Subject: Linux-Development Digest #260
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 94 17:13:15 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #260, Volume #2          Mon, 3 Oct 94 17:13:15 EDT

Contents:
  Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS (Rob Janssen)
  Re: Linux/Warp2 HPFS improper shutdown flag set.. (Rob Janssen)
  Re: EXTREMELY ALPHA ARCnet drivers ready for testing (Rob Janssen)
  Re: Linux on Pentium P90 PCI---which motherboard? (Mikael Lyngvig)
  Re: What GUI to write for? (Steven Buytaert)
  Re: Differing console resolutions per virtual console? (Andries Brouwer)
  Re: ISDN drivers for Linux/BSD survey (Charlie Brown)
  PCMCIA with driver won't work (Mark Steele)
  Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! (Seppo Kallio)
  Medivision prosonic with SCSI-2 (Chris Seelig)
  Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS (Nils Nieuwejaar)
  tar cM   possible (probable?) bug (Brynn Rogers)
  What is ELF ? (Whitney de Vries)
  Anyone have a working "rexec" binary or source? (Carlos Dominguez)
  Re: Multiprocessing Pentium Systems (Anthony Lovell)

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

From: [email-masked] (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 08:19:16 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Mike Haertel) writes:

>Rob Janssen ([email-masked]) wrote:
>> Well, the Linux community sneers at BSD for doing synchronous inode
>> updates, which you won't find in ext2fs :-)
>> Those can really kill performance when you are manipulating a lot of
>> files, like in a news system.

>The Linux community may sneer at synchronous inode updates, but under
>BSD ffs I have never lost a file, which is more than I can say for
>ext2fs, which has cost me a whole partition at least once, simply
>due to its overoptimistic buffering.

It has been shown that the synchronous updating of metadata is the wrong
thing to do.  You may have a system which shows no fsck errors after a
crash, but has garbage in the newly created files anyway.
I'd rather lose a new file alltogether than have it in the directory and
have crap in it instead of the data I wrote.

>In fact, this was the issue that drove me away from Linux (to
>NetBSD) for over a year.  I have only recently returned to the Linux
>fold since discovering that e2fsck has been dramatically improved.

Of course there is development in Linux, and FFS is old.  So the picture
may well change over time.  But I have not had ext2 corruption problems
ever since I started using it, so I can't comment on e2fsck.

>Even so I am not wholly happy--the "clean" bit sometimes seems to be a
>lie.  I have simply taken to running a forced fsck every time I boot,
>regardless of the clean bit.

It is easy to configure it so that it will fsck very often.  But when that
is required you probably have some hardware problem.  Or maybe you shutdown
your system by simply cutting the power while it is expiring the news??

>Has anyone ported BSD ffs to Linux?  I would strongly prefer to use
>it, simply for the slower but safer synchronous inode and directory
>updates.  Not to mention I would like to be able to share files with
>my BSD partition...

You can enable "slower but safer synchronous inode and directory updates"
for ext2fs as well, but as mentioned before it is not safer at all.

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   [email-masked]           |
| e-mail: [email-masked]     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.os2.beta
From: [email-masked] (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: Linux/Warp2 HPFS improper shutdown flag set..
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 08:22:59 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Arthur J Pina) writes:

>Does anyone know of a fix for this?

>Someone reported earlier that Linux sees the OS/2 Warp2 HPFS partitions
>as having the "improper shutdown" flag set -- well I just experienced this
>problem. -- fortunately I had my Linux "doom" code in an OS/2 V2.11 partition,
>so I could still access it, but, this leaves me with less accessable HPFS
>space then I would like.

Maybe you can help by getting some specs from the OS/2 guys and forwarding
it to the HPFS developer, so that he doesn't have to do as much guessing?

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   [email-masked]           |
| e-mail: [email-masked]     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: EXTREMELY ALPHA ARCnet drivers ready for testing
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 08:26:46 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Russell Nelson) writes:

>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Avery Pennarun) writes:

>   NOTE:  These drivers aren't compatible with ARCether for DOS, yet.  Close,
>          but not quite.  Anyone interested in tweaking, go ahead, but please
>          send me the patches so we can stay organized.

>And please, make your patches to the Linux driver, because ARCether
>already interoperates with Novell's ARCNET driver.

Is there a good reason not to use the encapsulation recommended in RFC1201?
(or is it the one used by ARCether?  the name seems to point to ethernet,
but that may just be the interface to the upper layers)

Rob
-- 
=========================================================================
| Rob Janssen                | AMPRnet:   [email-masked]           |
| e-mail: [email-masked]     | AX.25 BBS: PE1CHL@PI8UTR.#UTR.NLD.EU     |
=========================================================================

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
From: [email-masked] (Mikael Lyngvig)
Subject: Re: Linux on Pentium P90 PCI---which motherboard?
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 12:13:16 GMT

[email-masked] (Vaughan R. Pratt) writes:

>If Linux runs on your Pentium P90 PCI, or you know of a working such,
>I'd appreciate knowing what motherboard did the trick.

