Can Linux Access Amiga File Systems?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
The Linux kernel has support for the Amiga Fast File System (AFFS) version 1.3 and later, both as a compile-time option and as a module. The file Documentation/filesystems/affs.txt in the Linux kernel source distribution has more information.See How To Upgrade/Recompile a Kernel.Linux supports AFFS hard-drive partitions only. Floppy access is not supported due to incompatibilities between Amiga floppy controllers and PC and workstation controllers. The AFFS driver can also mount disk partitions used by the Un*x Amiga Emulator, by Bernd Schmidt.

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Can Linux Access OS/2 HPFS Partitions?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
Yes, but Linux access to HPFS partitions is read-only. HPFS file system access is available as an option when compiling the kernel or as a module. See the Documentation/filesystems/hpfs.txt file in the kernel source distribution. See How To Upgrade/Recompile a Kernel. Then you can mount HPFS partition, using, for example:

$ mkdir /hpfs
$ mount -t hpfs /dev/hda5 /hpfs

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Can Linux Use Stacked/DBLSPC/Etc. DOS Drives?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).

A: Until recently, not very easily. You can access DOS 6.X volumes from the DOS emulator ("What software does Linux support? "), but it's harder than accessing a normal DOS volume via the DOS kernel option, a module, or mtools.

There is a recently added package, dmsdos, that reads and writes compressed file systems like DoubleSpace/DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.x and Win95, as well as Stacker versions 3 and 4. It is a loadable kernel module. Look at ftp:// metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/dosfs/.

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Does Linux Support Compressed Ext2 File Systems?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).

The ext2compr project provides a kernel patch Information about them is located at http://e2ompr.memalpha.cx/e2compr/.

There is also a Web site for the e2compr patches. The code is still experimental and consists of patches for the 2.0 and 2.1 kernels. For more information about the project, including the latest patches, and the address of the mailing list, look up the URL at http://debs.fuller.edu/e2compr/.

[Roderich Schupp, Peter Moulder

A: zlibc is a program that allows existing applications to read compressed (GNU gzip'ed) files as if they were not compressed. Look at ftp:// metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/. The author is Alain Knaff.

A: There is also a compressing block device driver, "DouBle," by Jean-Marc Verbavatz, which can provide on-the-fly disk compression in the kernel. The source-only distribution is located at ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/ patches/diskdrives/. This driver compresses inodes and directory information as well as files, so any corruption of the file system is likely to be serious.

A: There is also a package called tcx (Transparently Compressed Executables), which allows you to keep infrequently used executables compressed and only uncompress them temporarily when in use. It is located at ftp:// metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/compress/.

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How Do I Access Files on a MS-DOS Partition or Floppy?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
Use the DOS file system, type, for example:

$ mkdir /dos
$ mount -t msdos -o conv=text,umask=022,uid=100,gid=100 /dev/hda3 /dos

If it's a floppy, don't forget to umount it before ejecting it!

You can use the conv=text/binary/auto, umask=nnn, uid=nnn, and gid=nnn options to control the automatic line-ending conversion, permissions and ownerships of the files in the DOS file system as they appear under Linux. If you mount your DOS file system by putting it in your /etc/fstab, you can record the options (comma-separated) there, instead of defaults.

Alternatively, you can use mtools, available in both binary and source form on the FTP sites. See Where Are the Linux FTP Archives?.

A kernel patch (known as the fd-patches) is available which allows floppies with nonstandard numbers of tracks and/or sectors to be used; this patch is included in the 1.1 alpha testing kernel series.

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Can Linux Use the Same Hard Drive as MS-DOS? OS/2? 386BSD? Win95?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
Yes. Linux supports many, many filesystems, including the standard MS-DOS partitioning scheme, so it can share your disk with other operating systems.Linux supports all known versions of the Microsoft FAT and VFAT file systems, including those used by Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows ME through loadable kernel modules. In a correctly configured system, they should load automatically when the partitions are mounted.

Note, however, that many other operating systems may not be exactly compatible. DOS's FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.EXE, for example, can overwrite data in a Linux partition, because they sometimes incorrectly use partition data from the partition's boot sector rather than the partition table.In order to prevent programs from doing this, it is a good idea to zero out under Linux the start of a partition you created, before you use MS-DOS or whatever to format it. Type:

$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdXY bs=512 count=1 where hdXY is the relevant partition; e.g., /dev/hda1 for the first partition of the first (IDE) disk.Linux can read and write the files on your DOS and OS/2 FAT partitions and floppies using either the DOS file system type built into the kernel or mtools.There is reportedly a GPL'd OS/2 device driver that will read and write Linux ext2 partitions.

