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Configuration HOWTO By Guido Gonzato, guido@ibogfs.cineca.it v1.2.2, 10 April 1998 This HOWTO aims at making the fine--tuning of your newly installed Linux box quicker and easier. Here you will find a set of configura¡ tions for the most common applications, so you can start to work with a well-usable system. ______________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Why This HOWTO 1.2 What We Will Be Configuring 2. General System Setup 2.1 Keyboard 2.2 Kernel Matters 2.3 (TT 2.4 Hard Disk Performance 2.5 Parallel Port Zip Drive 2.6 Device Drivers 2.7 Bootup Messages 2.8 Hostname 2.9 Mouse 2.10 Mount Points 2.11 (TT 2.11.1 Security Tip 2.12 Printer Configuration 3. Software Configuration 3.1 (TT 3.2 (TT 3.3 (TT 3.4 (TT 3.5 (TT 3.6 (TT 3.7 (TT 3.8 TeX and Friends 3.9 PPP 3.10 POP Client 3.11 X Window System 3.12 Fortran 3.13 Users' Configurations 3.14 Upgrading 4. The End 4.1 Copyright 4.2 Feedback 4.3 Disclaimer ______________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction 1.1. Why This HOWTO I have installed Linux on many PCs and noted that current distributions are terrific but, annoyingly, lack some basic configuration. Most applications will work out of the box, but some won't. Moreover, I have noted that the same questions crop up on c.o.l.setup over and over again. To try and remedy this situation, and to have a memorandum for fresh installations, I wrote a do--this--and--that list that I later expanded to become this HOWTO. Here you will find a handful of configuration examples for the most common applications, programs, and services, which should save you a fair amount of time and work. A few of the examples outlined in this HOWTO are somewhat distribution dependent. I only have access to Red Hat and Caldera OpenLinux machines, so don't take any of my tips as gospel if you have Slackware, Debian or other distributions. In any case, reading documentation and the HOWTOs always pays off, so you're advised to do so anyway. 1.2. What We Will Be Configuring There can be endless hardware configurations for a PC, but in my experience one is quite common: a PC fitted with a large HD split into three partitions (one for DOS/Windows, one for Linux, one for the swap), sound card, modem, CD--ROM drive, printer, mouse. A parallel port Zip Drive is also becoming commonplace. This is the hardware I'll assume you want to configure, but it's easy to adapt the following tips to different configurations. It's implicitly assumed that you'll be root when editing/fixing/hacking. And now, lads, sleeves up. 2. General System Setup 2.1. Keyboard First of all, how to configure the keyboard. If you missed this step during installation or have changed your keyboard, you'll have to: ╖ choose a suitable key table from /usr/lib/kbd/keytables/; for example, it.map selects the Italian keyboard; ╖ edit the file /etc/sysconfig/keyboard so as it reads: KEYTABLE="/usr/lib/kbd/keytables/it.map"; ╖ to set up the keyboard repeat rate and delay time, add this line to /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit or, if you have Caldera, /etc/rc.d/rc.boot: /sbin/kbdrate -s -r 16 -d 500 # or whatever you like Upon the next reboot, the keyboard will work fine. To avoid rebooting and load the key table only, cd to /etc/rc.d/init.d and issue the command ./keytable start. 2.2. Kernel Matters IMHO, the first thing to do next is build a kernel that best suits your system. It's very simple to do but, in any case, refer to the README file in /usr/src/linux/ or the Kernel HOWTO. Hints: ╖ consider carefully your needs. Choosing a kernel configuration, applying the patches, and compiling it once and for all is more productive than reconfiguring and recompiling each month; this is especially true if your Linux box is a server. Don't forget to include support for all the hardware you might likely add in the future (e.g. SCSI, Zip, net cards, etc); ╖ if your PC is based on a Cyrix CPU, apply appropriate patches to improve performance. Information on <http://www.linuxhq.com/patch/20-p0591.html> ; ╖ notebook users will want to improve their LCD screen legibility by applying the Noblink patch. The latest version is called noblink- X.X.tar.gz and is available on <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/patches/console> . Install the package, then add to your /etc/profile the line /usr/local/bin/cursor bgreen # or