Baslinux mailing list

[qwms-avib AT dea.spamcon.org]

keesan2 AT cyberspace.org wrote:
> 
> I have downloaded MANIFEST.gz and installed less.
> I tried to use zless but am told I don't have it.

I'm surprised you don't have zless.  It is part of 
bin.tgz (which is one of the packages used to install 
BasicLinux to HD).  It should be in /usr/bin.

zless is just a simple script:
--------------
zcat $1 | less
--------------
So, if it is missing, you can easily add it yourself
(perhaps as an alias).  

Actually, it's strange that zless is in the bin.tgz 
package.  zless only works when less is installed, 
so IMHO it should be in the less package.

> ar -x photopc.deb
> It produceed a very small file debian-binary.
> And a control.tar.gz.
> And a data.tar.gz.
> 
> installpkg data.tar.gz 

The installpkg (and pkgtool) is *only* suitable for 
Slackware packages.  Slackware packages come as .tgz 
files, but that does not mean any .tgz can be installed
with installpkg.

> I typed photopc and got a message that I don't have a 
> /dev/photopc.

That's not a standard /dev (not even in Slackware 8.1).
Perhaps, it is included somewhere in the Debian package?

> How do I make a /dev/photopc so I can plug into Com1?
> I got as far as:
> mknod /dev/photopc type major minor

You are on the right track.  You just need to find the
major/minor numbers (perhaps google will find something).

> Type should be b for block or c for character.  ??

Probably c

> It says to use MAKEDEV shell script to find out the number 

That only works if photopc has been pre-programmed into
MAKEDEV.

> but I doubt that BL2 comes with that.

It's in the Slackware devs.tgz package.

> The latest pdftotext from Doug Kaufman (static) does not 
> seem to have any dependencies.  I need a pdf file to test 
> it on.  It is about 900K. 

Sounds good.  Is there a URL for it?

> What do the numbers on top of the columns in top mean?

man top

> I loaded varous things and looked at RSS.
> links219 X is 544 but then you have to add to that
> 2434 xvga15 (or 2172 xmono)
> 1892 xterm
> 768 xinit
> 1212 icewm (or 708 ratpoison)
> 
> The total is then 6848, 

It's not that simple.  Those processes overlap -- there 
are sections of code that are used by more than one process
(this is shown in the SHARE column).  So, to see the real
memory load, you subtract SHARE from RSS.  For example on 
my system, icewm has RSS 1164 and SHARE 924 -- so the load 
from icewm is 240kb.

Cheers,
Steven