muLinux F.A.Q: Frequently Asked Question with (some) Fractured Answer Michele Andreoli _________________________________________________________________ A collection of questions and answers, partly invented, partly derived directly from the mailing list and from the correspondence relative to muLinux. It is not to be assumed that what is written here is in reality useful for any particular purpose, nor that it corresponds exactly to the actual structure of muLinux. If the information contained within seems to you inadequate or, more appropriately useless, please send an email to the Fractured(TM) Software Foundation: they will be glad to give you a complete refund of what you paid for this document, excluding support ;-) _________________________________________________________________ 1. Introdution 1.1 Copyright This document is copyright (C) 2000 Michele Andreoli, and it's free. You can distribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, which you can get at [1]http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html. If you have questions or comments about this document, please feel free to drop [2]me a line. Suggestions and criticism are always welcome. If you find a mistake with this document, please let me know so I can correct it in the next version. Thanx. 1.2 Credits To [3]Marko Djukic and [4]Eugene TS Wong for translations, revisions and improvements in more parts of this document. Unfortunately, I'm adding continously new entries in this FAQ and they can check the document only at random periods. 1.3 Disclaimer Information and other contents in this document are the best of our knowledge. However, we may have make errors. So you should determine if you want to follow the instructions given in this document. Nobody is responsible for any damage in your computers and any other loss derived from the use of the information contained herein. THE AUTHORS AND MAINTAINERS ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE INCURRED DUE TO ACTIONS TAKEN BASED ON INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT. 2. General, curiosities, tidbits of information 2.1 Why "MU" linux? The "mu" stands for a Greek letter (see Unicode Latin-1 char 0x0b5) frequently used for indicating the millionth part of something. for example: "mu meter" (µm) stands for micro meter and is the one millionth part of a meter. The reason for the name "muLinux" is its tiny size: just one floppy and a single (optional) X11-addon. (NB: recent releases comes with much more addons that one) 2.2 What was the main purpose behind the development of muLinux? Contain in one single place all what is learnt about Linux, creating a type of live "collection of notes", and protecting it from any loss of information that the various versions of Linux sometimes create. 2.3 What are the biggest problems faced in the development of muLinux? Above all the ignorance of the immense collection of packages and utilities available for Linux. The second problem, the lack of a LAN on which to run tests, was solved very quickly connecting an old 486 50Mhz/8M to the PC. But the third problem and the one which has produced the most head-scratching: the Author did French at school! 2.4 What are the advantages and disadvantages of muLinux with respect to other floppy-Linux? The majority of floppy-Linux to be found (with some remarkable exceptions) are simply a selection of binaries taken from some distribution and placed on a floppy. Often they are normally formatted 1.44 floppies and the filesystem used is not even the native Linux, but minix. Rare are those which allow connection to the Internet and even rarer are those which allow access to the normal network services, such as mail, news, ftp, http, etc. None of these, however, offer support for sound, fax or even a web server, as muLinux does. All of this could be bearable, and in a certain sense in the order of things, if it were not that many of these floppies have a fundamental deficiency which renders their use very unpleasant: one needs to configure them each time they are booted! 2.5 What is the purpose of muLinux? * To begin to play with an operating system if one does not have the possibility to install on the hard disk a recent distribution of Linux. * To have a portable operating system, to use in ad-hoc locations or locations without configured and functioning software. * A change of heart... "Proselytism, proselytism... 3. Technical 3.1 Every time the kernel boots and I have replied correctly to all the setup questions, everything suddenly stops and the text "login:" appears. What am I doing wrong? No error: it is what should happen. Type "root" and hit ENTER. You will get the usual UNIX prompt from which you can execute the usual Linux commands. To have a familiar GUI, you have to configure and activate XWindow. 3.2 I typed "startx", but nothing happened. Why? Check the file /var/log/startx.log, especially the last lines. And remember: XWindow will not start if you have not correctly configured the mouse. 3.3 Why do you not put in muLinux an X SVGA server, instead of VGA? Because the SVGA is too big and I have no idea how it will behave on machines with 4M of RAM. 3.4 How can I format my floppies to hold 1722k in order to make the muLinux base and X11 disks? You don't have to preformat your floppies. When you run install.bat, muLinux will automatically format them for you. 3.5 Can I clone muLinux to my hard drive if I have a FAT32 file system? Yes, muLinux can be cloned even in a FAT32 partition, for example the Win98 partition. 