HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: tfoley@camaro (Tim Foley)
Subject: FSCK...How to Ignore HD bad sectors?
Organization: camaro
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 22:53:13 GMT
Summary: Whats the option to tell it?

 
  No one seems to have been able to answer this question sooo...
 
  How do you tell FSCK to ignore the harddrives bad sectors after you ran
mkfs with the -c option??????
 
  Also, how come FSCK doesn't repair everthing...I still get the same, block 
in use, clear y/n message and it never clears...
 
 
Please reply to 'whome!camaro!tfoley' or in the newgroups as I think a few 
other people were asking this type of question.  

NOTE:  THE MKFS -C OPTION SHOULD BE ADDED TO THE FAQ....who do I ask to do 
       this?

							Tim



-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
  The HeartBeat of America...Yesterdays Camaro Z28
  Call the Camaro Linux Pub-access site: 1-416-238-6550 USRobotics HST
  Note: Please, no ftpmail or mailing lists or the host gets annoyed :)
From: jwiegand@moe.eng.temple.edu (James Wiegand)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: Suggestion Spliting Group
Date: 12 Dec 92 17:45:01 GMT
Organization: Temple University EE Dept.

In article <1992Dec12.044702.4234@exucom.com> cyberman@exucom.com (Stephen R. Phillips) writes:
>
>In hopes that this will prevent the 99-300 message per day from
>SWAMPING most poeple.  I suggest this group be split.
>
>how about
>comp.os.linux.announce
>comp.os.linux.help
>comp.os.linux.discussion
>comp.os.linux.x
>
>This is a suggestion perhaps it's not worth doing but I can't keep up
>with 152 threads and 192 articles (per DAY).  
>
>perhaps adding
>comp.os.linux.flame would be good to? :)
>Cyberman
>-- 
>This is my sig file!
>Read rec.games.programer!

Maybe you should read news.groups! This was VOTED DOWN ALREADY!
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cut it out folks! Please let this subject die for the time being!
Stuff like this is getting more attention than real problems.

I agree with Ted, but I'm posting this in the vain attempt to get
people to let this thing rest for a bit.

jim
... awaiting the imminent death of the net, or a newsfeed,
whichever comes first.
From: "Kai Furmans" <HB12@DKAUNI2.BITNET>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: problems with mount
Date: 17 Dec 1992 19:47:27 +0100
Organization: University of Karlsruhe, Germany
Distribution: world



>
>
> whether I use menu, or mount, to mount a floppy, I get
> "/dev/fd? mounted, or ?? busy". This is as root.
> chris

Hi Chris,
I suppose you tried to mount a floppy with MS-DOS format.
To do this you have to specify a type parameter like
mount -t msdos /dev/fd1 /dos

Hope that helps
Kai
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: erc@unislc.uucp (Ed Carp)
Subject: Re: new user questions: mail, uucp, minicomm
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Organization: Unisys Corporation SLC
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 16:53:29 GMT

John Sigler (sigler@hp750.itg.ti.com) wrote:

: using SLS 98p5 and am experiencing problems with each also. 

: 1) Just typing mail causes a core and through elm or emacs rmail mail seems to
: be sent but never arrives (I'm just trying it locally). 

That's because mail is probably core dumping.  I'm not sure which version is
being put into SLS right now - if it's the "stock" mailpak 1.3 "mail", it will
almost certainly have problems.  I put out two patches immediately after
I released mailpak 1.3 to fix a problem or two with mail.  I'll see if I can
find them - or it might be best to wait until mailpak 1.4 is released (very
soon now).

