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Linux Frequently Asked Questions with Answers: Network sources and resources. Next Previous Contents

2. Network sources and resources.

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2.1 Where can I get the HOWTO's and other documentation?

Look in the following places, and the sites that mirror them.

For a complete list of Linux FTP sites, see, `` Where can I get Linux material by FTP? ''

If you don't have access to FTP, try the FTP-by-mail servers at ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com, ftpmail@doc.ic.ac.uk, or ftp-mailer@informatik.tu-muenchen.de.

A complete list of HOWTO's and Mini-HOWTO's is available in the file HOWTO-INDEX in the docs/HOWTO directory at the FTP sites, and on the Web at http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX.html, but here is a (possibly incomplete) list: 

AX25-HOWTO                             Access-HOWTO
Assembly-HOWTO                         Benchmarking-HOWTO
BootPrompt-HOWTO                       Bootdisk-HOWTO
CD-Writing-HOWTO                       CDROM-HOWTO
Chinese-HOWTO                          Commercial-HOWTO
Consultants-HOWTO                      Cyrillic-HOWTO
DNS-HOWTO                              DOS-to-Linux-HOWTO
DOSEMU-HOWTO                           Danish-HOWTO
Distribution-HOWTO                     ELF-HOWTO
Emacspeak-HOWTO                        Ethernet-HOWTO
Finnish-HOWTO                          Firewall-HOWTO
Ftape-HOWTO                            GCC-HOWTO
German-HOWTO                           HAM-HOWTO
HOWTO-INDEX                            Hardware-HOWTO
Hebrew-HOWTO                           IPX-HOWTO
ISP-Hookup-HOWTO                       Installation-HOWTO
Intranet-Server-HOWTO                  Italian-HOWTO
Java-CGI-HOWTO                         Kernel-HOWTO
Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO             MGR-HOWTO
MILO-HOWTO                             Mail-HOWTO
NET-3-HOWTO                            NFS-HOWTO
NIS-HOWTO                              News-HOWTO
Optical-Disk-HOWTO                     PCI-HOWTO
PCMCIA-HOWTO                           PPP-HOWTO
Pilot-HOWTO                            Polish-HOWTO
Printing-HOWTO                         Printing-Usage-HOWTO
RPM-HOWTO                              Reading-List-HOWTO
SCSI-HOWTO                             SCSI-Programming-HOWTO
SMB-HOWTO                              Serial-HOWTO
Serial-Programming-HOWTO               Shadow-Password-HOWTO
Slovenian-HOWTO                        Sound-HOWTO
Sound-Playing-HOWTO                    Spanish-HOWTO
TeTeX-HOWTO                            Thai-HOWTO
Tips-HOWTO                             UMSDOS-HOWTO
UPS-HOWTO                              UUCP-HOWTO
User-Group-HOWTO                       VAR-HOWTO
VMS-to-Linux-HOWTO                     XFree86-HOWTO
XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO
3-Button-Mouse
The following Mini-HOWTO's are available from http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/HOWTO/mini: 
ADSM-Backup                            AI-Alife
Advocacy                               Backup-With-MSDOS
Battery-Powered                        Boca
BogoMips                               Bridge
Bridge+Firewall                        Clock
Colour-ls                              Comeau-C++
DHCPd                                  Dial-On-Demand
Diald                                  Dip+SLiRP+CSLIP
Diskless                               Dynamic-IP-Hacks
Ext2fs-Undeletion                      GTEK-BBS-550
HTML-Validation                        IO-Port-Programming
IP-Alias                               IP-Masquerade
IP-Subnetworking                       JE
Jaz-Drive                              Kerneld
Key-Setup                              LBX
Large-Disk                             Linux+DOS+Win95
Linux+DOS+Win95+OS2                    Linux+NT-Loader
Linux+OS2+DOS                          Linux+Win95
Loadlin+Win95                          Locales
MIDI+SB                                Mail-Queue
Mail2News                              Man-Page
Multiple-Disks-Layout                  Multiple-Ethernet
NFS-Root                               NFS-Root-Client
Netscape+Proxy                         Offline-Mailing
Online-Support                         PLIP
PPP-over-minicom                       Pager
Partition                              Print2Win
Process-Accounting                     Proxy-ARP
Public-Web-Browser                     Qmail+MH
Quota                                  RCS
Remote-Boot                            Remote-X-Apps
SLIP+proxyARP                          SLIP-PPP-Emulator
Sendmail+UUCP                          Software-Building
Software-RAID                          Soundblaster-16
Soundblaster-AWE64                     StarOffice
Swap-Space                             Term-Firewall
Tiny-News                              Token-Ring
Upgrade                                VPN
Virtual-wu-ftpd                        Visual-Bell
Win95+Win+Linux                        Windows-Modem-Sharing
WordPerfect                            X-Big-Cursor
XFree86-XInside                        Xterm-Title
Xterminal                              ZIP-Drive
ZIP-Install

