LILO, Linux Crash Rescue HOW-TO

  Al Dev (Alavoor Vasudevan)


          <  alavoor[AT]yahoo.com >
        

  v10.9, 03 May 2003


  This document discusses methods to recover from Linux system failures.
Various reasons for linux system failures can be - LILO is destroyed, or
linux fails to boot, or Master Boot Record (MBR) is damaged or linux fails to
boot when another operating system like Windows NT is installed which erases
LILO or MBR.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
    1.1. Tiny Floppy Linux
    1.2. Tiny Pocket CDROM Linux
   
   
2. Crash Recovery
    2.1. Preparation Tips
    2.2. Using Linux CDROM In Rescue Mode
    2.3. Quick Steps to recovery
    2.4. Precautionary measures
    2.5. Removing LILO
    2.6. Common mistakes
   
   
3. Disk Partition Rescue
    3.1. Partition Repair Tools
    3.2. GPart Utility
    3.3. Partition Rescue Mini-Howto
   
   
4. Related URLs
5. Other Formats of this Document
    5.1. Acrobat PDF format
    5.2. Convert Linuxdoc to Docbook format
    5.3. Convert to MS WinHelp format
    5.4. Reading various formats
   
   
6. Copyright

1. Introduction

    (The latest version of this document is at   "http://
www.milkywaygalaxy.freeservers.com" . You may want to check there for
changes).

  You cannot avoid accidents and if it happens to linux systems then it may
damage the master boot record (MBR) or LILO (Linux boot Loader). There may be
cases where linux will not boot due to hard disk failures. The LILO may also
fail if you accidentally re-partition the hard disk or you install another
additional operating system like Windows 98/NT on the linux computer.

  This document gives you some ideas, tips and quick guide to recover fast
without wading through hundreds of pages of documentation on LILO or Linux.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.1. Tiny Floppy Linux

  To recover any Windows 95/NT/2000, OS/2, BeOS or Linux box you may need the
tiny linux which fits on a single floppy disk. See the list of tiny floppy
linux given below -

  *   The best   Tomsrtbt
   
  *   Second best floppy linux   MuLinux
   
  *     Trinux
   
  *     DLX
   
  *     FloppyFW
   
  *     Linux Router Proejct floppy
   
  *     Tiny Linux distributions
   
  *     TINYLinux
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2. Tiny Pocket CDROM Linux

 

  *   Linuxcare Bootable Toolbox   "http://lbt.linuxcare.com"
   
  *   LNX-BBC   "http://lnxbbc.org"
   
  *   Tom's Root and Boot "the most GNU/Linux on one floppy disk"   "http://
    www.toms.net/rb"
   
  *   "Innominate-Linux-Rescue-System" - a CD-based rescue system   "http://
    innominate.org/projects/rescueCD"
   
  *   Irish Linux Users Group (ILUG) BBC: A bootable CD ISO   "ftp://
    ftp.blackstar.co.uk/pub/ILUG/"
   
  *   Lubbock: Meant to be the "Tom's Root Boot" of CDs   "http://
    lubbock.sourceforge.net"
   
  *   Repairlix: a networked Linux distribution/bootable system intended to
    fit in 12MB of media.   "http://repairlix.sourceforge.net"
   
  *   SuperRescue: a Red Hat-based bootable CD   "http://www.kernel.org/pub/
    dist/superrescue"
   
  *   Timo's Rescue CD Set: an easy way of generating el Torito Boot Cd's  
    "http://rescuecd.sourceforge.net"
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Crash Recovery

2.1. Preparation Tips

  It is a good idea to backup the important system files like /etc/fstab, /
etc/lilo.conf after you login using Tomsrtbt floppy or RedHat Linux CDROM
(Rescue option) in following sections. This can be very handy during crash
situation or something happens to system files.
bash# cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.orig                                          
bash# cp /etc/lilo.conf /etc/lilo.conf.orig                                  
bash# cp /etc/hosts /etc/hosts.orig                                          
bash# cp /etc/hosts.allow /etc/hosts.allow.orig                              
bash# cp /etc/hosts.deny /etc/hosts.deny.orig                                
bash# cp /etc/inetd.conf /etc/inetd.conf.orig                                
bash# cp /etc/inittab /etc/inittab.orig                                      
bash# cp /etc/networks /etc/networks.orig                                    
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.2. Using Linux CDROM In Rescue Mode

