Copyright (C) 1998 by Steve Litt. All rights reserved. Materials from guest authors copyrighted by them and licensed for perpetual use to Troubleshooting Professional Magazine. All rights reserved to the copyright holder, except for items specifically marked otherwise (certain free software sourcecode, GNU/GPL, etc).  All naterial herein provided "As-Is". User assumes all risk and responsibility for any outcome.

Contents

Part 1: About Linux Editors Desk Special Thanks To... Vote for Your Favorite Troubleshooting Professional A Change We Can All Welcome Applixware for Linux Sybase: You Asked For It, You Got It! Generating Web Decision Graphs using Perl Regular Features Letters to the Editor How to Submit an Article URLs Mentioned in this Issue

Part 2: Linux Tutorial Conventions Used in All Examples This Issue Free Isn't Cheap Why Red Hat Check Your Components For Compatibility Build a Command-Line Linux Write a Couple Programs Boot Floppies -- Getting Back Into a Locked Up System Get X Working Dual Booting Linux With Win98 IP Address Review Get a Win98 Network Running Get Linux Networked With Win98 Get Apache Main Page Working Install a Website Enable CGI Make a Replica of Your ISP Graduate Study: Setting Up DNS Redo It Post Doctorate: Database Enabled Web App Looking Forward Wrapup

Editors Desk

By Steve Litt

Enter Linux, a well built, well documented, modular operating system which can remain "up" for weeks. It may not be the best choice for word processing (or maybe it is -- read on), but many see it as an "ISP in a box", a "network in a box", an "engineering workstation in a box", or possibly the most intriguing, a "supercomputer in a box".

And it's getting more corporationally correct. Recently DBMS Superpower Sybase made their Adaptive Server Enterprise technology available on the Linux platform. Guest author Michael Peppler has created a Perl interface to Sybase, and writes about it in this magazine. Oracle Corporation, another heavyweight in the DBMS industry, recently announced it would be creating a Linux compatible Oracle.

In increasing numbers, businesses large and small are installing Linux based webservers, networks, and supercomputers. Some do it because they feel Linux is the best, some do it to avoid the high costs of the other brand, and some do it to hedge their bets.

Hedging our bets is what this issue of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine is all about. It's possible that Microsoft based operating systems will prevail throughout our careers. But I wouldn't want to bet against Linux. It's modular, repairable, reasonably priced, and robust. A corporation, business, or department can use it to install a webserver or supercomputer with petty cash. And Linux has many dedicated and vocal friends in it for more than just the money.

If you're a Troubleshooter who wants to hedge your bets by learning more about Linux, this issue of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine is for you. After a series of guest authors discuss the benefits of Linux, we'll use Red Hat Linux as an example, and walk you through stages of increasing familiarity with the operating system, up to and including using it as a webserver. If Microsoft rules forever, you've lost a little time and a few bucks, but gained a new insight into Networking and TCP/IP. On the other hand, if Linux prevails, you can ride the Linux wave for all it's worth.

So kick back and relax as you read this issue. And remember, if you're a Troubleshooter, this is your magazine. Enjoy!

Steve Litt is the author of Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Special Thanks To...

And then there are those whose shoulders I stood on. Jeff Moe's (jeff@verinet.com)  DNS website gave me the info I needed to set up DNS. Jeff also graciously answered many of my "newbie" questions. Alligator Descartes (descarte@arcana.co.uk) definitive DBI::DBD website proved to be the only source I could find (and the only source I needed) on DBI::DBD, online or on paper. Note that Alligator's book on the subject will be in bookstores shortly.

Thanks to Red Hat for the nice, clean installation, and for their friendly, helpful intallation tech support team (thanks Eric), and for the help of their media liason, Melissa.

Thanks also to Chris Hudson for providing hardware help at the start of the project.

Vote for Your Favorite Troubleshooting Professional

By Steve Litt

Steve Litt can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

A Change We Can All Welcome

By Steve Litt

They fixed the Netscape problem by rallying the troops to produce a competing browser. They swept the Department of Justice under the rug. They sorta kinda kept the Java problem at bay. But what's Microsoft going to do about Linux?

Once you've completed the Tutorial part of this Troubleshooting Professional, YOU will have quickly created the kind of powerful and robust intranet web server once thought to be the exclusive domain of Windows NT. And if you want to use Linux and still retain your corporational correctness, guest author Michael Peppler tells you how to interface with (free on Linux) Sybase, from Perl, using the free DBD::Sybase or sybperl interfaces he created.

But the enterprise is a relatively new Microsoft conquest. Microsoft's origin, home turf and economic reservoir is the desktop of John Q. Public. Now even that is being invaded by Linux.

In the next article, Richard Manly describes the Applixware for Linux suite. It sports a quality GUI word processor, spreadsheet, HTML authoring program, graphics program, database front end, email, a programming API, and, for those of you tired of VBA, it has a highly touted scripting language called ELF. $99. So you won't need to give up your desktop convenience to take advantage of the power of Linux.

Microsoft finally has a tiny bit of competition. A change we can all welcome!

Steve Litt is the main author of Samba Unleashed. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Applixware for Linux

By Richard Manly. Published with permission of the author.

Applixware is the world's number 1 UNIX productivity suite and Applix are almost unique in that the applications were designed and programmed for the UNIX operating system.  This means that users buying the product for Linux can take full advantage of the capabilities of the underlying operating environment.

Applix like to position their suite as personal productivity with a technical twist.  Underneath the covers of the suite lies an extremely powerful scripting language called ELF.  This allows the user to customize and extend the capabilities of the Applixware package using an easy scripting language similar to BASIC and C.  A fully integrated development environment called Builder takes ELF one step further and provides a visual, object-oriented programming tool that incorporates pre-built classes for each of the Applixware applications.  ELF and Builder can be used to gather (and update) information from many different data sources including remote procedure calls, shared libraries, sockets and pipes, ASCII files, RDBMS and http.  This provides the power user with a capability to turn their personal productivity tool into a powerhouse for gathering and publishing data.  Almost every capability of the package has an associated ELF function or object method!

That is not to say that Applixware is aimed purely at the technical user.  A familiar graphical user interface allows people that are savvy with Microsoft's Office applications to work in a similar manner.  Recognizing that a peaceful co-habitation with co-workers and friends that continue to use the Microsoft application is a cornerstone of Applix' latest release (Applixware for Linux 4.4.1).  Applix have concentrated on the production of import and export filters for Office 97 documents, Word, Excel and Powerpoint and a new filter framework with plug-in, field upgradable filters has been provided.

Applixware is competitively priced too, the full suite of applications including ELF and Builder is offered for $99.  Applix customers can also take advantage of optional support packages for both the applications and development tool,  fuller details can be gathered from the Applixware for Linux website (http://linux.applixware.com).

