Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #298
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 16:13:11 EDT

Linux-Activists Digest #298, Volume #6            Fri, 8 Oct 93 16:13:11 EDT

Contents:
  Re: TokenRing card support?  -- NO (Alan Cox)
  Re: Novell under Linux (Alan Cox)
  Re: Good serial communication package wanted. (Tom Reynolds)
  WANTED: BBS for Linux (Matthew S. Bailey)
  Re: NetBSD TCP/IP network benchmarks (Jaye Mathisen)
  Re: WANTED: BBS for Linux (Topic-Administrator for tcl (Bernd Kratz))
  Which distribution? SLS/Slackware/mcc (James Bonfield)
  ? mounting a SuperStorED DOS drive in Linux ? (Mario Nascimento)
  LaTeX guru? ([email-masked])
  Re: Novell under Linux (Miquel van Smoorenburg,,,)
  Re: CFC/CFI: XSysadmin (Nan Zou)
  Re: How to load a Coherent cpio into Linux? (Louis J. Giliberto)
  XS3 for 928 (ELSA WINNER) (Gerd Grasshoff)
  Re: NetBSD TCP/IP network benchmarks (Chris Maeda)
  Re: NetBSD TCP/IP network benchmarks (Chris Maeda)
  Re: help: linux & wangtek en5099-24 tape (Kelly Murray)
  Re: norton-like shell for unix? (Tadeusz Bak)
  Re: what happened to Debian (Ian A Murdock)
  Re: Good serial communication package wanted. (Danny ter Haar)

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: TokenRing card support?  -- NO
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 13:56:21 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Mike Cruse) writes:
>Donald J. Becker ([email-masked]) wrote:
>: In article <[email-masked]>,
>: Ziya Karakaya  <[email-masked]> wrote:
>: >Has any body used IBM TokenRing card with Linux?
>: >If so I would like to hear about.
>
>: No, there is no token ring support in Linux.  To support token ring requires
>: more than only a writing a device driver, it also requires writing the source
>: routing routines for token ring.  Given that token ring is expensive, not
It will require a device driver being written, routing code being written,
changes to the bottom socket layer to support 802.2 and 802.2 based TCP/IP. 
Don't expect anything soon

Alan

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Novell under Linux
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 14:02:48 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Donald J. Becker) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Mattias Olsson <mattias@shogun> wrote:
>>I woder if it is possible to make my Linux machine work as an Novell server
>>and an Unix server at the same time.
>>Is it possible and IF, how do i do it , what programs do I need ?
>>If it is not possible ,could I make my Linux machine access an Novell server ?
>
>No, it's not possible.  Novell treats the details of their protocols as a
>trade secret.
>
The novell protocols are available from novell for various amounts. IPX is
freely documented. SPX is about $1000 but I'm told Xerox SPP is identical
_PLEASE_ has anyone got any freely distributable Xerox SPP code/documentation.

The novell server spec costs you $15000 + royalties providing you only
want to write a client, or $30000 + royalties otherwise. Needless to say the
final output has to be binary only and subject to a novell license. Reading
their license rules by my interpretation its also impossible for us to do 
because you would seem to have to bar disassembly of your final result, which
is not allowed in the EEC.

Bits of NCP are known, and I hope eventually enough will be known to write
limited NCP support into Linux, for the moment I'm poking around at IPX, 
tho this will have to wait until the new network code is finished.

Alan
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Tom Reynolds)
Subject: Re: Good serial communication package wanted.
Date: 8 Oct 1993 15:01:30 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Antoon Frehe <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>Is there a good serial communication package that understands 
>[A-z]modem protocol. I'm used to TELIX under DOS to get stuff down
>via a phone line. I tried the installed KERMIT, but like under
>DOS, it is so terribly slow ...
>
Try using kermit and then using rz/sz for file transfers.  It really flies,
just like Telix does.

To do this, just send the file via zmodem on the remote machine, then
escape to the kermit prompt, and say 
        !rz <>/dev/cua?

--
Thanx!

Tom Reynolds
[email-masked]
[email-masked]

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

Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 01:21:59 EDT
From: Matthew S. Bailey <[email-masked]>
Subject: WANTED: BBS for Linux

I am Looking for a good BBS package for linux if you know any or where
I should look please let me know please include your full e-mail
address in you reply's.
Thanks for you time     Matthew S. Bailey
                        [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Jaye Mathisen)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: NetBSD TCP/IP network benchmarks
Date: 8 Oct 1993 16:06:57 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Chris Maeda <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>system                 codebase        kbytes/s
>
>NetBSD 0.8             BNR2            320             

Well, rampant speculation might place the blame on your cards, or perhaps
an outdated driver, I know David has spent a lot of time on some of
the network drivers, better performance is likely.

