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Old 03-07-2001, 05:39 AM   #1
Registered: Feb 2001
Posts: 84

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Caution: Do not change the "localhost" entry in /etc/host, because
many programs depend on it for internal message-passing.

8.8. How Do I Switch Virtual Consoles? How Do I Enable Them?


/etc/inittab, which controls which terminals and virtual consoles
order to start.

8.9. How Do I Set the Time Zone?

you don't have this directory. The source is available in

pointing to localtime. For example:

$ ln -sf US/Mountain localtime
$ ln -sf localtime posixrules

This change will take effect immediately--try date.



correct GMT time--type date -u and check that the correct UTC time is

8.10. How Do I Get Dial-up PPP to Work?

This information is mainly for people who do not have a wrapper
your ISP, you will need the following information:

* The port that your modem is connected to: /dev/ttyS0--/dev/ttyS3,
which correspond to COM1-COM4 under MS-DOS.
* The phone number of your ISP's data connection.
* The user name and password that your ISP gave you.
* The IP addresses of the primary and possibly secondary Domain Name

the following programs are also useful for configuring network
connections, determining network status, and diagnosing problems:

You must be logged in as root.

* Make sure that the serial port and modem are operating correctly.
send AT commands to the modem and receive the OK string in
response from the modem.
* Enter the primary and possibly secondary Domain Name Server IP
addresses in the /etc/resolv.conf file, using dotted quad
notation, with the nameserver label. For example:

order hosts,bind

The nameserver addresses in the example above are examples only.
They don't correspond to actual network hosts.
when it resolves network domain addresses, to first look in the
servers, which are specified on the lines that begin with
* Locate the chat script that PPP will use to dial the modem and
provider or something similar. You can store a chat script

"" ATDT<your_isp's_phone_number>
ogin <your_user_name>
word <your_password>

pair. When it starts, it sends the string
"ATDTyour_isp's_phone_number," where you have substituted the
additional prompts, you will need to edit the script accordingly.
Again, refer to the chat manual page for details.
instruction in the files themselves.
* The configuration of pppd, the program that maintains the actual
connection, is usually contained in two or three separate files.
Here is a sample /etc/ppp/options file:

# /etc/ppp/options

asyncmap 0

# ---<End of File>---

characters between the PPP client and server; always use password,
PAP, or CHAP authentication when making a connection; use the
modem's hardware handshake lines for flow control; lock the serial
use the IPX network protocol.
* For connection set-up on each individual serial port or PPP host,


There might be an explanation of these and other options in the
authentication for this connection; use the chat program and the
PPP connection (so when your network software needs to resolve an
the pppd daemon running even if the connection fails.
* That is all of the configuration you need. To actually start and
simple, and only contain the command:


that the connection really did establish a PPP interface (the
how many simultaneous PPP connections you have. If something goes
command (again, as root):

$ tail -f /var/log/ppp.log



will also need to take into account what other network connections may
measures at your ISP's end. If you're having trouble making the

Most Linux documentation also has additional instructions for
configuring PPP connections. Refer to ("Where Can I Get Linux Material
by FTP?") ("Where Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation?")

8.11. What Version of Linux and What Machine Name Am I Using?


$ uname -a

8.12. What is a "core" File?

A core file is created when a program does something, "wrong," due to
a bug, or which violates the operating system or hardware protection
mechanisms. The operating system kills the programs and creates a core
contains a detailed description of the state that the program was in
when it died.

file command, like this:

$ file core

them that their program dumped core.

[Eric Hanchrow]

8.13. How Can I Enable or Disable Core Dumps?


This setting affects all programs run from the shell (directly or
indirectly), not the whole system.

default, you can change the default setting in linux/sched.h--see the
definition of INIT_TASK, and look also in linux/resource.h.

PAM support optimizes the system's environment, including the amount
information, refer to the Linux Administrator's Security Guide.

8.14. How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My Kernel?

release on and mirrors.
(See "Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?") You may already have a

targets. Don't forget that you can specify multiple targets with one

$ make clean dep install modules modules_install

Also remember to update the module dependencies.

$ depmod -a

more information on depmod, see the manual page.

Make sure you are using the most recent version of the modutils
sure to consult the README file in the modutils package.

copying the kernel into your root partition--the Makefile in some
kernels have a special zlilo target for this; try:

$ make zlilo


are the testing releases; stable production kernels have even minor
should probably subscribe to the linux-kernel mailing list. ("What
Mailing Lists Are There?")

