September 2001 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Re: [Wlug] Anyone played around with Linux on iPaq?

by Brad Noyes

On Thu, Sep 06, 2001 at 12:30:04AM +0000, Dan Potter wrote: > I recently perchased an iPAQ from Compaq, and as many probably already > know, there is a Linux distro for iPAQ. There's a bunch, Familiar is probably what you'll want, but there are others, http://handhelds.org has a bunch of info > Anyone have any experience with it? Suggestions? I'm using QT-Palmtop right now on my ipaq. It's pretty nice, There are a few things missing from Qt-Palmtop. My ipaq will not wake up and alert me of appointments, there's not natural hand writing recognizer (like MS's transcriber), only since character recognizer like palm. you can't Turn on/off the backlight by holding down the power button (i found that to be useful). Also there's no real sync utility, so you can't sync with other apps, like kmail for email, etc. Those are some of the problems that i see with linux on the Ipaq as of right now. But people are working on solutions. A big plus for me is that i can access my Ipaq from my linux machine, since i don't have a windows machine i couldn't access it at all before with WinCE. Also if you don't like something in application you can change it and re-compile (handhelds.org has a cross compiler to compile apps for the strong-arm processor). installing linux on the ipaq, can be kind of tense, so if you do decided to install make sure you read the instructions thoroughly first. --brad

Sept. 6, 2001

Re: [Wlug] RHL 7.1 upgrade: Xterm bizarre, etc

by Charles R . Anderson

On Thu, Sep 06, 2001 at 06:55:10AM -0400, Peter Gutowski wrote: peter> Although *installing* linux from RedHat disks has improved over the years, I still find that upgrading an existing installation can really try your patience. After doing a number of clean installs using the RedHat 7.1 disks, I felt comfortable thinking I could upgrade without much problem. I've upgraded RHL systems from 4.2 through to 7.1 without major problems. peter> There are a number of things that changed. Some I had know about from the previous clean installs. Others came as a distressing surprize: for instance the sendmail upgrade changes default behavior radically in that it is compiled against the tcpwrappers library, so now you need to consider sendmail entries in your hosts.allow and hosts.deny. Actually, that's a great idea, but I sure wish I knew that before hand (rather than bouncing mail for 2 days until I discovered the problem.) That change, among others, is clearly documented in the release notes which you should have read before upgrading. peter> I usually don't run xdm (runlevel 5 default in RedHat) but just do a startx. When I do that everything seems pretty OK until I actually try to *do* something. I click on the Netscape icon in the panel on the bottom of the screen. Nothing. I launch an xterm to try to figure out what's happening (or not, in this case) and it just gets worse: the keys don't seem to be matched up to the correct characters. When I press the 'o' key, I get a 'p' on the screen. When I press 'i', I get 'o'. In general it seems like the whole keyboard is just slid over by 1 key -- but I can't seem to find a key that gives me an return or enter. Check for an erroneous xmodmap or xkb map file. They are usually in /etc/X11/xdm, /etc/X11/xinit, or your home directory (.xmodmap or similar). I would try moving these out of the way first, if they exist, and see if that helps.

Sept. 6, 2001

RHL 7.1 upgrade: Xterm bizarre, etc

by Peter Gutowski

Although *installing* linux from RedHat disks has improved over the years, I still find that upgrading an existing installation can really try your patience. After doing a number of clean installs using the RedHat 7.1 disks, I felt comfortable thinking I could upgrade without much problem. Wrongo. There are a number of things that changed. Some I had know about from the previous clean installs. Others came as a distressing surprize: for instance the sendmail upgrade changes default behavior radically in that it is compiled against the tcpwrappers library, so now you need to consider sendmail entries in your hosts.allow and hosts.deny. Actually, that's a great idea, but I sure wish I knew that before hand (rather than bouncing mail for 2 days until I discovered the problem.) Anyway, I could go on detailing some of these fascinating experiences, but I'll get to the point: my xterm seems to be bizarre when running on the local xserver. I usually don't run xdm (runlevel 5 default in RedHat) but just do a startx. When I do that everything seems pretty OK until I actually try to *do* something. I click on the Netscape icon in the panel on the bottom of the screen. Nothing. I launch an xterm to try to figure out what's happening (or not, in this case) and it just gets worse: the keys don't seem to be matched up to the correct characters. When I press the 'o' key, I get a 'p' on the screen. When I press 'i', I get 'o'. In general it seems like the whole keyboard is just slid over by 1 key -- but I can't seem to find a key that gives me an return or enter. As you can imagine this is annoying. I use Hummingbird Xceed on a windoze machine and the Xterm there running from the linux machine seems to be problem free. (Actually, that's how I usually "use" my linux machine -- I very rarely sit down in front of it.) When I do sit in front of it and use a plain tty, it's fine that way too. Any ideas what's going on here? -Peter Gutowski

