(SCO OpenServer/UnixWare only)
SCO Merge is only available for SCO OpenServer and SCO UnixWare. Faximum is monitoring the progress of the Linux Wine project and hopes to be able to provide comparable functionality for Linux users sometime in the future.
You do not need to install SCO Merge unless you want to be able to handle file attachments in formats other than ASCII text and TIFF. And you can install it at any time. We recommend that you wait until you have finished testing the basic operation of the FMS before proceeding to install, configure, and test SCO Merge (if you decide to install it at all).
The basic FMS installation can accept email messages with text or TIFF attachments and convert them into fax format and send them to a fax machine.
Some of your users may wish to attach files in formats other than ASCII or TIFF. For example, they may wish to be able to fax documents that they have created in (say) Microsoft Word.
For these users there are two approaches available:
For more information on these two approaches please see "Files, Faxing" on page 48.
In short, if you want your users to be able to attach Microsoft Word and other proprietary file formats to the messages they transmit via the FMS, you must install SCO Merge.
On the other hand, if your users are willing to install the FMS Print Driver on their systems and use it to fax Microsoft Word (and other proprietary file formats) then you need not install SCO Merge.
Obviously, this is not a decision that needs to be made immediately.
You can obtain a free 60-day evaluation copy of SCO Merge to use with your Faximum Messaging Server by visiting the Caldera website.
To purchase a permanent licence to SCO Merge please contact your Caldera (SCO) reseller.
(SCO OpenServer/UnixWare only)
There are three major steps to installing SCO Merge so that it can be used by the FMS to convert attachments.
1. Install SCO Merge
2. Install the Faximum Windows File Conversion Daemon (WFCD)
3. Install the Appropriate File Viewers
Install SCO Merge
Install SCO Merge according to the instructions that accompany the software. As mentioned above, you can obtain a free 60-day evaluation copy of SCO Merge from SCO's web site. After the SCO Merge software itself is installed, then you must log on as a non-root user and run SCO Merge in order to install the WFCD.
The Faximum Windows File Conversion Daemon (WFCD) is a program that is installed under SCO Merge and that handles the communications between the FMS and the Windows 95 File Viewers.
To install this program you need to copy the WFCD.EXE file from the /opt/faximum/fms/mswin directory (or download it from http://www.faximum.com/fms/wfcd) and place it in a directory that is visible from within SCO Merge.
Then run the program (using either Windows Explorer or by selecting the "Run" option from the "Start" menu).
In order to actually convert files into fax format you will need to install the appropriate file viewer.
File Type |
File Extension |
File Viewer |
Adobe Acrobat (PDF-Portable Document Format) |
Adobe Acrobat Reader | |
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML-the file format for web pages) |
.htm |
Microsoft Internet Explorer |
Microsoft Excel |
.xls |
Microsoft Excel File Viewer |
Microsoft PowerPoint |
.ppt |
Microsoft PowerPoint File Viewer |
Microsoft Word |
.doc |
Microsoft Word Viewer |
With the exception of Microsoft Internet Explorer which is automatically installed when you install Windows 95 under SCO Merge, all of the other file viewers must be installed before the WFCD can handle the associated file format.
Additional information on how to tell FMS that a particular viewer is installed and available may be found in "Mime Types File" on page 104.
The viewers listed above are available from the Adobe and Microsoft websites.
(SCO OpenServer/UnixWare only)
In order to have the SCO Merge software properly (and reliably) work with the FMS it is necessary to change two of the default configuration parameters for SCO Merge.
SCO Merge Default Parameters
In order that the FMS can monitor the operation of SCO Merge and detect when Microsoft Windows hangs or crashes it is necessary for SCO Merge to run in the foreground. By default, SCO Merge will put itself in the background making it impossible to reliably detect failures. To change this default behaviour you will need to edit the file /etc/default/merge and change the parameter:
MERGE_AUTOBACKGROUND=on
to read
MERGE_AUTOBACKGROUND=off
SCO Merge X11 Font Server Configuration
When SCO Merge is installed it makes changes to the X11 Font Server configuration file. Unfortunately there is a bug that causes SCO Merge to crash regularly if this change is left in the X11 Font Server configuration file.
To restore the X11 Font Server configuration file to its original (pre-SCO Merge) form, enter the following commands while logged onto your SCO system as root.
cd /usr/lib/X11/fs
mv config config.new
cp config.mrgbak config
(SCO OpenServer/UnixWare only)
In order for the FMS to be able to utilise the file viewers under SCO Merge, SCO Merge (and the WFCD) must be running continuously. Unfortunately the current release of SCO Merge cannot be run in the background and must be executing on the console (or an X11 terminal). This means that you will need to log on to your console and run SCO Merge (and leave it running forever) in order for the FMS to be able to access SCO Merge and the WFCD.
While you can run SCO Merge merely by typing win, the problem is that neither SCO Merge nor Windows 95 is particularly stable. For this reason Faximum provides a program that will run SCO Merge and monitor both SCO Merge as well as Windows 95 and the WFCD utility. If a failure is detected with any of these components the monitor program will terminate SCO Merge and restart it. To invoke the monitor program and have it run SCO Merge and keep an eye on it, type:
/opt/faximum/lib/mergemon