Very Computer

> Basic RedHat 7.0 post-install configuration problems:

> : RedHat on hda2 is not using the full monitor screen
>   area.  The shaded background at logon occupies only
>   about 4/5ths of the screen area, leaving a wide black
>   margin on the left and an even wider black margin on
>   the right.  This is a problem I do NOT have with
>   Corel 1.2 on hda7.

>   I assume this wide unused screen-area means that
>   there is something wrong with my X-window settings.  
>   Will linuxconf help me to enter the right settings?

>   During install I specified 800x600 as my screen size,
>   because the print displayed in the test screen was
>   much too small.  I also specified 32-bit colors --
>   perhaps that was the mistake.  How can I combine
>   legible prit-size with full use of the screen area?

> : Midnight Commander is using "s" and "9" instead of
>   the DOS box-characters in its borders.

> : Gnome seems to have little or no keyboard interface.
>   Searching through help, I can't find keyboard
>   "shortcuts" to switch between windows or close
>   windows.  The absence of a keyboard interface in
>   Gnome, makes Gnome cumbersome to the point of
>   being almost unusable.

> : Gnome also hung during logout.  I had to use Ctrl-Alt-F1
>   to get to the text-mode console.  I tried killing
>   gnome_session, but that didn't free things up, so I
>   used the shutdown command.  (What task should I have
>   killed?)

> : None of my other partitions on the hard-drive came
>   up accessible.  In fact, there was no /disks directory
>   at all! -- as there is in Corel (Debian).  I
>   created a /disks directory and a subdirectory for
>   each partition, then copied the fstab information
>   from the Corel 1.2 partition. I hope this will fix
>   the problem.

> Fixed one problem and encountered another:

> : New problem:

>   kppp under Redhatt requires me to enter
>   the root password, before it will start

>   Isn't this a serious security breech?  If a
>   user is required to know the root password
>   before connecting to the Internet, then the
>   user can get at root files

>   Under Corel 1.2, kppp does not ask for the
>   root password.  Why is kppp different under
>   RedHat?

> : Window alignment and size problem is fixed:

>   Fixed the alignment problem by commenting
>   out the higher clock-speed Modeline entries in
>   /etc/X11/XF86Config

>   Q: Is there any advantage to using the higher
>      clock speed values?
>   Q: Why are the timing values so far off in the
>      Modelines for these higher clock speeds?

>   The How-To documentation on the RedHat doc cd
>   was very helpful:

>   cdrom/HOWTOS/XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO
>   cdrom/HOWTOS/XFree86-HOWTO

>   The first file introduced me to xvidtune.  The
>   program calculates XF86Config Modeline timing
>   values for various window alignments.  See the
>   "man xvidtune" entry for more information.

>   Using xvidtune, I was able to correct the
>   horizontal alignment and size of the window.
>   There were still vertical problems -- although
>   there was about half an inch of black at the
>   bottom of the screen, xvidtune refused to lower
>   the window below 604.

>   In my correctly aligned Corel sysem on hda7, the
>   setting is 601, and the clockspeed is 40.00 --
>   as opposed for 604 and 69.65 for RedHat.

>   Original settings:
>   H: 800 864 928 1088
>   V: 600 604 610 640
>   Clock: 69.65
>   HSynch: 64.02 (range 30-95)
>   VSynch: 100.03 (range 50-160)

>   Settings afer I used xvidtune to center
>   and align the window:

>   H: 800 820 884 1012
>   V: 600 604 610 628
>   Clock: 69.65
>   HSynch: 68.82
>   VSynch: 109.59

>   Settings from the properly aligned window
>   on the Corel system:

>   H: 800 840 968 1056
>   V: 600 601 605 628
>   Clock: 40.00
>   HSynch: 37.88
>   VSynch: 60.31

>   The Modeline for the lower clock speed
>   matches the Corel timing values.

>   Rather than change the Modeline values for
>   the higher clock speeds, I decided to
>   comment them out, so that the lower
>   clock speed (40.00) will be used.

> > Basic RedHat 7.0 post-install configuration problems:

> > : RedHat on hda2 is not using the full monitor screen
> >   area.  The shaded background at logon occupies only
> >   about 4/5ths of the screen area, leaving a wide black
> >   margin on the left and an even wider black margin on
> >   the right.  This is a problem I do NOT have with
> >   Corel 1.2 on hda7.

> >   I assume this wide unused screen-area means that
> >   there is something wrong with my X-window settings.
> >   Will linuxconf help me to enter the right settings?

> >   During install I specified 800x600 as my screen size,
> >   because the print displayed in the test screen was
> >   much too small.  I also specified 32-bit colors --
> >   perhaps that was the mistake.  How can I combine
> >   legible prit-size with full use of the screen area?

> > : Midnight Commander is using "s" and "9" instead of
> >   the DOS box-characters in its borders.

> > : Gnome seems to have little or no keyboard interface.
> >   Searching through help, I can't find keyboard
> >   "shortcuts" to switch between windows or close
> >   windows.  The absence of a keyboard interface in
> >   Gnome, makes Gnome cumbersome to the point of
> >   being almost unusable.

> > : Gnome also hung during logout.  I had to use Ctrl-Alt-F1
> >   to get to the text-mode console.  I tried killing
> >   gnome_session, but that didn't free things up, so I
> >   used the shutdown command.  (What task should I have
> >   killed?)

