Subject: Linux-Development Digest #198
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 19:13:16 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #198, Volume #2         Tue, 20 Sep 94 19:13:16 EDT

Contents:
  Re: Linux on CD (Andries Kruithof)
  Re: 1.1.51 seg fault on shutdown in _floppy_release (Andries Brouwer)
  Re: Intel EtherExpress Drivers??? (Bob)
  Re: Bug in MSDOS fs ? (Matthias Urlichs)
  Re: Kernel Goals? (Matthias Urlichs)
  Re: 3c509 Problems (Matthias Urlichs)
  Re: 1.1.51 breaks shutdown's unmount (Andries Brouwer)
  Linux on multiple processors? (michael alan dorman)
  Re: Compiling xfm v1.2 on Linux (Dominik Kubla)
  Audit (Tal Yuval)
  Re: Digi Intelligent Boards? (Steve Davies)
  Re: AX25 & KISS Amateur Radio Protocols in Linux? (Steve Wilson)
  Re: Is there an encrypted filesystem for Linux? ([email-masked])
  Re: Is there an encrypted filesystem for Linux? (Alan Cox)
  Re: Don't use Linux?! Of course we do :) (Alan Cox)
  Re: Netware Client (Alan Cox)
  Re: Shared Libs: working toward a permanent solution? (Alan Cox)
  900 MHz CB band??? (Alexandra Griffin)
  Re: Extending the IP Protocol? (Sam Oscar Lantinga)
  HELP NEEDED : device driver (Kamal T.Mian)

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

From: [email-masked] (Andries Kruithof)
Subject: Re: Linux on CD
Date: 20 Sep 1994 09:07:31 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article [email-masked],  [email-masked] (Rob Janssen) writes:
=>In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
=>
=>>I was having a chat with someone over the net and we came to this..
=>>What if Linux came fully implemented (X & all the disk sets) on a CD and
=>>all you would have to do is boot off the CD rom and have the
=>>settings/option files (ie ~/.seyon inittab & the rc scrips) in your HD.
=>
=>>I mean, this would save a lot of diskspace ;)
=>
=>There are several CD-ROMs available that allow you to do this...
=>

I can confirm this. I tried it with the TransAmeritech CD, release April 1994.
The main problem is that it becomes real slow, compared to running it from HD.
This was on a NEC 3xi with an Adaptec 1542 SCSI adapter.
I think the big problem is when 2 processes try to access two different files
(=> physical locations) simultaneously on the CD-ROM. The head has to move a 
lot, so the seek-time slows down the data-xfer. (Am I right here?)
I think it's more reasonable to have the often used stuff on your HD, and the
less used stuff you can run from CD-ROM.

How do other people feel about running from CD-ROM? I do like the idea of 
saving HD-space, but it becomes too slow for me to be usable.

regards,

AKr

---
====================================
| Message is author's opinion only |
|                                  |
| Andries Kruithof                 |
| Schlumberger Geco-Prakla         |
| [email-masked]    |
====================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Andries Brouwer)
Subject: Re: 1.1.51 seg fault on shutdown in _floppy_release
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 12:43:53 GMT

[email-masked] (Rob Janssen) writes:

: [email-masked] (Steve Kneizys) writes:

::Vincent Fatica ([email-masked]) wrote:
::: According to zSystem, the error occurs in _floppy_release.

::: It also occurs on dismounting /b (an ext2 floppy). Thereafter, mount says
::: it's still mounted (which it's not).

::Got a similar error with a 'umount -t msdos /dev/fd0 ', but I could not
::reproduce it.  All I did was try and use pico on files from my 3C579
::driver disk from 3Com...nothing fancy :)

:True, it happens here as well (1.1.51), but only one time after a reboot...
:(I did only a mount, ls, umount and it faulted in _floppy_release)

I got the same error yesterday evening. The routine floppy_release
is called by the umount code with NULL as second argument (filp)
and dereferences that. I posted a fix yesterday evening on the Kernel
channel (something like: if(!filp || (filp->f_mode & 2)) ...).

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: [email-masked] (Bob)
Subject: Re: Intel EtherExpress Drivers???
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 15:40:26 GMT

John Luce (jluce@server0) wrote:

:  : >Is there a device driver available for this NIC (this is the one sold in 
:  : >the  Windows for Workgroups Starter kits) ???
:  : >
: I guess I did not make myself clear. I am looking for the *LINUX* drivers 
: for the Intel EE16 which *co-incidentally* is the NIC included in the WFW 
: starter kits.

When you recompile your kernel, answer "yes" to the "Do you want to be
offered Alpha Drivers?" question. Then "yes" again to something about
other ISA cards. My Intel EtherExpress is working pretty well. It seems
to shut down when the traffic gets heavy. Such is life with ALPHA drivers..

