let me explain the contents of this nairaland.zone file

TTL means Time To Live, here 3D means 3 days, you can change it too W- week, H- hours etc (find out the rest)

the explanation of @, SOA is beyond this tutorial, permit me. (To save me the stress and you the confussion). but not that i have root.nairaland.com. means root@nairaland.com please note the ending dot too. This indicate your hostmasters email address for your domain. the person that receive error mails or reports sent by programs to indicate their activity. some programs sends report to hostmasters in form of mail to indicate their activity or error . on my system i recieve mails from dhcp , init , squid , samba etc to indicate people connection and activities going on, got it?

the serial part is very important
this is what other DNS server connected to your uses to update themselves. so immediately after making any changes to your zone script, change this serial number to other DNS servers can update from yours. the serial number format is YYYYMMDDN
Y - year M - month D -day N -any single digit number

200509191 mean year 2005 month 09(sept) day 19 and number 1. if i make change again on day 19, i ll change N to 2, so easy.

the lines that follow are self-explanatory enough

for your mail server, the line

nairaland.com. MX 10 mail ; primary mail exchanger

is important, MX -Mail eXchanger, 10 - means this is the primary mail server. it recieves mails for your domain first incase you have two mail servers. another mail server will have 20 mail.

THen comes to your forward lookups

A means forward name to ipaddress lookup


when you type

host mail.nairaland.com

you ll get 80.88.137.88 reply

host seun.nairaland.com

gives you 192.168.0.1

@joftech, if your replication means you are having two servers listed for a nslookup, then you have to remove one entry from your A [/b]or [b]PTR

line in your zone files that point to same ip address.

i wll just talk about the reverse lookup for for 80.88.137.88 and leave you to do the 192.168.0.1

vi 80-88-137.zone

copy my script

;

; Filename: 80-88-137.zone

;

; Zone file for 80.88.137.x
;

$TTL 3D

@ IN SOA ns1.nairaland.com. root@nairaland.com. (

200509201 ; serial number

8H ; refresh, seconds

2H ; retry, seconds

4W ; expire, seconds

1D ) ; minimum, seconds

;

NS 80.88.137.88 ; Nameserver Address

;



88 PTR ns1.nairaland.com.

89 PTR myfriend.nairaland.com.



joftech, pls note that if i add another entry like this

88 PTR mail.nairaland.com.

i ll have two server listed for my reverse host or nslookup. Is this what you meant by replication?


that's all for BIND (DNS) configuration. do the other 192-168-0.zone file pls to avoid geting error, since it was indicated in your named.conf

now do

/etc/init.d/named start


root@anything# host mail.nairaland.com
gives the ipaddress

root@anything#host 80.88.137.88
gives you the fully qualified domain name.

Lets go to MAil server Configuration now.

for mail, we ll be using sendmail and dovecot:
sendmail handles your SMTP while dovecot takes care of POP.

wow! for yahoo chat room lovers , download gyach. A linux IM that can connect to yahoo chat servers. I tried it on my fedora core 4 and i was impressed. I could connect any chat room easily. Don't expect much from the interface, but it works real good and smooth. Thanks to jogego.

Also, to all opera lover, you can google for opera linux version and download. it works splendidly with no fuss.

Again, music match juke box is now supporting linux. They ve not released any official version but test version can be download at some sites. i just downloaded the binary but haven't tried it.

To all amarok lover, amarok 1.3.2 is the bomb! The equalizer now works excellently- producing tight and clean, distinguishable bass and treble blast. I was overwhelmed. my whole room was turned into a blazing studio when i test the power of amarok 1.3.2 . The gstream engine have been rewriten. You can also download audioformat converter script for amarok at www.kde-look.org. The sound is too clean , i mean it! i m blasting P-Square 'Say Your Love'

Hello all, i need a working media player apart from Totem and mplayer. My distro is Ubuntu.

joftech:

Hello all, i need a working media player apart from Totem and mplayer. My distro is Ubuntu.

Try Amarok, Kaffeine, jukbox . If you go into Synaptic and search for only media players, you will see a whole lot that you could try. I personally use Amarok. It has a cover manager which downloads the cover image for all your mp3 files.

