Internet Surfer 2.0/Internet Surfer 2.0 (Wayzata Technology) (1996).iso/pc/text/mac/faqs.344

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.344



Getting Linux II: Linux on BBS's
   Zane Healy posts (around the beginning and middle of the month) a list of
   BBS's that have Linux available for download.  Try them if you can't FTP.

Getting Linux III: Linux floppy (and other media) distributors
   Linux is distributed on floppies by at least Softlanding Software (910
   Lodge Ave, Victoria, B.C, Canada, V8X-3A8, [phone]) for USD
   3.25/disk.  This is exactly the same SLS distribution that is available via
   FTP (see below).  The diskette distribution is mostly meant for people who
   can't FTP.

   Marco Scheibe ([e-mail]), Klaus Weidner
   ([e-mail]) and Gert Doering ([e-mail])
   will copy Linux (the complete SLS distribution, including X, possibly other
   things as well) for you, if you send him diskettes and return postage.
   Contact them via e-mail first.

   Yggdrasil Computing is producing a CD-ROM with Linux.  Currently an alpha
   version is available (alpha referring to the fact that the contents are
   still evolving; there will be at least one beta before final release).
   This is a completely new distribution, not SLS.  A complete listing of
   files is available via FTP from netcom.com in directory ~ftp/pub/yggdrasil.
   There is also a manual and other information there.  Contact
   [e-mail] or call [phone], 9am-5:30pm, California time.

   If you know of other distributors, send me a note!

Getting Linux IV: Commercial networks
   GEnie mirrors most of tsx-11 and sunsite (including SLS).  Rumor has it
   that CompuServe also has some Linux archives [confirmation welcome].

Getting Linux V: Mailservers and such
   The trickle server [e-mail], aka [e-mail], aka
   [e-mail], send mail to one of these addresses with a
   body consisting of /HELP.

Linux distributions (aka "releases")
   Linux is distributed by its author only as a kernel.  Other people
   have put together "distributions" that can be used.

   Jim Winstead and H.J. Lu maintain the boot and root disks.  These
   two form more or less the "official" release.  It is fully
   functional, but only has the bare essentials.  The filenames are:
   images/bootimage-xxx.Z and images/rootimage-xxx.Z (xxx stands for
   the version number).

   MCC and SLS are more complete systems that contain most of what is needed
   for normal use.  MCC is older, SLS includes X.  These are what a new user
   probably should start with (either one).  They aren't updated every week,
   but that shouldn't be a problem if you're only intersted in using the
   system.  (Hackers will figure out what to do anyway.)  SLS is in directory
   packages/SLS on tsx-11; MCC can be found in directory mcc-interim on
   ftp.mcc.ac.uk (it is not on tsx-11).

   HJ Lu (the Linux GCC maintainer) also has another set of disks,
   including a combined boot and rootdisk, and some additional disks
   with more programs.  This package assumes you are already familiar
   with Linux, and at least some of it may be incorporated to the work
   of Jim Winstead.  See directories GCC/rootdisk and GCC/basedisk on
   tsx-11.

Linux mailing-lists
   Used mostly for discussion between developers of new features and testers
   of pre-release versions.  See addresses in the FAQ.

Linux News -- summaries of annoucements
   A weekly summary of announcements of new programs and other interesting
   news.  Edited by Lars Wirzenius (same as this Meta-FAQ).  Posted to
   comp.os.linux and the LINUXNEWS channel on the linux-activists mailing list
   (see the FAQ for info on joining mailing lists).  It is also available via
   GEnie.  Intended for people who don't have time or energy to sift through
   the high volume of comp.os.linux.

OTHER NEWSGROUPS ARE USEFUL TOO
   At least the groups comp.unix.{questions,shell,programming,bsd,admin}, and
   comp.windows.x.i386unix should be useful for a Linux user.  If you have a
   problem that is not directly Linux-related, ask it in these groups, not in
   c.o.l (which is too big for some people as it is).