: 3) I've had some problems setting up uucp. While browsing the net I've noticed
: several people implying uucp does not work currently. Is this correct? 

uucp works fine, but there has been changes to the kernel that breaks stuff.
The easiest thing to do is probably to recompile the kernel with the lines

	if(user_esp)
		send_sig(SIGSEGV, tsk, 1);

commented out.  Alternately, you might want to recompile uucp with the flag
"-fwritable-strings".
-- 
Ed Carp			erc@apple.com, erc@saturn.upl.com	801/538-0177

Who and what would you be if you went beyond your deepest fears?
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: jwhub@sci.kun.nl (Jan Willem Hubbers)
Subject: [Q] Serial ports?
Keywords: serial ports
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
X-Newsreader: NN version 6.4.19
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 15:54:19 GMT

Hello,

I am going to buy a new computer system, and plan to run Linux on it.
I've read the FAQ and a lot of articles from this newsgroup, and the
latter mentioned a lot of problems with serial ports.
It would be pretty important for me to have at least 3, but preferably
4 serial ports. (Mouse, external modem, 0-modem to my old system, and
cable-TV modem for our university's telework project).

I also read about the AST fourport, which is reported to work.
Where does AST stand for? Is it the manufacturer?

Somebody (i forgot who) posted the address of a supplier of multi-IO cards.
They offer the Boca Research 2 by 4, with 2 parallel & 4 serial ports.
Does anybody know if this card works under Linux?
(I sure hope it does.)
Are there any other cards known to work?

Thanks.
--
--
                             Jan-Willem Hubbers
#define HERE  cs.kun.nl      Internet: jwhub@HERE
#define THERE cs.ruu.nl                hubbers@THERE
                             Fidonet : 2:283/218.2
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: troyer@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com (Dean Troyer)
Subject: Re: keyboard problems - v.99
Organization: Honeywell Air Transport Systems Division
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 15:56:17 GMT

In article <JEM.92Dec16212729@lk-hp-6.hut.fi> jem@snakemail.hut.fi (Johan Myreen) writes:
>
>On a related note: does anybody know what the following lines in
>keyboard.c are good for? The same code (in assembler) is in
>boot/setup.S, too. Is this some kind of standard practice?

I've seen this done in Int09 handlers under DOS.  It usually appears at the
end of the ISR, with a comment like 'reset keyboard'.

>         pt_regs = (struct pt_regs *) int_pt_regs;
>         scancode=inb_p(0x60);
>!        x=inb_p(0x61);
>!        outb_p(x|0x80, 0x61);
>!        outb_p(x&0x7f, 0x61);
>         if (scancode == 0xe0)
>                 set_kbd_flag(KG_E0);
>
>The ins and outs toggle a bit in the keyboard controller's RAM. This

Port 61 is listed in my BIOS reference as being the PS/2 System Port B, although
it's not unique to PS/2s.  It's uses include the speaker hardware & timer
control bits.  Check out the Mach sources kd.h.  The bummer is that I can't
find the purpose of bit 7 documented anywhere!  I suspect it controls one
of the keyboard controller's input pins.

>RAM location is not documented by IBM, or at least I haven't been able
>to find it in the Technical References. The only documented i/o
>addresses are 0x60 (data) and 0x64 (status), and the keyboard driver
>should work perfectly without this bit fiddling. In fact, I even tried
>removing them, with no ill effects.
>
>--
>Johan Myreen
>jem@cs.hut.fi

dt


-- 
Dean Troyer                               troyer@saifr00.cfsat.Honeywell.COM
Honeywell Commercial Flight Systems       72240.3152@compuserve.com
Phoenix AZ
(602) 436-3613
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: M.Gream@uts.EDU.AU (Matthew Gream)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: Re: How stable is extended filesystem?
Date: 18 Dec 1992 03:53:29 GMT
Organization: University of Technology, Sydney
NNTP-Posting-Host: acacia.ccsd.uts.edu.au
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Charles Hannum (mycroft@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu) wrote:

: I've only been using Linux for two days.  I've installed it on a 300MB
: "extended" partition.  Half of one of those days was spent reinstalling
: after it barfed on my disk.

: If you don't *need* extfs, and don't mind short file names, I would
: recommend not using it for now.

