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__________________________________________________________________

issue 2                    http://console-newsletter.hypermart.net
 __  __  _ _  __ __  )) __ console: tips,tricks & news about Linux
((_ ((_)((\( _))((_)(( (('_ ______________________________________

[10/99]                                            "a good read.."


+ headlines

World's first permanent Linux Center

"Toronto, Ontario - The Canadian Linux Users' Exchange (CLUE) is
proud to announce the opening of the CLUE Linux Centre, the
world's first permanent facility exclusively devoted to the
advancement and appreciation of the Linux computer operating
system." http://www.starnix.com/clc-pr.html
--

+ hmm..

IBM has announced a "Red Hat Certified" laptop:
http://www.pc.ibm.com/qtechinfo/MIGR-4BP6Q6.html
only one problem the laptop has a "winmodem"
(a type modem that -WONT- run under Linux)
all together now,"hmm.."
--

+ new! humorix

HELSINKI, FINLAND - A cease-fire in the flame war between Linux
and FreeBSD has been reached. A group of two dozen Linux and
FreeBSD zealots met in Helsinki to ratify a treaty bringing a
temporary end to the hostile fighting between both camps."Today
is a good day for peace,"one observer noted. "Now both sides
can lay down their keyboards and quit flaming the opposing side
on Usenet and Slashdot."

for the low down see:
http://i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/
sep99.shtml#Helsinki-Treaty
--

+ distro watch

yes, hell has frozen over -slackware v.5 will be glib based-
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/linux/slackware-current/ChangeLog.txt

Pygmy Linux http://www.linuxstart.com/~pygmy/
--

+ new apps

GNUware 1.3 - a cd-rom with over 1000 free open-sourced
applications:
http://www.gnuware.com/contents.html

KDE 1.1.2 - graphical desktop for Linux: http://www.kde.org

fetchmail 5.0.8  - mail retrieval utility:
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/fetchmail
--

+ interview

D.J. Hawkey Jr., maintainer of VTWM - the Virtual Tab Window
Manager

If you've never used VTWM, you're missing out on some good stuff.
While Gnome and Enlightenment represent some of the many possible
ways to use and enjoy the X Window System, there remain some
notable exceptions. VTWM (an extension of TWM, Tom's window
manager) falls squarely in the group. VTWM loads quickly on
586's and is a solid performer on cornbread.org, my old 486.

From the VTWM home page: http://www.visi.com/~hawkeyd/vtwm.html

  "When the X Consortium released the X Window System, they
  included TWM
   (the Tab Window Manager, aka Tom's Window Manager,
   after Tom LaStrange, the main author). It was primitive
   looking by today's standards, somewhat resembling the
   not-yet-even-thought-of MS Windows 3 interface. However,
   it sported shaped titlebars, several forms of icon
   management, user-defined macro functions, and click-to-type
   or pointer-driven focus, all configurable on the fly with
   a text file.  Like the X Window System itself, TWM was way
   ahead of anything else publicly available at the time.

   VTWM, an extension of TWM, implements a Virtual Desktop,
   meaning that what is currently on screen is just a portion
   of a larger workspace.  What portion of the Virtual Desktop
   that is displayed, and whatever windows might be visible
   within it, is a simple point-and-click operation by means
   of a scaled representation of that workspace."

console: Dave, first I'd like to say thanks for sharing your
time with us. You've been maintaining VTWM for several years
now. How did that come about?

Dave: My pleasure. This is a first for me.

If I might digress right out of the gate, and address your
introduction, I might state it the other way around: TWM, and
what I'll call the "true" TWM derivatives, are designed to be
light weight, needing no "outside" build dependencies. This
makes sense, historically, as X11 distributions have to assume
that they are all there is. IMHO, these window managers are
the rule, not the exception. KDE, Enlightenment, AfterStep,
et. al., are dependent on other "outside" libraries. I would
call them the exceptions, based on this alone. I'm not taking
anything away from them, though, they are quite nice.

