Not a few small business owners and entrepreneurs Americans use the network to refocus the need for connection, growth, contribution, and meaning in the business world, which applies to marketing on the Internet. As a result of various events and unethical scandals that have rocked our nation, the fundamental, systemic, and proven to meet these needs have been created. According to many praise socialnomic, experts and acceptance, run deep understanding of networking practices that are implemented by small business owners and entrepreneurs when using this system.
Many entrepreneurs and small business owners are experiencing exceptional business growth during the recession and financial turmoil. Corey J said, "Think about an increase of 33% in Twitter followers in less than 48 hours for what I've done in 3 and 1 / 2 months where have you been all my life?." Having a system or process to help you grow both personally and professionally, achieve your goals, and make money by living your life purpose is a huge plus and is important during unstable economic times.
Other small business owners stated that "apart from the network allows you to connect with hundreds of thousands of other professionals, entrepreneurs and like-minded individuals who are here to share your content and value with the world." It's nice to know that you should not try an complete the task that seems beyond the ordinary.
"Deep down, we all want to feel important We want our lives to have meaning and significance .." Tony Robbins What better way to achieve that than by giving service to others and show them how to do what we love and passionate. What better way to leave a legacy of your life?
We all have a desire to contribute something of value to help others, to make the world a better place than we found it. Penny P. said, "I have seen the first video and have learned what I should do about having a personal account and / or business I can see that you've simplified them and now they are easy to follow style .." Your contribution to your community and the world is able to demonstrate to others that we can make a living doing what you love. We can make a difference in the lives of others and separated from this network will show you how.
Optimize Website To Get More Sales and Visitor
Many ways can be done to get more people visiting your site, one of which you should be less conventional. And when I say unconventional, I mean that you must perform an unusual marketing techniques that will help you to make your product a success. This technique does not involve something illegal - rather, they are 100% good method that can build your customer list in record time.
In fact, there are a ton of low-cost marketing techniques that you can use to take your business to the next level. I know because I speak from experience here. The more you can do your business market, the more you can see yourself the benefits of your hard work.
If you want to see some marketing techniques that you can use to take your business to the next level, then I will share some of these strategies with you here today. Here's the low initial cost to make more money in your business.
1) Operate a website
Many business owners are daunted by the idea of having their own sites. If I were you, I would consider renting out to someone making a website on the internet, or you can be bold and make the website simple 5-page itself. It is not hard to do, all you need is the right tool.
For example, my website is made by a service called Yahoo Webhosting. They have tools that are easy to build a website called Yahoo Sitebuilder. It's very easy to use, and I think it's something you should consider using as well. Or if Yahoo is not your cup of tea, you can always go elsewhere.
A company called Hostgator is what many people use to build their website. They are easy to use interface, and they have a control panel (cPanel) interface that many people love. So this is an option for you too. Let us look at other ways to market your business.
2) Network
Working closely with other business owners to share ideas is a great way to increase your business. You never know what kind of sales you will make by working with business owners in your area. This new relationship can even be turned into opportunities of joint ventures - an effort that can really pad the pockets of you.
Simply go to your local chamber of trade, and see if there is a business owner there that you can connect with. This is a great way to interact with others, and to get a partnership can be very profitable. So put that into use in your business today.
Hopefully you will use these tips to have the kind of success you dream of. Having your own website to differentiate ourselves from other competitors in your area, and you may be able to have first place on Google when someone types in a relatively long for what you sell. So try it and see how it works for you.
In fact, there are a ton of low-cost marketing techniques that you can use to take your business to the next level. I know because I speak from experience here. The more you can do your business market, the more you can see yourself the benefits of your hard work.
If you want to see some marketing techniques that you can use to take your business to the next level, then I will share some of these strategies with you here today. Here's the low initial cost to make more money in your business.
1) Operate a website
Many business owners are daunted by the idea of having their own sites. If I were you, I would consider renting out to someone making a website on the internet, or you can be bold and make the website simple 5-page itself. It is not hard to do, all you need is the right tool.
For example, my website is made by a service called Yahoo Webhosting. They have tools that are easy to build a website called Yahoo Sitebuilder. It's very easy to use, and I think it's something you should consider using as well. Or if Yahoo is not your cup of tea, you can always go elsewhere.
A company called Hostgator is what many people use to build their website. They are easy to use interface, and they have a control panel (cPanel) interface that many people love. So this is an option for you too. Let us look at other ways to market your business.
2) Network
Working closely with other business owners to share ideas is a great way to increase your business. You never know what kind of sales you will make by working with business owners in your area. This new relationship can even be turned into opportunities of joint ventures - an effort that can really pad the pockets of you.
Simply go to your local chamber of trade, and see if there is a business owner there that you can connect with. This is a great way to interact with others, and to get a partnership can be very profitable. So put that into use in your business today.
Hopefully you will use these tips to have the kind of success you dream of. Having your own website to differentiate ourselves from other competitors in your area, and you may be able to have first place on Google when someone types in a relatively long for what you sell. So try it and see how it works for you.
Tips for Successful Networking
Very complicated to explain the development of the current era, in which we all desperately need the connections and find new customers, to business continuity that is being or will we manage. we see that in recent years, more businessmen and entrepreneurs have looked to the neighbors and the community to channel new sources of revenue and help advance their brand further.
The question now, So how do you get involved? While that's all well and good attending business expos and networking sessions, how do you get the best of every opportunity? Here I'll share tips to help make you much needed by anyone.
The question now, So how do you get involved? While that's all well and good attending business expos and networking sessions, how do you get the best of every opportunity? Here I'll share tips to help make you much needed by anyone.
- Attention! Regardless of whom you speak or how much interest do you think they will have for your product or service, make sure you give every conversation focus 100%. It's important to let people know that they have your full attention - it does not make good business sense, it's a good attitude.
- Be prepared. Have some examples of what you can do - be it a brochure, catalog or iPad with some images and upload video product. Make sure you give everyone you meet is something to take that includes your contact details.
- Time. Find out who will be on show in advance and book an appointment if there is someone specific that you want to see - make the most of your time to get face to face with the right people.
- Easy to remember. Do not leave the network in a bad mood - will be cheerful, bright and friendly to make sure people remember you for all the right reasons.
- Present yourself. Polish your shoes, your mustache wax, do not wear a green jumper with a hole in the arm and curry last night on the front. You represent the way you do business, so it looks the part.
- Listen. Remember what people say. Everyone likes a good listener and there is nothing more embarrassing than forgetting someone's name because you are not paying attention.
- Commit. Do what you say you will. Follow up with your brochure and promised to call when you tell them you will: create a 'reliability' your middle name.
- Refer to the point. Just introducing others if you truly believe contact will benefit them both.
- Be professional. Do not swear and do not drink if it will not make you sharp. Sense of humor will help you go a long way, but be careful not to offend. Dirty jokes, feminist or racist no-no - no matter how comfortable you are, others can not share the same taste in comedy.
- Be original. Do not try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes about what you do, your company's size or the fact that you drive a Fiat, not a Ferrari. People like honesty, they believe. They certainly will not invest time, effort and money into someone who told lies to get ahead.
Make XP Go Faster
Services You Can Disable
There are quite a few services you can disable from starting automatically.
This would be to speed up your boot time and free resources.
They are only suggestions so I suggestion you read the description of each one when you run Services
and that you turn them off one at a time.
Some possibilities are:
Alerter
Application Management
Clipbook
Fast UserSwitching
Human Interface Devices
Indexing Service
Messenger
Net Logon
NetMeeting
QOS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
SSDP Discovery Service
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Web Client
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cleaning the Prefetch Directory
WindowsXP has a new feature called Prefetch. This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs.
However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.
To clean this periodically go to:
Star / Run / Prefetch
Press Ctrl-A to highlight all the shorcuts
Delete them
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages
To turn these off:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system
If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named DisableStatusMessages
Give it a value of 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clearing the Page File on Shutdown
Click on the Start button
Go to the Control Panel
Administrative Tools
Local Security Policy
Local Policies
Click on Security Options
Right hand menu - right click on "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile"
Select "Enable"
Reboot
For regedit users.....
If you want to clear the page file on each shutdown:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Set the value to 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No GUI Boot
If you don't need to see the XP boot logo,
Run MSCONFIG
Click on the BOOT.INI tab
Check the box for /NOGUIBOOT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speeding the Startup of Some CD Burner Programs
If you use program other than the native WindowsXP CD Burner software,
you might be able to increase the speed that it loads.
Go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services
Double-click on IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
For the Startup Type, select Disabled
Click on the OK button and then close the Services window
If you dont You should notice
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting Rid of Unread Email Messages
To remove the Unread Email message by user's login names:
Start Regedit
For a single user: Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
For all users: Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
Create a DWORD key called MessageExpiryDays
Give it a value of 0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Decreasing Boot Time
Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the time it takes to boot to WindowsXP
The program is called BootVis
Uncompress the file.
Run BOOTVIS.EXE
For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark
After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs of your system startup.
Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the red vertical line)
Then run Trace / Optimize System
Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays
Note how much the time has decreased
Mine went from approximately 33 to 25 seconds.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increasing Graphics Performance
By default, WindowsXP turns on a lot of shadows, fades, slides etc to menu items.
Most simply slow down their display.
To turn these off selectively:
Right click on the My Computer icon
Select Properties
Click on the Advanced tab
Under Performance, click on the Settings button
To turn them all of, select Adjust for best performance
My preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increasing System Performance
If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can increase system performance
by having the core system kept in memory.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
Set the value to be 1
Reboot the computer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increasing File System Caching
To increase the amount of memory Windows will locked for I/O operations:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Edit the key IoPageLockLimit
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resolving Inability to Add or Remove Programs
If a particular user cannot add or remove programs, there might be a simple registry edit neeed.
Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall
Change the DWORD NoAddRemovePrograms to 0 disable it
4096 - 32megs of memory or less
8192 - 32+ megs of memory
16384 - 64+ megs of memory
32768 - 128+ megs of memory
65536 - 256+ megs of memory
There are quite a few services you can disable from starting automatically.
This would be to speed up your boot time and free resources.
They are only suggestions so I suggestion you read the description of each one when you run Services
and that you turn them off one at a time.
Some possibilities are:
Alerter
Application Management
Clipbook
Fast UserSwitching
Human Interface Devices
Indexing Service
Messenger
Net Logon
NetMeeting
QOS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
SSDP Discovery Service
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Web Client
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cleaning the Prefetch Directory
WindowsXP has a new feature called Prefetch. This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs.
However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.
To clean this periodically go to:
Star / Run / Prefetch
Press Ctrl-A to highlight all the shorcuts
Delete them
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages
To turn these off:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system
If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named DisableStatusMessages
Give it a value of 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clearing the Page File on Shutdown
Click on the Start button
Go to the Control Panel
Administrative Tools
Local Security Policy
Local Policies
Click on Security Options
Right hand menu - right click on "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile"
Select "Enable"
Reboot
For regedit users.....
If you want to clear the page file on each shutdown:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Set the value to 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No GUI Boot
If you don't need to see the XP boot logo,
Run MSCONFIG
Click on the BOOT.INI tab
Check the box for /NOGUIBOOT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speeding the Startup of Some CD Burner Programs
If you use program other than the native WindowsXP CD Burner software,
you might be able to increase the speed that it loads.
Go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services
Double-click on IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
For the Startup Type, select Disabled
Click on the OK button and then close the Services window
If you dont You should notice
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting Rid of Unread Email Messages
To remove the Unread Email message by user's login names:
Start Regedit
For a single user: Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
For all users: Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
Create a DWORD key called MessageExpiryDays
Give it a value of 0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Decreasing Boot Time
Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the time it takes to boot to WindowsXP
The program is called BootVis
Uncompress the file.
Run BOOTVIS.EXE
For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark
After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs of your system startup.
Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the red vertical line)
Then run Trace / Optimize System
Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays
Note how much the time has decreased
Mine went from approximately 33 to 25 seconds.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increasing Graphics Performance
By default, WindowsXP turns on a lot of shadows, fades, slides etc to menu items.
Most simply slow down their display.
To turn these off selectively:
Right click on the My Computer icon
Select Properties
Click on the Advanced tab
Under Performance, click on the Settings button
To turn them all of, select Adjust for best performance
My preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increasing System Performance
If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can increase system performance
by having the core system kept in memory.
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
Set the value to be 1
Reboot the computer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Increasing File System Caching
To increase the amount of memory Windows will locked for I/O operations:
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Edit the key IoPageLockLimit
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Resolving Inability to Add or Remove Programs
If a particular user cannot add or remove programs, there might be a simple registry edit neeed.
Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall
Change the DWORD NoAddRemovePrograms to 0 disable it
4096 - 32megs of memory or less
8192 - 32+ megs of memory
16384 - 64+ megs of memory
32768 - 128+ megs of memory
65536 - 256+ megs of memory
Speed Up Your Network and Internet Access
Windows Xp: Speed Up Your Network and Internet Access
I have a dial up connection and it improve my speeds about 25% in surfing the internet. give it a try. Im IT , only do it if you feel comfortable with changing registry.
Increasing network browsing speed
Does your computer slow down when you browse your local area network and connect to other computers that are sharing data? One of the most common causes of this slowdown is a feature of Windows Explorer that looks for scheduled tasks on remote computers. This effort can take some time on some computers and can really slow down your browsing. The window with which you are browsing the network may appear to freeze momentarily, as the system is waiting for a response from the remote computer.
Windows XP: Speeding Disk Access
Although this problem is a complex one, the solution is very simple. Instead of having to wait for the remote scheduled tasks, which is useless information to anyone who is not a system administrator remotely configuring scheduled tasks, you can disable this feature.
In order to do this, you will have to change the System Registry and delete a reference to a key so that this feature will not be loaded. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Open up the Registry Editor by clicking the Start Menu and selecting Run. Then type regedit in the text box and click the OK button.
2. Once the Registry Editor has loaded, expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.
3. Next, expand Software and then Microsoft.
4. Locate Windows and expand that as well.
5. You will want to be editing the main system files, so expand CurrentVersion.
6. Because this feature is a feature of the Windows component known as Explorer, expand the Explorer key.
7. Next, you will want to modify the remote computer settings, so expand the RemoteComputer key and then expand the NameSpace key to show all of the features that are enabled when you browse to a remote computer.
8. In the NameSpace folder you will find two entries. One is "{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}" which tells Explorer to show printers shared on the remote machine. The other, "{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}," tells Explorer to show remote scheduled tasks. This is the one that you should delete. This can be done by right-clicking the name of the key and selecting Delete.
Tip:
If you have no use for viewing remote shared printers and are really only interested in shared files, consider deleting the printers key, "{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}", as well. This will also boost your browsing speed.
Once you have deleted the key, you just need to restart and the changes will be in effect. Now your network computer browsing will be without needless delays.
I have a dial up connection and it improve my speeds about 25% in surfing the internet. give it a try. Im IT , only do it if you feel comfortable with changing registry.
Increasing network browsing speed
Does your computer slow down when you browse your local area network and connect to other computers that are sharing data? One of the most common causes of this slowdown is a feature of Windows Explorer that looks for scheduled tasks on remote computers. This effort can take some time on some computers and can really slow down your browsing. The window with which you are browsing the network may appear to freeze momentarily, as the system is waiting for a response from the remote computer.
Windows XP: Speeding Disk Access
Although this problem is a complex one, the solution is very simple. Instead of having to wait for the remote scheduled tasks, which is useless information to anyone who is not a system administrator remotely configuring scheduled tasks, you can disable this feature.
In order to do this, you will have to change the System Registry and delete a reference to a key so that this feature will not be loaded. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Open up the Registry Editor by clicking the Start Menu and selecting Run. Then type regedit in the text box and click the OK button.
2. Once the Registry Editor has loaded, expand the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.
3. Next, expand Software and then Microsoft.
4. Locate Windows and expand that as well.
5. You will want to be editing the main system files, so expand CurrentVersion.
6. Because this feature is a feature of the Windows component known as Explorer, expand the Explorer key.
7. Next, you will want to modify the remote computer settings, so expand the RemoteComputer key and then expand the NameSpace key to show all of the features that are enabled when you browse to a remote computer.
8. In the NameSpace folder you will find two entries. One is "{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}" which tells Explorer to show printers shared on the remote machine. The other, "{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}," tells Explorer to show remote scheduled tasks. This is the one that you should delete. This can be done by right-clicking the name of the key and selecting Delete.
Tip:
If you have no use for viewing remote shared printers and are really only interested in shared files, consider deleting the printers key, "{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}", as well. This will also boost your browsing speed.
Once you have deleted the key, you just need to restart and the changes will be in effect. Now your network computer browsing will be without needless delays.
Change Your Ip In Less Then 1 Minute
How To: Change Your Ip In Less Then 1 Minute
1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on "Run"
3. Type in "command" and hit ok
You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.
