.3 Setuid scripts don't seem to work.
That's right. This feature has been deliberately disabled in the Li
kernel because setuid scripts are almost always a security hole. If
you want to know why read the FAQ for comp.unix.questions.
6.4 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 k
how much memory is really free add the `buffers' amount to `free' -
newer versions of free print an extra line with this info.
The disk buffer cache tends to grow soon after starting Linux up, a
you load more programs and use more files and the contents get cach
It will stabilize after a while.
6.5 When I add more memory, the system 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 BIO
setup. Look in the CMOS setup and see if there is an option to cach
the new memory area which is currently switched off. This is
apparently most common on a 486.
Sometimes the RAM has 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 so
this problem.
If in doubt, check your motherboard manual. If you still can't fix
because the documentation is inadequate you might like to post a
message to comp.os.linux.hardware giving *all* the details - make,
model number, date code, etc. so that other Linux users can avoid i
6.6 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 sour
code; you will probably find the binaries in
.../linux/binaries/usr.bin.
6.7 Some programs let me log in with no password.
You probably have the same problem as in "Some programs (e.g.
xdm) won't let me log in. ", with an added wrinkle:
If you are using shadow passords you should put a letter x or 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.
6.8 My machine runs very slowly when I run GCC / X / ...
You may have too little real memory. If you have less RAM than all
programs you're running at once, Linux will swap to your hard disk
instead and thrash horribly. The solution in this case is to not ru
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 "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
kernel not to allocate a ramdisk (see the LILO documentation or typ
man rdev).
6.9 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.local or
/etc/rc.d/* scripts.
Otherwise, check the permissions on your shell, and any file names
that appear in error messages, and also the directories containing
these files all the way up the tree, up to and including the root
directory.
6.10 My screen is all full of weird characters instead of letters.
You probably sent some binary data to your screen by mistake. Type
echo '\033c' to fix it. Many Linux distributions have a command,
"reset," that does this.
6.11 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 th
Slackware distributions.
There are also two do-it-yourself rescue disk creation packages in
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Recovery. These are better
because as they have your own kernel on them, so that you don't run
the risk of missing devices, file systems, and so forth.
Get to a shell prompt and mount your hard disk with something like
> mount -t ext2 /dev/hda1 /mnt
Then your file system 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).
6.12 I've discovered a huge security hole in rm!
No you haven't. You are obviously new to Unix and need to read a go
book on it to find out how things work. Clue: ability to delete fil
under Unix depends on permission to write the directory they are in
6.13 lpr(1) and/or lpd(8) don't work.
First make sure that your /dev/lp* port is correctly configured. It
IRQ (if any) and port address need to match the settings on the boa
You should be able to dump a file directly to the printer; e.g.:
$ cat the_file >/dev/lp1
If lpr gives you a message like "myname@host: host not found," it
may mean that the TCP/IP loopback interface, lo, isn't working
properly. Loopback support is compiled into most distribution kerne
Check that the interface is configured with the ifconfig command. B
Internet convention, the network number is 127.0.0.0, and the local
host address is 127.0.0.1. If everything is configured correctly, y
should be able to telnet to your own machine and get a login prompt
If your machine has a network-aware lpd, like the one that comes wi
LPRng, make sure that the lpd.perms file is configured correctly.
Also look at the Printing-HOWTO "Where can I get the HOWTOs and
other documentation? ".
6.14 Timestamps on files on msdos partitions are set incorrectly.
There is a bug in the program clock(8) (often found in /sbin)--it
miscounts a time zone offset, confusing seconds with minutes or som
such. Get a new version of it.
6.15 How do I get LILO to boot the vmlinux file?
In kernel versions 1.1.80 and later, the compressed kernel image,
which is what LILO needs to find, has been moved to
arch/i386/boot/zImage. The vmlinux file in the root directory is th
uncompressed kernel, and you shouldn't try to boot it.
This change has been made to make it easier to build the versions f
several different processors from the same source tree.
contents
7. How do I do this or find out that ... ?
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 ScrollUp and ScrollDown keys
be whatever you like--for example, in order to remap them to keys t
exist on an 84-key AT keyboard.
