BillingsLUG

Scott,

Thanks for the response! I'll check out those items. On the news side, I am now on Linux full-time (other than stuff for work which is on Real/32) and must say it's a WHOLE lot more fun, and much better then M$ offerings. :-)

I'll check out some of my books, see if I can find that file permissions addition that Red Hat supports. Regarding your column, I've read a few a while back when I first checked out your web page and meant to get up there regularly to read them -- but just haven't done it! :-( I'll try to be better about that!

On the problem front: trying to install licq. Went to linuxnewbie.org where they have some excellent instructions on installing it (tar.gz not rpm) and I verified I had all required libs. Clicked on their download button and the stable version they offer now is not what is listed in the instructions. Figured I could handle it anyway, but found out I needed newer Qt libs (2.1) and haven't found them anywhere yet. Afraid if I do, it'll break something else, so I'm planning on grabbing RedHat 6.2 (Costco has it for 24.99 unless you know someone who has a CD that I could borrow). I can't find the referenced version anywhere (licq 0.75-3) and everthing Red Hat has requires Qt 2.1 but they don't have that anywhere on their site. Oh well . . . :-)

I'll be there at the next meeting, providing I'm not out of town for work. Got another installation to do next week, then it should calm down for a little while.

Later,
Kevin

Kevin,

The only RHL 6.2 CDs I have are CD-R copies... made from a downloaded .iso image. I also have a copy of the PowerTools CD that includes an LICQ 0.76 .rpm. I don't think the RHL 6.2 Standard comes with the PowerTools CD so feel free to download whatever you like from me:

ftp://ftp.b-squared.net/pub/linux/RedHat/
RedHat-6.2-powertools-cd/i386/

I only have an ISDN connection so folks with faster than dialup access will probably be better off finding that stuff somew here else. :)

As always, you can get a cheap copy of RHL (or any other distros) from places like CheapBytes or LinuxMall.

For the record, I use the text based micq remotely a lot of the time. ICQ won't work behind the firewall at work so I just telnet to home and run micq.

Thanks for your comments over at the Linux Advocate page. I appreciate it!

TYL, Scott

If anyone is interested, I have the zoot-i386.iso, Powertools-6.2-i386.iso, and zoot-doc.iso. Just contact me and I will burn you a copy by next meeting. All I ask is $1 for each CD or you can give me a blank to replace them. Must be present at the meeting for this, I don't want to get into mailing CD's.

After a long breaking of the ice with a little round-table discussions, our presenter Behr found his way into the meeting location. As a note to attendees of future meetings, you may need advanced planning of where to park and when to arrive. Personally I park for free in the attached parking garage East of Broadway Place. The doors seem to be open every time I have come just after 7. We seem to have problems with mall security locking the front doors at any given time after 6:30.

The cable modem/firewall presentation was very informative! Before Behr arrived, we had a small discussion on the cable modem with another there that has this at home. Turns out that there is nothing too different about setting up Linux for cable modem use. Look into IPChains or IP Masquerading. Thanks for the presentation!

Other round-table discussions were about 50 line consoles which Scott, as he said he would, looked into how to do this in the previous post. Had a few laughs at some "Fun with Real Audio" like spin on Napster and Metallica, also a spin on Rocky Horror Picture and the Microsoft split decision with Janet and Bill. (Dammit... Janet!) Don't remember the exact site, maybe someone can help out here. More ISP/Internet talk as usual. Got to see a little bit of a small radio station transmitter. Linux related? Well yes I assume a Linux server is being used to stream MP3's out there. A tiny bit about secure shell and then those slimy hackers again. What is new with Mandrake and the XFree86 ver.4. Who the heck is this "Maddog" guy anyway? He is the spotlight of two Linux magazines for June. We didn't elaborate on him much but you con read the articles to find out more.

I'm sure there was more that I missed. Please feel free to add to this thread any relevant minutes. Thanks to those who participate.

Hey, I found slash remembered the name for the program that Kevin was asking about at the meeting. It is called SVGATextMode. I went to Freshmeat and searched for it and found info on it. All I could find was a .tar.gz file of the source code... which I couldn't get to compile (on Red Hat Linux 6.2) even though I had the SVGAlib and SVGAlib-devel packages installed. Ok. Strike one. Then I went to RPMfind.net and found a binary .rpm file for it. I installed it on a machine at work that has a RIVA128 based video card.

After reading the included documentation and editing the configuration file for it, I was able to switch video modes on the console. 132x50 works great. It gets a little messy when switching between console, X, and back again. Rerunning the SVGATextMode program again cleans the screen up.

I didn't spend a lot of time on it, and given the fact that it is video card chipset dependant... and the config file is rather messy... I'd NOT recommend this program for the general public. Fact is, if not setup properly, it can make your video display freak out (worst case scenerio) so it isn't for the faint of heart.

