Re: Gnome 1.04/KDE 1.1/Red Hat 6.0

[Dave Lewis <dlewis europa com>]

Marco Fonseca wrote:
> 
> 1) Cannot connect to ISP using gnome-ppp as user. If I su to root and then
> launch it, it works. Otherwise, the "pppd deamon dies unexpectedly." I tried
> finding the pppd file and setuid it by "chmod u+s pppd", but I cannot find
> this file at all. How can this problem be fixed?

This may not be the specific answer that you are looking for but it is
an alternate method that works well for me. Instead of gnome-ppp (PPP
Dialer applet?) I used the Modem Lights Applet. 

1. After loading RH 6.0 I used the program pppsetup (pppsetup-2.07,
though newer versions are available) to make the two scripts that allow
me to connect to and disconnect from my ISP. It makes two scripts,
ppp-go and ppp-off. I renamed ppp-go to ppp-on. Note: I do not know if
using pppsetup alters any other dialing scripts that you may have. I
doubt it, but I want to warn you that it may.

2. To allow user access I installed sudo-1.5.9p1-1. As root I used
visudo to create my sudoers file. This process will give a specific
user or users the ability to dial out and connect and disconnect to the
internet. I also included below the option to run shutdown as a user. It
will prompt you for your user password, not the root password. The
pertinent parts look like this:

# Cmnd alias specification
Cmnd_Alias	PPP=/usr/sbin/ppp-on,/usr/sbin/ppp-off
Cmnd_Alias	SHUTDOWN=/usr/bin/shutdown

# User privilege specification
root	ALL=(ALL) ALL
user	ALL=NOPASSWD: PPP,SHUTDOWN


Of course, change "user" to your user name.

To test the configuration, as user open a gnome terminal or xterm and
type
	"ppp-on"
without the quotes to connect and then type
	"ppp-off"
to disconnect. When that works then:

3. Open the Modem Lights Applet" properties and on the general tab enter
"sudo ppp-on" in the Connect command field and enter "sudo ppp-off" in
the Disconnect command field, both without quotes. Enter "OK" and you
should be done.

I placed the Modem Lights Applet (thanks John and Martin) on the control
panel and when I want to connect I click once on the left "vertical box"
on the applet. Click yes on the confirmation question and your modem
should start dialing. When you are finished, repeat the process on the
"vertical box" to disconnect.

> 2) How can I turn off the modem speaker when using gnome-ppp?

When running the pppsetup program will ask a series of questions (read
the documentation for pppsetup as it requires several programs to work
which are probably already on your system) and you are required to enter
your modem init string. Here you can enter the appropriate command(s)
for your modem speaker volume. When running pppsetup, the onscreen
instructions will assist in entering the modem init string properly as
an extra "/" or two is needed in the init string along with an "OK"
outside of the init string which is in quotes.

> 3) After upgraded to RH 6.0, Gnome became the default window/session
> manager. How can I quickly change to KDE and back to Gnome again? Is this
> possible?

I like Gnome and I haven't looked at KDE since I loaded RH 6.0. I
configured RH 6.0 to boot into the X-windows Red Hat login screen. On
the login window there is an "options" box. Try options->sessions->KDE
button and then log in. I suspect that is what you need to do.

I hope this information is helpful.

Dave Lewis
Portland, OR