You can't increase the amount of scrollback, because of the way it
implemented using the video memory to store the scrollback text,
though you may be able to get more scrollback in each virtual conso
by reducing the total number of VC's--see linux/tty.h.
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 t
to tty12; Right Alt-F1 gives tty13 and so on. To switch out of X
windows you must press Ctrl-Alt-F1, etc; Alt-F5 or whatever will
switch back.
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 h
login prompts. NB: X needs at least one free VC in order to start.
Kernels earlier than around 1.1.59 have a compiled-in limit on the
number of consoles, for which the default is 8. See NR_CONSOLES in
linux/include/linux/tty.h. Newer kernels allocate them dynamically,
to a maximum of 63.
7.3 How do I set the time zone?
Change directory to /usr/lib/zoneinfo; get the timezone package if
don't have this directory. The source is available as
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/admin/time/timesrc-1.2.tar.gz.
Then make a symbolic link named localtime pointing to one of the fi
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(1).
Don't try to use the TZ variable--leave it unset.
You should also make sure that your Linux kernel clock is set to th
correct GMT time--type date -u and check that the correct universal
time is displayed.
7.4 What version of Linux and what machine name am I using?
Type:
uname -a
7.5 How can I enable or disable core dumps?
By using the ulimit(1) command in bash(1), the limit command in
tcsh(1), or the rlimit command in ksh(1). See the appropriate manua
page for details.
This setting 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 t
definition of INIT_TASK, and look also in linux/resource.h.
7.6 How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel?
See the Kernel HOWTO or the README files which comes with the kerne
release on ftp.cs.helsinki.fi, in /pub/Software/Linux/Kernel and
mirrors. (See "Where can I get Linux material by FTP? ") You
may already have a version of the kernel source code installed on y
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 onl
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.
Kernel version numbers with an odd minor version (ie, 1.1.x, 1.3.x)
are the testing releases; stable production kernels have even minor
versions (1.0.x, 1.2.x). If you want to try the testing kernels you
should probably subscribe to the linux-kernel mailing list. (See "
What mailing lists are there? .")
7.7 Can I have more than 3 serial ports by sharing interrupts?
Yes, but you won't be able to use simultaneously two ordinary ports
which share an interrupt (without some trickery). This is a limitat
of the ISA bus architecture.
See the Serial HOWTO for information about possible solutions to an
workarounds for this problem.
7.8 How do I make a bootable floppy?
Make a file system on it with bin, etc, lib and dev directories --
everything you need. Install a kernel on it and arrange to have LIL
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.
See the Bootdisk HOWTO.
7.9 How do I remap my keyboard to UK, French, etc.?
For recent kernels, get /pub/Linux/system/Keyboards/kbd-0.90.tar.gz
from sunsite.unc.edu. Make sure you get the appropriate version; yo
have to use the right keyboard-mapping package to go with your kern
version. 0.90 should work with kernel versions from 1.0.
For older kernels you have to edit the top-level kernel Makefile, i
/usr/src/linux.
You may find more helpful information in The Linux keystroke and
console HOWTO, by Andries Brouwer, at
sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO
7.10 How do I get NUM LOCK to default to on?
Use the setleds program, for example (in /etc/rc.local or one of th
/etc/rc.d/* files):
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 package (see Q7.9 `How do I remap my
keyboard to UK, French, etc?').
Alternatively, patch your kernel. You need to arrange for KBD_DEFLE
to be defined to (1 << VC_NUMLOCK) when compiling
drivers/char/keyboard.c.
7.11 How can I have more than 128Mb of swap?
Use several swap partitions or swap files--Linux supports up to 16
swap areas, each of up to 128Mb.
Very old kernels only supported swap area sizes up to 16Mb.
Peter Moulder says that Linux on machines with 8MB, paging like Alp
and Sparc64, support a swap partition up to 512MB. He says that the
128MB limitation comes from PAGE_SIZE*BITSPERBYTE on machines with
paging, but is 512MB on machines with 8MB paging. The file
mm/swapfile.c has all of the gory details.
