Subject: Linux-Development Digest #274
From: Digestifier <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 94 11:13:15 EDT

Linux-Development Digest #274, Volume #2          Fri, 7 Oct 94 11:13:15 EDT

Contents:
  Re: What GUI to write for? (Marc Fraioli)
  Re: MuPAD: where ?? (Jochen Karrer)
  Re: Linux killed my floppy drive! (Viktor T. Toth)
  svgalib fillblt? (Riku Saikkonen)
  svgalib fillblt? (Riku Saikkonen)
  Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! - AND UNFREEZE KLUDGE (Alan Cox)
  Re: [email-masked] (root)
  Re: SMail security hole? (root)
  Re: 3c503 problem (Donald Becker)
  Re: Sleeping harddisk - POSSIBLE SOLUTION????? ([email-masked])
  mmap() system call in character device drivers (don Elwell)
  Linux Access to PCI configuration space (don Elwell)
  Lilo problems > 1GB (Jean-Paul van de Plasse)
  Re: AHA-1742 driver near optimal? Ult 24F? (Mark J. Dulcey)
  Re: PROBLEM: Adaptec 1542 with SMC-Ultra (Joseph P DeCello III)
  Re: fiber optic ethernet cards (Danny ter Haar)
  Q: Max # of ftp/gopher/http users on a Linux PC? (Warren Ernst)

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

From: [email-masked] (Marc Fraioli)
Subject: Re: What GUI to write for?
Date: 3 Oct 1994 23:14:23 GMT
Reply-To: [email-masked]

In article [email-masked],  [email-masked] (Steven Buytaert) writes:
>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.
>
Sounds interesting-- I'll take a look at it.  Still, it doesn't 
sound like exactly what I want.  It seems that it still requires
one of these other toolkits to be present, and since it can use
different ones, it doesn't really define a look and feel that will
be consistent.  Of course, you can argue that it is best to leave
it to the user which one they want.  

Just the same, I think I'm still looking for a reasonably complete
widget set with a decent 3d/Motif-ish look and freely available
source.  FWF's stuff is actually pretty close to being it.  Perhaps
the best course is to enhance it until it's all the way there.  It
has a number of widgets in it which are pretty Athena-looking (read
unattractive), but which seem to work fine.  Perhaps if these were 
re-done, and one or two new ones written (like a text widget), it
would be useable all on its own as a complete widget set.

---
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] (Jochen Karrer)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.admin
Subject: Re: MuPAD: where ??
Date: 6 Oct 1994 16:46:56 GMT

Angelo Haritsis ([email-masked]) wrote:
: Hello all,

: I missed a posting about a maths package called MuPAD.
: Could someone tell me where to ftp this from?
: What about licensing ?

: Please reply via personal email.
Ok, I sent an email to Angelo.
Here is the info for the rest of the world:

Begin3
Title:          MuPAD   
Version:        1.2.1
Entered-date:   1 OCT 94
Description:    MuPAD (Multi Processing Algebra Data Tool) is a
                general purpose computer algebra system, designed 
                to tackle mathematical problems. Special care in 
                the development of MuPAD has been taken over modern
                interfaces (graphics tool, hypertext help system and
                interactive debugger).
                Send e-mail to [email-masked]
                for further informations.
Keywords:       computer algebra system, CAS, 
                symbolic computation,
                2D/3D color graphics
Author:         [email-masked] (Prof. Dr. Benno Fuchssteiner)
                [email-masked] (MuPAD Group)
Maintained-by:  [email-masked] (Ralf Hillebrand)
Primary-site:   ftp.uni-paderborn.de /pub/unix/MuPAD/unix
                2k    FILES
                20k   README
                4k    unpack.sh
                643k  bin.linux.tar.gz
                3075k share.tar.gz
                537k  doc-ext.tar.gz
                766k  doc-small.tar.gz
                        or as Slackware package MU:
                ftp.uni-paderborn.de /pub/unix/MuPAD/unix/linux_disks
                5MB mu1/ - mu4/
Alternate-site: 
Original-site:  
Platform:       12-16 MB main memory are recommended
Copying-policy: MuPAD has a special distribution policy. MuPAD will
                be distributed to scientific and educational non-profit
                organizations anywhere in the world free of charge,
                however a licence has to be acquired.
                Send e-mail to [email-masked]
                for further informations or use WWW service. The document 
                URL is: http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~cube/
End

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

From: [email-masked] (Viktor T. Toth)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: Linux killed my floppy drive!
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 1994 17:07:55

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Ahmed Naas) writes:

> [...] I almost never use floppies under Linux.