-Bob

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

From: [email-masked] (Matthias Urlichs)
Subject: Re: Bug in MSDOS fs ?
Date: 20 Sep 1994 09:23:27 +0200

In comp.os.linux.development, article <[email-masked]>,
  [email-masked] (Per Holm) writes:
> 
> I have a 250 MB dos partition (formattet with MSDOS 5), and when mounting 
> this partition under linux, I'm not able to read a file using the last 
> cluster on the disk...   It causes an I/O error...
> 
Possibly, the last 512-byte block is the last of the partition and the next
is unavailable. To bad... it's rumored that somebody is working on a
512-byte block MSDOS file system; it'll fix that bug automagically, as well
as doing away with sillyness like the "smap" stuff in the kernel.

-- 
A fool and his money are soon popular.
-- 
Matthias Urlichs        \ XLink-POP Nürnberg  | EMail: [email-masked]
Schleiermacherstraße 12  \  Unix+Linux+Mac    | Phone: ...please use email.
90491 Nürnberg (Germany)  \   Consulting+Networking+Programming+etc'ing     42
          PGP: 1B 89 E2 1C 43 EA 80 44  15 D2 29 CF C6 C7 E0 DE 
      Click <A HREF="http://smurf.noris.de/~urlichs/finger">here</A>.

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

From: [email-masked] (Matthias Urlichs)
Subject: Re: Kernel Goals?
Date: 20 Sep 1994 12:28:51 +0200

In comp.os.linux.development, article <[email-masked]>,
  [email-masked] (David Jeske) writes:
> 
> Why am I interested in this? Because I envision a day where Linux would 
> consist of a driver set which are stable, with occasional changes,
> and a small "kernel" which loads things, not necessarily in a microkernel
> fashion, but at least enough to allow there to be a "Linux driver" and
> not a "Linux 1.1.47 driver". 
> 
Maybe the best way to do this is to just ignore the patchlevel if the minor
version number is even. There'd be still a 1.1.47 driver, but the 1.2
driver would work regardless of whether you have 1.2.0 or 1.2.34.

The reason for this is that it's not very easy to make sure that no
kernel data structure which the driver may need will change size.
In fact, it's a nightmare. The alternative, which is to provide access
functions, is stupid in the extreme should you want decent performance,
or simply no kernel bloat.

On the other hand, people with development kernels can be expected to
recompile their modules. But this isn't necessary for "stable" kernels,
as persumably their patches fix bugs instead of fiddling with data
structures.

Opinions?

-- 
No man can escape his wyrd.
-- 
Matthias Urlichs        \ XLink-POP Nürnberg  | EMail: [email-masked]
Schleiermacherstraße 12  \  Unix+Linux+Mac    | Phone: ...please use email.
90491 Nürnberg (Germany)  \   Consulting+Networking+Programming+etc'ing     42
          PGP: 1B 89 E2 1C 43 EA 80 44  15 D2 29 CF C6 C7 E0 DE 
      Click <A HREF="http://smurf.noris.de/~urlichs/finger">here</A>.

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

From: [email-masked] (Matthias Urlichs)
Subject: Re: 3c509 Problems
Date: 20 Sep 1994 12:54:43 +0200

In comp.os.linux.development, article <[email-masked]>,
  [email-masked] (Lenny Turetsky) writes:
> 
> If I may make a suggestion:
Mee too:
> 
> until (/usr/bin/ypcat passwd > /dev/null) || [ ${ATTEMPTS} -eq ${MAX} ]
You don't need a subshell here:
        until /usr/bin/ypcat passwd > /dev/null || [ ${ATTEMPTS} -eq ${MAX} ]
works as well.

-- 
I'm sure we can talk things out like civilized people.
                                       -- J. Wayne
-- 
Matthias Urlichs        \ XLink-POP Nürnberg  | EMail: [email-masked]
Schleiermacherstraße 12  \  Unix+Linux+Mac    | Phone: ...please use email.
90491 Nürnberg (Germany)  \   Consulting+Networking+Programming+etc'ing     42
          PGP: 1B 89 E2 1C 43 EA 80 44  15 D2 29 CF C6 C7 E0 DE 
      Click <A HREF="http://smurf.noris.de/~urlichs/finger">here</A>.

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

From: [email-masked] (Andries Brouwer)
Subject: Re: 1.1.51 breaks shutdown's unmount
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 12:53:10 GMT

[email-masked] (David Flood) writes:

...
: The machine has a hardware problem which preclues the declaration of a hard
: drive type in the cmos so I boot from a floppy with an "append" of the 
: specs in LILO.

