Subject: Linux-Admin Digest #142
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 13:13:50 EDT

Linux-Admin Digest #142, Volume #2                Tue, 4 Oct 94 13:13:50 EDT

Contents:
  Recommendation: Partitioning Linux (marshall giguere)
  Re: ext2 and fsck questions (Michael J C Firth)
  Re: Special Sale On QNX! (Viktor T. Toth)
  Re: where can i find biffd? (Juha Virtanen)
  Re: <Q> Can Linux Mount a Mac Floppy (N J Bailey)
  Lots o' modems for linux? (Oskar Widerberg)
  Re: inetd seems to lock-up (Bart Kindt)
  Xfig (dietmar mueller)
  Re: FTPs PCTCP and Linux lock. (Neil Charley)
  Linux as print-box very good, but ...  (Markus Gruenkorn (MAGIC))
  Re: SLIP idle statistics? (Karl Keyte)
  Re: Anyone want dynamic SLIP server? (Bart Kindt)
  Yggdrasil & large SCSI disk??? ([email-masked])
  Re: BUG: Linux <--> Cisco (Alan Cox)
  Re: Has anyone gotten ftape to work? (Dennis Flaherty)
  Parrallel port CDROMS (Al Sutton)

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

From: [email-masked] (marshall giguere)
Subject: Recommendation: Partitioning Linux
Date: 03 Oct 1994 19:01:17 GMT

I'm setting up a Linux system and would like some recommendations
about partitioning.  I plan to run with a X and a network in the future.

1. Is it necessary to have both root and usr partition?

2. What's the necessary size for a root partition.

Currently I'm planning a layout something like this:

Root: 35meg
Swap: 16meg
Usr: (the rest of the disk)
--
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Marshall E. Giguere                   %
Data Exchange Associates, Inc.        %  The universe runs on software,
509 Longley Road                      %  and the source code's been lost.
Groton, MA  01450                     %
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

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

From: [email-masked] (Michael J C Firth)
Subject: Re: ext2 and fsck questions
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 11:58:30 GMT

Thomas Quinot ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Le Prostetnic Vogon Darin Johnson écrit :
:  
: > I want to get rid of the "mounting unchecked filesystems" error.

: You just have to mount only clean file-systems ;->

: The essential problem is that, at shutdown-time, it is nontrivial to unmount
: the root partition. In fact, you never unmount it, but you have to
: remount it read-only (mount -o remount,ro -n /dev/root_device /), thus marking
: it clean.

: Hope this helps...

A more likely cause of this trouble is that the root filesystem is getting
mounted read/write by default at boot time, as if so it will always be checked.
Add a line with "read-only" to the Lilo config for your linux system, or check
the docs. for whatever method you use for booting. Adding FSCK to the boot 
options is a simple matter of inserting the command into /etc/rc.local or
/etc/rc.d/rc.S, depending on your Linux setup ( put it in the one that exists
(-: ).

Hope this also helps.

Michael
: -- 
: Thomas QUINOT                       |  "Un roi sans divertissement est un
: <[email-masked]>      |             homme plein de misère."
: Linux - choice of a GNU generation  |                          Jean GIONO

--
---|      Michael Firth  ISE Student, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh     |---
---|A new supply of round tuits has arrived and are available from Michael. |---
---|Anyone who has been putting off work until they get a round tuit now has|---
---|no excuse for further procrastination. *E-Mail to: [email-masked]* |---

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

From: [email-masked] (Viktor T. Toth)
Subject: Re: Special Sale On QNX!
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 1994 12:02:38

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Wallace Roberts) writes:

>>Florida Datamation, Inc.                    US-CAN Sales: (800) xxx-xxxx
>-----------------------------------------------------------^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>what's this, a toll-free phone number?
>
>guess who pays the nickel for any calls to *that* number... >:->
>
>as jesse "the body" ventura said in _predator_: "it's payback time."

You do realize that you are in fact helping that splendid fellow who 
originally posted the FORGED commercial message here, don't you?

Gosh, I thought in America you are innocent until proven guilty. Guess with 
all the enlightened, politically correct folks here on Usenet, that is no 
longer the case; people are so darn quick to take matters in their own hands 
and punish.

Viktor

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

From: [email-masked] (Juha Virtanen)
Subject: Re: where can i find biffd?
Date: 04 Oct 1994 07:53:34 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

>>>>> On Fri, 30 Sep 1994 16:24:03 +0100, [email-masked]
(Peter Berger) said: 
:> [email-masked] wrote:
 > does anyone know where i can find a copy of biffd?  it didn't come
 > with Slackware 1.0.9.
:> I think I've seen one in NetKit-B-* (look or sunsite or better a mirror..).