The Web site has lots of information and
links to other sites that provide information about Linux kernel

Also refer to the questions, "I Upgraded the Kernel and Now My PCMCIA
Card Doesn't Work." and "How Do I Get LILO to Boot the Kernel Image?"

8.15. Can I Have More than 3 Serial Ports by Sharing Interrupts?

of the ISA Bus architecture. See the Serial HOWTO for information
about possible solutions and workarounds for this problem.

8.16. How Do I Configure Emacs to Start with My Default Settings?


including entire defuns. Emacs uses lisp variables and statements
extensively, and many of the editing functions are written in Emacs

(add-hook text-mode-hook

This adds a statement that calls a hook function whenever a text

add this statement:

(menu-bar-mode -1)


(require 'msb)
(msb-mode 1)

Most tasks have several possible solutions in Emacs Lisp. Any task
more information, consult the Texinfo documentation. There is also a
FAQ list for Emacs (refer to What other FAQ's are there for Linux? ).

8.17. How Do I Make a Rescue Floppy?

directories--everything you need. Install a kernel on it and arrange

boot time and mounted as root in place of the floppy.

See the Bootdisk HOWTO.

8.18. How Do I Remap My Keyboard to UK, French, Etc.?

from Make sure you get the appropriate
kernel version. For older kernels you have to edit the top-level
kernel Makefile, in /usr/src/linux/. You may find more helpful
information in The Linux Keyboard and Console HOWTO, by Andries
Brouwer, at

8.19. How Do I Get NUM LOCK to Default to On?

/etc/rc.d/* files):

for t in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

French, etc.? "). Alternatively, patch your kernel. You need to
compiling drivers/char/keyboard.c.

8.20. How Do I Set (Or Reset) My Initial Terminal Colors?

The following shell script should work for VGA consoles:

for n in 1 2 4 5 6 7 8; do




exec /sbin/mingetty $@

[Jim Dennis]

8.21. How Can I Have More Than 128Mb of Swap?

Use several swap partitions or swap files--Linux supports up to 16
swap areas, each of up to 128Mb.

Very old kernels only supported swap partition sizes up to 16Mb.

swap partition up to 512MB. The 128MB limitation comes from
allocation map.

The file mm/swapfile.c has all of the gory details.

[Peter Moulder, Gordon Weast]

9. Miscellaneous Information and Questions Answered

9.1. How Do I Program XYZ Under Linux?

GNU project and LDP are always looking for volunteers to upgrade their
library documentation.

Anyway, between the existing Texinfo documentation, and the manual


GNU Info documentation, and various other information related to
programming Linux, can be found on

9.2. What's All This about ELF? glibc?

See the ELF HOWTO by Daniel Barlow--note, this is not the file
move-to-elf, which is a blow-by-blow account of how to upgrade to ELF

Linux has two different formats for executables, object files, and
object code libraries, known as, "ELF." (The old format is called
"a.out.") They have advantages, including better support for shared
libraries and dynamic linking.

Both a.out and ELF binaries can coexist on a system. However, they use
different shared C libraries, both of which have to be installed.

If you want to find out whether your system can run ELF binaries, look
in /lib for a file named, "" If it's there, you probably
have ELF libraries. If you want to know whether your installation
actually is ELF you can pick a representative program, like ls, and
run file on it:

-chiark:~> file /bin/ls
/bin/ls: Linux/i386 impure executable (OMAGIC) - stripped

valour:~> file /bin/ls

There is a patch to get 1.2.x to compile using the ELF compilers, and
produce ELF core dumps, at You
do not need the patch merely to run ELF binaries. 1.3.x and later do
not need the patch at all.

The GNU glibc2 libraries are essentially more recent versions of ELF
libraries that follow most of the same processes for dynamic linking
and loading. Upgrade information is contained in ("How Do I Upgrade
the Libraries without Trashing My System?")

9.3. How Do I Determine What Packages Are Installed on My System?

For distributions that use RPM format packages, use the command:

$ rpm -qa

You need to be logged in as root. You can save the output to a text
file for future reference, a command like:

$ rpm -qa >installed-packages

For Debian systems, the equivalent command is:

$ dpkg -l

9.4. What Is a .gz file? And a .tgz? And .bz2? And... ?

Linux installations) to unpack the file.

using compress. The standard *nix compress is proprietary software,
but free equivalents like ncompress exist.


efficient) bzip2.

subdirectory on

.deb is a Debian Binary Package--the binary package format used by the
Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It is manipulated using dpkg and
dpkg-deb (available on Debian systems and from

similar distributions.