Documentation for various programs
   Many programs come with some sort of documentation, often in a file called
   README or something similar.  It is a VERY good idea to read them with
   care.  It is boring to see (_and_ answer) questions that are answered in
   the documentation.

Keeping track of current releases
   New releases, programs, and ports are usually announced in comp.os.linux.
   finger [e-mail] to get some information about the
   current kernel (often long!).  See also the next item.

The Linux Project Registry
   Maintained by James Callison, a list of "who is doing what".  See the list
   itself for mail addresses.  Posted every two weeks to comp.os.linux.
   Contains information about the current status for included projects.

Legalese
   Trademarks are owned by their owners.  Satisfaction not guaranteed.
   No warranties about this document.
Xref: bloom-picayune.mit.edu comp.os.linux:18315 news.answers:4211
Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!julienas!corton!geocub!labri.greco-prog.fr!corsini
From: [e-mail]
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,news.answers
Subject: Linux Frequently Asked Questions 1/4 [monthly posted]
Summary: Linux, a small and free unix for 386-AT computers.
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 24 Nov 92 23:21:56 GMT
Expires: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 23:00:00 GMT
Sender: [e-mail] (Marc-Michel CORSINI)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Followup-To: poster
Organization: Greco Prog. CNRS & LaBRI, Bordeaux France
Lines: 1468
Approved: [e-mail]
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>

Archive-name: linux-faq/part1
Last-Modified: 92/11/20
Version: 1.11

*********************************************************
*                            *
*   Answers to Frequently asked questions about Linux   *
*                            *
*********************************************************

This post contains Part 1 of the Linux FAQ (4 parts)


Hi Linuxers!

The original FAQ 1st version was posted on Dec. 19, 1991 by Robert Blum.

Most credits of this work to Linus, Robert and Ted. The first X11
section was written by Peter Hawkins, the rest was either on the list
posted by many (real) activists, not me ;-), either in some other news
groups, or else by direct posting to me (thanks Humberto, Dan,
Michael, Drew, Audoin). I haven't systematically copyrighted them, so
thanks to every one who participated even indirectly to this FAQ.

Since September 1992, the FAQ is co-written by:

WHO             (WHAT)         E-MAIL
=============================================================================
Lars Wirzenius         (META-FAQ)     [e-mail]
Mark Komarinski     (DOS)          [e-mail]
Matt Welsh        (GENERAL INFO)    [e-mail]
A. V. Le Blanc        (MCC, DOS)    [e-mail]
Matt Welsh        (INSTALLATION)    [e-mail]
Drew Eckhardt        (SCSI)        headrest.woz.colorado.edu
Hongjiu Lu        (GCC)        [e-mail]
Krishna Balasubramanian (X11)        [e-mail]
Jim Gifford        (SERIAL)    jgifford@{attmail,world.std}.com
Zane Healy        (BBS INFO)    [e-mail]
Philip Copeland        (NET INFO)    [e-mail]
Rick Miller        (DEVICE INFO)    [e-mail]
Peter MacDonald        (SLS INFO)    [e-mail]
Rick Sladkey        (EMACS)        [e-mail]
Dirk Hohndel        (PROOF READER)    [e-mail]
Marc-Michel Corsini    (FAQ collector)    corsini@{labri,firmin}.greco-prog.fr
=============================================================================

If anyone is interested in participating with this FAQ, just send me a
note with: your name/e-mail and the section you want to maintain.

Many of the questions could be avoided, if people had read the FAQ of
the following newsgroups: news.announce.newusers, comp.lang.c,
gnu.emacs.help,  comp.unix.questions.

[The last-change-date of this posting is always "two minutes ago".  :-)]

This is the introduction to a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ
for short) about Linux with answers (Yeap!).  This article contains a
listing of the sections, followed by the question/answer part.

