Linux Frequently Asked Questions with Answers

Linux Frequently Asked Questions with Answers

This is the list of Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the free operating
system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. The kernel source
code documentation says that Linux ``aims for POSIX compliance.'' Linux uses
mostly free, GNU system utilities and application software, although
commercial programs are available also. Originally written for 386/486/586
Intel/ISA bus machines, Linux versions exist for nearly every hardware
platform in existence that is capable of running it. (Please refer to the
question, ``What Is Linux?'' below.) This FAQ is meant to 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 HOWTO's and Other
Documentation?'') The INFO-SHEET and META-FAQ also list sources of Linux
information. Please read them, and, ``You Still Haven't Answered My Question!
'' before posting to a Usenet news group. You can also get Postscript, HTML,
and SGML versions of this document. (``Formats in Which This FAQ Is
Available.'')

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Table of Contents
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. Where Can I Find Application XXX? (Was: Has Anyone Ported/Compiled/
Written XXX for Linux?)
1.5. Does Linux Run on My Computer? What Hardware Is Supported?
1.6. What Ports to Other Processors Are There?
1.7. How Much Hard Disk Space Does Linux Need?
1.8. How Much Memory Does Linux Need?
1.9. How Much Memory Can Linux Use?
1.10. Does Linux Support Universal System Bus Devices?
1.11. Is Linux Public Domain? Copyrighted?
1.12. Is Linux *nix?

2. Topics of Current Interest.
2.1. Should I Upgrade to the 2.4.0 Kernel? Now?
2.2. Should I Use the Red Hat 7.0 kgcc Compiler?
2.3. What Resources Are There for Linux DeCSS and Other Open Source DVD
Software?
2.4. Where Is Information About Electronic Privacy Laws that Affect
ISP's?
2.5. How Is the DocBook Version of the FAQ Produced?

3. Network Sources and Resources
3.1. Where Can I Get the Latest Kernel Version?
3.2. Where Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation?
3.3. Where Should I Look on the World Wide Web for Linux Stuff?
3.4. What News Groups Are There for Linux?
3.5. What Other FAQ's Are There for Linux?
3.6. Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?
3.7. I Don't Have FTP Access. Where Do I Get Linux?
3.8. I Don't Have Usenet Access. Where Do I Get Information?
3.9. What Mailing Lists Are There?
3.10. Where Are Linux Legal Issues Discussed?
3.11. Where Can I Find Out About Unmaintained Free Software?
3.12. Are the News Groups Archived Anywhere?
3.13. Where Can I Find Out About Security Related Issues?
3.14. Where Can I Find Linux System Specifications?

4. Compatibility with Other Operating Systems
4.1. Can Linux Share My Disk with DOS? OS/2? 386BSD? Win95?
4.2. How Do I Access Files on My DOS Partition or Floppy?
4.3. Does Linux Support Compressed Ext2 File Systems?
4.4. Can I Use My Stacked/DBLSPC/Etc. DOS Drive?
4.5. Can I Access OS/2 HPFS Partitions from Linux?
4.6. Can Linux Access Amiga File Systems?
4.7. Can Linux Access BSD, SysV, Etc. UFS?
4.8. Can Linux Access SMB File Systems?
4.9. Can Linux Access Macintosh File Systems?
4.10. Can I Run Microsoft Windows Programs under Linux?
4.11. Where Can I Get Information about NFS Compatibility?
4.12. Can I Use True Type Fonts with Linux?
4.13. How Can I Boot Linux from MS-DOS?
4.14. How Can I Boot Linux from OS/2's Boot Manager?

5. File Systems, Disks, and Drives
5.1. How Can I Get Linux to Work with My Disk?
5.2. How Can I Undelete Files?
5.3. How Do I Make Backups?
5.4. How Do I Resize a Partition (Non-Destructively)?
5.5. Is There a Defragmenter for Ext2fs, Etc.?
5.6. How Do I Format and Create a File System on a Floppy?
5.7. Does Linux Support Virtualized File Systems Like RAID?
5.8. Does Linux Support File System Encryption?
5.9. I Get Nasty Messages about Inodes, Blocks, and the Like.
5.10. My Swap Area Isn't Working.
5.11. How Do I Add Temporary Swap Space?
5.12. How Do I Remove LILO So My System Boots DOS Again?
5.13. Why Can't I Use fdformat Except as Root?
5.14. The System Checks the Ext2fs Partitions Each Reboot.
5.15. My Root File System Is Read-Only!
5.16. I Have a Huge /proc/kcore! Can I Delete It?
5.17. The AHA1542C Doesn't Work with Linux.
5.18. Where Do I Find the Journalling File System?

6. Porting, Compiling and Obtaining Programs
6.1. How Do I Compile Programs?
6.2. How Do I Install GNU Software?
6.3. Where Do I Get Java?
6.4. How Do I Port XXX to Linux?
6.5. What Is ld.so and Where Do I Get It?
6.6. How Do I Upgrade the Libraries without Trashing My System?
6.7. Can I Use Code or a Compiler Compiled for a 486 on My 386?
6.8. What Does ``gcc -O6'' Do?
6.9. Where Are linux/*.h and asm/*.h?
6.10. I Get Errors when I Try to Compile the Kernel.
6.11. How Do I Make a Shared Library?
6.12. My Executables Are (Very) Large.
6.13. Does Linux Support Threads or Lightweight Processes?
6.14. Where Can I Get lint for Linux?
6.15. Where Can I Find Kermit for Linux?
6.16. I Want to Use Linux with My Cable Modem.
6.17. Is There an ICQ Program That Runs under Linux?

7. Solutions to Common Miscellaneous Problems
7.1. File Transfers over PPP Connections Seem to Hang.
7.2. Free Dumps Core.
7.3. Netscape Crashes Frequently
7.4. FTP or Telnet Server Won't Allow Logins.
7.5. How Do I Keep Track of All My Bookmarks in Netscape?
7.6. The Computer Has the Wrong Time.
7.7. Setuid Scripts Don't Seem to Work.
7.8. Free Memory as Reported by free Keeps Shrinking.
7.9. When I Add More Memory, the System Slows to a Crawl.
7.10. Some Programs (E.g. xdm) Won't Let Me Log in.
7.11. Some Programs Let Me Log In with No Password.
7.12. My Machine Runs Very Slowly when I Run GCC / X / ...
7.13. I Can Only Log In as Root.
7.14. My Screen Is All Full of Weird Characters Instead of Letters.
7.15. I Have Screwed Up My System and Can't Log In to Fix It.
7.16. I Forgot the root Password.
7.17. I've Discovered a Huge Security Hole in rm!
7.18. lpr and/or lpd Don't Work.
7.19. Timestamps on Files on MS-DOS Partitions Are Set Incorrectly
7.20. How Do I Get LILO to Boot the Kernel Image?
7.21. How Do I Make Sure My System Boots after Re-Installing the
Operating System?
7.22. I Upgraded the Kernel and Now My PCMCIA Card Doesn't Work.
7.23. How Do I Remove (Or Change) the Colors in the ls Display?
7.24. Why Won't a Program Work in the Current Directory?