: The error (with the same kernel) does not happen on my other machine:

...
: It does have the types installed in the cmos.  So could this be a problem
: related to using/not using the autodetect?  When Linux boots, it does
: display the proper identification messages from hd.c

Change the line involving filp in floppy_release in floppy.c to
        if (!filp || (filp->f_mode & 2))
(or something similar). This solved my umount problems.

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

From: [email-masked] (michael alan dorman)
Subject: Linux on multiple processors?
Date: 20 Sep 1994 13:38:02 GMT

I was wondering if this has been considered as a possible development
goal, now that the Intel multiprocessing hardware spec has been
standardized?

I know that MP (and specifically SMP) is sort of "trendy" these days
(vis. NT and OS/2 SMP), but the particular application for which I am
considering using Linux as a platform (dialin Internet host, web server,
fairly high volume) seems to me to be one for which SMP might give
good results--or at least make it easier to stave off the purchase of
a second machine.

So is this being considered, or at least batted around as a possibility?

Or has it already been hashed out and discarded?  I refuse to think that
it hasn't occured to anyone but me.

Mike.

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

From: [email-masked] (Dominik Kubla)
Subject: Re: Compiling xfm v1.2 on Linux
Date: 19 Sep 1994 06:48:22 GMT

Have a look at xfm v1.3. v1.2 is obsolete. xfm is now maintained at Uni-Mainz.
Look at:

ftp://ftp.uni-mainz.de/pub/muwinf/xfm/xfm-1.3.tar.gz

Cheers,
  Dominik
--
===========================================================================
eMail: [email-masked]    sMail: Dominik Kubla, Lannerstrasse 53
                                            55270 Ober-Olm, F.R. of Germany
>>> Save the environment NOW! <<<           ******  European  Union  ******

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

Subject: Audit
From: [email-masked] (Tal Yuval)
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 19:12:21 GMT

Hi,

Did anyone start or hear about a security audit trail project for Linux?

-Yuval

--

Yuval Tal, System programmer // Faculty of mathematics
[email-masked] // Weizmann Institute Of Science, Rehovot, Israel

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

From: [email-masked] (Steve Davies)
Subject: Re: Digi Intelligent Boards?
Date: 20 Sep 1994 22:20:23 +0200

In article <troyd.779983677@digibd>,
Troy DeJongh <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Well, I'm responsible for the maintenance/development of our SCO serial 
>drivers and the development of the Linux driver for our PC/Xe product, 
>and I haven't heard anything like that yet.  Plans are to release a 
>Linux driver for our PC/Xe line of products this fall. 

Fall?  That's now, right?? ;-)

Seriously - this is great news and I look forward to the posting
announcing this driver!

Steve

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

From: [email-masked] (Steve Wilson)
Subject: Re: AX25 & KISS Amateur Radio Protocols in Linux?
Date: 20 Sep 1994 19:20:27 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Kelly L. Fulks) writes:
|>
|> NO.  I can connect to any Internet site from amateur radio if I wish.
|> But I should only access data relating to amateur radio.  I should
|> not ftp to sunsite.unc.edu and get the latest version of DOOM, as it
|> is not related to amateur radio.  I can get Linux (it would take forever
|> at 1200 bps or even 9600bps though) as it does have AX.25 in the kernel
|> and can be used for amateur packet radio.  I can even gateway amateur
|> related news groups and mailing lists to packet, but then I (yes me) am
|> responsible for what each and every article contains.

Kelly, go read 97.113 again, especially the new rewrite of it!

There is NOTHING in Part 97 that says that data transfers have to be
"related" to amateur radio.  You are confusing one-way transmission limitations
with data transmissions.  Further, these limitations are only really
appropriatly discussed in terms of the U.S.  Other countries have other
limitations and allowances.

The only limitations U.S. hams have to worry about is obscene language
content, and whether a transmission would benefit them directly financially.

|> other stuff deleted...
|> -- 
|> Kelly L. Fulks   
|> 
|> Amateur Radio: KC4RDJ@AB4ZB.#MIDTN.TN.USA.NA   
|>              : kc4rdj.ampr.org. [44.34.0.9]

Steve Wilson KA6S

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

From: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Is there an encrypted filesystem for Linux?
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 14:15:07 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Alan Cox) writes:
>From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
>Subject: Re: Is there an encrypted filesystem for Linux?
>Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 09:27:34 GMT

>CFS is a beginning. You need a lot more to have a secure system.

How does it compare to the loop module with the DES support?

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Is there an encrypted filesystem for Linux?
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 09:27:34 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (David Wright) writes:
>       There is the CFS filesystem if you are in the USA. It basically
>provides a user-level version of NFS that allows you to mount directories (and
>their children) that are transparently encrypted. That is, the cleartext never
>hits the disk and can't be read even by root. It also stores the filenames

Not true. It hits memory (and can be read by root) and it may end up in 
the swap area for an indefinite time. Also beware with CFS of people using
the rpc.portmap bugs (redirected mount request) and just mounting your
unencrypted CFS freely.