Yes, there is 'biffd' in NetKit-B-* packages. It is called
in.comsat.

Juha
--
Plääh. En mä käytä .signaturea.

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

From: [email-masked] (N J Bailey)
Subject: Re: <Q> Can Linux Mount a Mac Floppy
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 10:08:05 +0100 (BST)

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Tim Bass (Network Systems Engineer)) writes:
> Got some ASCII text files on my Powerbook... Would like to write them
> to the PB floppy and then mount the floppy on my linux box and
...
I'm not a Mac expert, but the ones I've used car read and write MSDOS disks.
The disk icon looks like a floppy with PC written on it in large letters.
Perhaps your solution is to use an IBM-formatted floppy, and then mount it
on you r linux box with the -t msdos flag.

Nick.

---
===============================================================================
Nick Bailey                             Telephone: +44 532 332057
Lecturer in Electronic Engineering      Facsimile: +44 532 332032     
University of Leeds
Woodhouse Lane
Leeds LS2 9JT
United Kingdom
===============================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Oskar Widerberg)
Subject: Lots o' modems for linux?
Date: Tue, 04 Oct 1994 09:50:22 +0000

Has anyone had any experience with Hayes Millenium together with Linux?
Does it work?
/Oskar

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

From: [email-masked] (Bart Kindt)
Subject: Re: inetd seems to lock-up
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 06:59:59 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Jarkko Aitti) writes:
>Path: otago.ac.nz!canterbury.ac.nz!waikato!ames!hookup!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!news.sprintlink.net!pipex!sunic!trane.uninett.no!eunet.no!nuug!EU.net!news.eunet.fi!not-for-mail
>From: [email-masked] (Jarkko Aitti)
>Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.admin
>Subject: Re: inetd seems to lock-up
>Date: 3 Oct 1994 05:09:08 +0200
>Organization: Muncca Ry
>Lines: 16
>Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
>References: <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]> <[email-masked]>
>Reply-To: [email-masked]
>NNTP-Posting-Host: snafu.muncca.fi

>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Lee J. Silverman <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>
>>    Just so you know, I have a Linux box running Slackware 1.2,
>>Binutils 1.5, and kernel version 1.1.37, and my Inetd hangs every once
>>in a while as well.  When this happens, I can connection to my web,
>>gopher, ftp, and smail daemons, because they all run independently of
>>inetd, but I cannot log in or rlogin.  The problem usually seems to
>>correct itself after an hour or two.

>Hi, we had one few months old slackware installation here which did just that
>what you described, only not so often. Now that machine is running with inetd
>which i compiled from some net package long ago (can't remember which) and no
>problems this far. (few days now)

>-AJake

Yes, we have the problem too. I am running a 4 line SLIP dial-in Internet 
Service. Original Slackware 1.2 installation, now with kernel 1.1.50.
The problem is only with services accessed through *inetd*, and in our case 
especially seems to occur when more than about 10 sockets are open, mostly 
with incoming SMTP traffic.  Any attempt to get into the server with SMTP, 
POP3 and TELNET (others maybe too) will simply 'hang' for a very long time, 
after which it suddenly releases itself.  The problem is, that many users 
simply hang-up in this situation, and re-dial in again. This causes a flood of 
open sockets, which stay open for very long times, making the system 
inaccesible.  Because most of our trafic is SMTP, I am considering running the 
SMTPd daemon sepparate from inetd. Maybe this will overcome the situation in 
our case. I hope that somebody with knowlage can look intoi this situation!

Greetings, 

====================================================================================
Bart Kindt (ZL4FOX) System Operator, Efficient Software NZ LTD, Dunedin, New Zealand
====================================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (dietmar mueller)
Subject: Xfig
Date: 4 Oct 1994 09:47:25 GMT

A friend of mine has installed Linux V.1.0.9. 
His problem appears while starting Xfig. On loading the program the whole
Main Memory is allocated for the needs of swapping until the lower bound of
80 K is reached, without starting Xfig. The Failure Message : "Font Type
... not found" is being displayed and because of the lack of memory space
the Xserver shuts down with error message.

Does anyone have an idea why this can happen and how this phenomen can be
prevented?

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

From: [email-masked] (Neil Charley)
Subject: Re: FTPs PCTCP and Linux lock.
Date: 4 Oct 1994 10:12:44 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, Matti Aarnio <[email-masked]> wrote:
>[email-masked] (Brian C. Huffman) writes:
>       Recompile the kernel with:   "PC/TCP compability mode ON"
>
>       Actual problem is closely related, but that (intermediate)
>       kludge can help in the mean time.

