Re: flexfax: Hylafax rpm issues

[Nico Garcia <raoul@cirl.meei.harvard.edu>]

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On Tue, 21 Oct 1997, Steve Williams wrote:

> I knew where I could recommend someone to look if there was a problem, 
> regardless of the operating system.

Yeah, always useful.

> You are reducing the ability of the mailing list to support Linux users of
> HylaFAX by arbitrairly deciding to do things that are specific to your 
> implementation.

Umm: This is unfair. It's volunteer work, and a significant chunk of it.
As long as the quality is reasonable, that should work.

> It might come down to the point of "I don't know, contact Ramana, the guy
> who set up the RPM", because I have no idea where the "hfaxd.conf" file 
> is installed when they use your RPM.

What's wrong with "Read The Fine Manual"? 

> One MAJOR issue I have is that you are recommending that people NOT RUN 
> FAXSETUP & FAXADDMODEM ???
> 
> WHAT???
> 
> These programs do EXTENSIVE testing of the system to ensure it is set up
> properly.  They probe the modem & make most of the decisions for the end user.

Good points! Especially given the need for PnP setup on many modem lines,
running setserial, etc. under Linux systems, these are basic utilities to
test modem function.

> As to editing modem scripts by hand, that is absolutely insane.  If people
> accept the defaults to faxaddmodem, they will get a system that works.  If
> the start playing with the files themselves, god knows what they are going
> to change in a "desperate" attempt to get the modem working.

May I disagree strongly? Until and unless the modem configuration
files are correct for the particular version of the modem, etc., the
config files need to be corrected at the outset. For example: many
Rockwell chipset 14.4 modems have problems with zero padding without
certain options set. It is *vastly* easier to change the default
configuration file once than to change it again and again with
faxaddmodem anytime you set up a new modem or re-initialize it.

> Granted, for many NO-NAME fax modems out there, the config files may have to 
> be edited, but that is not what HylaFAX was designed for.  It is a ROBUST
> fax package, that works with GOOD QUALITY fax modems.   I have NEVER had to

Freeware that demands top of the line modems is not freeware.

> manually edit a modem config file unless I made a typo in faxaddmodem that
> I didn't catch.  If you have had to manually edit a modem config file for 
> anything other than the tagline or whatever, then I wonder why?

Because it's a pain in the neck to run faxaddmodem and re-enter all
the weird fields for your local setup.

> Remember, a software package is only as good as the support that it gets,
> and these (HylaFAX )non-standard locations and naming conventions would 
> ( in my opinion ) reduce the ability of the mailing list to support the 
> package.

Also good points. Using "/usr/hyla" is silly. Use "/usr/hylafax", etc.

Under SunOS, unfortunately, the /var/spool/hylafax directory is too
small to support the fax spool. So I carefully re-arranged it to go in
the /usr/local/spool/hylafax directory, and carefully published the
modifications to the config file in the SunOS installation notes. So
it is sometimes necessary....

This can be a problem. I had to modify faxtool for local
configurations to get it to find the faxes correctly. As long as the
system-based modifications are done consistently and with good annotation,
I don't see the problem.


> > (4) default etc/config etc/config.modem
> > 
> > While one can use 'faxsetup' and 'faxaddmodem' to generate these
> > files, I found it easier to edit these files directly. Especially
> > 'faxaddmodem' can be a source of real frustration. It should be
> > remembered that config and config.modem most likely need some editing
> > to suit the particular modem at hand.

Yeah, especially since things like the received file permissions and
local area codes are stored in *four* files that overwrite each other:
config/skel, config/class1, config/class2, and config/class2.0. This
can be *very* confusing.

I've submitted patches for this little confusion....

			Nico Garcia
			Engineer, CIRL 
			Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary
			raoul@cirl.meei.harvard.edu

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