7.12 Miscellaneous information and questions answered.
7.13 How do I program XYZ under Linux?
Read the manuals, or a good book on Unix. Manual pages (type "man
man") are usually a good source of reference information on exactly
how to use a particular command or function.
There is also a lot of GNU Info documentation, which is often more
useful as a tutorial. Run Emacs and type C-h i, or type info info i
you don't have or don't like Emacs. Note that the Emacs libc node
doesn't exactly describe the Linux libc (which is more like a
traditional Unix libc, not having some of the GNU oddities), but it
close enough to make a fair tutorial in Unix C programming.
The latest release of the Linux manual pages, a collection of usefu
GNU Info documentation, and various other information related to
programming Linux can be found on sunsite.unc.edu in
/pub/Linux/docs/man-pages.
7.14 What's all this about ELF?
See the ELF HOWTO by Daniel Barlow--note, this is not the file
move-to-elf, which is a blow-by-blow account of how to upgrade to E
manually.
Linux has two different formats for executables, object files, and
object code libraries, known as `ELF' (the old format is called
`a.out'). This will have many advantages, including better support
shared libraries and dynamic linking.
Both a.out and ELF binaries can coexist on a system. However, they
different shared C libraries, both of which will have to be install
to do this.
If you want to find out whether your system can run ELF binaries, l
in /lib for a filename libc.so.5. If this exists it probably can. I
you want to know whether your installation actually is ELF you can
pick a representative program, like ls, and run file on it:
-chiark:~> file /bin/ls
/bin/ls: Linux/i386 impure executable (OMAGIC) - stripped
valour:~> file /bin/ls
/bin/ls: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1, strippe
There is a patch to get 1.2.x to compile using the ELF compilers, a
produce ELF core dumps, at tsx-11.mit.edu in /pub/packages/GCC. You
not need the patch merely to run ELF binaries. 1.3.x and later do n
need a patch at all.
7.15 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 w
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 fil
Details about the LSM and the LSM itself are available in the docs
subdirectory on sunsite.unc.edu.
.deb is a Debian Binary Package - the binary package format used by
the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It is manipulated using dpkg and
dpkg-deb (available on Debian systems and from ftp.debian.org).
.rpm is a Red Hat RPM package, which is used in the Red Hat
distribution. These can be found on ftp.redhat.com.
The "file" command can often tell you what a file is.
If you find that gzip complains when you try to uncompress a gzippe
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.
7.16 What does VFS stand for?
Virtual File System. It's the abstraction layer between the user an
real file systems like ext2, minix and msdos. Among other things, i
job is to flush the read buffer when it detects a disk change on th
floppy disk drive:
VFS: Disk change detected on device 2/0
7.17 What is a BogoMip?
`BogoMips' is a contraction of `Bogus MIPS'. MIPS stands for
(depending who you listen to) Millions of Instructions per Second,
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
Turbo button or CPU speed set incorrectly, or have some kind of
caching problem (as described in Q6.5 `When I add more memory it sl
to a crawl.'.)
For values people have seen with other, rarer, chips, see the BogoM
Mini-HOWTO, on sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/docs/howto/mini/BogoMi
7.18 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
[email protected] for details. Their URL is
http://www.ssc.com/.
7.19 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. Seve
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,
the number is likely in the hundreds of thousands, but firm numbers
are hard to come by.
However, one brave soul, Harald T. Alvestrand,
[email protected], has decided to try, and asks that
if you use Linux, you send a message to
[email protected]
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.
Alternatively, you can register using the WWW forms found at
http://domen.uninett.no/~hta/linux/counter.html.
He posts his counts to aun.uninett.no in /pub/misc/linux-counter or
the web page above.
7.20 How should I pronounce Linux?
This is a matter of religious debate, of course!
If you want to hear Linus himself say how he pronounces it, downloa
english.au or swedish.au from ftp.funet.fi (in
/pub/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/SillySounds). If you have a soundcard or th
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 langu
Linus uses to say hello.