  Most of the distributions like RedHat, SUSE, Debian provide CDROM which
have "Rescue" option. For this, you have should set the BIOS of your computer
to boot first from IDE CDROM drive. Usually you set the BIOS (using F8 key
during boot) to boot first from CDROM drive, second from Floppy drive and
third from hard disk. Load the Linux cdrom into the CD drive and reboot the
system. The Linux distribution will load and at the prompt select "Rescue
Operation". In the resuce operation mount the hard disks and try to repair.
# chroot /mnt/SYSIMAGE                                                       
# df                                                                         
After doing chroot, the system will look as if you had booted the system from
hard disk. You can see all the partitions and you can repair or recover the
files.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.3. Quick Steps to recovery

  Follow these steps to recover from LILO or system failures.

 

 1.     SCENE 1: If your system does not boot -
   
      Get the tomsrtbt floppy   "http://www.toms.net/rb" or MuLinux floppy
    (see also Section 1.1 ). Boot with tomsrtbt floppy Use fdisk to find the
    partitions. Try to recognise the root and boot partition. Watch out, you
    may be having the /boot files on the root partition itself.
   
      The Linux's root partition has the following directories   bin ,   boot
    ,   etc ,   usr .
   
      And the Linux's boot partition has these directories:   vmlinuz ,  
    boot.b ,   chain.b ,   map .
   
      To find out root partition do this :
    bash# fdisk /dev/hda                                                     
    Command (m for help): m         (Gives you help on commands)             
    Command (m for help): p         (Gives you list of partitons)            
    Command (m for help): q                                                  
    bash# mkdir /test                                                        
    bash# mount /dev/hda1 /test                                              
    bash# ls /test                                                           
    You should see root-partition list like this -                           
    bin   fd    lib   mnt  proc  sbin  usr                                   
    boot  dev   etc   home  lost+found  opt  root  tmp   var                 
    If this is not a root partition, then try the next partition /dev/hda2.
    Keep trying hda3, hda4, hda5, etc.. untill you find the root partition.
    If you do not find root partition in   hda device then repeat the above
    steps for other hard disk devices like   hdb ,   hdc ,   hdd etc..
   
      Next, you should find the /boot, /usr and /var partitions. The disk
    locations of these partitions are needed to create the new lilo
    configuration.
   
      In my case the root partition is /dev/hda4 which is used in the
    examples below:
    bash# mkdir /rootpartition                                                           
    bash# mount /dev/hda4 /rootpartition                                                 
    bash# cat /rootpartition/etc/fstab                                                   
            Read the output of fstab and mount partitions as per fstab file, see below - 
    bash# mount /dev/hda5 /rootpartition/boot                                            
    bash# mount /dev/hda6 /rootpartition/usr                                             
    bash# mount /dev/hda7 /rootpartition/var                                             
    bash# mount /dev/hda8 /rootpartition/opt                                             
    bash# mount /dev/hda9 /rootpartition/root                                            
    bash# mount /dev/hda10 /rootpartition/home                                           
    In my case, as per fstab file hda5 was   boot , hda6 was   usr , hda7 was
    var , hda8 was   opt , hda9 was   root , hda10 was   home and hda11 was
    windows95 (FAT16 partition).
   
      Edit /etc/fstab (not /rootpartition/etc/fstab) and put (sample code
    given here) -
            /dev/hda4  /rootpartition           ext2 defaults 1 1                      
            /dev/hda5  /rootpartition/boot      ext2 defaults 1 1                      
            /dev/hda6  /rootpartition/usr       ext2 defaults 1 1                      
            /dev/hda7  /rootpartition/var       ext2 defaults 1 1                      
            /dev/hda8  /rootpartition/opt       ext2 defaults 1 1                      
            /dev/hda9  /rootpartition/root      ext2 defaults 1 1                      
            /dev/hda10 /rootpartition/home      ext2 defaults 1 1                      
            /dev/hda11 /rootpartition/win95part vfat defaults 1 1                      
    On my computer hda4 contains the linux root partition, hda5 had boot partition and 
    hda11 has windows 95 vfat system.                                                  
    bash# mkdir /rootpartition/win95part                                               
    bash# mount /rootpartition/win95part                                               
            And repair the problem partitions using fsck or e2fsck commands.           
    bash# man fsck                                                                     
    bash# man e2fsck                                                                   
   
 2.     SCENE 2: If LILO is not working..
   
      Follow scene 1 above, if that fails then follow these steps. After
    executing steps in scene 1 above, you should have already mounted /
    rootpartition and have created /etc/fstab file.
   