8. How Do I Do This or Find Out That...
8.1. How Do I Know If My Notebook Runs Linux?
8.2. How Do I Install Linux Using FTP?
8.3. How Do I Resume an Interrupted Download?
8.4. How Do I Configure Linux at Boot Time?
8.5. How Do I View Manual Pages without man or groff?
8.6. How Can I Get Scrollback in Text Mode?
8.7. How Do I Get E-mail to Work?
8.8. How Do I Prevent sendmail from Pausing for Up to a Minute at Each
Command?
8.9. How Do I Switch Virtual Consoles? How Do I Enable Them?
8.10. How Do I Set the Time Zone?
8.11. How Do I Get Dial-up PPP to Work?
8.12. What Version of Linux and What Machine Name Am I Using?
8.13. What Is a ``core'' File?
8.14. How Can I Enable or Disable Core Dumps?
8.15. How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My Kernel?
8.16. Can I Have More than 3 Serial Ports by Sharing Interrupts?
8.17. How Do I Configure Emacs to Start with My Default Settings?
8.18. How Do I Make a Rescue Floppy?
8.19. How Do I Remap My Keyboard to UK, French, Etc.?
8.20. How Do I Get NUM LOCK to Default to On?
8.21. How Do I Set (Or Reset) My Initial Terminal Colors?
8.22. How Can I Have More Than 128Mb of Swap?

9. Miscellaneous Information and Questions Answered
9.1. How Do I Program XYZ Under Linux?
9.2. What's All This about ELF? glibc?
9.3. How Do I Determine What Packages Are Installed on My System?
9.4. What Is a .gz File? And a .tgz? And .bz2? And... ?
9.5. What Does VFS Stand For?
9.6. What is a BogoMip?
9.7. What Online/Free Periodicals Exist for Linux?
9.8. How Many People Use Linux?
9.9. How Many People Use Linux? (Redux.)
9.10. What Is the Best (Distribution|SCSI Card|Editor|CD-ROM Drive|....)
9.11. How Should I Pronounce Linux?

10. Frequently Encountered Error Messages
10.1. Modprobe Can't Locate Module, XXX, and Similar Messages.
10.2. Unknown Terminal Type ``linux'' and Similar.
10.3. INET: Warning: old style ioctl... called!
10.4. ld: unrecognized option '-m486'
10.5. GCC Says, ``Internal compiler error.''
10.6. Make Says, ``Error 139.''
10.7. Shell-Init: Permission Denied when I Log In.
10.8. No Utmp Entry. You Must Exec ... when Logging In.
10.9. Warning--bdflush Not Running.
10.10. Warning: obsolete routing request made.
10.11. EXT2-fs: warning: mounting unchecked file system.
10.12. EXT2-fs warning: maximal count reached.
10.13. EXT2-fs warning: checktime reached.
10.14. df Says, ``Cannot read table of mounted file systems.''
10.15. fdisk Says, ``Partition X has different physical/logical...''
10.16. fdisk: Partition 1 does not start on cylinder boundary.
10.17. fdisk Says Partition n Has an Odd Number of Sectors.
10.18. A Mtools Utility Says It Cannot Initialize Drive XYZ.
10.19. At the Start of Booting: Memory tight
10.20. My Syslog says, ``end_request: I/O error, ....''
10.21. ``You don't exist. Go away.''
10.22. ``Operation not permitted.''
10.23. programname: error in loading shared libraries: lib xxx..so. x:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.
10.24. ``init: Id "x" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes.''

11. The X Window System
11.1. Does Linux Support X?
11.2. How Do I Get the X Window System to Work?
11.3. Where Can I Get a Ready-Made XF86Config for My System?
11.4. What Desktop Environments Run on Linux?
11.5. xterm Logins Show Up Strangely in who, finger.

12. How to Get Further Assistance
12.1. You Still Haven't Answered My Question!
12.2. What to Put in a Request for Help.
12.3. I Want to Mail Someone about My Problem.

13. Acknowledgments and Administrivia
13.1. Feedback Is Invited.
13.2. Formats in Which This FAQ Is Available.
13.3. Authorship and Acknowledgments.
13.4. Disclaimer and Copyright.

1. Introduction and General Information

1.1. What Is Linux?

Linux is the kernel of operating systems that look like and perform as well
or better than the famous operating system from AT&T Bell Labs. Linus
Torvalds and a loosely knit team of volunteer hackers from across the
Internet wrote (and still are writing) Linux from scratch. It has all of the
features of a modern, fully fledged operating system: true multitasking,
threads, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared,
copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, loadable device driver
modules, video frame buffering, and TCP/IP networking.

Most people, however, refer to the operating system kernel, system software,
and application software, collectively, as ``Linux,'' and that convention is
used in this FAQ as well.

Linux was written originally for 386/486/586-based PC's, using the hardware
facilities of the 80386 processor family to implement its features. There are
now many ports to other hardware platforms. (``What Ports to Other Processors
Are There?'')

There are also Linux distributions specifically for mobile and handheld
platforms. An API specification and developers kit for the Crusoe Smart
Microprocessor developed by Transmeta Corporation are at http://
www.transmeta.com/. Information on the Linux distribution for the Compaq iPAQ
is at http://www.handhelds.org/

Refer also to the Linux INFO-SHEET for more details as well as the answers to
``Where Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation?'', ``Does Linux Run on
My Computer? What Hardware Is Supported?'', and ``What Ports to Other
Processors Are There?'', below. A list updated weekly is at: http://lwn.net/
An archive of many of the distributions is on line: ftp://ftp.tux.org/.

The Linux kernel is distributed under the GNU General Public License. (``Is
Linux Public Domain? Copyrighted?'')

There is a historical archive of all versions of the Linux kernel at http://
ps.cus.umist.ac.uk/~rhw/kernel.versions.html.
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1.2. Where Do I Start?

There are a handful of major Linux distributions. For information 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://www.linuxdoc.org/, and on the Linux FAQ home page, http://
www.mainmatter.com/

The information in IGS is somewhat dated now. More up-to-date information
about first-time Linux installation is located in the LDP's Installation
HOWTO, also located at the LDP Home Page.

Postings on the Usenet News groups, including the FAQ, are archived on http:/
/www.deja.com/usenet/. Search for ``comp.os.linux.*,''
``alt.uu.comp.os.linux.*, or whatever is appropriate, to retrieve articles
from the Linux News groups. (``What News Groups Are There for Linux?'')

Commercial distributions have begun to appear on the shelves of many book and
electronics stores in the last year, in the U.S., and they have been
available in many other countries for some time. Some hardware vendors now
ship systems with Linux pre-installed.

There is a very thorough installation guide on line at http://
heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/linux.html.

Some distributions can still be installed via anonymous FTP from various
Linux archive sites, but in many cases, the size of the distribution makes
this impractical. (``Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?'') There are also
a large number of releases which are distributed less globally that suit
special local and national needs. Many of them are archived at ftp://
ftp.tux.org/
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1.3. What Software Does Linux Support?

Linux supports GCC, Emacs, the X Window System, all the standard Unix
utilities, TCP/IP (including SLIP and PPP), and all of the hundreds of
programs that people have compiled or ported to it.

There is a DOS emulator, called DOSEMU. The latest stable release is 0.98.3.
The FTP archives are at ftp://ftp.dosemu.org/dosemu The Web site is http://
www.dosemu.org.

The emulator can run DOS itself and some (but not all) DOS applications. Be
sure to look at the README file to determine which version you should get.
Also, see the DOSEMU-HOWTO (slightly dated at this point??it doesn't cover
the most recent version of the program), at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/
docs/HOWTO.

Work has been progressing on an emulator for Microsoft Windows binaries. (``
Can I Run Microsoft Windows Programs under Linux?'')

iBCS2 (Intel Binary Compatibility Standard) emulator code for SVR4 ELF and
SVR3.2 COFF binaries can be included in the kernel as a compile-time option.
There is information at ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/BETA/ibcs2/README.

For more information see the INFO-SHEET, which is one of the HOWTO's (``Where
Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation?'' and ``How Do I Port XXX to
Linux?'')