Anyway, here is a link to a page that has the the binary .rpm file for Red Hat Linux:

http://rpmfind.net/linux/
PM/rawhide/1.0/i386/RedHat/RPMS/SVGATextMode-1.9-1.i386.html

...or you can check out the complete listing of RPM files that begin with the letter S and scroll down to where SVGATextMode is and pick out other distro packages:

http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/SByName.html

...anyway... just trying to be helpful.

I spoke to Warren and he should be posting the minutes from the meeting sometime soon. Look for it here.

TYL, Scott

Well, I heard back from Behr and HE IS going to give the presentation on using your Linux box as router... specifically as a router for the cablemodem based @Home service.

I hope a friend of mine from AT&T will also be at the meeting to give his personal experiences with similiar things.

Hope to see everyone there!
Scott Dowdle

Cable modems out, or dial-up connections shared? Why not setup a machine for a firewall and a machine that handles the connections? That's what I did, took me about 2 days of working with the very irritation manuals on how to do it.. but eventually i dropped the manuals and started hacking away on the config files, and finally got a slackware linuxbox setup for IP masquerading on my netowork. It works awesome, and it would have been much better if someone explained the easier way to do it to me! If you are interested in this topic, E-Mail me and I'll prepare all I know about it, plus more on firewalls and protecting your linux box, along with keeping your constant connection to the internet secure.

Behr

I sent Behr an email asking if he would be interested in doing a demo at the meeting. I haven't heard back yet but am hopeful.

See you at the meeting!

I was going to suggest doing Samba. I would also like to see one on doing firewalls since we also talked about different comercial products out there at the last meeting. Possibly an RPM review or kernel compiling. Also would like an in depth howto on exporting displays through networks.

Thanks to all those that showed up for the April meeting. We started off with intentions of showing parts of the key note speaker, Jon "Maddog" Hall. But due to some tape playback difficulties, we had to scrap this and move on. We may show it some other time or even at a booth in the next install-fest. Brock showed off his purple iMac with the Yellow Dog distribution. Not much different, but some. Larry Dillon brought something for show n' tell, a couple wireless NIC cards.

He plans to link up to his work for access to the Internet in the future. All he needs now are a couple dish antennas. Anyone know where he could find some used? The rest of the discussions went from ISP talk to the Corel Linux the distribution, Red Hat 6.2 and the differences in Red Hats packages, Mandrake, Linux magazines, what are some of the best system admin. books are out, home network settings, and also gave out some door prize bumper stickers and buttons that were picked up at the CLIQ in Denver. Meeting lasted a little past 10PM but not officially. Please feel free to add anything I may have missed for those who did not make it to the meeting and for those that hesitate to come.

Another topic we discussed that I thought was important was applications.How they are full of useless features and very unstable. Most companies look at adding more features but most never think about increasing the stability of the product. They say their ideas come from the customers, but all we the techs hear is how unstable the product is, not "I wish it had this feature". Ironically in Scott Dowdle's latest Linux Advocate (and he was not even at the meeting due to illness) he talks about AbiWord here: http://linuxadvocate.b-squared.net/85/LA-85.html

I failed to mention the date and time. Small details! April 20th at 7:30PM at the Cottonwood Computer Solution office in the Broadway Place (the former Market Square), MZ-1.

I asked Scott Dowdle if it would be possible to have a second meeting date, basically to catch up on info that some of us may have missed on the Thurday meeting. Since there is a few of us that just cannot make Thursday's, I thought it would be a great idea for the meeting to have an second meeting on lets say a Friday or Saturday or something aslong as it isnt another weekday. I would like to know your thoughts and comments on this subject (As Soon As Possible) Please. Contact me by e-mail mtsn@in-tch.com or mtsn@twoalpha.net or by voice at (406)896-4968

Toby Schmidt

Hi - I sent a message to subscribe to your mailing list but I guess it didn't work, or perhaps there is no active mailing list. Anyway, hopefully I will be aware of the next meeting and be able to attend. Speaking of Macs, I installed LinuxPPC (a CD distribution from linuxppc.com) on my beige G3 and am pretty dang proud of myself -- still fooling around with XWindows and basic hardware configuration at this point. Fun, fun.

Emily

I got an email from Brock Williams (brock@cotcomsol.com) regarding a topic for the next meeting: Linux on the iMac. Rumor has it that Brock and company got PowerPC Linux living happily on a Grape iMac. That should be interesting.

Linux is a big improvement for Macintosh, but leave the installing linux for the install fests, leave the howto use whatever to the meetings. I was going to go to the meetings again, but I cannot stand Macintosh and I really cannot stand going through how to install linux on whatever system one more time. Where's the meetings on how to setup IP masquerading and SAMBA and things like that?
Thats just my thoughts on the subject, don't hesitate to send hatemail to me for the macintosh insult. :)

Behr

The meetings are for many purposes. Not just one topic even per month. We are free to discuss whateve, whenever. We also do the howto's for installs before the installfests for those that need it. If you have been to the meetings, then you would know that we don't have only one topic per month. If you need help with IPchains or SMB, then I'm sure someone would be glad to help you. Heck, bring your box in! The Mac deal may/may not be about how to install, but just to see how it performs as well.

