If you are using SUSE just boot up in to single user mode or runlevel
1 and then you can reset your password.

Or,if you are not the SUSE user, then post your Linux distro name,may
be I can find the answer.
--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, "masudiiuc" <masudiiuc@...> wrote:
>
> suppose  i have a password for root user and i forget the
> password.therefore i can't login to that account. basically we use the
> startup position where we select whether we enter to windows or linux.
> then we press the e to edit the boot information. But the prompt also
> password protected and i forget that password also. then how can i
> enter to my linux operating system??
>
> Can anyone has a reliable solution???????????????
>

Glyn Moody writes a nice article on Google. Google, one of the main
warrior in open source world. The architecture of Google is so large
and complex, and day by day they show their power and strength.

I just want to give one example about the Google technology, I think
you all are the user of Gmail. In Gmail, there are so many complex and
extraordinary works are done by Google. You should hear about the
Ajax. Google fully utilized this ajax technology. Later, we will
discuss about Gmail.

Ok, today I found the nice article on Google. Read the entire article,
may be you can get some clue about Google world.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000076

Yes,this is one of the nice poll and I guess this poll will shows what
is the favourite language of developer or programmmer??

Although,the subject of this poll is old but nevertheless as a new
group we can discuss about this in here.

Keep voting.....

--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com wrote:
>
>
> Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
> linuxwarrior group:
>
> Which Language is the backbone of Programming in Any Plateform???
>
>   o C/C++
>   o JAVA
>   o PHP
>   o PASCAL
>   o FORTAN
>
>
> To vote, please visit the following web page:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linuxwarrior/surveys?id=1655921
>
> Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
> not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
> web site listed above.
>
> Thanks!
>

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
linuxwarrior group:

Which Language is the backbone of Programming in Any Plateform???

   o C/C++
   o JAVA
   o PHP
   o PASCAL
   o FORTAN


To vote, please visit the following web page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linuxwarrior/surveys?id=1655921

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, "Sazib Rahaman" <sazib_ctg@...>
wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
>  I am a programmer on Microsoft Track. But now i am feeling interst on
> Open Source Technologies (Linux, PHP, MySQL etc.). How can I grow my
> skill on opne source technologies?
>

You can collect books:
                       1. php/mysql bibile
or
you can visit the www.php.net website for php 5.0 documentation. Its
free. it will give maximum help for learning PHP/Mysql.

first study this one of the material. then forward to advanced PHP

N:B: if you good in C/C++ then it doesn't matter.

suppose  i have a password for root user and i forget the
password.therefore i can't login to that account. basically we use the
startup position where we select whether we enter to windows or linux.
then we press the e to edit the boot information. But the prompt also
password protected and i forget that password also. then how can i
enter to my linux operating system??

Can anyone has a reliable solution???????????????

Anyone have some good idea about the encryption method md5??I need
some good tutorial or information about md5.

Sumi

Hello,

This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the linuxwarrior
group.

   File        : /telnet.doc
   Uploaded by : arnold_cse <arnold_cse@...>
   Description : Telnet Command Line List

You can access this file at the URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linuxwarrior/files/telnet.doc

To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/files

Regards,

arnold_cse <arnold_cse@...>

Yup, your link is cool. I fully read and agree with the article's
vision.But the problem is Linux also don't like to be a Windows. It's
a common question from all newbie that why Linux is not like Windows
Operating system??

There is a nice example of this question. You can define Linux as a
car and Windows as a Motorbike.

"Linux/Cars were designed from the group up for multiple
users/passengers. Windows/Motorbike were designed for one user/Passenger."
"Every Windows user/motorbike driver is used to being in full control
of his computer/vehicle at all times. But a Linux user/car passenger
is used to only being in full control of his computer/vehicle when
logged in as root/sitting in the driver's seat."

Hahaha….what a nice example.

Here is link where I quote this example….
http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

But Once again, kray you figure out a nice topic.


--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, kray blue <sl_ime@...> wrote:
>
> http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7886275455.html
>
> ~kray | 418871
> learn the rules so you know how to break them properly -unknown
>

Enter your vote today!  A new poll has been created for the
linuxwarrior group:

What's your favourite platform for web application or development??

   o LAMP
   o WAMP


To vote, please visit the following web page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linuxwarrior/surveys?id=1655027

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the Yahoo! Groups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

Nope,you can't gain your root password using your User account.There
is no way to retrive password as a normal user.

