Subject: Linux-Development Digest #113
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 3 Sep 94 15:13:07 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #113, Volume #2          Sat, 3 Sep 94 15:13:07 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Linux - my first impressions (Jon Peatfield)
  Re: 'keyboard error' - anyone else still get this? (Andries Brouwer)
  Re: Switching text modes from within linux (Andries Brouwer)
  XFconfig86 problems - HEL (Riku Saikkonen)
  Re: DOS BC++/Linux floats (Viktor T. Toth)
  Re: DOS BC++/Linux floats (Viktor T. Toth)
  Re: Netware Client (William B. Cattell)
  Re: Future of linux -- the sequel (Paul Makeev)
  Re: Got the bastard! (Roger Scott)
  Re: Write-protect floppy hassles (Larry Butler)
  Re: sb_dsp_operations undeclared 1.1.46 (Anthony W. Kay)
  Re: Linux - my first impressions (Albert D. Cahalan)
  Re: IDE Performance enhancement
  Re: Status: PAS16 SCSI driver (Drew Eckhardt)
  tcp bug trace (For Alan Cox) (BARRY TITMARSH)
  PowerPC port update? (David M. Gabrius)
  Re: Linux - my first impressions (Ove Ewerlid)
  Re: DOS BC++/Linux floats (Kevin Lentin)

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

From: [email-masked] (Jon Peatfield)
Subject: Re: Linux - my first impressions
Date: 02 Sep 1994 22:25:16 GMT

> 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.
> 

This is not necessary.  The only time you need to run
/usr/mdec/installboot is when you change the root partition you are
booting from, or move /boot.  The reason SunOS doesn't need this when
/vmunix is moved but Linux does is that the /boot (the 2ndary loader)
knows about the file systems.  There is also a limit to the size of
the bootstrap loader on PC style machines which makes the lilo system
much easier.

This has been true of SunOS since at least sos3.5 (though I've never
installed anything older than 4.1 myself.)

-- Jon
--
Jon Peatfield, Computer Officer, the DAMTP, University of Cambridge
Telephone: (+44 223) 3-37852     Mail: [email-masked]

"IBM's OS/2 sets a memory challenge to Microsoft" - Computer Weekly

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

From: [email-masked] (Andries Brouwer)
Subject: Re: 'keyboard error' - anyone else still get this?
Date: Sat, 3 Sep 1994 15:53:58 GMT

[email-masked] (Jon Thackray) writes:

>I'm not sure why, but I keep getting 'keyboard errors' reported
>by the kernel, (even with 1.1.49), and have done since about 1.0.
>Are other people getting these, or is it just my keyboard? 

If it annoys you, remove the
        #define KBD_REPORT_ERR
in drivers/char/keyboard.c.
It is your keyboard sending a 0xff scancode, traditionally used
for keyboard errors. (Some keyboards generate them when you press
several keys simultaneously. The FK9000 sends it when you press
a calculator key.)

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

From: [email-masked] (Andries Brouwer)
Subject: Re: Switching text modes from within linux
Date: Sat, 3 Sep 1994 16:04:49 GMT

[email-masked] writes:

>The kernel allocates memory for the video text buffers at startup
>in con_init(). That means that for a 80x30 mode it allocates less
>memory per VT, than it does, for example, for a 142x48 mode VT.

>Until the kernel can dynamically alloc and dealloc memory, the VT mode
>changing won't work.

The patch I distributed this Spring (and will put in the next kbd-0.*
this month) does dynamic allocation of consoles.
This means that you can create a virtual console of a given size,
switch to it, and use a svgalib or dosemu utility to inform the videocard
of the change. No doubt someone will produce a "change text mode"
utility that combines these two steps.

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

Subject: XFconfig86 problems - HEL
From: [email-masked] (Riku Saikkonen)
Date: Sat,  3 Sep 94 19:08:00 +0200

>I still am getting errors like "cannot cat /tmp/??????"
>whenever I try to run Xfconfig86 included in my slackware 2.0 cdrom
>distribution.

Hmm... Try looking at the permissions for /tmp (use 'ls -ld /tmp'). They
should be something like:
drwxrwxrwt    3 root        root           1024 Sep  2 20:42 /tmp/
(i.e. the first, third, and fourth columns should be the same).

-=- Rjs -=- [email-masked] - IRC: Rjs
"For still there are so many things / that I have never seen: /
in every wood in every spring / there is a different green." - Tolkien

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

From: [email-masked] (Viktor T. Toth)
Subject: Re: DOS BC++/Linux floats
Date: Sat, 3 Sep 1994 01:13:07

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Riku Saikkonen) writes:

>So, is there a way to read the Borland C++ floating point numbers in
>Linux? Now I have a converter to convert the data file to ASCII and
>back, but that's not an optimal soluion...

The Linux float and double formats are the same IEEE formats used by Microsoft 
C/C++. If you can get BC++ (which I am not very familiar with) to emit floats 
in a Microsoft compatible format, you are winning.

