Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #287
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 93 12:13:10 EDT

Linux-Activists Digest #287, Volume #6            Tue, 5 Oct 93 12:13:10 EDT

Contents:
  Linux <-> Adaptec Gigabyte-Option ([email-masked])
  FYI.. benchmarks on linux and 386bsd (Jeff Stern)
  Re: FYI.. benchmarks on linux and 386bsd (Jeff Stern)
  Re: Help with Linux Dual Boot system (Mark Chace)
  Re: help ! dvips failed (Steef S.G. de Bruijn)
  Re: FYI.. benchmarks on linux and 386bsd (John F Carr)
  any S.New Hampshire users? (Dan Latham)
  Re: Office Package (Island Dr (Brandon S. Allbery)
  lilo booting dos? ([email-masked])
  Re: Linux Backup? (Koen Holtman)
  Re: FidoNet software (David Kraus)
  *Whew!*  Installed, but quota question. (Bob Fulkerson)
  Printer daemon (Bolski)
  PC UNIX SIG Meeting (Daniel P. Kionka)

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

From: [email-masked]
Subject: Linux <-> Adaptec Gigabyte-Option
Date: 5 Oct 93 07:22:17 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

yesterday I posted my problems with Linux and the gigabyte option of the
Adaptec 1542C.  Thank you for all the mails I received so far.  Their summary
is however that I should turn off the option to work with Linux.  But by
doing so, I am forced to use the standard and slow INT13 driver with OS/2, 
because the OS/2 Adaptec driver crashes without the gigabyte option (I do
not know wether this works better with 2.1, I haven't received it from IBM
so far).

But I haven't given up hope completely.  Yesterday evening, I took a look
into the driver source and found this (it is from the 1740 driver, but 
it is essentially the same) :

int aha1740_biosparam(int size, int dev, int* ip)
{
DEB(printk("aha1740_biosparam\n"));
  ip[0] = 64;
  ip[1] = 32;
  ip[2] = size >> 11;
/*  if (ip[2] >= 1024) ip[2] = 1024; */
  return 0;
}

The translation parameters are hard-coded into the driver!!!
So my question to the linux hackers around the world is: Would it help to
change the source to something like this:

int aha1740_biosparam(int size, int dev, int* ip)
{
DEB(printk("aha1740_biosparam\n"));
  ip[0] = 64;
#ifdef GIGA
  ip[1] = 255;
#else
  ip[1] = 32;
#endif
  ip[2] = size / (ip[0]*ip[1]);
/*  if (ip[2] >= 1024) ip[2] = 1024; */
  return 0;
}

and compile the kernel with the GIGA flag set ?
I will try this at weekend and report my success next week.  Any comments and
replies in the meantime are also appreciated.

Alfred Arnold   [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Stern)
Subject: FYI.. benchmarks on linux and 386bsd
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Date: 5 Oct 93 08:04:29 GMT

I recently switched from 386bsd to linux, and happened to find some
benchmarks I had archived from when the same machine was running
386bsd, and thought I'd run them again under linux.  i'm not going
to state which system i like better, because frankly i like them
both, and also both have their loveable quirks, too :)

anyway, since there seemed to be *SO* much 'authoritative information'
going around about both systems (usually from people who have tried
one but not the other) i thought I'd offer up the output in the
effort to produce some actual 'data' to consider.

These are two different dhrystone benchmarks, and a dhampstone
benchmark which I compiled both under gcc (without optimization) on
each system. To be fair, I can't remember which gcc I was running on
the 386bsd system, the one on linux is 2.4.5.  The version of bsd I
had was 0.1, of course, with a few patches. Linux here is SLS
0.99.12/1.03.  My box is a 386-33 Micronics with 8MB ram and 64K
cache, no wait states, and a co-processor (for what it's worth).
Also, for what it's worth, each compile had different problems which I
pragmatically hacked, having to do with conflicts with the libraries
on previous declarations. i can explain each of these if anyone wanted
to get into it.. 

anyway, here they are.  Roughly, the linux system seemed to produce
about 3-4,000 dhrystones more than the 386bsd system.  i would be
interested in theories on why this might be the case, and also to know
if someone has done a more careful port and measurement than i, and
also if disk speed or tcp/ip access can be measured, either.

