1.11. Is Linux *nix?
Not officially, until it passes the Open Group's certification tests, and supports the necessary API's. Even very few of the commercial operating systems have passed the Open Group tests. For more information, see http://www.unix-systems.org/what_is_unix.html. [Bob Friesenhahn] 2. Topics of Current Interest. 2.1. What Resources Are There for Linux DeCSS and Other Open Source DVD Software? There is a DeCSS Resource Site at http://www.pzcommunications.com/main.htm. For information about the legal action to bar distributing DeCSS, refer also to 2600's Web site: http://www.2600.com, and the Electronic Freedom Foundation, http://www.eff.org. 2.2. Where Is Information About Electronic Privacy Laws that Affect ISP's? The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued a report to Congress that recommends regulations to guarantee privacy for customers of Internet Service Providers. The text of the report is at http://www.ftc.gov/acoas/papers/finalreport.htm. The FTC E-commerce site is at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-internet.htm/ The New York Times on the Web has a resource page of electronic privacy information resources at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/...x-privacy.html Access is free but requires registration. The Electronic Privacy Information Center maintains a Web page at http://www.epic.org/. The site also has pointers to information about international laws that affect cryptographic software. 2.3. How Is the DocBook Version of the FAQ Produced? At present, the Linux FAQ uses the OASIS DocBook SGML DTD. HTML output is produced using James Clark's Jade DSSSL parser with modified versions of Norman Walsh's modular style sheets. Question numbers are generated with Perl. The text version is formatted from HTML with lynx, and split into segments using the standard GNU text utilities, and the segments are posted to Usenet. The DocBook utilities are located at ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/pub/sourc...ocbook-tools/. 3. Network Sources and Resources 3.1. Where Can I Get the Latest Kernel Version? Make that versions. The 2.0. series kernels are still available for older machines. Following Linus's even/odd versioning scheme, the latest production kernel is 2.2.x. The updates to this kernel are bug fixes. Active development is proceeding on the 2.3.x versions of the kernel, and a feature freeze has recently been announced for the 2.4 series production kernels. Linux kernel version 2.2. was released on January 25, and a bug fix version 2.2.1 was released several days later. New versions are always being released. The kernel contains numerous improvements in features and performance compared to the kernel versions 2.0.x. Among the 2.2 kernel's many improvements are a video frame buffer, faster (although bigger) memory management, support for more hardware devices, improved security, and improved POSIX compatibility. The Linux kernel, in many of these instances, is superior to commercial OS's. To read more about the features in kernel version 2.2.x, the unofficial, draft press releases are located at http://www.tip.net.au/~edlang/linux/linux2.2pr.html. If you want to download the source code, FTP to ftp.xx.kernel.org, where "xx" is the two-letter Internet domain abbreviation of your country; e.g., "us" for United States, "ca" for Canada, or "de" for Germany. Kernel versions 2.2.x are archived in the directory pub/linux/kernel/v2.2, as are patches for the prerelease versions. The kernel source code is archived as a .tar.gz file, and as a .tar.bz2 file. Follow the instructions in any of the standard references to compile the 2.2 kernel, as you would with any other custom kernel. The Documentation subdirectory also contains information by the authors of various subsystems and drivers, and much of that information is not documented elsewhere. If you want to participate in kernel development, the latest 2.3 version kernels are available from ftp.kernel.org as well. Make sure you sign on to the linux-kernel mailing list to find out what people are working on. ("What Mailing Lists Are There?") There is a story about the features of the 2.4 series kernels at http://features.linuxtoday.com/stories/8191.html. 3.2. Where Can I Get the HOWTO's and Other Documentation? Look in the following places, and the sites that mirror