Sept. 6, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Thanks

by William Smith

On Wed, 5 Sep 2001, Colin Novick wrote: CN>On the windows side of my machine I am connecting my machine to a large CN>format HP printer (DesignJet 488 CA) through a 3Com network card and CN>a 3Com 4 port fast ethernet hub. The HP requires that I send all the CN>data to a HP JetDirect 300X box that transfers the data through a CN>parallel conn. to the printer. It is faster for big projects that way CN>if you believe the literature. That works fine in Windows , but again CN>I can't "see" the important command settings that make trying to CN>understand what works, and thus how to replicate it in Linux hard. it's not that hard, i think. does Mandrake have something like printtool? in RedHat, there's a program called control-panel that allows the admin to configure printers. it was through this that i told it about network printers (the information is stored in /etc/printcap).... once you know hostnames or IP addresses for the printers, the rest isn't difficult at all. that little box seems to act like a print buffer. pretty handy. CN>I haven't been able to address the large HP in Linux through printing CN>programs, network interfaces, or fiddling in network settings. My hm. is there an LCD on the printer? if so, you might be able to manually configure that part yourself locally (that is, local to the printer). make sure that the IP address is free to be assigned and that it is within the realm of those used on your network (IP, subnet mask, etc). CN>machine's network card is there (eth0) and I can ping that. Thus there CN>is a way out and onto the network. All the connected items satisfy the CN>3Com hub and the appropriate indicator lights show a good connection. okay... that takes care of my next question before i even ask it. CN>I was of the belief that the HP printer may have a "static" IP in its CN>hardware so I tried pinging that. No luck. Nor any luck for trying to CN>just assign an IP to it, though I have to admit that I may have done CN>that improperly through ignorance. there is a factory default, but it's not likely that you could access it from any machine unless you change your IP address on the host... i've seen that on WinDOZE: HP Jet Direct couldn't see new printers unless i changed my Win* box to that IP subnet first. once i went in and made changes (including changing the printer's IP address!), i could put the settings back, and i'd be in business. CN>Each time I installed Mandrake I made sure that the hub and printer were CN>on in the hopes that it might be automatically detected in the setup. not likely. the printer doesn't need to say much about its presence, so.... CN>I figured that my general difficulties in overall printing might be part CN>of the issue so I am trying to add to the network an old PentiumI using CN>another 3Com card. I heard that connections are easier if you keep the CN>connections all in the same family. That card is there as eth0 on that CN>machine as well and I can ping the card from its machine. familiarity is the main reason. it doesn't really matter who the manufacturers are, so long as you know what you're dealing with. CN>Part of the issue is trying to figure out how to set the settings in both CN>of the machines such that they can find one another. I was originally CN>thinking that this was a peer to peer relationship and that I needed to CN>set the IP's on each of the machines and then try to have one ping the CN>other. The Mandrake Config programs are not doing this automatically for CN>me so I tried messing around in the terminal. there are a lot of things that don't get set automagically, but that's okay. that's what we're here for, right? ;) Bill Smith Fall River, MA

Sept. 6, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Fwd: Sympathy for a guy over his head

by William Smith

On Tue, 4 Sep 2001, Ben Dow wrote: BD>Ok... I'll start off by saying I'm not all that familiar with Mandrake, BD>and I haven't fooled around much with printing, so I'll skip that part. so will i, for pretty-much the same reasons... 8\ BD>But as for the network, I'm kind of confused about what's going on there. BD>You're trying to connect to another machine on the same network (I assume BD>you've got them wired right, with a hub or crossover cable), right? Does BD>the network card show up as detected in the kernel start-up messages? Is BD>the interface configured correctly? Can you ping another machine? Am I BD>making any sense here? the first thing i would look for here is a link indicator. when the two machines are "supposed" to be networked (by connecting them directly together via cross-over cable or by plugging them both into a common hub of some sort with straigh-through cables), the interface cards (and the hub, if you're using one) should have some sort of LED or light that shows that there is a connection. if that does not happen, then the rest of the effort is pretty futile... if there IS a link light, the next trick is to make sure that both systems are on the same network, but with different network addresses. (don't think for a second that this should be obvious. i've seen worse.) when you're this far, THEN see if you can ping the other system from each box.... for that matter, try pinging localhost, too. if a system can't ping localhost, then it's got Bigger Issues... 8( don't worry about SAMBA unless you're trying to make the Linux boxen available to a WinDOZE box. BD>Also, how is your internet connection set up (ie dial-up, etc), and how BD>are you trying to connect to them? (what commands do you run) It sounds BD>like pppd isn't actually connecting to the other side, but it's hard to be BD>sure. if you're looking at a local LAN, then this is a moot point. BD>> I have yet to unpack how one goes about fixing that. BD>> Most recent challenge was to get a network connection established between BD>> two machines on 3Com cards on a 3Com box. if i remember right, 3Com should be supported. i can't say that it is out-of-the-box, since i don't know Mandrake. Red Hat may require recompiling the kernel for 3Com support. BD>> Any thoughts, or maybe even just a weak hearted consoling word or two. you're all-right. really. ;) as long as we learn from our mistakes, we're all-set. i've made more than my share (sometimes more than once), and i'll make more... <sigh> BD>> My deepest and sincerest thanks to the learned who had to endure hear a BD>> young fool trying to find his feet. anyone that can survive me talking too much will find your message a cake-walk. <g> good luck... Bill Smith Fall River, MA