--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, "Ras" <sumi_s140681@...> wrote:
>
>
> Thanks all of you for the nice reply. Yes, I solve the root password
> problem according your post. But I have another question is there any
> other way to get root password I mean using user account can I
> retrieve my root one??
>
>
> --- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, "S.A.M HARUN" <sam_harun@> wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> > you can just as easily change root's password with out the use of
a CD.
> >
> >  reboot the box
> >  at the boot loader do the following:
> >
> >  LILO:
> >  linux init=/bin/bash
> >
> >  GRUB:
> >  type 'e' to edit the default kernel line
> >  then 'e' again on the line that starts with 'kernel'
> >  add 'init=/bin/bash' to the end of the 'kernel' line
> >  <ENTER>
> >  type 'b' to boot it
> >
> >  once you're at a /bin/bash prompt...
> >
> >  remount the filesystem read/write (will be ro when bin/bash'ing)
> >
> >  # mount -o remount,rw /
> >
> >  then change the passwd
> >
> >  # passwd root
> >
> >  remount the filesystem read/only (keep things clean)
> >
> >  # mount -o remount,ro /
> >
> >  CTR-ALT-DELETE (though this will result in a kernel panic most
likely)
> >
> >  reboot the system and you should be good to go.
> >
> >  This however will not work if you've locked down the boot loader
> and have misplaced that password as well.
> >   ok , bye
> >
> >
> > S.A.M Harun.
> > Software Engineer,
> > EVOKNOW Bangladesh Ltd.
> > Gulshan,Dhaka.
> > website:- http://www.evoknow.com
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls.
> Great rates starting at 1¢/min.
> >
>

Thanks all of you for the nice reply. Yes, I solve the root password
problem according your post. But I have another question is there any
other way to get root password I mean using user account can I
retrieve my root one??


--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, "S.A.M HARUN" <sam_harun@...> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> you can just as easily change root's password with out the use of a CD.
>
>  reboot the box
>  at the boot loader do the following:
>
>  LILO:
>  linux init=/bin/bash
>
>  GRUB:
>  type 'e' to edit the default kernel line
>  then 'e' again on the line that starts with 'kernel'
>  add 'init=/bin/bash' to the end of the 'kernel' line
>  <ENTER>
>  type 'b' to boot it
>
>  once you're at a /bin/bash prompt...
>
>  remount the filesystem read/write (will be ro when bin/bash'ing)
>
>  # mount -o remount,rw /
>
>  then change the passwd
>
>  # passwd root
>
>  remount the filesystem read/only (keep things clean)
>
>  # mount -o remount,ro /
>
>  CTR-ALT-DELETE (though this will result in a kernel panic most likely)
>
>  reboot the system and you should be good to go.
>
>  This however will not work if you've locked down the boot loader
and have misplaced that password as well.
>   ok , bye
>
>
> S.A.M Harun.
> Software Engineer,
> EVOKNOW Bangladesh Ltd.
> Gulshan,Dhaka.
> website:- http://www.evoknow.com
>
> ---------------------------------
> Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls.
Great rates starting at 1¢/min.
>

Most of the time I see there is a rapid development in network arena.
That's why many new IT professionals want to get some basic knowledge
in network. Whatever we see in our university life that is theory and
theory but the real world is very tough. So therefore we should get
some primary knowledge that I mean practical and theory both on network.

I read some nice tutorial on networking and this is really basics in
my view. Today I post a networking basics tutorial that was published
in LinuxToday.com. Mainly they cover 5 things in the article, these are:-

How to Setup a Home Network Using Static Addresses
Securing Your Network by Filtering MAC Addresses
Using Both Static Addresses and DHCP
Network Configuration Files in Linux

So here is the Link:
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2006-08-06-003-26-OS-HL-NT

Yup, there are two ways to solve the problem.

1. Boot your system in single user mode. (I guess this is easy way)

To solve the root password that you forgot is to boot your system in
single user mode.

If you are using LILO, in LILO boot prompt (graphical LILO users can
press Ctrl-x to exit the graphical screen and go to the boot: prompt),
now enter this one:
                   code:
                   linux single

This will make you the "root" user without asking for a password. you
can change the root password using the password command:
                  code:
                  passwd
In this way you can set your new root password in the system

Another way is ….