4. Type "ipconfig /release" just like that, and hit "enter"
5. Type "exit" and leave the prompt
6. Right-click on "Network Places" or "My Network Places" on your desktop.
7. Click on "properties"
You should now be on a screen with something titled "Local Area Connection", or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks.
8. Right click on "Local Area Connection" and click "properties"
9. Double-click on the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list under the "General" tab
10. Click on "Use the following IP address" under the "General" tab
11. Create an IP address (It doesn't matter what it is. I just type 1 and 2 until i fill the area up).
12. Press "Tab" and it should automatically fill in the "Subnet Mask" section with default numbers.
13. Hit the "Ok" button here
14. Hit the "Ok" button again
You should now be back to the "Local Area Connection" screen.
15. Right-click back on "Local Area Connection" and go to properties again.
16. Go back to the "TCP/IP" settings
17. This time, select "Obtain an IP address automatically"
tongue.gif 18. Hit "Ok"
19. Hit "Ok" again
20. You now have a new IP address
With a little practice, you can easily get this process down to 15 seconds.
P.S:
This only changes your dynamic IP address, not your ISP/IP address. If you plan on hacking a website with this trick be extremely careful, because if they try a little, they can trace it back
1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen
2. Click on "Run"
3. Type in "command" and hit ok
You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.
4. Type "ipconfig /release" just like that, and hit "enter"
5. Type "exit" and leave the prompt
6. Right-click on "Network Places" or "My Network Places" on your desktop.
7. Click on "properties"
You should now be on a screen with something titled "Local Area Connection", or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks.
8. Right click on "Local Area Connection" and click "properties"
9. Double-click on the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list under the "General" tab
10. Click on "Use the following IP address" under the "General" tab
11. Create an IP address (It doesn't matter what it is. I just type 1 and 2 until i fill the area up).
12. Press "Tab" and it should automatically fill in the "Subnet Mask" section with default numbers.
13. Hit the "Ok" button here
14. Hit the "Ok" button again
You should now be back to the "Local Area Connection" screen.
15. Right-click back on "Local Area Connection" and go to properties again.
16. Go back to the "TCP/IP" settings
17. This time, select "Obtain an IP address automatically"
tongue.gif 18. Hit "Ok"
19. Hit "Ok" again
20. You now have a new IP address
With a little practice, you can easily get this process down to 15 seconds.
P.S:
This only changes your dynamic IP address, not your ISP/IP address. If you plan on hacking a website with this trick be extremely careful, because if they try a little, they can trace it back
BandWidth Explained
This is well written explanation about bandwidth, very useful info.
Most hosting companies offer a variety of bandwidth options in their plans. So exactly what is bandwidth as it relates to web hosting? Put simply, bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to occur between your web site and the rest of the internet. The amount of bandwidth a hosting company can provide is determined by their network connections, both internal to their data center and external to the public internet.
Network Connectivity
The internet, in the most simplest of terms, is a group of millions of computers connected by networks. These connections within the internet can be large or small depending upon the cabling and equipment that is used at a particular internet location. It is the size of each network connection that determines how much bandwidth is available. For example, if you use a DSL connection to connect to the internet, you have 1.54 Mega bits (Mb) of bandwidth. Bandwidth therefore is measured in bits (a single 0 or 1). Bits are grouped in bytes which form words, text, and other information that is transferred between your computer and the internet.
If you have a DSL connection to the internet, you have dedicated bandwidth between your computer and your internet provider. But your internet provider may have thousands of DSL connections to their location. All of these connection aggregate at your internet provider who then has their own dedicated connection to the internet (or multiple connections) which is much larger than your single connection. They must have enough bandwidth to serve your computing needs as well as all of their other customers. So while you have a 1.54Mb connection to your internet provider, your internet provider may have a 255Mb connection to the internet so it can accommodate your needs and up to 166 other users (255/1.54).
Traffic
A very simple analogy to use to understand bandwidth and traffic is to think of highways and cars. Bandwidth is the number of lanes on the highway and traffic is the number of cars on the highway. If you are the only car on a highway, you can travel very quickly. If you are stuck in the middle of rush hour, you may travel very slowly since all of the lanes are being used up.
Traffic is simply the number of bits that are transferred on network connections. It is easiest to understand traffic using examples. One Gigabyte is 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes. To put this in perspective, it takes one byte to store one character. Imagine 100 file cabinets in a building, each of these cabinets holds 1000 folders. Each folder has 100 papers. Each paper contains 100 characters - A GB is all the characters in the building. An MP3 song is about 4MB, the same song in wav format is about 40MB, a full length movie can be 800MB to 1000MB (1000MB = 1GB).
If you were to transfer this MP3 song from a web site to your computer, you would create 4MB of traffic between the web site you are downloading from and your computer. Depending upon the network connection between the web site and the internet, the transfer may occur very quickly, or it could take time if other people are also downloading files at the same time. If, for example, the web site you download from has a 10MB connection to the internet, and you are the only person accessing that web site to download your MP3, your 4MB file will be the only traffic on that web site. However, if three people are all downloading that same MP at the same time, 12MB (3 x 4MB) of traffic has been created. Because in this example, the host only has 10MB of bandwidth, someone will have to wait. The network equipment at the hosting company will cycle through each person downloading the file and transfer a small portion at a time so each person's file transfer can take place, but the transfer for everyone downloading the file will be slower. If 100 people all came to the site and downloaded the MP3 at the same time, the transfers would be extremely slow. If the host wanted to decrease the time it took to download files simultaneously, it could increase the bandwidth of their internet connection (at a cost due to upgrading equipment).
Hosting Bandwidth
In the example above, we discussed traffic in terms of downloading an MP3 file. However, each time you visit a web site, you are creating traffic, because in order to view that web page on your computer, the web page is first downloaded to your computer (between the web site and you) which is then displayed using your browser software (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.) . The page itself is simply a file that creates traffic just like the MP3 file in the example above (however, a web page is usually much smaller than a music file).
A web page may be very small or large depending upon the amount of text and the number and quality of images integrated within the web page. For example, the home page for CNN.com is about 200KB (200 Kilobytes = 200,000 bytes = 1,600,000 bits). This is typically large for a web page. In comparison, Yahoo's home page is about 70KB.
How Much Bandwidth Is Enough?
It depends (don't you hate that answer). But in truth, it does. Since bandwidth is a significant determinant of hosting plan prices, you should take time to determine just how much is right for you. Almost all hosting plans have bandwidth requirements measured in months, so you need to estimate the amount of bandwidth that will be required by your site on a monthly basis
If you do not intend to provide file download capability from your site, the formula for calculating bandwidth is fairly straightforward:
Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size x 31 x Fudge Factor
If you intend to allow people to download files from your site, your bandwidth calculation should be:
[(Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size) +
(Average Daily File Downloads x Average File Size)] x 31 x Fudge Factor
Let us examine each item in the formula:
Average Daily Visitors - The number of people you expect to visit your site, on average, each day. Depending upon how you market your site, this number could be from 1 to 1,000,000.
Average Page Views - On average, the number of web pages you expect a person to view. If you have 50 web pages in your web site, an average person may only view 5 of those pages each time they visit.
Average Page Size - The average size of your web pages, in Kilobytes (KB). If you have already designed your site, you can calculate this directly.
Average Daily File Downloads - The number of downloads you expect to occur on your site. This is a function of the numbers of visitors and how many times a visitor downloads a file, on average, each day.
Average File Size - Average file size of files that are downloadable from your site. Similar to your web pages, if you already know which files can be downloaded, you can calculate this directly.
Fudge Factor - A number greater than 1. Using 1.5 would be safe, which assumes that your estimate is off by 50%. However, if you were very unsure, you could use 2 or 3 to ensure that your bandwidth requirements are more than met.
Usually, hosting plans offer bandwidth in terms of Gigabytes (GB) per month. This is why our formula takes daily averages and multiplies them by 31.
Summary
Most personal or small business sites will not need more than 1GB of bandwidth per month. If you have a web site that is composed of static web pages and you expect little traffic to your site on a daily basis, go with a low bandwidth plan. If you go over the amount of bandwidth allocated in your plan, your hosting company could charge you over usage fees, so if you think the traffic to your site will be significant, you may want to go through the calculations above to estimate the amount of bandwidth required in a hosting plan.
Most hosting companies offer a variety of bandwidth options in their plans. So exactly what is bandwidth as it relates to web hosting? Put simply, bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to occur between your web site and the rest of the internet. The amount of bandwidth a hosting company can provide is determined by their network connections, both internal to their data center and external to the public internet.
Network Connectivity
The internet, in the most simplest of terms, is a group of millions of computers connected by networks. These connections within the internet can be large or small depending upon the cabling and equipment that is used at a particular internet location. It is the size of each network connection that determines how much bandwidth is available. For example, if you use a DSL connection to connect to the internet, you have 1.54 Mega bits (Mb) of bandwidth. Bandwidth therefore is measured in bits (a single 0 or 1). Bits are grouped in bytes which form words, text, and other information that is transferred between your computer and the internet.
If you have a DSL connection to the internet, you have dedicated bandwidth between your computer and your internet provider. But your internet provider may have thousands of DSL connections to their location. All of these connection aggregate at your internet provider who then has their own dedicated connection to the internet (or multiple connections) which is much larger than your single connection. They must have enough bandwidth to serve your computing needs as well as all of their other customers. So while you have a 1.54Mb connection to your internet provider, your internet provider may have a 255Mb connection to the internet so it can accommodate your needs and up to 166 other users (255/1.54).
Traffic
A very simple analogy to use to understand bandwidth and traffic is to think of highways and cars. Bandwidth is the number of lanes on the highway and traffic is the number of cars on the highway. If you are the only car on a highway, you can travel very quickly. If you are stuck in the middle of rush hour, you may travel very slowly since all of the lanes are being used up.
Traffic is simply the number of bits that are transferred on network connections. It is easiest to understand traffic using examples. One Gigabyte is 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes. To put this in perspective, it takes one byte to store one character. Imagine 100 file cabinets in a building, each of these cabinets holds 1000 folders. Each folder has 100 papers. Each paper contains 100 characters - A GB is all the characters in the building. An MP3 song is about 4MB, the same song in wav format is about 40MB, a full length movie can be 800MB to 1000MB (1000MB = 1GB).
If you were to transfer this MP3 song from a web site to your computer, you would create 4MB of traffic between the web site you are downloading from and your computer. Depending upon the network connection between the web site and the internet, the transfer may occur very quickly, or it could take time if other people are also downloading files at the same time. If, for example, the web site you download from has a 10MB connection to the internet, and you are the only person accessing that web site to download your MP3, your 4MB file will be the only traffic on that web site. However, if three people are all downloading that same MP at the same time, 12MB (3 x 4MB) of traffic has been created. Because in this example, the host only has 10MB of bandwidth, someone will have to wait. The network equipment at the hosting company will cycle through each person downloading the file and transfer a small portion at a time so each person's file transfer can take place, but the transfer for everyone downloading the file will be slower. If 100 people all came to the site and downloaded the MP3 at the same time, the transfers would be extremely slow. If the host wanted to decrease the time it took to download files simultaneously, it could increase the bandwidth of their internet connection (at a cost due to upgrading equipment).
Hosting Bandwidth
In the example above, we discussed traffic in terms of downloading an MP3 file. However, each time you visit a web site, you are creating traffic, because in order to view that web page on your computer, the web page is first downloaded to your computer (between the web site and you) which is then displayed using your browser software (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.) . The page itself is simply a file that creates traffic just like the MP3 file in the example above (however, a web page is usually much smaller than a music file).
A web page may be very small or large depending upon the amount of text and the number and quality of images integrated within the web page. For example, the home page for CNN.com is about 200KB (200 Kilobytes = 200,000 bytes = 1,600,000 bits). This is typically large for a web page. In comparison, Yahoo's home page is about 70KB.
How Much Bandwidth Is Enough?
It depends (don't you hate that answer). But in truth, it does. Since bandwidth is a significant determinant of hosting plan prices, you should take time to determine just how much is right for you. Almost all hosting plans have bandwidth requirements measured in months, so you need to estimate the amount of bandwidth that will be required by your site on a monthly basis
If you do not intend to provide file download capability from your site, the formula for calculating bandwidth is fairly straightforward:
Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size x 31 x Fudge Factor
If you intend to allow people to download files from your site, your bandwidth calculation should be:
[(Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size) +
(Average Daily File Downloads x Average File Size)] x 31 x Fudge Factor
Let us examine each item in the formula:
Average Daily Visitors - The number of people you expect to visit your site, on average, each day. Depending upon how you market your site, this number could be from 1 to 1,000,000.
Average Page Views - On average, the number of web pages you expect a person to view. If you have 50 web pages in your web site, an average person may only view 5 of those pages each time they visit.
Average Page Size - The average size of your web pages, in Kilobytes (KB). If you have already designed your site, you can calculate this directly.
Average Daily File Downloads - The number of downloads you expect to occur on your site. This is a function of the numbers of visitors and how many times a visitor downloads a file, on average, each day.
Average File Size - Average file size of files that are downloadable from your site. Similar to your web pages, if you already know which files can be downloaded, you can calculate this directly.
Fudge Factor - A number greater than 1. Using 1.5 would be safe, which assumes that your estimate is off by 50%. However, if you were very unsure, you could use 2 or 3 to ensure that your bandwidth requirements are more than met.
Usually, hosting plans offer bandwidth in terms of Gigabytes (GB) per month. This is why our formula takes daily averages and multiplies them by 31.
Summary
Most personal or small business sites will not need more than 1GB of bandwidth per month. If you have a web site that is composed of static web pages and you expect little traffic to your site on a daily basis, go with a low bandwidth plan. If you go over the amount of bandwidth allocated in your plan, your hosting company could charge you over usage fees, so if you think the traffic to your site will be significant, you may want to go through the calculations above to estimate the amount of bandwidth required in a hosting plan.
BIOS Update Procedure
All latest Motherboards today, 486/ Pentium / Pentium Pro etc.,ensure that upgrades are easily obtained by incorporating the system BIOS in a FLASH Memory component. With FLASH BIOS, there is no need to replace an EPROM component. Once downloaded, the upgrade utility fits on a floppy disc allowing the user to save, verify and update the system BIOS. A hard drive or a network drive can also be used to run the newer upgrade utilities. However, memory managers can not be installed while upgrading.
Most pre-Pentium motherboards do not have a Flash BIOS. The following instructions therefore do not apply to these boards. If your motherboard does not have a Flash BIOS (EEPROM) you will need to use an EPROM programmer to re-program the BIOS chip. See your dealer for more information about this.
Please read the following instructions in full before starting a Flash BIOS upgrade:
A. Create a Bootable Floppy (in DOS)
•With a non-formatted disk, type the following:
format a:/s
•If using a formatted disk, type:
sys a:
This procedure will ensure a clean boot when you are flashing the new BIOS.
B. Download the BIOS file
•Download the correct BIOS file by clicking on the file name of the BIOS file you wish to download.
•Save the BIOS file and the Flash Utility file in the boot disk you have created. Unzip the BIOS file and the flash utility file. If you don't have an "unzip" utility, download the WinZip for Windows 95 shareware/ evaluation copy for that one time use from _www.winzip.com or _www.pkware.com. Most CD ROMs found in computer magazines, have a shareware version of WinZip on them.
•You should have extracted two files:
Flash BIOS utility eg: flash7265.exe (for example)
BIOS eg: 6152J900.bin (example)
Use the latest flash utility available unless otherwise specified (either on the BIOS update page or in the archive file). This information is usually provided.
C. Upgrade the System BIOS
During boot up, write down the old BIOS version because you will need to use it for the BIOS backup file name.
Place the bootable floppy disk containing the BIOS file and the Flash Utility in drive a, and reboot the system in MS-DOS, preferably Version 6.22
•At the A:> prompt, type the corresponding Flash BIOS utility and the BIOS file with its extension.
For example:
flash625 615j900.bin
•From the Flash Memory Writer menu, select "Y" to "Do you want to save BIOS?" if you want to save (back up) your current BIOS (strongly recommended), then type the name of your current BIOS and its extension after FILE NAME TO SAVE: eg: a:\613J900.bin
Alternatively select "N" if you don't want to save your current BIOS. Beware, though, that you won't be able to recover from a possible failure.
•Select "Y" to "Are you sure to program?"
•Wait until it displays "Message: Power Off or Reset the system"
Once the BIOS has been successfully loaded, remove the floppy disk and reboot the system. If you write to BIOS but cannot complete the procedure, do not switch off, because the computer will not be able to boo, and you will not be given another chance to flash. In this case leave your system on until you resolve the problem (flashing BIOS with old file is a possible solution, provided you've made a backup before)
Make sure the new BIOS version has been loaded properly by taking note of the BIOS identifier as the system is rebooting.
