Running Slackware 11 and kernel 2.6.18.
The last thing on my list is sitting up the Fax, external modem, which I thought would be the easiest thing to do.
Not so.
KDE has two fax readers, but I need to Send & Receive. Haven't found anything in the Slackware packages and I don't see anything in KDE. Tried efax, but it wouldn't run. Maybe I'm missing something obvious. If so, please let me know.

HylaFAX seems to be a popular choice also. You can find slack packages and build scrips for it.

http://www.hylafax.org

I can highly recommend Hylafax, it's an excellent piece of software. The Slackware packages I know of, however, are outdated. You better compile Hylafax yourself. Build and installation process are quite well documented. Should you run into a problem, anyway, the people on the mailing list for Hylafax are really nice and helpful.

Now, Hylafax is a server software. You'll also need a client. One of the two KDE programs you mention can act as a Hylafax client. There are other client programs, eg written in Java or for other operating systems, available.

In order to have Hylafax run properly, you'll have to add or modify a line in /etc/inittab. Unfortunately I don't recall, which one and how, at this moment, but it had to do with mgetty.
This is documented, too, in the Hylafax docs, but I forget it everytime when I install "the frog"... ;-)

EDIT: Hylafax works with *some* faxmodems perfectly well in Class 2 or Class 2.0, but with most faxmodems Class 1 is the best setting, as then Hylafax does all the hard work, and it does it usually a lot better than the quirky firmware of some faxmodems. Regarding hardware: Almost everything works quite well with Hylafax in Class 1, except older US Robotics devices ("Sportster", eg). So if you have a USR, you might not have a happy time...

Have fun!

Thank you XGizzmo and gargamel.
I've found an up to date complied version of Hylafax 5.1.0 and installed it and so far, so good, as best as I can tell.
But, as you pointed out it is a server.
Now I need some software, a front-end, I guess you could call it, to make it work.
I don't see that Ksendfax is interacting with Hylafax. Hylafax loads on boot up, no problem. All seems to be well there.
What I want is something like Mighty Fax that will allow me to send and receive. Something that will let me see there is a pseudo printer driver alive and working and a document can be sent to that pseudo driver from within whatever word processing program I'm working in.
I'll keep looking but there must be ONE package out there that will send and receive under Linux.
Thanks, again.

Here is site where you can download a pre-complied recent version of Hylafax for Slackware 11:

http://www.slacky.it/index.php


And, here is a list of client software for Hylafax:

http://www.hylafax.org/content/Desktop_Client_Software

Unfortunately, not a one of them, for Linux, will do what was so simple to do under Windows.

KSendFax should be able to communicate with Hylafax, but it must be configured. Not sure, but you may have to enable faxgetty in /etc/inittab.

Another program that looks nice to me, is JHylafax. Have you tried that?

BTW, you *can* configure a pseudo printer for faxing in kprinter. You can then use the printing dialog to send faxes from all KDE applications, and many others, too, if you configure kprinter as your default printer (replacing lpr).

You can then use that one or configure a dedicated fax "printer" in OpenOffice.org, as well, using the printer setup program.

With these programs you should be able to come close to what you want.

Good luck!

gargamel

If I recall correctly there is a minor issue with the slacky.it build of HylaFax.
1. It is a alpha version of the program, but does seem to work ok.
2. It haves a permissions problem that prevents it from starting
check your logs for errors. I think it needs write permissions
to /var/spool/hylafax/client.

efax-gtk is a good fax send/receive/manage software for a single machine. It also let you send a fax by printing from other program directly. If you need a slackware package for it. You might use the package I made from here: http://www.china-aquarium.com/downlo...i686-1kite.tgz