For information about FAT32 partition support, see http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/ people/chaffee/fat32.html.See What Software does Linux Support? for details and status of the emulators for DOS, MS Windows, and System V programs.See also, "Can Linux access Amiga file systems?", "Can Linux access Macintosh file systems?", "Can Linux access BSD, SysV, etc., UFS?", and "Can Linux access SMB file systems?"There are said to be NTFS drivers under development, which should support compression as a standard feature.

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Does Linux Support Virtualized File Systems Like RAID?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
The most recent Linux kernels support software RAID, and they will work with RAID disk controllers.An automounter for NFS partitions is part of most Linux distributions.In addition, several virtual file system projects exist. One of them, the Linux Logical Volume Manager, is located at http://linux.msede.com/lvm/.

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How Can I Get Linux to Work With My Disk?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).

If your disk is an IDE or EIDE drive, you should read the file /usr/src/ linux/drivers/block/README.ide (part of the Linux kernel source code). This README contains many helpful hints about IDE drives. Many modern IDE controllers do translation between "physical" cylinders/heads/sectors, and "logical" ones.SCSI disks are accessed by linear block numbers. The BIOS invents some "logical" cylinder/head/sector fiction to support DOS.Older IBM PC-compatible BIOS's will usually not be able to access partitions which extend beyond 1024 logical cylinders, and will make booting a Linux kernel from such partitions using LILO problematic at best.You can still use such partitions for Linux or other operating systems that access the controller directly.It's recommend that you create at least one Linux partition entirely under the 1024 logical cylinder limit, and boot from that. The other partitions will then be okay.Also there seems to be a bit of trouble with the newer Ultra-DMA drives. I haven't gotten the straight scoop on thembut they are becoming a very common problem at the SVLUG installfests. When you can get 8 to 12 Gig drives for $200 to $300 it's no wonder.

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Why Doesn't the AHA1542C Card Work With Linux?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: The option to allow disks with more than 1024 cylinders, which the AHA1542C card can recognize, is only required as a workaround for a PC-compatible BIOS misfeature and should be turned off under Linux. For older Linux kernels you need to turn off most of the advanced BIOS options all but the one about scanning the bus for bootable devices.

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Does Linux Support USB Devices?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: Linux supports a few dozen USB devices at present, and work is underway to develop additional device drivers. There is a Web page devoted to the subject, at http://www.linux-usb.org. There is also LDP documentation, at: Where Is the Linux Stuff on the World Wide Web?.

Support for USB version 2.0 was recently added to development kernels, but is not yet available in the 2.4 series.

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Can Linux Use More than 3 Serial Ports by Sharing Interrupts?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: Yes, but you won't be able to use simultaneously two ordinary ports which share an interrupt (without some trickery). This is a limitation of the ISA Bus architecture.

See the Serial HOWTO for information about possible solutions and workarounds for this problem.

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019. What is a BogoMip?

A: "BogoMips" is a combination of Bogus and Mips. MIPS stands for (depending on who you ask) Millions of Instructions per Second, or Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed.

The number printed at boot time is the result of a kernel timing calibration, used for very short delay loops by some device drivers.

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
According to the BogoMips mini-HOWTO, the rating for your machine will be:

Common BogoMips Ratings

Processor BogoMips Comparison
--------- -------- ----------
Intel 8088 clock * 0.004 0.02
Intel/AMD 386SX clock * 0.14 0.8
Intel/AMD 386DX clock * 0.18 1 (definition)
Motorola 68030 clock * 0.25 1.4
Cyrix/IBM 486 clock * 0.34 1.8
Intel Pentium clock * 0.40 2.2
Intel 486 clock * 0.50 2.8
AMD 5x86 clock * 0.50 2.8
Mips R4000/R4400 clock * 0.50 2.8
Nexgen Nx586 clock * 0.75 4.2
PowerPC 601 clock * 0.84 4.7
Alpha 21064/21064A clock * 0.99 5.5
Alpha 21066/21066A clock * 0.99 5.5
Alpha 21164/21164A clock * 0.99 5.5
Intel Pentium Pro clock * 0.99 5.5
Cyrix 5x86/6x86 clock * 1.00 5.6
Intel Pentium II/III clock * 1.00 5.6
Intel Celeron clock * 1.00 5.6
Mips R4600 clock * 1.00 5.6
Alpha 21264 clock * 1.99 11.1
AMD K5/K6/K6-2/K6-III clock * 2.00 11.1
UltraSparc II clock * 2.00 11.1
Pentium MMX clock * 2.00 11.1
PowerPC 604/604e/750 clock * 2.00 11.1
Motorola 68060 clock * 2.01 11.2
Motorola 68040 Not enough data (yet).
AMD Athlon Not enough data (yet).
IBM S390 Not enough data (yet).