For AMI BIOS
Once the BIOS has been successfully loaded, remove the floppy disk and reboot the system holding the "END" key prior to power on until you enter CMOS setup. If you do not do this the first time booting up after upgrading the BIOS, the system will hang.
BIOS Update Tips
note:
1.Make sure never to turn off or reset your computer during the flash process. This will corrupt the BIOS data. We also recommend that you make a copy of your current BIOS on the bootable floppy so you can reflash it if you need to. (This option is not available when flashing an AMI BIOS).
2. If you have problems installing your new BIOS please check the following:
Have you done a clean boot?
In other words, did you follow the above procedure for making a bootable floppy? This ensures that when booting from "A" there are no device drivers on the diskette. Failing to do a clean boot is the most common cause for getting a "Memory Insufficient" error message when attempting to flash a BIOS.
If you have not used a bootable floppy, insure a clean boot either by
a) pressing F5 during bootup
b) by removing all device drivers on the CONFIG.SYS including the HIMEM.SYS. Do this by using the EDIT command.
Have you booted up under DOS?
Booting in Windows is another common cause for getting a "Memory Insufficient" error message when attempting to flash a BIOS. Make sure to boot up to DOS with a minimum set of drivers. Important: Booting in DOS does not mean selecting "Restart computer in MS-DOS Mode" from Windows98/95 shutdown menu or going to Prompt mode in WindowsNT, but rather following the above procedure (format a: /s and rebooting from a:\).
Have you entered the full file name of the flash utility and the BIOS plus its extension?
Do not forget that often you will need to add a drive letter (a:\) before flashing the BIOS. Example: when asked for file name of new BIOS file which is on your floppy disk, in case you're working from c:\ your will need to type a:\615j900.bin, rather than 615j900.bin only.
Most pre-Pentium motherboards do not have a Flash BIOS. The following instructions therefore do not apply to these boards. If your motherboard does not have a Flash BIOS (EEPROM) you will need to use an EPROM programmer to re-program the BIOS chip. See your dealer for more information about this.
Please read the following instructions in full before starting a Flash BIOS upgrade:
A. Create a Bootable Floppy (in DOS)
•With a non-formatted disk, type the following:
format a:/s
•If using a formatted disk, type:
sys a:
This procedure will ensure a clean boot when you are flashing the new BIOS.
B. Download the BIOS file
•Download the correct BIOS file by clicking on the file name of the BIOS file you wish to download.
•Save the BIOS file and the Flash Utility file in the boot disk you have created. Unzip the BIOS file and the flash utility file. If you don't have an "unzip" utility, download the WinZip for Windows 95 shareware/ evaluation copy for that one time use from _www.winzip.com or _www.pkware.com. Most CD ROMs found in computer magazines, have a shareware version of WinZip on them.
•You should have extracted two files:
Flash BIOS utility eg: flash7265.exe (for example)
BIOS eg: 6152J900.bin (example)
Use the latest flash utility available unless otherwise specified (either on the BIOS update page or in the archive file). This information is usually provided.
C. Upgrade the System BIOS
During boot up, write down the old BIOS version because you will need to use it for the BIOS backup file name.
Place the bootable floppy disk containing the BIOS file and the Flash Utility in drive a, and reboot the system in MS-DOS, preferably Version 6.22
•At the A:> prompt, type the corresponding Flash BIOS utility and the BIOS file with its extension.
For example:
flash625 615j900.bin
•From the Flash Memory Writer menu, select "Y" to "Do you want to save BIOS?" if you want to save (back up) your current BIOS (strongly recommended), then type the name of your current BIOS and its extension after FILE NAME TO SAVE: eg: a:\613J900.bin
Alternatively select "N" if you don't want to save your current BIOS. Beware, though, that you won't be able to recover from a possible failure.
•Select "Y" to "Are you sure to program?"
•Wait until it displays "Message: Power Off or Reset the system"
Once the BIOS has been successfully loaded, remove the floppy disk and reboot the system. If you write to BIOS but cannot complete the procedure, do not switch off, because the computer will not be able to boo, and you will not be given another chance to flash. In this case leave your system on until you resolve the problem (flashing BIOS with old file is a possible solution, provided you've made a backup before)
Make sure the new BIOS version has been loaded properly by taking note of the BIOS identifier as the system is rebooting.
For AMI BIOS
Once the BIOS has been successfully loaded, remove the floppy disk and reboot the system holding the "END" key prior to power on until you enter CMOS setup. If you do not do this the first time booting up after upgrading the BIOS, the system will hang.
BIOS Update Tips
note:
1.Make sure never to turn off or reset your computer during the flash process. This will corrupt the BIOS data. We also recommend that you make a copy of your current BIOS on the bootable floppy so you can reflash it if you need to. (This option is not available when flashing an AMI BIOS).
2. If you have problems installing your new BIOS please check the following:
Have you done a clean boot?
In other words, did you follow the above procedure for making a bootable floppy? This ensures that when booting from "A" there are no device drivers on the diskette. Failing to do a clean boot is the most common cause for getting a "Memory Insufficient" error message when attempting to flash a BIOS.
If you have not used a bootable floppy, insure a clean boot either by
a) pressing F5 during bootup
b) by removing all device drivers on the CONFIG.SYS including the HIMEM.SYS. Do this by using the EDIT command.
Have you booted up under DOS?
Booting in Windows is another common cause for getting a "Memory Insufficient" error message when attempting to flash a BIOS. Make sure to boot up to DOS with a minimum set of drivers. Important: Booting in DOS does not mean selecting "Restart computer in MS-DOS Mode" from Windows98/95 shutdown menu or going to Prompt mode in WindowsNT, but rather following the above procedure (format a: /s and rebooting from a:\).
Have you entered the full file name of the flash utility and the BIOS plus its extension?
Do not forget that often you will need to add a drive letter (a:\) before flashing the BIOS. Example: when asked for file name of new BIOS file which is on your floppy disk, in case you're working from c:\ your will need to type a:\615j900.bin, rather than 615j900.bin only.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Installing Slackware Linux
Installing Slackware Linux (Post #1)
Slackware Linux is one of the oldest Linux distributions remaining. Over the years, it has stayed true to its roots and form.
Here's what the author, Patrick Volkerding has to say about it.
http://www.slackware.com/info/
The Slackware Philosophy
Since its first release in April of 1993, the Slackware Linux Project has aimed at producing the most "UNIX-like" Linux distribution out there. Slackware complies with the published Linux standards, such as the Linux File System Standard. We have always considered simplicity and stability paramount, and as a result Slackware has become one of the most popular, stable, and friendly distributions available.
What's this about "friendly"? You heard that Slackware was too damned hard, didn't you? If you are expecting cute graphical wizards and penguins automating every configuration step for you, that may be true. However, in essense, Slackware is one of the simplest distributions there is if you are proficient with a Linux system. If you aren't, a little perseverance with Slackware and you will be.
The reason it is easy for an experienced user is, first of all the init scripts and configuration files are easy to follow. They are generally well commented and it's easy to make changes using an ordinary text editor.
Not only that, you are getting the full, complete, standard releases of software in this distribution, installed in a sane manner. The way the developers intended. Therefore, when you go to install additional software not provided by the distribution vendor, you don't run into as many snags.
The packaging system in Slackware is quick, dirty and simple too. Slackware packages (.tgz files) are basically just tar.gz archives, that have install scripts that the packaging utilities execute. No dependency checking, which can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. To me it's good, because I don't get annoyed by packages that won't install because of some brain dead mechanism that checks for things in specific places. The catch is, you need to be a bit careful installing system software.
Slackware also provides an excellent environment for building your own software from sources.
I could go on at length about why you should give Slackware an honest try but I'll let you follow this guide and see for yourself. We are going to be installing Slackware 9.1, which is the latest release at the time of writing.
Starting the Installation
First of all, if you intend to dual boot with Windows, take care of that first. If you're starting with a fresh hard disk, create a partition for Windows, and leave the rest unallocated (unpartitioned). Install Windows first.
Boot with the first disk in the Slackware CD set. (or the first CD that you created from the ISO files you downloaded).
If your computer is unable to boot from the CDROM for whatever reason, it is also possible to create a floppy boot disk set for the installation. Read the file README.TXT in the bootdisks directory on the Slackware CD, as well as the rootdisks directory. In Slackware 9.1, this directory is on the first CD.
Once you boot with the installation media, this is the first screen you will see:
Most people with plain IDE systems, can just hit enter here, to load the bare.i kernel image. The README.TXT in the bootdisks directory, describes the precompiled kernel images available on the Slackware CD. If you have SCSI disks, you must read that file, because adaptec.s, scsi.s, scsi2.s and scsi3.s each contain drivers for different SCSI controllers.
So press Enter to load bare.i, or type the name of the kernel image you wish to load (e.g. scsi.s)
The kernel will boot, and then you will be instructed to log on as root.
Just type root and hit enter. You will not be prompted for a password at this time.
Now we must partition the disk. This is probably the trickiest part of Slackware Setup, for there are no point and click partitioning utilities provided. We are going to use the Linux Fdisk utility. It seems scary at first, a bit alien, but it's very easy to operate and you're unlikely to make mistakes if you follow the steps correctly, and do not write the tables to disk until you're sure. I have never had a mishap with this program, and it has never damaged any existing (Windows) partition table entries on the disk.
What I did here was, I hooked up a new Western Digital 40 Gb hard disk for this install. I booted with the Windows XP CD and during setup, created an 8 Gb partition, formatted it NTFS and blasted a quick Windows XP install on there so we can have a dual boot. I left the rest of the disk unallocated.
Fdisk must be invoked with the device name of the hard disk you wish to partition. In this case, we're using the primary master hard disk, so we use the /dev/hda devicename. Here is how IDE disks are named:
/dev/hda - Primary Master
/dev/hdb - Primary Slave
/dev/hdc - Secondary Master
/dev/hdd - Secondary Slave
Note that these do not refer to partitions or filesystems, but the hard disk devices themselves. (/dev/hda1, /dev/hda2 and so on, is how partitions are addressed)
SCSI disks are named /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc and so on, according to which are first enumerated on the bus.
We need to type fdisk /dev/hda
Don't worry about the informational message about the number of cylinders. Unless you're installing a very old Linux distribution, the boot loader won't have a problem.
Now what? Press m to see a list of commands.
The first thing we want to do is press p to print (display) the partition table. We do this after every step, so we can see the results. Nothing is really changed, until we press w to write the partition table to disk.
There's our 8 Gb NTFS partition, /dev/hda1. The first partition on the disk, and in Windows terms, the active partition. It's going to stay that way.
The units (for Start and End) are in cylinders of 8225280 bytes. Just remember that each unit is rougly 8 megabytes (7.84 if you do the math). It's also displayed in blocks of rougly 1 kb. Don't worry about it, we will be specifying partition sizes in megabytes.
Now, how we partition depends greatly on personal preference. All you really need to install and run Linux is a root partition, and a swap partition. However, that's a fairly large chunk of disk and we can mount parts of the Linux filesystem on separate partitions.
This is basically how I would allocate this space, for use with Slackware. It's just the way I do things, you can choose other partitioning schemes and sizes. If disk space is tight, you should create only a root partition, and save some space for a swap partition. For example, if you have 4 Gb of space to allocate, create a 3.7 Gb root partition and use the rest for swap. That would be a half decent setup.
Using multiple partitions is a bit wasteful, because we have to allow room on each partition for growth. This may result in some disk space staying unused. Err on the side of caution, and allocate plenty of space.
This is what I would do for my own use:
1 Gb root partition (primary partition)
The root filesystem, contains system software and libraries, configuration data (/etc), local state data (/var) and all other filesystems are mounted under it.
Extended partition utilizing the rest of the disk
We then create logical drives on the extended partition.
1 Gb swap partition (logical drive)
Note that you probably don't need a swap partition that large but I like the extra insurance and I have plenty of space. It allows me to work on absolutely huge files, and provides extra memory addressing in the event of some sort of race condition. 256 Mb should probably be enough swap though, if disk space is tight.
8 Gb partition for /usr (logical drive)
Most all of your software and libraries get installed in /usr. It is useful to have a large partition for this.
2 Gb partition for /opt (logical drive)
"Optional" software can be installed here. For example, KDE will be installed to /opt/kde. I install some other software to /opt as well.
18 Gb (roughly) for /home (logical drive)
We use what is leftover, for /home. This is where the user directories are, and where users will store personal files. You may also install some software to /home if desired. I do, and I keep build directories there as well.
Now, we will start creating these partitions.
To create a new partition, press n
We are prompted to choose primary, or extended. We want to create a primary partition here. (though the root partition could be a logical partition on the extended)
Press p to create a primary partition.
We then have to give it a partition number. The Windows XP partition is already partition 1, so we have to choose 2
We are then prompted for the starting cylinder. We will be just hitting enter, to accept the default value. (the first available cylinder). We will be accepting the default starting cylinder for each partition we create. We will specify the ending cylinder, by specifying the size in megabytes. For the value of "last cylinder", we type +1024M to create a partition of roughly 1 gigabyte. Partitions have to end on a cylinder boundary (or waste sectors), and partitioning software automatically adjusts that.
Now, press p to display the partition tables, and you'll see what you've done so far. At this point, if you've made a mistake, simply press d and type the partition number that you want to delete (2 in this case... just don't touch partition 1 or you'll destroy Windows). Nothing has been written yet, you can just delete the partition you've created and repeat the last step. This is why we view the partition info at every step. If satisfied, proceed with the next step. At the command prompt, you can press q at any time to quit without writing anything to disk, if you've made a serious mistake and just want to start over.
Now we are going to create an extended partition, to act as a container for our logical drives.
Press n to create a new partition then press e to choose extended. Press 3 when prompted for the partition number and it will be designated as /dev/hda3. We will never be accessing this partition, just the logical drives we are going to create on it.
Note: How the partition numbers work is, partitions 1 to 4 are reserved for primary partitions. (the extended partition is considered a primary partition). It is an architectural limitation of PC BIOS partition tables, that only 4 primary partitions are allowed on a disk. You can have many logical drives though. Logical drives start being numbered at 5, in the Linux scheme.
Press enter when prompted for the first cylinder, to accept the default of the next available.
When prompted for the last cylinder, this time, simply press enter again. It will allocate the rest of the disk, ending at the last cylinder 4865.
Press p to display the partition tables.
Now we are going to create logical drives until we've used up the extended partition, starting with swap. I generally like to put swap in between the root partition and /usr.
You know the drill. Press n to create a new partition, but this time press l for logical. (In our case, we can't create any more primary partitions because we've already allocated the disk)
Note that we are not prompted to choose a partition number for a logical drive, as it will be assigned 5 as the first one.
Press enter to accept the default value of the first cylinder. For the last cylinder, I'll type +1024M to create a 1 Gb partition.
Press p to display the partition table, and note that our new partition is /dev/hda5. There will be no /dev/hda4, because there will be no more primary partitions on this disk.
Aside: Just so you understand how this works, let's say that when we created the extended partition, we didn't allocate the rest of the disk. We left some space unallocated. If we were to create a primary partition using that space now or some time in the future, it would become /dev/hda4.
OK, now, note the Id column in the display of the partition table. By default, when we create partitions they are of type 83, Linux Native.
We must change the partition type of the one we just created to 82, Linux Swap.
Press t to "change a partition's system id" and then press 5 when prompted for the partition number. (Following my partitioning scheme, that is. Use the correct number for your swap partition of course)
When prompted for the Hex Code (partition ID), if you were to press L, you would see a long list of possible partition types that the Linux fdisk utility is aware of.
Type 82 for Linux Swap, and hit enter. When you press p to display, you will see the change.
The rest of the partitions we'll create, will be the default type 83, Linux.
Press n to create a new partition. Choose l for logical. Press enter to accept the default first cylinder. For the last cylinder, type +8192M to create an 8 Gb partition for /usr.
Again, n for a new partition, and l for logical. Press enter for the first cylinder. For the last cylinder, type +2048M to create a 2 Gb partition for /opt.
Now, we'll allocate the last partition for /home.
When asked for the first and last cylinders, just press enter for both of those this time, as we're using up the extended partition.
If satisfied with your changes, press w to write the partition table to disk, and exit the Linux fdisk utility.
If you see a warning like that, restart the system (with the slackware CD). I am seeing that message, because I altered the partition tables on a live system (to get those screenshots easily), but I have seen similar warnings when writing the partition tables to disk if I've gone back and redone them after already writing. You should just see "Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table", and "Syncing Disks". You only need to reboot if there were warnings.
Note: I said I altered the partition tables on a live system. That means, the data on those partitions was effectively lost. The next reboot would have been oblivion. Not a problem because it was just a test install, and I planned to install the OS again (Slackware installs very quickly), but know that you can't adjust partitions on the fly, as the partitions must be formatted afterwards.
Take note of which partition devices you created to correspond with your mount points. You'll need to specify them, during setup.
Now we are ready to proceed with the Slackware installation.