them. * http://www.linuxdoc.org/ * ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/OS/Linux/doc/HOWTO/ * ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/docs/HOWTO/ * ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/ For a list of Linux FTP sites, see, ("Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?") If you don't have access to FTP, try the FTP-by-mail servers at ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk, or ftp-mailer@informatik.tu-muenchen.de. A complete list of HOWTO's is available in the file HOWTO-INDEX at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/howtos.html. The mini-HOWTO's are indexed at http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/mini.html. In addition, translations available from ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs.../translations/ and mirrors worldwide. The HOWTO's and other documentation have been translated into the following languages: Chinese (zh) Croatian (hr) French (fr) German (de Hellenic (el) Indonesian (id) Italian (it) Japanese (ja) Korean (ko) Polish (pl) Slovenian (sl) Spanish (es) Swedish (sv) Turkish (tr) Additional documents are always in preparation. Please get in touch with the coordinators if you are interested in writing one. Contact and submission information is at http://www.linuxdoc.org/mailinfo.html. There is also a LDP HOWTO page at http://howto.tucows.org/. The Guide Series produced by the Linux Documentation Project is available from http://www.linuxdoc.org/. Please read them if you are new to Unix and Linux. And, of course, a number of people have written documentation independently of the LDP: * Linux Administrators Security Guide, by Kurt Seifried. http://www.freek.com/lasg/. * Newbie's Linux Manual. http://www.linuxdoc.org/nlm/. * One-Page Linux Manual. http://www.powerup.com.au/~squadron/. * Short beginners' manual for Linux. Also available in Dutch. http://www.stuwww.kub.nl/people/b.va...inux-man.php3. * Virtual Frame buffer HOWTO, by Alex Buell. http://www.tahallah.demon.co.uk/programming/prog.html. * X11 & TrueType Fonts, by Peter Kleiweg. http://www.let.rug.nl/~kleiweg/. There is a FAQ for Linux kernel developers at http://www.tux.org/html/. To find out about Linux memory management, including performance tuning, see Rik van Riel's Web page at http://humbolt.geo.uu.nl/Linux-MM/. The Linux Consultants HOWTO has a directory of Linux consultants at http://www.linuxports.com/. Gary's Encyclopedia lists over 4,000 Linux related links. Its URL is http://members.aa.net/~swear/pedia/index.html. There is also a FAQ specifically for the Red Hat Linux distribution, at http://www.best.com/~aturner/jRedHat...aq_index.html. And the Home Page of this FAQ is http://www.mainmatter.com/. 3.3. Where Should I Look on the World Wide Web for Linux Stuff? In addition to the Linux Documentation Project Home Page, http://www.linuxdoc.org/, there are many pages that provide beginning and advanced information about Linux. These two pages provide a good starting point for general Linux information: Linux International's Home Page, at http://www.li.org/, and the Linux Online's Linux Home Page at http://www.linux.org/. Both of these pages provide links to other sites, information about general information, distributions, new software, documentation, and news. The tutorial, Unix is a Four Letter Word..., is located at http://www.linuxbox.com/~taylor/4ltrwrd/. It is a general introduction to Unix operating systems and is not Linux specific. Additionally, here is a certainly incomplete list of Web pages devoted to Linux: * AboutLinux.com. http://www.aboutlinux.com/. * Adventures in Linux Programming. http://members.xoom.com/rpragana/. * Dave Central Linux Software Archive. http://linux.davecentral.com/. * Erlug Webzine (Italian). http://www.erlug.linux.it/. * Ext2 File System capabilities (draft). http://pocket.fluff.org/~mrw/linux/ext2.txt. * Free Unix Giveaway List. http://visar.csustan.edu/giveaway.html. Lists offers of free Linux CDs. Also available via E-mail: axel@visar.csustan.edu, with the Subject: send giveaway_list. * Information on Linux in corporate environments. http://www.smartstocks.com/linux.html. * Jeanette Russo's Linux Newbie Information. http://www.stormloader.com/jrusso2/index.html. * JustLinux.com. http://www.justlinux.com/. * LinuxArtist.org. http://www.linuxartist.org/. * Linux