If the number is wildly lower, you may have the Turbo button or CPU speed set incorrectly, or have some kind of caching problem (as described in Why Does the System Slow to a Crawl When Adding More Memory?).

For values people have seen with other, rarer, chips, or to calculate your own BogoMips rating, please refer to the BogoMips Mini-HOWTO, on ftp:// metalab.unc.edu/. See Where Is the Documentation?.

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Does Linux Support Threads or Lightweight Processes?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: As well as the Unix multiprocessing model involving heavyweight processes, which is of course part of the standard Linux kernel, there are several implementations of lightweight processes or threads. Recent kernels implement a thread model, kthreads. In addition, there are the following packages available for Linux.

*GNU glibc2 for Linux has optional support for threads. The archive is available from the same place as glibc2, ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ *In ftp://sipb.mit.edu/pub/pthread/ or ftp://ftp.ibp.fr:/pub/unix/threads/ pthreads. Documentation isn't in the package, but is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/proven/home_page.html. Newer Linux libc's contain the pthreads source. The GNU Ada compiler on ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/devel/lang/ada/ contains binaries made from that source code. *In ftp://ftp.cs.washington.edu/pub/qt-001.tar.Z is QuickThreads. More information can be found in the technical report, available on the same site is /tr/1993/05/UW-CSE-93-05-06.PS.Z. *In ftp://ftp.cs.fsu.edu/pub/PART/, an Ada implementation. This is useful mainly because it has a lot of Postscript papers that you'll find useful in learning more about threads. This is not directly usable under Linux.

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Where Is the Latest Kernel Version on the Internet?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: The easiest way to update your kernel is to get the update directly from the distribution which you are running.

A: If you need or want to configure and compile your own kernel, the web page at http://www.kernel.org/ lists the current versions of the development and production kernels.

If you want to download the source code, FTP to ftp.xx.kernel.org, where xx is the two-letter Internet domain abbreviation of your country; e.g., us for United States, ca for Canada, or de for Germany. Kernel versions 2.2.x are archived in the directory pub/linux/kernel/v2.2, as are patches for the prerelease versions. The kernel source code is archived as a .tar.gz file, and as a .tar.bz2 file.

Follow the instructions in any of the standard references to compile the kernel, as you would with any other custom kernel. The Documentation subdirectory contains information by the authors of various subsystems and drivers, and much of that information is not documented elsewhere.

If you want to participate in kernel development, make sure that you sign on to the linux-kernel mailing list to find out what people are working on. Refer to the answer: What Mailing Lists Are There?.

There is a story about the features of the 2.4 series kernels at http:// features.linuxtoday.com/stories/8191.html.

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015. How Does Linux Kernel Versioning Work?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: Ports are currently available for:
A: At any given time, there are several "stable" versions of Linux, and one "development" version. Unlike most proprietary software, older stable versions continue to be supported for as long as there is interest, which is why multiple versions exist.

Linux version numbers follow a longstanding tradition. Each version has three numbers, i.e., X.Y.Z. The "X" is only incremented when a really significant change happens, one that makes software written for one version no longer operate correctly on the other. This happens very rarely -- in Linux's history it has happened exactly once.

The "Y" tells you which development "series" you are in. A stable kernel will always have an even number in this position, while a development kernel will always have an odd number.

The "Z" specifies which exact version of the kernel you have, and it is incremented on every release.

The current stable series is 2.4.x, and the current development series is 2.5.x. However, many people continue to run 2.2.x and even 2.0.x kernels, and they als o continue to receive bugfixes. The development series is the code that the Linu x developers are actively working on, which is always available for public viewing, testing, and even use, although production use is not recommended! This is part of the "open source development" method.

Eventually, the 2.5.x development series will be "sprinkled with holy penguin pee" and become the 2.6.0 kernel and a new stable series will then be established, and a 2.7.x development series begun. Or, if any really major changes happen, it might become 3.0.0 instead, and a 3.1.x series begun.

