Subject: Linux-Activists Digest #366
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 00:13:22 EST

Linux-Activists Digest #366, Volume #6           Thu, 11 Nov 93 00:13:22 EST

Contents:
  Linux questions (need FAQ - where?) (Tony Nugent)
  Re: Nethack + Linux, Please Help! (Pat Rankin)
  Chipset for Ahead V5000 Video Card in Xconfig? (Khalil Al-Jawhari)
  SCSI woes (Stewart Allen)
  General linux questions ([email-masked])
  Re: Linux on 80286???? (Tim Smith)
  Re: Linux performance?? (Marius Kjeldahl)
  Re: X support for ATI Ultra? (Marius Kjeldahl)
  Re: HELP! Help! AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!! (Harald Koenig)
  Re: 1280x1024x256 Graphics @ > 70 Hz (ANDRE SCHR”TER INFORMATIK)
  Problem with CxPatch
  lpd doesn't keep running (Stefan Baltus)
  Re: SLOW comms with X problem (Craig Ashcroft  Willmott)
  Re: Linux performance?? (Gregory Gulik)
  Re: 0.99pl13 Kernel Compilation ($ Burkhard Kohl)
  *** Upcoming removal of comp.os.linux *** (David Barr)
  Re: rsh bug ? (Patrick J. Volkerding)

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

From: [email-masked] (Tony Nugent)
Subject: Linux questions (need FAQ - where?)
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 23:49:50 GMT

Argh!  I found the FAQ posted in the very next newsgroup I read
here!   :-)
(comp.os.linux.announce)

However, if anyone can answer any of those specific questions
I asked, then I'm all ears!

Thanks  (and sorry I opened my big mouth two minutes too soon :)

Cheers
Tony

--
==============================================================================
It is easier to fight for one's principles |    [email-masked]
than live up to them.  Alfred Adler        |
==============================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Pat Rankin)
Crossposted-To: rec.games.hack
Subject: Re: Nethack + Linux, Please Help!
Date: 9 Nov 1993 19:48 PDT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article <[email-masked]>,\
 [email-masked] (Stuart Langley) writes...
[...]
> I have downloaded version 3.10 from nic.funet.fi which
> has supposedly already been converted over for use
> straight from the box for linux.  [...]

     There's no such thing as nethack 3.10; if that's 3.1.0, then
throw it away and get 3.1.3, the current version.  If it's actually
3.0pl10, then throw it ever farther away. ;-)

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

From: [email-masked] (Khalil Al-Jawhari)
Subject: Chipset for Ahead V5000 Video Card in Xconfig?
Date: 10 Nov 1993 04:40:01 GMT

Hello,

I have already figured out the Video Mode table values for my monitor in the
Xconfig file.  However, I do not know what chipset to use for my VGA card.

I have an Ahead V5000 16-bit Video Card. Does anyone know if XFree supports
this card? And if so, what chipset should I specify in the Xconfig.

I should add that a sticker labelled "AVGA" appears on a chip on the card.
Please any help would be appreciated.  I thank you.

Cobra.

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

From: [email-masked] (Stewart Allen)
Subject: SCSI woes
Date: 10 Nov 1993 00:55:34 -0500

 I am attempting to install Linux on my 486-66 Unisys that has an Adaptec SCSI
controller built onto the motherboard. Unfortunately, the boot disk does not
recognize this controller. I would like to get hold of code, if possible, to
recompile the scsi drivers to recognize my controller. But it seems a bit of a
catch-22 that I must have Linux installed in order to do this. Perhaps I am
wrong, but I had not been able to find appropriate code. Also, I wouldn't have
the first clue about how to create a bootable disk.
 Secondly, I cannot reach "sunsite" to send e-mail! Wrong backbone, apparently
we're restricted.

 Stewart Allen
 Open Environment Corporation
 [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked]
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: General linux questions
Date: 10 Nov 1993 06:54:25 GMT

Hello.  I have a few questions, which are somewhat unrelated.  As
a precursor, I am completely new to Linux, and as such, know nothing
about it but what I have been able to gather over the last 5 hours
or so over the net.

First, for descriptive purposes, I have a 386/33, 8 megs RAM, a 240
meg hard disk, a Promise caching IDE disk controller with 4 megs RAM
on it, a Diamond Speedstar Pro video board, and a Cabletron 10baseT
ethernet board.  Standard other components -- a bootable 1.2M 5 1/4"
drive, a 1.4M 3 1/2" drive, Logitech mouse, etc.  I have a 17" high-
refresh Philips color display.

Now, first of all, will Linux run on this system?  I read somewhere
over the last 5 hours that Cabletron E21xx boards are not supported
or usable with Linux... if that's the case, then I have to stop here,
since that's what's provided by Columbia to me.  (I can always buy
myself a real board, though...)