Now that we have our Linux partitions created, at the root prompt we can type setup
This is the main setup menu. You can read the help if you like, but you can just skip down to ADDSWAP unless you need to remap your keyboard for some reason. Use the arrow keys to navigate, and enter to select.
It will detect your swap partition for you, format it (mkswap) and activate it (swapon)
Note: The hard disk devices in these screenshots are /dev/sda. Don't pay any attention to that, it's just because I took these screenshots from within a virtual machine. It emulates disks as scsi devices. Just know that's not the disk we partitioned in the examples above, so there's no confusion.
After completing a step, setup automatically takes you to the next step in sequence. Next, is to select the target partitions. Here is where we choose our root partition, and then choose mount points for the other partitions.
This is where we select our root partition (/). Following our partitioning example, that would be /dev/hda2.
Now it will prompt you to format the partition. I would choose to check for bad blocks while it's formatting.
Choose your desired filesystem. I like to use ext2 because it's a simple filesystem that's well matured, but you may want to choose ext3 to have a journaling filesystem.
Now it prompts to choose the inode density for the filesystem. Just hit enter to go with the default of 4096 unless you know what you are doing, and specifically why you want to do it.
If you just created a root partition and swap, you are done formatting now. If you created other partitions, they must now be selected, formatted and assigned mount points.
Swap doesn't show up in this list.
We are mounting this partition as /usr.
Continuing on, we are prompted to select, assign mount points and format the rest of our partitions in the same manner.
When finished, a summary is displayed
In the next step, you will be prompted to select the source media.
Hit enter to choose a Slackware CDROM, and it should detect it automatically.
In the next step, we are prompted to select package categories.
These govern which series of packages will be installed on the system. By default, all categories are selected except KDEI (KDE i18N internationalization). If you're just going to be using English/Western charsets you don't need to install KDEI.
For your first time installing Slackware, I recommend leaving all package categories enabled. You can just choose OK here.
Next, we are prompted to choose the "prompt mode", that is, the degree of interaction for installing packages.
Full, installs all packages in the categories you've selected, without prompting. This is what I recommend for your first Slackware install. Install everything, and you can easily remove packages you don't want later after you get a feel for things. I do know what I'm doing, but this is the option I normally use. It's just easier.
Newbie prompts for each package as they are being installed. I do not recommend this, as it is quite tedious. Also, you may not know what you want/need yet.
Menu is a bit better, as it lets you choose groups of related things.
Expert. If you know what you are doing, the expert prompt mode is an excellent way to choose exactly which packages you want installed on the system, prior to package installation. This really is good, it's not terribly confusing like similar package installation modes in other distributions.
The custom/tagfile options use tagfiles to automate a custom package selection. I've never used them. This would be handy if you were wanting to roll out the same installation on several machines though.
Choose full and watch the packages install non-interactively. It won't take very long, even on a relatively slow machine.
At some point during the package installation, you will be prompted to insert the second CD.
When the package installation stage completes, you are prompted to choose a kernel.
I recommend the CDROM option, and choosing the same kernel that you chose at the initial boot prompt when you booted with the Slackware CD. It got you this far.
Because I did these screenshots in a virtual machine that uses scsi emulation for the virtual disks, I had to choose scsi.s. On an IDE system, you probably either want bare.i or bareacpi.i (warning: acpi can cause boot problems if your BIOS implementation of ACPI doesn't jibe... this is why I recommend using the same kernel you chose at the initial boot prompt)
Next, you are prompted to create an emergency boot disk.
I highly recommend taking the time to create this disk, for it can be used to start the distribution if anything ever happens to your boot loader. You will be able to easily fix it, if you can start the system using this boot floppy.
You will now be prompted to create a symbolic link for your modem device.
If you have a modem, you can do that here. Saying "no modem" doesn't mean you can't use a modem, you can create the /dev/modem symbolic link later, or just use the appropriate device (e.g. /dev/ttyS1 for COM2)
Next, you will be prompted to enable the hotplug system. If you have such devices, say Yes, otherwise No is a good idea.
As you can see, it's possible for it to cause problems on some systems. Note the information on how to get out of the trap if it happens to you.
Now we are prompted to install the LILO bootloader.
You will most likely want to choose simple here. Choosing expert, will result in lilo not behaving as you expect and you'll have to manually edit the lilo.conf file (or run liloconfig from within the OS) to get the desired functionality back (e.g. it won't even prompt you to select an operating system). If you choose to skip the installation of lilo altogether, then you will only be able to boot into your Slackware system using the boot floppy that you created in the previous steps.
Next, you are prompted to choose the VGA (display) mode of your console, either standard VGA, or one of the VESA framebuffer display modes. The reason this is in the lilo configuration, is because the boot loader passes these parameters to the kernel on boot.
It is nice to have a framebuffer console for when you're not running XFree86, but if the framebuffer mode you've chosen doesn't work well with your display hardware, you could end up with an unusable display (until you fix it of course... you could boot with your boot floppy).
Consider choosing standard for now, to use standard VGA. You can change this parameter in your /etc/lilo.conf file later. If you're always going to be using the XFree86 GUI environment, it's not going to matter much anyways.
You are now prompted to enter any extra boot parameters, that lilo is to pass to the kernel.
He gives one very common example of why you might need to do this: If you have an IDE CD Writer. In the 2.4 kernel series, CD writing uses SCSI emulation and the kernel must know which drive is to use that mode, if both IDE-CD Support and IDE-SCSI support are to be loaded in the running kernel. The example of hdc, is for a secondary master. Use hdd if your writer is secondary slave.
Next, you are prompted to choose the destination for installing LILO. You will almost certainly want to choose MBR (unless you know what you are doing)
He says "possibly unsafe" because there are a few situations where writing to the master boot record is indeed unsafe. For example, if your bios doesn't support the capacity of the drive, and you have translation software installed (e.g. "MaxBlast" or "EZBios"). Another reason it could be unsafe is, if you are using another boot loader (e.g. System Commander, or Boot Magic). Also, before you ever write to the MBR (installing pretty much any OS), you must ensure that bios level MBR protection is disabled. (a.k.a boot virus protection, or "Trend ChipAway"). Installing LILO to the MBR, is the most common way that it is used and it is normally quite safe and can be used to start your Windows operating systems as well.
The "Root" option, to install LILO to the superblock of your root partition, is mainly useful if you intend to use another boot manager to invoke LILO.
Next, you are prompted to create a symbolic link for your mouse.
Even if you don't intend to use gpm, it's still useful to have a correct /dev/mouse symbolic link. This way you can just specify that device when you configure XFree86 after the OS is installed. I choose imps2 for my Logitech ps/2 wheel mouse.
I don't have much use for this (it's got nothing to do with using a mouse in the GUI), but if you wish to have mouse support at the console, you can load gpm at boot time.
At this point, you will be asked if you want to Configure your network. If you only have dial up networking, and don't even have a NIC, you can say No to that question for now, and you'll be prompted to configure your clock, timezone and set a root password. Alternatively you can proceed, and choose loopback. That is really what you should do, as then at least you'll set a hostname for the machine.
If you chose to configure your network now, the first thing you will be prompted for is a hostname. Enter something.
Now you'll be prompted to enter a domain name.
If you intend to participate as a member of a network that has a nameserver, you will want to enter your fully qualified domain name, ending in .com, .org, .edu or similar.
Otherwise just enter localdomain. In subsequent steps you can even remove that domain name. (That's what I do, for I don't really need to have one)
Next, you will be prompted to set up your computer's IP address.
If your network adapter connects to a cable modem, or a broadband router, or uses a PPPoE connection (PPP Over Ethernet... commonly used for ADSL Internet connections), then you probably want to choose DHCP to have your TCP/IP info automatically assigned.
If you choose DHCP, you will be prompted for a DHCP hostname. If you connect directly to a cable modem, you may need to specify your user ID here.
Otherwise, just leave it blank and hit enter.
Next, setup will prompt you to probe for your network adapter.
If it doesn't detect it, don't panic. It just means you'll have to figure out which kernel module your network adapter needs and configure the network later.
Ok, in this virtual machine, that's the virtual adapter it detects. It works. However, on the real Slackware installation, it doesn't automatically detect my D-Link 530TXS. Not a problem, because I know what kernel module it needs (sundance.o). That's something for later and we'll cover it then. It doesn't prevent us from configuring most of the network information though.
If you've chosen to use DHCP, a confirmation screen is what you'll see next. Your network configuration steps are completed.
Myself, I just configure my network statically, and I don't use the DHCP server on my router. So, if you choose Static IP instead of DHCP, this is how the configuration goes.
Enter your IP Address.
Enter your Subnet Mask
Enter your Default Gateway
Enter a Nameserver
Note: I'm just entering the IP address of my router here, it acts as a DNS proxy. The Primary and Secondary DNS servers of my ISP are entered in my router's WAN configuration. You will probably want to enter your ISP's Primary DNS server in this field, and then you can add more nameservers (e.g. the secondary) to your /etc/resolv.conf file later.
Now you will be prompted to confirm your network settings.
You can edit these settings from this dialog as well. For example, I want to remove the domain name "localdomain" altogether.
This concludes the network portion of setup.
After the network configuration, you will be prompted to configure your startup services.
Many of these are network server daemons, and if you are just using your computer as a workstation, you will want to leave most all of them disabled. You may want things like the CUPS print server.
Next, you will be prompted to configure your clock and timezone.
Next, you will be prompted to choose a default window manager, for when you start XFree86.
If you are new to Linux, select KDE for now, you can try some of the others later.
Now you're prompted to enter a root password.
Say Yes. You'll be prompted to type a root password twice, for confirmation.
Slackware setup is now complete. You will be prompted to exit setup and press ctrl-alt-del to reboot your machine.
After exiting, the CDROM tray will open, so you can remove the CD. You'll be back at the root prompt after that. Press ctrl-alt-del to restart the system, and boot Slackware for the first time!
When the system cycles, you'll be at the LILO boot prompt. This is still the virtual machine, but in the real installation on the IDE disk we partitioned, liloconfig didn't add my Windows boot choice to the lilo.conf file. So what I see is exactly the same. Probably because I used the NTFS filesystem. We'll be fixing that up soon, it's not difficult.
Hit enter to start Slackware Linux, and you'll be at the logon prompt. Type root as the username, and you will be prompted for the root password you set near the end of setup.
The first thing you should probably do, is create a user for yourself. You must not use the root user account for normal operation of the system. The Slackware adduser script makes this very easy, by interactively prompting you for information instead of making you supply it with switches on the command line.
Type adduser as root, and then you will be prompted to enter a username. Use lower case for the username.
For most of the prompts you will just want to hit enter to accept the defaults unless you have a specific reason. Let it default to the next available user ID, hit enter to use /bin/bash (unless you want to use another shell of course), accept the default home directory, and accept the default of no expiry date.
You may want to enter a "full name" (I like to pick something humorous). You will then be prompted to type the user's password twice for confirmation. A user can change his own password any time, using the passwd command.
The rest of the configuration steps can really be done in any order, according to what is most important to you. You may want to get the XFree86 GUI started first, so you can use GUI based text editors and such, if you're unfamiliar with working from the command line.
The first thing I'd want to do is get my network going (if it isn't already). The netconfig utility that ran during setup, could not probe for my network adapter. However, I know that it uses the sundance module. How did I know that? Well, when I first bought those NICs, I typed D-Link 530TXS Linux (the "S" is significant in the model number) into a search engine (Google) and found the tidbit I needed in mailing list archives and the like.
Now, during setup we configured our network with the exception of the driver module for the network adapter. That means, all we have to do is load the module, and start the network. Slackware's startup scripts look for a script file named rc.netdevice in the /etc/rc.d directory. This is where the system init scripts are located on Slackware system. (It uses the BSD style init script mechanism)
It is very easy to create this file from the command line. As root, type:
echo "/sbin/modprobe sundance" > /etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice
This will redirect the output of the echo command into the specified text file that will get created. The quotes are important, because there is a space in the string we are echoing. Use the correct module name for your network adapter, of course.
Now, set the file executable:
chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice
That's it, on the next reboot your network should initialize.
Alternatively, to load a network adapter module, you could uncomment the appropriate module loading line (or add one) in the /etc/rc.d/rc.modules init script.
Now, I don't feel like rebooting at the moment, so I'm going to just type a few simple commands to start the network.
I'm loading the module, then using the ifconfig utility to specify the interface, IP address of the machine, and subnet mask, and then using the route command to specify my router as the gateway.
You probably will want to attempt to start the XFree86 GUI now. By default, Slackware is set up to use the VESA Framebuffer driver for your display hardware. The /etc/X11/XF86Config file is a copy of the file XF86Config-vesa in the same directory.
So if you type startx you may have a usable GUI if the settings are compatible with your display hardware. That will do in a pinch, but you will want to properly configure XFree86 and use the accelerated driver for your video card (which hopefully exists, otherwise you've got some generic options)
I put the XFree86 configuration for Slackware in a separate tutorial, which you can read here:
Configuring XFree86 in Slackware (Opens in new window)
Next, I want to get LILO straightened around, so I can boot that Windows XP installation. At this point I have no way of starting it.
As root, open the /etc/lilo.conf file with a text editor. I drew a box around the section that I added, to the bottom of the file.
Lines that start with # are comments, and are ignored.
This is called "chainloading". What we are doing, is instructing LILO to pass control over to whatever code is in the /dev/hda1 partition's boot sector. It does not have to know anything about the filesystem or the operating system on the partition. In this case, that's the code in the boot sector that finds ntldr; Windows XP's own boot loader. Any additional Windows operating systems that the Windows XP boot loader's boot.ini file is configured to start (e.g. Win9x) will be available from the ntldr menu as well.
What you will see in the LILO boot menu, is the label windows.
While you are editing lilo.conf, you probably will want to change the timeout to a more reasonable value. It defaults to 1200, which is 2 minutes. (The value is in 10ths of a second, so a value of 300 is 30 seconds)
After you are finished editing the lilo.conf file, you must run the lilo command (or /sbin/lilo if /sbin isn't in your path) to rewrite the changes, or they will have no effect.
As root, type lilo and you should see in the output that it has added both Linux and windows to the configuration.
I rebooted the machine, and I can start both Linux and windows.
If you ever want to access that NTFS filesystem from within Linux (read-only support for NTFS), you will have to load the ntfs kernel module, and mount the filesystem.
Create a mount point (an empty directory)
mkdir /mnt/windows
Load the kernel module.
modprobe ntfs
Mount the filesystem.
mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows
You access it from /mnt/windows.
Slackware 9.1 ships with the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) system. I had never really used it before, beyond manually loading ALSA kernel drivers without having any of the utilities installed. It's considerably more complex than the older OSS (Open Sound System) drivers, requiring more kernel modules and module aliases to be set up in a modules.conf file. I thought I was going to really hate it, but when I saw how easy it was to configure, I had to re-evaluate that.
As root, type alsaconf and a curses based configuration utility will appear.
It probes for your sound card.
Offers to set up your modules.conf file for you.
Some nice informational messages.
That should be it, your audio should now work!
If that doesn't work for you, then it will be manual configuration. Check the Alsa Soundcard Matrix to see if your card is supported, and what module to use.
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/
As for configuration, this is what you'll want to put in your /etc/modules.conf file. The lines should pretty much be the same for all sound cards, but what you must change is the driver module, which I have shown in bold.
quote:
# Stuff for the kernel module loader
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
# Your Driver
alias snd-card-0 snd-ens1371
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# OSS Emulation
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
Some cards may need additional modules or options. See the "details" section for your card, at the Alsa Soundcard Matrix.
Slackware Linux is one of the oldest Linux distributions remaining. Over the years, it has stayed true to its roots and form.
Here's what the author, Patrick Volkerding has to say about it.
http://www.slackware.com/info/
The Slackware Philosophy
Since its first release in April of 1993, the Slackware Linux Project has aimed at producing the most "UNIX-like" Linux distribution out there. Slackware complies with the published Linux standards, such as the Linux File System Standard. We have always considered simplicity and stability paramount, and as a result Slackware has become one of the most popular, stable, and friendly distributions available.
What's this about "friendly"? You heard that Slackware was too damned hard, didn't you? If you are expecting cute graphical wizards and penguins automating every configuration step for you, that may be true. However, in essense, Slackware is one of the simplest distributions there is if you are proficient with a Linux system. If you aren't, a little perseverance with Slackware and you will be.
The reason it is easy for an experienced user is, first of all the init scripts and configuration files are easy to follow. They are generally well commented and it's easy to make changes using an ordinary text editor.
Not only that, you are getting the full, complete, standard releases of software in this distribution, installed in a sane manner. The way the developers intended. Therefore, when you go to install additional software not provided by the distribution vendor, you don't run into as many snags.
