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Finally, Linux With a Lot Less Fuss
by Karl Hiramoto Dec. 2, 2002

Dec. 2, 2002

Good article in the washington post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48924-2002Nov27.html By Rob Pegoraro Sunday, December 1, 2002; Page H07 Over the past few weeks, I've installed Linux on three computers without breaking into fits of cursing. That's a novel development in my experience with this open-source operating system. The version I've been using is Red Hat Linux 8.0, shipped by Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat in late September. This is the first Linux distribution I've tried that hasn't made me feel as if I'm about to step on a rake and have its handle swing into my face. Parts of this are still infuriatingly convoluted, but if you've been thinking about trying out Linux on part of your hard drive -- or about dumping Windows entirely -- this is what I'd recommend. Why would you want to do that? One, Linux is cheap or free -- your choice. The personal edition of Red Hat 8 sells for $40 in stores, or you can download three CDs' worth at no charge (www.redhat.com) Nearly all Linux programs are also free to use. Two, Linux is free in another way: "Open source" means anybody can look at a program's code and tinker with it. Three, if you are inclined to tinker and try out new programs, Linux can be an interesting place. It's one of the most customizable operating systems, and quite a few Linux development projects -- for example, DVD playback -- seem to be hitting their stride. Four, while Linux has plenty of bugs and security issues, it is virus-free compared with Windows. All these qualities come with trade-offs, the big one being an often agonizing inscrutability. Red Hat 8 doesn't abolish these shortcomings but does bring them to a more manageable level. Its installation is quick and clean. Notwithstanding a clumsy disk-setup module (either partition your hard drive with another program or be prepared to wipe it clean), you can blithely go with the default settings and have a working desktop in less than 45 minutes. That includes functioning audio and video hardware, something beyond my reach in earlier Linux experiments. On each of three test PCs -- an old IBM desktop, a moderately recent IBM ThinkPad T21 and a brand-new Hewlett-Packard Media Center PC -- Red Hat 8 automatically and correctly set up the sound and graphics cards. It then accepted a digital-subscriber-line or office-network connection with no more configuration than Windows would require, and with the proper firewall protection enabled by default. A modem connection, unfortunately but predictably, was out of the question. Most PCs' internal modems require some fairly complicated, proprietary Windows software to function, and many manufacturers don't offer Linux versions of this software or documentation that would let other programmers handle the job. Red Hat 8 also couldn't do anything with the USB 2.0 ports on the HP, although it's supposed to support them. Red Hat 8's biggest departure from Linux convention is in its look. The company replaced the usual Linux front end with its own streamlined "Bluecurve" interface, which looks vaguely like Windows XP scrubbed of the neon colors. It also swept the system task bar and menu largely free of redundant or useless extras, although it lacks a simple way to edit the layout of those menus (say, if you'd like to consolidate the five or so system-options entries). Red Hat's software bundle focuses on the basics: the excellent Mozilla Web browser, the OpenOffice productivity suite (which read all of the Microsoft Office files I tried), and Evolution, an application featuring e-mail, an address book and a calendar that feels like a simplified version of Microsoft Outlook. What you won't find, however, is multimedia capability beyond a few image viewers and editors. Red Hat 8 ships without any way to play MP3 files, let alone create them. The company says it's concerned about the MP3 format's licensing requirements, but those issues haven't stopped other Linux distributions from including MP3 software. (Red Hat 8 does support an open-source music format called Ogg Vorbis, but its CD-ripping program isn't set up by default to use it.) MP3 software isn't hard to find and install in the "RPM" download format Red Hat developed, but you have to know where to look. And that's the thing: Red Hat 8 gets enough of the basics right to let you go online without injuring yourself (well, provided you don't need a modem). It could serve somebody well as a basic Web, e-mail and word-processing desktop. But going beyond the basics requires a willingness to learn. For instance, Red Hat 8's included digital-camera program took hours of tweaking before it would intermittently download pictures from a Canon S100 digital camera. I still can't get the Pilot-Link program to work with a Sony Clie handheld, although an upcoming release is supposed to fix that. Non-RPM software installs, which require mastering command-line syntax, are another problem. Sometimes things work out -- copying and pasting the right commands had the ThinkPad playing back a DVD in about half an hour -- and at other times you're stymied by missing or mismatched files. And many add-on programs, unlike Red Hat's core software, come with clumsy, user-hostile interfaces designed by programmers for other programmers. Ultimately, there's no substitute for personal help from a Linux veteran, whether online or in a local user group. All this self-inflicted effort might seem like a big waste of time. Then again, so can cooking, woodworking, collecting baseball cards or many other things people do to amuse themselves, and without getting a working PC in the process. Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro at rob(a)twp.com. -- ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø Karl Hiramoto <karl(a)hiramoto.org> Work: 978-425-2090 ext 25 Cell: 508-517-4819 Personal web page: http://karl.hiramoto.org/ Freedom: http://www.technojihad.com/ Zoop Productions: http://www.zoop.org/ KTEQ Rapid City: http://www.kteq.org/ AOL IM ID = KarlH420 Yahoo_IM = karl_hiramoto ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø I have more hit points that you can possible imagine.