Richard Manly is the Director, Product Management, Applixware & Anyware, Applix Inc. He can be reached at rmanly@applix.com.

Sybase: You Asked For It, You Got It!

By Michael Peppler. Published with permission of the author.

To get sybperl and/or DBD::Sybase to work you need Sybase's OpenClient  package - again this is available for free on linux, and for other
platforms you need to contact Sybase for availability and price.

Installing either of the modules is usually a case of unpacking the tar file, editing the CONFIG file (mainly to set the location of the Sybase installation, and to specify which additional libraries are needed on your platform), editing PWD to specify the username, password and server that the test scripts should use, typing perl
Makefile.PL, make and make test.

There is one specific compatibility problem between Berkeley DB (-ldb) and Sybase's DBlibrary which shows up if you  use sybperl's Sybase::DBlib module. Both Berkeley DB and DBlibrary define a function called dbopen(). As perl is linked with -ldb by default if the library is present (which is usually the case on linux, and also on DEC Unix 4.0C and later) the Sybase::DBlib module fails to work, unless you rebuild perl and specifically exclude -ldb from the libraries that are linked with the perl binary. You can check which libraries are linked in with perl by running "perl -V:libs".

Documentation on using these modules is included in the distributions, but you should also check my web page (http://www.mbay.net/~mpeppler) and you should definitely become at least somewhat familiar with Sybase's OpenClient API - the documentation is available on the web at http://sybooks.sybase.com:80/dynaweb/group3/@Generic__CollectionView. Check out the Open Client/Server 11.1.x and Open Client 11.1.x Platforms links (the latter describes platform specific issues such as  additional system libraries that are needed for linking.)

Michael Peppler is the author of the sybperl and DBD::Sybase Perl interfaces to Sybase.  He can be reached at mpeppler@mbay.net.

Generating Web Decision Graphs using Perl

By Marc-Henri Poget. Published with permission of the author.

To make the maintenance of such decision graphs easier, I wrote a Perl script to automatically generate the HTML files from a small graph description language. This tool has been tested on MS-DOS, DG-Unix, SCO-Unix. It should run without any problem on Linux and on any system having a Perl environment. The generated HTML files have been tested on "Oracle Web Server" and "Apache", the most popular Web server on the Internet (and of course on Linux). An example of the definition language can be seen in the file "demo.dia", the result at the following address "demo000.htm" (link in URL's section). The free-software "webdiag.pl" Perl script is shown HERE.
 

This simple tool provides a powerful way to bring Web based users support using Linux, Apache and Perl. Complex decision graphs with links to existing pages of documentation can be created and maintained easily.

Similar tools already exist, one that I discovered months after having developed mine, is described at http://www.myplace.org/~spatula/dgml.html.

Marc-Henri Poget is a Swiss software engineer, working now in Taiwan until the end of 1998 in the area of fax services over the Internet. His main interests are: network and Web applications, network management, and troubleshooting. He can be reached at mpoget@hospvd.ch.

Tutorial Materials List

By Steve Litt

• Windows 98 computer
• Network card
• Linux Computer
• PC Compatible computer with at least 16 meg ram (32 preferable), 1.6 Gig or more hard drive with Motherboard/bios to support it, 386 (486 or Pentium preferable). Must not be microchannel. Ideally a real Intel chip, although many have gotten Linux to work with other Cyrex, AMD, etc.
• Linux compatible 100mbit network card (see Red Hat Linux Hardware Compatibility List)
• Linux compatible CD. If the CD is IDE and plugs into your motherboard's IDE0 or IDE1, it's probably compatible.
• 1.44 3 1/2 inch Floppy drive.
• Linux compatible Video card. Note that if you don't need to use X, most modern cards are compatible. Most of the exercises in this tutorial don't require X.
• Red Hat Linux Installation CD (or a CD from another vendor, with suitable modifications in the tutorial).
• Network
• 2 Cat 5 RJ45 cables
• 1 hub
• I've heard a single "flipped" RJ45 cat 5 will work without requiring a hub, but will limit you to two machines.
• Documentation
• This document (November 1998 Troubleshooting Professional Magazine)
• Red Hat Linux Installation Guide, or equivalent from another vendor.
• Documentation on your installation/distribution CD's

Conventions Used in All Examples in This Issue

By Steve Litt

About Domain Names in These Examples

All Domains Names End In .CXM

• mydomain.com: A website devoted to registering and moving domain names.
• troubleshooters.com: Steve Litt's site devoted to troubleshooting.
• problemsolving.com: Steve Litt's site devoted to the broader issue of solving problems.
• stevelitt.com: Steve Litt's personal website.
• nag.com: Website for The Numerical Algorithms Group, Inc.
• netadminguide.com: Not taken -- It's available to the first person giving Internic $35.00.

System Diagram

                   rj45cat5         rj45cat5
  Win98 machine<------------>hub<--------------->Linux machine
  192.168.100.1    100mbit          100mbit      192.168.100.3

Win98-Only Machine

• IP Address: 192.168.100.1
• Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
• Login name: myuid
• Password: Make your own
• Machine name: P2300

Dual Boot Machine in Win98 Mode

• IP Address: 192.168.100.2
• Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
• Login name: myuid
• Password: Make your own
• Machine name: P2300

Dual Boot Machine in Linux Mode (also referred to as "the Linux machine")

• IP Address: 192.168.100.3
• Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
• Login Name: myuid
• Password: Make your own
• Machine Name: linuxhost.mydomain.cxm
• Domain: mydomain.cxm

Virtual Hosts

Virtual Domains and Alias Domains

Steve Litt is the creator of the Universal Troubleshooting Process Course. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Free Isn't Cheap

By Steve Litt

But that's the most expensive way to do it. For anyone but a Linux guru, doing it that way would add days or maybe weeks to the process. For anyone making even minimum wage, it's better to pay $49.00 to get the operating system on a CD with a clean installation program.

Nor is the $49.00 the only expense. In the following articles I'm going to strongly advise you to install the ENTIRE Red Hat system. That's 900Meg before data. And before the 300 meg Windows 98 dual boot I'll be suggesting you co-install. That's probably more than the entire hard disk on that 486 in your attic. In such a case I advise buying a new hard disk. A 1.6Gig will do the trick. An 8.2Gig disk costs $245.00. Fiddling around for days trying to make a partial installation (and only gurus know which parts are necessary) work is much more costly.

Speaking of the 486 in the attic, it needs to be Linux compatible, and needs to be in good repair. No microchannel need apply. Cyrex/AMD are iffy in Linux -- I'd recommend Intel. Off brand components may or may not work. If they don't, you may or may not be able to trace the problem to them. And with off brands, you'll find very little expertise to help you. Use name brands, even if you need to buy them.

