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Known problems and needed additions:

=== KNOWN BUGS/FEATURS ===
  *** Important ***
* Some contents are outdated.
* Some translation (debian.sgml < 1.88) still encourage mixed source 
  for APT too much.  Be careful doing preference tricks.
* Older translation (debian.sgml < 1.120) do not mention aptitude enough.
* Most translation (tune.sgml <1.155) still use old method to create 
  locale customized terminals.
* Most translation (gateway.sgml <1.200) still use old contents.  It is
  completely updated by Thomas.  Now networking set up is clear for all.
  *** Minor ***
* Source is not UTF-8 (Unicode) but traditional encodings.
* &nbsp; comes out strange in <example> for PDF. (Since there's no linebreak
  in examples it's suggested to avoid it in this environment.)
* need to fix tab codes if they still exist in our source.
* Unless you use "less" or "view" as "pager", some scripts may not function
  if the reading text is gzipped.
* FIXME sections ("XXX FIXME XXX") in source needs fix.
* Still minor issues remain for CJK PS/PDF files and Polish quotation.
* Translations lag their contents behind the English original
  - Russian (ru) and Dutch (nl) are just started.
  - Finnish is coming up but not packaged yet.
  - Version status as below:
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FILE      en    fr    de    it    ja    es    pl    pt-br ru    zh-tw zh-cn
 append    1.72  1.56  1.70  1.64  1.72  1.66  1.59  1.61  1.61  1.72  1.69
 copyleft  1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9   1.9
 cvs       1.41  1.38  1.41  1.41  1.41  1.41  1.38  1.38  1.38  1.41  1.41
 debian    1.130 1.123 1.93  1.123 1.130 1.87  1.88  1.88  1.88  1.130 1.126
 edit      1.29  1.27  1.29  1.29  1.29  1.29  1.27  1.27  1.27  1.29  1.29
 gateway   1.249 1.209 1.247 1.239 1.249 1.215 1.201 1.209 1.237 1.249 1.247
 gnupg     1.22  1.18  1.22  1.22  1.22  1.22  1.18  1.18  1.18  1.22  1.22
 install   1.98  1.80  1.95  1.91  1.98  1.94  1.80  1.80  1.80  1.98  1.95
 kernel    1.70  1.49  1.68  1.65  1.70  1.67  1.60  1.61  1.61  1.69  1.68
 preface   1.44  1.22  1.41  1.41  1.44  1.41  1.25  1.25  1.25  1.44  1.41
 program   1.75  1.30  1.75  1.71  1.75  1.75  1.63  1.63  1.63  1.75  1.75
 support   1.30  1.10  1.30  1.27  1.30  1.27  1.18  1.22  1.22  1.30  1.29
 system    1.99  1.41  1.61  1.85  1.99  1.87  1.54  1.62  1.60  1.87  1.87
 tips      1.119 1.112 1.118 1.112 1.119 1.112 1.81  1.99  1.99  1.119 1.118
 titletoc  1.26  1.26  1.26  1.26  1.26  1.26  1.26  1.26  1.26  1.26  1.26
 tune      1.181 1.174 1.113 1.174 1.181 1.113 1.155 1.156 1.156 1.176 1.179
 tutorial  1.94  1.18  1.38  1.88  1.94  1.94  1.38  1.77  1.76  1.94  1.94
 woody     1.43  1.35  1.43  1.43  1.43  1.43  1.37  1.37  1.37  1.43  1.43

=== TODO ===
* Thinking about using po-debiandoc by Denis Barbier <barbier@debian.org> 
  to manage translation.
  http://people.debian.org/~barbier/devel/po-debiandoc/

* Thinking about moving to dookbook-xml

Please use Debian BTS for reporting bug or feature request with your
solid content proposal.  Submitting solid patch files are the best
contribution.

* To CVS read access of the latest source:

 $ export CVSROOT=:pserver:anonymous@qref.cvs.sf.net:/cvsroot/qref
 $ cvs login
 Logging in to :pserver:anonymous@qref.cvs.sf.net:2401/cvsroot/qref
 CVS password:
 $ cvs co -d debian-reference qref

(The translation version tracking uses CVS value from SF.)