I regularly get 400+k/sec out of my cheapo DEC DEPCA card on a 386-20sx
with FreeBSD, and I don't think there are enough significant differences
between NetBSD 0.8 and FreeBSD for it to be attributable to the OS.
-- 
 Jaye Mathisen, COE Systems Manager                (406) 994-4780
 410 Roberts Hall,Dept. of Computer Science
 Montana State University,Bozeman MT 59717      [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Topic-Administrator for tcl (Bernd Kratz))
Subject: Re: WANTED: BBS for Linux
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 16:11:50 GMT

I'm interested an GOOD BBS package for linux too.
I'm currently using the XBBS-package. It's not to bad, but
improvable.
Please mail me to 
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (James Bonfield)
Subject: Which distribution? SLS/Slackware/mcc
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 16:23:14 GMT

Hello,
        Can anyone tell me what the difference is between all the Linux
distributions. Software versions don't bother me much - it's always possible
to obtain new versions and recompile (correct?). However, as an experienced
UNIX chap I need to know what is actually different - does /etc change? Do
some use the sys V rc directory scheme and others BSD? Etc etc etc.

Obviously, the main part of linux is the kernel - this doesn't change much
other than versions I presume between the distribution. The same goes for
version of X, gcc, emacs, etc. However, where do the other things come from -
GNU binutils and fileutils ??? What about stuff in dev, etc, lib, usr/share,
sbin etc?

Anyone feel like shedding any light on the situation?

Cheers,

        James

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

From: [email-masked] (Mario Nascimento)
Subject: ? mounting a SuperStorED DOS drive in Linux ?
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 16:16:13 GMT

Hello there,

Does anybody has any experience in mounting from within Linux a DOS
hard drive that is compressed with SuperStor (or the like) ? 

I'm about to buy a biggger HD to install small but compressed DOS par-
tition, my guess is that it wouldn't work as SuperStor stays in bet-
ween the HD and the DOS when it is booted up, and if Linux is booted 
up instead then how in the hell would the compress/decompress work ?

Am I missing something ? Thanks for any hint/clue/answer/whatever ...

Mario.
--
  +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  | +------------------+        E-mail:         [email-masked]         |
  | | MARIO Nascimento |        Postal Mail:    SMU Box 752165             |
  | +------------------+                        Dallas, TX 75275-2165  USA |
  +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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

From: [email-masked]
Subject: LaTeX guru?
Date: 8 Oct 93 11:49:57 -0600

I am trying to get my system converted over to Linux for everything but music
processing.  I found that I can put a very minimal DOS partition with Windoze
and Finale music composition up in about 30 compressed megs.  I have no need to
acces this from Linux.

I've tried the switch before, but haven't had much luck because of the fact
that I have had a very hard time getting LaTeX working properly.  Lots of the
documentation for LaTeX seems to be in TeX, which doesn't help me much.  THe
main problems I've had are getting it to work on a data file and getting the lp
daemon to work with my Epson Actionlaser II, a HP IIP semi-compatible.  (Works
fine with HP drivers in the 'doze!)  I can't pipe the output of a DVI-to-IIP
conversion to spool.
 
So, if there's anyone out ther ewho's a LaTeX setup guru, perhaps send me your
Email address so I can ask my many upcoming questions outside of this group, I
don't want to waste more bandwidth than I already have.  Once I can get it set
up and print out a simple TeX formatted file I'll be able to figure out how to
use TeX itself.  I'm converting to Linux today . . . this time there's nothing
that will stop me from switching permanently.

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

From: [email-masked] (Miquel van Smoorenburg,,,)
Subject: Re: Novell under Linux
Date: Fri,  8 Oct 93 10:53:58 

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Donald J. Becker) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Mattias Olsson <mattias@shogun> wrote:
>>I woder if it is possible to make my Linux machine work as an Novell server
>>and an Unix server at the same time.
>>Is it possible and IF, how do i do it , what programs do I need ?
>>If it is not possible ,could I make my Linux machine access an Novell server ?
>
>No, it's not possible.  Novell treats the details of their protocols as a
>trade secret.
>
>-- 
>
>Donald Becker                                         [email-masked]

But it _is_ possible to set up a dedicated PC running both novell and
the PD SOSS server and let it gateway from NFS to novell. This way it
is possible to mount the Novell drives on the Unix (Linux) client.

SOSS is a PD (perhaps with some restrictions, but freely available) NFS
server for DOS. It includes the PC/IP TCP/IP implementation and runs on
a packet driver. I have run both a Novell client (with PDIPX, a Packet
Driver IPX) and this SOSS server together successfully.

Look for 'SOSS' with archie.

