Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #245
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 17:13:21 EDT

Linux-Activists Digest #245, Volume #6           Mon, 20 Sep 93 17:13:21 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Database for LINUX? (Steef S.G. de Bruijn)
  Re: PROBLEM: X386 freezing up station (Ullrich Martini)
  Re: X and Slackware 1.0.3? (Hugo Eide Gunnarsen)
  Re: Help! Floppyless Linux ? (Andrew R. Tefft)
  Re: "Memory exhausted" problem in X solved (Andrew R. Tefft)
  Re: PROBLEM: X386 freezing up station (Hugo Eide Gunnarsen)
  Re: Memory LEAKING!*=--.._ (sn)
  Re: Snow in a Cirrus Logic 5426 card with XFree 1.3 (Linux) (Herve Soulard)
  Infomagic (Weng Loh)
  Where is Slackware Linux dist? (frank mobl young)
  (Q) xia vs. ext2fs (Rick Frankel)
  Re: SLS wont mount /proc (Terje Eggestad)
  Non-US keyboards (DE SCHEEMAECKER MARC)
  Stealth VRAM support for Linux? (Diego A. Aranda)
  Re: BBS package (Derek Bischoff)
  IBM PS/1 X Config (Dave Clemans)
  Re: Help! Floppyless Linux ? (David C. Niemi)
  Re: Linux won't let me change password for new user (Roland Kwee)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.unix
From: [email-masked] (Steef S.G. de Bruijn)
Subject: Re: Database for LINUX?
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 14:17:34 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Michael Schreiter) writes:
|> [email-masked] (Steef S.G. de Bruijn) writes:
|> 
|> > In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked].
|> > |> 
|> > |> I was wondering if there exists a Database for Linux. If not, can anyone 
|> > |> suggest a Unix like OS that would have a database program? I am interested
|> > |> databases that use Informix SQL language. 
|> > |>  
|> > |>  Thanks,
|> > |> 
|> > |>  Yarek
|> > 
|> > Get POSTGRES, a relational active database management system. it WORKS!
|> > (nic.funet.fi) and others?
|> > 
|> > Steef
|> 
|> Hello Steef,
|> 
|> is POSTGRES an X-WINDOWS program or does ist works on ASCII- terminals too ?
|> 
|> Michael
|> 
|> +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|> | Michael Schreiter                                voice (+49) (0)6074 44159 |
|> | [email-masked]                                                    |
|> +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

(From mind:)
Postgres is a three-level database system.
The top level is the postgres executable which does the direct database access.
The intermediate level is the postmaster, which does concurrency control etc.
The last level is the user program, which gives its queries to the postmaster
(which in turn gives them to the database engine, postgres).
Postgres distribution incorporates a library package to write your own programs
using the postgres database system.  To make life easier, the distribution
also incorporates a monitor program, which you (user) can use to enter queries
by hand.  Of course, you can also supply a text file which contains queries.

In short, the answer is: NO, no X-Win program, but you can write your own.

Good Luck!
Steef

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Ullrich Martini)
Subject: Re: PROBLEM: X386 freezing up station
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 15:53:17 GMT

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (RZ Diplomantenarbeitsplatz) writes:
> Hi,
> I got a problem when running X386. Sometimes the X-Server freezes 
> the complete station. All X-Clients seem to stop ( clock doesn't
> update, xload doesn#t update ). I haven't tried to login into my
> station from remote, but i'm quite sure that the machine is hanging.
> The problem is that this doesn#t hppen all the time. Sometimes
> I can open lots of shell-windows and anything will work fine, but
> othertimes the statiob hangs after opening just two windows.
> I think my configuratuion in Xconfig is ok. I can create lots
> of processes if I don't use X386.
> I'm running linux 0.99p12 and XFree 2.0. Window-Manager is olvwm.
> Hardware:  Cyrix 486DLC, VGA 16 ET4000 SVGA card, 8 MBYte RAM,
>            16 MByte Swap space
> Question is:   Is the defect described above a known failure
>                (I hanve't found anything about it in README files). 
>                Can I do anything to avoid it?

Hi,

I had just the same problem (But with pl9) until  I dropped olvwm and changed to twm.
Is it possibble that olvwm has a problem?

Ullrich  

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Hugo Eide Gunnarsen)
Subject: Re: X and Slackware 1.0.3?
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 16:10:27 GMT

Hi.

This seems like a simular problem that I have.