Some companies have commercial software available. They often announce their
availability on comp.os.linux.announce?? try searching the archives. (``Are
the News Groups Archived Anywhere?'')
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1.4. Where Can I Find Application XXX? (Was: Has Anyone Ported/Compiled/
Written XXX for Linux?)

First, look in the Linux Software Map. It's at: ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/
docs/linux-software-map/, and on the other FTP sites. A search engine is
available on the World Wide Web at http://www.boutell.com/lsm/.

Also check out the Freshmeat Web site: http://www.freshmeat.net, which is
where many new announcements of free software first appear. Freshmeat is
basically a site index that continuously updates the notices of new or
upgraded software for Linux, and maintains indexes of the announcements and
links to their URL's.

The FTP sites (``Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?'') often have ls-lR
or INDEX directory listings which you can search using grep or a text editor.
The directory listings files can be very large, however, making them unwieldy
for quick searches.

Also look at the Linux Projects Map: ftp://ftp.ix.de/pub/ix/Linux/docs/
Projects-Map.gz.

There's a search engine for Linux FTP archives at: http://lfw.linuxhq.com/.

Searching for ``Linux'' on the World Wide Web provides copious references.
(``Where Should I Look on the World Wide Web for Linux Stuff?'')

If you don't find anything, you could download the sources to the program
yourself and compile them. See (See: ``How Do I Port XXX to Linux?'') If it's
a large package that 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 of 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 version. The comp.sources.wanted FAQ has
instructions for finding the source code.
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1.5. Does Linux Run on My Computer? What Hardware Is Supported?

A minimal Linux installation requires a machine for which a port exists, at
least 2Mb of RAM, and a single floppy drive. But to do anything even remotely
useful, more RAM and disk space are needed. Refer to: ``What Ports to Other
Processors Are There?'', ``How Much Hard Disk Space Does Linux Need?'', and
``How Much Memory Does Linux Need?''

Intel CPU, PC-compatible machines require at least an 80386 processor to run
the standard Linux kernel.

Linux, including the X Window System GUI, runs on most current laptops. Refer
to the answer for: ``How Do I Know If My Notebook Runs Linux?'' There are
numerous sources of information about specific PC's, video cards, disk
controllers, and other hardware. Refer to the INFO-SHEET, Laptop HOWTO, and
the Hardware HOWTO. (``Where Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation?
'')
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1.6. What Ports to Other Processors Are There?

At present there doesn't seem to be a definitive list of the Linux ports that
are in existence. The URL's below are simply the ones that people have
submitted for inclusion in the FAQ. If you do know of a definitive list,
please let the FAQ maintainer know.

On Intel platforms, VESA Local Bus and PCI bus are supported.

MCA (IBM's proprietary bus) and ESDI hard drives are mostly supported. There
is further information on the MCA bus and what cards Linux supports on the
Micro Channel Linux Web page, http://www.dgmicro.com/mca. Refer also to the
answer for: ``Where Should I Look on the World Wide Web for Linux Stuff?''

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, at: http://www.linux.org.uk/Linux8086.html.
Standard Linux does not run 8086 or 80286 processors, because it requires
task-switching and memory management facilities found on 80386 and later
processors.

Linux supports multiprocessing with Intel MP architecture. See the file
Documentation/smp.tex in the Linux kernel source code distribution.

A project has been underway for a while to port Linux to suitable
68000-series based systems like Amigas and Ataris. The Linux/m68K FAQ is
located at http://www.clark.net/pub/lawrencc/linux/faq/faq.html. The URL of
the Linux/m68k home page is http://www.linux-m68k.org.

There is a m68k port for the Amiga by Jes Sorensen, which is located at ftp:/
/sunsite.auc.dk/pub/os/linux/680x0/redhat/. The installation FAQ for the
package, by Ron Flory, is at http://www.feist.com/~rjflory/linux/rh/.

There is also a linux-680x0 mailing list. (``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 platforms.
There are mailing lists for all of them. See http://www.debian.org/
MailingLists/subscribe

One of the Linux-PPC project pages has moved recently. Its location is http:/
/www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe. http://www.linuxppc.org, and the
archive site is ftp://ftp.linuxppc.org/linuxppc.

There is a Linux-PPC support page at http://www.cs.nmt.edu/~linuxppc/. There
you will find the kernel that is distributed with Linux.

There are two sites for the Linux iMac port: http://w3.one.net/~johnb/
imaclinux, and http://www.imaclinux.net:8080/content/index.html.

A port to the 64-bit DEC Alpha/AXP is at http://www.azstarnet.com/~axplinux/.
There is a mailing list at vger.redhat.com: (``What Mailing Lists Are There?
'')

Ralf Baechle is working on a port to the MIPS, initially for the R4600 on
Deskstation Tyne machines. The Linux-MIPS FTP sites are ftp://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 (or was) also a MIPS channel on the Linux Activists mail server and
a linux-mips mailing list. (``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 other is to the ARM610 of the
Acorn RISC PC. The RISC PC port is currently 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. A release is likely soon.

For more, up-to-date information, read 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 and plenty of
other information available from the UltraLinux page, http://
www.ultralinux.org/.

The Home Page of the UltraSPARC port ("UltraPenguin") is located at http://
sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/linux/ultrapenguin-1.0/, although the URL may not be
current.

There is also a port to SGI/Indy machines ("Hardhat"). The URL is http://
www.linux.sgi.com/.
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1.7. How Much Hard Disk Space Does Linux Need?

About 10Mb for a very minimal installation, suitable for trying Linux, and
not much else.

You can fit an installation that includes X into 80Mb. Installing Debian GNU/
Linux takes 500Mb??1GB, including kernel source code, some space for user
files, and spool areas.

Installing a commercial distribution that has a desktop GUI environment,
commercial word processor, and front-office productivity suite, will claim 1
??1.5 GB of disk space, approximately.
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1.8. How Much Memory Does Linux Need?

At least 4MB, and then you will need to use special installation procedures
until the disk swap space is installed. Linux will run comfortably in 4MB of
RAM, although running GUI apps is impractically slow because they need to
swap out to disk.

Some applications, like StarOffice, require 32 MB of physical memory, and
compiling C++ code can easily consume over 100 MB of combined physical and
virtual memory.

There is a distribution, ``Small Linux,'' that will run on machines with 2MB
of RAM. Refer to the answer to: ``Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?''
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1.9. 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 in most standard kernels. Either type, at the BOOT
lilo: prompt:

mem=XXM

Or place the following in your /etc/lilo.conf file:

append="mem=XXM"

The parameter ``XXM'' is the amount of memory, specified as megabytes; for
example, ``128M.''

If an ``append='' directive with other configuration options already exists
in /etc/lilo.conf, then add the mem= directive to the end of the existing
argument, and separated from the previous arguments by a space; e.g.:

# Example only; do not use.
append="parport=0x3bc,none serial=0x3f8,4 mem=XXM"

Be sure to run the ``lilo'' command to install the new configuration.

If Linux still doesn't recognize the extra memory, the kernel may need
additional configuration. Refer to the /usr/src/linux/Documentation/
memory.txt file in the kernel source as a start.

For further information about LILO, refer to the manual pages for lilo and
lilo.conf, the documentation in /usr/doc/lilo, and the answer for: ``How Do I
Configure Linux at Boot Time?'', below.
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1.10. Does Linux Support Universal System Bus Devices?

Linux supports a few dozen USB devices at present, and work is underway to
develop additional device drivers. There is a Web page devoted to the
subject, at http://www.linux-usb.org/. There is also LDP documentation, at:
(``Where Should I Look on the World Wide Web for Linux Stuff?'')
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1.11. Is Linux Public Domain? Copyrighted?

