Hi, I'm a very simple end user who has purchased a copy of SuSE Pro 9.1. I've actually been a user since 7.3, and have never figured out how to send or receive a fax with SuSE. I have used YAST 2 to search for "fax", and checked all the appropriate boxes, and YAST 2 got rid of all of the conflicts, etc. I have hit Alt F2 to get the "run command" dialogue box, and have entered hylafax to start the fax program, but I have gotten the error message "could not run the specified command." I have gone to the SuSE knowledge base, and gotten thoroughly confused. My question is kinda simple, at least for now: How do you start the fax program? Thanks in advance. Christian Einfeldt 415-351-1300
Christian, El Vie 01 Oct 2004 23:31, Christian Einfeldt escribió:
Hi,
I'm a very simple end user who has purchased a copy of SuSE Pro 9.1. I've actually been a user since 7.3, and have never figured out how to send or receive a fax with SuSE.
I have used YAST 2 to search for "fax", and checked all the appropriate boxes, and YAST 2 got rid of all of the conflicts, etc.
I have hit Alt F2 to get the "run command" dialogue box, and have entered hylafax to start the fax program, but I have gotten the error message "could not run the specified command."
I have gone to the SuSE knowledge base, and gotten thoroughly confused.
My question is kinda simple, at least for now:
How do you start the fax program?
Hylafax is actually a server program which is not run interactively from the commandline, but backgrounded as a daemon process. I have set it up on our home office LAN, and it is not really hard to figure out. I would recommend you have a look at the Hylafax website where the process is thoroughly documented, with step-by-step walkthroughs and even a mention of installation on SuSE using the distribution-provided RPM file in the How-To section: Look here: http://www.hylafax.org/index.html Regards, -- Andreas Philipp Noema Ltda. Bogotá, D.C. - Colombia
On Friday 01 October 2004 22:35, Andreas Philipp wrote: Hi Andreas, Thanks for the info...but I have a couple more questions, if it is okay with you...
Christian,
El Vie 01 Oct 2004 23:31, Christian Einfeldt escribió:
Hi,
I'm a very simple end user who has purchased a copy of SuSE Pro 9.1. I've actually been a user since 7.3, and have never figured out how to send or receive a fax with SuSE.
I have used YAST 2 to search for "fax", and checked all the appropriate boxes, and YAST 2 got rid of all of the conflicts, etc.
I have hit Alt F2 to get the "run command" dialogue box, and have entered hylafax to start the fax program, but I have gotten the error message "could not run the specified command."
I have gone to the SuSE knowledge base, and gotten thoroughly confused.
My question is kinda simple, at least for now:
How do you start the fax program?
Hylafax is actually a server program which is not run interactively from the commandline,
That's good, because I don't know how to use a command line. ;-)
but backgrounded as a daemon process.
I am guessing that means point and click, hopefully.
I have set it up on our home office LAN, and it is not really hard to figure out. I would recommend you have a look at the Hylafax website where the process is thoroughly documented,
Thanks, I did go there, and posted my question there as well.
with step-by-step walkthroughs
ya know, I tried to follow those steps, and got confused. For example, I don't know if my computer is a client or a server or both. I have one single stand alone computer which is attached to the Internet via a modem.
and even a mention of installation on SuSE using the distribution-provided RPM file in the How-To section: Look here: http://www.hylafax.org/index.html
I did go there, but I am still kinda stuck. For example, I went to the HylaFAQ page, but it didn't have the first step, which is how to start the hylafax program. Thanks again, Andreas!
Christian, El Sáb 02 Oct 2004 00:15, Christian Einfeldt escribió:
On Friday 01 October 2004 22:35, Andreas Philipp wrote:
Hylafax is actually a server program which is not run interactively from the commandline,
That's good, because I don't know how to use a command line. ;-)
but backgrounded as a daemon process.
I am guessing that means point and click, hopefully.
The server processs, if correctly installed and configured, should actually be started automatically when you boot up your system. And no, sorry, there is no point and click with HylaFax.
ya know, I tried to follow those steps, and got confused. For example, I don't know if my computer is a client or a server or both. I have one single stand alone computer which is attached to the Internet via a modem.