80486DX50 
16MB RAM 
490 MB IDE HD 
The ET4000 
Monitor ForeFront MTS-9564

Start X, start some tasks and the log out NOTHING ... Freeze

Start dosemu start edit Freeze

Seems to happen when I uses a lot of memeory (or not).

Hugo E. Gunnarsen
[email-masked]

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Andrew R. Tefft)
Subject: Re: Help! Floppyless Linux ?
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 15:48:43 GMT

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Byron A Jeff) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]>, Alex Ramos
><[email-masked]> wrote:

>>I have a 386 SX/16 with 80meg of disk space (in 2 disks), BUT only a
>>360K floppy, which I'd call "floppyless" for all practical purposes. Is
>>there any way I can install Linux on this machine? I have a modem and
>>access to SLIP lines at school, if that would be of any help.

>Sorry for the bad news. The only ray of hope is that you really can
>function without the floppy after you've installed linux.

I wouldn't say that. You won't get much of a rootdisk in 360k for
recovery purposes. If you have hard drive problems you would need to
borrow a HD drive again.

HD 3.5" drives are about $60 now. See if you think that's a reasonable
investment (consider that it can move with you to any future machine).

--
Andy Tefft               - new, expanded .sig -     [email-masked]

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Andrew R. Tefft)
Subject: Re: "Memory exhausted" problem in X solved
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 16:00:41 GMT

In article 748445167@ness, [email-masked] (Marius Hancu) writes:

>Following his advice on a related query, I inserted the following
>lines in my /etc/rc file:
>
>mkswap -c /dev/hda2 16500
>swapon -a
>
>and 
>
>/dev/hda2 none swap defauts  in the /etc/fstab file.

>Would someone comment on why I had to insert these lines in those
>files? I would have expected to get by  just by the commands at
>partitioning time. Don't they have a lasting effect?

You don't need to do the mkswap in your /etc/rc. just the swapon.
This is pretty standard Unix operating procedure, nothing magical
here.

>If they don't, this should be mentioned in the FAQs 

FAQ's are not the best documentation (highly overrated in my opinion).
Get a Unix book and perhaps one on general Unix system administration.
At any rate, it *is* in black and white in the FAQ, question VIII.09.
It says to put the swapon command in your rc file for specific devices,
which of course would have worked for you, and hints that you can do it
via the fstab as well. For that method you would have had to dig a bit
but then again it's a pretty normal Unixy thing to do.

>By the way fellows, it seems that any fear that not enough
>pty's are generated, that I had, seems to be unfounded. In another
>post, someone else mentioned that (naturally!) linux automatically
>generates as many pty's as it needs. This as I tried in vain to use
>mknod to generate more pty's for my xterms and emacses.

You do need to use mknod to make them but you don't have to do 
anything in the kernel to allow you to use any set amount.

--
Andy Tefft               - new, expanded .sig -     [email-masked]

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Hugo Eide Gunnarsen)
Subject: Re: PROBLEM: X386 freezing up station
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 93 16:32:51 GMT

I'm running twm, and my XFree-1.3 freezes all time (often when I'm exiting).

Hugo E. Gunnarsen
[email-masked]

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (sn)
Subject: Re: Memory LEAKING!*=--.._
Date: 20 Sep 1993 15:37:29 GMT

[email-masked] writes:

>[ Article crossposted from comp.os.linux.admin ]
>[ Author was [email-masked] ]
>[ Posted on Sat, 18 Sep 1993 22:02:25 GMT ]

>Hello!
>       Just installed SLS 0.99.12 and hooked that baby right up to the
>net. All went great and life was good UNTIL I did a top or a free.
>       Here output RIGHT after bootup! HELP! I'm missing 15 meg!
>       Check this out...........

>Here's the free output:

>             total       used       free     shared    buffers
>Mem:         14964      13792       1172       1856      10696
>Swap:            0          0          0

>Here's the top output:

>Load Averages 0.74 0.33 0.35
>17 processes: 16 sleeping, 1 running, 0 zombie, 0 stopped
>CPU states:  6.5% user,  0.0% nice, 12.2% system, 81.3% idle
>Mem:  14964K av, 13840K used,  1124K free,  1928K shrd, 10688 buff
>      ^^^^^^^^^  ^^^^^^^^^^^   ^^^^^^^^^^
>Swap:     0K av,     0K used,     0K free

Nothing wrong there... Look at "buffers". If you have RAM available and
read something from the disk, it is cached until more RAM is needed.
You have 10.6 Meg of Buffers. If you would load a program that uses more
than the 1.1 Meg you have available, the buffers would automatically be
reduced in size and more RAM would be available.