      Note: It is very important to note how chroot command works below. The 
    /sbin/lilo file which chroot uses is actually located in   /rootpartition
    /sbin/lilo and NOT in /sbin!! Hence, do not get confused.
    bash# mount -a                                                           
    bash# chroot /rootpartition /sbin/lilo -q                                
    bash# man chroot                                                         
    bash# chroot /rootpartition /sbin/lilo                                   
   
      Note: New users of chroot will be confused. If chroot command complains
    that it cannot find /boot/map file then it actually means it that it
    cannot find /rootpartition/boot/map. Because you gave /rootpartition as
    the first argument to chroot and all references are with respect to /
    rootpartition.
   
      Alternatively, you can directly use /sbin/lilo instead of chroot. The
    -r option of lilo actually does chroot. It is very   strongly recommended
    that you use chroot, instead of lilo -r, as it is more convenient and can
    catch errors more easily.
    bash# man lilo                                                           
    bash# /sbin/lilo -r /rootpartition                                       
   
 3.     SCENE 3: If LILO is not working..
   
      If scene 1 and 2 failes, then if you made the boot disk with
    'mkbootdisk' (during install or by using 'man mkbootdisk'), boot with it
    and repair your partitions. The mkbootdisk is in mkbootdisk*.rpm package,
    you must install this. Or get boot disks for Linux/NT/Windows/DOS/Mac are
    at   "http://www.bootdisk.com" Other option is - get a hold of
    installation Linux-CDROM. Just about every Linux distribution provides a
    image of a rescue disk on their CD. Under Linux use "dd if=/cdrom/disks/
    rescue of=/dev/fd0" to create a rescue floppy disk. Under DOS use
    rawrite.exe (included on Linux CD) and then do "rawrite image-name a:".
   
 4.     SCENE 4: If 1, 2 and 3 above fails and you do not have boot disk
   
      If you have another computer running linux, then login as root and do -
   
      Note: If you compile your own kernel as a bzImage (for instance,
    bzImage-2.4.4), then you should create a hard link to vmlinuz-2.4.4 as
    follows (note the the z in name vmlinuz and it is not vmlinux). If you do
    not do this then mkbootdisk command may fail.
    bash# cd /boot                                                           
    bash# ls -l vmlinuz*                                                     
    bash# ln /boot/bzImage-2.4.4  /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.4                        
    Now that you have bzImage and vmlinuz, give these commands -
    bash$ man mkbootdisk                                                     
    bash# cp /etc/lilo.conf /etc/lilo-original.conf                          
    Edit the /etc/lilo.conf and put the root partition name as you obtained
    in 'scene 1' above and insert a blank floppy and give -
    bash$ mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.2.12-20                             
    The mkbootdisk is in mkbootdisk*.rpm package, you must install this. Make
    sure you move the /etc/lilo-original.conf back to /etc/lilo.conf!! And
    then take this floppy and goto scene 3
   
 5.     SCENE 5: This is the worst scenerio and hopefully you will never come
    to this stage. Scenes from 1 to 4 will take care of majority of cases.
    But just in case, all the above scenes 1, 2, 3 and 4 fail then -
   
          Step 1: Boot tomsrtbt (see Section 1.1 ) and mount the partitions
    and backup the root partition to another partition having disk space with
    comamnds -
            Edit /etc/fstab and put (sample code given here, you may have to            
            change as per your disk layout) -                                           
                    /dev/hda4  /rootpartition       ext2 defaults 1 1                   
                    /dev/hda11 /b1          vfat defaults 1 1                           
    bash$ mkdir /rootpartition; mount /rootpartition                                    
    bash$ mkdir /b1; mount /b1                                                          
    bash$ cd /                                                                          
    bash$ df                                                                            
            And see that there is enough disk space in /b1 to tar up the root partition 
    bash$ tar cvf /b1/root-hda4.tar   /rootpartition                                    
   
