Subject: Linux-Development Digest #106
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 94 14:13:07 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #106, Volume #2          Fri, 2 Sep 94 14:13:07 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Linux - my first impressions (Kees J. Bot)
  Re: is diamond now official xf86 equipment? (Just a fellow traveller...)
  DLL Tools for Linux (Marc L. Allen)
  Re: Future of linux -- the sequel (Nikolaus R. Haus)
  Re: DOSEMU 0.53: Developers and testers ne (rxr401)
  REQ: Xfree86 progress report(recent) (Just a fellow traveller...)
  1.1.4x kernel errors (Bill Heiser)
  Re: Any interest for DCF77 clock code? (Harald Koenig)
  Re: Which kernel should I get for PPP (Rene COUGNENC)
  Re: Which kernel should I get for PPP (rxr401)
  Re: Linux and Novel Print server? (James MacLean)
  Re: DOSEMU: Is anything being done about sound ? (James MacLean)
  Re: BOOTPD / newer kernels, BUG? (James MacLean)
  Write-protect floppy hassles (Andrew Daviel)
  Re: Which kernel should I get for PPP (David Barth)
  Re: What on earth is happening to the stab (Marc Fraioli)
  Re: Anyone working on DHCP server? (Alan Cox)
  Re: Linux - my first impressions (Owen Lynn)
  Re: Any interest for DCF77 clock code? (Harald Milz)
  Re: Any interest for DCF77 clock code? (Tomiak_Andreas)
  Re: What on earth is happening to the stabilit (Andreas Helke)

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

From: [email-masked] (Kees J. Bot)
Subject: Re: Linux - my first impressions
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 1994 12:36:15 GMT

[email-masked] (Hamish Macdonald) writes:

>>>>>> On 01 Sep 1994 14:00:58 EST,
>>>>>> In message <[email-masked]>,
>>>>>> [email-masked] (Owen Lynn) wrote:

>Owen> The oldest machine I've worked with is a sparc 330, so I guess
>Owen> that makes me a young whippersnapper :). And on all the sparcs
>Owen> I've worked with, the boot EEPROM takes care of most of that
>Owen> stuff. Before we went Death Star, all I ever did was copy the
>Owen> customized /vmunix to the root partition, and reboot.

>I suspect that the boot EEPROM on the sparcs can read BSD partition
>tables and BSD hard disk partitions, and thus can find /vmunix.

The ROM boot monitor loads and starts the boot block.
The boot block loads and starts /boot using patched in disk addresses.
/boot finds and loads /vmunix using knowledge about the BSD FS.

So one can toy around with vmunix files like any other file, all you
have to watch out for is that vmunix may not contain holes.

>Rather than containing code to read partition tables and Linux
>partitions, lilo figures out which disk blocks the kernel file is on,
>and puts the block number data in a place it can find on bootup.

Under SunOS the installboot(8) program installs the bootstrap and the
addresses to /boot into the boot block.  This only needs to be done
once, because /boot never changes.

The LILO method is rather crude.
--
                                Kees J. Bot  ([email-masked])
                      Systems Programmer, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

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

From: [email-masked] (Just a fellow traveller...)
Subject: Re: is diamond now official xf86 equipment?
Date: 31 Aug 1994 14:56:28 -0400

Kai Petzke ([email-masked]) wrote:
: XFree86 is not GPL code.  If I remember things correctly, XFree86
: follows the MIT, which releases X with very few restrictions.

I was mistaken.  I stand corrected.  But once Xfree86 supports loadable 
drivers for different graphics hardware it will certainly open up the market
for people, companies, and organizations that would like to offer drivers
but for some reason or another don't wish to release the source code
modifications to the original release.  Although modified forms of
Xfree86 may be distributed without fear of license infringement, a loadable
module would surely be considerably smaller and for that reason probably
more palatable to offer and be received by a general distribution.  So
there are certainly reasons independent from fear of the GPL which make
the addition of loadable drivers for Xfree86 worthwhile.

                                        Jim
--
'Magic is perfection.'  Magic isn't perfection.  Magic is illusion.  Magic
is made of odds and ends, inventiveness, and timing.  In the end, even that 
isn't enough.  Magic can't exist without the viewer.