2. Boot the system from linux installation CD(I guess this is the hard
way)

Boot the live-CD then go to a terminal and su to root (no password is
required) then issue the following commands (be sure to replace each
/hda1 with your own root partition device):

Code:
mount -o dev,rw /mnt/hda1

cd /mnt/hda1/etc

Use any text editor like (vim, nano, pico, etc.) to edit the
/etc/shadow file where the password is stored. There are various
information about root and user accounts is kept in this plain-text
file but we are only concerned with the password portion.

Ex: the /etc/shadow entry for the "root" account may look something
like this:


Code:
root:$1$aB7mx0Licb$CTbs2RQrfPHkz5Vna0.fnz8H68tB.:10852:0:99999:7:::

Now, use favorite editor (I'll use vim) delete the password hash. For
this example, the password is in green text and is all those
characters between the 1st and 2nd colons.

Code:
vim shadow

After you've edited this field, it should look like this:


Code:
root::10852:0:99999:7:::

Now save the file and change back to the root directory and unmount
the system root partition (don't forget to change the /hda1) as follows:

Code:
cd /
umount /mnt/hda1

Now reboot the computer.

After rebooting the system there will be the login prompt, type "root"
and when asked for the password just press ENTER (entering no
password). After a successful login, you need to set the new password
for root using the following command:


Code:
passwd


So, at last you set the root password in this way.

For Detail clarification you can check out the link. This will help
you a lot….
http://linuxgazette.net/107/tomar.html



--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, "Ras" <sumi_s140681@...> wrote:
>
> Is there any way to get the lost root password again? I don't want to
> reinstall my linux. How can I retrieve the root password??
>

Is there any way to get the lost root password again? I don't want to
reinstall my linux. How can I retrieve the root password??

Dear kray,
I read your post and this is really interesting one. Yesterday, I read
another news article on GPL 3 and this was published in
linux-watch.com . I think this also should read by all because there
is a large debate going on  GPL 3.

Check out the link http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7031382827.html

Good luck!!

--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, kray blue <sl_ime@...> wrote:
>
>
http://news.com.com/Torvalds+critical+of+new+GPL+draft/2100-7344_3-6099475.html
>
> try reading this article instead... it will give you a clear idea on
why he did so. also anonymous coward has commented on the issue(on
your provided link).. he clearly doesnt know what linus has to say.
>
> ~kray
> learn the rules so you know how to break them properly -unknown
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Ras <sumi_s140681@...>
> To: linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, 3 August, 2006 4:40:26 PM
> Subject: [linuxwarrior] Torvalds has rejected GPL
>
>                            Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linuxhas
rejected the latest draft
>  version of the General Public License (GPL)...
>
>  I don't know why reject the GPL draft,this is really not good for
>  us.Linux is an open source....why he rejects??
>
>  http://www.sda- asia.com/ sda/features/ psecom,id, 482,srn,2,
nodeid,4, _language, Singapore. html
>

Dear linuxwarrior friends,

We are proudly announce that we are linked with largest linux
community forum linuxquestions.org . Now we have bookmark in
LinuxQuestions forum. The supreme administrator of LinuxQuestions,
Mara helps us to get the link.

Oops, I forgot to give the link that we got from linuxquestion.org.
Here we go….
http://www.linuxquestions.org/bookmarks/

and see the title "linuxwarrior : linux community in South Asia"

Have a nice day!!

Regards,
LX
LinuxWarrior Group

Thanks kray for your link.Yes, the truth is out here.

--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, kray blue <sl_ime@...> wrote:
>
>
http://news.com.com/Torvalds+critical+of+new+GPL+draft/2100-7344_3-6099475.html
>
> try reading this article instead... it will give you a clear idea on
why he did so. also anonymous coward has commented on the issue(on
your provided link).. he clearly doesnt know what linus has to say.
>
> ~kray
> learn the rules so you know how to break them properly -unknown
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Ras <sumi_s140681@...>
> To: linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, 3 August, 2006 4:40:26 PM
> Subject: [linuxwarrior] Torvalds has rejected GPL
>
>                            Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linuxhas
rejected the latest draft
>  version of the General Public License (GPL)...
>
>  I don't know why reject the GPL draft,this is really not good for
>  us.Linux is an open source....why he rejects??
>
>  http://www.sda- asia.com/ sda/features/ psecom,id, 482,srn,2,
nodeid,4, _language, Singapore. html
>

Ya, it's good to see that Microsoft guy got some interest on open
source. One thing is so clear that we should have no boundary in
software arena, of course as a programmer or developer or what you
say. It's a common debate in whole world that who is strong, Microsoft
or Open Source; I don't want to talk now about this here. Later we can
discuss about that.