Aw, man! Yall some st8 gurus up in here! See, thats what i be talkin bout...

I just got finished reading the whole thread and i am impressed. This is probably the first time i have been on an all black forum with threads this lively about computers and info tech. Wow. I love it.

Right now my desktop is winXP(no service packs), i use rainmeter to keep track of sys resource. I big into bittorrent so thats all my bigbox does. My laptop is winXP sp2 dual boot with fedora core 1. Thats where i do all of my real work. I code only in Emacs (sometimes NEdit) so my linux partition is critical.

I decided to install windows server for some stupid reason or another. Oh, well, doop di do, time rolls on, i wipe out the server2003 and noticed xp just boots right up... server2003 blasted the mbr. now i have a coding projects that are backing up and i need my old files. So 2 questions:

1) What is the safest way to reinstall lilo, using knoppix 3.8.2

2) let's say i just want to recover the files, but how do i access them with knoppix (the permission settings wont allow the simple method)

Anyway, you guys rock. Keep it up!

@anton, can u make ur question simpler and more direct. knoppix is debian base when fully installed on the hdd(hope u know that) it only function as knoppix when run as a live cd . i just downloaded the lastest knoppix 4.0.2. if i understand ur question i might be of any help.


i love fedora core4

@anton, let see if this answer ur question anyway.
your mbr is lost when u reinstall DOS or windows after installing linux.
your /etc/lilo.conf files should look like this after dual boot with windows;

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
compact
prompt
timeout=50
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.0.36
label=linux
root=/dev/hda2
read-only
other=/dev/hda1
label=win
boot=/dev/hda:

INTERPRETATION;
your windows is installed in the first partition of ur first hdd =/dev/hda1 while knoppix goes to /dev/hda2
so study ur partition and make appropriate changes.
So first, boot up the knoppix linux using the live-cd and launch the konsole.
Unlike grub, to apply changes to lilo u must run lilo as a super-user as
[anto@anton]$ su
[anto@anton]$password:
type ur password for root
[root@anton]$
now do lilo -v as
[root@anton]/sbin/lilo -v
you should get this response : Added linux * Added win
your lilo should appear after this.

u can uninstall lilo by doing
/sbin/lilo -u
or boot up ur system using window98 startup disk and at the command prompt type
fdisk /mbr
hope this answers ur question. good luck.

i love fedora core4

You basically hit the nail on the head. There is no way (that i know of) to access a linux partition if the mbr is hosed so therefore, you have to use a bootCD to access and repair that install. Correct? I'll try your method as soon as i get back and i'll let you know how it turns out. I think you figured out what i was asking after a while.

As far as the files, the permission settings won't allow me to access them from knoppix. I was asking for a workaround since i know the login password. And i just figured it out. Man... it has been awhile; i have become so "gui-centric".

get this man to a terminal!, NOW!!!

Alright, thanks for the help! don't worry bout the 2nd '?'.

Also, have you had a chance to check out PHLAK or Knoppix STD?

Alright, here is where i'm at so far. This is the lilo.conf file:

**********************************************************************
# /etc/lilo.conf - See: `lilo(' and `lilo.conf(5)',
# --------------- `install-mbr( 8 )', `/usr/share/doc/lilo/',
# and `/usr/share/doc/mbr/'.

# Remove this line when you are done configuring. -KK
"! Please edit /etc/lilo.conf before running lilo!"

# +---------------------------------------------------------------+
# | !! Reminder !! |
# | |
# | Don't forget to run `lilo' after you make changes to this |
# | conffile, `/boot/bootmess.txt', or install a new kernel. The |
# | computer will most likely fail to boot if a kernel-image |
# | post-install script or you don't remember to run `lilo'. |
# | |
# +---------------------------------------------------------------+

# Support LBA for large hard disks.
#
lba32

# Specifies the boot device. This is where Lilo installs its boot
# block. It can be either a partition, or the raw device, in which
# case it installs in the MBR, and will overwrite the current MBR.
#
boot=/dev/hda