Mike.
--

|   Miquel van Smoorenburg, <[email-masked]>       |
| Chips - the dope of the nineties. You may carry them with you,  |
|     but they are more expensive per kilo than cocaine.          |

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

From: [email-masked] (Nan Zou)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.development
Subject: Re: CFC/CFI: XSysadmin
Date: 8 Oct 1993 01:48:59 -0500

will@oliver (Michael Will) writes:

>CFC / CFI      Call for Code / Call for Ideas :-)
>Xsysadmin - this is what I want to write, only I think there already is
>a lot of code outside? 

I have been thinking about this for a while too.  I think it's a very
good idea.  In fact, when I learn a little more about C and X11
programming and when I have some free time I even plan to take it up
myself.  However, the scope of my program idea is a lot more narrower:
it only deals with user maintainance (adding/deleting).  Right now I use
the add_user/delete_user program with their long and hard-to-remember
command lines.  A X11 interface based on either OI/OB or Tcl/Tk would be
much more intuitive.  It doesn't even have to be too complicated, just
gather up the parameters and pass them to add_user/delete_user...  Like
another poster said, a curses/ncurses based interface should also be
available for those not running X.

>Please contact me if you are working on something similar, have done something
>alike or have something stuffed away which did not work to well...

>I would like to make a LinuxConfigurationtool for
>       - usermaintainement (incl. shadow-support)
>       - uucp
>       - smail
>       - cnews / tin
>       - internet
>       - cron
>       - printers

>I do not know whether it is a good idea to put this all into one program,
>especially since many people should contribute to this program - I cannot
>do it all alone. 

I think it's quite ambitious for you to tackle all aspects of
system configuration.  Perhaps you should coordinate your efforts with
the maintainers of these packages?

-- Nan

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.coherent
From: [email-masked] (Louis J. Giliberto)
Subject: Re: How to load a Coherent cpio into Linux?
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 04:49:28 GMT

Patrick Draper ([email-masked]) wrote:
: The trouble is that I can't load it into Linux. There's a difference
: between Coherent's cpio and others because I can backup and restore
: a diskette that I made only with Linux in the Linux cpio format.

: I purposefully used cpio to back up my stuff because the manual said
: that it's more portable than tar, however, I've never had trouble with
: tar before.

When you backed up with cpio, hopefully you backed up with a "c"
switch -- like cpio -ocv >/dev/floppy

If you didn't, that may be the cause of your problems.  Other than that,
the only other thing I can think of is a corrupt disk and/or a corrupt
backup.

-Louis

--
=====================================================================
Louis J. Giliberto, Jr.  -- "I never met a hacker I didn't like"
=====================================================================
DarkTower [email-masked]
Ripco Communication, [email-masked]
=====================================================================
Also:     [email-masked], [email-masked]
=====================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Gerd Grasshoff)
Subject: XS3 for 928 (ELSA WINNER)
Date: 8 Oct 93 17:35:20 GMT

My ELSA WINNER 1000 card (s3 chip 928) doesn't work. I am sure that Xconfig is
correct (It works with another card). The standard Xs3 server, latest edition, 
doesn't work with it. Since patches were recommended for the 928 chip, which are
supposed to work in XS3-928, I installed that. Result: frozen black screen. Hard
reset required.

I use Xfree86 1.3.  Who can help?

Gerd Grasshoff
Uni Hamburg

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
From: [email-masked] (Chris Maeda)
Subject: Re: NetBSD TCP/IP network benchmarks
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 18:22:10 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Mike Stump) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Chris Maeda) writes:
>>
>>In article <[email-masked]>
>>TCP throughput was measured using ttcp (anon ftp from sgi.com in
>>sgi/src/ttcp) which is a 16MB one-way memory-to-memory transfer.
>>
>>system                        codebase        kbytes/s
>>
>>NetBSD 0.8            BNR2            320             
>>Mach 2.5              4.3BSD          457
>>Mach 3.0(UX server)   4.3BSD          415
>>Mach 3.0(BSDSS server)        BNR2            382
>>Mach 3.0(library)     BNR2            469
>
>386BSD 0.1.111 <-> NetBSD 0.9          985
>
>It would seem you are doing something wrong. (Maybe?)  Between a
>386BSD 0.1 system and a NetBSD 0.9 system, we have observed
>985Kbytes/s.  Contact [email-masked] for details.

I did and he says he got these numbers using 16bit wd8013 cards.
I got my numbers using 8bit 3c503 cards.

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc
From: [email-masked] (Chris Maeda)
Subject: Re: NetBSD TCP/IP network benchmarks
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 93 18:30:48 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Jaye Mathisen) writes:
>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Chris Maeda <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>
>>system                        codebase        kbytes/s
>>
>>NetBSD 0.8            BNR2            320             
>
>Well, rampant speculation might place the blame on your cards, or perhaps
>an outdated driver, I know David has spent a lot of time on some of
>the network drivers, better performance is likely.

