Some Quick Questions About My New Linux System
 

Hi everybody! I have a few questions about my new Slackware 9.1 system. Any help would be extremely appreciated.

Here are my questions:

1) How do I run executables in a terminal's background?

2) I have a Broadcom 4401 ethernet card in my computer and I downloaded the correct drivers and installed them so I'm able to get online. However, when my computer boots up, modprobe tries turn the b44 module on. It runs into difficulties because I'm using the bcm4401 driver (the CORRECT driver). I don't need the b44 module even on my computer, let alone modprobe failing to start it up every time I reboot. I thought I uninstalled the b44 driver, but apparently I did not. The command I used for that was "modprobe -r b44". Any tips?

3) I have an iptables script that I use for a firewall. I'd love if this could start up automatically at boot. Which file do I add the code to? I've been successful at starting it by adding it to /etc/rc.d/rc.local. I read recently though that startup commands should be placed in /etc/rc.d/rc.S (for Slackware systems at least). And of course, I'd like my firewall to come up BEFORE my dhcp request.

4) I don't necessarily need an SSH server running on my computer right now. How can I turn it off until it becomes necessary?

5) Lastly, what are some good ways to organize my files on my new system? I'm using Firefox right now and I launch it from /home/*user*/firefox. I open a terminal there and type in "firefox". If I copied "firefox" to /bin would I be able to open it from anywhere? Should I move my firefox directory onto / (the main directory)?

Thanks in advance,

Dead Joe Bob

1) Instead of:
somethinglong
do:
somethinglong &

This will run the process in the background and give you terminal control back. I think you can then type "fg" to get the process back to foreground. (be aware that I don't use these extensively - this is from memory of what I've read and is thus subject to massive syntax error. ;) Try a google for bash basics)

2) Sounds like your kernel thinks it knows more than you do. ;) What you did with modprobe -r b44 was fine, but it didn't uninstall the module - just removed it from the running kernel. At next boot (or if you did modprobe b44) it's inserted back in.
To completely remove it from the system, you need to recompile the kernel and leave that module out of your config.
To have it not loaded at startup would require some magic with modprobe.conf that I can't help you with. :( Wait, that may not be entirely true... try looking at your modprobe.conf (or modules.conf if you're in 2.4.x) and look for something like:
alias <blahblahblah> b44
BACKUP YOUR ORIGINAL FILE, and replace that line with:
alias <blahblahblah> bcm4401
(that's a guess, but makes sense to me)

3) and 4) both have to do with startup scripts and are distribution-specific. I'm a horrible person to give you advice, being from Debian, which is slightly "special" in areas like startup scripts.
Browse the Slack documentation to figure out how startup scripts work - there's a definate order to them, and rc.local is probably last. putting the iptables in an earlier script will bring it up sooner.
The ssh server is likely to have its own script. You can remove it from a runlevel by removing that script. I know in redhat, you can just type "config" and select or deselect services - perhaps Slack has a similar tool.

5) Generally, that would work, but I don't know enough about firefox to say if it's a good idea or not. The program might assume it's being run from a certain location when it's called. a symlink in /bin that points to the /home firefox might work better, but then it would appear in everyone's path but only work for that user.

--Rounan

appname &

& sends it to background, fg brings it back

look at /etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice, if b44 is there, comment it out

a better choice would be rc.inet1, inserted after modprobe, but before dhcpd

cd /etc/rc.d
chmod -x rc.sshd

Hmmm, personal preference is A Good Thing(tm) but...

to call firefox I'd do:

ln -s /home/*user*/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox

that puts a link to the executable in your $PATH, so you can call it from anywhere.

The bonus to this method is that when you update firefox, you don't need to remember to put a copy in /bin, the link will automagically find the new file.

Oddly enough, I don't have that file on my computer. Any ideas?


Thanks for all of your guys' help!

sure, I'm full of ideas. You want those baked or half baked?

check out:
/etc/rc.d/rc.modules
/etc/modules.conf
/etc/modprobe.conf

look for a line that looks like:

/sbin/modprobe b44

& comment it out