The Linux trademark belongs to Linus Torvalds. He has placed the Linux kernel
under the GNU General Public License, which basically means that you may
freely copy, change, and distribute it, but you may not impose any
restrictions on further distribution, and you must make the source code
available.

This is not the same as Public Domain. See the Copyright FAQ, ftp://
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 should be
posted to the news group gnu.misc.discuss, and not to the comp.os.linux
hierarchy.

For legal questions, refer to the answer: (``Where Are Linux Legal Issues
Discussed?'')
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1.12. Is Linux *nix?

Not officially, until it passes the Open Group's certification tests, and
supports the necessary API's. Even very few of the commercial operating
systems have passed the Open Group tests. For more information, see http://
www.unix-systems.org/what_is_unix.html.

[Bob Friesenhahn]
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2. Topics of Current Interest.

2.1. Should I Upgrade to the 2.4.0 Kernel? Now?

The kernel 2.4 source code, the product of countless hours of coding,
testing, and re-coding, by dogged kernel hackers, is being upgraded with
patches and bug fixes.

Among the new kernel's features are: support for the IBM S/390, the Logical
Volume Manager, NFS Version 3 servers, PCMCIA CardBus devices, USB
peripherals, the Device File System, 64 GB of RAM (yes, that's memory, not
disk space), Itanium and MMX processors, drivers for many additional hardware
devices, greater maximum file sizes, and vastly improved Symmetric
Multiprocessing capabilities, at least for certain processors.

The changes are more significant for non-i386 platforms, although developers
on i386 platforms can make use of the improvements?? and stumble over the
incompatibilities??of the new kernel as well.

If there's a compelling reason to upgrade, the source code is available, in
the tar archive: linux-2.4.x.tar.gz, in all of the usual places. (Refer to:
``Where Can I Get the Latest Kernel Version?,'' below.) It will likely be
several months at least before the commercial vendors upgrade their
distributions to the new kernel.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.2. Should I Use the Red Hat 7.0 kgcc Compiler?

Red Hat Linux 7.0 ships with two compilers, GCC 2.96, and KGCC, a.k.a, EGCS
1.1.2, a.k.a GCC 2.91.66. Confusing? You bet it is. It's probably better to
use one of the standard GCC releases. The Free Software Foundation says that
GCC 2.96, contains extensions that produce object code which is not
compatible with previous versions of GCC, in addition to the normal bugs
found in development software. The FSF changed the version number of their
current development compiler to 2.97 to distinguish them. The FSF's statement
is at http://www.fsf.org/software/gcc/gcc-2.96.html.

You can determine the compiler version numbers by typing ``gcc --version''
and ``kgcc --version.'' The latest stable GCC release is 2.95.2.

Any recent, officially released GNU C compiler from versions 2.7.2 onward
should compile the generic kernel source code, unless it's the Version 2.4
kernel, in which case you'll need GCC 2.91.66 (EGCS 1.1.2). Don't expect any
support from the kernel developers if you're using an earlier compiler.

Does that clarify everything?

You can download source code distributions from one of the kernel.org mirror
sites. (Refer to: ``Where Can I Get the Latest Kernel Version?,'' below.) The
kernel source code included with Red Hat 7.0 is kernel version 2.2.16, and is
archived generically as linux-2.2.16.tar.gz.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.3. What Resources Are There for Linux DeCSS and Other Open Source DVD
Software?

There is a DeCSS Resource Site at http://www.pzcommunications.com/main.htm.
For information about the legal action to bar distributing DeCSS, refer also
to 2600's Web site: http://www.2600.com, and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, http://www.eff.org.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.4. Where Is Information About Electronic Privacy Laws that Affect ISP's?

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued a report to Congress that
recommends regulations to guarantee privacy for customers of Internet Service
Providers. The text of the report is at http://www.ftc.gov/acoas/papers/
finalreport.htm. The FTC E-commerce site is at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/
menu-internet.htm/

The New York Times on the Web has a page of electronic privacy information
resources at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/reference/index-privacy.html
Access is free but requires registration.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center maintains a Web page at http://
www.epic.org/. The site also has pointers to information about international
laws that affect cryptographic software.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.5. How Is the DocBook Version of the FAQ Produced?

At present, the Linux FAQ uses the OASIS DocBook SGML DTD. HTML output is
produced using James Clark's Jade DSSSL parser with modified versions of
Norman Walsh's modular style sheets. The segmented version is produced from
Jade output using a Perl program called faqinator. Question numbers in the
SGML markup are generated with Perl. The text version is formatted from HTML
with lynx, and split into segments using the standard GNU text utilities, and
the segments are posted to Usenet. The DocBook utilities are located at ftp:/
/ftp.freesoftware.com/pub/sourceware/docbook-tools/. In addition, the Linux
Documentation Project maintains DocBook utilities. Refer to: ``Where Can I
Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation?''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Network Sources and Resources

3.1. Where Can I Get the Latest Kernel Version?

Make that versions. The 2.0 series kernels are still available for older
machines. The latest production kernel series is 2.2.x. The updates to this
kernel are bug fixes. The new 2.4 kernel sources are also on-line.

The Web page at http://www.kernel.org/ lists the current versions of the
development and production kernels.

If you want to download the source code, FTP to ftp.xx.kernel.org, where
``xx'' is the two-letter Internet domain abbreviation of your country; e.g.,
``us'' for United States, ``ca'' for Canada, or ``de'' for Germany. Kernel
versions 2.2.x are archived in the directory pub/linux/kernel/v2.2, as are
patches for the prerelease versions. The kernel source code is archived as a
tar.gz file, and as a .tar.bz2 file.

Follow the instructions in any of the standard references to compile the
kernel, as you would with any other custom kernel. The Documentation
subdirectory contains information by the authors of various subsystems and
drivers, and much of that information is not documented elsewhere.

If you want to participate in kernel development, make sure that you sign on
to the linux-kernel mailing list to find out what people are working on.
Refer to the answer: ``What Mailing Lists Are There?''

There is a story about the features of the 2.4 series kernels at http://
features.linuxtoday.com/stories/8191.html.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.2. Where Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation?

Look in the following places, and the sites that mirror them.

��*�http://www.linuxdoc.org/

��*�ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/OS/Linux/doc/HOWTO/

��*�ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/docs/HOWTO/

��*�ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/

For a list of Linux FTP sites, refer to the answer for: ``Where Can I Get
Linux Material by FTP?''

If you don't have access to FTP, try the FTP-by-mail servers:
[email protected], [email protected], or:
[email protected].

A complete list of HOWTO's is available in the file HOWTO-INDEX at http://
www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html. The mini-HOWTO's are indexed
at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/mini.html.

A search engine at the Linux FAQ Home Page, http://www.mainmatter.com/,
allows you to search the HOWTO's, Linux FAQ, and man pages.

In addition, translations are available from ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/
docs/HOWTO/translations/ and mirrors worldwide. The HOWTO's and other
documentation have been translated into the following languages:

Chinese (Big5) (zh) Croatian (hr) French (fr)
German (de Hellenic (el) Indonesian (id)
Italian (it) Japanese (ja) Korean (ko)
Polish (pl) Slovenian (sl) Spanish (es)
Swedish (sv) Turkish (tr)

Additional documents are always in preparation. Please get in touch with the
coordinators if you are interested in writing one. Contact and submission
information is at http://www.linuxdoc.org/mailinfo.html.

There is also a LDP HOWTO page at http://howto.tucows.org/.

The Guide Series produced by the Linux Documentation Project is available
from http://www.linuxdoc.org/. Please read them if you are new to Unix and
Linux.

The Linux Mobile Guide is an expanded version of the Linux-Laptop-HOWTO. The
URL is: http://home.snafu.de/wehe/howtos.html.