On the other hand, don't use anything too state of the art. Since Linux programmers don't have Bill Gates's budget, it takes them about a year to become compatible with popular new hardware. I used a Pentium 150 with a name SuperMicro motherboard with Linux 5.1, and it installed without a hitch.

And of course, that attic machine must be dedicated to the Linux project. You must be able to fdisk, re-fdisk, reformat and re-install both Linux and Win98 on it multiple times, having absolutely no concern about ruining any data or needed special configurations.

Linux isn't cheap with time either. I probably did 20 installations at between 20 and 40 minutes a piece. Re-installations are often the best use of time, because the installation program is smart. After an installation, a study of configuration files often reveals past mistakes. Obviously, I was doing other work while the installation was cranking, but that's still a lot of time. Time well spent, though. I can walk into any shop and feel confident installing Red Hat now.

Free software isn't cheap. I had to add a a $49.00 Red Hat distribution, $62.00 compatible network card, an $85.00 hub, a couple cables, and dedicate my old Pentium 150 and a couple old hard disks.

But now I have an ultra-high performance intranet web server on my desk. And I have a week's hands-on training in server and networking technology. Price all that in the Microsoft world.

Steve Litt is president of American Troublebusters and Troubleshooters.Com, and editor of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine. He teaches the Universal Troubleshooting Process, and is also an application developer and technical writer. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Why Red Hat

By Steve Litt

You can't get fired for buying Red Hat :-)

It was a good choice. It installed without a hitch. After installing, I went thru some of the configuration files and programs and saw all their installation program had done for me. It would have taken me weeks (well, weeks if I didn't know what I know now) to do what their installation program did in 40 minutes (20 if you don't check drives for bad blocks).

I can highly recommend Red Hat Linux. It's solid, and a further benefit is you can use this issue of Troubleshooting Professional, unmodified, to guide you in your installation/configuration.

If you get it from Red Hat themselves, you're guaranteed the latest version and a month of support.

If you don't get Red Hat, please get a modern, reputable distribution on a CD. Your time (and that of those you ask for help) is worth too much to do otherwise.

Steve Litt is president of American Troublebusters and Troubleshooters.Com, and editor of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine. He is the author of Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist, and is also an application developer and technical writer. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Check Your Components For Compatibility

By Steve Litt

I think hardware vendors will soon issue Linux drivers with their products. Witness Oracle's announcement that they're targeting the Linux platform. But right now, we Linux people are on our own.

If you're not a Linux programmer capable of writing drivers for your hardware, and if you want a nice, easy life with Linux, the best thing to do is make sure you're using Linux compatible hardware before you install. That saves wondering whether the problem's in the thousands of configuration options, or whether you just have incompatible hardware.

Fortunately, Red Hat has a compatibility chart. Its URL is listed at the bottom of this issue. Use it!

Steve Litt is the main author of Samba Unleashed. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Build a Command-Line Linux

By Steve Litt

Make Your Boot Disk

You can go to any CD-ROM equipped machine, Linux, Dos, Windows, or many Unix machines, and create a bootable installation floppy for Linux. It's free software, so copy protection isn't an issue.
 

Making Your Boot Disk from Dos (or Windows)

• Get to \dosutils on your cdrom
• Run rawrite.exe
• When asked for the source image, put ..\images\boot.img
• When asked for the target diskette drive, put a:
• Place a blank, formatted 1.44 floppy in your A: drive, then hit Enter

Making Your Boot Disk from Linux or Many Unixes

• Make sure you have permission to write /dev/fd0.
• Place a blank, formatted 1.44 floppy in your /dev/fd0 (would be a: in dos) drive.
• Mount the Red Hat Linux CD
• Get into the CD's /images directory.
• Run this command: dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1440k.

Using the Boot Disk Packaged With Your Red Hat Distribution

Booting from CD

Partition Your Drive for Dual Boot

1. Boot from your Linux Boot Diskette
2. Take the defaults on the prompts (unless you'd like your prompts in a language other than English or your keyboard is non-standard).
3. When you get to the screen asking "Which tool would you like to use" and giving you the choice of Disk Druid or Fdisk, choose Fdisk because you'll be doing some specialized partitioning. You'll be brought to a screen titled "Partitioning Disks" listing your installed physical hard disks, and sporting a Done, an Edit, and a Back button. Careful, this screen is Very tricky.
4. Use the arrow keys to highlight the first hard disk (hda).
5. Use the tab key to move to the Edit button, then hit Enter. You'll be brought to the Fdisk program, on the hda hard disk.
6. Note that you can get a list of commands by hitting m, and a list of all partitions by hitting p.
7. Use the p and d commands to delete existing partitions. Use the p command to verify they're gone.
8. Use the n command to create partition 1 (10Meg). Make it a primary partition. For first cylinder, put the first available according to the prompt (should be 1). For the last cylinder put +10M(be sure to remember the plus sign and upper case M), to tell Fdisk the size without having to calculate cylinders yourself.
9. Use the p command to make sure you have one and only 1 partition, and it's the one you just created. DO NOT attempt to create the Win98 partition from Linux. You can do it, but it will cause corruption later because parts of Windows won't recognize its size, and will write data right off the end and into the next partition.
10. Use the w command to write the changes. You'll be brought back to the "Partition Disks" screen.
11. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bail out of the Linux Installation program, which you used just to make the 10 meg Linux partition.

Set Up a Dual Boot Windows 98

1. Use Dos or Win9x Fdisk (small disk version on Win98) to create a 300 meg partition. Set it active. DO NOT use a partition created with Linux formatting tools.
2. Boot to a DOS or Win9x startup diskette. A Win98 is the best, because it has built-in CD drivers.
3. Format C: /S
4. Confirm that you're formatting roughly 300 meg (give or take 60). In particular, there's a problem if the format program seems to think you're formatting the amount of space remaining on the physical drive. If that occurs, use DOS/WIN fdisk to delete the partition and add it back. Do not delete the 10Meg Linux partition.
5. Once C: is formatted, insert a Win98 Install CD and run setup, taking all the defaults. When it asks for evidence of a previous system, insert your Win95 diskette.
6. Once Setup has gotten past looking for previous operating system, remove the startup diskette.
7. Finish the installation, taking all the defaults.
8. Once Win98 is installed, reboot to the hard drive to make sure it's OK.
9. Then continue on to the Linux part of the installation.

Run the Linux Installation Program.

Start it Off

Partitioning

---

Note: If, upon going into Disk Druid, the program tells you something about a "bad signal received", then hangs telling you "you can safely reboot the system now", check the master-slave jumpers on your hard disks, and check your hard disk configuration in CMOS. In order to prevent later intermittents, Linux rejects incorrect disk configurations that other operating systems accept.

---

Note: If you already have these partitions from a previous installation, simply use Disk Druid to put in the mount points.