First, Many Thanks to everyone who has been so kind and open with their advice. It has been truly appreciated.
HOWEVER, the ability to receive and send Faxes is mandatory! I have no choice. If I am going to run Linux on my office computers I MUST be able to do this and do it easily.
I've wasted several days now, off and on, trying to get fax send and receive ability to work under Slackware 11 and it is a no go. At this point I'm tired, VERY TIRED of jumping through one hoop after another trying to get something to work in Linux that takes all of 5 minutes under Windows.
Slackware is going into the trash and I'll try Debian. If that doesn't work, then I guess it is back to, UGH, XP. I would rather not, but I may not have a choice.
As I said before, I'm not new to Linux, having bought my first copy of Slackware 12 years ago, but I'm far, obviously, from an expert. However, I know enough that in the year 2007 it shouldn't be such a major problem to set up a simple fax solution.
Again, until such time as someone makes it easier to setup and use Linux, it will never be serious competition to that sleasy bloatware manufacturer out of Redmond, Washington.
Thanks, again.
See you, maybe, in the Debian Forum.

I understand your frustration.

However, I am afraid that setting up a fax send/receive solution isn't easier in Debian than it is in Slackware.

Hylafax is a real good piece of software, and once you know how to set it up it can be done in minutes. It is vital to follow the instructions in the docs letter by letter, though, in order to make it work.

Then, you can set up a new pseudo printer for faxing in the KDE control center printing dialog. In fact, this is very similar to what you would have to do in Windows. Finally you'll have to tell ksendfax or kdefax (not sure, as I haven't used them in a while) that it should use Hylafax as its backend.

Check permissions, modify /etc/inittab appropriately. Activate faxgetty (and mgetty, I think) for a send/receive scenario. Also, check where /dev/modem is pointing at, if you want to use it in Hylafax (which makes usually sense). You can also use /dev/ttyS0 or so, of course.
Restart your machine and then have Hylafax configure its modem driver (using modemsetup, as far as I recall). When the setup program asks you, if the modem should be used in Class 1 or 2 or 2.0 mode, choose Class 1.

The only thing that you might have to do from here is to make the spool directories of Hylafax (sendqueue and receivequeue or so) accessible for non-privileged users, because otherwise the client programs might not be able read/write from/to them or "see" incoming faxes.

Depending on your site you may have to add a break in the dial command or add a dial prefix. But on a normal phone line you usually don't need this.

The most difficult point to set up is usually the auto response feature that makes your faxmodem answer the phone after a given number of ringtones. I have never found a way to have the faxmodem answer only fax calls, not voice calls, but I had the same problem with Windows. So it was probably a problem of the faxmodem or the telephone line or something, not of the software, but I don't know.

If you follow the tutorial on the Hylafax web site it's a thing of about 15 minutes including compiling from sources.

The result is a solution that allows to send and receive faxes from your local machine as well as over the net from clients running various operating systems. The price of this flexibility is the (I admit it) added complexity of the client/server paradigm.

When you install Hylafax for the first time, however, there are lots of things that can go wrong. This is not to blame on the software, however, but on the fact that fax is complicated thing.

It may seem that under Windows it's all easier. Believe me: It's not. I haven't got a single Windows machine ever to send/receive faxes reliably. And once you want to change the faxmodem you'll have to install a completely new software. Because the one you used before was written to support only the now replaced model.

BTW, I found it more difficult to set up Hylafax on various systems, but easy on SuSE, because it included the relevant packages, and Slackware, when compiling from source.

Whatever your next step is (Debian, Windows, or another attempt with Hylafax and Slackware, maybe), I wish you good luck. I am sure that you will appreciate the flexibility of Hylafax once you learned a bit about its philosophy.

gargamel

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
You apparently have not used Windows in many years. I can't not remember Ever having to go through the steps you are talking about to step up Fax software in windows and I'm going back to "FaxWorks Pro" dated 1994. All you have to do is install the software. The fax software sets up the psuedo drivers, etc. From your word processor or whatever you just have to pick what driver to use, i.e., your printer or the psudeo fax printer driver. If you select the fax driver and click on print, that launchs the fax software. Simple. It has always worked for me. Recently I've been using MightyFax in XP and it works flawlessly.
What you've outlined for Hylafax, which I've done, line by line from the readme.slackware file, 3 times now, is, 1, more than I wanted to do or should have to do, and, 2, as I said in my last post, I'm tired, dead tired, of jumping through all these hoops.
The is fine if you are running Linux as a hobby, but I've got a business to run and a family I like to spend time with and I'm sick and tired of playing around trying to configure these files. Slackware has wasted a trememdous amount of my time and I'm won't be using it again. That I was dumb enough to pay for full list price off their web site for 5 dollars worth of CDs makes me mad enough. Then there is the near worthless book I paid $20.00 for, "Slackware, Essentials." There is little to nothing new in that book that isn't available online for zip, zero, nada, which is just about what it is worth.

