__________________________________________________________________ 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 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 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 - chief writer & layout B.Warsing - contributor & PnP shaman -- eof