Now then, my history with VTWM? Well, when I got my first X
platform, it was a '486/100, and it came with TWM and Motif. That
would have been early in '94. I used TWM, as Motif on that
box was indeed a resource hog. It wasn't near as configurable,
either. I did, however, start seeking alternatives, and found
an early FVWM. I built it, and was immediately struck by the
virtual desktop and it's 3D look, but it didn't run right
(due, I'm sure, to my newness at porting). I kept looking,
and found VTWM-5.3. It built and ran well, though it kept the
TWM look. I then found an early CTWM, which also built and ran
well, and had that really nice 3D look, but I preferred VTWM's
implementation of the virtual desktop. So I ripped into CTWM,
borrowed (stole?) most of the 3D code, and plugged it into
VTWM. That was in April and May of '96.

Quite some time after that, I found Matt Chapman's web page of
X window managers (http://www.PLiG.org/xwinman/), and saw that
he had VTWM listed.  I wrote him of my still-not-public work,
and he offered to host my first public release. I then wrote
to Claude Lecommandeur, the author of CTWM, explained what I
had done and what was cooking, and he graciously condoned my
using his code. VTWM-5.4 was then made public in October of
'97, as patchlevel 2.

console: Unique to TWM and its children is the concept of
squeezed titlebars.  What's the story there?

Dave: I dunno, but I'll tell you why I think they're neat. Bring
up three or four 80x43 character xterms on a 1024x768 pixel
display, and they'll pretty much consume the screen. But lay
them directly on top of one another, shift the titlebars on
each of them like file folders, and you have quick access to
any of them, while using just one window's space. I do this
all the time, even though I have a virtual desktop.

console: A notable advancement over TWM besides the virtual
desktop is the support of the XPM (a type of bitmap used in X)
format. Was that tough to implement?

Dave: Um, no, and yes. That rolled out in the VTWM-5.4.4
release. In late '97, December I think, Jason Gloudon mailed me
a patch for XPM images in icons. Just out of the blue! Well,
I couldn't turn that down now, could I?  Virtually no work on
my part at all. For VTWM-5.4.5, I applied XPM support to the
rest of the resources that support external images. I had a lot
of help from Jason, as well as C. F. Jalali, Steve Ratcliffe,
and pro'lly others that I don't recall off-hand. There were
some problems sorting it all out, especially where twin-headed
systems were concerned, but I think it's all OK now. I haven't
heard that it isn't, anyway.

You don't mind my naming some of those that have contributed,
do you?  I hope they don't. They deserve mention, and I see to
it they're listed in the man page's credits.

XPM support could definitely be integrated more tightly, but
I wanted to keep VTWM faithful to the idea that no "outside"
dependencies are required (again, only Xlib and Xext are
required... um, Xmu, too).

As an aside, I think the 3D look was the biggest notable
change. Getting the top segment of the 3D borders right with
squeezed titlebars was a much harder puzzle. The shape extensions
aren't documented very clearly at all.

console: Seems like the use of term "ICCCM" is used alot
these days.  Could you give us a simple definition?

Dave: I can try. The Inter-client Communication Conventions
Manual is a body of standards, much of which applies to X window
managers. What is bounced around a lot is whether this or that
window manager is ICCCM- compliant with regards to if or how
it adheres to those standards in honoring requests from the
clients whose windows are being managed.

I can't claim VTWM is 100% ICCCM-compliant, I honestly don't
know if it is or not, but it does honor the most often used
requests. I really should look into that further, no?

console: When can we anticipate a new version of VTWM?

Dave: Real Soon Now(tm). I'm readying VTWM-5.4.6 even as I
write this.  I thought I had a frozen code base, but you found
one bug that I wanted to fix (and did  :-) ). I discovered and
fixed three more bugs two days ago. A few others have existed
for a long time that finally bothered me enough to look into. I
think I exterminated those just yesterday.

That's how it goes... if I wait long enough between releases,
I'll find something else that warrants attention. I'd rather do
it this way than do frequent releases, followed up by all sorts
of little patches, fixing this or that little thing (though
that has happened anyway). Having a bunch of beta-testers now
is nice; it means VTWM will build and run on platforms I don't
have access to. Those sorts of platform-specific issues can
now be worked out in beta versions.

console: Dave, once more thanks for the interview. I'll close
with this final question: In the far flung future what would
you like your involvement in VTWM to best be remembered by?