# Specifies the device that should be mounted as root. (`/')
#

# Enable map compaction:
# Tries to merge read requests for adjacent sectors into a single
# read request. This drastically reduces load time and keeps the
# map smaller. Using `compact' is especially recommended when
# booting from a floppy disk. It is disabled here by default
# because it doesn't always work.
#
# compact

# Installs the specified file as the new boot sector
#
install=/boot/boot-menu.b
backup=/dev/null

# Specifies the location of the map file
#
map=/boot/map

# You can set a password here, and uncomment the `restricted' lines
# in the image definitions below to make it so that a password must
# be typed to boot anything but a default configuration. If a
# command line is given, other than one specified by an `append'
# statement in `lilo.conf', the password will be required, but a
# standard default boot will not require one.
#
# This will, for instance, prevent anyone with access to the
# console from booting with something like `Linux init=/bin/sh',
# and thus becoming `root' without proper authorization.
#
# Note that if you really need this type of security, you will
# likely also want to use `install-mbr' to reconfigure the MBR
# program, as well as set up your BIOS to disallow booting from
# removable disk or CD-ROM, then put a password on getting into the
# BIOS configuration as well. Please RTFM `install-mbr(8 )'.
#
# password=tatercounter2000

# Specifies the number of deciseconds (0.1 seconds) LILO should
# wait before booting the first image.
#
# delay=20
timeout=100

# You can put a customized boot message up if you like. If you use
# `prompt', and this computer may need to reboot unattended, you
# must specify a `timeout', or it will sit there forever waiting
# for a keypress. `single-key' goes with the `alias' lines in the
# `image' configurations below. eg: You can press `1' to boot
# `Linux', `2' to boot `LinuxOLD', if you uncomment the `alias'.
#
# message=/boot/bootmess.txt
# prompt
# single-key
# delay=100
# timeout=100

# Specifies the VGA text mode at boot time. (normal, extended, ask, <mode>
#
# vga=ask
# vga=9
#
vga=normal

# Kernel command line options that apply to all installed images go
# here. See: The `boot-prompt-HOWO' and `kernel-parameters.txt' in
# the Linux kernel `Documentation' directory.
#
# append=""

# Boot up Linux by default.
#
default=Knoppix

image=/vmlinuz
append="lang=de apm=power-off hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi hdg=scsi hdh=scsi vga=791 quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix"
root=/dev/hda5
label=Knoppix
read-write
# restricted
# alias=1

#image=/vmlinuz.old
# label=Linux-OLD
# read-only
# optional
# restricted
# alias=2

# If you have another OS on this machine to boot, you can uncomment the
# following lines, changing the device name on the `other' line to
# where your other OS' partition is.
#
# other=/dev/hda4
# label=HURD
# restricted
# alias=3

************************************************

When i do the command /sbin/lilo - v, it says:

Unrecognized token "! Please edit /etc/lilo.conf before running lilo" at or above line 20 in file /etc/lilo.conf'

Is it talking about the lba32 at line 20?

Total Confusion over here....

Ohyeah, i know how to get my old files, but i really want to get this under my belt. Thanks in advance

disclaimer: i really haven't been using linux much since i switched to mandrake from slackware and also recently because of work, so most of my knowledge is old skool. things might have changed now.

this is how i do it when i'm lazy and only if i still have my distro's install CD: i just insert my CDs and pretend i'm reinstalling. i'll skip partitioning and formatting and when it gets to where i've to selected packages for installation, i select none. the whole setup then proceeds to the bootloader setup and i simply re-install LILO there and then. easy.

on the other hand if u don't have your install CDs but you have a boot CD, then boot up. to gain permission...can't remember but i think you do a "sudo su" command, you'll automatically log on as root. you can then access/mount other partitions on your harddrive. then u can edit your "/etc/lilo.conf" manually to set up your win partition. but the main thing here is loading lilo into the MBR

the easiest method - depends on if you use a FAT filesystem on your winxp partition. if yes, then you can use "loadlin.exe" to boot your linux distro from windows - then follow Niggy's instruction to install lilo to the MBR.

google "sudo su" and "loadlin.exe" for more info.

