The forming of a LQ.org Slackware FAQ - donations of knowledge required!
 

Well, I for one may go insane if I see another "five button mouse" thread - or a "what is X.org?" thread ... or another of the many topics that come up frequently.

unspawn has agreed to the idea of having a local FAQ in the forum - I think it would make a nice place to add some information that is asked a lot - as well as up to date information, such as installing the latest drivers for graphics cards or using the Composite extension.

If anyone else feels the same way I do - please donate your knowledge by replying to this thread with a question / answer, or even just a question - that'd be great.

I'll then add them to a FAQ thread :)

Many thanks for reading,

Steve

Request list from me:

Nvidia 3D howto (Unless I can find my Nvidia card)
Five button mouse howto

Cheers!

SATA in Slackware 10
 

SATA in Slackware 10, how to boot from a Sata drive, what modules to install ....

How to shutdown/reboot as a normal user and from GNOME:

visudo /etc/sudoers (really, any text editor should work)

yourusername yourhostname = NOPASSWD: /sbin/reboot, /sbin/halt -h now, /sbin/halt

This user can now shutdown via sudo without a password. To enable shutdown/reboot from within gnome (ala the way DL GNOME sets it up):

mkdir /var/run/console
touch /var/run/console/yourusername
chmod +s /sbin/reboot
chmod +s /sbin/halt

Here's some:
---
No sound after install:
First, try unmuting Master and PCM in 'aslamixer'. Save this setting with 'alsactl store'. Kmix in KDE might also work for this.

If that doesn't work, maybe there are some debugging steps like seeing if modules are running ...
---
After 2.4 kernel (re)compile, ALSA sound doesn't work:
The ALSA modules were lost, reinstall the alsa-drivers package.
---
After kernel (re)compile, my ATI 3d accellerations is not working:
Reinstall the fglrx drivers.

slackware do not have enough fonts. MS fonts is recommended for better web pages display and better compatibility with windows documents. Install URW and make sure those high quality type1 fonts is ready.

-for cjk display you can get arphic, kochi and baekmuk.

- the iso10646 may allow most cjk fonts show correctly(haven't fully tested yet),
http://glyph.iso10646hk.net/english/download_001.html
(good quality and free, but the license is not suitable for linux)

1. copy the fonts to a font directory or simply put them under default x font directories under:
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/

2.add fontpath:
edit /etc/fonts/local.conf and put your fontpath inside <dir>.....</dir>

3.go to each font directory:
/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontscale
/usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir
/usr/X11R6/bin/fc-cache

4.If your locale's default font is not eye-easy. You can set the default font to other:
example,
echo gtk-font-name="Bitstream Vera Sans 11">~/.gtkrc-2.0
(it would work for gtk2 based applications)

yes yes yes, I think this is an outstanding idea. shilo's "how I do it all" post is now in excess of 300+ postings...a world of good information is contained there. Tough to sort through it all and time consuming as well to read them all. I'll do my best to incorporate a few things as well, including ppp setup options as I am forever doomed to 28.8 in these hills I live in with no hope of parole!

I think that making the F.A.Q. should be release specific commencing with 10.0 with sub-notes on previous releases if required.

Sbing,

Great idea. Although I don't think I could write it to make scence,
don't forget the ever popular -" I can print here, but can't print there " threads.
(I was a victum of that once!)

I wrote a kinda-how-to somwhere here on LQ on closing ports for security purposes.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=205593

(found it - 9th post on the thread) - I'm sure someone with more knowledge can spruce it up a
bit - but it might help someone. If you want, feel free to use it.

best regards - tw

Here is anather one that gets asked once in a while - but since we are going for an
FAQ, it might be helpful - I am not sure how "all enclusive" you are going for. I
would imagine between every one here a nice book could be written.

Is this the type of thing you are looking for?


Boot into graphical mode:

Edit the file /etc/inittab

change:
to
Also, so you have tty2 - tty4, while in /etc/inittab:

change:
to:
Save and exit /etc/inittab
Then open the file /etc/rc.d/rc.4
Here is where you select your login manager.

By default, you have 3 options, GDM, KDM, and XDM. To make your
selection, simply put the one you want first in the list.

(What it looks like by defualt)
If you want KDM, instead of GDM, copy and past the KDE section above
the GDM section, so it looks like this:

Done.

tw001_tw, you have a typo in the line "c4:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400[I tty4 linux" there are 2 extra chars "[I"

Btw, nice stuff guys.

"tw001_tw, you have a typo in the line "c4:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty 38400[I tty4 linux" there are 2 extra chars "[I""

got it - thanks..

Sorry been away guys - great stuff here,

Once unspawn sticks the thread I'll start working on it...slowly ;)

Steve

THis is a great idea. Iwould recommend that you keep two posts, like you seem to be doing. Have the FAQ stickied and locked so that only moderators can edit it. They are really helpful. Take requests and submissions in the other.