          Step 2: Insert Linux cdrom, reboot and install the redhat linux on
    /dev/hda4 (but DO NOT install any extra packages, you just need to
    install only the root, boot systems and LILO manager that is, a very bare
    minimum). This will also install the LILO on hard disk. Boot linux now
    and login as root and do -
    bash$ man mkbootdisk                                                     
    bash# cp /etc/lilo.conf /etc/lilo-original.conf                          
    Note: You MUST remember to copy back lilo-original.conf to lilo.conf!!
    Edit the /etc/lilo.conf and put the root partition name as you obtained
    in 'scene 1' above and insert a blank floppy and give -
    bash$ mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.2.12-20                             
    bash# cp /etc/lilo-original.conf /etc/lilo.conf                          
    Test this boot floppy to see that this works and then restore back the
    all the files which you backedup using tar on /b1/root-hda4.tar as in
    step 1 above.
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4. Precautionary measures

  You should take the following pre-cautionary measures to tackle the
problems in future.

 

  *   You MUST make emergency boot disk from time to time and whenever you
    make changes to the partition. Insert a blank floppy and do this -
    bash$ man mkbootdisk                                                     
    The mkbootdisk is in mkbootdisk*.rpm package, you must install this.     
    bash$ mkbootdisk --help                                                  
    bash$ mkbootdisk --device /dev/fd0 2.2.12-20                             
   
  *   You MUST backup the partition tables setup to a floppy and to a hard
    disk. You should also print this out and paste it on the computer box.
    bash$ su - root                                                          
    bash# man fdisk                                                          
    bash# fdisk -l /dev/sda > partition_table_backup.txt                     
    Very helpful if you need to repartition the hard disk. From the printout,
    you would know where your partition starts. During recovery, after
    repatitioning and formating you can restore data from the backup.
   
  *   You must keep the tomsrtbt boot floppy handy. Visit   "http://
    www.toms.net/rb" (see also Section 1.1 )
   
  *   You must keep the Yard rescue and boot floppy disk handy. Visit  
    "http://www.linuxlots.com/~fawcett/yard"
   
  *   Backup /root and /boot directories. Boot the Tomsrtbt floppy (see also 
    Section 1.1 ) and then
    bash# vi /etc/fstab                                                      
    And put these lines -                                                    
                    /dev/hda1 /a1 vfat defaults 1 1                          
                    /dev/hdb1 /b1 vfat defaults 1 1                          
    In my case hda1 had the linux root partition '/'                         
    bash# cd /                                                               
    bash# tar cvf /b1/linux-root-partition-hda1.tar  a1                      
    bash# tar cvf /b1/linux-boot-partition-hda1.tar  a1/boot                 
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5. Removing LILO

  You can replace the boot sector with the DOS boot loader by issuing the DOS
command at MS DOS prompt:
        FDISK  /MBR                                                          
where MBR stands for "Master Boot Record".

  See also LILO documentation on linux at /usr/doc/lilo* for other methods of
uninstalling the LILO. And see also 'man lilo'.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

2.6. Common mistakes

  After making changes to /etc/lilo.conf you   MUST run lilo to make changes
to go in effect. It is a very common mistake committed by newusers. Type -
bash# lilo -v -v -v                                                          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Disk Partition Rescue

  If the disk partition is corrupted then use these techniques given below:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.1. Partition Repair Tools

  The following tools are available:

  *   rescuept by Andries Brouwer which is included in the non-installed part
    of util-linux   recuept-download
   
  *   Gordon Chaffees fixdisktable   "http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee
    /fat32.html" and   mirror site
   
  *   Christophe Greniers Testdisk   "http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?
    testdisk.html" and   mirror site
   
  *   GPart from   "http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/user/76201/gpart" .
   
  *   See also   "http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Partition-Rescue/index.html"
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.2. GPart Utility

  If you're trying to rescue a system with a corrupted partition table on the
main (boot) disk which is unable to boot you have two options:

 

  *   the easiest way is to find a working system where you can add your
    disk. In case the other system cannot report the disk's correct geometry,
    note down its geometry prior to moving to the working system and tell
    gpart about it (use the "-C c,h,s" option).
   
  *   download the gpart binary above, rename it to "gpart", store it on a
    floppy disk, print out the manual page above, and start your system by
    using your prefered boot disk.
   

  After booting, look if your hard disk has been detected by your system by
entering a shell and typing "dmesg". Under e.g. Linux you should look out for
lines like "hdc: ST320430A, 19569MB w/512kB Cache, CHS=39761/16/63". If you
have booted with a rescue disk mount the floppy disk with gpart on, and cd to
the mount point.