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Ports to Other Processors

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: Ports are currently available for:

*Compaq Alpha AXP *Sun SPARC and UltraSPARC *Motorola 68000 *PowerPC *PowerPC64 *ARM *Hitachi SuperH *IBM zSeries and S/390 *MIPS *HP PA-RISC *Intel IA-64 *DEC VAX *AMD x86-64 *CRIS

A: There are always efforts underway to port Linux onto new processors. Linux Online maintains a http://www.linux.org/projects/ports.html:list of ports currently in development.

In addition, the following information is available about specific ports:

On Intel platforms, VESA Local Bus and PCI bus are supported.

MCA (IBM's proprietary bus) and ESDI hard drives are mostly supported. There is further information on the MCA bus and what cards Linux supports on the Micro Channel Linux Web page, http://www.dgmicro.com/mca. Refer also to the answer for: Where Is the Linux Stuff on the World Wide Web?.

There is a port of Linux to the 8086, known as the Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset (ELKS). This is a 16-bit subset of the Linux kernel which will mainly be used for embedded systems, at: http://www.linux.org.uk/Linux8086.html. Standard Linux does not run 8086 or 80286 processors, because it requires task-switching and memory management facilities found on 80386 and later processors.

Linux supports multiprocessing with Intel MP architecture. See the file Documentation/smp.tex in the Linux kernel source code distribution.

An API specification and developers kit for the Crusoe Smart Microprocessor developed by Transmeta Corporation are at http://www.transmeta.com.

A project has been underway for a while to port Linux to suitable 68000-series based systems like Amigas and Ataris. The Linux/m68K FAQ is located at http://www.clark.net/pub/lawrencc/linux/faq/faq.html. The URL of the Linux/m68k home page is http://www.linux-m68k.org/faq/faq.html.

There is also a linux-680x0 mailing list. See What Mailing Lists Are There?.

There is (or was) a FTP site for the Linux-m68k project on ftp:// ftp.phil.uni-sb.de/pub/atari/linux-68k, but this address may no longer be current.

Debian GNU/Linux has ports to Alpha, Sparc, Motorola 68k, PowerPC, ARM, IBM S /390, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, and IA-64. A Port to amd64 is being developed. There are mailing lists for all of them. See http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/ for general information, then follow the "subscription" link, and find the mailing list you are interested in.

One of the Linux-PPC project pages is http://www.linuxppc.org, and the archive site is ftp://ftp.linuxppc.org/linuxppc.

There are two sites for the Linux iMac port: http://w3.one.net/~johnb/ imaclinux, and http://www.imaclinux.net:8080/content/index.html.

A port to the 64-bit DEC Alpha/AXP is at http://www.azstarnet.com/~axplinux/. There is a mailing list at vger.redhat.com: see What Mailing Lists Are There? .

Ralf Baechle is working on a port to the MIPS, initially for the R4600 on Deskstation Tyne machines. The Linux-MIPS FTP sites are ftp://ftp.fnet.fr/ linux-mips and ftp://ftp.linux.sgi.com/pub/mips-linux. Interested people may mail their questions and offers of assistance to linux@waldorf-gmbh.de.

There is (or was) also a MIPS channel on the Linux Activists mail server and a linux-mips mailing list. See What Mailing Lists Are There?.

There are currently two ports of Linux to the ARM family of processors. One of these is for the ARM3, fitted to the Acorn A5000, and it includes I/O drivers for the 82710/11 as appropriate. The other is to the ARM610 of the Acorn RISC PC. The RISC PC port is currently in its early to middle stages, owing to the need to rewrite much of the memory handling. The A5000 port is in restricted beta testing. A release is likely soon.

For more, up-to-date information, read the newsgroup news:comp.sys.acorn.misc . There is a FAQ at http://www.arm.uk.linux.org.

The Linux SPARC project is a hotbed of activity. There is a FAQ and plenty of other information available from the UltraLinux page, http:// www.ultralinux.org.

The Home Page of the UltraSPARC port ("UltraPenguin") is located at http:// sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/linux/ultrapenguin-1.0/, although the URL may not be current.

There is also a port to SGI/Indy machines ("Hardhat"). The URL is http:// www.linux.sgi.com.

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What Hardware Is Supported?

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: A minimal Linux installation requires a machine for which a port exists, at least 2Mb of RAM, and a single floppy drive, but to do anything even remotely useful, more RAM and disk space are needed. Refer to: Ports to Other Processors, What are the Disk Space Requirements for Minimal, Server, and Workstation Use?, and What are the Minimum and Maximum Memory Requirements?.