For the benefit of those of you who don't have the equipment or
inclination: Linus pronounces Linux approximately as Leenus, where
ee is as in feet but rather shorter and the u is like a much shorte
version of the French eu sound in peur (pronouncing it as the u in
is probably passable).
contents
8. Frequently encountered error messages.
8.1 Unknown terminal type linux and similar.
In an early 1.3.x kernel the default console terminal type has chan
from console to linux. You must edit /etc/termcap to change the lin
reading:
console|con80x25:\
to
linux|console|con80x25:\
(there may be an additional dumb in there--if so it should be
removed.)
In order to get the editor to work you may need say TERM=console (f
bash and ksh) or setenv TERM console (csh, tcsh) first.
Some programs use /usr/lib/terminfo instead of /etc/termcap. For th
programs you should upgrade your terminfo, which is part of ncurses
8.2 lp1 on fire
This is a joke/traditional error message indicating that some sort
error is being reported by your printer, but that the error status
isn't a valid one. It may be that you have some kind of I/O or IRQ
conflict - check your cards' settings. Some people report that they
get this message when their printer is switched off. Hopefully it
isn't really on fire ...
In newer kernels, this message reads, "lp1 reported invalid error
status (on fire, eh?)"
8.3 INET: Warning: old style ioctl... called!
You are trying to use the old network configuration utilities. The
ones can be found on ftp.linux.org.uk in
/pub/linux/Networking/PROGRAMS/NetTools (source only, I'm afraid).
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.
8.4 ld: unrecognized option '-m486'
You have an old version of ld. Install a newer binutils package--th
will contain an updated ld. Look on tsx-11.mit.edu in
/pub/linux/packages/GCC for binutils-2.6.0.2.bin.tar.gz.
8.5 GCC says Internal compiler error.
If the fault is repeatable (i.e., it always happens at the same pla
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 lat
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 make says Error 139 .
8.6 make says Error 139
Your compiler driver (gcc) dumped core. You probably have a corrupt
buggy or old version of GCC--get the latest release. Alternatively
may be running out of swap space--see My machine runs very slowly
when I run GCC / X / ... .
If this doesn't fix the problem you are probably having problems wi
memory or disk corruption. Check that the clock rate, wait states a
refresh timing for your SIMMs and cache are correct (hardware manua
are sometimes wrong, too). 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 tha
DOS-based memory test programs.
Reportedly some clone x87 maths coprocessors can cause problems; tr
compiling a kernel with math emulation ( How do I
upgrade/recompile my kernel? .) You may need to use the no387 kerne
command line flag on the LILO prompt to force the kernel to use mat
emulation, or it may be able to work and still use the '387, with t
math emulation compiled in but mainly unused.
Much more information about this problem is available on the Web at
http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/.
8.7 shell-init: permission denied when I log in.
Your root directory and all the directories up to your home directo
must be readable and executable by everybody. See the manual page f
chmod or a book on Unix for how to fix the problem.
8.8 No utmp entry. You must exec ... when I log in.
Your /var/run/utmp is screwed up. You should have
> /var/run/utmp
in your /etc/rc.local or /etc/rc.d/*. See ("I have screwed up
my system and can't log in to fix it. ") Note that utmp may also be
found in /var/adm/utmp or /etc/utmp on some older systems.
8.9 Warning--bdflush not running.
Modern kernels use 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
more subtle daemon (actually a pair), known as bdflush.
Get bdflush-n.n.tar.gz from the same place as the kernel source cod
(Q7.6 `How do I upgrade/recompile my kernel ?') and compile and
install it; it should be started before the usual boot-time file
system checks. It will work fine with older kernels as well, so
there's no need to keep the old update around.
8.10 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
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/recomp
my kernel ?').
8.11 EXT2-fs: warning: mounting unchecked file system.
You need to run e2fsck (or fsck -t ext2 if you have the fsck front-
program) with the -a option to get it to clear the `dirty' flag, an
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.
`Where can I get Linux material by FTP?'). You have to make sure th
your /etc/rc* scripts use them correctly.
NB: don't try to check a file system that's mounted read-write--thi
includes the root partition if you don't see
VFS: mounted root ... read-only
at boot time. You must arrange to mount the root file system read-o
to start with, check it if necessary, and then remount it read-writ
Read the documentation that comes with util-linux to find out how t
do this.