Yes, there are so many strong works on open source and so many
Companies like Apache, PHP, IBM, Google etc involved in open source
project. The largest Open Source Project repository site is
http://sourceforge.net , millions of OS projects use this site.

Ok, let's take a look some great works
1.PHP http://php.net
2.MySQL http://mysql.com
3.Apache http://apache.com
4.For Open Source Web Design www.oswd.org
5.http://opensource.org
and so many. Later if you need more I will send address all to you.

It's a big world and of course Open Source and Microsoft both is the
strong contender to win the race.

Let's share your some Microsoft experience with us…..


--- In linuxwarrior@yahoogroups.com, "Sazib Rahaman" <sazib_ctg@...>
wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
>  I am a programmer on Microsoft Track. But now i am feeling interst on
> Open Source Technologies (Linux, PHP, MySQL etc.). How can I grow my
> skill on opne source technologies?
>

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linuxhas rejected the latest draft
version of the General Public License (GPL)...

I don't know why reject the GPL draft,this is really not good for
us.Linux is an open source....why he rejects??

http://www.sda-asia.com/sda/features/psecom,id,482,srn,2,nodeid,4,_language,Sing\
apore.html

Hello,

  I am a programmer on Microsoft Track. But now i am feeling interst on
Open Source Technologies (Linux, PHP, MySQL etc.). How can I grow my
skill on opne source technologies?

Here we go again. IBM developerworks site
(http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks) got so many cool and fresh
articles on Linux. Today I just read this article and I guess it's one
of the finest article on radius server in Linux. You can try it in
your own machine…..

Go through this Link
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-radius/index.html

Lots of cool Linux resources will post in this group soon.
Keep in touch.

Linux on board: Breathe new life into an old machine

This Old Box: All it takes is a busted laptop, $50 a month, and Linux
	 developerWorks

Level: Introductory

Peter Seebach (dwlinux@...), Writer, Freelance

07 Jun 2005

     People say Linux™ can make old machines useful. Can it really? In
this new series, Peter Seebach takes a busted laptop and a
US$50-a-month budget and builds a household appliance that actually
does something worthwhile.

Editor's note: Welcome to the first of a new series of columns, Linux
on board. developerWorks columnist Peter Seebach will look at Linux
running on various kinds of hardware -- PDAs, embedded devices, or
just ancient hardware no one thought was useful anymore. The series
will alternate between looking at specific Linux devices and showing
you in detail how to set up Linux on decrepit hardware that's past its
reputed prime.

When people talk about Linux on old hardware, they generally mean
hardware a year or two old, stuff that is still pretty useful. The
hardware in question is in good shape, reasonably well maintained, and
possesses decent specs -- perhaps it's even an old server. For this
series, however, we'll be setting our sights a little lower.

Challenge number one

Enter, stage left, an old Gateway box (I mean no disrespect for
Gateway). In October of 1997, I spent nearly $3,000 on what was at the
time a top-of-the-line laptop. Boasting a Pentium® 133, 32 MB of
high-speed SDRAM, and an 800x600 TFT LCD display, the machine had 1.15
MB of video memory -- just enough to allow 16-bit color at the 800x600
resolution of its on-screen display.

I remember being in awe at how fast this machine was, coming to it as
I was from a 33 Mhz 68030 machine.

Well, that was eight years ago. A few years back, a glass of wine was
spilled on it. Fans of 1980s B movies will be disappointed to learn
that it did not attain sentience; all that happened was it needed to
be repaired. Unfortunately, the CardBus slots have never been the same
and are prone to errors. A run-in with an El-Al baggage handler some
years back left it with a cracked and unusable screen. The only
advantage it has is an additional 64 MB of memory, installed a year or
so before the run-in with the wine.

By current standards, this machine is a toy. You can buy embedded
systems from companies like Technologic with better basic
specifications and additional features such as built-in Ethernet. It's
not even fully functional anymore, to put it mildly.

So, the challenge here is to show that the machine can be made
reasonably usable. In this series, I'm going to build it into a sort
of useful household box.

Now, a challenge, even a self-imposed one, requires rules, and the
rules are simple -- I can spend no more than $50 per project. Since it
would take me 60 projects to catch up with the original cost of the
machine, I'm going to allow for "free" hardware (hardware that's at
least four years old and lying around unused). Otherwise, the spending
has to be accounted for. Oh, and downloads are free.