-Sven

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Herve Soulard)
Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.i386unix,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.development
Subject: Re: Snow in a Cirrus Logic 5426 card with XFree 1.3 (Linux)
Date: 20 Sep 93 16:37:14 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

> Is this already known or is my card broken?

I don't know if this is already known but I have exactly the same problem.

I think I've seen a message saying that some Cirrus clone boards are bad.
May be we have both such a card.

I have another question. Before my VLB 5426 based video card, I was usind an 
ISA Paradise clone with XFree 1.2. And I now, it seems that my new card have
lower performances. This is specially true during scrolling in a xterm that
is full of text. Is it the same for every one having a 5426 board ?

                Herve Soulard.

------------------------------

Subject: Infomagic
From: [email-masked] (Weng Loh)
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 93 14:41:00 -0500

I just purchased this CD-ROM from a PC show made by a company called
Infomagic. It includes Linux 0.99.10  386BSD and NetBSD source and
binaries. The Linux included seems to be a mirror of some major ftp
archive site, and includes SLS 1.01 under the /packages/SLS dir.

I've succeeded in installing the SLS package, but cannot get the
X to start. There are no scripts or binaries called xinit or startx,
contrary to the included instructions.

Am I missing something here? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (frank mobl young)
Subject: Where is Slackware Linux dist?
Date: 20 Sep 1993 18:28:32 GMT

Where is the SlackWare distribution site?  I'm looking to get a copy from
the source, rather than a mirror site if at all possible.  Secondly, since
I've never looked at this distibution, approx how large is it relative to
the SLS or TAMU releases?  Lastly, what packages are included in this
distribution, relative to SLS 1.03 (which I am currently running)?
                                        Thanks,
                                                Frank

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Rick Frankel)
Subject: (Q) xia vs. ext2fs
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1993 18:38:16 GMT

Can someone explain the pros/cons of the xia vs. the ext2fs file
systems?
I notice that the boot disks seem to be in xia.

the faq says they both exists but nothing about their +++ & ---.

thanx in advance,
rick
--
[email-masked]
[email-masked]

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Terje Eggestad)
Subject: Re: SLS wont mount /proc
Date: 20 Sep 1993 14:29:02 -0500

I seem to recall that every time I recompiled the kernel, I got teh
option to include/disclude the proc file system.
I think I discluded it, as I discluded the SCSI drivers.
My proc file don't work either, I'm running a TAMU distribution, 0.99pl4

Terje

    _________    _________    _________
   /         \  /         \  /         \
   |         |  |         |  |         |   Terje Eggestad
   | FORTRAN |  |   VMS   |  |  MSDOS  |   [email-masked]
   |         |  |         |  |         |
   |   RIP   |  |   RIP   |  |   RIP   |    "A dollar saved is a dollar 
   |         |  |         |  |         |     wasted"
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%    --- Thomas Edison

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (DE SCHEEMAECKER MARC)
Subject: Non-US keyboards
Date: 20 Sep 93 12:07:30 GMT

How do I change the keyboard?
I tried to use setkbd but he asks something like a diacretics file and mask.
   setkbd fr ??? ???
What are the missing parameters?

Thanks,

Marc

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Diego A. Aranda)
Subject: Stealth VRAM support for Linux?
Date: 20 Sep 1993 15:10:38 -0500

   After hearing some very positive comments about Linux, I decided to go
ahead and install it on my system.  Before doing so, I read all the FAQs
and information I could find, and I discovered that Diamond cards are not
supported.

   I was told by an expert Linux user that the video drivers necessary
for using a Diamond Stealth VRAM with Linux are available somewhere
on the net.  I'd like to know where I might possibly find them, how solid
they are, and how to go about installing them (being new to Linux, I
haven't the slightest).

  If you have any information, please e-mail me, as I'm rather anxious to
try out Linux with X-Windows.  Thank you.
 
-- 

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Diego A. Aranda | [email-masked] | Texas A&M University | CS | U-3 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Derek Bischoff)
Subject: Re: BBS package
Date: 19 Sep 93 04:39:00 GMT

 : > The first is the BBS program in form of a users shell with
 : > integrated news and mail users agent. Such a program should
 : > utilize native UNIX news and mail transport agents and not try
 : > to implement a propietary data format.