Dave: Hmm... several things, I guess, but I'm not about to
pretend I'll be written into the annals of X history. First off,
that I'm not regarded as some hack who didn't know what he was
doing, and mucked up the code base terribly (though to some
degree, I am just that). It would be cool if VTWM replaced TWM
in the official X11 distributions. I'd like to think my work
will help keep VTWM alive well past my time as the maintainer.
--

+ quote of the month

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains

-Emilie Cady
--

+ grok

Have you ever wanted to grep through a gzipped file? zgrep

Instant boot disk: dd if=/path/kernel of=/dev/fd0

To quickly move to the beginning or end of a bash prompt, use
CTRL-A to move to the beginning of a line, and CTRL-E to move
the end.
--

+ jargon

YABA: /ya'b*/ n.  [Cambridge] Yet Another Bloody Acronym.
Whenever some program is being named, someone invariably suggests
that it be given a name that is acronymic.  The response from
those with a trace of originality is to remark ironically that
the proposed name would then be `YABA-compatible'.  Also used
in response to questions like "What is WYSIWYG?"
--

+ article

isapnptools - B.Warsing <bwarsing@canadafilm.com> Debian User

Liberate that PnP card from the evil empire!!!


	
Disclaimer, etc. *


I put this here because I wanted it to look important, but I also
because wanted to state that, in addition to having a fundamental
knowledge of how a modem operates, it would also be helpful to have
read the excellent documentation related to 'isapnp'.  This can be
found in the manuals included with your distribution or at the
isapnptools homepage at:

http://www.roestock.demon.co.uk/isapnptools

                         -- Important Note --
This document assumes a basic working knowledge of 'isapnptools'
and therefore may skip various other procedures related to
its operation.  If you have not read the related documents,
you can expect problems.  And when your modem tries to grab
the irq for your hard drive, etc.  don't come crying to me.

Also worthy of note is that while this document relates to the
quick installation of a 56k modem under the Linux operating
system, it should work for any type of internal modem --
although some of the information here, such as serial port speed,
etc. would need to be modified.

The author also wishes to state that he can not be held
legally or morally responsible should any of the information
provided herein cause any type of damage to the reader's
hardware or software.  There have been certain risks when using
'isapnptools' in the past.  These have been mostly eliminated.
Again, the wise reader will be all the wiser for reading the
related documentation.  Now, on with the goods...

This is the recipe.

1. READ THE DISCLAIMER

2. Print this Document

3. Collect Information

 -- PnP cards were built for M$ Windows --  If you have been
 running the modem card under M$ Windows now is the time to find
 out all the resource settings it was using during its temporary
 imprisonment.  This includes:

 Make/Model:

 Serial Number:

 Modem Speed:

 Serial Port Speed:

 IRQ:

 COM:

 -- You will need to know these! --

4. In Linux do:

 pnpdump > /etc/isapnp.conf

 -- this will generate the configuration file needed to find
 your modem and select the correct resource settings.

 -- Note: If you have more than one PnP card installed, it will
 find all of them. There will a number of settings and cards to
 choose from so do not get confused amidst all of the jibberish
 you see.  Making backups is always a good idea.  To take a
 simplified look at the file do:

 cat isapnp.conf | grep -v '^#' | grep -v '[^           ]' | less

 -- that space between '[^           ]' is required and is equal
to one "tab" and one ""space".

5. Edit the '/etc/isapnp.conf'

 -- You must uncomment the configuration lines and '(ACT Y)'
 specific to your PNP modem card. Here is a reference chart
 describing the relation between input/output addresses, COM
 ports in DOS/M$, and the Device files in Linux:

 i/o 0x3f8: COM1 in DOS = "/dev/cua0" or "/dev/ttyS0" in LINUX
 i/o 0x2f8: COM2 in DOS = "/dev/cua1" or "/dev/ttyS1" in LINUX
 i/o 0x3e8: COM3 in DOS = "/dev/cua2" or "/dev/ttyS2" in LINUX
 i/o 0x2e8: COM4 in DOS = "/dev/cua3" or "/dev/ttyS3" in LINUX

 -- When you edit the /etc/isapnp.conf, uncomment those lines
 which match the IRQ and COM port it likes in Micro$oft.  If it
 is like mine, the card doesn't like you to change its settings.
 So just cooperate with it.

