Subject: Linux-Development Digest #265
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 94 20:13:38 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #265, Volume #2          Tue, 4 Oct 94 20:13:38 EDT

Contents:
  Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS (Mike Haertel)
  weird linux hangs 1.0.9 -> 1.1.51 inclusive...  (Paul Erkkila)
  DOSEMU question (Douglas Rankin)
  need help changing DIP term.c code
  Re: convert num to string integrating math functions (Robert G. Smith)
  Re: umount problem! (Rob Janssen)
  Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS (Rob Janssen)
  Re: What GUI to write for? (Orhan Unal)
  umount problem! (Mark D. Roth)
  Re: Suggestion: comp.os.linux.channelecho.* (H. Peter Anvin)
  Re: What GUI to write for? (Marc Fraioli)
  Re: [email-masked] (Ahmed Naas)
  Re: Using Andrew to create and edit HTML docs (DAVID L. JOHNSON)
  Re: What GUI to write for? (Tanner)
  dds2tar shows bug of gnu-tar (Joerg Weule)

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

From: [email-masked] (Mike Haertel)
Subject: Re: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS
Date: 03 Oct 1994 03:31:11 GMT

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.

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.

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.

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...
--
Mike Haertel <[email-masked]>

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

From: [email-masked] (Paul Erkkila)
Subject: weird linux hangs 1.0.9 -> 1.1.51 inclusive... 
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 12:20:55 GMT

        We are having a problem with linux "hanging" on out P5 EISA/VLB
machine. (90 mhz) . General symtoms before the hang are non-exsistent as
far as I can tell. One minute it's up , and then boom Dead. No console control
no net access , no cntl-alt-del. It has to be cold booted/ reset. I've read
other posts to this group complaining of similar occurences, and would like to 
help sort it out. Is there any kernel logging/ profiling that can be enabled
so I can log what is going on? Disk space and logging time are NOT a 
problem and I would really like to get to the bottom of this. I saw the kernel
profiling option for the configure but I have no idea how to take advantage of
this option.

Hardware

P5-90

NE2000 ethernet card

AHA 2842 SCSI (also tried a 1542 same problems)

64meg ram

30+meg swap ( also tried no swap)

4 Seagate 1.1 gig drives 

Any and all info appreciated ...

-pee
-- 

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

From: [email-masked] (Douglas Rankin)
Subject: DOSEMU question
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 15:26:36 GMT

 I have a question. I have been able to get dosemu0.53 running with a
diskiamge for c: I was wondering how I configure it in order for it
to boot my dos drives which is /dev/sda. My linux is on /dev/sdb1.
Any help would be appreciated. You can reply here or email me at the
following:

        [email-masked] or
        [email-masked]

thanks for any help!!!!

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

From: [email-masked] ()
Subject: need help changing DIP term.c code
Date: 2 Oct 1994 07:24:22 GMT

below is the terminal loop for dip. I need to add code that looks for
a STRING coming from the tty port such as '++HANGUP++'  then when 
it finds it , term will exit
also how would u watch carrier detech and exit if it drops

could someone please help?

  /* Go into an endless terminal loop. */
  while(1) {
        rmask = mask;
        i = select(32, &rmask, (fd_set *)NULL, (fd_set *)NULL,
                                        (struct timeval *)NULL);
        if (i <= 0) break;
        if (FD_ISSET(0, &rmask)) {
                i = read(0, buff, 1);
                if (i > 0) {
                        if (buff[0] == (']' & 037)) break;
                        (void) write(tty, buff, i);
                }
        }

        if (FD_ISSET(tty, &rmask)) {
                i = read(tty, buff, 1024);
                if (i > 0) (void) write(1, buff, i);
        };
  }

  if (ioctl(0, TCSETS, &otty)  < 0) {
        perror("term ioctl TCSETS");
        return;
  }

  /* Restore all signals. */
  for (i = 0; i < 32; i++) (void) signal(i + 1, old_sigs[i]);

  printf("\n[ Back to LOCAL mode. ]\n");
}

--
*******************************************************************************
                          Comland HiTech BBS System
                              Sysop Don Carroll
                             ****514-218-0173****
                             [email-masked]
*******************************************************************************

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

From: [email-masked] (Robert G. Smith)
Subject: Re: convert num to string integrating math functions
Date: 3 Oct 1994 02:22:44 GMT

Aulas ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hi !

: I've got a problem building a function designer program:
: the only way I know to enter the function is to put
: it in the source code directly.
: what are the keywords to convert properly (with sin(x) and cos(x))
: strings to num;
: Atoi and atof don't work, 'cos they don't recognize cos(x) or sin(x)
: as mathematical function but as strings.

You need an interpreter for your functions.
Here are two possibilities:

1) Try reading:

 "The Unix Programming Environment", by Kernighan and Pike.
It describes how to build, piece by piece, a simple interpreter
for expressions and functions. There are many other 
simple script languages like the one described in this book.
Tcl is similar.  But it is easy to write your own.