CFS is a beginning. You need a lot more to have a secure system.

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Don't use Linux?! Of course we do :)
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 09:28:32 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Michael Will) writes:
>Tonya Brooks ([email-masked]) offers the Database Illustrator for
>Oracle 6 and 7 databases.
>Someone should create an official List :-)

It's hardly official but www.linux.org.uk has such a list. There is also the
commercial-howto maintained by iX. Thats more detailed.

Alan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Netware Client
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 09:30:31 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Timothy Weaver) writes:
>stuff. Of course, if Novell has a patent on any of their software routines
>then it won't matter whether you accidently happen to create a driver that
>does its work the same way, they can sue you if you infringe on a patent.

As far as I can tell they don't. If they do then you just release the
software to the free world and only the USA will be forbidden from using it.

Alan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Shared Libs: working toward a permanent solution?
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 1994 09:37:37 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
>As for speed concerns, is it not possible for the library loader to resolve 
>addresses in the library at load time, leaving applications to link via a 
>hash table?  That way, extra overhead during actual run time is avoided - 
>you have a one-off penalty when you load the library.

Not if its ELF. ELF libraries are position independant. You can do some 
faking and happen to avoid address clashing but one of the prices of ELF
is a slower system using PIC libraries.

Alan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Alexandra Griffin)
Subject: 900 MHz CB band???
Date: 20 Sep 1994 22:15:31 GMT

I was unaware of the existence of a CB band @ 900MHz.  How much
bandwidth is available there?  What restrictions exist w.r.t.
transmitter power, etc.?  This band is free from acceptable-use
limitations?

Since it's not legal to operate a home-built rig outside the amateur
bands (right?  type-approval needed?), where can equipment for this
900-MHz band be obtained?

Sorry about the off-topic discussion...

-- alex

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

From: [email-masked] (Sam Oscar Lantinga)
Crossposted-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Extending the IP Protocol?
Date: 19 Sep 1994 05:09:06 GMT

Rob Janssen ([email-masked]) wrote:
: >     I would like to implement a new option in the IP protocol:

: >IPOPT_RELAY

: Please explain how this option is going to accomplish anything...

        Sure.  A modified version of tcpdump snarfs packets 
destined for the non-existent host.  It appends the destination
address to the packet using the IPOPT_RELAY option, and rewrites
the destination address as the SLIP-connected host.  The packet
is then sent back out on the network with a new destination, leaving
the source address unchanged (using raw sockets and a simple kernel
hack)  When the packet is received by the destination host, the 
IPOPT_RELAY option is detected, the destination address is re-written
to be the original destination
_and_sent_out_a_second_loopback_interface ifconfig'd to have the
proper destination address to "exist" on the network at work.

        Complex, I admit, but I'm not sure of any other way
to acomplish having my machine on the SLIP connection also appearing
on the network at work.

: IP-in-IP encapsulation is already being used to tunnel IP packets
: between nonstandard networks over another network.  In fact, *two*
: protocol numbers have already been allocated to this purpose, probably
: by oversight...  (numbers 4 and 94)

        Where can I find out more about this?

: Can't it be done by plainly adding some static routes on the routers?
: Or by using proxy ARP?

        How is this done?  I have tried adding host routes to the
Linux machine at work (not a router), but I can't detect any packets
getting to my machine on the SLIP connection (and yes, IP forwarding
IS enabled).  The SLIP router will not (as far as I can tell) forward
any packets to the SLIP connected host that are not destined for it.
I have tried adding the "ghost" IP address to my system's arp cache
using 'arp -s IP_address HW_address', but when an arp request goes
out for the arped address, the Linux box does not reply.
Is this proper proxy-arp method?  I've seen alot of discussion of
what it does, but none on how to set it up. 

Any help would be appreciated. :)

Thanks!

        -Sam

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

From: [email-masked] (Kamal T.Mian)
Subject: HELP NEEDED : device driver
Date: 19 Sep 1994 01:19:05 -0700

hi folks ,

I am intersted in writing/porting to LINUX a device driver for an ISDN
card that plugs into Pentium PC.

My problem is that ... I am very new to Linux .. and donot know from 
where to start ....

How should one start ?

Any documents available for writing a device drivers ?

Any suggestions or ideas will be highly appreciated ....

It is my class project .... and I have 3-4 months to write it.

one can also email me at   [email-masked]

regards

Mian

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

** 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.development) 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
    sunsite.unc.edu				pub/Linux

End of Linux-Development Digest
******************************