Thanks for the reponse, c0dec

But i don't have the install cd. My winXP partition is NTFS. therefore double . Thanks for the info!

well, another way to boot your linux would be to use windows' OS loader. i've never used it before but i think all u have to do is edit the boot.ini file.

you might want to check out http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm too. good luck man.

Thanks! I'll chek it out when i get time.

I've been refreshing my termimal skillz so what i might do is just move the files i need to a safe place and go ahead and install kubuntu.

I just found out about kubuntu a lil' bit ago. It got a fairly good review so that's my distro now. I've been testing the live version for a while. I was a fedora man, but naaahhhh. I need a stable platform, and not a testbed...

Anyways,

Holla!

this is in part why I think many people will still stay away from linux - all the linux heads will proclaim the gui's that are being developed, and more security and control, but they you guy's talk about how to get certain things done, and most people are like . . whooaa. . thats not for me. I think the OS of the future will end up being some hybrid Windows/Linux thing. Sorry MacOs . . .but there are too many elements of it in both windows and linux that I see it being a dominant shaping force.

Well, reckon i'll put in my two cents...

*nix is still a good animal... many powerful things today came from unix... yeah, i like linux, but i really like to study unix and the work done at bell labs... the creation of the C language... it's things like that that are truely powerful. How a body of research can produce so many tools 30yrs ago and the tools are still relevant... torvalds is alright, but he just gave regular civilians access to the features of one of the most powerful tools ever created in this age.

Personally, i don't think we should be talking windows or linux or macOS. Who is to say that we don't need an OS tailored for, created for our needs. Built from scratch incorporating a new, as of yet undiscovered paradigm of software *cough, cough* engineering, in open source test beds, simple enough for amatuer dev, but powerful enough to control space craft...

Too many of our people see themselves as mere extensions, yea extensions of western... whatever you call these... people for lack of a better word. Who is to say that some extreamly enterprising african won't decide to develop a total new paradigm of PC architecture? The Cell processor is on the horizon and will most likely shake things things up quite a bit. Current processor architecture was stalled by the heating problems, now the 'dual core' phase. Alot of this crap in affect is nothing more than interem technology made to generate profit. I'm sure you guys have seen the 'holo' memory cards capable of holding 30gigs. Only cost the a dollar each, but the writer will run you a cool... $12,000, i think

I say if the african people need an OS, just download windoze and do what you do. If you can get some young kids and teach them linux before they touch windoze, then you got sonething going. A debate over which one is best is kinda pointless... Which one allows you to be the most productive? If we can get the youth involved with open source, though... That'll be something. Getting them invloved in the community of open source software development is powerful. But i think's it's silly to think multinational (read:white) corprations can give africa what she needs. Presently, we are all down, but what will the situation be in 20yrs, 50yrs? Where will the mulinational corp be then? Especially when we close the access to coltan or whatever the neccessary more-valuable-than-human-life-minera- esource is of the time.

I agree with just about everything said, you too allonym. In the end, they just tools. Get 'em and use 'em. Yeah, i saw future in allonym's post and another earlier on and went tangent big time. bad attention span...

Holla!

I am writing this from my spanking new Opensuse installation and for the first time, I am seriously thinking of ditching Kanotix. Suse 10 has a very professional installation much better than I have ever experienced in any Linux distro or even in Windows. It just works. And for it to be so fast on a hard disk of about 3GB, says something.

Only thing I didnt like is the installation taking over an hour and using 5 CDs. Kanotix finishes installation in less than 30 minutes. But then, you cant have your cake and eat it I guess.

My new Suse 10.0 desktop without any enhancing.

Nice.....

Hi Guys

Ubuntu Linux rules....

Recently i came across the Gaim chat client (Messenger) from Linux which allows u chat with people across all networks ie MSN, Yahoo Messenger and others too many to mention.

Its great and i am getting all cyber cafes in my area to switch to it, no more stress!!!!!!!!!!

Hi! I have been using Linux stictly for one and a half years and it's really awesome. I don't know where some of you guys got the idea that it's not ripe for desktop use yet. My whole family(mum, dad, brother, sister and puppy ) uses Linux comfortably. My brother (younger) does image editing (GIMP) and burns CDs stress free (K3B). My sis (younger) does some school research off the web(FIREFOX) and some chatting(GAIM). She also shows off her album (DIGIKAM). My mum and dad use it for office documents (OPENOFFICE). My puppy, well..., just plays with the keyboard.