3.6 Why doesn't muLinux provide a real authentication and login process? NB: the recent versions provides multi-user support through an add-on. For several reasons: * because for multi-user support a bunch of other binaries is needed :) * because initially the Author had played around quite a bit with the permissions of files and directories. This means that it is not possible to predict, in principle, what a user lacking permissions could really do with muLinux * because the scripts upon which muLinux is based make use of commands (such as kill) which would not produce the desired result if ran by users without permissions. * because, for the moment, one can not see a real usefulness of multi-user support in an operating system as small as muLinux. 3.7 The procedure for installation from DOS is too contorted: go into DOS-mode, unzip the archives, reboot, etc. Wasn't a good setup.exe better? It is true that the installation from DOS is more contorted that that from Linux, but only very slightly. This trick (starting an instance of Linux with the only purpose to unzip and copy the archives) was devised for two reasons which are not trivial: * distribute the same collection of archives, for the Linux world and for the world of DOS/WIN*. * avoide the use of a proprietary software to do all these things, such as formatting and partitioning, which are generally required when installing something and which therefore we would have to pay for. 3.8 Is there any problem trying to run C applications compiled / linked at aLinux distributions other than muLinux? Many, and fatal: like any ELF system, muLinux uses shared libraries. You must transport all the shared libraries used by your program. Shared libraries are shown with the "ldd" command. 3.9 I have compiled (gcc) a hello.c application under my Red Hat 2.0.36 kernel host environment, but I am not able to run it on a muLinux 10r2 !?!?!? The kernel is not the problem. You must check with ldd what are the required shared C-Libraries: libc5? libc6? Furthermore: did you set the executable flag (chmod +x command)? Is the command in the path? 3.10 Whenever I install muLinux the usual confirmation message after setting up an add-on XXX is: "Ooh ! I feel good. This XXX is OK." I'm sure we're all familiar with it. ;) Except, when I setup /usr from the boot floppy, I get a slightly different confirmation message: "Ooh ! I feel (relatively) good. This /usr is OK." Yes, the "I feel good" message appears when any add-ons are loaded, but the "(relatively)" substring appears only when the system loads the very first, the very inner add-on: the USR add-on. The system feel relatively good, because this is only a small add-on, therefore the satisfaction is not very high, compared to 1.72M disks. 3.11 When I load startx on my laptop Mitac P100, the display is not full screen, it's just a rectangle in the center of the screen. Why? If the rectange is ... usable, I would be satisfied; we can't have everything. But if the rectange is close to a postage stamp, an hard problem to solve, because laptops have unsual hardware. 3.12 I need a tool for login in on another machine... but without PASSWORD. But we can do that with samba (i hope :) ) and sshd .... I'm just asking that! Samba is the right answer in muLinux, as-is currently. Using Samba and smbclient you can run any commands on a remote Mu. The trick is "use a printable share in Samba". In the server machine, create in /etc/samba/share a new services called, for example, [rsh]: [rsh] comment = Remote Command Gateway browseable = no printable = yes path=/tmp admin users = admin <--- select an user with privilege (root?) public=no print command = wave -c 880 2; /bin/sh +x %s; rm %s lprm command = lpq command = wave -c 220 2 To run remotely the command, you can use smbclient in this way: ----- rcmd script start ---- #!/bin/sh host=$1; shift; cmd=$* (echo "print -"; echo $cmd)| smbclient //$host/rsh PASS -U USER -P ----- rcmd script end ---- ( PASS and USER authenticate the remote user. You can create a special user with login disabled, for that) So, with # rcmd extensa.sanvittore.it /sbin/init 0 you will shutdown the machine extensa.sanvittore.it. Ok, this requires high privileges ("admin user= root") A nice features: you can send the command using Win9x. You have only to create a file with "/sbin/init 0" in it and *print* if using the "rsh" ASCII printer! 3.13 Can you tell me about LibC files, EXE files, and RPMs? Can I install them in mu? "libc" stands for "C library": it contains the basic routines requires by C programs. The GCC add-on is not matter here. Obiously, .EXE programs are designed to run only on M$ operating-system; but Linux is able to run a .exe using a software emulator like DosEmu or Wine. Finally, there is a lot of other good software out there, but you can't install them in muLinux, without much pain other then libc5-linked. 