Stan Tyan

Community

CLlug — Clarksville Linux Users Group

Clarksville Linux Users Group dedicated to Linux, open-source operating systems, and related projects.

Clarksville, Tennessee, USA

About Clarksville Linux Users Group

CLlug was dedicated to learning about Linux and other open-source operating systems and related projects.

Any time there was a chance to help someone learn more about what open-source operating systems and software could do for them or their company, the group was ready to help.

  • A group of Linux enthusiasts who came together to advocate, teach, and share knowledge about the Linux operating system, use it to its full potential, and contribute to the community.
  • Support for Linux in a mixed computing environment, with an interest in ideas that broaden the computing experience.
  • No required level of experience. The only expectation was to participate and have fun.
  • Meetings on the third Thursday of each month at The Old Dairy Queen outside Fort Campbell, Gate 6, Clarksville, Tennessee.

What do we do

If there was a topic for a meeting, it was presented and discussed, and free software was often handed out thanks to donations from:

  • Red Hat
  • Stormix
  • Slackware
  • Caldera
  • SuSE
  • O’Reilly Books
  • Loki Games
  • VMware
  • TurboLinux
  • Mandrake

Some of the topics included:

  • Networking with tools such as Samba and Apache
  • Gaming, including Quake, Unreal Tournament, and Heretic II
  • Development with Perl, Python, and CGI scripting
  • Usability topics such as window managers, kernel compiling, and sound
  • Installation help, tweaking, troubleshooting, and general Linux discussion

Knowledge is power and it travels in groups. There were no requirements to become a member and no obligations.

Mark’s Linux tip of the month: hdparm

Many details depend on the hard disk and disk controller, so there is no universal recipe. Read the man page carefully before using aggressive options.

At its simplest, you could add the following line to /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit:

/sbin/hdparm -c1 /dev/hda

That enables (E)IDE 32-bit I/O support. For newer machines, the following settings were suggested:

/sbin/hdparm -c1 -A1 -m16 -d1 /dev/hda

To test the hard drive before and after the change:

/sbin/hdparm -t -T /dev/hda

Example output before the change:

[mark/]# hdparm -t -T /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.02 seconds =125.49 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 21.66 seconds = 2.95 MB/sec

Example output after the change:

[mark /]# hdparm -t -T /dev/hda

/dev/hda:

Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 1.02 seconds =125.49 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.95 seconds = 21.69 MB/sec

The example system used a UDMA ATA 66 7200 rpm WD 20 GB hard drive.

Starting points

  • Freshmeat for Linux software
  • Linuxberg for Linux software
  • Linux Games for game releases and updates
  • RPMfind for RPM packages
  • Kernel.org for kernel-release information

Distribution reviews

CLlug also published Linux distribution reviews, including Red Hat Linux 6.2, Debian 3 (Woody), and Red Hat 8.0.

Red Hat Linux 6.2 was recommended as a distribution that was simple enough for new Linux users and powerful enough for experienced ones.

The Debian 3 review focused on the installation experience, package selection, system speed, and maintenance from the perspective of a Slackware and Gentoo user trying Debian again after a difficult first attempt.

The Red Hat 8.0 review walked through installation choices, partitioning, package selection, network and firewall setup, X configuration, and the final recommendation for newcomers to Linux.