other colour ╖ again for notebook users, if you plan to use a PCMCIA modem/fax don't compile serial support as a module; compile it in the kernel, otherwise your PCMCIA modem won't work; ╖ remember, Linux won't see your sound card unless you configure it properly. It's easy in most cases, but remember to enable all options (don't forget /dev/dsp and /dev/sound); ╖ if you get those pesky messages from modprobe indicating that some modules can't be located, that means that your /etc/conf.modules needs mending. If you don't use the ipx and appletalk modules, add these lines: alias net-pf-4 off alias net-pf-5 off ╖ to save time the next time you reconfigure and recompile the kernel, it's a good idea to save your configuration on a file and keep it in a safe place. 2.3. sendmail Lock On some systems, sendmail locks the machine at boot time. Quick fix: make sure your /etc/hosts contains a line that reads 127.0.0.1 localhost See also Section ``Hostname''. 2.4. Hard Disk Performance Your hard disk's performance can be greatly enhanced by carefully using hdparm(8). If your Linux distribution doesn't include it, you'll find on <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/hardware> ; look for a file called hdparm-X.Y.tar.gz. I can't give you a general recipe, as many details depend on your hard disk and HD controller. Since you risk to toast your filesystem, please read the man page carefully before using some options. At its simplest, you could add the following line to /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: /sbin/hdparm -c1 /dev/hda # first IDE drive assumed which enables (E)IDE 32-bit I/O support. As for the `-m' option, this is what hdparm author Mark Lord emailed me: (...) if your system uses components from the past couple of years, it will be fine. Older than that, there *may* be a problem (unlikely). The really buggy chips were the CMD0646 and RZ1000 chips, used *extensively* on 486 and (early) 586 motherboards about 2-3 years ago. 2.5. Parallel Port Zip Drive To use the parallel port version of the Zip drive you can use the default driver that comes with recent (2.x.x) kernels. During kernel configuration, make sure that SCSI support and SCSI disk support are enabled (either in the kernel or as a module). Remember, there can be conflicts between the printer and the Zip drive on the same parallel port. Zip disks are sold preformatted on partition /dev/sda4. To enable the Zip, all you have to do is issue #~ chmod 666 /dev/sda4 # everyone can access the Zip Drive #~ insmod ppa and the Zip can now be mounted as usual (better write the last line in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit). You also access the Zip drive via mtools adding this line to your /etc/mtools.conf: drive z: file="/dev/sda4" exclusive There's a better ppa driver than the standard one, though: have a look at <http://www.torque.net/~campbell> . 2.6. Device Drivers Devices in /dev (or better, links to the actual device drivers) may be missing. Check what devices your mouse, modem, and CD--ROM drive correspond to, then do what follows: ~# cd /dev /dev# ln -s /dev/cua0 mouse /dev# ln -s /dev/cua1 modem /dev# ln -s /dev/hdb cdrom and, if you want, do chmod 666 to these devices (not the links, the actual devices!) to make them fully accessible by every user. Tip: in some laptops the mouse device is /dev/psaux: take this into account when configuring X11. In addition, you'll want to make the floppy accessible by non-root users with chmod 666 /dev/fd*. This is bound to cause security problems, but I don't know the details. Comments are welcome. 2.7. Bootup Messages If you want to customise the bootup messages, check whether your /etc/rc.d/rc.local overwrites /etc/issue and /etc/motd. If so, fire up your editor and go ahead. 