Tip # 304 How to annoy windows users:

Set their cd-rom drives to not autostart and watch the frustration about 'lost hours'.

GEEK squad to the rescue!

I understand your frustration. In all honesty it does sound like Slackware, or any Linux flavor, is simply not the best choice for you. It's never taken me more than a few minutes to set up fax send/receive on any of my systems, but then I do have many years experience working almost solely in Linux.

In your case I would sincerely suggest that you stick with Windows solutions to get the job done. I do not say this sarcastically at all. Linux is simply not the ideal OS for some people and you appear to be one of those people.

Perhaps you can spend some of you spare time tinkering with Slack until you learn how everything works and some day perhaps you'll find that it really does meet your needs. While you may not be a Linux newbie as you indicated, you still have a lot to learn. Again, I am not being sarcastic, just honest.

It's true that Slackware is not an OS that does a lot of things automatically. It's not designed to be that. It's designed to be stable and reliable. Once you have something set up it tends to stay that way.

I use Windows XP Pro daily, and last failed to fax on Windows XP Multimedia Center Edition. There's almost nothing that I find simpler in Windows than in Linux, but that's personal, and I won't try to persuade you for another attempt with Slackware.

However, if you don't want to give up with Linux altogether: Debian, Red Hat, and others won't carry you any farther than Slackware, regarding faxing.
I'd suggest that you try SuSE/Novell Linux, if any. I am not sure, if it's still the case for their 10.x versions, but up to version 9.3 their boxes came with excellent documentation and a complete chapter on Hylafax and how to set it up for various scenarios. It always worked. SuSE's documentation is really outstanding, for beginners as well as for experienced users and professional administrators.
As you say that you have to run a business, SLES might be an option for you. More expensive than Slackware, but cheaper than the comparable Windows "distribution".

Regarding the price: Given the fact that you can install Slackware (and other Linux distros or BSD) on as many machines as you like, it's not that high, compared to the contender from Washington state...
And you get free support when you paid for the CDs. With highly competent replies. Try Redmond's support in comparison, even if you have "Gold" status...
And finally: In order to run a server you need a different version of Windows than for running a professional client, which is different from the typical home edition, and of each variant there are variants... Actually I am lost and totally confused by their licenses. With Slackware (and other Linux distros or BSD) you can do (just about) whatever you like. There's no pointless differentiation in desktop and server distributions and so on.

But it all doesn't help, when the system just won't do what you want it to do. And if a system helps you to be productive it may be worth to pay a higher price for it.

And as you know how to set up what you need in Windows, I'd really recommend that you stick with it, except you have good reasons for replacing it. I'd just recommend that you protect it well, in case you want to use it for email and web browsing.

F9Race

Well, I'm not the only one,

http://brokenbishop.wordpress.com/20...9/hello-world/


Tried Debian. There are some things I liked about Debian, but it took many tries to get it to load the X-Window System. Many tries, numerous different configuratons of the xf86config-4 file, and a list of different kernels. Finally I was able to load X-Window and KDE using the plain vanilla i386 2.6.8-3 kernel.
Then it couldn't find the sound card. Then once the DSL connection was established and verified, using something called "plog," none of the browsers could make a connection. At that point I had had enough and deleted Debian off my system. Didn't even try the Fax sofware, which it loaded automatically, by the way. Oh, well, at least the only cost was one blank DVD.
I'm now back in Slackware and will give the fax setup one more try. I really do NOT want to go back to mickeysoft xp, but if I can't configure a usable Fax receive and send setup under Slackware then this time $80.00 worth of CDs and books will really go into the trash.