Setting up the hardware

The obvious concern is that the 2 GB disk the machine came with is
probably a little small. Luckily, I have a 6 GB disk lying around that
came originally in a 2000-vintage PowerBook G3 -- that's a bit over
four years, so it's within the rules. Installing the drive wasn't hard
at all, although I did manage to do it wrong the first time; the drive
was jumpered as a slave (I have no idea why). With that fixed, I now
have a machine with a 6 GB disk, last formatted on a Mac in 2001 or so
and obviously not bootable.

I have an LCD monitor I bought in 2001. It's a little too recent to be
kept (according to the rules), but I can "borrow" it during setup. The
monitor will be useful during setup, but I don't plan to keep it in
use once the system's up and running. The machine has a BIOS setting
for whether to use the external display, the internal one, or both. It
amuses me that the external setting is called "CRT" even though it
isn't a CRT.

With the monitor and the new hard drive connected, the machine is
ready to boot. Spinning it up reveals one problem -- the drive is
really loud, so it might be failing. But hey, it was free. And it'll
probably run for a few months.

All we need now is an operating system.


Downloading Linux

Remember, free downloads are considered free. I was originally
planning just to use my SUSE Linux install discs on this project, but
I ran into two problems. The first is that the system requirements
list 128 MB of RAM. The second is that I only have the DVD, and buying
a new boxed set would cost money.

I decide to be cheap and download. A bit of asking around turned up a
recommendation for a small, light, distro called Slackware.

Slackware's Web presence offers advice for people with 16 MB or less
of available memory. That sounded friendly to me. I downloaded
BitTorrent (a tool that enables "cooperative distribution" and reduces
bandwidth overload for the more popular downloads) and started
downloading the distribution CDs for Slackware 10.0. Next morning, I
burned some CDs. (Four of them, in fact. I got these a while back when
CD blanks cost money, so I'm calling them $.50 each.) Then I noticed
that Slackware 10.1 had just been released. Oops.

I downloaded the 10.1 CDs. A quick reminder: Don't just kill
BitTorrent when you're done downloading. The point of a cooperative
network is to offer something back to the community. Mere courtesy
dictates that you should leave it running until the amount of data
you've uploaded is at least equal to the amount you've downloaded.

Running the install

Once disc 1 of the new Slackware was available, I burned a copy and
started the install. This time, I only burned the two install CDs, not
the source CDs. Another day, another dollar.

The installer booted and found a disk drive on /dev/hdb. This is when
I discovered my drive was enslaved. After a few minutes with a
screwdriver and a tiny pair of pliers, I was on my way.

The Slackware installer is extremely lightweight. It's not a graphical
installer; it doesn't use a frame buffer driver or X or anything. It
tells you to partition your disk before running the installer, then
offers a login prompt.

There was not much guidance given about selecting partition sizes;
this was a bit of a nuisance. As an old BSD user, I favor the split
between the root file system and /usr. I also made separate partitions
for /var and /home, as well as carving out a bit of swap space. The
numbers I guessed at turned out to be reasonable; about 128 MB for
root (plenty of extra space for test kernels), 256 MB for swap, most
of a gigabyte for /var, two gigs for /usr, and the leftover space for
/home.

Slackware offers a fairly simple division of files into top-level
categories. I omitted all of the X-based things, including GNOME and
KDE, and installed everything else. This machine is not suited to a
life as a graphics workstation, so that frees up a lot of space.
(Conveniently, it also makes the second install disk largely
irrelevant. I coulda saved $.50!)

Installation quirks

Using the installer was not entirely trouble free. Once I had
formatted my disks and run the install, I was informed that LILO had
failed to run and I would need to fix it before rebooting.
Conveniently, the install offered me a shell prompt when I was done
with the target disk mounted on /mnt. A little poking around in
/etc/lilo.conf spotted the culprit:

Listing 1. A ha! The culprit



boot = (IN
[...]
root = (IN


I don't know what this represented. I changed it to values that seemed
like they might work:

Listing 2. Good old-fashioned values



boot = /dev/hda
[...]
root = /dev/hda1


Rerunning LILO produced no errors, so I rebooted. Sure enough, the
machine came up just fine.

That was it for problems with the install. (Actually, not quite. I had
to redo the process of assigning mount points because I made a typo
the first time, but I can hardly blame Slackware for that.)

Poking around

Now that the system is installed, I can check how my guesses about
partition sizes worked out.