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

From: [email-masked] (Marc L. Allen)
Subject: DLL Tools for Linux
Date: 31 Aug 1994 16:02:26 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

I'm working with the DLL Tools for Linux, but I'd like to find the latest
version.  Could someone please let me know?

Also, is there a way for me to debug into a shared library that these tools
generate?  I tried gdb, but all I get are my non-library source files.

Also, where can I find information on alternative shared library
implementations?  I know that gcc supports a PIC option that supposedly
allows shared libraries to be created.  Where can I get more info on that?

Thanks,

Marc
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Nikolaus R. Haus)
Subject: Re: Future of linux -- the sequel
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 1994 20:28:22 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Larry Pyeatt <[email-masked]> wrote:

This discussion doesn't belong here, but comp.os.linux.advocacy doesn't
exist :)

>In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Lawrence Foard) writes:
>|> 
>|> Why should I pay 5 times more for a non PC system which gives me the same
>|> performance as a 486 100?
>
>What?  I was unaware that any company was still making such slow
>machines.  

There's a smiley on this, I hope.

>You can get a VL bus motherboard with MIPS R4600 processor
>that makes Pentium look like a 4.77 8086.

Can I play DOOM on it? ;)

>  Why waste money on such
>a junky architecture as Intel when there are good processors available.

Everyone talks price/performance and seems to ignore what I think is
relevant, which is price/flexibility. I'm sticking with traditional PC
architecture because, for low cost, I get decent graphics, good sound,
networking, mass storage, modem connection, fair performance, and
access to scads of fuddy apps, all for low cost.

>For myself, I am just trying to decide
>which non-Intel motherboard to get.  They do not cost anywhere near
>$10K.

I suspect that you, like most, decide what platform you want to run on
by what kind of apps you want to run. I'm a hobbyist (as I suspect most
Linuxers are), and I like to futz with lots of things at a low level.
Linux lets me do that in software, and the PC architecture lets me do
that in hardware, both without asking me to throw lots of money at my
hobby.

I hope you find what's right for you. I've certainly found what's right
for me :)

-nik0
-- 
=========================================================================
Nikolaus R. Haus         [email-masked]        [email-masked]
=========================================================================

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

From: rxr401 <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: DOSEMU 0.53: Developers and testers ne
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 1994 11:05:53 +1000 (EST)

On 31 Aug 1994, H.J. Lu wrote:

> I don't if that has been addressed or not. pre53_15 will die silently if I
> put a write-protected floppy disk in my A: drive.
> 

It has nothing to do with Dosemu. Fdd drivers in many of the v1.1.4x 
kernels (including 1.1.49) won't let you mount a write-protected disk. It 
doesn't seem to be a bug, rather a deliberate choice in the fdd driver. 
Perhaps somebody from the kernel-development team would care to explain.

Raj

[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Just a fellow traveller...)
Subject: REQ: Xfree86 progress report(recent)
Date: 31 Aug 1994 15:04:06 -0400

        I thought I had archived a copy of the latest Xfree86 progress 
report, but it seems I didn't.  Could anyone who has a copy email it to me?
Several people at work have been asking for it.  I looked for it via ftp at
xfree86.org but couldn't find it(seems reasonable).

                Thanks,
                        Jim

--
'Magic is perfection.'  Magic isn't perfection.  Magic is illusion.  Magic
is made of odds and ends, inventiveness, and timing.  In the end, even that 
isn't enough.  Magic can't exist without the viewer.

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

From: [email-masked] (Bill Heiser)
Subject: 1.1.4x kernel errors
Date: 1 Sep 1994 01:07:14 GMT

These seem to be relatively common in 1.1.4x kernel ... anyone know what's
going on with them?

