Subject: Re: YDL is up and running
From: Nathan A. McQuillen (nmlists@steaky.dhs.org)
Date: Mon Oct 30 2000 - 01:36:19 MST
On Sun, 29 Oct 2000, Dr S Douglass wrote:
> There is no sound, and even though I typed DMA sound, it refuses to make
> ...
> still at 8 bit grainy colour. There must be a way to fix this.
In my admittedly uncouth and bastardized YDL/LinuxPPC distro, I had to
manually install the RPMs for esound (and some other stuff) before I could
get anything out of the speaker. But it sounds like you're not getting
beeps or anything either -- you sure you delivered the right modprobe
command?
> It recognized my hardware modem for 56k dial out, but, I would rather have
> ...
> recieved for my Mac would not work with the Linux OS.
Sounds like a big ol' can of BS. The nice thing about digital systems (and
ask the ghost of Alan Turing if you don't trust me) is that in general
getting them to do most anything -- in this case, talk any particular
protocol -- is just a matter of programming. In this case, the protocols
in question (TCP/IP over Ethernet) should be basically identical, whether
the machine in question is Mac, PC, Linux box, or what have you. As far as
talking TCP/IP is concerned, Macs and PCs /are/ Un*x systems -- so any
provider claiming that their services don't support Linux, when you can
bet some Un*x flavor runs their whole operation, is a priori feeding you a
line of crap.
> They stated that the
> ...
> software called Enternet to access the DSL.
They haven't a clue. Just set your Lbox up to grab info from DHCP (unless
you have a static IP), make sure Ethernet (eth0) is up, and you'll be home
free.
> I was told the only way that I
> ...
> I think I am being handed a line of bull.
Hook and sinker too. If you're connecting through Ethernet, you're
connecting through Ethernet. There are DSL modems that use proprietary or
platform-specific connections, but you have to go pretty far out of your
way to make Ethernet behave in a proprietary manner (Novell has perfected
the science but that aside...)
> I contacted Enternet from their
> ...
> that works.
I'm unsure what the drivers would even accomplish. In general, even with
standard modems, all the format conversion and all that occurs in the
modem, and it speaks to your machine through a straight-ahead serial line.
(Apple's old GeoPort modems were the only exception I've ever heard of,
and good lord was that a mess.) The MacOS offers CCLs for modems, but
those are just macros for a setup process that's easily achieved by hand;
USB modems do require drivers, as do PCI and PCMCIA devices, but anything
that can be a good network citizen on Ethernet must do its own packet
handling, and can't require a driver.
(Stop me, anybody, if I'm saying anything inaccurate or too general here
-- I'm no expert, but I don't think "drivers" for a DSL modem sounds too
kosher. It was my understanding that they tend to be stand-alone devices,
and generally include routing and support for multiple IP addresses.)
> So far though, except for the sound, this install seems to be much better
> ...
> look at, but, unable to do anything usefull.
Again, check the format on your modprobe command, check the XF86 config
files somebody else already mentioned, and just pretend that you have a
normal DSL modem, which you probably do -- and, in my general experience,
if you want to understand the Internet, don't talk to your ISP unless you
have problems with their end of things.
Linux was a novelty to me too until I got sendmail working. I do prepress
work and some newspaper advertising, and it's pretty nice to be able to
depend on my Linux box instead of worrying that my ISP might limit my
attachment size, refuse me disk space, or go down unexpectedly the night
of the big job. Now, on nearly a daily basis, I mount my Appleshare
volumes remotely, drag prepress files over, send them as attachments
through Pine over telnet, and disconnect, knowing my clever little Linux
box will handle the rest. I still have tremendous issues with non-Mac OSs
when it comes to getting goal-oriented work done -- I wouldn't /ever/ want
to try to lay out even so much as a newsletter in Linux, for instance --
but for the things that the core developer community has spent time on so
far, it's a brilliant and dependable operating system, and well worth
knowing. I couldn't survive with a Linux box as my only machine, but I'd
be a lot less happy right now if I didn't have that Lbox ticking away
handling all my email, Web service, and Appleshare needs.
Did you ever tell us, by the way, what sort of Mac you've got?
Good night all. Sorry for the conversational nature of this post, but not
too sorry. I'm not a 'typical' Linux user, and I'm a bit sick of the
'typical' response to questions being two lines of jargon and code and
little or no explanation. Since this list is PPC specific, we have better
discussions here than on most of 'em I think, since our expectations are
for the most part higher and our hardware knowledge often lower than in
the Wintel world -- I for one dig it greatly.
- Nathan McQuillen
___________________________________________________
Printer and Designer, Lakeside Printing Cooperative
1334 WIlliamson Street Madison, WI 53703 USA
IWW IU 450 "An Injury to One is an Injury to All."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Mon Oct 30 2000 - 01:43:16 MST