 
# To read the online manual page on gpart do :                               
bash$ man gpart                                                              
                                                                             
bash$ gpart --help                                                           
gpart: invalid option -- -                                                   
Usage: gpart [options] device                                                
Options: [-b <backup MBR>][-C c,h,s][-c][-d][-E][-e][-f][-g][-h][-i]         
         [-K <last sector>][-k <# of sectors>][-L][-l <log file>]            
         [-n <increment>][-q][-s <sector-size>][-t <module-name>]            
         [-V][-v][-W <device>][-w <module-name,weight>]                      
gpart v0.1h (c) 1999-2001 Michail Brzitwa <michail@brzitwa.de>.              
Guess PC-type hard disk partitions.                                          

  Now run "gpart /dev/[lt ]your disk[gt ]", e.g. "gpart /dev/hdc". Without
any options, gpart performs a standard scan, and merely looks if it can guess
a consistent primary partition table. A typical positive output looks like:

 
Begin scan...                                                                
Possible partition(DOS FAT), size(3999mb), offset(0mb)                       
Possible extended partition at offset(4000mb)                                
  Possible partition(Windows NTFS), size(3999mb), offset(4000mb)             
  Possible partition(Linux ext2), size(3072mb), offset(8000mb)               
  Possible partition(Linux ext2), size(3072mb), offset(11072mb)              
Possible partition(Linux ext2), size(3072mb), offset(14144mb)                
Possible partition(Linux ext2), size(2353mb), offset(17216mb)                
End scan.                                                                    
Checking partitions...                                                       
Partition(DOS or Windows 95 with 32 bit FAT): primary                        
  Partition(OS/2 HPFS, NTFS, QNX or Advanced UNIX): logical                  
  Partition(Linux ext2 filesystem): logical                                  
  Partition(Linux ext2 filesystem): logical                                  
Partition(Linux ext2 filesystem): primary                                    
Partition(Linux ext2 filesystem): primary                                    
Ok.                                                                          
Guessed primary partition table:                                             
Primary partition(1)                                                         
  type: 011(0x0B)(DOS or Windows 95 with 32 bit FAT)                         
  size: 3999mb #s(8191953) s(63-8192015)                                     
  chs:  (0/1/1)-(1023/15/63)d (0/1/1)-(8126/15/63)r                          
Primary partition(2)                                                         
  type: 005(0x05)(Extended DOS)                                              
  size: 10144mb #s(20775888) s(8192016-28967903)                             
  chs:  (1023/15/63)-(1023/15/63)d (8127/0/1)-(28737/15/63)r                 
Primary partition(3)                                                         
  type: 131(0x83)(Linux ext2 filesystem)                                     
  size: 3072mb #s(6291456) s(28967904-35259359)                              
  chs:  (1023/15/63)-(1023/15/63)d (28738/0/1)-(34979/8/24)r                 
Primary partition(4)                                                         
  type: 131(0x83)(Linux ext2 filesystem)                                     
  size: 2353mb #s(4819248) s(35259840-40079087)                              
  chs:  (1023/15/63)-(1023/15/63)d (34980/0/1)-(39760/15/63)r                

  Now if after the check-phase it says Ok, you should check the proposed
partition table very carefully. After that you may write back the guessed
table by calling "gpart -W /dev/hdc /dev/hdc" (exchange /dev/hdc with your
disk device). When gpart has successfully written the new primary partition
table, cross your fingers and reboot.

  If gpart says it found inconsistencies, you are a bit on your own. What you
can do is to fiddle with gparts numerous options. For example, to scan on
sector boundaries instead of head boundaries, give it the "-n s" option.
Normally gpart skips the disk space a possible partition seems to occupy, to
really scan the whole disk, add the "-f" option. Read the man page and
improvise.