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Let's make WLUG meetings better!
by Andy Stewart Dec. 1, 2002

Dec. 1, 2002

HI everybody, I was a little disappointed at the turnout from the last WLUG meeting. We had 8 or 9 people show up, and while we did have a good time watching Scott and Doug get a couple of scanners working under Linux, it would have been alot more fun with more people in attendance. I believe this was the lowest attendance we've seen at a WLUG meeting in our 5.5 year history. :-( We discussed possible reasons for the low attendance at the Boynton over a few beers. One suggestion was that I should update the WLUG website to show what we have done at past meetings so people wouldn't think that nothing was accomplished. I've done that and will endeavor to keep that part of the WLUG website current (see "Past Meeting Information"). Another thought was that some people will only come to a meeting if the topic looks interesting to them, and if it is announced well in advance. I must admit to having been somewhat lax in that area lately. Therefore, in an attempt to remedy that (at least for this month), I'm putting out the call now for a speaker and a topic for the Dec. 12th meeting (its coming up fast!). I sent out a list of potential topics last month, but I know that there are a zilliion interesting things happening in the Linux world that could be discussed at a WLUG meeting. The meeting need not be discussion based, either! Although Kinnicutt Hall lends itself well to this type of meeting, we do have access to other rooms on campus. People have tossed out ideas such as these: o build a network for multiplayer Linux games o build a network to see if WLUG crackers can break into your system (not to destroy it, but to teach you what to fix to secure your system) o more live demos! The group exists to meet your needs, so please, state your needs! I can't arrange a meeting to your liking if I get no feedback on what you want to see at future WLUG meetings. More importantly, I'd like to see more and different people volunteer to do the presentations or to run a live demo. If you look back at the last year of WLUG meetings, you'll see the same names many times. While I'm *quite* happy that these folks continue to volunteer, I'd like to see others jump in also. Finally, if anybody has feedback regarding the last meeting and why it lacked attendees, please bring it up on the list so we can all discuss it. Without such candid discussions, WLUG cannot improve. Later, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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DVD writeable media
by Andy Stewart Nov. 29, 2002

Nov. 29, 2002

HI everybody, The message thread about DVD writers makes me think that there are many standards or types of writeable DVD media that not all drives can handle - is this true? Could somebody compare/contrast the different types? Thanks, Andy -- Andy Stewart, Founder Worcester Linux Users' Group Worcester, MA USA http://www.wlug.org

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OT: 6 disc changer + tape deck 4 sale
by Karl Hiramoto Nov. 27, 2002

Nov. 27, 2002

Sorry about the spam... I'm trying to get rid of my old car stereo. * Clarion ARX 5470 Tape Deck o 35 Watts * 4 Ch. (140 Watts) o AM/FM Radio o CD Controller o Detachable Face o CD Changer Controller o RCA Outputs * Clarion 6 Disc CD Changer RDC634 o Model RDC634 o 6 Disc CD Magazine (CAA-355) o Very good Skip protection o 8 X Times oversampling o Digital Filter o Dual 1 Bit DAC http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1871972065&rd… -- ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø Karl Hiramoto <karl(a)hiramoto.org> Work: 978-425-2090 ext 25 Cell: 508-517-4819 Personal web page: http://karl.hiramoto.org/ Freedom: http://www.technojihad.com/ Zoop Productions: http://www.zoop.org/ KTEQ Rapid City: http://www.kteq.org/ AOL IM ID = KarlH420 Yahoo_IM = karl_hiramoto ¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed. -- Irene Peter

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RE: [Wlug] DVD writeable media
by Keller, Tim Nov. 25, 2002

Nov. 25, 2002

Well the next question is... What do you want todo... The cross post in question wants to backup large amounts of data. I would think a drive that could do DVD-RW or DVD+RW would be their choice since they could setup some sorta rotation. As for supported drives you'd want to check the cdrecord website. Now, if you want to make backups of the DVD's that you own, or convert the VHS you've got into DVD, you'll also want a drive that can author DVD disks. However you'll want to check a site like www.vcdhelper.org they've got a good matrix of what different disks DVD players supports (such as VCD/SVCD/DVD-R/DVD-RW/etc...) Personally I've had luck making backup's of my DVD's onto DVD-R media. However this was using a mix of freeware windows utilities and Nero, I'm pretty sure that that the cdrcord-prodvd utilities it would work fine. Later, Tim. -----Original Message----- From: Brian J. Conway [mailto:bconway@alum.wpi.edu] Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 15:36 PM To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Subject: Re: [Wlug] DVD writeable media > The message thread about DVD writers makes me think that there are many > standards or types of writeable DVD media that not all drives can handle > - is this true? Yes, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM. Why share sales with a standard format when a company can make up its own DVD standard to sell and hope to take the market with? > Could somebody compare/contrast the different types? Here's a good rundown on the different types: http://www.dvformat.com/2002/03_mar/features/dvd_standards.htm Brian J. Conway bconway(a)alum.wpi.edu "LINUX is obsolete" - Andrew S. Tanenbaum, creator of Minix - Jan 29, 1992 _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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DVD writer
by Robert L Krawitz Nov. 24, 2002