2.8. Hostname Issuing the command hostname new_host_name may not be enough. To avoid the dreaded sendmail lock, follow these steps: ╖ edit /etc/sysconfig/network and change the hostname therein (e.g. new_host_name.localdomain); ╖ edit /etc/HOSTNAME appropriately; ╖ append the new hostname in the line in /etc/hosts: 127.0.0.1 localhost new_host_name.locadomain 2.9. Mouse gpm mouse services are useful to perform cut and paste in tty mode, and to use the mouse in some applications. Check that you have a file called /etc/sysconfig/mouse and that it reads: MOUSETYPE="Microsoft" XEMU3=yes Moreover, you must have a file /etc/rc.d/init.d/gpm. Of course, make sure this configuration is right for your mouse type. Tip: in some laptops, MOUSETYPE is ``PS/2''. For Caldera, all you have to do is append this line to /etc/rc.d/rc.boot: /usr/bin/gpm 2.10. Mount Points It's handy to have mount points for the floppy and other devices. For example, you can do the following: ~# cd /mnt /# mkdir a: ; mkdir floppy ; mkdir cdrom ; mkdir win ; mkdir zip This creates mount points for an MS-DOS floppy, an ext2 floppy, the CD-ROM, the DOS partition, and the parallel port Zip drive. Now edit the file /etc/fstab and add the following entries: /dev/fd0 /mnt/a: msdos user,noauto 0 1 /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy ext2 user,noauto 0 1 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 1 /dev/sda4 /mnt/zip vfat user,noauto 0 1 /dev/hda1 /mnt/win vfat user,noauto 0 1 Obviously, you must use the correct device in the first field. To access fat32 partitions, there's a kernel patch and information on <http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/fat32.html> . 2.11. lilo (8) and LOADLIN Many users run both Linux and DOS/Windows on their PC, and want to choose at boot time which os to use. Let's suppose that /dev/hda1 contains DOS/Windows and that /dev/hda2 contains Linux. Do what follows: ~# fdisk Using /dev/hda as default device! Command (m for help):a Partition number (1-4): 2 Command (m for help):w ~# This makes the Linux partition bootable; this step ought to be carried out by activate when running LILO's QuickInst, but it won't work with my Red Hat. Write this basic /etc/lilo.conf file: boot = /dev/hda2 compact delay = 50 # message = /boot/bootmesg.txt # write your own root = current image = /boot/vmlinuz # boot linux by default as this entry comes first label = linux other = /dev/hda1 table = /dev/hda label = dos Now issue /sbin/lilo and you're set. Being lilo a crucial part of your installation, you're strongly advised to read its documentation anyway. To boot Linux from DOS/Windows without resetting, put LOADLIN.EXE in a directory (in the DOS partition!) included in the DOS path; then copy your kernel to, say, C:\DOS\VMLINUZ. The following .BAT file will boot Linux: rem linux.bat smartdrv /C loadlin c:\dos\vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 r If you use Windows 95, set the properties of this .BAT so as it starts in MS-DOS mode. 2.11.1. Security Tip Making a backup copy of your MBR before installing Linux could save your bacon. Use restorrb (included in the FIPS package) before installation, or you can use a Linux rescue floppy and issue this command: rescue:~# dd if=/dev/hda of=MBR bs=512 count=1 then make at least two copies of the file MBR on floppies. Should disaster strike, you'll be able to restore your old MBR by issuing: rescue:~# dd if=/mnt/MBR of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1 assuming that a floppy containing MBR is mounted under /mnt. Alternatively, use a DOS rescue floppy to issue FDISK /MBR. 2.12. Printer Configuration Red Hat and Caldera have a fine configuration tool, printtool; if you don't use these distributions, manual configuration follows. Let's suppose you have a non-PostScript printer you want to use to print raw text (e.g., C source files) and PostScript files via Ghostscript, which is assumed to be already installed. Setting up the printer involves a few steps: ╖ find out which one the parallel print device is: try ~# echo "hello, world" > /dev/lp0 ~# echo "hello, world" > /dev/lp1 and take note which one works. ╖ make two spool directories: ~# cd /var/spool/lpd /var/spool/lpd/# mkdir raw ; mkdir postscript ╖ if your printer exibits the ``staircase effect'' (most inkjets do), you'll need a filter. Try to print two lines with ~# echo "first line" > /dev/lp1 ; echo "second line" > /dev/lp1 if the output is like this: first line second line then save this script as /var/spool/lpd/raw/filter: #!/bin/sh # This filter does away with the "staircase effect" awk '{print $0, "\r"}' and make it executable with chmod 755 /var/spool/lpd/raw/filter. ╖ make a filter for PostScript emulation. Write the following filter as /var/spool/lpd/postscript/filter: #!