Thanks,
Bill

kernel: general protection: 0000
kernel: EIP:    0010:0014c262
kernel: EFLAGS: 00010246
kernel: eax: 72207962   ebx: 00000000   ecx: 00a2f9cc   edx: 00a2f9cc
kernel: esi: 017eb2ac   edi: 00000000   ebp: 00a2f9cc   esp: 00548f18
kernel: ds: 0018   es: 0018   fs: 002b   gs: 002b   ss: 0018
kernel: Process patch (pid: 5853, process nr: 37, stackpage=00548000)
kernel: Stack: 00a2f9fc 00a2f9cc bffff7be bffff9b8 0130c960 
kernel: Code: 00 00 2f 00 00 00 2f 00 00 00 2f 00 00 00 24 18 52 e8 60 6d

kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address c0000000
kernel: current->tss.cr3 = 00b4d000, [r3 = 00b4d000
kernel: *pde = 00102027
kernel: *pte = 00000027
kernel: Oops: 0000
kernel: EIP:    0010:0014c262
kernel: EFLAGS: 00010246
kernel: eax: 00000000   ebx: 00000000   ecx: 00db9720   edx: 00000000
kernel: esi: 00db9390   edi: 00000000   ebp: 00a2f63c   esp: 013b3f18
kernel: ds: 0018   es: 0018   fs: 002b   gs: 002b   ss: 0018
kernel: Process uucico (pid: 5162, process nr: 38, stackpage=013b3000)
kernel: Stack: 00a2f66c 00db9720 0002a415 bffffaa4 01d38418 
kernel: Code: 00 00 2f 00 00 00 2f 00 00 00 2f 00 00 00 24 18 52 e8 60 6d 

-- 
Bill Heiser:    [email-masked],  [email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Harald Koenig)
Subject: Re: Any interest for DCF77 clock code?
Date: 2 Sep 94 12:36:31 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Rob Janssen) writes:
>>Before you write one, look with "archie -s dcf"! There are several!

>I did that a few times before, but I never found what I really needed...
>There is one program that processes raw clock data, but it draws a
>full-screen clock and needs manual interaction to set the system clock
>from that.  It also just warps the time.  Not really what I want.

>Other programs use "processed" data from expensive clocks that send the
>time as some ascii string.  I don't have such clock.

>Then there is XNTP, but it is much too complicated for me (network
>oriented, I just want to sync a single machine).  And the DCF77 module
>in there also doesn't act on raw data, I think.

>Do you know about a program that runs as a daemon, uses adjtime, and
>processes raw data?  (e.g. on a COM port set to 50 bps)

yes! have a look on my small DCF77 program. since there are not much docs,
archie won't find it ;-)  but it's available on

        ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de:/tmp/dcf77-koenig.tar.gz

(thanks to Gert Doering for this place).

it uses RX at 50 baud and, if available, DCD with a special kernel patch
for getting the times stamp in kernel and not in user mode (~12 usec 
interrupt latency instead of ~10 ms before the user process gets scheuled)
and of course uses adjtime to correct the clock.

I'm getting about +/- 100 usec errror per minute with a very cheep receiver
(UA 2775 based).

feel free ask, make comments, add documentation, ...

Harald

PS: why do you want to use DCD for the DCF77 pulses? 
the UART (16450/16550) samples the RX input with 16 times baudrate 
(16*50baud == 800 Hz == 1.25 ms). so you get a jitter of 1.25ms with 
every second pulse (plus 190ms delay after the leading edge for 1/2 start bit
plus 8+1 data/stop bits). on DCD you the an exacty interrupt for the 
signal edges (~12 usec interrupt latency for a 486/DX2-66)
-- 
All SCSI disks will from now on                     ___       _____
be required to send an email notice                0--,|    /OOOOOOO\
24 hours prior to complete hardware failure!      <_/  /  /OOOOOOOOOOO\
                                                    \  \/OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO\
                                                      \ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO|//
Harald Koenig,                                         \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Inst.f.Theoret.Astrophysik                              //  /     \\  \
[email-masked]                     ^^^^^       ^^^^^

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

From: [email-masked] (Rene COUGNENC)
Subject: Re: Which kernel should I get for PPP
Date: 2 Sep 1994 01:48:13 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked] (Rene COUGNENC)

Ce brave rxr401 ecrit:

> The FTP throughput depends on many things, e.g. distance from the server, 
> modems, etc. With 1.1.45 kernel (with its own ppp.c driver), I was 
> getting 1.4k to 1.6k per second. I tried the beta PPP drivers (available 
> from ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/longyear/prerelease/) but found them to 
> be slower. Perhaps Longyear would like to shed some light on this issue.