3.14 I've noticed that everytime you come up with a new addon you have to change to 1st disk as well inorder to add it to the setup script. Would it be a good idea to have each addon have it's own setup script? This isn't extact and, in the case, it is a malfunction. In theory, when the ROOT and the USR segment are in momory, the /setup directory is alway available during the addon's loading. The only thing the may causes that is the request of a kernel module that reside in the floppy: usually, the Setup cache all modules in /tmp/modules, when a first request is made. > That way, if you have to change or add functions to an addon, you only > have to release a new addon, not the 1st disk as well. We already recently discussed this topic; the answer is: I like to have all scripts related to Setup in a single directory/disk, because this facilitate a lot. Otherwise, if I change something in the Setup itself, I have to upload 20M of addons! 3.15 Where can I get the mulinux sources? muLinux is script based, so the best part of code is also the source of it. As far C programs is concerned, I used GPLed packages, standards in Linux distros, but compiled for libc5 using a RH4.2 as development system. You will find RH4.2 at [5]ftp://ftp.jcu.cz/pub/aps/4.2/i386/ or at Sunsite.Unc.Edu and its mirrors. I also rewrote from scratch some commands. You will find the source code in the sources/ directory, in the mulinux-VERSION.tgz archive. Most of the UNIX commands present in the /bin path are from the busybox: you found the source of busybox, with my patches, in the GCC addon, as sample. 3.16 What are the differences between the different Swap possibilities: - Swap partition - Swap résident (that's the one I used). - Swap local. Basically, we have only two kind of swap-space: swap-files and swap-partitions. In the case of "swap-partition", we swap in a dedicated partition, located in a HD of yours, an *properly* formatted as "Linux-swap" device. Now, swap-file: a file can be "local" to your filesystem, for example in /tmp/my_swap_file, or "reside" to some other, mountable, disk partition, for example: your DOS partition. If you cloned in UMSDOS, "local" is the best choice. 3.17 What do I need to make an Internet connection ? (it seems that setting PPP and PORT is not sufficient). setup/port; setup/isp; finally "ppp-on" 3.18 Can you explain to me, DIALD set up, NAMESERVER, and NETWORK? When you enter the DNS, you must enter the DNS of your provider, in the form x.y.z.t; NETWORK is the network definition of your LAN, for example 192.168.1.0. BTW, you do not need to use diald to go in Internet. 3.19 How could I print the screen ? If you enabled the gpm mouse server, you can "cut" the screen with the left-mouse; then, you can open a text file with your preferred editors, then, after going in insert-mode, you can "paste" with 3th (or 2th) mouse button. Now, you has the screen in a file. You can print it with "lpr my_file". As alternative, you can redirect the standard-output to your printer with a command like my_command| lpr 3.20 Do I, REALLY, need a SERIAL mouse to obtain Xwindows (via X11 addon). My PS/2 mouse doesn't work. My mouse is PS/2 and X works. Surely, your mouse isn't working. Please, start the gpm server: this is the best test for your mouse. 3.21 Once MuLinux is installed in UMSDOS, is it possible to gain room on my HDD by deleting some muLinux files or the whole directory ? MuLinux is so little: what directory you plan to remove? If you are lucky, you will gain 10-20k. 3.22 My hda is cut in a hda1 (dos) and a hda2 (dos) when i mount hda2 on /store, i can only read the names of the files that are on hda2 under 8.3 ; how can i have then in full format ? Mount as VFAT: mount /dev/hda2 /store -t vfat 3.23 Is there a way to avoid reconfiguring (or not) /usr and /ext and /x11 each time i boot from windows98 to my umsdos mulinux ? Did you saved your profile with "setup -s lock"? 3.24 When i start my X session, i get a small image, i.e. that the X destop doesn't come on the full surface of the monitor, but only on a small part of the monitor. What can i do to get a full X ? No, without deep manipulation of the X config file. 3.25 How do I prevent changes in /etc/samba/shares from disappearing during a reboot? After you manipulate a file that is under the control of Setup, you must save with "setup -s". 3.26 I have mulinux operating on an embedded 486 with COMPACT FLASH (flash disk) and I want to prevent writes to the Compact fLASH dISK HDD. Can anyone tell me how I can write this to RAM instead of HDD. Very easy: create the directory /startup/init in your root (/) filesystem in RAM. If Setup find this directory, it assume that STARTUP is embedded in the filesystem, not in a separated disk. You have to edit the source distribution, opening the file linuxrc and putting the command "mkdir -p /startup/init" close to the top. In this directory muLinux store/retreive its profile. But if you put this dir in RAM, stored profiles aren't kept to next boot. 3.27 Well, why mulinux cannot fork with a i386? Is fork() a i486 instruction? No: fork() is a function in the C library, not an assembler istruction. You will find info about fork() int Section Two of man-page: =================================================================== fork - create a child process SYNOPSIS #include pid_t fork(void); DESCRIPTION fork creates a child process that differs from the parent process only in its PID and PPID, and in the fact that