Viktor

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

From: [email-masked] (Viktor T. Toth)
Subject: Re: DOS BC++/Linux floats
Date: Sat, 3 Sep 1994 01:17:37

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Kevin Lentin) writes:

>Riku Saikkonen ([email-masked]) wrote:
>
>Have you tried using double in DOS? You could be having the same int/long
>problem you were having with integers. Linux is 32bit and I suspect (!)
>that it's floats are too. DOS floats are 16bit

Just where exactly do people get ideas like that? If you would think about it 
a bit, you would realize that a 16-bit float, even WITHOUT an exponent, 
wouldn't represent a full 5 decimal digits of precision; in other words, 
roughly half (or less) than your el cheapo scientific calculator! Surely, $200 
math coprocessors can do better than that!

Linux floats as well as Microsoft floats under DOS are 32-bit (23 bit 
mantissa, 8 bit exponent, 1 sign bit); doubles are 64-bit (52 bit mantissa, 11 
bit exponent, 1 sign bit).

Viktor

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

From: [email-masked] (William B. Cattell)
Subject: Re: Netware Client
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 1994 01:34:45 GMT

I have been successfully accessing multiple NetWare servers by running 
DOSEMU un Linux.  Since NetWare is a DOS based OS inorder to function as 
a true NetWare client you need to run DOS (or OS/2 or a MAC).  NetWare's 
support of non-DOS clients is ok but not great.

You can mount NetWare volumes via NFS and access the server console via 
XConsole -- as you've already seen -- but to access the server as a true 
client you would need some kind of DOS.  This also depends on what you 
want to do.  If you just need file access NFS should suit your needs.  If 
you need to do NetWare admin (users, maint., etc.) then you would need a 
DOS client.

Bill Cattell

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

From: Paul Makeev <[email-masked]>
Date: 01 Sep 94 23:10 GMT+0400
Subject: Re: Future of linux -- the sequel

I think you are not right saying Linux is technically obsolete before
Solaris or another commercial U*IXes. My personal experience says that
Linux is both technically superior now (compare it with SunSoft ISC,
Coherent, SCO) and *much quicker* in development. Linux has a tremendous
developers base, and i think, is one of the most popular U*ices.
When you speak about microkernals, you make a popular bug - microkernal
doesn't mean it is easier to port. As a devloper of several microkernel
embedded systems, i should say it is not so easy to port the kernel, which
is tightly tied with processor, MMU, bus logic and so on to another platform.

I don't want to start the flame war, but i'm sure Linux is *the best* U*IX
now for PCs, and, i trust, for another platforms in near future.

SY, Paul.

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

From: [email-masked] (Roger Scott)
Subject: Re: Got the bastard!
Date: Fri, 2 Sep 1994 23:51:41 GMT

: Christopher Cason writes:
: | The culprit ? A WD8013-based ethernet card. Why ? I have no idea. When the
: | card is in the machine, the corruption happens clearly every time. (My test
: | is to mkfs a clean FS, mount it, and copy a 30mB file then do a cmp). When
: | it's out, it doesn't. And the FS gets clobbered every time it happens.

I was bitten by this problem also.  It's a very easy way to clean off a 1Gb disk.
I'm still not certain what the problem was, however I have a hunch that
the problem was in the shared memory address of the card.  My card is a clone
and although I can set the IRQ and Base I/O address with jumpers, I couldn't
set the shared memory address.  The cards I work with at work are genuine
SMC cards and I simply hard jumpered their settings.  Most WD8013 cards
are software configurable.  Try using wdsetup and see how you go.  Personally
I've switched my card over to NE2000 mode just to be sure.

Cheers,
Roger.
([email-masked])

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

From: [email-masked] (Larry Butler)
Subject: Re: Write-protect floppy hassles
Date: 2 Sep 1994 04:30:50 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, Andrew Daviel <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
>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.
> 

There has been much discussion about this and the exact same conclusion has
been reached by many other people. I don't understand why this problem 
hasn't been addressed.

Larry

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

From: [email-masked] (Anthony W. Kay)
Subject: Re: sb_dsp_operations undeclared 1.1.46
Date: 3 Sep 1994 09:02:22 -0700

Sam Gentile ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I am trying to build 1.1.46 and got the following problem:
: sb_dsp.c: In function 'sb_dsp_init':
: sb_dsp.c:815: 'sb_dsp_operations'undeclared

: followed by a series of warnings. I also had this problem trying to build
: 1.1.36. I have not been able to build any kernel after 1.0. I have entered
: notes here that have gone un-answered. Please help me. I have a 
: non-functional system and I can't resolve this myself.

Well, I'll give it a try. 

The C error that you are getting claiming that an identifier 
(sb_dsp_operations) is being used without a definition (C doesn't
care for that kinda thing), which makes me thing that perhaps you
are missing an include file somewhere, or that some patch failed
miserably.