This FAQ is supposed to reduce the noise level ;-) in the comp.os.linux
newsgroup, and spare the time of many activists. I will cross-post it each
month to news.answers. This FAQ is NOT an introduction to UNIX, there
are many books for unix, and there is *also* a FAQ for unix (it's the
one of comp.unix.questions which contains things such as "How do I
remove a file named -". I DO NOT WANT TO ADD SUCH THINGS IN THIS FAQ
DEVOTED TO LINUX.

Some books to read:
  The C Programming Language: Kernighan & Ritchie.
  Unix System Administration Handbook: Nemeth, Snyder & Seebass.
  Unix for the Impatient: Abrahams & Larson.
  Unix System V Release 4, An Introduction, by Rosen, Rosinski and
    Farber; Publisher Osborne MacGraw-Hill.
  The X Windows System in a Nutshell: O'Reilly.
.....

BTW This FAQ is available at the main Linux sites in the doc
directory, the addresses are given in section II. of this FAQ. There
is also an automated FAQ mailserver archive at pit-manager.mit.edu.
Send mail to [e-mail] with the word "help" in
the body.

Please suggest any change, rephrasing, deletions, new questions,
answers ...
Please include "FAQ" in the subject of messages sent to me about FAQ.
Please use [e-mail] whatever will be the From part
of this message. Finally discussion about the FAQ can be done on the
DOC Channel (see section II below).


Thanks in advance,
                Marc

Future Plan:

    - reorganization of the FAQ. I don't know what will be the
    next step of this, may be numbering and subsectionning.

================================8<=====8<==============================
CONTENTS
    0.    WARNINGS                (part1)
    I.    LINUX GENERAL INFORMATION        (part1)
    II.    LINUX USEFUL ADDRESSES            (part1)
    III.    INSTALLATION and COMMON PROBLEMS    (part1)
    IV.    LINUX and DOS                (part2)
    V.    SOME CLASSICAL PROBLEMS            (part2)
    VI.    MISCELLANEOUS HINTS            (part2)
    VII.    MORE HINTS                (part2)
    VIII.    FEATURES                (part3)
    IX.    GCC MISC INFORMATION            (part3)
    X.    SCSI SPECIAL                (part3)
    XI.    X11, THE MINIMUM and MORE        (part4)
    XII.    NETWORKING and LINUX            (part4)
    XIII.    EMACS dor LINUX                (part4)

0. WARNINGS
===========

The FAQ contains a lot of information sometimes I've put it down
in 3 different ways because people seems not to understand what they
read (or what I wrote, you know I'm just a froggy and english is not
my natural language). What I mean is that not all is in the FAQ but
many things are there, so please just take time to read it this will
spare a lot of the other linuxers [and if you think I should rephrase
some Q/A just drop me a note with the corrections].

As the Linux kernel changes monthly, I define 2 pseudo variables a la
C one for the version, and one for the date of the release.

#define CURRENT_VERSION    0.98     /* the current version */
#define PATCH_LEVEL       5        /* the patch level */
#define KERNEL_DATE       15, Nov. /* Date of the CURRENT_VERSION */

In what follows I'll consider CURRENT_VERSION as the current version.

Below is the information provided by Lars Wirzenius on the LINUXNEWS
Channel: "Linux News, a summary. Issue #5"

November 9.  Linus announced kernel version 0.98 patchlevel 4.
   The most important changes are:
   * The inode caching bug (resulting in bad filesystem info when
mounting/umounting devices) should be gone for good.
   * Bug fix of a race-condition in the filesystem (which may have
caused people to get occasional fsck errors).
   * Math emulator fixes (mainly for the re-entrancy problem)
   * NR_OPEN was changed from 32 to 256 (this will break GNU Emacs,
the term program, and possibly other programs; a recompilation should
fix things).
   * the process kernel stack is now on a separate page (needed due to
   * Changes in kernel data structures (these require a new ps)
   * System call tracing
   * Changes to networking (tcp/ip, some nfs)
   FTP: nic.funet.fi: pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/ (presumably on other
sites too, by now), files linux-0.98.4.tar.Z (complete source),
linux-0.98.patch4.Z (patches against pl3).  Also ps-diff.Z, patches by
Linus to ps-0.98 that should fix ps to work with 0.98.4.
   (Source: <[e-mail]>)