The file command can often tell you what a file is.

probably downloaded it in ASCII mode by mistake. You must download
most things in binary mode--remember to type "binary" as a command in
FTP before using, "get," to download the file.

9.5. What Does VFS Stand For?

Virtual File System. It's the abstraction layer between the user and
floppy disk drive.

VFS: Disk change detected on device 2/0

9.6. What is a BogoMip?

Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed.



Common BogoMips Ratings

Processor BogoMips Comparison
Intel 8088 clock * 0.004 0.02
Intel/AMD 386SX clock * 0.14 0.8
Intel/AMD 386DX clock * 0.18 1 (definition)
Motorola 68030 clock * 0.25 1.4
Cyrix/IBM 486 clock * 0.34 1.8
Intel Pentium clock * 0.40 2.2
Intel 486 clock * 0.50 2.8
AMD 5x86 clock * 0.50 2.8
Mips R4000/R4400 clock * 0.50 2.8
Nexgen Nx586 clock * 0.75 4.2
PowerPC 601 clock * 0.84 4.7
Alpha 21064/21064A clock * 0.99 5.5
Alpha 21066/21066A clock * 0.99 5.5
Alpha 21164/21164A clock * 0.99 5.5
Intel Pentium Pro clock * 0.99 5.5
Cyrix 5x86/6x86 clock * 1.00 5.6
Intel Pentium II/III clock * 1.00 5.6
Intel Celeron clock * 1.00 5.6
Mips R4600 clock * 1.00 5.6
Alpha 21264 clock * 1.99 11.1
UltraSparc II clock * 2.00 11.1
Pentium MMX clock * 2.00 11.1
PowerPC 604/604e/750 clock * 2.00 11.1
Motorola 68060 clock * 2.01 11.2
Motorola 68040 Not enough data (yet).
AMD Athlon Not enough data (yet).
IBM S390 Not enough data (yet).

described in ("When I Add More Memory, the System Slows to a Crawl.")

your own BogoMips rating, please refer to the BogoMips Mini-HOWTO, on ("Where Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other

[Wim van Dorst]

9.7. What Online/Free Periodicals Exist for Linux?

There are a number of recent additions to the list of periodicals
devoted to Linux and free software:

* geek news. Headlines for articles about
Linux, like the comp.os.linux.announce and Techweb postings, and
general interest, like Associated Press stories.
* Linux Gazette. This is the
longest-running of the on-line periodicals, and the only one that
publishes source code.
* Linux Today. News and opinion related
to the Linux community, updated daily.
* Linux Weekly News. News about the Linux
community, updated weekly.
* Slashdot. News about the free software
community and culture.
* Freshmeat. Notices of new and updated
software for Linux and other free OS's.

Please send additions to this list to the FAQ maintainer.

[Jim Dennis, Robert Kiesling]

9.8. How Many People Use Linux?

central authority, so it is difficult to know. Several businesses
survive solely on selling and supporting Linux. Linux news groups are

However, people can register as Linux users at the Linux Counter
project, which has been in existence since 1993. In August, 1998, the
project counted more than 70,000 users.

Visit the Web site at and fill in the
registration form. If you don't want to use the Web, send E-mail to with the subject line, "I use Linux at home,"
or "I use Linux at work."

The current count is posted monthly to comp.os.linux.misc, and is
always available from the Web site.

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand]

9.9. How Many People Use Linux? (Redux.)

In 1999, International Data Corporation released its first commercial
forecast of Linux sales. The report quantifies Linux vendor sales in

To obtain the report, contact IDC at Their Web site

9.10. How Should I Pronounce Linux?

This is a matter of religious debate, of course!


$ cat >/dev/audio

The difference isn't in the pronunciation of Linux but in the language
Linus uses to say, "hello."

Linus pronounces Linux approximately as Leenus, where the "ee" is
pronounced as in "feet," but rather shorter, and the "u" is like a
much shorter version of the French "eu" sound in "peur" (pronouncing
it as the "u" in "put" is probably passable).

9.11. Where Can I Find Out about Free Software Projects?

The Free Software Bazaar lists current openings to do work on free
software projects, and tells how to sponsor free software projects and
how to make money writing free software. Its URL is

Another project listing in the making is



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