KNOW HOW
Formatting, editing
and packing
ODDS AND ENDS
Windows collects a
he applications of KDE, and here we are
referring to KDE 2.2 from SuSE Linux 7.3, are
number of useful
Toften very similar to those of Windows, which
applications together
makes it easier to migrate but some flows do differ.
under the heading of
Formatting diskettes
Accessories . Anja
For example, in Windows you format a diskette via
the desktop and the option Format in the File menu.
M. Wagner shows
Try hunting for this option in KDE and you ll be
Figure 2: Completion message after
you how to find and
looking in vain. Instead, you must start a little tool
full formatting and error check
named Kfloppy, which you will find under
use these and other
System/Tools/KFloppy. The diskette drive must not be system, select the one holding the diskette for
odds and ends in KDE
mounted before formatting. formatting either drive A or B in the drop-down
Kfloppy offers a number of setting options. If menu. As well as the usual 3.5in diskettes the old
you have a diskette drive, it bears the drive letter 5.25in diskettes are also supported.
A and is recognised and selected as such by In the second drop-down menu, select the memory
Kfloppy in the drop-down menu. This is a capacity of the diskette. This is normally HD High
concession to users who are accustomed to Density (1.44Mb). The older diskettes with DD, Double
Windows, because in fact there are no drive letters Density, have more or less disappeared from the
under Linux. If you have two diskette drives in your market. They store only 720Kb of data. Which sort of
diskette you are using is written on the diskette.
When formatting a diskette, a filesystem is created
on the data medium. Under Windows, only FAT is
available. Kfloppy lets you choose between MS-DOS
(thus FAT) and the Linux filesystem ext2. If you
format diskettes in the DOS format, Linux has no
problem accessing these data media it does not
work the other way round however: Windows cannot
read an ext2-formatted diskette.
As formatting methods, you can choose from fast
or full formatting. Fast formatting deletes all data on
FAT: FAT stands for File the diskette, but only works if the diskette was
Allocation Table and refers already formatted. The full method also deletes
to the filesystem of MS- hidden files, checks for errors and can also be used
DOS and Windows 9x/Me. on unformatted diskettes although these are no
The table itself represents longer available. Once you have selected the
the table of contents of a appropriate settings, click on Format to begin the
data medium, thus for process the full formatting can take some time, but
example a diskette. you can check the progress via the blue bar.
ext2: The Second Extended
Filesystem (ext2) is used by Check memory capacity
Linux. It is a more modern Diskettes are, like hard drives, partitions and CDs,
filesystem than the storage media for your system. It is often important
Windows FAT system. to find out how much total memory space is available
on a storage medium and how much is already taken
Figure 1: Kfloppy offers many setting options
46
LINUX MAGAZINE Issue 20 " 2002
KNOW HOW
Figure 5: Select which information
KDiskFree is to display and which not
down with one click. Another default setting is that
KDiskFree activates a warning if the memory capacity
of a drive is approaching its limit.
The pop-up menu also includes the item Open
filemanager. If you select this option, the file
manager Konqueror opens at the position of the
Figure 3: Windows shows the relation mount location. If, for example, there is a
between occupied and free memory
Windows partition in the system with the mount
up or still free. Under Windows all it takes is a right- location /windows/C, Konqueror starts at this
click in Windows Explorer on the corresponding drive, point, and you have access to your Windows
and a pie-chart shows the level occupied. In directories and files.
Konqueror, the standard file manager of KDE, this
way does not exist. Instead a small tool comes into
use every time: KDiskFree. You can find this under
System/Info/Disk Free.
This tool lists all data media on your system clearly
in succession. It shows the drive designation, the type
(for example vfat for Windows partitions and
ext2 for Linux partitions), the mount location (i.e.
the location in the system, at which the device has
been mounted in the directory tree), the overall
memory capacity and the free memory space in
absolute numbers, together with occupied space as a
percentage. The ratio between free and occupied
Figure 6: With the option Open filemanager you quickly
space is also shown in the form of a green bar.
get to the mount location of a drive in the system
From KDiskFree, by the way, you can easily mount
any drive in the system. Click with the right mouse Changing a password
button in the appropriate line and select Mount Windows offers passwords for the various users of
device in the pop-up menu. The green bar only the system. You change a password there in the
appears for devices or drives mounted in the system. Control Panel via the option Passwords. You can do a
Select Options/Configure KDiskFree to change the similar thing under KDE to change your password.
display to suit your own requirements. On the Via Administration/Tools/Change Password you come
General Settings tab the default setting displays all to a small tool, which first asks you for the old and
types of information individual fields can be shut then twice for a new password.
Figure 4: KdiskFree shows clearly and informatively Figure 7: Changing your password at
the size and occupied space of all drives in the system regular intervals enhances security
47
Issue 20 " 2002 LINUX MAGAZINE
KNOW HOW
Packing and unpacking files
When working with data you will often have to unpack
compressed archives. Certainly the most popular
compression program in the Windows world is WinZip.