Instructions:

1. Highlight the Linux native 10Meg partition tab to the Edit button, and press Enter. You'll be brought to the Edit Partition screen.
2. Input the mount point as /boot, tab to OK, and hit Enter. You'll be brought back to the "Current Disk Partitions" screen.
3. Tab to the Add button and hit Enter. You'll be brought to the Edit New Partition screen. Make it no mount point, 127 Meg size, Linux Swap type, not growable, and allowable only on hda. Move to the OK button and hit Enter to save your changes and return to the "Current Disk Partitions" screen.
4. Tab to the Add button and hit Enter. You'll be brought to the Edit New Partition screen. Make it mount point /, size 1000Meg, type Linux Native, Growable no, allowable on hda only. Move to the OK button and hit Enter to save your changes and return to the "Current Disk Partitions" screen.
5. Tab to the OK button and hit Enter. When asked whether to save changes to the partition table, tab to the Yes button and hit enter to save your changes.
6. You'll move on to the rest of the installation. You're done partitioning.

Why You Did This

About the Linux Directory System

For the purposes of learning, the best thing to do is have one big partition with a mount point of /, and a small (10meg) one with a mount point of /boot (for clean booting on large disks), and a swap partition.

Formatting

• On the "Active Swap Space" screen, take the defaults, which are to choose the swap partition you just made, and to check for bad blocks during format.
• On the "Partitions To Format" screen, make sure you format the / and /boot partitions by placing stars in their checkboxes with the spacebar. If this is your first time using this set of partitions, be sure you also put a star in the "Check for bad blocks during format" checkbox. However, if this is a repeat installation with these same partitions, you can knock about 20 minutes off your install by leaving the "Check for bad blocks during format" box unchecked.

Components to Install

When asked for the services you want started at bootup, leave the defaults except make absolutely sure httpd, named, and PostgreSQL are enabled for start at boot.

Video

Network

Select Yes. It will auto-detect your card (hopefully), inform you what card you have, then when you hit OK it will present you with the boot protocol screen, giving you the choice of Static IP address, BOOTP or DHCP. Choose Static IP address.

You'll now be brought to the "Configure TCP/IP screen, which asks for IP address, Netmask, Default gateway (IP), and Primary nameserver. In the IP address field, put in 192.168.100.3, then hit enter. As you keep hitting Enter, the rest of the fields will default as follows:
 
 

| Configure TCP/IP | Please enter the IP configuration for this machine. Each item should be entered as an IP address in dotted-decimal notation (for example, 1.2.3.4. IP address:           192.168.100.3 Netmask:              255.255.255.0 Default Gateway (IP): 192.168.100.254 Primary nameserver:   192.168.100.1   OK Back

Accept the defaults. Note that on your setup it's possible the default gateway and primary nameserver could be different than shown. That's OK. And yes, I know that primary nameserver is wrong, 192.168.100.1 is your Windows PC. For now accept the defaults. We'll patch it up later. If, upon rebooting your machine it hangs, you'll probably need bust in with a boot and rescue disk to rename file /etc/resolv.conf, which contains the bad primary nameserver number. If so, here are the instructions.

You'll next be brought to the "Configure Network" screen. Don't forget to use the first level domain name cxm instead of the usual com. This will prevent confusion with real internet web sites. Fill this screen out as shown below, leaving secondary and tertiary nameservers blank.
 

| Configure Network | Please enter your domain name, host name, and the IP addresses of any additional nameservers. Your host name should be a fully qualified host name, such as mybox.mylab.myco.com. If you don't have any additional nameservers, leave the nameserver entries blank. Domain name:                mydomain.cxm Host name:                  linuxhost.mydomain.cxm Secondary nameserver (IP): Tertiary nameserver (IP):    OK   Back

The IP address is 192.168.100.3, mask 255.255.255.0, and any other info asked for. Take its default value for Network and Broadcast. The machine's name is linuxhost, and the domain is mydomain.cxm.

Timezones

Services

1. httpd (already defaulted to enabled)
2. named (already defaulted to enabled)
3. postgresql (defaulted to disabled, change it)

Printer

Root Password

BootDisk

LILO Installation Screen

In single boot systems, or in dual boot systems where you've had the opportunity to install a 10 meg /boot partition as the first partition on the first drive (before the partition that will become C: in Windows), the Master Boot Record is the way to go. Please note that dual boots stand a high risk of wipeout in the best of circumstances. DO NOT install a dual boot on a system containing valuable data.

The last step it asks for special LILO configuration options. There's a "Use linear mode (needed for some SCSI drives)" checkbox. If your drive is configured as LBA in your bios setup, check this checkbox, using the spacebar.

On the next screen it gives you a chance to edit the operating system boots, and to tell which one is default. Leave Linux as default, but you might want, at this point, to change the one labeled dos so it has a more realistic label (i.e. win).

There's an article on dual booting later in this issue.

Fiddle around with the result.

info

To get information on a specific command, type

info <commandname>

info

git

Note that most functionalities can be invoked by several different keystroke combinations. I've listed the ones that work equally well at the console and from a Windows telnet session.

A git ninja can do almost all system administration with git (and without needing to go graphical or use a mouse). It works at a console, a dumb terminal, or a telnet session. Its power makes Win98 Windows Explorer look like a toy. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as intuitive as Windows Explorer, so you might want to make a "cheat sheet" of your favorite git commands.

locate command

/etc/cron.daily/updatedb.cron

Multitasking

Troubleshooting

Steve Litt is a Linux advocate who has contributed chapters to Red Hat Linux 6 Unleashed, Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed, and Linux Unleashed 4E. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Write a Couple Programs

By Steve Litt

---

Note! In Linux, all filenames are case sensitive. hello.cpp is NOT the same file as HELLO.CPP, which is not the same as HeLlOw.CpP.

---

#include <iostream.h>
int main(void)
{
cout << "Hello World\n";
return(0);
}

Now compile it with this command:

c++ hello.cpp

./a.out

Now write Perl progam hello.pl as follows:
 

print "Hello World\n";

Run it with the following command:

perl -w hello.pl

That's it. You've just programmed in Linux, both C++ and Perl.

Steve Litt is the author of the Universal Troubleshooting Process Course, and is also an application developer and technical writer. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Boot Floppies -- Getting Back Into a Locked Up System

By Steve Litt

But I found out you can get into your file system anyway. You need to make an install diskette and a rescue diskette on another machine, as follows

mount /dev/hda6 /mnt

THEN DISMOUNT THE DRIVE!!! The command is umount /mnt. If you fail to do that, the file will revert back to its pre-edited condition!

With the drive dismounted, type exit at the bash# prompt to halt the machine, remove the floppy, and boot back to the hard disk. Note that this will also work with your system dependent boot floppy you made at the end of your install (just remember to type rescue at the LILO prompt).