[... description of dead floppy drive deleted ...]

>So, did Linux kill my drive or is this one of those rare coincidences?

Could be a coincidence; i.e., you might be having the same problem I have had 
twice already (on two different boxes) in the recent past. You rarely use your 
floppies (i.e., the drive is usually empty, right?). Now that the little 
cooling fan in the back of your machine pushes air OUT of your computer, 
correct? Guess where all that air goes in? And guess what is in its way to 
filter out all the dust, etc? You guessed right; it is very likely the opening 
on your floppy drive and your problems can easily be the result of excessive 
dust and dirt in the drive as a result. Unfortunately, it is not always easy 
to clean such a drive (i.e., you might have to take it completely apart).

Viktor

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

Subject: svgalib fillblt?
From: [email-masked] (Riku Saikkonen)
Date: Thu,  6 Oct 94 19:02:00 +0200

(I will also send this to the author of svgalib, [email-masked].)

I'm having an odd problem... It seems that the svgalib Cirrus fillblt
routine doesn't work right on my card (CL-GD5426, ISA bus, 1 Mb).

The routine works, but every pixel set operation after calling it sets
every fourth pixel (starting with column 1, not 0!) as color 0 instead
of what it should.

Here's a short piece of code that produces the error:
***
#include <stdio.h>
#include <vga.h>
#include <vgagl.h>

int main()
{
  vga_init();vga_setmode(G320x200x256);gl_setcontextvga(G320x200x256);
  gl_setpalettecolor(0,0,0,0);gl_setpalettecolor(1,63,63,63);
  gl_clearscreen(0);

  gl_fillbox(0,0,129,1,1);
  gl_line(0,5,319,5,1);

  getchar();
  vga_setmode(TEXT);
  exit(0);
}
***

Compiled with gcc, gcc -Wall (no warnings), and gcc -O6 all produce the
same result. (GCC 2.5.8, libc 4.5.26, svgalib 1.11 (19 May 94), all from
Slackware 2.0.0)

Of course, this thing should draw a white horizontal line from 0,0 to
129,0 (using the gl_fillbox() routine, which calls vga_fillblt() on
boxes of over 128 pixels in area), which it does. But the gl_line() call
after that produces a line with every fourth pixel black! The same call
works perfectly if I put it before the gl_fillbox() call...

Another strange thing is that the gl_clearscreen() call doesn't generate
the bug, although it also seems to call vga_fillblt()!

So... Anyone else noticed this problem? Could some other Cirrus owners
check this, please (e-mail the result)?

If it can't be fixed, is it possible to disable fillblts without
recompiling svgalib? Is 1.11 still the newest version?

The essentials of my /usr/local/lib/libvga.config:
mouse mousesystems
monitor 6
C0
c1

I would suspect a hardware problem with my card, but it works in X
(XFree86 2.1)... I think it might be some sort of compatibility problem
with the 5426 and 5428 (or whatever the svgalib driver was made for).
Anyone know about it?

-=- Rjs -=- [email-masked] - IRC: Rjs
"From cavern pale the moist moon eyes / the white mists that from earth
arise / to hide the morrow's sun and drip / all the grey day from each
twig's tip." - J. R. R. Tolkien

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

Subject: svgalib fillblt?
From: [email-masked] (Riku Saikkonen)
Date: Thu,  6 Oct 94 19:02:00 +0200

A copy of my post to comp.os.linux.development... Any ideas?

***
(I will also send this to the author of svgalib, [email-masked].)

I'm having an odd problem... It seems that the svgalib Cirrus fillblt
routine doesn't work right on my card (CL-GD5426, ISA bus, 1 Mb).

The routine works, but every pixel set operation after calling it sets
every fourth pixel (starting with column 1, not 0!) as color 0 instead
of what it should.

Here's a short piece of code that produces the error:
***
#include <stdio.h>
#include <vga.h>
#include <vgagl.h>

int main()
{
  vga_init();vga_setmode(G320x200x256);gl_setcontextvga(G320x200x256);
  gl_setpalettecolor(0,0,0,0);gl_setpalettecolor(1,63,63,63);
  gl_clearscreen(0);

  gl_fillbox(0,0,129,1,1);
  gl_line(0,5,319,5,1);

  getchar();
  vga_setmode(TEXT);
  exit(0);
}
***

Compiled with gcc, gcc -Wall (no warnings), and gcc -O6 all produce the
same result. (GCC 2.5.8, libc 4.5.26, svgalib 1.11 (19 May 94), all from
Slackware 2.0.0)

Of course, this thing should draw a white horizontal line from 0,0 to
129,0 (using the gl_fillbox() routine, which calls vga_fillblt() on
boxes of over 128 pixels in area), which it does. But the gl_line() call
after that produces a line with every fourth pixel black! The same call
works perfectly if I put it before the gl_fillbox() call...