AS 386BSD:
==========
OUTPUT OF DHRY:
Microseconds for one run through Dhrystone:  115.0 
Dhrystones per Second:                      8695.7 

OUTPUT OF DHAMP:
Start...

cresult = 9000

iresult = 32041

uresult = 46368

lresult = 81000000
 square = 0

dresult = 9000.000000
  dmath = 9000.000000
   copy = 1000

...End
OUTPUT OF DHRYSTON:
Dhrystone time for 50000 passes = 4
This machine benchmarks at 10714 dhrystones/second
==========

AS LINUX:
=========
OUTPUT OF DHRY:
Microseconds for one run through Dhrystone:  191.7 
Dhrystones per Second:                      5217.4 

OUTPUT OF DHAMP:
Start...

cresult = 9000

iresult = 32041

uresult = 46368

lresult = 81000000
 square = 0

dresult = 9000.000000
  dmath = 9000.000000
   copy = 1000

...End
OUTPUT OF DHRYSTON:
Dhrystone time for 50000 passes = 8
This machine benchmarks at 5917 dhrystones/second
=========

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

From: [email-masked] (Jeff Stern)
Subject: Re: FYI.. benchmarks on linux and 386bsd
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Date: 5 Oct 93 08:11:27 GMT

Sorry, typo in last post.. linux produced 3-4,000 dhrystones/second
LESS than bsd. apologies.. -j

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark Chace)
Subject: Re: Help with Linux Dual Boot system
Date: 05 Oct 93 01:28:55 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
>I have installed linux in the past and was never able to get
>it to boot up with another OS.  I am once again trying to install
>Linux and would like to try to get it to boot up with Dos.
>If anyone has  any Tech Notes on making Linux Dual Boot
>can you please send them over. Also, any tips or helpfull hints

If you have not already read it, you may want to get the documentation
for LILO.  It goes into a lot of the detail on how to set up different
partitioning/boot schemes.

The scheme that I use, which is flexable and quite safe is as follows:
1) Select a drive that will be the boot drive
2) Have at least two partions, one for the linux root and one for
   the other operating system.
3) Leave the standard MBR on the hard disk.
4) Make the partition for the other operating system (DOS) the 
   active partition.
5) Install DOS in its partition.
   : Note this will be the condition you are in if you just create a second
   : partition and reinstall DOS where it use to be.
6) Verify DOS works as desired.
7) Make the Linux boot partition the active partition.
8) Install Linux.
9) Configure LILO to boot either Linux from its partion or Dos from its
   partition.
10) If any problems occur, you can always switch the active partition back
  to the Dos partition and use Dos like normal.

Notes:  
 1) Use fdisk (either from Dos or Linux) to change the active partition.
 2) Make sure to back up everything, even if you know you are not going
    to be affecting it.  One mistake with fdisk and *crunch*.

If you can not figure out what I am talking about, feel free to send mail.

Mark

---
The above does not represent opinions or agreement from my employer.

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

From: [email-masked] (Steef S.G. de Bruijn)
Subject: Re: help ! dvips failed
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1993 09:56:37 GMT

Gwan-Hwan Hwang (ghhwang@pllab1) wrote:

: Dear friends,

:  I install SLS1.03 including latex of it. But the dvips seems not work.
: See the following:
: The MakeTeXPK created the fonts. However, the dvips cannot find it.
: I also had set the TEXFONTS to /usr/TeX/lib/tex/fonts:.
: How can i fix it?

[ garbage output deleted ]

: --
:                                         Sincerely Yours
: Hwang, Gwan-Hwan
: -----------------
: Email: [email-masked]
:        < HOME > (035)554147

SLS 1.03 has an error in the TeX distribution: some tfm and pk files
are not world-readable. Log in as root, cd to the fonts directory
and type chmod a+r *.
I hope everything is fine then.

BTW: SLS distributors: repair this please!

Happy TeXing,
Steef
E-Mail: [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (John F Carr)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: FYI.. benchmarks on linux and 386bsd
Date: 5 Oct 1993 11:33:06 GMT

30% is a large enough difference that it might be caused by incorrect
definition of the clock tick rate (depending on how the program measures
time).  A pure CPU benchmark shouldn't change that much (unless the
cache is disabled when running Linux?).

-- 
    John Carr ([email-masked])

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

From: [email-masked] (Dan Latham)
Subject: any S.New Hampshire users?
Date: 5 Oct 1993 12:41:06 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Dan Latham)

I'm very interested in getting Linux on my PC at home, but I'd like to see it
in action before I take the leap.  Is there anyone in the Nashua, NH area that
has it running that would like to take a 1/2 hour or so and show it off? Send
me some mail.