resource utilizations are set to 0. File locks and pend- ing signals are not inherited. Under Linux, fork is implemented using copy-on-write pages, so the only penalty incurred by fork is the time and memory required to duplicate the parent's page tables, and to create a unique task structure for the child. =================================================================== As you can see, without the fork() system call, no multi-tasking is possible: you will have a pure DOS operating system. All processes in a UNIX machine are child of a *single* parent. The Big Parent generated all other child, cloning itself, following a process that in Biology is called "mitosi" (but I'm not sure if the comparition is evaluable, or if "meiosi" it is better) A child-birth which doesn't involve a partner is also common in some species of vegetals (a part from the auto-erotism we did during adolescence, and more). I know, we have on the list some biologist: can it illuminate us? 3.28 How do we speed X-Windows without adding more memory? X is know to be resource-consuming. It is a true network server, not a simple GUI, in the MS concept. I think 386 computers will run slowly also with more RAM! 3.29 Using Samba to mount a directory, I can only read files. Where's the problem ? If you already edited the exports file, then you need to try to clone the [public] section in the /etc/samba/shares file, in order to write the yours. If it still doesn't work, try to enlarge the files permissions of the exported directory in MU, using the command "chmod", for example "chmod 766". If this doesn't work, try to change the owner "chown nobody.root mydir" 3.30 I'm using the 10r5 release but when i try to connect to the internet using pppd pppd -d -detach /dev/cuaX it returns the the kernel lacks PPP support. What should I do? It seems that you never read any single document about muLinux, isn't true? Mulinux comes with an huge set of scripts for that, in other words it fall in the class of "preconfigured Linuxes". After that, you can connect to internet with this algorithm: 1. setup -f port (this configure the modem) 2. setup -f isp (this configure PPP) 2b. setup -s (this save definitively your profile) 3. ppp-on (this activate the connection) 3. ppp-off (this stops the connection) 4. plog (this monitor the outgoing call) 3.31 No matter what changes I make to /etc/X11/XF86Config' thefile is rewritten back to the original after I run startx! Ican even copy a different file in its place and it isreplaced with the original. What am I doing wrong? You have to change the original: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/lib/XF86Config.in. This file contains some place-holder variable, like MOUSE_DEVICE, etc: do not remove them! 3.32 A better CD playing via pc-speaker? Answer from Angoli Giovanni using the supplied command line in help resulted in a lot of noise :/ better command for cd playing via pc-speaker: # cdda2wav -D /dev/cdrom -B -eN -m -a 2 so cdda2wav records using this settings: mono with 8 bits @ 22050 Hz The -a switch (which does sampling rate 22050 Hz) isn't so important the important option is -m (mono), with -s (stereo) the result is only noise as previously reported (i think it's because of the mono nature of pc speaker). Tested with a RAM muLinux v 11r2. 3.33 I tried to create a second user profile but something was wrong so I got a lot of error messages, I was not able to have the second configuration and I deleted the first profile, too. The profiles are stored on the first floppy disk, if you run the RAM muLinux incarnation. But this floppy, unfortunately, is close to be full. So, no disk space for more that one profile. On the other hand, the number of parameters to be stored in the profile is growing, in recent releases. If you can't live with more profiles on the startup floppy, you have to rebuild the base system. First, edit the file mu.cnf and change the value of BOOT_FREE (actual default is 35kB): this is the number of KB left free on the BOOT segment in the startup floppy-disk. 3.34 Your previous answer is very tight. I don't think a newbie would understand what heor she needs to do. Yet the FAQ is aimed at newbies. Tight? It is my best in the current year! To be more expressive, I have to put a note for every word in the statement: If you can't live with more profiles(1) on the startup(2) floppy(3), you have to rebuild(4) the base system(5). First, edit the file mu.cnf(7) and change the value of BOOT_FREE (actual default is 35kB)): this is the number of KB(8) left free on the BOOT(9) segment(10) in the startup(11) floppy-disk. Foot-notes: 1) profile=the set of pairs variable=value that define all you typed during the setup process 2) startup= is the first floppy you nicely inserted in the floppy driver, the first floppy in the muLinux distribution 3) floppy = see floppy-disk (if you can) 4) rebuild = see "mu -r" (if you can) 5) base system = this is the muLinux base OS system, on a 1722k floppy-disk 7) mu.cnf = this is the file named mu.cnf (in the main archive) 8) KB=Kb=kBytes 1024 bytes 9) BOOT= the first (bootable) segment in the startup floppy-disk (other are ROOT and USR) 10) segment = contiguus part in the floppy-disk (not standard def.) 11) see (2) 3.35 XWindows runs really slow on my 386 4mb ram machine....any way to speed it up a little without adding more memory? Answer from Winsor *grin* Add a big meaty swap file or partition(cloned system only), kill off all uneeded proccesses before starting X and use the smallest window manager you can find............ Try startx wm2 and start your apps from an xterm using something like exec chimera & the "&" allows the app to run in the background thus freeing up the xterm which can then be reused or closed to gain just a bit more memory back. Using X on a 386 with 4 megs is going to be a bit slow, but if one is frugal in just what apps one runs can run at an entirely tolerable speed. I'd also suggest editing the /etc/inittab file and get rid of an extra getty(vc's) or two as they use just a bit of memory.(I use only two getties on my 4 meg boxes) In addition during setup configure only those services absolutely needed for your intended purposes, or better yet create several different profiles(configs) this can be done by merely running setup -f -a configuring the system,as desired for one intended purpose and then issueing setup -s "unique name" with "unique name" being a different name for each different config profile, very similiar to the old menu driven configs that gamers used under DOS in yesteryear. Mind you though, this will only work on a cloned system as the base diskette doesn't have enough room for more than one config. Good luck winsor 3.36 I have mu10r5 working in the the "ext2" configuration in a138 meg partition. Can I delete the DOS partition (102 megs)and add that to the Linux partition. It looks like I mightbe able to do that with "cfdisk" which I have in RH-5.2 inanother drive. You have only to format the new disk partition with: # mkfs.ext2 /dev/hdXY After that, you may put in the /etc/fstab the following entry: /dev/hdXY /new ext2 defaults,auto At next boot, you will have the disk mounted in /new, or anywhere you want. 3.37 What's the scope of the 'chroot' command? chroot (for those that do not know this nice utility) runs a supplied command changing the "root" for it. For example, if you (from muLinux), mount another Linux disk under /mnt, you will get a prompt in the new Linux with "chroot /mnt bash" (I use the trick regularly) 4. Networking 4.1 I'm using the 10r5 release but when i try to connect to the internet using pppd pppd -d -detach /dev/cuaX it returns the the kernel lacks PPP support. What should I do? It seems that you never read any single document about muLinux, isn't true? Mulinux comes with an huge set of scripts for that, in other words it fall in the class of "preconfigured Linuxes". After that, you can connect to internet with this algorithm: 1. setup -f port (this configure the modem) 2. setup -f isp (this configure PPP) 2b. setup -s (this save definitively your profile) 3. ppp-on (this activate the connection) 3. ppp-off (this stops the connection) 4. plog (this monitor the outgoing call) 4.2 I have problems to send mails by mutt. I can fetch the mails, but I cannot send them. I get the the mail back with the message mailer-daemaon. On SuSE 6.2 I also have mutt, and this works fine. smail acts differently if you are connected or not You , in both cases, may have more log running the queue with: # smail -d9 -q > log_file then send me the "log_file". If empty, replace ">" with "2>". On local network, smail deviler correctly only if you use "not-fully-qualified-domain". Example: craxi@extensa is delivered, but craxi@extensa.sanvittore.it gets sent to SMART_HOST (in my /etc/hosts, extensa is an alias for extensa.sanvittore.it). Address like craxi@[192.168.1.2] also works fine. As many MTA in UNIX, smail works well only if a DNS is 24/24h reachable: for intermittent links, the messages are queued then sent to a SMART_HOST. If you close your internet connection without to "run the queue" in mutt (I provided a macro: escape-s, for that), the messages are still in the directory /var/spool/smail/input: they will be delivered to next connection. You can obtains the list with "mailq". You can run the queue by hand with "runq" or "runq -v", in a console. I know, all that behave differently from Eudora, Outlook etc: the UNIX delivering system are projected with the queue in mind, because they are for multi-user, big systems. 5. Installation 5.1 When I run mu, and I pass by the fdformat (I need to run this manually because the mulinux-fdformat asks for libc.so.5) I get this message, and I am not sure if this is a hardware-problem: end_request: I/O error, dev 02:3c (floppy), sector 18 cat: write error: Input/output error Done. Reboot now. Did you format the floppy disk with fdformat /dev/fd0H1722? or with a bare "fdformat /dev/fd0" ? If yes, please change media. 5.2 When I re-boot the PC with the installation disk inside, after a while I am told that muLinux can not be found and I am asked to specify in which partition the muLinux files are. Ops, this is the problem: the Installer scans only the first level directories. No problem: if you copied in c:\a\b\c\d specify: /a/b/c/d when muLinux ask for path. 5.3 How do you copy the muLinux files on to the floppy disk? I get the error, "insufficient disk space". You can not copy the archives on to the floppy in such a way, but download everything in one directory in Windows and run the installation as specified in INSTALL.DOS, that is with the commands "makefd.bat" or "boot.bat" Are you trying to *transport* this archive to the destination hard disk? If yes, you can use the pkzip feature of multi-disk: compress all with pkzip (in the original machine) using the -& option. The obtained .zip file will be split on a set of 1.44 floppies. Then, rebuild the archive at the destination, using pkunzip. 