Another strange thing is that the gl_clearscreen() call doesn't generate
the bug, although it also seems to call vga_fillblt()!

So... Anyone else noticed this problem? Could some other Cirrus owners
check this, please (e-mail the result)?

If it can't be fixed, is it possible to disable fillblts without
recompiling svgalib? Is 1.11 still the newest version?

The essentials of my /usr/local/lib/libvga.config:
mouse mousesystems
monitor 6
C0
c1

I would suspect a hardware problem with my card, but it works in X
(XFree86 2.1)... I think it might be some sort of compatibility problem
with the 5426 and 5428 (or whatever the svgalib driver was made for).
Anyone know about it?

-=- Rjs -=- [email-masked] - IRC: Rjs
"From cavern pale the moist moon eyes / the white mists that from earth
arise / to hide the morrow's sun and drip / all the grey day from each
twig's tip." - J. R. R. Tolkien

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

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.misc
From: [email-masked] (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: Telnet & ftp freeze! - AND UNFREEZE KLUDGE
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 1994 10:39:34 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Thomas E Zerucha) writes:
>The *real* problem is in tcp.c where tcp_write uses sock_wmalloc to allocate
>socket buffers, but uses kfree_skb (if anything) to deallocate (after an ACK).
>The problem is that kfree_skb bypasses the counting mechanism for the number
>of bytes, so a count of used bytes keeps going up.  THIS IS ONLY A THEORY,

It's also totally wrong.

>but I can find no call to sock_wfree except for an error that aborts sending
>a packet.  The problem seems to occur with ppp due to timing and the very
>small packets (each containing 1 character, but eating 768 bytes), with a
>large window size.

A 1 character packet uses about 100 bytes if that. sock_wfree is called
from kfree_skb() - look harder

>
>You can figure out how to feed the following to patch, or simply edit
>sock.c in the wmalloc and wfree routines.  All I do is disable the size
>tracking.

It's a pity that the size tracking is used to manage the TCP windows and
you now have a totally invalid broken TCP that will crash if someone sprays
you with tcp frames. 

What is interesting is everyone reporting the problem uses PPP. I've looked
through the PPP driver but I can't see anything wrong with it.

Alan

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

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

From: [email-masked] (root)
Subject: Re: [email-masked]
Date: 5 Oct 1994 02:55:40 GMT

Stephen Parkinson ([email-masked]) wrote:
: In article <[email-masked]>
:    [email-masked] (Steven Buytaert) writes:
: > Zack T. Smith ([email-masked]) wrote:
: > : Can someone please tell me how to get taken _off_ the
: > : linux activists mailing list? I can neither disconnect myself
: > : from it, nor even _post_ to it. Consider:
: > 
: How do you get a list of the channels on the mailing list ?

: Is it different to the comp.os.linux.* groups ?

: Stephen Parkinson
you must mail to [email-masked]
put X-Mn-Info: channel
on the body or header and there you go

a1
http://dfw.net/~aleph1

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

From: [email-masked] (root)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: SMail security hole?
Date: 5 Oct 1994 03:12:09 GMT

Herbert Xu ([email-masked]) wrote:
: William Beckner ([email-masked]) wrote:
: :   /foofle

: :   as the line in the .forward, rather than looking for a user named 
: :   "foofle" it will put the text of the letter into the root directory 
: :   as a file named "foofle".  Obviously, this is highly undesireable,
: :   and fortunately no one other than myself have noticed it yet. (I 
: :   mentioned it to Pete, and will be getting in contact with the 
: :   appropriate Linux newsgroups/lists to notify them of the problem...
: :   however, I'd really rather see the problem fixed *before* I make
: :   it public knowledge that such a problem exists...)

: : [ ***** end of mail ***** ]

: : I just tried this out (kernel version 1.1.22), and smail DOES do as the 
: : above mail message states.  Does anybody know what we need to do to plug 
: : the hole?  Any comments?