Note that you need to specify the -n option to mount to get it not
try to update /etc/mtab, since the root file system is still read-o
and this will otherwise cause it to fail!
8.12 EXT2-fs warning: maximal count reached.
This message is issued by the kernel when it mounts a file system
that's marked as clean, but whose `number of mounts since check'
counter has reached the predefined value. The solution is to get th
latest version of the ext2fs utilities (e2fsprogs-0.5b.tar.gz at th
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 usin
the tune2fs program from this package.
8.13 EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached.
Kernels from 1.0 onwards support checking a file system based on th
elapsed time since the last check as well as by the number of mount
Get the latest version of the ext2fs utilities (see Q9.13 `EXT2-fs
warning: maximal count reached').
8.14 df says Cannot read table of mounted file systems.
There is probably something wrong with your /etc/mtab or /etc/fstab
files. If you have a reasonably new version of mount, /etc/mtab sho
be emptied or deleted at boot time (in /etc/rc.local or /etc/rc.d/*
using something like
rm -f /etc/mtab*
Some versions of SLS have an entry for the root partition in /etc/m
made in /etc/rc* by using rdev. This is incorrect--the newer versio
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 /.
8.15 fdisk says Partition X has different physical/logical ...
If the partition number (X, above) is 1 this is the same problem as
Q9.17 `fdisk: Partition 1 does not start on cylinder boundary'.
If the partition begins or ends on a cylinder numbered greater than
1024, this is because the standard DOS disk geometry information
format in the partition table can't cope with cylinder numbers with
more than 10 bits. You should see "How can I get Linux to work
with my disk? "
8.16 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, f
Rik Faith's util-linux package (available on all the usual FTP site
Alternatively, if you are creating a new partition 1 that starts in
the first cylinder, you can do the following to get a partition tha
fdisk likes.
* Create partition 1 in the normal way. A `p' listing will produce
mismatch complaint.
* Type `u' to set sector mode and do `p' again. Copy down the numbe
from the "End" column.
* Delete partition 1.
* While still in sector mode, re-create 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
value you wrote down in the step above.
* Type `u' to reset cylinder mode and continue with other partition
Ignore the message about unallocated sectors--they refer to the
sectors on the first track apart from the Master Boot Record, and t
are not used if you start the first partition in track 2.
8.17 fdisk says partition n has an odd number of sectors.
The PC disk partitioning scheme works in 512-byte sectors, but Linu
uses 1K blocks. If you have a partition with an odd number of secto
the last sector is wasted. Ignore the message.
8.18 mtools says cannot initialize drive XYZ
This means that mtools is having trouble accessing the drive. This
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 manual page 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
determine which devices and densities to use, in place of having th
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 How do I access files on my DOS
partition or floppy? Note--you should never use mtools to access fi
on an msdosfs mounted partition or disk!
8.19 At the start of booting: Memory tight
This means that you have an extra large kernel, which means that Li
has to do some special memory-management magic to be able to boot
itself from the BIOS. It isn't related to the amount of physical
memory in your machine. Ignore the message, or compile a kernel
containing only the drivers and features you need . (See, "How
do I upgrade/recompile my kernel? )"
8.20 My syslog says `end_request: I/O error, ...'.
Peter Moulder,
[email protected], noted that this should be a FAQ.
This error message, and messages like it, almost always indicates a
hardware error with a hard drive.
Theodore T'so,
[email protected], noted that this commonly indicates of
hard drive defect. The only way to avoid further data loss is to
completely shut own the system. You must also make sure that the
whatever data is on the drive is backed up, and restore it to a
non-defective hard drive.
This error message may also indicate a bad connection to the drive,
especially with homebrew systems. If you install an IDE drive
yourself, ALWAYS use new cables. This probably isn't a bad idea wit
SCSI drives, too.
This error also seemed to coincide with a grounding problem between
the system board and the chassis on one machine. Be sure that all
electrical connections are clean and tight before placing the blame
the hard drive itself.