/bin/sh DEVICE=djet500 RESOLUTION=300x300 PAPERSIZE=a4 SENDEOF= nenscript -TUS -ZB -p- | if [ "$DEVICE" = "PostScript" ]; then cat - else gs -q -sDEVICE=$DEVICE \ -r$RESOLUTION \ -sPAPERSIZE=$PAPERSIZE \ -dNOPAUSE \ -dSAFER \ -sOutputFile=- - fi if [ "$SENDEOF" != "" ]; then printf "\004" fi (in this example an HP DeskJet printer is assumed. Fix it to suit your printer). ╖ finally, add the following entries in /etc/printcap: # /etc/printcap lp|ps|PS|PostScript|djps:\ :sd=/var/spool/lpd/postscript:\ :mx#0:\ :lp=/dev/lp1:\ :if=/var/spool/lpd/postscript/filter:\ :sh: raw:\ :sd=/var/spool/lpd/raw:\ :mx#0:\ :lp=/dev/lp1:\ :if=/var/spool/lpd/raw/filter:\ :sh: For more complex or exotic printing configurations, the Printing-HOWTO awaits you. If you use printtool, be aware that the GSDEVICE chosen by Printtool will work, but not necessarily at its best for your printer. You may consider fiddling a bit with the file postscript.cfg; for instance, I changed GSDEVICE from cdj500 to djet500 and now my prints come out much quicker. 3. Software Configuration These are the the configuration files we are going to custimise: /etc/profile /etc/bashrc .bashrc .bash_profile .inputrc .less .lessrc .xinitrc .fvwmrc .fvwm2rc95 .Xmodmap .Xdefaults .jedrc. .abbrevs.sl .joerc .emacs . Don't add users until you have completed your system configuration; you'll put the dot files in /etc/skel. 3.1. bash (1) To tailor bash's behaviour, these are the main files to edit: ╖ /etc/bashrc contains system wide aliases and functions; ╖ /etc/profile contains system wide environment stuff and startup programs; ╖ $HOME/.bashrc contains user aliases and functions; ╖ $HOME/.bash_profile contains user environment stuff and startup programs; ╖ $HOME/.inputrc contains key bindings and other bits. Examples of these files are shown below. First, the most important: /etc/profile. It's used to configure a lot of features in your Linux box, as you will see in the following sections. ______________________________________________________________________ # /etc/profile # System wide environment and startup programs # Functions and aliases go in /etc/bashrc # This file sets up the following features: # # o path # o prompts # o a few environment variables # o colour ls # o less # # Users can override these settings and/or add others in their # $HOME/.bash_profile # set a decent path echo $PATH | grep X11R6 > /dev/null if [ $? = 1 ] ; then # add entries to the path PATH="$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin:$HOME/bin:." fi # notify the user: login or non-login shell. If login, the prompt is # coloured in blue; otherwise in magenta. Root's prompt is red. USER=`whoami` if [ $LOGNAME = $USER ] ; then COLOUR=44 else COLOUR=45 fi if [ $USER = 'root' ] ; then COLOUR=41 fi # put a real escape character instead of ^[. To do this: # emacs: ^Q ESC vi: ^V ESC joe: ` 0 2 7 jed: ` ESC # Remove `;1' if you don't like the `bold' attribute. ESC=^[ PS1='$ESC[$COLOUR;37;1m$USER:$ESC[37;40;1m\w\$ ' PS2="Continue> " # no core dumps, please ulimit -c 0 # set umask if [ `id -gn` = `id -un` -a `id -u` -gt 14 ]; then umask 002 else umask 022 fi # a few variables USER=`id -un` LOGNAME=$USER MAIL="/var/spool/mail/$USER" EDITOR=jed HOSTNAME=`/bin/hostname` HISTSIZE=1000 HISTFILESIZE=1000 export PATH PS1 PS2 USER LOGNAME MAIL EDITOR HOSTNAME HISTSIZE HISTFILESIZE # enable colour ls eval `dircolors /etc/DIR_COLORS -b` export LS_OPTIONS='-F -s -T 0 --color=tty' # customise less LESS='-M-Q' LESSEDIT="%E ?lt+%lt. %f" LESSOPEN="| lesspipe.sh %s" VISUAL=jed LESSCHARSET=latin1 export LESS LESSEDIT LESSOPEN VISUAL LESSCHARSET for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do if [ -x $i ]; then . $i fi done ______________________________________________________________________ This is a sample /etc/bashrc: ______________________________________________________________________ # /etc/bashrc # System wide functions and aliases # Environment stuff goes in /etc/profile alias which="type -path" alias d="ls" alias dir="d" ______________________________________________________________________ This is a sample .bashrc: ______________________________________________________________________ # $HOME/.bashrc # Source global definitions if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then . /etc/bashrc fi # this is needed to notify the user that they are in non-login shell if [ "$GET_PS1" = "" ] ; then COLOUR=45 # put a real escape character instead of ^[ ESC=^[ PS1='$ESC[$COLOUR;37m`whoami`:$ESC[37;40m\w\$ ' export PS1 fi # aliases alias cp='cp -i' alias l=less alias lyx='lyx -width 900 -height 700' alias mv='mv -i' alias rm='rm -i' alias x=startx # A few useful functions inst() # Install a .tar.gz archive