> > : None of my other partitions on the hard-drive came
> >   up accessible.  In fact, there was no /disks directory
> >   at all! -- as there is in Corel (Debian).  I
> >   created a /disks directory and a subdirectory for
> >   each partition, then copied the fstab information
> >   from the Corel 1.2 partition. I hope this will fix
> >   the problem.

> I Found what may be a partial answer to the kppp
> demand for a root password in the /usr doc files
> for kppp:

> /usr/X11R6/share/doc/HTML/en/kppp/kppp-2.html#ss2.2
> /usr/X11R6/share/doc/HTML/en/kppp/kppp-7.html#setuid

> My theory is that the the RedHat kppp is compiled
> with setuid ON, and Corel 1.2 kppp with setuid OFF.
> That leads to three more questions:

> Q: Why do I NEED setuid on?  I have no complaints
>  with the Corel version.  It does everything I want
>  it to do.  So what do I gain by turning the bit
>  on?

> Q: Can I recompile kppp and turn the bit off?  If so,
>  HOW.  I'm going to have to learn how to compile
>  Linux source someday -- maybe this is the time.

> Q: If this is NOT the time, then can I just copy
>  the Corel 1.2 version of the kppp module into
>  RedHat 7.0 (after renaming the RedHat version,
>  of course)?

> ---

> > Fixed one problem and encountered another:

> > : New problem:
> >   kppp under Redhatt requires me to enter
> >   the root password, before it will start

> >   Isn't this a serious security breech?  If a
> >   user is required to know the root password
> >   before connecting to the Internet, then the
> >   user can get at root files

> >   Under Corel 1.2, kppp does not ask for the
> >   root password.  Why is kppp different under
> >   RedHat?

> > : Window alignment and size problem is fixed:

> >   Fixed the alignment problem by commenting
> >   out the higher clock-speed Modeline entries in

> >   /etc/X11/XF86Config

> >   Q: Is there any advantage to using the higher
> >      clock speed values?

> >   Q: Why are the timing values so far off in the
> >      Modelines for these higher clock speeds?

> >   The How-To documentation on the RedHat doc cd
> >   was very helpful:

> >   cdrom/HOWTOS/XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO
> >   cdrom/HOWTOS/XFree86-HOWTO

> >   The first file introduced me to xvidtune.  The
> >   program calculates XF86Config Modeline timing
> >   values for various window alignments.  See the
> >   "man xvidtune" entry for more information.

> >   Using xvidtune, I was able to correct the
> >   horizontal alignment and size of the window.
> >   There were still vertical problems -- although
> >   there was about half an inch of black at the
> >   bottom of the screen, xvidtune refused to lower
> >   the window below 604.

> >   In my correctly aligned Corel sysem on hda7, the
> >   setting is 601, and the clockspeed is 40.00 --
> >   as opposed for 604 and 69.65 for RedHat.

> >   Original settings:

> >   H: 800 864 928 1088
> >   V: 600 604 610 640
> >   Clock: 69.65
> >   HSynch: 64.02 (range 30-95)
> >   VSynch: 100.03 (range 50-160)

> >   Settings afer I used xvidtune to center
> >   and align the window:

> >   H: 800 820 884 1012
> >   V: 600 604 610 628
> >   Clock: 69.65
> >   HSynch: 68.82
> >   VSynch: 109.59

> >   Settings from the properly aligned window
> >   on the Corel system:

> >   H: 800 840 968 1056
> >   V: 600 601 605 628
> >   Clock: 40.00
> >   HSynch: 37.88
> >   VSynch: 60.31

> >   The Modeline for the lower clock speed
> >   matches the Corel timing values.

> >   Rather than change the Modeline values for
> >   the higher clock speeds, I decided to
> >   comment them out, so that the lower
> >   clock speed (40.00) will be used.

> > > Basic RedHat 7.0 post-install configuration problems:

> > > : RedHat on hda2 is not using the full monitor screen
> > >   area.  The shaded background at logon occupies only
> > >   about 4/5ths of the screen area, leaving a wide black
> > >   margin on the left and an even wider black margin on
> > >   the right.  This is a problem I do NOT have with
> > >   Corel 1.2 on hda7.

> > >   I assume this wide unused screen-area means that
> > >   there is something wrong with my X-window settings.
> > >   Will linuxconf help me to enter the right settings?

> > >   During install I specified 800x600 as my screen size,
> > >   because the print displayed in the test screen was
> > >   much too small.  I also specified 32-bit colors --
> > >   perhaps that was the mistake.  How can I combine
> > >   legible prit-size with full use of the screen area?

> > > : Midnight Commander is using "s" and "9" instead of
> > >   the DOS box-characters in its borders.

> > > : Gnome seems to have little or no keyboard interface.

> > >   Searching through help, I can't find keyboard
> > >   "shortcuts" to switch between windows or close
> > >   windows.  The absence of a keyboard interface in
> > >   Gnome, makes Gnome cumbersome to the point of
> > >   being almost unusable.

> > > : Gnome also hung during logout.  I had to use Ctrl-Alt-F1
> > >   to get to the text-mode console.  I tried killing
> > >   gnome_session, but that didn't free things up, so I
> > >   used the shutdown command.  (What task should I have
> > >   killed?)

> > > : None of my other partitions on the hard-drive came
> > >   up accessible.  In fact, there was no /disks directory
> > >   at all! -- as there is in Corel (Debian).  I
> > >   created a /disks directory and a subdirectory for
> > >   each partition, then copied the fstab information
> > >   from the Corel 1.2 partition. I hope this will fix
> > >   the problem.