Questions, Answers.
Q: Where do I save my files? To Linux directories or Windows directories?
A: Save your files to your Windows directory that has file sharing enabled. Lazarus
on windows can access and work with your files on Windows like normal.
FakeLinux Samba mounts your windows directory on FakeLinux, which means the
directories and files are accessible on both Windows and FakeLinux. The compiler
takes the files from FakeLinux and treats them as Linux directories, while Lazarus
IDE takes the files from Windows directories. Both the compiler and the IDE are
getting the files from the exact same place, just that it "thinks" differently
about them!
Q: Can I access my fakelinux apache server in my web browser by IP Address?
A: Yes you can access it at http://192.168.0.40
This is the same as accessing http://fakelinux/
Q: Can I access my fakelinux apache server by name?
A: Yes you can access it at http://fakelinux/
You can change the name of your server in your /etc/hostname file
However, you might want to leave it as "fakelinux" so that you have a standard
default setup to work with, which is always easier. If you start changing things
it just makes setting up things up more complex, getting help from us more
complex, getting the remote compiler client set up more complex, etc.
Q: isn't http://fakelinux/ a domain name on the internet?
A: No, it is similar to http://localhost/ It is not a public website! It's your own
computer, if you have fakelinux setup correctly.
By default apache uses localhost, but fakelinux normally uses http://fakelinux/
You can change it to localhost if you want. It is recommended you use
http://fakelinux/ so if you ever have issues, you are using the default and known
setup that fakelinux ships with.
Q: How and what does the remote compiler client actually connect to, for the
compilation to take place on fakelinux?
A: The server program, rc505s is part of the remote compiler system.
You must have this running on the fakelinux system. By default, the fakelinux
system starts this rc505s server program for you automatically, and binds the
connection to 192.168.0.40 on port 23. If you want to change this, edit
/etc/init.d/runrc505s
Your fakelinux IP address can be changed in /etc/network/interfaces
It is recommended that you keep the default IP setup at 192.168.0.40 23
Q: How do I connect to the internet from my fakelinux console?
A: You have to get nameservers configured. To do this, on windows use "wntipcfg",
"winipcfg", or "ipconfig". You can find your name servers (DNS servers) there.
Then edit
/etc/resolv.conf
Update the nameservers in the text file. Two nameservers is the usual, but you may
have one or three of them.
Also, check the CoLinux wiki. FakeLinux is just a special setup of CoLinux with
bridged networking. Everything on the CoLinux wiki applies to FakeLinux.
Q: Why is bridged networking used to network FakeLinux console to MS Windows?
A: We recommend bridged networking over TunTap because bridged networking has been
known to work, whereas TunTap causes problems on some routers, even if set up
correctly.
Q: I can install other programs onto fakelinux and use them, even though fakelinux is
mainly for sitting in the background invisibly?
A:
If you start using apt-get or reconfiguring your FakeLinux system, remember that
the default/standard fakelinux setup is the easiest to work with. Go ahead and
install things like midnight commander and other tools if you want though. Try not
to change too much that would affect fakelinux, such as uninstalling samba,
apache, etc.
Q: Does FakeLinux work on Windows 98 or Windows 95?
A: Not that we know.
Please use Windows 2000, Windows XP, etc.
Q: If I have a REAL linux box in my home or office, do I need to use fakelinux
console?
A: You can use the remote compiler with a real linux box too. That is one power of
TCP/IP socket communication that the remote compiler was engineered with.
You'd have to install samba and set up the real linux computer just like the
fakelinux one. All the init.d startup scripts, apache, samba, and network
settings will need to be copied/configured the same way.
Q: I use "AutoFill Project" in the fakelinux Lazarus RB plug-in, then I fill in
project the Args edit box with something like
-o/fakelinux/files/myproject/myproject.cgi
Nothing changes when I compile! It gets compiled as "myproject", not
"myproject.cgi"
Why is this?
A: This is due to the FPC compiler. The extension (.cgi) is ignored when you use the
-o compiler paramater.
FakeLinux plug-in includeds a handy "extension" edit box which let's you change
the extension of your output program. So you never have to worry about this
anyway.
Q: I store my files in other places on windows such as c:\someplace\blah\blah\ , so
how do I get these to synch with fakelinux?