I am using the beta PPP driver, and I don't notice any speed difference
compared to the standard one: I get 1.4k to 1.6k per second whatever
version I use; and this is on a 386/25... go figure :-)

--
 linux linux linux linux -[ [email-masked] ]- linux linux linux 

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

From: rxr401 <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Which kernel should I get for PPP
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 1994 11:15:57 +1000 (EST)

On Wed, 31 Aug 1994, David Edwards wrote:

> I've been having OK luck overall with Linux 1.1.45 and PPP 2.1.2a...
> OTOH, I've also had 1 or two kernel panics in the time (about 3 weeks...)
> I've been using it (I seem to have solved them by... and I really did this
> and it really seems to have solved the problem... using masking tape to
> make a pentigram around the CPU box...). Telnet and the like seems to
> run OK, but I haven't been able to get FTP running right yet (probibly a
> configuration problem... FTP works very slowly, about 5K/minu> 
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The FTP throughput depends on many things, e.g. distance from the server, 
modems, etc. With 1.1.45 kernel (with its own ppp.c driver), I was 
getting 1.4k to 1.6k per second. I tried the beta PPP drivers (available 
from ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/longyear/prerelease/) but found them to 
be slower. Perhaps Longyear would like to shed some light on this issue.

Raj

[email-masked]

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

From: jmaclean@localhost (James MacLean)
Subject: Re: Linux and Novel Print server?
Date: 2 Sep 1994 10:21:26 -0300

root ([email-masked]) wrote:
:   I know this is most likly not possible.   What I want to do is find 
: a way I can print to my novel print server?  How would
: I do that?   Any suggestions.  Robert
: [email-masked]

Another option is always to bring up DOSEMU, load up NETX and print via
'capture'.

Just a thought,
JES

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

From: jmaclean@localhost (James MacLean)
Subject: Re: DOSEMU: Is anything being done about sound ?
Date: 2 Sep 1994 10:28:10 -0300

Mihail S. Iotov ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I was very impressed with dosemu 0.52. About the only programs that don't 
: work are the ones that require sound. The howto explains that this is
: because you can't do DMA when memory is remapped (or may be it is just
: too difficult ?) Yet, it looks like some other adapters can do it, namely
: SCSI (they use DMA, don't they ?) So I have the following questions :

: 1. Is that possible or imposible ?

Definitely possible. What isn't under Linux? Methods for supporting vary. One
suggestion was to add some kind of DMA support to DOSEMU, another was just to
write a soundcard emulator that would use the existing, kernel included, sound
support.

: 2. Will the support for soundcard have to involve special kernel support, too ?

I'd suspect that's dependent on the method of choice.

: 3. Is somebody working on it (not in the project list)

I don't believe anyone is ACTIVELY working on it, although it has been getting
some air on the bi-weekly IRC chat sessions.

: 4. What documents can I look at to get a better idea if I can do it ?

Please get :

tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/ALPHA/dosemu/private/devel/pre53_16.tgz

and read the ChangeLog, README.*, and ./examples/config.dist files. Then after
that, bring up your HTML browser and try the ./doc/html/* docs.

: Mihail

Later,
JES

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

From: jmaclean@localhost (James MacLean)
Subject: Re: BOOTPD / newer kernels, BUG?
Date: 2 Sep 1994 10:34:28 -0300

Thomas Ziegler ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I have problems with bootpd and the newer kernels (booting clients throug net). 
: With stock 1.1 everything works like it should, but with 1.1.29 and 1.1.45 (I
: don't compile every patch version) bootpd fails. Here are the errormessages:

: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark in.bootpd[137]: connect from 0.0.0.0
: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark bootpd[137]: bootpd 2.1 #11: Fri May  7 17:55:50  1993 [email-masked]:/project/LINUX/commands/usr.net/bootpd-210 
: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark bootpd[137]: reading "/etc/bootptab" 
: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark bootpd[137]: read 2 entries from "/etc/bootptab" 
: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark bootpd[137]: request from hardware address 0000C062BF69 
: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark bootpd[137]: found 131.188.134.21 mumpitz 
: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark bootpd[137]: vendor magic field is 0.0.0.0 
: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark bootpd[137]: sending CMU-style reply 
: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark bootpd[137]: AF=2 PA=131.188.134.21 
: Aug 26 10:50:31 bark bootpd[137]: ioctl(SIOCSARP): Protocol family not supported 

: Any hints?