And, of course, a number of people have written documentation independently
of the LDP:

��*�Linux Administrators Security Guide, by Kurt Seifried. http://
www.freek.com/lasg/.

��*�Newbie's Linux Manual. http://www.linuxdot.org/nlm/.

��*�One-Page Linux Manual. http://www.powerup.com.au/~squadron/.

��*�Rute Users Tutorial and Exposition. http://www.rute.sourceforge.net/.

��*�Short beginners' manual for Linux. Also available in Dutch. http://
www.stuwww.kub.nl/people/b.vannunen/linux-man.php3.

��*�Virtual Frame buffer HOWTO, by Alex Buell. http://
www.tahallah.demon.co.uk/programming/prog.html.

��*�X11 & TrueType Fonts, by Peter Kleiweg. http://www.let.rug.nl/~kleiweg/.

Documentation for kernel developers is on-line: http://
kernelbook.sourceforge.net/.

To find out about Linux memory management, including performance tuning, see
Rik van Riel's Web page at http://humbolt.geo.uu.nl/Linux-MM/.

The Linux Consultants HOWTO has a directory of Linux consultants at http://
www.linuxports.com/.

Gary's Encyclopedia lists over 4,000 Linux related links. Its URL is http://
members.aa.net/~swear/pedia/index.html.

There is also a FAQ specifically for the Red Hat Linux distribution, at http:
//www.best.com/~aturner/RedHat-FAQ/faq_index.html.

And the Home Page of this FAQ is http://www.mainmatter.com/.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.3. Where Should I Look on the World Wide Web for Linux Stuff?

In addition to the Linux Documentation Project Home Page: http://
www.linuxdoc.org/, there are many pages that provide beginning and advanced
information about Linux.

These two pages provide a 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, and news.

Documentation for kernel developers is on-line: http://
kernelbook.sourceforge.net/.

The tutorial, Unix is a Four Letter Word..., is located at http://
www.linuxbox.com/~taylor/4ltrwrd/. It is a general introduction to Unix
operating systems and is not Linux specific.

Additionally, here is a certainly incomplete list of Web pages devoted to
Linux:

��*�AboutLinux.com: http://www.aboutlinux.com/.

��*�Adventures in Linux Programming: http://members.xoom.com/rpragana/.

��*�Dave Central Linux Software Archive: http://linux.davecentral.com/.

��*�debianHELP http://www.debianhelp.org/.

��*�Erlug Webzine (Italian): http://www.erlug.linux.it/.

��*�Free Unix Giveaway List: http://visar.csustan.edu/giveaway.html. Lists
offers of free Linux CDs. Also available via E-mail:
[email protected], with the Subject: send giveaway_list.

��*�Information on Linux in corporate environments: http://
www.smartstocks.com/linux.html.

��*�Jeanette Russo's Linux Newbie Information: http://www.stormloader.com/
jrusso2/index.html.

��*�JustLinux.com: http://www.justlinux.com/.

��*�LinuxArtist.org: http://www.linuxartist.org/.

��*�Linux Cartoons: http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~conradp/linux/cartoons/.

��*�linuXChiX.org: http://www.linuxchix.org/.

��*�LinuxDevices.com: The Embedded Linux Portal: http://www.linuxdevices.com.

��*�Linux Educational Needs Posting Page: http://www.slip.net/~brk/
linuxedpp.htm.

��*�Linux in Business: Case Studies: www.bynari.com/collateral/
case_studies.html.

��*�Linux Inside: http://linuxinside.org/.

��*�Linux Links: http://www.linuxlinks.com/.

��*�Linux Memory Management Home Page: http://humbolt.geo.uu.nl/Linux-MM/.

��*�Linux Newbie Project: http://kusma.hypermart.net/.

��*�Linux on the Thinkpad 760ED: http://www.e-oasis.com/linux-tp.html.

��*�LinuxOrbit: http://www.linuxorbit.com/

��*�Linux Parallel Port Home Page: http://www.torque.net/linux-pp.html.

��*�Linux MIDI & Sound Applications: http://sound.condorow.net/.

��*�Linux Start: http://www.linuxstart.com/.

��*�Linux Tips and Tricks Page: http://www.patoche.org/LTT/.

��*�Linux Today PR: http://www.linuxpr.com/.

��*�Mandrakeuser.Org: http://mandrakeuser.org/

��*�My Linux Contributions by Richard Gooch: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch
/linux/.

��*�Micro Channel Linux Web Page: http://www.dgmicro.com/mca/.

��*�Parallel port scanners and SANE: http://www2.prestel.co.uk/hex/
scanners.html.

��*�Pascal Central: http://www.pascal-central.com/

��*�PegaSoft Portal: http://www.vaxxine.com/pegasoft/portal/

��*�PocketLinux. http://www.pocketlinux.com/.

��*�Red Hat and ISDN4Linux: http://www.webideal.de/.

��*�SearchLinux: http://www.searchlinux.com/.

��*�USB Linux Home Page: http://peloncho.fis.ucm.es/~inaky/uusbd-www/.

��*�VLUG: The Virtual Linux Users Group: http://www.vlug.com/.

Searching for ``Linux'' on Web Search Engines, like Yahoo! (http://
www.yahoo.com/) or Google (http://www.google.com/) will provide copious
references to Linux Web sites. Further information about about Web search
engines is in the Web and Internet Search Engine Faq: http://
www.infobasic.com/pagefaq.html.

Refer also to the answer for: ``What Other FAQ's Are There for Linux?''
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.4. What News Groups Are There for Linux?

Comp.os.linux.announce is the moderated announcements group. You should read
this if you intend to use Linux. It contains information about software
updates, new ports, user group meetings, and commercial products. It is the
only newsgroup that may carry commercial postings. Submissions for that group
should be e-mailed to [email protected].

Comp.os.linux.announce is archived at: http://www.iki.fi/mjr/linux/cola.html,
and ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/comp.os.linux.announce/.

Also worth reading are the following other groups in the comp.os.linux.* and
alt.uu.comp.os.linux.* hierarchies??you may find many common problems too
recent for the documentation but are answered in the newsgroups.

��*�alt.uu.comp.os.linux

��*�alt.uu.comp.os.linux.questions

��*�alt.os.linux

��*�alt.os.linux.mandrake

��*�comp.os.linux.admin

��*�comp.os.linux.advocacy

��*�comp.os.linux.alpha

��*�comp.os.linux.answers

��*�comp.os.linux.development

��*�comp.os.linux.development.apps

��*�comp.os.linux.development.system

��*�comp.os.linux.embedded

��*�comp.os.linux.hardware

��*�comp.os.linux.help

��*�comp.os.linux.m68k

��*�comp.os.linux.misc

��*�comp.os.linux.network

��*�comp.os.linux.networking

��*�comp.os.linux.portable

��*�comp.os.linux.powerpc

��*�comp.os.linux.questions

��*�comp.os.linux.redhat

��*�comp.os.linux.security

��*�comp.os.linux.setup

��*�comp.os.linux.test

��*�comp.os.linux.x

��*�comp.os.linux.x.video

Remember that Linux is POSIX compatible, and most all of the material in the
comp.unix.* and comp.windows.x.* groups will be relevant. Apart from hardware
considerations, and some obscure or very technical low-level issues, you'll
find that these groups are good places to start.

Information about e-mail clients (MUA's), mail transfer agents (MTA's), and
other related software are in the comp.mail.* groups, especially:

��*�comp.mail.misc

��*�comp.mail.pine

��*�comp.mail.sendmail

Questions and information about News reading software are in:
news.software.readers.

Please read ``You Still Haven't Answered My Question!'' before posting. Cross
posting 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. In Germany
there is de.comp.os.linux.*. In Australia, try aus.computers.linux. In
Croatia there is hr.comp.linux. In Italy, there is it.comp.linux.