A: It is best to store your files in c:\fakelinux\files\yourdirectories\
It just means that it will be easier for you with the default fakelinux settings.
If you start a PWU/CGI project, or a project that will be utilizing fakelinux,
just consider placing it in c:\fakelinux\files\yourdir\ somewhere. You can copy
or move your files over to that directory if you have existing projects.
You don't have to do this, you can synch custom directories if you want. It is
just the default and easiest way to work with fakelinux.
Q: I want to build a FakeLinux distribution from scratch, or configure a distribution
of my own from scratch. I want to learn exactly what was done to get fakelinux
working. Is there a place for this?
A: You can check the intensive FakeLinux Plugger Setup Bible, and also you can
discuss your ideas/issues on the Lazarus RB Edition mailing list in Google
Groups.
Q: When booting up the FakeLinux/CoLinux Console, it says
"SMB Connection failed" and
"Connecting to MyPcName failed"
A: 1. Check on Windows in your "Network and Dial-up Connections" for your main
network connection. It should be labelled "NIC0". It should not be labelled
"Local Area Network Connection". If you insist that it is enabled something else
other than NIC0, you can change your settings in the runcolin.bat file (default
is NIC0 in the bridged paramater). That's NIC number zero.
2. Make sure the WinPCap driver is installed. Go to http://www.winpcap.org and
download the exe installer. You may have accidentally uninstalled it or
removed some devices from your windows hardware device manager.
If you have troubles uninstalling it, download a newer or older beta version on
winpcap.org's FTP/HTTP area, install, uninstall, reinstall.
3. Other samba error messages will usually be due to
-an incorrect samba configuration in /etc/samba/samba.conf,
-an incorrect password, an incorrect share file path,
-permissions on the shared directory in windows wrong,
-file sharing not enabled on the correct directory,
-file sharing not enabled at all in windows.
4. Try reinstalling WinPCap driver through the colinux installation exe.
Q: How what directory/files does the default apache FakeLinux server use for html
document root, /wwwroot/ or default /www/ directory?
A: To make it easy, the FakeLinux apache server is configured, or should be
configured to access
/home/YourUserName/mnt/fakelinux/files/
This actually means that on your Windows C:\ drive, the files are located in
somewhere like
C:\fakelinx\files\
This, you will notice, means the HTTP server is open to all your source code
files, which is not really needed on a real live server. But it makes testing your
CGI programs a lot easier.
When you upload your files to a real web server, just upload your CGI program
itself without the .pas or .pp or .lpr sources.
It's just easier this way, to leave the Apache server open to the entire /files/
directory, so you can test your programs immediately as soon as you are done
compiling. If Apache was configured at some other directory like /var/www/ it
would mean you would have to fiddle around copying files to /var/www/cgi/bin/ or
you'd have to set up samba and mount a drive so that /var/www/cgi-bin/ was
accessible on c:\fakelinux\var\www\. This can be done (and other setups), just
that the author of fakelinux felt it was best to leave the apache server wide open
to /files/ for convenience.
Q: How does my windows directory "synch" or "synchronize" with the fakelinux
directory?
A: You have to place your project files in a directory on Windows that is similar to
a linux directory.
For example:
On windows, let's say you have sharing enabled at this directory:
c:\fakelinux\files\
And let's say you are working with this project:
c:\fakelinux\files\pascal\test2\project1.pas
1. This can synch to the fakelinux directory:
/home/YourUserName/mnt/fakelinux/files/pascal/test2/project1.pas
2. Or, if you have it set up differently for example, it could also be synched to:
/mnt/somedirectory/files/pascal/test2/project1.pas
We recommend number 1 setup, since it is more default and standard for fakelinux.
Everything after /files/ is the same, so it can be synched.
In order for it to synch, you have to go into FakeLinux "Options" from the main
menu in your lazarus FakeLinux Plugin window, and set up the synch directories.
You also have to make sure that file sharing is enabled on c:\fakelinux\files\
The subdirectories such as
c:\fakelinux\files\pascal\test2\
don't neccessarily need to be shared, as long as
c:\fakelinux\files\
is shared.
You have to make sure that the "share name" of c:\fakelinux\files (let's say your
share name is "fakelinux_files" ) is configured in fakelinux properly if you
decide to steer away from the default fakelinux settings that you are given upon
installation. This is done in /etc/init.d/mountfakelinux
Q: How do I restart apache (really only needed if you make changes to httpd.conf)
without rebooting the console?