For CVS write access, please contact me and read our development 
homepage:
   http://qref.sourceforge.net/doc

Perform "make manual.txt" to get contributor's manual within the 
source directory.

Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>

=== TIPS to be included soon ===

* More words on basic network configuration aiming Sarge
  (Mostly done by Thomas)

=== TIPS to be included after Sarge or my own reminders ===
* apt-file (alternative to auto-apt)
 rene@frodo:~$ apt-file search mkfs.vfat
 dosfstools: sbin/mkfs.vfat
 dosfstools: usr/share/man/man8/mkfs.vfat.8.gz

* grep-excuses in devscripts

* hold package (many ways)
  aptitude hold packagename
  Press '=' on the package in dselect
  echo PACKAGE-NAME hold | dpkg --set-selections

* Priority: standard (by CW)
The first time you start dselect, it installs all packages listed as
"Priority: standard" (and their dependencies, but "Priority: standard"
is supposed to be closed under dependency). The standard installation is
more than the base system, and you can remove bits of it if you like.

* Vim "set background=dark"

* USB stick etc.
All these fancy gadgets drives on firewire and USB shows up as SCSI
drive.  Use hotplug/discover and mount them as:
  # mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt

* Indentation (TAB)
  Vim ":help retab"
  indent
  expand

* Secure Package.gz issue needs watching.
  Bug #203741 and  http://monk.debian.net/apt-secure/

* watch for dselect with "C"
  http://bugs.debian.org/151540

* RFCs on basic system daemon and related information.
  + POP3: rfc1939 and rfc2449
  + IMAP: rfc3501
  + SMTP: rfc2821 (rfc821)
  + Mail file format:  rfc822
  + Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME): rfc2045
  + DNS:  rfc819 
  + HTTP: rfc2616 
  + URI:  rfc2396
  + Port usage: /etc/services

These information shall allow manual connection to the daemons:

 $ telnet mail.ispname.net pop3

* archival media
Optimistic (vender provided) storage life numbers on the net:
  2000+ years : Rosseta stone.
   100+ years : acid free paper with ink
   100  years : optical storage  (CD, CD-R)
    30  years : magnetic storage (MO, tape, floppy)
    20  years : phase change optical storage (CD-RW)

(This does not count on the mechanical failures due to handling etc.  
Life is quite dependent on the environment.  Keep them dark, dry, and 
cold.  Also always verify data contents after making back up and always
keep multiple copies in separate safe locations.)

Write cycle
   250,000+ : HDD/Flash
     1,000  : CD-RW
         1  : CD-R, paper

Fire-safe ratings are based on "paper" documents.  Most of the computer
media have less temperature tolerance thus prone to the damage. So make
sure to rely more on multiple secure encrypted copies stored in multiple
locations.  Light, heat and humidity are all bad for computer media.
Keep away from them.

If you need corporate data store, use professional tape.

If you need small personal data back up, use CD-R by the brand name company.
CD-R life is very dependent on the brand.  Also store in dark place.

* iptable tutorials
  check http://www.linuxguruz.org/ especially /iptables/
  Also kernel source Documentation/networking/*

* eql = tun + eth0 related sites review and summary
  http://qos.ittc.ukans.edu/
  http://www.qosforum.com/docs/faq/
  http://www.fibrespeed.net/~mbabcock/linux/qos_tc/
  http://qos.ittc.ukans.edu/howto/
  http://www.ds9a.nl/2.4Routing/

* Wine tutorials
  http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1824/sam0201a/0201a.htm

* IRC: how to save log?
  /lastlog

* fbset for all ttys
  # fbset -t 13334 144 24 29 3 136 6 -a

* two-sided and two-in-one printing of PDF
  gv: 
   print even and odd pages
  mpage
    env variable set to "-bA4 -t -T -2 -Pprn0008" for double-sided A4 with 
    two pages to each sheet
  a2ps is alternative to mpage
  