November 15.  Linus announced kernel version 0.98 patchevel 5.
   This version fixes a swap-partition bug in pl4.  The symptoms where
incorrect swapping with a partition, e.g. xterm could dump core when
swapping was enabled and you typed at the keyboard.
   This version also checks against writing to the text segment (i.e.
program code).  This will break some binaries, especially some very,
very old ones that were compiled using the estdio library (this
library is no longer used in Linux).  If previously well-working
programs suddenly start to dump core, this might be the reason.
   There are also some other changes.
   See also 0.98.4 announcement above.
   FTP: nic.funet.fi: pub/OS/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/.
   (Source: <[e-mail]>)



I. LINUX GENERAL INFORMATION
=============================
*** This section is maintained by Matt Welsh ([e-mail]). Mail
*** him if you have corrections, additions, other questions, etc.
*** Last update November 1992.


QUESTION: What is linux?

ANSWER: Linux is a small unix for 386-AT computers, that has the added
advantage of being free(*). It is still in beta-testing, but is slowly
getting useful even for somewhat real developement.  The current
version is CURRENT_VERSION, date: KERNEL_DATE.

(*) Free means that you may use it, change it , redistribute it, as
long as you don't change the copyright. Free does not mean public
domain.


Linux is a freely distributable UNIX clone.  It implements a subset of
System V and POSIX functionality, and contains a lot of BSD-isms.
LINUX has been written from scratch, and therefore does not contain
any AT&T or MINIX code--not in the kernel, the compiler, the
utilities, or the libraries.  For this reason it can be made available
with the complete source code via anonymous FTP.  LINUX runs only on
386/486 AT-bus machines; porting to non-Intel architectures is likely
to be difficult, as the kernel makes extensive use of 386 memory
management and task primitives.


QUESTION: Does Linux support GCC, TCP/IP, X-Windows, MGR, etc.?

ANSWER: Linux currently supports and uses a large amount of the GNU
software (i.e. GCC, bison, groff, etc) so all of that functionality is
there. X-Windows is also available, along with many client
applications. MGR is there too. TCP/IP is in testing, and is available
for you to try out.

(Dirk Hohndel:) TCP/IP is available. I use Linux boxes as Xterminals
and my "own" asterix has mounted half a Gig via NFS. Mitch DSuoza is
running an anonymous FTP server on his Linux box. This is definitely
more than testing. The newest SLS  has a TCP/IP kernel by default.


See section VIII of this FAQ ("Features")!

In short, Linux supports many, many features and programs. One of the
biggest questions is:
    "Does ***** work on Linux? Does Linux have *****?"
The answer, usually, is "yes". Just check out the rest of this FAQ,
the newsgroup, as well as the files on the FTP sites.


QUESTION: What is the current state of Linux?

ANSWER: read the comp.os.linux newsgroup, where the INFO-SHEET is
periodically posted.


QUESTION: I've just heard about linux, what should I do to get it?

ANSWER: FIRST read this FAQ, and especially section III (installation).
Choose a "release" of Linux (such as MCC, SLS, bootdisk/rootdisk, etc).
Download from your nearest FTP site, use the "rawrite" program as needed
to write the images to high-density floppies (5.25 or 3.5). Specific
instructions are given in section III and in the README files for each
release.

Note that some releases only give you the kernel and a few utilities, and
others give you everything you need (including X11, GCC, and more) in
that latter case the downloading is close to a douzen of SOFT. Just
check out section III for more info.


QUESTION: Does it run on my computer?

ANSWER: Linux has been written on a clone-386, with IDE drives and a VGA
screen. It should work on most similar setups. The harddisk should be
AT-standard, and the system must be ISA. (though *some* EISA success
has been reported [T. Koenig], Linux doesn't take advantage of the EISA
structure).  A high density floppy drive -- either 5.25" or 3.5"-- is
required.