Cartoons. http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~conradp/linux/cartoons/. * linuXChiX.org. http://www.linuxchix.org/. * Linux Educational Needs Posting Page. http://www.slip.net/~brk/linuxedpp.htm. * Linux in Business: Case Studies. http://www.bynari.com/collateral/case_studies.html. * Linux Inside. http://linuxinside.org/. * Linux Links. http://www.linuxlinks.com/. * Linux Memory Management Home Page. http://humbolt.geo.uu.nl/Linux-MM/. * Linux Newbie Project. http://kusma.hypermart.net/. * Linux on the Thinkpad 760ED. http://www.e-oasis.com/linux-tp.html. * Linux Parallel Port Home Page. http://www.torque.net/linux-pp.html. * Linux MIDI & Sound Applications. http://sound.condorow.net/. * Linux Start. http://www.linuxstart.com/. * Linux Tips and Tricks Page. http://www.patoche.org/LTT/. * Linux Today PR. http://www.linuxpr.com/. * My Linux Contributions by Richard Gooch. http://www.atnf.csiro.au/~rgooch/linux/. * Micro Channel Linux Web Page. http://www.dgmicro.com/mca/. * Parallel port scanners and SANE. http://www2.prestel.co.uk/hex/scanners.html. * PegaSoft Portal. http://www.vaxxine.com/pegasoft/portal/ * Red Hat and ISDN4Linux http://www.webideal.de/. * SearchLinux. http://www.searchlinux.com/. * USB Linux Home Page. http://peloncho.fis.ucm.es/~inaky/uusbd-www/. * VLUG: The Virtual Linux Users Group. http://www.vlug.com/. 3.4. What News Groups Are There for Linux? Comp.os.linux.announce is the moderated announcements group; you should read this if you intend to use Linux: it contains information about software updates, new ports, user group meetings, and commercial products. It is the only newsgroup that may carry commercial postings. Submissions for that group should be e-mailed to linux-announce@news.ornl.gov. Comp.os.linux.announce, however, is not archived on DejaNews or Alta Vista. The only archive for the news group seems to be http://www.iki.fi/mjr/linux/cola.html. [Axel Boldt] Also worth reading are the following other groups in the comp.os.linux.* hierarchy--you may find many common problems too recent for the documentation but are answered in the newsgroups. * alt.uu.comp.os.linux * alt.uu.comp.os.linux.questions * comp.os.linux.admin * comp.os.linux.advocacy * comp.os.linux.alpha * comp.os.linux.answers * comp.os.linux.development * comp.os.linux.development.apps * comp.os.linux.development.system * comp.os.linux.embedded * comp.os.linux.hardware * comp.os.linux.help * comp.os.linux.m68k * comp.os.linux.misc * comp.os.linux.network * comp.os.linux.networking * comp.os.linux.portable * comp.os.linux.powerpc * comp.os.linux.questions * comp.os.linux.redhat * comp.os.linux.security * comp.os.linux.setup * comp.os.linux.test * comp.os.linux.x * comp.os.linux.x.video Remember that Linux is POSIX compatible, and most all of the material in the comp.unix.* and comp.windows.x.* groups will be relevant. Apart from hardware considerations, and some obscure or very technical low-level issues, you'll find that these groups are good places to start. Please read ("You Still Haven't Answered My Question!") before posting. Cross posting between different comp.os.linux.* groups is rarely a good idea. There may well be Linux groups local to your institution or area--check there first. See also ("I Don't Have Usenet Access. Where Do I Get Information?") Other regional and local newsgroups also exist--you may find the traffic more manageable there. The French Linux newsgroup is fr.comp.os.linux. The German one is de.comp.os.linux. In Australia, try aus.computers.linux. In Croatia there is hr.comp.linux. In Italy, there is it.comp.linux. 3.5. What Other FAQ's Are There for Linux? There are a number of special-interest FAQ's on different subjects related to system administration and use, and also on unrelated topics like Flying Saucer Attacks (the music) and support for recovering sysadmins. The official Usenet FAQ archives are at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/. The FAQ's are on the Web at http://www.faqs.org/, which also has a complete library of Usenet RFC's and other references. Here are some FAQ's that might be especially useful, and their home pages: * A FAQ for new users. http://homes.arealcity.com/swietanowski/LinuxFAQ/. * BASH Frequently Asked Questions ftp://ftp.cwru.edu/pug/bash/FAQ/. * Frequently Asked Questions about Open Source. http://www.opensource.org/faq.html. * GNU Emacs. http://www.lerner.co.il/emacs/faq-body.shtml. * GNU Linux in Science and Engineering. http://members.home.net/scieng/. * Gnus 5.x. http://www.ccs.neu.edu/software/contrib/gnus/. * List of Periodic Information Postings ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.a...dic-postings/. * Sendmail. http://www.sendmail.org/faq/. 