[ale] Multiple questions

[Master Wizard]

I've been using Linux for many years and thought I had a handle on most
things, but recently I've been spinning my wheels and need
someone(two,three) to point me in the right direction.

1. How do I connect to a shared printer on an NT 4.0 server? I need to
be able to send text only, no color, from a terminal session to my Epson
Stylus color 640 connected as a share on my NT4.0 box. It is not
feasable to move the printer at this time unless someone can direct me
to a resource on connecting serveral different windows (95, 98, NT4.0,
2000) machines to it using all it's color capabilities.

2. How do I keep my smbmount filesystems from disconnecting? I have a
script that stops my http server, umounts my smb shares (7 of them),
remounts the shares and restarts the httpd. I have to do this because my
web sites are on the NT4.0 shared drives (facilitates programming and
testing) and they become disconnected after some unkown period of time
(hours?) if not accessed. This does not happen with windows or, if it
does, windows autoreconnects when I try to access the share. I need for
my smbmounts to do something similar.

3. How to connect and sync to a timeserver and where is the best place
to put the code to accomplish this at startup (I intend to have cron do
it on a daily basis).

4. Upgrading software. I have an older version of Caldera eServer, 2.3,
which uses rpms. The ftp site has an upgrade directory with about 120
rpms. I am not using all of the programs. I needed to upgrade bind
before putting the box on the internet. The new bind required the new
glibc. I upgraded all of the glibc packages and the bind packages.
Everything was fine until I decided I needed to test the boot process.
The system would'nt boot, I got a seg fault. After much agony and three
days (no rescue disk) I finally got glibc reverted to it's original
version and the system booted fine. What is the best and easiest way(s)
to handle this type of upgrade. I do want to upgrade everything I use,
just maybe not all at once.

I really don't need detailed steps as much as pointers to where the
information is. I firmly believe in rtfm, but am having trouble finding
the right manual for these problems. Your help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Ed.


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