Steve Litt can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Get X Working

By Steve Litt

Important Note:

If you need to quickly exit graphics mode, use the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace keystroke combination. This is especially important if you lose sync (horizontal lines, or screen split in 2 or 3, or maybe even just black) in graphics mode. Operating a monitor out of sync for a long time can physically damage the monitor, so you want to bail as soon as it happens. Ctrl-Alt-Backspace is the way to do that.

Ctrl-Alt-Backspace is pretty clean, but obviously the preferred way to exit Xwindows is click the start button, then click "Exit fvwm".

Startx

Xconfigurator -- Troubleshooting

Netscape, Control Panel

Steve Litt created the Universal Troubleshooting Process Course. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Dual Booting Linux With Win98

By Steve Litt

Partitioning is a little tough, because there's no fdisk program which can properly do it. That is, except for Linux's fdisk program. Not Install's Disk Druid (that won't let you do certain things), and not Dos or Win Fdisk (those won't let you create or delete some non-dos partions). So here's what you do:

1. Boot from your Linux Boot Diskette
2. Take the defaults on the prompts (unless you'd like your prompts in a language other than English or your keyboard is non-standard).
3. When you get to the screen asking "Which tool would you like to use" and giving you the choice of Disk Druid or Fdisk, choose Fdisk because you'll be doing some specialized partitioning. You'll be brought to a screen titled "Partitioning Disks" listing your installed physical hard disks, and sporting a Done, an Edit, and a Back button. Careful, this screen is Very tricky.
4. Use the arrow keys to highlight the first hard disk (hda).
5. Use the tab key to move to the Edit button, then hit Enter. You'll be brought to the Fdisk program, on the hda hard disk.
6. Note that you can get a list of commands by hitting m, and a list of all partitions by hitting p.
7. Use the p and d commands to delete existing partitions. Use the p command to verify they're gone.
8. Use the n command to create partition 1 (10Meg). Make it a primary partition. For first cylinder, put the first available according to the prompt (should be 1). For the last cylinder put +10M(be sure to remember the plus sign and upper case M), to tell Fdisk the size without having to calculate cylinders yourself.
9. Use the p command to make sure you have one and only 1 partition, and it's the one you just created. DO NOT attempt to create the Win98 partition from Linux. You can do it, but it will cause corruption later
10. Use the w command to write the changes. You'll be brought back to the "Partition Disks" screen.
11. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bail out of the Linux Installation program, which you used just to make the 10 meg Linux partition.
12. Boot a DOS or Win9x install disk, and Fdisk a 300mb partition to host C:
13. Install Windows 98, typical configuration, to the 300 mb partition.
14. Boot to a Linux installer diskette, use Disk Druid to add a 127mb swap partition and a 1 gig (at least) partition, mount point /. If your first hard disk doesn't have enough space, you can put the / partition on the second partition. Install ALL packages -- it's not worth your time to pick and choose. When asked where to put LILO, say MBR (Master Boot Record)
15. Reboot. At the boot prompt, you'll have 5 seconds to decide which system to boot. You can hit Enter to boot to Linux, or enter dos (or win if you changed it to win in linuxconf) then hit Enter to go into Windows. If you don't decide in 5 seconds, it will default to Linux.
16. To increase the decision time in the above step, get into Linux as root, linuxconf->config->boot mode->Configure   LILO defaults (Linux boot loader)->Base options->Prompt timeout in seconds, and change the 5 second entry to a more appropriate 60 seconds. Then accept all the way out.
17. If you want to change the "boot to Windows" command you enter from the boot prompt (after all, "dos" is kind of misleading), it's at linuxconf->config->boot mode->LILO other OS configurations. Hit Enter on the dos label to bring up an input form, and change the label from "dos" to a more realistic label, such as win. Remember to keep it short and easy to type, because often you may have little time to type it in. Then accept all the way out.

Dual booting an existing Win98 installation

1. Add a second hard drive
2. Run Linux install
3. Using Disk Druid, make the first partition less than 1023 cylinders, and give it a / mount point.
4. Make a swap partition on either drive, anywhere.
5. Make a large (>900meg) partition anywhere it will fit, and give it mount point /var
6. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE to create a boot disk, as this will be the only way you'll be able to boot to Linux on this setup.
7. BE ABSOLUTELY SURE to tell LILO to install on the Linux partition, NOT on the MBR (Master Boot Record). Installing on the MBR will wreck your Win98 installation.
8. When you want to boot Linux on this configuration, insert the Linux boot disk you made and boot. To boot to Windows, remove the boot disk.

fdisk /mbr

IP Address Review

By Steve Litt

---

Note: If you already know the theory and practice behind IP addresses (like if you're a network administrator, or a long-time Unix user), you can skip this article.

---

192.168.100.3
 

Networks vs. Devices (hosts)

• 192.168.100.1:    My Win98 Pentium II, 300, my main working machine.
• 192.168.100.2:    My Pentium 150, operating as a Windows 98 machine.
• 192.168.100.3:    My Pentium 150, operating as a Linux machine.

Class A, B and C Network Addresses

---

Note that these classifications were recently re-arranged for better flexibility. But the general principles still apply. Note that this article is somewhat oversimplified to demonstrate the point.

---

First of all, numbers are lost because a network gobbles up addresses it doesn't use. Here's how it works. Lets say my desktop Intranet was assigned address 200.200.200.0 by Internic. My network would have device addresses 200.200.200.1 through 200.200.200.254 (somewhat oversimplified, but...). I'd be using only 2 of my assigned 254 IP addresses, but nobody else would be able to use them either, because those people's network address wouldn't be 200.200.200.0.

Imagine a network with 4000 devices on it. You can't use a class C setup, because it can only address 256 (minus 2) devices. So you must go class B, which addresses 65536 (minus a few). So you're wasting 61,000+ addresses. Of course, the new rules require you split your network/device allocation bitwise (called classless) to get the most bang for your addressing buck, but in a binary world there will always be address waste, no matter how fine the bits are cut.

Intranet-Only IP Address Spaces

10.0.0.0     - 10.255.255.255  (10/8 prefix, Class A in old notation)
172.16.0.0   - 172.31.255.255  (172.16/12 prefix, 16 contiguous Class B in old notation)
192.168.0.0  - 192.168.255.255 (192.168/16 prefix, 256 contiguous Class C in old notation)

Using Intranet-only addresses, and connecting to the net thru a single live IP is more secure, less bureaucratic hassle, and even makes you a better citizen for conserving ever more scarce 4 byte net addresses. Like any other conservation, it could conceivably backfire if the addresses become terribly scarce and "hoarders" start "gouging" those who were good citizens. If you have a sizable corporate presence, it might not be a bad idea to register a few IP addresses, but certainly not one for every device on your network (IANA wouldn't let you, anyway).