The packaging system in Slackware is quick, dirty and simple too. Slackware packages (.tgz files) are basically just tar.gz archives, that have install scripts that the packaging utilities execute. No dependency checking, which can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. To me it's good, because I don't get annoyed by packages that won't install because of some brain dead mechanism that checks for things in specific places. The catch is, you need to be a bit careful installing system software.
Slackware also provides an excellent environment for building your own software from sources.
I could go on at length about why you should give Slackware an honest try but I'll let you follow this guide and see for yourself. We are going to be installing Slackware 9.1, which is the latest release at the time of writing.
Starting the Installation
First of all, if you intend to dual boot with Windows, take care of that first. If you're starting with a fresh hard disk, create a partition for Windows, and leave the rest unallocated (unpartitioned). Install Windows first.
Boot with the first disk in the Slackware CD set. (or the first CD that you created from the ISO files you downloaded).
If your computer is unable to boot from the CDROM for whatever reason, it is also possible to create a floppy boot disk set for the installation. Read the file README.TXT in the bootdisks directory on the Slackware CD, as well as the rootdisks directory. In Slackware 9.1, this directory is on the first CD.
Once you boot with the installation media, this is the first screen you will see:
Most people with plain IDE systems, can just hit enter here, to load the bare.i kernel image. The README.TXT in the bootdisks directory, describes the precompiled kernel images available on the Slackware CD. If you have SCSI disks, you must read that file, because adaptec.s, scsi.s, scsi2.s and scsi3.s each contain drivers for different SCSI controllers.
So press Enter to load bare.i, or type the name of the kernel image you wish to load (e.g. scsi.s)
The kernel will boot, and then you will be instructed to log on as root.
Just type root and hit enter. You will not be prompted for a password at this time.
Now we must partition the disk. This is probably the trickiest part of Slackware Setup, for there are no point and click partitioning utilities provided. We are going to use the Linux Fdisk utility. It seems scary at first, a bit alien, but it's very easy to operate and you're unlikely to make mistakes if you follow the steps correctly, and do not write the tables to disk until you're sure. I have never had a mishap with this program, and it has never damaged any existing (Windows) partition table entries on the disk.
What I did here was, I hooked up a new Western Digital 40 Gb hard disk for this install. I booted with the Windows XP CD and during setup, created an 8 Gb partition, formatted it NTFS and blasted a quick Windows XP install on there so we can have a dual boot. I left the rest of the disk unallocated.
Fdisk must be invoked with the device name of the hard disk you wish to partition. In this case, we're using the primary master hard disk, so we use the /dev/hda devicename. Here is how IDE disks are named:
/dev/hda - Primary Master
/dev/hdb - Primary Slave
/dev/hdc - Secondary Master
/dev/hdd - Secondary Slave
Note that these do not refer to partitions or filesystems, but the hard disk devices themselves. (/dev/hda1, /dev/hda2 and so on, is how partitions are addressed)
SCSI disks are named /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc and so on, according to which are first enumerated on the bus.
We need to type fdisk /dev/hda
Don't worry about the informational message about the number of cylinders. Unless you're installing a very old Linux distribution, the boot loader won't have a problem.
Now what? Press m to see a list of commands.
The first thing we want to do is press p to print (display) the partition table. We do this after every step, so we can see the results. Nothing is really changed, until we press w to write the partition table to disk.
There's our 8 Gb NTFS partition, /dev/hda1. The first partition on the disk, and in Windows terms, the active partition. It's going to stay that way.
The units (for Start and End) are in cylinders of 8225280 bytes. Just remember that each unit is rougly 8 megabytes (7.84 if you do the math). It's also displayed in blocks of rougly 1 kb. Don't worry about it, we will be specifying partition sizes in megabytes.
Now, how we partition depends greatly on personal preference. All you really need to install and run Linux is a root partition, and a swap partition. However, that's a fairly large chunk of disk and we can mount parts of the Linux filesystem on separate partitions.
This is basically how I would allocate this space, for use with Slackware. It's just the way I do things, you can choose other partitioning schemes and sizes. If disk space is tight, you should create only a root partition, and save some space for a swap partition. For example, if you have 4 Gb of space to allocate, create a 3.7 Gb root partition and use the rest for swap. That would be a half decent setup.
Using multiple partitions is a bit wasteful, because we have to allow room on each partition for growth. This may result in some disk space staying unused. Err on the side of caution, and allocate plenty of space.
This is what I would do for my own use:
1 Gb root partition (primary partition)
The root filesystem, contains system software and libraries, configuration data (/etc), local state data (/var) and all other filesystems are mounted under it.
Extended partition utilizing the rest of the disk
We then create logical drives on the extended partition.
1 Gb swap partition (logical drive)
Note that you probably don't need a swap partition that large but I like the extra insurance and I have plenty of space. It allows me to work on absolutely huge files, and provides extra memory addressing in the event of some sort of race condition. 256 Mb should probably be enough swap though, if disk space is tight.
8 Gb partition for /usr (logical drive)
Most all of your software and libraries get installed in /usr. It is useful to have a large partition for this.
2 Gb partition for /opt (logical drive)
"Optional" software can be installed here. For example, KDE will be installed to /opt/kde. I install some other software to /opt as well.
18 Gb (roughly) for /home (logical drive)
We use what is leftover, for /home. This is where the user directories are, and where users will store personal files. You may also install some software to /home if desired. I do, and I keep build directories there as well.
Now, we will start creating these partitions.
To create a new partition, press n
We are prompted to choose primary, or extended. We want to create a primary partition here. (though the root partition could be a logical partition on the extended)
Press p to create a primary partition.
We then have to give it a partition number. The Windows XP partition is already partition 1, so we have to choose 2
We are then prompted for the starting cylinder. We will be just hitting enter, to accept the default value. (the first available cylinder). We will be accepting the default starting cylinder for each partition we create. We will specify the ending cylinder, by specifying the size in megabytes. For the value of "last cylinder", we type +1024M to create a partition of roughly 1 gigabyte. Partitions have to end on a cylinder boundary (or waste sectors), and partitioning software automatically adjusts that.
Now, press p to display the partition tables, and you'll see what you've done so far. At this point, if you've made a mistake, simply press d and type the partition number that you want to delete (2 in this case... just don't touch partition 1 or you'll destroy Windows). Nothing has been written yet, you can just delete the partition you've created and repeat the last step. This is why we view the partition info at every step. If satisfied, proceed with the next step. At the command prompt, you can press q at any time to quit without writing anything to disk, if you've made a serious mistake and just want to start over.
Now we are going to create an extended partition, to act as a container for our logical drives.
Press n to create a new partition then press e to choose extended. Press 3 when prompted for the partition number and it will be designated as /dev/hda3. We will never be accessing this partition, just the logical drives we are going to create on it.
Note: How the partition numbers work is, partitions 1 to 4 are reserved for primary partitions. (the extended partition is considered a primary partition). It is an architectural limitation of PC BIOS partition tables, that only 4 primary partitions are allowed on a disk. You can have many logical drives though. Logical drives start being numbered at 5, in the Linux scheme.
Press enter when prompted for the first cylinder, to accept the default of the next available.
When prompted for the last cylinder, this time, simply press enter again. It will allocate the rest of the disk, ending at the last cylinder 4865.
Press p to display the partition tables.
Now we are going to create logical drives until we've used up the extended partition, starting with swap. I generally like to put swap in between the root partition and /usr.
You know the drill. Press n to create a new partition, but this time press l for logical. (In our case, we can't create any more primary partitions because we've already allocated the disk)
Note that we are not prompted to choose a partition number for a logical drive, as it will be assigned 5 as the first one.
Press enter to accept the default value of the first cylinder. For the last cylinder, I'll type +1024M to create a 1 Gb partition.
Press p to display the partition table, and note that our new partition is /dev/hda5. There will be no /dev/hda4, because there will be no more primary partitions on this disk.
Aside: Just so you understand how this works, let's say that when we created the extended partition, we didn't allocate the rest of the disk. We left some space unallocated. If we were to create a primary partition using that space now or some time in the future, it would become /dev/hda4.
OK, now, note the Id column in the display of the partition table. By default, when we create partitions they are of type 83, Linux Native.
We must change the partition type of the one we just created to 82, Linux Swap.
Press t to "change a partition's system id" and then press 5 when prompted for the partition number. (Following my partitioning scheme, that is. Use the correct number for your swap partition of course)
When prompted for the Hex Code (partition ID), if you were to press L, you would see a long list of possible partition types that the Linux fdisk utility is aware of.
Type 82 for Linux Swap, and hit enter. When you press p to display, you will see the change.
The rest of the partitions we'll create, will be the default type 83, Linux.
Press n to create a new partition. Choose l for logical. Press enter to accept the default first cylinder. For the last cylinder, type +8192M to create an 8 Gb partition for /usr.
Again, n for a new partition, and l for logical. Press enter for the first cylinder. For the last cylinder, type +2048M to create a 2 Gb partition for /opt.
Now, we'll allocate the last partition for /home.
When asked for the first and last cylinders, just press enter for both of those this time, as we're using up the extended partition.
If satisfied with your changes, press w to write the partition table to disk, and exit the Linux fdisk utility.
If you see a warning like that, restart the system (with the slackware CD). I am seeing that message, because I altered the partition tables on a live system (to get those screenshots easily), but I have seen similar warnings when writing the partition tables to disk if I've gone back and redone them after already writing. You should just see "Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table", and "Syncing Disks". You only need to reboot if there were warnings.
Note: I said I altered the partition tables on a live system. That means, the data on those partitions was effectively lost. The next reboot would have been oblivion. Not a problem because it was just a test install, and I planned to install the OS again (Slackware installs very quickly), but know that you can't adjust partitions on the fly, as the partitions must be formatted afterwards.
Take note of which partition devices you created to correspond with your mount points. You'll need to specify them, during setup.
Now we are ready to proceed with the Slackware installation.
Now that we have our Linux partitions created, at the root prompt we can type setup
This is the main setup menu. You can read the help if you like, but you can just skip down to ADDSWAP unless you need to remap your keyboard for some reason. Use the arrow keys to navigate, and enter to select.
It will detect your swap partition for you, format it (mkswap) and activate it (swapon)
Note: The hard disk devices in these screenshots are /dev/sda. Don't pay any attention to that, it's just because I took these screenshots from within a virtual machine. It emulates disks as scsi devices. Just know that's not the disk we partitioned in the examples above, so there's no confusion.
After completing a step, setup automatically takes you to the next step in sequence. Next, is to select the target partitions. Here is where we choose our root partition, and then choose mount points for the other partitions.
This is where we select our root partition (/). Following our partitioning example, that would be /dev/hda2.
Now it will prompt you to format the partition. I would choose to check for bad blocks while it's formatting.
Choose your desired filesystem. I like to use ext2 because it's a simple filesystem that's well matured, but you may want to choose ext3 to have a journaling filesystem.
Now it prompts to choose the inode density for the filesystem. Just hit enter to go with the default of 4096 unless you know what you are doing, and specifically why you want to do it.
If you just created a root partition and swap, you are done formatting now. If you created other partitions, they must now be selected, formatted and assigned mount points.
Swap doesn't show up in this list.
We are mounting this partition as /usr.
Continuing on, we are prompted to select, assign mount points and format the rest of our partitions in the same manner.
When finished, a summary is displayed
In the next step, you will be prompted to select the source media.
Hit enter to choose a Slackware CDROM, and it should detect it automatically.
In the next step, we are prompted to select package categories.
These govern which series of packages will be installed on the system. By default, all categories are selected except KDEI (KDE i18N internationalization). If you're just going to be using English/Western charsets you don't need to install KDEI.
For your first time installing Slackware, I recommend leaving all package categories enabled. You can just choose OK here.
Next, we are prompted to choose the "prompt mode", that is, the degree of interaction for installing packages.
Full, installs all packages in the categories you've selected, without prompting. This is what I recommend for your first Slackware install. Install everything, and you can easily remove packages you don't want later after you get a feel for things. I do know what I'm doing, but this is the option I normally use. It's just easier.
Newbie prompts for each package as they are being installed. I do not recommend this, as it is quite tedious. Also, you may not know what you want/need yet.
Menu is a bit better, as it lets you choose groups of related things.
Expert. If you know what you are doing, the expert prompt mode is an excellent way to choose exactly which packages you want installed on the system, prior to package installation. This really is good, it's not terribly confusing like similar package installation modes in other distributions.
The custom/tagfile options use tagfiles to automate a custom package selection. I've never used them. This would be handy if you were wanting to roll out the same installation on several machines though.
Choose full and watch the packages install non-interactively. It won't take very long, even on a relatively slow machine.
At some point during the package installation, you will be prompted to insert the second CD.
When the package installation stage completes, you are prompted to choose a kernel.
I recommend the CDROM option, and choosing the same kernel that you chose at the initial boot prompt when you booted with the Slackware CD. It got you this far.
Because I did these screenshots in a virtual machine that uses scsi emulation for the virtual disks, I had to choose scsi.s. On an IDE system, you probably either want bare.i or bareacpi.i (warning: acpi can cause boot problems if your BIOS implementation of ACPI doesn't jibe... this is why I recommend using the same kernel you chose at the initial boot prompt)
Next, you are prompted to create an emergency boot disk.
I highly recommend taking the time to create this disk, for it can be used to start the distribution if anything ever happens to your boot loader. You will be able to easily fix it, if you can start the system using this boot floppy.
You will now be prompted to create a symbolic link for your modem device.
If you have a modem, you can do that here. Saying "no modem" doesn't mean you can't use a modem, you can create the /dev/modem symbolic link later, or just use the appropriate device (e.g. /dev/ttyS1 for COM2)
Next, you will be prompted to enable the hotplug system. If you have such devices, say Yes, otherwise No is a good idea.
As you can see, it's possible for it to cause problems on some systems. Note the information on how to get out of the trap if it happens to you.
Now we are prompted to install the LILO bootloader.
You will most likely want to choose simple here. Choosing expert, will result in lilo not behaving as you expect and you'll have to manually edit the lilo.conf file (or run liloconfig from within the OS) to get the desired functionality back (e.g. it won't even prompt you to select an operating system). If you choose to skip the installation of lilo altogether, then you will only be able to boot into your Slackware system using the boot floppy that you created in the previous steps.
Next, you are prompted to choose the VGA (display) mode of your console, either standard VGA, or one of the VESA framebuffer display modes. The reason this is in the lilo configuration, is because the boot loader passes these parameters to the kernel on boot.
It is nice to have a framebuffer console for when you're not running XFree86, but if the framebuffer mode you've chosen doesn't work well with your display hardware, you could end up with an unusable display (until you fix it of course... you could boot with your boot floppy).
Consider choosing standard for now, to use standard VGA. You can change this parameter in your /etc/lilo.conf file later. If you're always going to be using the XFree86 GUI environment, it's not going to matter much anyways.
You are now prompted to enter any extra boot parameters, that lilo is to pass to the kernel.
He gives one very common example of why you might need to do this: If you have an IDE CD Writer. In the 2.4 kernel series, CD writing uses SCSI emulation and the kernel must know which drive is to use that mode, if both IDE-CD Support and IDE-SCSI support are to be loaded in the running kernel. The example of hdc, is for a secondary master. Use hdd if your writer is secondary slave.
Next, you are prompted to choose the destination for installing LILO. You will almost certainly want to choose MBR (unless you know what you are doing)
He says "possibly unsafe" because there are a few situations where writing to the master boot record is indeed unsafe. For example, if your bios doesn't support the capacity of the drive, and you have translation software installed (e.g. "MaxBlast" or "EZBios"). Another reason it could be unsafe is, if you are using another boot loader (e.g. System Commander, or Boot Magic). Also, before you ever write to the MBR (installing pretty much any OS), you must ensure that bios level MBR protection is disabled. (a.k.a boot virus protection, or "Trend ChipAway"). Installing LILO to the MBR, is the most common way that it is used and it is normally quite safe and can be used to start your Windows operating systems as well.
The "Root" option, to install LILO to the superblock of your root partition, is mainly useful if you intend to use another boot manager to invoke LILO.
Next, you are prompted to create a symbolic link for your mouse.
Even if you don't intend to use gpm, it's still useful to have a correct /dev/mouse symbolic link. This way you can just specify that device when you configure XFree86 after the OS is installed. I choose imps2 for my Logitech ps/2 wheel mouse.
I don't have much use for this (it's got nothing to do with using a mouse in the GUI), but if you wish to have mouse support at the console, you can load gpm at boot time.
At this point, you will be asked if you want to Configure your network. If you only have dial up networking, and don't even have a NIC, you can say No to that question for now, and you'll be prompted to configure your clock, timezone and set a root password. Alternatively you can proceed, and choose loopback. That is really what you should do, as then at least you'll set a hostname for the machine.
If you chose to configure your network now, the first thing you will be prompted for is a hostname. Enter something.
Now you'll be prompted to enter a domain name.