On the contrary, I have had linux on my 386 box for several months now
with two (44 & 56 meg) partitions, only ever having one minor problem
with extfs (that being a file that wouldnt die). My drives are vanilla
IDE's, so SCSI or other setups maybe different.

Maybe ive been lucky and escaped problems (considering that nothing major
has ever broken for me under linux, this could be true ;)).

Matthew.

-- Matthew Gream ------------------- 'Life is nothing more than a big --
----- email: M.Gream@uts.EDU.AU -------- experiment .. ' ---------------
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: andrewc@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (Andrew J. Cosgriff !)
Subject: Re: HELP!: Ghostscript doesn't print on epson device!?
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 00:31:33 GMT

hume@uni-paderborn.de (Hubertus Meier) writes:

>Hi Linuxers!

>After compiling ghostscript 252 i wanted to print out some ps-files on my printe
>r.
>Ghostscript was compiled with two devices: X11 and EPSON.
>When I try to print my ps-file with gs I become no message that it fails.
>But there is also no output.
>I also tried gslp which came with gs252. But it also failed.

From what I could work out, gslp prints out the actual postscript code, or
something like that...

To print out something you just do
gs -sDEVICE=epson -sOutputFile=/dev/lp1 file.ps
(where /dev/lp1 is the printer)

happy gs'ing !

Enjoy !

Cos !
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 * Andrew J. Cosgriff ! *                   #include <std_witty_quote.h>
#define HERE cc.monash.edu.au               #include <std_disclaimer.h>
Hassle me at :      andrewc@aurora.HERE ; andrewc@lindblat.HERE ; cos@yoyo.HERE
From: drose@draco.bison.mb.ca (Dave Rose)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: newsreader for X
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 12:18:03 GMT
Organization: The Draco Unix System

Does anyone have a decent newsreader for X compiled for Linux?
Any suggestions on where to look?
From: sridhar@caboom.cbm.dec.com (Pete Sridharan)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: MAXTOR SCSI HD and Linux
Keywords: SCSI harddisk
Date: 16 Dec 92 19:02:13 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

I am considering buying a MAXTOR 7213S drive (1 inch drive) specifically
for use with Linux. I will not boot off this drive (this will be the second 
drive in the system). The primary reason for the choice is price (I can
get a brand new one for less that $400).
 Does anyone have some experience with these drives. Are there known
problems with these.
 Any feedback will be appreciated. Thanks.

-pete sridharan
sridhar@cbm.dec.com

 
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: pdhatchm@socs.uts.edu.au (Paul Hatchman)
Subject: Re: [BUG REPORT] swapping trouble with 0.98-pl6 ?!?
Organization: Computing Sciences, Uni of Technology, Sydney.
Date: 14 Dec 92 22:12:03 GMT

ctne_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Chris Newbold) writes:

>I have been having trouble with 0.98-pl5 and 0.98-pl6 when
>running under X. The machine will suddenly lock when I try
>and run commands in an xterm window. This happens 1-4
>times an hour.

I too have had this problem. I have been playing round and trying to find the 
cause, but so far have dome up with a big zero.

I compiled a straight pl6 kernel without scsi or tcpip and it still happens.

If I open up around 14 or so xterms i can get my machine to lock up.
But the same thing can happen when only 4 xterms are open and other stuff
is happening on my machine.

It has always happened when either I have opened up an xterm or someone has 
telnetted into my machine. (this may just be co-incidence though)
Which suggested to me a pty allocation problem, but I have not been able to 
reproduce this by opening all the ptys.

Also I have not been able to reproduce this by making the machine swap
excessively. Maybe it is a combination of the two?

