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Unix/Linux OS/Questions Answered by Expert Robert McIntosh

SubjectDate Asked
How to recover files using Knoppix 3.610/3/2011
  Q: So my computer quite booting up and Knoppix is the only thing I can get to boot on my laptop. I ...
  A: Allix, You may have a damaged disk so if you have any valuable data on it, you might be best taking ...
How to recover files using Knoppix 3.610/3/2011
  Q: So my computer quite booting up and Knoppix is the only thing I can get to boot on my laptop. I ...
  A: Allix, What operating system are you trying to repair? Windows 7? XP? Do you know if it's FAT32 ...
How to recover files using Knoppix 3.610/3/2011
  Q: So my computer quite booting up and Knoppix is the only thing I can get to boot on my laptop. I ...
  A: I hope I can help. As you're successful in booting into Knoppix, can you see anything on the ...
Operating Systems Booting through USB Tape Device7/18/2011
  Q: Every Operating System has different File Systems Format. As we know Tape Devices, a secondary ...
  A: This is a really interesting idea. LTFS is fairly new and as I'm not intimately familiar with it ...
Fedora6/22/2011
  Q: Too many follow ups, had to make a new question. The DVR software locks me out of opening or copying ...
  A: The solo6010 driver loaded the device properly here: === solo6010 chip id : 7 ...
Fedora6/22/2011
  Q: Too many follow ups, had to make a new question. The DVR software locks me out of opening or copying ...
  A: Steven, "This is a dmesg from after installing the DVR software..." I don't see that, unless the ...
Fedora6/22/2011
  Q: I have a standalone CCTV system that runs Fedora 9(I know its outdated). Recently the DVR card ...
  A: Today's log from /var/log/messages? Seems like the PCI slot in the motherboard isn't recognizing a ...
Fedora6/22/2011
  Q: I have a standalone CCTV system that runs Fedora 9(I know its outdated). Recently the DVR card ...
  A: A number of questions to zero in on your problem: 1) What is the manufacturer and model number of ...
external hard drive not recognized2/15/2011
  Q: Installed Ubuntu 10.10 on a hard drive by itself (no windows). All updates are up to date. ...
  A: I've run into this a few times. Sometimes it's a filesystem that is marked "unclean." This can ...
From the previous question regarding my PCLinux OS problem ^^;4/4/2010
  Q: UPDATE: Chase; your software repositories urls are pointing to the wrong location. Here's what to ...
  A: I completely understand your frustration. Let's do this: 1) cp /etc/apt/sources.list ...
Installation of Macromedia Flash Player on Linux OS4/4/2010
  Q: Mr. McIntosh, may I start off with it is an honor to even have the availability to ask an expert of ...
  A: Chase, Thanks for the follow-up. Try this: sudo apt-get update and then sudo apt-get install ...
Installation of Macromedia Flash Player on Linux OS4/4/2010
  Q: Mr. McIntosh, may I start off with it is an honor to even have the availability to ask an expert of ...
  A: Pardon my enthusiasm for your previous introduction. I am no genius. Some days the keystrokes ...
Hp Mini 1035Nr2/1/2010
  Q: I've had a problem with my Hp Mini 1035Nr to where I was not able to install any programs or surf ...
  A: Since you installed MIE by mistake instead of Windows XP, I'm going to judge that you'd just like to ...
Linux or Solaris1/27/2010
  Q: Hey Robert, I am an expert just like you but on Microsoft platform. Now I want to learn ...
  A: Congratulations on your certification. I'd recommend Linux system administration. Solaris is ...
gentoo12/2/2009
  Q: My friend told me that the very feature of gentoo 'you can modify the compilation option' often ...
  A: Gentoo users love to be able to maximize the performance of the Linux kernel. They're into kernel ...
Which laptop should I buy for Linux Live?10/11/2009
  Q: I'm new to the world of Linux. I'm used to using Windows OSes but I would like to enter the Linux ...
  A: Welcome to the world of Linux! You have alot of great questions. However, the important matter is ...
ssh sniffer10/10/2009
  Q: If I use ssh (from machine A)to enter other machine, can the root or system admin(of machine A)use ...