5.4 Is there a way to start muLinux with a default profile selected at startup, so that it starts and begins to work immediately? setup -s lock 5.5 I don't know what that 16 ramdisk stuff means, but I do know that it doesn't consume any ram. I guess it means to have the ability to use 16 ramdisks. Exact. This message, "16 ramdisk", is only related to the "rd" module - the ramdisk support in the kernel. Everything in muLinux uses RAM, because the filesystem is in RAM, and executable programs use RAM. The temporary disk (/tmp) uses its own ramdisk, with a default size 2048k. During the setup for /tmp the user has the possibility to change this value. 5.6 When I try to boot, I get memory problems (well, duh) and then when I drop down to a shell, I get "cannot fork" when attempting to make swap space. I can't even ls or fdisk. All I can do is pwd. Any advice? muLinux runs entirely in RAM, so it requires more RAM than usual. You need swap, but setting up a swap using the muLinux script is not possible in 4M, because the scripts fork. You have to reach a prompt and proceed manually: # .... mount a DOS disk ... # dd if=/dev/zero bs=1k count=4000 of=linux.swp # mkswap linux.swp # sync # swapon linux.swp 5.7 Question: which file in the USR section causes the command history and how is it initiated? When I don't setup USR, the command history doesn't work. I'd like some info on this. Take a look to the /bin/login command in muLinux: this is a script wrapper. It starts: 1. ash, if EXT is *not* mounted (fake 'login') 2. /usr/local/bin/login, if EXT si mounted (the true 'login') 3. /usr/bin/ile, if USR is mounted (the command history), The command history in muLinux is full demanded? not sure what you mean "delegated" to an external program, "ile", used in this way: # /usr/bin/ile -/etc/ilerc /bin/-ash -si (this is the *fake* case). If you wish to have the command history without USR, put "ile" in /bin, and change /bin/login accordingly. 5.8 Could someone tell me what arguments are available for miterm? Are there man pages? What arguments are used for dialing a shell account? miterm [-s speed] [-l line] [-e escape-char] For example: # miterm -l /dev/ttyS1 After the establishing the connection with the modem, you can issue standard AT* commands. Try for example "ATZ". You can dial using: atx3 atdtxyz where xyz is the telephone number. 5.9 How can one reduce the required RAM, in case I want to use floppy #1 in a machine with 4MB? If the system blocks at the message about "toilet paper", you only started the kernel, but the system itself won't run. Try decreasing the ramdisk_size - when the you see the message "boot:" booting from floppy, type the following carefully: boot: mulinux f1722 load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 ramdisk_size=3000 ramdisk_start=597 (on a single line) The default value is 4600 in muLinux. You will gain 1.5M, maybe it will works. 5.10 The downloaded installation files are not on my notebook, but on my desktop. So I can't use boot.bat. You can transport them to the target machine using pkzip: it can split a big archive on to a set of floppy disks (see instructions; multispan). 5.11 I got the mulinux-10r2.tgz and some modules. Now I really don't know how to get this archive on to a bootable floppy and install muLinux on to a fresh HDD. I can extract the archive to a floppy with arc under Linux, but that floppy won't boot? I don't use DOS or Windows. A very common question, caused by a lack of README reading. If you install under Linux, you have to read the file INSTALL.Linux and use the script "mu". 5.12 Why, under DOS, can I see my addon in the directory C:\Linux\EXT.tgz and why NOT when I am under Linux.. YOU PUT the ADDONS in the c:\Linux directory? Please, please! This directory is NOT for you, but reserved to UMSDOS filesystem. Put your addons in c:\mu or c:\mulinux or c:\other! 5.13 muLinux works pretty well, but I always have had problems with lilo during cloning process ext2fs. For systems with low mem, you can't extract EXT.tgz containing lilo... so you have to clone the basic mulinux first. You could find the "lilo" command also in another place: it is in the same directory you decompressed the mulinux.tgz archive. Mount this disk and copy it in /usr/bin, before of cloning. 