First, where did you get the kernel source tree? Did you download a complete
source tree, or a set of patches? If you downloaded a set of patches,
did you apply them all in order, and were there any errors?

My recommendation would be to ftp to sunsite.unc.edu, get 1.1.45, and patch 
46-whatever, backup and remove your old one, then install and try the new one.

                 -Tony

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

From: [email-masked] (Albert D. Cahalan)
Subject: Re: Linux - my first impressions
Date: 03 Sep 1994 16:44:48 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Rob Janssen) writes:
   In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Kees J. Bot) writes:

   >The LILO method is rather crude.

   I don't think so...

   - LILO does not require the boot image to be on contiguous sectors

   - LILO can boot many different kernels and also other operating systems

   I think it is a good program, and running its installer after building
   the kernel is not a problem at all.  It is even done in the same
   "make zlilo" command.

Would LILO prevent a self-defragmenting filesystem?
--

Albert Cahalan
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] ()
Subject: Re: IDE Performance enhancement
Date: 3 Sep 1994 17:29:39 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Similar: Conner 240M -- is deperformance of -5% 
disk speed when multiple mode (16) enabled. Lower
values (2) slow it down less, cca -1%.

Davor.
--
<[email-masked]>, <[email-masked]>
================ Davor Jadrijevic ====================

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

From: [email-masked] (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: Status: PAS16 SCSI driver
Date: 2 Sep 1994 22:26:41 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Lenny Turetsky <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Can anyone tell me the status on the PAS16 SCSI driver? 
>
>I currently use the kernel supplied by Summer '94 Yggdrasil (1.1.0 ?) to 
>access my single-speed CD-ROM, and the driver seems to be really CPU 
>intensive.
>
>What version (with what kernel) works well?

Try 1.1.48 - 'pseudo dma' transfers (see the NCR5380 data book / 
Linux driver sources for details) were being done for neither tapes
nor CD ROM drives, resulting in increased CPU usage with these 
devices and most NCR5380 boards.

-- 
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the
subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have
allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own
downfall by doing so." -- Adolf Hitler

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

Date: Fri, 2 Sep 1994 08:32:18 EST
From: BARRY TITMARSH <[email-masked]>
Subject: tcp bug trace (For Alan Cox)

This is really for Alan Cox, I forget your email address
I have seen many times in netstat on a closeing session
status = ?? () after the fin-wait etc..
below is the trace of 3 different times this happend.
Idears. any one or Alan ??
Thanks..All Barry

section 1 of uuencode 5.15 of file tcpbug.zip    by R.E.M.

sum -r/size 38606/3451 section (from "begin" to "end")
sum -r/size 65420/2483 entire input file

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

From: [email-masked] (David M. Gabrius)
Subject: PowerPC port update?
Date: 2 Sep 1994 14:08:39 GMT

Can I get an update on the PowerPC version of Linux?  I'm looking at
maybe getting a PM6100 and I don't want to have to run just MacOS on
it ;-)  

-- 
 David Gabrius -- Motorola Cellular \\ [email-masked] \\ 708-632-5944
 Software Engineer \\ "You miss too much these days if you stop to think" -U2 
 "And you can find/Your own way out/You can build/And I can will..." -U2 
 "Some days take less but most days take more" \\ #include<stddisclaimer.h>

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

From: [email-masked] (Ove Ewerlid)
Subject: Re: Linux - my first impressions
Date: 03 Sep 1994 18:32:52 GMT

<A discussion about LILO>

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Kees J. Bot) writes:
   Inflexible.
   I like to hack code on one system, copy the resulting kernel image to
   another system with a simple 'rcp' command, and test the new kernel on
   this other system.  Both systems are running Minix-386vm, with a
   bootstrap system written by myself that understands Minix filesystems.

Are YOU not FLEXIBLE enough to add a 'rsh' to run LILO when installing
a new kernel on a remote machine (or is 'rsh' not supported ...) ?

Just nyfiken!

Ove

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

From: [email-masked] (Kevin Lentin)
Subject: Re: DOS BC++/Linux floats
Date: 2 Sep 1994 02:36:47 GMT

Riku Saikkonen ([email-masked]) wrote:

> So, is there a way to read the Borland C++ floating point numbers in
> Linux? Now I have a converter to convert the data file to ASCII and
> back, but that's not an optimal soluion...

Have you tried using double in DOS? You could be having the same int/long
problem you were having with integers. Linux is 32bit and I suspect (!)
that it's floats are too. DOS floats are 16bit

-- 
[==================================================================]
[ Kevin Lentin                   |___/~\__/~\___/~~~~\__/~\__/~\_| ]
[ [email-masked]  |___/~\/~\_____/~\______/~\/~\__| ]
[ Macintrash: 'Just say NO!'     |___/~\__/~\___/~~~~\____/~~\___| ]
[==================================================================]

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

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End of Linux-Development Digest
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