The reason I think this would be the best route is:

1) Sometimes people right out a liittle FAQ and it is confusing.
2) If you just leave it wide open, you get a lot of posts that are irrelevant. You end up with numerous pages that need to be sifted through to get all the good stuff.
3) leaving it wide open, people are free to post confilcting advice. This leads to confusion. An example. Someone with a stock kernel wants to get their burner working. After searching a bit, they decide to try out SCSI emulation. They get everything working. They later upgrade to a 2.6.x kernel. Not thinking anything about it, they leave scsi emulation enabled. It works. They write a FAQ that says that SCSI emulation is required for burning. Someone else posts that it is not required for 2.6.x. It can get confusing for someone to follow along with. Better to just have the FAQ as a place to get a definative answer.
4) People have different methods for doing things. It can make learning difficult. An example; One person recommends "chmod -x" an rc file to make it not start at boot time. Another says "rm" the file. Both work. Better to have a FAQ that addresses similar issues with similar solutions.

Probably this is what you were gonna do anyway, but I thought I'd mention it.

I think that printing comes up a lot. A lot of people recommend changing symlinks manually. I like this, though:

A full install of Slackware comes with both lprng and CUPS. The packages conflict with each other. To get printing working properly, you need to choose one. After choosing one, remove the other and re-install the one that you chose. As an example, say you want to use CUPS. As root:
Now, change to a directory containing the CUPS .tgz file. You may not have it locally, so you may need to mount your installation CD and find it. After you are in the directory with the CUPS package:
Another thing to maybe add is setting up X. There are four options available, "X -configure" (autoconfiguration), "xorgcfg" (graphical with some autodetetction), "xorgconfig" (text based without autoconfiguration), and "xorgsetup"(?). I don't remember any of them very well, but it might be nice to add a liitle write up about them, how they differ, and that not all of them work for everyone.

One problem that should be sticky-ed is
"I recompiled the kernel, and now I have a blank screen after initial boot up."

Here are 3 ways to setup dialout ppp on your Slackware system.

pppsetup

To run the program, make sure you are logged in as root. Then type

#pppsetup

The program will present a series of questions, to which you will feed it appropriate answers. Things like your modem device, the modem initialization string, and the ISP phone number. Some items will have a default, which you can accept in most cases.

To use your newly configured dial-out use thes commands:

#ppp-go
#ppp-off

kppp

For the users of KDE, this is a quick and easy method of starting dial-out. open kppp from the menu and click on configure then the accounts tab then New, then Manual Setup

Connection name:enter your isp account name (such as foobar.net)
Add: click on this and then enter isp phone # (1234567)
then click OK.

Device Tab>Modem device: Select appropriate /dev/ttyS#

Click OK at the bottom

Enter your exact login id
Enter your password

Click on connect. The default settings not covered here in kppp will get most people connected, you may need to tweak some settings

wvdial
Run wvdialconf to generate a configuration file containing information on your modem and ISP information. The output should look like this:



[root@blah /root]# wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf
Scanning your serial ports for a modem.

ttyS1<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 Z -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 S11=55 -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 S11=55 +FCLASS=0 -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: Modem Identifier: ATI -- 28800
ttyS1<*1>: Speed 2400: AT -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: Speed 4800: AT -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: Speed 9600: AT -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: Speed 19200: AT -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: Speed 38400: AT -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: Speed 57600: AT -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: Speed 115200: AT -- OK
ttyS1<*1>: Max speed is 115200; that should be safe.
ttyS1<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 S11=55 +FCLASS=0 -- OK
ttyS0<*1>: ATQ0 V1 E1 -- ATQ0 V1 E1 -- ATQ0 V1 E1 -- nothing.
Port Scan<*1>: S2 S3

Found a modem on /dev/ttyS1.


As you can see, wvdialconf probes your comm ports, looking for a modem, and determine the capabilities of any modems it finds.

If your output looks different, check that your modem is plugged in, turned on, and connected to a com port.

Configuring WvDial

Once you have run wvdialconf, you need to edit the /etc/wvdial.conf file to reflect the phone number to dial, and your username and password.

Open up /etc/wvdial.conf in your favorite text editor. It should look something like this:


[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyS1
Baud = 115200
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 S11=55 +FCLASS=0
; Phone = 555-1212
; Username = my_login_name
; Password = my_login_password


Remove the ';' in front of the Phone, Username and Password lines
Fill in your isp # on the Phone = line.
Fill in your Username on the Username = line.
Fill in your Password on the Password = line.
Save your changes and exit out of the text editor.

Connect to the Internet

#wvdial
Assuming that you filled in your phone number, username, and password correctly, wvdial will now dial your ISP.

Disconnecting from the Internet

wvdial will not exit until the connection is terminated- you can do a Ctrl-C to terminate it.