3.6. Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP? There are three main archive sites for Linux: * ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/OS/Linux/ (Finland). * ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/ (US). * tsx-11.mit.edu//pub/linux/ (US). The best place to get the Linux kernel is ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/. Linus Torvalds uploads the most recent kernel versions to this site. Of the U.S. distributions, Debian GNU/Linux is available at ftp://ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/. Red Hat Linux's home site is ftp://ftp.redhat.com/, and Linux Slackware's is ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/. The Small Linux distribution, which can run in 2 MB of RAM, is located at http://smalllinux.netpedia.net/. The contents of these sites is mirrored (copied, usually approximately daily) by a number of other sites. Please use a site close to you--it will be faster for you and easier on the network. * ftp://ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/linux/sunsite/ (South Africa) * ftp://ftp.is.co.za/linux/sunsite/ (South Africa). * ftp://ftp.cs.cuhk.hk/pub/Linux/ (Hong Kong). * ftp://sunsite.ust.hk/pub/Linux/ (Hong Kong). * ftp://ftp.spin.ad.jp/pub/linux/ (Japan). * ftp://ftp.nuri.net/pub/Linux/ (Korea). * ftp://ftp.jaring.my/pub/Linux/ (Malaysia). * ftp://ftp.nus.sg/pub/unix/Linux/ (Singapore). * ftp://ftp.nectec.or.th/pub/mirrors/linux/ (Thailand). * ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia). * ftp://sunsite.anu.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia). * ftp://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/linux/ (Australia). * ftp://ftp.univie.ac.at/systems/linux/sunsite/ (Austria). * ftp://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/UNIX/linux/ (Czech Republic). * ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/sunsite/ (Finland). * ftp://ftp.univ-angers.fr/pub/Linux/ (France). * ftp://ftp.iut-bm.univ-fcomte.fr/ (France). * ftp://ftp.ibp.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (France) * ftp://ftp.loria.fr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (France). * ftp://ftp.dfv.rwth-aachen.de/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Germany). * ftp://ftp.germany.eu.net/pub/os/Linu...ITE/(Germany). * ftp://ftp.tu-dresden.de/pub/Linux/sunsite/ (Germany). * ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/MIRROR.sunsite/ (Germany). * ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/mirrors/sunsite/ (Germany). * ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/linux/mirror.sunsite/ (Germany). * ftp://ftp.ba-mannheim.de/pub/linux/mirror.sunsite/ (Germany). * ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/pub/Mirro...edu/(Germany). * ftp://ftp.uni-rostock.de/Linux/sunsite/ (Germany). * ftp.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/unix/systems/linux/MIRROR.sunsite/(Ge rmany). * ftp://ftp.uni-tuebingen.de/pub/linux/Mirror.sunsite/ (Germany). * ftp://ftp.kfki.hu/pub/linux/(Hungary). * ftp://linux.italnet.it/pub/Linux/(Italy). * ftp://ftp.unina.it/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Italy). * ftp://giotto.unipd.it/pub/unix/Linux/ (Italy). * ftp://cnuce-arch.cnr.it/pub/Linux/ (Italy). * ftp://ftp.flashnet.it/mirror2/metalab.unc.edu/ (Italy). * ftp://ftp.nijenrode.nl/pub/linux/ (Netherlands). * ftp://ftp.LeidenUniv.nl/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Netherlands). * ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Norway). * ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/Linux/metalab.unc.edu/ (Poland). * ftp://ftp.rediris.es/software/os/linux/sunsite/ (Spain). * ftp://sunsite.rediris.es/software/linux/ (Spain). * ftp://ftp.cs.us.es/pub/Linux/sunsite-mirror/ (Spain). * ftp://ftp.etse.urv.es/pub/mirror/linux/ (Spain). * ftp://tp.etsimo.uniovi.es/pub/linux/ (Spain). * ftp://ftp.luna.gui.es/pub/linux.new/ (Spain). * ftp://ftp.metu.edu.tr/pub/linux/sunsite/ (Turkey). * ftp://unix.hensa.ac.uk/mirrors/sunsite/pub/Linux/ (UK). * ftp.maths.warwick.ac.uk/mirrors/linux/sunsite.unc-mirror/(UK). * ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/Linux/...c-mirror/(UK). * ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/packages/...c-mirror/(UK). * (UK) * ftp://ftp.io.org/pub/mirrors/linux/sunsite/ (Canada). * ftp://ftp.cc.gatech.edu/pub/linux/ (US). * ftp://ftp.freesoftware.com/pub/linux/sunsite/ (US). * ftp://ftp.siriuscc.com/pub/Linux/Sunsite/ (US). * ftp://ftp.engr.uark.edu/pub/linux/sunsite/ (US). * ftp://ftp.infomagic.com/pub/mirrors/linux/sunsite/ (US). * ftp://linux.if.usp.br/pub/mirror/met.../Linux/(Brazil ). * ftp://farofa.ime.usp.br/pub/linux/ (Brazil). Please send updates and corrections to this list to the Linux FAQ maintainer, rkiesling@mainmatter.com Not all of these mirror all of the other "source" sites, and some have material not available on the "source" sites. 3.7. I Don't Have FTP Access. Where Do I Get Linux? The easiest thing is probably to find a friend with FTP access. If there is a Linux user's group near you, they may be able to help. If you have a reasonably good email connection, you could try the FTP-by-mail servers at ftpmail@ftp.sunet.se, or ftpmail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de. Linux is also available via traditional mail on CD-ROM. The file ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs...allation-HOWTO, and the file ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs...ribution-HOWTO contain information on these distributions. 3.8. I Don't Have Usenet Access. Where Do I Get Information? A digest of comp.os.linux.announce is available by mailing the word "subscribe" (without the quotes) as the body of a message to linux-announce-REQUEST@news-digests.mit.edu. Subscribing to this list is a good idea, as it carries important information and documentation about Linux. Please remember to use the *-request addresses for your subscribe and unsubscribe messages; mail to the other address is posted to the news group. 3.9. What Mailing Lists Are There? The Linux developers now mainly use the Majordomo server at majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu. Send a message with the word "lists" (without the quotes) in the body to get a list of lists there. Add a line with the word, "help," to get the standard Majordomo help file that lists instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing to the lists. Please do not post off-topic material to the mailing lists. Most of them are used by Linux developers to talk about technical issues and future developments. They are not intended for new users' questions, advertisements, or public postings that are not directly related to the mailing list's subject matter. Comp.os.linux.announce is the place for all public announcements. This is a common Internet policy. If you don't observe this guideline, there's a good chance that you'll be flamed. There is a linux-newbie list where, "no question is too stupid." Unfortunately, it seems that few experienced users read that list, and it has very low volume. There are numerous Linux related mailing lists at http://www.onelist.com/. Go to the categories page and choose "Linux." 3.10. Where Are Linux Legal Issues Discussed? On the linux-legal mailing list, of course. You can subscribe to it, as with many of the other Linux related lists, by sending a message with the word "help" in the body of the message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu. 3.11. Are the News Groups Archived Anywhere? The Usenet Linux news groups are archived at http://www.dejanews.com/, and http://altavista.digital.com/. http://www.reference.com/ is unavailable until further notice, apparently due to lack of support. ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs...nounce.archive contains archives of comp.os.linux.announce. These are mirrored from src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/, which also archives comp.os.linux, comp.os.linux.development.apps, and comp.os.linux.development.system. There is an `easy to access' archive of comp.os.linux.announce on the World Wide Web at http://www.leo.org/archiv/unix/linux/ which supports searching and browsing. 3.12. Where Can I Find Out About Security Related Issues? Look at http://www.rootshell.com/, which has information about security problems and software. 