 DCA> : The only problem I see with that is it defeats the purpose of the
 DCA> BBS. 
 DCA> : If a person chooses to run a BBS for UNIX, it's usually because they
 DCA> don't : want the people to get a shell, and also for ease of use.  Many
 DCA> people are : accustomed to a 'BBS' type interface, and not to a UNIX
 DCA> shell. 
 DCA> : A BBS allows the SysAdmin to give people an easy interface where
 DCA> they don't : have to be bothered with accounts, and other functions.

 DCA> You've missed the point. The above does not say SHELL PROMPT. It says
 DCA> USER'S SHELL. Two different things. The shell could be a menu program
 DCA> where the user never sees the shell prompt.

Well, actually Mark, I don't think he did.
yasee, Unix, as an Operating system, when you consider all the
built-in functions  (news, mail, write or chat)  It has the basic
makings to provide excelent BBS services.  It makes sense
to provide a menu (bbs like) shell interface for the user to 
protect him from the unix shell prompt, then use the built
in functions of mail, etc to do the work of the bbs.

I believe one of the greatest obstacles of doing that are the following:

One, for most bbs's it is a simple matter to remove a user  from
the list of users for bbs management.

Two, Most bbs's use a singular user for the bbs for the following:
this way you can have NEW users, and this way you can have just
one user, one set of permissions to regulate and keep sheltered
from other users. (should you have any)

It is difficult for someone to get an id, create an entry in the
/etc/passwd file, allow him limited access, promote, etc, etc, etc
in the current OS.  If you have one login for the bbs, and it
is public knowlege, you could build up users from that list.  Loyal
and current users who would like their own id could be accomodated for.

enough for now

... Sincerely, Derek

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Dave Clemans)
Subject: IBM PS/1 X Config
Date: 20 Sep 1993 18:31:43 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Does anyone have a fully working X configuration/setup for the IBM PS/1?

I have PS/1 "Executive Consultant" series boxes. The basic SLS 1.03 install
worked fine when LILO got the right hard disk parameter information.

The display is fully capable of a 1024x768 resolution. But when I try that
in X, the display is wildly screwed up. The obvious guess is that the timing
info in the Xconfig file isn't fully correct. I can probably figure it out,
but has anybody already done it?

Thanks,
dgc

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (David C. Niemi)
Subject: Re: Help! Floppyless Linux ?
Date: 20 Sep 1993 20:51:54 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Andrew R. Tefft) writes:
>In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Byron A Jeff) writes:
>>In article <[email-masked]>, Alex Ramos
>><[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>>>I have a 386 SX/16 with 80meg of disk space (in 2 disks), BUT only a
>>>360K floppy, which I'd call "floppyless" for all practical purposes. Is
>>>there any way I can install Linux on this machine? I have a modem and
>>>access to SLIP lines at school, if that would be of any help.
>
>HD 3.5" drives are about $60 now. See if you think that's a reasonable
>investment (consider that it can move with you to any future machine).

Are you kidding?  I've seen them for more like $45.  I bought an EHD
(2.88 MB) drive for $70, a Toshiba, no less!

But I agree, it'll need some sort of higher density floppy, or Ethernet, or
tape, or SOMETHING for the machine to be worth your time.
---
David C. Niemi                  The U.S. Constitution may be flawed, but it's
[email-masked]      a whole lot better than what we have now.

------------------------------

From: [email-masked] (Roland Kwee)
Subject: Re: Linux won't let me change password for new user
Date: 20 Sep 1993 13:43:29 -0700

>[email-masked] (Teddy Winstead) writes:

>>I used the latest SLS distribution of Linux from sunsite.unc.edu, and
>>when I added a user with useradd,... 
>>and Linux informs me that my password has expires, and that I should
>>select a new one. It then promptly tells me (without letting me
>>type anything in) that the password cannot be changed. 

I am using the same Linux and had to fiddle around quite a lot to add
a new user. Two hints: use `passwd -f user' (you must be root) to `forget'
the current password. Set the aging parameters to 0 10000 -1 -1; type
`passwd -S root' to see what I mean. Wrong aging par's can prevent 
changing a password.

Roland Kwee         [email-masked]

------------------------------

** FOR YOUR REFERENCE **

The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests
to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is:

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You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux) via:

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Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
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The current version of Linux is 0.99pl9 released on April 23, 1993

End of Linux-Activists Digest
******************************