2) Download my neural simulator, "NeuronC", at:

   retina.anatomy.upenn.edu:pub/nc.tgz

   This package contains a simple "C"-like language
that you can add to your application.  It contains
lots of math functions, fft, rand, etc., dynamically-allocated
arrays of several dimensions, floating-point and string
variables, local variables, subroutines, etc.

  You can test a stripped-down version of my simulator's
interpreted language by:

   cd nc/src
   make interp

 Then you can run the interpreter and print results,
line by line:

   interp
   ## nc version #3.7 
   print 1/81;
   0.012345679
   print sin(.017);
   0.016999181

 From here it's pretty easy to take the essential source code
files and add them to another application.  See the "makefile".

Have fun,

Rob Smith

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

From: [email-masked] (Rob Janssen)
Subject: Re: umount problem!
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 08:33:22 GMT

In <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:

>In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Mark D. Roth) writes:
>> I just encountered a weird problem with umount.  I am using the umount
>> that comes with the binary distrib of util-linux-1.10 under linux
>> 1.1.51.  When I mount a floppy and move files to it (the filesystem
>> was ext), and then umount it
>> 
>> Anyway, I dunno what's causing this.

>You are not allone in the dark, I have similar problems after upgrading 
>the kernel.
>And I have not any idee what causing it.
>So people help us please.

Arghh!!  The fix for this has been on this group *so many* times that
it is really your own fault when you don't know about it...

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: ext2fs vs. Berkeley FFS
Reply-To: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 08:40:34 GMT

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

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

>I don't think you're thinking far enough ahead.  The purpose of
>synchronous metadata updates is not to save the file you're writing
>at the time of the crash (or whatever), but rather to ensure that
>the file system itself doesn't creepingly get into an inconsistent
>state behind your back.

Linux has "bdflush" running to save blocks to disk every few seconds.

>I'd rather have garbage in a file than have a file whose blocks
>are also in the free list and will soon be allocated to another
>file as well.  Of course, fsck is supposed to fix these situations.

Well, then our opinion differs.  And most people in this agroup agree
with my opinion, it seems.

>But if you're using a filesystem wherein the actual disk updates
>are trailing way behind file system activity, and are not constrained
>to be written in the order they were made, then a crash at a disk-intensive
>time could leave fsck extremely confused.

ext2fs does not use free lists (it uses bitmaps), so the problem
you picture does not really occur in practice.  (fsck has an easy
job checking the consistency of the bitmaps)

>This is why BSD ffs does its updates in what somebody called the "wrong"
>order, but which strikes me as exactly the _right_ order.

Then please use BSD.

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

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

From: [email-masked] (Orhan Unal)
Crossposted-To: comp.windows.x.intrinsics,gnu.misc.discuss
Subject: Re: What GUI to write for?
Date: 4 Oct 1994 20:42:41 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Gerald G. Washington) writes:
>I wonder--by writing other toolkits with Motif-like functionality, I hope
>people are not violating some copyright.  I'm just curious because I did
>write my own object-oriented toolkit with a Motif-like appearance.  I've
>been using it for a while.  Tk also has this feature.  I remember that
>Apple tried to sue when people copied some of the Mac's interface...
>
Some time ago I believe OSF has made MOTIF API Specifications public. You 
can go ahead and implement a drop-in replacement widget set for OSF Motif. In
fact, there is a project underway to write an OSF Motif clone. 
-- 
********************************************************
*  Orhan Unal  *  Email: [email-masked]  *
********************************************************

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark D. Roth)
Subject: umount problem!
Date: 3 Oct 1994 20:01:11 GMT

I just encountered a weird problem with umount.  I am using the umount
that comes with the binary distrib of util-linux-1.10 under linux
1.1.51.  When I mount a floppy and move files to it (the filesystem
was ext), and then umount it, is SOMETIMES seg-faults.  Here's the
output from the syslog:

Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address c0000000
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: current->tss.cr3 = 00b8c000, Zr3 = 00b8c000
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: *pde = 00102027
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: *pte = 00000027
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: Oops: 0000
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: EIP:    0010:00170f4c
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: EFLAGS: 00010246
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: eax: 00170000   ebx: 00000000   ecx: 00000000
edx: 00170000
Oct  3 14:37:52 dnamic kernel: esi: 00b5bed4   edi: 00b5bed4   ebp: 00000000
esp: 00b5bea8
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: ds: 0018   es: 0018   fs: 002b   gs: 002b   ss:
0018
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: Process umount (pid: 131, process nr: 21, stackpage=00b5b000)
Oc  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: Stack: 001b0200 001b0002 001261a3 00b5bed4 00000000
Oct  3 14:37:52 dynamic kernel: Code: f6 01 02 74 0d 0f b7 46 10 50 e8 b1 10 fb
ff 83 c4 04 be 38

Anyway, I dunno what's causing this.  Any ideas?  What can I do to fix
it?