Your computer would act as a server and as a client at the same time. HylaFax is foremost a fax server process, which, as I mentioned before, should be started when you boot your system (if it has been set up correctly) and run quietly in the background, waiting for an incoming fax call and handling the fax receiving process, or for you using a suitable fax client program to send a fax through the HylaFax fax server process. The HylaFax package includes a client program ('sendfax') which must be run from the commandline, but other clients are available, also with graphic user interface, even HylaFax clients for Windows. If you use the KDE desktop, KDEPrintFax is included. The CUPS print system under SuSE normally sets up a pseudo-printer which lets you 'print' to a fax server from any KDE program, acting as such as an appropiate fax client software for your HylaFax server. Do you plan to use the same modem for Internet dialup access and fax sending/receiving? If so, you won't be able to send or receive fax while connected to the Internet. Just wanted to point this out.
I did go there, but I am still kinda stuck. For example, I went to the HylaFAQ page, but it didn't have the first step, which is how to start the hylafax program.
The first step actually is not to start the HylaFax process, but to set it up correctly. On the website there is a very detailed description of the setup process, which, I admit, may seem daunting at first. Read it thoroughly though, even twice, and try to follow the installation and setup steps. The most important configuration step involves running the 'faxsetup' program which is included with HylaFax. This is a script which will ask you configuration questions and expects you to give it sensible answers. Before running it, read through the documentation. Another configuration script, 'faxaddmodem', lets you configure your modem. So, don't try to run hylafax, instead try to follow the installation and configuration steps first to get it correctly set up as a server process. This is where to start: http://www.hylafax.org/setup.html Regards, -- Andreas Philipp Noema Ltda. Bogotá, D.C. - Colombia
On Friday 01 October 2004 23:31, Andreas Philipp wrote:
Christian,
El Sáb 02 Oct 2004 00:15, Christian Einfeldt escribió:
On Friday 01 October 2004 22:35, Andreas Philipp wrote:
Hylafax is actually a server program which is not run interactively from the commandline,
That's good, because I don't know how to use a command line. ;-)
but backgrounded as a daemon process.
I am guessing that means point and click, hopefully.
The server processs, if correctly installed and configured, should actually be started automatically when you boot up your system.
I'm pretty sure that it is installed correctly, because YAST 2 is pretty good at installing stuff. So I must have a configuration problem. I know that I tried to run the faxsetup program from the script line, and here's what happened: linux:/ # /usr/sbin/faxsetup [ -client ] [ -server ] [ -with-VAR[=value] ] configure: VAR[: invalid parameter name. linux:/ # cd /usr linux:/usr # cd sbin linux:/usr/sbin # /usr/sbin/faxsetup [ -client ] [ -server ] [ -with-VAR[=value] ] configure: VAR[: invalid parameter name. linux:/usr/sbin # faxsetup [ -client ] [ -server ] [ -with-VAR[=value] ] configure: VAR[: invalid parameter name. I am guessing that I need to actually identify the [ -client ] and the [ -server ]. Do you have any tips on how to do that?
And no, sorry, there is no point and click with HylaFax.
Nuts. ;-)
Do you plan to use the same modem for Internet dialup access and fax sending/receiving?
Yes.
If so, you won't be able to send or receive fax while connected to the Internet. Just wanted to point this out.
Thank you. It never hurts to point out the obvious with me. ;-)
The first step actually is not to start the HylaFax process, but to set it up correctly. On the website there is a very detailed description of the setup process, which, I admit, may seem daunting at first.
You bet!
Read it thoroughly though, even twice, and try to follow the installation and setup steps.
I did, and that yielded the results above.
This is where to start: http://www.hylafax.org/setup.html
Thanks for that link. It is where I got the instructions that led me to do the stuff above. I would love to hear any other tips you have. Thanks for your help so far! Christian
Christian, El Sáb 02 Oct 2004 19:22, Christian Einfeldt escribió:
I'm pretty sure that it is installed correctly, because YAST 2 is pretty good at installing stuff. So I must have a configuration problem.
I compiled and installed HylaFax from source, so I can't comment on YAST's ability to install it correctly. And yes, your HylaFax server still isn't configured.