Steve Litt can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Get a Win98 Network Running

By Steve Litt

Great diagnostic

Don't use Win95

Try for the defaults

Now put in IP addresses

You know you've succeeded when...

Troubleshooting

Steve Litt is the main author of Samba Unleashed. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Get Linux Networked With Win98

By Steve Litt

Install

Using linuxconf as a starting point

This article uses the following conventions:

• My Pentium II 300, Win98 only
• IP is 192.168.100.1
• Host Name is P2300
• My Pentium 150, dual boot Linux
• IP is 192.168.100.3 (When running Linux)
• Host Name is linuxhost.mydomain.cxm (when running Linux)

• Linuxconf->config->Networking
• Client tasks
• Basic host information
• Host name = linuxhost.mydomain.cxm
• Adaptor 1 (See this note)
• Enabled = True (checked)
• Config mode = Manual
• Primary name + domain =  linuxhost.mydomain.cxm
• Aliases (opt) = linuxhost
• IP address = 192.168.100.3
• Netmask (opt) = 255.255.255.0
• Net device = eth0
• Kernel module = eepro100      (Note: Network Card Specific)
• I/O port (opt) =
• Irq (opt) =
• Name server specification (DNS) : (Leave as is until configuring DNS)
• DNS usage = [*] DNS is required for normal operation (true)
• default domain = mydomain.cxm
• nameserver 1 = 192.168.100.3
• Routing and gateways : On simple network, leave all fields blank or as-is
• Host name search path
• Multiple IPs for one host = True
• hosts, dns = True (Note: Once you begin configuring DNS, change it to just dns=true)
• Network Information System (NIS) : Leave all blank
• Server tasks
• Exported file systems (NFS)
• Path to export  = /
• Comment (opt) =
• Client name(s) = P2300
• May write = false
• Root privileges = false
• translate symbolic links = false
• Request access from secure port = true
• IP aliases for virtual hosts
• eth0
• leave blank for now. Later we'll use it to implement virtual hosts.
• UUCP (Unix to unix copy) : Leave blank
• Misc
• Information about other hosts
• 192.168.100.1 P2300
• Primary name + domain = P2300
• Aliases (opt) =
• IP number = 192.168.100.1
• Comment (opt) =
• 192.168.100.3 linuxhost.mydomain.cxm
• Primary name + domain = linuxhost.mydomain.cxm
• Aliases (opt) = linuxhost.mydomain.cxm
• IP number =  192.168.100.3
• Comment (opt) =
• Information about other networks : Leave blank
• Linuxconf network access
• Log access in /var/log/htmlaccess.log = false
• network or host = 192.168.100.1
• netmask(opt) =

At the risk of belaboring a point, I'd like you to remember that I didn't figure all this stuff out. Instead, I had Red Hat's installation program figure it out for me, "improved" it a little with linuxconf, then simply reported the results to you.

Ping

From your Linux machine, ping your Linux machine. In my example where my Linux machine is 192.168.100.3, I'd use the command:

Ping 192.168.100.3

Once you can ping yourself on your Linux machine, be sure you can ping yourself on your other (Win98) machine. In my case, my Win98 machine is 192.168.100.1, so the command on my Windows machine would be:

Ping 192.168.100.1

Ping 192.168.100.3

Ping 192.168.100.1

Once you can ping each machine from the other, you're about 90% of the way.

FTP

But it's easy to FTP from my Windows machine to my Linux machine, with the command

ftp 192.168.100.3

Troubleshooting

First, whoever you're logging in as, make sure you're trying to ftp to and from your home directory, where you should have complete rights. If you are, and there's still a problem, it might be a lack of access granted from Linux. First, remember Server tasks->Exported file systems (NFS)->Path to export  = /? Make sure you've filled that out correctly. Just keep narrowing it down.

Telnet

Troubleshooting

First, whoever you're logging in as, make sure you're trying to telnet to and from your home directory, where you should have complete rights. If you are, and there's still a problem, it might be a lack of access granted from Linux. First, remember Server tasks->Exported file systems (NFS)->Path to export  = /? Make sure you've filled that out correctly. Just keep narrowing it down.

Steve Litt can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Get Apache Main Page Working

By Steve Litt

If everything's configured properly, you should get a web page with "It Worked!" emblazoned in big letters at the top. The title of the page is "Test Page for Red Hat Linux's Apache Installation".

Troubleshooting

• Make sure you can really ping, ftp and telnet to 192.168.100.3 from the Win98 machine. If not, make it so you can.
• Once ping, ftp and telnet work, but http://192.168.100.3 doesn't, verify that the httpd service is running and runs at bootup. If not, fix it in linuxconf. If you didn't install the necessary packages, install them now or reinstall Linux (probably easier).
• If ping, ftp and telnet work, but http://192.168.100.3 doesn't, and httpd is running, check your Apache configuration. There's probably nothing wrong with it unless you dinked with one or more of the files in /etc/httpd/conf. If you did, put em back and see if you can hit http://192.168.100.3. If not, time to read info, manuals, Apache documentation, and search the net for ideas. Remember to just keep narrowing it down.

Steve Litt can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Install a Website

By Steve Litt

For the examples in this article, I'll use username of myuid, so it will go in /home/myuid/public_html, and will be accessible with http://192.168.100.3/~myuid/ (trailing slash required).

Viewing Your Changes: Restarting Apache, Dumping Your Browser's Cache, Reloading your Browser

kill -HUP `cat /var/run/httpd.pid`

Horrible troubleshooting problems occur if, after each configuration change, the following are not done:

1. Restart Apache.
2. Dump your browser's cache, both file and memory. Just for fun, do each, then do each again. Better safe than sorry.
3. Press your browser's "reload from server" button.

Enabling .HTM

text/html                       html

text/html                       html htm

Creating Your Site

Create a tiny test webpage called index.htm on your Windows machine. If you don't know how to do this, the October 1998 issue of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine can help.

Once the tiny webpage is created, go into FTP on your Windows machine (we recommend WS_FTP from IpSwitch), FTP to 192.168.100.3, navigate to /home/myuid (or whatever your username is), and create directory public_html below it. Then navigate into public_html in ftp, and text-transfer index.htm into it.

If you've done everything correctly up to this point, you should be able to open your browser on your Windows machine, hit http://192.168.100.3/~myuid/ (trailing slash essential), and see the web page. If not, troubleshoot.

Setting File and Directory Permissions

Troubleshooting

Other than that, read all error messages carefully, look for documentation, and view configuration files til you're familiar with them. See the next article.