I would be interested in knowing what minimum system requirements are needed to upgrade a Mac OS to Linux.

Sorry I missed tonite's meeting -- I was on call for a few customers that were having problems with our system and couldn't leave until they closed down (about 9pm). I was at December's meeting and it really took me back to my early days of computing (motherboards without cases, and 4K mem if you were lucky) and the camaraderie of those of us really committed to doing something with computers! I am a newbie to Linux, having dabbled in it a bit (Red Hat mostly, some Caldera at work) for the past year and finally getting X Windows to run on my video card. Once the projects at job get more under control, I'll be able to spend my weekends completing my transition to Linux and this user group will be a big help, even if it just motivates me to do it! :-) Looking forward, eagerly, to next month's meeting . . .

There are a number of cool topics for this week but I think we'll play it by ear. I got a copy of Mandrake 7.0 by downloading the CD ISO image file from a Mandrake mirror site and it is really nice... perhaps we'll talk about that. Then there is the Transmeta annoucement due on Wednesday, 19JAN2000... something we have been waiting a few years for. That would probably be a nice topic to talk about. I'll be sure and bring my machine. Others are welcome to do likewise. Any questions or comments, just email me!

I believe that RMC will let people take the Linux class without having taken the Windows98 class... as long as the prospective student is not entering into the Linux class without any previous computer experience.

Ordinarily, "prerequisite" means one would have posted attendance in said Win 98 classes. In as much as I intend to spend no more time and effort trying learn any more about Windows (any version!!), I trust the requirement is only for a working knowledge of Windows 98. Please confirm before I sign up.

Claire

What's up with that?!! Being the rookie I am, I am considering this class. Guess I need to brush up on the prerequisite.

Re meeting date for the YVLUG: I hear the meeting date is now re-established to 3rd Thursdays, meeting downtown at Cottonwood Computer. The webpage contains such outdated info that noone would show up, based on that. Because I pass on the fact there IS such a group, telling folks to check the website, I'm concerned that I'm made out to be a lier!
Well, not really --but hope you get my point. Thanks for attention. Claire Coleman

Opps, I put in the wrong URL for the Billings Gazette article. Sorry about that. The correct URL is:

http://www.billingsgazette.com/computing/991109_com01.html

Again, you have to scroll down a little bit to find, "Linux keeps making waves".

Just FYI:
I cleared having the InstallFest at the Broadway Place with our landlord Ken. Said it would be great as long as someone cleans up :) I think it will work nicely.

Just to clarify a bit from Warren's posting... I'll have a CD-R of the Red Hat Linux 6.1 CD at the meeting. I'm not sure if I will have any CheapBytes cheap CDs by that time or not... the are available now. Anyway... anyone who wants to Install or Upgrade to RHL 6.1 is welcome to bring their machine to the meeting. Any interested individuals... please let me know at least a couple of days in advance (if possible) so I can be prepared. Please bring your complete system if you want it completely setup. It would be nice to have at least one machine to install on... otherwise, I'll just bring my already installed RHL 6.1 system to show. Screenshots of the graphical install are available at:

http://www.icstech.net/~dowdle/LA/LA-64.html

Regarding the YVLUG 1999 Installfest... we will be talking more about it and finalizing the details. There has been a lot of good feedback and I appreciate everyone pitching in.

And as Warren mentioned above, we will also be discussing a new meeting night so start thinking about that as well.

If anyone has any desire to present something at the meeting, please email me and we can talk about it. I'd be happy to have more at the meeting.

IMHO, I think we will find that you will miss just as many if not more meetings if we move to any Friday. How many times do you go away for the weekend on Fridays? Granted many holidays come around the on weekends, and we can change meeting days easily. I still think it be easier just to change the time/week of the meeting, not the day. I say 2nd or 4th Thursdays at 6:30PM.

I really dident like it on Thursdays, and I m pushing for Fridays becuase then on Saturday I dont have school.

So Please let it be Friday :)

Toby Schmidt

Good call. Done :)

Most any Friday night or Saturday(day)would be better for me. Having kids and dealing with school for me and them makes it very difficult to make to the Thursday meetings.

P.S. Put the word "WRAP" in your code (in the textarea tag)for this comment box and then we wouldn't have to wrap our comments ourselves. :-)

Carla R.

Fridays would be good with me. No work the next day either, which would be good as I will be starting ten hour days soon.

Scott Huck

I still like going on Thursdays, and wouldn't mind a second or fourth Thursday. I choose Thursdays because most events/hollidays begin on Fridays. For those in school, maybe an earlier meeting time like 6:30 would be better.

Have you tried getting a zip drive to work?

Can I use the same commands that my older caldera book says to use with RH 6.xx?

Mike Mangen