If you intend to participate as a member of a network that has a nameserver, you will want to enter your fully qualified domain name, ending in .com, .org, .edu or similar.
Otherwise just enter localdomain. In subsequent steps you can even remove that domain name. (That's what I do, for I don't really need to have one)
Next, you will be prompted to set up your computer's IP address.
If your network adapter connects to a cable modem, or a broadband router, or uses a PPPoE connection (PPP Over Ethernet... commonly used for ADSL Internet connections), then you probably want to choose DHCP to have your TCP/IP info automatically assigned.
If you choose DHCP, you will be prompted for a DHCP hostname. If you connect directly to a cable modem, you may need to specify your user ID here.
Otherwise, just leave it blank and hit enter.
Next, setup will prompt you to probe for your network adapter.
If it doesn't detect it, don't panic. It just means you'll have to figure out which kernel module your network adapter needs and configure the network later.
Ok, in this virtual machine, that's the virtual adapter it detects. It works. However, on the real Slackware installation, it doesn't automatically detect my D-Link 530TXS. Not a problem, because I know what kernel module it needs (sundance.o). That's something for later and we'll cover it then. It doesn't prevent us from configuring most of the network information though.
If you've chosen to use DHCP, a confirmation screen is what you'll see next. Your network configuration steps are completed.
Myself, I just configure my network statically, and I don't use the DHCP server on my router. So, if you choose Static IP instead of DHCP, this is how the configuration goes.
Enter your IP Address.
Enter your Subnet Mask
Enter your Default Gateway
Enter a Nameserver
Note: I'm just entering the IP address of my router here, it acts as a DNS proxy. The Primary and Secondary DNS servers of my ISP are entered in my router's WAN configuration. You will probably want to enter your ISP's Primary DNS server in this field, and then you can add more nameservers (e.g. the secondary) to your /etc/resolv.conf file later.
Now you will be prompted to confirm your network settings.
You can edit these settings from this dialog as well. For example, I want to remove the domain name "localdomain" altogether.
This concludes the network portion of setup.
After the network configuration, you will be prompted to configure your startup services.
Many of these are network server daemons, and if you are just using your computer as a workstation, you will want to leave most all of them disabled. You may want things like the CUPS print server.
Next, you will be prompted to configure your clock and timezone.
Next, you will be prompted to choose a default window manager, for when you start XFree86.
If you are new to Linux, select KDE for now, you can try some of the others later.
Now you're prompted to enter a root password.
Say Yes. You'll be prompted to type a root password twice, for confirmation.
Slackware setup is now complete. You will be prompted to exit setup and press ctrl-alt-del to reboot your machine.
After exiting, the CDROM tray will open, so you can remove the CD. You'll be back at the root prompt after that. Press ctrl-alt-del to restart the system, and boot Slackware for the first time!
When the system cycles, you'll be at the LILO boot prompt. This is still the virtual machine, but in the real installation on the IDE disk we partitioned, liloconfig didn't add my Windows boot choice to the lilo.conf file. So what I see is exactly the same. Probably because I used the NTFS filesystem. We'll be fixing that up soon, it's not difficult.
Hit enter to start Slackware Linux, and you'll be at the logon prompt. Type root as the username, and you will be prompted for the root password you set near the end of setup.
The first thing you should probably do, is create a user for yourself. You must not use the root user account for normal operation of the system. The Slackware adduser script makes this very easy, by interactively prompting you for information instead of making you supply it with switches on the command line.
Type adduser as root, and then you will be prompted to enter a username. Use lower case for the username.
For most of the prompts you will just want to hit enter to accept the defaults unless you have a specific reason. Let it default to the next available user ID, hit enter to use /bin/bash (unless you want to use another shell of course), accept the default home directory, and accept the default of no expiry date.
You may want to enter a "full name" (I like to pick something humorous). You will then be prompted to type the user's password twice for confirmation. A user can change his own password any time, using the passwd command.
The rest of the configuration steps can really be done in any order, according to what is most important to you. You may want to get the XFree86 GUI started first, so you can use GUI based text editors and such, if you're unfamiliar with working from the command line.
The first thing I'd want to do is get my network going (if it isn't already). The netconfig utility that ran during setup, could not probe for my network adapter. However, I know that it uses the sundance module. How did I know that? Well, when I first bought those NICs, I typed D-Link 530TXS Linux (the "S" is significant in the model number) into a search engine (Google) and found the tidbit I needed in mailing list archives and the like.
Now, during setup we configured our network with the exception of the driver module for the network adapter. That means, all we have to do is load the module, and start the network. Slackware's startup scripts look for a script file named rc.netdevice in the /etc/rc.d directory. This is where the system init scripts are located on Slackware system. (It uses the BSD style init script mechanism)
It is very easy to create this file from the command line. As root, type:
echo "/sbin/modprobe sundance" > /etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice
This will redirect the output of the echo command into the specified text file that will get created. The quotes are important, because there is a space in the string we are echoing. Use the correct module name for your network adapter, of course.
Now, set the file executable:
chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice
That's it, on the next reboot your network should initialize.
Alternatively, to load a network adapter module, you could uncomment the appropriate module loading line (or add one) in the /etc/rc.d/rc.modules init script.
Now, I don't feel like rebooting at the moment, so I'm going to just type a few simple commands to start the network.
I'm loading the module, then using the ifconfig utility to specify the interface, IP address of the machine, and subnet mask, and then using the route command to specify my router as the gateway.
You probably will want to attempt to start the XFree86 GUI now. By default, Slackware is set up to use the VESA Framebuffer driver for your display hardware. The /etc/X11/XF86Config file is a copy of the file XF86Config-vesa in the same directory.
So if you type startx you may have a usable GUI if the settings are compatible with your display hardware. That will do in a pinch, but you will want to properly configure XFree86 and use the accelerated driver for your video card (which hopefully exists, otherwise you've got some generic options)
I put the XFree86 configuration for Slackware in a separate tutorial, which you can read here:
Configuring XFree86 in Slackware (Opens in new window)
Next, I want to get LILO straightened around, so I can boot that Windows XP installation. At this point I have no way of starting it.
As root, open the /etc/lilo.conf file with a text editor. I drew a box around the section that I added, to the bottom of the file.
Lines that start with # are comments, and are ignored.
This is called "chainloading". What we are doing, is instructing LILO to pass control over to whatever code is in the /dev/hda1 partition's boot sector. It does not have to know anything about the filesystem or the operating system on the partition. In this case, that's the code in the boot sector that finds ntldr; Windows XP's own boot loader. Any additional Windows operating systems that the Windows XP boot loader's boot.ini file is configured to start (e.g. Win9x) will be available from the ntldr menu as well.
What you will see in the LILO boot menu, is the label windows.
While you are editing lilo.conf, you probably will want to change the timeout to a more reasonable value. It defaults to 1200, which is 2 minutes. (The value is in 10ths of a second, so a value of 300 is 30 seconds)
After you are finished editing the lilo.conf file, you must run the lilo command (or /sbin/lilo if /sbin isn't in your path) to rewrite the changes, or they will have no effect.
As root, type lilo and you should see in the output that it has added both Linux and windows to the configuration.
I rebooted the machine, and I can start both Linux and windows.
If you ever want to access that NTFS filesystem from within Linux (read-only support for NTFS), you will have to load the ntfs kernel module, and mount the filesystem.
Create a mount point (an empty directory)
mkdir /mnt/windows
Load the kernel module.
modprobe ntfs
Mount the filesystem.
mount -t ntfs /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows
You access it from /mnt/windows.
Slackware 9.1 ships with the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) system. I had never really used it before, beyond manually loading ALSA kernel drivers without having any of the utilities installed. It's considerably more complex than the older OSS (Open Sound System) drivers, requiring more kernel modules and module aliases to be set up in a modules.conf file. I thought I was going to really hate it, but when I saw how easy it was to configure, I had to re-evaluate that.
As root, type alsaconf and a curses based configuration utility will appear.
It probes for your sound card.
Offers to set up your modules.conf file for you.
Some nice informational messages.
That should be it, your audio should now work!
If that doesn't work for you, then it will be manual configuration. Check the Alsa Soundcard Matrix to see if your card is supported, and what module to use.
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/
As for configuration, this is what you'll want to put in your /etc/modules.conf file. The lines should pretty much be the same for all sound cards, but what you must change is the driver module, which I have shown in bold.
quote:
# Stuff for the kernel module loader
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
# Your Driver
alias snd-card-0 snd-ens1371
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# OSS Emulation
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
Some cards may need additional modules or options. See the "details" section for your card, at the Alsa Soundcard Matrix.
Digital Camera Guide
Digital Camera Guide
So, it's time for a digital camera huh? Well, buying one can be more than a little difficult. What types of features should you look for? Well, this guide will tell you that plus get you a little more familiar with what these cameras are capable of.
Megapixels
When it comes to megapixels, the more the better. I recommend a minimum of 2, but 3 or 4 is great. We did a test to see if a camera with 2.3 megapixels (actually 1.92 - 1600 x 1200) could produce a good quality 8x10.
Turns out it can, if you have the right paper and printer. We used HP Premium Plus photo paper with an HP 970 series printer and made a fantastic 8 x 10. Remember, I was a professional photographer before I got into computing, so I know a good print when I see it :-)
The resolution at 8x10 (we had to crop in to make the picture proportional to 8x10) was only 150 DPI. Most printers would not make a real good 8x10 at that resolution, but this one did. So, if you want to be sure you can get good 8 x 10s, you may want to go with a 3 megapixel camera or better (that gives you around 200 DPI at 8x10 size, still not quite the optimum 300 DPI, but it looks good with the right printer).
Optical vs Digital Zoom
You've probably noticed that most digital cameras have both a specification for digital and optical zoom. Pay the most attention to the optical zoom.
The optical zoom magnifies (zooms in) using glass. The digital zoom basically crops out the edge of the picture to make the subject appear closer, causing you to lose resolution or to get an interpolated resolution (i.e. the camera adds pixels). Neither of which help image quality.
Finally, make sure you get enough (optical) zoom. A 2x zoom isn't going to do much for you. A 3x is the average you'll find in most digital cameras will probably be good for most uses. More on lenses later.
Connection
How does the camera connect to your computer? If you have a USB port in your computer, you'll want a camera that can connect via USB as opposed to a slow serial connection.
On the other hand, if your computer doesn't have a USB port, is there a serial connector available for the camera you're looking at? If so, is it a special order and how long does it take to get it?
Storage
What does the camera use to store images with? If it uses a memory stick, make sure you consider buying additional sticks when you get your camera. A typical 8 meg memory stick that comes with a 2 megapixel camera only holds 5 or 6 images at the camera's best quality.
Some cameras use a 3.5 inch disk for storage. Be careful of these!
Although it may sound like a good idea, a 3 megapixel camera at high resolution produces a 1 meg file (compressed!). That's only 1 picture per disk.
Here's a few more things to look out for when trying to make your digital camera purchase.
Picture Formats
When you're trying to decide on which digital camera to get, check and see how many different picture formats it supports.
You want something that can produce both uncompressed (usually TIFF) and compressed (usually JPEG) images. I personally use the high quality JPEG setting on my camera for most of my shooting. TIFFs are just too big and the difference in quality is not ascertainable by mere mortals.
You also want to be able to shoot at a lower resolution than the camera's maximum. That way, If you're running short on memory, you can squeeze a few more shots on your memory stick.
Auxiliary Lens / Flash
This was a biggie for me. While a 3x zoom may work for the "average" user, I needed something that allowed me to do some wide angle work as well as have a good telephoto lens.
So, the camera I purchased a few months back was a Nikon Coolpix 990 (note that this isn't the only camera that can accept lenses). It has auxiliary lenses that screw into the filter ring on the front of the lens. I now have an ultra-wide fisheye lens plus a nice telephoto.
In addition to lenses, I wanted a good flash. The flash that is built into most of these cameras gives you a top range of 15-20 feet - at best. I wanted a camera that could take a powerful auxiliary flash (again, the Nikon isn't the only camera that fits this requirement, but I liked it better than the rest). If you need more reach than the small built in flash can deliver, then make sure you can attach an external flash to any camera you consider.
As an added bonus, if you get a camera that can take an external flash, you can place that flash on a bracket and eliminate red-eye.
Flash Distance
Speaking of flashes, make sure you check the distance the built in flash is good for. You don't want a camera with a wimpy flash that only travels a few feet (well, unless you can get an external flash for it as described above).
Battery Type
This may not sound important, but it is. Anyone who owns a digital camera can tell you they eat batteries the way a sumo wrestler eats at a buffet.
Make sure the camera can run on regular (or rechargeable) "AA" type batteries. You don't want a camera that eats through expensive lithium batteries every 10 shots or so.
One thing to remember about digital cameras, they do eat through batteries. I recommend getting some Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable for it. I have some for mine and they have saved me a fortune.
Final Notes
Choosing a digital camera isn't easy. There's a huge selection out there and only you can determine which features you need.
For instance, if you shoot wildlife photos, a small 3x zoom probably isn't going to cut it (unless you can attach auxiliary lenses to it). If you shoot lots of close-ups, make sure the camera has some sort of macro capability. If you shoot big group photos indoors, an external flash may be necessary.
My advice is to make a list of things you want to be able to do with the camera then go to somewhere that can help you make a good purchase decision.
Finally, buy the BEST camera you can possibly afford. Or wait until the price drops on one with the type of features you want.
So, it's time for a digital camera huh? Well, buying one can be more than a little difficult. What types of features should you look for? Well, this guide will tell you that plus get you a little more familiar with what these cameras are capable of.
Megapixels
When it comes to megapixels, the more the better. I recommend a minimum of 2, but 3 or 4 is great. We did a test to see if a camera with 2.3 megapixels (actually 1.92 - 1600 x 1200) could produce a good quality 8x10.
Turns out it can, if you have the right paper and printer. We used HP Premium Plus photo paper with an HP 970 series printer and made a fantastic 8 x 10. Remember, I was a professional photographer before I got into computing, so I know a good print when I see it :-)
The resolution at 8x10 (we had to crop in to make the picture proportional to 8x10) was only 150 DPI. Most printers would not make a real good 8x10 at that resolution, but this one did. So, if you want to be sure you can get good 8 x 10s, you may want to go with a 3 megapixel camera or better (that gives you around 200 DPI at 8x10 size, still not quite the optimum 300 DPI, but it looks good with the right printer).
Optical vs Digital Zoom
You've probably noticed that most digital cameras have both a specification for digital and optical zoom. Pay the most attention to the optical zoom.
The optical zoom magnifies (zooms in) using glass. The digital zoom basically crops out the edge of the picture to make the subject appear closer, causing you to lose resolution or to get an interpolated resolution (i.e. the camera adds pixels). Neither of which help image quality.
Finally, make sure you get enough (optical) zoom. A 2x zoom isn't going to do much for you. A 3x is the average you'll find in most digital cameras will probably be good for most uses. More on lenses later.
Connection
How does the camera connect to your computer? If you have a USB port in your computer, you'll want a camera that can connect via USB as opposed to a slow serial connection.
On the other hand, if your computer doesn't have a USB port, is there a serial connector available for the camera you're looking at? If so, is it a special order and how long does it take to get it?
Storage
What does the camera use to store images with? If it uses a memory stick, make sure you consider buying additional sticks when you get your camera. A typical 8 meg memory stick that comes with a 2 megapixel camera only holds 5 or 6 images at the camera's best quality.
Some cameras use a 3.5 inch disk for storage. Be careful of these!
Although it may sound like a good idea, a 3 megapixel camera at high resolution produces a 1 meg file (compressed!). That's only 1 picture per disk.
Here's a few more things to look out for when trying to make your digital camera purchase.
Picture Formats
When you're trying to decide on which digital camera to get, check and see how many different picture formats it supports.
You want something that can produce both uncompressed (usually TIFF) and compressed (usually JPEG) images. I personally use the high quality JPEG setting on my camera for most of my shooting. TIFFs are just too big and the difference in quality is not ascertainable by mere mortals.
You also want to be able to shoot at a lower resolution than the camera's maximum. That way, If you're running short on memory, you can squeeze a few more shots on your memory stick.
Auxiliary Lens / Flash
This was a biggie for me. While a 3x zoom may work for the "average" user, I needed something that allowed me to do some wide angle work as well as have a good telephoto lens.
So, the camera I purchased a few months back was a Nikon Coolpix 990 (note that this isn't the only camera that can accept lenses). It has auxiliary lenses that screw into the filter ring on the front of the lens. I now have an ultra-wide fisheye lens plus a nice telephoto.
In addition to lenses, I wanted a good flash. The flash that is built into most of these cameras gives you a top range of 15-20 feet - at best. I wanted a camera that could take a powerful auxiliary flash (again, the Nikon isn't the only camera that fits this requirement, but I liked it better than the rest). If you need more reach than the small built in flash can deliver, then make sure you can attach an external flash to any camera you consider.