A search of http://www.deja.com/ can provide an up-to-date list of News
groups.

[Axel Boldt, Robert Kiesling]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.5. What Other FAQ's Are There for Linux?

There are a number of special-interest FAQ's on different subjects related to
system administration and use, and also on miscellaneous topics like Flying
Saucer Attacks (the music) and support for recovering sysadmins.

The official Usenet FAQ archives are at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/.

The Internet FAQ Consortium, a private Web site, provides a searchable Web
site at http://www.faqs.org/.

Here are some FAQ's and documents that might be especially useful, and their
network addresses:

��*�A FAQ for new users: http://homes.arealcity.com/swietanowski/LinuxFAQ/.

��*�BASH Frequently Asked Questions: ftp://ftp.cwru.edu/pug/bash/FAQ/.

��*�Frequently Asked Questions about Open Source: http://www.opensource.org/
faq.html.

��*�GNU Emacs: http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/faq-body.shtml.

��*�GNU Linux in Science and Engineering: http://members.home.net/scieng/.

��*�GNU Troff (groff) Info: http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/gnu/groff/.

��*�Gnus 5.x: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/software/contrib/gnus/.

��*�List of Periodic Information Postings: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/
news.answers/periodic-postings/.

��*�Sendmail: http://www.sendmail.org/faq/.

��*�Web Internet Search Engine: http://www.infobasic.com/pagefaq.html

��*�Wu-ftpd: http://www.wu-ftpd.org/man/ (really a collection of man pages),
with HOWTO's at: http://www.wu-ftpd.org/HOWTO/

��*�XTERM??Frequently Asked Questions. http://dickey.his.com/xterm/
xterm.faq.html.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.6. Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?

There are three main archive sites for Linux:

��*�ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/OS/Linux/ (Finland).

��*�ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/. Recently renamed to http://ibiblio.org/
pub/linux/ with a nice WWW interface. (US).

��*�ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ (US).

The best place to get the Linux kernel is ftp://ftp.kernel.org/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://
ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/. Red Hat Linux's home site is ftp://ftp.redhat.com
/, and Linux Slackware's is ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/.

The Small Linux distribution, which can run in 2 MB of RAM, is located at
http://smalllinux.netpedia.net/.

The contents of these sites is mirrored (copied, usually approximately daily)
by a number of other sites. Please use a site close to you??it will be faster
for you and easier on the network.

��*�ftp://ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/linux/sunsite/ (South Africa)

��*�ftp://ftp.is.co.za/linux/sunsite/ (South Africa).

��*�ftp://ftp.cs.cuhk.hk/pub/Linux/ (Hong Kong).

��*�ftp://sunsite.ust.hk/pub/Linux/ (Hong Kong).

��*�ftp://ftp.spin.ad.jp/pub/linux/ (Japan).

��*�ftp://ftp.nuri.net/pub/Linux/ (Korea).

��*�ftp://ftp.jaring.my/pub/Linux/ (Malaysia).

��*�ftp://ftp.nus.sg/pub/unix/Linux/ (Singapore).

��*�ftp://ftp.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/linux/ (Thailand).

��*�ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia).

��*�ftp://sunsite.anu.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia).

��*�ftp://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia).

��*�ftp://ftp.univie.ac.at/systems/linux/sunsite/ (Austria).

��*�ftp://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/UNIX/linux/ (Czech Republic).

��*�ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/sunsite/ (Finland).

��*�ftp://ftp.univ-angers.fr/pub/Linux/ (France).

��*�ftp://ftp.iut-bm.univ-fcomte.fr/ (France).

��*�ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (France)

��*�ftp://ftp.loria.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (France).

��*�ftp://ftp.dfv.rwth-aachen.de/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Germany).

��*�ftp://ftp.germany.eu.net/pub/os/Linux/Mirror.SunSITE/(Germany).

��*�ftp://ftp.tu-dresden.de/pub/Linux/sunsite/ (Germany).

��*�ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/MIRROR.sunsite/ (Germany).

��*�ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/mirrors/sunsite/ (Germany).

��*�ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/linux/mirror.sunsite/ (Germany).

��*�ftp://ftp.ba-mannheim.de/pub/linux/mirror.sunsite/ (Germany).

��*�ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/Mirrors/sunsite.unc.edu/(Germany).

��*�ftp://ftp.uni-rostock.de/Linux/sunsite/ (Germany).

��*�ftp.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/unix/systems/linux/MIRROR.sunsite/(Germany).

��*�ftp://ftp.uni-tuebingen.de/pub/linux/Mirror.sunsite/ (Germany).

��*�ftp://ftp.kfki.hu/pub/linux/(Hungary).

��*�ftp://linux.italnet.it/pub/Linux/(Italy).

��*�ftp://ftp.unina.it/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Italy).

��*�ftp://giotto.unipd.it/pub/unix/Linux/ (Italy).

��*�ftp://cnuce-arch.cnr.it/pub/Linux/ (Italy).

��*�ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/mirror2/metalab.unc.edu/ (Italy).

��*�ftp://ftp.nijenrode.nl/pub/linux/ (Netherlands).

��*�ftp://ftp.LeidenUniv.nl/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Netherlands).

��*�ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Norway).

��*�ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/Linux/metalab.unc.edu/ (Poland).

��*�ftp://ftp.rediris.es/software/os/linux/sunsite/ (Spain).

��*�ftp://sunsite.rediris.es/software/linux/ (Spain).

��*�ftp://ftp.cs.us.es/pub/Linux/sunsite-mirror/ (Spain).

��*�ftp://ftp.etse.urv.es/pub/mirror/linux/ (Spain).

��*�ftp://tp.etsimo.uniovi.es/pub/linux/ (Spain).

��*�ftp://ftp.luna.gui.es/pub/linux.new/ (Spain).

��*�ftp://ftp.metu.edu.tr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Turkey).

��*�ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/sunsite/pub/Linux/ (UK).

��*�ftp.maths.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/(UK).

��*�ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/Linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/(UK).

��*�ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/(UK).

��*��(UK)

��*�ftp://ftp.io.org/pub/mirrors/linux/sunsite/ (Canada).

��*�ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/ (US).

��*�ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/pub/linux/sunsite/ (US).

��*�ftp://ftp.siriuscc.com/pub/Linux/Sunsite/ (US).

��*�ftp://ftp.engr.uark.edu/pub/linux/sunsite/ (US).

��*�ftp://ftp.infomagic.com/pub/mirrors/linux/sunsite/ (US).

��*�ftp://linux.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/(Brazil).

��*�ftp://farofa.ime.usp.br/pub/linux/ (Brazil).

Please send updates and corrections to this list to the Linux FAQ maintainer,
[email protected]. Not all of these mirror all of the other ``source''
sites, and some have material not available on the ``source'' sites.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.7. 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], or [email protected].

Linux is also available via traditional mail on CD-ROM. The file ftp://
metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO, and the file ftp://
metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Distribution-HOWTO contain information
on these distributions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.8. 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]. Subscribing 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 subscribe and
unsubscribe messages; mail to the other address is posted to the news group.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.9. 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 that lists instructions for
subscribing and unsubscribing to the lists.

Currently, the kernel list is archived at: http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/
hypermail/linux/kernel/, and http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/linux-kernel/
archive/

Please do not post off-topic material to the mailing lists. Most of them are
used by Linux developers to talk about technical issues and future
developments. They are not intended for new users' questions, advertisements,
or public postings that are not directly related to the mailing list's
subject matter. Comp.os.linux.announce is the place for all public
announcements. This is a common Internet policy. If you don't observe this
guideline, there's a good chance that you'll be flamed.