  A: If the system administrator rolled a custom ssh binary that you use, it is possible that that custom ...
Problem in VI editor9/14/2009
  Q: I am using SUSE LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 9 (X86_64)OS. When i use vi editor thrugh 'root' login' to ...
  A: First of all, my apologies for the late reply. I've been out of town. Your errors can be fixed by ...
Linux3/12/2009
  Q: Can you please advise me? I've recently been introduced to Linux Fedora core 5, having been using ...
  A: Yes, there certainly is a more recent version of Fedora Core. They're up to version 10 now. You ...
Laptop configuration for Linux2/26/2009
  Q: I am interested to install linux on my Laptop. What is the minimum configuration required for Linux ...
  A: Since Linux distributions vary, you'll want to look at the documentation specific to your selected ...
Linux10/28/2008
  Q: How do I install an application on Unix
  A: If you're speaking specifically towards the UNIX operating system, you typically rely on the ...
information9/9/2008
  Q: I am using RHEL 5 for my study purpose, now I have one problem, user cant login without a password, ...
  A: This is no problem. To install yum on RHEL4, follow these steps: 1) Download yum using wget: === ...
information9/7/2008
  Q: I am using RHEL 5 for my study purpose, now I have one problem, user cant login without a password, ...
  A: If you wish to enable blank passwords for users (which I really don't recommend), here's how you can ...
information9/2/2008
  Q: What is the basic different in between normal Apache web server and tom-cat Apache server?
  A: When you're talking about the apache web server with Tomcat, you're talking about a web server that ...
file attribute7/19/2008
  Q: This is what I've done with these 2 files. qwes@HardyE:~/cat$ file /usr/bin/telnet /usr/bin/telnet: ...
  A: From the 'file' man page: === File tests each argument in an attempt to classify it. There ...
file attribute7/17/2008
  Q: This is what I've done with these 2 files. qwes@HardyE:~/cat$ file /usr/bin/telnet /usr/bin/telnet: ...
  A: There may be some Python or Perl script that will do this for you, but to my knowledge the 'file' ...
PHP cURL6/30/2008
  Q: While crawling webpages using PHP cURL, sometimes I come across a large page that is too big, such ...
  A: I'm more a Linux expert and less of a php expert but I'll take a swing at this one. Not knowing ...
How to run tcl/tk tool in linux6/26/2008
  Q: As i am interested in programming in Tcl/Tk for protocol testing. I am unable to run the Tcl/tk ...
  A: Find out if 'wish' is on your system and, if so, where with this command: whereis wish It should ...
Installation6/23/2008
  Q: I was installing an Xubuntu CD on my computer which has Windows 98. Around 78% was installed when ...
  A: The computer is not kaput, but I suspect either your CD-ROMs or CD drive is the problem. If you ...
Root user not working6/17/2008
  Q: I am using Fedora core 8 and my problem is when I login as root, it loads improperly and system ...
  A: Take a look root account in /etc/passwd and make sure that it looks something like this: ...
Drivers6/13/2008
  Q: I Have RedHat 5.0 . When I go to the graphical mode is it possible to use watch video and listen to ...
  A: The answer to your multimedia question is 'sort of, mostly.' Redhat is most admirable in its ...
How to run tcl/tk tool in linux6/12/2008
  Q: As i am interested in programming in Tcl/Tk for protocol testing. I am unable to run the Tcl/tk ...
  A: I'm not sure exactly which tcl/tk tool you're referring to, but I suspect you need some help ...
problem in booting5/21/2008
  Q: i'm a new user for the linux operating system. i'm facing the problem while booting: the operating ...
  A: THe kernel may be panicking, but you may not need to. Here's what I would suggest. If you have the ...
Arp spoofing..5/20/2008
  Q: I would like to ask about how to prevent arp spoofing on my LAN network by using Ubuntu 8.04 ? (i'm ...
  A: ARP-spoofing should be a very, very low concern in terms of security for you if your network design ...
Open source and money5/15/2008
  Q: Sir, I have now started supporting open source community after reading and using open source ...
  A: First all, my apologies for the slow response to your excellent question. Perhaps it might be more ...