As an added bonus, if you get a camera that can take an external flash, you can place that flash on a bracket and eliminate red-eye.
Flash Distance
Speaking of flashes, make sure you check the distance the built in flash is good for. You don't want a camera with a wimpy flash that only travels a few feet (well, unless you can get an external flash for it as described above).
Battery Type
This may not sound important, but it is. Anyone who owns a digital camera can tell you they eat batteries the way a sumo wrestler eats at a buffet.
Make sure the camera can run on regular (or rechargeable) "AA" type batteries. You don't want a camera that eats through expensive lithium batteries every 10 shots or so.
One thing to remember about digital cameras, they do eat through batteries. I recommend getting some Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable for it. I have some for mine and they have saved me a fortune.
Final Notes
Choosing a digital camera isn't easy. There's a huge selection out there and only you can determine which features you need.
For instance, if you shoot wildlife photos, a small 3x zoom probably isn't going to cut it (unless you can attach auxiliary lenses to it). If you shoot lots of close-ups, make sure the camera has some sort of macro capability. If you shoot big group photos indoors, an external flash may be necessary.
My advice is to make a list of things you want to be able to do with the camera then go to somewhere that can help you make a good purchase decision.
Finally, buy the BEST camera you can possibly afford. Or wait until the price drops on one with the type of features you want.
Misc Linux Tips & Tricks
Tips
Speeding up your hard drive (#1)
Get faster file transfer by using 32-bit transfers on your hard drive
Just add the line:
hdparm -c3 /dev/hdX
to a bootup script.
If you use SuSE or other distros based on SYS V,
/sbin/init.d/boot.local
should work for you.
This enables 32-bit transfer on your hard drive. On some systems it can improve transfer performance by 75%.
To test your performance gain, type:
hdparm -t -T /dev/hdX
Protecting yourself from being a spam base(#2)
Sendmail allows for someone to telnet to port 25 and do an expn (expand) to see what users and aliases are on your machine. Also, vrfy (verify) means someone can get legal e-mail addresses from your box and send spam through your machine.
Don't want that, so look in your /etc/sendmail.cf file for a line that looks like this:
###############
# Options #
###############
Now cut and paste these next few lines below that:
# turning off the expand option and requiring a helo from
# a remote computer
Opnoexpn,novrfy,needmailhelo
Now there is no expansion, no verify, and sendmail requires a helo with a legitimate DNS in order to use the mailer.
Then look in your /etc/mail/aliases file and ensure you have only your own boxen and/or subnet in there as OK or RELAY. That will help cut down on spammers' ability to find relay machines to do their dirty work for them.
Cleaning up Netscape crashes(#3)
You have a tip about Netscape leaving copies of itself running below, but you can make a general shell script to clean up a Netscape crash like this:
#!/bin/sh
#kill.netscape
killall -9 netscape
rm ~/.netscape/lock
Then all your users can use it and clean up the dreaded hundred instances of Netscape running when it crashed. Change netscape to netscape-communicator or netscape-navigator as appropriate
More DOS-like commands(#4)
Many people are moving to Linux because they miss the stability of good old DOS. In that light, many users are typing DOS commands (which originated from UNIX in the first place) that look fine but cause errors. The command "cd.." in DOS is perfectly valid, but Linux balks. This is because "cd" is a command, and any parameter for that command must be separated from the command by a space. The same goes for "cd/" and "cd~". A quick fix is here.
Use your favorite text editor in your home directory to edit the file ".bashrc". The period is there on purpose, this hides the file from normal ls display.
Add the lines:
alias cd/="cd /"
alias cd~="cd ~"
alias cd..="cd .."
And I usually add these...
alias md="mkdir"
alias rd="rmdir -i"
alias rm="rm -i"
and my first and still favorite alias...
alias ls="ls --color"
alias is a powerful tool, and can be used in the .bashrc script as well as from the command line. You can, if you want to spend the time, create your own group of shell commands to suit how you work. As long as you put them in your .bashrc file, they'll be there everytime you log in. Note that if you frequently log in as root, you might want to copy /home/username/.bashrc to /root/.bashrc to keep yourself sane.
Resurrecting corrupted floppies(#5)
Here's how to make a floppy disk with "track-0 bad" reusable again:
If the track zero of a floppy disk is found to be bad, no DOS or Windows utility is going to do anything about it--you just have to throw it in your unrecycle bin.
This tip cannot recover the data, but can make the disk carry things again, at least for the time being (moments of desperation).
How to:
(A) Format the disk with Linux. Build a Linux file system (don't use mformat). I did this some time before by invoking the makebootdisk command (in Slakware) and stopped after the formatting was over. There should be better ways to do it in RedHat 5.2 or other recent versions.
( Reformat the disk with Windows. Use the DOS window and the /u option while formatting.
Using DOS-like commands(#6)
There's a package called mtools which is included with most of the distributions out there.
There are several commands for basic DOS stuff. For example, to directory the floppy drive, type mdir a:. This is rather handy--you don't need to mount the floppy drive to use it.
Other commands are: mattrib , mcd, mcopy, mdel, mformat, mlabel, mren (rename), mmd, mrd, and mtype.
This doesn't work for reading from hard disks. In that case, you would add entries to /etc/fstab, drive type msdos for fat16 partitions, and vfat for fat32.
Copying files from Linux to Windows 98 or 95B (FAT32)(#7)
It's as easy as installing the program explore2fs. It uses a Windows Explorer interface and supports drag-and-drop. I have found it reliable and useful for migrating files from my RedHat 6.1 partition to my Win95B partition quickly and with a minimum of fuss.
It's available free--as all software should be--from this URL:
CODE
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm
Installing in partitions(#8)
I am using SuSE Linux, which has some interesting options (I don't know if RedHat or other distributions offer you this, too).
1. You can install Linux on a single file in your Windows Partition. Nice to try it out, but I guess it is not that fast then. You can load it then with a DOS program, loadlin.
2. Use Fips or Partition Magic. Defragment your hard drive (you should do this for Point 1, too) and split it up. I guess most users just have one partition, which you should split up into at least three: one for the Linux files, and a smaller swap partition (take about 32 to 64 MB, depending on your RAM--less RAM needs bigger swap partitions). If you decide later to deinstall Linux you can always delete both partitions and create one big one for Windows again.
Fips is a stupid command line program, but if you're too lazy to read at least a little bit, then you should stop thinking about Linux anyway...
Command Pipelines(#9)
Pipes are easy. The Unix shells provide mechanisms which you can use them to allow you to generate remarkably sophisticated `programs' out of simple components. We call that a pipeline. A pipeline is composed of a data generator, a series of filters, and a data consumer. Often that final stage is as simple as displaying the final output on stdout, and sometimes the first stage is as simple as reading from stdin. I think all shells use the "|" character to separate each stage of a pipeline. So:
data-generator | filter | ... | filter | data-consumer
Each stage of the pipeline runs in parallel, within the limits which the system permits. Hey, look closely, because that last phrase is important. Are you on a uni-processor system because if you are, then obviously only one process runs at a time, although that point is simply nitpicking. But pipes are buffers capable of holding only finite data. A process can write into a pipe until that pipe is full. When the pipe is full the process writing into it blocks until some of the data already in the pipe has been read. Similarly, a process can read from a pipe until that pipe is empty. When it's empty the reading process is blocked until some more data has been written into the pipe.
What is IP masquerading and when is it of use?(#10)
IP masquerading is a process where one computer acts as an IP gateway for a network. All computers on the network send their IP packets through the gateway, which replaces the source IP address with its own address and then forwards it to the internet. Perhaps the source IP port number is also replaced with another port number, although that is less interesting. All hosts on the internet see the packet as originating from the gateway.
Any host on the Internet which wishes to send a packet back, ie in reply, must necessarily address that packet to the gateway. Remember that the gateway is the only host seen on the internet. The gateway rewrites the destination address, replacing its own address with the IP address of the machine which is being masqueraded, and forwards that packet on to the local network for delivery.
This procedure sounds simple, and it is. It provides an effective means by which you can provide second class internet connections for a complete LAN using only one (internet) IP address.
Setting UTC or local time(#11)
When Linux boots, one of the initialisation scripts will run the /sbin/hwclock program to copy the current hardware clock time to the system clock. hwclock will assume the hardware clock is set to local time unless it is run with the --utc switch. Rather than editing the startup script, under Red Hat Linux you should edit the /etc/sysconfig/clock file and change the ``UTC'' line to either ``UTC=true'' or ``UTC=false'' as appropriate.
Setting the system clock(#12)
To set the system clock under Linux, use the date command. As an example, to set the current time and date to July 31, 11:16pm, type ``date 07312316'' (note that the time is given in 24 hour notation). If you wanted to change the year as well, you could type ``date 073123161998''. To set the seconds as well, type ``date 07312316.30'' or ``date 073123161998.30''. To see what Linux thinks the current local time is, run date with no arguments.
Setting the hardware clock(#13)
To set the hardware clock, my favourite way is to set the system clock first, and then set the hardware clock to the current system clock by typing ``/sbin/hwclock --systohc'' (or ``/sbin/hwclock --systohc --utc'' if you are keeping the hardware clock in UTC). To see what the hardware clock is currently set to, run hwclock with no arguments. If the hardware clock is in UTC and you want to see the local equivalent, type ``/sbin/hwclock --utc''
Setting your timezone(#14)
The timezone under Linux is set by a symbolic link from /etc/localtime[1] to a file in the /usr/share/zoneinfo[2] directory that corresponds with what timezone you are in. For example, since I'm in South Australia, /etc/localtime is a symlink to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/South. To set this link, type:
ln -sf ../usr/share/zoneinfo/your/zone /etc/localtime
Replace your/zone with something like Australia/NSW or Australia/Perth. Have a look in the directories under /usr/share/zoneinfo to see what timezones are available.
[1] This assumes that /usr/share/zoneinfo is linked to /etc/localtime as it is under Red Hat Linux.
[2] On older systems, you'll find that /usr/lib/zoneinfo is used instead of /usr/share/zoneinfo. See also the later section ``The time in some applications is wrong''.
Zombies(#15)
What are these zombie processes that show up in ps? I kill them but they don't go away!
Zombies are dead processes. You cannot kill the dead. All processes eventually die, and when they do they become zombies. They consume almost no resources, which is to be expected because they are dead! The reason for zombies is so the zombie's parent (process) can retrieve the zombie's exit status and resource usage statistics. The parent signals the operating system that it no longer needs the zombie by using one of the wait() system calls.
When a process dies, its child processes all become children of process number 1, which is the init process. Init is ``always'' waiting for children to die, so that they don't remain as zombies.
If you have zombie processes it means those zombies have not been waited for by their parent (look at PPID displayed by ps -l). You have three choices: Fix the parent process (make it wait); kill the parent; or live with it. Remember that living with it is not so hard because zombies take up little more than one extra line in the output of ps.
How do i give users an ftp only account (no telnet, etc).(#16)
give them shell which doesn't work, but is listed in /etc/shells
for example /bin/false...
How to do backup with tar?(#17)
You can mantain a list of files that you with to backup into a file and tar
it when you wish.
tar czvf tarfile.tar.gz -T list_file
where list_file is a simple list of what you want to include into the tar
i.e:
/etc/smb.conf
/root/myfile
/etc/ppp (all files into the /etc/ppp directory)
/opt/gnome/html/gnome-dev-info.html
How to keep a computer from answering to ping?(#18)
a simple "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_all" will do the
trick... to turn it back on, simply
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_all"
Customizing your directory colors.(#19)
I know a lot of you know the command ls --color. Which displays your directory with colors. But, a lot of people may not know that those colors are customizable. All you need to do is add the following line to your /etc/bashrc file.
eval `dircolors /etc/DIR_COLORS`
And then all of the color configuration can be found in the file /etc/DIR_COLORS
Frozen Xwindow(#20)
If your Xwindow freezes sometimes, here are two ways that you may try to kill your server. The first is the simple simple way of killing your X server the key combination: Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
The second way is a little more complicated, but it works most of the time. Hit Ctrl+Alt+F2 to startup a virtual console, then log in with your user name and password and run:
# ps -ax | grep startx
This will give you the PID of your Xserver. Then just kill it with:
# kill -9 PID_Number
To go back to your first console, just hit Alt-F1
Converting all files in a directory to lowercase.(#21)
#!/bin/sh
# lowerit
# convert all file names in the current directory to lower case
# only operates on plain files--does not change the name of directories
# will ask for verification before overwriting an existing file
for x in `ls`
do
if [ ! -f $x ]; then
continue
fi
lc=`echo $x | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
if [ $lc != $x ]; then
mv -i $x $lc
fi
done
Wow. That's a long script. I wouldn't write a script to do that; instead, I would use this command:
for i in * ; do [ -f $i ] && mv -i $i `echo $i | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`;
done;
on the command line.
Script to view those compressed HOWTOs.(#22)
From a newbie to another, here is a short script that eases looking for and viewing howto documents. My howto's are in /usr/doc/faq/howto/ and are gzipped. The file names are XXX-HOWTO.gz, XXX being the subject. I created the following script called "howto" in the /usr/local/sbin directory:
#!/bin/sh
if [ "$1" = "" ]; then
ls /usr/doc/faq/howto | less
else
gunzip -c /usr/doc/faq/howto/$1-HOWTO.gz | less
fi
When called without argument, it displays a directory of the available howto's. Then when entered with the first part of the file name (before the hyphen) as an argument, it unzips (keeping the original intact) then displays the document.
For instance, to view the Serial-HOWTO.gz document, enter:
$ howto Serial
Util to clean up your logfiles.(#23)
If you're like me, you have a list with 430 subscribers, plus 100+ messages per day coming in over UUCP. Well, what's a hacker to do with these huge logs? Install chklogs, that's what. Chklogs is written by Emilio Grimaldo, grimaldo@panama.iaehv.nl, and the current version 1.8 available from ftp.iaehv.nl:/pub/users/grimaldo/chklogs-1.8.tar.gz. It's pretty self explanatory to install(you will, of course, check out the info in the doc subdirectory). Once you've got it installed, add a crontab entry like this:
# Run chklogs at 9:00PM daily.
00 21 * * * /usr/local/sbin/chklogs -m
Handy Script to Clean Up Corefiles.(#24)
Create a file called rmcores(the author calls it handle-cores) with the following in it:
#!/bin/sh
USAGE="$0 "
if [ $# != 2 ] ; then
echo $USAGE
exit
fi
echo Deleting...
find $1 -name core -atime 7 -print -type f -exec rm {} \;
echo e-mailing
for name in `find $1 -name core -exec ls -l {} \; | cut -c16-24`
do
echo $name
cat $2 | mail $name
done
And have a cron job run it every so often.
Moving directories between filesystems.Quick way to move an entire tree of files from one disk to another (#25)
(cd /source/directory && tar cf - . ) | (cd /dest/directory && tar xvfp -)
[ Change from cd /source/directory; tar....etc. to prevent possibility of trashing directory in case of disaster.]
Finding out which directories are the largest.Ever wondered which directories are the biggest on your computer? Here's how to find out.(#26)
du -S | sort -n
How do I stop my system from fscking on each reboot?(#27)
When you rebuild the kernel, the filesystem is marked as 'dirty' and so your disk will be checked with each boot. The fix is to run:
rdev -R /zImage 1
This fixes the kernel so that it is no longer convinced that the filesystem is dirty.
Note: If using lilo, then add read-only to your linux setup in your lilo config file (Usually /etc/lilo.conf)
How to avoid fscks caused by "device busy" at reboot time.(#28)
If you often get device busy errors on shutdown that leave the filesystem in need of an fsck upon reboot, here is a simple fix:
To /etc/rc.d/init.d/halt or /etc/rc.d/rc.0, add the line
mount -o remount,ro /mount.dir
for all your mounted filesystems except /, before the call to umount -a. This means if, for some reason, shutdown fails to kill all processes and umount the disks they will still be clean on reboot. Saves a lot of time at reboot for me.
How to find the biggest files on your hard-drive.(#29)
ls -l | sort +4n
Or, for those of you really scrunched for space this takes awhile but works great:
cd /
ls -lR | sort +4n
A script for cleaning up after programs that create autosave and backup files.(#30)
Here is a simple two-liner which recursively descends a directory hierarchy removing emacs auto-save (#) and backup (~) files, .o files, and TeX .log files. It also compresses .tex files and README files. I call it 'squeeze' on my system.
#!/bin/sh
#SQUEEZE removes unnecessary files and compresses .tex and README files
#By Barry tolnas, tolnas@sun1.engr.utk.edu
#
echo squeezing $PWD
find $PWD \( -name \*~ -or -name \*.o -or -name \*.log -or -name \*\#\) -exec
rm -f {} \;
find $PWD \( -name \*.tex -or -name \*README\* -or -name \*readme\* \) -exec gzip -9 {} \;
How to find out what process is eating the most memory.(#31)
ps -aux | sort +4n
-OR-
ps -aux | sort +5n
How do I find which library in /usr/lib holds a certain function?(#32)
What if you're compiling and you've missed a library that needed linking in? All gcc reports are function names... Here's a simple command that'll find what you're looking for:
for i in *; do echo $i:;nm $i|grep tgetnum 2>/dev/null;done
Where tgetnum is the name of the function you're looking for.