-- 
   [email-masked] | Mark D. Roth | http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~mr4342/
     (GEEK CODE 2.1) GCS d-- H+ s++:- g+ p1>4+ !au a-- w++@ v-(*)
        C++>$ UL+>++++ P--- L++>+++ 3 E(-) N++ K++ W--- M-- V-
   po Y+ t++@ 5+ !j R-- G tv b+ D+ B--- e+(*) u+@ h>++ f+ r@ n+@ y?

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

From: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Subject: Re: Suggestion: comp.os.linux.channelecho.*
Reply-To: [email-masked] (H. Peter Anvin)
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 20:39:45 GMT

Followup to:  <[email-masked]>
By author:    [email-masked] (Rafal Maszkowski)
In newsgroup: comp.os.linux.development
>
> Thomas E Zerucha ([email-masked]) wrote:
> > Apparently the only way to communicate with the real developers is via one
> > of the "channels", e.g. SCSI, LAPTOSP, NET, and others.  Is there any easy
> > way to have the messages echoed in "readonly" newsgroups?
> 
> There are linux.act.* groups but you have to ask your News administrator
> to establish a feed. Ask him to contact [email-masked]. I think they are 
> read-write but I haven't tried yet. Maybe next week (:
> 

They sure are, if your news administrator has set up your moderators
file correctly.

        /hpa

-- 
INTERNET: [email-masked]             --- Allah'u'abha ---
IBM MAIL: I0050052 at IBMMAIL     HAM RADIO:   N9ITP or SM4TKN
FIDONET:  1:115/511 or 1:115/512  STORMNET:    181:294/1 or 181:294/101
This article might have been generated by a buggy newsreader.

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

From: [email-masked] (Marc Fraioli)
Crossposted-To: gnu.misc.discuss,comp.windows.x.intrinsics
Subject: Re: What GUI to write for?
Date: 4 Oct 1994 21:56:07 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article [email-masked],  [email-masked] (Orhan Unal) writes:
>Some time ago I believe OSF has made MOTIF API Specifications public. You 
>can go ahead and implement a drop-in replacement widget set for OSF Motif. In
>fact, there is a project underway to write an OSF Motif clone. 

Yes, I have seen this in the Linux projects FAQ.  However, I have not heard
anything like a status report in quite some time.  Is this project still
alive?  Anyone?  Bueller?

---
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] (Ahmed Naas)
Subject: Re: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 10:21:55 GMT

Steven Buytaert ([email-masked]) wrote:

:  mail to [email-masked]'
:  no subject given
:  line in body  'X-Mn-Key: leave ppp'   for the PPP channel
:  line in body 'X-Mn-Key: leave sound'  for the sound channel
                      ^^^
Shouldn't that be 'X-Mn-Admin: join|leave <channel>' ?

-- 
The above is a result of random neuron activity in the writer's brain.
Ahmed M. Naas                                      [email-masked]
======================================================================

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

From: [email-masked] (DAVID L. JOHNSON)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.questions,comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Using Andrew to create and edit HTML docs
Date: 4 Oct 1994 14:35:36 GMT

Same thing happens to me:

10:31:35 /home/dlj0/spreadsheets >Starting ez (Version 7.0, ATK 6.3); please wait...

[1]+  Segmentation fault      ez test.html

This was after adding the line:

addfiletype .html html

to my preferences.  Anybody have this working?  Terry?
-- 

David L. Johnson                        [email-masked] or 
Department of Mathematics               [email-masked]
Lehigh University
14 E. Packer Avenue                     (610) 758-3759
Bethlehem, PA 18015-3174                (610) 828-3708

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

From: [email-masked] (Tanner)
Subject: Re: What GUI to write for?
Date: 3 Oct 1994 20:01:20 GMT

Marten Liebster ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I want to write a X application or two.  At first they would be for 
: personal use, but eventually I might make them availble for the 
: public to use.

: I am not sure which GUI/toolkit to use.  It would be nice to keep it
: portable to use under various UIs.  Do I have to use Xlib? or can I
: write them using XView?

: I would appreciate any guidence I could recieve.  Thanks for any and
: all help.

What about tk? No one has mentioned tk (sure there is tcl, but only tk).
I am also looking for a widget set to work in. Motif is my first choice,
but its prices is a factor. I am looking at tk right now. Any comments on
just tk?

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

From: [email-masked] (Joerg Weule)
Subject: dds2tar shows bug of gnu-tar
Date: 4 Oct 1994 15:53:10 +0100

Hi,

while using dds2tar I found a bug of gnu tar.
With 'tar cfRv /dev/null' and 'tar c | tar vRf -' you will get different
record numbers.

The new dds2tar will include a patch to correct this. (create.c of tar-1.11.2
has to be fixed). A patch to direct the verbose output to a file will also
be included.

I need some days to make the new release dds2tar-2.1.?.tar.gz.

J"org

-- 
J"org Weule                  Mathematisches Institut, Abteilung f"ur Informatik
Raum: 25.13.00.36                                   Heinrich-Heine-Universit"at
Tel.: +49-211-311-3716, priv:+49-211-751409              Universit"atsstra"se 1
[email-masked]                                 D-40225 D"usseldorf

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

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