  Hmm, thanks for that. Just one thing we have another problem on a
machine I help to run. Telnet sessions from PC's don't freeze as far
as I know, but they do cause telnet OUT of the Linux box and things
like TUsh and TinyFugue to act weirdly, as in telnets out display 8
bit chars and beep all over the place, and TUsh/TinyFugue SEGV on
startup, this doesn't happen when telnetting in from a unix box...
  Anyone got any ideas? I've tried all combinations of PC/TCP
compatibility, IPX and dummy net driver in the kernel and it doesnn't
make a difference...

-Neil
********************************************************************
* Neil Peter Charley         * Athanasius                          *
* [email-masked]          * Surfers - muscle.rai.kcl.ac.uk 3232 *
* [email-masked]   * Foothills - marble.bu.edu 2010      *
* [email-masked] * Uglymug - wyrm.cs.man.ac.uk 6239    *
********************************************************************

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc
From: rg1734@edfd (Markus Gruenkorn (MAGIC))
Subject: Linux as print-box very good, but ... 
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 13:12:09 GMT

Hi guys !
We have a very heterogeneous network with the Operating Systems :
Solaris, Sun-Os, Os2, DOS/WINDOWS, MAC-OS, CLIX,OS 400, IRIX, AIX, HP-UX,
sco-xenix, linux, ... 
Linux can easy be used as a print server for most of the OS's .
Most of the unix/os2 systems print to the linux-box using lpr (berkley printing
 system), and the dos/windows systems print files whith pcnfs own printing mechanism .
It would be very nice if I can find an implementation of the system-V print spooling
for linux, because there are some unix systems which only have a system-V style print spooling implemented!
Any information is appreciated !
Thanks in advance !

-- 
====== < MAGIC > ======

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

Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 09:20:58 +0100
From: [email-masked] (Karl Keyte)
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: SLIP idle statistics?

In article [email-masked], [email-masked] (Brian M Berry) writes:
>I'm looking for a way to detect SLIP connection idle times.  I'm
>connecting my machine to an on-campus SLIP server, for access in
>both directions.  Since others will be using the connection from
>the outside, I won't necessarily be sitting in front of the machine
>to terminate the connection when not needed.

Grab 'sliphangup1.0.tar.gz' from sunsite.unc.edu in directory
./system/Network/serial

Karl

=========================================================================
Vitrociset S.p.A.                               Tel   : +(49) 6151 902041
European Space Agency                           Fax   : +(49) 6151 904041
64293 Darmstadt, Germany                        e-Mail: [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Bart Kindt)
Subject: Re: Anyone want dynamic SLIP server?
Date: Wed, 5 Oct 1994 07:26:16 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Eric Stern) writes:
>Path: otago.ac.nz!canterbury.ac.nz!comp.vuw.ac.nz!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!hookup!nic.ott.hookup.net!news.worldlinx.com!news.mgl.worldlinx.com!server.mgl.worldlinx.com!estern
>From: [email-masked] (Eric Stern)
>Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.admin
>Subject: Anyone want dynamic SLIP server?
>Date: 30 Sep 1994 14:48:43 GMT
>Organization: MGL Systems Internet
>Lines: 12
>Message-ID: <[email-masked]>
>NNTP-Posting-Host: server.mgl.worldlinx.com
>X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2]

>I needed a dynamic slip server for my system, so I cooked one up 
>yesterday using sliplogin and some clever ideas. :) Whats everyone else 
>been using? BTW, if anyone wants a copy of this, I'll be happy to pass it 
>along.

Yes, I would like a copy!  I tried to E-Mail you, but got a: Network not 
available.  I got the same error with another site in the U.S. Is part of the 
network down?

Anyway, If you could tell me where to download the above source, I would be 
very gratefull!

Thanks,

Bart.

====================================================================================
Bart Kindt (ZL4FOX) System Operator, Efficient Software NZ LTD, Dunedin, New Zealand
====================================================================================

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

From: [email-masked]
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Yggdrasil & large SCSI disk???
Date: Tue, 04 Oct 94 08:28:07 PDT

By now I have read everything I could find about running Linux on large disks, but 
none of the many files/messages really seems to help in my case. They all seem to
assume that the real disk configuration is known beforehand or can be easily inferred
from the 'fake' disk configuration. 

My 1 GB SCSI disk (FUJITSU) pretends to have 1020 cylinders, 34 heads and 61 sectors
per head. I don't believe that this is the real configuration, but I cannot find
any hints anywhere of what the disk really might look like. And 34 (heads does not
seem to be an easy multiple of any number below the standard 16 (heads).