:       Thomas

I too am seeing this. With an older bootpd (from Slackware?), I could get 
a client to initialize if, after the bootp request came in, I manually
updated the arp to reflect the clients hardware address. Otherwise
arp continued to show the hardware address of all zeros. After this I can
delete the arp entry and ping the client box O.K., or so it seems :-).

: --
:   Thomas Ziegler, 
:   Lehrstuhl fuer Technische Elektronik (LTE), Uni Erlangen-Nuernberg,
:   Cauerstr. 9, D-91580 Erlangen, Phone: +49 9131 85-7200, FAX +49 9131 302951  

Later,
JES

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

From: [email-masked] (Andrew Daviel)
Subject: Write-protect floppy hassles
Date: 2 Sep 1994 01:02:54 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

I have been having trouble with floppy disks. I haven't used the 3.5"
ones much and can't tell by looking at it whether it's write-protected
(I seem to remember 8" ones had a hole meaning you couldn't write,
and 5.25" ones have a hole meaning you can, and 3.5" ones have this little 
tab...)

Anyhow, I mounted a floppy under Linux, deleted some files,
copied some others on, got a directory listing, unmounted it and went 
home with the disk in my pocket. At home, lo and behold, the
old files were still there and no new one.

With some help from the net, I found my console wasn't working 
and logging wasn't writing to it. That fixed, there is still a problem.
Everything appears to work fine right up until the umount (or sync), when the
console displays error messages.

I would like to see some checking done at mount time, so that mount 
would only mount a write-protected device readonly. Then I'd get a message
on stderr when I tried to write to it.
 
Andrew

--
</pre><p>
<a href="http://sundae.triumf.ca/~andrew">     Andrew Daviel
</a>, <a href="http://www.triumf.ca">          TRIUMF
</a>,                                          Vancouver, Canada
</a></p><img src=
"http://sundae.triumf.ca/~andrew/sig2t.gif">
<br><a href="mailto:[email-masked]">          [email-masked]
</a>

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

From: [email-masked] (David Barth)
Subject: Re: Which kernel should I get for PPP
Date: 1 Sep 1994 15:43:43 +0200

Dorwin Shields ([email-masked]) wrote:
:    I'm all set to start using PPP at school and I was wondering what kernel
: and utilities anyone would recommend--I know the PPP code has changed a lot
: through kernel rev's.  Which is the most stable --I'll mostly be using it to
: run things like ftp,Xcollage, and Mosaic.  Thanks

As you'll have to upgrade to a 1.1.* kernel, try to get the latest patches
in order to avoid bugs. Grab the ppp pack (2.1.1 seems to be the current
release). Versions 1.* are not supported anymore. 

: ps ( our ppp gives out dynamic addresses)
pppd negotiates the IP adresses by default.

--
D.Barth ([email-masked])         "Linux, the choice of a GNU generation"

