Linux Hints

For information on configuring the KDE Graphic Login, see my KDE GUI Login Configuration HOWTO at the Linux Documentation Project. This includes answers to some Frequently Asked Questions, such as "How do I run 'fluxbox', 'WindowMaker', etc.; I've got a default KDE install?" .  The GNOME GDM config info is on the "to-do"
list.

The best way to 'su' to root for most tasks is su -c 'command string'; for example, I open an xterm from my GUI desktop  and enter su 'c 'pine' to read my root e-mail from my user xterm.  I use the same technique for manually editing system configuration files with my editor-of-choice.

Passwords are always recommended to be made up of a combination of upper and lower case letters and numbers, in order to be more difficult to break.

By using so-called "hacker elite" (l33t), one can obtain a password that conforms to this requirement, but is also more easily remembered. The basic rule I follow is to try to replace vowels where possible with numbers, for example: "4" for "A", "3" for "E", sometimes "1" [one] for "L" or sometimes for "I", "0" [zero] for "O". "U" or "u" I generally use as is. Here is a sample password encoded this way:

basic word: "tireiron" -- coded for secuity = "T1r3Ir0n"

I had trouble configuring the soundcard in my RedHat 6.1 desktop workstation after compiling a 2.2.24 kernel; I ran RedHat's sndconfig and it could not detect the card. It also creates the deprecated /etc/conf.modules instead of the preferred /etc/modules.conf.

This is an ISA card and may be identified as follows (note that there may be several cards in the SB16 ISA card series, and the following may apply to most if not all of them):

My particular card model is "CT2810", and the FCC-ID "IBACT-SBV16S". On this card will be found a Vibra16 chip and a Yamaha OPL chip.

I have set up /etc/rc.d/rc.local to initialize this card, using a shell script called from rc.local; this is based on info found in the kernel source tree in Documentation/sound/VIBRA16. Here are the lines I added to rc.local:

	# init SB16 [VIBRA16 & Yamaha OPL chip -- SoundBlaster SB16 Value OEM]
	# this card can NOT be setup with sndconfig on kernel 2.2.24!
	# the latest available version of sndconfig uses deprecated
	# /etc/conf.modules, so ...
	/usr/local/bin/sb16-value_config

Here is the content for "sb16-value_config":

	#!/bin/sh
	#
	# this is the sb16 module init executable for the 2.2.24-4 kernel on linus 01/20/2004
	# RedHat sndconfig will NOT work on this card!
	#
	#         Just in case, the kernel sound support should be:
	#
	#       CONFIG_SOUND=m
	#       CONFIG_SOUND_OSS=m
	#       CONFIG_SOUND_SB=m
	#       do you need MIDI? YM3812 gets you opl3.o...
	#       CONFIG_SOUND_YM3812=m
	#
	# insert the sound modules:
	#
	insmod soundcore
	insmod sound
	insmod uart401
        # 23 January 05 -- correction:
        # insmod sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 dma16=3
        # 2nd dma is 5, NOT 3, on this card (but is jumper selectable so YMMV!)
	insmod sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 dma16=5
	# do you need MIDI?
	insmod opl3 io=0x388

Don't forget to: chmod +x sb16-value_config