Steve Litt is the author of Troubleshooting: Tools, Tips and Techniques. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Configuration files in /etc/httpd/conf

By Steve Litt

access.conf

Options Indexes IncludesNOEXEC

srm.conf

DocumentRoot /home/httpd/html

UserDir public_html

DefaultType text/plain

AddLanguage en .en

LanguagePriority en fr de

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/httpd/cgi-bin/

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml

#Alias /perl/ /home/httpsd/perl/
#<Location /perl>
#SetHandler perl-script
#PerlHandler Apache::Registry
#Options +ExecCGI
#</Location>  

httpd.conf

Steve Litt is president of American Troublebusters and Troubleshooters.Com, and editor of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Enable CGI

By Steve Litt

access.conf

Options Indexes IncludesNOEXEC

srm.conf

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/httpd/cgi-bin/
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

File Permissions

chmod a+x myfile.cgi

chmod a+x mydirectory

chmod a+r mydirectory

chmod a+w myfile.whatever

chmod a+w mydirectory

Perl Path

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

then you might want to check this out. Note that another alternative is to copy Perl into the directory already expected by your CGI scripts. This is the way you'd do it if you are creating a test jig server to simulate your ISP.

Other Issues

./myfile.cgi

cgi-bin/myfile.cgi

myfile.cgi

Troubleshooting

1. first you do it from the command line using the PERL command
2. then you do it from the command line without the PERL command
3. then run it from the command line and pipe it into junk.html, which you can then observe in a browser
4. and finally you do it from html.

• Make sure all directories containing html or cgi are executable to all.
• Make sure all .cgi's are executable to all.
• Make sure all files written to by .cgi's are write-enabled to all.
• Make sure that any directory in which a .cgi creates a file is writeable by all (this is one reason why so many ISP's won't let you put your .cgi just anywhere).

1. back up /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
2. edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
3. Find these two lines:
• User nobody
• Group nobody
4. For each of those lines, change nobody to your username. For me, that's
• User myuid
• Group myuid
5. Restart httpd with the command: kill -HUP `cat /var/run/httpd.pid`
6. On your browser, clear cache, both memory and disk. Then do it again.
7. On your browser, reload the page which calls the CGI
8. On your browser, click the link or button calling the CGI. Note whether it now works.
9. If it now works, exploit the differences between user/group nobody and your own. Look at some of the following:
• File permissions. Who is it executable by? user, group, other, combination of these?. Note that when httpd is run as nobody, any cgi owned by the user should be executable by user, group AND other.
• Permissions of the directory
10. Either way, BE SURE to put User and Group back to nobody after troubleshooting, to avoid a horrible security breach and horrible future troubleshooting problems.

 

Steve Litt can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Make a Replica of Your ISP

By Steve Litt

1. Give your ethernet device other IP#s to respond to.
2. Tell Apache the root directory of your website(s).
3. Copy PERL to the same place as on your ISP.
4. Set individual directory permissions (for other, not user) the same as on your ISP.

Give your ethernet device other IP#s to respond to.

192.168.100.100-149

WARNING As of late 2002, some distros are configured with the ifcfg-eth0-range0 file rather than the ifcfg-eth0:0 file. Further complicating it is that the very existence of an ifcfg-eth0:0 file prevents enablement through the ifcfg-eth0-range0 file. Even worse, at least in Mandrake Linux version 9.0, the linuxconf program that ships with Mandrake 9.0 writes the ifcfg-eth0:0 file, breaking IP aliasing. To learn about the new configuration method, see http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/ipalias.htm.

Tell Apache the root directory of your website(s).

# Any httpd.conf or srm.conf directive may go into a VirtualHost command.
# See also the BindAddress entry.

#<VirtualHost host.some_domain.com>
#ServerAdmin webmaster@host.some_domain.com
#DocumentRoot /www/docs/host.some_domain.com
#ServerName host.some_domain.com
#ErrorLog logs/host.some_domain.com-error_log
#TransferLog logs/host.some_domain.com-access_log
#</VirtualHost> 

#Troubleshooters.Cxm virtual host at 192.168.100.113
<VirtualHost 192.168.100.113>
DocumentRoot /web/sites/troubleshooters.cxm
ServerName www.troubleshooters.cxm
ErrorLog logs/troubleshooters.cxm-error_log
TransferLog logs/troubleshooters.cxm-access_log
</VirtualHost>                                 

Now, just for fun, add one more virtual host. Make this one nag.internal.cxm, and make the document root /usr/doc/LDP/nag, which is the location of the network administrator's guide. Now, by cruising to http://198.168.100.148/node1.html you can see the The Network Administrators' Guide.
 

#Virtual Host for Network Admin Guide at 192.168.100.148: start at node1.html <VirtualHost 192.168.100.148> DocumentRoot /usr/doc/LDP/nag ServerName nag.mydomain.cxm ErrorLog logs/nag.mydomain.cxm-error_log TransferLog logs/nag.mydomain.cxm-access_log </VirtualHost>

Copy PERL to the same place as on your ISP.

Now find out where your Linux machine's Perl is with this command:

which perl

Once you have a copy of Perl in the same directory as on your ISP, all your CGI (except that depending on things we haven't installed, like news, email, and dns) should work perfectly.

Set individual directory permissions (for other, not user) the same as on your ISP.

Steve Litt can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Graduate Study: Setting Up DNS

Redo It

By Steve Litt

I went through the whole thing, minus the dual-boot parts, in two hours and forty minutes. Mileage may vary, but I think it's likely you'll complete it in under four. Below is the timeline for my repeat installation:
 

0:00: Booted into install 0:02: Began swap partition format, checking for bad blocks. 0:03: Began / and /boot formats, checking bad blocks. 0:26: Formats finished, began remainder of install 0:31: Made user myuid 0:31-0:35: Made and ran hello.cpp and hello.pl 0:35-0:38: Ran X, ran Netscape Navigator on the linux machine, accessed http://192.168.100.3 and http://linuxhost.mydomain.cxm. 0:39-0:45: Ran nslookup on the linux machine,  telnet with su from the win machine, ping on both machines to make sure everything OK 0:46: Verified that Netscape on the Win machine can hit http://192.168.100.3, getting the Apache test page. 0:47: Fixed /etc/mime.types to enable .htm 0:49-0:54 Configured a WS_FTP for user myuid on 192.168.100.3, created /home/myuid/public_html, and ftp'ed a site to that directory. 0:54-1:04: Troubleshot a problem of not being able to pull up my http://192.168.100.3/~myuid/ site to the fact that I had accidentally looked for http://192.168.100.3/~slitt/. Nobody's perfect :-) 1:00-1:18: Edited access.conf, srm.conf, set file permissions, troubleshot a "Internal Server Error" down to an accidental binary FTP putting junk chars in the cgi script. Fixed the problem with a re-FTP in ascii mode. 1:18 - 1:19: Took a break. 1:19-1:27: linuxconf->config->Networking->server tasks->IP aliases for virtual hosts->eth0, put in IP's 192.168.100.100-149, edited /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf to includes virtual hosts troubleshooters.cxm at 192.168.100.113, nag.cxm at 192.168.100.148 1:27-1:30: Created directory /web/sites/troubleshooters.cxm, set proper permissions. 1:30: Began FTPing sites Troubleshooters.cxm, problemsolving.cxm and stevelitt.cxm to document root /web/sites/troubleshooters.cxm. Note that a domain switcher will pull up the proper site, depending on domain name. 1:40-1:45: Troubleshot inability to pull up http://192.168.100.113 to forgetting to uncomment </virtualhost> in httpd.conf. 1:45-1:50: Fixed file permissions, etc, to enable CGI. 1:50-1:55: Fixed some earlier goofs I noticed after the fact. 1:55-2:10: Setting up DNS Hello World A. Tested. Troubleshot non-authoritative nslookup down to lack of a period and using SQA instead of SOA. 2:10-2:30: Set up and troubleshot DNS Hello World B. Fixed problems caused by typos and omissions. 2:30-2:40: Set up, tested and troubleshot DNS Hello World C: Fixed minor problems.