I'm using a Zeos P90 PCI - it has only been a few days since I installed,
though.  Seems like it runs just fine and smaller load on heavy tasks than
I get on NETCOM at 3:30 am ;)  I haven't got X to run yet; xinit complains
about a missing config file.  My configuration is:

  Zeos P90, 16 MB RAM, 540 MB IDE HD & 340 MB IDE HD, Mitsumi CD-ROM (*),
  2 * 16550 serial ports, Phoenix BIOS (v4.0??), Diamond Stealth 64 (using
  the S3 Vision 964 64-bit chip - not tested yet...), Practical Peripherals
  PM14400FXMT modem - not tested yet), Microsoft mouse (not tested yet).

I been throught a lot of the standard Unix utils, and they all seem to run
just fine.

(*) The Mitsumi drive, as configured by Zeos, needs the command "mcd=0x310,10"
when booting the Mitsumi kernel otherwise Linux won't recognize the drive.

Mikael Lyngvig
[email-masked]

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

Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.intrinsics,gnu.misc.discuss
From: [email-masked] (Steven Buytaert)
Subject: Re: What GUI to write for?
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 15:15:41 GMT

Hugh Strong ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Check out several API kits on sunsite. The one I'm most aquainted
: with is called wxWin, which is installed on my machine, although
: I haven't played with it yet.  It's for building applications
: for XView, Motif, and (Yes, it does do windows) Windows/WinNT.  It
: looks impressive, and I may get around to using it someday. The toolkits
: are in /pub/Linux/X11/devel, but one of the wxWin files is corrupted
: and you'll have to go to the home for the complete package.

  Just thought I'd second that. I've taken a look at wxWindows and
  subscribed to the mailing list. It seems a very active mailing
  list. Julian Smart that started wxWindows seems to be very active
  to upgrade it regularly. It has a very nice manual and a lot of
  add ons. Currently, a GUI builder that generates the wxWin code
  is in prototyping phase (call it alpha).

  For someone that wants to start some GUI programming without
  going through every Motif call or start learning MS Windows
  programming, definitely a very nice alternative.

  Stef

--
Steven Buytaert 

WORK [email-masked]
HOME [email-masked]

        'Imagination is more important than knowledge.'
                        (A. Einstein)

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

From: [email-masked] (Andries Brouwer)
Subject: Re: Differing console resolutions per virtual console?
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 13:45:51 GMT

[email-masked] (Jon Thackray) writes:

: Someone said a few months back, that they were going to write a program
: to allow different console resolutions per vc. Has this ever been
: finished? I can't find any code in any of the Linux archive ftp sites.
: I might try and work out how this could be written myself.

: (This is since I've discovered that my S3 card will support 132x42 by
:  altering the kernel, but 132x42 is too small for full-time use)

Get kbd-0.88.tar.gz from funet.
(Your virtual consoles will all be the same size at any moment in time
but there is a resize command that will change this size whenever you
want.)
I find 100x40 quite workable.

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

From: [email-masked] (Charlie Brown)
Crossposted-To: comp.dcom.isdn,comp.os.386bsd.development,de.comm.isdn
Subject: Re: ISDN drivers for Linux/BSD survey
Date: 3 Oct 1994 13:51:40 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Andy Puchrik <[email-masked]> wrote:
>In article <[email-masked]>,
>Jason ROOT George <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>{posted to comp.dcom.isdn, comp.os.linux.development,
>> comp.os.386bsd.development}
>>Next week, time permitting, I am going to get in touch with the appropriate
>>people at Intel to attempt to secure the release of RemoteExpress programming
>>specs.  To aid in my quest, I ask that any interested parties send me a note
>       You might be interested in an ISDN board that Digiboard will be
>coming out with.  Digiboard seems to be a lot more interested in the
>Linux market.
There is allready a driver for the Teles/S0 card which was written for linux
BUT it uses a port of the NetBSD-Networking code so it should be less trouble
to port than one might think. It currently supports the german TR6 standard
but it shouldn't be to difficult to add support for Euro-ISDN and the US
standard. Any way it's a start and it might be worth looking into.

Cheerio
-- 
Bankers do it with interest (penalty for early withdrawal).
Intelligence is the capability of receiving, decrypting information
and then transferring it in usable form.
Stupidity is the interuption of this process at any given point.

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark Steele)
Subject: PCMCIA with driver won't work
Date: 2 Oct 1994 02:29:17 GMT

I am using a toshiba 1910 with a megahertz pcmcia modem.  I downloaded the 
set of drivers (pcmcia-2.2), upgraded my kernel to 1.1.49, and installed the
new module utilites.

When I start the machine, the card manager is started.  It finds the modem,
and creates the symbolic link to /dev/modem.  However, if i try to access it, 
through seyon, minicom, or using echo atd > /dev/modem, all I hear are clicks
from the speaker.  I can get any response from the modem (no OK, no ERROR).  If
anyone has any better luck or clues, I would appreciate it.

