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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] OT Linux and XP for Lawrence

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  • From: jedd <jedd@progsoc.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] OT Linux and XP for Lawrence
  • Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2006 14:07:22 +1000

Some generic information follows .. possibly of use to others
considering "just saying no" .. hence posted to the list.

Lawrence (et al) - it sounds like there's a few people on this list
who are happy to help in converting your (ditto) computers to be
more like your gardens - unencumbered by patents and weeds.

] I will try a temporary dual boot system at first but I do have a
] spare XP box to intall it on.
] How do I network it with 2 WinXP machines?

From first principles - both computers need to have NIC's (network
interface cards, commonly called ethernet cards - $US15 or so each,
at a guess) for starters. You can connect two computers directly
using a 'crossover cable' - however I strongly recommend not doing
this. You can connect multiple computers (2+) to a switch or hub,
and this is the preferred approach.

A brand spanking new 100mb (nice and fast!) switch is remarkably
cheap - I'd speculate sub-$US50 - and will accommodate maybe 8
computers in total.

You may find that your ADSL (broadband) modem / router device
already has multiple ethernet ports on it - many of them come with
four built in. This removes the requirement for a separate switch,
and makes it easy for the multiple computers to share the broadband
connection. This in turn makes the 'weaning' process easier.

You'll also need some CAT-5 UTP cables .. or just go into your nearest
nerdy store and ask for two blue ethernet cables. Probably a few
dollars each.

Hardware-wise, we're now covered.

Software-wise, every GNU/Linux distribution in the world comes
shipped with Samba. Samba is your friend. It's one of the few things
that makes me feel something resembling nationalistic pride actually
(it originated with Andrew Tridgell, from Canberra). Anyway, this
product makes your machine look just like a Microsoft Windows server,
and consequently your Microsoft XP box can happily talk to it - you'll
simply be able to browse (Network Neighbourhood, etc) to it. De facto
standard is to have your home directory map to H: on the Win32 box,
that's all configurable of course.

How you install that software depends on which distribution you
use. I've not used Kubuntu, but I gather that they use and recommend
the 'adept' utility to perform package management.

(Package management - literally the meta data that wraps around the
various applications that can be installed on your computer - is the
big differentiator for distributions. Debian (a group that probably
most closely aligns with permaculture principles) derivatives have
a superior package management system <potential flamebait, but
generally regarded as being the case>. One of the things you'll
get used to *very* quickly is the ease with which new applications,
and indeed security patches, can be retrieved and installed - it's
usually a click or two (or a command or two if you prefer a text
interface - like us r3aL hAx0rs do - ha!).)

In any case, I'd imagine that Samba will be installed by default, and
if not, adept will be in the main menu somewhere, and you can then
install Samba from there. There's apparently a component for the
KDE control panel that lets you configure Samba through a GUI,
so that should be clear sailing too - if it's not installed by
default, look for a package called 'kdenetwork-filesharing'.

] I would like to have an email-ready Linux machine with the ability
] to connect external hard drives containing archives of email and
] text files using USB or Firewire; telnet and ftp would also be nice.

Easy. Though I strongly(!) recommend you avoid telnet and ftp,
and go with ssh / scp / sftp. telnet and ftp are horribly insecure,
and are consequently pretty much deprecated.

] How do I install applications like Procmail, mhonarc, Hypermail,
] Lynx, trn and Pine?

I'd do it by typing 'apt-get install procmail mhonarc hypermail lynx
trn pine' and wandering off for a few minutes. I imagine it's just
as painless with adept - probably a few clicks on the package names.

(Compare and contrast visiting each website, grabbing a SFX or zip
file and then installing the packages in various places, and knowing
you'll never be able to remove the traces of same from your system
later on .. and people live like that!)

Jedd.




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