8.21 You don't exist. Go away.
This is not a viral infection :-). It comes from various programs s
as write, talk, and wall, if your invoking uid doesn't correspond t
valid user (probably due to /etc/passwd being corrupted), or if the
session (pseudoterminal, specifically) you're using isn't properly
registered in the utmp file (probably because you invoked it in a
funny way).
contents
9. The X Window System.
9.1 Does Linux support X Windows?
Yes. Linux uses XFree86 (the current version is 3.3.2, which is bas
on X11R6). You need to have a video card which is supported by
XFree86. See the Linux XFree86 HOWTO for more details.
Most Linux distributions nowadays come with an X installation.
However, you can install or upgrade your own, from
/pub/Linux/X11/Xfree86-* on sunsite.unc.edu and its mirror sites. R
the XFree86 HOWTO for installation instructions.
9.2 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--read the instructions that came with XFree86, i
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc. The file you probably need to look at most
README.Config.
You should not use the sample XF86Config.eg file which is included
with newer versions of XFree86 verbatim, because the wrong video cl
settings can damage your monitor.
For a quick start, you may run the program xf86config. Note that
ConfigXF86 is obsolete, and you shouldn't use it.
Please don't post to comp.os.linux.x asking for an XF86Config, and
please don't answer such requests.
9.3 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 /var/adm/utmp file,
where the system records who is logged in. It therefore doesn't set
all the information correctly.
The Xterms in XFree86 3.1 and later versions fix this problem.
9.4 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
that group.
Please don't post X Windows or XFree86 related questions to
comp.os.linux.x unless they are Linux-specific.
contents
10. Questions applicable to very out-of-date software.
The questions in this section are only relevant to users of softwar
that is at least three 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. (See
Feedback is invited. ")
10.1 fdisk says cannot use nnn sectors of this partition.
Originally Linux only supported the Minix file system, which cannot
use more than 64Mb per parition. This limitation is not present in
more advanced file systems that are now available, such as ext2fs (
2nd version of the Extended File System, the `standard' Linux file
system).
If you intend to use ext2fs you can ignore the message.
10.2 GCC sometimes uses huge amounts of virtual memory and thrashes.
Older versions of GCC had a bug that made them use lots of memory i
you tried to compile a program which had a large static data table
it.
You can either upgrade your version of GCC to at least version 2.5,
add more swap if necessary and just grin and bear it; it'll work in
the end.
contents
11. How to get further assistance.
11.1 You still haven't answered my question!
Please read all of this answer before posting. I know it's a bit lo
but you may be about to make a fool of yourself in front of 50,000
people and waste hundreds of hours of their time. Don't you think i
worth it to spend some of your time reading and following these
instructions?
If you think an answer is incomplete or inaccurate, please e-mail
Robert Kiesling at
[email protected].
Read the appropriate Linux Documentation Project books--see "
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 app
to Linux. Those FAQs can, like all FAQs, be found on rtfm.mit.edu i
/pub/usenet/news.answers (the
[email protected] can send
you these files, if you don't have FTP access). There are mirrors o
rtfm's FAQ archives on various sites - check the Introduction to
*.answers posting, posted, or look in news-answers/introduction in
directory above.
Check the relevant HOWTO for the subject in question, if there is o
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 Linu
Read the documentation. Check the manual pages (type "man man" if
you don't know about manual pages. Try "man -k subject"--it often
lists useful and relevant manpages.
Check the Info documentation (type C-h i, i.e. Control H followed b
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 that gives
installation and/or usage instructions.
Make sure that you don't have a corrupted or out-of-date copy of th
program in question. If possible, download it again and re-install
it--perhaps you made a mistake the first time.
Read comp.os.linux.announce--this often contains very important
information for all Linux users.
General X-Windows questions belong in comp.windows.x.i386unix, not
comp.os.linux.x. But read the group first (including the FAQ), befo
you post!
Only if you have done all of these things and are still stuck shoul
you post to the appropriate comp.os.linux.* newsgroup. Make sure yo
read the next question, Q12.2 `What to put in a request for help',
first.