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

From: [email-masked] (Marc Fraioli)
Subject: Re: What on earth is happening to the stab
Date: 2 Sep 1994 17:23:02 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article [email-masked],  [email-masked] (Andreas Helke) writes:
>Marc Fraioli ([email-masked]) wrote:
>: Well, I've been running 1.1.47 for about a week now without any trouble.
>: I've used SLIP, PPP, iBCS, WINE, X, and a bunch of other stuff fairly
>: heavily, and no problems.  So not everyone is having trouble.  It depends
>: on what hardware you have, no doubt.  Mine is a plain-jane 486/33 w. 8MB,
>: AMI BIOS, and two IDE hard drives.  Solid as a rock.
>
>If you had a Quantum PD210A IDE HD you would probably have a destroyed
>partition table. I distroyed mine with the 1.1.44 kernel while a 1.1.22 did
>work. The 1.1.49 kernel seems to have fixed this particular problem, but I
>did not yet try it.
>
Yikes!  My HDs are a Conner and a WD.  Since writing the above, however, I
have gone up to the 1.1.49 kernel, and now have some minor problems with
filesystems on floppies.  I only discovered this when experimenting with
something posted in another thread here though, as I almost never put 
filesystems on floppies.  It seems to be being worked very actively, too,
so I'm confident it will be straightened out before long.

---
Marc Fraioli          | "They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist- " 
[email-masked]         |    - Last words of Union General John Sedgwick,
                      |    Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, U.S. Civil War

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Anyone working on DHCP server?
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 1994 09:25:55 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Eric V. Smith) writes:
>Does a DHCP server for Linux exist?  If not, is anyone working on one?
No. Not to my knowledge.
>Does a BOOTP server exist (source code, of course!)?  I assume it
>would be a good starting point.

It's on sunacm.swan.ac.uk. Get the one from Updates as that will also work
correctly with later 1.1.x kernels. There is also a bootp client if you
feel the urge to write a DHCP client too. The bootp server code is as far as
I can remember a cleaned up BSD bootpd

Alan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Owen Lynn)
Subject: Re: Linux - my first impressions
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 1994 19:00:58 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
olav woelfelschneider <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Owen Lynn ([email-masked]) wrote:
>: Hi folks!
>
>[..lotsa deleted..]
>If you like to edit a config file, just edit /usr/src/linux/config.in
>It should be clear for you what to edit there.
>Then make config and just press return until you are throug.
>Maybe you could also change the makefile so that you have no need to 
>press return that much. Contribute your changes (: !

Ok. Who do I send the diffs to when I'm done? Is there a way to specify
the name of the kernel, like in 4.1.x? The closest thing I could find
was a file called version.h.

>About re-installing lilo:
>I've an old 3/50, and did some 4.1.1 kernel remakes there. Each time /vmunix
>changed, some program has to be run to inform the bootloader about the
>track/sector/head location of the new kernel. The same is true for linux and
>lilo.
>Maybe that is not the case anymore with 4.1.3 or on sparc machines, shrug.

The oldest machine I've worked with is a sparc 330, so I guess that
makes me a young whippersnapper :). And on all the sparcs I've worked
with, the boot EEPROM takes care of most of that stuff. Before we
went Death Star, all I ever did was copy the customized /vmunix to
the root partition, and reboot.

-- 
Owen fnord Lynn          | Hi Bill, Have you met Linus Torvalds? He's the
[email-masked]  | man who can write a *true* POSIX compliant, secure
[email-masked]   | *multiuser*, multithreaded/multitasking OS that runs
Ask me for my PGP23a Key | in 2Mb. Linux - an open system for free minds. 

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

From: [email-masked] (Harald Milz)
Subject: Re: Any interest for DCF77 clock code?
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 1994 11:21:05 GMT

In comp.os.linux.development, Rob Janssen ([email-masked]) wrote:
> In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (David Kastrup) writes:

> >How many people would be interested in a small program which gets the current
> >time from the radio clock DCF77 (receivable about 900km around Frankfurt,
> >Deutschland, official time base for Germany) and sets the system time?
> >Comes with man page, and has
> >options making it secure to use, say, daily in your crontab, while updating
> >the CMOS clock as well.

> I would prefer it to be a daemon that watches the transmissions all the time,
> and uses adjtime to steer the system clock to track the transmissions.
> Programs that run once a day tend to be "read the data and abrubtly set the
> time" type of thing, which is not optimal under UNIX....

You guys are talking about xntp-3.3 ;^) besides the xntp daemon which
keeps track of the time using a PLL, there's also dcfd which does not
support the NTP protocol but sets the time by adjtime() and ntpdate
which picks the time off a NTP server. xntp-3.3 is on sunsite. More
info about NTP in comp.protocol.ntp. My DCF77 clock radio cost less than
$20 and works perfectly fine with xntp-3.3p. There are newer beta versions,
though (3.4).