Listing 3. Not bad for a guess



$ df -m
Filesystem           1M-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1                  130        55        69  45% /
/dev/hda5                  950        31       871   4% /var
/dev/hda6                 1900      1434       369  80% /usr
/dev/hda7                 2326        37      2170   2% /home


That's not too bad. If I want to install a lot of additional software,
I might run out of space in /usr. I certainly don't have enough space
for a full collection of source. On the bright side, there's plenty of
space for the Web page root (/var/www/htdocs), and if I really need to
load something else, I can probably move some files into /home and set
up a symbolic link.

A bit of poking about in /usr reveals a few specifics. Your friend
here is du -m. Unfortunately, this version of du doesn't recognize
values in $BLOCKSIZE other than the word HUMAN (which indicates to use
human-readable numbers); otherwise, you could just set it to 1 M and
have df and du stick to 1 MB blocks. Running sort -n on the output
from du gives a list of the top directories in /usr by size:

Listing 4. Ah, directories by size



86      ./lib/jre1.5.0_01
92      ./src/linux-2.4.29/drivers
112     ./bin
146     ./doc
173     ./share/texmf
205     ./src
205     ./src/linux-2.4.29
384     ./lib
428     ./share
1402    .


In short, some of the largest things installed are the TeX software
and support files, the kernel source, and the Java™ runtime. Java may
well be pointless on a machine with this little memory, so it's a good
candidate for removal if I ever run out of space. There's probably a
lot of wasted space in the kernel source, and TeX may well be
something I could afford to remove. So, if I need a few hundred
megabytes of space, I can get them. Nice to know, but in the meantime
I have plenty of room, and all the things I'm likely to want are
already installed.


Now what?

The first order of business is getting an Ethernet port.
Unfortunately, my aging USB hub with an Ethernet port produced cryptic
errors when connected, so I decided to use the inexpensive Targus USB
"dock" I picked up a week or two back for testing. This gives me PS/2
keyboard and mouse ports (useless in my case), another serial port,
another parallel port, two more USB ports... and a 10 Mbps Ethernet port.

You might think 10/100 would be better (and that's probably why this
gizmo was marked down to $29.99 instead of selling for the $70 that it
did a year or two back), but on a USB 1.1 machine, there's not much
point in 100 Mbps support.

My hub auto-senses the port and I'm covered. The 2 Mbps of USB
bandwidth I'm not tying up will be available for running gizmos later.

The device probed automatically. Oddly, dhclient wouldn't work on this
interface. It said it couldn't find a broadcast interface. Configuring
the interface manually and writing resolv.conf by hand worked fine.
One tiny little surprise for me: The syntax I'm used to, route add
default gateway, produced the moderately cryptic error message
SIOCADDRT: No such device. A quick check of the man page corrected my
spelling -- route add default gw gateway.

With that done, the machine is now working fine on the network. It is
reachable on the local network and able to use my broadband connection
to reach the outside world. I can also ssh in now.

That doesn't do much good without an account to log into. My login
name is always seebs, so I tried the first thing that came to mind;
useradd seebs. That worked, but it left me with no home directory.
Easy enough to add one. Now it's time to put the machine through its
paces a bit, copy over a few programs I like to have around, my usual
.profile, things like that. The system shipped with gcc version 3.3.4,
which is recent and supports a fair number of C99 idioms.


Rebooting

Of course, configuring everything by hand from the console after a
boot is problematic. You don't want to have to do that every time. The
relevant configuration knobs (IP address, for instance) are in /etc,
specifically /etc/HOSTNAME for the host name and
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf for the network address.

Rather than relying on DHCP, I decided to assign a fixed address in
here. After all, this machine will eventually be a local server, and
it would be obnoxious for its address to change all the time. You can
also do this by running netconfig, but part of the fun of running
Slackware is that there aren't a lot of files labeled "warning:
machine-generated file, do not edit."


Summary and accounting

Well so far, the machine is not doing a lot, but it's an installed
system with remote access via ssh and a reasonably complete Linux
install. Expenses are $3 for CD blanks and $31.94 for the USB network
widget. (Later, I will probably be glad of the extra power budget and
ports and the second serial port.) That's comfortably under budget.

Coming up next time for This Old Box: setting up a household calendar
program so we can get some use out of the machine. With all these
people using multi-megabyte class libraries to schedule meetings, I'd
be happy with a multi-kilobyte Perl script that can tell me when it's
my turn to do the dishes.

Resources:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-lobintro.html