  The gpart tries to guess which partitions are on a hard disk. If the
primary partition table has been lost, overwritten or destroyed the
partitions still exist on the disk but the operating system cannot access
them.

  gpart ignores the primary partition table and scans the disk (or disk
image, file) sector after sector for several filesystem/partition types. It
does so by "asking" filesystem recognition modules if they think a given
sequence of sectors resembles the beginning of a filesystem or partition
type. Currently the following filesystem types are known to gpart (listed by
module names) : beos, bsddl, ext2, fat, hmlvm, lswap, minix, ntfs, qnx4, rfs,
s86dl, xfs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

3.3. Partition Rescue Mini-Howto

  See also   "http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Partition-Rescue/index.html"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Related URLs

  Visit following locators which are related to LILO, Rescue Linux, crash
recovery -

  *   Mini Lilo HOWTO at   "http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO.html"
   
  *   Bootdisk-HOWTO at   "http://www.tld.org/LDP/HOWTO/Bootdisk-HOWTO/
    index.html"
   
  *   Pre-made boot disks at   "http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bootdisk-HOWTO"
   
  *   Boot disks for Linux/NT/Windows/DOS/Mac at   "http://www.bootdisk.com"
   
  *   Tomsrtbt boot floppy disk   "http://www.toms.net/rb" and (see also 
    Section 1.1 )
   
  *   Yard rescue and boot floppy disk   "http://www.linuxlots.com/~fawcett/
    yard"
   
  *   BootPrompt-HOWTO at   "http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/BootPrompt-HOWTO.html"
   
  *   Multiboot with LILO mini HOWTO at   "http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/
    Multiboot-with-LILO.html"
   
  *   Linux+WinNT mini HOWTO at   "http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/
    Linux+WinNT.html"
   
  *   Linux goodies main site   "http://www.milkywaygalaxy.freeservers.com" 
    Mirror sites are at -   "http://aldev0.webjump.com" ,   angelfire ,  
    geocities ,   virtualave ,   50megs ,   theglobe ,   NBCi ,   Terrashare 
    ,   Fortunecity ,   Freewebsites ,   Tripod ,   Spree ,   Escalix ,  
    Httpcity ,   Freeservers .
   
  *   Vim color text editor for C++, C   "http://www.tldp.org/LDP/HOWTO/
    Vim-HOWTO.html"
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Other Formats of this Document

  This document is published in 14 different formats namely - DVI,
Postscript, Latex, Adobe Acrobat PDF, LyX, GNU-info, HTML, RTF(Rich Text
Format), Plain-text, Unix man pages, single HTML file, SGML (Linuxdoc
format), SGML (Docbook format), MS WinHelp format.

  This howto document is located at -

  *     "http://www.tldp.org" and click on HOWTOs and search for howto
    document name using CTRL+f or ALT+f within the web-browser.
   

  You can also find this document at the following mirrors sites -

  *     "http://www.caldera.com/LDP/HOWTO"
   
  *     "http://www.linux.ucla.edu/LDP"
   
  *     "http://www.cc.gatech.edu/linux/LDP"
   
  *     "http://www.redhat.com/mirrors/LDP"
   
  *   Other mirror sites near you (network-address-wise) can be found at  
    "http://www.tldp.org/mirrors.html" select a site and go to directory /LDP
    /HOWTO/xxxxx-HOWTO.html
   

 

  *   You can get this HOWTO document as a single file tar ball in HTML, DVI,
    Postscript or SGML formats from -   "ftp://www.tldp.org/pub/Linux/docs/
    HOWTO/other-formats/" and   "http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto"
   
  *   Plain text format is in:   "ftp://www.tldp.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO" 
    and   "http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto"
   
  *   Single HTML file format is in:   "http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto"
   
      Single HTML file can be created with command (see man sgml2html) -
    sgml2html -split 0 xxxxhowto.sgml
   
  *   Translations to other languages like French, German, Spanish, Chinese,
    Japanese are in   "ftp://www.tldp.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO" and   "http:/
    /www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto" Any help from you to translate to other
    languages is welcome.
   

The document is written using a tool called "SGML-Tools" which can be got
from -   "http://www.sgmltools.org" Compiling the source you will get the
following commands like

  *   sgml2html xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate html file)
   
  *   sgml2html -split 0 xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate a single page html file)
   
  *   sgml2rtf xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate RTF file)
   
  *   sgml2latex xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate latex file)
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.1. Acrobat PDF format

