Here are some questions I asked myself when I started fiddling around with Linux recently. I will endeavour to update this thread as I learn new things...

Q. What is the permission setting for the /home/~username/ directory?
A. 711

Q. What is the permission setting for the /home/~username/public_html directory?
A. 755

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J de Silva
Learning Journal | GIDForums™ | GIDNetwork™ | GIDWebhosts™ | GIDSearch™

Here's a quick note about compiling / './configure'-ing Apache / Httpd 2+ on Linux RedHat 9.

I don't know when this changed exactly but I was always using (with RH7+):
but that didn't work for some reason with Apache / Httpd 2+; always defaulting to the default, classical Apache layout instead!

Anyway, you now have to use --enable-layout instead:

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J de Silva
Learning Journal | GIDForums™ | GIDNetwork™ | GIDWebhosts™ | GIDSearch™

How do I re-install a Linux RedHat RPM package? I was asking myself this very same question recently when a Linux RedHat rpm package that I was installing bombed mid-way...

Anyway...

Let's say you've just downloaded MySQL-server-4.0.13-0.i386.rpm to /home/surferdude; now from within /home/surferdude you would install the rpm like this:

Now to re-install and be certain that all the files are written over; you do this:
OR... use the 'short-hand' --force:

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J de Silva
Learning Journal | GIDForums™ | GIDNetwork™ | GIDWebhosts™ | GIDSearch™

One of the items that may be helpful to people experimenting with linux is a list of available applications to use with Linux. Here is a list of some of my favorites. I will update this from time to time as I find other things...

• OpenOffice - One of the largest growing open source projects. This is based on the SunOffice office suite. It is highly compatible with MS Office files and is available free of charge for a multitude of platforms including Linux & Windows. The downsides are it can be slow, especially on older machines and the file compatibility is not 100%.
• XMMS - This is an opensource multimedia (mp3,ogg) player for X windows. Anyone familiar with winamp will recognize this immediately. Downsides are the skins aren't as prominent as with winamp.
• Thunderbird - This is a cross-platform mail client developed by the mozilla folks. There is another thread where this is discussed. It offers a lot of advanced features even though it is still in development. Downsides are installation can require dependancies and a bit of time.
• Xine - This is a DVD player that is free. There are others that are offered, but this one is excellent. I feel that this player in Linux performs better than alternatives that I have seen in Windows. The downsides are it is somewhat hard to install and there are some libdvdcss code issues. This is needed to view any encrypted (read: all) dvd's. This is not included in xine because of certain legal issues. This is available though and can be compiled into xine.
• FLTK - This is a cross platform gui development tool kit. There are many of these available, many with more features and easier dialog construction programs. But none are as efficient or compact as fltk. It is hands down the fastest and smallest way to build gui programs.
• Gimp - The defacto image processing program for Unix. It is available for Windows as well and offers a cheap (free) alternative to Photoshop. Downsides, the build in linux is painstaking if you don't have gnome installed.