Sept. 6, 2001

Anyone played around with Linux on iPaq?

by Dan Potter

I recently perchased an iPAQ from Compaq, and as many probably already know, there is a Linux distro for iPAQ. Anyone have any experience with it? Suggestions? Thanks!

Sept. 6, 2001

Re: Mandrake network/pppd problems

by Benjamin Zack

I am not sure what scripts Mandrake put in place to share your network, but if you haven't checked the ipchains/iptables rule sets, do so. It is possible that a rule set could prevent you from logging on via pppd and block ports necessary for communication with the printer. The commands below will clear out the rule sets(enter as root), but will leave you system open. I would not suggest staying online long without a good working rule set. service ipchains stop service iptables stop use the appropriate line (I believe Mandrake 7.2 uses ipchains by default) or try both. -Ben

Sept. 5, 2001

Re: [Wlug] Thanks

by Peter Gutowski

On Wednesday, September 5, 2001 11:12 AM, Colin Novick <gwlt(a)ma.ultranet.com> wrote: >Thanks Ben! > ... > >On the windows side of my machine I am connecting my machine to a large >format HP printer (DesignJet 488 CA) through a 3Com network card and >a 3Com 4 port fast ethernet hub. The HP requires that I send all the >data to a HP JetDirect 300X box that transfers the data through a >parallel conn. to the printer. It is faster for big projects that way >if you believe the literature. That works fine in Windows , but again >I can't "see" the important command settings that make trying to >understand what works, and thus how to replicate it in Linux >hard. > >I haven't been able to address the large HP in Linux through printing >programs, network interfaces, or fiddling in network settings. My >machine's network card is there (eth0) and I can ping that. Thus there >is a way out and onto the network. All the connected items satisfy the >3Com hub and the appropriate indicator lights show a good connection. >I was of the belief that the HP printer may have a "static" IP in its >hardware so I tried pinging that. No luck. Nor any luck for trying to >just assign an IP to it, though I have to admit that I may have done >that improperly through ignorance. > You probably need to configure your jetdirect box with an ip address (You can use the Windows-based JetAdmin to check/change settings). You can't ping the jetdirect box if it's TCP/IP network settings aren't set or are wrong for your network. (BTW, once it's settings _are_ correct you can telnet into the jetdirect box to make further changes, [or screwups ;]) After that it's a matter of adjusting the /etc/printcap to know where to send the data. E.g.... //----- portion of /etc/printcap ------- lp:\ :sh:\ :ml=0:\ :mx=0:\ :sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:\ :rm=jetdirect:\ :rp=RAW1:\ :bk:\ :lpd_bounce=true:\ :if=/usr/share/printconf/mf_wrapper: the 'rm' means 'remote machine' (in my case here it's name is 'jetdirect' which resolves to an ip address) and the 'rp' is the name of the print queue on that remote machine (in my example here the queue name is 'RAW1'). You'll need to consult jetdirect box's setting to know how it should be set for your printer. (Also the 'if' option is responsible for creating the data in a format that your printer will handle) What does 'route -n' output look like? (might be /sbin/route) -- Peter Gutowski <peter(a)linuxchamps.com> // tel.: (413) 587-3957 "When in company, put not your hands to any part of the body not usually discovered." --George Washington, _Rules for Civility and Decent Behavior_