in the current directory. { gzip -dc $1 | tar xvf - } cz() # List the contents of a .zip archive. { unzip -l $* } ctgz() # List the contents of a .tar.gz archive. { for file in $* ; do gzip -dc ${file} | tar tf - done } tgz() # Create a .tgz archive a la zip. { name=$1 ; tar -cvf $1 ; shift tar -rf ${name} $* gzip -S .tgz ${name} } ______________________________________________________________________ This is a sample .bash_profile: ______________________________________________________________________ # $HOME/.bash_profile # User specific environment and startup programs # This file contains user-defined settings that override # those in /etc/profile # Get the aliases and functions if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then GET_PS1="NO" # don't change the prompt colour . ~/.bashrc fi # set a few `default' directories export CDPATH="$CDPATH:$HOME:$HOME/text:$HOME/text/geology" # fix rxvt 2.45 backspace if [ "$COLORTERM" != "" ] ; then stty erase ^? ESC=^[ # put a real escape character instead of ^[ echo -n "$ESC[36l" fi ______________________________________________________________________ This is a sample .inputrc: ______________________________________________________________________ # $HOME/.inputrc # key bindings "\e[1~": beginning-of-line "\e[3~": delete-char "\e[4~": end-of-line # (F1 .. F5) are "\e[[A" ... "\e[[E" "\e[[A": "info \C-m" set bell-style visible # please don't beep set meta-flag On # allow 8-bit input (i.e, accented letters) set convert-meta Off # don't strip 8-bit characters set output-meta On # display 8-bit characters correctly set horizontal-scroll-mode On # scroll long command lines set show-all-if-ambiguous On # after TAB is pressed ______________________________________________________________________ To make the backspace and delete keys work correctly in in xterm and other X11 applications, the following is also needed: ╖ put this in your .xinitrc: usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap xmodmap $usermodmap ╖ put this in your .Xmodmap: keycode 22 = BackSpace keycode 107 = Delete this fixes the console. To fix xterm: ╖ put this in your .Xdefaults: xterm*VT100.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7F)\n\ <Key>Delete: string(0x1b) string("[3~")\n\ <Key>Home: string(0x1b) string("[1~")\n\ <Key>End: string(0x1b) string("[4~")\n\ Ctrl<Key>Prior: string(0x1b) string("[40~")\n\ Ctrl<Key>Next: string(0x1b) string("[41~") nxterm*VT100.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7F)\n\ <Key>Delete: string(0x1b) string("[3~")\n\ <Key>Home: string(0x1b) string("[1~")\n\ <Key>End: string(0x1b) string("[4~")\n\ Ctrl<Key>Prior: string(0x1b) string("[40~")\n\ Ctrl<Key>Next: string(0x1b) string("[41~") rxvt is a wee bit more complicated, as some compile--time options influence its behaviour. See the above .bash_profile. More info in bash(1) and readline(3) man pages. Don't expect every application to work correctly! If you run joe in xterm, for instance, some keys won't work; the same holds for versions of rxvt older than 2.21. 3.2. ls (1) ls can display directory listings using colours to highlight different file types. To enable this feature, add these lines to /etc/profile: eval `dircolors /etc/DIR_COLORS -b` export LS_OPTIONS='-F -T 0 --color=tty' (If you don't have the file /etc/DIR_COLORS, remove the reference to it in the first line.) This sets the environment variable LS_COLORS that contains the colour list set up in /etc/DIR_COLORS. Note: don't ask me why, but this won't work with rxvt older than v. 2.21; use some flavour of xterm instead. It looks like rxvt has a bug that prevents it from inheriting the environment correctly in some circumstances. Caldera's ls doesn't have colours, but there's an equivalent color-ls. Add this in /etc/bashrc: alias ls="color-ls $LS_OPTIONS" 3.3. less (1) With this excellent pager you can browse not only plain text files, but also gzip compressed, tar and zip archives, man pages, and what have you. Its configuration involves a few steps: ╖ to use it with the movement keys, have this plain ASCII file .lesskey in your home directory: ^[[A back-line ^[[B forw-line ^[[C right-scroll ^[[D left-scroll ^[OA back-line ^[OB forw-line ^[OC right-scroll ^[OD left-scroll ^[[6~ forw-scroll ^[[5~ back-scroll ^[[1~ goto-line ^[[4~ goto-end ^[[7~ goto-line ^[[8~ goto-end then run the command lesskey. This creates a binary file .less con¡ taining the key bindings. ╖ write the following file as /usr/bin/lesspipe.sh: ___________________________________________________________________ #!