                Mark
                        [email-masked]
==============================================

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

From: [email-masked] (Seppo Kallio)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re: Telnet & ftp freeze!
Date: 3 Oct 1994 10:53:03 +0200

System Administrator ([email-masked]) wrote:
: First, the original problem as I originally mentioned it:  

: We are running slip to our internet provider, and intermittantly
: experience telnet lockups during logins.  The system either 1) refuses
: connections 2) accepts the connection, but just sits 3) provides a login
: prompt, takes input, and never gives the password prompt (ususally
: creating a login zombie in the process). 

Hip! I have exactly same problmes 1 and 2 without slip !!!!!!! Not the
problem 3.

I have a 66MHz 486 + 32MB RAM + 2GB disk + 2000 (!) user accounts in my 
Linux box.

Usually it works nice, but sometimes the whole net software seems to
do nothing with the new connections.  Login opens the window and
connects, but no "login:" prompt.  Same problems with smtp
connections, they jammmm similar way.  I think all telnet connections
hang somehow or are extremely slow.

In the begining I got "no more sockets" to the /usr/adm/messages.  I
doubled the socket tables in kernel.  It did actually not help,
expect I am not getting "no more sockets" into the /usr/adm/messages.

My laste experiment: I did delete smtp from inetd.conf and started to
run sendmail directly "standalone". I do not know if it helps. I have
not had problems after that, but the week is in the begining. :-(

: Additional information/trends noticed:
: If the lockup occurs, allowing the telnet session with the locked
: connection to sit while starting another is *always* successful. 

This is interesting. I have not noticed that.  Must check it next time
if I have same situation. 

Seppo Kallio        [email-masked]
U of Jyvaskyla
Finland

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

From: [email-masked] (Chris Seelig)
Subject: Medivision prosonic with SCSI-2
Date: 3 Oct 1994 14:02:14 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

Hi,
   Has anyone used a mediavision prosonic sound card, the one with 
a SCSI2 interface on it? Is there support for this SCSI interface in
the standard SCSI drivers?
   Any comments appreciated as I'm thinking of buying one.

Thanks
      Chris

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

From: [email-masked] (Nils Nieuwejaar)
Subject: Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS
Date: 03 Oct 1994 15:56:06 GMT

[email-masked] (Rob Janssen) writes:

   I'd rather lose a new file alltogether than have it in the directory and
   have crap in it instead of the data I wrote.

Or worse (from a security standpoint) - have somebody else's old data
in it.

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

From: [email-masked] (Brynn Rogers)
Subject: tar cM   possible (probable?) bug
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 15:06:58 GMT

I made a backup of my dos partition using the command 'tar cM *', and
it worked fine and prompted me for the 3 volumes needed.  Then
when I was restoring (after reformatting the dos partition and changing
the partition type to primary bootable instead of extended) I used
the command 'tar xM'.   it worked until it propmted me for the second volume,
and then it reported (after I put the second volume in and hit return)
'this is not volume 2, insert volume 2'  (paraphrased).
  
  It refused to continue the multivolume tar no matter what I did.
Fortunatly, when I did a 'tar x' on the second volume it restored 
all files except for the first file which was continued from volume 1.
I only lost the file that spanned vol 1&2 and the file spanning 2&3,
all the rest of the files I got back ( using tar x instead of tar xM)

Is this a Bug?   I have an adaptec 1542B and the 65MB QIC scsi tape drive
(the tape drive came from my sun 386i, it might be only 60MB but 65MB fit)
Also, I am running linux 1.1.18.
Is this where to complain about it?

Brynn
--
             Brynn Rogers                      [email-masked]
----  Save the internet - keep the toll bridges out               
Autonomous robots get my interest.     Embedded systems pay my mortgage.

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

From: [email-masked] (Whitney de Vries)
Subject: What is ELF ?
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 15:19:40 GMT

What is ELF ? What other systems use ELF ?
Where can I find a description of it ?

-- Whitney

PS. I know it is executable file format but little else.

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

From: [email-masked] (Carlos Dominguez)
Subject: Anyone have a working "rexec" binary or source?
Date: 3 Oct 1994 11:52:52 -0400

I tried to get some BSD'ish rexec.c code going, but that flopped.
I need rexec because my SUN host wont allow rsh for security reasons.

Any code, small binaries, pointers and such would be greatly appreciated.

-- 
  __  __   __ | .__.  __. ::::  Carlos Dominguez - proprietor - sysadmin  
 |    __| |   | |  | |__  ::::  [email-masked]
 |__ |__| |   | |__| .__| ::::  Basselope *nix systems
  ---------------------------   Internet services consulting is our forte

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

From: [email-masked] (Anthony Lovell)
Subject: Re: Multiprocessing Pentium Systems
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 1994 19:59:31 GMT

Cees de Groot ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I keep having these wonderful dreams of Linux running on a 4-Processor
: 300MHz AXP... Just haven't figured out yet what I would do with it :-)

We can all dream, MIPS R8000 anybody :)

--

anthony

==============================================================================
[email-masked]          |   If at first you don't succeed
PGP Key available from a server       |
[email-masked]           |   Get a Bigger Hammer
==============================================================================

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

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