5.14 I didn't understand if it is possible install new applications with Mulinux installed on hard disk. If it is possible, what I have to do? Basically, the answer is : no. Any ELF package requires an own pool of libraries. muLinux is a libc5, then precompiled libc6 package do not works. I added part of exential libc6 (from Debian 2.0) in the disk called PERL, but if you put in muLinux some binary from recent Mandrake, they do not works, because my libc6 is old. I don't like battles that can't be wont [in that I'm like americans :-)]: a little system such muLinux is, can't follow libc state-of-arts, so as precise design muLinux will remains libc5 for a lot. Recent libc are mega-and-mega! I thing newer Linuxes simply can't run from a floppy disk. 5.15 How to add a new application in muLinux? answer from "winsor SMP" zoot@farts.com. Most libc5 application can be installed within muLinux. If you wander through the likes of metalab, you'll see many apps are offered in two flavors, libc5 and glibc (libc6). Using libc5 versions will get you going on the right foot, and if you get errors about lib files you should be able to grab the lib files from metalab as well. Just be sure that after installing any lib files to either run "ldconfig" or reboot your machine(this is a VERY common mistake made) Another more ponderous option would be to compile apps from the source code using the -static flag in the makefiles........but be warned, this makes GIANT apps(quite similiar to the M$ stuff 8^P) oh yeah..........and be sure to compile those apps on "another" linux box as the+gcc included with muLinux is for learning C only. ) 5.16 After i've created a bootable floppy (makefd) and booted again, the system goes in halt after the message: /bin/scan cannot fork (twice). answer from Zeimet Alex lzeimet@gmx.net I also once had a problem to install mulinux on a 386SX with 4MB. I think it will not be possible to install mulinux with 4MB on a SX, 8MB are required. But installed on a HD it works with 4MB! The trick I found: install mulinux in a UMSDOS directory on a machine with at least 8MB, then copy the whole "linux" directory over network on the 386. (with windows 3.11 for workgroups) Since had I made that, I use my 386SX as a Gateway internet router Note: It's not possible to boot with a floppy an a 386SX with less than 8MB....or is there anybody who was able to boot with 4MB? 5.17 I have download X11.tgz but I can't unpack it an put it on a disk. Using winzip, the archive only seems to contain itself (???!!) How to do ? Recent muLinux can load addons also from a file. For example, if the user has cloned using the UMSDOS flavor, and the archive X11.tgz is the directory c:\mulinux (for example), it can be loaded with: setup -f X11 from=/DOS/mulinux/X11.tgz As alternative, if you run a muLinux release that nothing know about the new addon, you can try using the script loal. 5.18 Is there an easy way of upgrading to the newest version of mulinux? If you wish to upgrade to a new major release, the best thing is to install from scratch, removing also c:\linux, if you use UMSDOS. I know, this is a crude solution, but muLinux is full-configured, so you lose relatively nothing. If you only wish to upgrade some addon, you have two solution: 1) setup -f XYZ from=/path/to/XYZ (XYZ is the name of the addon) 2) use the "upgrade" script. It attempt to upgrade selectively only the files that are changed or new. I have a question/request to you: at home I have two computers, (so, frankly speaking: 2 boxes and 1 monitor, so the second one is without monitor, only the box.) often need to reach the second computer's hard disk, and I don't want to take it out always and take it into the other computer. What I need is to configure this one floppy linux to do everything automatically. You have to configure muLinux on a PC with monitor. A this point, you save the profile with "setup -s lock". At next run, muLinux do not ask anythink. You must config mulinux with the (minimal) parameters pertinent to destination PC. Now, put the floppy in the destination PC without monitor and reboot. After that, enter in it with telnet and refine the setup. 5.19 I would simply like to know where to put my cursor and which button to push to get to an "X11.tgz" file? These are the steps fo You: 1. point the url http://sunsite.,auc.dk/mulinux 2. enter in the DOWNLOAD-AREA and follow the link "THIS SITE" 3. Now enter in the "current" directory 4. download the X11.tgz, taking care to use shift-left with the mouse ; 6. New entries 6.1 new 7. Miscellaneus 7.1 I guess that goes to show that many do not read the "readme" or "help" files*embarrased grin* Yes, you are right: full embarassing because if I really like Linux this is because I like much to read Howtos, Readme, Release-notes, changelog and everythink in text form comes with an installed package. This kind of text is such ... human reading, compared with Windows help files, that seems produced with an Artificial-Intelligence tool, or by the Altavista traslator. I have just read the two part of "PGP User Guide", by P. Zimmermann: two piece of art, at the cost of paper, for me. I like much the Zimmermann english. I'm studing him, in the purpose to ampliate my vocabulary (for grammar, I've no hope: this requires regular courses at school). Zimmermann is a very, very clever guy: it added in pgp a routine that detect if manuals are absent from the system and refuse to work. That draconian solution! How to add a similar feature in muLinux? Can I add some question, at random intervall, and if user can't answer, I will shutdown the machine? :-)) 7.2 I really like what I see about muLinux, although I haven't been able to install it yet (but that's a story for a different post). I'm following with great interest the whole tread about the new organization of basic muLinux in three floppies and I am worrying a bit that muLinux could become a kind of "normal" distribution. To go off the