{Drew's information:
Linux supports anything that's register compatable with a WD1003 MFM
disk controller (ie, the original PC-AT disk controller.)  Most AT
MFM, RLL, ESDI, and IDE setups look like this.

XT compatable disk controllers won't work.

Generally, the rule is if you have the disk configured into the
CMOS setup of your machine, it will work (because the BIOS is talking
to a WD 1003 compatable board), otherwise it won't.}

IDE and MFM seem to work with no problem. It works, also, for some
ESDI drive (you might have to comment out the "unexpected hd
interrupt"-message from hd.c). There exists a high-level SCSI driver,
under which low-level drivers are placed; a ST-01/ST-02 low driver has
been completed see the FEATURES and the USEFUL ADDRESSES sections.


Otherwise the requirements seem relatively small: a 386 (SX, DX or any
486).  Any video card of the following: Hercules, CGA, EGA, (S)VGA.

It needs at least 2M to run (with SWAP), and 4M is definitely a plus.
It can happily use up to 16M (and more if you want).

BTW There are problems with some MAXTOR drives on high speed machines
(sometimes switching off "turbo" helps). There may also be a problem
with "slow" memory (under 60ns) on fast  machines. Again, the solution
is to turn off "turbo". Mixed SIMMs (3 and 9 chip versions) have also
reported to be problematic.

NOTE1: It doesn't run (yet?) on a MCA machine
NOTE2: There is a driver for XT but not very useable.
NOTE3: There is also a support for 8514 and S3.

QUESTION: Why the suggested 4Meg, for Linux?

ANSWER: Linux uses the first 640k for kernel text, kernel data and
buffercache. Your mother board may eat up 384K because of the chipset.
Moreover there is: init/login, a shell, update possibly other daemons.
Then, while compiling there is make and gcc (2.01 ~770k).
So you don't have enough real memory and have to page.


QUESTION: How would this operate in an OS/2 environment?

ANSWER: Linux will coexist with *ANY* other operating system(s) which
respects the "standard" PC partionning scheme - this includes Dos,
Os/2, Minix etc.

WARNING: Linux and OS/2 *can* co-exist on the same machine. BUT, you
cannot use Linux's fdisk to make Linux partitions! See the warnings in
section III about Linux and OS/2.


QUESTION: Will linux run on a PC or 286-AT? If not, why?

ANSWER: Linux uses the 386 chip protected mode functions extensively,
and is a true 32-bit operating system. Thus x86 chips, x<3, will
simply not run it.


QUESTION: Will Linux run on a 386 Laptop?

ANSWER: It works, including X on most of them.


QUESTION: (Dan) How long has Linux been publicly available?

ANSWER (partial): Few months, v0.10 went out in Nov. 91, v0.11 in Dec.
and the current version CURRENT_VERSION is available since KERNEL_DATE.
But even it is pretty recent it is quite reliable. There are very few and
small bugs and in its current state it is mostly useful for people who
are willing to port code and write new code. As Linux is very close to a
reliable/stable system, Linus decided that v0.13 will be known as v0.95.
Believe it or not: the whole story started (nearly) with two processes
that printed AAAA... and BBBB...
BTW consult the digest#136 Vol2 for a complete story.


QUESTION: What is the proper pronounciation for "Linux"?

ANSWER: (Linus himself)
'li' is pronounced with a short [ee] sound: compare prInt, mInImal etc.
'nux' is also short, non-diphtong, like in pUt.  It's partly due to
minix: linux was just my working name for the thing, and as I wrote it
to replace minix on my system, the result is what it is...  linus' minix
became linux.

I originally intended it to be called freax (although buggix was one
contender after I got fed up with some of the more persistent bugs :)
and I think the kernel makefiles up to version 0.11 had something to
that effect ("Makefile for the freax kernel" in a comment).  But arl
called the linux directory at nic.funet.fi pub/OS/Linux, and the name
stuck.  Maybe just as well: freax doesn't sound too good either (freax
is obviosly free + freak + the obligatory -x).