In addition, translations of the HOWTO's are available from sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/translations and mirrors worldwide. Translations in the following languages are available: 

Chinese (zh)                    Croatian(hr)
French (fr)                     German (de)
Hellenic (el)                   Indonesian (id)
Italian (it)                    Japanese (jp)
Korean (ko)                     Polish (pl)
Spanish (es)                    Slovenian (sl)
Swedish (sv)                    Turkish (tr)

The HOWTO's are also on the Web, at the Linux Documentation Project's Home Page, http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP.

More of these documents are always in preparation. Please get in touch with Timothy Bynum, tjbynum@sunsite.unc.edu, the HOWTO coordinator, if you are interested in writing one. The file sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX contains guidelines for writing a HOWTO. He has a Web page that lists current HOWTO updates and additions at wallybox.cei.net/~tjbynum/HOWTO/projects.

The Guide Series produced by the Linux Documentation Project is available from http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP. Please read them if you are new to Unix and Linux. Here is a list of those available so far:

In addition, there is a FAQ for Linux kernel developers at http://www.tux.org/html/.

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2.2 Where should I look on the World Wide Web for Linux stuff?

Two Web pages in particular provide good starting point for general Linux information: Linux International's Home Page, at http://www.li.org, and the Linux Online's Linux Home Page at http://www.linux.org/.

Both of these pages provide links to other sites, information about general information, distributions, new software, documentation, and news.

Greg Hankins, gregh@cc.gatech.edu, maintains the Linux Documentation Project Home Page, at http://sunsite.unc.edu/LDP. This page refers to all of the HOWTO's and FAQ's, both those which are available in HTML (WWW) format, and those which aren't.

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2.3 What newsgroups are there for Linux?

Comp.os.linux.announce is the moderated announcements group; you should read this if you intend to use Linux: it contains information about software updates, new ports, user group meetings, and commercial products. It is the ONLY newsgroup that may carry commercial postings. Submissions for that group should be e-mailed to linux-announce@news.ornl.gov.

comp.os.linux.announce, however, is not archived on DejaNews or Alta Vista. The only archive for the news group seems to be www.iki.fi/mjr/linux/cola.html.

[Axel Boldt]

Also worth reading are the following other groups in the comp.os.linux.* hierarchy--you may find many common problems too recent for the documentation but are answered in the newsgroups. 

comp.os.linux.setup
comp.os.linux.hardware
comp.os.linux.networking
comp.os.linux.x
comp.os.linux.development.apps
comp.os.linux.development.system
comp.os.linux.advocacy
comp.os.linux.misc

Remember that Linux is POSIX compatible, and most all of the material in comp.unix.* and comp.windows.x.* groups will be relevant. Apart from hardware considerations, and some obscure or very technical low-level issues, you'll find that these groups are good places to start.

