Q40/Linux Journal

A Periodic Publication from Tim Swenson (swensont@lanset.com)
Special First Issue Hard Copy Edition
INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the first issue of the Q40/Linux Journal.  
It is the intention of this journal to be an informal 
publication, documenting the differences of running 
Q40/Linux versus regular Linux.

The aim of the Journal is to cover topics that apply 
directly to running Linux on the Q40.  General 
questions about how to create user accounts, how to 
change file permissions, etc. are best left to the
whole horde of Linux books available.  The Journal 
will focus on topics such as;  using the sound on the 
Q40 with Linux, support for ethernet cards, features 
of the newly ported kernals, what packages have 
been tested and work on the Q40, and so on.

The audience of the Journal is from the experience 
Unix user (and know that there is still a lot to learn) 
and the relative newcomer to Unix this is trying 
Linux because it is available on the Q40.  My first 
goal is to document the things that I want to know 
and adding other areas when readers have areas that 
they would like to see covered.

I plan to use the ql-developers mailing list to 
distribute the Journal and to keep past issues on my 
web page.  I doubt that I can keep the Journal on a 
set schedule, so I'll start off by not promising a
schedule and that the Journal will come out 
occasionally.


WINDOW MANAGERS

A Window Manager is better known as a Desktop.  It 
is the graphical front end to the system.  Under 
Linux, there are a number of different  window 
managers available, giving users an almost unlisted 
amount of choices on how to make the desktop look 
and feel.  For some users, discussion of which 
window manager is better is a heated debate, similar 
to arguing which editor is better.

Switching Between Window Managers

The Q40/Linux CD comes with a number of 
Window Managers.  The one started by default is 
FVWM95 and provides a Windows95 kind of  look 
for the desktop.  The other desktops are FVWM, 
FVWM2, AfterStep, WindowMaker, Lesstiff, and 
TWM.  GNOME and KDE are popular window 
managers not included on the distribution CD.

The way to start X windows and a desktop is this:

   % startx

The startx script runs .xinitrc (first locally and then 
in  /usr/bin/X11R6/xinit/).  Then .Xclients is run 
(again locally or in the root X11 directory).  This 
calls RunWm which then executes the window 
manager of choice.  Which window manager to run 
is listed in the .wm_style file.  

To define which window manager is used, edit the 
.wm_style file with one of the following lines:

   AfterStep
   fvwm95
   WindowMaker
   Lesstif
   fvwm
   tvm

For more information on the window managers, how 
to use and configure them, see the following web 
pages:

   fvwm  & fvwm2 - www.fvwm.org
   fvwm95 - ftp://mitac11.uia.ac.be/html-
test/fvwm95.html
   Afterstep - www.afterstep.org
   WindowMaker - www.windowmaker.org

For a web page that covers the different window 
managers, goto:
   www.plig.org/~xwinman/

RPM PACKAGES

Red Hat Package Modules (RPM) is becoming a 
standard way of distributing applications in Linux.  
In the past, tar files were the standard, with  each 
vendor (Sun, SGI, HP) developing thier own way of 
creating a package management facility.

RPM packages come in either a binary or source 
form.  A binary form means that it contains pre-
compiled binaires for a specific architecture.   A 
source form means that it contains the source code
used to create the  binary package.

With Q40/Linux we can use three different RPM 
packages, source, no-arch, and m68k.  A no-arch 
package is loadable on all architectures and is 
usually shell or perl scripts.  An m68k package has
pre-compiled binaries for the m68k architecture.  
Both the no-arch and m68k packages do not need 
any  additional work to have then run on the Q40.  A 
source package needs to be recompiled before it will 
work on the Q40.

Each RPM package comes with a .spec file that 
defines some aspects of that package.  Usually the 
.spec file is configured to know how to recreate a 
binary package from the source package.  This 
means that if there is no  m68k package for an 
application, but there is a source package, we can 
download the source package, run some RPM 
commands, and end up with a  m68k package, ready 
to be installed.

To recompile a source package do the following:

   rpm -ihv package.src.rpm
   rpm -ba /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/package.spec

The binary package will then reside in the 
/usr/src/redhat/RPMS/ directory and can then be 
installed.

In some cases, the .spec file is seriously lacking the 
information necessary to recompile the package.  
Some package has not been modified to work fully as 
an RPM and have other ways to install.  With
some you may need to do a 'configure' and then 
'make'.  'configure' is a well used tool that 
determines what c compiler, c libraries, and such 
things, are available on a system and then creates the 
proper Makefile for the application.  Then, once 
'make' is run, the application is ready for use.

Before installing any RPM's, you will need to add a 
line to the file /usr/lib/rpm/rpmrc:

   arch_compat:  m68k  :  noarch

Without this, the 'rpm' software will tell you that an 
m68k is not the right architecture for the Q40.  This 
line defines what architectures can be installed on 
the Q40.

TESTED RPM 
PACKAGES

   pente-2.2.0-1.src.rpm
      This is the board game called Pente.
        unzipped with gzip
        untarred it
        'configure'
        'make'

   xpinguin-1.0-1.src.rpm
      This displays Tux, the Linux penguin, on the 
screen for you to move about with the mouse.

      added 'touch xpinguin.c' to the spec file just 
before the 'make'
 
SOURCE OF RPM 
PACKAGES

RPM packages can come from two different sources, 
CD-ROM and the Net. For finding RPM packages 
on the Net, try www.rpmfind.net.  This is the main 
online repository for most RPM packages.

The difficulty in downloading RPM's off the Net is 
the time it takes to download a huge package over a 
relatively slow phone line.  Getting packages off of 
CD-ROM can sometimes be easier.  A good source 
of cheap source CD-ROMS is www.cheapbytes.com.  
A number of CD's are available for $2 each, and 
even some are free.  I was able to pick up 8 CD's for 
under $20 (including  shipping).  Some of the better 
CD's I bought were:

     CheapBytes Linux Source CD containing Red 
Hat 6.1
     CheapBytes Red Hat 6.2 Source CD
     CheapBytes Games Archive CD Edition 1
     Packages Galoree Edition 3
     CheapBytes Miscellaneous Archive CD Edition 1