Second of all, will I be able to run X-windows (from what I can
understand, Xfree386) at 1024x768, in color?  Unfortunately, I don't
know what kind of accelerator is on the SSPro, but maybe someone out
there does, or has it running with Linux.

Third, what would be the "best" flavor of Linux to run?  From what I
can understand, SLS is the most comprehensive... should I start off
with it, and tailor it to my needs?  I've administered a Sun workstation
before, so the tailoring part shouldn't be that difficult, but I am
just wondering if SLS is the best place to start.

Lastly, where should I try to get a hold of the Linux distribution of
choice?  I have FTP access directly from my PC, so I can bring stuff
in at relatively high rates of speed; the question is if it would be
better worth my time/money to just buy a distribution.

Thanks A LOT in advance for any help.

                                        Jason Levine

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

From: [email-masked] (Tim Smith)
Subject: Re: Linux on 80286????
Date: 10 Nov 1993 08:53:14 GMT

Byron A Jeff <[email-masked]> wrote:
>This is correct. Of course there are Unix clones for the 286 (Coherent and SCO

It's possible to do real Unix for the 286, rather than a clone Unix.  It's
not clear why anyone would want to do this (I've used System V Release 3
on a 286, and it is not a pretty sight...).

--Tim Smith

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

From: [email-masked] (Marius Kjeldahl)
Subject: Re: Linux performance??
Date: 10 Nov 1993 08:55:59 GMT

Being a user of both (Linux and Win3.1) I would either way argue that
Linux is faster, due to the fact of true 386/486 performance. However
SOME applications MIGHT run faster under DOS/Win3.1, especially those
who are very CPU intensive (and thereby hogs 100% cpu under
DOS/Win3.1), but in normal use I find using Linux faster. Also there
now exists accelerated video drivers for both Win3.1 and Linux/X, and
I'm happily running Linux/X with opaque drags and things - real cool
(I'm using XFree2.0 with ATI GUP LocalBus). Normally it is not only
the absolute speed that counts, you should also consider what you can
be doing while your computer is doing something else. In the
DOS/Win3.1 I normally have no choice, if I do some CPU intensive work,
I just have to sit and watch, drink coffee, read the paper etc. With
Linux/X I can actually start some CPU intensive job, and start working
on my next task, like finally writing that e-mail reply..

However I still boot DOS/Win3.1 whenever I need to do WordProcessing
and Spreadsheet calculation, because I have found no suitable
applications for these things under Linux/X (I'm not into
"programming" documents, like under Emacs/TeX). I've also heard about
other commercial software running under X in general, but there is no
guarante that these have or will be ported to run under Linux/X. Also
I believe that the software prices for "professional/commercial"
software running under Unix/X is more expensive than their DOS/Win3.1
equivalents. 

One last thing to consider is what you actually get. With Linux/X and
the GNU packages that comes with it, you get a _lot_ of software for
free (including a lot of compilers, utilities, editors, window
environment). And if your going to hook your computer to a network
running TCP, you might also consider Linux/X since it usually offers
what most workstations currently offer in the user environment (which
with a few exeptions means X).

I've grown up with DOS/Win3.1 and in the beginning I found the switch
to Linux/X very hard, mostly because I had no experience what so ever
in the field. Also I've done quite a bit programming under DOS/Win3.1.
Now I've finally taken the big step and started using Linux/X for
real, and I must admit I like it better and better. However for
writing reports and creating big spreadsheets, I keep booting
DOS/Win3.1. Hopefully this will not last forever.. Just my $.02 .

Marius Kjeldahl ( [email-masked] )         | Seeking organisation for my
Student in Operational Research, Informatics,   | dissertation and/or future
Economics and Management at the Norwegian Inst. | employment - please "finger"
of Technology/Univ. of Karlsruhe, Germany       | for more information...

--
Marius Kjeldahl ( [email-masked] )         | Seeking organisation for my
Student in Operational Research, Informatics,   | dissertation and/or future
Economics and Management at the Norwegian Inst. | employment - please "finger"
of Technology/Univ. of Karlsruhe, Germany       | for more information...

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

From: [email-masked] (Marius Kjeldahl)
Subject: Re: X support for ATI Ultra?
Date: 10 Nov 1993 09:03:11 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Ken Gravenstede) writes:

With XFree2.0 I find that the X support for ATI GUP is great. It has
an accelerated driver which utilize the mach32 chip on the ATI
GUP. I'm running X with Slackware (pl13) in 1024x768x256 mode, and
everything works great! I had big trouble obtaining the right clocks
for my card (for the Xconfig file in XFree1.3), but after obtaining
these, adapting the configuration to my monitor was easy (using the
vgaset program).  I also believe that the clocks for the ATI GUP is
written in the modedb file that comes with the XFree2.0 package, so
obtaining these should now be easy.