Nov. 24, 2002

I'm thinking of getting a DVD writer. My primary intention is to use it for system backups; CD's just don't cut it any more (with about 18 GB and 11 GB respectively on my two systems). The Sony DRU-500A looks like a rather interesting one, supporting a lot of formats. Any comments on that vs. any of the others out there? This is for a pure Linux system. -- Robert Krawitz <rlk(a)alum.mit.edu> Tall Clubs International -- http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2 Member of the League for Programming Freedom -- mail lpf(a)uunet.uu.net Project lead for Gimp Print -- http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net "Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works." --Eric Crampton

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RE: [Wlug] Partition left 7 Gbs!
by dibb_jim＠emc.com Nov. 21, 2002

Nov. 21, 2002

You are probably seeing the difference between 80 * 10^9 representation and 80 * 2^30 representation of GB. An "80 GB" drive usually is seen by an OS as having ~73 GB of space. But without stating why you think so, it's difficult to tell for sure. -----Original Message----- From: Aramico To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org Sent: 11/21/02 7:37 AM Subject: [Wlug] Partition left 7 Gbs! Hi all, I've got a Baracuda 7200 RPM 80 Gbs Seagate. I've creating the partition using fdisk on Linux RedHat. Why does it always leave 7 Gbs that not partitioned ? So, Here I have 7 Gbs space useless :( Any idea to solve this ? Thanks, _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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[Fwd: Clarify: GRUB setup on RAID1]
by Brett Russ Nov. 21, 2002

Nov. 21, 2002

Can anyone on this list shed some light on my question below? Thanks, Brett -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Clarify: GRUB setup on RAID1 Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:34:03 -0500 From: Brett Russ <icycle(a)charter.net> To: bug-grub(a)gnu.org I looked through all of the archives on this list as well as google searching for help. I want to make sure that GRUB supports installation on RAID1 (mirror) units. I have seen several methods to do this: Method 1) device (hd0) /dev/hde root (hd0,0) install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0,0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,0)/boot/grub/menu.lst install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,0)/boot/grub/menu.lst device (hd0) /dev/hdg root (hd0,0) install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0,0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,0)/boot/grub/menu.lst install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 0x8000 (hd0,0)/boot/grub/menu.lst ...and so on for each device--substituting each additional RAID1 member drive in the /dev/hdX line. Method 2) echo '(hd0) /dev/md0' > /boot/grub/device.map grub-install '(hd0)' ...and so on for each (hd#) that is part of the md. Method 3) root (hd0,0) setup (hd0) ...and so on for each hd# present in the RAID1. My question is whether the /dev/hdX syntax or /dev/md# or (hd#) syntax is correct and what the significance of the value 0x8000 for the Stage 2 load address. It certainly seems like method 3 is the cleanest. And, are any of these methods considered better than the others? Thanks, Brett _______________________________________________ Bug-grub mailing list Bug-grub(a)gnu.org http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-grub

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Sar for Linux
by Adam Keck Nov. 20, 2002

Nov. 20, 2002

Those of you who use Solaris or AIX have access to a system statistics tool, sar. Is there any equivalent tool for Linux? -Adam "lingua machinationis creo, ergo sum" _____________________________________________ Adam Keck The Mathworks 508-647-7298 Natick, Ma www.mathworks.com FreeNIX/Backup/Unix Administrator _____________________________________________

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RE: [Wlug] Sar for Linux
by Keller, Tim Nov. 20, 2002

Nov. 20, 2002

I'm not sure what distro your using, but my Redhat 7.3 box has sar installed. Tim. "It's pretty hard to 'Rage Against The Machine' when you work for the Sony Corporation" -- funny slashdot sig. -----Original Message----- From: Adam Keck [mailto:akeck@mathworks.com] Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002 15:25 PM To: WLUG List Subject: [Wlug] Sar for Linux Those of you who use Solaris or AIX have access to a system statistics tool, sar. Is there any equivalent tool for Linux? -Adam "lingua machinationis creo, ergo sum" _____________________________________________ Adam Keck The Mathworks 508-647-7298 Natick, Ma www.mathworks.com FreeNIX/Backup/Unix Administrator _____________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

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