A: At the linux prompt type the following:
apachectl restart
Q: How do I restart the console without completely destroying/closing the console
with the close caption button?
A: At the linux prompt type the following:
poweroff
wait a bit until it shuts down... then at the dos prompt, type:
runcolin
Q: What if I don't have rights to access c:\fakelinux or c:\pf\colinux\files\ ?
A: Store your files in somewhere like "c:\documents and settings\you\fakelinux\files"
Share that directory in windows. Configure samba ( /etc/init.d/mountfakelinux )
to connect to that directory instead of c:\pf\colinux\files\ or c:\fakelinux\files
Synch your directories in the FakeLinux RC Client plug-in by going into Options.
Q: So I can see normal MS Windows directories like C:\fakelinux\files\ with my
compiled linux programs sitting in there?
A: Yes.
Q: I could fire up my FTP program and upload the Pascal Linux CGI programs I built,
right from C:\ drive, with normal MS Windows programs?
A: Yes.
Q: Wait a second, I thought CGI was something to do with Perl?
A: See CGI
Q: This fakelinux could create not only Pascal CGI programs, but regular linux
programs?
A: Correct. Just that the main focus or inspiration of FakeLinux was that plenty of
Pascal programmers use MS Windows for desktop but have Linux web hosts! Plus, what
in the world are you doing using ASP or PHP or Perl when you could be using Pascal
to power your website?
Q: This fakelinux is geared toward Pascal people?
A: fakelinux can be easily modified to work with GCC, Dev C++, and other linux and
MS Windows tools. Our main driven inspiration again, was that MS Windows
Pascal progammers need a way to use Pascal to run their Linux websites.
Q: Why does fakelinux use port 23?
A: Actually this will change in the future. FakeLinux can use any port that is
available, since it relies on TCP/IP. Port 23 was chosen randomly, FakeLinux has
nothing to do with TelNet. So if you use TelNet on port 23 already, you might want
to change your FakeLinux ports so that it doesn't conflict.
Choosing port 23 as the default FakeLinux port was not that bright of a choice,
and this default port will be changed soon.
Choosing a port in the range of 5001 to 49151 might be the way to go. Ports are
quite unorganized and ridiculous at times, because you can't always "get dibs"
on a certain port number. i.e. don't use port 80, since it is dedicated for HTTP.
Q: When the fakelinux console boots up, I get ERRSRV -2242
A: Try changing the username and password to one that matches one on your windows
computer. Check your control panel/users and passwords in windows. Find a user,
then change the /etc/init.d/mountfakelinux file. Change the password and user in
that file.
Q: What could cause issues with the fakelinux RC (remote client) plug-in?
A: Microsoft TV/Video connection can cause the local IP address which fakelinux RC
detects to be invalid. The Microsoft TV/Video connection sometimes becomes your
main IP address that windows defaults to (the main local area connection).
Other issues that could arise are if you have two network cards or two local area
connections in the network and dial up connections. Please punch in your local IP
address manually in fakelinux RC if you notice an address such as 169.x.x.x
instead of the usual local IP of 192.x.x.x
After you have confirmed your 192.x.x.x IP address works automatically, try
uninstalling microsoft TV/Video connection if you do not need it (may need to
restart or uninstall other unneeded camera/video drivers). This issue with
fakelinux will be worked on however in future versions.
Q: What to do about an error like
'error - CO_RC_ERROR_ERROR, line 39, file colinux/user/monitor.o (62)' ?
A: You maybe installed colinux twice, and tried to run colinux from an older
directory. Reinstall colinux to the old directory using the colinux installer. If
your winPcap was currently working, and your distro was fine, just install colinux
itself.. i.e. no winpcap or distribution download in the installation checkboxes.
Q: What does error 349, Connection to xx (your user name) failed mean?
! Mounting fakelinux directory... !
349: Connection to YourUserName failed
SMB connection failed
Starting Mail Transport Agent: sendmail.
! Running FakeLinux Compiler Daemon... !
A: Try logging off your Windows machine, and relogging on. You may have an unknown
network issue in windows that will be easily solved by re-logging in or restarting
the computer. Try reinstalling WinPCap driver.