straight and narrow, was started many releases ago, with the introdution of the first addon: X11, not with the proposed (and realized) split EXT->SRV/WKS. After that, I hadn't capable to slow-down the trasmigration. Once the first addon has been introduced, the genetic transformation is in act since long time . To late to have second thoughts. The addition of a further disk is only a drop in the ocean. BTW, what is the muLinux that you have in mind? The first floppy, isn't true? Well, I'm with you: the first floppy in not changed! Why to scandalize if I add in muLinux mutt, smail, pgp, patch/diff, md5sum, rsh when I just added a monster like Wine in a separated addon?? I'm sure, you are worried because the names of the new addon (WKS and SRV) recall in your mind Microsof NT 4.0. If it is, do not worry! These names are only matter of convention. How to call them? EXT1 and EXT2? These names helps me to find with euristic where is a binary: I know smbd (a daemon) is in SRV, and mutt (a client) is in WKS. Yes, I introduced the add-on idea under the users boost, but without any sort of add-on muLinux should be now a simple maniacal floppy disk. 7.3 fork() system-call and biology Answer from: Dumas Patrice (dumas@centre-cired.fr) Yes, the mitosis image is a good one. There is a total replication of the genetic information. The new cell is exactly the same as the old as is a forked child. In the meiosis, one half is lost. The meiosis happens only for sexual cells (gametes), and when the sexual cells having lost one half of their genetic content meet, they merge their genetic materials and the new cell (the egg cell) has a normal genetic information. > A child-birth which doesn't involve a partner is also common > in some species of vegetals There are 2 ways for doing a child without partner, one is auto fecondation, for species being male and female. It is common in a lot of vegetals, and some animals can do it also. I know a lot of animals being of both sexes (called hermaphrodism). A lot of marine animals can do autofecondations. (in fact they release their gametes in the see, and some times there are mechanisms so that gametes from one individual cannot merge with gametes from the same one, but sometimes not). There is another way, called parthenogenesis, where there is a meiosis but the sexual cells from the same individual merge. For example, there are some insects, I remember only the daphnies, and also some lizards that reproduce that way. 7.4 Would the list administrator allow a "digest" mode (digest of all mails of a day to be sent in once)? mu_em(Reply from Mark Roberts (mu@manumark.de)) I can understand where one might want such a feature. But several workarounds are possible, and some are interesting or even informative. (1) if on a multiuser system, ask your system admin to create a new user. Subscribe that new user to all the mailing lists you are interested in. (2) create or find a mailbox-parser that moves all messages from sunsite.dk to a sepaerate folder. In MuLinux this is an exercise for lex and gcc (GCC-addon). Seeing that you, Dr. Michael, use an MS-product with a very large version number for your mail, your mail reader probably has that feature built in. How about the Mu-reader? (3) do not subscribe to the list at all. Instead use the existing list-features to receive messages 600-650 or whatever once in the evening. Mark them with the mouse (since they are now all in a line) and drag them to another mailbox. Question is, where do you get the magic numbers 600 and 650? Answer: the first number is one more than the last message you received yesterday. The second number is simple a very large number. The list-daemon will send all it has and then stop. Note what the last message was, and remember it's number plus one for tomorrow. (4) tell your mail-reader to sort incoming mail by sender. That way all mail from sunsite.dk is in one place and can be marked and dragged to another mailbox. If you're lucky. If you're unlucky, it will sort by author, so the messages will be shuffled instead of sorted. 8. Other formats of this FAQ 8.1 The pure text format Download here: [6]faq.txt 8.2 The whole source archive The FAQ is containted in a tgz archive [7]faqm4.tgz. Any section is contained in a single file with the suffix .m4. They requires the M4 macroprocessor to be processed, but it is possible to edit them only using your preferred text-editor. If you like to add some section to this FAQ, please feel free to send a note to mantainer: he will add a new entry in the index file faq.m4, relative to your new section. Never edit the html files itself: they are automatically generated from the SGML source! _________________________________________________________________ Comments, additions and suggestions can be sent to [8]m.andreoli@tin.it. Last update: 29 Nov 2000, Today is Pungenday, the 41st day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3166 This FAQ was generated using [9]sgml-tools for Linux, v1.0.9 References 1. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html 2. mailto:m.andreoli@tin.it 3. mailto:tech(@)oblo.com 4. mailto:eugenetswong(@)yahoo.com 5. ftp://ftp.jcu.cz/pub/aps/4.2/i386/ 6. file://localhost/tmp/faq.txt 7. file://localhost/tmp/faqm4.tgz 8. mailto:m.andreoli@tin.it 9. http://www.sgmltools.org/