Intel CPU, PC-compatible machines require at least an 80386 processor to run the standard Linux kernel.

Linux, including the X Window System GUI, runs on most current laptops. Refer to the answer for: How Do I Find Out If a Notebook Runs Linux?. There are numerous sources of information about specific PC's, video cards, disk controllers, and other hardware. Refer to the INFO-SHEET, Laptop-HOWTO, and the Unix-Hardware-Buyer-HOWTO. See Where Is the Documentation?.

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. What Platforms Does Linux Support?

Description

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: Linux runs on almost every general-purpose computer made in the last 10 years. It runs on systems as small as PDAs (for example, the Sharp Zaurus) and on systems as large as IBM mainframes.

There are Linux distributions specifically for mobile and handheld platforms. Information on the Linux distribution for the Compaq iPAQ is at http:// www.handhelds.org.

A: Linux was written originally for Intel processor based PC's, using the hardware facilities of the 80386 processor and its successors to implement its features. The 80386 family includes the 80486 and all of the Pentium chips. However, there are now many ports to other hardware platforms. See Ports to Other Processors.

Refer also to the Linux INFO-SHEET for more details as well as the answers to Where Is the Documentation?, What Hardware Is Supported?, and Ports to Other Processors, below.

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How Many People Use Linux?

Description

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: Linux is freely available, and no one is required to register with any central authority, so it is difficult to know. Several businesses survive solely on selling and supporting Linux. Linux newsgroups are some of the most heavily read on Usenet. Accurate numbers are hard to come by, but the number is almost certainly in the millions.

However, people can register as Linux users at the Linux Counter project, which has been in existence since 1993. In May of 2003 the project counted more than 134,000 users, but that is certainly only a small fraction of all users. The operator of the Linux Counter estimated 18 million users, as of May 2003.

Visit the Web site at http://counter.li.org/ and fill in the registration form.

The current count is posted monthly to news:comp.os.linux.misc, and is always available from the Web site.

[Harald Tveit Alvestrand]

A: In 1999, International Data Corporation released its first commercial forecast of Linux sales. The report quantifies Linux vendor sales in 1996, 1997, and 1998, and forecasts through the year 2003.

To obtain the report, contact IDC at ctoffel@idc.com. Their Web site is http: //www.itresearch.com/.

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How Does One Pronounce Linux?

Description

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).

A: This question produces an outrageous amount of heated debate.

If you want to hear Linus himself say how he pronounces it, download english.au or swedish.au from ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/Linux/PEOPLE/Linus/ SillySounds/. If you have a sound card or the PC-speaker audio driver you can hear them by typing

$ cat english.au >/dev/audio

The difference isn't in the pronunciation of Linux but in the language Linus uses to say, "hello".

For the benefit of those who don't have the equipment or inclination: Linus pronounces Linux approximately as Leenus, where the ee is pronounced as in "feet," but rather shorter, and the u is like a much shorter version of the French eu sound in peur (pronouncing it as the u in "put" is probably passable).

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009. How Is Linux Licensed?

Description

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: Linus has placed the Linux kernel under the GNU General Public License, which basically means that you may freely copy, change, and distribute it, but you may not impose any restrictions on further distribution, and you must make the source code available.

This is not the same as Public Domain. See the Copyright FAQ, ftp:// rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/law/copyright, for details.

Full details are in the file COPYING in the Linux kernel sources (probably in /usr/src/linux on your system). There is a FAQ for the GPL at: http:// www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl-faq.html.

The licenses of the utilities and programs which come with the installations vary. Much of the code is from the GNU Project at the Free Software Foundation, and is also under the GPL. Some other major programs often included in Linux distributions are under a BSD license and other similar licenses.

Note that discussion about the merits or otherwise of the GPL should be posted to the news group gnu.misc.discuss, and not to the news:comp.os.linux hierarchy.

For legal questions, refer to the answer: Where Are Linux Legal Issues Discussed?.

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Who Wrote Linux?

Description

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: Linus Torvalds and a loosely knit team of volunteer hackers from across the Internet wrote (and still are writing) Linux from scratch.

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Is Linux Unix?

Description

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
007. Is Linux Unix?

A: Officially an operating system is not allowed to be called a Unix until it passes the Open Group's certification tests, and supports the necessary API's. Nobody has yet stepped forward to pay the large fees that certification involves, so we're not allowed to call it Unix. Certification really doesn't mean very much anyway. Very few of the commercial operating systems have passed the Open Group tests.