Sept. 5, 2001

Thanks

by Colin Novick

Thanks Ben! > Ok... I'll start off by saying I'm not all that familiar with Mandrake, > and I haven't fooled around much with printing, so I'll skip that part. That's cool. Any help or improvement would be welcome. Besides just writing/talking it through might spark something. I do appreciate the response. > But as for the network, I'm kind of confused about what's going on there. You and me both. First off. I am not learned on networking. I am reading and trying, but not getting traction. On the windows side of my machine I am connecting my machine to a large format HP printer (DesignJet 488 CA) through a 3Com network card and a 3Com 4 port fast ethernet hub. The HP requires that I send all the data to a HP JetDirect 300X box that transfers the data through a parallel conn. to the printer. It is faster for big projects that way if you believe the literature. That works fine in Windows , but again I can't "see" the important command settings that make trying to understand what works, and thus how to replicate it in Linux hard. I haven't been able to address the large HP in Linux through printing programs, network interfaces, or fiddling in network settings. My machine's network card is there (eth0) and I can ping that. Thus there is a way out and onto the network. All the connected items satisfy the 3Com hub and the appropriate indicator lights show a good connection. I was of the belief that the HP printer may have a "static" IP in its hardware so I tried pinging that. No luck. Nor any luck for trying to just assign an IP to it, though I have to admit that I may have done that improperly through ignorance. Each time I installed Mandrake I made sure that the hub and printer were on in the hopes that it might be automatically detected in the setup. That has not occurred. When I installed the PentiumI I made sure that the hub, printer and the main machine I work on were all up and running in the hopes that again it would detect that there was a network present. It did not. I figured that my general difficulties in overall printing might be part of the issue so I am trying to add to the network an old PentiumI using another 3Com card. I heard that connections are easier if you keep the connections all in the same family. That card is there as eth0 on that machine as well and I can ping the card from its machine. Part of the issue is trying to figure out how to set the settings in both of the machines such that they can find one another. I was originally thinking that this was a peer to peer relationship and that I needed to set the IP's on each of the machines and then try to have one ping the other. The Mandrake Config programs are not doing this automatically for me so I tried messing around in the terminal. I have Mandrake 7.2 running on the PentiumI, though when it is running properly I will try to stay out of a desktop environment unless I have some time on my hands. > You're trying to connect to another machine on the same network (I assume > you've got them wired right, with a hub or crossover cable), right? Yes I believe that the connections I have made are proper, and that the kernel has properly been set to the right network card drivers. > Does the network card show up as detected in the kernel start-up messages? Yes, eth0 comes up properly in the kernel start up. > Is the interface configured correctly? I believe that it is. > Can you ping another machine? No. I have not yet been able to ping another machine. > Am I making any sense here? Yes. > Also, how is your internet connection set up (ie dial-up, etc), Dial up 3 Com modem to Ultranet, or rather, RCN. > and how > are you trying to connect to them? (what commands do you run) In KDE I pull up the internet connection dialog, and lately I simply go to the Terminal and go through the following: ATZ OK ATDT15084258111 CONNECT 49333/ARQ/V90/LAPM/V42BIS (Carriage Return) ** APXI.SBO.MA.RCN.NET Terminal Server ** Login: ****@** Password: ******** Entering PPP Session IP Address is 216.164.248.83 MTU is 1500 and then I am stuck not knowing what I need to do to complete the connect or if I am waiting for the server to send me something else. > It sounds like pppd isn't actually connecting to the other side, but it's hard to be > sure. Anyway I can check that? The Debug program offers no explanation. I can logon properly with the silly Windows dialer, but as there is no terminal or dialog window I have no idea how it is "properly" addressing things. The dialup worked on Linux until I went fiddling elsewhere in the Mandrake Config program. (Sharing an internet connection) Although I changed the settings back (to the best of my recollection anyway) still no dice. Any insights by anyone (other than the obvious one of my inexperience being the root of most of the problems) are valued like gold. Colin

Sept. 5, 2001

Re: [Wlug] I thought you guys might get a kick out of this

by Keith Wright

> From: "Brian J. Conway" <dogbert(a)clue4all.net> > Cc: wlug(a)wlug.org > > http://www.microsoft.com/technet...blah...blah > > Strangely, I don't see any mention of Code Red in there... It's on the second page: >> From Blueprint to Fortress: A Guide to Securing IIS 5.0 >> Servers can be vulnerable to a host of attacks. Gee, I might like to migrate from Linux to Windows, but all the instructions are in Word documents. I have no way to begin! > "LINUX is obsolete" > - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix But as Perlis said about Algol 60, it's not perfect, but it's a tremendous improvement over its successors! -- -- Keith Wright <kwright(a)free-comp-shop.com> Programmer in Chief, Free Computer Shop <http://www.free-comp-shop.com> --- Food, Shelter, Source code. ---

Sept. 5, 2001