The Summer 94 Yggdrasil CD-ROM (with the Rev. B boot diskette to get NCR 83C810
support) starts the install. I can do the fdisk to establish the Linux partitions,
do the 'mkfs' routine for all partions, etc., but then it can suddenly not find 
'/dev/sda3' anymore.  Apparently, that's the point in time where it switches to
the 'real' disk geometry and gets lost. The result is "Could not mount the root
file system /dev/sda3. Giving up."

Any help?

Karl Finkemeyer, [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: BUG: Linux <--> Cisco
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 13:03:07 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Alexander Terczka) writes:
>A telnet session, or any tcp session like uucico or rlogin, from a 
>cisco 2500 router (it happens with other cisco devices too) is 
>hanging when sending large packets to linux pcs. I have thrown 
>out the 3com etherlink iii cards and replaced them with ne2000, 
>replaced the pcs, replaced the cabling, tried all sorts of kernels 
>from 1.0.9 to 1.1.50.

It's an incompatibility between the current Cisco stuff and Linux. The Cisco
stuff doesn't do its windowing right in some cases (legally but not 'right')
as it were. This causes Linux to wait for a larger window which doesn't
occur. Linux then doesnt send as much as it can fit anyway which causes it
all to hang (so its a cisco oddity but a Linux BUG). I've started trying to
sort it out now - I suspect its going to add a good six weeks of shaking
down TCP changes before 1.2.0 will be ready if it goes in for 1.2.0 though.

Workaround:

Use a current kernel & net tools

        route add ip.of.cisco.router mss 576

Alan
-- 
  ..-----------,,----------------------------,,----------------------------,,
 // Alan Cox  //  [email-masked]   //  GW4PTS@GB7SWN.#45.GBR.EU  //
 ``----------'`----------------------------'`----------------------------''

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

Crossposted-To: utah.linux
From: [email-masked] (Dennis Flaherty)
Subject: Re: Has anyone gotten ftape to work?
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 11:40:47 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Timothy Murphy <[email-masked]> wrote:
> [email-masked] (Dennis Flaherty) writes:
> 
> >> >To get ftape to work, you must upgrade to Linux 1.1.50.
> >> >You must then get the latest version of ftape, ftape-1.13b,
> >> 
> >> Hmm.  I'm about to purchase a tape drive for use w/ Linux.  But I'm
> >> running version 1.0.9 (and I'm very happy with it).  Can someone
> >> confirm that ftape works with 1.0.9 or thereabouts?
> >> 
> >It worked for me back then; just *don't* apply the ftape-irq-dma.patch.
> >It's for the new kernels.  If you buy a Conner C250MQ, apply the
> >ftape-conner.patch if you use Conner's DOS/Windows software to format
> >your tapes.
> 
> OK, let's leave it like this.
> Try the ftape that comes with slackware 2.0.0.
> If it works, great. You're one of the lucky few.
> You ought to play the stock exchange.
> Why not ask Sharron Stone to marry you?

Oh, please.

> But if that ftape doesn't work,
> upgrade to Linux 1.1.50 --
> it may not be necessary to go all the way, but why not? --
> and use ftape-1.13b with the ftape-irq-dma.patch.

I've had ftape working with every kernel since 0.98 or so.  At about
1.1.20, I had to upgrade modutils.  At about 1.1.45, I had to apply
ftape-irq-dma.patch, except for its change in the request_dma() line,
which isn't needed until 1.1.50.  When I bought Conner's new (broken)
DOS tape formatting software, I had to create ftape-conner.patch so it
would work, but only for that reason.

I posted ftape-irq-dma.patch to work with the latest kernel because
I thought it would *reduce* the number of complaints.  It has-- I 
see lots of people who say they've applied it to get ftape working.

-- 
Dennis Flaherty           [email-masked]
    Oatmeal Stout: It's the Right Thing to Drink!

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

Subject: Parrallel port CDROMS
From: [email-masked] (Al Sutton)
Date: 4 Oct 94 12:01:03 GMT

Hi all,

I've got a DX2-66, 16MB notebook that has 150MB set aside for Linux, which I
have not yet installed. I have the Slackware distribution and I want to 
install it from a parrallel port CDROM, but, I am not sure which PP CDROMS are
supported by Linux.

Ideally it should work under MS-DOS and Linux (as well as OS/2, etc.), so if
any of you have nay suggestions then I'd love to hear them.

Cheers,

Al

[email-masked]

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

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End of Linux-Admin Digest
******************************