/bin/sh # This is a preprocessor for 'less'. It is used when this environment # variable is set: LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s" lesspipe() { case "$1" in *.tar) tar tf $1 2>/dev/null ;; # View contents of .tar and .tgz files *.tgz|*.tar.gz|*.tar.Z|*.tar.z) tar ztf $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.Z|*.z|*.gz) gzip -dc $1 2>/dev/null ;; # View compressed files correctly *.zip) unzip -l $1 2>/dev/null ;; # View archives *.arj) unarj -l $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.rpm) rpm -q -p -i -l $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.cpio) cpio --list -F $1 2>/dev/null ;; *.1|*.2|*.3|*.4|*.5|*.6|*.7|*.8|*.9|*.n|*.man) FILE=`file -L $1` FILE=`echo $FILE | cut -d ' ' -f 2` if [ "$FILE" = "troff" ]; then groff -s -p -t -e -Tascii -mandoc $1 fi ;; *) file $1 | grep text > /dev/null ; if [ $? = 1 ] ; then # it's not some kind of text strings $1 fi ;; esac } lesspipe $1 ___________________________________________________________________ and remember to make it executable with chmod 755 lesspipe.sh. ╖ put these lines in /etc/profile: LESS="-M-Q" # long prompt, silent LESSEDIT="%E ?lt+%lt. %f" # edit top line LESSOPEN="| lesspipe.sh %s" # filter VISUAL=jed # default editor---insert your favourite LESSCHARSET=latin1 # display accented letters if needed export LESS LESSEDIT LESSOPEN VISUAL LESSCHARSET The variable LESSCHARSET depends on the fact that I live in Italy and want to use the ISO 8859/1 character set. You fellow Americans, Japanese, Russians and so on had better not set it. 3.4. emacs (1) I don't use emacs, so I have only one piece of advice to give you. Some emacs distributions don't come preconfigured for colours and syntax highlighting. Write this in your .emacs: (global-font-lock-mode t) (setq font-lock-maximum-decoration t) This only works in X11. I'll leave it to you to peruse all of emacs' documentation to find out how to tailor it to your needs---potentially, it can take months of hacking... 3.5. joe (1) Some people report that joe works with colours under X11, but not in tty. In addition, some special keys don't work. To my knowledge, no one has found a solution to the former small nag; someone suggested hacking on /etc/termcap. If you experience that problem, a quick and dirty (and inelegant) solution is this: ~$ export TERM=vt100 ~$ joe myfile (edit your file) ~$ export TERM=linux 3.6. jed (1) This is my favourite editor: it does what I need, it's lighter and easier to configure than emacs, and IMHO emulates other editors quite better. Many users at my university want jed to emulate EDT, VMS' system editor. jed's configuration files are .jedrc and /usr/lib/jed/lib/*; the former can be adapted from jed.rc in the latter directory. ╖ to make jed use the special keys correctly, write the file /usr/lib/jed/lib/defaults.sl whose only line reads: () = evalfile("linux"); ╖ edit /usr/lib/jed/lib/linux.sl; remove the comment from the line that reads Info_Directory = "/usr/info"; and add /bin/mail after UCB_Mailer =; ╖ making jed emulate EDT (or other editors) is straightforward: you just have to edit a couple of lines in .jedrc. If you want to use the numeric keypad `+' to delete words instead of a single character, add this in .jedrc: unsetkey("\eOl"); unsetkey("\eOP\eOl"); setkey("edt_wdel", "\eOl"); setkey("edt_uwdel", "\eOP\eOl"); after the line that reads () = evalfile("edt");. ╖ to make xjed use the numeric keypad for EDT emulation, insert the following in .Xmodmap: keycode 77 = KP_F1 keycode 112 = KP_F2 keycode 63 = KP_F3 keycode 82 = KP_F4 keycode 86 = KP_Separator Moreover, make sure that your /etc/X11/XF86Config contains the follow¡ ing lines: # ServerNumLock # must be commented out XkbDisable This applies to XFree 3.2. Unless you use a standard American keyboard though, note that ``XkbDisable'' brings some little problems. You'll find out by yourself. ╖ colour customization for xjed is done adding lines like these in .Xdefaults: xjed*Geometry: 80x32+150+50 xjed*font: 10x20 xjed*background: midnight blue ╖ the ``abbreviation'' feature is an invaluable timesaver. Write a file like the following as $HOME/.abbrevs.sl: create_abbrev_table ("Global", ""); define_abbrev ("Global", "GG", "Guido Gonzato"); create_abbrev_table ("TeX", "\\A-Za-z0-9"); define_abbrev ("TeX", "\\beq", "\\begin{equation}"); define_abbrev ("TeX", "\\eeq", "\\end{equation}"); % and so on... and type ESC x abbrev_mode to enable it. To have the abbreviation on by default, add entries like these in your .jedrc: define text_mode_hook () { set_abbrev_mode (1); } % define fortran_hook () { set_abbrev_mode (1); use_abbrev_table ("Fortran"); } % and so on... 3.7. efax (1) This package is probably the most convenient for simple sending/receiving of faxes. You'll have to tailor the script /usr/bin/fax; easy job, but a couple of quirks caused me quite an headache: ╖ DIALPREFIX: chances are that simply putting `T' or `P' won't work in many countries. Put `ATDT' or `ATDP' instead; ╖ INIT and RESET: these strings contain the initialisers `-i' and `-k', needed by efax. If you want to add an AT command, add it to the appropriate string leaving out `AT' and preceding the rest with either `-i' or `-k'. For example: to add the `ATX3' command to INIT, you'll append `-iX3'. 3.8. TeX and Friends I'll assume you have the teTeX distribution. Just a couple of things here: ╖ to configure the hyphenation pattern for your language, edit the file /usr/lib/texmf/texmf/tex/generic/config/language.dat, then do: ~# texconfig init ; texconfig hyphen ╖ if you add a LaTeX package, after adding the files under /usr/lib/texmf/texmf/tex/latex/ run the command texhash so that teTeX recognises the new package; ╖ to tailor dvips, the file to edit is /usr/lib/texmf/texmf/dvips/config/config.ps. Be aware that the fields regarding the default resolution also affect xdvi's behaviour; if you experience annoying attempts to create fonts each time you run it, put the line XDvi*mfmode: in .Xdefault. This should help. 3.9. PPP I'll take it for granted that your kernel has PPP + TCP/IP support compiled in, that loopback is enabled, and that you already have the pppd package correctly installed and suid root. Obviously, your ISP must support PPP. There are now two ways to get PPP to work: a) manual configuration, and b) a configuration program that automagically sees to it. Whichever option you choose, have the following information on hand: ╖ your ISP's telephone number; ╖ your ISP's name server; ╖ your ISP's mail and news server; ╖ your ISP's domain; ╖ your username and password. Manual configuration is a drudgery. It's about editing files and writing scripts; not too much work, but it's easy to make mistakes and newcomers are often intimidated. The PPP HOWTO is there for you. Alternatively, there are tools that ask for the information above and do all the work. You'll be surely better off if you reach out for a friend who's already connected and download one of the following nice tools: ╖ an X11--based tool is EzPPP, whose home page is <http://www.serv.net/~cameron/ezppp/index.html> . Very easy to use, almost self--explanatory; ╖ for tty--based connections, try the tools available on <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/network/serial/ppp>. One of the finest is pppsetup-X.XX.tar.gz. ╖ the simplest configuration tool to date is surely wvdial. You feed it your ISP's phone number, your username, your password, and you're in business. From the README file: ``There is a (currently cheesy) web page for wvdial at: <http://www.worldvisions.ca/wvdial>''. Very fine tool. 3.10. POP Client To retrieve your mail from a POP server, you use a POP client like fetchpop or fetchmail. The latter is more advanced, and is probably the only option if your ISP's PPP server can't deal with the command LAST. They're available on <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/mail/pop>. To configure these clients: ╖ fetchpop: the first time you run it, you'll be prompted for some information. Answer the questions and you're set. ╖ fetchmail: adapt this sample .fetchmailrc: # $HOME/.fetchmailrc poll mbox.myisp.com with protocol pop3; user john there with password _Loo%ny is john here You must set the permissions to this file with the command chmod 600 .fetchmailrc, otherwise fetchmail will rightly refuse to start. This example is very basic and assumes that you have a running sendmail; there are endless possibilities of configuration. Check out on . 