I know that I tried to run the faxsetup program from the script line, and here's what happened:
linux:/ # /usr/sbin/faxsetup [ -client ] [ -server ] [ -with-VAR[=value] ] configure: VAR[: invalid parameter name. linux:/ # cd /usr linux:/usr # cd sbin linux:/usr/sbin # /usr/sbin/faxsetup [ -client ] [ -server ] [ -with-VAR[=value] ] configure: VAR[: invalid parameter name. linux:/usr/sbin # faxsetup [ -client ] [ -server ] [ -with-VAR[=value] ] configure: VAR[: invalid parameter name.
If you run the command 'man faxsetup' from the command line and read through the man page, you will learn that [-client], [-server] and [-with-VAR[=value]] are optional parameters to the faxsetup script. The meaning of each of these parameters is explained in the man page. To set up your fax server, just run the faxsetup script without any parameter. Ah, and don't forget to do this as the 'root' user. On the command line, type 'su', press the Enter button and type in the root password. Then just run faxsetup. The directory /usr/sbin/ where YAST installed the script should be on the root user's executable path, so there is no need to change into that directory. Regards, -- Andreas Philipp Noema Ltda. Bogotá, D.C. - Colombia Tel./Fax: +57.1.6252084
On Saturday 02 October 2004 21:29, Andreas Philipp wrote:
Christian,
El Sáb 02 Oct 2004 19:22, Christian Einfeldt escribió:
I'm pretty sure that it is installed correctly, because YAST 2 is pretty good at installing stuff.
Andreas, Junping in on this thread, I have a question for you. Your explanation of how hylafax works and how to configure it is most informative to me. I would like to have the fax capability but never attempted to set it up because I did not understand it. My question is: Since hylafax is started at boot time, can I turn it on and off somehow? With an icon or something? I don't want it to run all the time when the computer is on, only when I am expecting a fax. Thanks, Bob S.
Bob, El Sáb 02 Oct 2004 22:55, Bob S escribió:
My question is: Since hylafax is started at boot time, can I turn it on and off somehow? With an icon or something? I don't want it to run all the time when the computer is on, only when I am expecting a fax.
HylaFax is essentially a fax server solution meant to be implemented in a LAN as a central hub for receiving/sending fax. If configured for both sending and receiving, there will be three processes running in the background: 1. faxgetty - listens for incoming phonecalls and handles those calls; this must be configured in the inittab file which is explained in the configuraton documentation. 2. faxd - server part of a fax client-server process; HylaFax compatible client programs connect to this process on the fax server. 3. faxq - queue manager for outgoing fax messages. A such, it is best suited to run continually and I can't remember any simple switch to turn it on and off. It is started at boot time by an init script located - as you would expect with SuSE - in /etc/init.d. You can certainly turn it on and off using this script. As root, '/etc/init.d/hylafax stop' will turn it off, and '/etc/init.d/hylafax start' will launch it again.
Thanks, Bob S.
Regards, -- Andreas Philipp Noema Ltda. Bogotá, D.C. - Colombia
Hylafax can be set up to *not* answer incoming calls. If you know a fax is coming in, type the command: # faxanswer A quick run down for setting it up. Edit the file "/etc/inittab". Look for lines like those below and uncomment the second one (remove the # sign). # fax getty (hylafax) mo:35:respawn:/usr/lib/fax/faxgetty /dev/ttyS1 You may need to change the "/dev/ttyS1" part to match your modem port. If your not sure what it should be, use Yast to detect your modem. It should give the proper device to use. Now open a terminal and type "su -" and enter your root password. Now you can run "faxsetup" and answer the questions. If you don't know the answer you can probably just hit enter and continue. If you don't want it to answer incoming calls as mentioned above, enter "0" when asked number of rings to answer. HTH Louis
Christian, El Sáb 02 Oct 2004 00:15, Christian Einfeldt escribió:
That's good, because I don't know how to use a command line. ;-)
I think I might not have been fully clear about the fact that the HylaFax configuration scripts 'faxsetup' and 'faxaddmodem' must be run from the command line. This is not an occasion to press Alt+F2 and try and run it from this KDE program startup prompt. So, if you have never used a command line interface or Linux shell, it may be a good idea to get a little bit familiar with that before trying to set up a fax server process. Maybe the SuSE documentation (Users Guide and Administrators Guide) are a good place to start. Good luck! -- Andreas Philipp Noema Ltda. Bogotá, D.C. - Colombia
participants (4)
-
Andreas Philipp -
Bob S -
Christian Einfeldt -
Louis Richards