There is a linux-newbie list where, "no question is too stupid."
Unfortunately, it seems that few experienced users read that list, and it has
very low volume.

There are numerous Linux related mailing lists at http://www.onelist.com/. Go
to the categories page and choose "Linux." There are also mailing list
subscription links at: http://oslab.snu.ac.kr/~djshin/linux/mail-list/.

The Mailing Lists Available in Usenet page is: http://paml.net/. The list
information is also on: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/, and is posted to the groups:
news.announce.newgroups, news.lists, and news.groups, among others.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.10. Where Are Linux Legal Issues Discussed?

On the linux-legal mailing list, of course. You can subscribe to it, as with
many of the other Linux related lists, by sending a message with the word
"help" in the body of the message to [email protected].
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.11. Where Can I Find Out About Unmaintained Free Software?

There are Web pages at: http://unmaintained.sourceforge.net, and: http://
www.orphansource.org/.

Please try to contact the original author(s) via e-mail, or the person who
listed the software as unmaintained, before even thinking to place a license
on the package.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.12. Are the News Groups Archived Anywhere?

The Usenet Linux news groups are archived at http://www.deja.com/, and http:/
/altavista.digital.com/.

ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/linux-announce.archive contains archives
of comp.os.linux.announce. These are mirrored from ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/
usenet/, which also archives comp.os.linux, comp.os.linux.development.apps,
and comp.os.linux.development.system.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.13. Where Can I Find Out About Security Related Issues?

There's a page of Linux related security information at: http://
www.linuxsecurity.com/.

Another site is: http://www.rootshell.com/, which has information about
Internet security and privacy issues.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.14. Where Can I Find Linux System Specifications?

As a start, look at the Linux Standards Base, http://www.linuxbase.org/. The
site contains information about test software, file system organization, and
shared library naming conventions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Compatibility with Other Operating Systems

4.1. 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.

Linux has loadable kernel modules for (presumably) all versions of Microsoft
FAT and VFAT file systems, including Windows 2000 and WindowsMe. In a
correctly configured system, they should load automatically when the
partitions are mounted.

Note, however, that many other operating systems may not be exactly
compatible. DOS's FDISK.EXE and 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 from doing this, it is a good 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., /dev/hda1 for the first partition
of the first (IDE) disk.

Linux can read and write the files on your DOS and OS/2 FAT partitions 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.

There is reportedly a GPL'd OS/2 device driver that will read and write Linux
ext2 partitions.

For information about FAT32 partition support, see http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/
people/chaffee/fat32.html.

See, (``What Software Does Linux Support?'') for details and status of the
emulators for DOS, MS Windows, and System V programs.

See also, "Can Linux access Amiga file systems? ", "Can Linux access
Macintosh file systems? ", "Can Linux access BSD, SysV, etc., UFS? ", and
"Can Linux access SMB file systems? "

There are said to be NTFS drivers under development, which should support
compression as a standard feature.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.2. How Do I Access Files on My DOS Partition or Floppy?

Use the DOS file system, type, for example:

$ mkdir /dos
$ mount -t msdos -o conv=text,umask=022,uid=100,gid=100 /dev/hda3 /dos

If it's a floppy, don't forget to umount it before ejecting it!

You can use the conv=text/binary/auto, umask=nnn, uid=nnn, and gid=nnn
options to control the automatic line-ending conversion, permissions and
ownerships of the files in the DOS file system as they appear under Linux. If
you mount your DOS file system by putting it in your /etc/fstab, you can
record the options (comma-separated) there, instead of defaults.

Alternatively, you can use mtools, available in both binary and source form
on the FTP sites. (``Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?'')

A kernel patch (known as the fd-patches) is available which allows floppies
with nonstandard numbers of tracks and/or sectors to be used; this patch is
included in the 1.1 alpha testing kernel series.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.3. Does Linux Support Compressed Ext2 File Systems?

The ext2compr project provides a kernel patch Information about them is
located at http://e2ompr.memalpha.cx/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. For more
information about the project, including the latest patches, and the address
of the mailing list, look up the URL at http://debs.fuller.edu/e2compr/.

[Roderich Schupp, Peter Moulder]

zlibc is a program that allows existing applications to read compressed (GNU
gzip'ed) files as if they were not compressed. Look at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/
pub/Linux/libs/. The author is Alain Knaff.

There is also a compressing block device driver, "DouBle," by Jean-Marc
Verbavatz, which can provide on-the-fly disk compression in the kernel. The
source-only distribution is located at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/
patches/diskdrives/. This driver compresses inodes and directory information
as well as files, so any corruption of the file 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 at ftp://
metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/compress/.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.4. Can I Use My Stacked/DBLSPC/Etc. DOS Drive?

Until recently, not very easily. You can access DOS 6.X volumes from 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, that reads and writes compressed
file systems like DoubleSpace/DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.x and Win95, as well as
Stacker versions 3 and 4. It is a loadable kernel module. Look at ftp://
metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/dosfs/.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.5. 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 or 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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.6. 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 module. The file
Documentation/filesystems/affs.txt in the Linux kernel source distribution
has more information.

See (``How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My Kernel?'')

Linux supports AFFS hard-drive partitions only. Floppy access is not
supported due to incompatibilities between Amiga floppy controllers and PC
and workstation controllers. The AFFS driver can also mount disk partitions
used by the Un*x Amiga Emulator, by Bernd Schmidt.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.7. 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?'')
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.8. Can Linux Access SMB File Systems?

Linux supports read/write access of Windows for Workgroups and Windows NT SMB
volumes. See the file Documentation/filesystems/smbfs.txt of the Linux kernel
source distribution, and (``How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My Kernel?'')

There is also a suite of programs called Samba which provide support for WfW
networked file systems (provided they're for TCP/IP). Information is
available in the README file at metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/network/
samba/.

The SMB Web site is http://www.samba.org/, and there is also a Web site at
samba.anu.edu.au/samba/.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.9. Can Linux Access Macintosh File Systems?

There is a set of user-level programs that read and write the older Macintosh
Hierarchical File System (HFS). It is available at metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/
utils/disk-management/.

Access to the newer, HFS+ file systems is still under development.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.10. Can I Run Microsoft Windows Programs under Linux?

WINE, a MS Windows emulator for Linux, is still not ready for general
distribution. If you want to contribute to its development, look for the
status reports in the comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine newsgroup.

There is also a FAQ, compiled by P. David Gardner, at ftp://metalab.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 boot loader, can boot one of several
operating systems from a menu. See the LILO documentation for details.

Also, LOADLIN.EXE (a DOS program to load a Linux, or other OS, kernel is one
way to make Linux co-exist with DOS. LOADLIN.EXE is particularly handy when
you want to install Linux on a 3rd or 4th drive on a system (or when you're
adding a SCSI drive to a system with an existing IDE).

In these cases, it is common for LILO's boot loader to be unable to find or
load the kernel on the "other" drive. So you just create a C:\LINUX directory
(or whatever), put LOADLIN.EXE in it with a copy of your kernel, and use
that.

LOADLIN.EXE is a VCPI compliant program. Win95 will want to, "shutdown into
DOS mode," to run it (as it would with certain other DOS protected-mode
programs).

Earlier versions of LOADLIN.EXE sometimes required a package called
REALBIOS.COM, which required a boot procedure on an (almost) blank floppy to
map the interrupt vectors (prior to the loading of any software drivers).
(Current versions don't seem to ship with it, and don't seem to need it).

[Jim Dennis]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.11. Where Can I Get Information about NFS Compatibility?

This information is partly taken from Nicolai Langfeldt's excellent NFS
HOWTO, and is current as of 10/1/1999.