  PDF file can be generated from postscript file using either acrobat  
distill or   Ghostscript . And postscript file is generated from DVI which in
turn is generated from LaTex file. You can download distill software from  
"http://www.adobe.com" . Given below is a sample session:
bash$ man sgml2latex                                                         
bash$ sgml2latex filename.sgml                                               
bash$ man dvips                                                              
bash$ dvips -o filename.ps filename.dvi                                      
bash$ distill filename.ps                                                    
bash$ man ghostscript                                                        
bash$ man ps2pdf                                                             
bash$ ps2pdf input.ps output.pdf                                             
bash$ acroread output.pdf &                                                  
Or you can use Ghostscript command   ps2pdf . ps2pdf is a work-alike for
nearly all the functionality of Adobe's Acrobat Distiller product: it
converts PostScript files to Portable Document Format (PDF) files.   ps2pdf 
is implemented as a very small command script (batch file) that invokes
Ghostscript, selecting a special "output device" called   pdfwrite . In order
to use ps2pdf, the pdfwrite device must be included in the makefile when
Ghostscript was compiled; see the documentation on building Ghostscript for
details.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.2. Convert Linuxdoc to Docbook format

  This document is written in linuxdoc SGML format. The Docbook SGML format
supercedes the linuxdoc format and has lot more features than linuxdoc. The
linuxdoc is very simple and is easy to use. To convert linuxdoc SGML file to
Docbook SGML use the program   ld2db.sh and some perl scripts. The ld2db
output is not 100[percnt] clean and you need to use the   clean[lowbar]
ld2db.pl perl script. You may need to manually correct few lines in the
document.

  *   Download ld2db program from   "http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~rrt/
    docbook.html" or from   Milkyway Galaxy site
   
  *   Download the cleanup[lowbar]ld2db.pl perl script from from   Milkyway
    Galaxy site
   

The ld2db.sh is not 100[percnt] clean, you will get lots of errors when you
run
        bash$ ld2db.sh file-linuxdoc.sgml db.sgml                            
        bash$ cleanup.pl db.sgml > db_clean.sgml                             
        bash$ gvim db_clean.sgml                                             
        bash$ docbook2html db.sgml                                           
And you may have to manually edit some of the minor errors after running the
perl script. For e.g. you may need to put closing tag < /Para> for each <
Listitem>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.3. Convert to MS WinHelp format

  You can convert the SGML howto document to Microsoft Windows Help file,
first convert the sgml to html using:
        bash$ sgml2html xxxxhowto.sgml     (to generate html file)                     
        bash$ sgml2html -split 0   xxxxhowto.sgml (to generate a single page html file)
Then use the tool   HtmlToHlp . You can also use sgml2rtf and then use the
RTF files for generating winhelp files.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

5.4. Reading various formats

  In order to view the document in dvi format, use the xdvi program. The xdvi
program is located in tetex-xdvi*.rpm package in Redhat Linux which can be
located through ControlPanel [verbar] Applications [verbar] Publishing
[verbar] TeX menu buttons. To read dvi document give the command -
          xdvi -geometry 80x90 howto.dvi man xdvi                            
                                                                             
And resize the window with mouse. To navigate use Arrow keys, Page Up, Page
Down keys, also you can use 'f', 'd', 'u', 'c', 'l', 'r', 'p', 'n' letter
keys to move up, down, center, next page, previous page etc. To turn off
expert menu press 'x'.

  You can read postscript file using the program 'gv' (ghostview) or
'ghostscript'. The ghostscript program is in ghostscript*.rpm package and gv
program is in gv*.rpm package in Redhat Linux which can be located through
ControlPanel [verbar] Applications [verbar] Graphics menu buttons. The gv
program is much more user friendly than ghostscript. Also ghostscript and gv
are available on other platforms like OS/2, Windows 95 and NT, you view this
document even on those platforms.

 

  *   Get ghostscript for Windows 95, OS/2, and for all OSes from   "http://
    www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost"
   

  To read postscript document give the command -
          gv howto.ps ghostscript howto.ps                                   
                                                                             

  You can read HTML format document using Netscape Navigator, Microsoft
Internet explorer, Redhat Baron Web browser or any of the 10 other web
browsers.

  You can read the latex, LyX output using LyX a X-Windows front end to
latex.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. Copyright

  Copyright policy is GNU/GPL as per LDP (Linux Documentation project). LDP
is a GNU/GPL project. Additional requests are that you retain the author's
name, email address and this copyright notice on all the copies. If you make
any changes or additions to this document then you please intimate all the
authors of this document. Brand names mentioned in this document are property
of their respective owners.