: I am using sendmail 8.6.9 and don't have this problem.  Another reason to
: switch over to sendmail I suppose.
: -- 
: A.  B <=> True                        B.  A <=> False
: Email:  Herbert Xu ~{PmV>HI~} <[email-masked]>
: PGP Key:  [email-masked] or any other key sites

huh... ahh.. should we go over the security "history" of sendmail?

I think not :)

a1
http://dfw.net/~aleph1

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

From: [email-masked] (Donald Becker)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: Re: 3c503 problem
Date: 4 Oct 1994 23:34:29 -0400

In article <[email-masked]>, Davyd Luque <[email-masked]> wrote:
>I've an 386 with ASTFOURPORTS, Adaptec SCSI, IDE controller & standard RS, and
>a 3c503 ethernet card.
>
>boot info:
>
>       3c503 probe at 0x300: 02 60 8C 3F 60 6A
>       eth0: 3C503 with shared memory at 0xdc000-0xddfff,

>eth0      Link encap 10Mbps Ethernet  HWaddr 02:60:8C:3F:60:6A
...
>          RX packets 0 errors 27 dropped 0 overrun 0
>          TX packets 20 errors 0 dropped 0 overrun 0

Look in /proc/net/dev (and perhaps /usr/adm/messages) for the specific type
of error you are getting.

Are you connected to the net by the internal transceiver (the default under
Linux) or an external transceiver?  That's often the cause of problems with
the 3c503.

-- 
Donald Becker                                     [email-masked]
USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD.  20771
301-286-0882         http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/people/becker/whoiam.html

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

From: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Sleeping harddisk - POSSIBLE SOLUTION?????
Date: 07 Oct 1994 12:25:36 GMT

>One of the irritiating features of Linux is that whenever the disk
>spins down to save power, it spins up again.
>The reason seems to be that the driver sends an interrupt, which the
>kernel does not expect, causing a printk(), which of course spins up
>the disk.

        Reason is generated error-message which will be written into
        log.

        If you kill all log daemons (syslogd. klogd ...), crond and
        update daemon disk remains quiet until you do something that
        needs physical diks access.

        Only trade-off in killing log daemons is that harddisk-errors
        you get when disk spins down will be written to your console.
        
        Best solution would be kernel-builtin disk spin-down.

        -Ali-

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

From: [email-masked] (don Elwell)
Subject: mmap() system call in character device drivers
Date: 4 Oct 1994 23:46:41 -0400

I'm in the process of writing a device driver for a memory mapped DSP
board.  The kernel hackers guide indicates that the mmap() function is
not supported for devices other than /dev/memory and should be
avoided, however the kernel hackers guide seems out of date (at least
the one I obtained).

Does anyone know if it is possible to use mmap() (or do_mmap() or
something) to bind a user level process's virtual address to a
physical address?

I want my device driver to have an mmap() entry that will take an
address from the user level program, make sure it is page aligned, and
bind it to a physical address.  If successful, the user should then be
able to use the pointer to access the physial device.

I have a super user level device driver (hacked from the svga lib) but
I don't want to restrict board users to user level processes (they're
boneheads :-) and I don't want them to have super user privileges or
free run of system memory using /dev/mem).

Thanks in advance.....

Don Elwell

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

From: [email-masked] (don Elwell)
Subject: Linux Access to PCI configuration space
Date: 4 Oct 1994 23:51:12 -0400

Is there an "accepted" method for gaining access to PCI configuration
space under linux?

Thanks in advance...

Don Elwell
[email-masked]

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

From: [email-masked] (Jean-Paul van de Plasse)
Subject: Lilo problems > 1GB
Date: 7 Oct 1994 11:57:45 GMT

I'm having some problems when I install lilo from
my Fujitsu M2694ESA 1.01 GB HD,

Lilo just prints LILOLILOLILO .

When I install lilo from my 300MB SCSI drive it al seems to work.

I have set the params in /etc/"forgot the name".

Does anybody have a clue ????

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

From: [email-masked] (Mark J. Dulcey)
Subject: Re: AHA-1742 driver near optimal? Ult 24F?
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 94 13:11:45 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] writes:
>
>It seems that while I am hitting the disk hard on my dx2/66 w/an AHA-1742
>host adapter, I miss term packets.  I have a 16550 UART.  Should this be
>happening?  It seems my system slows more than I think it "should" while
>hitting the disk.  How much work has gone into the 1742 drivers under Linux?

You might try going into the EISA configuration program on your system
and decreasing the amount of the bus that the 1742 can grab.  It's probably
locking everything else out long enough so that you can't receive stuff
from the serial port quickly enough.