Locate MX record5/14/2008
  Q: We have a mail server running FreeBSD 6.2 and qmail. I am trying to reconfigure the MX records ...
  A: Yes, from your description this is very likely and in fact for smaller businesses this is a common ...
configure & make error5/11/2008
  Q: this's my machines Linux ubuntu 2.6.17-10-generic #2 SMP Tue Dec 5 22:28:26 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux ...
  A: Looks like the developers of YAPH have an error in their C syntax when trying to compile with ...
which ?5/5/2008
  Q: I have a Pentium II 350 MHz microprocessor with 256 MB RAM with Windows 98. I spent 4 hours ...
  A: Ah, sorry. You'll want to download clamwin with this link: ...
Locate MX record4/30/2008
  Q: We have a mail server running FreeBSD 6.2 and qmail. I am trying to reconfigure the MX records ...
  A: Try looking up this information online with a tool. The nslookup tool at ...
Locate MX record4/29/2008
  Q: We have a mail server running FreeBSD 6.2 and qmail. I am trying to reconfigure the MX records ...
  A: If you're hosting full DNS on your mail server, the first place I'd look is /etc/namedb/named.conf. ...
Unix and virus4/13/2008
  Q: sir,unix is a freeware os but still doesnt have the threat of virus.I just dont understand how.I saw ...
  A: Ubuntu Linux (http://www.ubuntu.com/) has taken the Linux world by storm as a preferred Linux ...
Unix and virus4/12/2008
  Q: sir,unix is a freeware os but still doesnt have the threat of virus.I just dont understand how.I saw ...
  A: Technically speaking, UNIX is not freeware. UNIX is a trademark of The Open Group and there is ...
how to play vedio (film) in linux os4/7/2008
  Q: when i play movie in linux os. linux send me massage you don't install decoder you must install ...
  A: I need some more information to solve this problem with you. Here's what I'll need: What ...
Linux Email Previewer3/22/2008
  Q: I just got an Asus EeePC running on Linux. I really would like to find an email previewer similar ...
  A: Ah. I see this is a lengthy looking set of instructions. Looks daunting, doesn't it? The author ...
Securing Linux3/11/2008
  Q: I would like to make my new computer more secure. My main concern is vulnerability to anyone or ...
  A: De-selecting "gdm" will disable the graphic gui login screen and put you on a command line after ...
Securing Linux3/8/2008
  Q: I would like to make my new computer more secure. My main concern is vulnerability to anyone or ...
  A: Gosh, and I just thought I could answer yes/no and be done. ;) Let me recommend this book for you: ...
Ubustu+XP+Security3/2/2008
  Q: To help provide clear questions I'll number the main ones. I am currently dual-booting between ...
  A: You have alot of questions and I'll do my best to knock 'em down, respectively: 1) There are a ...
SUSE linux Network probelm2/19/2008
  Q: " Dear sir, I installed SUSE Linux Desktop 10 on my Dell GX 745 machine. When I wanted to ...
  A: I did some more research for you. It seems that you're just a hair behind having this work ...
awk and file editing2/8/2008
  Q: I'm trying to edit a text file using AWK. Its been so long since I've used it I cant remember how. ...
  A: In my book, awk and ick are synonmous. I know, I know; the UNIX old-schoolers are pish-poshing me ...
Shell tr command2/6/2008
  Q: I just want to ask you about very basic though, can I? I just want to make sure that tr command is ...
  A: Yes, using the tr utility is not an ideal solution to your problem. If I may, I'd like to turn you ...
CHKDSK on Linux1/19/2008
  Q: I have SUSE 10.3 installed on my Home PC I think my Hard drive maybe on the way out does Linux have ...
  A: fsck is the Linux disk consistency tool. Don't run it on a mounted volume, though. That could ...
mod rewrite1/16/2008
  Q: I am using ecommerce software that I keep in its own subdirectory called “store”. This software ...
  A: This is a good question! I have some things for you to think about. First of all, I can't see what ...
Traffic1/11/2008
  Q: how can i see all the incomming and outgoing traffic on redhat linux 7.2 mail server, where i am ...
  A: The most straightforward approach to this is to run something like Ethereal ...