I use it for music management along with syncing with my mp3 player (AMAROK, XMMS, BEEP, etc,) videos (infact I have configured a film server on a P233 mach), little audio editing (audacity), some programming (basically C++), simulation and modelling (octave, maxima and scilab), drawing of schematics (chemical flow) using DIA. I also use a PIM package (Kontact), an personal accounting manager (GNUCASH) and I also sync info on my Palm PDA with it.

My machine is the heart of my home network. It's got Samba running for Windows services (for file and print services), it's a proxy server to share our internet connection and an FTP server (pretty redundant).


I must confess that I miss some things with Windows XP:
Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)
Norton ATV annoying popups
Defragmentation and manual disk checks
Occasional reinstallation of the operating system because of degrading performance with time
Regular visits to Otigba for pirated software (hey, I can't afford origos)
Under-utilization of computer hardware
Multi user lies
can't remember the rest


That's just some stuff we do with Linux @ HOME and I'm the only "techie" in my family. Not ripe for home use? Think again! Gnu/Linux & OpenSource RULES!!!

the two operating systems are good, but it depend on what you are using your computer for. If your computer is serving as a server, I will advise you to use Linus because of it virus free status. Mind you window is wonderful!

damn! have been away for almost a month or more now and no nairaland member seem to give a damn. What a nairaland family!
Anyway, i've been away for good, have been doing lot of reading to sharpen my Linux 'skills'. And again, i've resumed school for my final year (500 level) so i hardly have time to browse like i do at home.
But i'm a little disappointed the tread hasn't gone far, nobody has posted their new Linux desktop screenshots, nobody has asked any question concerning Linux related problems...nobody has shared their recent development or finding on Linux.
oh! Let me share mine.
i just discovered the dd (data duplicator command). with dd you can create iso images without any stress like this


dd if=/dev/cdrom of=/home/Iso/<name_of_image.iso>

the command is straight forward so i don't have to explain the terms.
this command creates the iso image of all the data on the cdrom drive onto the hard disk

you can mount the image and access it as if i were a cdrom like this


mount -t iso9660 -o "loop" <image_name> <output_mount_directory>

This is how the command works, mount [/b]is the command [b]-t is meant to specify a file system type which is iso9660. i don't know what the loop does but i have to include it before it works . don't mind me. someone should please find out and let me know please.
note makesure the output_mount_directory exists. also the /home/Iso/ directory must exit.

That's that
next i will share how to have more than one ip address assigned to a single network interface card in linux. this means i can assign more than one ip address, say 3 or 4 to a single NIC say eth0 in linux and all the ip addresses will be recorgnized. this is done by creating multiple interfaces like eth0:1, eth0:2 and so on.

Also, i will like to explain alias command, to avoid typing long commands always u can do alias of the command like this:

alias mountcd="mount /mnt/cdrom"

so when you type mountcd, your cdrom is mounted.
see ya later.

We love you niggy!

Thanks chxta! someone in the family just showed love. God loves you too man!


i love fedora core 4

I believe linux is the best thing that happend in OS world. I ruse Redhat 9.0 and i'm in love with it.

Happy New year guys!
Has anyone used Fedora core 5? and i need to know what's up with kernel 2.6.15.
I resently formatted my LG 256MB flash drive and it became 64MB. Any help from the house?

Niggy:

I resently formatted my LG 256MB flash drive and it became 64MB. Any help from the house?

ha ha ha yo Niggy, can't stop laughing. where did u buy it? all i can say i you bought a fake. it was never 256mb, the partition table of your flash was manually modified by them pirates.

same thing happened to me. i bought a so called 256mb "IBM" flash disk from otigba, then one day after 2 weeks of using it, it miraculously became 64mb. man, i wanna troubleshoot die. i cleared the whole disk down to its partition table. created a new table and it was still the same 64mb. just use linux's fdisk and play around, you'll see. have fun.

i now understood why large files i had saved then were often corrupted.