The cards are probably responsible for the slow (300-400 kbyte/s)
performance in general but they definitely have nothing to do with the
difference between the various OS's.  All my experiments were run on
the same two boxes; I booted off a different partition for each OS.

>I regularly get 400+k/sec out of my cheapo DEC DEPCA card on a 386-20sx
>with FreeBSD, and I don't think there are enough significant differences
>between NetBSD 0.8 and FreeBSD for it to be attributable to the OS.

Is this card 8bit or 16 bit?

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

From: [email-masked] (Kelly Murray)
Subject: Re: help: linux & wangtek en5099-24 tape
Date: 8 Oct 1993 19:06:37 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Craig Sanders) writes:
|> i've installed linux into a 100mb partition on my hard disk for testing,
|> experimenting & configuring - when i'm happy with the way it works then it gets
|> the whole disk to itself...
|> 
|> details:
|> 
|> wangtek en5099-24 60MB tape drive
|> Wangtek PC-36 controller card (IRQ:5, DMA:1, PORT:300)
|> SLS 1.03 (series a,b,c disks only)
|> 
|> i can't get tar or mt to access the tape drive.  i've recompiled the kernel to
|> make sure that the qic-02 support is installed, and got rid of some of the
|> stuff i didn't need (like SCSI drivers, -m486 flag etc).  then i moved the old
|> /zImage to /old.zImage and copied the newly compiled zImage to /
|> 
|> i don't even see any message which could be the qic02 driver being loaded at
|> boot time.
|> 

I have this tape drive working on one of my machines (SLS 1.01).
If you don't get any messages at boot time about the tape drive, 
then the kernel you're booting is not configured with the qic02 device driver.
It sounds like you're still booting the old kernel.  You need to
use lilo to install it -- just creating a new /zImage won't do.
You should create a new kernel on a floppy disk, and boot off the floppy
first to test things out -- don't clobber your working kernel 
on your hard-drive until your sure it's working from the floppy.
Look at the Makefile in /usr/src/linux.

Hope this helps,
 Kelly

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

From: [email-masked] (Tadeusz Bak )
Subject: Re: norton-like shell for unix?
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 19:27:18 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Matthias Rabe) writes:

>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Hajo Simons <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>Does anybody know about a shell that is comparable to the
>>"Norton Commander" running under MS-DOS?
>> 
>>I mean a shell that makes copying, moving and purging files 
>>more comfortable. ( No, it's _not_ for me but someone else ;-)

>Please reply to this group, too.

I'm a happy user of "Allegro". This programm looks and works like "Norton
Commander" (one or two windows, status bar at the bottom, norton-like 
function keys, built-in editor, etc.). It is a commercial product, ask 
the author - Jaroslaw Strzalkowski ( [email-masked] ) for more information.

Tadeusz Bak

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

From: [email-masked] (Ian A Murdock)
Subject: Re: what happened to Debian
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 19:28:37 GMT

Cobalt Stargazer ([email-masked]) wrote:
: subject says it all - what is the current status of it?

It is currently in ALPHA.  The second ALPHA version should be released within
the next few days (after we resolve a few filesystem-related issues).

: will we ever see it?

You're more than welcome to join in the effort.  Debian has changed quite a bit
since I first announced its existence in August; it has turned into a fairly
large group effort, as opposed to the "traditional" development stategy of
Linux distributions (development by one individual or small group).

If you want to become a part of the pre-release development or become an ALPHA/
BETA tester, then join the Debian channel of the linux-activists mailing list.
If you don't know how to do that, then 'finger [email-masked]' for
instructions. 

--

Ian
---
Ian Murdock <[email-masked]>    |    For the latest Debian Linux

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

From: [email-masked] (Danny ter Haar)
Subject: Re: Good serial communication package wanted.
Date: Fri,  8 Oct 93 18:23:51 

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Antoon Frehe) writes:
>Hi all,
>
>Is there a good serial communication package that understands 
>[A-z]modem protocol. I'm used to TELIX under DOS to get stuff down
>via a phone line. I tried the installed KERMIT, but like under
>DOS, it is so terribly slow ...
>
Sure, try minicom
current releases version is mc14g
available on sunsite and tsx-11
We are currently developping version 1.5a if you can't wait
get it from our public linux machine in +31-1720-42580
in /pub/linux/communication/mc1.5a.tar.gz 
This version includes local echo and some bug fixes ...

>Thx Toon.

_____
Danny
--
_______________________________________________________________________
Danny ter Haar  <[email-masked]> or <[email-masked]>
PHILIPS DCC: combining the disadvantages of cd-rom's and tapes

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

** FOR YOUR REFERENCE **

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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:

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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
******************************