Bare-Metal backup and Restore of Linux1/7/2008
  Q: I have a Dell Power Edge 2600 with a PERC4/Di RAID card running Red Hat Linux Enterprise 8.0. My ...
  A: I'd encourage you to take a look at Mondo Rescue (http://www.mondorescue.org/). It's designed to do ...
Squid Proxy1/4/2008
  Q: Iam Using squid proxy for internet. Now i want to block particular machine IP in squid proxy is it ...
  A: It's not clear to me if you want to block a machine outside of your proxy access to your network or ...
installation of linux1/2/2008
  Q: is there any requirement of specific hard disk for installing linux?? i am having hard disk sata ...
  A: The short answer is that you should have no problem installing Linux on your Seagate SATA drive, ...
Solaris 10 x86 installation12/30/2007
  Q: Can you please guide me how to prepare the bootable CD for solaris 10 x86 version. I have downloaded ...
  A: First, let me say that it is unfortunate but true: my help, and devilsh good-looks are sometimes ...
x and desktop12/13/2007
  Q: i am trying ubuntu currently and i would like use icewm instead of gnome. i installed a command line ...
  A: You'll need to enable some additional repositories to complete this task from the bare-bones Ubuntu ...
qmail and SpamAssassin11/28/2007
  Q: We are running ClamAV-91.2, SpamAssassin-3.1.8_1, qmail-1.0.3, and Simscan-1.4-4 on a FreeBSD 6.2 ...
  A: There are a few options available to have qmail run spamassassin during the queue process. ...
character coding11/27/2007
  Q: i used Vmware to create a ubuntu text-mode machine on XP. i install zhcon ...
  A: My first suspicion is that the telnet client you're using does not support Chinese encoding, ...
Redhat linux kernal problem11/26/2007
  Q: i have installed 3 os in my system. winxp prof. win2003 server and redhat linux version 9. all the ...
  A: Saroj, I have one question and one suggestion:Does the line "mkrootdev: level / not found" actually ...
Redhat linux kernal problem11/22/2007
  Q: i have installed 3 os in my system. winxp prof. win2003 server and redhat linux version 9. all the ...
  A: Alot of the time, the kernel panic message has to do with Linux being unable to locate the hard ...
linux system11/18/2007
  Q: I know nothing about computers as I am 50 years old I have wanted ths computer since I heard about ...
  A: I, personally, am very excited about the OLPC project and the computer. It's a fantastic way to ...
VPS11/17/2007
  Q: Managing of VPN host I bought a Linux vpn from a web hosting ( I don’t know any things about Linux ...
  A: , Before I can help you install Firefox and how you can use it, how do you intend to use the system ...
blank display11/15/2007
  Q: I logged on two Solaris servers which share a display. On one of the servers after logging, i see a ...
  A: It sounds like X11 is misconfigured. If you have root access to the server with the monitor ...
Installing Hylafax10/22/2007
  Q: . I'm installing libg++ for my hylafax what wrong with this here is the output shown: ...
  A: Looks like you're version of GNU binutils is out of date. We could get caught in a recursive ...
refresh rate10/21/2007
  Q: I'm having a problem changing the refresh rate on a 1024x768 resolution to 100 Hz, which my monitor ...
  A: Try changing this: Section "Monitor" Identifier "FE2111SB" Option ...
Installing Hylafax10/19/2007
  Q: I can't find any HOW TO of HYLAFAX 'coz isn't available in their website i have already download ...
  A: Peter Paul, You do not have the required libraries installed to compile hylafax yet. You need to ...
Installing Hylafax10/17/2007
  Q: I can't find any HOW TO of HYLAFAX 'coz isn't available in their website i have already download ...
  A: Looks like your modem should work alright with hylafax. OK, let's start from the beginning of a ...
Installing Hylafax10/13/2007
  Q: I can't find any HOW TO of HYLAFAX 'coz isn't available in their website i have already download ...
  A: Peter Paul, Are you building from source or are you installing a binary package from Mandriva? ...
config and setup of hylafax10/13/2007
  Q: please help me how can i setup and configure hylafax and where can i download hylafax ANSWER: Hi ...