3.11. X Window System Once you've managed to make X work (right video card etc.), there are endless possibilities of configuration; it depends on the window manager you use. In any case, it's all down to editing one or more ASCII files in your home directory. As for the window manager: ╖ fvwm: copy /etc/X11/fvwm/system.fvwmrc to your home directory as .fvwmrc, browse it and start experimenting. This contributed system.fvwmrc is IMHO a wee bit too simple and doesn't do justice to fvwm. ╖ fvwm95-2: copy /etc/X11/fvwm95-2/fvwm2rc95 to your home as .fvwm2rc95, then edit it. The contributed example is quite good. ╖ TheNextLevel: this is rather harder to configure. Copy /etc/X11/TheNextLevel/.* to your home dir, browse them carefully, then try and tailor them. The first one to look at is .fvwm2rc.defines. In addition, make sure you have a proper .xinitrc. An example: #!/bin/sh # $HOME/.xinitrc # set a few keys correctly usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap xmodmap $usermodmap xset s noblank # turn off the screen saver xset s 300 2 # screen saver start after 5 min xsetroot -solid "medium blue" & # rxvt saves a lot of memory, but versions older than 2.21 have bugs # affecting the keys and the way the environment is inherited. Upgrade # or use xterm instead. xterm -ls -bg black -fg white -sb -sl 500 -j -ls -fn 10x20 -fb 10x20bold \ -title "Color xterm" -geometry 80x25+150+0 & fvwm95-2 3.12. Fortran In my experience, if you need Fortran a good alternative to g77 is the Fortran-to-C translator f2c and the front end yaf77. Get yaf77-X.Y.tgz from <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/lang/fortran> . 3.13. Users' Configurations It's a good idea to let new users have a few configuration files ready when they first log in. Put the following files in /etc/skel: .bashrc .bash_profile .bash_logout .inputrc .less .xinitrc .fvwmrc .fvwm2rc95 .Xmodmap .Xdefaults .jedrc .abbrevs.sl. joerc .emacs Note that .pinerc can't be fully tailored; make sure that at least the fields user-domain, smtp-server, and nntp-server are properly set up. 3.14. Upgrading If you upgrade your machine, remember to save a few additional files beforehand. Some of them are: /etc/X11/XF86Config, /usr/bin/fax, ... 4. The End 4.1. Copyright Unless otherwise stated, Linux HOWTO documents are copyrighted by their respective authors. Linux HOWTO documents may be reproduced and distributed in whole or in part, in any medium physical or electronic, as long as this copyright notice is retained on all copies. Commercial redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however, the author would like to be notified of any such distributions. All translations, derivative works, or aggregate works incorporating any Linux HOWTO documents must be covered under this copyright notice. That is, you may not produce a derivative work from a HOWTO and impose additional restrictions on its distribution. Exceptions to these rules may be granted under certain conditions; please contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator at the address given below. In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information through as many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain copyright on the HOWTO documents, and would like to be notified of any plans to redistribute the HOWTOs. If you have questions, please contact Tim Bynum, the Linux HOWTO coordinator, at linux-howto@sunsite.unc.edu via email. 4.2. Feedback Perhaps even more than other HOWTOs, this one needs and welcomes your suggestions, criticisms, and contributions. Not only is feedback welcome: it's necessary. If you think something is missing or wrong, please email me. If you have a distribution other than Red Hat or Caldera and your config files are different or placed in other directories, please tell me and I'll include your tips. My aim is making life with Linux as easy as possible. Linux has a huge number of packages, so it's impossible to include directions for all of them. Please keep your requests/suggestions pertinent to the ``most reasonable'' programs---I'll leave it to your common sense. 4.3. Disclaimer ``Configuration HOWTO'' was written by Guido Gonzato, guido@ibogfs.cineca.it. Many thanks to all other HOWTO authors and man pages writers/maintainers, whose work I've shamelessly pilfered. This document is provided ``as is''. I put great effort into writing it as accurately as I could, but you use the information contained in it at your own risk. In no event shall I be liable for any damages resulting from the use of this work. I hope you'll find this work useful. Whenever I install a new Linux box, I actually do... Enjoy, Guido =8-)