Most version 2.2.x kernels need a set of patches to install the knfsd
subsystem, maintained by H.J. Lu, to communicate efficiently (if at all) with
Sparc, IBM RS, and Alpha machines, and probably others. This package is
actually a collection of patches to the kernel sources.

There is also a user-space server. Although it lacks remote file locking, it
is easier to install. It may be equally efficient.

In the Documentation/Changes of recent kernel distributions, there is a list
of URL's for both the knfsd server and the user-space server.

There is a CVS server available for the kernel-space NFS subsystem, as well
as a NFS WWW page at http://www.linuxnfs.sourceforge.org/, although the URL
requires a password for access. The relevant URL's are listed in the
README.nfs file at ftp://ftp.us.kernel.org/, and other kernel archive sites,
along with login information. Patches are at ftp://ftp.varesearch.com/pub/
kernel/latest/patches/.

The source archives of the user-space server and utilities currently reside
on ftp://linux.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de:/pub/linux/people/okir/.

In the case of older Solaris releases, the lack of statd or lockd on a client
or server machine may cause incompatibility. On some versions of Solaris,
statd can be used to exploit features of the automounter. Sun released a
patch to correct this, but statd still needs to be started by root on such
systems. On recent Solaris systems, refer to the information in /etc/dfs/
dfstab and the share(1M) manual page to enable volume sharing. In addition,
the rpcinfo program can tell you if statd or lockd are available on the local
or remote machines.

The linux-kernel mailing list has on-and-off discussions of the status of the
NFS subsystem, which appears to be changing rapidly.

[Nicolai Langfeldt, Robert Kiesling, Anders Hammarquist]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.12. Can I Use True Type Fonts with Linux?

Yes. There are a number of True Type font servers for the X Window System.
One of them is xfsft. Its home page is http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/jec/
programs/xfsft/. There are also instructions for configuration.

People have reported success with other True Type font servers. There are
links from the xfsft Home Page to them as well.

You can also compile True Type Font support into your X server directly.
Again, refer to the xfsft Home Page for details.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.13. How Can I Boot Linux from MS-DOS?

If LILO doesn't work, and if the machine has MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows, you
may be left with a computer that won't boot. This can also happen on an
upgrade to your Linux distribution. Re-installing LILO is the last thing that
the installation does. So it is vitally important when installing or
upgrading Linux on a dual boot machine, to have a MS-DOS or Windows rescue
disk nearby so you can FDISK -MBR. Then you can go about using LOADLIN.EXE
instead of LILO.

This config.sys file is one possible way to invoke LOADLIN.EXE and boot
MS-DOS or Linux.

[menu]
menuitem=DOS, Dos Boot
menuitem=LINUX, Linux Boot

[LINUX]
shell=c:\redhat\loadlin.exe c:\redhat\autoboot\vmlinuz vga=5 root=/dev

[DOS]
STACKS = 0,0
rem all the other DOS drivers get loaded here.

This creates a menu where you can directly jump to LOADLIN.EXE before all of
the MS-DOS drivers get loaded.

The paths and options are peculiar to one machine and should be intuitively
obvious to the most casual observer. See the LOADLIN.EXE docs for options.
They are the same as LILO, and options are just passed to the kernel, anyhow.

[Jim Harvey]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.14. 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 is so that
OS/2 knows about the partition being formatted. (This step 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 mkfs -t ext2
or mke2fs. At this point you may, if you like, use Linux's 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 record of the
hard drive. This installs LILO as a second-stage boot loader on the Linux
partition itself, to start up the kernel specified in the LILO
configuration file. To do this, you should put
boot = /dev/hda2

(where /dev/hda2 is the partition you want to boot from) in your /etc/
lilo/config or /etc/lilo.config file.

7. Make sure that it is the Boot Manager partition that is marked active, so
that you can use Boot Manager to choose what to boot.

There is a set of HOWTO's on the subject of multi-boot systems at the LDP
Home Page, http://www.linuxdoc.org/.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. File Systems, Disks, and Drives

5.1. 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 `physical' cylinders/heads/sectors, and `logical' ones.

SCSI disks are accessed by linear block numbers. The BIOS invents some
`logical' cylinder/head/sector fiction to support DOS.

An IBM PC-compatible BIOS will usually not be able to access partitions which
extend beyond 1024 logical cylinders, and will make booting a Linux kernel
from such partitions using LILO problematic at best.

You can still use such partitions for Linux or other operating systems that
access the controller directly.

It's recommend that you create at least one Linux partition entirely under
the 1024 logical cylinder limit, and boot from that. The other partitions
will then be okay.

Also there seems to be a bit of trouble with the newer Ultra-DMA drives. I
haven't gotten the straight scoop on them??but they are becoming a very
common problem at the SVLUG installfests. When you can get 8 to 12 Gig drives
for $200 to $300 it's no wonder.

[Jim Dennis]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.2. 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 system 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 out automatically by
background processing.

Alternatively, you can search the raw disk device which holds the file system
in question. This is hard work, and you will need to be logged in as root to
do this. But it can be done. Run grep on the raw device; e.g.:

grep -b 'bookmarks' /dev/hda

If the data has not been overwritten, you should be able to recover it with a
text editor.

[Dave Cinege]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.3. How Do I Make Backups?

You can back up a directory hierarchy or complete file system to any media
using GNU tar or cpio, the standard *nix tools for this purpose. tar seems to
be the more commonly used program currently, and includes command line
options to make compressed, incremental, and multi-volume backups. Complete
information is contained in the documentation, which is in GNU Texinfo
format.

The free program, Amanda, receives a lot of mentions on Usenet. Its home page
is http://www.amanda.org/.

Several commercial backup utilities also exist. They are often included in
commercial distributions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.4. How Do I Resize a Partition (Non-Destructively)?

Use the FIPS.EXE program, included with most Linux distributions,under
MS-DOS.

GNU parted, a partition editor, is stable enough for non-guru, mere-mortal
use with relative confidence. Source code for the latest version is at: ftp:/
/ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/parted/. There's also a boot disk image for resizing
root partitions and for running parted on non-Linux machines. The disk image
may be easier for beginners. Building from source could require some extra
configuration.

Parted also has tutorial-style, plain-text documentation for Linux and FAT
(MS-DOS) file systems.

Also, some commercial distributions come with their own partitioning
software, like Partition Magic.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.5. Is There a Defragmenter for Ext2fs, Etc.?

Yes. There is defrag, a Linux file system defragmenter for ext2, Minix, and
old-style ext file systems. It is available at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/
Linux/system/filesystems/defrag-0.70.tar.gz.

Users of the ext2 file system can probably do without defrag, because ext2
contains extra code to keep fragmentation reduced even in very full file
systems.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.6. 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 the B:
drive use fd1 instead of fd0.

The -m 0 option tells mkfs.ext2 not to reserve any space on the disk for the
superuser??usually the last 10% is reserved for root.

The first command performs a low-level format. The second creates an empty
file system. You can mount the floppy like a hard disk partition and simply
cp and mv files, etc.

Device naming conventions generally are the same as for other unices. They
can be found in Matt Welsh's Installation and Getting Started guide. Refer to
(``Where Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation?'') A more detailed
and technical description is Linux 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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.7. Does Linux Support Virtualized File Systems Like RAID?

The most recent Linux kernels support software RAID, and they will work with
RAID disk controllers.

An automounter for NFS partitions is part of most Linux distributions.

In addition, several virtual file system projects exist. One of them, the
Linux Logical Volume Manager, is located at http://linux.msede.com/lvm/.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.8. Does Linux Support File System Encryption?

Yes. One file system, ppdd, is archived at http://pweb.de.uu.net/flexsys.mtk/