A: Unofficially, Linux is very similar to the operating systems which are known as Unix, and for many purposes they are equivalent. Linux the kernel is an operating system kernel that behaves and performs similarly to the famous Unix operating system from AT&T Bell Labs. Linux is often called a "Unix-like" operating system. For more information, see http:// www.unix-systems.org/what_is_unix.html.

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What Is Linux?

Description

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).
A: The name "Linux" is used to refer to three similar yet slightly different things, which can be confusing to all but the hardcore geek. The three usages vary by how much of a complete software system the speaker is talking about.

At the lowest level, every Linux system is based on the Linux kernel ?? the very low-level software that manages your computer hardware, multi-tasks the many programs that are running at any given time, and other such essential things. These low-level functions are used by other programs, so their authors can focus on the specific functionality they want to provide. Without the kernel, your computer is a very expensive doorstop. It has all of the features of a modern operating system: true multitasking, threads, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, shared, copy-on-write executables, proper memory management, loadable device driver modules, video frame buffering, and TCP/IP networking.

Most often, the name "Linux" is used to refer to the Linux Operating System. An OS includes the kernel, but also adds various utilities ?? the kinds of programs you need to get anything done. For example, it includes a shell (the program that provides a command prompt and lets you run programs), a program to copy files, a program to delete files, and many other odds and ends. Some people honor the request of Richard Stallman and the GNU Project, and call the Linux OS GNU/Linux, because a good number of these utility programs were written by the GNU folks.

Finally, software companies (and sometimes volunteer groups) add on lots of extra software, like the XFree86 X Window System, Gnome, KDE, games and many other applications. These software compilations which are based on the Linux OS are called Linux distributions.

So, there are three Linuxes: the Linux kernel, the Linux OS, and the various Linux distributions. Most people, however, refer to the operating system kernel, system software, and application software, collectively, as "Linux", and that convention is used in this FAQ as well.

See also the Wikipedia articles on the Linux kernel and the Linux operating system.

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Asking Questions and Sending Comments

Description

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).

002. Asking Questions and Sending Comments

If you have any comments, or if you have a question about Linux that was not answered here, feel free to send it to the maintainer: david -AT- lupercalia.net. Place the letters FAQ in the subject of your message.

I won't guarantee to answer all questions, but I'll answer as many as I can. Questions that I receive repeatedly will be added to the FAQ. If you wish to refer to a question in the FAQ, please include the title of the question in your email.

If you have an addition to the FAQ, by all means send it. Contributions may be in any format, but I prefer comments in English to patch files. Context diff is not my first language.

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About the FAQ

Description

This article is from the Frequently Asked Questions for Linux, the Free/Open Source UNIX-like operating system kernel that runs on many modern computer systems. Maintained by David C. Merrill with numerous contributions by others. (v1.0).

001. About the FAQ

This document contains a collection of the answers to the most common questions people ask about Linux.

It is available as WikiText source, DocBook XML, an ASCII text file, an HTML World Wide Web page, Postscript, PDF, Plucker, and as a USENET news posting.

DocBook XML is generated from WikiText source using wt2db. HTML is generated from the XML using the LDP's XSL customization layer on top of Norm Walsh's standard DocBook XSL stylesheets. Text is generated from the HTML using lynx. Most of these programs are found in most Linux distributions.

The Usenet version is posted regularly to news:news.answers, news: comp.answers, and news:comp.os.linux.misc. It is archived at ftp:// rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/os/linux/misc.

The latest versions are available from the Linux Documentation Project.

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Linux FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Linux .This FAQ is currently compiled and maintained by David Merrill, with assistance and comments from Linux users all over the world. Over the years it has passed through several hands, and I'd like to recognize all the folks who have worked on it.
In addition to those of us who have been official maintainers, the FAQ is full of individual contributions. The name of the contributor is listed along with the contribution.Special thanks are due to Matt Welsh, who moderated news: comp.os.linux.announce and news:comp.os.linux.answers, coordinated the HOWTO's and wrote substantial portions of many of them, Greg Hankins the former Linux Documentation Project HOWTO maintainer, Lars Wirzenius and Mikko Rauhala, the former and current moderators of news:comp.os.linux.announce, Marc-Michel Corsini, who wrote the original Linux FAQ, and Ian Jackson, the previous FAQ maintainer. Thanks also to Roman Maurer for his many updates and additions, especially with European Web sites, translations, and general miscellany.

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