4. Compatibility with Other Operating Systems 4.1. Can Linux Share My Disk with DOS? OS/2? 386BSD? Win95? Yes. Linux uses the standard MS-DOS partitioning scheme, so it can share your disk with other operating systems. Note, however, that many other operating systems may not be exactly compatible. DOS's FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.EXE, for example, can overwrite data in a Linux partition, because they sometimes incorrectly use partition data from the partition's boot sector rather than the partition table. In order to prevent programs from doing this, it is a good idea to zero out--under Linux--the start of a partition you created, before you use MS-DOS--or whatever--to format it. Type: $ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdXY bs=512 count=1 where hdXY is the relevant partition; e.g., /dev/hda1 for the first partition of the first (IDE) disk. Linux can read and write the files on your DOS and OS/2 FAT partitions and floppies using either the DOS file system type built into the kernel or mtools. There is kernel support for the VFAT file system used by Windows 9x and Windows NT. There is reportedly a GPL'd OS/2 device driver that will read and write Linux ext2 partitions. For information about FAT32 partition support, see http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/fat32.html. See, ("What Software Does Linux Support?") for details and status of the emulators for DOS, MS Windows, and System V programs. See also, "Can Linux access Amiga file systems? ", "Can Linux access Macintosh file systems? ", "Can Linux access BSD, SysV, etc., UFS? ", and "Can Linux access SMB file systems? " There are said to be NTFS drivers under development, which should support compression as a standard feature. 4.2. How Do I Access Files on My DOS Partition Or Floppy? Use the DOS file system, type, for example: $ mkdir /dos $ mount -t msdos -o conv=text,umask=022,uid=100,gid=100 /dev/hda3 /dos If it's a floppy, don't forget to umount it before ejecting it! You can use the conv=text/binary/auto, umask=nnn, uid=nnn, and gid=nnn options to control the automatic line-ending conversion, permissions and ownerships of the files in the DOS file system as they appear under Linux. If you mount your DOS file system by putting it in your /etc/fstab, you can record the options (comma-separated) there, instead of defaults. Alternatively, you can use mtools, available in both binary and source form on the FTP sites. ("Where Can I Get Linux Material by FTP?") A kernel patch (known as the fd-patches) is available which allows floppies with nonstandard numbers of tracks and/or sectors to be used; this patch is included in the 1.1 alpha testing kernel series. 4.3. Does Linux Support Compressed Ext2 file Systems? The ext2compr project provides a kernel patch Information about them is located at http://e2ompr.memalpha.cx/e2compr/. There is also a Web site for the e2compr patches. The code is still experimental and consists of patches for the 2.0 and 2.1 kernels. For more information about the project, including the latest patches, and the address of the mailing list, look up the URL at http://debs.fuller.edu/e2compr/. [Roderich Schupp, Peter Moulder] zlibc is a program that allows existing applications to read compressed (GNU gzip'ed) files as if they were not compressed. Look at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/. The author is Alain Knaff. There is also a compressing block device driver, "DouBle," by Jean-Marc Verbavatz, which can provide on-the-fly disk compression in the kernel. The source-only distribution is located at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/patches/diskdrives/. This driver compresses inodes and directory information as well as files, so any corruption of the file system is likely to be serious. There is also a package called tcx (Transparently Compressed Executables), which allows you to keep infrequently compressed executables compressed and only uncompress them temporarily when in use. It is located at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/compress/. 