I have no idea if it happens in 0.99 (will find out tonight i guess :)

My configuration:

486DX50 + 8Mb Ram 
8Mb + 5Mb swap
0.98pl6 kernel


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Hatchman                      |    <this line intentionally left blank>
Systems Programmer,                |    pdhatchm@socs.uts.edu.au (prefered)    
Sydney Futures Exchange, Australia |       paulh@uts.edu.au 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Hatchman                      |    <this line intentionally left blank>
Systems Programmer,                |    pdhatchm@socs.uts.edu.au (prefered)    
Sydney Futures Exchange, Australia |       paulh@uts.edu.au 
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: bogstad@gauss.cs.jhu.edu (Bill Bogstad)
Subject: Re: SPLIT #$%&%$ THIS GROUP NOW!!!!!!!
Organization: Johns Hopkins Computer Science Department, Baltimore, MD
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 20:18:16 GMT

In article <BCR.92Dec12201153@hfl3sn02.cern.ch> bcr@cernapo.cern.ch (Bill Riemers) writes:
>and whether to try to port linux or bsd386.  It seems there are some very
>frequent topics that this news group could be split around.  Forexample:
>
> .x11
> .dosemulation
> .graphics
> .install

	Frequent topics change depending on what software is currently in
alpha test (or at least has had a version change recently).  Not too long
ago it seemed like every 3rd post was somebody asking about how to install
the latest GCC release for Linux.  Newsgroup creation/deletion takes place
at a much slower pace (IMHO a good thing) and that needs to be taken into
account.

				Bill Bogstad
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: JHUANG@kentvm.kent.edu
Subject: Missing Header Files in SLS 0.99
Organization: Kent State Univ.
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 06:05:09 GMT

    Hello All. I am not sure that this has been encountered before.
 
    I downloaded SLS 0.99 from sunsite and had it installed on my 486
very smoothly.
 
    Everything ran well, until I tried to compile a small C program.
It then complained about <linux/types.h>, <linux/stat.h>, etc. being
not found. I then went to "/usr/include/linux" and found out that only
"const.h" was there.
 
    Simple question: what should I do about this situation?
 
    Thanks in advance.
 
--
Jing Huang
Dept. of Phys.
Kent State Univ.                         e-mail: jhuang@mcs.kent.edu
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: mdgauthi@mothra.syr.EDU (Mad Dog)
Subject: Problems compiling .99 kernel
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 14:27:07 EST

Sorry if I missed any fixes for the .99 kernel but it appears that the newsfeed
here died yestarday.  Anyway, I just copied the full source for .99 to 
/usr/src/linux and applied Linus' quick fixes for the free inodes problem.
Then I did a make config which appeared to work fine.  Following this with 
a make depend I received two error messages:

asm/dma.h  -file not found and
linux/interrupt.h  -file not found

Then, when followed by a make Image or make disk, I get an error aying that
ASK_VGA is an unbound label and compilation comes to a screaching halt.  Does
anyone have any suggestions?

-Matt
mdgauthi@mailbox.syr.edu
From: Rob.Levin@p13.f217.n3802.z1.fidonet.org (Rob Levin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Subject: How stable is extended filesystem?
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 12:53:06 -0800

Replying to a message by Phillip Rzewski of 1:343/94@fidonet, Dec 15
23:21, to All:

 PR>     So does anyone have a summary of how it's going? What's your 
 PR> suggestion? On a related topic, if I decide to go all 213 
 PR> megs Linux, I'll still have some space left over on my other 
 PR> hard drive (the 55 megs I'm using now). Would you suggest 
 PR> going extfs with that too, or keeping some as the old style? 
 PR> Reasons?

I have not had any problems with extfs, kernel 0.97-0.99.  Granted, I've
been lucky, but it's pretty stable.


Rob L.

 * Origin: Via the Annex in Victoria, Texas (1:3802/217.13)

Organization: Administrative Computing & Info Services, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 14:46:17 -0500 
From: "Brian E. Gallew" <geek+@CMU.EDU>
Subject: Re: 3c501 cards
	<1992Dec14.184134.4910@super.org>

The 3c501 cards have all been spoken for.

