Keith Krehbiel <redsilo@pldi.net> writes:

]Rod Smith wrote:
]> In article <10oliucabu2mjf8@corp.supernews.com>,
]> Keith Krehbiel <redsilo@pldi.net> writes:
]> ]>>I am online with a
]>>different computer than has the linux installation and have found NO WAY
]>>to transfer files of any kind, including text. I am absolutely sure
]>>that some or most of the problem is my ignorance but some of it may be
]>>quirks in Linux.

cp
copies files.

cp filea path/to/file/b

Transfer files to where? Tell us what you want to do.

Since millions transfer many many files using linux every day, yes it is
possible and is not due to any quirks in Linux.

Thanks, I knew there had to be a way.

]
]Yes I have a floppy, and also a router that I can hook up to. That
]still doesn't solve the problem of not being able to find any of those
]devices from within the OS. You can see that my ignorance runs deep. I

What version of Linux are you running?

Debian Woody

]I was able to finally get /dev/cdrom into some kind of a device list.
]It now shows up when I 'df'. Dselect still will not find the files it
]wants to see there however. I saw some mention of 'unmount' in some


umount, not unmount.

Ahh, so that's what it is. Thanks again.

]manual pa

I haven't yet gotten a floppy to mount but I did get the hfs partition
on my Linux disk to mount and copied some files to it.
fstab is as follows:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass
/dev/hda6 / ext2 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda7 none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

Hmmm. That doesn't show hda5, my hfs partition.

mtab:

/dev/hda6 / ext2 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hd hfs rw 0 0

Ahh! there it is.

I tried to install mtools but that seems to want a desktop environment,
another thing that I have not yet gotten to work.

In article <10p47i1p2cu1oc2@corp.supernews.com>,
Keith Krehbiel <redsilo@pldi.net> writes:

I haven't yet gotten a floppy to mount but I did get the hfs partition
on my Linux disk to mount and copied some files to it.
fstab is as follows:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass
/dev/hda6 / ext2 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda7 none swap sw 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0


With this information, I can say that you SHOULD be able to mount a floppy
as either root or an ordinary user by typing:

mount /floppy

If that doesn't work, try reporting the error message, along with
information on the disk (was it FAT or HFS, for instance).


Hmmm. That doesn't show hda5, my hfs partition.


Try adding this line:

/dev/hda5 /mnt/hd hfs defaults,umask=0 0 0

This will mount your HFS partition automatically whenever the computer
boots. Alternatively, you could replace "defaults" with "user,noauto" to
have the system not mount it automatically, but to enable ordinary users
to mount the partition. The last I checked (quite a while ago), Linux's
HFS support was good, but still posed some risk of disk corruption. Thus,
I'd recommend using it sparingly, unless this is a "scratch" partition
that doesn't hold any really vital data.

The "umask=0" part of the above configuration line gives all files 777
(rwxrwxrwx) permissions, which enables anybody to read or write files on
the partition. You can specify other umask values to give more
restrictive permissions, but you'd probably then want to add "uid=aaa",
where "aaa" is a UID number, and possibly "gid=bbb", where "bbb" is a GID
number, to assign ownership of all files to something appropriate.

mtab:

/dev/hda6 / ext2 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hd hfs rw 0 0

Ahh! there it is.


/etc/mtab shows the currently mounted filesystems. /etc/fstab shows the
filesystems that are mounted automatically or that are defined for easier
manual mounting. You edit /etc/fstab to change how the system behaves,
but you don't normally edit /etc/mtab; it's maintained automatically by
the system.


I tried to install mtools but that seems to want a desktop environment,
another thing that I have not yet gotten to work.


You could just let it go ahead and install the desktop environment. It
really shouldn't be necessary, though; I suspect this is an unnecessary
dependency -- or perhaps you're interpreting the name of some dependency
as a desktop environment when in fact it's something else.

When Linux boots the way I have it now
it is much more civilized than it had been before. It used to try at
least 3 times to start X and finally give up. Now it calls it quits
after one try. Seems like an improvement to me: shorter boot time.