Somebody wrote:

   From: [email-masked] (Ken Gravenstede)
   Organization: Performance Technologies, Incorporated
   X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL9]
   Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1993 15:39:16 GMT
   Lines: 11

   Can someone send me the appropriate info to get X running on an 
   ATI Ultra graphics card.  In particular, what rev of the kernel,
   what rev of X386, and what frequency settings are necessary.

   Thanks

   Ken

--
Marius Kjeldahl ( [email-masked] )         | Seeking organisation for my
Student in Operational Research, Informatics,   | dissertation and/or future
Economics and Management at the Norwegian Inst. | employment - please "finger"
of Technology/Univ. of Karlsruhe, Germany       | for more information...

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

From: [email-masked] (Harald Koenig)
Subject: Re: HELP! Help! AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!!
Date: 10 Nov 93 08:36:03 GMT

What do you think about using a more specific subject line 
and a smaller .signature ?

Harald

-- 
Harald Koenig, Inst.f.Theoret.Astrophysik  ([email-masked])

    All SCSI disks will from now on be required to send an email
         notice 24 hours prior to complete hardware failure!

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

From: [email-masked] (ANDRE SCHR”TER INFORMATIK)
Subject: Re: 1280x1024x256 Graphics @ > 70 Hz
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 07:20:28 GMT

In article <koenig.752779994@ceres> [email-masked] (Harald Koenig) writes:
>From: [email-masked] (Harald Koenig)
>Subject: Re: 1280x1024x256 Graphics @ > 70 Hz
>Date: 8 Nov 93 17:33:14 GMT
>In <[email-masked]> engels@darkstar () writes:
>
>>I'm currently wondering why I can't get 1280x1024x256 with my Elsa Winner 1000
>>(Local Bus, 2Mb) with >70Hz on an Eizo T560i Monitor without problems 
>>(what I got doesn't look like 70 Hz). I took the T560i timing data from Roell 
>>which I found in modeDB. There is an 110 and a 135 clock, but xfree uses the 110
>>clock. If I delete the 110 lines, I get the message that 110 is the maximum value.
>
>>Maybe the idc..._slow clock is the solution. The #9-card seems to use (according to
>>the AccelCards-file) the non-slow clock. But why, it also got an 928-chip? 
>
>>I'm still thinking and searching and maybe I find the solution in some hidden doc. 
>>But where, 
>>dear Harald, can I find this information in the Xfree-Howto (line numbers wellcomed)? 
>
>You can read the answer in the ELSA manual: 
>both the clock synthesizer (ICD-2061A) 
>and the RAMDAC (Sierra 15025) have a spezified limit of 110MHz.
>It migh be possible to drive them at higher frequencies
>(ICD-2061A could run upto 120MHz but no more) but you risk to fry your card.
>
>The sources are free, get them and modify at your own risk!
>
>Another solution would be buying a ELSA Winner2000 which is specified 
>up to 135MHz which is 1280*1024 @ 72Hz!
>
>Harald
>
>-- 
>Harald Koenig, Inst.f.Theoret.Astrophysik  ([email-masked])
>
>    All SCSI disks will from now on be required to send an email
>         notice 24 hours prior to complete hardware failure!
if you want to risk you'r card there might be another posibility:
write the clocks you get on satrtup directly to the Xconfig. then edit the 
line 110 to somethin else and change the 135 to 110. i don't know if this
is true for the s3 server, but you can fool the mach8 servre this way.

andre

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

From: [email-masked] ()
Subject: Problem with CxPatch
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1993 08:48:00 GMT

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

From: [email-masked] (Stefan Baltus)
Subject: lpd doesn't keep running
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 10:21:36 GMT

Hi,

I have problems with printing. When starting up lpd, it exits immediately. It
doesn't keep running in the background! So, when 'lpq -Plp'-ing, it says
Warning: no daemon present.

                What's wrong?

                                Stefan.

-- 
=============================================================================
Stefan Baltus.                          InterNet: [email-masked]
                                        UUCP    : [email-masked]
=============================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Craig Ashcroft  Willmott       )
Subject: Re: SLOW comms with X problem
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 10:05:02 GMT

Strike this... I think it's an IRQ rpoblem.

Craig.

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

From: [email-masked] (Gregory Gulik)
Subject: Re: Linux performance??
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 06:10:54 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (John E. Krokes) writes:
>Linux runs significantly faster than DOS because it's a 32-bit OS that
>doesn't have the constraints that DOS does. DOS was written over a decade
>ago for machines that are nowhere near as powerful as a 486, and some
>limits were hard-coded into the OS. Windows is just a messy DOS program,
>subject to the same constraints as DOS. Linux will let you use the full
>capacity of your machine as no Microsoft product can.