(Rick's note for English speakers:  Linux - "LIH-nuhks".)


QUESTION: What's about the copyright of linux?

ANSWER: This is an except of the RELEASE Notes v.095a: Linux is
NOT public domain software, but is copyrighted by Linus Torvalds. The
copyright conditions are the same as those imposed by the GNU
copyleft: The GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, June 1991 is part
of the source tree.


QUESTION: Should I be a UNIX and/or a DOS wizard to install/use Linux?

ANSWER: Not at all, just follow the install rules, of course it will be
easier for you if you know things about Unix. Right now Linux is used
by more than BIGNUM persons, very few of them enhance the kernel, some
adds/ports new soft, most of us are only (but USEFUL) beta testers.
Last but not least, various Linuxers work on manpages, newuser_help,
file-system organization. So join us and choose your "caste".

It is even used in production environments (Dr. G.W. Wettstein)


QUESTION: Does Linux use TSS segments to provide multitasking?

ANSWER: Yes!


QUESTION: If my PC runs under Linux, is it possible to ftp, rlogin,
rsh etc.. to other Unix boxes?

ANSWER: Kermit and ka9q have both been ported to Linux. Also, TCP/IP is
quite reliable, only a few clients are missing.
Read section XII. devoted to Ethernet and Linux.


QUESTION: Does linux do paging? Can I have virtual memory on my small
machine?

ANSWER: Yes, it does. Generally you set up a swap file or partition, and
enable it with the "swapon" command. Voila! Virtual memory.


QUESTION: Can I have tasks spanning the full 4GB of addressable 386
memory? No more 64kB limits like in coherent or standard minix?

ANSWER: Since 0.97pl? it uses 4 GB Process Space, 3 for userspace and
1 for the kernel space.


QUESTION: Does the bigger program sizes mean I can run X?

ANSWER: Yes! See section XI below for details on X11.


QUESTION: What are the differences, pros and cons compared to Minix ?

ANSWER (partial):
Cons:
- Linux only works on 386 and 486 processors.
- Linux needs 2M of memory just to run, 4M to be useful.
- Linux is a more traditional unix kernel, it doesn't use message
passing.

Pros:
- Linux is free, and freely distributable, BUT copyrighted.
- Linux has some advanced features such as:
  - Memory paging with copy-on-write
  - Demand loading of executables
  - Page sharing of executables
  - Multi-threaded file system
  - job control and virtual memory, virtual consoles and pseudo-ttys.
- Linux is a more traditional unix kernel, it doesn't use message
passing.


QUESTION: What are the pros and cons compared to 386BSD ?

ANSWER: Linux and 386BSD started out as completely different projects,
with completely different goals and design criteria in mind. Personally,
my experience with 386BSD has shown that :
(a) its TCP/IP is more stable, and seems to work (on my NE2000 card,
which Linux doesn't support yet), but
(b) the interface and "feel" just wern't the same as Linux (which I liked
better :) ). You'll have to try it out for yourself. Here's information
from comp.unix.bsd, September 1992:

| This is a free BSD for the 386.  It does NFS and X.
| Grab it from agate.berkeley.edu (128.32.136.1).
| Bill Jolitz is writing a book on it.
|
| It has a neat, small kernel, and is stable enough to run for a week or
| more without crashing/hanging. It works fine with 4MB RAM and 80MB
| disk.  Running X however needs 8MB RAM, and supports only vanilla VGA.
| The TCP/IP implementation in this is functional, but not optimised.
| This means that FTP throughput is about 5KB/sec on Ethernet, when
| almost anything else gives you about 70KB to 100KB per second.
|
| Read comp.unix.bsd. That is almost entirely Jolitz's 386BSD now.
|
|    3. How much disk space for:
|    *kernel
|    *X
|    *source to kernel
|    *source to X
|        Binary only:    49 M (30 disk, 5 swap, 14 extraction)
|        Source:         125 M (49 bin, 37 disk, +6 extraction, 25 recompile)
|        User software:  +51 M
|
|    X Binaries require about 61 Meg (?)
|    I don't know about the sources.