11.2 What to put in a request for help.
Please read carefully the following advice about how to write your
posting or email. Taking heed of it will greatly increase the chanc
that an expert or fellow user reading it will have enough informati
and motivation to reply.
This advice applies both to postings asking for advice and to perso
email sent to experts and fellow users.
Make sure you give full details of the problem, including:
* What program, exactly, you are having problems with. Include th
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 (Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, o
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 and any related programs.
* What version of the kernel and of the shared libraries you are
using. The kernel version can be found by typing uname -a, and
shared library version by typing ls -l /lib/libc.so.4.
* Details of what hardware you're running on, if it seems
appropriate.
You are in little danger of making your posting too long unless you
include large chunks of source code or uuencoded files, so err on t
side of giving too much information.
Use a clear, detailed Subject line. Don't put things like `doesn't
work', `Linux', `help' or `question' in it--we already know that! S
the space for the name of the program, a fragment of the error
message, summary of the unusual behaviour, etc.
If you are reporting an `unable to handle kernel paging request'
message, follow the instructions in the Linux kernel sources README
for turning the numbers into something more meaningful. If you don'
do this, no one who reads your post will be able to do it for you,
the mapping from numbers to function names varies from one kernel t
another.
Put a summary paragraph at the top of your posting.
At the bottom of your posting, ask for responses by email and say
you'll post a summary. Back this up by using Followup-To: poster.
Then, do actually post a summary in a few days or a week or so. Don
just concatenate the replies you got--summarise. Putting the word
SUMMARY in your summary's Subject line is also a good idea. Conside
submitting the summary to comp.os.linux.announce.
Make sure your posting doesn't have an inappropriate References hea
line. This marks your article as part of the thread of the article
referred to, which will often cause it to be junked by readers, alo
with the rest of a boring thread.
You might like to say in your posting that you've read this FAQ and
the appropriate HOWTOs--this may make people less likely to skip yo
posting.
Remember that you should not post email sent to you personally with
the sender's permission.
11.3 I want to mail someone about my problem.
Try to find the author or developer of whatever program or componen
is causing you difficulty. If you have a contact point for your Lin
distribution, you should use it.
Please put everything in your email that you would put in a posting
asking for help.
Finally, remember that despite the fact that most of the Linux
community are very helpful and responsive to emailed questions, you
be asking for help from an unpaid volunteer, so you have no right t
expect an answer.
12. Administrative information and acknowledgements.
12.1 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
[email protected].
If you wish to refer to a question(s) in the FAQ, it's most useful
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 th
in the source file I edit.
I prefer comments in English to patch files--I context diff is not
first language.
12.2 Formats in which this FAQ is available.
This document is available as an ASCII text file, an HTML World Wid
Web page, PostScript, and as a USENET news posting.
All of these formats are generated from SGML source using SGML Tool
and the LinuxDoc DTD.
The HTML version of this FAQ is available as
http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/ at other sites.
The Usenet version is posted regularly to comp.os.linux.announce,
comp.answers, and news.answers.
The most recent text, HTML, source, and PostScript versions are
available from the Linux archives at sunsite.unc.edu, and from
http://www.terracom.net/~kiesling
12.3 Authorship and acknowledgements.
This FAQ is compiled and maintained by Robert Kiesling
[email protected], with assistance and comments from Linux
activists all over the world.
Special thanks are due to Matt Welsh, who moderated
comp.os.linux.announce and comp.os.linux.answers, coordinated the
HOWTOs and wrote substantial portions of many of them, Greg Hankins
and Timothy Bynum, the former and current HOWTO maintainers, Lars
Wirzenius and Mikko Rauhala, the former and current moderators of
comp.os.linux.announce, Marc-Michel Corsini, who wrote the original
Linux FAQ, and Ian Jackson, the previous FAQ maintainer. Thanks als
to Roman Maurer for his many updates and additions, especially with
European Web sites, translations, and general miscellany.
Last but not least, thanks to Linus Torvalds and the other
contributors to Linux for giving us something to talk about!
12.4 Disclaimer and Copyright.
Note that this document is provided `as is'. The information in it
not warranted to be correct. Use it at your own risk.