One other dumb question. Is it possible to get on the internet without
a GUI? That is something I have never tried or even heard of really.

In article <10p82144i15qv38@corp.supernews.com>,
Keith Krehbiel <redsilo@pldi.net> writes:

When Linux boots the way I have it now
it is much more civilized than it had been before. It used to try at
least 3 times to start X and finally give up. Now it calls it quits
after one try. Seems like an improvement to me: shorter boot time.


Debian starts X via a SysV startup script. No doubt this is Greek to you,
but it basically means that there's a script in /etc/init.d that starts
X, and a link to that script in /etc/rc3.d (or possibly /etc/rc5.d). The
link is called S99gdm, S99kdm, or S99xdm, depending on how your system is
configured. Delete it or rename it to K01gdm, K01kdm, or K01xdm
(depending on the original name) and X will no longer start. (Your system
may have all three files and links, so you may need to do this for all
three of them.) You can subsequently restore the original name to have X
start when the system boots, if you get X running.

After doing this, you can test X by typing "startx" at a command prompt. A
log file called /var/log/XFree86.0.log should appear (or maybe
/var/log/Xorg.0.log, if you're using X.org-X11 rather than XFree86).
That'll have hints to what's going wrong.


One other dumb question. Is it possible to get on the internet without
a GUI? That is something I have never tried or even heard of really.


Yes, but precisely how you do this depends on your network connection
type -- PPP dial-up modem, ADSL, cable modem, etc. You might want to
check http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/ISP-Connectivity.html and
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/PPP-HOWTO/index.html for information on PPP,
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DSL-HOWTO/ for Linux DSL information, and
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Cable-Modem/index.html for cable modem
information.

One more dumb question: What sort of browser or other software should

Keith Krehbiel <redsilo@pldi.net> writes:

]Rod Smith wrote:
]> In article <10p82144i15qv38@corp.supernews.com>,
]> Keith Krehbiel <redsilo@pldi.net> writes:
]> ]>>When Linux boots the way I have it now
]>>it is much more civilized than it had been before. It used to try at
]>>least 3 times to start X and finally give up. Now it calls it quits
]>>after one try. Seems like an improvement to me: shorter boot time.
]> ]> ]> Debian starts X via a SysV startup script. No doubt this is Greek to you,
]> but it basically means that there's a script in /etc/init.d that starts
]> X, and a link to that script in /etc/rc3.d (or possibly /etc/rc5.d). The
]> link is called S99gdm, S99kdm, or S99xdm, depending on how your system is
]> configured. Delete it or rename it to K01gdm, K01kdm, or K01xdm
]> (depending on the original name) and X will no longer start. (Your system
]> may have all three files and links, so you may need to do this for all
]> three of them.) You can subsequently restore the original name to have X
]> start when the system boots, if you get X running.
]> ]> After doing this, you can test X by typing "startx" at a command prompt. A
]> log file called /var/log/XFree86.0.log should appear (or maybe
]> /var/log/Xorg.0.log, if you're using X.org-X11 rather than XFree86).
]> That'll have hints to what's going wrong.
]> ]> ]>>One other dumb question. Is it possible to get on the internet without
]>>a GUI? That is something I have never tried or even heard of really.
]> ]> ]> Yes, but precisely how you do this depends on your network connection
]> type -- PPP dial-up modem, ADSL, cable modem, etc. You might want to
]> check http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/ISP-Connectivity.html and
]> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/PPP-HOWTO/index.html for information on PPP,
]> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DSL-HOWTO/ for Linux DSL information, and
]> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Cable-Modem/index.html for cable modem
]> information.
]> ]One more dumb question: What sort of browser or other software should
]be used? Will Mozilla work without X?

No. It uses the gui. If you want to use a browser without X use lynx. Note
you will not be able to see any of the images-- just the text-- if you use
lynx.


That's ok if the images don't show. At this point it would mostly be to