4.4. Can I Use My Stacked/DBLSPC/Etc. DOS Drive? Until recently, not very easily. You can access DOS 6.X volumes from the DOS emulator ("What software does Linux support? "), but it's harder than accessing a normal DOS volume via the DOS kernel option, a module, or mtools. There is a recently added package, dmsdos, that reads and writes compressed file systems like DoubleSpace/DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.x and Win95, as well as Stacker versions 3 and 4. It is a loadable kernel module. Look at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/syst...ystems/dosfs/. 4.5. Can I Access OS/2 HPFS Partitions from Linux? Yes, but Linux access to HPFS partitions is read-only. HPFS file system access is available as an option when compiling the kernel or as a module. See the Documentation/filesystems/hpfs.txt file in the kernel source distribution. ("How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My Kernel?") Then you can mount HPFS partition, using, for example: $ mkdir /hpfs $ mount -t hpfs /dev/hda5 /hpfs 4.6. Can Linux Access Amiga File Systems? The Linux kernel has support for the Amiga Fast File System (AFFS) version 1.3 and later, both as a compile-time option and as a module. The file Documentation/filesystems/affs.txt in the Linux kernel source distribution has more information. See ("How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My Kernel?") Linux supports AFFS hard-drive partitions only. Floppy access is not supported due to incompatibilities between Amiga floppy controllers and PC and workstation controllers. The AFFS driver can also mount disk partitions used by the Un*x Amiga Emulator, by Bernd Schmidt. 4.7. Can Linux Access BSD, SysV, Etc. UFS? Recent kernels can mount (read only) the UFS file system used by System V; Coherent; Xenix; BSD; and derivatives like SunOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and NeXTStep. UFS support is available as a kernel compile-time option and a module. See, ("How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My Kernel?") 4.8. Can Linux Access SMB File Systems? Linux supports read/write access of Windows for Workgroups and Windows NT SMB volumes. See the file Documentation/filesystems/smbfs.txt of the Linux kernel source distribution, and ("How Do I Upgrade/Recompile My Kernel?") There is also a suite of programs called Samba which provide support for WfW networked file systems (provided they're for TCP/IP). Information is available in the README file at metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/network/samba/. The SMB Web site is http://www.samba.org/, and there is also a Web site at samba.anu.edu.au/samba/. 4.9. Can Linux Access Macintosh File Systems? There is a set of user-level programs that read and write the older Macintosh Hierarchical File System (HFS). It is available at metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/disk-management/. Access to the newer, HFS+ file systems is still under development. 4.10. Can I Run Microsoft Windows Programs under Linux? WINE, a MS Windows emulator for Linux, is still not ready for general distribution. If you want to contribute to its development, look for the status reports in the comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine newsgroup. There is also a FAQ, compiled by P. David Gardner, at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/faqs/Wine-FAQ/. In the meantime, if you need to run MS Windows programs, the best bet--seriously--is to reboot. LILO, the Linux boot loader, can boot one of several operating systems from a menu. See the LILO documentation for details. Also, LOADLIN.EXE (a DOS program to load a Linux, or other OS, kernel is one way to make Linux co-exist with DOS. LOADLIN.EXE is particularly handy when you want to install Linux on a 3rd or 4th drive on a system (or when you're adding a SCSI drive to a system with an existing IDE). In these cases, it is common for LILO's boot loader to be unable to find or load the kernel on the "other" drive. So you just create a C:\LINUX directory (or whatever), put LOADLIN.EXE in it with a copy of your kernel, and use that. LOADLIN.EXE is a VCPI compliant program. Win95 will want to, "shutdown into DOS mode," to run it (as it would with certain other DOS protected-mode programs). Earlier versions of LOADLIN.EXE sometimes required a package called REALBIOS.COM, which required a boot procedure on an (almost) blank floppy to map the interrupt vectors (prior to the loading of any software drivers). (Current versions don't seem to ship with it, and don't seem to need it). |
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