Linux Frequently Asked Questions with Answers is Copyright (c) 1997
1998 by Robert Kiesling
[email protected], under the
copyright of the Linux Documentation Project. The full text of the
copyright is available via anonymous FTP from sunsite.unc.edu, in t
directory /pub/Linux/docs/LDP, and is included below.
Portions are Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996 by Ian Jackson, the
previous Linux FAQ maintainer.
Linux Frequently Asked Questions with Answers may be reproduced and
distributed in its entirety (including this authorship, copyright,
permission notice), provided that no charge is made for the documen
itself, without the author's consent. Portions may be reproduced fo
such purposes as reviews, advertising, and derivative works like
translations, with the author's consent.
Note that this restriction is not intended to prohibit charging for
the service of printing or copying a document supplied by your
customer.
Exceptions to these rules may be granted. I would be happy to answe
any questions about this copyright. Email me at
[email protected]. As the license below says, these
restrictions are here to protect the contributors, not to restrict
as educators and learners.
LINUX DOCUMENTATION PROJECT COPYING LICENSE
Last modified 6 January 1997
The following copyright license applies to all works by the Linux
Documentation Project.
Please read the license carefully---it is somewhat like the GNU
General Public License, but there are several conditions in it that
differ from what you may be used to. If you have any questions, ple
email the LDP coordinator,
[email protected].
The Linux Documentation Project manuals may be reproduced and
distributed in whole or in part, subject to the following condition
All Linux Documentation Project manuals are copyrighted by their
respective authors. THEY ARE NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. * The copyri
notice above and this permission notice must be preserved complete
all complete or partial copies. * Any translation or derivative wor
of Linux Installation and Getting Started must be approved by the
author in writing before distribution. * If you distribute Linux
Installation and Getting Started in part, instructions for obtainin
the complete version of this manual must be included, and a means f
obtaining a complete version provided. * Small portions may be
reproduced as illustrations for reviews or quotes in other works
without this permission notice if proper citation is given. * The G
General Public License referenced below may be reproduced under the
conditions given within it.
Exceptions to these rules may be granted for academic purposes: Wri
to the author and ask. These restrictions are here to protect us as
authors, not to restrict you as educators and learners. All source
code in Linux Installation and Getting Started is placed under the
General Public License, available via anonymous FTP from the GNU
archive site.
PUBLISHING LDP MANUALS
If you're a publishing company interested in distributing any of th
LDP manuals, read on.
By the license given in the previous section, anyone is allowed to
publish and distribute verbatim copies of the Linux Documentation
Project manuals. You don't need our explicit permission for this.
However, if you would like to distribute a translation or derivativ
work based on any of the LDP manuals, you must obtain permission fr
the author, in writing, before doing so.
All translations and derivative works of LDP manuals must be placed
under the Linux Documentation License given in the previous section
That is, if you plan to release a translation of one of the manuals
it must be freely distributable by the above terms.
You may, of course, sell the LDP manuals for profit. We encourage y
to do so. Keep in mind, however, that because the LDP manuals are
freely distributable, anyone may photocopy or distribute printed
copies free of charge, if they wish to do so.
We do not require to be paid royalties for any profit earned from
selling LDP manuals. However, we would like to suggest that if you
sell LDP manuals for profit, that you either offer the author
royalties, or donate a portion of your earnings to the author, the
as a whole, or to the Linux development community. You may also wis
to send one or more free copies of the LDP manual that you are
distributing to the author. Your show of support for the LDP and th
Linux community will be very appreciated.
We would like to be informed of any plans to publish or distribute
manuals, just so we know how they're becoming available. If you are
publishing or planning to publish any LDP manuals, please send emai
to Matt Welsh (email
[email protected]).
We encourage Linux software distributors to distribute the LDP manu
(such as the Installation and Getting Started Guide) with their
software. The LDP manuals are intended to be used as the "official"
Linux documentation, and we'd like to see mail-order distributors
bundling the LDP manuals with the software. As the LDP manuals matu
hopefully they will fulfill this goal more adequately.
Matt Welsh,
[email protected]