Do NOT set the time once a day. You can run into bad problems when your 
clock is fast, setting back the time. You'd violate the time's monotony :(
adjtime() alone isn't a good solution either because if reception fails, 
the clock will run with its own drift. xntpd compensates for the drift by
using a PLL, so if the reception fails, xntpd can adjust your system clock 
for quite a while until reception is back. 

xntp-3.3 also supports a number of GPS receivers. 

> >a) A logic description of the hardware would be ok for you.
> >b) A circuit diagram would be ok for you (circuits about 20DM)
> >c) You would rather buy a finished product for 50DM.

You might as well wait for iX 10/94... ;^) There were several articles 
how to build DCF receivers in the German magazine ELRAD in the past few 
years. The most recent one was in issue 2/93.

> I already have the hardware, which is probably similar to what you will
> propose.  It is currently wired to provide the raw (AM-detected 77.5KHz)
> signal on both "received data" and "DCD" of the serial port, which
> provides for two different techniques of decoding.  Writing a daemon for
> this is still "on the (long) list"... :-(

No, Rob, it's been done. There's also a hint how to build a 5V-RS232
level converter in the xntp-3.3 archive. A better one will be in iX 10/94.

Ciao,
hm

-- 
The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.
-- 
Harald Milz ([email-masked])      WWW: http://www.ix.de/editors/hm.html
iX Multiuser Multitasking Magazine      phone +49 (511) 53 52-377
Helstorfer Str. 7, D-30625 Hannover     fax   +49 (511) 53 52-378
Opinions stated herein are my own, not necessarily my employer's.

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

From: dat@dsol. (Tomiak_Andreas)
Subject: Re: Any interest for DCF77 clock code?
Date: 2 Sep 1994 14:39:02 +0200

[email-masked] (Rob Janssen) writes:

>Then there is XNTP, but it is much too complicated for me (network
>oriented, I just want to sync a single machine).  And the DCF77 module
>in there also doesn't act on raw data, I think.

>Do you know about a program that runs as a daemon, uses adjtime, and
>processes raw data?  (e.g. on a COM port set to 50 bps)

>Rob

Please look at the xntp3.3q package again. I have found in it a nice
program for syncing my Linux-PC without the (I also think it is to complex
for a single Linux-PC) xntpd running. It is quite hidden, so I don't
remember the exact place :-(. 
There is a daemon and a test programm with verbose ASCII-Graphics-Output.
The dcf-clock must be connected to a serial port ( :-( ).

Andreas Tomiak

[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Andreas Helke)
Subject: Re: What on earth is happening to the stabilit
Date: 2 Sep 1994 00:00:08 GMT

Marc Fraioli ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article [email-masked],  [email-masked] (Matthew Grant) writes:
: >I have used Linux for over a year now, an di am am getting concerned about
: >the stability of the new ALPHA realeases.  On question I would like to ask
: >in the light of all the recent problems with 1.1.40 -> is:
: >
: >Are the older problems solved and just new ones appearing, or is the
: >     situation getting worse?
: >
: >
: >I would like to know as Linux's kernel stability has been legendary, with
: >only a few minor hiccups.
: >
: Well, I've been running 1.1.47 for about a week now without any trouble.
: I've used SLIP, PPP, iBCS, WINE, X, and a bunch of other stuff fairly
: heavily, and no problems.  So not everyone is having trouble.  It depends
: on what hardware you have, no doubt.  Mine is a plain-jane 486/33 w. 8MB,
: AMI BIOS, and two IDE hard drives.  Solid as a rock.

If you had a Quantum PD210A IDE HD you would probably have a destroyed
partition table. I distroyed mine with the 1.1.44 kernel while a 1.1.22 did
work. The 1.1.49 kernel seems to have fixed this particular problem, but I
did not yet try it.

Andreas
--

Andreas Helke

Institut fuer molekulare Genetik, Universitaet Heidelberg
Im Neuenheimer Feld 230 
69122 Heidelberg, Germany

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