                                thanks,
                                dan

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

From: [email-masked] (Brandon S. Allbery)
Subject: Re: Office Package (Island Dr
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1993 00:52:17 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (John Will) writes:
>TO>Now it is your turn!!! Please send me an E-Mail if you are pricipially 
>TO>willing to bye a package like "Draw, Write, Paint" for Linux. 
>
>Since this is the first time I ever heard of "Draw, Write, Paint", it's 
>not likely that I'd agree to buy it for an unknown amount of money!
>I doubt you'll find a lot of people willing to spend an undetermined amount
>of money for an unknown package, think about it... :-)

The products are IslandDraw, IslandWrite, and IslandPaint.  Anyone familiar
with Sun machines is probably aware of them (dunno about other workstations,
but it seems awfully unlikely for IslandGraphics to be ignoring HP...).  I
don't know if they have an SCO port or not (and, quite frankly, don't care).

If you aren't familiar with them, go pick on your nearest RISC workstation
admin.  He's probably being driven to distraction by their advertizing :-)
and will be only to happy to unload it onto you if you ask...

++Brandon
-- 
Brandon S. Allbery         [email-masked]          [email-masked]
"MSDOS didn't get as bad as it is overnight -- it took over ten years
of careful development."  [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked]
Subject: lilo booting dos?
Date: 4 Oct 93 23:26:13 EDT

Hiya,

        Call me the village idiot, but what does that man page talking about
lilo really mean when it shows a cnfiguration where you can boot dos from the
unix partition.  Does this mean that when I make the linuyx partition active
and go into the lilo there is a way to make dos start up instead?
That would be nice instead of the boot disk thing.  If you can help me, please
elaborate in any way possible.
        I did once try a multiple partition booter from dos, but it made me
have to completely reformat my drive 3 times before it worked right again
once to remove the old system
and then one time for each partition.  I twas a mess.
oh well,
thanks for any help in advance, and lease do email!!!
bye
bye
Joel

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

From: [email-masked] (Koen Holtman)
Subject: Re: Linux Backup?
Date: 5 Oct 1993 13:55:20 GMT

[email-masked] (marauder) writes:

>Is anyone familiar with a program(s) that allow multi-volume compressed
>backups to /fd0 or /fd1 - something like "tar xvfz backup.tar.Z" supposedly
>did? - I unfortunately do not have gobs of hard disk space to
>pre-tar/combine/compress them prior to placing them on backup diskettes..

There are several utilities that split the output of tar zcv to multiple
floppy disks.  Then there's tbackup, see the LSM entry below. Tbackup
needs some 3 meg free for temporary files.

Title        = Tbackup
Version      = 0.6.1
Desc1        = Tbackup (three backup) is a fault tolerant package for making
Desc2        = backups of a linux filesystem.  It is primarily designed to
Desc3        = make multi-megabyte backups to a set of floppy disks.
Desc4        = Tbackup can make compressed archives, and unlike tar+compress
Desc5        = it can still deal with them if they are partially damaged.
Author       = Koen Holtman
AuthorEmail  = [email-masked]
Site1        = ftp.win.tue.nl
Path1        = /pub/linux/tbackup
File1        = tbackup061.tgz
FileSize1    = 46755
Required1    = gcc, mtools, fdformat, gawk, gzip, afio.
CopyPolicy1  = Freely Redistributable
Keywords     = tbackup  backup  floppy disk  fault tolerant  afio

>also are their any disk defragmentation utilities for linux?

There is one, I never tried it.  The location of this program, and of
several tar output splitters, is in the linux software map on
sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/docs/lsm-*.gz.

>thanks
>td

Koen.

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

From: [email-masked] (David Kraus)
Subject: Re: FidoNet software
Date: 5 Oct 93 09:09:32

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (ben elliston) writes:

> Has anyone seen FidoNet-compatible mail software anywhere for Linux?

> Specifically, I'm looking for a mail processor and a message reader/editor.

There is a port of BinkleyTerm that works reasonably well.  There is the
rfmail package which implements a mail/news tosser/packer.  There are also
several other packages (nixmail for an EMSI mailer, ifmail for
tossing/packing, among others) that can be found.

Hmm, you're Fidonet, Zone 3 - I'm not sure where you can find the software
out there...  Check your local Linux repository, they may be there...
--
Dave Kraus                                         Internet: [email-masked]
Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group             FidoNet : 1:115/439.8
Disclaimer: My employer's views and my views may necessarily differ.
"Sun to burn out in 1.5 billion years!  Clinton has a plan." - Outland

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

From: [email-masked] (Bob Fulkerson)
Subject: *Whew!*  Installed, but quota question.
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1993 15:10:36 GMT

Well, greetings one and all!  I finally have Linux installed on the machine
that I convinced the Computer Science department to buy!  :)

Now for a relatively easy question, even though I can't seem to locate the
answer through the man pages or elsewhere.