I compiled a small test program in C, but when I run it, I get no output!(#32)
You probably compiled the program into a binary named test, didn't you? Linux has a program called test, which tests if a certain condition is true, it never produces any output on the screen. Instead of just typing test, try: ./test
Speeding up your hard drive (#1)
Get faster file transfer by using 32-bit transfers on your hard drive
Just add the line:
hdparm -c3 /dev/hdX
to a bootup script.
If you use SuSE or other distros based on SYS V,
/sbin/init.d/boot.local
should work for you.
This enables 32-bit transfer on your hard drive. On some systems it can improve transfer performance by 75%.
To test your performance gain, type:
hdparm -t -T /dev/hdX
Protecting yourself from being a spam base(#2)
Sendmail allows for someone to telnet to port 25 and do an expn (expand) to see what users and aliases are on your machine. Also, vrfy (verify) means someone can get legal e-mail addresses from your box and send spam through your machine.
Don't want that, so look in your /etc/sendmail.cf file for a line that looks like this:
###############
# Options #
###############
Now cut and paste these next few lines below that:
# turning off the expand option and requiring a helo from
# a remote computer
Opnoexpn,novrfy,needmailhelo
Now there is no expansion, no verify, and sendmail requires a helo with a legitimate DNS in order to use the mailer.
Then look in your /etc/mail/aliases file and ensure you have only your own boxen and/or subnet in there as OK or RELAY. That will help cut down on spammers' ability to find relay machines to do their dirty work for them.
Cleaning up Netscape crashes(#3)
You have a tip about Netscape leaving copies of itself running below, but you can make a general shell script to clean up a Netscape crash like this:
#!/bin/sh
#kill.netscape
killall -9 netscape
rm ~/.netscape/lock
Then all your users can use it and clean up the dreaded hundred instances of Netscape running when it crashed. Change netscape to netscape-communicator or netscape-navigator as appropriate
More DOS-like commands(#4)
Many people are moving to Linux because they miss the stability of good old DOS. In that light, many users are typing DOS commands (which originated from UNIX in the first place) that look fine but cause errors. The command "cd.." in DOS is perfectly valid, but Linux balks. This is because "cd" is a command, and any parameter for that command must be separated from the command by a space. The same goes for "cd/" and "cd~". A quick fix is here.
Use your favorite text editor in your home directory to edit the file ".bashrc". The period is there on purpose, this hides the file from normal ls display.
Add the lines:
alias cd/="cd /"
alias cd~="cd ~"
alias cd..="cd .."
And I usually add these...
alias md="mkdir"
alias rd="rmdir -i"
alias rm="rm -i"
and my first and still favorite alias...
alias ls="ls --color"
alias is a powerful tool, and can be used in the .bashrc script as well as from the command line. You can, if you want to spend the time, create your own group of shell commands to suit how you work. As long as you put them in your .bashrc file, they'll be there everytime you log in. Note that if you frequently log in as root, you might want to copy /home/username/.bashrc to /root/.bashrc to keep yourself sane.
Resurrecting corrupted floppies(#5)
Here's how to make a floppy disk with "track-0 bad" reusable again:
If the track zero of a floppy disk is found to be bad, no DOS or Windows utility is going to do anything about it--you just have to throw it in your unrecycle bin.
This tip cannot recover the data, but can make the disk carry things again, at least for the time being (moments of desperation).
How to:
(A) Format the disk with Linux. Build a Linux file system (don't use mformat). I did this some time before by invoking the makebootdisk command (in Slakware) and stopped after the formatting was over. There should be better ways to do it in RedHat 5.2 or other recent versions.
( Reformat the disk with Windows. Use the DOS window and the /u option while formatting.
Using DOS-like commands(#6)
There's a package called mtools which is included with most of the distributions out there.
There are several commands for basic DOS stuff. For example, to directory the floppy drive, type mdir a:. This is rather handy--you don't need to mount the floppy drive to use it.
Other commands are: mattrib , mcd, mcopy, mdel, mformat, mlabel, mren (rename), mmd, mrd, and mtype.
This doesn't work for reading from hard disks. In that case, you would add entries to /etc/fstab, drive type msdos for fat16 partitions, and vfat for fat32.
Copying files from Linux to Windows 98 or 95B (FAT32)(#7)
It's as easy as installing the program explore2fs. It uses a Windows Explorer interface and supports drag-and-drop. I have found it reliable and useful for migrating files from my RedHat 6.1 partition to my Win95B partition quickly and with a minimum of fuss.
It's available free--as all software should be--from this URL:
CODE
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm
Installing in partitions(#8)
I am using SuSE Linux, which has some interesting options (I don't know if RedHat or other distributions offer you this, too).
1. You can install Linux on a single file in your Windows Partition. Nice to try it out, but I guess it is not that fast then. You can load it then with a DOS program, loadlin.
2. Use Fips or Partition Magic. Defragment your hard drive (you should do this for Point 1, too) and split it up. I guess most users just have one partition, which you should split up into at least three: one for the Linux files, and a smaller swap partition (take about 32 to 64 MB, depending on your RAM--less RAM needs bigger swap partitions). If you decide later to deinstall Linux you can always delete both partitions and create one big one for Windows again.
Fips is a stupid command line program, but if you're too lazy to read at least a little bit, then you should stop thinking about Linux anyway...
Command Pipelines(#9)
Pipes are easy. The Unix shells provide mechanisms which you can use them to allow you to generate remarkably sophisticated `programs' out of simple components. We call that a pipeline. A pipeline is composed of a data generator, a series of filters, and a data consumer. Often that final stage is as simple as displaying the final output on stdout, and sometimes the first stage is as simple as reading from stdin. I think all shells use the "|" character to separate each stage of a pipeline. So:
data-generator | filter | ... | filter | data-consumer
Each stage of the pipeline runs in parallel, within the limits which the system permits. Hey, look closely, because that last phrase is important. Are you on a uni-processor system because if you are, then obviously only one process runs at a time, although that point is simply nitpicking. But pipes are buffers capable of holding only finite data. A process can write into a pipe until that pipe is full. When the pipe is full the process writing into it blocks until some of the data already in the pipe has been read. Similarly, a process can read from a pipe until that pipe is empty. When it's empty the reading process is blocked until some more data has been written into the pipe.
What is IP masquerading and when is it of use?(#10)
IP masquerading is a process where one computer acts as an IP gateway for a network. All computers on the network send their IP packets through the gateway, which replaces the source IP address with its own address and then forwards it to the internet. Perhaps the source IP port number is also replaced with another port number, although that is less interesting. All hosts on the internet see the packet as originating from the gateway.
Any host on the Internet which wishes to send a packet back, ie in reply, must necessarily address that packet to the gateway. Remember that the gateway is the only host seen on the internet. The gateway rewrites the destination address, replacing its own address with the IP address of the machine which is being masqueraded, and forwards that packet on to the local network for delivery.
This procedure sounds simple, and it is. It provides an effective means by which you can provide second class internet connections for a complete LAN using only one (internet) IP address.
Setting UTC or local time(#11)
When Linux boots, one of the initialisation scripts will run the /sbin/hwclock program to copy the current hardware clock time to the system clock. hwclock will assume the hardware clock is set to local time unless it is run with the --utc switch. Rather than editing the startup script, under Red Hat Linux you should edit the /etc/sysconfig/clock file and change the ``UTC'' line to either ``UTC=true'' or ``UTC=false'' as appropriate.
Setting the system clock(#12)
To set the system clock under Linux, use the date command. As an example, to set the current time and date to July 31, 11:16pm, type ``date 07312316'' (note that the time is given in 24 hour notation). If you wanted to change the year as well, you could type ``date 073123161998''. To set the seconds as well, type ``date 07312316.30'' or ``date 073123161998.30''. To see what Linux thinks the current local time is, run date with no arguments.
Setting the hardware clock(#13)
To set the hardware clock, my favourite way is to set the system clock first, and then set the hardware clock to the current system clock by typing ``/sbin/hwclock --systohc'' (or ``/sbin/hwclock --systohc --utc'' if you are keeping the hardware clock in UTC). To see what the hardware clock is currently set to, run hwclock with no arguments. If the hardware clock is in UTC and you want to see the local equivalent, type ``/sbin/hwclock --utc''
Setting your timezone(#14)
The timezone under Linux is set by a symbolic link from /etc/localtime[1] to a file in the /usr/share/zoneinfo[2] directory that corresponds with what timezone you are in. For example, since I'm in South Australia, /etc/localtime is a symlink to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/South. To set this link, type:
ln -sf ../usr/share/zoneinfo/your/zone /etc/localtime
Replace your/zone with something like Australia/NSW or Australia/Perth. Have a look in the directories under /usr/share/zoneinfo to see what timezones are available.
[1] This assumes that /usr/share/zoneinfo is linked to /etc/localtime as it is under Red Hat Linux.
[2] On older systems, you'll find that /usr/lib/zoneinfo is used instead of /usr/share/zoneinfo. See also the later section ``The time in some applications is wrong''.
Zombies(#15)
What are these zombie processes that show up in ps? I kill them but they don't go away!
Zombies are dead processes. You cannot kill the dead. All processes eventually die, and when they do they become zombies. They consume almost no resources, which is to be expected because they are dead! The reason for zombies is so the zombie's parent (process) can retrieve the zombie's exit status and resource usage statistics. The parent signals the operating system that it no longer needs the zombie by using one of the wait() system calls.
When a process dies, its child processes all become children of process number 1, which is the init process. Init is ``always'' waiting for children to die, so that they don't remain as zombies.
If you have zombie processes it means those zombies have not been waited for by their parent (look at PPID displayed by ps -l). You have three choices: Fix the parent process (make it wait); kill the parent; or live with it. Remember that living with it is not so hard because zombies take up little more than one extra line in the output of ps.
How do i give users an ftp only account (no telnet, etc).(#16)
give them shell which doesn't work, but is listed in /etc/shells
for example /bin/false...
How to do backup with tar?(#17)
You can mantain a list of files that you with to backup into a file and tar
it when you wish.
tar czvf tarfile.tar.gz -T list_file
where list_file is a simple list of what you want to include into the tar
i.e:
/etc/smb.conf
/root/myfile
/etc/ppp (all files into the /etc/ppp directory)
/opt/gnome/html/gnome-dev-info.html
How to keep a computer from answering to ping?(#18)
a simple "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_all" will do the
trick... to turn it back on, simply
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/icmp_echo_ignore_all"
Customizing your directory colors.(#19)
I know a lot of you know the command ls --color. Which displays your directory with colors. But, a lot of people may not know that those colors are customizable. All you need to do is add the following line to your /etc/bashrc file.
eval `dircolors /etc/DIR_COLORS`
And then all of the color configuration can be found in the file /etc/DIR_COLORS
Frozen Xwindow(#20)
If your Xwindow freezes sometimes, here are two ways that you may try to kill your server. The first is the simple simple way of killing your X server the key combination: Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
The second way is a little more complicated, but it works most of the time. Hit Ctrl+Alt+F2 to startup a virtual console, then log in with your user name and password and run:
# ps -ax | grep startx
This will give you the PID of your Xserver. Then just kill it with:
# kill -9 PID_Number
To go back to your first console, just hit Alt-F1
Converting all files in a directory to lowercase.(#21)
#!/bin/sh
# lowerit
# convert all file names in the current directory to lower case
# only operates on plain files--does not change the name of directories
# will ask for verification before overwriting an existing file
for x in `ls`
do
if [ ! -f $x ]; then
continue
fi
lc=`echo $x | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`
if [ $lc != $x ]; then
mv -i $x $lc
fi
done
Wow. That's a long script. I wouldn't write a script to do that; instead, I would use this command:
for i in * ; do [ -f $i ] && mv -i $i `echo $i | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`;
done;
on the command line.
Script to view those compressed HOWTOs.(#22)
From a newbie to another, here is a short script that eases looking for and viewing howto documents. My howto's are in /usr/doc/faq/howto/ and are gzipped. The file names are XXX-HOWTO.gz, XXX being the subject. I created the following script called "howto" in the /usr/local/sbin directory:
#!/bin/sh
if [ "$1" = "" ]; then
ls /usr/doc/faq/howto | less
else
gunzip -c /usr/doc/faq/howto/$1-HOWTO.gz | less
fi
When called without argument, it displays a directory of the available howto's. Then when entered with the first part of the file name (before the hyphen) as an argument, it unzips (keeping the original intact) then displays the document.
For instance, to view the Serial-HOWTO.gz document, enter:
$ howto Serial
Util to clean up your logfiles.(#23)
If you're like me, you have a list with 430 subscribers, plus 100+ messages per day coming in over UUCP. Well, what's a hacker to do with these huge logs? Install chklogs, that's what. Chklogs is written by Emilio Grimaldo, grimaldo@panama.iaehv.nl, and the current version 1.8 available from ftp.iaehv.nl:/pub/users/grimaldo/chklogs-1.8.tar.gz. It's pretty self explanatory to install(you will, of course, check out the info in the doc subdirectory). Once you've got it installed, add a crontab entry like this:
# Run chklogs at 9:00PM daily.
00 21 * * * /usr/local/sbin/chklogs -m
Handy Script to Clean Up Corefiles.(#24)
Create a file called rmcores(the author calls it handle-cores) with the following in it:
#!/bin/sh
USAGE="$0 "
if [ $# != 2 ] ; then
echo $USAGE
exit
fi
echo Deleting...
find $1 -name core -atime 7 -print -type f -exec rm {} \;
echo e-mailing
for name in `find $1 -name core -exec ls -l {} \; | cut -c16-24`
do
echo $name
cat $2 | mail $name
done
And have a cron job run it every so often.
Moving directories between filesystems.Quick way to move an entire tree of files from one disk to another (#25)
(cd /source/directory && tar cf - . ) | (cd /dest/directory && tar xvfp -)
[ Change from cd /source/directory; tar....etc. to prevent possibility of trashing directory in case of disaster.]
Finding out which directories are the largest.Ever wondered which directories are the biggest on your computer? Here's how to find out.(#26)
du -S | sort -n
How do I stop my system from fscking on each reboot?(#27)
When you rebuild the kernel, the filesystem is marked as 'dirty' and so your disk will be checked with each boot. The fix is to run:
rdev -R /zImage 1
This fixes the kernel so that it is no longer convinced that the filesystem is dirty.
Note: If using lilo, then add read-only to your linux setup in your lilo config file (Usually /etc/lilo.conf)
How to avoid fscks caused by "device busy" at reboot time.(#28)
If you often get device busy errors on shutdown that leave the filesystem in need of an fsck upon reboot, here is a simple fix:
To /etc/rc.d/init.d/halt or /etc/rc.d/rc.0, add the line
mount -o remount,ro /mount.dir
for all your mounted filesystems except /, before the call to umount -a. This means if, for some reason, shutdown fails to kill all processes and umount the disks they will still be clean on reboot. Saves a lot of time at reboot for me.
How to find the biggest files on your hard-drive.(#29)
ls -l | sort +4n
Or, for those of you really scrunched for space this takes awhile but works great:
cd /
ls -lR | sort +4n
A script for cleaning up after programs that create autosave and backup files.(#30)
Here is a simple two-liner which recursively descends a directory hierarchy removing emacs auto-save (#) and backup (~) files, .o files, and TeX .log files. It also compresses .tex files and README files. I call it 'squeeze' on my system.
#!/bin/sh
#SQUEEZE removes unnecessary files and compresses .tex and README files
#By Barry tolnas, tolnas@sun1.engr.utk.edu
#
echo squeezing $PWD
find $PWD \( -name \*~ -or -name \*.o -or -name \*.log -or -name \*\#\) -exec
rm -f {} \;
find $PWD \( -name \*.tex -or -name \*README\* -or -name \*readme\* \) -exec gzip -9 {} \;
How to find out what process is eating the most memory.(#31)
ps -aux | sort +4n
-OR-
ps -aux | sort +5n
How do I find which library in /usr/lib holds a certain function?(#32)
What if you're compiling and you've missed a library that needed linking in? All gcc reports are function names... Here's a simple command that'll find what you're looking for:
for i in *; do echo $i:;nm $i|grep tgetnum 2>/dev/null;done
Where tgetnum is the name of the function you're looking for.
I compiled a small test program in C, but when I run it, I get no output!(#32)
You probably compiled the program into a binary named test, didn't you? Linux has a program called test, which tests if a certain condition is true, it never produces any output on the screen. Instead of just typing test, try: ./test
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