KDE offers a number of alternatives. One of these is the
classic Ark, which is now very similar to WinZip in look
and feel. With this tool, which you will find under
System/Tools, you can unpack both zipped files (*.zip)
and the compressed files which are common in the
Linux World with the endings tar.gz and tar.bz2.
Figure 10: Packing files means creating a
new archive and filling it with content
You can fill the new archive with content either via
Action/Add File or Action/Add Directory. Select the files
and directories in the window which opens, which are
to be compressed in the archive. You can also drag the
files and directories, if Konqueror is open, via drag and
drop into the main window of Ark. The procedure ends
Figure 8: When starting the compression
with File/Close Archive.
program Ark the main window is still empty
At first, the main window of Ark is empty. Click The editor KWrite
the Open button or in the menu list select File/Open There is a wealth of editors to choose from in KDE.
and open a file to be unpacked in your system. If it is KWrite is very similar to the Windows editor, but offers a
on a diskette, remember to mount the drive first. few additional abilities. Start the program via
After confirming with OK, the files in the archive will Office/Editors/Advanced Editor. The settings of KWrite
now appear in the main window of Ark. If you want are set, as in most KDE applications, via
to unpack the entire contents of the archive into a Settings/Configure editor in the menu list.
common folder, you don t need to mark anything.
Click on Extract and via Browse select the destination
folder. If the destination folder does not yet exist,
click on the cog symbol on the far right in the toolbar
and select New Directory.
Activate the All option when all the files are to be
unpacked. The Selected Files option is only active if you
have previously marked one or more files in the main
window of Ark. Confirm with OK, and straight away the
Figure 11: Very similar to the Windows
files are unpacked. editor but easier to use: KWrite
New archives are created via File/New. In the dialog Here you can change the background colours and the
window, specify the directory in which the new archive colour of marked sections of text. Font type and size can
is to be stored, for example your home directory. In the be adapted to your individual requirements. When
text line, Location, enter the name and the archive working with KWrite the text can also be enlarged or
ending. With the ending, e.g. .zip or .tar.gz, you are reduced with a click on the magnifying glass symbol in
defining the archive type. the toolbar.
In the section Setting/Configure Editor/Edit you can
define after how many characters a line should wrap
the default is 80 characters. The wrapping only becomes
active, though, when you invoke Edit/Apply Word
Wrap.
The width of the tabulator indentation can be varied,
as can the number of possible undo steps. One practical
function is pre-set in the area Select: all text sections
copied with the mouse are automatically buffered. So
this saves you the command Copy and you can
immediately insert the marked material at the
corresponding position in the text. This works the same
as under Windows.
Figure 9: The destination directory, into which files
KWrite has a spellchecker. In the section headed
are to be unpacked, can be created directly with Ark
48
LINUX MAGAZINE Issue 20 " 2002
KNOW HOW
device section with the mouse driver, you have to
insert, after the last option, the line:
Option ZAxisMapping 4 5
In the line Option Device , for USB mice it must state:
/dev/input/mice, for other mice /dev/psaux or
/dev/imps/2. In the Option Protocol line it must also
say imps/2.
Figure 12: Line break and tabulator width can be
adjusted, as can the number of undo-commands
Settings/Configure Editor/Spelling you can choose
between Ispell and Aspell.
The Comment tool, which put KWrite close to an
Figure 14: Open the file XF86Config with an editor
office program, is not yet implemented. It is easy to
jump to a specific line via Edit/Go to Line. Individual The effect of the ZaxisMapping entry is that the
words can be found with Edit/Find, and automatic movements of the mouse wheel are interpreted as
replacements are possible, via Edit/Replace. pressing the fourth and fifth mouse buttons.
For a current distribution such as SuSE 7.3 the
Activating the wheel function of configuration work is finished at that point. Start the X
the mouse interface again (log out and then press Ctrl+Alt+Del),
Linux recognises all the common mice without any and the little wheel on your mouse will work. If you are
problem during installation. Unfortunately though, in still working with XFree86 3.x, you will have to start the
the case of a wheel mouse, the wheel often does not tool imwheel in addition to the procedure described
work a configuration file has to be amended to do above. You do this for example when starting the work
so. This is where you can get to know how to work session with the fast starter Alt+F2. Enter imwheel
with the editor KWrite at the same time: Log in as Root and press Enter. We will present some more useful
and start the editor via Office/Editors/Advanced Editor. applications which Windows files under Accessories in
Activate, in the menu list, File/Open. In the directory the next issue.
tree, select the configuration file /etc/X11/XF86Config.
In this file there are two InputDevice sections, one
for the keyboard and one for the mouse. In the input
One line has to be inserted into the
Figure 13: Changing the spellcheckers settings file for the wheel mouse to work
49
Issue 20 " 2002 LINUX MAGAZINE
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