Then how do you explain Unix being originally written over 20 years ago?
8^)

Linux is a faithful reproduction of Unix.  I just wish the networking
stuff was more stable.  *SIGH*

-greg

-- 
Gregory A. Gulik                                 Call Gagme, a public access
       [email-masked]                      UNIX system at 312-282-8606
   ||  [email-masked]                        For information, send E-mail
                                                 to [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] ($ Burkhard Kohl)
Subject: Re: 0.99pl13 Kernel Compilation
Date: 10 Nov 1993 12:34:00 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Joseph W. Vigneau) writes:
>Ok. I ftp'd 0.99pl13 from tsx, read the READMEs, verified that I have gcc 2.4.5
>(or whatever they wanted), and tryping to 'make dep' I get:
>
>touch tools/version.h
>for i in sound; do (cd $i && make dep) || exit; done
>     .... [ stuff deleted »
>gcc -D__KERNEL__ -E -M *.c > .depend
>In file included from loop.c:27:
>blk.h:193: #error "unknown blk device"
>In file included from sbpcd.c:175:
>blk.h:193: #error "unknown blk device"
>make[2]: *** [dep] Error 1
>make[1]: *** [dep] Error 1
>make: *** [depend] Error 1
>
>The standard question applies: What do I do now?  I configured it properly
>(I think)...

Well, complain to the author(s) of these files - you should find the 
email-address in the header. We had similar problems when compiling
99pl12 which I duly reported to the author. The standard path to those
two files should be 
        /usr/src/linux/kernel/blk_dev/*.c
Regarding your messages
something has been changed compared to our problems.
It looks like different configurations (with/without Soundsupport)
are not handled properly. 

Tell your prob to the author since feedback is very important to detect
hidden flaws in released kernel. Since I don't have the pl13 sources 
I can't advice you how to circumvent this prob.
---
  _/_/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/  _/_/_/_/     Burkhard Kohl 
     _/      _/    _/       _/       [email-masked]
    _/      _/_/_/_/      _/         die tageszeitung
   _/      _/    _/     _/           Germany
  _/      _/    _/    _/             10969 Berlin        Phone: +30-259-02-120
 _/      _/    _/   _/_/_/_/         Kochstr. 18         FAX  : +30-251-06-94

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

From: [email-masked] (David Barr)
Subject: *** Upcoming removal of comp.os.linux ***
Date: 10 Nov 1993 15:03:02 GMT

******************* DO NOT POST TO COMP.OS.LINUX **********************

        Since the comp.os.linux.* groups were created on Aug 12, the
moderator of news.announce.newgroups plans to remove comp.os.linux
on November 11.  Many sites have removed local posting for comp.os.linux.
Also, many Linux gurus have stopped reading or posting to this group.

        Start using the comp.os.linux.* groups instead:

comp.os.linux.announce 
                   Announcements important to the Linux community. (Moderated)
comp.os.linux.admin       Installing and administering Linux systems.
comp.os.linux.development Ongoing work on the Linux operating system.
comp.os.linux.help        Questions and advice about Linux.
comp.os.linux.misc        Linux-specific topics not covered by other groups.

        If your site does not carry these newsgroups, then complain loudly
to your news admin.  Do NOT crosspost to comp.os.linux.  News administrators,
please mark comp.os.linux as "n" (no local posting) as recommended by
the news.announce.newgroups moderator.

        This notice is being posted every 2 days.  If you do not wish
to read this notice, please add it to your kill file.

--Dave

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

Subject: Re: rsh bug ?
From: [email-masked] (Patrick J. Volkerding)
Date: 10 Nov 93 14:42:48 -0600

In article <[email-masked]> stub@pce60 () writes:
>Hi !
>
>..when I rsh commands between my 2 LinuX boxes I notices some programs
>complaining 'bout wrong pathes/directories...
>
>I think the problem can be put in one line:
>
>       rsh nepal echo $\HOME $\PWD
>
>which gives
>
>       / /home/yeti
>
>as output...
>(not really, as /home/yeti is linked back via NFS to my other machine and
>the real output contains the expanded link...)
>
>But $HOME should give /home/yeti (or my personal link)...
>
>What's wrong, where should I search ?
>
>bye
>    Ulf.

The shadow rsh is buggy, as evidenced when you look in /usr/etc, and find
"in.rshd" and "in.rshd.unsecure". The latter is the original shadow(?) rshd,
and has MAJOR security holes, like:

rshd 127.0.0.1 -l root "any command you like"

works for ALL users. This horribly buggy version is still used in SLS.
Anyway, I did some hacking to the source to make it more secure, but now
it only works for users with no password. Kind of like boarding up a
broken window, but it was about all I could do for it.

The source as I left it is somewhere under /pub/linux on ftp.cdrom.com. If
anyone has any luck fixing it, please let me know. It's quite short, but I
just don't have the network programming know-how to make it work.

So what do you guys think, should I just ditch the whole shadow thing like
MCC does?

---
Patrick Volkerding
[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:

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