To conclude this Q/A wrt Linux vs 386BSD, you should read the Linux News
Issue #5 of L. Wirzenius, where a true story of Mark W. Eichin is
reported.


QUESTION: How much space will Linux take up on my hard drive?

ANSWER: It depends on which release you choose. See the section
INSTALLATION below. Usually it's somewhere between 10 megs (for a
nominal system+swap space) and 30-40 megs (for everything plus space
for user directories, etc.).

BTW the full SLS needs around 60 MB (including TeX and other goodies).

II. LINUX USEFUL ADDRESSES
=========================

II.A. LINUX ON THE NET: ftp, mailing-list
II.B. OBTAINING LINUX FROM BBS'S: everything about bbs

II.A. LINUX ON THE NET
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTION: Where can I get linux?

ANSWER: Linux (all the software, binaries, sources, releases, and so on),
can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from :

[ Major sites ]
EUROPE:
    nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100):
        directory /pub/OS/Linux
    ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de (131.159.0.110)
        directory /pub/Linux

US:
    tsx-11.mit.edu (18.172.1.2):
        directory /pub/linux
    sunsite.unc.edu (152.2.22.81):
        directory /pub/Linux

[ Mirroring sites (some of them, there are lots now) ]
AUSTRALIA:
    kirk.bu.oz.au (131.244.1.1)
        directory /pub/OS/Linux
EUROPE:
        src.doc.ic.ac.uk (146.169.3.7):
        directory /pub/os/Linux
    ftp.mcc.ac.uk (130.88.200.7):
        directory pub/linux
    ftp.dfv.rwth-aachen.de (137.226.4.105):
        directory /pub/linux
    ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de (137.226.112.172):
        directory /pub/Linux
    ftp.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de (134.169.34.15):
        directory /pub/os/linux

US:
    wustl.wuarchive.edu (128.252.135.4):
        directory /pub/mirrors4/linux
    ftp.eecs.umich.edu (141.212.99.7):
        directory linux
JAPAN:
    utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp (133.11.11.11):
        directory misc/linux

You might want to check out which of these is the most up-to-date.
Note that banjo.concert.net is no longer a Linux ftp site :(

If you have no FTP capability, you are in trouble. See the next Q/A.
Also, you'll need the "UNCOMP.EXE" and "RAWRITE2.EXE" programs for DOS
(to make your install disks). These are usually found in the Linux
directories on the above FTP sites.


QUESTION: I do not have FTP access, what can I do to get linux?

ANSWER: You can either read the next subsection related to BBS's
otherwise, read the following.

The SLS release is distributable by snail-mail on floppies for those
without net access; see the SLS section in section III of this FAQ for
more.

Try to contact a friend on the net with those access, or try
mailserver/ftpmail server otherwise contact [e-mail]. You
might try mailing "[e-mail]" with "help" in the body of
the mail.  If you choose ftpmail server (example: [e-mail]),
with "help" in the body, the server will send back instructions and
command list. As an exemple to get the list of files available at tsx-11
in /pub/linux send:

        mail [e-mail]
        subject: anything
        reply <your e-mail>
        connect tsx-11.mit.edu
        chdir /pub/linux
        dir -R
        quit

In Europe ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de is accessible via e-mail (send
"help" in the body to [e-mail])


QUESTION: Is there a newsgroup or mailing-list about linux? Where can
I get my questions answered? How about bug-reports?

ANSWER: The comp.os.linux newsgroup is literally *teeming* with postings.
So, to the first question, yes. :) The older newsgroup, alt.os.linux,
is being phased out and shouldn't be used anymore.

If you don't have news access you can get the digest of postings via
e-mail from: [e-mail]. This list is
gatewayed to the newsgroup as well. Only use the 'request' address for
subscribe/unsubscribe messages; don't post those to the newsgroup or to
the actual mailing list.