Sorry, I don't have one set up here, so I can't tell you exactly what the
settings are -- I just remember that they exist.

By the way, the same thing can happen with a 1542.  On the C version,
you can change the bus master settings with the program you reach by
typing Control-A during boot; on earlier versions of the 1542, you
change switches or jumpers on the card.

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

From: [email-masked] (Joseph P DeCello III)
Subject: Re: PROBLEM: Adaptec 1542 with SMC-Ultra
Date: 7 Oct 1994 13:01:27 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>,
Vassili Leonov <[email-masked]> wrote:
>Juha Virtanen ([email-masked]) wrote:
>: >>>>> On 30 Sep 1994 11:51:36 GMT,
>: [email-masked] (Olaf Jaeger) said: 
>: :> problem:
>: :>   I am using an ISA-Adaptec-1542c and a SCSI-2-HD with an 
>: :> ext2-filesystem V. 0.5a on it. From the time that i put a 
>: :> SMC-Ultra into the machine, the filesystem on the HD begins to vanish.
>I have exactly 1542 running fine with SMC-Elite - and this is the only
>real true Western Digital 8013 these days. If you have a choice don't
>use SMC-Ultra... - use Elite16 from the same company.
>Vassili.

Is the system recognizing it as an Ultra?  Did you recompile kernal to
remove elite support and add ultra?  I'm using SMC ultra in our file
server with a BusLogic and kernel 1.1.18 with no problems.

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Joseph P. DeCello III     ***Computer Asst.***     Phone: (517)355-9582
Michigan State University, Computer Lab  email:[email-masked]
 Campus Park&Planning:MTuWF 1p-5p    Statistics&Probability:TuTh 9a-12p

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

From: [email-masked] (Danny ter Haar)
Subject: Re: fiber optic ethernet cards
Date: 4 Oct 1994 08:17:51 +0100

In article <[email-masked]>,
Russell Nelson <[email-masked]> wrote:
>In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Donald Becker) writes:
>
>   In article <[email-masked]>, Corey Sweeney <[email-masked]> wrote:
>   >has anyone seen a fiber optic ethernet driver, or does anyone have
>   >a intention of creating one?
>
>   If you mean ethernet adaptors that have 10baseF interfaces, Allied Telesis
>   has 10baseF versions of their AT1500 (79C960 LANCE) and AT1700 (Fujitsu
>   MB86965) ethercards.
>
>Transition Engineering also has such boards.  Someone from Olicom
>reported that they also have them.  I'm sure that a number of others
>have them, but I don't know off the top of my head.
>
But there are fiber optic transcievers available (but mono- and multimode)
to put on 'ordinary' network cards with AUI connectors. That way every
card can be turned into a fibre card. It is even possible to get them
for full-duplex so you can reach distances up to 30 miles ! (point-to-point 
only). Mail me for info on those trancievers if you want some models and prices.

Danny

-- 
Danny ter Haar    <dt60> <[email-masked]>    Mobile Phone: +31-6-53-104075
----

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

From: [email-masked] (Warren Ernst)
Subject: Q: Max # of ftp/gopher/http users on a Linux PC?
Date: 6 Oct 1994 15:10:25 -0700

All,

Our company is considering making a Linux equipped PC an ftp/gopher/http
server, but I don't know if such machines are able to handle the load. We
will ultimately be giving the machine its own router and 56k line, but we
have no idea what CPU's are appropriate -- 486 DX2/66, P60, P66, P90,
etc. The PC would have 16 Meg ram and at least a gig SCSI drive.

What I'm really looking for is something like: "a 486-66 starts to bog
down at 100 ftp logins transferring data out, but a p60 could take at
least 400 without breaking into a sweat".

We aren't sure what the average size of concurrent ftp/http accesses will
be, but we would like to be more than 200. If a Linux PC is simply
incapible of doing this, we would probably get a used Sun.

Feel free to email or post your answers. I could really use your help. Thanx

Virtually,
warr
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------\
| Warren Ernst      \ Computer Consultant / "Never quote me on this..." | 
| [email-masked]     \ Technical Writer  / "Overclock - it's your 486." |
| Fullerton, CA, USA  \  Graphic Artist / "Llama, llama, llama, llama!" |
| Will Write for Food  \     Nerd      / "I'm EXACTLY one Warren tall." |
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------/

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

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The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests
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End of Linux-Development Digest
******************************