                                  -Brian

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| "Are they dead?"                                                      |
| "Does it matter?"                                                     |
|   - Pugsley and Wednesday in "The Addams Family."                     |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: cheiu@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (LY Cheiu)
Subject: Seyon 1.5 TRANSFER BUTTON NOT WORKING
Organization: Monash University
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 14:23:44 GMT

hi,

I just installed seyon 1.5 and found that the download button is acting
different from my last upgrade of seyon(0.8). Okay, please tell me what I am
doing wrong:

When I press the button, I get a dialogue box saying "lable: okay, cancel"
When I press okay, the wrong program dies one me. :(

I read the bit about the zmodem autodownload so I added the resources to my
.Xdefaults file but that didn't do much at all..

I would appreciate any help on this.

THanks very much everyone!

Please mail to jae@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au if you can.


Jae
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: gdm@shrdlu.kwnet.on.ca (Giles D Malet)
Subject: Re: UUCP help!!!!!!!
Organization: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 20:57:12 GMT

In article <Bz3JM8.vM@Nyongwa.CAM.ORG> steve@Nyongwa.CAM.ORG (Steve M. Robbins) writes:
>
>I also had these problems under pl6 (presumably it also breaks under pl5)
>so what I did was recompile smail and taylor with "-fwritable-strings".
>Now they both work.  
>C-news also had this problem.

I wonder if that is really necessary...

Last weekend I finally upgraded to the jump libs compiler, and recompiled
nearly every program I had on the machine, including c-news, uucp,
smail-3, etc. etc.  /bin & /usr/bin stuff came from a root disk.

Of all that lot, only one program required the `writable strings' bit -
a fmt command from the net that had a `char *foo = "";' in it :-(

I am against merrily using `-fwritable-strings' for the simple fact that
is defeats the whole purpose of non-writable constants - bug detection.
If a program is bombing, it is doing something nasty anyway.

BTW, I did not recompile the `fmt' with `-fwritable-strings' - I fixed
the definition. So now no progs have those damn flags.

-- 
Giles D Malet                                             gdm@shrdlu.kwnet.on.ca
Waterloo, Ont, Canada       +1 519 725 5726       gdmalet@descartes.uwaterloo.ca
Xref: sparky comp.os.linux:20714 comp.unix.misc:4605 alt.cd-rom:5198
From: cummings@hammer.prime.com (Kevin Cummings)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.unix.misc,alt.cd-rom
Subject: Re: Improvements to Yggdrasil Linux/GNU/X CDROM offer
Date: 16 Dec 92 20:46:06 GMT
Organization: Prime Computer, Inc.

In article <IBE1109.92Dec14094548@etbsun1.draper.com>, ibe1109@draper.com (Ira Ekhaus) writes:
> hi,
> 
> I'm interested in getting linux, but is there another way to
> distribute large software packages than CD?
> 
> Since I (and many other home users) don't have a CD player or a tape
> backup machine, why not distribute the stuff on a format that I can
> use more than once.
> 
> Can you provide the distribution on some standard tape format?
> And what  about  other formats that might be useful for distribution
> AND backup such as that new sony mini cd that's read/writable?

I thought you just said that many home users don't have tape drives?

Why don't you just FTP the SLS disks to floppy.  There is anywheres
from 4 to 30 of them depending on how complete you want your installation.

There you go.  Your basic software installation choices:

	*CD
	 Tape (includes QIC 2, 40, 60, 80, 120 and others)
	*Floppy disk
	*Direct network connection (Ethernet card)
	*Indirect network connection (Modem)

and for the TRUE hacker:

	Paper Tape
	DEC Tape
	Hollerith Punch Cards	(involves EBCDIC to ASCII conversion)

LINUX is readily available on those with the *.

I put what I need on floppy at work (where I have a direct network connection)
and take it home with me.  I also have modems at home for small/emergency
downloads (HST and PEP, but no V.32 yet) via SL/IP or kermit (my SL/IP
conection is 2400 bps ... ouch!).

=================================================================
Kevin J. Cummings                       ComputerVision Services
20 Briarwood Road                       500 Old Connecticut Path
Framingham, Mass.                       Framingham, Mass.
					