  A: It seems you need to install the libtiff library. Download it and install it from ...
installation10/12/2007
  Q: how much space should be given to root,swap,boot partitions at the time of installing the redhat ...
  A: This is an excellent question. Most modern Redhat distributions and their ilk automatically suggest ...
config and setup of hylafax10/10/2007
  Q: please help me how can i setup and configure hylafax and where can i download hylafax
  A: You can download hylafax at http://www.hylafax.org/content/Download. The official hylafax site ...
How to auto login SUN open windows (SUNOS5.6)10/8/2007
  Q: Is there a way to bypass the login screen a SUN U10 running SUN OS 5.6 ANSWER: Hi corey7, Do you ...
  A: Corey, It seems that the SunOS/Solaris community is doing this kind of thing with gdm which, ...
installing linux 7.1and partitionaing of hdd10/2/2007
  Q: sir, i have following parts on my system: m/b= mercury pvm4 processor = intel PIV 3,06 ghz harddisk ...
  A: Installing Redhat is really no problem, even if you're trying to dual-boot XP. In fact, RedHat's ...
Antivirus and antispam9/29/2007
  Q: 1. i'm using sendmail server and i want to block spam mail, how can i do this and give me the best ...
  A: Here's a good tutorial for RHEL4, courtesy of Bob Plankers ...
tcl/tk9/29/2007
  Q: (http://www.tcl.tk/) is this script language purely made by C? (i mean in the very beginning since ...
  A: This is slightly outside of my expertise, but I'll take a crack and you can correct me if I'm not ...
hi sir9/28/2007
  Q: we have made a proxy server(EL4) in which the eth0 is 192.168.2.1 and eth1 ip is 192.168.100.5 we ...
  A: Sounds like you need routing fixed up. Please tell me the output of the command "/sbin/route" on ...
installing screen9/26/2007
  Q: i am a unix newbie my system is SunOS 5.6 Generic_105181-39 sun4u sparc (school machine and i have ...
  A: My answers are as follows: 1) Look at the permissions on /tmp/uscreens/S-xxx and see if your ...
installing screen9/26/2007
  Q: i am a unix newbie my system is SunOS 5.6 Generic_105181-39 sun4u sparc (school machine and i have ...
  A: I suppose you could modify the source to obtain your goal - that's what is great about open source. ...
installing screen9/24/2007
  Q: i am a unix newbie my system is SunOS 5.6 Generic_105181-39 sun4u sparc (school machine and i have ...
  A: If you mean can you install screen under a non-root user's account, then the answer is no. The ...
Dual Monitors9/19/2007
  Q: I have SuSe Linux server 9.1, and am running KDE. I added a second monitor by plugging it into the ...
  A: Sounds like xinerama isn't put in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf as an option. Take a look at this page: ...
32 bIt live cd9/16/2007
  Q: I have two 32 bit live distros that will not boot on my PC. I know that the disks are good as I ...
  A: This is most interesting. I can almost guarantee that it's a driver problem with your graphics ...
Running Linex on old computer9/16/2007
  Q: When I got my new computer,I was left with the dilemma of what to do with my old Pentium 1 machine ...
  A: Wow! A Pentium 1 machine. That is a hum-dinger. Unfortunately, so many of the Linux distributions ...
Linux boot-up9/15/2007
  Q: This is probably a strange question, but I know nowhere else to turn to. A friend of mine knows Im ...
  A: Gavin, I'm sorry, I don't know that Linux had an official start-up music. If it did, it was likely ...
Linux boot-up9/15/2007
  Q: This is probably a strange question, but I know nowhere else to turn to. A friend of mine knows Im ...
  A: Great question! After a bit of googling, here's my answer: I haven't experienced this particular ...
linux OS Installation9/14/2007
  Q: Sir, If that is ur prime concern of answering only the short questions then could u please give me ...
  A: There are so many Linux distributions. Here's a good general installation guide for Linux: ...
http authentication in apache9/8/2007
  Q: I have a perl script located in a protected directory (.htaccess file on an unix box). People who ...
  A: This is a little out of my expertise, but I'll take a crack at it. For starters, why do you want ...
DHCP in Linux9/5/2007
  Q: I have broadband on my PC which is also partitioned to boot as linux. Windows broadband is working ...