I would like to setup the system so that users have a quota of, say, 3Megs of
disk space each.  I've found the "quotaon" command, which refers to the
files quota.user and quota.groups, which need to be located in the /
directory.

Well, it never says what's supposed to be in those files and in what format.
I've tried placing a value, such as 3000000 in the file, executing quotaon
and waiting, but to no avail.

Where am I misfiring?

Thanks,
-- Bob
-- 
+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| Robert Fulkerson, Creighton University  |  rfulk@{unomaha|creighton}.edu  |
|   Graduate Fellow, Computer Science     |                                 |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

From: [email-masked] (Bolski)
Subject: Printer daemon
Date: 5 Oct 93 14:29:22 GMT

I am trying to get my printer to work with the Slackware version of Linux.
At this point in time, I've read the HOW-TO on printing, but it doesn't really
help me. I've also read all the man pages on printcap, lpr, lpd, etc. I'm still
not getting my daemon to connect. When I boot up, it says that it finds a
printer port for /dev/lp2 (address = 0x278). I've set up a printcap file like
this:

lp|mine:lp=/dev/lp2:sd=/usr/spool/lp2:sh:mx#0:

When I do a "ps ax", I don't see my daemon anywhere. If I type in lpd myself,
it still doesn't work. If I spool, I get an error, saying my printer is out
of paper. I do know that on boot-up, Linux is trying to connect because it
gives me a message saying it's connecting to the printer daemon. Yet, nothing
happens when I try to print.

My printer is a Tandy DMP-202, which is fully compatable with an IBM ProPrinter
X24. If anyone has any suggestions, I would appreciate it. I've read every-
thing I could imagine possible. I really need this to work, since I'm doing
my computer science projects with GCC and need a way to print things out.

Thanks for any help,
        Ivan Samuelson

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

Crossposted-To: ba.seminars
From: [email-masked] (Daniel P. Kionka)
Subject: PC UNIX SIG Meeting
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1993 11:42:28 GMT

PC UNIX SIG                                     Wednesday, Oct 6, 7pm

                        Unix on CD-ROM
                        --------------

The worst part about switching to Unix on your PC has always been that
you have to back up your hard disk, repartition it, and then load in
several (dozen) floppies.  Fortunately, this is no longer necessary,
because you can now run a Unix clone right off a CD-ROM, just using a
floppy.  And, since this is freely redistributable software, it tends
to be both up-to-date and reasonably priced.

The October meeting of the PC UNIX SIG will focus on freeware CD-ROMs
related to UNIX.  Three companies will show us their products.  Two
of the companies, Yggdrasil Computing and Trans-Ameritech, have Linux
systems that run directly off a CD-ROM.  The third company, Prime Time
Freeware, has a large (3.5 GB) collection of UNIX-related freeware and
a plug-and-play SDK for use with Intel-based SVR4.2 (e.g., UnixWare).

All three companies will be available to answer questions from the
audience.  If time allows, Rich Morin (Prime Time Freeware) will give
a short talk on what is involved in producing CD-ROMs.

General Meeting Information:

        Date:   Wednesday, October 6, 7:00pm to 9:00pm
                (First Wednesday of the month.)

        Place:  Stokes Publishing Company       (this month only)
                1292 Reamwood Avenue
                Sunnyvale

        Info:   Dan Kionka,  408-944-7941, [email-masked]
                Bill Miller, 408-253-3175, [email-masked]

The PC UNIX SIG is a group that meets monthly to discuss low-end UNIX
versions for the IBM PC family.  The meetings are free and open to the
public.  This is a Special Interest Group of the Silicon Valley
Computer Society, an IBM PC users group.  For more information on SVCS
call 408-956-0864.

Please note the new location.  We are meeting at Stokes Publishing this
month only.  We are still working on a new regular location.

 \ 101            |
  \               |
   \              |             237
----\-------------|-------------------------------------
     \            |
      \           |    /-----+-----+-----+-----+---
       \          |   /      |     |     |     |*  <- Stokes Publishing
        \         |  /       |     |     |     |
         .        | /        |     |     |     |
          .       |/-----+---+----++-----+-----+---
           .      |      |        |      |     |
                  |      |        |      |     |
                  |               |            |
               Lawrence                     Reamwood

--
Daniel P. Kionka                        Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
[email-masked]                     San Jose, CA 95134  (408) 944-7941

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

** 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:

    Internet: [email-masked]

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

    Internet: [email-masked]

Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
    nic.funet.fi				pub/OS/Linux
    tsx-11.mit.edu				pub/linux
    tupac-amaru.informatik.rwth-aachen.de	pub/msdos/replace

The current version of Linux is 0.99pl9 released on April 23, 1993

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