 -- If the available IRQ resource settings do not exactly match
 the ones that you were using in M$, you may hand edit the lines.
 To do this, just pick the closest one and replace the number
 for the IRQ.

6. Send configuration options to the card with the command with:

 isapnp /etc/isapnp.conf

7. Tell setserial to update the device information with:

 setserial /dev/ttySX autoconfig

(where X stands for your port)

 * Note: I would also suggest -- depending on your modem -- to do a
manual 'setserial'.  For example, a 56K with a decent serial port
interface...

 setserial /dev/ttySX irq XX port XxXxX uart 16550A spd_vhi

8. Check to see if the modem is recognized:

 setserial /dev/ttySX

 -- You should get an answer that looks something like:

 /dev/ttyX, UART: 16550A, Port 0x03e8, IRQ=X

9. Test that modem...

 -- Of course, there are several ways to do this -- all of them
 distribution specific.  I would suggest using minicom as it is
 common to most distributions.

10. Finishing it right...

 -- Hopefully your modem is operational now and ready to be used.
 But before we do this we should configure our serial port.
 This involves editing one more file.  Although this info is also
 distribution specific, you will probably be able to find it
 in one of your /etc/rc.whatever files.  In Debian, my distro,
 this is /etc/rc.boot/0setserial.  Here I scrolled down to the
 'Manual Configuration' section and uncommented the line that
 matched the serial port I wished to configure. I then simply hand
 edited the information contained in it to specify the parameters
 I wished it to conform to.  It might look something like this...

###############################################################
#
# MANUAL CONFIGURATION
#
# If you want to do manual configuration of one or more of your
# serial ports, uncomment and modify the relevant lines.
#
###############################################################
# These are the standard COM1 through COM4 devices
#
#${SETSERIAL} -b /dev/ttyS0 uart 16450 port 0x3F8 irq 4 ${STD_FLAGS}
${SETSERIAL} -b /dev/ttyS1 uart 16550A port 0x2F8 irq 15 ${SPD_VHI}
#${SETSERIAL} -b /dev/ttyS2 uart 16450 port 0x3E8 irq 4 ${STD_FLAGS}
#${SETSERIAL} -b /dev/ttyS3 uart 16450 port 0x2E8 irq 3 ${STD_FLAGS}
###############################################################

  Well, that should cover it.  I would like to say a final word
however about the information contained in this document.
Credit where credit is due... I did not come up with this. This
was gleaned, yanked, ripped, compiled, stripped, borrowed,
stolen, extracted, cut & pasted from among many, the kind and
informative citizens you see amidst the Linux community and the
blt mailing list.  Any stuff that you see here, if it's yours,
sorry and thanks for sharing.
--

+ wrap up
Coming next issue:

Henry White - creator of the Basic Linux Training course,
talks with us about the care & feeding of newbies.

a console reader chronicles the origins of linux

continued grokage, all sorts of links & goodies galore..

console wishes to extend a special thanks to: James
Baughn <jbaughn@ldd.net> the webmaster at Humorix:
    http://i-want-a-website.com/about-linux
who graciously donates the monthly addition of some "funny stuff".
Thanks James.

hello friends console is off to a solid start & we've got some
great things in store for you stay tuned..
for those of you that have have submitted articles let me say your
enthusiasm really shines through, not to mention your hard work.

anyone else have a neat idea for an article? don't be shy send
it in.

later on,
digs
--

+ subscriptions & submittals

To subscribe send an email to: console-subscribe@onelist.com

To unsubscribe send an email to: console-unsubscribe@onelist.com

To submit an article visit this link:
http://console-newsletter.hypermart.net/submit.htm

Past issues can be found at:
http://console-newsletter.hypermart.net/past.htm
--

+ about

This issue of console was brought to you by:
digs <mjs@nts-online.net> - chief writer & layout
B.Warsing <bwarsing@canadafilm.com> - contributor & PnP shaman
--

eof