Home:  cummings@kjc386.framingham.ma.us	Work:  cummings@primerd.Prime.COM

Std. Disclaimer: "Mr. McKittrick, after careful consideration,
		  I've come to the conclusion that your new
		  defense system SUCKS..."   --  War Games
=================================================================
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: "William L. Mullica" <p00192@psilink.com>
Subject: X11- exec: gwm not found
Organization: Performance Systems Int'l
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 1992 00:34:11 GMT
X-Mailer: PSILink-DOS (3.3)

I have SLS Linux 0.98pl5. As root, I can fire up X11 in color mode 
without problems. However, when I enter "startx" from a virtual 
terminal, the X server shuts down just after painting the blue 
background screen and leaves the following messages in text mode:

exec: gwm not found

waiting for X server to shutdown

xinit: Interrupted system call (errno 4): Client error.

#Error: Can't open display: :0

I would guess that the problem lies with file permissions somewhere. Can 
anybody clue me in on exactly what's going on here and how I can fix it?

Thanks,

Bill, N6CKM

Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: liljeber@hydra.Helsinki.FI (Mika Liljeberg)
Subject: Re: Wish list for Christmas
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, Finland
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 23:28:40 GMT

In article <1992Dec15.143844.441@netcom.com> genie@netcom.com (gene choi) wrote:
> 
> Wow, 0.99 works perfectly.  Not one hitch going over from
> 0.97p6.  Now the only problem is that a good amount of all
> the binaries hate me.  But I expected that..
> 
> The thing I want/need most now is a working binary of tcsh.
> I just can't get used to standard bash.  If anyone is working
> on porting tcsh for 0.99 please let me know!  Thanks.
> 
> Gene

Tcsh-6.02 works fine with Linux 0.99. If you have problems, you are
probably using libc.so.4.1, which is quite buggy. Get libc.so.4.2 from
tsx-11.mit.edu. That should fix your problem.

As for Christmas presents, I'll be uploading tcsh-6.03 in a few days,
when I'm satisfied that it works flawlessly. You will still need
libc.so.4.2, though.

Cheers,

	Mika
--
Mika Liljeberg			Email:	liljeber@hydra.Helsinki.FI
Helsinki University			Mika.Liljeberg@Helsinki.FI
Dept. of Computer Science
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux
From: lmfken@lmf.ericsson.se (Kenneth Osterberg)
Subject: Re: Olwm (was Re: motif)
Organization: Oy LM Ericsson Ab, Jorvas, Finland
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 06:10:13 GMT

tjrc1@cus.cam.ac.uk (T.J.R. Cutts) writes:

>I have olwm up and running on my Linux box.  It works pretty well, though a
>friend whose machine is a 386SX w. (I think) 4Mb RAM says it is unuseably slower
>than twm.  On my machine (486/33 w. 8Mb RAM and an S3 card) it doesn't appear to
>be any slower.  I guess you need a lot of memory... olwm does not support shared
>libraries, and so soon tends to thrash your hard disk!

Wait a few days, and it will! :-)

>BTW, does anyone know how olwmslave works?  I realise it's some sort of help
>thing, but I can't find anything that'll tell me how to use it!

Olwmslave is automatically started by olwm if it is in your path when olwm
is started, (i.e when ~/.xinitrc is executed). Normally olwmslave does nothing,
unless you point at something with your mouse and press the 'Help' key. When
that happens, olwmslave will pop up a window and display a short description
about what you were pointing at.

The problem is here that PC keyboards do not have a help key a'la Sun, so
you have to fiddle with your .xmodmap to assign a key (a function key, for
instance) as Help. Try for instance the command

xmodmap -e "keysym F1 = Help"

and point the mouse on the rootwindow background, or a window border, and
press F1.

--
Kenneth Osterberg      lmfken@lmf.ericsson.se or lmfken@bluese1.ericsson.fi