Please read `` You still haven't answered my question! '' before posting. Cross posting between different comp.os.linux.* groups is rarely a good idea.

There may well be Linux groups local to your institution or area--check there first.

See also `` I don't have Usenet access. Where do I get information? ''

Other regional and local newsgroups also exist--you may find the traffic more manageable there. The French Linux newsgroup is fr.comp.os.linux. The German one is de.comp.os.linux. In Australia, try aus.computers.linux. In Croatia there is hr.comp.linux. In Italy, there is it.comp.linux.

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2.4 Where can I find out about Linux and the Millennium (Y2K) bug?

The Debian/GNU Linux people have a statement on their Web site at http://www.debian.org

Essentially, Linux uses libraries that store dates as 32-bit integers, which count the seconds since 1970. This counter will not overflow until the year 2038, by which time the library programmers will (hopefully) have upgraded the system software to store dates as 64-bit integers.

This, of course, does not mean that applications are not susceptible to the millennium bug, if they do not use the standard library routines.

The Free Software Foundation has a Web page about Y2K issues in GNU software at http://www.fsf.org/software/year2000.html

There is also a Usenet newsgroup, comp.software.year-2000, for general discussion of Y2K issues.

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2.5 Where can I get Linux material by FTP?

There are three main archive sites for Linux:

The best place to get the Linux kernel is ftp.cs.helsinki.fi/pub/Linux_Kernel. Linus Torvalds uploads the most recent kernel versions to this site.

Of the U.S. distributions, Debian GNU/Linux is available at ftp.debian.org/pub/debian. Red Hat Linux's home site is ftp.redhat.com, and Linux Slackware's is ftp.cdrom.com.

The contents of these sites is mirrored (copied, usually approximately daily) by a number of other sites. Please use a site close to you--it will be faster for you and easier on the network.

Not all of these mirror all of the other ``source'' sites, and some have material not available on the ``source'' sites.

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2.6 I don't have FTP access. Where do I get Linux?

The easiest thing is probably to find a friend with FTP access. If there is a Linux user's group near you, they may be able to help.

If you have a reasonably good email connection, you could try the FTP-by-mail servers at ftpmail@ftp.sunet.se, ftpmail@garbo.uwasa.fi, or ftpmail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de.

Linux is also available via traditional mail on CD-ROM. The file sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Installation-HOWTO, and the file sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/Distribution-HOWTO contain information on these distributions.

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2.7 I don't have Usenet access. Where do I get information?

A digest of comp.os.linux.announce is available by mailing the word ``subscribe'' (without the quotes) as the body of a message to linux-announce-REQUEST@news-digests.mit.edu. Subscribing to this list is a good idea, as it carries important information and documentation about Linux.

Please remember to use the *-request addresses for your subscribe and unsubscribe messages; mail to the other address is posted to the news group.

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2.8 What mailing lists are there?

The Linux developers now mainly use the Majordomo server at majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu. Send a message with the word ``lists'' (without the quotes) in the body to get a list of lists there. Add a line with the word, ``help,'' to get the standard Majordomo help file that lists instructions for subscribing and unsubscribing to the lists.

Most of the lists are used by Linux developers to talk about technical issues and future developments. These are not intended for new users' questions.

There is a linux-newbie list where, ``no question is too stupid.'' Unfortunately, it seems that few experienced users read that list, and it has very low volume.

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2.9 Are the newsgroups archived anywhere?

The Usenet Linux news groups are archived at http://www.dejanews.com, http://www.reference.com, and http://altavista.digital.com

Sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/docs/linux-announce.archive contains archives of comp.os.linux.announce. These are mirrored from src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet, which also archives comp.os.linux, comp.os.linux.development.apps, and comp.os.linux.development.system.

There is an `easy to access' archive of comp.os.linux.announce on the World Wide Web at http://www.leo.org/archiv/linux/archiv/ann_index.html which supports searching and browsing.

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