  CUPS (per Derrick 'dman' Hudson <dman@dman.ddts.net>)
    1) print to file
    2) lp -o number-up=2 -o page-set=even
    3) reinsert pages in printer
    4) lp -o number-up=2 -o page-set=odd
  
* Laptop PC tuning
  anacron, fcron

* Hack prebuild deb package

   If a content in a prebuild deb package needs to be removed, move the deb
   package to a temporary directory:

      $ ar x manpages_1.46-1_all.deb
      $ gunzip data.tar.gz
      $ tar -f data.tar --delete ./usr/share/man/man8/ld.so.8.gz
      $ gzip data.tar
      $ ar r manpages_1.46-1_all.deb data.tar.gz
      # dpkg -i manpages_1.46-1_all.deb

* DSL (pppoe) on Debian
   Woody:  pppoe package needed and run pppoeconf
   Sarge:  standard ppp takes care this as I heard.

* Wireless card Linux compatibility / driver
 http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Linux.Wireless.drivers.htm

* Automatic deleting of old msgs in Mutt

   In ~/.muttrc:

      folder-hook mutt.incoming "push 'D~d >14d\n'"

   It deletes messages older than 14 days from the folder mutt.incoming right
   when I open it. Or rather: it marks for deletion.

   Maybe add script for delete all for spam/worm folder.

* More X configuration for my hires 125 DPI screen

*  TrueType font install hints
   Debian specific: http://www.paulandlesley.org/linux/
   Generic: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/FDU/index.html
   check defoma package documents (defoma-doc)
   Also Rob Weir wrote an excellent font guide:
   http://egads.ertius.org/~rob/font_guide.txt
   (Mostly included but may be updated since then)

* Annoying replacements of apostrophe in Word docs under Mozilla
   You might try installing the msttcorefonts package, which downloads
   Microsoft's free (gratis) TrueType fonts.
   http://fontconfig.org/mozilla/

* Abiword font change (Not elegant)
 1) use dpkg-divert to remove the default Abiword's fonts dir
    (/usr/share/AbiSuite/fonts)
 2) add a symlink to the local TTF dir
   (/usr/share/AbiSuite/fonts -> /usr/local/share/fonts/MS_ttfonts)
   --> defoma should take care of this by now.  So probably not a good tip.

* Maybe new chapter/section on Desktop Application
  Openoffice.org Application: very stable
  KDE: mature but funny feel
  GNOME: some stable, others unstable but I like them

* xlibmesa3 and HW accel
  Differ HW compatibility issues to xfree86-common package

* COMPAQ PC BIOS problem
  http://www29.compaq.com/falco/sp_result.asp?Model=2722&Os=0

* LCD backlight off
  http://fdd.com/software/radeon/
  For Asus notebooks: "echo 0 > /proc/acpi/asus/lcd"
  ???

* Eject PCMCIA card
  # ifdown eth0   # if eth0 is PCMCIA NIC
  # cardctl eject # always good idea  (post-down script stanza?)

* Link for Hardware issues RS6000 J30, Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net>
http://www.kernel.org/
http://penguinppc.org/intro.shtml
http://penguinppc.org/projects/hw/
http://oss.software.ibm.com/developer/opensource/linux/projects/ppc/models.php
http://www.debian.org/ports/powerpc/
news:comp.os.linux.powerpc
IBM site: "MCA: POWER- and MCA-based machines do not work at all. 
The only development effort for these machines is located at
http://www.sjdjweis.com/linux/rs6k/"

* Max date on 32 bit Unix/Linux: 2038-01-18 19:14:07

* GIF and UNISYS issue
GIMP issues are already answered but let me draw your attention to the
UNISYS issue.

   http://www.ora.com/infocenters/gff/gff-faq/

I never used it but there are utilities called ungif in Debian.  That
may be what you want :)

   $ apt-cache search ungif

With this, you can use GIF like the Debian website :-)
(We all know the GNU site does not like using these non-LZW GIFs
either.)

* Package split scenario (Check NM/Dev REF)
The groff split example:
  Potato:
    groff
  Woody:
    groff-base Suggests: groff, groff-x11
    groff Depends: groff-base, Suggests: groff-x11
    groff-x11 Depends: groff-base, Suggests: groff

* digital camera = www.gphoto.org 
  Also note that any camera with removable media will work with Linux
  through USB Mass Storage-compatible readers.
  These X-fun apps needs to be summarized in separate documents.