Steve Litt offers courses on the Universal Troubleshooting Process. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Post Doctorate: Database Enabled Web App

Looking Forward

By Steve Litt

• Email Server
• Be your own webspace provider
• Supercomputing
• Linux to Linux networking

Steve Litt is the author of Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

Wrapup

By Steve Litt

You bet it does. Unix ISP's are popping up all over. Believe the trades that NT is replacing Unix? Big ISPs like reliable systems, so many are choosing Unix. For example, take Winfiles.Com, the ultimate Microsoft cheerleader. Here's a quote from their FAQ page: "We use Pentium Pro computers running the BSDI UNIX operating system with Apache Web server software.".

And of course, some of the tiny ISP's use Linux. Linux is being used to build ultra-cheap supercomputers. And small business -- a Linux Intranet can be built for a song (I bet you could reproduce the exercises in this magazine (excluding the database web app) in 4 hours or less now), on equipment the Microsoft world considers "obsolete".

But of course, Linux doesn't make you more valuable to everyone. Consider the wing-tipped corporate manager obsessed with the trades' and advertisers' reporting of "enterprise computing". He's read the trades, talked to his wing-tip buddies, and made his decision -- his enterprise is straight Microsoft. Here's how to work with him:

Nod gravely in agreement with his assertion that Linux is a toy and always will be. Say "absolutely" when he tells you he chose Microsoft because he can't afford the geniuses who work with Linux. Try not to laugh when, right after his last statement, he bemoans the high price he needs to pay for good talent. Resist the temptation to point out that of course it's hard to get good people in a technology that costs $2000.00 hardware, $6000.00 software, and $5000.00 training just to get into the game. Refrain from mentioning that super innovators Wosniak/Jobs (Apple), Kahn (Borland), Andreeson (Netscape), and, why yes, Gates/Allen (Microsoft) did their big innovations not on expensive big iron, but on whatever they could beg, borrow or steal.

And above all, if you don't want to see him cry, don't tell him you set up an Intranet with virtual hosting, DNS and full CGI (which can interface to Oracle or Sybase or free PostgreSQL), in four hours on a $600 computer. After all, he's had a crew of 8 working on that for three months.

He's the first to tell you he can't get fired for buying Microsoft. You can bet if he was old enough to work fifteen years ago, he said the same thing about IBM. And if he's lucky enough to continue his career fifteen years more, he'll be saying the same thing about Linux.

Only by then, your salary will be triple his.

Steve Litt is president of American Troublebusters and Troubleshooters.Com, and editor of Troubleshooting Professional Magazine. He teaches the Universal Troubleshooting Process, and is also an application developer and technical writer. He can be reached at Steve Litt's email address.

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URLs Mentioned in this Issue

• IANA Documentation
• RFC 2050 - Internet Registry IP Allocation Guidelines
• RFC 1918 - Address Allocation for Private Internets
• RFC 1518 - An Architecture for IP Address Allocation with CIDR

• Guest Authors and Information Sources
• http://www.applix.com: Site of Applix, home of guest author Richard Manly.
• http://www.ntis.com.tw/~poget/: Home page of guest author Marc-Henri Poget (Generating Web Decision Graphs using Perl). See his web page on this subject at http://www.ntis.com.tw/~poget/webdiag.htm.
• http://www.mbay.net/~mpeppler/: Website of Michael Peppler, author of the DBD::Sybase and sybperl tools. An alternate download site for his products is http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/Michael_Peppler/.
• http://www.verinet.com/dns/: Jeff Moe's DNS tutorial. His main page is at http://www.verinet.com.
• http://www.arcana.co.uk/technologia/perl/DBI/index.html: Alligator Descartes' authoritative DBI::DBD page. His main page is at http://www.arcana.co.uk.
• http://electriclichen.com/people/dmarti/linuxmanship.html: Donald Marti's superb article on selling the Linux idea.

• Vendors
• http://www.redhat.com: Home of Red Hat, makers of the Red Hat edition of Linux
• http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/hardware.html: The Red Hat Linux Hardware Compatibility Lists
• http://www.apache.org: Home of the Apache Server Project, makers of the Apache HTTP server.
• http://www.sybase.com: Home of Sybase, makers of Adaptive Server Enterprise for Linux, and enterprise-running DBMS's on almost every platform. You can read how to get their product on your Linux machine by going to http://www.sybase.com/adaptiveserver/linux/. To view documentation on the Sybase OpenClient API, see http://sybooks.sybase.com:80/dynaweb/group3/@Generic__CollectionView/.
• http://www.oracle.com: Home of Oracle, maker of the industrial strength Oracle DBMS. http://www.oracle.com/html/linux.html
• http://www.applix.com: Site of Applix, makers of the Applixware for Linux office suite.
• http://www.cpan.org: Home of CPAN, the best source of all that's Perl.
• http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/DBI/: Best source of the DBI Perl to database interface.
• http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/DBD/: Best source of DBD drivers.
• http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/~barr/dnswalk/: Home of David Barr's dnswalk DNS debugging tool.
• http://www.dimensional.com/~mfuhr/perldns/Net-DNS-release.tar.gz: Latest release version of Michael Fuhr's Net::DNS Perl module. See also his Net::DNS home page at http://www.dimensional.com/~mfuhr/perldns/.
• http://www.ipswitch.com: Home of WS_FTP.
• http://www.microsoft.com: Home of Microsoft, makers of various the flavors of Windows operating system.

• Other Sites
• http://www.troubleshooters.com is Steve Litt's website.
• http://www.troubleshooters.com/sympwiz.htm: Steve Litt's Java Symptom Description Wizard.
• http://www.cam.org/~agena/overcloc.html: Michael Verstichelen's CPU Overclocking Information page.