  A: Annie, From a command line, try this as the root user (or sudo) /sbin/modprobe rtl8139 This may ...
DHCP in Linux9/5/2007
  Q: I have broadband on my PC which is also partitioned to boot as linux. Windows broadband is working ...
  A: OK, well this answers one question; that Linux does not recognize your network card and that would ...
DHCP in Linux9/4/2007
  Q: I have broadband on my PC which is also partitioned to boot as linux. Windows broadband is working ...
  A: I can help you with this, no problem. First off, I'll let you know that in previous years, say ...
Qmail Migration9/2/2007
  Q: I have a qmail server based on qmailrocks.com. I have installed a qmail server on a new machine. How ...
  A: I actually have quite a bit of experience with the qmailrocks qmail mail server installation. The ...
Enterprise Linux vs Desktop Linux8/29/2007
  Q: I'm am clueless about Red Hat Linux, and would like to know what the difference between the Red Hat ...
  A: This is an excellent question and I hope you find my answer helpful. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is ...
linux os8/20/2007
  Q: what is raid and lvm? give detailed answers
  A: RAID, (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), is, as the name implies, a redundancy measure of ...
recording chatroom context on bbs building on unix8/18/2007
  Q: i am currently using BBS system building within my campus. when i enter chatroom in it how can i ...
  A: Sinn, Yes, you could use Expect to 'glue' some of the unix utilities together to, in essence, listen ...
how to install konqueror in linux8/3/2007
  Q: please give me exact steps for dummies, i'm a starter of using Linux. ANSWER: Hi Lisa, This is ...
  A: Lisa, On Fedora, the most direct way of installing Konqueror is to launch the terminal by clicking ...
how to install konqueror in linux8/3/2007
  Q: please give me exact steps for dummies, i'm a starter of using Linux.
  A: This is right up my alley and it would be really helpful if you could tell me which distribution ...
diskless node7/24/2007
  Q: I have pc running windows xp and 10 older pcs with windows xp on bad hd. I would like to disable ...
  A: Wow. This is an intense network design question. If I understand correctly, you want to run Linux ...
general Linux question7/16/2007
  Q: When I was in high school, my dad had a working Linux system on one of our computers, and I fell in ...
  A: Great! I hope you enjoy Linux. I use it almost exclusively as my home desktop. There's always one ...
general Linux question7/14/2007
  Q: When I was in high school, my dad had a working Linux system on one of our computers, and I fell in ...
  A: Linux has matured exponentially over the last 3-4 years. I don't know when you were last exposed to ...
linux kernel error7/2/2007
  Q: i have installed pc quest linux 2006 . but while booting kernel i got error: kernel panic-not ...
  A: Please check the computer's settings in the BIOS. See if there is a setting to adjust the hard ...
Package Installer7/1/2007
  Q: Robert, I am a newbie on Linux; I just installed Ubuntu 7.04 and I am trying to install a .deb ...
  A: If you're still having problems, would you mind opening a terminal and typing the following on the ...
Sendmail problem6/19/2007
  Q: , emails are being sent out as user@host.domain.com. This is fine within our domain but when ...
  A: I need a little bit more information regarding your email server configuration. For instance, you ...
linux version6/19/2007
  Q: Sir, 1.what is the mail difference between EL3 and EL4 2.Explain Boot process. 3.Explain me how to ...
  A: Here are my answers: 1) Do you mean "mail" or "main" difference between EL3 and EL4? If you mean ...
Steps for installing Unix & making the system Dual boot with Windows XP & Unix6/12/2007
  Q: Can you please tell me the steps as in how to install Unix & making the system Dual boot with ...
  A: Which flavor of UNIX/Linux to you want to install? Can I recommend one for you? Is Windows XP ...

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Robert McIntosh

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Expertise

Installation, Administration, typical tcp/ip services (sendmail, apache, qmail, tomcat, hylafax, etc.), Linux as desktop

Experience

7 years Linux system administration, FreeBSD administration

Publications
http://www.rebelwords.org

Education/Credentials
Bachelors, A Certified, Network Certified, currently employed in emergency department at major hospital

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