* After installing new fonts in a directory:
   # mkfontdir directory # always
   # xset fp rehash      # if this is on X server's current font path.

* Display the X server's current font path:
   $ xset -q | sed -e '1,/^Font Path:/d' | sed -e '2,$d' -e 's/^  //'

* Add a directory to the X server's current font path:
   # xset fp+ directory
   # editor /etc/XF86Config[-4]
     ... add a "FontPath" line to make this permanent

* Display the installed fonts by menu selecting various font properties:
    $ xfontsel

* Display the installed fonts by pattern match
    $ xlsfonts -fn fontpattern
    $ xlsfonts -ll -fn font
      ... lists the font properties CHARSET_REGISTRY and 
          CHARSET_ENCODING, which together determine the font's encoding.

* Display a font page by page:
    $ xfd -fn font

* List of Important fonts:

* Interesting web sites for locale / encoding /post inst related issues
 http://cyberion.net/files/lfs/lfs_frlocale_guide.txt
 http://melkor.dnp.fmph.uniba.sk/~garabik/debian-utf8/howto.html
 http://cerium.raunvis.hi.is/~tpr/linux/debian/   (post inst in general)
 http://www.e-aiyama.com/~toshi/Computer/Linux/Cups.html
 http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/~yamagen/platform/sarge-s80b/
 http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Font-HOWTO.html
 http://www.ucatv.ne.jp/~taeko/software/gs/Gdevlips.htm
 http://trolls.troll.no/lars/fonts/qt-fonts-HOWTO.html
 http://theregus.com/content/4/26770.html

* TTF -> BITMAP conversion:
  ttf2bdf utility in freetype1-tools

  For example, to generate a proportional Unicode font for use with
  cooledit:

  # cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local
  # ttf2bdf ../truetrype/Cyberbit.ttf > cyberbit.bdf
  # bdftopcf -o cyberbit.pcf cyberbit.bdf
  # gzip -9 cyberbit.pcf
  # mkfontdir
  # xset fp rehash

* Get the contents of a src.rpm (Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>)
 $ rpm2cpio file.src.rpm | cpio --extract
 $ alien -t file.src.rpm # turn it into a tarball

* What is the URL these days to just get a changelog?
   http://people.debian.org/~noel/changelogs/

* Sound system:
1) OSS and ALSA are the kernel sound drivers.  You *have* to pick one of
   these.  OSS is the old, deprecated system, and ALSA is the new, much
   improved system.

2) ESD and ARTS are "sound servers" that accept requests from programs to
   play a sound, and then pass those sounds to the kernel sound drivers
   above.  The majority of Gnome programs talk to ESD, and most (all?) KDE
   programs talk to ARTS.  Others, like XMMS, can use other one (or none!).

   The main reason for having the intermediate sound server is that Unix
   kernel sound drivers have traditionally been single-channel.  That is,
   only one program could write to /dev/dsp at a time, so you couldn't
   listen to music and still hear other sound events at the same time.  ESD
   and ARTS can accept multiple channels at once, multiplex them, and then
   dump the unified stream to /dev/dsp.  They also add other, less used
   functions like the ability to send an audio stream via network to a sound
   server on another machine.  For example, you could have a little computer
   hooked to your home stereo, and could redirect the output of your MP3
   player to that computer so you could listen to it via presumably better
   speakers than you'd have on your PC.

ESD is typically criticized because of its supposedly lower sound quality
due to bad processing routines.  ARTS is typically criticized because of its
supposedly higher latency due to more complex processing routines.  Both
come with "wrapper" programs so that you can redirect the output of a
program that would otherwise write directly to /dev/dsp to the corresponding
sound server.

In a nutshell, you want to use ALSA if you can.  The choice of ESD vs. ARTS
will mostly depend on which desktop environment, if any, you most often
use.  Does that about cover it?

   per Kirk Strauser <kirk@strauser.com>